Tuesday, June 16th

In this newsletter

James A. Pozenel, Jr., Horse Shark Games

Book Nook

A review of André Norton’s Witch World & Web of the Witch World

By James A. Pozenel, Jr.

Among the many things the OSR movement brought us, it renewed the spotlight on Gary Gygax’s Appendix N. For the uninitiated, Appendix N is a list of books and authors that the creator of D&D cited as influential to the game’s development. Since joining the DCC RPG cult back in 2015, I’ve taken the time to read many of the authors and books in the list. But I repeatedly bounced off one member of the list – André Norton.

Born Alice Mary Norton in 1912, she became a force of nature in the sci-fi fantasy genre, churning out a prodigious number of titles (see Wikipedia’s bibliography here). And therein is part of the problem. Gary Gygax only name-drops André Norton in his Appendix N list with no specific titles.

I’d read that Witch World was a notable series in her corpus of work, but I usually encountered a random book from the series, which has four distinct cycles and several volumes of collected short stories for a total of 33 different books! Those first books of the Estcarp Cycle seemed to elude me on my bookstore visits. Sometime in 2024 or 2025, I finally found a treasure trove and picked up the first 5 books of the series. Then they sat on the TBR pile until the past couple of months.

I’ve finished the first two books in the series, Witch World (1963) & Web of the Witch World (1964), and I can confidently report that they are worth the read for pulp aficionados. Are the plots deep and complex? No. Is the prose particularly noteworthy? Also no. They are, however, easy to read, and Norton moves the story along at a pretty fair pace. I am not going to spoiler too much, but the premise is a modern day soldier and spy needs to get away from all the enemies he’s made and so, per the oft-used trope of books written during this time period and genre (early to mid 20th century pulp), he manages to transport himself to another world with strange customs and of course fantasy sword and sorcery vibes. The perfect getaway!

These well tread tropes of planar travel and a fantasy setting are not why Witch World merits your attention. As the first book, Witch World, winds its way to its climax, we learn the bad guys (called the Kolder) are also from another planet/plane(?) and have a portal into Witch World, and they don’t use magic but technology (sorry, for the straight-up spoiler). Now we have some sci-fi in our fantasy! Wild stuff! At this point, it starts dawning on me why Gary Gygax has included Ms. Norton in his Appendix N.

Web of the Witch World continues the worldbuilding, and we become a little more acquainted with Witch World’s previous pre-historical society. A society that had “magical” powers and fell apart somehow. The survivors from this legendary society become like gods to these fantasy folk. A whole group of isolationists are semi-mutated and passed off as unusually misshapen humans as far as Witch World is concerned. So there is now fertile ground for some post-apocalyptic storytelling in Witch World! Amazing stuff to throw out there in the first ~450 pages of a series that continued being developed into the 21st century.

These layers are all pretty cool from the standpoint of writing and worldbuilding for our games. However, one of the strongest qualities André Norton brings to these books and to their place in our time is characters with real human depth. The protagonist and his eventual partner worry about each other in their private thoughts. For example, he wonders if his adventuring partner still loves him. Another character wrestles with a desire to be free from patriarchal society and just gets on with being a hero despite the odds and danger.

The other three books of Witch World’s Estcarp Cycle might sit on the TBR pile for a bit longer, but I don’t think they will stay there for long.

Night Noon Games
Welcome Night Noon Games to the AU!

The Analog Union is stoked to welcome Michael Putlack of Night Noon Games to the AU!

Michael has been self-publishing RPGs under the Night Noon Games banner since 2021 and has been working full-time in the RPG industry since 2024! His main focus is creating for Shadowdark RPG, including freelance writing and editing for the likes of Roll for Combat, JP Coovert, and Bob World Builder, as well as handling operations, logistics, and strategy for The Arcane Library. 

He also enjoys writing for his own systems and other off-beat stuff! Michael’s accomplishments include a $20,000 kickstarter campaign for his acclaimed Creating & Adapting Monsters for Shadowdark RPG zine, as well as getting cease and desists from both Darrington Press (probably warranted) and Space Camp (most definitely unwarranted).

Michael is absolutely thrilled to join the radical group of people here at Analog Union, and you can check out his latest projects below!

Avenge the White Mare with this new Shadowdark zine!

The first issue of the Attack the Light zine series, this adventure, based on Hungarian folktales, pits adventurers against the Sárkány dragon holed away in his Copper Castle. RPG newcomer Nick Holland is providing all of the hand-carved, abstract figurative relief print art within the zine. This unique style fits in with existing Shadowdark works while still standing on its own. (Be on the lookout for a special edition zine that includes a hand-printed cover by the artist himself!)

Attack the Light 1: Avenge the White Mare launches on Kickstarter on June 14th as part of Kickstarter’s Sidequest initiative, which teams 20 RPG creators together to run simultaneous campaigns for their zines. It’s going to be a hoot!

