RPGs

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 9, Room 2

The Other Side -

The level opens up to a large open gallery. The design is dwarven, but has been modified. The gallery is over 600 ft long.

Room 2

This room is filled with the shadows of dwarven lords and wizard students. They seem to be from different times since they do not interact at all with each other.

Hidden among these shadows are four (4) Spectres.  

These are former minions of the Vampire Queen in life and serve her still after death.

The specters have normal treasure E x4. 

There are also Type A, C, D here as well, but no magic items. The Vampire Queen has used all of those.

On each side of the gallery there are multiple alcoves and exits.

Friday Fantasy: DCC Day #1 Shadow of the Beakmen

Reviews from R'lyeh -

As well as contributing to Free RPG Day every year Goodman Games also has its own ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day’, which sadly, can be a very North American event. The day is notable not only for the events and the range of adventures being played for Goodman Games’ roleplaying games, but also for the scenarios it releases specifically to be played on the day. For ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day 2020’, which took place on Saturday, May 16th, 2020, the publisher released two items. The first was DCC Day #1: Shadow of the Beakmen, a single scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. The second was the DCC Day 2020 Adventure Pack, which not only provided support for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, but also for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set, with a scenario for each. This format has been has been followed for each subsequent DCC Day, that is, a single scenario and an anthology containing two or three scenarios, all of them short, relatively easy to run and add to an ongoing campaign, or even use as a one-shot of convention game.

DCC Day #1: Shadow of the Beakmen is short and it is designed to be played within a four-hour slot, whether that is at a convention or on DCC Day itself. The scenario is designed for a party of four to eight First Level Player Characters. They are travelling between locations when they come across a small village standing on a lake. From the settlement echo screams and cries of terror, smoke hangs over its rooftops from the buildings already set ablaze, and strange figures move in the shimmering light, some riding crocodiles and wielding a lance of stone tipped with a weird green light in a perversion of the knights of old. Yet this is not what catches the eyes of the adventurers, for a blazing emerald light emanates from beside the lake. There is something dangerous happening there, more dangerous than the marauders roving the streets of the village. As befits a one-shot or convention-style scenario, such as DCC Day #1: Shadow of the Beakmen is that it leaps straight into the situation, presenting the players and their characters with a choice—do they rush to the villagers’ aid or do they ride away? Now to be fair, the Player Characters will be pulled into the adventure whatever choice they make, but DCC Day #1: Shadow of the Beakmen will be all the more interesting if the players decide that the best course of action is to intervene.
Intervention then, sets up what is actually the best scene in the scenario. This is the running battle across the village, down its streets and into the marketplace to the docks and the edge of the lake. It is handled as a series of random encounters, with villagers begging for help, buildings collapsing into flames, and encounters with the strange beaked humanoids, some of whom are riding crocodiles and wielding green-tipped lances, that are attacking the village and attempting to capture the villagers. It feels brutal and desperate. Once at the lakeside, the Player Characters can discover the cause of the light, something strange is summoning something even worse than that attacking the village. More of the beak-faced men! This sets a big battle, but defeating them gives the Player Characters the chance to discover more about the invaders.
The second part of the scenario takes place in the Malachite Stele, a giant stone tower that has erupted from the lake as a result of the summoning. It is a traditional dungeon, although limited to just nine locations and is thus linear in nature. Fortunately, its brevity is made up by its atmosphere, which is muddy and murky, squelchy and slimy, the damp meaning it is also cold. It is thoroughly unpleasant. There is also a good mix of encounters throughout the dungeon. There are pools where the Player Characters can gain great boons or suffer terrible banes in classically random chances, there are chambers with egg sacs incubating more beakmen much like those of Aliens, and there is a challenging big boss encounter at the end, but in between there is the second-best scene in the scenario. This is with the Weaver, a corpulent woman with long silver hair and eight segmented limbs, who spinning the silk that each egg sac is made from. She wants to escape and in the main bit of roleplaying in the scenario, will negotiate for her release. Of course, she cannot be exactly trusted, and it is suggested that if freed, she will want to play a role in the future lives of the Player Characters. Further, if her web is plucked, it enables a Player Character to scry another location in the Malachite Stele complex. This can be random, but it can also be used to hint that the complex contains more rooms than at first seems. Several are behind a secret door—though there is another, more dangerous means of access—and the foresight granted by the web should help the Player Characters to progress further.
Finally, at the top of the Malachite Stele, the Player Characters will face the villain of the scenario, the Master of Shadows. This is a challenging fight, both for the Player Characters to fight and the Judge to run.
Physically, DCC Day #1: Shadow of the Beakmen is decently done. It is lightly illustrated, but the artwork is decent. If there is an issue with the artwork, it is that the Weaver is not illustrated and considering that she has the possibility of her playing a role in the future lives of the Player Characters, not illustrating her was a missed opportunity. Both maps are well done though, and the monsters stats being placed on their stat cards at the back of the adventure makes them easy to use.

