[Fanzine Focus XXXV] Keep It Together

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 Dungeon Master 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. Similarly, the fanzine has been a popular format for Mausritter. However, the format has in the main, been a vehicle to provide specific support in the form of scenarios, rather than general content, such as Keep It Together.

Keep It Together – An Adventure Zine is a scenario for Mausritter – Sword-and-Whiskers roleplaying, the rules-light fantasy adventure microclone in which the very big and very dangerous world is explored from a mouse eye’s point of view. This is our world, but one in which the mice are anthropomorphic and can talk, as can other species. Beyond the walls of their home, the world is one of opportunity and adventure, fraught with hazards natural and unnatural, those untouched by mankind and those imposed by mankind. Using the base mechanics from Into the Odd, mice in Mausritter need to be brave, resourceful, and clever, as well as lucky if they are to survive. Scenarios for Mausritter tend to be location based. Either the mice having to explore a single location, which could actually be a tree stump, a human-sized suit of armour, a grandfather clock, or an abandoned human-made shack, as in Mausritter: Honey in the Rafters or a sandbox setting containing numerous locations, such as Mausritter: The Estate Adventure Collection or Mayfield. Keep It Together is sandbox setting, but with a twist.

Keep It Together – An Adventure Zine was published by The Necropede as part of ZineQuest #3. Describing itself as ‘An Adventure Area for Mausritter’, it details the area between two mouse towns—Willowthorpe and New Willowthorpe. There is a New Willowthorpe because nearby development by humans uprooted trees, diverted the stream, and destroyed an area nearby, and so the inhabitants of the village decided that they would be better off elsewhere. Packing their belongings, they moved three miles away, on the other side of a pond. However, some of the mice in Willowthorpe did not want to make the move, after all, Willowthorpe was their home and they were unsure of whether New Willowthorpe would be a success or not. Now it has, and the inhabitants of New Willowthorpe want their friends and neighbours from their old home to move into their new home with them. However, the journey to New Willowthorpe was dangerous and none of them feel ready to brave it again. Thus, they put out the call for adventurers. Can they make the trek across the wilds, including tall grasses and dangerous, to bring news of New Willowthorpe to old Willowthorpe, persuade the inhabitants to make the journey, and then lead them to their new home?

The Player Characters have two primary routes between the two towns. Either by sailing or rowing boat across the pond and along the streams, or through the grasslands. Both offer their own dangers and both are replete with their own encounters and locations. Travel by boat is simpler, but predators can more easily see the mice from the sky, whilst the grass is taller than the mice and harder going, it both hides the mice from predators from above and the mice from seeing the predators above. Of course, the weather and time of year will travel conditions too. Between the old and new towns lie the Great Log, hollow with end in the water, and the easternmost point of the nearby Rat Lady’s kingdom; an Old Graveyard where it is always cold and foggy, no matter the weather, and now beset by some strangeness; and field of rocks below there are caves where ancient treasures might be found. There are only a handful or two of such locations, but they are nicely detailed and each one comes with an encounter table.

At either end of these encounters stand Willowthorpe and New Willowthorpe. Of the two, New Willowthorpe is more briefly described, but there is more than enough information to support the Player Characters with rumours, rafts to use to get across the pond, and even some hirelings who will accompany them. Old Willowthorpe is described in more detail, as are its NPCs, and the village is also given a map as well. The seven mice still living in the village are simply and directly detailed, a handful of bullet points listing background, the reason why they have not yet left, views of the other mice, and so on, all providing the Game Master with sufficient information for her to portray them effectively. Each is also accompanied by a thumbnail portrait that the Game Master should use to show her players. There is also a table indicating the relationships between the remaining mice and a table for randomly determining what they might be doing day or night. Whilst each of the remining inhabitants’ homes and the village’s major businesses are detailed, another table provides random descriptions of the abandoned buildings.

