There’s a bunch of great stuff in it: a piece on diseases for the Early Modern historical setting by Andre Novoa (author of the recent “The Squid, the Cabal, and the Old Man” adventure), with globalization considered; a nasty monster designed by John G. McCollum; some tables for generating bizarro relics—and also, I think, a clever proof on how much objects illuminate worldbuilding—by Paul Keigh, who wrote “Dreams of the Lurid Sac” (published as one of the Psychedelic Fantasies series). There’s also a fantastic adventure generator close to my own heart, Christopher Paul’s “A Belgian Farmhouse,” which was inspired by a love I share: the author’s passion for Belgian farmhouse ale. Paul was one of the contributors to Narcosa a while back, and blogs at The Grue Next Door.
(I have a feeling he’s going to dig the adventure I finished up and sent to James Raggi a while back—also inspired by a love of Belgian beer, even if I set it just over the border in Westphalia.)
In any case, I guess means I’m probably the newbie in terms of the OSR scene, and it’s flattering to be in such good company for my first actual tabletop RPG publication. My own little contribution, “Beyond Mere Lotophagi,” is basically an adventure generator that should work with any fantasy RPG; you can use it to randomly generate fantastical drug epidemics in urban centers, along with the outline of backstory, who’s involved, important locales, and more. It’s inspired mostly by stuff I’ve read about the Gin Craze, but there’s some Arthur Machen, Philip K. Dick, and the odd snippet of fairytale weirdness and Breaking Bad mixed in.
The issue is well worth your €2.20, if you’re someone who’s into gaming and looking for some fun stuff to add to your arsenal. You can buy it here.