Decyphering Dionosaurs

One-hundred-and-fourteen years ago, the Time Machines screamed and self-destructed. In the process, they trapped twenty-thousand Commuters sixty-five million years in the past in the Cretaceous Period. Worse, at some point in the future, the Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction Event will kill everyone and almost everything on the planet. In the century since the ‘Last Commute’, the survivors of the ‘Gre-Vakian c trials’ mission have adapted to their world, cut off from their homes in the twenty-fourth century and no longer able to rely upon their employers, the interstellar conglomerate, Space and Time, Interglobal (SATI). Their home, Grevakc, is spread out over two continents, Laramidia and Appalachia, divided by the Western Inner Sea, on what would be one day be the North American continent. They now breed dinosaurs, many people taking them as companions often controlled via cybernetic implants, whilst dinosaurs in the wild still remain a threat. A wide range of technology is used, a mix of that developed in the Cretaceous from leather, scales, fur, and bones, and future advances such as smart fluids, wetweave, piezotextiles, and more. Advanced arms, armour, and technology remain the province of SATI, suspected of holding caches in its bases across Grevakc, some of which are known, many of which are hidden. SATI dominates the few cities and many of the towns that have arisen since the ‘Last Commute’, its membership dominated by descendants of original SATI employees, working to maintain its grip on advanced technology whilst also trying to restore the ability to time travel and either go home or make contact with the corporation in the future. However, they opposed by the ‘Butterflies’, a guerrilla group, inspired by Ray Bradbury’s short story, ‘A Sound of Thunder.’, that is staunchly anti-technology and opposed to any use of time travel technology, working to ensure that Humanity in the Cretaceous Period dies out in the upcoming Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction Event and thus preventing them altering the evolutionary time path. A more recently founded organisation is the ‘Genesix Fellowship’, a religious group that openly preaches about its desire to find the ‘Garden of Eden’, seeing the destruction of time travel technology as God’s punishment for Humanity’s failure to find it, believing that the secret to its location can be found in dinosaur DNA, and knowing that when it is found, God will repair the time machines. One of the side effects of the destruction of the Time Travel machines—or perhaps the attempts by scientists to restore it—are ‘Time Anomalies’. Appearing as glitches or flickering mirages, they can last from a few hours to even years and are known to drop technologies, objects, and information from the future in the form of cyphers, artifacts, and remnants, and these are a steady supply of things from the future.

This is the set-up for Predation, a Science Fiction campaign involving dinosaurs, time travel, dinosaurs, cybernetics, dinosaurs, post-apocalypse, dinosaurs, and dinosaurs. Published by Monte Cook Games, it is a setting for use with Cypher System, first seen in Numenera in 2013. This is a setting which gives the players new character options, a new paradise to explore, secrets to discover, potentially a mystery to solve, and most fun of all, dinosaur companions! Or of course, it could be used as a means to add dinosaurs to other Cypher System roleplaying games and settings—in fact, The Way of the Dinosaur: Converting Predation for Numenera and The Strange is a complete guide to that—and it could be used as world that the Player Characters or ‘Recursors’ could visit in The Strange. In general though, this is a setting that stands alone, primarily because it presents a world that that is genuinely different and original.

In terms of character options, Predation makes multiple changes to what a player can play, whilst still adhering to the standard format that the Cypher System uses describe and encapsulate a Player Character. This is “I am a [adjective] [noun] who [verbs]”, where the noun is the character’s Type; the adjective a Descriptor, such as Clever or Swift, that defines the character and how he does things; and the verb is the Focus or what the character does that makes him unique. There are four Types—Karn, Tec, Pteryx, and Osteon. These roughly equate to the Warrior, Adept, and Explorer respectively, whilst the Osteon fulfils the social role. Plus, unlike the Adept, the Tec deploys science rather than magic. The Karn is also capable of fighting dinosaurs as well as other threats. There are only five now Descriptors—‘Daring’, ‘Empirical’, ‘Savage’, ‘Slick’, and ‘Volcanic’. These are mostly self-explanatory and it is easy to tie these to particular Types, such as an Empirical Tec, a Slick Osteon, or a Daring Pteryx. The exception is ‘Volcanic’, meaning a character who bides his time and then acts big or explosively, giving up actions to inflict greater damage when he does attack, but is always slow to act.

Similarly, there are four new Foci. These are ‘Plays God’, ‘Predates’, ‘Self-Evolves’, and ‘Walks with Dinosaurs’. ‘Plays God’ means that the Player Character employs genetics and cloning to grow, develop, and engineer dinosaurs; ‘Predates’ means he grows claws and teeth and more to hunt and fight more like a dinosaur; ‘Self-Evolves’ enables him to make a better version of himself through bioengineering and cybernetics; and ‘Walks with Dinosaurs’ means that he prefers the company of dinosaurs and can communicate with them. In addition to a list of Foci appropriate to the setting, Predation lists several Foci that are problematic and ways around them. For example, ‘Builds Cyborgs’ replaces ‘Builds Robots’ because there are no robots in the setting (they did not travel well from the future); ‘Moves Like a Raptor’ replaces ‘Moves Like a Cat’ as there are no cats—traditional pets—in the setting; and ‘Sees Through Time’ is adjusted to take account of the Time Anomalies so that a Player Character can see through time rather than travel through time.

The ‘Walks with Dinosaurs’ Focus highlights another feature of the Predation setting. Effectively, it effectively replaces the ‘Control Beasts’ Focus. Beasts, and dinosaurs in particular, play a big role in the setting and further, every Player Character has a dinosaur companion. This can be a Tyrannosaur, Raptor, Ornithomimid, Ceratopsian and Ankylosaur, Pterosaur, or even an Early Mammal type and stats and abilities which will develop as a Player Character does. Each has a personality trait, like Clever, Curious, or Intimidating, which grants their Player Character an asset when attempting certain tasks, but comes with its downsides too. For example, a Timid Companion grants an asset on all stealth actions, but is likely to runaway and hide from danger. The dinosaur companion is treated like another Player Character rather than an NPC, but instead of it being roleplayed by the player whose character it is companion, it is roleplayed by the player to his left. So every dinosaur companion is a player character, but roleplayed by someone else.

This has its challenges. It is not a new idea, originally appearing in White Wolf’s Wraith: The Oblivion with another player roleplaying a Player Character’s dark side, his Shadow, and then seen more recently with John Wick’s WIELD: Chronicles of the Vatcha. It doubles the number of Player Characters at the table, though of course, the actual Player Characters dominate play with their dinosaur companions getting time in the spotlight. A dinosaur companion though does not simply take orders as if it is an adjunct to the Player Character, but instead a player must interact with the player roleplaying his dinosaur companion and he must roll to see whether his dinosaur companion agrees to his request. This need not be for every action and it does get easier as both Player Character and dinosaur companion gain experience. This changes some of the dynamic around the table and increases the amount of extra play and effort that a player has to put into the game. Not only is he roleplaying his character and understanding what he is capable of, he has to roleplay and understand what another Player Character’s dinosaur companion is capable of, he needs to know what his own character’s dinosaur companion is capable of. Plus, the need to persuade a dinosaur companion to act can slow play. The last challenge is that this is a style of play rarely seen and unfamiliar to most roleplayers and, even there is an example of it in play, it will take some adjusting to.

