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, released 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. 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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Gangbusters: 1920’s Role-Playing Adventure was published by TSR, Inc. in 1982, the same year that the publisher also released Star Frontiers. It is set during the era of Prohibition, during the twenties and early thirties, when the manufacture and sale of alcohol was banned and criminals, gangs, and the Mafia stepped up to ensure that the American public still got a ready supply of whisky and gin it wanted, so making them incredibly wealthy on both bootlegging whisky and a lot of other criminal activities. Into this age of corruption, criminality, and swaggering gangsters step local law enforcement, FBI agents, and Prohibition agents determined to stop the criminals and gangsters making money, arrest them, and send them to jail, as meanwhile the criminals and gangsters attempt to outwit the law and their rivals, and private investigators look into crimes and mysteries for their clients that law enforcement are too busy to deal with and local reporters dig deep into stories to make a big splash on the front page. In Gangbusters, the players take on the roles of Criminals, FBI Agents, Newspaper Reporters, Police Officers, Private Investigators, and Prohibition Agents, often with different objectives that oppose each other. In a sense, Gangbusters takes the players back to the explanation commonly given at the start of roleplaying games, that a roleplaying game is like playing ‘cops & robbers’ when you were a child, and actually lets the players roleplay ‘cops & robbers’.

There had, of course, been crime-related roleplaying games set during the Jazz Age of the twenties and the Desperate Decade of the thirties before, most notably the Gangster! RPG from Fantasy Games Unlimited and even TSR, Inc. had published one in the pages of Dragon magazine. This was ‘Crimefighters’, which appeared in Dragon Issue 47 (March 1981). Similar roleplaying games such as Daredevils, also from Fantasy Games Unlimited and also published in 1982, and Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes, published Blade, a division of Flying Buffalo, Inc., the following year, all touched upon the genre, but Gangbusters focused solely upon crime and law enforcement during the period. Lawrence Schick, rated Gangbusters as the ‘Top Mystery/Crime System’ roleplaying game in his 1991 Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games.

Although Gangbusters is a historical game, and draws heavily on both the history of the period and on the films which depict that history, it does veer into the ahistorical terms of setting. Rather than the city of Chicago, which would have been the obvious choice, it provides Lakefront City as a setting. Located on the shores of Lake Michigan, this is a sort of generic version of the city, perfectly playable, but not necessarily authentic. Whilst the ‘Rogue’s Gallery’ in Appendix Three of the Gangbusters rulebook does provide full stats for Al Capone—along with innumerable notorious gangsters and mobsters and upstanding members of the law, Lakefront City even has its own version of ‘Scarface’ in the form of Al Tolino! To the younger player of Gangbusters, this might not be an issue, but for the more historically minded player, it might be. Rick Krebs, co-designer of Gangbusters, addressed this issue in response to James Maliszewski’s review of the roleplaying game, saying, “With eGG and BB eager to have a background in their childhood city (if you thought Gary’s detail on ancient weapons was exacting, so was his interest in unions and the Chicago ward system), TSR's marketing research leaned toward the original fictional approach.” 

Gangbusters was first published as a boxed set—the later second edition, mislabelled as a “New 3rd Edition”, was published in 1990. (More recently, Mark Hunt has revisited Gangbusters beginning with Joe’s Diner and the Old School Renaissance-style Gangbusters 1920s Roleplaying Adventure Game B/X). Inside the box is the sixty-four-page rulebook, a sixteen-page scenario, a large, thirty-five by twenty-two-inch double-sided full-colour map, a sheet of counters, and two twenty-sided percentile dice, complete with white crayon to fill in the numbers. The scenario, ‘“Mad Dog” Johnny Drake’, includes a wraparound card cover with a ward map of Lakefront City in full colour on the front and a black and white ward map marked with major transport routes on the inside. The large map depicted Downtown Lakefront City in vibrantly coloured detail on the one side and gave a series of floorplans on the other.

Gangbusters followed the format of Star Frontiers in presenting the basic rules, standard rules, and then optional expert rules. However, Star Frontiers only got as far as providing the Basic Game Rules and the Expanded Game Rules. It would take the release of the Knight Hawks boxed supplement for it to achieve anything in the way of sophistication. In Gangbusters, that sophistication is there right from the start. The basic rules are designed to handle fistfights, gunfights, car chases and car crashes, typically with the players divided between two factions—criminal and law enforcement—and playing out robberies, raids, car chases, and re-enactments of historical incidents. This is done without the need for a Judge—as the Game Master is called in Gangbusters—and played out on the map of Downtown Lakefront City, essentially like a single character wargame. In the basic game, the Player Characters are lightly defined, but the standard rules add more detail, as does campaign play. In this, the events of a campaign are primarily player driven and plotted out from one week to the next. So, the criminal Player Character might plan and attempt to carry out the robbery of a jewellery store; a local police officer would patrol the streets and deal with any crime he comes across; the FBI agent might go under surveillance to identify a particular criminal; a local reporter decides to investigate the spate of local robberies, and so on. Where these plot lines interact is where Gangbusters comes alive, the Player Characters forming alliances or working together, or in the case of crime versus the law, against each other, the Judge adjudicating this as necessary. Certainly, this style of play would lend itself to would have been a ‘Play By Post’ method of handling the planning before the action of anything played out around the table and on the map.

Yet despite this sophistication in terms of play, the crime versus the law aspect puts player against player and that can be a problem in play. Then if a criminal Player Character is sent to jail, or even depending upon the nature of his crimes, executed—the Judge is advised to let the Player Character suffer the consequences if roleplayed unwisely—what happens then? There are rules for parole and even jury tampering, but what then? The obvious response would have been to focus campaigns on one side of the law or the other, rather than splitting them, but there is no doubting the storytelling and roleplaying potential in Gangbusters’ campaign mode. Gangbusters is problematic in three other aspects of the setting. First is ethnicity. The default in the roleplaying game is ‘Assimilated’, but several others are acknowledged as options. The second is the immorality of playing a criminal and conducting acts of criminality. The third is gender, which is not addressed in terms of what roles could be taken. Of course, Gangbusters was published in 1982 and TSR, Inc. would doubtless have wanted to avoid any controversy associated with these aspects of the roleplaying game, especially at a time when the moral panic against Dungeons & Dragons was in full swing, and given the fact that it was written for players aged twelve and up, so it is understandable that these subjects are avoided. (The irony here is that Gangbusters was seen as an acceptable roleplaying game by some because you could play law enforcement characters and it was thus morally upright, whereas despite the fact that the Player Characters were typically fighting the demons and devils in it, the fact that it had demons and devils in it, made Dungeons & Dragons an immoral, unwholesome, and unchristian game.)

In the Basic Rules for Gangbusters, a Player Character has four attributes—Muscle, Agility, Observation, and Presence, plus Luck, Hit Points, Driving, and Punching. Muscle, Agility, Observation, Luck, and Driving are all percentile values, Presence ranges between one and ten, and Punching between one and five. Punching is the amount of damage inflicted when a character punches another. To create a character, a player rolls percentile dice for Muscle, Agility, and Observation, and adjusts the result to give a result of between twenty-six and one hundred; rolls a ten-sided for Presence and adjusts it to give a result between three and ten; and rolls percentile dice and halves the result for the character’s Luck. The other factors are derived from these scores.

