[Fanzine Focus XXIX] Planar Compass #2

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. A more recent retroclone of choice to support has been Old School Essentials.

The Planar Compass series takes Dungeons & Dragons and the Old School Renaissance on a journey that out where it rarely goes—onto the Astral Realm and out between the planes. Of course, the option for travel in this liminal space has always been there in Dungeons & Dragons, most notably from Manual of the Planes all the way up to Spelljammer: Adventures in Space and the Planescape Campaign Setting. Whilst those supplements were for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Second Edition, the Planar Compass series is written for use with Old School Essentials, and it not only introduces the Astral Realm, but adds new Classes and rules for one very contentious aspect of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons—psionics! Planar Compass #1 introduced both the setting of the Astral Realm, presented Dreamhaven, a first calling point for the Player Characters to visit and explore, and provided details of several new Races found across the Astral Realm as well as the rules for psionics. Which turned to be easy to use and did not break the game. Planar Compass #2 takes the Player Characters further out onto the Astral Realms, or rather prevents everything that the Referee will need to take her campaign further out into the Astral Realms.

Planar Compass #2 was published in November 2021. Following on from Planar Compass #1, it promises strange sights, ever changing environmental dangers, and monsters the likes of which the Player Characters will never seen. Opening with a quick table listing all of the planes and explaining that the contents of issue are designed for mid-level play, Fourth Level and higher, and what titles are required to use it contents. It notes that the waters of the Astral Realms are the thoughts, hopes and dreams, and nightmares of all sentient beings of the multiverse, physical matter alien to it and are always either an intrusion or a traveller. Such waters are endless and there are many places that a good crew with a solid ship will be able to sail far and away to strange places—if both survive the dangers of the Astral Plane, many of which are intrusions and breakthroughs from other planes.

The dangers begin with the monsters—oddly placed before the sections on astral ships, astral sailing, and so on. These are all native to the Astral Realm and include Bubonic Barnacles which feeds on the wood ships and can grow into humanoid forms or algae blooms; the Astral Amphiptere, a semi-translucent dragon which dwells in island caves, and whose can cause planar tears which it can escape through or even others to use; Psychic Dugong, capable of telepathy, whose Psionic Milk restores psionic energy; and the Kear Imago. This last is a much-feared astral predator which scoops up ships and feeds on the psionic energy of their crews, leaving them husks ready for their larvae to occupy and grow in… A table of ‘Pirate Encounters’ is ready for the Referee to flesh out.

The rules for Astral Ships use the rules for water vehicles found in Old School Essentials, but adds five classes of Saving Throw similar to those for Player Characters and monsters. These are Storm, Collison, Fire, Water, and Plane Shift. These are rolled when a ship is subject to wind and gale forces, strikes an object or is struck by an object, is subject to flames or extreme heat, is subject to facing huge waves and torrential rains, and when transitioning between planes or suffering planar stress respectively. Two pieces of artillery are given to outfit ships on the Astral Plane—ballista and the Onauki fire thrower. Stats are given for ten types of astral ship, which include pirate ships and trading ships and warships, more or less what a Referee will need to run an Astral Sea campaign. They range from the Aldhelsi Drakkar and the Aldhelsi Knarr to the Tortuga and the Psionic Ship! Some of these, like the Human Catamaran, lie within the scope of a group of Player Characters purchasing the, rather than travelling on ships belonging to others. There are pirate ships and trading ships and warships

A handful of magical items are detailed too. The nastiest is the Sword of Astral Tether Cutting, a cruel, thin blade made from the remains of a meteor which can cut the tether between the physical and Astral bodies of the target, killing them instantly! The most interesting is the Sand from the Shores of Dreams, which can be sprinkled on someone so that the next time he sleeps, everyone nearby experiences his dreams. This presents interesting story possibilities, potentially another realm to explore and more.

The rules for astral sailing uses what it calls a ‘hex-flower’ or rosette to determine prevailing conditions around an astral ship, the direction of nearby encounters, and the direction of movement. Effectively, it sits under the astral ship as it sails from one hex to the next. Each turn of movement is handled through the same sequence of play in which the players roll for navigation, weather, and nearby planes, which the Referee uses to determine hazards and create encounters, and rolls to see if a Kear Imago has detected the vessel. The Referee and her players work together to describe the region the ship is sailing through.

Notably, the direction of movement is randomly determined, though the Onauk and Astral Sailors—both detailed in Planar Compass #1—have the ability to nudge the roll so that it is in the right direction. If the Kear Imago detects the ship, then the leviathan-sized creature will come hunting for it. Options for the encounters, weather, and planes near and far, are detailed separately along with a lovely set of hexes illustrated with icons that the Referee is going to want to be able to pull out and slip under the appropriate hex on the hex-flower. Large and small icons are used to represent everything from sighted vessel or signs of land, instruction of a plane, and more, with the size indicating distance away. Large are of course hear, small are faraway.