DCC Day #1: Shadow of the Beakmen starts with the cliché of a village in peril and gives it an immediacy rarely embraced by that cliché, throwing the Player Characters straight into the action and facing some very strange creatures! The scenario has a couple of really good scenes and plenty of action and really makes for a good low-Level one-shot or convention scenario.

Kickstart Your Weekend: Artist Edition

The Other Side -

 A couple of art Kickstarters this weekend. Both are pretty well known for their witches.

Larry Elmore: The Complete Elmore Volume III hardcover book

 The Complete Elmore Volume III hardcover book

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/larryelmore/larry-elmore-the-complete-elmore-volume-iii-hardcover-book?ref=theotherside

There is not a D&D player who doesn't know the art of Larry Elmore. I am not even sure what I need to say here.

It's Larry. It's his D&D art. Buy it. 


Broomsticks & Brushwork

A collection of ink illustrations celebrating witches from around the magical world.


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kesingersketchcraft/sketchcraft?ref=theotherside

This one just looks fun. 

All sorts of little witches. I would have LOVED to grab an original commission, but I can't easily part with $850.  

But it all looks like fun.


#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 9, Room 1

The Other Side -

 These stairs take the party down to level 9. The temperatures are much cooler now. 

Room 1

As the stairs descend (at least 200 ft) there are other staircases. Many are broken, but other still look viable. These others usually lead to dead ends, lairs of monsters (use Wandering Monsters), or fall into darkness.

The feeling here should look like a broken and destroyed kingdom of stone.  This is more of the original dwarven mountain and has been less "renovated" by the Vampire Queen.  There are also areas of the original Citadel of Necromancers here too, under the devastation of the mountain.  Dwarven character will be able point out at least four different types of structures here: the original stone of the island, the dwarven mountain, modifications by various wizards and necromancers who lived here, and finally, modifications from the experiments of the Vampire Queen herself.

The Necromantic aura of the upper levels mixes with the demonic ones of the level above and something else that even the most learned magic-user can't quite identify.

Every 6 turns roll for wandering monsters as normal. There is a 25% chance that the monster encountered is a "Shadow" version. It looks like the shadow of the monster. It attacks, but it has no physical form so it can't damage or be damaged. Every 3 turns a "Shadow Wizard" will be spotted. This is a dead wizard or student who does not know they are dead. They go about their business as if it were a normal day for them. They do not damage or interact, but they are creepy.

The Blizzard of Summer 2023!

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One of the best things about blogging and writing about games for so long is I have gotten to meet so many really great people and made some really great friends.

Two such are Tim Knight over at Hero Press and Pun Issac over at Halls of the Nephilim. Both are great guys, and we all have many intersecting interests in RPGs, comics, and movies.  So it is no real shock then when we decide to go over and play in each other's sandboxes.

Over the summer, they graciously allowed me to use two of their iconic characters, The Acrobatic Flea and The Web Archivist, for The Wasted Lands.

Now they have returned to honor and built versions of my misanthrope villain, The Refrigerator, for their own respective supers games, along with tweaks to make him work in their worlds. 

The Refrigerator

Both are great takes on my villain, and I love the additional little details they have both added. 

What is the point of having an iconic character if you can't share it?

#RPGaDay2023 FAVOURITE RPG of all time

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 This is a tough one. I have had so many favorites over the years. Each one representing a different point in my life and gaming.

Favorite RPGs

Most of these will be known to readers here.

Basic (B/X) D&D - not the one I started with that would be the Holmes Basic, but the one that got me deep into the hobby.

AD&D 1st Edition - This is the one I played the most in those early days. The Monster Manual was my gateway drug to RPGs coming from Mythology.

Chill 1st Edition - This was either my first or second RPG after D&D (tied with Traveller) but it was my first horror RPG, and it spawned everything after.

Call of Cthulhu - Not my first Horror RPG, but one of my favorites. Really set the bar on what a horror RPG should be.

Masque of the Red Death - not an RPG by itself, and a bit wonky, it did something I always wanted: it brought my AD&D 2nd ed rules to Gothic Victorian Earth and Horror. Ravenloft brought some of this earlier, and both were my game of choice throughout the 90s until D&D-burnout set in and I went to my next big thing. 

CJ Carella's WitchCraft - I can't overestimate how much this RPG changed things for me. The world was close enough to that of Chill, Call of Cthulhu, and Masque of the Red Death that my ideas for those games gained new life under Unisystem. I loved the game so much I pestered the publisher, Eden Studios, to let me write for them. The result was my next favorite.

