Fight On 2 Review

Fight On ​#2 is 88 pages full of old school gaming goodness. It’s printed by Lulu, which means that at 88 pages it is stapled and not bound. Some people like that because it’ll lay flat on a table if you want it to.

Fight On

Lulu

The interior is black and white. There is a lot of art from the usual public domain suspects, a wide range of art pieces of varying quality, and some hand-drawn maps scanned straight from the square paper the DM used to draw them on.

What else is there in this magazine? And what does “old school” mean? I’ll side-step the question and answer that “I know it when I see it.”

What’s different from other magazines out there? The black and white interior, no fancy layout, no fancy ads, no fancy maps, no Open Gaming License (OGL), and therefore no stuff derived from the System Reference Document (SRD). In other words, stat blocks will be very generic. In one of the dungeons bugbear stats are listed as “LVL 3, HTK 16, 14, 9, DC 6, SPD 12, very quiet and sneaky, armed with double-bladed axes.” As we see more of these stat block one liners we start getting a glimpse of that “old school” vibe.

Not using the OGL has a benefit for contributors: The magazine only asks for the right to print the work in the issue it’s originally published in. Authors keep all remaining rights.

But what do readers get?

Here’s what I liked:

• Three tables that describe elves. You roll on these charts to generate some characteristics to kick-start your imagination. The table entries are suitably weird for a race of faery creatures. The tables can be used by players and game masters alike.
• An article describing the penguins as a player race complete with racial abilities, a stat block reminding me of old AD&D monster manuals, flavor text, and four awesome drawings including a nunchuck wielding penguin. Hilarious!
• A list of powers for characters of draconic descent. You are supposed to roll randomly for the power gained, and as you gain powers, there’s an ever increasing chance of your character turning into a real dragon. Here’s dragon born and dragon disciples light for your campaign.
• A short character write-up using those draconic powers, and a short character write-up of a corsair captain.
• Several random tables to help you create weird monsters inspired by the elements and some examples thereof.
• A dungeon level suitable for first level characters with over twenty rooms featuring crab men, evil halflings, their faery gang lord, a mysterious otherworldly being, as well as the obligatory goblins. There’s also the promise of a whole megadungeon to be continued in future issues.
• A random table to tell you what monsters are doing and a random table for dungeon locations to serve as inspiration when you’re suffering from prep block.
• A list of seven magic swords with a single paragraph description each.
• A rule suggesting that “shields shall be splintered” effectively allowing characters to sacrifice a shield in order to avoid a single hit. It’s an awesome rule that I’ll be using in my campaigns. The article then follows up with two magic shields.
• A rule suggesting all characters gain an “entourage” as an alternative to having a cohort and hiring henchmen. The entourage approach regulates inheritance, seniority, experience gained, loyalty and betrayal. It seems to be an excellent house rule starting point for a campaign focused on a big group of people – a wandering circus, a stronghold, a coven, a thieves guild.
• A random inn name generator, based once a again on tables, as well as a table for random visitors and a paragraph describing each of them. This seems simple to use and effective if the party decides to stay at an inn.
• A hex map for a mini campaign with lots of locations and their denizens. That’s what I love!
• An essay by one of the players in the very first dungeon, ever. A report of a player who played a session with Dave Arneson. An interview with Dave Arneson. I love these glimpses into our game’s history and enjoyed these three articles very much.
• An adventure for *Empire of the Petal Throne*. This adventure, as well as several blog posts online, made me order a reprint of the book from the seventies – it’s very much like D&D of old, but a bit different, with a setting based on non European mythology. The monster names, the city names, the titles, the exclamations, the rituals, all have exotic names. A small adventure is a great way to showcase such a strange setting.
• A city map without any labels at all. I personally have little use for city maps in my adventures, but I know players like to stare at city maps, color and label buildings, and point at their targets. That’s why it is important to have city maps without labels for the players to make them their own.
• Five simple monsters described with a minimum of stats and a paragraph of text, each of them with a special ability or two. Enough to make them interesting but short enough to be useful.
• Eight simple magic items with a pragraph of text each. These items all have a benefit and a risk associated with them, making them interesting without requiring lots of backstory and player buy-in.

Here’s what I did not like as much:

• A strange bird tower with a rather linear progression of rooms and a confusing numbering scheme that didn’t work for me. I guess it was supposed to illustrate the three dimensional aspect of the dungeon.
• Extra rules to handle panicked mounts and knights falling off their horses. It would seem to me that this will take all the drama out of combat scenes involving mounted combat. And I’m already seeing very little of that in my campaigns. There’s no need to make it even harder for the paladins in my games.
• Strange items to buy at a magical shop. I haven’t had much success in my campaigns with herbs to smoke with benefits and the risk of a penalty. My players just wouldn’t use them. That’s why I doubt that these items – while flavorful – would be a success in my games.
• A collection of alcoholic beverages with extraordinary effects. I feel that these effects push the beverages into the realm of magical items and potions. As such, they don’t seem powerful enough, but at the same time their description is too wordy for a simple inspirational item. A single paragraph per spirit would have been enough.
• Two humor pieces, one being a flow chart, the other being a comic. The flow chart was funny but I felt I had already seen too many similar charts online. The comic was ok, but I guess I’m just not that into D&D jokes.
• A discussion of how to build a wilderness map for a campaign based on random tables and common sense. I much prefer the real thing: maps and locations à la *Wilderlands of High Fantasy* or *Points of Light* as a jump start for a new campaign.
• Three magic items for barbarians with two to five paragraphs of text each. I’m not a big fan of strange magic items.
• Two new weapons based on gunpowder. I’m not planning on playing in a steampunk setting any time soon, but I guess it would work for somebody in such a situation.
• A list of spells with an eye on counterspelling. There are offensive spells and defensive spells with various effects depending what offense meets what defense. I fear that the system looks neat on paper but will cause a lot of rule references at the table. I’m not sure I want to encourage magic duels where non-casters are left out of the action.
• A campaign backstory written in-character. I don’t have much use for such things; they are an entertaining read, but not as good as a book and not as useful as a mini-campaign consisting of a map and locations. Yes, I love old school hex maps.

Conclusion: I loved it! I bought all other issues as well. The wide range of articles and drawings, and the maps and drawings less polished in particular, encouraged me to write things up and submit them. I loved it, and I wanted to be a part of it. That’s how cool it was!

I was published in *Fight On* issue 4.

​#RPG ​#review

Comments

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Sounds excellent! I gotta get my hands on this.

Thanks, Alex.

– greywulf 2009-03-18 00:12 UTC

greywulf

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I submitted this review to RPGnet and to EN World as well. I should write more reviews. 😄

to RPGnet

to EN World

– Alex Schroeder 2009-03-18 00:35 UTC

Alex Schroeder