Miskatonic Monday #9: An Invitation in Yellow

Between October 2003 and October 2013, Chaosium, Inc. published a series of books for Call of Cthulhu under the Miskatonic University Library Association brand. Whether a sourcebook, scenario, anthology, or campaign, each was a showcase for their authors—amateur rather than professional, but fans of Call of Cthulhu nonetheless—to put forward their ideas and share them with others. The programme was notable for having launched the writing careers of several authors, but for every Cthulhu Invictus, The Pastores, Primal State, Ripples from Carcosa, and Halloween Horror, there was a Five Go Mad in Egypt, Return of the Ripper, Rise of the Dead, Rise ofthe Dead II: The Raid, and more...

The Miskatonic University Library Association brand is no more, alas, but what we have in its stead is the Miskatonic Repository, based on the same format as the DM’s Guild for Dungeons & Dragons. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more...” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the far reaches of the Miskatonic Repository.

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Name: An Invitation in Yellow: A Call of Cthulhu Scenario for 3-4 players

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.

Author: Patrick Viggo Moeller

Setting: Jazz Age

Product: Scenario

What You Get: 1.3 MB, 14-page black & white PDF
Elevator Pitch: Friends, Romans, countrymen, don't come to dinner.

Plot Hook: The investigators are invited to dinner by an old acquaintance who has scientific discoveries of a medical nature to share.

Plot Development: A bad dinner, madness, missing folk, and a frienemy.

Plot Support: Six NPCs; Six good handouts.

Production Values: Needs a edit.

Pros

# Short, self-contained investigation 

# Limited number of NPCs

# Simple, but weird plot
# Only one major NPC for the Keeper to portray
# Adaptable to the period of the Keeper’s choice# Good scenario for a Doctor investigator
# Adaptable to the Mythos entity (Yog-Sothoth?) of the Keeper’s choice

Cons

# Sanity rewards slightly high
# Sanity losses slightly high

# Fails to take advantage of the Sanity depleting effects of being under the influence

# Fails to take advantage of the horror effects of being under the influence
# Only one scenario hook given

Conclusion

# Decent one-session scenario

# Suitable for the new Keeper

Narcofiction Roleplaying

Cartel: Mexican Narcofiction Powered by the Apocalypse is a roleplaying game inspired by the television series Breaking Bad and The Wire and the film, El Mariachi. As its name suggests, it draws heavily on the stories about the manufacture and trafficking of narcotics—cocaine, crystal meth, and heroin—in Mexico and north across the border into the USA. It sets up archetypes, known as Playbooks—‘el concinero’, ‘la esposa’, ‘el halcón’, ‘el narco’, ‘la polizeta’, and ‘la sicaria’—who share one or more connections with each other and who is each involved somehow in the Sinaloa Cartel. A combination of these connections, the characters’ agendas, their obligations to the Cartel, and the Cartel’s agenda serves to drive the drama of the roleplaying game. These also serve to replace the set-ups or scenarios which might be found in traditional roleplaying games, as well as establishing tensions and hooks aplenty. Which with all of that money, power, and obligation on the line, means that Cartel has potential for some great roleplaying.

Published by Magpie Games, Cartel is ‘Powered by the Apocalypse’. What this means is that it uses the mechanics first seen in Apocalypse World, the 2010 roleplaying game which won the 2010 Indie RPG Award and 2011 Golden Geek RPG of the year and is from the designer of Dogs in the Vineyard. The core of these mechanics is a roll of two six-sided dice, with results of ten or more counting as a complete success, results of between seven and nine as a partial success—or ‘yes, but’, and results of six or less counting as a failure with consequences—or ‘no, but’. The dice are rolled against actions or ‘Moves’. For example, ‘Propose a Deal’. When ten or more is rolled for this Move, the other person accepts the terms of the proposed deal or suffers Stress, but if seven, eight, or nine are rolled, then the other person either accepts the offer and declaims authority for doing so, accepts and adjusts the price, or suggests another interested party. To this roll is added a stat, which typically ranges in value between -2 and +2. The four stats in Cartel are Face (social influence), Grit (tenacity and good fortune), Hustle (fast talk and persuasion), and Savagery (violence and reading others).

In a game ‘Powered by the Apocalypse’, what a character knows or can do—their Moves—are defined by their archetype or Playbook. Cartel itself gives six Playbooks. These are ‘El Concinero’, who cooks or manufactures the drugs; ‘La Esposa’, the spouse entangled in the lies of their partner; ‘El Halcón’, the ambitious young gang member; ‘El Narco’, the local boss in charge of an area or la plaza; ‘La Polizeta’, the cop corrupted by the cartel as much as he is trying to bring it down; and ‘La Sicaria’, the cartel veteran enforcer or killer who has managed to survive thus far. All six Playbooks have access to a number of basic Moves, including Justify Your Behaviour, Propose a Deal, Push Your Luck, Get the Truth, Pressure Someone, Turn to Violence, Size Someone Up, Strain Your Finances, and Help/Interfere. The majority of the Moves unique to a Playbook provide bonuses or enhancements to other Moves. So for example, La Esposa’s ‘Amor y Matrimonio’ grants them a +1 bonus when persuading a member of la familia to do the right thing. Others work more like the basic Moves, such as ‘Hermano’ for El Halcón. This gets El Halcón’s ‘Pandilla’ or trio of cohorts to follow his lead and do something dangerous. On a roll of ten plus, the Pandilla agrees to go along with El Halcón’s, following his instructions precisely without demanding cash or drugs; on a roll of seven, eight, or nine, they only agree to one of these conditions; and on a miss, the Pandilla simply argues amongst themselves and screws up El Halcón’s plans before they can be acted upon.

