Rogue Trader - The Space Rock Opera [Act 1: Amazonia Gothique]

"Carving out an empire across a billion shattered star
systems, one super being stood supreme. Biting the
hand that shaped him Dominator's new order reigned
with a grip of iron, dissident's were executed or
imprisoned on maximum-security lunar compounds."



1988 Dominator Album by Cloven Hoof, cover 'Amazonia Gothique' by John Blanche.

1986 White Dwarf, magazine cover 'Amazonia Gothique' by John Blanche.

"Sentenced to burn exiled in purgatory.
A man made cage, in a distant galaxy.
But tonight we leave, so spread the word around.
Breaking out, never to be found.
Over the top, past security.
Through the fields of energy."



1986 sculpt by Micheal Perry based on 'Amazonia Gothique' by John Blanche.

"Renegade forces  of the world unite.
Imprison our captors,  freedom is in sight.
Storm the watchtower, tear down these walls.
Nothing can stop us, heed no master's call.
In the night, the sirens wail.
Imperial Storm troopers,  on our tail"

cira 2010 some emo/scene bird

ZOMG! Hair is LARPing 0_o

Gimmie Kozmic Akse!

I've always imagined Amazonia Gothique to be Blanches contribution to the Eternal Champion mythos. Whilst not, directly Ilian The Champion of Garathorm (the only literary female Eternal Champion), Blanches Amazonia Gothique is a transcendent figure, she stands like some orbital moon with her huge white 'fro eclipsing a raging sun. She stands at the centre of a cosmic event. The Major Hero, possibly a Champion of Slaanesh (Realm of Chaos:StD).

Dominator by Cloven Hoof is a rather hackneyed sci-fi flavoured piece of hair-metal, in all honesty the art director probably picked the John Blanche at random, there's no celestial goth/emo girl character. But the storyline could make the basis of a pretty cool Rogue Trader 40k / Gamma World campaign or a stage musical written by Ben Elton.

The Black Sun: Issue 2 (Sept-Oct 1984)

So after many weeks of begging around the interwebs and generally hassling GW fandom  I finally managed to get my hands on a single copy of the Black Sun fanzine. And what a A5 black and white beauty it is...

Firstly the awesome cover by Trevor Hammond introducing a host of characters from the GW Mail Order Catacombs. The Black Sun is a parallel universe where GW mailorder is a dungeon complex rules over by the slave-lord Zlargh the Mighty, and populated by depraved Man-things,  zombie-ghoul like slaves. The editorial is an introduction to this otherworld of Zlargh the Slavelord, off to holiday in Skegness.

Tales from the Crypt comprises news of Games Workshops games developers and other industry news. Albie Fiore (best known for Field Factory / FiendFolio and the Guardian crossword) finishing off Golden Heroes (which is now currently available as Squadron UK) and Ian Marsh starting work on a Doctor Who RPG. As far as I know, GW never published this, but Marsh did have his TimeLord RPG released by Virgin Books in 1991, and now gives it away for free on the interwebs, not sure about its relation to the work in progress mentioned here, but as it shares an author and a subject it probably is a version of the same rule-set. Quite amazing that these two old British titles are still around today...

Next up is a comic strip by Trevor Hammond entitled Torture Tips, wherein Gunatha misunderstands water torture and ends up smacking a hobbit round the back of the head with a bucket. This is not Hammonds finest hour, Gunatha seems to have the same fixed expression in every panel, and there's a lack of coherence to the whole thing, nonetheless it has an early Viz-like 6th Form quality.

The centrefold comprises a very long review / description of Ringworld by the Chaosium. It really does make it sound like an excellent product (as most Chaosium tended to be back in the day) and goes into much more detail than the WD review of the same article.

Lord Zlargh's Catacomb Clearout features a list of explicitly 'end of line or slightly damaged' and implicitly 'taking up space and not selling well' RPG items, all typeset at a jaunty 45 degree angle.

The Castle of Cross Moles - a brilliant single page spoof on the solo adventure "The Castle of Lost Souls" by Dave Morris which was running in White Dwarf at the time. It's satire is actually quite funny - including berating the player for cheating (claiming they had an object which doesn't exist) and a combat system that allows you to "pretend you won anyway", the fact you're playing an ancient race of Warrior Moles fighting against the evil horde of Necroworms just makes it all the better.

Gutter Press column reviews various RPG fanzines. I shall, for your erudition and entertainment list the titles: Tempestuous Orifice #5, Misers Horde #7, Journal of the Senseless Carnage Society #6, Necropolis #1, Dead Elf #1, Morrigan #2, SEWARS, Demons Drawl #6. Yes indeed.

Finally Agaroths Mindflayer, a quiz section that makes very little sense.

Frankly, the obscurity, cockeyed humour and unique styling make this pure collectors-crack. I'll be pawning my shoes and hassling people on public transport "oi, mate, got any Black Sun?" any day soon.

Retrohammer Pig Faced Orcs Army List

Prompted by a post about Warhammer Fantasy Battles 1st Edition army lists over on Fighting Fantasist I thought I'd pull out my new-old retro-styled WFB1 edition army list for Pig Faced Orcs.

Before shelving the whole AD&D Monsters in Warhammer project (well, I've got a spreadsheet full enough for my gaming purposes, but no longer looking to PDF them) I moved away from the WFB1 stat-line, as 'upgrading' to the WFB2 stats means that the list is compatible with pretty much every edition of Warhammer ever, right up to WFB8 and Mordheim (which is a more than adequate upgrade to WFB1s 'roleplay' component) - a much more utilitarian option.

So having moved away from the classic WFB1 the Bugbear army list can pretty much be be used with anything, and so got styled in a more modern approach.

Of course, the 'army list' is still based very much in the WFB 1/ Forces of Fantasy / WFB 2 / Ravening Hordes school of army listing - totally unbalanced and arbitrary in favour of flavour, diversity and narrative over competitive tournament play - something that WFB8 seems to encourage.

Download Bugbear Army List [PDF]

Download Pig Faced Orc Army List [PDF]