As an Analog Union subscriber, you can get special access to the Attack the Light preview issue right here! Plus, be on the lookout for a special reward available exclusively to Analog Union subscribers!

Baywatch meets Lovecraft in Nyarlathotep’s Liegemen & the Sea Weed!

It’s 1994, and the lifeguards are keeping watch over the beaches of Southern California. Not only do you need to keep beach-goers safe from dangerous riptides, heavy surf, and errant jet skis, but also from Lovecraftian horrors from the depths! 

A new strain of the devil’s lettuce has hit the streets. This “sea weed” packs an extra kick, and it’s up to the lifeguards to find out who has been bringing it into town before its true effects are revealed under the full moon!

Nyarlathotep’s Liegemen and the Sea Weed is designed for use with R’lyehwatch. HOWEVER, due to the game’s generous third-party license and system reference document, everything you need to play the game is contained within Nyarlathotep’s Liegemen!

The zine is currently on itchfunding through the end of June and is expected to ship out in early August! If you order today, you’ll immediately receive the current, fully-playable PDF version of the zine.

Friends Of The Union

Alisha Garfinkel-Gross, Visual Artist

Meet Alisha Garfinkel-Gross!

Alisha lives in Jersey City, NJ, with her husband and her four cats. When she isn’t personally creating, she works in the advertising and PR industry, leading creative production. Her passions include playing Scrabble, eating Italian food, seeing live music, collecting 80s toys, and watching horror movies. 

Here she is in her own words. 

Photography found me in high school, and I followed that call all the way to the San Francisco Art Institute. But after college, like most people, I was pulled into the fast-moving world of career life. Slowly, almost without noticing, I stopped creating for myself. I sought out healing work at The Bridge to Recovery, and emerging from that experience, the spark returned! In October 2025, I shared my work publicly for the first time in thirteen years.

As a neurodivergent artist embarking on my own mental health journey, what I create comes from a quiet place inside—a place where seeing becomes feeling. We may stand before the same view or carry the same emotions, yet how we experience them is uniquely our own. My work is my translation of those moments: how they move me, how they speak to me, how they live within me.

Ham & Egg Publishing

The World’s Worst Detective – A Novella

Ahoy!

It’s your ol’ buddy Hambone here with a pretty fun update.

Some of you may have heard, or recall me talking about the book I always wanted to write.

It started back in 2015, or whenever the first year Geo and I went to GenCon was, we went to a bunch of writers symposiums and planned on writing books when we got home. Geo wrote the exceptional A Girl Named Doom. I got discouraged and distracted. But I had this idea. A down-on-his-luck detective and the kid who hired him for a milk run that turns into a supernatural snafu. A semi-hard-boiled Cervantes-esque riff on pulp detective novels called The World’s Worst Detective. 

The main character’s name is Terry Toombs, the last name being a nod to Roddy Piper, who died as I took my first swing at the book. The first is because Stan Lee drilled the idea of alliteration into my brain at a formative age. The story takes place in the late 90s, and I have it mostly plotted out in my brain. At the very least, I know the finish, which, according to RL Stien, is where you start.

The prologue and  Chapter 1 are up now, with a new chapter coming every week. It is FREE to read; all you have to do is sign up for the FREE tier on Ham & Egg’s Patreon. It’s a raw look into my writing process, straight from my Google doc to my Patreon. I am pretty proud of it, and I hope you give it a shot. You can check it out at the link below.

Arcane Sword Press

Roleplaying Rediscovery

Roleplaying Rediscovery: “It Came from the Late, Late, Late Show” by Stellar Games

Hello, and welcome to the first installment of my new editorial, Roleplaying Rediscovery, where I find a random, out-of-print RPG, learn it, and tell you all about my takeaway from it! I’ll have a few sections to help give this some structure.

1. A General Overview

2. A mechanic that stood out to me

3. If I would play it, run it, or skip it

Let’s get started with “It Came From the Late, Late, Late Show!”

This is a game I bought on a whim after I saw it listed on eBay. I knew nothing about it when I purchased it (along with two expansions in a lot), and I never heard of Stellar Games. I was drawn to the fun drippy ooze font associated with kitschy horror magazines, comics, and movies. But also that title AND the illustration of two zombies watching TV and eating popcorn in a simple but charming black & white illustration by Bradley K. McDevitt, who also did interior art.

What’s it about? The game is framed around two things: players make up an actor, and the GM is a Film director who tells the story, BUT the actors then play a role in the film being directed. So the idea is you are playing in a pulp horror film where insane stuff happens, and your character (the actor) plays out their role to fit the vibe. So it’s a horror game, BUT the players can break the fourth wall and their film character to interact with the director as the actor, asking questions or spending their FAME to change what the director determined for their character. Thai is actually a very fun mechanic, and I really don’t think I’m doing it justice until I describe the FAME stat or how the game works mechanically.