What is not made clear until the Referee gets to the adventure, ‘The Hunter Beneath the Waves’ is that the crew of ship needs to mask its ‘psychic load’ lest it be detected by a Kear Imago. This can be done by Astral Sailors or by consuming Psychic Ambergris, one of the magic items given earlier. If detected though, the Kear Imago will hunt the ship until either the ship and her crew get away or the leviathan swallows it whole. This lands the ship in its gut and the crew—that is, the Player Characters—have to navigate their way out of the beast. This is simulated using the hex-flower again, but here the crew are navigating the corporeal body of a beast rather than the Astral Sea, hoping to find the brain and engineer an escape. As you would expect it is nasty environment, the various descriptions of rooms such as the stomach, intestines, and waste chamber accompanied by optional tables for traps, NPCs, and location details. The rules are more or less the same for navigating the Astral Sea using the hex-flower, but instead of being able to nudge the direction roll through abilities innate to certain Classes, the Player Characters acquire ‘Travelling Points’ for encountering denizens of this ‘Kear Dungeon’, discovering and disarming traps, gaining information from friendly NPCs, and so on. The adventure is intentionally odd, surprisingly non-linear given its origins, and it does include some tough encounters. Plus although the players are unlikely to replay the ‘Kear Dungeon’ again, there is the possibility of their encountering a Kear Imago again. The fanzine does leave the Referee wondering what to do in that instance. Of course, there are always to get the Player Characters needing to climb back into a Kear Imago again, such as having to find a Wizard who has not been seen for years or go after a criminal. Lastly, the issue includes a table for ‘Astral Fishing’ and a set of adventure hooks waiting to be developed by the Referee as well a decent little comic strip which follows on from Planar Compass #1.

Physically, Planar Compass #2 is hit and miss. It is well written and it is gorgeous-looking. In places, individual hexes are are too dark and too murky, whilst the layout feels a bit tight in places and odd in others. Plus the organisation is odd with the monster descriptions placed up front. Nevertheless, it is engagingly written, the artwork is excellent, and all together, it is a lovely little book.

Planar Compass #2 is a solid set of rules taking Old School Essentials and almost any Old School Renaissance retroclone in an expected direction, out into the beyond of the Astral Sea. It does feel like a transition, going from the Dreamhaven of Planar Compass #1 to the somewhere else, but not telling you where necessarily. Ideally that will be revealed in Planar Compass #3. In the meantime, Planar Compass #2 has all the rules to enjoy boat trip or sail away to location of the Referee’s own devising across the Astral Sea and back again, effectively, ‘Astral-jammer’ for Old School Essentials.

Arms & Armour

Metamorphosis Alpha: The Warden Armoury is a supplement designed for Metamorphosis Alpha: Fantastic Role-Playing Game of Science Fiction Adventures on a Lost Starship. The first Science Fiction roleplaying game and the first post-apocalypse roleplaying game, Metamorphosis Alpha is set aboard the Starship Warden, a generation spaceship which has suffered an unknown catastrophic event which killed the crew and most of the million or so colonists and left the ship irradiated and many of the survivors and the flora and fauna aboard mutated. Some three centuries later, as Humans, Mutated Humans, Mutated Animals, and Mutated Plants, the Player Characters, knowing nothing of their captive universe, would leave their village to explore strange realm around them, wielding fantastic mutant powers and discovering how to wield fantastic devices of the gods and the ancients that is technology, ultimately learn of their enclosed world. Originally published in 1976, it would go on to influence a whole genre of roleplaying games, starting with Gamma World, right down to Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic from Goodman Games. And it would be Goodman Games which brought the roleplaying game back with the stunning Metamorphosis Alpha Collector’s Edition in 2016, and support the forty-year old roleplaying game with a number of supplements, many which would be collected in the ‘Metamorphosis Alpha Treasure Chest’.

Metamorphosis Alpha: The Warden Armoury is written by James M. Ward, the designer of Metamorphosis Alpha and simply gives descriptions of over one hundred and fifty weapons and armour. It also reveals a minor secret—or three—about the Starship Warden and the way it was stocked prior to it leaving the Earth. It is well known that as well as stocking the vast generational ship with assorted supplies and devices to ensure that the crew and their passengers would survive the long interstellar journey, the Starship Warden had whole cargo holds filled with everything necessary to help the colonists set up their new home on the destination planet. The colonisation was entirely peaceful and civilian-led, but what is not known is that a pair of secret holds were filled with powerful military weapons by Earth’s military. The locations of these secret caches are known only to the military command back on Earth and to the military commanders assigned to the Starship Warden. Like other high-ranking members of the ship’s crew, they remain in hibernation, their cryrogenic pods also hidden. Yet despite the locations of these caches remaining hidden, this does not mean that they cannot be found, and what happens if others find either cache before the Player Characters? What if a rival band of mutants found them and start attacking the Player Characters and their allies in their powerful suits of armour, wielding deadly weapons they have never seen before? Or robotic dogs and serpents that rampage across a deck? Well, either the Player Characters have to stop them, find their source, or steal them all for themselves—if not all three!

