[Fanzine Focus XIX] Time & Tide

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 fanzine, another different fanzine. Time & Tide is a fanzine dedicated, to SLA Industries, the 1993 Scottish roleplaying game set in a far future dystopia of corporate greed, commodification of ultraviolence, the mediatisation of murder, conspiracy, and urban horror, and serial killer sensationalism, recently expanded with the supplement, SLA Industries: Cannibal Sector 1. Published by Tanya Floaker following a successful Kickstarter campaign as part of the first Zine Quest, Time & Tide is subtitled ‘A fanzine examining why people love SLA Industries and the World of Progress’. It is of course not the only fanzine for SLA Industries. In the early noughties, tTH bIG pICTURE showcased another role for the fanzine, that is serving as a focal point for a roleplaying game’s fandom and support, often when that roleplaying game is between editions or out of print. As was the case with SLA Industries.

Time & Tide comes as thick sheaf of paper, a wodge of white text blocks on all dark photo backgrounds and scrappy art which screams late eighties, early nineties do-it-yourself layout. It is all filler, no game, but nevertheless all love, no hate. As the subtitle says, this is a fanzine about the love that the fans have for SLA Industries. At a hundred pages in length there are actually very few articles in the fanzine—just eight in all. There is also quite a bit of white—and more often than not—black space. The fanzine includes fiction, interviews, cake recipes, and more.

Time & Tide opens with ‘So Dark it’s U.V.’, a discussion of just why SLA Industries continues to be popular in spite of its sporadic publishing history. It also looks at the elements and themes of the game—of constantly changing technology, of suppression of knowledge, and of a truth that has its own dangers in knowing, overlaid by a Splatterpunk sensibility that reinforces the notion that life is cheap, that death can be comical, and that thrills meaning ratings (until the next thrill gets better ratings). It is a solid opening piece which lays the groundwork for the rest of the fanzine.

The highpoint of the fanzine is the ‘Interview with Nightfall Games’. The first of two interviews in the Time & Tide, this is with Jared Earle, co-author of SLA Industries and Mark Rapson of Word Forge Games, the new publisher of the roleplaying game. Conducted before the publication of SLA Industries: Cannibal Sector 1, this is a lengthy piece which looks at the history of the game and its future, in particular, its evolution as a war game setting in addition to being a roleplaying game. This is an informative and entertaining piece which really explains both Nightfall Games and Word Forge Games in the run up to the publication of SLA Industries: Cannibal Sector 1 and SLA Industries, Second Edition. The other interview is ‘Real Time’. This is with Ste Winwood about his involvement in running SLA Industries fan groups. Again, this is another personable interview highlighting the effectiveness of the fans in keeping a game alive with their support.

Between the two interviews is a much longer article, ‘The Mall of Progress’ by Ed Hill. This supports the new wargaming aspect of SLA Industries as the author takes the reader through the evolution of the terrain that he used to fight confrontations between the various factions in the World of Progress. So it goes from Cannibal Sector One over the Wall into Downtown and onto Garbage Alley and out again into the Ruined Mall and the Mall of Progress, and then back in again to a wretched housing block called Grim House. The step-by-step process looks at construction methods and the changing technology used and is accompanied by innumerable photographs. Unfortunately, these photographs hamper the article at every turn, being too dark and too murky to discern any detail. Whilst murk fits the World of Progress, it is not what you want in a wargames article where photos should bring to life what the designer has been doing. Worse, the layout of the article means extends the article over and over, and at a quarter of the fanzine’s page count combined with the poor resolution of the photographs, it just feels bloated and boring.

Tamsyn Kennedy’s ‘Underneath It All’ is the first of two pieces of fiction in Time & Tide. It tells of an Ebon’s almost worker drone existence before an encounter forces her awake and brings her to the notice of those that make her take the next step in ‘evolution’. This balances the humdrum with the eventual realisation that there is an alternative path in the ‘World of Progress’ to climbing the corporate ladder. The other piece of fiction is ‘Your Hole/Their Hole/My Hole’ by Roger Duthie which is very much the opposite of ‘Underneath It All’, telling of the wet, dank, stagnant, often horrifying nature of living on the dole in Downtown. It is quite a creepy piece, capturing life in the Mort City equivalent of a 1980s Glasgow council flat—elements of SLA Industries being a reaction to growing up and being unemployed in Thatcher’s Britain—from multiple points of view, intruders mundane and monstrous, as well as the dwelling’s occupants.

Quite literally filler, Coz Winwood’s ‘Cake Sector One’ gives recipes for SLA-themed baked goods. Three recipes are given—in oddly American measurements given the roleplaying game’s Scottish origins—and their inclusion would have been fine if they had there to offset something more substantial in terms of content in the fanzine. As it is, ‘Cake Sector One’ is all too light and fluffy in all too light and fluffy issue. Nice wordplay on the title though and there really ought to be a cooking show aimed at Shivers on duty in Cannibal Sector One within the game itself. Lastly, ‘The Bigger Picture’ is a more personal piece about SLA Industries played a role in his life and helped him when times were difficult. Hopefully the new edition of the roleplaying game and the chance to play again will make his better.

Physically, Time &  Tide is scrappy and scruffy as mentioned earlier. It certainly echoes the style of fanzines from their heyday in the eighties. Overall, it is difficult to come right out and recommend Time & Tide. It is just too light and fluffy in its content—even if that content is dark and oppressive in tone, but then what would expect, it is for SLA Industries after all—to be anything more.Time & Tide will of course appeal to devotees of SLA Industries, but it is nothing more than a diverting read as it does not include any support for the roleplaying game or the war game rules. Had it done so, then there might have been reason enough for the reader to look at it more than just the once. Time & Tide is very much not essential to playing SLA Industries and so nice enough to have if a fan, but you will not miss it from your gaming shelves if you don’t have it.