Besides Moves, each Playbook has Extras and Llaves—or Keys. Extras represent a Playbook’s connections or resources, essentially their support. So El Concinero has a lab where the drugs are cooked, La Esposa a family and obligations, El Halcón his loyal Pandilla or gang, El Narco a Plaza through which drugs are moved and sold, La Polizeta connections to an anti-cartel taskforce, and La Sicaria his weapons and gear, which represent how they carry out his tasks. Each Key or Llave represents a means of a character gaining Experience Points. Thus El Narco has Dirty Hands, Family, and Paranoia. The first grants him Experience Points when he personally gets involved in a messy situation; the second when he violates the members’ boundaries to protect them; and the third when he gets the truth out of someone about their true loyalties. Earned Experience Points are spent on Advances which range from improved Stats and support options to new Moves and resolving support issues.

Character creation in Cartel is in part a collaborative process. Each player selects a Playbook—ideally Cartel should be played by six roleplayers as well as the Master of Ceremonies (as the Game Master is known)—and works through the options it gives, deciding on a name, look, and gear as well as adjusting a Stat and deciding on Moves, Llaves, and connections or resources. Each player also establishes ‘Los Enlaces’ or links with other characters, ideally other the player characters, but NPCs are acceptable too. Guiding the players through this process is the Master of Ceremonies—as the Game Master is known in ‘Powered by the Apocalypse’ Games—who will be asking questions and helping to build the relationships and backgrounds to each of the player characters.

In play, this is the primary role of the Master of Ceremonies, to ask questions, push and prompt the players, and build their characters’ involvement in the setting. For this she has the Moves of the NPCs and for an explanation of those she will need access to a copy of Apocalypse World. The advice in Cartel is short and to the point, covering her role and notably, what each of the Playbooks is looking for in play and providing an example of actual play.

For example, El Coninero, Yolanda, has problem—the shipments she is sending out are arriving short, so she wants to ask El Halcón, Pepe, if he knows anything about this. Having cornered Pepe, Yolanda says to him, “Hey, Pepe, my last shipment came up short. This is isn’t the first time. What do know about it?” The Master of Ceremonies says that this is a ‘Get the Truth’ Move. Yolanda’s player has to roll the dice and add her Hustle, which is +1. Her player rolls six, but the +1 makes it a seven. This is not a complete success, but it is a hit and Yolanda does get to reduce her Stress (well, she is going to get some of the truth after all). The options are that Pepe can not mislead Yolanda with the truth, confuse her with falsehoods, or stonewall her with silence. If Yolanda’s player had rolled ten or more, her player could have selected two of these options, but can only choose one because of the roll. Yolanda’s player opts for Pepe not confusing her with falsehoods, which means that Pepe cannot lie. He responds with, “Look Yolanda, it was me, okay? I’ve been selling it on the streets. I had too though… there’s some dumbass cop taking a bigger cut of my pandillo’s money. He’s not one of ours, so…”

Damage in Cartel—and other ‘Powered by the Apocalypse’ games—is handled as either Stress or Harm. The first represents mental damage, whilst the second is physical damage. Both are greatly deleterious to a character’s wellbeing. Interestingly, whilst the outcome of the ‘Turn to Violence’ Move will inflict Harm on the intended victim, it also inflicts Stress on the person doing it. Should a character suffer from too much Stress or Harm, then a player can clear by undertaking certain related Moves. For example, ‘Verbally Abuse or Shame’ or ‘Lose Yourself in a Substance’ as Stress Moves and ‘When You Get Fucking Shot’ as a Harm Move. Most damage-related Moves inflict Stress though and when a character suffers enough Stress, a Stress Move is obligatory. Stress Moves invariably have negative consequences as much as they relieve a character of Stress and further add to the drama of the game.

In terms of background, Cartel offers details of the city of Durango in Mexico, located between Mexico City and the US border, near the Pacific coast. This is part of the Sinaloa Cartel’s territory, although there are rival cartels working the area. It is here that the player characters are supplying, working, operating, and protecting a plaza, essentially a personal territory they are responsible for. Both the cartels and the law are covered as well several examples of life living under the cartels.

Physically, Cartel is tightly written with a strong focus on its genre. The artwork available has a slightly cartoon quality, but works nonetheless. Notably, the book is written to represent a Latino view of the drug culture by being set south of the border and so uses a lot of Hispanic slang (which may not be familiar to every reader).

As it currently stands, Cartel is a game with a number of issues. The only versions available are the quick-start and the Ashcan. The former is a full-colour PDF, whilst the latter is a black and white booklet without the art. With either version, Cartel is not complete and the Master of Ceremonies at the very least should have access to a copy of Apocalypse World and some experience in the role. Also, as much as the game is inspired by the television series Breaking Bad—it is actually very easy to map the characters of that series onto the Playbooks of Cartel—it is not written to emulate that series. It is specifically written with Mexico and the Latino experience in mind, and that may well be alien to some of the game’s audience. Plus of course, the subject matter and the dramatic turns which the play of the game is likely to take, mean that Cartel is very much a game for a mature audience.

As written though, Cartel is rich in possibilities and drama. The tensions and obligations leap off the page and beg to be played, the quick-start or ashcan edition providing material enough for a short, if intense campaign.

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The full version of Cartel: Mexican Narcofiction Powered by the Apocalypse is currently being funded via Kickstarter.

Retrospective: 2001: A Space Odyssey

Perhaps the oddest licence to come out of E. Gary Gygax’s sojourn in Hollywood in the early 1980s was a pair of modules for Star Frontiers, TSR, Inc.’s Science Fiction roleplaying game of space opera and action-adventure. The licence was for one of the most revered Science Fiction films of all time and its sequel, the latter released in 1984, which probably explains why the licence was sought and won. The film was, of course, Stanley Kubrick’s highly regarded 2001: A Space Odyssey with the sequel being Peter Hyams’ 2010. As it is fifty years since the release of Kubrick’s classic, there is perhaps never a better time than now to review 2001: A Space Odyssey, ‘A Special Star Frontiers Adventure Module’.