Metamorphosis Alpha: The Warden Armoury details the content of both caches. In the Secret Military Armoury Cache can be found four types of weapons. These are Bio-Heavy guns, Gamma guns, Kinetic guns, and Plasma guns. They all include grenades, pistols, rifles, throwers, blasters, and artillery. The Bio-Heavy guns fire spheres of bio-material, which when it explodes paralyses and then kills anyone who breaths it in or is touched by it; Gamma guns fire spheres of radiation; Kinetic weapons fire pellets at high velocity; and the Plasma guns, balls of well, plasma. This is a somewhat underwhelming start to the supplement, the weapons being deadly if not all that inspiring and possessing a similar feel. How some of them are fired is slightly more interesting, such as the helmet which has to be worn to fire the Gamma Blaster. Similarly, the suits of mobile armour are not that interesting, although the inclusion of various types of drone provides more of a contemporary feel.

Fortunately, the contents of the Colonisation Weapons & Armour Cache is where Metamorphosis Alpha: The Warden Armoury gets interesting. Especially with the list of non-lethal weapons, because here the designer really has to get inventive. For example, the ‘Anti-Energy Sparkle Dust’ is thrown in the air and negates energy rays and blasts; ‘Battle Gloves’ let the wearer handle energy, radiation, and poison safely, and even provides a pressure-based force field for protection in space or the deepest of oceans; ‘Electric Bolos’ stun targets; ‘Slippery Marbles’ create uneven surfaces; the Blind Pistol’ fires pellets of manganese which explode blind targets; and ‘Tagging Pistols’ fire darts which can be tracked from a thousand miles away. There are lethal weapons, such as lasers and slug throwers, and even caltrops, but again not all that interesting. More fun perhaps will be had with the Player Characters attempting to figure out what the various types of grenades, from Slippery Grenades to Sticky Mist Grenades, and various types of claymore mines, from Freeze to Nano-Cutter versions, can be found in the cache. The Colonisation Weapons & Armour Cache also contains explosives and battle armour, as well as a selection of droids, such as the battering Droid, used for well, battering, and vehicles all the way up to a Force Sphere, which can transport forty troopers into space or the deep ocean whilst providing plenty of protection.  The Special Colonisation Equipment includes a very useful Emergency Hip Container, essentially a survival kit, and a bit with a robot dog.

All of the entries in Metamorphosis Alpha: The Warden Armoury include a short description and ratings for damage, Armour Class, and Weapon Class as necessary. They also include an ICR or Item Complexity Rating to indicate how difficult an item is to understand. The tables explaining these ratings are reprinted from Metamorphosis Alpha, whilst the tables at the back of the supplement combine their rating with an index. All nicely done in one.

Physically, Metamorphosis Alpha: The Warden Armoury is cleanly presented. The illustrations are decent, but the writing is sparse in places.

In a roleplaying game like Metamorphosis Alpha where there no Classes or Levels, and the only way in which the Player Characters get more powerful is through acquiring more mutant abilities or bigger and better weapons and armour, there is always going to be a call for a supplement such as Metamorphosis Alpha: The Warden Armoury. So there is no denying that the supplement is useful, although it does mean that the Player Characters may be capable of dealing out huge amounts of damage whilst wearing armour cable withstanding similar amounts, ultimately upping the scale at which combat takes place. So this may well be a supplement for later in a campaign when the Player Characters are ready to face bigger and deadlier threats.

—oOo—

Goodman Games will be at Gen Con 20220 which takes place from Thursday, August 4th to Sunday, August 7th, 2022.

[Fanzine Focus XXVIII] Planar Compass #1

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. A more recent retroclone of choice to support has been Old School Essentials.

Published in Autumn 2020, Planar Compass Issue One begins a journey that takes Dungeons & Dragons and the Old School Renaissance out where it rarely goes—onto the Astral Realm and out between the planes. Of course, the option for travel in this liminal space has always been there in Dungeons & Dragons, most notably from Manual of the Planes all the way up to Spelljammer: Adventures in Space and the Planescape Campaign Setting. Whilst those supplements were for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Second Edition, the Planar Compass series is written for use with Old School Essentials, and it not only introduces the Astral Realm, but adds new Classes and rules for one very contentious aspect of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons—psionics! Planar Compass Issue One can be divided into two halves. In the first half, it explores a place of refuge and calm amidst the Astra Sea and provides a number of adventures on and below that location, whilst in the second half, it details both the four new races and their  Classes, as well as the new rules for psionics for Old School Essentials. The second half has been collected into a booklet of its own. The Planar Compass Player’s Booklet and thus the four new Classes and the rules for psionics are reviewed here.