Ghosts of Albion - while this might be self-serving, it is my favorite for a reason. Everything I wanted in a Unisystem game is here. Victorian era, magic, horror, and Unisystem. I would have happily written for Unisystem for ever if I could have.  Which leads me to my last one and the top of my list.

NIGHT SHIFT Veterans of the Supernatural Wars - Again, a little self serving but NIGHT SHIFT is everything I have ever wanted in a game. It combines the best mechanics of all the games above along with a play style I love and in a world, or more to the point worlds, I enjoy.

If I only get to pick one, then it will be NIGHT SHIFT.

NIGHT SHIFT

I have had the luxury and the privilege to work on a great number of RPGs over the years. Some of which were dream jobs and dream games. I consider myself lucky. But of all of those, NIGHT SHIFT is not just my favorite game, favorite rules, and favorite setting; it was also my favorite writing experience. Only Ghosts of Albion and my various Witch books come close.


Thank you, Dave Chapman for hosting this again! I had a great time.

RPGaDay2023


#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 8, Room 31

The Other Side -

 The last room on this level is dominated by a large treasure horde and an equally impressive guardian.

Room 31

Red dragons were promised all the treasure in the former Dwarven kingdom. This Red Dragon is the last of their offspring. He is not as crafty or as strong as his forebearers, but he is still challenging.

He has H x5 treasure. There are a couple of chests of holding as well.



#RPGaDay2023 OBSCURE RPG you've played

The Other Side -

 I have a soft spot for Obscure RPGs. But I think one of my favorites, warts and all, is Lee Gold's "Lands of Adventure."

Lands of Adventure

The game has some flaws, but it is such a fun concept and a great idea. Plus, the art and design are fantastic. 

I reviewed it a couple of years ago but have only played once or twice since then. It really is an old-school gem from the ancient days of Dragon Magazine.


RPGaDay2023


#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 8, Room 30

The Other Side -

 Continuing on past the Queen's broken throne room, the party turns a corner to the left and sees a horrific sight.

Room 29

Trapped inside a magic circle is an ancient Chaos Hag. Though it is hard to know which kind she is, but she tries, and fails to shift her shape to that a beautiful elf maiden.

She croaks out, her voice dry and cracking, to be let out. She is in a panic. These are the first people she has seen in centuries. 

She will make a weak attempt to claim she is an elf polymorphed into a hag. This ruse though can't last, since she is so hungry. Her's is a similar tale to other creatures here. 

IF the party says they are hunting for the Vampire Queen then she will say she was trapped here after the Queen took over. This is true. She also says that there is only one seal left holding her in. Also true.

If the party agrees to free her she will give them the Hand of Glory at her feet and that will allow them to sneak past the guard of this level.  Mostly true. She will give it to them yes, but the Hand is so old it won't work very well.

Also there is 50% chance that if freed she will attack the party and eat them.

Mail Call Tuesday: New Dice from Threshold Diceworks

The Other Side -

 Hello. My is Tim, and I am addicted to dice.

It began innocently enough. I got a set in my D&D Basic. Then another in my D&D Expert Box. Then B. Dalton's Bookseller in White Oaks Mall had Dragon Dice in full sets and percentile genators.

Then I got clear sets. Blue sets. Discover more. Now...well, now I have no clear idea how many I have. I have sets for characters, a set for each game, and sets for DMing certain campaigns. Metal dice, tiny dice, huge dice.

So what did I get in the mail yesterday? You guessed it.

Threshold Diceworks retro Dice
Threshold Diceworks retro Dice

These retro dice were made by Threshold Diceworks. Which you can find on Facebook and their Etsy store. He was taking pre-orders a while back and mine finally came in yesterday and I am very pleased with them!

They compare very favorably to the sets I had with my Expert set, the Dragon Dice polyhedrals, and the sets that came with the Mentzer Basic boxes.

Threshold Diceworks Dice compared to classic dice.
Threshold Diceworks Dice compared to classic dice.
Threshold Diceworks Dice compared to classic dice.

Yes. Those are my Mentzer dice still in a bag and unopened and unmarked.

Threshold Diceworks Dice and Armory dice markers

I even have some Armory Dice Markers for them! I might swap a d10 in each set for a proper set of percentile dice. I can even use them for Star Frontiers.

Now. I just need a good dice bag for them.

These will likely be my Old School Essentials dice or my Wasted Lands ones. 

In any case, I am really happy to have them. When they start selling more I need to snag an orange d8.

#RPGaDay2023 Most memorable ENCOUNTER

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AD&D Lich
Ah. This one stuck with me as the most memorable encounter.

It would have to be the first time I encountered a Lich in the AD&D 1st Edition days. I think it was the summer of 82 or so.