Certainly, 2001: A Space Odyssey was special in terms of its support and production values. Not only does it include maps of the African Wilderness circa 4,000,000 B.C. and the Magnetic Anomaly Search Zone on the Lunar surface, but also a set of deckplans for the USS Discovery. The first of these on the inside of the module’s card cover, whilst the latter two are on the foldout poster map included with the module. The deckplans in particular are rather nicely done and do add atmosphere and verisimilitude to the 2001: A Space Odyssey scenario. In addition, the thirty-two page scenario is lavishly illustrated with black and white stills from the film, whilst the front cover is a full colour photograph, something that was rarely used by TSR, Inc. (Notable other uses include on the covers of the modules 2010 Odyssey Two and  CB1 Conan Unchained! and CB2 Conan Against Darkness, the pair of adventures written for use with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition prior to the release of David Cook’s highly regarded Conan Role-Playing Game.)

If physically well done, what then of the actual content and adventure? Written by Frank Mentzer for use with the Alpha Dawn Expanded Game Rules and Knight Hawks Campaign Book for Star Frontiers, the adventure takes place across four chapters. As with the film, these are ‘Dawn of Man’, ‘Lunar Excursion’, ‘Jupiter Mission’, and ‘Through the Star Gate’. Of the four, only the third and fourth are directly connected in terms of what the players will roleplay. In ‘Dawn of Man’ they will play the Man-apes evolved into hunter-gathers by the Monolith; in ‘Lunar Excursion’ they are freelancers racing to find a magnetic anomaly on the Moon; and in ‘Jupiter Mission’ and ‘Through the Star Gate’, they are the crew of the Discovery, first finding out about and then coping with HAL’s perfidy before entering the Star Gate.

To reflect the film, the 2001: A Space Odyssey module strips out the pulp sensibilities of Star Frontiers to present a dry, technical adventure. So no Void or Faster Than Light travel, and of course, no aliens in the traditional sense. What it does add is two new skills and three subskills. These are Astronomy and its subskills Identify and Calculate, and System Navigation and its Plot Course subskill. They are of course only used in the third chapter, ‘Jupiter Mission’. That said, there are suggestions as to how the module might be used with the other races to be found in Star Frontiers. The default is of course, for the player characters to be human and the events of the module to take place in the United Planetary Federation’s distant past.

The scenario opens with ‘Dawn of Man’, which takes place on the plains of the African Wilderness circa 4,000,000 B.C. The players take the roles of Man-apes, not far from extinction who must spend much of their day foraging for food and water, as well as contending with rival bands of Man-apes and carnivorous beasts. One day something is different—a strange slab of black rock stands in the valley—and this drives the Man-apes to change, to use other means to improve their chances of survival. This includes throwing rocks, using bones as weapons, realising the benefits of a carnivorous diet, and so on. And that is that, really. ‘Dawn of Man’ really does not give a great deal for the players to do. There is no carry over from this chapter to subsequent chapters and this is very much a vignette which simulates the events of the film. The suggestion that it might be a vignette is compounded by how ‘Dawn of Man’ is played and that is essentially as a wargame, using counters on the Africa Wilderness map. What this means is that there really is very little roleplaying involved in this chapter.

The wargaming carries over into the second chapter, ‘Lunar Excursion’. Now in the film, Doctor Heywood Floyd travels from the Earth to the Moon, is briefed about a magnetic anomaly in the Tycho crater, and when he visits it, it is revealed to be another slab of rock, a Monolith which sends a signal towards Jupiter. Here the players get to create their own characters and then have them hired by the American Office at Clavius Moonbase. The existence of a large magnetic anomaly has been detected and the Americans want to hire the characters as search teams to pinpoint its location. There is opportunity for roleplaying here as some of the characters may be contacted by the Chinese to locate the anomaly for them rather than the Americans, but what the act plays out as is a race from one crater to the next, scanning each crater for the anomaly, the aim being to find it before anyone else and claim it for whichever country the character is allied with, secretly, or not. There are also NPCs involved in this race, but their inclusion is all but irrelevant, for “If they reach the goal first, assume that they do not test it accurately and believe it to be a large (300-400 gamma) but not unnatural anomaly.” Again, it is a case of the player character actions not really mattering, a problem exacerbated by the fact that the players do not get to see the anomaly or see it send the signal.

The third chapter, ‘Jupiter Mission’, switches from player created characters to pre-generated characters, the crew of the USS Discovery. Initially, this will be Dave Bowman and Frank Poole, but later on, they will be joined by Doctor Walter Kaminski, William Hunter, and Peter Whitehead. There are two issues with this. First, the first half of the chapter involves just Bowman and Poole, so if the module is being played by more players, they have nothing to do… Second, there is very little to distinguish one character from another and so they all feel a bit flat. Fortunately, the chapter is far more involving and far more challenging, because as everyone knows, the HAL 9000 computer which runs the Discovery will try to kill the crew. So not only do the characters have to contend with that, they also have to fix and cope with the consequences of whatever HAL tries to do to them. This is probably the best chapter in the module, as it comes with some good advice on what HAL might do and there is a chance here that the characters might fail… There several points in this chapter which are lifted verbatim from the film, but much like the rest of the scenario, there is little that the players can do to avoid them.

If the module has so far felt like it was on rails, then that feeling is confirmed in the fourth and final chapter, ‘Through the Star Gate’. Here the surviving characters get to decide whether they want to stay aboard the Discovery or go through the Star Gate—and that is about that…

Oddly, given the licence, 2001: A Space Odyssey appears to have been released with little fanfare or press coverage at the time. Further, the module appears not have been widely released—certainly this reviewer only obtained his copies direct from an ex-TSR (UK), Inc. employee.