Planar Compass Issue One starts with a quick introduction, explaining how old Palio One Eye, once a fearsome and notorious pirate on the Astral Seas, accidentally discovered the location of what was to become Dreamhaven by wrecking his ship upon it. Then when another ship anchored off its coast, instead of capturing the ship and resuming his career of piracy, he instead started selling his cargo of Aldhelsi mead to the other ship’s crew and thus he had a bar. Soon others were coming to Dreamhaven—the Onauk, behorned barbarian pirates, the Aldhelsi, short fey psionicists, the short and furry Belsorriso known for their charming smile (very Rocket Raccoon-like!), the Skullga, goblinoids with deer-like heads who are excellent shipbuilders and tinkerers, Chanicoids, clockwork beings serving a higher master, and of course, Humans. (The Onauk and the Aldhelsi, along with the Psion and the Astral Sailor are detailed as Classes later in Planar Compass Issue One and also in the Planar Compass Player’s Booklet.) Dreamhaven is actually quite small, but has extensive docks, adheres to Central Ordo Time or the time of Ordo, the plane of Law as marked by a series of clocks around the island, and although there is no night and day, no sun which sets and rises on Dreamhaven, the island keep to a day and night cycle of Central Ordo Time.

‘Beach Psiombies’ is the first of two short adventures in which Palio, still short of supplies, takes the Player Characters out on his clockwork, glass-bottomed boat, to go fishing for dinner. Unfortunately, they reel in something much worse—Psiombies! This is primarily a combat encounter, but again there are some moments for levity. The second shorter adventure is ‘All That Glitters’. Leonid, extravagantly wealthy high-Level Wizard and patron of The Slipstream Bar, covets an item of jewelry, currently in possession of his rivel, the Half-Ogre, Otis. Leonid will pay handsomely, or provide a significant discount to his magical services—including the casting of Teleport if the Player Characters are eager to get off Dreamhaven, if they can retrieve the necklace from aboard Otis’ ship, the Rude Awakening. As written, this is an assault upon the docked ship amidst a Psychic Storm which makes it all very challenging, but it is only the Psychic Storm which makes this encounter interesting. In fact, ‘All That Glitters’ is decidedly underwhelming in comparison to the other three scenarios in the Planar Compass Issue One.

The fourth and longest scenario in Planar Compass Issue One is ‘Deepwarren’. Various inhabits of Dreamhaven have an interest in what might be found in the Deepwarren, so by the time the Player Characters decide to explore it (they have an opportunity to do so earlier, but advised not to), they may have several motivations or at least several employers willing to pay for what they discover. The Deepwarren is a short, but detailed dungeon, which hides several secrets, including Dreamhaven’s  true nature. Revealing that nature has disastrous consequences for Dreamhaven, which will bring the mini-campaign to an exciting conclusion. However, these secrets need not be revealed all at once and if the Game Master hands out the offers of employment in a more piecemeal fashion, the Player Characters can explore the Deepwarren more than once and have the consequences of their exploration play out at a less tumultuous pace. One location in the Deepwarren does consist of a maze and it really does not serve any purpose in the dungeon except to get the Player Characters lost. It is nicely done, but really the Player Characters could just wander around to no real effect. Otherwise, ‘Deepwarren’ is a nicely detailed and flavoursome dungeon whose contents will bring the campaign in Dreamhaven to an end.

Physically, Planar Compass Issue One is very nicely done. It is engagingly written, the artwork is excellent, and all together, it is a lovely little book.

Where Planar Compass Issue One does feel lacking is suggestions on how to get the Player Characters there given the far off and  very strange location of Dreamhaven. Where it disappoints—in a way—is in probably bringing a campaign on Dreamhaven to an end. There is no doubt that it does so in a satisfying and appropriate fashion, but Dreamhaven is such a fun little place to adventure that more scenarios on the island would be more than welcome! After all, pirate coves and haven are not exactly uncommon in roleplaying fantasy, but the combination of its location on the Astral Sea and psionics serve to make Dreamhaven genuinely unique. It would be lovely to have a further anthology of adventures which would get the Player Characters there and give them the opportunity to explore the island a little more before the campaign proper in Planar Compass Issue One begins.