FAME is essentially like and XP pool where the higher your fame, the more famous you are so you can burn it to influence the director if you don’t like one of their calls or to even have all of the players pool their fame to spend it to suddenly cut to a new scene if something is going awry, as if the film reel was cut then spliced into a new part of the film. The only way you gain XP is by playing into the film’s tropes and being really overt with it- the dumber and more typical you lean into the film and your actor’s role, the more fame you earn. So it rewards you for being risk-taking, but you don’t want to accidentally kill off your character! What an Idea! The only other game I can think of that leans into this dual character dynamic is the Monty Python RPG, but that’s still its own flavor of a similar concept.

However, I really wish the rest of the game’s mechanics lived up to this premise. It’s a d100 game where you roll under your stat or skill to succeed. It feels directly inspired by Chaosium’s Basic Roleplaying system. And much like that and other d100 systems, there are a lot of skills, TOO MANY skills! 14 “combat” talents and 68 “other” talents. They range from Cheerleading to Spaceships. This is a reflection of the actor’s skillset, which can be used in clever ways, I guess? But also- how does an actor have talent in spaceships? It’s up to the actor to make it work, then make it make sense while acting in a movie. Some skills make sense, for example: Screaming! Now, that’s a skill for a horror actor! There is also parachuting if you want your actor to do their own stunts. But Animal Husbandry? What about “Mental Map”? Or Nuclear Physics??? Don’t worry, they added Occult Knowledge just in case you end up running a Call of Cthulhu campaign between films (but that’s not the game, see below!). The combat talents are the same type of hyper-specific skills (rifle, sword, spear, throwing, etc.), but Artillery or “Strategic Weapons” gets lost on me. Remember- this is meant to be reflective of the actor’s personal talents, which they would demonstrate in whatever movie the director is directing. I WILL say the combat talent of Power Tools definitely fits the vibe.

You determine your skills by rolling a d10 twenty times and applying the result to any of those 82 talents. Twenty!!! So you can have a 3 in Geology and a 9 in Computers, but a 2 in Bow, etc., so wacky! I guess the idea is to make your ideal character actor- But it would make more sense if you played your actor outside of the film for roleplaying AS a B-movie actor; but that’s not this game’s focus! So these skills are lost on me. It’d make more sense to have each player make up a skill they could bring to their character’s actor’s skillset to make them more “hireable,” or have a metagame outside the film that explored this aspect, instead of picking twenty of the 82 presented.

This game IS cool though- the premise rules, the use of FAME as both XP and as a narrative currency is really fun. The mechanics are meh, but I’m also really not into d100-based systems, but it makes sense. This game feels built for a fun one-shot, but you could also easily build a campaign around different movies and deal with different genres by different directors.

So would I play it? Absolutely! I think you need the right group, though! If you play with strangers at a con and one of the players is too annoying or is trying to be funny, I can see it killing the game. This is easily why Monty Python requires players to play as straight as possible while absurd stuff happens to them. I would absolutely run this as well. It seems like character creation isn’t intensive at all (roll 4d10s for each stat and 1d10 for twenty different talents), and then you choose your props from the prop department before the film starts shooting. The expansion rules add other genres like sci-fi and martial arts films as a premise, which I can see being fun for the right group. If you like Roger Corman films or straight-to-video shock schlock,  I definitely recommend tracking down a copy. Unfortunately, there is no official way to find this in PDF, and it’s been long out of print, so eBay is your best bet.

Next time on Roleplaying Rediscovery: KILLER by Steve Jackson Games!

Until then!

• Bryan

Under The Dice Fest 2026

Under The Dice Fest returns this October 2nd – 4th! 

UTDFest is focused on independent tabletop gaming, with a focus on miniatures and wargames! The New England Mordheim Open returns, along with roleplaying games, game tournaments, workshops, live music, and more! 

You don’t want to miss it!

ShireCon

North Canaan, CT – September 25th & 26th

ShireCon is cleebrating it’s 8th year! Two days of role-playing and board games in the Berkshires! Come for a day and a half of OSR and modern gaming. Visit our vendors selling old and new games and enjoy the local fare in North Canaan, CT

Under The Dice Fest 

Enfield, CT – October 2nd, 3rd & 4th

Under The Dice Fest returns this October 2nd- 4th! 

UTDFest is focused on independent tabletop gaming, with a focus on miniatures and wargames! The New England Mordheim Open returns, along with roleplaying games, game tournaments, workshops, live music, and more! You don’t want to miss it!

ArcaneCon

Northampton, MA – October 16th & 17th

ArcaneCon is returning October 16th & 17th, 2026. Join us in a celebration of indie, old school, and old school-inspired RPGs, miniature games, board games, and more! ArcaneCon is Western Massachusetts’s premiere tabletop hobby convention! Game submissions are open now!!! See more information at Tabletop Events.

Your editor this week has been Hambone of Ham & Egg Publishing. 

Keep on emailing us at hello@analogunion.com to let us know what you’d like to see more of/less of and to share ideas.

If you enjoy the Analog Union newsletter, please tell your friends to sign up at AnalogUnion.com.

Until next time!

—JHM