2001: A Space Odyssey is not a good scenario for too many reasons. One issue is the shift in tone it represents from Star Frontiers, dry and technical, rather than the excitement of its usual space opera and action-adventure. 2001: A Space Odyssey is hard rather than pulp science fiction and whether is that is a good fit for every group is another matter and a lesser matter in comparison to the adventure’s other issues.

Obviously, the adventure involves very little in terms of player character agency and roleplaying. Indeed, the first and second chapters involve little to no roleplaying whatsoever and whatever the player characters do by the end of chapter, it has real no effect upon the outcome of the module’s story anyway. This is because it adheres too closely to the plot and outcome of the film, with no opportunity for alternative events or ‘what-ifs’ to be explored, leaving it to run on rails. Further,  if the players have seen the film—a high likelihood even at the time of the module’s release—there is little incentive for them to play the module. There is also only the one real opportunity—in ‘Lunar Excursion’—for players to create and roleplay their own characters, so there is no opportunity for character growth or change. Even when the players  are given characters from the film to play, that is, the crew of the Discovery, they are just numbers and there are no backgrounds to any of the five crew. In fairness, three of the crew do not appear in the film and the two that do, are fairly buttoned down characters. As presented here, the quintet has a cypher-like quality.

As a technical manual for the film, the 2001: A Space Odyssey module has the details and deckplans of the USS Discovery to recommend it. As a scenario, 2001: A Space Odyssey is constrained by the limits of the film which fundamentally do not translate into a good playing or a good roleplaying experience. Whether this is due to the constraints placed on the project by the licensor is a matter of conjecture, but the end result is a simulation rather than a real roleplaying adventure.

Fanzine Focus X: Crawl-thulhu: A Two-Fisted ’Zine of Lovecraftian Horror Issue 1

On the tail of 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 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 popular choice of system for fanzines, is Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, such as Crawl! and Crawling Under a Broken Moon. Some of these fanzines provide fantasy support for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, but others explore other genres for use with Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game.

Black Powder, Black Magic: A ’Zine of Six-Guns and Sorcery is one such fanzine. Published by Stormlord Publishing, it takes Dungeon Crawl Classics to the Wild West and the Weird West of the 1880s. Crawl-thulhu: A Two-Fisted ’Zine of Lovecraftian Horror is another. What both do is introduce their settings and set them up for play with Zero Level characters by sending them through what is called a ‘Character Funnel’. In this, a feature of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, each player controls not one, but four Zero Level characters, and whichever one of them survives the ordeal of the scenario has proved themselves strong enough to advance to First Level and so gain a Class in the traditional Class and Level, Dungeons & Dragons set-up. In the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, the surviving characters go on to be Fighters, Thieves, Clerics, Wizards, and so on; in Black Powder, Black Magic, the surviving characters also go on to be Fighters, Thieves, Clerics, and Wizards—but with changes to them to reflect the combination of horror and the Wild West—as well as Gamblers and Prospectors; and in Crawl-thulhu, the surviving characters will go on to be Adventurers, Docs, Roughnecks, Scholars, and Socialites. This though, is the subject of future issues of the fanzine, for the inaugural issue concerns itself with just the Zero Level characters and their survival (or not).

Published by Discerning Dhole Productions, Crawl-thulhu Issue 1 presents the means to create Zero Level characters, the rules for probably sending them mad, and then sends them scampering around Dunwich on a day trip from hell as they react to the dread events of HP Lovecraft’s ‘The Dunwich Horror’. This being based on a Dungeons & Dragons-style game, means that both the approach to the Mythos and the game play is more Pulp than Purist. That said, the limitations of playing Zero Level characters means that there is relatively little scope for truly Pulp-style play, at least in the given adventure. That though, does not mean that this adventure, ‘A Horrible Day at the Dunwich Fair’, will not be fun—or at least horrifying!

There are two obvious issues with Crawl-thulhu Issue 1. One is that it requires the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game to play. In fact, despite it stating that it does, the Judge and players can really just get away with using the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game Quick Start Rules & Intro Adventure, at least for this issue. For future issues and adventures, the Judge will probably need the full rules. The other issue is dice. The Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game uses a lot of dice outside of the standard six polyhedral types, including three-sided, five-sided, seven-sided, fourteen-sided, sixteen-sided, twenty-four-sided, and thirty-sided dice. These do not quite make their presence known in Crawl-thulhu Issue 1, unless that is, one of the characters gets hold of a Thompson Submachine Gun. If they do though, the Judge may need to resort to an online random number generator unless he wants to buy a set of Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game.

An character in Crawl-thulhu has six attributes—Strength, Agility, Stamina, Perception, Intelligence, and Sanity. All are rolled on three six-sided dice and Sanity replaces Luck of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, as there is no Luck in this universe. Similarly, there are no Alignments as these are irrelevant. Hit Points start between two and four, which considering a small pistol does 1d6 damage, makes for a potentially deadly game. But this is the set-up for game of Lovecraftian investigative horror, so what you expecting? A table provides a list of first names and surnames common in the 1920s and an Occupation table. The Occupation, just as in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game provides a weapon and some kind of trapping related to said Occupation. Unlike Dungeon Crawl Classics, what a character does not have is an Augury, which modifies how a character’s Luck will work, as well, there is no such thing as Luck in this universe. Instead, it has a Celestial Alignment table, which determines the star under which a character was born and what the modifier from his Sanity ability applies to.

Our sample character is Harold ‘Doc’ Reese, a former Classics academic who returned from serving in France in the Great War a broken and battered man. A gas attack damaged his lungs and shell barrages shattered his mind and he could not settle down to academic or normal life. For many years he has ridden the rails across the United States, more recently in the company of a dog. Harold is slowly recovering and has regained much of his mental acuity. He is terribly short of breath though and cannot run for any length of time.