The DM read the monster's description, and she decided that it had all these new spells because it was a former high-level magic-user. She played the monster as we would have today, but back then, that was kind of a new thing. Not only that she had poping in and out of the Ethereal Plane more or less at will. 

Needless to say it kicked our 6th to 7th level asses. That lich kicked our asses.

While I was annoyed, I later looked back on it and thought about how well she had done with it all. 

So yeah, freaking Liches are dangerous.

Since that day, my undead have all been way more powerful. 


RPGaDay2023



#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 8, Room 29

The Other Side -

 The cave continues. Further ahead is an open area. There is what appears to be a broken stone throne. 

Room 29

This appears to be the queen's throne room, but it appears to have been destroyed. There is subtle magic on the throne. 

If a dwarf or female character sits on the throne a scene is played out of the throne room in it's glory days. All the PCs see dwarven courtiers with gnome, human, and even elven dignitaries. All enjoying themselves as scenes through the years are shown. One scene shows what appears to be an informal gathering interrupted as the figure of the Vampire Queen comes into the room ridding on the back of some demonic hell-beast. Demons soon overrun the room and kill everyone in sight.

Characters must save vs. Paralysis or feel the death shock of those victims. Failing, they take 2d6 hp of damage, save for half.

Characters gain 45 xp each for seeing this scene.

If a female dwarf sits on the throne, then she sees the same tableau, but does not need to make a save and she takes no damage. She also gains The Blessing of the Dwarf Queen for the remainder of this level. This is a +1 to hit and +1 to all saves.

Monstrous...Harvest

The Other Side -

 I interrupt my regularly scheduled Monstrous Monday post for our monster harvest we worked on over the weekend.

Tomatoes
More tomatoes
More tomatoes
Garlic
Garlic
Garlic


Peppers
Veggies
Veggies

Long-time readers will know that my wife has a huge garden. She has over 115 tomato plants and somewhere north of 120 peppers from sweet to super hot. 

We brought in tomatoes, peppers, carrots, garlic, some onions, okra, beans, basil, and even some potatoes. 

We spent Sunday processing them all.

Tomato sauce
Tomato sauce and soup

I processed about 3 gallons of Tomato sauce and we also made tomato soup to freeze.

This was our third harvest this year so far and we have least two more.  With all the picking (and you have to do the weeding then too), processing, and freezing, we hit the couch last night, and both of us crashed.  This was all a lot easier 25 years ago when she started her garden.

Honestly, I should have made a "Tomato Monster" but was too beat.

Now to convince my chef son to make me something will all this garden fresh produce!

#RPGaDay2023 SCARIEST game you've played

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 Scares do not come easy to me anymore. I consume horror movies like most people watch sitcoms (and laugh as much), nearly all my non-D&D games are horror and a fair amount of my D&D ones are as well.  So for a game to REALLY scare me, it has to be special. And it is usually NOT due to the rules being used.

Case in point. My online games from 2006 to 2009 that I called "Vacation in Vancouver."  I played it starting with WitchCraft and then moved over to True20 (a game not known for its horror).

True20True20 Adepts Handbook

The hook was that members of Vancouver's supernatural community were going missing.  Long story short, there was this entire underground where vampyres, demons, and witches were getting together and engaging in all sorts of lewd sexual acts in exchange for essence.  After a while, even open acts of magic were considered acceptable.

The game, though was not really about sex or even depravity (there was a lot of sexual slavery going on and it was hard to know who was using who), but about addiction and losing yourself.

A couple of characters had to be literally pulled back from the edge.

As a role-playing experience, it was intense.  There was not much combat, to be honest.  Part of that was out of choice (the characters were investigators, not thugs) and part out of necessity (combats online can be dull, even in Unisystem).

The game ended like many others, not with a big finale but gradually dying off.

The mystery of where all the supernaturals were going was solved, but not the one of the demonic sex trafficking. The demons never actually killed anyone. In fact, they seemed to be concerned for the welfare of the Gifted and Lesser Gifted in their "care".  And there were plenty of volunteers for the demons, too, since the exchange of Essence was pleasurable for both (but only humans can 'regenerate' Essence).

There were some very interesting games, though, that came from all of that.  It was one of those rare RPG moments where the bad guys might have won, and there was nothing the PCs/Cast could do about it.  While the game was fun and provided some of the best pure Horror roleplaying I have run in a long time, I am just not sure how it could even be revisited.

RPGaDay2023


#RPGaDay2023 Game you'd like a new EDITION of...

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 This is a two-fer for me. There are two games I want to see a new edition of and I hope that once again they are the same system.

I would love to see a new edition of Mutants & Masterminds AND a new edition of a DC Comics RPG.

