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Vacant Ritual Assembly #4 Pay What You Want
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Vacant Ritual Assembly #4
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Vacant Ritual Assembly #4
Publisher: Red Moon Medicine Show
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 07/20/2018 04:54:16

An Endzeitgeist.com review

The fourth installment of the Vacant Ritual Assembly ‘zine clocks in at 24 pages, 1 page front cover, 2 pages of editorial/ToC and notes on recommended files/media, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 20 pages of content, so let’s take a look. It should be noted that the pages are laid out in the standard 6’’ by 9’’ (A5) pamphlet style for many OSR-zines, which means you can fit up to 4 pages on a given sheet of paper – in theory. In practice, printing this one out yielded issues for all printers I used, which may be relevant to your interest. I am not penalizing the pdf for that, though.

As before, the default OSR-rules assumed herein are the LotFP (Lamentations of the Flame Princess) rules. The content is suggested for mature audiences.

We begin this issue with an article on “The Abstract” – no, not the general notion, but rather an etablissement where dope-fiends, disgraced scholars and other patrons cavort in the hazy twilight. In short, this sounds like my kind of place. Here, you can meet Albertus Crowe, leader of the esoteric Severn Circle, Gretchen Silt, the rather wealthy “whore of Sable Priory”, a man caught in the lotus-dreams of Narcosa (nice nod to Rafael Chandler et al.’s massive community project) and the dope-victim Vole, ever stumbling around on errands for his fugue masters. 8 esoteric discussion subjects and a nice artwork kinda made me actually want the place and its eclectic crowd to be real. For one pace, this is an impressive little section.

Speaking of Narcosa – we get a mini-adventure in the setting next, namely “The Lotus Eater” – to briefly discuss it, I need to go into SPOILERS. Players should skip to the Spoiler-end.

..

.

Only referees reading this? Great! So, Francolo Pennington is a young and privileged dilettante, escaping his rather overbearing family with Amber Lotus – however, his dreams have become persistent between highs, and so he fashioned himself Czar in his own narcotic dream. If you’ve played “What Remains of Edith Finch” – it’s that type of scenario, only that his physical body remains comatose and alive. In order to “free” the lad, the PCs will have to physically kill his avatar in Narcosa! We get a one-page handout (well-crafted!) and a 1-page hex-map, as the PCs explore this part of the ephemeral drug-vision land! Strange villagers, sporest of the smoke wolf (yes, with stats) and weirder things (particularly if you have the FREE Narcosa-book!) await, and we even get some rumors! The PCs, ultimately, will make their way to the Godhead Citadel, the symmetrical, head-shaped (smoke billowing from the eyes) lair of the Czar, where he makes for a nice boss. Really cool mini-adventure! While the maps don’t come with a player-friendly, key-less version, I still was rather happy with this one.

/SPOILERS.

A guest joint venture with Anxious P is up next, with the Oolai Cloth-Skins and Blackhides as two cultural traditions, where alligator priests sew magical cloth in strange rites to select few; 6 different magical effects are presented alongside 4 different drawbacks; where regular cloth-skinning leaves parts of the body exposed, Black-hiding essentially creates a warrior/killer-caste of folks sewn, from head to toe, into magical black alligator hides… 4 different prices demanded by the Oolai sewers are included. INSPIRED! I adored this grim and twisted little article. My one complaint here would be that it’d have been nice to get a suggested approximate SP-value for these…services.

After this, we take a look at another mini-hex environment, the barbarian territories, where three dreaded barbarian tribes loom; Glacierhorde, Skiverhorn and Gnashmaws. The first worship mighty Ghosthide (lavishly depicted in a great b/w-artwork!)…and much like the other tribes, we get multiple stats for members and “gods” of the tribes; for the sSkiverhorn, that would be Impalor, the Armored Death, a triceratops-y godbeast. Gaining favors from these titans is noted, as are mechanically-relevant benefits from doing so. If you’re playing e.g. “Wolf Packs and Winter Snow”, then this should be a must-have section; even if you don’t, it’s very much worth getting, ending the content section of this issue with a summa summarum verdict of all killer, no filler.

The interview this time around is with none other than David McGrogan.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are back to a more precise standard than previously. Layout adheres to a 1-column b/w-standard and artworks and maps are surprisingly copious for a humble little ‘zine; as a whole, aesthetics-wise, this is pleasant indeed. The pdf has no bookmarks, however, which serves an unpleasant comfort detriment.

After the disappointing third issue, Vacant Ritual Assembly is back with a bang! Clint Krause and Anxious P deliver one amazing little ‘zine that oozes ideas and cool things in every single component. The Narcosa-adventure is suitably weird and does not suffer from last issue’s magic item inflation; stats are precise and the writing is smart – this is by far the best Vacant ritual Assembly installment I’ve covered so far, and is definitely worth checking out if the weird and outré are even remotely to your tastes. Considering that this pdf is super-inexpensive, I feel justified in rounding up from my final verdict of 4.5 stars. Were it not for the lack of player-friendly versions of the maps (srsly – this has really nice ones for a ‘zine!) and bookmarks, this’d have received my seal of approval sans hesitation. Definitely recommended!