Harold ‘Doc’ Reese
Zero Level Human Hobo
STR 16 (+2) AGL 12 (+0) STM 04 (-2)
PER 08 (-1) INT 17 (+2) SAN 11 (+0)
Hit Points: 2
Saving Throws
Fortitude -2 Reflex +0 Willpower +2
Celestial Alignment: Celaeno, Home of Universal Knowledge (spell checks)
Starting Weapon: Pocket Knife (1d3)
Trade Good: Cardboard box and a dog, Rex

Sanity in Crawl-thulhu is a multi-purpose tool. Rolled on a scale of three to eighteen, it can used, on a point for point basis, to improve any roll that involves an character. This is an expensive use of Sanity though. In the main, it is used as other roleplaying games of Lovecraftian investigative horror, to measure an character’s ability to come to terms with the true nature of the universe. Sanity checks are made on a twenty-sided directly against a character’s Sanity ability. Roll equal to, or under, then the Sanity check is made, but if the result is over, the check is failed. In which case, a player rolls on the Insanity table. The size of Insanity die to be rolled is determined by the degree of exposure to the Mythos—cast a spell and it is only a four-sided die, but encountering a Mythos entity means that it will be a six-sided or eight-sided die or more, and any encounter with a god of the Mythos, is always rolled on a twenty-sided die. The roll is adjusted by the character’s Sanity modifier. The result gives a variety of different effects, but primarily it involves the reduction in the affected character’s Sanity ability.

Rules are also given for firearms combat. These are kept simple and fast, their primary advantage being that they are quicker to use then the melee weapons of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. One notable feature of these rules is that characters have a greater difficulty using the Thompson submachine gun unless they have specifically trained in its use.

The second part of Crawl-thulhu Issue 1 and almost two thirds of its pages are devoted to the scenario, ‘A Horrible Day at the Dunwich Fair’. This puts the characters—who are all attending the annual fair in Dunwich—in the middle of the events described in ‘The Dunwich Horror’ as all hell, or rather, Wilbur’s brother, breaks loose and starts smashing up the town. As chaos reigns and the festival attendees panic and flee in search of refuge, the characters—four of them for each player—are first expected to join them before then setting out on their very first investigation. The scenario is built around just eight locations and the events that that take place over the course of the day. It is in effect a sandbox adventure with villagers and visitors running scared, the cultists trying to bring about their own plans, and the player characters trying to work out what is going on. Although there is no staging advice, it can be run in at least two ways. One is with all of the players’ characters together, much like a traditional investigation in a game of Lovecraftian investigative horror, working together to solve the mystery of what is going on in Dunwich that afternoon. The other is stage it as a series of cut scenes, with the Judge cutting back forth between each player and his characters as they conduct individual investigations at their location before hopefully, the survivors come together to finally deal with the problem. Even though they are Zero Level, the player characters are not wholly on their own as certain signature characters from elsewhere in Lovecraft Country do turn up to support the player characters’ efforts.

‘A Horrible Day at the Dunwich Fair’ is a fun scenario, nicely set up, and clearly presented to help Judge run its events. From start to finish, that is from rolling up characters—a quick process even at four characters per player—to playing through the whole of the scenario should not take more than two sessions at the very most. Indeed, it would even work as a convention scenario run in a four-hour slot. The other fun aspect of playing—and of playing a ‘Character Funnel’ in general—is that the players not only get to roleplay between each other, but also between their own quartet of characters. Given that a certain part of playing Lovecraftian investigative horror is all about characters going mad and given that each player has four characters and given that they are all Zero Level, that is four times the opportunity to roleplay the insanity!

Another thing that ‘A Horrible Day at the Dunwich Fair’ showcases is how spells work in Crawl-thulhu. In Crawl-thulhu, each spell gets its own table of effects, which are random each time someone casts said spell. So in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, the classic Magic Missile spell might manifest as a meteor, a screaming eagle, a ray of frost, and so on, and then its effect might be do a point of damage, standard damage, appear as multiple missiles, or a single one, so on. (The effect of this was increase the page count of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game a great deal.) Crawl-thulhu applies concept to the spells of the Mythos, although in Crawl-thulhu Issue 1, there is just the single spell—Commune with Yog-Sothoth. Its table presents just nine, wholly terrible options for what happens when this spell is cast, from utter failure and a loss of Sanity to becoming indispensable Yog-Sothoth… Of course, the outcome of casting any Mythos spell is bound to be terrible, but having the options gives flavour and detail. It is going to be interesting to see what the authors of Crawl-thulhu do with spells in future issues.

Physically, Crawl-thulhu Issue 1 is nicely put together. Although another edit would not go amiss, the issue is well written, well organised, and reasonably well illustrated. It is a pleasing little product. This inaugural presents everything a roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror needs, including the rules to drive ordinary men and women mad, a spell, a monster, and a cult for them to encounter and thwart (or not), and more.

Now it has been a decade since there has been a roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror based on the d20 System, not since Shadows of Cthulhu in 2008 and d20 Cthulhu in 2001, but Crawl-thulhu has the potential to fill that void. It hints at several interesting things, most obviously the new Classes and the way to hand spells, as well as providing everything needed to run the given scenario. In fact, the hints are interesting enough to suggest that Crawl-thulhu has potential as more than a simple fanzine, but would work as whole rulebook of its own, which would make a good stepping stone from the pure Dungeons & Dragons-style play of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game to the insanity inducing confrontation against the forces of Cosmic Horror in Crawl-thulhu, but with the mechanics of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. Overall, Crawl-thulhu: A Two-Fisted ’Zine of Lovecraftian Horror Issue 1 is a fantastic first issue which does a good job of laying the foundations for future issues as well as presenting solid rules and a fun scenario.

Fanzine Focus X: Echoes From Fomalhaut #01: Beware the Beekeeper!

On the tail of 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 showcased how 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. Echoes From Fomalhaut is a fanzine of a different stripe. Published and edited by Gabor Lux, it is a Hungarian fanzine which focuses on ‘Advanced’ fantasy roleplaying games, such as Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Labyrinth. It also showcases some of the content from the Hungarian Old School Renaissance roleplaying game, Kazamaták és Kompániák, or ‘Catacombs & Companies’.