Jack Gallagher
Muscle 55 Agility 71 Observation 64 Presence 5 Luck 36
Hit Points 18 
Driving 68 Punching 3

At this point, Jack Gallagher as a basic character is ready to play the roleplaying game’s basic rules, which cover the base mechanic—a percentile roll versus an attribute, plus modifiers, and roll under, then fistfights, including whether the combatants want to fight dirty or fight fair, gunfights, and car chases. Luck is rolled either to avoid immediate death and typically leaves the Player Character mortally wounded, or to succeed at an action not covered by the attributes. Damage consists of wounds or bruises, gunshots and weapons inflicting the former, fists the latter. If a Player Character suffers more wounds and bruises than half his Hit Points, his Muscle, Agility, Observation, and movement are penalised, and he needs to get to a doctor. The basic rules include templates for things like line of sight, rules for automatic gunfire from Thompson Submachine Guns and Browning Automatic Rifles, and so on. The rules are supported by some excellent and lengthy examples of play and prepare the player to roleplay through the scenario, ‘“Mad Dog” Johnny Drake’.

So far so basic, but Gangbusters gets into its stride with its campaign rules. These begin with adding small details to the Player Character—age, height and weight, ethnic background, rules for age and taxes (!), and character advancement. Gangbusters is not a Class and Level roleplaying game, but it is a Level roleplaying game. As a Player Character earns Experience Points, he acquires Levels, and each Level grants his player a pool of ‘X.P. to Spend’, which can be used to improve attributes, buy skills, and improve already known skills. So, for example, at Second Level, a player has 10,000 X.P., 20,000 X.P. to spend at Third Level, and so on, to spend on improvements to his character. It costs between 2,000 and 5,000 X.P. to improve attributes and 20,000 X.P. to improve Presence! New skills range in cost between 5,000 X.P. and 100,000 X.P.

Thirty-five skills are listed and detailed, ranging from Auto Theft, Fingerprinting, and Lockpicking to Jeweller, Art Forgery, and Counterfeiting. Some are exclusive to particular careers. Each skill is a percentile value whose initial value is determined in the same way as Muscle, Agility, and Observation. When a Player Character is created for the campaign, in addition to a few extra details, he also receives one skill free as long as it costs 5,000 X.P. This list includes Auto Theft, Fingerprinting, Lockpicking, Photography, Pickpocketing, Public Speaking, Shadowing, Stealth, Wiretapping.

In addition to acquiring ‘X.P. to Spend’ at each new Level, a Player Character might also acquire a new Rank. So, a Rookie Local Police Officer is likely to be promoted to a Patrolman and then a Patrolman to a Master Patrolman, but equally, could remain a Patrolman for several Levels without being promoted.

Jack Gallagher
Ethnicity: Irish American Age: 25 
Height: 5’ 9” Weight: 155 lbs.
Features: Brown hair and eyes, crooked nose
Muscle 55 Agility 71 Observation 64 Presence 5 Luck 36
Hit Points 18
Driving 68 Punching 3
Skill: Auto Theft 89%

Rather than Classes, Gangbusters has Careers. These fall into four categories—Law Enforcement, Private Investigation, Newspaper Reporting, and Crime. Law Enforcement includes the Federal Bureau of Prohibition, Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.), and local city police department; Private Investigation covers Private Investigators; Newspaper Reporting the News Reporter; and Crime either Independent  Criminals, Gang members, and members of  Organized Crime Syndicates. In each case, Gangbusters goes into quite a lot of detail explaining what a member of each Career is allowed to do and can do. For example, the Prohibition Agent can make arrests for violations of the National Prohibition Act; can obtain warrants and conduct searches for evidence of violations of the National Prohibition Act; can destroy or confiscate any property (other than buildings or real estate) used to violate the National Prohibition Act; close down for one year any building used as a speakeasy; and can carry any type of gun. There are notes too on the organisation of the Federal Bureau of Prohibition, salaries, possibility of being corrupt, possible encounters, and notes on how to roleplay a Prohibition Agent. It does this for each of the careers, for example, how a Private Investigator picks up special cases, which are rare, and how a News Reporter gets major stories and scoops. The Crime careers covers a wide array of activities, including armed robbery, burglary, murder, bootlegging, running speakeasies, the Numbers racket, loansharking, bookmaking, corruption and more, all in fantastically playable detail. This whole section is richly researched and supports both a campaign where the Player Characters are investigating crime and one where they are committing it. Further, this wealth of detail is not just important because of the story and plot potential it suggests, but mechanically, the Player Characters will be rewarded for it. They earn Experience Points by engaging in and completing activities directly related to their Careers. Thus, a member of Law Enforcement will earn Experience Points for arresting a felon, when the felon arrested is convicted, for the recovery of stolen property, and more; the News Reporter for scooping the competition, providing information that leads to the arrest and conviction of any criminal, and so on; whilst the Criminal earns it for making money! This engagingly enforces a Player Character role with a direct reward and is nicely thematic.

Further rules cover the creation of, and interaction with, NPCs. This includes persuasion, loyalty, bribery, and the like. In fact, persuasion is not what you think, but rather the use of physical violence in an attempt to change an NPC’s reaction. There are rules too for public opinion and heat, newspaper campaigns, bank loans, and even explosives, and of course, what happens when a crook or gangster is arrested. This goes all the way up to plea bargaining and trials, jury tampering, sentences, and more. The advice for the Judge is kept short, just a few pages, but does give suggestions on how to prepare and start a campaign, and then how to make the game more fun, maintain flow of play and game balance, improvise, and encourage roleplaying. It is only two pages, but given that the rulebook for Gangbusters is just sixty-four pages, that is not too bad. In addition, there also ‘Optional Expert Rules’ for gunfights, fistfights, and car chases, which add both detail and complications. They do make combat much harder, but also much, much deadlier. Finally, the appendices provide price lists and stats for both generic NPCs and members of both the criminal classes and members of law enforcement. The former includes Bonnie Barker and Clyde Barrow, John Dillinger, and Charles Luciano, whilst for the latter, all of the Untouchables, starting with Elliot Ness, are all listed, including stats. Oddly, the appendix does not include a bibliography, which would have been useful for a historical game like Gangbusters.

The scenario, ‘“Mad Dog” Johnny Drake’, is a short, solo-style adventure that is designed to be played by four players, but without a Judge. It includes an FBI Agent and three local detectives, all pre-generated Player Characters, who are attempting to find the notorious bank robber, ‘Mad Dog’ Johnny Drake. It is intended to be played out on the poster map and sees the Player Characters staking out and investigating a local speakeasy before they get their man. The scenario is quite nicely detailed and atmospheric, but the format means that there is not much of the way of player agency. Either the players agree to a particular course of action and follow it through, or the scenario does not work. Nevertheless, it showcases the rules and there are opportunities for car chases and both shootouts and brawls along the way. If perhaps there is a downside to the inclusion of ‘“Mad Dog” Johnny Drake’, it is that there is no starting point provided in Gangbusters for the type of campaign it was meant to do.