DC Adventures and Mutants & Masterminds

I started with M&M back in 2nd Edition and I loved it. Such a great game.

When 3rd Edition came out I grabbed the PDFs right away and was going to pick up the print versions, but Green Ronin also had released the DC Adventures game that used the same M&M 3rd edition system. So I got all of those books.

I'd love a 4th edition of M&M and wonder if it couldn't move a little closer to their AGE system.

I also want a new DC comics RPG. I know there is a new Marvel game out and yes it looks great, but I have always been more of a DC guy.  I also want to buy more Green Ronin stuff.


RPGaDay2023


#RPGaDay2023 Favourite CHARACTER SHEET

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 Like games and dice I have a few favorite character sheets.  Though I will admit my all time favorite is a blank sheet. because at that point the potential is limitless!

Willow & Tara sheet
My "Willow & Tara RPG" sheet. I made this one myself for my combined Buffy/WitchCraft/Ghosts of Albion game. It had details for all three games so characters could easily move between the rules.
WitchCraft RPG Sheet
Likewise, I had a WitchCraft variant I used that also had similar information.

Mage Sheet
I love Mage, and the Sorcerer's Crusade sheet is one of my favorites.
D&D Basic
For pure nostalgia sake I love the Green D&D Basic sheets.
AD&D 1st Ed
AD&D 1st Ed

And the AD&D 1st Ed sheets too.

Though my own Witch character sheets are my most favorite of all.

Witch Sheets



RPGaDay2023


[Fanzine Focus XXXII] Carcass Crawler Issue #2

Reviews from R'lyeh -

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. Then there is also Old School Essentials.
Carcass Crawler is ‘The Official Fanzine Old-School Essentials zine’. Published by Necrotic Gnome, Old School Essentials is the retroclone based upon the version of Basic Dungeons & Dragons designed by Tom Moldvay and published in 1981, and Carcass Crawler provides content and options for it. It is pleasingly ‘old school’ in its sensibilities, being a medley of things in its content rather than just the one thing or the one roleplaying game as has been the trend in gaming fanzines, especially with ZineQuest. Carcass Crawler #1 focused on Classes and Races alongside its other support for Old School Essentials, whereas although Carcass Crawler Issue #2 does provide new Races and Classes, it instead focuses on general support for the Player Character and playing Old School Essentials.
The two new classes in Carcass Crawler Issue #2 follow standard Old School Essentials rules in that it allows for ‘Race as Class’ as well as supporting the separation of Race and Class as per Old School Essentials: Advanced Fantasy. ‘Phase Elf & Wood Elf’ are the two in question and interestingly, the latter is inspired by both Moldvay’s Basic Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition, whilst the former is inspired by Original Dungeons & Dragons. The Elf of Original Dungeons & Dragons could switch between the Fighter and Magic-User Classes and do so in between adventures. As a Demihuman Class for Old School Essentials, the Phase Elf can also switch between the two Classes, but can only do so from one day to the next. As well as switching Classes, the Player Character can also switch personalities, whilst still retaining the same body and memories. Where the Phase Elf does not so much mix and match the abilities of the Fighter and Magic-User Classes as alternate between the two, the Wood Elf eschews both. Instead, the Wood Elf is more naturalistic, good at foraging and hunting and hiding in the woods. The Wood Elf is good with missile weapons, but can only wear leather armour. Instead of arcane magic, the Wood Elf can pray for and cast divine magic. If using Old School Essentials: Advanced Fantasy, this can be Druidic magic, but Clerical if not.