Whether it is the rules for psionics, which are as simple and straightforward as they can be, or the description of Dreamhaven, its inhabitants, and its adventures, Planar Compass Issue One is an impressively fantastic and self-contained first issue of a very well-done fanzine. If Planar Compass Issue Two is going to be as good as Planar Compass Issue One, then fine. If it is better, then Planar Compass Issue Two is going to be very good indeed.

[Fanzine Focus XXVIII] Strange Inhabitants of the Forest

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. A more recent retroclone of choice to support has been Mörk Borg.

Published in November, 2020, Strange Inhabitants of the Forest is one of three similar fanzines released by Philip Reed Games as a result of the Strange Citizens of the City Kickstarter campaign, the others being Strange Citizens of the City and Strange Visitors to the City. It follows on from the publisher’s Delayed Blast Gamemaster fanzine, by presenting a set of tables upon which the Game Master can roll and bring in elements to her game. Whilst Delayed Blast Gamemaster detailed monsters, environments, and more, with a cover which reads, “Roll 2d6 and say hello to Evil”, Strange Inhabitants of the Forest is all about the encounter and all about encounters with evil. 

The issue opens with the eponymous ‘Strange Inhabitants of the Forest’ which presents a table of villains or villain-like NPCs to be encountered in the forest. Each is given their own two-page spread, with a large illustration, a full page of text providing background, and of course, notes and stats. The notes typically suggest how much money the Player Characters might make from their loot or handing in proof of their deaths, though not always. They include the Armoured Suit of Despair, Being of Animated Evil is a suit of armour forged in the deepest pits of hell with only one purpose—slaughtering the living! However, there is no means of destroying it and upon their first encounter with it, the Player Characters will find it doing something unspeakably evil. A handful of options are included. Jannick Pückler, Undead Huntsman, was a huntsman of the undead in life, and even in his unlife as a skeletal huntsman, he has continued his calling. Despite being dedicated to destroying evil, he has a hard time persuading others that he himself is not evil. Zakari Echautz is a Frustrated Angel, driven to act against evil in the face of infighting amongst his kind, who has become intolerant and unlikely unable to determine who or what is exactly evil and who or what is not. A huge pack of rats drive the Player Characters to find refuge at the isolated mansion of Lady Jeni Dargonmir, but she is not what she seems, but a ‘Connoisseur of Blood’. A night in her demesne should set up a night of horror. What all eleven entries have in common is that they appear to be evil, though this is not necessarily the case—as evidenced by Jannick Pückler. Most though, are tough opponents, some more than the players and their characters might imagine, and if there is another common theme, though not to all of the entries, it is that a few of them are actually bodies animated by items of clothing or armour, and in many cases, should a Player Character decide to don such an item or clothing or armour, then he is dead! Or at least an NPC turned to evil. Nevertheless, there is a good mix here and definitely after  encountering one or two of these, the Player Characters are going hate being in the forest.

‘Strange Inhabitants of the Forest’ takes up over half of Strange Inhabitants of the Forest. It is followed by ‘Strange Encounters’. This provides twelve encounters, or locations, which the Player Characters can come across on their journeys through the forest. These are shorter, just a paragraph long. For example, ‘The Collapsed Bridge of Neumark’ is a ruined bridge across the Soulless River, leaving dangerously rabid waters to cross or the ‘The Woodcutter’s Hut’, home to the friendly and helpful Arno Schottenstein who does not tolerate rudeness. These are uninteresting, even banal, as encounters go, at best contrasts to others such as ‘The Mound of Skulls’, literally a pile of hundreds of human skulls and so evil that anyone of that persuasion has a bonus to their damage rolls when in that vicinity, or ‘The Wizard’s Walking Hut’, an animated walking hut, who has little time for intruders now that his master is dead! Can the Player Characters loot the hut before it galivants off? Overall, the weird encounters outweigh the mundane, and again, these are going to make the Player Characters hate the forest even more!

Lastly, ‘1d12 Travellers on the Road’ presents exactly that. This is the third table in the fanzine and like ‘Strange Encounters’, it consists of single paragraph entries. The travellers encountered might include Soli Kamolov, a cheesemaker on his way to market who might sell the Player Characters some of his hard cheese; Karolina Strle, a terrified deserter who fears her former employer, a powerful warlord might be after her and so would be happy to sell her sword and armour which identifies her as one of his soldiers; and Nusret Oblak, a bamboozled merchant who will be happy to see the Player Characters because the men he hired to guard his goods swindled him, leaving him penniless, but he wants revenge and will pay if he can get his good back! These are generally more mundane encounters than in the previous articles, and so act as contrasts.

Physically, Strange Inhabitants of the Forest is very nicely presented. Although it makes strong use of colour, it uses a softer palette than Mörk Borg, so is easier on the eye. The artwork throughout is excellent, but the one of Jannick Pückler really stands out.