Physically, Gangbusters: 1920’s Role-Playing Adventure feels a bit rushed and cramped in places, but then it has a lot of information it has to pack into a relatively scant few pages. The illustrations are decent and it is clear that Jim Holloway is having a lot of fun drawing in a different genre. The core rules do lack a table of contents, but does have an index, and on the back of the book is a reference table for the rules. Pleasingly, there are a lot of examples of play throughout the book which help showcase how the game is played, although not quite how multiple players and characters are supposed to be handled by the Judge. Notably, it includes a foreword from Robert Howell, the grandson of Louise Howell, one of the Untouchables. This adds a touch of authenticity to the whole affair. The maps are decently done on heavy stock paper, whilst the counters are rather bland.

–oOo–

Gangbusters: 1920’s Role-Playing Adventure was reviewed by Ken Rolston in the ‘Reviews’ department of Different Worlds Issue 29 (June 1983). He identified that, “…[T]he model of the “party of adventurers” that has been established in science fiction, fantasy, and superhero gaming is inappropriate for much of the action of Gangbusters; private detectives have always been solitary figures (who would think of the Thin Man or Sam Spade in a party of FRP characters?) and if players variously choose FBI agent, newspaper reporter, and criminal roles, it is hard to see these divergent character types will be able to cooperate in a game session. At the very least, the Gangbusters campaign will have a very different style of play from a typical FRP campaign.” before concluding, “Gangbusters is nonetheless a worthwhile purchase, if only as a model of good game design.”

–oOo–

Although mechanically simple, Gangbusters shows a surprising degree of sophistication in terms of its treatment of its subject matter and its campaign set-up, with multiple Player Character types, often not playing together directly, but simply in the same district, and often at odds with each other. However, it is not a campaign set-up that the roleplaying game fully supports or follows through on in terms of advice or help. It represents a radical change from the traditional campaign style and calls for a brave Judge to attempt to run it. This would certainly have been the case in 1982 when Gangbusters was published. The likelihood though, is that a gaming group is going to concentrate on campaigns or scenarios where there is one type of character, typically law enforcement or criminal, and these would be easier to run, but alternatively the Judge could run a more montage style of campaign where different aspects of the setting and different stories are told through different Player Characters. That though, would be an ambitious prospect for any Judge and her players.

Gangbusters: 1920’s Role-Playing Adventure is a fantastic treatment of its genre and its history, packing a wealth of information and detail into what is a relatively short rulebook and making it both accessible and readable. For a roleplaying game from 1982 and TSR, Inc. Gangbusters combines simplicity with a surprising sophistication and maturity of design.

And that does it for 2022. Everyone be safe and warm (not that the latter is a problem in Dallas this weekend),and if you feel so inclined for New Year’s Eve festivities in Dallas that don’t involve terrible driving and … Continue reading →

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, released 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. 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.

—oOo—
SoloQuest was published in 1982. It is an anthology of solo adventures published by Chaosium, Inc. for use with RuneQuest II, a roleplaying not really known for its solo adventures, unlike, for example, Tunnels & Trolls. However, 1982 marked the beginning of a solo adventure trend with the publication of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, the first Fighting Fantasy adventure which would introduce roleplaying and solo adventures to a wider audience outside of the hobby. SoloQuest presents three mini quests of varying complexity and storylines, but all playable in a single session or so. They are best suited to a Player Character who can fight, knows a degree of magic, and who also has a few decent non-combat skills. A Player Character with a weapon skill of 60% or more and the Healing and Protection spells, plus some Detect spells—which for RuneQuest II would have been Battle magic—will be challenged by these scenarios, but not overly challenged.

SoloQuest—now part of the SoloQuest Classic Collection—is written by Alan LaVergne, who also designed its sequels, SoloQuest 2: Scorpion Hall and SoloQuest 3: The Snow King’s Bride, and who also been a member of Steve Perrin’s Pavis campaign. It contains three scenarios, ‘DreamQuest’, ‘Phony Stones’, and ‘Maguffin Hunt’. The first of these is ‘DreamQuest’ in which the Player Character’s god sends him off on a mini-heroquest in which he will face four random opponents before an encounter with a foe that is definitely his equal. This is not an adventure for Rune Masters, but someone aspiring to that position, and success means that the Player Character is well rewarded. There is greater chance of skill improvement and raising the Player Character’s POW, and if successful on the first attempt, gaining favour with both god and cult such that an extra bonus is granted to becoming a Rune Master and learning a cult Rune spell. The fights themselves are to the death, but the Player Character is not physically harmed when he awakens since the combats take place in his dreams. For the same reason, any Chalana Arroy initiate on this ‘DreamQuest’ is not only allowed to participate, but also attack his opponents—although putting to sleep counts as a victory! The rules for adjusting to each fight are quite detailed, but essentially, the Player Character begins each fight alone, weapon in hand, and ready to assess the opponent. The set-up also suggests that the player keep a detailed record of the fights to track spell effects and the like, and avoid any confusion.

Where ‘DreamQuest’ shines is in its range of NPCs and combatants—all twenty of them! Infamously, they include Errol, a swashbuckling Manticore; Lucky the Human athlete against whom the Player Character must run an assault course; ‘Huey & Looie’, a pair of Death Ducks; and Elvis, a Centaur armed with bow and lance. All come with not just the full stats, but also their reaction to the Player Character and a detailed breakdown of their actions over the course of the melee. ‘DreamQuest’ is primarily an exercise in mechanics and working out how the combat rules of RuneQuest II work, one that can be both replayed by a Player Characters and played by different Player Characters. Yet it also serves as a showcase for the occasional weirdness of RuneQuest and Glorantha, as well as a source of NPCs for the Game Master.

The second solo adventure is ‘Phony Stones’. This begins with a lot more story. Someone is selling fake statues of Issaries in the city of Whitewall and the cult has brought in Zero, a Lhankor Mhy scholar who claims to be the world’s greatest living detective, but in a nice nod to Rex Stout’s Nero Wolf, never leaves the city. Fortunately, he has deduced that the culprit is hiding in one of ten houses on the same row in nearby Slime Haven. The Issaries cult hires the Player Character to do the physical investigation and the scenario begins with him outside the first house in the row. The Player Character can approach the houses in any order, each one mini-adventure in itself. Approaching each house follows the same procedure. First, casting spells such as Detect Life, Detect Enemies, Detect Magic, and Detect Gold, then entering the house and encountering the occupants. Most will be hostile towards the interloper, at least initially, and the Player Character will need to work hard to gain their trust. Once gained, the Player Character can begin to learn more about each of the inhabitants along the row as he moves from house to house, putting clues and facts together to determine who the culprit is.