Once the Player Characters have arrived in Willowthorpe, their aim is to persuade and then the remaining mice to New Willowthorpe. Some do not want to leave, some are scared of leaving, some do not want to leave anything behind, some do not want to leave anyone behind, and some want everyone to go elsewhere. The Player Characters will need to sort through who wants what and why, and then persuade to change their minds, all before making the journey back. This is all complicated by the interest of several external factions who have taken an interest in the current state of Willowthorpe. These factions, including the Rat lady and the Fey are described at the end of the adventure are the monsters that might be encountered. Plus, there is list of new spells, such as Calm water, Protection from Undead, and Float. Lastly these new spells as well as several items are provided as tokens to cut and slip into a Player Character’s backpack and so take up space.

Physically, Keep It Together – An Adventure Zine is a neat and tidy affair. It is well written and the artwork is good. The artwork is cute, though the look is sometimes more fifties suburbia than the usual medieval look of Mausritter.

Keep It Together – An Adventure Zine is a there and back again adventure for Mausritter – Sword-and-Whiskers roleplaying. The ‘there’ being a straightforward trek through the wilderness, whilst the ‘back again’ has the feel of pioneers on the frontier of the Old West, the Player Characters guiding a wagon train home. The scenario can be played through as is, but there is scope for expansion, which the Game Master may want to consider if her Player Characters want to go and investigate the caves and other locations. The Game Master may also want to add a little more treasure, as there is very little to be found in the pages of the adventure. Should the Game Master want to add Keep It Together – An Adventure Zine to an existing Mausritter campaign, the size and the scale of both setting and story make it very easy to add.

Overall, Keep It Together – An Adventure Zine is a solid adventure for Mausritter – Sword-and-Whiskers roleplaying.

Psychics Save the Free World!

A line of cars, black, with the Stars & Stripes fluttering from the bonnet. The scene jumps. A cheering crowd, flags in their hands, waving. A band strikes up with the anthem that always announces his arrival. Men in black, sunglasses hiding their eyes, but you know they are looking. Are they looking for you? You look up. The man in the suit. Striding. Waving. Grinning to the crowd, but not to you. The scene jumps again. Looking at the man. Looking at where you are, but from far away. It jumps again. Hands move quickly. They know what they are doing. There is something in those hands. Is it a device? A trigger? A rifle? There is bang. Close to you. The scene jumps. There are screams. People are running. You cannot see the man… Oh my god! Is it real? Will it be real? Will you be there? Fortunately, this is a vision, a premonition, it has not happened. Yet. But it might. Someone really wants to assassinate the President of the United States and that someone is the USSR. Nobody is going to believe you though, nobody except your fellow psychics in the program. Certainly not since the head of the program was killed in a car crash—why did nobody see that coming?—and funding from the US government got cut… Now it is just you, armed with your premonitions, which stands between you and the death of the leader of the free world and the consequences that would have.

This is the set-up for Project Cassandra: Psychics of the Cold War, a roleplaying game of secret government projects and conspiracies in which the psychically gifted, trained as part of a program to spy on the Soviets, are the only ones who know that the President of the United States’ life is in danger. Except, of course, for those involved in the conspiracy to assassinate him. Published by LunarShadow Designs as part of ZineQuest #3 following a successful Kickstarter campaign, it is designed to be played as a one-shot, of the Player Characters responding to the premonition and attempting to prevent it from happening, but it can be played as a longer campaign and it need not be about the assassination of the President. There are plenty of pinch points throughout the Cold War, from the Hungarian Uprising and the Bay of Pigs to the Moon landings and the stationing of Pershing missiles in Germany, which serve as inspiration for Project Cassandra: Psychics of the Cold War.

However, given its subject matter, what inspires Project Cassandra: Psychics of the Cold War is not the obvious cinema and television of the period. So instead of dark psychological thrillers or the constant dread of all too many of those who lived through the era, it takes its inspirations from lighter fare. The question is, what exactly is that inspiration? If not The Manchurian Candidate or The Parallax View, or similar films and television series, the most obvious inspirations, what then? These after all, are not only great cinema, but also great inspiration in terms of tone and atmosphere. Unfortunately, Project Cassandra: Psychics of the Cold War does not include a bibliography and that is a serious failing. So why not dark psychological thrillers or the constant dread? The simple answer is Safety Tools. This is not a criticism of Safety Tools in general. They deserve a place in the roleplaying hobby and they deserve a place in Project Cassandra: Psychics of the Cold War since it is set in the past when negative social attitudes were rife. Yet to ignore the inspirations for its inspiration means that Project Cassandra: Psychics of the Cold War is really doing a disservice to its audience. It should not only have included them, it should have included them as an option and allowed the Game Master and her players to make that choice given the genre of Project Cassandra: Psychics of the Cold War.

