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. Not every fanzine is dedicated to particular roleplaying games.
The Electrum Archive Issue #01 begins a Science Fantasy roleplaying game delivered in the  fanzine format, inspired by films such as Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, books like Dune and The Book of the New Sun, computer games such as The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, settings like Dark Sun, Wormskin, and Through Ultan’s Door, and roleplaying games such as Cairn and Maze Rats. Written and published by Emiel Boven and the Cult of the Lizard King, it  explores the world of Orn and its people, descended from those who were transplanted to the planet by an ancient starfaring civilisation known as the Elders. Knowledge of them was lost when their ships fell from the heavens and buried themselves in the surface of the planet long ago. Gold and silver are so abundant on Orn that they are worthless, instead the main currency is drops of Elder Ink, a magical substance that was left behind by the Elders. Further, when vaporised and inhaled, Elder Ink expands the mind and allows the user to enter the Realm Beyond, a parallel dimension inhabited by spirits, and tap into its magical energy, thus enabling Warlocks to cast their spells. Ink can also be used to power a variety of ancient constructs like golems and airships. Trade across Orn is handled by ancient Merchant Houses feuding with others in a desperate search for former glory and power, whilst their trade networks are barely recovering from the fungal parasite known as Bone Spores. Fortunately, the Order of Ilsaar works to keep the networks free of infection. Meanwhile, hidden below Orn is the Sunless Princedoms, a network of an expansive network of tunnels and caves where the insect-like Irr are locked in a cold war over control of their ancestral city and the Twin-Souled Emperor, ruler of the ancient City of Nol, claims they are a spirit from the Realm Beyond born into human flesh. Adventurers known as ‘inkseekers’ venture out into the decaying world beyond the cities ruled over by scheming Merchant Houses to look for Elder artefacts and ink.
A Player Character has five attributes—Agility, Archive, Body, Mask, and Spirit. Archive represents information, literacy, and insight, whilst Mask is both charisma and stealth. These range between one and eight, but typically start between one and six. He also has a Background and an Archetype. Backgrounds provide Talents, Attribute bonuses, and languages, whilst Archetypes grants specific features. Backgrounds include Archivist, Houseborn (member of a minor Merchant House), Muscle, Nomad, Cultist, Performer, Scavenger, and Worker. The three Archetypes are Fixer, Vagabond, and Warlock, and each has different features. The Fixer has Skills such as Swift or Network, gaining one of these at each Level or mastery in one of the previously selected Skills. The Vagabond has Manoeuvres, such as ‘Focus’, which enables a vagabond to attack and ignore an opponent’s armour, or ‘Shake It off’ which enables him to shake damage off. The Vagabond can choose more Manoeuvres at later levels, but all Manoeuvres require the expenditure of Grit, of which the Vagabond has only a few points. The Warlock can learn spell names from the spell spirits of the Realm Beyond, initially randomly, but then by crafting them. Once known, spellcasting costs Drops of ink and how any one spell works is very much open to interpretation. Creating a character is a matter of rolling for attributes and then selecting Background, Archetype, and equipment.
InaxxBackground: WarlockArchetype: CultistAttributesAgility 2 Archive 4 Body 3 Mask 2 Spirit 6Hit Points: 3Talents: Religion, Spirits, RumoursFeature: Spell NamesSpell Names Known: Blade of Diminishing Cosmos
One possible issue with The Electrum Archive Issue #01 is that it offers limited options in terms of character types. The Fixer has plenty to choose from in terms of Skills and ways to improve them, but it is difficult to make one Vagabond different from another. So perhaps the Vagabond could have the option to take a Talent in a particular weapon and then Mastery? Whilst the Warlock has plenty of flexibility in terms of his spells and no two Warlocks are likely to possess the same spells because they are all random, could the Warlock learn more Talents? Ultimately, the issue is that as with fighters and warriors in many other retroclones, the Vagabond does feel underpowered in comparison to the other Archetypes. 
Mechanically, The Electrum Archive Issue #01 is simple. For a character to undertake an action, his player rolls a ten-sided die and succeeds if he rolls equal to or under the appropriate attribute. Advantage and Disadvantage works as standard, which can be gained from the situation or equipment, or in the case of Advantage, from a Talent. Combat is simple and deadly, a roll against a weapon’s Speed value to attack before an opponent and an attack always striking an opponent. Instead of rolling to hit, a player instead rolls damage, which is reduced by the Armour Value of any armour worn. The rules allow for critical hits, dual-wielding, aiming, and stunts. If a character’s Hit Points are reduced to zero, he is at Death’s Door, there is a fifty percent chance that he will die immediately and a fifty percent chance of falling unconscious and dying later unless healed. If that happens, the character will awake with a Scar, which can be physical or spiritual.
Experience Points are awarded for finding treasure—ink drops, completing goals, learning about the world, establishing relationships, and surviving being at Death’s Door, but the number awarded is rolled randomly. Equipment is carried across the body in slots, including backpack slots, and weapons, armour, and ammunition have a usage die rolled after each combat, whilst Torches and Lumen Pods are used up on certain Exploration Events, rations on Travel Events, and tools and gear when they are used. The currency is Drops of Ink, a worker earning one Drop per day, whilst ‘inkseekers’ can search for more. The equipment list includes membrane masks, Inkdrinker Blades (a dagger which expands to three times the size and damage when fed Drops of ink), and Moonlight Rifles (recharges faster at night). Lastly there are rules for travel and exploration.
More than half of The Electrum Archive Issue #01 is dedicated to detailing the world of Orn and the first issue of the fanzine includes a separate map of the known parts of the planet, done as a point crawl rather than a sandbox. It begins with a short history and an overview of the regions, people, languages, and religions before explaining the nature of Elder Ink and the Realm Beyond. In terms of factions, it covers ‘The Blind Bank’ which stockpiles Elder Ink and influence, guarded by the eerie Stillsingers, and sponsors expeditions to both recover more and investigate the nature of Elder Ink; the merchant House Uvri, militarising because its cynical head wants to regain control of Ilsaar, the city it built up, but lost to the Order of Ilsaar, the monks who work prevent further infections of Bone Spores; and the Children of the Moon, a cult which believes that the Elders are watching them from Orn’s moon, waiting to return and judge everyone. The cult believes that inhaling ink and interaction with the Realm Beyond are both a sin.
A good third of the fanzine—and most of the background—is devoted to detailing six of the regions given on the map. These are ‘The Electrum Sea’, ‘The Mirall Delta’, ‘The Rift’, ‘The Ruinlands’, ‘The Spirit Roads’, and ‘The Spore Wilds’. Each includes a box of travel options, descriptions of its major locations, and then tables of plot hooks and encounters, for a total of four pages each. For example, ‘The Spirit Roads’ is where the Veil between Orn and the Realm Beyond is at its weakest, spirits bend and warp the laws of physics, rocks float in formation, and the great city of Nol stands at nexus of pilgrim routes, but the entire region is walled off and can only be entered by the Soulgate in its southern wall. Nol, the City of Sorcerery, is the largest in the world, once ruled by the Consortium of Nol, consisting of representatives of the city’s various spirit cults, now ruled by the Twin-Souled Emperor, whose Sorceror-Knights have been cracking down on anyone who challenges the Emperor’s claim. The Masked Apostates, consisting of disaffected members of the spirit cults, is in open rebellion.
Elsewhere, a monastery to St. Shebol sits atop Lifthold, a large floating rock formation, and houses the largest library in the world, and the Plain of Jars is a vast field scattered with thousands of burial jars, attracting unsavoury spirits and warlocks scavenging for secrets and treasures. Each of the locations is described in sufficient detail to pique the interest of the Seer—as the Game Master is known in The Electrum Archive Issue #01—and the plot hooks and encounters more than make up for the lack of a starting scenario. Rounding out the fanzine is a decent bestiary, an NPC generator, a ‘I Loot the Body’ table, and information about the dread Bone Spores. Lastly, there is a bibliography, which is surprisingly comprehensive.
Physically, The Electrum Archive Issue #01 is a lovely looking book. The artwork is excellent throughout, the writing engaging, and the cartography decent. One excellent inclusion is a full example of play, two pages long and far more than roleplaying games from actual publishers usually include. For a small roleplaying game/fanzine, The Electrum Archive Issue #01, its inclusion is a marvel.
The only thing real wrong with The Electrum Archive Issue #01 is that you wish there was more of it. This first issue of the fanzine is a roleplaying game in its own right and it has everything that the Seer and her players need to get playing, barring the lack of a scenario (but then the author is upfront about this), and yet this world is so intriguing that you want to learn more and explore more. From the moment the cover to The Electrum Archive Issue #01 and the basic background were available, it sounded fascinating and rife with possibilities, and there can be no doubt that this inaugural issue delivers on both the fascination and the possibilities. The Electrum Archive Issue #01 is a stunning first issue, opening up a weirdly inky, baroque, and alien planetary romance to our exploration. Electrum Archive Issue #02 is coming in 2023 and Reviews from R’lyeh is disappointed that it has to wait.