Yet despite its story potential, ‘Phony Stones’ does not quite work as an investigative, mystery style scenario. To begin with, the Player Character has no real means of interacting with the NPCs other than fighting them or threatening them. Nor is he given any real means of actively hunting for clues. Effectively, this means that the Player Character cannot use the Spot Hidden skill or ask the inhabitants questions, so it feels more like the player is reading the plot of mystery which has been deconstructed on purpose and it is his job to put it back together. Neither does it help that the clues are not particularly easy to spot. Of course, building those elements into the scenario would have made each mini-adventure at each house all the more complex and difficult to design and present. Ultimately, it highlights the difficulty of designing a scenario of this type for solo play and just how close the designer got to creating an effective scenario. ‘Phony Stones’ is not without its merits. There is flavour and detail here if the player and his character can get to it, plus there is actually much more going on in Slime Haven than at first seems. If the Game Master was to extract this plot and then both develop and run it as a non-solo scenario for a single Player Character or a few, it would work very well.

The third and final solo adventure is ‘Maguffin Hunt’. The Player Character is hired by the Duke of Jawain to recover a ‘maguffin’, which has been stolen by some Dwarves. As the scenario opens, the Player Character stands outside their hideout, a small cave complex. Stealth is important as the player will track his character’s Noise level throughout the adventure. Amounting to just over one hundred entries, this cave complex consists of mostly tunnels plus a few rooms and barely a handful of encounters. The player will need to map his character’s exploration as it does involve a lot of going back and forth and trying one tunnel after another. The majority of the encounters are combat based and actually consist of multiple paragraphs that the player will need to work through as each fight progresses. The adventure itself is not that interesting nor is it that easy to keep track of the Player Character’s movement without drawing a map. Ultimately, what lets the scenario down is that the Player Character cannot succeed in locating the ‘maguffin’. This is because it simply is not in the cave and the dwarves do not have it. If there was some hint as to where it was or even a sequel scenario in which the Player Character could find, it would be another matter. As it is, ‘Maguffin Hunt’ is a disappointing end to the trilogy.

Physically, SoloQuest is cleanly written and presented. All of the paragraphs are organised into their own boxes which makes them self-contained and easy to find. Similarly, the various NPCs and monsters and enemies are neatly and clearly organised and presented. Bar the occasional silhouette, SoloQuest is unillustrated.

–oOo–
SoloQuest was reviewed several times in 1982 and 1983.

Forrest Johnson reviewed the anthology in The Space Gamer Number 55 (September 1982) in the ‘Capsule Reviews’ department. He described ‘DreamQuest’ as “[T]he first and best of the three.”; was critical of ‘Phony Stones’ and “[T]he frustration and futility of this scenario.”; and due to the fact that it was impossible to complete and suffered from difficult to identify paragraphs, described ‘Maguffin Hunt’ as a “[F]orgettable scenario.” He concluded with, “SOLOQUEST is not the best solo adventure booklet around, but if you play RuneQuest, there is not much competition. I hope Chaosium takes more care with future adventures.”

Writing in White Dwarf Issue 37 (January 1983) for ‘Open Box’, Clive Bailey was more positive, stating that, “Overall, I found this adventure pack easy and enjoyable to play.” He summed up the anthology, saying that, “The adventures are full of non-player characters ready for use in your own adventures and the ‘unusual’ encounter at the end of DreamQuest is an especially good idea. You can also run all three adventures as referee and player mini-scenarios (Phony Stones is even better played that way). Finally my rating combines playability and value for money.” He awarded SoloQuest a total of nine out of ten. (It should be noted, just as the review does, that at the time of the review’s publication, Games Workshop was printing RuneQuest and its various supplements, including SoloQuest, under licence from Chaosium, Inc.)

In the ‘Reviews’ department of Different Worlds Issue 27 (March 1983), Anders Swenson was also more positive. After initially explaining the nature of solo adventure books, he described ‘Phony Stones’ as being “[T]oo subtle”, whilst praising the other two scenarios. He finished with, “For a first book of solo adventures, SoloQuest is a great success. Alan Lavergne has demonstrated a good grasp of solo adventure design, and the layout and typography provide an excellent setting for the well-written text. This book is highly recommended for all RuneQuest players.”

Trevor Graver reviewed SoloQuest in the ‘Game Reviews’ section of Imagine No. 6 (September 1983). He was critical of the fact that “…RQ cults are referred to frequently, but the book carries no warning of this. If you haven’t got the Cults of Prax, it will lessen the entertainment value of this book.” However, he concluded that, “This apart, SoloQuest is a nice addition to the RuneQuest family. I look forward to the sequels.”

–oOo–
The adventures in SoloQuest can all be played using RuneQuest II, or if the player has access to it, a copy of RuneQuest Classic. The player will also need access to a copy of Cults of Prax. Armed with both, the player can happily play through SoloQuest without any issue. However, it is entirely possible to play through SoloQuest using the modern iteration of the roleplaying game, RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. The mechanics are similar and there is a conversion guide, plus the player will not need access to a copy of Cults of Prax. If this is done, the player will need to adjust the opposition his character will face, at least for martial characters. Such characters are like to have double the skill of any opposition they face in the three scenarios, if not triple the skill in some situations, so will need to adjust accordingly. Less martial characters will be on more of an equal footing with the NPCs and monsters they will face in the trilogy of solo adventures.

In terms of the three adventures in SoloQuest, ‘DreamQuest’ is the most accessible and easiest to play, and it is replayable. ‘Phony Stones’ is the most interesting and has both the best story and plot, as well as the most potential for roleplaying. Consequently, it has the most potential for development into a proper scenario run by a Game Master. ‘Maguffin Hunt’ is the scenario most like a traditional solo adventure, but unfortunately not a very interesting one.

SoloQuest feels like an experiment in solo adventures for RuneQuest, one that almost works, but not quite. Even the ones that do not quite work have potential. After all, there is nothing to stop the Game Master from playing and then developing them, or the player just simply playing them. Plus, as part of the SoloQuest Classic Collection, both Game Master and player will more and bigger and better adventures to play than presented here.

A lot of things can be said for the year to be ended this week, and “boring” is not even remotely one of them. Divorce, moving, reorganizing the gallery, renovations, record drought, property owner changes, Day Job changes, show changes … Continue reading →