In terms of equipment, Predation is underwhelming. There is a good discussion of the materials available, a mixture of future technology brought from the future and developed since as well as that adapted from what can be harvested from the now. The future technology includes smart fluid and piezotextiles, wetweave produced from genetically modified orb weaver spiders, and solarium, an artificial biofilm that absorbs solar energy to heal itself, whilst shrilk film is made from shrimp shells and spidersilk proteins to create, a thin, clear material as strong as aluminium , but biodegradable. Anything made from furs, scales, and leather is cheap and easy to find, but advanced technology can be very expensive, especially if it came from the future. Included are body upgrades, augments, and enhancements, such as nightvision, cybernetic limbs, and cybernetic limb or tail, but the list at just five entries is disappointingly short. The Game Master may want to consult the Cypher System’s Cyberpunk supplement, Neon Rain, for further ideas. Another issue is that the gear is a bit bland when it really could have done with some branding.

Cyphers, artifacts, and remnants are also something that is changed for the Predation. Cyphers are vestigial remnants of far-future technologies, sciences, and information storage systems that have slipped into the past and can be found in the Time Anomalies. When he walks through a Time Anomaly, Cyphers map themselves onto the Player Character’s DNA and when activated erase themselves afterwards. For example, a ‘Biological Plait’ releases a compound that weaves itself into the user’s blood, brain, and musculature for effects such as temporally increasing his Might, Speed, or Intellect Pool, training him in a skill, and so on. ‘Dinosenses’ enhances his senses when it comes to dinosaurs granting an asset when studying, understanding, and communicating with dinosaurs. ‘Timeseeker’ enables the use to detect Time Anomalies nearby, determine their intensity, and know how they will last. Artefacts can appear with greater abilities, but also have limited use and same can appear that not working at all. Many carry the SATI logo, which marks them as company property, but if not in the possession of a SATI employee, then such marks will be erased. Examples include the ‘Bibliotheca’, a disk that when embedded under the skin enables the user to download a digital book that works as an asset on an area of knowledge for twenty-four hours; ‘Microbial Mood Ring’ which reads the user’s gut bacteria and changes colour if there is an environmental hazard nearby; and a ‘Sky Map’ that provides an augmented reality version of the night sky to grant an asset when predicting the weather, navigating the world, and astronomy.

Remnants are items spat out by the Time Anomalies that have no actual game effect or use as they are neither weapons, armour, or devices. In general, they can be anything from a ‘Broken mug with MARS LANDING ’21 written on it in English’ to a ‘Hollow rubber creature that squeaks when compressed’. They can be sold, but in the main, they enforce the idea that not everything coming out of the Time Anomalies is useful, simply adding flavour and detail to the setting rather than anything else.

The setting of Predation is richly detailed with a good overview, and a gazetteer that covers both Laramidia and Appalachia, its factions and its secrets, societies, and more. Of course, in terms of the setting, what we are really here for the dinosaurs. The bestiary describes many new additions, many of which have or can have upgrades like physical armour, sharper claws, electrode brainwiring, subvocal speech systems, and even cybernetic limbs. In general, the Game Master will probably want to refer to the Cypher System core rulebook for dinosaurs unaugmented, as most here do have some cybernetics or have been genetically altered or bred. The Acroplocerex (ankylosaurus or Euoplocephalus) is typically heavily armoured with hydraulic armour to serve in SATI convoys; the Argoraptor, trained to operate in packs by SATI; Nerezza are gliding raptors using as scouts and silent thieves; Supersauri, composite dinosuars derived from numerous genetic materials and planned as SATI superweapons, but are fearsome whether in the wild or under control; and Teslasaurus, ankylosaurs injected with electric eel genetic materials in the hope of creating docile bioelectrogenesis hosts to biologically power base facilities, but made aggressive by the process and they are used for mobile energy defence and offence. All of these dinosaurs reflect the changes in scientific knowledge about them, so that many are brightly coloured and have feathers. This does not mean that they are strictly scientifically accurate, and they do not need to be, the point being that this is a Science Fiction roleplaying setting and the nod to scientific accuracy is still present. Combine these with dinosaur entries from the Cypher System core rulebook and the Cypher System Bestiary and the Game Master has a lot to play with.

The advice for the Game Master covers the nature of time travel in the setting and how strong the Science Fiction should be, as well as giving some campaign seeds in addition to the ‘Reading the Bones’ boxed sections with gives numerous adventure seeds. It makes clear that the setting focuses primarily on mission-based play rather than simple exploration as in other Cypher System settings. The advice also expands greatly upon the secrets of the setting as they pertain to SATI—something not accorded to ‘Butterflies’ and the ‘Genesix Fellowship’, although SATI and what its plans were for the ‘Gre-Vakian c trials’ mission underpin the setting as a whole, whereas the other two factions are more straightforward. However, the explanation given in ‘SATI’S Big Mystery: A Guide For GMs’ only gives part of the mystery as definitive, leaving parts of it for the Game Master to decide. The supplement makes clear that the ramifications of whatever discoveries the Player Characters make—and there are big ramifications—lie outside the scope of Predation. However, it leaves the setting with big questions that the Game Master is very likely going to have to answer in the long term because they are questions that the players and their characters are going to ask and want answers to. Why did the Time Travel machines break down? What was the purpose of the ‘Gre-Vakian c trials’ mission? Can the Time Machines be repaired? Can the people of Grevakc escape to the future and what happens if they do? Or is Grevakc doomed to be destroyed by the Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction Event and become lost footnote in history like the Roanoke colony? In some ways, what Predation really describes is a richly detailed campaign set-up with the endgame very much in the Game Master’s hands.

Lastly, the Game Master is given an introductory adventure, ‘Promised Land’. It takes place in a town best known for its dinosaur wrestling and has the Player Characters looking for a top-ranking dino-wrestler for a mutual friend of theirs. The clues lead them out into the nearby jungle and the discovery of a Time Anomaly and other secrets. It is a decent scenario.

Physically, Predation is well written, well presented, and accessible. The artwork is as good as you would expect for a book from Monte Cook Games and the writing is engaging.

There is a lot about Predation that just makes you go, “That’s cool.” A great set-up of being trapped in the past, dinosaurs and dinosaur companions, augmented dinosaurs, and mysteries—big mysteries. Yet as enticing and as entertaining as this setting is, it is the big mysteries where it leaves the Game Master and her players wanting more. A sequel, a whole campaign, something that pushes the setting forwards towards the Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction Event, but in the process gives answers and explanations and perhaps closure. Instead, it leaves the Game Master to really develop that and that is a lot of work and it might not lead to answers that everyone is happy with. (To be fair neither would a commercially published campaign, but it is less likely.) This makes Predation sound like a bad product, but it is definitely not. It has everything for the Game Master and her players to start playing and exploring the setting and potentially for the Game Master to write a campaign.

Predation is great setting. It is fresh and exciting and original. It is the Planetary Romance genre done in the past where the players and their characters get to have exciting adventures with dinosaurs and explore a verdant paradise. Whether there is hope or an end is ultimately up to the Game Master.

[Free RPG Day 2026] An Afternoon Outing

Now in its nineteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2026 took place on Saturday, June 27th. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Unfortunately, due to vagaries of International Customs, Free RPG Day in the UK did not take place until Saturday, 22nd August.

This review is possible due to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham.