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. Not every fanzine though, is dedicated to particular roleplaying games.
Lichcraft: An RPG About Trans Necromancers is an overtly political fanzine about a controversial or difficult or political subject (or all three)—depending upon your point of view. Published by Laurie O’Connel Games following a successful Kickstarter campaign as part of ZineQuest #3, it is a dystopian satire upon (fifty) years of Conservative Party rule and access to life changing healthcare in the United Kingdom. It is a commentary upon the Conservative Party and its attitude to both the National Health Service and anyone who does not fit its white middle class ideals. It is also a game for two players which can be run as a multiplayer game and is intended to be quite light-hearted despite the seriousness of its underlying theme. The year is 2069 and the Conservatives have been in power for fifty years, and partially realised its dream of dismantling the NHS with huge cuts and sell-offs to its wealthy backers and as a result, the waiting list to access healthcare for the transgendered community is currently three centuries. So what is a trans person supposed to do? Scream and protest knowing they will be dead be receiving the healthcare they actually need or…? In the case of Lichcraft, it is taking up the study of necromancy in order to become a lich, achieve immortality, and so outlive—or rather, undead the waiting list.
Character creation in Lichcraft is simple. All it requires is that the character is transgendered and on the waiting list. After that, the player is free to decide, or they can roll on the small set of tables to determine their gender, politics, day job, and source of magic. They also assign the numbers one, two, or three to three stats—Strength, Sense, and Spells. Lastly, the character has a Health of five, although this can be lower if there are more players.
My name is BellaI am 29 years oldI have known that I was trans since I was sixI am Non-BinaryI am a CommunistMy hobby is ReadingMy day job is AccountantThe source of my magic is Force of Will
Strength 1 Sense 2 Spells 3
Lichcraft is designed to be flexible in that it can be played with one player and one Game Master, one Game Master and several players, or two players without a Game Master. In fact, Lichcraft could just as easily be played by one person and written up as a journaling game. Either way, the aim is for the player to assemble the elements that they need for the ritual. These include a magic spell, some rare and valuable components, and a magically powerful place. These are determined randomly by the Game Master. For example, “The spell is scrawled on the back of envelope, hidden in a cluttered cafe, and guarded by vampires”,  “The components are in moss gathered from standing stones, hidden in the Houses of Parliament, and guarded by zombie Liz Truss”, and “The location for the ritual is the top of a corporate skyscraper, the catch is the strange weather phenomenon, and the locals are dangerous because they are giants”. Each of these three represents a challenge that the would be lich has to overcome to succeed and is done in a single scene each, so that a play through of Lichcraft should be three scenes only.
Within each scene it is the Game Master’s tasks to present obstacles derived from the prompts and objectives already created. If the Player Character needs to overcome an obstacle, then their player rolls a number of dice equal to the appropriate stat. More can be added if the Player Character’s hobby, politics, or other background elements are relevant. If the highest result on any die is a six, the Player Character succeeds and their player narrates the outcome. If three, four, or five, the Player Character succeeds, but may lose a point of Health or the stat being rolled. Lastly, one a one or two, the Player Character fails and something goes wrong. They will also learn a harsh lesson which they can learn from and bring into play later on to gain another die.
There is combat system as such, but the Player Character can lose points of both stats and Health. When all Health is lost, the Player Character is dead. Losing points in a stat represents loss of confidence and a wearing down of the will to succeed, making the challenge of the game  more difficult to overcome. Alternatively, a player can decide that their character will make a sacrifice to continue on, whether that is a relationship, career, as sense of independence, and so on, in order to restore two points of Health or a stat. Once the Player Character has gathered everything necessary to perform the ritual, the player has a choice of a final encounter as one last challenge or skipping straight to the ritual. In order to complete the ritual, the rules pose some questions for the player and their character which push them to reflect upon what they have done in order to complete the ritual and how they feel now. Most are chosen by the player, but the Game Master also selects one too.
Lichcraft expands upon the core of the game—which is supported with a nicely done example of play—with multiplayer rules, with alternative settings for the Victorian era, the far future, and Ancient Rome, as well as one parodying a very far future British Science Fiction roleplaying and wargaming setting.
Physically, Lichcraft is a nicely presented. The best artwork is actually inside the front and back covers, and the writing is engaging.
Lichcraft is not about the processes and steps needed to gain gender recognition and the healthcare necessary to support that or the trans experience as it is lived of dealing with the NHS as such, whether that is in the early twenty-first century of today, or the future of the fanzine. Rather it is about overcoming those hurdles and the wait involved—especially the wait involved—in what is as ridiculous a method possible. In doing so, it is making its point in as equally a ridiculous manner possible, but letting the player—who need not be transgendered, because after all, this is a roleplaying game—roleplay that experience out and what it costs in a way that they can understand and appreciate. Ultimately, Lichcraft: An RPG About Trans Necromancers gets its message of frustration and the enormous obstacles which have to be overcome across in one single, entertaining session.

Grok?! is an adventure role-playing game set on the planet of the same name, a gonzo world which was once a haven for trans-dimensional migrants and a bastion of advanced technomancy, until a cataclysm rendered it a desolate hollow planet. Now Planet Grok is rent with chasms haunted by feral monstrosities as cities float across its skies and a derelict space station contains the whole the planet, constantly bathing it in phosphorescent radiation. Yet the survivors of the cataclysm have begun to rebuild and explore, cities have been founded and lost relics discovered and begun to be understand, and war looms as the cities and their cultures clash, all whilst something black and unfathomable peers out from the hollow left by the cataclysm.

Grok?! is not a retroclone like Old School Essentials or Labyrinth Lord, nor is it a microclone like Knave or Into the Odd, although it is heavily inspired by both as well as Numenera, Savage Worlds, Shadow of the Demon Lord, Technoir, and Troika!, amongst others. The simplicity of the mechanics suggest that Grok?! is a microclone, but the player-facing mechanics, use of advantage and disadvantage (at a cost), capacity to being elements of the setting into play with description-based modifiers, and narration of Player Character actions push it away towards more storytelling style of play.

A Player Character in Grok?! is simply defined. He has three Attribute dice, one each for Physical, Mental, and Social, ranging between a four-sided and a twelve-sided die. He has a word or phrase each for his Personality, Motivation, Background, Trouble, and Appearance Traits, plus an outfit and four Assets. Bar the outfit, which the player—or Actor as Grok?! terms them—is free to decide on his own, everything is determined with a roll of a few dice. The creation process takes a few minutes at most.

Nero Stout
Physical d6 Mental d6 Social d10
Personality: Pessimistic
Motivation: Create strife
Background: Paranormal Inquisitor
Trouble: Impoverished
Appearance: Hulking
Outfit: Inquisitor’s Ruby Lame Trouser Suit
Assets: X-Ray Monocle, Telekinetic Glove, Auto-Inflatable Airship, Spell of Mind Melding

Mechanically in Grok?!, to have his character undertake an action, his Actor declares his Intention, narrates the Action, and determines the Outcome with the roll of an appropriate Attribute die. If the result is between one and four, the Outcome is ‘No, and…’ something bad happens; between five and nine, then ‘Yes’ as intended; and ten or more, then ‘Yes, and…’ and good happens. Grok?! employs the Advantage and Disadvantage mechanic as standard, each one which comes into play—up to five Advantages and five Disadvantages, with the two types cancelling each other out—must be based on an Aspect. Aspects can be the character’s Traits, Assets, or from the environment or situation the character is in. Advantages and Disadvantages are also acquired through Effort. However, applying Effort comes at a cost. This is a Condition appropriate to the action, and when acquired, it fills one of the character’s Resource Slots, of which he has seven. Conditions can also be acquired by failing actions.

Normally, Resource Slots are filled with the character’s Assets, but as they are filled Conditions, the character can carry fewer and fewer Assets, to the point where he acquires the Incapacitation Condition and is unable to act. Beyond that, if the character gains further Conditions, they reduce the appropriate Attribute die step by step, until if educed to below a four-sided die, the character is dead. The die-rolling is, of course, all Actor-facing, so the Director never rolls a die.

Grok?! uses the same mechanics for combat, the aim being to apply a Condition to an opponent if attacking and avoiding if being attacked. The rules for combat are underwritten in comparison to other roleplaying games, the roleplaying game talking about dealing with threats rather than adversaries. For some players some adjustment may be required to switch to narratively driven combat.

However, Grok?! does acknowledge this possible difficulty by including optional rules for Health Points and weapon effectiveness, as well as rules for handling wealth in a less abstract fashion and the use of the exploding die for characters with low Attributes. The Director, as the Game Master is known in Grok?!, is also given tables for creating Director Characters and one line scenario prompts, such as “An Angry Tree is Teaching Musical Masterpiece in a Derelict Spaceship”.

Planet Grok is described as world in part rent and in part shattered by a cataclysm caused by the failure of hyper advanced technology. Most of its inhabitants are divided between four castes—Celestials who reside in the giant Simulacrum which surrounds the planet, Islanders who live on the microcosms that float above the planet’s surface, Vagabonds who travel its surface exploring and trading, and Underlings who survived in the underground shelters despite many of their number being warped into monstrosities. The realms for each of the castes—the A.I. controlled Simulacrum of the Celestials, the haphazard wanderings of the Islanders’ floating Isles, the Wastelands travelled across by the Vagabonds, and the tunnels, caves, bunkers, research facilities, and chasms of the Underworld are all given a page each, which includes two tables for creating encounters.

Physically, Grok?! is stunning. The layout is bright and breezy, but the artwork is amazingly good, capturing the weirdness of the broken world, whether is the three-eyed, beaked and spike-tailed camel-like camel on the front cover, the fecund fungi, the broken canal city menaced by a tentacled monster who eyes cry black ichor, the shattered land amidst which a warrior swathed in a cloak surveys the chaos and a floating island, or a scythe-wielding Plague Doctor-like figure rides a be winged jet bike down a street. The artwork is truly excellent and hopefully future releases will feature more of it.

However, as good as the artwork is—and it is very, very good—it is also Grok?!’s curse. It is not difficult to imagine so many of the Kickstarter backers being enticed by the artwork with the promise of the roleplaying game’s weird post-gonzo apocalyptic setting and being disappointed at the lack of background or a scenario or a starting point for play or anything beyond an overview. There are a lot of prompts in terms of the tables for creating Director Characters and encounters, but that leaves a lot of work for the Director to undertake to bring world of Planet Grok to life. For some Game Masters that may not be an issue, but for others…? Ultimately, Grok?! is more mechanics than Planet Grok and the prospective Director and her players will have to wait to get more of the latter than the former.