[Fanzine Focus XIX] Delayed Blast Gamemaster #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. 

Delayed Blast Gamemaster is a fanzine of a different stripe. Published by Philip Reed Games following successful Kickstarter campaigns, Delayed Blast Gamemaster is a fanzine dedicated to supporting roleplaying fantasy games, but a particular style of fantasy roleplaying games—Dungeons & Dragons. Yet the issues are entirely systemless, which means that their contents can be used in Dungeons & Dragons, any of the fantasy roleplaying retroclones you care to name, and most fantasy roleplaying games with a little effort. Published following a successful Kickstarter campaign as part of the inaugural Zine Quest, the first issue of Delayed Blast Gamemaster was published in  September, 2019.

What strikes you first about Delayed Blast Gamemaster #1 is its graphical design. It is all white art and text on matt black pages. Now before anyone complains that this might be ink heavy when comes to the printing out of the PDF, the fanzine is sold in both heavy and light ink formats. The effect though is striking, almost jauntily creepy and oppressive in its artwork’s depiction of skeletal archers, oozes, and overly ocular creatures. The text is both heavy and large, so is a lot easier to read than it otherwise might have been.

As to the concept behind Delayed Blast Gamemaster it is simply that of inspiration scattered subject by subject across nine tables. So ‘OneDTen Urban Locations’, ‘OneDSix Forgotten Spellbooks’, FiveDSix Unusual Treasures’, ‘OneDEight Dungeon Oddities’, ‘OneDSix Magic Shields’, ‘TwoDSix Potions’, ‘OneDSix Warped Monsters’, ‘OneDTwelve Adventure Hooks’, and ‘OneDFour Dungeon Doors’. So all that the Game Master has to do is pick a table or subject, roll the die, check the relevant entry, and use it as inspiration to create something of her or adapt the entry to the roleplaying game of her choice. The most obvious choice to adapt the entry to, is of course, Dungeons & Dragons, due to the similarities in language, but other roleplaying games would work too.

For example, roll a three on ‘OneDEight Dungeon Oddities’ and you get a Necromancer’s Chest, a combination trap-monster. It is simply a necromancer’s chest which he has trapped with several ghosts. Disarm the trap or use the key and of course, a Thief opens the chest without any problems; fail and two or more ghosts are unleashed to hunt the Thief and alert the chest’s owner! Roll a four on the ‘OneDSix Warped Monsters’ and the result is the Skeletal Mage, which simply suggests giving a standard skeleton monster a spell or two or more, all to add a simple twist on a classic monster. Roll a seven on ‘OneDTen Urban Locations’ and you have found yourself at Pies (and Lies) which describes a pie shop which sells cheap, moderately tasty, meat pies. The shop also does a nice sideline in rumours and secrets, which its owner and his family either sells off to the underworld or uses to blackmail the subject of those rumours and secrets.

Now there are a lot of entries and ideas in Delayed Blast Gamemaster #1, which is the point. Perhaps though, the design of the oddities and monsters dwell a little upon Oozes and monsters like the Mimic, with entries such as the Mimicspawn, Oozegoblin, and Weremimic, but the author at least is upfront about his fascination with such creatures. The main issue is that there no index, either of the entries or the tables. Otherwise, the fanzine is well written, easy to ready, and easy to use. Physically, there is a certain heft to it both in terms of production values—which are high for a fanzine—and its feel in the hand.


Delayed Blast Gamemaster #1 is simply lots of ideas a Game Master can bring to her game. She will need to do some work to bring them into her campaign, but the ideas will work with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition as much as they would with Old School Essentials Classic Fantasy , and whatever your choice of fantasy roleplaying game, further inspiration is never unwanted.

[Fanzine Focus XIX] Crawl! #3

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, an 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 Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game.

Published by Straycouches Press, Crawl! is one such fanzine dedicated to the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. Since Crawl! No. 1 was published in March, 2012 has not only provided ongoing support for the roleplaying game, but also been kept in print by Goodman Games. Now because of online printing sources like Lulu.com, it is no longer as difficult to keep fanzines from going out of print, so it is not that much of a surprise that issues of Crawl! remain in print. It is though, pleasing to see a publisher like Goodman Games support fan efforts like this fanzine by keeping them in print and selling them directly.

Where Crawl! No. 1 was something of a mixed bag, Crawl! #2 was a surprisingly focused, exploring the role of loot in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and describing various pieces of treasure and items of equipment that the Player Characters might find and use. The good news is that Crawl! #3 is just as focused, but the subject of its focus is not loot or treasure. Instead, it is magic, for the issue’s subtitle is ‘The Magic Issue!’. Published in February, 2013, Crawl! #3 includes new spell systems, new spells, a new old creature, and more. It is a serviceable rather than a good issue and for one particular reason may not be of interest who are coming to issues of Crawl! fanzine for the first time.

There can be no denying that the magic system in Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game is fun and flavoursome, but it can be cumbersome. The issue is that because every spell has its own page and its own table, the play of the game is slowed whenever spells are cast, whether by the Player Characters or NPCs. So, ‘NPC Magic and Spellcasting’ offers a more streamlined means of handling spells. The Judge still rolls for the NPC spellcaster, but rather than doing this against the standard table, the Judge is given three results—either a Fumble, a Standard, or a Critical result. For example, on a Fumble, the classic spell Magic Missile inflicts damage on the caster, hurls between one and four missiles at a target on a Standard result, and on a Critical result, the caster can target multiple opponents. The piece includes a couple of offensive spells, several defensive spells, and several spells which fall into the category of ‘Other’. Rounded out with a pair of cultists as sample NPCs given these streamlined spells, this is a fantastic option to help the Judge run her game.