A Player Character in Project Cassandra has an Identity, a Background, ten Skills, several Knowledges or areas in which he is an expert, and a single, unique psychic power. The Skills are divided between three categories: Mental, Physical, and Specialist. The Skills can be anything that a player likes, but the Mental and Physical, skills are broad, whereas the Specialist skills are fairly narrow. To create a character, a player assigns a Rank value of one to one of the three categories, and a Rank value of two to the remaining pair. The player assigns four Skills to one category and three skills to each of the other two. The Player Character starts with a single Knowledge. It has no numerical value, but is used once per session to introduce a fact or truth related to the Knowledge into the game.

Identity: Maureen Herslag
Background: Housewife
Premonitions: 14
Mental – 2: Intimidation, Haggle, Chutzpah, Being Nosy
Physical – 2: Cleaning, Look Anonymous, Dodge, Athletics
Specialist – 1: Pistols, Self Defence
Knowledge: Cookery
Power: Yesterday

Project Cassandra uses what it calls the Precognition Engine. To undertake an action, a player must roll six six-sided dice and obtain as many successes as he can. Each roll equal to or under the value of the skill counts as a success. The difficulty and the number of successes that a player has to roll varies between one and seven, the latter being almost impossible. Successes can also be spent to overcome a challenge, such as picking a lock or punching out a senator’s aide/Communist sympathiser, representing both the amount of effort it takes and the amount of time it takes. It might be done in a single action, or it might take several. A failed roll will result in a Player Character suffering a consequence, typically a narrative consequence, but it can also be a condition, such Paranoid or Bloodied. A player can choose to have his character suffer a Condition in order to gain an extra success, meaning that it has come at some cost. A Condition can increase the difficulty or it can make a Player Character’s Premonitions more difficult to use.

A Player Character starts play with fourteen Premonitions. These represent his ability to see the immediate future and can be used to reroll any dice that did not roll successes. They recover slowly, at a rate of one Premonition per night of rest. A Player Character’s tenth and fifth Premonition is special. It grants the Player Character a more detailed vision of the future, specifically about the next scene. A Premonition is also used to activate a Player Character’s power. Most people will be unaware of psychic powers, but some are Nulls, who have no psychic footprint and who can negate a Player Character’s power if it is used directly on them. The conspiracy does employ Null agents as well as psychic agents.

The set-up to Project Cassandra is intended to be fairly freeform. It begins with the players and the Game Master building a conspiracy. Together they create an Opening Vision and answer some Conspiracy Questions. This should set the era, the nature of the conspiracy, and so on. Typically, this will involve the assassination of the President. For example, ‘How will the President be killed?’, ‘Where will the attack take place?’, and ‘Why will the world believe you are responsible?’. Project Cassandra incudes some sample questions, an example of play, and good advice for the Game Master on running the game and what Safety Tools to use. There are notes too on running longer term conspiracies—longer than four sessions—but they are fairly brief.

Besides five ready-to-play Player Characters, Project Cassandra includes two Mission Profiles, also ready to play. The Opening Vision of ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ sees President Kennedy assassinated in Berlin in June 1963, and starts with a bang for the Player Characters, whilst ‘The Dark of the Moon’ is pulpier in tone, asking the Player Characters to confront what hidden secrets Apollo 12 brought back from the Moon. Both come complete with questions to set the stakes and details of the conspiracy.

Physically, Project Cassandra: Psychics of the Cold War is generally well presented and nicely illustrated. However, it could have been much better organised and it takes a while to work out quite what is going on. Once done, the roleplaying game is easy to grasp. The other aspect of the roleplaying game which could have been made clear on the cover is the fact that it is a storytelling game.