The Phase Elf and the Wood Elf are also presented as Races in their own right. As a Race, the Phase Elf has two Classes and these need not be the Fighter and Magic-User Classes. The Wood Elf is more straightforward.
‘Town Services’ covers all of the services an adventurer might need and find in a town. Inns, money changers, and traders and provisioners are all detailed, along with optional rules for haggling and noting that jewelers and moneychangers will hire guards. One of the features of early Dungeons & Dragons is the need for the Player Characters to hire retainers. ‘Town Services’ covers options for this, including townsfolk as porters and torch-bearers as well as actual adventurers. Wages are suggested, as is an optional rule for Treasure-Share-XP. Both articles provide simple, workable means of handling these rules aspects. Ease is the aim of ‘Quick Equipment’, which sets out to provide a quick method of a player equipping his character. This begins with standard basic equipment before making rolls—or choosing—for Class-specific items such as armour, weapons, and extra bits of equipment. Most Classes use the standard Weapons table, but Classes like Acrobat, Bard, Cleric, Druid, and Knight have their own. ‘Item-Based Encumbrance’ offers a new and third option for handling encumbrance in Old School Essentials. This is done on an item-by-item basis, so weapons and armour, bulkier adventuring equipment, and magical items count as a single items. Others, such as torches and rations, can be bundled together to make up single items. After a Player Character is equipped, his player counts up the number of items he is carrying and that determines his movement rate. It is a simple enough system and quick and easy to use. This quartet of articles are not the most interesting content in the fanzine, reflecting the utilitarian side of playing Dungeons & Dragons-style games, but it makes them no less useful.
‘Snake Cult Monsters’ and ‘The Tomb of Aum-Pharath’ are a pair of articles that involve a snake cult. The first lists eight monsters themed around a snake-worshipping cult. They include snakes bred by the cult, like the Alabaster Serpent, placed in suspended animation in treasure chests and urns as traps, and whose bite inflict Dexterity debilitating spasms. Hydral Statues are five-headed stone or bronze constructs that are typically used to guard gates in tombs and temples, whilst the Zombie Snake-Guard are snake-cultists who were ritually sacrificed to serve as tomb and shrine guards. As well as being undead, their bite is poisonous. The eight are nicely thematic and the Player Characters get to face them in ‘The Tomb of Aum-Pharath’. This details a tomb complex consisting of twelve locations detailed over a two-page spread. The Game Master will need to provide the stats, but these are based on the previous ‘Snake Cult Monsters’ article and so easy to create. She will also need to create a hook or two to get the Player Characters to the tomb complex’s doors, or drop it into a sandbox, but otherwise, the location is ready to play. If the Game Master has them, a snake-themed magical item would be a good addition too.
‘Black Powder Weapons’ in Carcass Crawler Issue #2 gave rules for early firearms such as matchlocks, wheellocks, and flintlocks in Old School Essentials. ‘Energy Weapons’ details energy blades such as daggers, staves, and swords, and pistols, carbines, and rifles for energy guns. The energy types consist of ion, plasma, and laser weapons, and besides describing them and detailing their use, suggests Class restrictions, depending whether they are martial, semi-martial, or non-martial Classes—with Clerics a special case, and how to handle their use as unknown technology is in Gamma World or S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. The Energy Weapon Technician is added as a Specialist if energy weapons are common the campaign world.

Finally, ‘Adjudicating Traps’ is a discursive piece, examining the role of traps in the game and how to make them interesting for both the players and the Game Master. It suggests the benefits and negatives of rolling dice as a means to find and disarm traps and of taking a more narrative approach, with the players describing the actions of their characters. The options for making traps fun include placing clues and telegraphing the presence of traps, having traps fail to activate, and including non-lethal traps. Although short, this is a thoughtful piece that neatly ends by pointing out that the traps are part of play and the players should learn to enjoy the tragic, comedic, or gruesome ways in which traps might kill their characters.
Physically, Carcass Crawler Issue #2 is well written and well presented. The artwork is excellent.
Carcass Crawler Issue #2 is not as fun or as exciting as Carcass Crawler Issue #1. This is due to the fact that four of its articles deal with the mundane aspects of Dungeons & Dragons-style play—services, retainers, equipment, and encumbrance—and they are simply unexciting. However, that does not mean that they are not useful or well thought out, as they are. The other articles in the issue are also well done and perhaps more exciting, though not necessarily too much. Overall, Carcass Crawler Issue #2 is an enjoyably old school-style issue of a fanzine for Old School Essentials, but one that is more serviceable than surprising.

[Fanzine Focus XXXII] The Phylactery Issue #1

Reviews from R'lyeh -

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. Not every fanzine for the Old School Renaissance need be dedicated to a specific retroclone, such as The Phylactery.

The Phylactery Issue #1, published by Planet X Games in November, 2020, following a successful Kickstarter campaign, is a fanzine for the Old School Renaissance rather than any specific fantasy retroclone. Thus, it works for Old School Essentials or The King of Dungeons or Labyrinth Lord. It is a collection of magical items—mostly, NPCs, monsters, and a scenario or two. It presents the Game Master with a relentless barrage of choice and options, some of which is ready to use, some of which is not, and so will require the Game Master to develop and add some stats. Everything comes with background elements—some specifically so to make them interesting—enabling the Game Master to flesh out her campaign setting as well as introduce an item of magical power. All of it is written by Levi Combs, the publisher, and his words are backed up with some decent artwork and excellent maps.

The issue’s monsters do not really start with ‘The Gibbering Thing In The Cellar And Other Slobbering, Gelatinous Horrors’, or at least start in the traditional sense of Dungeons & Dragons. For the table here is just of descriptions and no stats, leaving those for the Game Master. Instead, the monsters do not come until the end of the fanzine, ‘Here There Be Monsters!’. This includes the Anzu, servants of the goddess of bad fortune and ill-luck, the Death Tortle, a Chaotic Evil turtle, the Nexus Lurker, a scuttling thing that lurks near dimensional portals and the use of Teleport and Gate spells to pounce on their users, and the Thunder Chicken, known for its paralysing squawk and its lightning attack. Not all of these really have much use, as neither the Death Tortle or Thunder Chicken really have a role and the Thunder Chicken, in particular, is included for its chicken nature rather than anything else.

