Music & RPG Zines (Rockin' the Apocalypse)
Plus Angus McSix and a totally titular AI article!
At first, I was excited when I came across an article called “10 Iconic songs that you didn’t know were inspired by Fantasy literature.” Alas, as happens all too frequently these days, its AI origins were soon apparent. The “author” claims that Michael Moorcock collaborated with Deep Purple on the song “Stormbringer” and that the song is about Elric’s sword. Neither are true, of course.
The article is not without merit, however. It leaks out the carefully guarded secret that Blue Öyster Cult is changing their name to “Blüë Öystër Cült.” The veteran Long Island rockers understandably feel the need to compete with up and coming bands like the following:
The article also uses the word “seminal” four times and “titular” five times. As Jack Kerouac said in The Buck Dharma Bums, “One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple. And I will use the same ones over and over again.”
RPG & Music Zines
We’re in the middle of ZineQuest, and I have discovered several TTRPG zines that have music themes and/or influences. Looks like apocalypses will be in fashion this Spring! Here are some of the ones that caught my attention:
Highway to Hell is a DnD 5E zine with seven “heavy metal flavoured fiendish boss battles that can be run as a one-shot, side-quest or as drop in boss battles!”
H2O-Pocalypse is a Dungeon Crawl Classics compatible zine of “Surf Punk Piracy in a Drowned world.” Stefan Surratt has an informative interview with designer Josh Yoder about the project. I love that my favorite movie Repo Man was an influence, along with bands like Agent Orange and the Cramps.
Metal Gods of the Apocalypse is a “system-agnostic TTRPG mini-campaign setting about the wasteland, demon slayers, and heavy metal music.”
Rock the Apocalypse takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where rock and roll music still survives. “Music isn't just part of the setting, it is also an integral part of the gameplay. Replacing the usual position of a Bard, your setlist will be a part of your combat repertoire.”
TAPE is “a 2 player rules-lite RPG Zine centered around making playlists.” Designer Michael Hawkins says, “With this project, I wanted to capture the experience of using music to help convey a message.”
Wizard Van is “the in your face, rules light roleplaying 'zine where you're Cutting Heads across the psychedelic, power metal fantasy realm you've seen across a thousand album covers simply known as Where Rock Never Dies.” Critical Hit Parader favorite Loot the Body created a song called “Wizard Van” for the zine, and pledgers receive a digital copy of the track.
Wizard Van creator James M. Spahn has been sharing the music that helped inspire the game, including these two instant classics by the charmingly over-the-top Angus McSix featuring Thomas Winkler and his band of modern power metal all stars:
Only a couple of days left on this one, so check it out along with the other music and RPG zines!
In terms of the next issue of Critical Hit Parader’s titular zine, I think it is coming together nicely, but I don’t want to crowdfund it until it is complete. Therefore, I am sitting out ZineQuest this year. I’ll share more info on the zine later down the road. Meanwhile, the seminal issue is available from Goodman Games.