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Quick-starts are a means of trying out a roleplaying game before you buy. Each should provide a Game Master with sufficient background to introduce and explain the setting to her players, the rules to run the scenario included, and a set of ready-to-play, pre-generated characters that the players can pick up and understand almost as soon as they have sat down to play. The scenario itself should provide an introduction to the setting for the players as well as to the type of adventures that their characters will have and just an idea of some of the things their characters will be doing on said adventures. All of which should be packaged up in an easy-to-understand booklet whose contents, with a minimum of preparation upon the part of the Game Master, can be brought to the table and run for her gaming group in a single evening’s session—or perhaps two. And at the end of it, Game Master and players alike should ideally know whether they want to play the game again, perhaps purchasing another adventure or even the full rules for the roleplaying game.

Alternatively, if the Game Master already has the full rules for the roleplaying game the quick-start is for, then what it provides is a sample scenario that she still run as an introduction or even as part of her campaign for the roleplaying game. The ideal quick-start should entice and intrigue a playing group, but above all effectively introduce and teach the roleplaying game, as well as showcase both rules and setting.

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What is it?
The Dungeons & Kittens Quick Start: An Afternoon Outing is the quick-start for the Dungeons & Kittens RPG, published by EDGE Studio.

The Dungeons & Kittens Quick Start: An Afternoon Outing is a thirty-two page, full colour booklet.

How long will it take to play?

The Dungeons & Kittens Quick Start: An Afternoon Outing includes the scenario, ‘An Afternoon Outing’, a short scenario which can be played through in one session.

What else do you need to play?
The Dungeons & Kittens Quick Start: An Afternoon Outing needs three six-sided dice per player.

Who do you play?
The Dungeons & Kittens Quick Start: An Afternoon Outing includes five pre-generated Player Kittens. These are presented on bright and breezy character sheets which include an explanation of the basic rules, the background for each Player Kitten, and explanations for their spells.

How is a Player Kitten defined?

A Player-Kitten in Dungeons & Kittens has three abilities—Strong, Smart, and Cute—and one or more skills. These include ‘Draw & Paint’, ‘Hiss & Growl’ (brawling and intimidation), ‘Read Sky & Stars’, ‘Scratch!’ (for melee combat) and ‘Shake Your Booty’ (for athletics and acrobatics). A Player-Kitten either has a skill or he does not, and if he does, it gives Advantage on a roll. He will also have a Character Trait, a descriptor that can work as an advantage or disadvantage. He can carry up to five ‘Purr-ecious’ items in his backpack and can use ‘Meowgic’ and thus can cast spells.

How do the mechanics work?

When a player wants his Kitten to undertake an action, the Storyteller—as the Game Master is known in Dungeons & Kittens—selects the appropriate ability and the player rolls three six-sided dice. Each die result that is equal to or less than the ability counts as a Success. An Easy action requires one Success, a Medium action requires two Successes, a Difficult action requires three Successes, and a Legendary action requires four Successes. If the player rolls a number of Successes equal to the difficulty of the action, his Kitten succeeds. Fewer Successes than the difficulty and the player has a choice of simply failing to succeed without consequences, whereas no Success and the action is definitely a failure. If a player rolls three of the same number, his Kitten gains an edge, whether the roll was a success or failure. If a Kitten has Advantage, his player rolls four dice, but only two dice if he is at Disadvantage. A player can re-roll one or more dice with the right ‘Purr-ecious’ items.

Each Player Kitten has a Trait, such as Brave or Curious. It can be used in two ways, once ach session. One is to grant Advantage, the other, when it gets a Kitten into a dangerous situation, his player can give a Furr-endship point to another player. A Furr-endship point can be spent on one of two ways. First, to ensure that a single dice roll succeeds. Second, with a big hug and purring in their ear, to give one Heart—the equivalent of Hit Points in Dungeons & Kittens—to another Player Kitten. To regain spent Furr-endship points, a Player Kitten must spend time with his fellow Player Kittens away from adventuring and doing other things.

How do catfights work?

Combat or ‘Catfights’ in Dungeons & Kittens consist of two types. In a ‘Fang Catfight’, a Player Kitten attempts to intimidate, frighten, or convince another rather than hurt them, whereas in a ‘Claw Fight’, the aim is to hurt them. When a Player Kitten enters a ‘Claw Fight’, the stress causes him to lose a Furr-endship point due to the stress! Without a Furr-endship point, a Player Kitten cannot fight. In general, the Player Kittens act before anyone else, but if a Player Kitten takes an aggressive action, the Storyteller chooses who acts nest. If a Kitten takes a non-aggressive or helpful action, his player decides who acts next. Possible actions include Help to give Advantage to another Kitten; Hinder to give Disadvantage; Attack to reduce an enemy’s Heart points, whether in a ‘Fang Catfight’ or a ‘Claw Fight’; and Interact and Move. 

At any point, anyone caught in a Catfight can surrender and that is always respected. However, an opponent must surrender if his Heart points are reduced to zero in a ‘Fang Catfight’, but in a ‘Claw Fight’, he may seriously injured.

How does Meowgic work?

Every Player Kitten knows some Meowgic, has a spellbook, and can cast spells. To have his Kitten cast a spell, a player rolls dice against the Ability given for the spell. For example, the spell Slipper Patrol, requires a single Success against the Strong Ability and with a success, the caster and his fellow kittens can walk and run without hurting their legs or paws.

What do you play?

Dungeons & Kittens Quick Start: An Afternoon Outing provides plenty of support for its scenario, ‘An Afternoon Outing’. This includes a description of the background, that it is post-apocalyptic setting in which mankind has long since disappeared, leaving some animals with the gift of speech and imagination, the ability to anticipate and predict, and the capacity to invent. It is set in and around the Kingdom of Cats, ruled by the insatiably large and lazy King Walter from his tower in Cat Tree City. King Walter’s most unfair law is the ‘Exile of Kittens’. This exiles young kittens from the kingdom on the pretence of an initiation quest, supposedly to return to King Walter with a great treasure in hand. King Walter supposedly draws the names of the young kittens to be exiled at random, but everyone knows this is a lie. The Player Kittens are the latest to have their names drawn by King Walter.

In addition, Dungeons & Kittens Quick Start: An Afternoon Outing provides advice on being a Storyteller and being a good player. These are both well written sections and easy to grasp, but unlike almost any other quick-start, they need to be read by all of the players. This is because in Dungeons & Kittens Quick Start: An Afternoon Outing, more than one player will take a turn being the Storyteller. However, the scenario is short and it only includes two points when the it instructs the current Storyteller to handover the scenario to another player and at each point, the new Storyteller has to go and read the advice on being a Storyteller and then prepare the next scene. It is a nice idea, but does not quite work. There are five Player Characters and only three opportunities to be the Storyteller, so not everyone is going to get a go. Plus, there is going to be delay in play as the new Storyteller prepares to run the next scene. Not so much of a problem for the experienced Game Master, but for anyone new, they are being put on the spot.

The ‘An Afternoon Outing’ scenario is a flashback to an event early in the Player Kittens’ exile and consists of two scenes in which problems have to be solved with a confrontation in the third. In the opening scene, one of the Player Kittens falls into the pool of water around which they are all playing. The idea here is that the player of the Kitten who falls into the water is actually the first Storyteller, which gets around the problem of that player and his Kitten not having as much agency since his Kitten has fallen into the water. It also means that running it with a single Storyteller sets up a scene one player can do anything because his Kitten has fallen into the pool and is drowning. Effectively, ‘An Afternoon Outing’ is built around a good idea, but limits who can participate in it, and if the Storyteller wants to run the scenario because it limits the opportunity for everyone to have a go at being Storyteller, it introduces the problem of a lack of agency.