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. Another choice is the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game.
Ghostlike Crime #01: A Roleplaying Game Zine of Modern Weirdness is a fanzine for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game published by Abiology Games as part of ZineQuest #2 in February, 2019 following a successful Kickstarter campaign. It presents a modern day setting for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game which combines magical realism, the paranormal, and cryptid terrors that get reported on the six o’clock news. The streets are crowded and patrolled by emotionless cyborg beat cops, the bureaucrats answer to secret cabals, the world is scuzzy, drab, and decaying, and it is probably raining. This is a world of monster hunting in a dark dystopian twist upon today, but which could also be tomorrow, next week, or New York in the fifties. In classic Dungeon Crawl Classics style, the Player Characters begin life as office drones, shelf stackers, fast food servers, and the like, but after surviving an encounter (or two) with a terrible monster (or more), they realise that life is not for them and someone has to stop the monsters. They become monster hunters and defenders of humanity from paranormal threats because no-one else will—and particularly not the government. Ghostlike Crime #01: A Roleplaying Game Zine of Modern Weirdness includes new and adjusted Classes, equipment, suggested party set-ups, monsters, and more including three adventures!
The setting for Ghostlike Crime #01: A Roleplaying Game Zine of Modern Weirdness is lightly sketched over before the fanzine explains its Classes. The Warrior and the Thief remain largely unchanged, but the Halfling becomes the Half-Pint, the scrappy kid adventurer with very little changes. No other Classes are carried over into Ghostlike Crime #01, but two new Classes are introduced. The first of these is The Scrapper, whose second sight enables them to find ordinary objects and rubbish and both see and harness the magic imbued with them. Essentially, these scrap artefacts become the means to cast the spells of the Wizard Class of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. Thus the ‘Mini Disco Ball’ is used to cast Colour Spray, a ‘Landline Phone’ to cast Ventriloquism, and so on. Many of these artefacts have personalities which the Scrapper will need to engage with to actually cast. Inside of finding artifacts, the Paratechnologist jury-rigs weird science devices, but can only use a limited number at a time. A list of devices, such as the ‘Ecto-Flare’ which reveals ghosts and invisible creatures or the ‘Electro-Tether’ which enables the Paratechnologist to force targets to obey single-word commands for several rounds. The devices require an Action Die roll as per casting a spell to use, and the devices can break, which means that the Paratechnologist will have to repair them which can take hours or days to repair. There are elements of Ghostbusters to both Classes, but definitely Ghostbusters on a budget.
Harvey HopkinsOccupation: TruckerZero Level STR 13 (+1) AGL 13 (+1) STM 18 (+3)PER 04 (-2) INT 11 (-0) LCK 07 (11)Hit Points: 7Saving ThrowsFortitude +3 Reflex +1 Willpower -2Alignment: LawfulEquipment: CB Radio, Tire Iron, Leased TruckStarting Weapon: Hockey Stick (1d6)Trinket: Fingerless Gloves (Melee Attack Rolls)
Several options are provided for the Player Characters to be together, including Monster Hunters and Freaks, essentially suggesting the sort of campaigns that the Judge might run. The remainder of Ghostlike Crime #01 is the Judge’s eyes only. It starts with ‘A Hellish Commute’. This is a ‘Character Funnel’, a scenario specifically designed for Zero Level Player Characters in which initially, a player is expected to roll up three or four Level Zero characters and have them play through a generally nasty, deadly adventure, which surviving will prove a challenge. Those that do survive receive enough Experience Points to advance to First Level and gain all of the advantages of their Class. The scenario throws the Player Characters into the last carriage of an underground carriage, who have an encounter with a cryptid which wrecks the train and leaves them stranded and desperate to find a way out. It includes encounters with C.H.U.M.s—or Cannibalistic Homicidal Underground Molepeople—before finding a way out realising that they can go back to their old jobs. The scenario has  very New York feel to it. 
The ‘Character Funnel’ is followed by ‘Cathode Casualty’, a First Level scenario which throws the Player Characters into the middle of a dispute between two scrappers guilds. The Pigeonrot Scrappers Guild want a device retrieved which was stolen by the Opensores Scrappers Guild. The device is somewhere in a storage locker and so the Player Characters need to break in and find it. Of course, the Opensores Scrappers Guild is going to do its very best to stop the Player Characters and then there is the matter of the device and what it does… The third adventure, ‘The Unstoppable Killing Machine’ is a more open investigation into a series of strange deaths, whilst ‘Monsters, Anomalies, & Ill-advised Creations’ gives details and stats for creatures like the ‘Atmospheric Jellyfish’ and the ‘Jersey Devil’, whilst ‘Watch Out For The… Bean-Nighe’ details a modern version of the creature of Celtic folklore, seen in laundromats.
Physically, Ghostlike Crime #01 is a sturdy affair. The artwork varies in quality, but the writing is decent  and the fanzine is enjoyable to read. Above all, the setting in Ghostlike Crime #01: A Roleplaying Game Zine of Modern Weirdness is engaging and fun, and will be fun to play in a grimly gonzo style. Plus, of course, Ghostlike Crime #01: A Roleplaying Game Zine of Modern Weirdness packs a lot of immediately playable content that the Judge can bring to table and get her players roleplaying to explore this weirdly off kilter today, tomorrow, or yesterday.

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

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

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

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

A Player Character has seven characteristics rated between three and eighteen—Strength, Constitution, Courage, Intelligence, Power, Dexterity, and Appeal. He has several Style Points, an Education rating for his general knowledge, and Rank. The latter represents his Social Status, derived from his social standing, position within an organisation, nobility, and wealth. Both Education and Social Status are percentile values. Rank can be increased for notable deeds, publicising those deeds, earning wealth, and so on. Rank can also be lost through misdeeds, and so on. A Player Character or NPC with a higher Rank will gain a bonus to social skills and situations. In addition, Player Character will have various skills—quite broad, and some possessions.
To create a character, a player rolls dice—typically three six-sided dice for most, but two six-sided dice to which six is added for Intelligence and Courage—to create the characteristics, or he can assign values from an array. Starting Rank is based on Power, but can be more if the character is of noble birth, determined by rolling on the appropriate table. Skill base values are derived from the characteristics and the player then assigns some bonuses, the largest being assigned to the character’s professional skill. He also has five items of equipment, which cannot include medium or large shields or armour, or shotguns, as they not suited to the genre. That said, stats for them are included should the Game Master want them in her game.
NAME: Campion Babin
CHARACTERISTICS
Strength 06 Constitution 06 Courage 17 Intelligence 15 Power 09 Dexterity 10 Appeal 12

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

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

EQUIPMENT
Bible, sword, rosary beads, quill & ink
Mechanically, Swordpoint uses the percentile system of Mongoose Publishing’s Legend OGL. When a player wants his character to undertake an action, his player rolls the percentile dice and if the result is less or equal to the skill, then the character succeeds. Modifiers range between ten and forty, whether penalty or bonus, and in opposed rolls, it is the roll that succeeds and rolls highest which wins in that situation. Characteristic tests are rolled on a twenty-sided die.
Combat is not that much more complex than this. The rules cover initiative (players roll only, and go first if successful), attacking, dodging, insulting or taunting an opponent, two-weapon fighting, and so on. Successfully insulting or taunting an opponent will lose them a Style Point or Villain Point and is a nice genre touch. A character is only wounded when his Hit Points are reduced to zero, but further damage renders him first Helpless and then dead. Swordpoint being a swashbuckling game includes rules for duels, used by Heroes to settle matters of honour and resolve perceived slights and insults, whilst Villains use them as a means isolate and remove Heroes as threats to their Villainous plans. Heroes tend to duel to first blood, whilst Villains to the death. A successful Perception test allows the duellists to assess each other, learning things such as skill ratings, preferred weapons, Hit Points, Style or Villain Points, and so on.
In addition to loss of Hit Points, a Player Character can suffer a Condition. Being Wounded is a Condition, but a Player Character can also be Afraid, Confused, Exhausted, Heart-Broken, and so on. They have mechanical effect, but are primarily earned through the narrative of game play. In addition, Player Characters have Style Points, whilst the Game Master has Villain Points. Style Points can be spent to gain several benefits. These include ‘Catch Your Breath’ to regain some Hit Points, ‘Grit Your Teeth’ to reduce incoming damage, ‘Make Them Bleed’ to double the damage of an attack, ‘Redouble Your Efforts’ to reroll a test, and ‘Press Your Advantage’ to gain an extra action at the end of a round. Style Points are recovered at a rate of one per day, but a player can have his character fail a test in dramatic fashion, insult a foe in combat, accept a duel, and decide to accept a condition all to recover Style Points immediately.
Setting rules cover clubs and organisations, gambling, grudges and revenge. Having a Grudge against someone grants a slight bonus when acting against the target of the Grudge and can be settled quickly, whilst Revenge is a more determined, long-term attempt to do damage to a person and their situation. It requires Game Master approval, and enables the potential recovery of Style points when enacting said revenge. For the Game Master there are stats for various NPCs, from guards to Dangerous Villains, but oddly no feme fatale type character such as Milady de Winter. Swordpoint also includes rules for spellcasting and sorcery, plus a handful of skills, which would work in a more fantastical version of the genre. Rounding out Swordpoint are rules for Passion (and romance), which can be initiated between Player Character and Player Character or Player Character and NPC by the player or Game Master saying, “Passion, if you please.” The recipient does not have to consent, but a couple of tables follow which are rolled on to shape the romance itself. This covers the spark between them, the obstacle, and the possible fate of the relationship. When roleplayed, this all adds to the feel and genre of the game.

Swordpoint does not come with any setting. To be fair, it does not need to. This a swashbuckling film style of a roleplaying game and there are plenty of those for the Game Master to draw upon for inspiration, let alone the various works of fiction that she draw from.
Physically, Swordpoint is clearly and tidily laid out. It is well written and easy to grasp. It is very lightly illustrated. Given its length and format, Swordpoint is unsurprisingly sparse in feel and nature, and there are a lot of elements that the Game Master will need to develop, especially in terms of setting. Swordpoint: A Swashbuckling Roleplaying Zine is bare bones, but those bones are sturdy enough to provide everything, at least mechanically, that a gaming group will need to run a mini-campaign of swashbuckling action and romance.

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. Another choice is the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game.
Published in the Spring of 2018, Meanderings Issue #3 is a fanzine for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. Where previous issues both had themes, this one comes without any theme. The issue opens with the introduction and acknowledgement—of Goodman Games as well as a host of other fanzines—but gets underway with a full review of Hubris – A World of Visceral Adventure in ‘Review Corner’. This is decent enough, but not as full a treatment given in Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic in Meanderings Issue #2. The actual gaming content begins with ‘Tools of the Trade: What are Thieves’ Tools?’, which lists all of the tools to be found in a set of thieves’ tools, from basic sets to expanded and master’s tools. This is a quick and easy breakdown and useful for the Thief, whatever retroclone is being played. Disappointingly, a few magical items are suggested rather than given. Hopefully that will be addressed in future issues.
Also included in Meanderings Issue #2, ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Weapon Styles – Weapons Tables for Two-Weapon Styles’ which inspired by Steel and Fury, this added weapon styles for sword and shield, Florentine, Twin Handaxe, and Twin Dagger, plus Deed fumbles and criticals too. Meanderings Issue #3 continues this with ‘Bladed Weapon Styles’ which covers ‘Clock & Blade plus Sword & Scabbard’. Again, this is part of the ‘The Dungeon Crawl Classics Weapons Project’ and adds options with much in the way of complexity and given the various weapon styles, some flavour too, as well as making both Player Characters and NPCs stand out a bit more in their use of these styles. The two options have a much more cinematic feel than the standard rules, but will add complexity in play as well as flavour.
‘Reeling in Clerics: By the Gods! House Rules for Clerics’ suggests ways in which the Cleric Class can avoid being abused—or rather a particular aspect—and that is the ‘Lay on Hands’ ability as well as other rules. The issue is that ‘Lay on Hands’ can be used over and over, so when this occurs with these rules, it earns levels of Disapproval, which penalises the Cleric on spell checks. Options are included for empowering spells, including sacrifices—with blood sacrifices mostly for evil or Chaotic Clerics—and converting others to the Cleric’s faith. Also included are guidelines for handling sins and even non-believers gaining Disapproval too. Again, more options for another Class, opening them up and adding depth.
‘In Defence of Luck: Using Luck Defensively’ is a more general article, which suggest alternate ways of using Luck in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. The options suggest using its modifier to adjust Armour Class, burning Luck to temporarily boost Armour Class, to modify a Critical Hit, to burn for Damage Reduction, and to burn to gain a Lucky Escape. These offer lots of flexibility and the Judge is free to pick and choose from them. The suggestion is that whichever ones the Judge does include, the players are encouraged to narrate their use in a cinematic style, much like the other options in the issue. 
The weapons theme continues with ‘Magical Weapons: Unique Magical Weapons tables with Millstones’ which makes magical weapons interesting. Not mere +1 longswords or the like, but weapons with flavour and detail that grow and get better the more successful a wielder is with them. For example, ‘Flamebrand’ starts with a three-sided die as its effect die and an eight-sided die for its damage. When the wielder rolls the maximum on the effect die and kills an opponent, he achieves his first milestone with ‘Flamebrand’. This grants the weapon a +1 bonus to hit, increases the effect die to a four-sided die, and illuminates an area ten feet in radius. The weapon—and all three weapons in the article—has three milestones which the wielder can achieve and improve its abilities. Consequently, these weapons have lives of their own and they grow and change as they are wielded in anger. Of course, the three sample weapons are easy to add to a campaign, but the other use is as templates that the Judge can base designs of her own upon.
‘Breathing Life into Your Game: Crowd Surfing – Judge Tips for Bringing a Crowd to Life’ does exactly what it says. It suggests ways in which the senses—sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste—can all be used to help bring a location and its massed occupants to life. It is a short article for the Judge, but to the point and worth reading.
Although Meanderings Issue #3 is a general issue, it returns to the publisher’s campaign setting of Bastion, introduced and explored in the first two issues of the fanzine. ‘Occupations of Bastion – Zero Level occupations for the City of Bastion’ in Meanderings #2 enabled the creation of Zero Level Player Characters for Character Funnels or low Level, ordinary NPCs in the Bastion setting for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, but it left the question what Classes there were for the Bastion setting. Meanderings Issue #3 provides the first answer with ‘Classes of Bastion – The Graft’. This is a cyber-samurai Class, primarily a mercenary, able to make use of the biological grafts mentioned, but not detailed in the previous issue. Instead, they are given in the following article, ‘Umbral Market – Bioarcana Grafts: Grafting Bio-organic parts’. Grafts can be bioarcana or technoarcana, the former alcemically treated body parts of other races, whilst the latter are enhanced mechanical devices. The options include weapon grafts, enhancement grafts, and utility grafts. However, bioarcana has a Warp score, which adds up as the Graft adds further modifications. If the Warp score exceeds the Graft’s Personality score, then he can suffer from Warp Shock and lose his humanity. However, the Graft can also temporarily push his grafts to their limits granting better bonuses. The effect of the Warp Surge is to increase, at least temporarily, the Graft’s Warp Score and so pushing him towards a loss of humanity. The Graft as a Class is a sub-par Warrior, so really needs to install the various bioarcana or technoarcana to improve his capability. However, this gives a degree of modularity and options in terms of what to select and so design a member of this Class. 
Physically, Meanderings Issue #3 is decently done. It is clean and tidy and the artwork good. It does need a light edit in places. The issue has a pleasing sturdiness due to the ‘Zeroes to Heroes – Paper minis for Zero Levels’ which presents seventeen or so paper minis on light card. Designed for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, these are rather fun.
Meanderings Issue #3 is for the most part, a selection of options for the Judge to add to her campaign. This is in the main an issue for the Thief and Warrior Classes. The limiting of Bastion-related content from the publisher’s to just two articles means that there is more general content to attract the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game Judge, although the issue still feels as if it could done with more Bastion content rather than leave the reader wanting. Overall, Meanderings Issue #3 is decent issue with lots of things for the Judge to think about adding to her campaign.