Sean Ellis’ ‘Consider the Kobold: A different take on the traditional kobold’ presents a traditional take upon the Kobold. Not the tradition of Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying games, but that of traditional folklore. Here the Kobold is a household fairy who carries out domestic chores as long as the family respects him, although an alternative has it working the mines. The write-up includes full stats as well as various pranks—or cantrips—which the Kobold may play upon those who do not pay it enough respect.

Brett Miller’s ‘Patron Spells of the Supernal Archmage’ presents the patron spells for ‘Van den Danderclanden: A Patron from the Imminent Future’, the Supernal Archmage of Empyreal Aptitude in a distant, but parallel future. Previously detailed in Crawl! No. 1, here his favourite chaotic effects of Spellburn are detailed as Van den Danderclanden’s Hateful Blemish, Snafufubar, and Elastic Reality. The first inflicts the corruption of heavy magic use upon a target, the second focuses and inflicts bad luck upon the target of the spell, and the third can change aspects of a target or an item. There is no denying that these are fun spells to play around with and inflict some chaos upon a campaign, but problematically if the reader has already got the Special Edition of Crawl! No. 1 which collects both patron and patron spells, which makes their inclusion in either redundant.

‘Magic Wand – A 4th-level Wizard Spell’ by Daniel J. Bishop introduces the spell, Raven Crawking’s Magic Wand. This provides a means for a wizard to store spell effects in a wand of the wizard’s choosing, typically one spell, but at higher castings of the spell, up to three spells as well as granting a bonus when casting the spells from the wand. What in effect it allows a wizard to do is cast the spell worked into the wand a second time each day, but always at the Level at which the spell was worked into the wand. This means that the wizard can cast Raven Crawking’s Magic Wand again and again as he gains Levels to improve the ability of the wand. Of course, a wizard cannot simply create wand after wand for all of his spells, but a few spells it expands his arcane arsenal.

‘The Talismans of Anti-Magic – Anti-Magic Items’ by Jon Wilson details items which can prevent magic being cast upon the wearer. Whether they take the form of rings or amulets, totems or fetishes, and whomever has hold of them, they are always linked to spellcasters. They take an action to charge, but when charged they inflict a penalty equal to that given for the anti-magic talisman upon the spellcaster targeting the holder, so reducing their ability to successfully cast a spell. Unfortunately, this is not without repercussions in that the spellcaster linked to the anti-magic talisman must suffer the same effect when next casting a spell before the talisman can be sued again. This is a powerful item, but one that pleasing comes with a price which to paid by someone in the party… Lastly, Colin Chapman’s ‘Let’s Get Familiar: Expanded Familiar Entries’ simply expands the ‘Familiar Confrontation Configuration’ tables to be found in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game rulebook. It does this for the Lawful, Neutral, and Chaotic tables and enables the player to roll on a table of twenty options rather than fourteen.

Physically, Crawl! #3 is clean and tidy, uncluttered and easy to read, much like Crawl! No. 2. However, there is less art and its look is all the poorer for it. Unfortunately how good Crawl! #3 is depends on which edition of Crawl! No. 1 the reader has. If it is the Special Edition which combines ‘Van den Danderclanden: A Patron from the Imminent Future’ with ‘Patron Spells of the Supernal Archmage’, then not so much and not so useful. Which to be fair is more than likely if the reader is picking the issue up since their original publication. If it is not the Special Edition, then Crawl! #3 will be more useful as its inclusion of ‘Patron Spells of the Supernal Archmage’ readily supports ‘Van den Danderclanden: A Patron from the Imminent Future’. Overall, Crawl! #3 provides solid content, but the repeated content means it is just not as useful.

Jonstown Jottings #17: Treasures Of Glorantha: Volume One — Dragon Pass

Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, the  Jonstown Compendium is a curated platform for user-made content, but for material set in Greg Stafford's mythic universe of Glorantha. It enables creators to sell their own original content for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and HeroQuest Glorantha (Questworlds). This can include original scenarios, background material, cults, mythology, details of NPCs and monsters, and so on, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Glorantha Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Glorantha-set campaigns.

—oOo—

What is it?
Treasures Of Glorantha: Volume One — Dragon Pass is the first in a series of guides to the role, types, and items of treasure in Glorantha.

It is a sixty-four page, full colour, 20.50 MB PDF.

Treasures Of Glorantha: Volume One — Dragon Pass is well presented, decently written, and includes a wide range of artwork. The front cover is fantastic.

Where is it set?
Dragon Pass and Prax in Glorantha.

Who do you play?
The section on ‘Medicine Bundles’ will be of particular interest to shaman characters, but Treasures Of Glorantha: Volume One — Dragon Pass will be of interest to most characters in the region.

What do you need?
RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and RuneQuest – Glorantha Bestiary for its information on spirits and Dragonewts at the very least.

What do you get?
Forty years on since RuneQuest II received its own supplement dedicated to the subject of treasure in the form of Plunder, RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha receives its own supplement dedicated to treasure in the form of Treasures Of Glorantha: Volume One — Dragon Pass. Like Plunder, this supplement presents some notable treasures of Glorantha—in the case of this volume, treasures of Dragon Pass—some thirty of them in total. Unlike Plunder, what it does not do is present the means to generate treasure, whether that is in terms of coinage, jewels, and gems, or special items. This very much reflects the differing approaches to treasure between different editions of RuneQuest, and instead, Treasures Of Glorantha: Volume One — Dragon Pass offers up a discussion of the nature, place, and role of treasure amongst the Orlanthi, followed by two essays on particular types of ‘treasure’ to be found in the region.