In spite of this problematic set-up, ‘An Afternoon Outing’ is well written with lots of advice for running each of its three scenes, whether that is making suggestions as what the Player Kittens might do in all three scenarios and how the NPCs that arrive might act in the third scene. Where the Player Kittens have to solve problems in the first two scenes, in the third scene, they confront minions of King Walter and ultimately decide the fate of the item that caused the situation in the first place. The advice is also good in that it has lots of questions that the Storyteller can ask her players and the situations are nicely detailed. The tone is also friendly and positive, making it suitable to be run for younger players.

Is there anything missing?
No. Dungeons & Kittens Quick Start: An Afternoon Outing is complete as is. 

Is it easy to prepare?
Yes. Dungeons & Kittens Quick Start: An Afternoon Outing is easy to grasp and prepare.

Is it worth it?
No. Dungeons & Kittens Quick Start: An Afternoon Outing is really a likeable quick-start, easy to learn and teach, and suitable for younger players. Even the included scenario is a good introduction to Dungeons & Kittens, but unfortunately, the design structure does not deliver its core concept to every player, and in adhering to its design structure, it makes it challenging for it to be run as a standard scenario.

The Dungeons & Kittens Quick Start: An Afternoon Outing is available from EDGE Studio.

[Fanzine Focus XLIV] Crawling Under A Broken Moon Issue No. 14

On the tail of Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed how another Dungeon Master and her group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons,RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. Another popular choice of system for fanzines, is Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, such as Crawl! and Crawling Under a Broken Moon. Some of these fanzines provide fantasy support for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, but others explore other genres for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. One such fanzine is the aforementioned Crawling Under A Broken Moon.

Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 14 was published in in August, 2016 by Shield of Faith Studios. It continued the detailing of post-apocalyptic setting of Umerica and Urth which had begun in Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 1, and would be continued in Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 2, which added further Classes, monsters, and weapons, Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 3, which provided the means to create Player Characters and gave them a Character Funnel to play, Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 4, which detailed several Patrons for the setting, whilst Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 5 explored one of the inspirations for the setting and fanzine, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 6 continued that trend with another inspiration, Mad Max. Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 7 continued the technical and vehicular themes of the previous issue, whilst also detailing a major metropolis of the setting. Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 8 and Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 9 were both a marked change in terms of content and style, together presenting an A to Z for the post-apocalyptic setting of Umerica and Urth. Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 10 switched back to more traditional content by focusing on monsters, whilst Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 11 examined some of the gods and patrons of Umerica and Urth. Crawling Under A Broken Moon fanzine No. #12 continued the humour of the setting by presenting the dark face of Buddy O’Burger, whilst Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 13 focused on adventures and monsters..

Crawling Under A Broken Moon Issue No. 14 is less focused, but it goes big—really big! So big, it needs the pages of Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 15 to actually be complete. As the editor puts it, the issue can only be summed up with one word—“DINOTASTIC!!!!”. The issue takes the whole of what was once New Mexico and slaps it under a bright green dome and under that dome, it shoves the whole of Jurassic Park! Standing five miles high and two hundred miles in diameter, ‘The Mysterious Glowing Dome’ presents a huge prehistoric theme park gone to seed and haywire as a ‘semi-hex crawl’. This is a combination of hexcrawl with content and encounters already included and empty hexes that have been left up to the Judge to fill, and to that end, the article includes a set of ‘Random Hex Tables’ for creating interesting features, such as buildings, hazards, inhabitants, and resources. Sub-tables enable the Judge to create the details of chemical leaks, mutagenic exposure, park vehicles, and more. The rest of the article describes the details of some thirty-three hexes. For example, Hex #102 contains the overgrown ruins of a hotel and entertainment complex connected by a mix of wide, paved streets and broken down electric trolley cars, where there is a small chance of finding still useful mechanical parts and a single, very well hidden Saurian lookout tower, which has a chance of being manned with guards, whilst in Hex #112 is ‘Kidz Fun Land’, a once-family friendly attraction near the main gate that was previously a petting zoo for docile stunted dinosaurs, but is now ruled over murderous feral-children, who remain oddly youthful and have strange powers and who lay deadly traps for intruders. There is a mix of broad detail and specifics here, that the Judge can develop in addition to the spaces where she can add her own content.

All of this is backed up with a dozen rumours and descriptions of the park’s three factions—the Dinosaurs, the Scale Empire, and the Once-Men. ‘The Mysterious Glowing Dome’ focus on the first two, saving the third and latter for the next issue. The dinosaurs are a mix of what it calls ‘Purebreed’ dinosaurs and dinosaur aberrations as you would expect in a post-apocalyptic future like that described in the fanzine and The Umerican Survival Guide – Core Setting Guide. The Scale Empire is an empire of Saurians, intelligent humanoid descendants of several species of dinosaurs whose ancestors were subject to gene modification experiments conducted by the park. There are three ‘Saurian Character Classes of the Scale Empire. The ‘Sorceraptor’ is a Lawful caster of unpredictable magic able to imbue his magic claw with even magic energy; the Sky-Sneak is rash, if daring acrobat with bat-like wings, keen-eyed, and capable of feats of trickery including bombardment, sneaking, and backstabbing; and a Battle Chanter is a large, solid herbivore whose bellowing can penalise enemies or give bonus or Rhythm Effects such as ‘Quick-Foot’ or ‘Droning Chant’ that reduces the enemies’ Action die by one step! The Battle Chanter is the Saurian equivalent of a Bard and its Rhythm Effects come in three tiers.

The three Scale Empire Classes are a means to create NPCs and if necessary, a means to provide a source of new Player Characters, whilst ‘The Mysterious Glowing Dome’ could form the basis of any number of campaigns. Player Characters could be dumped into it without having any aware of where they are, they could grow up there with no idea of the outside a la Metamorphosis Alpha: Fantastic Role-Playing Game of Science Fiction Adventures on a Lost Starship, or be visitors from the outside world, the default set-up given for the setting.

The setting is filly supported in ‘Twisted Menagerie’, the bestiary for Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 13 provides solid support for the Umerica and Urth. The scenario is serviceable and more traditional in its treatment of its post apocalypse, than the satire and tastelessness of the previous issue. Of course, the content (though its tone may not) will work with other post apocalyptic roleplaying games and not just the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game or Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic.. These include ‘Once-Men’, the descendants of the park staff and patrons caught in the interdimensional storm that ripped the park from its original home dimension. They are mostly peaceful, idolize the images of the normal humans that still survive within the park, and have their own special mental powers. They are followed by stats for ‘Purebreed Dinosaurs’ and ‘Dinosaur Aberrations’, the latter are just Purebreed Dinosaurs, but with energy cannons, multi-lens eyes, and reinforced skeletons. Lastly, ‘Proto-Saurians’ are the evolutionary ancestors to the Saurians of the Scale Empire that can be domesticated as violent shock troops.

Physically, Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 14 is as serviceably presented and as a little rough around the edges as the other fanzines in the line. Of course, the problem with Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 14 is that much of its contents have been represented to a more professional standard in the pages of The Umerican Survival Guide – Core Setting Guide, so it has been superseded by a cleaner, slicker presentation of the material.