Published in March, 2018, Echoes From Fomalhaut #01: Beware the Beekeeper! comes with a dungeon as well as two other adventures and various articles listing things. As mentioned in the editorial, the aim of this inaugural issue is to present ‘good vanilla’, that is, standard fantasy, but with a heart. In ‘The Rules of the Game’ though, it sets out the parameters of its fantasy—NPCs of Fifth Level and above are rare, as are spells above Fifth Level, magical items are limited to +3, Experience Points for treasure are gained through hedonistic expenditure of said treasure, and after inflicting a killing blow, Fighters can carry damage over.

Having set out its stall, the issue leaps into its first article, ‘Bazaar of the Bizarre’, a percentile table for determining who is selling what, what they are like, and what complications they might bring. It is followed by ‘Caravan Goods’, a thumbnail guide to merchant caravans. Both are sort of filler articles, nothing really new, but decent enough spurs for the Game Master’s imagination. In comparison, ‘Philtres & Dusts’ is much more detailed, listing various alchemical bombs, dusts, and oils, such as the Dust of Mung which when sprinkled on a recently deceased corpse causes them so much agony that they are forced to answer questions or the Dust of Desiccation, which lowers water levels, reduces ponds to puddles, and anyone foolish enough to imbibe or sniff it, into a dried-out husk! There is a dark, sometimes ghoulish quality to all of the various substances described here, each of which should arouse the interest of any player character or NPC with an alchemical bent. If not that, then each is a perfect addition to the list of things to be found in a wizard’s laboratory.

The fourth article is again a short piece. ‘Morale & Men’ by Istvan Boldog-Bernad and Sandor Gebei is a short set of rules from Kazamaták és Kompániák for hiring retainers and soldiers and handling their morale once hired. The rules are straightforward and relatively easy to use and expand.

The three main pieces of writing in Echoes From Fomalhaut #01: Beware the Beekeeper! are in fact, adventures. The first of these is ‘The Singing Caverns’, which is designed for characters of between Second and Fourth Level. The longest entry in the issue, it describes the caverns close to Heartless Hugo’s Keep. Set across two levels, they include an apiary run by mad, sometimes murderous old coot—everyone is told to ‘Beware the Beekeeper!’, a tavern in the caves run by Orcs, where most are welcome if they behave themselves, great oaks that grow out of the caverns and onto the hill, a bandit lair, and more. The dungeon has an odd feel to it, with a mix of quite civilised inhabitants are not necessarily spoiling for a fight with the player characters—hence the Orcs running a tavern, separated by mysterious rooms and passageways. There is far more of the home to these caverns than there is threat, though the inhabitants will protect themselves if they are attacked. The emphasis here then is much more on exploration and interaction rather than combat. One issue with the dungeon is the lack of reason to go there. A few hooks to that end would have helped, although the Game Master should be able to create some of his own. Another issue is that maps are cramped and scrappy, so not always easy to read, especially as they have to show a lot of detail.

The second adventure is ‘Red Mound’. It is quite short, detailing only a handful of locations and it does not suggest a playing Level, but characters of Third and Fourth Level should be suitable. It describes a great stone outcrop in the desert wastelands, a regular stopping point for travellers which is also said to be the tomb of a great hero. Guides and the Red Men of the nearby deserts never ascend beyond the lowest sacrificial chamber, so what lies on the path beyond this? The scenario manages to fit in encounter with dark god who might bestow the ability to summon ‘invisible’ Black Puddings as servants and the discovery of a thrice cursed great sword—all with caveats! This is a good mini-encounter or side trek adventure with a strong Swords & Sorcery feel to it, which would make it suitable for use with North Wind Adventures’ Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea: A Roleplaying Game of Swords, Sorcery, and Weird Fantasy.

The third and final adventure is ‘The Mysterious Manor’, which again is designed for player characters of between Second and Fourth Level. A shorter encounter than ‘The Singing Caverns’, it describes a tumbledown manor, once the seat of a minor noble family, and the cellar and tombs below. The family has long died out and the building is now the base for the dread pirate captain, Saydir the Kassadian, who has staffed it with monsters of sorts, all of them in his service. The upper areas are where they live and work, whilst below, the original owners have their tombs. This gives the adventure two areas with quite distinct feels to them, one rough and ruined, the other sepulchral and sinister. Certainly, the latter section will challenge any Thief! One inclusion which does seem unnecessary is that of the full write-up of Saydir the Kassadian, since he is an Eighth Level Fighter and can thus outfight any of the characters supposed to be exploring his base. The maps for the manor and the cellar below are easier to read, primarily because there this is less detail to cram in.

Rounding out the issue are some maps for the Game Master to use—sadly better than those used elsewhere in the issue, such as in the scenarios—and an advert. This is notable for being for Helvéczia, a roleplaying game with a Swiss or middle European feel to it. Hopefully this will make it to English language hobby.

Physically, Echoes From Fomalhaut #01: Beware the Beekeeper! is neatly presented, though it does feel rather cramped as if it could have done with a few more pages. It is generally well written with a range of artwork which varies from the amateurish to the professional, plus the odd bit of publicly sourced pieces thrown in. Unfortunately, the amateurish pieces really do not do the content justice, though they do make the maps look decent in comparison. What does let the issue down are the maps, which are often cramped and scrappy, in places difficult to read. It should be noted that the issue also comes with separate, unkeyed city map. This is extra to the fanzine and is essentially a free map on heavy stock paper. It is up to the Game Master to put the map to a good purpose.