More interesting are the issue’s many magical items, which begin with ‘The Chaos Throne’, which describes a mighty throne designed to seeds of randomness, chance, and chaos into the lives of those who sit upon it. Both of its arm rests are inlaid with a line of ten gems, each different. Each gem can be pushed once to gain a magic effect. For example, depressing the beryl means that the incumbent’s soul is marked for annihilation, forcing a simple dice off between player and Game Master, whilst the yellow sapphire raises the incumbent’s lowest attribute to eighteen! Only a limited number of gems can be pressed before the throne disappears. Essentially, The Deck of Many Things, with fewer, but no less random or fun options, built into a chair.

Whilst there is no background to ‘The Chaos Throne’, ‘The Furious Faithful – Priests And Holy Men Of Renown’ is a good example of the issue’s magical item article with extras. In this case, they are magical items with the history of the first person to wield them. For example, Lathidus “the Lord of Secrets”, was priest of Chaos, adept at spreading lies and distrust through rumours, blackmail, and more. The Sliver of Secrets is a shard of Lathidius’ shinbone, a relic of his church which when carried by a believer, enables him to lie with impunity, gaining a +2 bonus to any deception check and such lies cannot be revealed as such by low-Level divination spells. From the simple description, the Game Master can not only add the Sliver of Secrets and the legend of Lathidius to her game, also his church of Chaos, the temple to the god justice he corrupted, and the god of thieves whose assassins killed Lathidius. The author presents six such items and thumbnail descriptions of their wielders.

‘Magic Weapons and Sorcerous Blades!’ continues the issue’s combination of item and background, though this time appended by local lore. The Dragonsbreath Bow is wielded by The Sons of the Crimson Scale, agent-assassins for the Cult of the Demon Dragon. It is a longbow +1, which once per day can fire a special attack which varies according to the type of dragon to which it is attuned. For example, the Dragonsbreath Bow attuned to Black Dragons unleashes a stream of acid and a cone of frost is released by the bow attuned to White Dragons. There is also said to be a bow attuned to each of the evil dragons. Local lore tells of a close-helmed warlord in blue-scaled armour said to be riding the edge of the hinterlands hunting for something or someone. He has already incinerated several of the king’s men with just a single arrow, so could he be wielding one of the infamous Dragonsbreath Bows? Other weapons include Conjuredoom, a sword created to wield against wizards, magic-using, and enchanted creatures, and Doomgiver, a magical footman’s mace sacred to a dread goddess of the sea.

‘Magic Gee-Gaws, Sorcerous Jim-Jams, And What-Not’ details general magical items, such as Weird Seeds, strange, armoured pods from a twisted dimension that when planted instantly blooms into a plant with bizarre flowers of an unearthly colour. The plant withers and dies within a day, but turns its immediate area into a wild magic zone. ‘They Look Good, but.... Gaaaaaaaah! 1d10 Fiendish Potions You’ll Wish You Hadn’t Drank!’ provides ten concoctions and elixirs that the imbiber will regret drinking. For example, one potion smells of mint and medicinal herbs and works as a Potion of Extra Healing, but triples the chance of random monster encounters for the next four hours! The idea of the cursed weapon or armour is almost a cliché, but this article does something interesting in creating cursed potions. It is common for potions to be actually poisonous, but to be cursed? The Player Characters will never look at those bottles of coloured liquids in quite the same way again.

‘Forbidden Spellbooks and Fell Prayers of the Ancients’—inspired in part by the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft—is a trio of highly detailed magical works. These are Seven Veils, Seven Voids, The Testament of Nammul, and The Three Faces of Yrgaath. The Seven Veils, Seven Voids, for example, is a treatise on nature of undeath, not so much penned as carved, by Huldath ‘the Black Vizier’, on the inside of a large marble sarcophagus lid—and then in the secret tongue of necromancers. It also includes a number of spells, as does The Three Faces of Yrgaath. Written by the hag-sorceress Beltrugald for her seven horrible daughters on the subject matter of demon summoning and similar matters, it includes potion recipes to, and the new spell, Ravenous Wound, which inflicts a wound that eats itself on the caster’s target.

The Phylactery Issue #1 the lean into cosmic horror with ‘Forbidden Demon Cults from the Outer Void’. This gives a trio of demonic cults for the Game Master to add to her campaign such as Yugg, the massive god-beast of dinosaurs and great lizard-beasts, which eats anything it likes and despises anything or anyone smaller or weaker than itself. Its cults are vile cannibal, regularly and ritually devouring the weakest of their own, no matter their age or gender.