Although not fully complete, Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 14 packs a lot of gaming content in its pages. The ‘Jurassic park’ setting of ‘The Mysterious Glowing Dome’ delivers all of the gaming potential in thirty pages that the similar The Valley Out of Time fanzine arduously worked to avoid for a whole six issues! It has content that that Judge can use right now, but with room aplenty for her to add her own, and the content can also used in multiple different roleplaying games, not just the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game or Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic.

Water Works

Twilight 2000: Roleplaying in the World War III That Never Was opens with the Player Characters on the run, attempting to escape the last hurrah of the US 5th Mechanized Infantry Division near the city of Kalisz in central Poland or the 2nd Marine Division near the central city of Örebro in Sweden. Where do they go? Where do they find shelter? Where do they find food and water? Spare parts for their vehicles? Extra ammunition for their weapons? Published by Free League Publishing, Twilight 2000 presents an expansive sandbox setting that the Player Characters can explore, forage, loot, protect, and even settle. A sandbox setting consisting of a broken world, torn apart and poisoned by war and weapons of mass destruction, followed by disease and starvation. In the immediacy of the aftermath of the war, it is a grim setting where every day is a struggle to survive at best, a fight at worst. Urban Operations, the first supplement for Twilight 2000: Roleplaying in the World War III That Never Was, examined the status of cities and other settlements in the broken world of 2000, in particular, updating the supplement, The Free City of Krakow, for the first edition of Twilight 2000 from 1984. This was followed by The Black Madonna, a scenario that updated the original The Black Madonna from 1985 and detailed the Silesia region of southern Poland. This journey and that of the Player Characters continues with Hostile Waters.

Hostile Waters is the marine and riverine supplement for Twilight 2000. It explores one of the few remaining and most reliable means of travel in the post-apocalyptic world of Twilight 2000—rivers, canals, lakes, and even the sea; presents specific rules for travel and combat on the water—whether up and down rivers and canals, or along the coast; details new equipment and vehicles; and describes factions that can be encountered and plots that can play out as the Player Characters try and find a safer way to cross Poland or Sweden. It maps out and offers two routes for that. One is the River Vistula, which runs all the way across Poland from Kraków, Warsaw, and Toruń, before emptying into the sea at Gdańsk, whilst the other is Göta Canal, Sweden’s ‘Blue Ribbon’, which runs from Gothenburg to Söderköping, connecting western and eastern Sweden via series of lakes and rivers as well as the canal. 

In doing so, Hostile Waters is an update and expansion of the scenario, Pirates of the Vistula, published in 1985 for the first edition of Twilight 2000. This pushes on the rough campaign outline begun with ‘OPERATION Reset’ in Twilight 2000 and continued with The Black Madonna and Urban Operations. It will conclude with Operation Reset, based on The Ruins of Warsaw, also published in 1985. These are not the only links other to scenarios in Hostile Waters. During the course of their travels, the Player Characters may learn about an operation to repatriate surviving Americans more fully explored in Going Home from 1986 and even discover the existence of a surviving Ohio-class nuclear submarine, foreshadowing perhaps, the events of The Last Submarine Trilogy.

Hostile Waters is a boxed set as is standard for Free League Publishing’s supplements for Twilight 2000. It contains the one-hundred-and-four-page ‘Hostile Waters’ source and scenario book; twenty-six new Encounter Cards; sixteen modular battle maps; six scenario specific battle maps; tokens for the battle maps; and a large, double-sided map, with northern Poland on one side and southern Sweden on the other. Both maps on the double-sided map abut the one included in Twilight 2000 which depicts southern Poland on one side and northern Sweden on the other. Together they cover the whole of Poland and Sweden respectively and depict the main riverine environments along which the Player Characters are likely to be travelling in Hostile Waters. The tokens depict the various vessels detailed in the ‘Hostile Waters’ book as either fully operational or as a wreck. The scenario specific battle maps in turn depict a castle, a submarine—inside and out, an island, and a floating village. There is a set of floorplans for the River Queen, a tugboat that appears in one of the scenarios. The depict stretches of river with docks, bridges, islands, banks (and or shores), harbours, and even a canal lock! The Encounter Cards can be mixed and matched with those released with Twilight 2000 and its supplements, but are in the main designed provide random encounters when travelling along a river, whether that is on the water or on the bank. They include storms, discovering bodies floating in the water, mines, a ship cemetery, Russian fishermen, pirates in speedboats, a shootout on a nearby bank, and more. All of these are of a solid quality, full, and look great on the table. The only thing missing is perhaps a map with a river section with a more pronounced curve to it. As per usual, all of the modular and will work with the maps previously published for Twilight 2000.

Hostile Waters is a boxed set as is standard for Free League Publishing’s supplements for Twilight 2000. It contains the one-hundred-and-four-page ‘Hostile Waters’ source and scenario book; twenty-six new Encounter Cards; sixteen modular battle maps; six scenario specific battle maps; tokens for the battle maps; and a large, double-sided map, with northern Poland on one side and southern Sweden on the other. Both maps on the double-sided map abut the one included in Twilight 2000 which depicts southern Poland on one side and northern Sweden on the other. Together they cover the whole of Poland and Sweden respectively and depict the main riverine environments along which the Player Characters are likely to be travelling in Hostile Waters. The tokens depict the various vessels detailed in the ‘Hostile Waters’ book as either fully operational or as a wreck. The scenario specific battle maps in turn depict a castle, a submarine—inside and out, an island, and a floating village. There is a set of floorplans for the River Queen, a tugboat that appears in one of the scenarios. The depict stretches of river with docks, bridges, islands, banks (and or shores), harbours, and even a canal lock! The Encounter Cards can be mixed and matched with those released with Twilight 2000 and its supplements, but are in the main designed provide random encounters when travelling along a river, whether that is on the water or on the bank. They include storms, discovering bodies floating in the water, mines, a ship cemetery, Russian fishermen, pirates in speedboats, a shootout on a nearby bank, and more. All of these are of a solid quality, full, and look great on the table. The only thing missing is perhaps a map with a river section with a more pronounced curve to it. As per usual, all of the modular and will work with the maps previously published for Twilight 2000.

The ‘Hostile Waters’ source and scenario book begins by making the point that since the Twilight War has smashed much of the infrastructure—sources of food, sources of water, transport networks, and more—that made modern life possibly, the post-war world has been turned back centuries to a time when waterways—rivers, lakes, and canals were vital society. Not only did they provide the fastest and most reliable form of transport, but they were sources of water, whether that was to drink, to irrigate crops, to supply livestock, or even use in various manufacturing tasks. As survivors abandon towns and cities without ready access to water, those that do have access or stand on navigable waterways become important trade hubs and places to protect. Or target, because in the post-war world, pirates have reappeared, preying on the traffic up and down the river and the towns along the river. Some pirates have ambitions beyond merely raiding as well. And since the war is not officially over, militaries on both sides of the war often patrol these waters too, clashing with other and pirates. Armed boats are not the only hazard on the waterways of Europe. Some routes are mined to stop traffic or barricaded by brigands looking to collect a toll, wrecks—submerged or not are a shipping hazard, and the war has prevented maintenance of all and any waterways, which can lead to rivers and lakes silting up and broken canal locks. That is in addition to any water having been poisoned by chemical or biological contaminants, let alone radiation.