The supplement opens with ‘Treasure Among the Orlanthi’, which explores the attitudes that the Orlanthi have towards treasure and its types. These are physical—classic coinage, jewels, and gems; social—increased Reputation, new privileges and responsibilities, and so on; and magical—spells and boons, and other gifts from priests, gods, and spirits. The essay also examines how and why they might be rewarded as well as the outcome of such rewards. It suggests how such treasures might come into the possession of the adventurers and how they might be awarded to the adventurers. The author suggests several options, one of which he suggests is the Orlanthi method, but then goes on to point out that the all good Orlanthi adventurers are expected to pay a tithe to their clan and temple. All of the essay falls within the realms of ‘Your Glorantha May Vary’, but it is a fantastic read, well thought out and reasoned.

The first specific type of treasure examined in Treasures Of Glorantha: Volume One — Dragon Pass is ‘True Dragon’s Blood’. As the title suggests, this is the blood of True Dragon, either molten direct from the body of a damaged True Dragon or found set in ruins where they have been, including those of the Empire of Wyrms Friends. More recently it could be found at the site of the Dragonrise. Despite being anathema to the gods and elements, it can be attuned to and so grant fragments of draconic powers, including being able to use Dragonewt Roads and use Firebreath. This is not without its dangers since it also unhinges the attuned from reality itself... The second type is ‘Medicine Bundles’, essentially collections of items, whether skin, bones, twigs, stones, roots, and so on, given sacred power. These are examined from the traditions of the various Praxian tribes and sacred societies, as well as Daka Fal, Erithia, and Waha. Numerous types of bundles are given, such as for contacting ancestors and spirit weapons which extra powers when user is in the Spirit Realm. This essay offers numerous items and options of interest for anyone roleplaying a shaman, as well as enhancing the spiritual aspects of a campaign. Of the two essays, this is probably the more useful.

Treasures Of Glorantha: Volume One — Dragon Pass is not only connected to Plunder in terms of shared subject matter, but also in the format followed used for listing each of the treasures. That is, the new supplement uses the same format as the old, listing its description, relationships with various groups and cults affiliated and unaffiliated, who has knowledge of it, its history, the procedure necessary to create or find the item, and what powers it has. The supplement also includes an appendix listing the new Rune and Spirit magic spells to be found in its pages.

The numerous items include Adder Stones, which made from the poisoned bodies of earth elementals grant greater protection against poison when held in the hand; Bones of Luck & Death, bone dice marked with the Luck and Death Runes found in the possession of those who survive the heroquest to become the next body of Belintar, the God-King of the Holy Country, which can be rolled to grant bonuses or penalties to the owner’s next actions; Debt-Coins of Etyries, simple lunar coins enchanted and exchanged to signify that the cult of Etyries will repay a debt that one of its worshippers is unable to; and Hippoi’s Feather, a shimmering feather taken from Hippograf’s wings and woven into a horse’s mane to make it’s spirit more aware. The selection of magical items does include a few weapons, such as Fallen Star, a spear in the shape of a four-pointed star which a Yelmalio worshiper can attune to and advance its capabilities to ultimately become a master of the spear, a Son of Light, and a fierce opponent of Chaos, but whether weapons or other items, they are all interesting and come with detail enough for the Game Master work them into her campaign and use them to tell fantastical stories with.

Is it worth your time?
Yes. Treasures Of Glorantha: Volume One — Dragon Pass is fantastic treatment of treasure in Dragon Pass, combining thoughtful and interesting essays on the subject with numerous relics to help the Game Master weave treasure into the fabric of her Glorantha campaign.
No. Treasures Of Glorantha: Volume One — Dragon Pass may simply not play an important role in your campaign.
Maybe. Treasures Of Glorantha: Volume One — Dragon Pass is only as useful as the role that treasure plays in your Glorantha campaign and you may want to wait for future volumes if your campaign is not specifically set in Dragon Pass.

Old School Cops & Robbers

Although the Old School Renaissance has been primarily driven by Dungeons & Dragons and its iterations, it has been accompanied by an interest in the other games of the period, so there have been new editions of Top Secret and Gangbusters, the latter with a Gangbusters Introductory Set and supplements such as Welcome to Rock Junction and GBM-1 Joe's Diner. Mark Hunt, the new publisher of Gangbusters has followed this with a roleplaying game which combines Old School Renaissance mechanics with roleplaying in the Roaring Twenties and Dirty Thirties. The result is Gangbusters B/X Edition.

Gangbusters B/X Edition or Gangbusters 1920s Roleplaying Adventure Game B/X Edition combines the mechanics of the 1981 revision of Basic Dungeons & Dragons by Tom Moldvay—as seen most recently in Old School Essentials Classic Fantasy—with all of the setting elements of Gangbusters. So it is a Class and Level game with Hit Points and Armour Class set in the Jazz Age and the Desperate Decade of Prohibition, mob bosses, Tommy gun-toting thugs, flappers and floozies, speakeasies and swanky gin joints, small crimes and big crimes, ‘Scarface’ Al Capone, ‘Pretty Boy’ Floyd, ‘Baby Face’ Nelson, ‘Ma’ Barker, Bonnie & Clyde, Eliot Ness and the ‘Untouchables’, and J. Edgar Hoover. This is a roleplaying game of classic cops and robbers in player take the roles of cops, criminals, private detectives, and reporters in a town where crime and corruption is rife, almost everyone is looking to make it big or get lucky, crimes and cases are solved, and more.