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.
Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. And then there is All That Glitters Is Palladium.
All That Glitters Is Palladium: A Short History of Palladium is different. Published by Yaruki Zero Games, All That Glitters Is Palladium is a short history of the publisher best known for the roleplaying game, Rifts, or rather, “[A] short, tongue-in-cheek overview of one of the weirdest tabletop RPG publishers.” Within a handful of pages, it looks at the fifteen or so roleplaying games published by Palladium Books since its founding in 1981, as well as the entire Palladium Books Megaverse, explains the Megaversal RPG system which underpins the majority of the publisher’s titles and its general strangeness, discusses the publisher’s presentation style and values, and provides a detailed examination of Rifts, before coming up to date—at least in 2019—with the Robotech RPG Tactics Debacle. All with a dash of humour and a very knowing tone from someone who has played a lot of Rifts.
All That Glitters Is Palladium opens with an introduction that makes clear that the company is very much Kevin Siembieda’s and that he brings a “[G]onzo kitchen sink sensibility and boundless enthusiasm” to his books and also himself, often rewriting books when authors have already followed their brief. This is followed by detailed examination of the Megaversal RPG system, highlighting how the stats only really matter if they are very high, the inclusion of skills—often with surprisingly low chances, how the differences between Mega Damage Capacity and Structural Capacity, how even in the twenty-first century, a Science fiction/Science Fantasy roleplaying game like Rifts is using an Alignment system. In terms of production values it points to the publisher’s unwillingness to adapt to prevailing technology—the use of desktop publishing and the publication of PDFs in particular; the peculiar writing style with its use of underling, exclamation points, and ALL CAPS.
Although is best known for Rifts, Palladium found its fortune with two licences—Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness and Robotech. Consequently, All That Glitters Is Palladium begins its overview of the publisher’s major roleplaying releases with those titles and they receive more coverage than other modern titles like Ninjas & Superspies or Beyond the Supernatural. Then they receive move coverage of Palladium’s other games—The Mechanoid Invasion, Recon, Palladium Fantasy, Systems Failure, and others. These latter titles barely receive a paragraph each, which is something of shame because some of these are still interesting, if only from a historical point of view. It is Rifts though, which receives the most coverage, four pages in all. The author describes it as an “[O]verwhelming stew of kitchen sink post-apocalyptic science-fantasy horror” and charts its development from the core through some thirty-six World Books, eighteen sourcebooks, fifteen Dimension Books, three Conversion books, and more. It is noted here that a lot of the written content is artwork driven, that is, written to provide stats and background based on a piece of artwork rather than the other way around as is usual in the industry. That said, the overview concentrates on the first two or three books beyond the core rules, and consequently, the overview is fairly broad at this point. The section on Rifts closes with a section on Savage Rifts, of which the author is particularly positive in terms of the writing and the layout, labelling them both as competent.
All That Glitters Is Palladium comes to close with the author delving into the ‘Robotech RPG Tactics Debacle’ and despite raising over a million dollars failing to deliver quite what was promised. The piece is again brief and provides the lightest of overviews. The author speculates that the licence will not get renewed when it runs out, and leaves Palladium awaiting lawsuits, its future uncertain… In between all of this, All That Glitters Is Palladium pokes the humorous list or five. For example, ‘Odd Palladium Skills’ like ‘Lore: Cattle & Animals’ and ‘Microfilm/Microfiche/Microdot Technology’;  ‘Questionable Magic Spells’ such as ‘Magic Pigeon’ and ‘Curdle Milk’; and ‘Dumb Superpowers’ from Heroes Unlimited, including ‘Alter Physical Structure: Rag Doll’ and ‘Clock Manipulation’.
Physically, All That Glitters Is Palladium is simply laid out and lightly illustrated. It is written in a very light and personal style. And that really sums All That Glitters Is Palladium up. This is all one person’s opinion upon Palladium Books, its history, its failings, and its idiosyncrasies. Consequently, it is not really a good history of the company and its books. Much of what it covers is already known and the author does not add that much more. It is clear that he knows the Megaversal RPG system and Rifts, but the joy he got from playing them in his games never really comes through. Nor it is a real history. Despite the author giving it both criticism and praise, there is no balance here because there is no voice from Palladium Books. So ultimately, whilst All That Glitters Is Palladium: A Short History of Palladium is far from uninteresting, the definitive history and assessment of Palladium Books is yet to be written.

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.
Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. However, not every fanzine has to be for the Old School Renaissance.
Loviatar No. 1 was published in August, 2011. Written and published by Christian Walker, it was not written as a response to the Old School Renaissance, but rather as a means to focus the author’s mind when it comes to running fantasy games. Thus it is not written for any of the then available retroclones, such as Labyrinth Lord or Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay. Instead it is hybrid between Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder, First Edition. Not mechanically, but rather between rules and setting, the author’s campaign being set in the Dungeons & Dragons setting of Forgotten Realms using Pathfinder, First Edition. If that sounds like Loviatar No. 1 is a mongrel of a fanzine, there might be some truth in that, but that is the author’s choice, and anyway, the point of the early gaming fanzines of the nineteen eighties which the modern fanzine revival so heavily draws from, was to present content from the editor’s own campaign world. Which is what the author is doing in the pages of Loviatar No. 1. 
If that sounds like the content of Loviatar No. 1 is not of use, that is not the case. Shorn of the Pathfinder, First Edition stats—which like nearly all Dungeons & Dragons derived content are easily adapted to the retroclone of your choice—the content in Loviatar No. 1 enjoyably playable and easily changed to fit any Game Master’s campaign, whether that is again, mechanically, or dramatically. Future issues of the fanzine would shift to being specifically aimed at the Old school Renaissance, although it could be argued that Loviatar No. 1 had a sensibility that leaned in that direction anyway.
Loviatar No. 1 carries the tag, “a zine about tabletop role-playing games”. This is not the case, although oddly the fanzine does carry a number of adverts for roleplaying games, many of them long out of print, even in 2011. They include adverts for The Traveller Adventure from Game Designer’s Workshop, Fantasy Games Unlimited’s Bushido and Aftermath, and Star Frontiers from TSR, Inc. Apart from these oddities, the fanzine focuses entirely on the publisher’s campaign setting and on providing a base of operations for the Player Characters in that campaign. To that end, there is only the one article in the fanzine. ‘At the Corner of River Street and Craft Way’. This details four possible dwellings for his Player Characters in the city of Baldur’s Gate. They include a ‘Small Home with Loft’, ‘Warehouse’, ‘Ground Level Flat’, and ‘Former Tavern with Apartment’. Each is mapped out, fully detailed, including rent, and more. They feel reminiscent of the homes that a player might buy in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which was released the same year as Loviatar No. 1 as well as possessing the sort of sales pitch that an estate agent or landlord might give the prospective purchaser or tenant. However, it is the ‘more’ of the dwelling descriptions where the fanzine comes into its own.
Each of the potential dwellings comes with both history and plot, both of which a Player Character can become involved when not adventuring. Not only that, they pull the Player Character into the community around and they encourage the player to roleplay and they get the Player Character involved in story. For example, the ‘Small Home with Loft’ was previously home to a drug dealer named Shamus. No-one knows where he is now, but that does not stop the local gang from harassing the new tenant, the Player Character, to find out where he is, even Shamus himself, from turning up on the doorstep. The question is, what does he want, let alone where has he been and why did he leave? Some of the four possible dwellings get more plot than the others. For example, ‘Ground Level Flat’ was previously home to a cleric of Lathander, who used to provide healing to the injured and the sick. Not everyone is aware of this yet, so the local inhabitants will come knocking on the Player Character’s door at all hours with all sorts of illnesses and injuries. This in addition to the neighbours upstairs who are constantly arguing and always settle their biggest disagreements with bouts of lovemaking. How is the Player Character going to deal with his noisy neighbours, let alone the medical cases which come to his door?
In addition, stats are provided for each of the major NPCs associated with each of the four dwellings. These are clearly separate from the fanzine’s descriptive content and whilst written for use for with Pathfinder, First Edition, they are easily adapted or rewritten using the rules system of the Game Master’s choice. It does not even have to be retroclone. The contents of Loviatar No. 1 would work with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay as much they would RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha or Symbaroum. It should be noted that the neighbourhood focus of ‘At the Corner of River Street and Craft Way’ feels similar to that of the ‘City League’ setting and series of articles for ‘Pelinore’, the fantasy setting developed by TSR UK in the pages of Imagine magazine.
Physically, Loviatar No. 1 is neat and tidy, and in general, well presented. Artwork is very light, but is fairly heavy in its style, as is the cartography, which reprints a map of Baldur’s Gate and shows the floor plans and neighbourhood of River Street and Craft Way. This does make the floor plans slightly difficult to read with any ease.
Despite containing just the one article, Loviatar No. 1 comes with plenty of plot and roleplaying opportunities, and despite it containing no new monsters, magical items, or spells, it is easy to add to the Game Master’s campaign. Refreshingly different, but still fantasy, suitable for one-on-one sessions with a player and downtime between adventures or urban focused campaigns, Loviatar No. 1 is simple, straightforward, and delightfully serviceable.