When you die, your skeleton’s duty is ended and it hatches, leaving its fleshy, but rotting shell behind, and goes in search of both refuge and self. Some never make it. Some are buried too deep. Some are cremated. Some fall into the clutches of necromancers and some are destroyed by torch and pitchfork wielding villagers. Others though do find their consciousness and refuge, far away from the world of both Humanity and oxygen. Under the sea, on the ocean floor where they make new lives for themselves amidst the Sulphur Spires, along the Reef Roads, in the Final Shipyard, and at The Bottom of the Barrel. (It is a meeting place for undersea creatures specially constructed with an air half and a water half so that crabs, fish, wizards, witches, skeletons, and any other creatures can meet in safety.) They must deal with the mercantile Crab Cabal whose members always know what your credit rating is, Sleep Jelly (fish) that steals a Skeleton’s memories, and the oh so silent Cephalopods—so silent that they surely have to be planning something, as well as the occasional Wizard who descends into the ocean depths to continue his studies. In this strange world, the skeletons explore the ocean floor, walking, rather than swimming as they are no longer encased in the flesh which would give them buoyancy, climbing underwater mountains and ridges, absorbing the memories of those they touch to learn more about the oceanic world around them, making new memories for themselves. They are truly Bones Deep…
Bones Deep is a subaquatic setting for Troika!, the Science Fantasy roleplaying game of baroque weirdness published by the Melsonian Arts Council. Published by the Technical Grimoire Games following a successful Kickstarter campaign, it is a toolkit to run adventures on the bottom of the sea, sandbox fashion, in which Skeletons explore a whole new world, discover its secrets, get involved in the various sea factions and their feuds, and begin to make a new life for themselves. Inspired by real deep-sea life, it combines this with strange fantasy to present twenty locations, such as the Graveyard Lake or Kelp Forest; some fifty creatures, including Otters, Shark Hydras, and Witches; and some thirty-six spells, all ocean themed, like Air Bubble, Coral Shaping, and Undertow. It includes a handful of stories to help start a campaign, including finding out what the secret plans of the Cephalopods are, curing Wizards, repairing the Sunken Barge—a space barge which fell to the Earth and crashed into the sea, and is now occupied by a Necromancer! The Sunken Barge is one of the few mapped locations in Bones Deep.
Given that Bones Deep is written for use with Troika!, it should be no surprise that Skeletons in the setting are lightly defined, primarily by their Skills, Backgrounds, Abilities, and Drives. A Skeleton is first defined by his Background. There are six in Bones Deep. The Newborn is recently hatched, learns skills quickly, and is confused with flesh still clinging to his bones. The Carver turns to scrimshaw in pursuing the deepest of arcane secrets, channelling magic through the runes he carves into his bones. The Keeper misses the sensations of his former flesh and so offers his ribcage, skull, and the kelp on his arms as home for various creatures who will follow his commands. The Junker remains fascinated with technology and tools, so salvages debris from the seabed and tinker with gadgets it embeds into his bones. The Shifter has realised that just as his Skeleton is no longer limited by its former fleshy home, his bones are no longer limited to the humanoid form, so with effort shift into different forms which possess different skills. The Infested not only recalls his hatching with horror, he is also home to a squirming parasite that changes him, torments him, and wants it to consume him.
Skeleton creation itself is very simple. A player selects or rolls for a Background, notes down the details, and that is it. He can however, also roll on the ‘Skeleton Generator’ table at the back of the book to determine whether his Skelton is spooky or scary, and what Allegiances, Conditions, Past Life Memories, Clothing, Fleshy Life Skills, Drives, and Quirks he has. These are all optional, intended primarily for use with NPCs, but useful here.
WilfBackground: JunkerBase Skill: 4Stamina: 19Luck: 9Drive: To Salvage
SKILLS5 Taking Things Apart2 Inventing2 Spell – Torpedo Throw2 Spell – Protection from Rain1 Gadget Fighting
POSSESSIONSTinkering Tools, Flowlantern, 3 Flares, Old Coat Rack, Umbrella, Gadget – Bounding Shield, Gadget – Charged Wrench
Mechanically, Bones Deep makes only a few changes to Troika! Drives replace the standard means of healing Stamina and recovering Luck, whilst Stamina becomes even more important than usual. It represents a Skeleton’s energy, motivation, and will to keep going. Whilst a Skeleton no longer has the needs of his former fleshy coating—oxygen and food, love and intimacy—he can still suffer damage. Bones can be broken, crushed, burned, and fall under the influence of necromancy. Spells also cost Stamina to cast. The major ability that every Skeleton possesses is being able to absorb memories. This is a Luck test and if successful, the Skeleton can learn about an object’s past, a creature’s emotions, and the recent changes to an environment. He can also communicate with fish using the same method. However, if a Skeleton fails to absorb a memory, he suffers a Memory Mishap, which can lead to the loss of memories, spells, or other weirdness.
The bulk of Bones Deep can really be divided into two long sections. Almost a third is devoted to a lengthy bestiary of fish, cephalopods, cetaceans, crustations, and jelly fish, plus witches and wizards. Whereas over two thirds of Bones Deep is dedicated to various locations, which run from the Jungle and Silt Rivers and along the Shore Line to Sulphur Spires and Sargasso. Each location includes a description, an associated table of events or things which can be found there, plus nearby locations. For example, at the Graveyard Lake, the table is ‘2d6 Things Dredged from the Lake’. One location is mapped out in detail, the Sunken Barge, but there is a table of encounters too, plus several stories that the Game Master can develop into fuller scenarios.
Physically, Bones Deep is cleanly and tidily presented. All of the undersea creatures are very nicely presented and the writing never less than engaging or interesting. In the particular, the book is full of small details bring the setting to life. For example, the Air Bubble spell creates a bubble of air that can choke a water breather or drag someone to the surface because of its buoyancy or the Teleport spell that underwater that leaves behind a vacuum that causes a shockwave when the caster teleports and compression when he arrives at the desired location that forces him away from the intended destination. Both spells take into account the physics of the subsea environment. All of the creatures have a ‘Mien’ table which determines their behaviour, which for example would be practicing Swordplay, Practising Pacifism (Badly), Swordfighting (Angry), Swordfighting (Mating), Swordfighting (You), and “You talkin’ to me!?” for the Blade Eel, a creature created by the Necromancer “as a living pun”. These various tables lend themselves to a game designed to be run with a minimum of preparation—that is, once a game is got going.
Bones Deep does not have a starting point. There is no beginning scenario, and for all of its atmosphere and flavour and detail, instead of there being a way into the game and setting, the Player Characters just are. Which for a setting as odd as this is a potential problem for some players and their Game Masters. There are plenty of adventure hooks within its pages, but not an easy starting point. Similarly, there is no break between sections in the book. Flip over from one page and you find yourself in a completely different section of the book, going the section on spells to the one on creatures. It is disconcerting.
Bones Deep explores a brilliantly alien world brought to life. It could easily be adapted to the rules system of the Game Master’s choice, but as a Troika! supplement, it is pleasingly self-contained, but could work as a region for Player Characters to explore as part of a Troika! campaign. On its own, Bones Deep is a weird and wonderful and wet standalone campaign setting.

A preamble on the enclosure backstories: At what point is an organism classified as a plant or as a mineral? The flora of the super-Earth world Jessamine pushes the absolute edge of the definition of either. With just short of … Continue reading →

Lots of little things going on here during this time between 2022 and 2023.  I am not sure what day it is or even the time, but hey, here we are.

Hastur, Ifrit Princess, and 3 Goblins in a trenchcoat.
Painted by my wife.

Year of the Monster

I have made some oblique references to this, but 2023 is going to be my Year of the Monster. Going back to my earliest roots of this hobby and talking more about monsters and monster-related topics. So more monsters for NIGHT SHIFT, more Monstrous Maleficarum, and a few other projects I have in my back pocket.

#Dungeon23

So this is one I just found out about. The idea is neat. Detail a new room every day for a 12-level mega-dungeon in 2023. I have never really been a fan of mega-dungeons, BUT as a writing exercise, I can see how it would be fun.  I would want to have a theme and do it for Old-School Essentials. Though I have not made up my mind just yet.

New Year, New Character

I have done this for the past two years, and it was fun.  I had an idea for this year but have run out of time to do it right. Have to think some more about this one.