Project Cassandra: Psychics of the Cold War is in need of a bibliography and really some general background about the period, because not everyone is going to be familiar with it. However, for those that are, Project Cassandra: Psychics of the Cold War does have an enticing set-up. That though is far as it goes, for Project Cassandra: Psychics of the Cold War is storytelling game, and the uncovering of the conspiracy and the prevention of it coming to fruition as well as the set-up depends on both players and Game Master working together. For the most part, Project Cassandra: Psychics of the Cold War is best suited for a group which has some experience with storytelling roleplaying games and some understanding of the period.

[Fanzine Focus XXXIV] Grogzilla #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 Dungeon Master 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, there are still fanzines being published which cover a variety of different roleplaying games, such as Grogzilla. This is published by D101 Games, best known for the OpenQuest roleplaying game and the Glorantha fanzine, Hearts in Glorantha. It is undeniably a showcase for what the publisher does and is full of ideas and bits and pieces, some of which are silly, some useful, and some interesting.

Grogzilla #2 – Son of Grogzilla! was published in October, 2021, as part of ZineQuest #3 and following a successful Kickstarter campaign. Its tone is distinctly less silly than Grogzilla #1, and its pages contain a good mix of the playable and the interesting. The issue opens with ‘A Slight Return’, a scenario for Monkey: The Role-Playing Game, the action-packed storytelling roleplaying game based upon the Chinese Classic, The Journey to the West, and of course, the television series, which tell of the heroic journey of the Monkey King and his companions, Pigsy, Sandy and Tripitaka through the vibrant world of Chinese folk religion. Monkey: The Role-Playing Game is a lot of fun and allows the players to both roleplay the Monkey King and his companions, or create characters of their own. ‘A Slight Return’ is designed to be run with the latter rather than the former. It is an introductory scenario, which can be used as a one-shot or a convention scenario. It opens with the Monkey King having made a mess across all of Creation in his rebellion against the Heavenly Authorities. It is the job of the Player Characters as disgraced minor Immortals and the appointed inter-Ministry clean-up crew, to tidy everything up and put it back as it was. The Player Characters will find themselves cleaning up the trickster’s poo left on the Register of the Dead, rescuing someone sent to Hell, fix a mountain whose top he lopped off, and more. It is a fun, picaresque little adventure and should be fun to both play and run.

Monkey: The Role-Playing Game is also the subject of the second entry in the fanzine. ‘The Ten-Minute Monkey Setup’ is designed to work with ‘A Slight Return’ or any time that a Game Master is running Monkey: The Role-Playing Game at a convention. It is written in response to a comment from the doyen of Games on Demand, Lloyd Gyan, that the designer’s explanation of the background to Monkey: The Role-Playing Game prior to running it at a convention was too long. It distils the background and set-up to just two pages as well as suggesting what to leave out. Clear and concise, it is the sort of thing that every roleplaying game should have.

‘Summerset: The Heart of Angland’ introduces a setting for 13th Age, the roleplaying game from Pelgrane Press which combines the best elements of both Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition and Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition to give high action combat, strong narrative ties, and exciting play. The setting takes place in Summerset, between the Red Castle in the north and Glasteenbury in the south, the most magical area in all of the Kingdom of Angland. It combines Arthurian legend with elements of the War of the Roses and the dark Satanic mills of the North some six centuries after the Romanous Empire withdrew from the country, five centuries after King Arthur I united the peoples of Angland, and five years after the end of The Rose War between the Nobles of Lankshire and the Nobles of Yirkshire in the Grim North. It gives a short history of the setting, a guide to its leading notables—they are the Icons of Angland which the Player Characters will be associated with, for good or ill, and its various locations. There is actually quite a lot of detail here and this is a solidly decent introduction to the setting. All that is really missing is a page or so of hooks that the Game Master could develop into scenarios.