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. Another choice is the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game.
Night Soil is a fanzine which takes the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game as its direct inspiration. Specifically, it draws from the artwork of the fourth printing of the core rules to provide images that have in turn inspired the creation of monsters, magical items, spells, tables, and more that the Judge can bring to her game or campaign. It is a lovely idea, but the result—at least seen in Night Soil #Zero—was a bit of a mess, a hodgepodge of miscellaneous things and entries that unless you somehow know the artwork and its order in the fourth printing of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, may have you leafing through the pages of the admittedly short Night Soil #Zero in order to find something.
Night Soil #1 picks up where Night Soil #Zero left off. Literally in the case of the page numbers! Published by Inner Ham—previously known for Fantastic Exciting Imaginative: The Holmes Art ’Zine—Night Soil #1 includes a similar mix of monsters, magic items, spells, and whatnot as the inaugural issue, but notably benefits from fewer entries. It is still a mishmash, but the ideas are developed and given time to breathe, and so consequently making them not only more interesting, but also easier for the Judge to add them to her game.
Night Soil #1 opens with the first of several monsters. This is the ‘Scare-pion’, an unpleasantly large scorpion-like creature which can bifurcate its body and then snap it shut much like a bear trap! This impedes a Player Character’s ability to fight back and the player either has the give up his character’s Action Die to retain full Armour Class or lose up to six points of Armour Class! In addition, the pinned Player Character is subject to all of the Scare-pion’s attacks, but at a bonus. This is a nasty creature and the choice between Armour Class and Action Die is delightfully cruel. In comparison, the ‘Haas Rat’ is a rat with brains equal to the Player Characters and a penchant for subterfuge and becoming the boss of gangs of normal rats, whilst the ‘Dwarves of the Brazen Shield’ is a small band available for hire and willing to take on all sorts of work—except for working against other Dwarves. They are protective of each other right up to working together defensively in combat. The ‘Bugorilla’ mixes insect and primate for a hulking beast, but one with claws and mandibles almost everywhere. Its claws can tear through the rock and its gaze is so disarming that the creature gains an extra Action Die to its attack.
The magical items begin with the ‘Polearm of Surprise’, which can suddenly extend to gain the wielder and extra attack at the beginning of a round and a bonus to attacks, whilst the ‘The Twin Daggers of Chyenar’ which deal double damage to undead and beings of umbral and shadow. They can be given as gifts by angels, but demons always pursue the wielder. The ‘Crystal of Far Magic’ is much prized by spellcasters as they can use it to both spy on others at a distance and cast magic on them. Primarily this is by Magic-Users, but Clerics can use it too. There are plenty of smaller devices too, like the ‘Dizzying Ward’, which Magic-User can cast on a scroll or book to place a disturbing effect upon anyone who attempts to read it without permission, whilst Rogues can infuse their maps with toxins to create ‘Poisoned Maps’. The inclusion of ‘Neutralising Shell’ is an oyster shell used as a scoop or spoon, but it has been enchanted to counter poisons.
Entries in Night Soil #1 get inventive and more detailed with the inclusion of ‘More uses of a Dead Giant’, which does exactly that. For example, eating the liver of a giant means that the consumer does not to have to eat or drink for two whole days and the underarm hair of a giant will keep a campsite safe from natural predators. Then the ‘Spectacles of Reading Magic’ grant the wearer the ability to read magic without actually casting it. This requires a Luck roll, so it can go disastrously wrong, cause the wearer to hallucinate, understand just one word, and so on. Whilst this provides a useful benefit, the chance of it going wrong is of course, entertaining.
The detail continues with ‘Five Ready-Made Demons’, which range from Type I to Type V demons. Rattling Men are Type I demons that grab their opponents and imprison them in their otherwise empty rib cages, and anyone imprisoned literally has to fight their skeletally demonic gaoler to escape. The Bugdog King is a Type III demon, short, always fashionably dressed cross between a praying mantis and a crossbreed dog, but with the magnificent mane of a lion, which likes to wander from realm to realm, establishing kingdoms and then destroying them. More demons are always welcome, and the chaotic nature of the demonic planes means that there is huge variety, so the Judge can always throw something different at her Player Characters. Which these options allow.
Spells in Night Soil #1 start with Energy Shaping, which enables the caster to shape and redirect any energy around him, whether it is directly affecting him or simply part of the environment around him. Ghostflames sets the undead alight, with the mindless undead having a saving throw at a penalty, whilst the intelligent undead having one with a bonus. Sound Bending enables the caster to manipulate and sculpt sound, whether that is to dampen to silence, distort it, or even sharpen it into physical shards that can be cast at targets.
Physically, Night Soil #1 is scrappy—intentionally scrappy. The artwork is likewise intentionally rough. Together with the use of the typewriter style font, the look of the fanzine is designed to match that of the fanzines and books of the seventies and even then their lack of professionalism. However, as there are fewer entries in the Night Soil #1, the issue feels far less bitty and far less scrappy.

Night Soil #1 continues from Night Soil #Zero in being a mostly entertaining medley of the miscellaneous and the muddled, organised only by reference to another book. (Which is its major problem.) The inspired sits alongside the indifferent and reading the slim volume is very much a matter of whether you are going to get the former or latter, from one page to the next—or even on the same page! Night Soil #1 is the equivalent of another blind box purchase for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game—there are definitely things in here that will inspire the Judge and there are definitely things which will leave her uninspired, but it is definitely a case of there being more of the former than the latter.

Dungeon Crawl Classics #102: Dweller Between the Worlds is a scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, the Dungeons & Dragons-style retroclone inspired by ‘Appendix N’ of the Dungeon Master’s Guide for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition. Published by Goodman Games, scenarios for Dungeon Crawl Classics tend be darker, gimmer, and even pulpier than traditional Dungeons & Dragons scenarios, even veering close to the Swords & Sorcery subgenre. One of the signature features of Dungeon Crawl Classics and its post-apocalyptic counterpart, Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, is the ‘Character Funnel’. This is a scenario specifically designed for Zero Level Player Characters in which initially, a player is expected to roll up three or four Level Zero characters and have them play through a generally nasty, deadly adventure, which surviving will prove a challenge. Those that do survive receive enough Experience Points to advance to First Level and gain all of the advantages of their Class. Dungeon Crawl Classics #102: Dweller Between the Worlds is not such a scenario, but is instead designed for use with First Level Player Characters, perhaps ones who have survived their own Character Funnel, such as Dungeon Crawl Classics #67: Sailors on the Starless Sea.

Dungeon Crawl Classics #102: Dweller Between the Worlds, however, begins with a problem. Or at least, the physical product does. The scenario lacks the map for the Judge of area where it is set, meaning that it cannot really be played from the book as presented. Fortunately, the PDF version—for which there is a code included in the physical book—does not have this issue, giving the Judge access to the necessary map. Get past his hurdle though, and the scenario is different to other scenarios for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game.

Dungeon Crawl Classics #102: Dweller Between the Worlds presents some big challenges and big set-pieces for First Level Player Characters. These include a battle against the forces of Chaos, a trek across the wilderness, and then an attack against the leaders of the attackers. It takes place in the valley of Dalur, home to various independent clans, where word has spread of strange raiders attacking out of the eastern forest over which strange lights have been seen and an early and servere winter has come. The Player Characters are in the service of Lord Jannssen, thane of a larger clan, who has come to the Fell, where as is traditional, the thanes attend councils to discuss issues which threaten them all. Nothing initially happens, but the Player Characters have the chance to gather rumours, ready themselves for what might come next, and so on. Suddenly, on the third day, giant chaos beasts descend out of the sky and attack the council! Here the Player Characters do not fight alone or together, but instead lead military units—spearmen, mounted knights, bowmen, and magicians—against the forces of Chaos. The scenario’s appendix provides ‘Alternate Rules for Large-Scale Combat’ which simplifies a unit’s combat effectiveness down to a single value or ‘Host value’ which represents their combat effectiveness. Attacks are made as normal, and if Player Character-led, can be modified by Class abilities, such as the Deed Die for the Warrior and the Dwarf Classes, Clerics can heal, Wizards and Elves lead magical units and add their spell check modifier to unit spell checks. The mechanics are simple enough, but they are different and the Judge should take the time to run a mock combat as part of her preparation to run the scenario. 
The battle is run on the primary handout for scenario, ‘The Fell’, which is reprinted instead of the map of the area for the Judge. That said, having it printed full size means that the battle at the Fell can be run as a mini wargame. For that though, the Judge will need to provide some counters or playing pieces to represent both the Player Characters and the attacking forces of Chaos. 
Once the battle at the Fell is over, the Player Characters have the opportunity to rest and recuperate before being sent by Lord Jannssen to the other half of the valley, and there persuade the Eastern clans to join the Western clans in investigating and defeating the forces of Chaos. Options are suggested if the Player Characters decide to go elsewhere, but it is expected that they will follow the thane’s command. The Player Characters have several choices in terms of routes, over the mountains, through the swamps, and so on, and the landscape of the ‘Eastern Valley of Dalur’ feels dark and dreary, often blighted by dark acts of the past that are highlighted in the various encounters which can be had in the region. Making for the hillfort village of Graenn, the Player Characters have the opportunity to rescue the villagers from the encroaching influence of Chaos.
The scenario’s finale takes place in the ‘Reft’, a portal to the edge of existence through which the wormspawn of Chaos that is Talaat can reach out and feed upon, sending his hosts to render the world into a barren wasteland. In order to stop Talaat’s assault on their world, the Player Character must enter the ‘Reft’, navigate its changing landscape—hopping across a series of islands moving in random directions and at random speeds—to confront the wormspawn’s regent. Getting across to him is challenging enough in itself and the Judge may want to adjust the process accordingly lest the players’ attention wanes. Suggestions are provided on concluding the adventure and beyond, including what happens if the Player Characters decide to stay on the other side of the ‘Reft’.
Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics #102: Dweller Between the Worlds is decently presented barring the issue with the unprinted map. It is a pity that the image on the front cover does not match the description given of Talaat’s regent. Otherwise, the illustrations are decent and the maps nicely done. Rounding out the scenario is afterword by the author explaining the scenario’s influences which gives it a personal touch.
Dungeon Crawl Classics #102: Dweller Between the Worlds is an entertaining and challenging scenario, offering the players and their characters a surprising variety of situations to deal with and overcome. These situations—the battle and the island hopping in the void—do mean that scenario is not quite as easy to run and thus needs more preparation than other scenarios for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, but get those right and they will be what Dungeon Crawl Classics #102: Dweller Between the Worlds will be remembered for.