OGL 1.1 and One D&D

Well. Once again, people are freaking out. Here is exactly everything we know for sure about the new OGL coming out when the next version of D&D is released.

• It will be called "The Open Gaming License 1.1."

And that is it. 

Everything else is, at best, speculation and, at worst, Chicken Little style running around fear mongering.  My personal plans are not changing. I will still publish under the OGL 1.0a, and still use the 3.5, Pathfinder, and 5e SRDs as I see fit.

Other Items

More "This Old Dragon" and other regular features. I am undecided on The April A to Z Challenge yet, and I am pretty sure I will not do another 100 Days of Halloween. But who knows.

Hope everyone is having a great Holiday Season.

It’s been one hell of a year over here at the Texas Triffid Ranch, and it’s definitely been the busiest. As can be told by the posts over here, the gallery hosted more open houses in 2022 than several previous … Continue reading →

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas who celebrates. 

Around here, we give (and receive) a lot of geeky gifts, thought I might show off a few.

I got the new Dungeons & Dragons Trivial Pursuit game.  No idea what is in it, but we might be playing it this New Year's Eve.  OR maybe I'll just read the questions and quiz myself.

Victorian? Horror monsters? England and Ireland? Yes, please!  Got this from my oldest.  My youngest printed off a bunch of demons and devils for me on their 3D printers too.  Expect a review for this one!

My oldest ended up with multiple copies of the new Dragonlance book. So I got this one! ;)

AND after 40 years, I finally got a copy of Steve Jackson Games' Undead!

I am planning a larger review of it, and it's counterpart from TSR, Vampyre.

Both mini-games deal with the hunt for Dracula. So looking forward to playing them both and seeing how they compare. 

I should also point out one other gift.

My wife got me a new photo rig for taking all these pictures.

Still experimenting with lighting, angles, and settings. You will see all the results here.  All the pictures above were taken using this. I even have a spare phone I could use as a permanent mount if I desire. 

December in Texas tends to be a bit weird in that weather issues tend to be a bit more intense than in most places. On any given day, you can wake up to bitter cold, surprising warmth, fog, ice, snow, … Continue reading →

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

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. Another popular choice of system for fanzines, is Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, such as Crawl! and Crawling Under a Broken Moon. Some of these fanzines provide fantasy support for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, but others explore other genres for use with Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game.

Black Powder, Black Magic: A ’Zine of Six-Guns and Sorcery is one such fanzine. Published by Stormlord Publishing, it takes Dungeon Crawl Classics to the Wild West and the Weird West of the 1880s. The discovery of ‘Demon ore’ in the Dakota Territory in the 187os leads to the establishment of the town of Brimstone in South Dakota, conflict with Lakota and other Plains Indians, and a rush to work the mines soon built under the town and the Dark Territories surrounding it, to strike it rich! With it came graft and corruption and Demon Stone and Hellstones. Since Black Powder, Black Magic: A ’Zine of Six-Guns and Sorcery is published as a series of fanzines, its secrets and details are revealed issue by issue rather than in one go. Black Powder, Black Magic: A ’Zine of Six-Guns and Sorcery Volume 1 introduced the setting and got a Judge and her players playing with a ‘Character Funnel’. A feature of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, 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. What those Classes are, are not revealed in Black Powder, Black Magic: A ’Zine of Six-Guns and Sorcery Volume 1, but they are in Black Powder, Black Magic: A ’Zine of Six-Guns and Sorcery Volume 2.

Black Powder, Black Magic: A ’Zine of Six-Guns and Sorcery Volume 2 was published in 2015 and picked up where Black Powder, Black Magic: A ’Zine of Six-Guns and Sorcery Volume 1 left off. It includes new rules and new Classes, changes to existing Classes, magical items, a patron, and more for running a Black Powder, Black Magic campaign under the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. These begin with ‘Armour and Armour Class’ which removes armour from the setting, which would be useless against firearms anyway, in favour a Defensive Bonus based on Class and Level. It represents a Player Character’s combat awareness, use of cover, and simple luck when comes to being in a gun fight. It is a simple solution, more of a fudge to account for the fact that Black Powder, Black Magic is not a realistic Wild West setting, but a pulp horror Wild West setting. Alongside the new rules are a couple of pieces of magical armour, or rather magical items which provide a bonus to Armour Class. A nice touch is that they have their downsides too. For example, the Moonstone Spectacles both protect the wearer from the effects of the midday sun and grant a +2 bonus to Armour Class because they distract opponents, but they also occasionally distract the wearer and force him to attack someone other than the intended target. This combination of a benefit and a penalty makes these magical items more interesting and gives them more than the singular effect within the game.

‘Core DCC Classes in Black Powder, Black Magic’ gives the alterations necessary to make them fit the setting. For the Cleric, there is a choice of Clerical Traditions to chose from, including Protestant Preacher, Catholic Priest, Native Shaman, Chinese Mystic, and Cultist of the Old Gods . These primarily provide choice of weapons and the unholy creatures that each Clerical Tradition acts against, and they are bare bones. Enough to get started, but the Judge may want to add detail to really flesh them out. The Thief distributes points to its Thief Skills according to player choice rather than Alignment as per the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, allowing an element of specialisation. The Warrior is the least changed, being the only Class to be proficient in Buffalo Guns, Cannons, and Gatling Guns. The Wizard is the most changed since magic was but absent from the world until the discovery of Demon Ore. A Wizard in Black Powder, Black Magic requires a Patron, much like the Cleric does, and needs to know or use a True Name when casting magic. This is often the caster’s own name, which becomes woven into the effects of a spell when cast. There are some fun suggestions such as having it appear in the flames of a Fireball spell! The single spell given is True Name Ritual, which enables the caster to learn the True Name of a demon, devil, summoned creature, or even another Wizard. However, the use of the True Name in Black Powder, Black Magic is really only a narrative hook, being required to cast magic, rather then providing any mechanical benefit, that is until the True Name Ritual spell comes into play provides that benefit.

The two new Classes in Black Powder, Black Magic: A ’Zine of Six-Guns and Sorcery Volume 2 are the Gambler and the Prospector. Gamblers vary according to Alignment, Lawful being rare and mostly working licensed establishments, whilst Chaotic Gamblers are common, willing to take big risks for big rewards. The Class has Luck like the Halfling in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, several Thief skills, and in a nice nod to The Maverick always go first in round when drawing a concealed weapon. The Prospector is typically Lawful in Alignment, methodical and practical when extracting the difficult mineral, whilst Chaotic Prospectors often align with dark powers. The Class is used to working in cramped conditions, so can fight close in with the Warrior’s Mighty Deeds of Arms with mêlée weapons, have bonuses to skills related to mining, and with ‘A Nose for the Infernal’, can sense the presence of Demon Ore. The Prospector’s Luck modifier also applies to mining and hunting for Demon Ore, and for mêlée weapons used in mining. The Class can also spend it to negate the negative effects of Demon Ore. Both Classes are fairly lightly done, but come with detail and mechanics changes enough to make them interesting to play as well as fit the setting.