A character in Gangbusters B/X Edition is defined by the traditional six abilities—Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma. He also has a Class and Level as well as an Alignment and Description. The four Classes are Brutish, Connected, Educated, and Street Smart and each Class has six Levels, complete with ‘Titles’ for each Level! The Brutish Class is strong and can make multiple attacks against opponents of one Hit Die or less, are more intimidating, and effective when using improved weapons. The Connected Class knows people from particular fields such as City Hall, Society, Underworld, Sports, and so on, and can gain favours from them. The Educated Class are intelligent and knowledgeable in a particular area of expertise, such as Accounting, Forensic Analysis, Gun Smithing, Safe Cracking, and so on, and also has two Vocations. The Street Smart Class has great Dexterity and has abilities like Nimble Fingers, Move Silently, Hide, and Word on the Street. Of the four Classes, the Brutish is most like the Fighter of Dungeons & Dragons, whilst the Street Smart is like the Thief, but also encompasses the grifter and the con man. 

There are a couple of oddities in the Class designs. So the Educated Class receives two Vocations, but what exactly a Vocation is, is never explained in Gangbusters B/X Edition. The Street Smart has Thief-like abilities, but does not gain access to a skill like Safe Cracking.  Alignment in Gangbusters B/X Edition is suitably updated to reflect the period—so Law Abiding, Neutrality, or Dishonest. Character description options include Assimilated, Blue Blood, City Slicker, Hoodlum, and so on.

Our example character is Dudás ‘Slim’ Henrik, an immigrant from the former Austro-Hungarian Empire who came to America following the end of the Great War. He is looking to make his way in the new country and if the incentive was right might look the other way. He served in the Austro-Hungarian army during the war and is trained to use a rifle. It has been several years since he used one though. Currently he works as an accountant for a number of neighbourhood businesses.

Dudás ‘Slim’ Henrik
First level Educated (Smart)
Alignment: Neutral
Description: Immigrant
Armour Class: 5
Hit Points: 2
THAC0: 19

Strength 13 (+1, +1 Open Doors)
Intelligence 14 (Literate & Eloquent)
Wisdom 09 
Dexterity 12 
Constitution 09 
Charisma 08 (-1, Max. Retainers: 7, Morale: 10)

Languages: English, Hungarian
Area of Expertise: Accounting
Vocations: ???
Equipment: $100

Unfortunately, Gangbusters B/X Edition is rather muddled in terms of its mechanics. Now of course, Gangbusters B/X Edition is an Old School Renaissance design and there need not possess a unified mechanic, a one roll for everything, but includes several different ones for different types of actions. So for the Special Abilities of the Educated and Street Smart Classes, a player rolls a six-sided die and succeeds if he rolls three or more. If a one or two is rolled, the character fails or succeeds, but is spotted in doing so. For any action not covered elsewhere, Gangbusters B/X Edition calls for an Ability check, which presumably is to roll under the player character’s value for the appropriate Ability. Unfortunately the rules do not state this, but instead have the player roll under a number assigned by the Judge, modified by +4 or -4 depending on the difficulty.

Then there is combat. Combat in Gangbusters B/X Edition works much like Basic Dungeons & Dragons B/X of 1981, but allows for unarmed combat and the use of firearms and their capacity for burst and spray fire, firing both barrels, and rates of fire. As you would expect, the player or Judge has to roll a twenty-sided die and roll high to beat an Armour Class. That Armour Class though, is descending not ascending, from ‘9’ to ‘-3’ and thus each character has a THAC0 rating. One difference between Basic Dungeons & Dragons B/X and Gangbusters B/X Edition is the lack of armour. This is, of course, to be expected, given the historical time period, but Gangbusters B/X Edition suggests that the better or the fancier the clothing worn, the higher the Armour Class bonus, so Armour Class 7 for poor quality clothing, Armour Class 5 for typical clothing, and Armour Class 3 for luxury or thick clothing.

Lastly, there are the rules for Saving Throws. These work as you would expect in Dungeons & Dragons, but like Alignment have been updated to Moxie, Quickness, Toughness, Driving, and Observation. Moxie covers grit and willpower, Quickness covers reaction speed and agility, Toughness covers endurance and durability, Driving covers all non-combat vehicle actions, and Observation covers spotting and searching for things. Like all Saving throws, these are modified by a character’s Ability modifiers. Altogether, this feels like a clash of mechanics rather than something that is easy to learn and easy to play, but while the rules and mechanics are easy enough, they do feel as if they could be easier.

In terms of what the Judge—as the referee is sometimes known in Gangbusters B/X Edition—can run, Gangbusters B/X Edition suggests several campaign types. These are Criminal, Detective, Law Enforcement, Reporter, and Strange Mysteries. Of these, Detective refers to a campaign involving Private Detectives a la Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe, whilst Strange Mysteries pushes Gangbusters B/X Edition into the realms of horror, cosmic horror, and the Pulp superheroes of the nineteen thirties. Of all the campaign concepts in Gangbusters B/X Edition, Strange Mysteries is the least supported, although Gangbusters B/X Edition does offer the option of player characters being masked crime fighters in addition to their standard Classes. Each masked crime fighter receives a random Mysterious Power, such as Bolt of Power or Obscuring Mist, but will have more if any ability has a value of eighteen. Each Mysterious Power can only be once a day. The great advantage of Strange Mysteries campaign is that it is compatible with a lot of Basic Dungeons & Dragons B/X and similar content, so that monsters can easily be imported and various scenarios might work too if the Judge picks carefully.