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Vacant Ritual Assembly #4
Publisher: Red Moon Medicine Show
by Sophia B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/30/2015 03:23:29
http://dieheart.net/vra-zine-four/

This 22-pages-magazine is written with Lamentations of the Flame Princess in mind and thus contains weird and gothic horror stuff. I’m a subscriber of the zine and so far I have been impressed by the quality of the work.

The zine begins with an editorial, a campaign update of Krause’s group and some media recommendations (i.e. the From the Vats adventure by Gavin Norman).

The Abstract describes a strange drug den hangout with some weird occupants.

ALBERTUS CROWE Crowe is the charismatic leader of the Severn Circle, a fraternal order of occultists and mages who lurk throughout the realm. Crowe is the author of an influential grimoire entitled The Last, Most Glorious Fuck, a controversial sex-magic autobiography […] For me, this was mostly a fun read and nothing I could use immediately at the table.

The next item is the gem of this issue: The Lotus Eater, a small adventure inspired by Rafael Chandler’s Narcosa setting book. This is a great plug-in module as the players will be transported into a parallel realm. There is a hook which draws the players in and then they can encounter strange things in The Domain of the Cruel Lotus Czar. There is the Smoke Wolf who resides in the a sporest (spore forest) and the Godhead Citadel, a small dungeon within a stone head. So strange! The dungeon is a bit static but all in all, the adventure is pretty neat. I like how the players can cleverly incorporate background information into the solution to this quest.

Next up is a guest post from Anxious P. called The Oolai Cloth-Skins and Dragon Blackhide Bastards which describes the strange mystical practices of the Oolai People who weave fabric onto their children which give them special powers. Interestingly, the author provided a method for the PCs to get access to the cloth-skins, too as there are shunned practitioners who sell their services to foreigners.

Another strong entry is Furious Gods, a small hex map with three barbarian tribes. They worship entities like a Ghost Ape or Impalor, the Armored Death, a giant dinosaur triceratops (!). The Gnashmaw tribe keep velociraptors as cattle (?). There are guidelines for playing as one of the barbarian tribes and stat blocks for the trips and their champions.

Finally, we have an interview with David McGrogan. He is the mastermind behind Yoon-Suin, an oriental old school setting book (which is genius!). The interview was interesting to read because he explained how Yoon-Suin came to be, about game prep, about how he writes and more. I really find McGrogan’s view on world-building fascinating perhaps because it aligns a bit with my own.

TL;DR

Another great issue of a weird old school fanzine. There is a lot of inspirational material as well as things you can use in your campaign. Again, this is for those of us who like grotesque and eccentric stuff. If you like straightforward fantasy without gonzo elements this might not be your cup of tea.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Vacant Ritual Assembly #4
Publisher: Red Moon Medicine Show
by Eric F. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/27/2015 12:53:23

Red Moon Medicine Show continues to impress me, issue #4 of Vacant Ritual Assembly is one of those small press fanzines that I think is essential for the table. Vacant Ritual Assembly is for the Lamentations of The Flame Princess Retroclone rpg System. Fanzines are fast becoming one of my favorite ways of getting innovative and cool retro adventure and game material into the hands of fans quickly and with a real handcrafted feel. Clint Krause is a genius and a bit of a mad man with his crew of players, artists, and co. they bring a third wave OSR sense of adventure to their efforts. This book gives a feeling of wanting to incorporate the material right into a campaign right now! This is some of the best stuff to come down the pike for Lamentations besides the efforts of Mr. Raggi and his writers/designers. First up you've got 'The Abstract: The strange denizens of an occult drug den.' , this place could be in San Francisco via 1890 or 1900 if the place was spun through the Twilight Zone and then put through the lens of a David Lynch film. Yet, its perfectly suited to drop into any old school campaign. Wonderful stuff right here and very nicely done with some great details. The bonus is the next piece, an adventure encounter that can take players from your regular LoFP game and drop them straight into Narcosa! The Lotus Eater: A complete adventure that takes the PCs into the drugdream of Narcosa to explore the domain of a cruel lotus czar. Believe me this little encounter is worth the price of admission alone. This will take a group of adventurers and put them on Narcosa center stage with no muss or fuss. Seriously this will grab them by the throat and kidnap them to the setting. Not rail road, not a whip around adventure but a simple and direct adventure encounter with some imagination. Then we're launched into an article that is one part National Geographic on acid and one part oh my God what the hell are they doing? "The Oolai Cloth-Skins and Dragon Blackhide Bastards: A guest article by Anxious P, which covers the bizarre flesh-sewing practices of the Oolai people." is one of those weird pieces of greatness that you'll want to drop right into the back end of your campaign so you can have your adventurers going what in the hell did we get ourselves into. "Furious Gods: A Primal Rage-inspired article describing the dinosaur godbeasts of the barbarian territories" is the whole reason that I grabbed this issue. Giant dinosaur god beasts to throw into your Carcosa adventures or your lost world LoFP material. Clint and co are very impressive at what they do with a low cost and high octane way of moving adventurers into situations that are bizarre, strange and complete mind #$@ s at the same time. This is the OSR material that you'll wonder how you could do with out. Vacant Ritual Assembly continues to set high marks over and over again! Seriously grab this material for your old school campaigns because man it doesn't get any better! Five out of five! Eric Fabiaschi Swords & Stitchery Want to see more reviews and original material like this one. Subscribe over at http://swordsandstitchery.blogspot.com/



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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