Almost like films on the Hallmark channel, Christmas brings with it festively-themed scenarios for Dungeons & Dragons. Typically, they involve Santa Claus getting kidnapped or Santa’s grotto or toy workshop at the North Pole being invaded, and the Player Characters having either to rescue him or deliver presents down all of the chimneys in the world and into children’s stockings everywhere. And the whole affair is wrapped in a kitsch swathe of red, green, and white, whether that is wrapping paper, bows, candy cane sweets, baubles, and whatnot, all of which is being invaded by someone who is monstrously grey and wants to spread misery rather than joy, but who only needs to be shown some love and the error of their ways so that they once again enjoy the bonhomie of Christmas. It is both a well-worn cliché and extremely American. Claus for Concern: A Holiday One-Shot for Christmas is no different. Published on the Dungeon Masters Guild, it is a scenario for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition.

Claus for Concern: A Holiday One-Shot for Christmas is designed to be played by Player Characters of between First and Fifth Level. However, it will require some scaling up and down to be suitable for the extremes of that range, whereas as written it is designed for Player Characters of Third to Fifth Level. It is intended to be completed in one session, but depending on the players could last as long as two. Although there are maps—drawn by Dyson Logos—for both the players and the Dungeon Master, it is a pity that there are no ready-to-play pre-generated as that would have supported the scenario as a one-shot and would have made it easier to set up and run.

The scenario begins with the Player Characters being approached by several Kringle Elves looking shell-shocked. They implore the Player Characters for help—they have escaped from Santa’s Workshop after it has been invaded by Frost Goblins, Ice Sprites, and Snowy Bugbears, and both Santa Claus and his wife Myra Claus are missing. They implore the Player Characters to come to their aid, return with them to the North Pole, investigate what has happened, and save the Workshop—and in the process, Christmas! What follows is a linear affair. The Player Characters arrive at the North Pole, make their way through the gingerbread and candy-styled North Pole Village, its byways scattered with various gift-wrapped presents (which the Player Characters are free to open), and into the Santa’s Workshop. It is not until they begin to descend into the workshop below the Player Characters encounter any opposition. Technically, what the Player Characters are doing is descending an inverted tower, so the stairs are actually backwards on the map, but everything they find is festively themed, but smashed to bits. Someone definitely does not like Christmas.

Ultimately, the Player Characters will encounter the villain of the piece—a very icy ‘Christmas Witch’. She is a fairly tough opponent and the scenario does warn the Dungeon Master that there is the danger of a ‘Total Party Kill’ if she is not careful. She has a very frosty feel and that follows through on her choice of spells. In addition, the scenario follows through on the ice theme in terms of its monsters. These include Mimics as both presents and Christmas trees, Snowy Bugbears armed with Frosty Morningstars and Icicle Throws, Ice Sprites, Frosty Winged Kobolds with Icicle Spears and Chill Wind from their buffeting wings, and others. Stats are also included for Santa Claws and Myra Claws. The invention also a stocking full of magical items, all themed, such as Rudolph’s Nose of Everlasting Light, Fruitcake of Greater Healing, Red Fur-lined Coat, and Santa’s Holiday Bag of Holding, the latter which might just be a Bag of Holding.

Physically, Claus for Concern: A Holiday One-Shot for Christmas is a neat and tidy affair. Bar the cover it is not illustrated, but as you would expect, the maps are excellent. The scenario is well written, but as a consequence of being linear, there is one moment where if the Player Characters cannot get through a door—which they need to in order to reach the climax, the monsters break it down from the other side. Which undermines player and character agency.

To be clear, Claus for Concern: A Holiday One-Shot for Christmas is Christmas cliché from start to finish. It is a turducken stuffed with mince pies, studded with bow-tied candy canes, slathered with bread sauce, soaked in egg nog, and covered in brandy and set alight whilst pulling two Christmas crackers with an equally festively anointed turducken Dungeons & Dragons Christmas cliché. However, it is a decently done cliché and perfectly playable, and there is even some invention involved that makes it stand out from the traditional Dungeons & Dragons Christmas fare, not least of which is the almost pun of a title. So if a Dungeon Master and her group want to play a Dungeons & Dragons Christmas-themed scenario, then Claus for Concern: A Holiday One-Shot for Christmas is definitely what they want for Christmas.

A Yuletide Snowball Massacre: A Ridiculously Festive Battle Royale for 5E is an adventure for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Published by Critical Kit, it is designed for a party of six Player Characters of Third to Fifth Level and is intended to be played in a single session, either as a one-shot or as part of an ongoing campaign. As the title suggests, this is a very different type of scenario, a Player versus Player battle in a snowbound arena for the entertainment for others, last one standing wins the battle and a prize! Although nominally set in the same campaign world of the Western Lands as the publisher’s other scenarios for Dungeon & Dragons, Fifth Edition, the scenario is really setting agnostic. All it needs is a winter with plenty of ice and snow and some kind of midwinter festival—it need not be Christmas, and the setting have a court of winter fey. Other than that, the scenario does require some set-up. The only given background is that Queen Mab of the Winter Court desires some entertainment and this time it is the Player Characters’ turn to fight each to death in the Perpetual Winter Arena. So the Player Characters may have come to the attention of Queen Mab before and be selected because of that or they may simply be selected at random. In whatever way it is set up, the scenario is easy to slot into a campaign, whether between adventures or an interlude or even dream sequence during an adventure. The scenario can even start en media res with the Player Characters suddenly waking up in the arena and having to fight.

The scenario does begin with some advice about player expectations. This revolves around things—Player Character death and Player Character interaction. For the former, it suggests that the players be made aware that death in the arena is not necessarily final—although if run as a one-shot, that may not be the case, since the players will not be as attached to their characters. For the latter, it suggests that the players embrace the fun. There are guidelines too, for the Dungeon Master on handling certain spells, but these are kept short, and for the most part, the Dungeon Master will need to make rulings at the table as normal.

A Yuletide Snowball Massacre takes place in the Perpetual Winter Arena. This is a snowbound forest glade and marked with spawn points, an icesheet where everyone can lose their footing, and present boxes that the Player Characters can open Present Boxes to find potions of healing, Candy Cane Wands, and the dread Snowbody! The latter is an evil snowman which is stealthy in snow, has sharpened twigs to attack with, and frost breath. They can also be summoned when a Player Character activates the one-shot Candy Cane Wands, which can also fling snowballs, an Ice Mephit at a target, turns the caster’s nose into a carrot or forces him to make snow angels for a round, or covers the caster in glitter and makes them look fabulous and thus, difficult to attack. There is a table of effects which the player can roll whenever his character uses a Candy Cane Wand. As a bonus action, the Player Characters can also throw snowballs at each other.

As an arena scenario, A Yuletide Snowball Massacre comes with a twenty-four by sixteen-inch poster map on sturdy paper and in full colour. This is a scenario which definitely requires counters or miniatures. There are also stats for the Snowbody monster, plus details of the Candy Cane Wand, Boompowder Baubles, and the Snowbody Stone, the latter the ultimate prize for the winner standing at the end of the battle royale.

Physically,  A Yuletide Snowball Massacre is decently presented, everything is easy to grasp, and the map is rather nice. It is an easy scenario to use, but it would have been useful if there had been stronger advice on the set-up or the ways in which the scenario could be used.

A Yuletide Snowball Massacre is not going to be suitable for every gaming group or campaign, at worst being a frivolous diversion, at best a frivolous and festive diversion, some light-hearted Player Character versus Player Character action. However, as more than a one-shot, the inventive Dungeon Master could doubtless find a reason to work A Yuletide Snowball Massacre: A Ridiculously Festive Battle Royale for 5E into her campaign.

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 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 Five Go Mad in Egypt, Return of the Ripper, Rise of the Dead, Rise of the 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 depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

—oOo—
Name: Good Vibes OnlyPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Phaedra Florou & Stars Are Right

Setting: Modern day England
Product: ScenarioWhat You Get: Forty-six page, 38.86 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: “Why can’t the Mythos make you happy?”Plot Hook: A spiritual retreat is the place to find a newer, better you.
Plot Support: Three NPCs, six handouts, two maps, one Mythos tome, six Mythos spells, and one Mythos monster.Production Values: Decent.
Pros# Shot modern one-shot# Can be adapted to other periods and places# Creepy, culty sense of otherness# Surprisingly benign scenario # Horribly in-game handouts# Neophobia# Cherophobia# Anthrophobia
Cons# NPC led in places# Short
Conclusion# New Age horror involving the loss of self and becoming the new you at a definitely well-intentioned spiritual retreat# Well-intentioned happiness is sure to get all the players’ backs up, but remember, “Breathe deeply, calm yourself… everything will be alright.”

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 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 Five Go Mad in Egypt, Return of the Ripper, Rise of the Dead, Rise of the 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 depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

—oOo—
Name: Tears of a ClownPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Paul Mazumdar

Setting: 1890s Cambridge University
Product: ScenarioWhat You Get: Sixteen page, 3.88 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: “Dare to wear the foolish clown face.” – Frank SinatraPlot Hook: A missing friend might just have run away with the circus.
Plot Support: Five NPCs, five pre-generated Investigators, five  handouts and maps, one Mythos tome, and two Mythos monsters.Production Values: Decent.
Pros# Cthulhu by Gaslight scenario# Short, one session scenario# Makes use of Operate Heavy Machinery# Creepy, crawly, repugnant investigation# Nice addition of the historical detail# Entomophobia# Seplophobia# Festumtoyphobia# Coulrophobia# Scoleciphobia# Autophobia
Cons# Needs a slight edit# Makes use of Operate Heavy Machinery# Underwritten in places# Maps are small
Conclusion# Creepy, crawly, repugnant investigation which combines a lot of  horrifying elements and things people are afraid of.# Short and direct scenario which is underwritten in places, but supported with excellent illustrations

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 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 Five Go Mad in Egypt, Return of the Ripper, Rise of the Dead, Rise of the 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 depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

—oOo—
Name: The FuneralPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Michał Pietrzak

Setting: Jazz Age Lovecraft Country
Product: ScenarioWhat You Get: Sixteen page, 847.69 KB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Some imaginary friends are the stuff of nightmares.Plot Hook: A family funeral unleashes forgotten fears.
Plot Support: Eleven NPCs, two handouts, three occult tomes, one Mythos tome, one Mythos spell, and three (Mythos) monsters.Production Values: Simple.
Pros# Lovecraft Country scenario# Dreamlands adjacent?# Adaptable to Cthulhu by Gaslight or the modern day# Eerie sense of unreality# Somniphobia# Oneirophobia
Cons# Needs a strong edit# No manor floor plan
Conclusion# Short, one session low-key investigation with an unsettling sense of Gothic unreality by night and grey normality by day# Suitable for a small group of Investigators, who should all be related