The other campaign options are covered by their own chapters. So for a Criminal campaign, ‘PART 3: Piece of the Action’ covers criminal activities including bootlegging and racketeering, running a gang, as well as running a normal business, whilst ‘PART 5: Investigations’ covers enquiries made into crimes and mysteries which comes about as part of ‘PART 3: Piece of the Action’. Once the police and the judiciary gets involved, then ‘PART 6: The Long Arm of the Law’ comes into play and explains arrests, plea bargains, bail, trials, witnesses, and law enforcement resources. For the Judge, scattered amongst this there is a list of adversaries and advice on handling encounters, as well as an introduction to the U.S.A. of the period and to the publisher’s default setting of Rock Junction, a steeltown in the Midwest some sixty miles from the Lakefront City of Gangbusters, as well as advice on building adventures and running the game.

What Gangbusters B/X Edition does not include is advice on running long term campaigns. Now this is in part due to the fact that player characters can only achieve six Levels and so the roleplaying game is not designed for long term play. It is really also only designed for two broad campaign types, ones in which the player characters are the criminals and one in which they are not. This is because it is hard to bring the character types together and not have an adversarial relationship.

Physically, Gangbusters B/X Edition is nicely illustrated with lots of period black and white artwork. Now whilst Gangbusters B/X Edition has been proofread, it has not been edited and it very much shows. When it counts, the phrasing of the roleplaying game’s many core rules is often just odd enough to wonder what exactly the author intended, and terms get used interchangeably, such Judge, Referee, Game Master, and so on. Worse, the organisation of the book can be best described as shambolic or scattershot. Now each of the individual sections is self-contained and complete, but ordered in random fashion. So ‘PART 3: Piece of the Action’ which covers criminal activities comes before ‘PART 4: Acting as Judge’, followed by ‘PART 5: Investigations’, ‘PART 6: Long Arm of the Law’, and so on. Lastly, ‘PART 9: Combat’ comes right at the end of the book. There is just no logic to this pattern.

As a toolkit to run an Old School cops and robbers game, Gangbusters B/X Edition could have been easier to use and it could have been easier to read. In spite of this, there is no denying its scrappy charm and there is no denying that Gangbusters 1920s Roleplaying Adventure Game B/X Edition gives a Judge everything she needs to run an Old School Renaissance cops and robbers game—just not necessarily in the right order. 

Jonstown Jottings #16: A Rough Guide to Glamour

Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, the  Jonstown Compendium is a curated platform for user-made content, but for material set in Greg Stafford's mythic universe of Glorantha. It enables creators to sell their own original content for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and HeroQuest Glorantha (Questworlds). This can include original scenarios, background material, cults, mythology, details of NPCs and monsters, and so on, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Glorantha Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Glorantha-set campaigns.

—oOo—

What is it?
A Rough Guide to Glamour is a guide to the capital city of the Lunar Empire.

It is a one-hundred-and-ten page, full colour, 31.31 MB PDF.

A Rough Guide to Glamour is well presented, decently written, and includes a wide range of artwork and a reasonable map.

Where is it set?
Glamour, heart of the Lunar Empire.

Who do you play?
Nothing specific. Much of A Rough Guide to Glamour is written as a tourist guide to the city for pilgrims.

What do you need?
RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, although RuneQuest – Glorantha Bestiary might be useful for its more Chaotic features. Cults of Glorantha will also be useful. 

What do you get?
If you are roleplaying—or have roleplayed—in the fantastical, mystical, mythical world of the Glorantha, then the likelihood is that the enemy of choice is the Lunar Empire. Said to be the greatest civilisation in the known world, glorious and glamorous, knowledgeable of both sorcery and religion, fair in its treatment of women, charitable in its largess and treatment of the poor, welcoming of all who accept its all-encompassing faith, carried by the proselytising cult of the Seven Mothers, the Lunar Empire seeks to expand and extend its reach far and wide. Yet the Lunar Empire is an empire of monsters and demons, an empire which embraces and accepts Chaos, which stamps its faith on the territories it conquers, punishes lawbreakers harshly, sends those who fail to pay their taxes to hell dragged by Tax Demons, and commands the Crimson Bat. This great Chaos demon is fed prisoners, slaves, and rebels daily and their souls are lost forever, it constantly wanders the provinces feeding on sacrifices, and is used as a weapon of war against the Lunar Empire’s enemies. 

The latter view is held by a great many of the peoples of Dragon Pass—of Sartar, Old Tarsh, Prax, the Holy Country, and more. Yet as far as the Lunar Empire is concerned, this is the view of rebels and barbarians, of upstarts who would slap the hand extended to them, and for the most part, a minor issue in the far-flung provinces. The Lunar Empire, personified by the Red Emperor, son of the Red Empress who ascended into the Middle Air four centuries ago to become the Red Moon, has other concerns. To carry out the will of his mother, to expand the empire, to maintain its very obvious greatness, and to ensure that Glamour—capital city of the Lunar Empire—keeps its lustre as the shining ruby-red jewel of the empire. It is Glamour, the city at the heart of the Lunar Empire, which is the subject of A Rough Guide to Glamour.

Originally published in 1997 by Reaching Moon Megacorp to support its ‘Life of Moonson’, a fifty-player Live-Action Role-Playing game, it has since been greatly expanded for this new edition to throw a scarlet-hued spotlight on a city that is in many parts Rome, many parts Las Vegas, but both by way of Soviet-era Moscow, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, Progressive Rock, Glam Rock, and Punk Rock. Glamour is glamour by name, glamour by meaning—any and all of them, and the authors are also trying to put a glamour on the reader in detailing the city, making it sound enticing and of course, glamorous, whilst also also hinting at the darkness behind that glamour, but unfortunately do not quite pull the trickery off. That said, A Rough Guide to Glamour is informative, interesting, and shot through in places with an incredibly tongue-in-cheek sense of humour which leaves the reader wondering if they just read what the authors had written.

