Monty Haul: A Fifth Edition 'Zine with an Old School Vibe (Zine Quest 2)

Check out this 'zine Kickstarter! IMO this is a fantastic project (and in my case converting from 5E to
OD&D on the fly is a snap). The bulk of this is already written, which to me is a big plus. Further the fact that is he a big Robert E. Howard and Conan fan tells me that this will be more than usable, I expect it to be an inspirational grab bag.

Monty Haul: A Fifth Edition 'Zine with an Old School Vibe - A treasure trove of new ideas, optional rules, campaign notes, and character choices, straight outta the 1980's!

Monty Haul is a 24-page, saddle-stitched, 5.5" by 8.5" black and white 'Zine filled with usable rules, options, and home-brewed content for any 5e game. What makes Monty Haul different is that I have been inspired to transfer and translate much of the style and sensibility of 1980's fantasy and sword and sorcery for the 21st century gamer. What does that mean, exactly?

As an author and a creator, I love story and storytelling, and Fifth Edition has a lot of mechanisms in place to make sure that players are engaged and willing participants in the larger story going on at the table. But as someone returning to Dungeons & Dragons after a lengthy hiatus, I didn't recognize the world anymore. Most of the content in Monty Haul came from me trying to reconcile the games we played in the 1980's with the newest version of the rules. 

In the early to mid 1980's, books were my primary source of inspiration for my D&D games, along with a handful of comics like Warlord and magazines like Heavy Metal and Epic Illustrated.  Movies? Yeah, there were a few good ones, but the drop-off in quality between the top 3 greatest Sword and Sorcery movies of all time and numbers four and five is a literal bungee jump.  

We just didn't have the vast array of resources available to modern gamers, and so we were encouraged (by the proliferation of gamer mags and 'zines) to make role-playing games and worlds our own way. If we needed something, we sat down and wrote up some stats for it.   

With the publication of fifth edition, that DIY Esprit de Corps is back, and with the new version of D&D comes plenty of encouragement to create new archetypes, invent random tables, and brainstorm interesting solutions for the fuzzy edges of the rules. 

Issue 1 will focus on Warlocks, Sorcerers, and Wizards and include new rules for Alchemists and Apothecaries (and what's the difference between the two), new magical-based backgrounds for characters, An Eldritch Bloodline sorcery origin, a new eldritch warlock patron, rules for lesser schools of magic,  a slew of magical pests to plague spell casters with, and more, if we meet and exceed stretch goals. The issue will be available in both print and pdf formats. 

(Issue #1 Delivery - PDF - May 2020 and Print June 2020)

Future Issues (Unlocked with Stretch Goals): 

Issue 2 spotlights Rogues and Bards. The issue is all about how to run a heist in D&D and includes a DIY Thieves' Heist kit, suitable for both sandbox campaigns as well as seat-of-the-pants play styles. Also included is a new Bard college built around the classic Fool, and additional alchemist and apothecary options for thief and rogue campaigns (continued from issue 1): the Poisoner and the Skuldugger. The issue will be available in both print and pdf formats by August 2020.

Issue 3 is for Clerics, Druids, and Monks. Several new domains are introduced, including a complete pantheon of gods and goddesses for the Civilization Domain, designed for large city-states. Also, new archetypes for Druids and Monks; the Circle of the Silver Sickle, and the Tradition of the Pious Hedonist, a monk that is more Friar Tuck than a Shao Lin temple disciple. The issue will be available in both print and pdf formats by November 2020.

Issue 4 takes careful aim at the martial classes, the Fighter, the Paladin, the Ranger, and the Barbarian. The Oath of the Wall, the barbarian Path of the Wild Reaver, and a ranger subclass that rides giant war eagles are among the  new character options, along with new wizard-borne monsters for killing, and magic items to loot when said monsters are destroyed. The issue will be available in both print and pdf formats by Feb 2021. 

As stretch goals are unlocked, so too are higher page counts, which means more content in each issue!

Then he says if it hits $5000 there will be bonus PDFs.

Anything I can't fit into the 4 'Zines will get mooshed into a professionally-edited and illustrated PDF and sent to all backers free of charge.

My time is split between running my business and taking care of my wife. Not for nothing, but most of this material is already written and some of the larger articles are already proofed in digital form. Layout is 90% complete, along with logo and trade dress. If the project funds enough to employ an artist, he'll have plenty of time to create original art for the 'zine. And I will publish previews of my progress along the way.

About Mark Finn

Mark Finn is an author, an editor, and a pop culture critic. He is a nationally-recognized authority on Robert E. Howard and has written extensively about the Texas author. When not waxing rhapsodic about the creator of Conan the barbarian, Finn also writes comics and novels, as well as articles, essays, reviews, short stories and role playing games. He lives in North Texas with his long-suffering wife, too many books, and an affable pit bull named Sonya.