Echoes From Fomalhaut #01: Beware the Beekeeper! provides a good mix of material—‘Philtres & Dusts’ is excellent—and the three adventures are all different in tone and content. In setting out to offer ‘good vanilla’, that is, standard fantasy, but with a heart, the issue has certainly achieved that. Problematically, this makes it difficult for this issue of the fanzine difficult to stand out from the crowd and anyone coming to this first issue wanting to read fantasy roleplaying content with a Hungarian flavour is likely to be disappointed. Despite this, Echoes From Fomalhaut #01: Beware the Beekeeper! is an assured first issue whose teething problems will be easy to overcome for the second issue.

Fanzine Focus X: The Undercroft No. 9

On the tail of 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 showcased how 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. Leading the way in their support for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have been the fanzines The Undercroft and Vacant Ritual Assembly.

Published in April 2016 by the Melsonian Arts Council, after solely concentrating on the scenario, ‘Something Stinks in Stilton’, for its eighth issue, The Undercroft No. 9 returns to its usual format and mix of content, though with an emphasis on new Classes. The black-covered issue begins with ‘Skinned Moon Daughter – A new class for games in the Great North’ by Benjamin Baugh. It is not so much a ‘Race as Class’, a la Basic Dungeons & Dragons, but a particular individual of a particular gender as Class. This is a Skinned Moon Daughter, who born under the omen of a Skinned Moon, grows up immune to the cold and with a taste for meat of any condition. When she comes of age, her Moon song can summon beasts such as wolves, walruses, and bears, and when one comes, she persuades it to swallow her whole. Inside the warmth of the creature’s belly, the Skinned Moon Daughter controls the beast, its strengths and abilities, but it speaks with her voice and moves with her intelligence. Such beasts can only be occupied for a month before they vomit the Skinned Moon Daughter back up, but she will be able to summon another… This is an interesting Class with varying powers according to the beast ridden. There are also interesting roleplaying opportunities should a Skinned Moon Daughter come to marry. This Class would work well with Frostbitten and Mutilated, the recently released supplement from Lamentations of the Flame Princess.

Barry Blatt offers up ‘101 Uses of a Hanged Man’, drawing upon the seventeenth century belief in the medical efficacy of items such as Dead Man’s Hair, to create charms and potions. Researching the recipes to create these is no simple matter and the article suggests the difficulties involved. There is some good period detail here and although the article is limited in its scope, it can be used as the basis for further recipes of the Referee’s creation. The author’s blog expands upon this article. It is followed by a second new Class in the issue, ‘The Doctor’, designed by Patrick Stuart. Both a natural philosopher and a trained medic, the Class focuses on healing and saving lives, and notably, is forbidden from inflicting lethal damage. As the Doctor gains Levels, he becomes an Intolerant Rationalist, knowing that magic to be explicable and so able to withstand its effects, but unable to benefit from it; a Dangerous Atheist, for whom divine magic works just like arcane magic; a Master Surgeon, capable of conducting surgery on the brain and more despite society’s taboos attached to it; and more… This Class makes a different addition to campaign set in the early modern period—the default period for most Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay settings—and comes with some fun roleplaying hooks.

Where ‘The Doctor’ and ‘Skinned Moon Daughter – A new class for games in the Great North’ adds new Classes the game, ‘Everyone is an Adventurer’ by Daniel Sell does away with all Classes, replacing with the singular Adventurer. At each Level, a player selects either Fighting, Learning, or Cunning. This determines the player character’s capabilities as well as lowering their Saving Throws at each Level, so Fighting grants a +1 attack modifier and 1d8 Hit Points; Learning grants two Skill points and 1d6 Hit Points; and Cunning grants two three random spells and 1d6 Hit Points. Spellcasting is based the expenditure of Magic Points. Although this offers scope for customisation and flexibility as a character acquires Levels, the result is likely to feel somewhat flavourless in play.

The last of the new Class options in The Undercroft No. 9 is Edward Lockhart’s ‘Dead Inside – Replacement classes for a world of sadness and pain’. The four Classes given—the Fallen, the Pariah, the Detached, and the Partners in Crime—have all seen too much in their former adventuring lives and are designed to replace the Classes they once had. Such Classes—the Fighter, the Cleric, the Wizard, and so on, are now the province of the NPC. Instead, the four new ones given here sort of map back to the classic four Classes, being degenerate, almost wrung out versions of them. Thus, the Fallen is a Cleric of sorts whose voice can work like the Command spell, use both Wizard and Cleric spells and wands, and whilst they can cast some spells, they can only cast them the once—and once only. How playable these Classes are in the long term is questionable, whereas for a one-shot or two, or even a relatively short campaign they might work. Similarly, they might work as NPC Classes, something that the player characters do not want to aspire to.

Luke Gearing’s ‘The Sickness’ presents the first of the issue’s monsters. A combination of cancerous slime and undulating sexual pox given physical, it invokes severe lust in those it infects. Sadly, such victims become hosts for a similar creature and so the disgusting cycle begins again. The third is contained in ‘Nine Summits and the Matter of Birth – Cosmic disasters and antinatal cults among the island people’ by Ezra Claverie. This is set in the same world as his Crypts of Indormancy, describing how the Sea People, islanders who were once part of a great Elven empire, suffer under an infrequent astronomical conjunction which causes the Generative Authority, a wave of monstrous births to ripple through the Sea People clans. As these both escalate and cascade, the ultimate effect is to unleash kaiju-sized chimeric creatures upon the island. How large and how many is up to the Referee to determine as it is possible to have too many and have them rampage across the islands. Combine this with the mystery of their cause, a cult with hatred of birth, and a race against time to stop the kaiju rampage, and you have a weird ‘atomic-horror, pacific island, giant monster’ style scenario. It will need some development upon the part of the Referee, but is as odd a set-up as you would imagine.

Between these two, there is ‘Cockdicktastrophe – A sexy beast’ which it is not and of which the less said, the better. Written by Chris Lawson, it describes a monster and encounter every ‘inch’ as bad as the title suggests. It is not badly written, but it is awful in it its utter lack of point or use. As a piece of body horror, it is onanism, nothing more, nothing less. Six wasted pages which would have been put to better had they been left blank.