‘Black Bess, Scourge of the High Seas!’ is the first of several NPCs in the issue. She is a Seventh Level Fighter and an infamous pirate, captain of The Sea Wyvern’s Kiss, a heartless, evil kill who still adheres to the pirate’s code and the ancient laws of the sea. ‘Once Upon a Time in the Grim Hinterlands: 3 Antagonists to Set Your Players on the Road to Adventure’ continues with three NPCs, such as Orloc, the Black Friar and Morgun Blackfeather, who are intended to plague and bother the Player Characters. All three come with a trio of actions they might do upon encountering the Player Characters, but in comparison to the earlier description of Blacks Bess, they feel underwritten and in need of more of the Game Master’s input. In comparison, ‘1d10 Tough SOBs, Roadhouse Hoodlums, Bored Adventurers, and Mean Ole Bastards You Might Meet in a Tavern’ does not feel so underwritten since they are both throwaway encounters the Player Characters might have in a tavern and hooks that a Game Master could develop into something. These are entertaining and even as a throwaway encounter should add colour to any night out or tavern crawl at the end of the information. Barring the stats, they do draw comparison with the ‘Meatshields of the Bleeding Ox’, the regular collection of NPCs from the Black Pudding fanzine, and they are just as useful.

The Phylactery Issue #1 contains not one, not two, but three scenarios. In ‘Corpse Garden of the Myconid King’, the inhabitants of Hog’s Chapel have been acting strangely, listlessly, or simply falling asleep where they stand. Mossbeard, a local druid, claimed that, “the King Beneath the Roots has awoken and is calling for his due.” and that the source of the problem lay below Gilly’s Gap, a nearby sinkhole. He disappeared into the sinkhole and has not returned. Following in his wake, the Player Characters will discover a kingdom of mushroom men infected by a blight. Consisting of five locations in a cavern system, the adventure is an engaging, if small, treatment of a Dungeons & Dragons classic setting—a fungal kingdom. The scenario does not have many interesting items for the Player Characters to find or be rewarded with and it lacks an indication of what Level it is intended for, an issue that runs through The Phylactery Issue #1 and all three of its scenarios.

‘Utos, the Isle of the Shattered Moon’ is a crescent-shaped island, a cursed place occupied in its long history by the pirate captain Brego ‘the Bitter-Heart’, a sacred covenant of druids and benign wizards, and practitioners of ancient magics. From a fortified tower magically woven from plants and trees to a ruin atop the Lonely Spire, the island has long fallen into disuse. In comparison to the previous ‘Corpse Garden of the Myconid King’, there is plenty of treasure to be found ‘Utos, the Isle of the Shattered Moon’ if the Player Characters want to put the effort in. Unlike ‘Corpse Garden of the Myconid King’, ‘Utos, the Isle of the Shattered Moon’ will need a motivating factor or two to drive the Player Characters to explore this mini-sandcrawl.

‘Grindhouse Hexcrawl #1’ gives an even bigger area for the Player Characters to explore, a hexcrawl rather than a sandcrawl. It contains an outpost of The Stoneswords, Dwarf mercenaries intent on killing the feral ettin called Kurr ‘the Dwarf Eater’ in revenge for eating one of their number; is bisected by the Black Crags, home to warrens of Goblins and flocks of Harpies, as well as The Crimson Wind, a mysteriously landlocked pirate ship said to contain a king’s ransom in riches; and Mag-Nachtur, the Screaming Tower, home to cultist torturers and demon worshipers of Thuul the Racked One (detailed in the earlier ‘Forbidden Demon Cults from the Outer Void’), working to rebuild the tower. The eight locations across the hexcrawl are fairly detailed, but again, there is no indication of what Level it is designed for, rewards will need to be developed by the Game Master, and hooks to drive the Player Characters to explore the region. This aside, ‘Grindhouse Hexcrawl #1’ has an enjoyably bleak feel and can easily be dropped into a wilderness area or on the edge of a kingdom.

Physically, The Phylactery Issue #1 is very nicely presented. It is well written, the artwork is excellent, and Skullfungus’ cartography is as good as you would expect it to be.

The Phylactery Issue #1 never seems to let up in its presentation of its information and its content. There is so much in the pages of the fanzine’s first issue, probably too much for the Game Master to use everything in her campaign, but lots and lots to pick and chose from, and in many cases, develop and so add extra detail to that campaign. Suitable for any Old School Renaissance retroclone, The Phylactery Issue #1 is a good first issue, giving the Game Master a wealth of choice and content to work with.

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