The second scenario in Grogzilla #2 is ‘More Metal Than You’ll Ever Live to Be!’. This is designed for use with three to six Player Characters of Second and Third Level, for use with either Crypts & Things or Swords Against the Shroud. However, it would work with any number of other retroclones. It describes a crypt that was once the metallic body of the dead insect god, Anack’doska, hollowed by his evil cultists, who then developed amazing arms and armour before turning on themselves and wiping out the cult. There is said to be a great still left within the complex. Located under a volcano means that the tunnels and caves have a sulphurous quality and scattered throughout the complex are a number of metallic statues and ‘constructs’. The dungeon is serviceable and playable, but nothing more than that. It is the least interesting entry in the fanzine.

‘Welcome to Slumberland’ is the first of three entries in Grogzilla #2 devoted to Slumberland, a proposed roleplaying game of ‘Sleepy Horror’ using the mechanics of Liminal. It has a roughly Elizabethan feel and distinct North of England tones combined with a rural distrust of outsiders and especially anyone from the South. In Slumberland, the Player Characters are Wanderers, rootless adventurers sent by a Merciful Monarch, Queen Nell, to the edge of her Queendom to help the residents of Slumberland. The mistrustful inhabitants refuse to accept the interloping Wanderers as ‘locals’, restricting where they can sleep or what residence they can own, until they have earned some ‘Respect’. This is done by carrying various tasks and jobs too dangerous for ordinary folk. In other words, doing the typical adventuring things. ‘Respect’ is included as a new stat in Slumberland, representing the Wanderers’ interaction with the locals, whilst ‘Rest’ replaces Will in Liminal. A Wanderer with a high Rest is calm and collected, but with a low Rest is irritable and unpredictable, yet is at an advantage when interacting with the Dreaming, the magical realm that pervades Slumberland.

‘Welcome to Slumberland’ includes a guide to the area, its places, including the River Slumber, which sends anyone who falls into it asleep and an Underworld of failed routes under the mountain now filled with monsters. Important things include Tea and Slow Gin, and horrors include undead horrors like the Barrow Wrongs and night horrors found under the bed and in the closet. There is also a lengthy guide to Slumberish, the dialect of the region. ‘Welcome to Slumberland’ has an intentionally odd bucolic feel, set in Tudor England, but it does veer into regional stereotypes at times.

‘The Slumberland Hack’, the middle article presents the changes to the Liminal rules to run Slumberland as a setting. This includes rules for Rest, weapon and armour as Slumberland is a fantasy setting, and new skills, concepts like the Royal Guard, Spy, Templar, and Field Magician, and Limitations such as ‘Servant of the Crown’ meaning that the Player Character has sworn an oath to serve Queen Nell and takes it very, very seriously. The new Limitation, ‘Royal College Field Magician’ grants access to a handful of spells, which cost Rest to cast, whilst ‘Order of the Solemn Temple Liturgist’ provides divine powers. Of note is the magic spell, Slumber. Which specifically affects a target’s Rest and can put a mob to sleep. Overall, the changes make sense, though there is no mechanical explanation for ‘Rest’.

‘The Tunnel to Slumberland’, the third article dedicated to Slumberland, is an introductory scenario designed to get the Player Characters there. Every thirty years the monarch of the Realm is obliged to send aid to the North, ‘Agents of Mercy. In this case, it is the Wanderers, or Player Characters, who are sent north from Crystal City by good Queen Nell. Their route will be via a tunnel to avoid Spider Wood which has been taken over by the Darkness. Built by Dwarves and managed in part by Master of Royal Works in the north, Bob Dibner, the southern tunnel entrance is in Cheese Gorge. The adventure is a series of linked encounters in the tunnel and will get the Wanderers to the North at the least. After that, the Game Master will need to develop her own adventures.

Overall, Slumberland is fun if slightly silly, British readers of a certain age being able to spot the jokes and references. There is a lot more to be revealed about Slumberland—if it ever appears—but this trio of articles is an enjoyable, if slightly messy introduction. Were it not for the use of the Liminal rules, Slumberland feels as if it could be slotted into the Midderlands setting from Monkey Blond design.