Physically, The Undercroft No. 9 is well presented, cleanly laid out, and the few pieces of art all serve their purpose. It needs a slight edit in places, but that is by-the-by. In terms of content, the issue brims with interesting articles, especially if you like working new Classes into your game. For the most part, these Classes are things you would add to separate games as none of them necessarily work together, and barring the Doctor Class, none of them can be added to an existing campaign without changing aspects of that campaign. With some of them, campaigns can be perhaps built around them instead of their being added to a campaign. Of the monsters, perhaps ‘Nine Summits and the Matter of Birth – Cosmic disasters and antinatal cults among the island people’ is the most involving piece in the fanzine and easily the standout from the three monster-related entries. Overall—and bar the one dreadful article—The Undercroft No. 9 presents plenty of content for the Referee to work with rather than add immediately to his campaign.

Fanzine Focus X: Virtual Ritual Assembly #5

On the tail of 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. Leading the way in their support for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have been the fanzines The Undercroft and Vacant Ritual Assembly.

Published in the Winter of 2015 by Red Moon Medicine, Vacant Ritual Assembly #5 follows on from the solidly done issue #1, issue #2, issue #3, and issue #4. evoted to both Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay and the campaign of the editor, Clint Krause, the issue marks a break for the fanzine as the editor and publisher takes time to work on other projects, most notably, The Driftwood Verses. Indeed, it would be another year before Vacant Ritual Assembly #6 would see publication.

Vacant Ritual Assembly #5 contains just five articles, providing the Game Master with a setting, a new Class, a faith, a disease, and an interview. The setting is Judd Karman’s ‘Koster’s Knob’, a Hobbit shire best known for its pipe weed, the occasional stalwart adventurer, and as a rest home for overworked wizards. It is far from the rural idyll that most Hobbit shires are depicted as, there being a distinct divide in social class between the rich and the wealthy—who live in the Knob, a hill at the centre of the shire and the various farming families and surrounding their lands. Most of the inhabitants of Koster’s Knob possess a strong sense of cynicism, especially with regard to the inhabitants of the Knob, Hobbits who go on adventures and come back, and wizards who come to take a rest. The attitudes of these Hobbits really shine through in this article which includes details of notable NPCs, some encounters, and a guide to ‘Weedwise Wizarding’ and the pipe weed of Koster’s Knob. Besides the samples of different pipe weeds, it adds the Pipe Arts skill, which enables a Wizard who smokes pipe weed to forget spells he has prepared and recover Hit Points in return. Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay is  not a fantasy roleplaying game known for its inclusion of Hobbits, but ‘Koster’s Knob’ adds a cynical, almost knowing twist to their treatment and is all the better for it.

‘The Ritualist’, by Kathryn Jenkins, is the new Class. This takes up the idea that magic is illegal, taboo, and dangerous and applies to a variant of Magic-User who has to go to great extremes to both hide and cast his magic. Instead of the traditional spell slots, the Ritualist has access to a limited number of spells and what spells he knows varies from one day to the next, but can cast those spells as often as he likes each day. Unfortunately, doing requires a Ritualist to sell part of his Soul—represented by the permanent loss of Hit Points or Ability points to the greater power he has entered into a pact with. Further spells require the use of rare ingredients—monster bones, gems, herbs, and so—to cast. Accompanied by eight sample spells (the included Wall of Flesh is quite vile), the Ritualist as a Class is designed as a something akin to a witch, scholar, voodoo practitioner, and so, all having to put a lot of effort into casting their magic. It is an interesting concept, especially for the Referee and player who wants to do and roleplay magic differently to the standard ‘fire and forget’ spellcasting of the Magic-User, but here feels underwritten and deserving of greater development.

The fanzine’s editor takes us back to his home campaign with ‘Unholy Inversion of Hope’. This describes the Synod, the dominant monotheist faith in his campaign. It is profoundly anti-magic, so would work very well with the Ritualist. It covers its core beliefs, leadership, major divine beings associated with it—sort of like saints, and its guardians and inquisition, the Templars. There are no stats provided, but then all of this information is given in a couple of pages, and anyway, a Referee should be able to provide these should he need them. This is accompanied by ‘The Sineater Wolves’, which brings Lycanthropy to Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay, and of course, gives it a twist. The twist is that the Sineater Wolves is actually a heretical order of monks, which in its desire to cleanse all sin from the world, abandoned the humanity of its members and embraced the curse of Lyncanthropy. Now the order uses the bestial strength of the wolf to confront and battle evil, but this perhaps the aspect of the order and article which is left unexplored. It does include rules for Lycanthropy, a secret or two, and a schism, which is all useful. It just does not fully explore what the order does.

As per usual, Vacant Ritual Assembly #5 is rounded out with an interview of an Old School Renaissance personage of note. This time it is with James Raggi IV, the designer and publisher of Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay. Now Raggi has been interviewed lots of times and is probably the most interviewed man in the Old School Renaissance niche, but the interview is light and informative, if a little dated. The latter of course, being due to the much delayed nature of this review. The only complaint would be that the title of the interview, ‘On the Raggi’, is both trite and tasteless.

Physically, Vacant Ritual Assembly #5 well presented, decently written, and comes with some good artwork. The cartography of ‘Koster’s Knob’ is good too. If there is one problem with Vacant Ritual Assembly #5, it is the lack of space. Too many of the articles feel as if they needed a page or two extra and thus room to better develop and present their ideas. This is not to say that the articles in question—‘The Ritualist’ and ‘The Sineater Wolves’ are bad, rather that they have not realised their full potential. Just as with the previous issue, Vacant Ritual Assembly #5 presents a good mix of content, all of which can be added to a campaign with relative ease. Overall, a good selection of material for the Referee to pick and choose from as well as a good point at which to put the fanzine on a hiatus.