‘John Henry: Steel Drivin’ Patron’ is the only Patron given in the second issue of Black Powder, Black Magic: A ’Zine of Six-Guns and Sorcery. This article does reveal a minor secret to the setting, but primarily provides the folk legend and hero as a Patron. There is a pleasing physicality to the details of the Patron, such as channelling past exertions into the Steel Drivin’ Man Patron spell to gain bonuses to physical abilities for the caster and his allies and the Shake the Mountain Patron spell which with a stamp of the caster’s foot, knocks people and causes buildings to collapse. Unfortunately, having only the one Patron severely restricts player choice when it comes to selecting the Patron for their character, exacerbated by the fact that the Wizard Class also needs a Patron.

Rounding out Black Powder, Black Magic: A ’Zine of Six-Guns and Sorcery Volume 2 is the first entry in the ‘Varmits!’ series. This describes creatures suitable for the setting, and for this issue, it is the Mine Wight, an undead humanoid creature when a miner dies in the presence of Demon Ore or is killed by a Mine Wight. Quiet and cunning, the deadly claws of the Mine Wight leech Luck from a victim when struck. The description is accompanied by a table of folklore to roll on—the article actually begins with how to handle folklore and research in the game—and a basic plot hook. Overall, the monster is decent, the folklore rules useful, and the hook something for the Judge to develop. 

Physically, Black Powder, Black Magic: A ’Zine of Six-Guns and Sorcery Volume 2 is done on pale cream paper with a fittingly buff cover. It is lightly illustrated in black and white, but the illustrations are good and the issue is also well written and overall, everything feels right about this issue. Except of course, it leaves the reader, just as it will the Judge and her players, very much wanting more. There are four issues of Black Powder, Black Magic: A ’Zine of Six-Guns and Sorcery in total as well as the Brimstone Census and Fire Insurance Atlas of 1880, so there is yet more of this setting to explore. However, the actual issues of the fanzine are limited, so are difficult to find and purchase.

Black Powder, Black Magic: A ’Zine of Six-Guns and Sorcery Volume 2 is a solid continuation from Black Powder, Black Magic: A ’Zine of Six-Guns and Sorcery Volume 1. The changes to the Classes make sense to fit the setting and the new Classes good too, but where the issue comes up short is in including only the single Patron. More would have been very useful. Black Powder, Black Magic: A ’Zine of Six-Guns and Sorcery Volume 2 picks up where the first issue left off and delivers more of the same entertaining flavour and feel of a ‘Weird West’ suitable for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, but both Judge and players will be left wanting more.

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.
Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. Then there is also Old School Essentials.
Carcass Crawler Issue #1 is ‘The Official Fanzine Old-School Essentials zine’. Published by Necrotic Gnome, Old School Essentials is the retroclone based upon the version of Basic Dungeons & Dragons designed by Tom Moldvay and published in 1981, and Carcass Crawler provides content and options for it. It is pleasingly ‘old school’ in its sensibilities, being a medley of things in its content rather than just the one thing or the one roleplaying game as has been the trend in gaming fanzines. Carcass Crawler Issue #1 is primarily about character Classes and new options in terms of the Player Character. So it includes six new Classes and three new Races, and rules for black powder weapons, Fighter combat talents, d6 thief skills, and Adjudicating thief skills.
The six new Classes follow standard Old School Essentials rules in that it allows for ‘Race as Class’, whilst the three new Races support the separation of Race and Class as per Old School Essentials: Advanced Fantasy. The six entries of ‘Character Classes’ begin with the Acolyte, a priestly or religious Class which switches out the spell memorisation of the Cleric with percentile skills as per the Thief Class. Although the Acolyte can cast Cleric scrolls from scrolls, it cannot cast spells otherwise. Instead, the Class has Bless, Detect Magic, Know Alignment, Purify, Rally, and Turn Undead as percentile skills. In addition, the Acolyte can Lay on Hands to heal. Designed as a thought experiment, Class is surprisingly untraditional, less divine even, and moves towards a modern presentation of the Cleric. The Gargantua is the opposite of the traditional demi-humans in Dungeons & Dragons—big humanoids rather than small. The Class is a Fighter type, capable of wielding two-handed weapons in one hand, opening doors with ease, and throwing rocks. The opposite of the Gargantua is the Goblin, which with its Defensive Bonus, Infravision, Stealth, and Wolf Affinity is very traditional adaptation of the demi-human race.
The Hephaestan are another Race of demi-humans, tall, thin with angular features and pointed ears. They are not another version of Elves. Instead, they have mental powers including ESP, Gestalt, Healing Trance, Mind Control, Mind Shield, and Telepathy, which can be used twice per day per Level and require activation. However, they also have the Neuropressure ability, a non-lethal combat technique involving the gripping of the back of the neck, which indicates the inspiration for the Class—the Vulcans of Star Trek. The Kineticist are monk-like, but employ mind over matter to manipulate and control kinetic force. The given mental powers include Control density, Crush Life, Kinetic Fist, Kinetic Shield, Throw Weapon, and more, and the Kineticist is obviously inspired by the Jedi of Star Wars. The Mage is the arcane equivalent of the Acolyte. The Class can only cast spells from scrolls, and again, Detect Magic, Open/Close, Rally/Fear, Read Magic, and Suggestion are skills rather abilities. The Mage’s staff can radiate light once per day and can be used to harm monsters that are otherwise invulnerable to mundane attacks. In comparison to the Magic-User, the Mage is more of a physical interpretation of the arcane Class and inspired by Gandalf of The Lord of the Rings, is suitable to low magic settings.
The Acolyte, Kineticist, and Mage are designed by Gavin Norman, the designer and publisher of Old School Essentials, whilst the Gargantua, Goblin, and Hephaestan are designed by James Maliszewski of the Grognardia blog. Of the six Classes, the Gargantua and Goblin will fit easily into a standard fantasy campaign, whereas the others will change the feel of a campaign. The Acolyte and Mage feel suited to a low-powered campaign, notably because they do introduce the possibility of failure in their abilities, rather than the automatic success of casting a spell like the Cleric and the Magic-User. Whereas the Hephaestan and the Kineticist would push the campaign in a Science Fiction direction. Gavin Norman and James Maliszewski collaborate in ‘Character Races’ which present the Gargantua, Goblin, and Hephaestan as standard Races and give the available Classes and maximum Levels for each for use with Old School Essentials: Advanced Fantasy.
‘Black Powder Weapons’ by Gavin Norman and Donn Stroud provides rules for early firearms such as matchlocks, wheellocks, and flintlocks in Old School Essentials. Provides the stats for these weapons, suggests which Classes can use them—non-martial Classes can only use pistols, semi-martial Classes all firearms bar the heavy musket, and martial Class can use all firearms—and describes the specialists, the Gunsmith and the Assistant Gunsmith, who can make and maintain. It also includes the rules for their use with optional rule of their being able to penetrate armour.
Lastly, Gavin Norman’s ‘Optional Rules’ adds three new ways of handling aspects of the Fighter and Thief Classes. For the Fighter Class there is a ‘Combat Talents’ such as Cleave, Defender, and Slayer, which allow the Class to specialise a little further, whilst d6 Thief Skills which scale the Class’ skill down from a percentile range to that of a six-sided die. The Thief gains Expertise Points which the player can assign to the skills, raising each skill from a one-in-six chance on a point-for-point basis. This version offers flexibility and simplicity, as well as a degree of specialisation in how the player assigns the points. If there is an issue here, it is the missed opportunity for to take this means of handling Thief skills and applying it to the earlier Acolyte and Mage Classes to give them the same flexibility. Lastly, Adjudicating Thief Skills is for the Referee, offering suggestions how they can be handled and ruled in play. So for the Climb Sheer Surfaces skill, it suggests that non-sheer surfaces do not require a skill roll, whilst non-Thief Classes will require specialist equipment for sheer surfaces and a Dexterity check under difficult situations. It does this for each of the Thief Skills and expands and explains their use in game to make the Referee’s job easier.
Physically, Carcass Crawler Issue #1 is well written and well presented. The artwork is excellent. 
Carcass Crawler Issue #1 is a pleasing collection of options and ideas, some new, some old, but here presented for Old School Essentials. They present means for the Referee to adjust her campaign and to make it what she wants—at least mechanically in terms of the Player Characters. Some of the content is too different for a standard fantasy campaign and would warrant more of a Science Fantasy setting than is traditional. Carcass Crawler Issue #1 is an enjoyably old school-style fanzine for Old School Essentials.