Mechanically, riverine and nautical combat is treated like an extension of the vehicle rules in Twilight 2000. A boat can be anywhere from a rowboat or sailboat all the way up to patrol boats and missile boats. The larger the boat, the bigger its crew and the less manoeuvrable it is, but the more likely it to have fixed weapon points. Otherwise, crews will use portable weapons. The rules cover boat size, movement, water depth and running aground, sinking, and damage to both the hull and components, as well as travel and combat. In general, unless on the open sea, boats of all sizes will be limited in their manoeuvrability on rivers, lakes, and canals, and the players to take both this and the depth of the water into account. There is a good example of naval combat to show the Game Master how the rules work along with descriptions of various types of mine sown in the waterways of Europe and different naval weapons like anti-ship missiles, surface-air missiles, and torpedoes. This is backed up by the descriptions, illustrations, and stats for twenty-two water vessels of various kinds, including civilian boats and those operated by the USA, the Soviet Union, Poland, Sweden, and NATO. The rules also cover swimming, fighting in water, and drowning.

The four new factions added to Twilight 2000 in Hostile Waters can all be encountered along the waterways of either Poland or Sweden. They include the Pirates of the Vistula (or Sea Wolves in Sweden), which can be independent of or under the command of Baron Czarny (King Vasa), the warlord of Warsaw (or Stockholm), but which is attempting to take control of the river and its various towns, and has been quite ruthless in doing so. Led by an ex-popstar turned crime boss, the Pirates of the Vistula are the default antagonists in Hostile Waters, having been adapted from the earlier Pirates of the Vistula scenario. The other factions include the remnants of the U.S. 6th Fleet, assigned to blockade any Soviet naval operations, but currently planning a repatriation effort back to the USA, whilst a Russian Naval Spetsnaz group, reporting to the KGB rather than the GRU, currently monitors activity in a broken Europe, looking for loyal Soviet units, but prepared to target smaller threats like the Player Characters if necessary. The last of the factions, the Troupe, is perhaps the most fun, a travelling group of actors, performing classic Shakespearian plays as well as Star Wars and classic episodes of original Star Trek. All four factions are fully detailed, complete with important NPCs written up and goals for the group as well as the NPCs.

The five new plots provide frameworks for stories that can play out as the Player Characters travel up and down Europe’s waterways. The first, ‘Operation Reset’, first introduced in Urban Operations, brings a slight Science Fiction element into play with a secret Soviet technology programme that CIA and DIA are trying to track down. The Player Characters will not find it here, but instead locate it in the ruins of Warsaw in Operation Reset. Nor do the details actually explain what it is, but that does not matter here because the Player Characters are really only looking for clues and people who know more at this stage. The other plots include locating a decorated Russian general being held by pirates; looking for a missing US submarine that might still be armed with nuclear missiles; finding a way to get home to the USA via the US 6th Fleet; and supporting one town or another over access to a supply of water. The four plots are nicely detailed and come with a detailed, often lengthy countdown of events suggesting how they might play out once the Player Characters get involved.

Several scenario sites are detailed that tie in with the plots and the factions. The River Queen is a moving location, a mobile base, or river tugboat, that will travel up and down the River Vistula. In the original Pirates of the Vistula, the tugboat’s captain was travelling down the Vistula to Warsaw to rescue his family and this can still drive the plot forward. The other scenario sites include a floating village of boats which is being targeted by river pirates; the castle base of the river pirates where they are also holding an important prisoner—but are not aware of how important; the USS Maine, an Ohio-class nuclear submarine; and an island where some hoped to escape to form a utopian society, but which is now on the verge of collapse and hides a very deadly secret!

Obviously, some of the factions, plots, and scenario sites do tie together. The Pirates of the Vistula are the major threat during the scenario and the Player Characters can run into them as a result of an Encounter Card or because of the plot involving the prisoner they hold or the floating village scenario they are targeting. The U.S.S. Maine has its own plot and scenario location, whilst the other factions and scenario sites have their own internal plots as well. Some of these can be used on their own, but travelling aboard the River Queen journeys to Warsaw (Stockholm) is intended as a spine around which the other plots will revolve. Together, the various factions, plots, and scenario sites form a toolkit or set of options, some of which can be used on their own, but are really intended as a means for the Game Master to create a set of interlocking hooks and events for a lengthy journey and multiple stories.

To that end, the ‘Hostile Waters’ book comes to close with a pair of appendices that detail in turn the Vistula and the Göta Canal. Complete with history, rumours, a guide to travelling their lengths, and inhabitants that the Player Characters might encounter, these provide a geographical guide to the terrain through which they will be travelling in Hostile Waters.

Physically, Hostile Waters is very well presented. Everything is in full colour, the artwork is excellent, and the maps are clear and easy to use.

Much like Urban Operations and The Black Madonna before it, Hostile Waters is a toolkit rather than a traditional scenario. It can be pulled apart and its individual parts run as the Game Master wants in her campaign, but she can also use those parts to construct a darkly picaresque voyage into the unknown, whether down the Vistula in Poland or along the Göta Canal across Sweden, setting up some great stories in the process. All backed up with surprisingly straightforward nautical rules and ably supported with some great maps.

[Free RPG Day 2026] Wizard Riders: Quick-Start Rules

Now in its nineteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2026 took place on Saturday, June 27th. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Unfortunately, due to vagaries of International Customs, Free RPG Day in the UK did not take place until Saturday, 22nd August.

This review is possible due to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham.

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Quick-starts are a means of trying out a roleplaying game before you buy. Each should provide a Game Master with sufficient background to introduce and explain the setting to her players, the rules to run the scenario included, and a set of ready-to-play, pre-generated characters that the players can pick up and understand almost as soon as they have sat down to play. The scenario itself should provide an introduction to the setting for the players as well as to the type of adventures that their characters will have and just an idea of some of the things their characters will be doing on said adventures. All of which should be packaged up in an easy-to-understand booklet whose contents, with a minimum of preparation upon the part of the Game Master, can be brought to the table and run for her gaming group in a single evening’s session—or perhaps two. And at the end of it, Game Master and players alike should ideally know whether they want to play the game again, perhaps purchasing another adventure or even the full rules for the roleplaying game.

Alternatively, if the Game Master already has the full rules for the roleplaying game the quick-start is for, then what it provides is a sample scenario that she still run as an introduction or even as part of her campaign for the roleplaying game. The ideal quick-start should entice and intrigue a playing group, but above all effectively introduce and teach the roleplaying game, as well as showcase both rules and setting.

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What is it?
The Wizard Riders: Quick-Start Rules is the quick-start for Wizard Riders, the post apocalypse roleplaying game of (mostly drunk) wizard bikers riding maguscycles they are bonded to across the world in the very far future of Orth under a red sun.

The Wizard Riders: Quick-Start Rules is a thirty-nine page, 10.28 MB full colour PDF.

How long will it take to play?
The Wizard Riders: Quick-Start Rules includes the scenario ‘The Vanishing of Dotshire’. It can be played in roughly a single session.

What else do you need to play?
The Wizard Riders: Quick-Start Rules needs a standard set of polyhedral dice per player.

Who do you play?
The Wizard Riders: Quick-Start Rules includes six pre-generated Player Characters or Wizard-Bikers. They include a lucky Wizard-Biker, a Natural Wizzer Wizard-Biker, a Wizard-Biker who likes to plan, a perceptive Wizard-Biker, an ace maguscycle-riding Wizard-Biker, and a threateningly ambidextrous Wizard-Biker.

How is a Player Character defined?