A Rough Guide to Glamour includes a  gazetteer, guidebook, and map to the capital of the Lunar Empire; information and portraits of the city’s and thus the empire’s most important personages; an overview of the Lunar Empire, its history and geography; details of the cults of the Red Emperor and the goddess Glamour for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha; description and map of the Sultanate of the Silver Shadow where Glamour is located; details of the secrets of Kalikos Icebreaker, the Lunar College of Magic and the Imperial Monopolies of the Etyries cult; write-ups of the intimate doings of the Red Emperor himself and his court; a handful or two of rumours—scurrilous or otherwise; fiction, poetry, and song lyrics; and silliness.

A Rough Guide to Glamour is a performance with an astounding cast— with Elvis Presley as Moonson Argenteus, the Red Emperor; Danny DeVito as Ivex Devouring Dog, Chief Tax Collector; Eva Green as Jar-eel the Razoress, Fourth Inspiration of Moonson; Margot Robbie as The Red Dancer of Power, Chief Missionary; Cate Blanchett as Asvedava the Black, Dean of the Field School of Magic—and more. Ostensibly written as a guide to the city for pilgrims, its primary focus is on what is the front half of the Lunar Empire’s circular capital—the City of Glamour, rather than the City of Dreams behind it with its route beyond to the Crater where the Red Goddess ascended. It thus introduces the city and guides the potential tourist round the city, its great buildings such as Red Square paved with polished stone brought down from the Moon and upon which thousands of pilgrims each year to prostrate themselves on the material body of the Red Goddess, and Hideous Zoo where all manner of exotic and weird—even Chaos—beasts are put on display. Where to stay and where to eat—such as Moon Rock Café for breakfast; customs such as always taking more than a few extra Lunars in the case of on-the-spot fines; and other facilities, like the lime-washed buildings marked with the Man Rune and staffed by Broo that are there for the Pilgrims’ convenience. A ‘Major Holidays & Festivals’ guide suggests when the best time is to visit the city and for anyone out of town, there is an introduction to ‘Let’s Speak New Pelorian!’, the local dialect designed to be less hierarchical, racially stereotypical, or gender biased, but definitely more Orwellian. Then there is the advice that Glamour is currently under Xaroni Law due to the depredations of a masked vigilante known only as ‘the Bat-Man’…

The nature of the City of Dreams beyond Glamour is best explored in various pieces of fiction which the depiction of the dissolution of Moonson Argenteus, the Red Emperor, parallels are strongly made between him and the last years of Elvis Presley. A Rough Guide to Glamour does go beyond the walls of the city itself, specifically to look at ‘The Sultanate of the Silver Shadow’, the region directly ruled by the Red Emperor and his family and to look at the empire in broader detail with ‘A Brief History of the Lunar Empire’, which will provide context for much of the rest of the supplement. Two cults and their roles in Glamour and the Lunar Empire are detailed in A Rough Guide to Glamour. These are ‘The Red Emperor: Governing Cult of the Lunar Empire’ and ‘Glamour Goddess of the Capital of the Lunar Empire’, both quite local cults, but given detailed write-ups for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. They are the only game mechanics content to be found in A Rough Guide to Glamour. There is of course much more to be found in the supplement, but special mention should be made to ‘Pelorian Rhapsody’ and the praise poem to Glamour inspired by Eurythmics lyrics!

On the downside, the focus on the glamour and glitz of Glamour in A Rough Guide to Glamour means that its ‘rough’ side is all but ignored. There are hints given, such as the chain gangs forced to work nightly repairing the paved streets for the following morning and the inevitable fate of those who do not pay their taxes. Similarly, it does not explore the life or place of the average citizen or peasant of Glamour, but to be fair, that is not the purpose of A Rough Guide to Glamour—in 1997 or 2020. Nevertheless, anyone awaiting a comprehensive guide to the city will have to wait a while yet.

Finally, of course, there is the fundamental problem with A Rough Guide to Glamour. Which is that whilst its contents are interesting, they are not necessarily directly useful. At the time of publication it would be extremely challenging for the Game Master to bring the material the supplement contains into play because essentially, its focus is simply several hundred miles and a fundamentally different culture away from where RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha is being played and being supported by Chaosium, Inc.—currently. Now doubtless that will change, but being until playing and campaigning within the Lunar Empire is explored by the roleplaying game doing so with the current rules and supporting material is difficult. That said, for long time Gloranthophiles, this presents less of a challenge as they are likely to own supplements released by previous publishers and so are likely to have the means and the context to be able to explore Glamour.

So whilst a Game Master new to RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and Glorantha, is unlikely to have immediate use for A Rough Guide to Glamour, this does not mean that it will not be of interest to her. It at least provides further context to the current conflict between the Lunar Empire and Startar and beyond, and the empire’s attitudes towards the upstart provinces. Perhaps for that newcomer, the inclusion of a glossary would not have gone amiss at the back of A Rough Guide to Glamour.

A Rough Guide to Glamour lives up to its name, all glitz and showmanship, not to say the chutzpah of including showstopping comparisons between Elvis Presley and the Red Emperor in their last days and rewrites of lyrics to classic British rock songs. It is brilliant  in describing the mythical, mystical nature of Glamour, but there is always feeling that there should be something more to, or at least, beyond that brilliance—and that requires another book or supplement, leaving A Rough Guide to Glamour more the tourist or pilgrim’s guide rather than a full gaming supplement.

