About the issue:
Gary’s Appendix is a collective effort by a creative menagerie to create a memorable zine for fantasy gamers. This is a first in a series of zines that explores the curious and fascinating parts of our beloved hobby in a way that is thought-provoking and useful.
The inspiration for this zine is the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide. Gary wrote and collected a vast amount of information, rules, and guidance. Its haphazard nature and perplexing subjects makes it as fresh today as when he penned the work almost fifty years ago.
The first issue of Gary’s Appendix includes:
- Wondering About Wandering Monsters. Many dungeon masters eschew using wandering monster tables for their games. Travis Miller unpacks the reasons people hesitate to use this mechanic and explains his thoughts on why they are useful. He provides some solid rules of thumb and ways to change tables to better adapt to different situations.
- Chaos – An Anatomy of Fun Encounters. Sometimes we want to add some high-action hijinks to our games, but often we come up dry in trying to bring it to our game. Andrew Tryon provides some thoughts and some random tables to turn an encounter into a memorable night of wild escapades.
- Unsettling Devotions – This article further fleshes out the four faiths found in the Berserker section in this issue’s bestiary. The deities and beliefs presented are not unique to berserkers. Indeed, they are quite suitable to sprinkle into your game. Presented in an evocative style, it allows dungeon masters to infuse them into their setting for narrative flavor or to develop them into more dominant, and ominous, elements in their world.
- The Cost of Sage Advice – Gaining intelligence is a smart activity for the adventuring party, and sometimes that requires finding a scholar. For the article, Zac Goins provides a practical way for characters to gain elusive information useful for completing quests, finding lost treasure, or simply creating mischief. Knowledge is power, and the scholar provides a means for character to gain access to it.
- A Thoughtful Bestiary – The bulk of this issue is a bestiary which explores ways to turn mundane creatures into memorable encounters. Procedurally going through the OSE SRD bestiary, Jeff Jones considers a creatures lore, mythology and ecology and provides ways the dungeon master can make boring creatures (such as acolytes, boars, and dryads) into unforgettable meetings. The focus is not on adding new powers and abilities. Rather, the focus is on finding what is already fascinating about the creature and bring that to the forefront.