A Wizard-Biker in the Wizard Riders: Quick-Start Rules is defined by his name, and then six attributes, which are Brawn, Twitch, Daring, Brains, Presence, and Fortune. Of the six, Twitch is a Wizard-Biker’s dexterity and agility, whilst Fortune is his Luck and points that can be spent to activate special powers. Each attribute also has one or more associated skills. Each attribute and skill has is represented by a single die type, typically ranging from a ‘d4’ to a ‘d12’. An attribute or a skill can be marked as having an ‘Upgrade’, for example, ‘D8+Upgrade’. This means that a die in the Feat Pool for any action involving that attribute or skill can be upgraded to a larger size. A Wizard-Biker has a Gift, an advantage which grants him a bonus under certain circumstances. For example, ‘Juryrigger’ allows a die to be re-rolled for a Repair Feat whilst ‘Ambidextrous’ lets a Wizard-Biker make attacks with both hands in one round and only suffer a single Downgrade to each attack. This also includes ‘Wizzer Power’, which can be taken multiple times, each time granting the Wizard-Biker a spell-like power.

How do the mechanics work?

The Wizard Riders: Quick-Start Rules uses what it calls the ‘Dice Core’ system. When a Wizard-Biker wants to attempt an action, it is called a ‘Feat’. His player assembles a ‘Feat Pool’ of three dice consisting of a Skill Die, an Attribute die, and a Feat Die. For Standard Feats, such as breaking down a door or punching someone, the Feat Die is a ‘D8’, but is a ‘D6’ for Complex Feats liked a called shot or attempting trauma care. The player then applies any Upgrades or Downgrades to any of the dice in the ‘Feat Pool’. Upgrades can come from the skill or attribute, or from the situation, as can Downgrades. The dice are rolled and totalled, the aim being equal to or beat a Difficulty Rating, which can range in value from four or ‘Rookie Rider’ to twenty-two or ‘Ace Rider’, with thirteen or ‘Standard’ being the median Difficulty Rating. If the result is exceeded by three or more, a Critical Success has been achieved and for every three-point threshold on the roll after that, a further Critical Success is achieved. A roll of three on the Feat Pool’ indicates a Critical Failure.

A Wizard-Biker also has Plot Points. In the Wizard Riders: Quick-Start Rules, these can be spent to perform a ‘Counterstrike’, ‘Defy Physics’ when the Wizard-Biker is riding his maguscycle, ‘Doubletime’ to move extra fast in combat, ‘Interfere’ in the actions of an NPC or other Wizard-Biker, or trigger ‘Natural Healing’.

How does combat work?

Initiative is determined by a simple roll, but after the first round, a player can spend points of his Wizard-Biker’s Daring attribute and then roll a die to change his Initiative value. The more points spent, the larger the die size can be rolled. This will come at a loss of Focus, especially on a given target. Attacks are opposed rolls between a ‘Feat Pool’ of a Weapon Skill, Attribute Die, and Feat Die for the attacker and a ‘Feat Pool’ of the Armour plus the Twitch and Daring attributes. Weapons inflict a base value in terms of damage, but this increases the more Critical Successes a player rolls. Three Critical Successes will also damage the defender’s armour, inflicting a Downgrade to future Defence rolls.

Damage can come from an attack in combat, suffering too much Fatigue, and so on. Wounds are recorded on a Wound Track with each Wound suffered applying a Downgrade to skills and attributes, and ultimately Feats, before the Wizard-Biker is knocked out or killed.

How does magic work?

A Wizard-Biker has a number of Special Powers which can be freely cast. They include Aether Lance, which gives him a lighter-than-air lance he can wield whilst riding his maguscycle; Deadeye’ grants a random number of Upgrades to apply to ranged attacks; Fireball does exactly what you expect; Ghost Hand gives a Wizard-Biker an extra hand to control at range; and Special Powers such as Smoke Cloud and Oil Slick give effects that can be used on the road. Every Special Ability has five Power Levels, so a Wizard-Biker can improve and specialise. In addition to extra effects, increasing the Power Level of a Special Power also increases the size of the Feat Die that a player adds to the ‘Feat Pool’ he rolls for the Special Power. Some twenty-one Special Abilities are detailed and all six sample Wizard-Bikers have three or four Special Abilities.

Do Wizard-Bikers Get Bikes?

Yes. A Wizard-Biker in Wizard Riders has a maguscycle. It has stats for Handling, Build, and Zoom. These are when a Wizard-Biker wants to do something extra with his maguscycle than simply go at top speed. A basic Riding Feat roll is done in two stages. First, a Riding Feat roll to gain Upgrades, and second, the Vehicle Feat roll to do the desired action, modified by the Upgrades previously generated. The rules for chases are supported by a good example of play and they also cover vehicle damage and passenger damage. All of this requires a Bond between the Wizard-Biker and his maguscycle, the process of which is also detailed. This Bond has multiple levels and each level grants a bonus to the bonded rider.

What do you play?

The Wizard Riders: Quick-Start Rules includes the scenario ‘The Vanishing of Dotshire’. The Wizard-Bikers’ club is running low on supplies. The beer is flat, the snacks stale, and the power coils for the members’ maguscycles are running seriously low. When they ride to the village of Dotshire in search of new supplies, they discover it swirled with fog. The Wizard-Bikers must ride into the fog to reach the village and find out what is happening and what caused it. It is a short, single-session scenario.

Is there anything missing?
No. The Wizard Riders: Quick-Start has everything that a Game Master needs to run the included scenario.

Is it easy to prepare?
No. The Wizard Riders: Quick-Start is a different ruleset and will be unfamiliar to most players, so it requires a higher degree of teaching. Also, the Game Master will need to copy out all of the Player Character Wizard-Bikers onto character sheets.

Is it worth it?
Yes. The Wizard Riders: Quick-Start feels a bit underdeveloped in places, but it is a solid introduction to the rules and world of Wizard-Riders. Its combination of setting, Player Character type, and themes manages to be both silly and surprising given the usual gaming content that the publisher releases, but all the more fun for that.

The Wizard Riders: Quick-Start is published by Catalyst Game Labs, and is available to download here.

Rotten Labour Relations

Downright Nasty is a scenario for the PunkApocalyptic: the Roleplaying Game, set in a terrible future dominated by vicious gangs, dangerous mutants, and predatory monsters spawned by the strange chemicals and radiation released in the days that followed the Time Before The Shit Hit. This is a post-apocalyptic setting with an adult tone, both grimy and grim, if not a little unhinged. Or a lot unhinged. As Mercs, the Player Characters take the jobs that most settlements want to avoid being associated with, whether that is because of bravery or pragmatism, and once out in the Wastelands, they face strange creatures, gangers and cannibals, plus an environment which just as likely turn on them or mutate them even more. PunkApocalyptic: the Roleplaying Game is based on Shadow of the Demon Lord and like the other roleplaying games based on its mechanics, Player Characters progress from Level One to Level Ten, their progress divided between three Paths—Novice, Expert, and Master, gaining greater ability, skill, and specialisation. A Novice Path begins at Level One, an Expert path at Level Three, and a Master Path at Level Seven. Adventures for PunkApocalyptic: the Roleplaying Game are tailored to these three Paths. Downright Nasty is a mission for Novice Mercs and sends them into the Lower Septic to restore some order.