Is it worth your time?
Yes. A Rough Guide to Glamour is a guide to the capital city of the Lunar Empire and not only details the greatest city in all of Glorantha, but expands information about the world itself. (Please note: This could be Imperial propaganda courtesy of the Seven Mothers cult.)
No. A Rough Guide to Glamour is irrelevant to most RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha campaigns and difficult to bring into a campaign without further source material. (Please note: This has been marked as heretical propaganda spread by rebel scum in the southern provinces. A representative of the cult of Danfive Xaron will be with you shortly to assess your punishment.)
Maybe. A Rough Guide to Glamour is a solid introduction to the city of Glamour and provides some context to the actions of the Lunar Empire in the southern provinces. Plus more information about the world of Glorantha is always good. (Please note: Upon receipt of the proper donations, a Lhankor Mhy scribe will be available to read this document for you once it has been located in the temple archives. Unfortunately the requested document is not a comprehensive guide to the city and there are many omissions, or at least, much that is apocryphal. More information may be available at a later date.)

Friday Fantasy: To Free the Storm

The last thing you should do is say no to a dragon, right? This is a situation in which the Player Characters find themselves in To Free the Storm, a short, one or two session scenario for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Written by Andrew Peregrine, author of The Seventh Doctor Sourcebook as well as contributor to and author of many other roleplaying books, it is an adventure for characters of Fifth to Seventh Level. It is setting neutral, but whatever the setting the Dungeon Master decides to use it with, that setting requires an area of dead and barren land with a volcano at its heart, and a village near the area. As written, the volcano at the heart of the barren land in To Free the Storm is Mawspire Mountain. Now only home to a few hardy mountain goats, local legends say that the region was blasted into lifelessness by a dragon, but since no one can recall having seen a dragon, no one believes the legends. Beyond the barren surrounds of the mountain, the region is fertile, which has drawn settlers who farm the land and loggers who work the forests. One village in the area is Carverton.

As To Free the Storm opens, the Player Characters are staying in Carverton, perhaps because they are en route to somewhere or between adventures, and enjoying a drink and decent food when suddenly, the village is attacked. Which is not that unusual when it comes to villages and adventures in just about any Dungeons & Dragons-style fantasy world as it goes. What is unusual is the fact that the attacker asks for them by name. What makes the situation worse is that the attacker asking for them is a dragon! Not only that, the dragon has a favour to ask of them, a favour which he suggests that the Player Characters fulfil lest he continue blasting the village to bits. Which is perfectly in keeping with the attacker—Zzaladar—which happens to be a Blue Dragon.

The favour is this. Zzaladar has long been tied to the area by an arcane manacle, placed on him by a mage many years ago. The manacle is tied to an orb kept deep in a ruined temple on Mawspire Mountain and as Zzaladar has grown in size and power, the effectiveness of the orb has weakened and he thinks that with a little of help, he can break free. Which is where the Player Characters get involved. Zzaladar  wants them to go to the temple and destroy the orb that keeps him prisoner. In  return, Zzaladar promises to not only not destroy Carverton, but also not harm a single sentient creature for a year. Which sounds like a not unreasonable deal—at least for the following year. After that, who knows?

The bulk of the adventure takes place in the ruined temple on Mawspire Mountain. Here the adventurers will have to contend with the volcanic temperatures, the ancient and undead knights of the Order of the Orb who have sworn to protect the orb—and some who have not, and how the god of the volcano, Darmaw, was worshipped before the temple was abandoned and his faith forgotten. The latter is where the dungeon—consisting of just fourteen locations—is at its most interesting. There are a number of elements here which look a little like traps, but may well help the Player Characters in their quest, whilst others will at first seem to be of use, but will ultimately hinder their efforts.

The dungeon offers a reasonable mix of puzzle like elements and plenty of combat along with some roleplaying. Certainly, the Dungeon Master has a couple of fun NPCs to roleplay, after all, what Dungeon Master does not relish the prospect of roleplaying a dungeon? Yet the design of the dungeon is really linear and not all interesting and were it not for the roleplaying elements and how the worship of Darmaw is brought into play, would have little to recommend it.

Available via the DM’s Guild, To Free the Storm is a fifteen page, 2.06 Mb file full colour PDF. It is generally well written, but does need another edit. The cover is nice, but is the only illustration. The map though, is dull and murky, and leaves the reader wishing that the author had drawn it himself or got someone else to do so. This does not mean that the map cannot be used, for it can. It is simply the case that the map is unattractive.

Rounding out To Free the Storm is a quartet of further adventure ideas which raise further questions and suggest as to the consequences of the Player Characters’ actions. Now one obvious oddity with the scenario is that it involves a Blue Dragon and has the Player Characters going to a temple on a volcano. This seems an odd choice, when possibly a Red Dragon with its fire association or even a White Dragon with its icy disassociation might have been more strongly thematic choices. That aside, there is no denying the strength of the set-up to the scenario with the monster coming to the Player Characters rather than the other way around. Similarly, the handling of worship of Darmaw is well done, but unfortunately this is done in an uninteresting, linear dungeon and on decidedly unattractive maps, which all together does not make for a pleasing combination.

There is a lot of potentially good story in To Free the Storm and as the introduction to a campaign of thwarting a threat which the Player Characters were forced to unleash, is actually a good set-up. It would be fantastic to see the consequences of their actions explored in sequels to this scenario as well as have Zzaladar return again and again so that the Dungeon Master can roleplay him as he develops into a memorable villain. Overall, To Free the Storm is a serviceable adventure which feels as if it deserved better, but is still good enough to ask what happens next.