I am starting off my 2023 Year of the Monster this week with something I have been planning for a while. 

So please allow me to announce the publication of Monstrous Maleficarum, Issue #0 Christmas Special.

From Issue #0:

My goal is to publish a regular series of monsters for the 5th Edition of the World’s First Fantasy Role Playing Game via the Open Gaming License. 

These will be monsters from my regular series “Monstrous Mondays” from my blog The Other Side.  I will be taking what I have learned from my own monster creation over the years and from my reviews on what works well.

This Issue #0 will feature some Christmas-themed monsters and replaces the fifth edition version of Krampus I published years ago. 

Each issue will cover a theme. Sometimes a closely linked set of monsters, or other times other similarities.  The themes will largely be around the myths and legends of our world and other creatures I have found or made in my readings. In particular, the readings around the myths and legends of witchcraft. Thus the “Maleficarum” part of the title.

I will also endeavor to keep each monster to one or two pages so they can easily be printed out for use in your games. Also, my personal goal is to lay out these pages so you could, in theory, print them out and use a 3-hole punch to add them to a three-ring binder like editions of old.  Collect what you want, and ignore the others.

Presently I have nearly 500 monsters ready to go. How many of them will see publication and get into your hands is unknown, but it will be an adventure for us all. 

There will be framing text for each issue brought to you via various NPCs I have used over my 40+ years of gaming experience. Some, like my witch Larina and my undead-hunting cleric Johan will be familiar to readers of my blog. Others, like Jassic here, are maybe only known by name. 

I hope you enjoy this adventure with me. 

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 What on the Border Where? is quite possibly the oddest fanzine possible and either the weirdest or most basic treatment of B2, Keep on the Borderlands possible—if not both. What it is not, as written, is a gameable product. None of the constituent parts of the module appear in the fanzine. Not the Keep on the Borderlands itself, not the Caves of Chaos, not the river or the wilderness. None of it. So if it is not a new treatment of the classic Basic Dungeons & Dragons module that so many of entered into the hobby by playing, then what exactly is The What on the Border Where?
The What on the Border Where? is really two things. First, it is an exercise in memory, and second, via that exercise in memory, it is a way of revisiting old modules and making them playable again. The result is a tool for the Dungeon Master that she can use to create new adventures out of old ones, a way of combining the solo play of journaling with the preparation the Dungeon Master has to do in order to ready a scenario. The example used throughout The What on the Borde Where? is based on B2, Keep on the Borderlands, since it is already familiar to so may Dungeon Masters. Hence the name. However, the process can be applied to other adventures too.
So what does The What on the Border Where? involve? It starts by suggesting two exercises. First, going to the kitchen, opening the cutlery draw and memorising what is in there. Then closing the draw and listing everything in the draw. The second is get both the prospective Dungeon Master of The What on the Border Where? and a friend to think about a film, quickly write its plot on a sheet of paper, and then compare notes. When both done, compare the list with the cutlery draw in the first case and the friend’s description of the plot and yours with each other’s, and also with the actual plot. There will be differences, and the comparison is not correct them, but to highlight them, to see what that is new and how that is interesting. Once those exercises are complete, The What on the Border Where? asks the Dungeon Master to do exactly the same with B2, Keep on the Borderlands. Look at the map of the wilderness in the module which surrounds the Keep and the Caves of Chaos. Do that for two minutes. Then put B2, Keep on the Borderlands aside and draw the map from memory. Then do it again for the Keep. And again, for the Caves of Chaos.
Once done compare the maps and begin to populate them. If the same, use the original entries for the locations. If different, then create something new, whether using wandering monster tables and taking something from other sources. However, The What on the Border Where? does have monster tables of its own, this its only actual gaming content. Then play. Options included in The What on the Border Where? suggest ways in which the Dungeon Master can turn the process from a solo process into a collaborative one with tasks being swapped round from the Wilderness to the Keep to the Caves of Chaos, and so on, so that none of the players are fully aware of what the created adventure contains.
Physically, The What on the Border Where? is cleanly and tidily presented. Much of it consists of plain map pages with notes on how to draw the maps from memory and the appropriate map symbols as you would expect for a Basic Dungeons & Dragons module from TSR, Inc.
The The What on the Border Where? never explores the obvious issue between the playthrough of the original module and the playthrough of what is a simulacrum of the original module. Just how far does the new memory-based simulacrum of the module have to deviate from the original before it is no longer what was played? How many exercises does the Dungeon Master have to conduct on new simulacra after the first, before what she is left with is not really based on her memories at all and almost exactly unlike B2, Keep on the Borderlands?
The What on the Border Where? is about nostalgia, a big feature of the Old School Renaissance. Essentially, it is not replaying the adventure that you first played forty years ago, but about recreating your memories of it and what you think you played, and playing that. It is also playing with and upon our memories of doing so, but in a way that leads to the creation of something potentially different, whether because our memories are wrong or we have forgotten things about the module. Ultimately, it is telling the Dungeon Master that the details of what was played do not matter, but the memories of what was played do. Yet, is that achieving anything, except delving into memories of what was and reliving them once created? Is that a viable alternative to reobtaining the module, in this case, B2, Keep on the Borderlands, and simply replaying again? Will that not trigger those same memories with a playthrough decades since the last or first, along with new ones based upon the playthrough again of what was originally played, rather than what might just be an idea of it?
The What on the Border Where? is at best an interesting idea in memory recreation that is never really explored and is reductive is what it creates. At worst, it is a complete waste of time, one that adds nothing to B2, Keep on the Borderlands as a module and does not guarantee that Dungeon Master will have anything worth running at the end of it. Ultimately, it might just be simpler to order a copy of B2, Keep on the Borderlands and play that and so create new memories.

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.