The last article in Grogzilla #2 is one last bit of silliness. ‘The Secret of the Grogdice’ is inspired by Grogmeet, the annual convention organised by The Grognard Files, a North of England podcast dedicated to the games of the late seventies and early eighties. Specifically, it is what the author uses his ‘Grogdie’—a six-sided die given to Game Masters for the event, which has The Grognard Files icon on the number six face of the die—for in play. Essentially, it provides a quick and dirty table to roll on for spicing up play. It does not actually require a Grogdie and would work with any die with a different face to the usual six.

Physically, Grogzilla #2 is clean and simple. It is easy to read and the illustrations are decent. It is a little rough around the edges in places and it does need an edit in others.

Grogzilla #2 has a lot of playable content. The scenario for Monkey: The Role-Playing Game is excellent and a lot of fun, whilst with ‘Summerset: The Heart of Angland’ and ‘Welcome to Slumberland’ the fanzine introduces a pair of interesting settings that do leave the reader wanting more. However, it is disappointing to see neither of them yet fully developed, so the Game Master is on her own until they are. Nevertheless, Grogzilla #2 is an entertaining read that captures a certain Englishness.

[Fanzine Focus XXX] Swordpoint: A Swashbuckling Roleplaying Zine

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. And then there is Swordpoint: A Swashbuckling Roleplaying Zine.

Swordpoint: A Swashbuckling Roleplaying Zine is not really a fanzine, at least in the traditional sense. This is despite having the word ‘zine’ in the title. Published by Gallant Knight Games, this is a roleplaying game of swashbuckling action inspired by The Three Musketeers and Captain Alatriste as well as roleplaying games such as En Garde and Flashing Blades, all set in the Paris of the seventeenth century. Published as part of ZineQuest #3 it highlights how the fanzine and ZineQuest itself is moving from showcasing a particular game or author’s campaign—typically from the Old School Renaissance—to becoming a format for standalone mini-roleplaying games. Also, its odd format—five-by-eight inches, flipbook sized, and in landscape format, also marks it out as not being a fanzine in the very traditional sense.

Published following a successful Kickstarter campaign, Swordpoint uses a percentile system, being based on Mongoose Publishing’s Legend OGL. Players take the roles of Heroes who swashbuckle, race across rooftops, duel for honour, save the day, protect the innocent, defeat villains, and defeat villains again because they can never truly die. Games can involve military engagements, espionage, diplomacy, courtly intrigue, and both love and passion. There are rules for creating characters, action resolution, Style Points, combat, duels, grudges and revenge, spells and spellcasting, and of course, passion. These are all explained in a fairly succinct fashion, and whilst Swordpoint is not quite the bare bones of a roleplaying game, it is not far off from being so.

A Player Character has seven characteristics rated between three and eighteen—Strength, Constitution, Courage, Intelligence, Power, Dexterity, and Appeal. He has several Style Points, an Education rating for his general knowledge, and Rank. The latter represents his Social Status, derived from his social standing, position within an organisation, nobility, and wealth. Both Education and Social Status are percentile values. Rank can be increased for notable deeds, publicising those deeds, earning wealth, and so on. Rank can also be lost through misdeeds, and so on. A Player Character or NPC with a higher Rank will gain a bonus to social skills and situations. In addition, Player Character will have various skills—quite broad, and some possessions.

To create a character, a player rolls dice—typically three six-sided dice for most, but two six-sided dice to which six is added for Intelligence and Courage—to create the characteristics, or he can assign values from an array. Starting Rank is based on Power, but can be more if the character is of noble birth, determined by rolling on the appropriate table. Skill base values are derived from the characteristics and the player then assigns some bonuses, the largest being assigned to the character’s professional skill. He also has five items of equipment, which cannot include medium or large shields or armour, or shotguns, as they not suited to the genre. That said, stats for them are included should the Game Master want them in her game.