Downright Nasty is essentially about dispute in a wasteland settlement. Vaguely east of Scrapbridge and south of Liberty City is Septic Town, a settlement which has got rich fishing for and selling megatroutasses, the large trout-like fish studded with fleshy protuberances that look like bare arses, that tastes surprisingly good. Well, some of those that live in the town, those that live in Upper Septic Town, an old bridge, have made plenty of money selling the fish across the Wasteland and have attitudes to match. The rest live in Lower Septic Tank, in ramshackle buildings stacked on a series of floating platforms connected by rope and wood walkways on the foul and stinkingly green waters that they also fish. With minimal pay and some healthcare, the conditions are deplorable, but of late, they have got worse. People have gone missing, the megatroutasses are refusing to bite, and the numbers of leechcrabs has risen becoming an increasing threat. So, the Low Tankers have organised and are demanding both better pay and some protections, which is really annoying the Upper Tankers. In response, the Upper Tankers have hired the Mercs to descend into Lower Septic Tank and restore order before the mobs start demanding mob rule or something.

Of course, there is more to the story than militant mutants in the Lower Septic Tank. It turns out that the Lower Tankers are victims in the three ways. First by the oppression of the Upper Tankers; second at the hands a rogue medical doctor, Doctor Dare; and third, at the claws of a very scary monster called The Grim. The Mercs can begin play in Lower Septic Tank, or the Game Master can run a scene getting to Septic Town and negotiating terms for their employment. The scenario can be run after ‘Two Dead in Shit Town’ found in the PunkApocalyptic: the Roleplaying Game core rulebook, but it is not a direct sequel. The players and their Mercs are free to approach the scenario however they want, but whilst beating up the Lower Tankers will likely win the Upper tankers favour, it will not really solve the problem. Talking though will, gaining the Mercs some leads, and ultimately the location of the two threats currently preying on the Lower Tankers. The investigation is straightforward, mostly involving talking to an oddball cast of characters, before a couple of nasty showdowns with the villains of the piece.

Physically, Downright Nasty is several pages of text. There is an illustration of The Grim and a ‘Local Colour’ table to add some flavour, but otherwise, the scenario is dense. One thing that it does lack is a map and given that the scenario is a monster hunt, a map of Lower Septic Town and its surrounds would have been useful. (There is one here though.)

Downright Nasty can be played through in a single session or two and has a distinctly grubby, greasy feel to it from start to finish, and honestly, even if the Mercs are successful, sort out the problems besetting the Lower Tankers, and get paid, the sad news is that the lives of the Lower Tankers are not going to get better. After all, the Upper Tankers like it that way and whilst there is nothing to stop the Game Master from adapting its plot to the post-apocalyptic roleplaying game setting of her choice, it fits the grim and grimy nature of the world of PunkApocalyptic: the Roleplaying Game.

[Fanzine Focus XLIII] Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 3: Regions

On the tail of Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed how another Dungeon Master and her group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons,RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. Another popular choice of system for fanzines, is Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, but then there are outliers, fanzines for genres, let alone roleplaying games, which you would never expect to receive support in this format.

Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 3: Regions is a fanzine for ICONS Superpowered Roleplaying. Published by VX2 following a successful Kickstarter campaign, this is a product which is very different in many ways. It is a fanzine for the superhero genre, it is a fanzine for ICONS Superpowered Roleplaying, and as superhero fanzine, it actually presents a post-apocalyptic setting. All three factors make it standout as different. As the name suggests, Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 3: Regions is the third in the series for the fanzine, but there is only a total of four issues.

The first issue in the series, Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 1: Roadmap presented an overview of its setting. This is the future of the North American continent after society was society ripped apart in 1986 by an event known as the Shock which followed the successful attempt by the mysterious Omegas to destroy a psionic computer network powered by extradimensional energy. The resulting Aftershock killed millions, made more disappear, substituted familiar landscape with alien ones, turned the sky violet, and changed some of the stars to alien ones. Governments collapsed and supervillains seized control to establish their own, ultimately dystopic fiefdoms, together known as the Supremacy. The Shock also disrupted the Grid underlying the whole of reality and weakened it, leading to the opening of ‘Gridgates’ to other worlds and aliens visiting the Earth. Reality storms imperil travel so that long term travel in in convoys and all forms of broadcast media act as vessels for a necrocosmic plague. Only the wealthy has access to any form of direct communication, whilst messages and recorded media are delivered directly. Long distance travel is via the Thunder Road, a continental network of highways and fuel stations controlled by Lord Thunder, the leader of the Sanction.

In the world of Gridshock 20XX, the Player Characters are Vectors. They possess the ability to warp the Grid and thus reality, manipulating it in their favour. Vectors are typically human, but can also be gatecrashers from other realities or hybroids—one of the genetically engineered labour force. They are fully detailed in Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 2: Roster, whilst Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 3: Regions is more obvious in its content. It is also different in its format, being presented in landscape rather than portrait format. The issue describes the eight regions of the North American continent. This goes from Beringia and Cascadia in the northwest all the way to Asia across the Bering Causeway, down to the Sunrise Sector on the Pacific coast, and across the North American continent. This includes The Sanction, ruled by the vainglorious Lord Thunder from his capital of Junction City (formerly Las Vegas) and the fertile region of The Orchard of the Midwest, the Exhuman-infested and near lifeless Deadside around the Great Lakes, the Supremacy-dominated New Homelands that are a battleground for Exhumans from Deadside, and the Seaboard Sector on the northeast Atlantic coast. Each includes an overall profile, three points of interest, details of its inhabitants, its interactions with the wider world, three notable individuals in the region, possible artefacts to be found there, scenes that the Player Characters might see in the region, and an explanation of how its set-up can be used in play. Some entries also include stats and further details of an important individual living region. Other than that, the issue is stat-free. Each chapter packs a lot of information into its pages, whilst leaving plenty of room for Game Master to add her own details. In addition, page numbers are listed in the sidebars that reference elsewhere in Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 3: Regions and also Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 4: Reference, pointing the Game master to further details.

For example, Sunrise Sector is a corporate-dominated sector of the Supremacy with several city-sized arcologies. The population is kept quiet with diet of jazzy entertainment and sensationalist news, consisting of a mix of gossip, reports of gang violence, robot rampages, labour strikes, and so on, some of which is actually genuine. The capital is the Administrative Archipelago, whilst the worst arcology is Strawberry Heights, currently suffering rampant labour unrest and superpowered gang crime. Most Sunrisers consider the Sunrise Sector to be closed thing to living in pre-Shock civilisation, but crime, controlled by the Temple—an organised crime cult operating from Bergingia—is rife. Sunrise Sector is the leading robot manufacturer for the Supremacy and also has its own state-run superteam and stars of the reality television series, Youthquake. One member, Kid Cambrian, once a joke because all could do was breath underwater and swim fast, but now able to summon giant waves of seawater carrying prehistoric monsters he can control and remaining a member of the team by ruthlessly manipulating the voting system for the television series, is full detailed with a write-up and stats. This is a nicely done write-up—elsewhere in the description of The Sanction, Lord Thunder himself is detailed—and it would have been great to have had his teammates detailed too. The set-up highlights how society in Sunrise Sector is divided between those that fully buy into the promises that its Administrators make via the media that constantly bombards them, that a golden age is preserved, everyone is cared for, and anyone could be a star, and those resist the messages.

Physically, Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 3: Regions is very nicely presented in swathes of blue and black. The artwork is decent, but the the format does make it awkward to use in places.

Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 3: Regions is the gazetteer for the series. At the same time as it leaves room for the Game Master to create her own content in the Gridshock setting, it does leave the reader waiting for more detail. Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 3: Regions is good, but it could have been double the size.