To be honest, none of the encounters in Strange Inhabitants of the Forest actually have to take place in a forest and there are possibly too many encounters for one forest—unless it is a very big forest! Yet, Strange Inhabitants of the Forest is full of dark and deadly encounters, to varying degrees, that the Game Master can pick and choose from, all to make her Player Characters fear the forest.

[Fanzine Focus XXVIII] The Undercroft No. 14

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. For some fanzines, the system of choice changes over time.

Published since July 2014 by the Melsonian Arts Council, the frequency of issues of the fanzine, The Undercroft is no longer as regular as it once was. After a four-year gap between the publication of The Undercroft No. 10 and The Undercroft No. 11 in August, 2020, it was something of a surprise to see the publication of The Undercroft No. 12 the following October. In addition, although previous issues provided support for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay, the more recent issues have moved away from providing direct support to providing not only support for the Old School Renaissance in general, and thus any fantasy retroclone. The Undercroft No. 11 even went as far to provide support for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition! There was no support for that roleplaying game in The Undercroft No. 13, and nor is there in The Undercroft No. 14. Rather the content consists of three articles, all written to compatible with the retroclone of your choice.

The first of the three articles in The Undercroft No. 14 is Daniel Sell’s ‘GUN!’. This presents all of the rules and guns you would ever need for your fantasy roleplaying game, from gunpowder cannons to wheellocks, matchlocks, and flintlocks, along with rules to using them. The core rules are for matchlocks which can be fired once per battle, suffer double range penalties beyond short range, have a chance of misfiring, damp conditions increase the chance of misfiring, but at short range, they ignore five points of armour. They may also be used as clubs. Thus they have a limited use. Weapon types include pistols, arquebuses, arquebus à aroc, muskets, petronels (a firearm larger than a pistol which can be fired from horseback), and more. It even goes into the weirder combinations—the key gun, mace gun, the axe gun, the shield gun, and more, noting that most are unwieldy in either role. It adds the airgun, the duck gun, and other models and oddities, and overall, the article is well researched. There is a certain tone upon the author’s part of, “Really?”, at some of the ridiculous designs that have been created over the course of the gun’s development, but overall, a decently comprehensive article whose content is easy to drop into any Dungeons & Dragons-style game.

The second entry is not an article, but a scenario. In Brian Wille’s ‘Gold from the Ceiling’, the Player Characters are making their away from one town to the next in the autumn on muddy and literally shitty roads when there is a very bright light which streaks across the sky and lands somewhere to the north. As everyone knows, stones which fall from the sky are said to be made of precious metals, so with funds running low and the possibility of easy money not that far away… Of course, everyone knows this, which means there is a not so much a gold rush on as a ‘stones which fall from the sky’ rush as all and sundry race to the nearest town and then north to be first to get the precious metals. That is not the only complication on the way in what is a bit of a caper adventure—and then there is the stone itself and what it contains, which turns out to be a ‘Hideous Creature From Another World’ which is not happy! There is treasure to be found, but the Player Characters will definitely have to fight for it. This is a fun adventure and should a session or two’s worth of play.

Benjamin Foster is the author of the third and final article in The Undercroft No. 14. ‘Wandering Things of Threads and Patches’ which presents descriptions of fourteen interesting NPCs to be encountered almost anywhere. They include Payam Sadiq, Bearer of the Sacred Toad, whose duty it is to bear the supreme being, a forty-four-pound toad, on his back and show him the wonders of the world. Payam both loves and hates the Sacred Tranquil Toad, follows his every whim (which only he knows as the Sacred Tranquil Toad never speaks), and has to deal with the consequences when the Sacred Tranquil Toad casts a random spell because it has got angry. The hulking, be-monocled, Markduk, White Ape Enumerator, threatens everyone with accountability and proceeds to take their census, whilst Benyamin Asari, Retired Coachpainter, is a renowned decorator of coaches and sedans, whose style has fallen out of favour as lesser practitioners copied his style—which he wishes would come back in fashion. He help you analyse that pattern of movement of coaches though… All fourteen come with lists of possessions, wants, and hates, but no stats. This makes it easy for the Game Master to adapt them to the retroclone of her choice, and in the process 

Physically, The Undercroft No. 14 needs a slight edit in place, but is otherwise neat and tidy, and enjoyably illustrated. The cover, like The Undercroft No. 13, wraparound in full colour, is weird and creepy. 

The continued move to fewer, but longer articles does mean that The Undercroft No. 14 feels slighter as with the previous few issues. However, even with just three articles in the issue, The Undercroft No. 14 contains a good mix—two generally useful articles, including lots of memorable NPCs, and a scenario, all three of which are easy to adapt and use in a Game Master’s campaign. The Undercroft No. 14 is the best entry to date in the current format of longer, fewer articles.