NAME: Campion Babin
CHARACTERISTICS
Strength 06 Constitution 06 Courage 17 Intelligence 15 Power 09 Dexterity 10 Appeal 12

ATTRIBUTES
Damage Modifier: -1d4
Hit Points: 23
Style Points: 5
Education: 75%
Rank: Gentlefolk

SKILLS
Athletics 26%, Craft (Specialty) 21%, Dodge 29%, Endure 33%, First Aid 35%, Lore (Religion) 70%, Melee 31%, Perception 44%, Persuasion 51%, Ride 39%, Shooting 25%, Stealth 25%, Thievery 19%

EQUIPMENT
Bible, sword, rosary beads, quill & ink

Mechanically, Swordpoint uses the percentile system of Mongoose Publishing’s Legend OGL. When a player wants his character to undertake an action, his player rolls the percentile dice and if the result is less or equal to the skill, then the character succeeds. Modifiers range between ten and forty, whether penalty or bonus, and in opposed rolls, it is the roll that succeeds and rolls highest which wins in that situation. Characteristic tests are rolled on a twenty-sided die.

Combat is not that much more complex than this. The rules cover initiative (players roll only, and go first if successful), attacking, dodging, insulting or taunting an opponent, two-weapon fighting, and so on. Successfully insulting or taunting an opponent will lose them a Style Point or Villain Point and is a nice genre touch. A character is only wounded when his Hit Points are reduced to zero, but further damage renders him first Helpless and then dead. Swordpoint being a swashbuckling game includes rules for duels, used by Heroes to settle matters of honour and resolve perceived slights and insults, whilst Villains use them as a means isolate and remove Heroes as threats to their Villainous plans. Heroes tend to duel to first blood, whilst Villains to the death. A successful Perception test allows the duellists to assess each other, learning things such as skill ratings, preferred weapons, Hit Points, Style or Villain Points, and so on.

In addition to loss of Hit Points, a Player Character can suffer a Condition. Being Wounded is a Condition, but a Player Character can also be Afraid, Confused, Exhausted, Heart-Broken, and so on. They have mechanical effect, but are primarily earned through the narrative of game play. In addition, Player Characters have Style Points, whilst the Game Master has Villain Points. Style Points can be spent to gain several benefits. These include ‘Catch Your Breath’ to regain some Hit Points, ‘Grit Your Teeth’ to reduce incoming damage, ‘Make Them Bleed’ to double the damage of an attack, ‘Redouble Your Efforts’ to reroll a test, and ‘Press Your Advantage’ to gain an extra action at the end of a round. Style Points are recovered at a rate of one per day, but a player can have his character fail a test in dramatic fashion, insult a foe in combat, accept a duel, and decide to accept a condition all to recover Style Points immediately.

Setting rules cover clubs and organisations, gambling, grudges and revenge. Having a Grudge against someone grants a slight bonus when acting against the target of the Grudge and can be settled quickly, whilst Revenge is a more determined, long-term attempt to do damage to a person and their situation. It requires Game Master approval, and enables the potential recovery of Style points when enacting said revenge. For the Game Master there are stats for various NPCs, from guards to Dangerous Villains, but oddly no feme fatale type character such as Milady de Winter. Swordpoint also includes rules for spellcasting and sorcery, plus a handful of skills, which would work in a more fantastical version of the genre. Rounding out Swordpoint are rules for Passion (and romance), which can be initiated between Player Character and Player Character or Player Character and NPC by the player or Game Master saying, “Passion, if you please.” The recipient does not have to consent, but a couple of tables follow which are rolled on to shape the romance itself. This covers the spark between them, the obstacle, and the possible fate of the relationship. When roleplayed, this all adds to the feel and genre of the game.

Swordpoint does not come with any setting. To be fair, it does not need to. This a swashbuckling film style of a roleplaying game and there are plenty of those for the Game Master to draw upon for inspiration, let alone the various works of fiction that she draw from.

Physically, Swordpoint is clearly and tidily laid out. It is well written and easy to grasp. It is very lightly illustrated. Given its length and format, Swordpoint is unsurprisingly sparse in feel and nature, and there are a lot of elements that the Game Master will need to develop, especially in terms of setting. Swordpoint: A Swashbuckling Roleplaying Zine is bare bones, but those bones are sturdy enough to provide everything, at least mechanically, that a gaming group will need to run a mini-campaign of swashbuckling action and romance.