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 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 Five Go Mad in Egypt, Return of the Ripper, Rise of the Dead, Rise of the 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 depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

—oOo—
Name: A Chill in Abashiri – A 1920s Taisho-Era Japan ScenarioPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Michael Reid

Setting: 1920s Japan
Product: One-shotWhat You Get: Thirty-nine page, 9.57 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Sometimes the cost of isolation leaves you out in the cold.Plot Hook: A dead guard at Japan’s prison lures the Investigators into a deadly plot to protect the nation.
Plot Support: Four pre-generated Investigators, nine NPCs, eight handouts/maps, one Mythos tome, two Mythos spells, and one Mythos god.Production Values: Decent.
Pros# Very different historical setting# Period politics# Excellent handouts# Refreshingly different and detailed mystery# Entertaining “I predict a riot” set-piece# Frigophobia# Agoraphobia
Cons# Needs an edit# Period politics# Not Ithaqua?# Needs an extra list of NPC names and crimes
Conclusion# Excellent, focused investigation with a suitably frigid feel throughout reflecting the politics of the period# Strange Aeons-style scenario in which the Investigators confront the Mythos in a different time and place

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 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 Five Go Mad in Egypt, Return of the Ripper, Rise of the Dead, Rise of the 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 depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

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Name: The Wolf in the LabyrinthPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Malcolm Harbrow

Setting: Jazz Age Arkham
Product: ScenarioWhat You Get: Twenty-two page, 1.31 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: What are you prepared to sacrifice to save someone?Plot Hook: A missing author of macabre stories might just get the Investigators lost.
Plot Support: Eleven NPCs, seven handouts, one map, one Mythos artefact, and no Mythos monsters.Production Values: Simple.
Pros# Lovecraft Country scenario# Solid investigation# Can be tied into Miskatonic University# Refreshingly different mystery# The Mythos can only be managed, never defeated...# Adaptable to Cthulhu by Gaslight or the modern day# Suitable for one, two, or three Investigators# All investigation, no action# Would suit an Investigator with the Artist Occupation# Mazeophobia# Artophobia# Diokophobia
Cons# Needs a slight edit# No stats for the NPCs# The Mythos can only be managed, never defeated...# All investigation, no action
Conclusion# Excellent low-key investigation with a claustrophobic feel involving a variation upon a classic Mythos artefact whose effects can only be managed, never defeated.# Suitable for a small group of Investigators, but lacks stats for the various NPCs

1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, will releasing the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles to be reviewed. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game was published in 2002. Published by Eden Studios, Inc., best known for the definitive roleplaying game of zombie action and survival, All Flesh Must be Eaten, it is an adaptation of the cult television series which ran between 1997 and 2003. Set in the California town of Sunnydale, it depicts the lives, loves, and conflicts of a group of friends who fight vampires. Or rather a group of friends who help out Buffy Summers, a girl in high school who becomes the ‘Slayer’, or Vampire Slayer, chosen and empowered fate to battle against vampires, demons and other forces of darkness. Despite wanting to live a normal life, Buffy is constantly stalked and attacked by vampires, whilst other powers—known in the series as ‘Big Bads’—plot against her, all attracted to Sunnydale because it sits atop a Hellmouth. As a Slayer, Buffy is aided by a Watcher, who guides, teaches and trains her, and helped by her friends, who are collectively known as the ‘Scooby Gang’ in reference to the long running cartoon. As much as the term ‘Scooby Gang’ is appropriate, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is very much a more modern approach to the idea of monster hunting, reflected in the look and tone of the series, dealing up three parts action-horror, irony, and feeling combined with strong positive roles and depictions of its characters, especially the female ones.
The Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game is designed to be played in two ways. First, it can be played using the cast from the television series, and to that end, character sheets are provided for the series’ protagonists up until season five. This is perfect for one shots or convention games, and like many licensed roleplaying games is an attractive means to introduce fans of a particular intellectual property to the concept of roleplaying. However, the second way is playing using characters of the players’ own creation, as is standard in most roleplaying games. That comes up against an issue. Which is, who plays the Slayer? There is only meant to be one Slayer, although as the Buffyverse expands, this is not the case. This ranges from the initially canonical there can only be the one Slayer or one and a replacement Slayer to a handful of Slayers and male or canine Slayers! It all depends on how far the gaming group wants to diverge from the television series. In part, who gets to roleplay the Slayer is important because just as in the television series, the Slayer in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game is very powerful, the other roles less so (although over time they can grow into their own).
A character in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game is defined by Attributes, Qualities and Drawback, and Skills, as well as Drama Points. The six attributes are Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Perception, and Willpower. Qualities are advantages and Drawbacks are disadvantages. Attributes typically range between one and five, but can be higher depending on character type and Qualities selected. Skills range between zero and ten in value. Character creation begins with selecting a Character Type, each of which defines the number of points which can be assigned to Attributes, Qualities and Drawback, and Skills. Three are given—White Hat, Hero, and Experienced Hero. White Hats are ordinary folk, like Xander Harris or Willow Rosenberg, specialised in particular skills, such as magic, knowledge, or the occult, and who on their own, have difficulty facing a vampire. Heroes are stronger and faster, able to face a vampire one-on-one and destroy it, such as Buffy or Riley of the Initiative. Experienced Heroes are even stronger and represent Buffy later in the television series, but are not recommended for starting play. Although there is no Character Type for it, some of the Scooby Gang from the series are designed as Experienced White Hats. Once a Character Type is chosen, it is a matter of assigning the points and designing the character, often building out from a Quality based on the player’s concept, for example, a Watcher character requires the Watcher Quality or a warlock or wizard would need the Sorcery Quality. The character creation is not difficult and is clearly explained, plus the book includes not only twelve starting Player Characters or archetypes as examples, including New Slayer, Watcher, Former Vampire Groupie, Psychic, Beginner Witch, and more, but also character sheets for all of the major cast and members of the Scooby Gang, including Spike and Angel, with adjustments season by season, from seasons one to five.
Theodore Buckner is from Philadelphia, but has been sent to Sunnydale to live with his grandmother, whilst his parents are working abroad. He has learned to be self-sufficient and strong willed because he has been bullied at school ever since he can remember, whilst at home, he has learned to keep an eye on his grandmother and her medications, as she is often housebound. He loves reading and playing Dungeons & Dragons, and was fascinated by some books he found in his grandmother’s library which revealed that magic is real. Now he can play his favourite character Class, a Warlock!
NAME: Theodore BucknerCHARACTER TYPE: White HatCHARACTER CONCEPT: Gamer turned WarlockLife Points: 28Drama Points: 20ATTRIBUTESStrength 1 Dexterity 2 Constitution 2 Intelligence 4* Perception 3 Willpower 5*(1 Level from Nerd Quality)
QUALITIES (+8 from Drawbacks)Good Luck-2 (+2), Hard to Kill-2 (+2), Nerd (+3), Occult Library (+1), Sorcery-2 (+10)
DRAWBACKSUnattractive (-1), Clown (-1), Misfit (-2), Dependent (Grandmother) (-2), Teenager (-2)
SKILLSAcrobatics 0 Art 0 Computers 2 Crime 0 Doctor 1 Driving 0 Getting Medieval 0 Gun Fu 0 Influence 1 Knowledge 4 Kung Fu 1 Languages 1 Mr. Fix-It 0 Notice 0 Occultism 1 Science 3 Sports 0 Wild Card (Dungeons & Dragons) 2Manoeuvres / Bonus / Base / Damage NotesDodge / 2 / — / Defense actionMagic / 8 / Varies By spellStake / 2 / 0 / Slash/stab (Through the Heart) 0 2 ×5 vs. vampiresTelekinesis / 7 / 2 × Success Levels Bash or Slash/stab
Mechanically, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game uses the Unisystem mechanics first seen in All Flesh Must Be Eaten. Or rather, it uses a stripped-down version called Cinematic Unisystem designed for faster, more dynamic play, which would go on to be used in several of Eden Studios, Inc.’s  other roleplaying games, including the Angel Roleplaying Game, Army of Darkness Roleplaying Game, and Ghosts of Albion Roleplaying Game. To have his character undertake an action, a player rolls a ten-sided die, and adds either the appropriate attribute and skill or double the attribute if no skill is involved, plus any bonuses from appropriate Qualities. The roll itself can be modified for difficulty and other factors, but the aim is always to roll nine or more. A typical White Hat will be adding five or six to this roll at most, whilst a Slayer, even a starting Slayer, will be adding twelve in combat. The aim here is not just to succeed, but to roll multiple Success Levels, one for every two points above nine. This determines how well the Player Character performed or how much of a task he completed, or how much extra damage he inflicted in combat. Besides standard actions, the rules cover research, fear checks or ‘getting the wiggins’, but the main focus is upon combat.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is an action-horror television series and the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game is an action action-horror roleplaying game, and both cinematic in style. In fact, it is also a martial arts action-horror roleplaying game, because the Slayer in particular, will be engaging in jump kicks and spin kicks and sweep kicks, slam tackles, and more as well as decapitations, feints, dodges, wrestling holds, and so on, not forgetting of course, Through the Heart stake action. Gun combat is covered in the rules, but Buffy the Vampire Slayer is all about the cinematic, martial arts action rather than shooting things—which would attract the police—and so all of those martial arts manoeuvres are built into the roleplaying game, and whilst the players should be noting them down on their character sheet, there is very handy list and their effects in the back of the book. Success Levels count for a lot in the game as the greater the number of Success Levels a Player Character can generate, the more damage he can inflict, and in some cases, the greater the multiplier to determine the damage inflicted. Most notably, the damage done when attempting to stake a vampire through the heart. This is not instant in the game, it is possible to miss the heart, but if the damage exceeds the target vampire’s Life points, then he is done and dusted. This modelled by applying a multiplier of five to the Success Levels to determine the damage done.
With Qualities such as Slayer and Hard to Kill, as well as high physical attributes and combat skills, the Slayer will find herself rolling with the punches, spin kicking vamps, and dusting them to death (again) with alacrity. Not so, the White Hats. Even the weakest, newest of vampires represents a severe challenge for them, and unless they get lucky, they are toast. Fortunately, they have two means of withstanding vampire attacks. First is teamwork, hopefully work together until the Slayer can land the final stake. The second is Drama Points. Drama Points are a balancing factor in the game. White Hats have double the number that Heroes have—and they need them.
There are five uses of Drama Points—‘Heroic Feat’, ‘I Think I’m Okay’, ‘Righteous Fury’, ‘Plot Twists’, and ‘Back from the Dead’. ‘Heroic Feat’ grants a +10 bonus to a single roll, in and out of combat; ‘I Think I’m Okay’ halves all of the damage that the Player Character has suffered so far; ‘Righteous Fury’  gives +5 to all combat rolls for a whole fight; ‘Plot Twists’ enables the player to add or change an aspect the game; and ‘Back from the Dead’ does exactly that for characters who are dead. However, once spent, Drama Points are used and cannot be regenerated. Instead, they have to be earned or purchased. The latter uses Experience Points and costs more for a Hero than a White Hat—again enforcing the one advantage that the White Hat has over a Hero. They are earned for coming up with funny, quotable lines in game, for committing heroic acts, and for when something bad happens to a character.
Magic, as per the television series is primarily used as a narrative device, requiring research to determine if a spell is available in the Player Character’s Occult Library, which only contains a limited number of spells until more volumes are found. The rules allow for some magic spells to be cast in combat, but emphasises rituals rather than quickly unleashed bolts of fire. A handful of spells is listed, but the likelihood is that the Player Character Witch or Warlock will be building spells from scratch, which the rules do focus on. To cast a spell, the Witch or Warlock’s player adds the character’s Willpower, Occultism, and Sorcery to a roll of the die. It is not enough to succeed, but the Success Levels rolled must equal the Power Level of the spell, for example, the Power Level of seven for Amy’s ‘Rat-Ification’ Spell. If the number of Success Levels is lower than the Power Level, then there are side effects, and there is a table to determine what they are, which allows for plenty of input from the Director. Lastly, magic using characters can use telekinesis for various things, including attacks. The magic system is fairly short, and would be greatly expanded upon with The Magic Box supplement. For the Player Character Witch or Warlock this supplement is a must, since the core rules really only explore the subject so far… Consequently, this is perhaps where the BBuffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game is at its weakest.
For the Director—as the Game Master is known in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game—there background on Sunnydale and stats and backgrounds for all of its important NPCs. Monsters and vampires have their own chapter too, primarily focusing on vampires and demons, and as well as the means for the Director to create her own, there are stats for just every monster, vampire, Big Bad, and more included in the book. For the most part, the NPC and monster stats are kept simple, with just three attributes— Muscle, Combat, and Brains, along with simplified abilities intended to make them easier to use in play. In addition, there is advice for the Director on setting up and running a series, in particular, how to start with the Big Bad and work out from there, defining his aims and resources, when he will appear in episodes, working out the plot and adding subplots, and then doing the same with episodes. Particular attention is paid to special episodes—season premieres and season finales, all of which should help the Director build a season which emulates the format and structure of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game. It is a very well-done piece of analysis rewritten as advice for the Director.
Then the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game puts all of that advice into practice with the scenario, ‘Sweeps Week’. Set in Sunnydale with the Player Characters in Sunnydale, it presents an intriguing pop culture mystery with more than a few red herrings and plenty of action. It is a great starting adventure which comes with plenty of tips for the Director, gets the tone of the television series rights, and showcases how beginning adventures in rulebooks do not have to be an afterthought. A good adventure in the core showcases the types of adventures it is intended to handle and what the Player Characters should be doing in play, and ‘Sweeps Night’ does that very well.
Physically, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game is incredibly well presented. It is liberally illustrated with photographs from the series, and where artwork is used, such as in the sample archetypes, that too is very nicely done. The book uses the Buffy the Vampire Slayer trade dress very well and similarly, the book is incredibly well written, designed for both the Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan new to roleplaying and the roleplayer new to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The opening fiction sets the scene, as does the overviews of the first five seasons of the television series, with explanations of what the book is in between. Whilst there is no example of character generation, there are numerous examples of Player Characters, both members of the cast and starting archetype characters. The latter are accompanied by backgrounds and roleplaying notes as well, all ready to hand out to the players. Interspersed throughout are quote after quote from the series, further enforcing the feel of the series in the roleplaying game, backed up by the glossary of ‘Buffy Speak’ at the back of the book. This is followed by glossary of gaming terms, reference tables, and an index, and there plenty of examples of the rules in play throughout too, including an extended example of combat, something that modern roleplaying games all too often omit.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a very geeky television series, a combination of action, horror, comedy, and drama, all served up with a very knowing sense of irony. The the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game captures that and not only puts it on the page, but makes it playable. The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game, published by Decipher, Inc. also in 2002, would go on to win the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Game 2002. As a licensed adaptation of its source material, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game is undeniably the superior design and implementation, showing a wonderfully enjoyable and insightful understanding of the source material. Under any circumstances, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game is one of the outstanding roleplaying adaptations, which if there was a list of top licensed roleplaying games, deserves to go in the top five, if not the top three.

Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, the Jonstown Compendium is a curated platform for user-made content, but for material set in Greg Stafford’s mythic universe of Glorantha. It enables creators to sell their own original content for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, 13th Age Glorantha, and HeroQuest Glorantha (Questworlds). This can include original scenarios, background material, cults, mythology, details of NPCs and monsters, and so on, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Glorantha Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Glorantha-set campaigns.

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What is it?The Lottery is a scenario for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.

It is a thirty-one page, full colour, 11.4 MB PDF.

The layout is clean and tidy, and the artwork and cartography excellent. It needs an edit in places.

Where is it set?
The Lottery is set in the river valley of The Deep Cut, just inside the Glowline in Lunar Tarsh.

Who do you play?A set of six pre-generated Player Characters are provided, all members of the same trade party from Esrolia.
What do you need?
The Indagos Bull requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and the Glorantha Bestiary.
What do you get?The Lottery is a one-shot scenario based on Shirly Jackson’s short story, ‘The Lottery’. It begins with an Esrolian trade caravan arriving at a village just inside the Glowline in Lunar Tarsh. Here its members get caught up in a macabre ritual—the voluntary sacrifice to the dread Crimson Bat of villagers, decided by lottery, in order to keep the rest of the village safe. With two members of the caravan taken, it is up to the Player Characters to persuade the villagers to stop this ghastly ritual and rescue their family members being taken away to be eaten!
The Lottery does start with a problem. It has to start with the ritual and get to the point where the cultists of the Crimson Bat take those selected by the lottery before the Player Characters can act. Which involves a fair degree of exposition. However, once the scenario proper does start and they can act, the Player Characters will find themselves racing up and down the valley to reach the other villages and try and persuade their inhabitants that the covenant between them and the Lunar Empire is based on a lie. Fortunately, the Player Characters do have proof, although exactly how is handled in game is underwritten.
Once past the set-up, the players and their characters are free to approach the situation however they want. The scenario focuses on the primary routes across the valley, the Player Characters having the advantage in terms of speed over the Crimson Bat cultists’ wagon, and the NPCs they will have to deal with in the various villages. For the players, there is a pre-generated character each, complete with illustration, whilst for the Game Master, there are stats for the abducted NPCs, the villagers and the local wyter, and the Crimson Bat cultists. There are several handouts and maps. There is also advice on the possible outcomes depending upon the actions of the Player Characters.
The Lottery is a short scenario, intended to be played in a single session. It could easily be run as a convention scenario. It is more difficult to run as a campaign scenario, primarily because the Player Characters are likely to have the Passion of antipathy towards the Lunar Empire and this will influence their initial reactions. None of the provided pre-generated Player Characters have such a Passion.
Is it worth your time?Yes—The Lottery is a clever adaptation of a classic short story to Glorantha, which although requires a degree of exposition, leads to an exciting player driven situation.No—The Lottery is of little use if the Game Master’s campaign is not set in Lunar Tarsh, or near there, or involves Player Characters who right from the start hate the Lunar Empire.Maybe—The Lottery is a difficult scenario to use in an ongoing campaign, primarily due to geography and likely antipathy towards the Lunar Empire, and would be easier to run as a convention scenario.

Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, the Jonstown Compendium is a curated platform for user-made content, but for material set in Greg Stafford’s mythic universe of Glorantha. It enables creators to sell their own original content for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, 13th Age Glorantha, and HeroQuest Glorantha (Questworlds). This can include original scenarios, background material, cults, mythology, details of NPCs and monsters, and so on, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Glorantha Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Glorantha-set campaigns.

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What is it?The Indagos Bull: A Praxian adventure for RuneQuest is a scenario for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.

It is a twenty-six page, full colour, 7.43 MB PDF.

The layout is clean if uneven. The illustrations are decent, but the maps vary in quality. The scenario requires an edit.

Where is it set?
The Indagos Bull: A Praxian adventure for RuneQuest is set in Pavis County, north-east of Garhound, just before before the Big Earth Season Fair.

Who do you play?Player Characters of all types could play this scenario, but Eiritha and Yelm worshippers might be useful as would Orlanth and Ernalda worshippers.
What do you need?
The Indagos Bull requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and the Glorantha Bestiary. Supplements such as Pavis: Threshold to Danger and Pavis: Gateway to Adventure may be useful for background material, but neither is required. 
What do you get?The Indagos Bull: A Praxian adventure for RuneQuest is a mystery and investigative scenario which takes place in Pavis County, north-east of Garhound, just before before the Big Earth Season Fair. It is two days before the Eiritha High Holy Day and the two events that everyone is looking forward to—the Indagos Bull contest and the Indagos Cow contest. Attendees at the Big Earth Season Fair are allowed to bet on the outcome and the winner of each contest will win cash prizes, whilst the winning animals play the central role in the Eiritha Fertility Ritual conducted at the culmination of fair to grant a community blessing that will ensure healthy and numerous offspring from the area’s cattle. For the last twelve years, farmer Bilijo Jyles has won this contest with several prize bulls and ensured a fine blessing for the region in each of those years. Unfortunately, Farmer Jyles’ prize bull for this year has gone missing!
Whether by Farmer Jyles, the Eiritha priestess, or some other authority, the Player Characters are hired to locate the bull, or alternatively, they are merely passing through and see the notices posted about and volunteer to find the missing bull. The scenario itself is presented as a series of clues, locations, and NPCs with an explanation as to what has happened to the bull. The Player Characters are free to follow these in whatever order they like, whether that is visiting the local farmers on their steads, interviewing locals at the tavern, looking for rumours, and so on. The scenario and its solution to its mystery are quite straightforward, but there are one or two wrinkles along the way.

The scenario is supported with notes on Praxian construction and farming, Eiritha and her cult and temples, and more. Farms for two of the major NPCs in the scenario are nicely and appropriately mapped, and whilst there is a regional map, there are no maps of either the town of Indagos or the end scene for the scenario. Also missing is anything about the Indagos Cow contest, which might be something that the Player Characters could make enquiries about. Sadly, the missing bull is not named. The scenario can easily be adjusted to fit elsewhere. For example, perhaps the missing bull could be a case for the Player Characters from Tales of the Sun County Militia: Sandheart Volume 1?
Written and published as part of the ‘Storytelling Collective’, The Indagos Bull is rough around the edges, and can be best described as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘The Adventure of Silver Blaze’ meets Radio 4’s The Archers, but in Prax’. However, its plot is solid and relatively simple, and above all, engaging. The scenario is also short and could be run in a single session.
Is it worth your time?Yes—The Indagos Bull: A Praxian adventure for RuneQuest is a solidly plotted and clearly presented missing bull mystery, that although rough around the edges, can easily be added to a campaign set in Prax.No—The Indagos Bull: A Praxian adventure for RuneQuest is of little use if the Game Master’s campaign is not set in Prax or Eiritha is not an important figure.Maybe—The Indagos Bull: A Praxian adventure for RuneQuest is useful if the Game Master wants to take her campaign into Prax, but adapting it outside of Prax might take extra effort.