[Fanzine Focus XXVIII] Meandering – Across the Radlands #1

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. However, whilst the fanzine format is typically used to support other roleplaying games, it has also been used as a vehicle for complete, if small roleplaying games of their own.

Published in Spring, 2018, Meandering – Across the Radlands #1 is a fanzine for Goodman Games’ Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic. Indeed, it was the first fanzine for Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic. Not to be confused with the earlier Meanderings Issue #1 from the same author, it does actually share the same preoccupation as Meanderings Issue #1, which is weapons. Thankfully it contains more than just more weapons for the post-apocalyptic roleplaying game.

It starts with ‘The Buggeymen’. This an alternate sub-Class for insectoid Manimals, a humanoid mantid which has a creepy appearance. In addition to their random physical and mental mutations, they have a bite or claw attack, can co-ordinate with other Buggeymen to gain a bonus when attacking the same target, gain a die on the Dice Chain for initiative because of their multi-faceted eyes, and gain a bonus per Level to intimidate rolls because of its alien looks. This is a nicely creepy option for a player to choose, and equally, it would work as an equally creepy NPC too.

‘Vault of the Ancients’ presents a range of gear, a standard supporting feature for any  post apocalypse roleplaying game. There are sixteen items listed, divided between defences, transportation, weapons, and more. There are some fun items here, like Grav Boots and the Grav Board, whilst the Pain Whip and the Psizer Glove are psinetic weapons and show a little more inventiveness. 

‘Armour in the Radlands’ is drawn from the author’s own campaign setting of the Radlands. It switches the armour rules away from the traditional Armour Class to armour which reduces damage, and can be broken down into three pieces for each type, from leather and ShelterTek Suit to BOSS Battle Plate and Powered Armour (I and II), including the suit, the helmet, and the shield. Every piece has a Damage Reduction—which is itself reduced by Armour Penetration, and it is possible to do Called Shots. This reduces the Action Die by one step, and the Warrior’s Mighty Deeds of Arms has been augmented with ‘Through the Gap’, which ignores points of Damage Reduction. There are simple rules for powered armour too, always something that the Player Characters want to get their hands on in any post-apocalyptic roleplaying setting.

The counterpart to ‘Armour in the Radlands’ is ‘Weapons of the Radlands: Scrap Weaponry  & Firearm Rules’. This increases gun damage by having damage dice explode, but also add rules for guns built from scrap. Primarily they jam more often. The weapons themselves are all modern or late twentieth century types. The larger, heavier weapons also an Armour Penetration value to counter the Damage Reduction values of the armour listed in the earlier article. Along with grenades and rules for rates of fire and fire selection, this is a decidedly low tech and grittier take on the post-apocalyptic genre, more Mad Max then the gonzo weirdness of Mutant Crawl Classics. That said, exceptionally strong characters can reduce the recoil penalties from firing bursts or fully automatic, so super-strong mutants have an advantage, as does anyone wearing powered armour. The rules are also add complexity to a Mutant Crawl Classics campaign than is the norm.

Between ‘Armour in the Radlands’ and ‘Weapons of the Radlands: Scrap Weaponry  & Firearm Rules’is ‘Survivors in the Radlands: Occupations of the Sun Do-a-Glow’ which is a set of tables for the type of people you might meet in the post-apocalyptic world. These are catagorised into Barbaric Folk, Civilised Folk, Marauders, and Sheltered, and they come with their own equipment lists as well. Plus there are additional, if short tables for pharmaceuticals and magazines, the former providing various bonuses and the possibility of addition, whilst the latter can be read to gain a temporary one step increase on the Dice Chain for a task if read beforehand. The various tables can be used to create background elements for NPCs, but they can also be used to generate backgrounds for Zero Level Player Characters for Character Funnels too.

Lastly, the ‘Bestiary of Sun Do-a-Glow, Volume 1’ adds eleven new things to be encountered in the Radlands. Gamma Beetles, Maul Rats, MG Sentry Turrets, Peacekeeper Robo-bots, and more. One interesting technological survivor from before the Great Disaster is the GULE or Genetic Un-Life Experiment. These use the skeleton stats from the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, but originally they were bodies injected with nanites to slow cellular decay, but of course, this been damaged in the meantime and any GULE no longer has the mental faculties it once had. It adds an element of creepiness to just how technology went before the Great Disaster. Overall, these are fairly low level gritty threats in keeping with the feel of the rest of the fanzine.

Physically, Meandering – Across the Radlands #1 is perfunctorily done at best, but is easy to read and very lightly illustrated. Despite the issue’s focus on the arms and armour, and the rules for them, there is a definite sense of what the author own setting feels like. That comes through in both the descriptions of the arms and armour, and especially in the bestiary. Meandering – Across the Radlands #1 has a grittier feel than the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game typically does, and overall provides an interesting introduction to the author’s own campaign setting, if only tonally. Hopefully, Meandering – Across the Radlands #2 will include some background to the Radlands.

[Fanzine Focus XXVIII] Meanderings #1

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. Another choice is the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game.

Published in August, 2017, Meanderings Issue #1 is a fanzine for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. It focuses on ‘Weapons  & Deeds’  and is not to be confused with the later Meandering – Across the Radlands #1, from the same author and focusing on the same subject matter. It is a short affair, presenting just the four article. The big one is ‘The Dungeon Crawl Classics Weapons Project’. This takes the Mighty Deeds of Arms ability of the Warrior and the Dwarf Classes, and expands it greatly by providing a Mighty Deeds table for each and every one of the weapons listed in the equipment table in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. These are designed for effects against living creatures rather than the undead or constructs, but all together, some twenty-weapons are described in this fashion, starting with battleaxe and blackjack and running all the way down to two-handed sword and Warhammer. This includes thrown weapons, such as daggers and javelins, and missile weapons, like bows and crossbows, too. The result takes up more than half of the fanzine, but it colours the way a Warrior or a Dwarf fights, expanding the options available when rolling for a Mighty Deed of Arms. On the downside, it does add a degree of extra checking when in the middle of combat, but that is always going to be the case when going beyond the rules in any core book.

Meanderings Issue #1 does not just limit the Mighty Deeds of Arms ability to the Warrior and the Dwarf Classes. In Crawl! No. 12: The Luck Issue, the author suggested that the players burn their characters’ Luck to use Deeds. With ‘Lesser Deeds of Daring’ he suggests allowing characters to exchange their attack bonus with a comparable Deed Die, so an attack of +4 could be swapped for a four-sided Deed Die. What this means is that all Player Characters, whatever their Class have access to Mighty Deeds of Arms, and do so without burning Luck, which for most Classes other than the Halfling and the Thief, is a finite resource. Also, because it is not an inherent ability as the Warrior and Dwarf Classes and because their attack bonus will be lower, they will always be rolling for Lesser Deeds of Daring. That is, when it comes to Mighty Deeds of Arms, the Warrior and the Dwarf are always better, and thus maintain their Classes’ advantage.

‘Lucky Deeds of Daring’ expands upon the earlier ‘Lesser Deeds of Daring’ article and on the earlier suggestion that the players burn their characters’ Luck to use Deeds in Crawl! No. 12: The Luck Issue. This allows for all characters of all Classes to burn Luck to attempt a Mighty Deed and burn more to increase the die type on the dice chain, which also adds to attack and damage rolls. Of course, with their regenerating Luck, the Thief and the Halfling Class have the advantage, but the article allows other Classes to using the Thief’s backstab ability by permanently burning Luck! Almost to counter this, two tables allow for ‘not-Mighty Deeds of Arms’ that the Thief or a more disreputable Warrior might carry out. These are the ‘Dastardly Deeds of Deceit – Hamstring’ and ‘Dastardly Deeds of Deceit – Hindering Strike, or Strap Cutter’, which are some really nasty attacks. Again, this opens up options and makes combat in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game even deadlier. These tables would really work with a campaign where there are lots of thieves, or where everyone is a thief, such as Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar.

Rounding out Meanderings Issue #1 is ‘Bastion – Campaign Setting Part 1’. It introduces a setting wrought and warped by a long war between Sorcerer Kings who were ultimately assassinated, leaving their magics and warp beasts to ravage the land with Bastion, an enormous city, remaining as the last refuge of society. The city is governed by feuding guilds who had originally served the Sorcerer Kings and arranged their assassinations. The article provides changes to the core Classes of Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, notably the Dwarf is actually more like the Halfling, but without the Luck and arms them with charged-adamantine guns; Elves are unchanged, but are hedonists; and the Halfling is termed the Git and its Luck ability extends to manipulating their enemies’ rolls too! Lastly, it adds the Ogre as a Class, and are big, dumb, and dangerous. They gain two dice on the dice chain to break or bend things and one die on the damage rolled for the massive weapons they wield, but lose two on the dice chain for initiative rolls. It lists several other Classes, but saves their details for a future issues of Meanderings.

Physically, Meanderings Issue #1 is perfunctorily done at best, but is easy to read and very lightly illustrated. Meanderings Issue #1 is a decent enough little fanzine, but its focus on weapons and deeds will not be for everyone. If a Dungeon Crawl Classics playing group does want to make more of its combat and make much more of Mighty Deeds of Arms, even allowing Classes other the Warrior and the Dwarf have access to them, then Meanderings Issue #1 gives those options.