[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.

[Fanzine Focus XLIII] Crawling Under A Broken Moon Issue No. 13

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. 13 was published in in June, 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.

Crawling Under A Broken Moon Issue No. 13 is less focused, but continues the support for the Umerica and Urth. Its initial focus is on adventures in the setting. This begins with ‘Fantastic Post-Apocalyptic Adventure Idea Generator’ by Diogo Nogueira. With a roll of a few dice on six categories of tables—Goals, Locations, Antagonists, Supporting Cast, Complications, and Rewards—it enables the Judge to create a ready plot to develop further as needed. Each category has its own subset of tables, so the Judge can visit it again and again when short of inspiration. The actual adventure in the issue is ‘An Interesting Place to Die: The Rail Tunnels of the Delphia Beast’ by Reid San Filippo. It is rumoured that under the flattened ruins of old Delphia city is a network of tunnels where a foul Beast guards a fabulous cache of valuable salvage. The Player Characters get to explore the ruins of Delphia first and there are tables for hazards and encounters, and if they are lucky, holes with interesting, probably deadly things in them. Eventually, they will find their way into the ruins of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority subway system, mostly free of debris, but now the hunting ground for the deadly Delphia Beast, which is actually the acid-spitting Railipede born from one of the old subway trains. It is a sparse mini-dungeon, one easily visualised because we know what subway tunnels look like and roamed by a xenomorph-like creature on rails...

David VC does a ‘Racial Recast’ with ‘Grays (Elf Alternate)’. This brings the infamous little grey men of UFOlogy to Umerica and Urth. The usually Lawful Grays are annoyingly superior in attitude to the peoples of the worlds they visit. A Gray has Night Vision and is fitted with a Transponder so that their racial authority, the Gray Directorate, knows where he is and can serve as a Patron. He is vulnerable to iron though, but always has a silver suit which protects him against the environment as well as other advanced technological devices, such as a Holographic Cloak, Plasma Sword, Floating Drone, NecroNeural Net (which creates a zombie from a corpse to serve a Gray), and so on. A Gray begins with such item in addition to the Silver Suit and will gain more from the Gray Directorate. The Superior Mind of the Gray means he is good at working out what Alien Tech does. It suggests a Psionic variant, but this requires access to CrawlJammer #3. Lastly, it adds the Gray Directorate as a Patron, not a deity, but actually an interstellar government that actively monitors the activities of Grays on primitive planets. Only Humans worship the Gray Directorate. In keeping with the post-apocalyptic nature of the setting this is a darker character type than the Elf it replaces and it would make a good addition to a more general Science Fiction roleplaying game using the Dungeon Crawl Classics rules.

‘Death Bots’ by Ryan Moore provides the means to create the war machines built by the Ancients to fight in the final wars of the Apocalypse. In the future of Umerica and Urth, they can be found wandering the wastelands, stored in ancient bunkers, or being used as personal vehicles or mobile bases by Cyber-sorcerers. They can be the size of a small car or a mobile building, and the tables will define each Deathbot’s technological base, means of locomotion, weapons, and special abilities. Straightforward, quick and easy to use.

Lastly, the ‘Twisted Menagerie’ gives the stats for the Railipede, the monster from the earlier ‘An Interesting Place to Die: The Rail Tunnels of the Delphia Beast’, which does not actually need to travel along the rails of its network, it just prefers to. The ‘Illxiljlixlli’ or Luck Eater is an extradimensional demon which varies in appearance depending whether it is starving, hungry, sated, or corpulent, eating on the luck on its decidedly unlucky prey!

Physically, Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 13 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. 13 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.

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.

[Fanzine Focus XLII] Gamma Zine #4

On the tail of the 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. As popular in the Old School Renaissance as the genre is, not all fanzines are devoted to fantasy.

Gamma Zine carries the subtitle, ‘A Fanzine supporting early post-apocalyptic, science-fantasy RPGs – specifically First Edition Gamma World by TSR.’ This then, is a fanzine dedicated to the very first post-apocalyptic roleplaying game, Gamma World, First Edition, published by TSR, Inc. in 1978. Gamma Zine #1 was published in April, 2019, following a successful Kickstarter campaign as part of Zine Quest 1, whilst Gamma Zine #2 was published in February, 2020, following its own successful Kickstarter campaign as part of ZineQuest #2. Published by ThrowiGames!, it came as a black and white booklet, packed with content, including adventures, equipment, monsters, and more. Published as part of ZineQuest #3, Gamma Zine #3 was published in February, 2021 and promised more of the same—adventures, equipment, monsters, fiction, and so on.

Gamma Zine #4 was published in March, 2025, some four years after Gamma Zine #3! Published following a successful Kickstarter campaign for both Gamma Zine #4 and Back to BasiX #13. The delay between issues means that this the editorial is essentially an apology for the delay! The content proper starts with ‘Interview with Brian Shutter, Super Savage Systems’, the designer and publisher of Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland, the gonzo vomit-punk post-apocalyptic cassette futurism, using Basic Dungeons & Dragons. It explores his gaming history and the origins of the roleplaying game, but really does not make the setting itself interesting enough for the reader to want to take a look.

‘Horrors of the Wasteland’ adds new threats for post-apocalyptic settings. These include the ‘Mind Mongrel’, vicious canine hunters who form bonded pairs for life and use to telepathy to hunt together, such that a lone Mind Mongrel is at a penalty to attack. The Mind Mongrel can be trained as a pet, but this can only be done with puppies. The ‘Intelligent Gorilla’ is less interesting and just too basic. There is scope to present intelligent primates in a variety of ways for post-apocalyptic settings, but this ignores such possibilities entirely to just give a standard gorilla more brains.

‘Class Option – The Scaled’ continues the fanzine’s exploration of character concepts through the use of Classes, character archetypes which do not appear in Gamma World, First Edition. ‘The Scaled’ has high Constitution and limited Dexterity due to repeated exposure to radiation that has caused his skin to harden into scaly skin. He is also immune to petrification and has greater resistance to radiation. The Class can either have physical and mental mutations or use the extra abilities included with it description, such as ‘Enhanced Radiation Toughness’, ‘Steel Scales’, ‘Prehensile Tail’, and more. This is a solid Class which would work in a variety of post-apocalyptic roleplaying settings.

As would the Incendiary Grenade, Radiation Grenade, and other grenade types in ‘Artifacts of the Ancients. ‘Adventure #1 – Prepper’s Paradise’ will require a bit more work, but describes a surprisingly extensive family-built bunker built to survive the apocalypse. It has long been abandoned, flooded with radiation and infested with plants and bugs. Part of the bunker is hidden, so the Player Characters may not explore its depths. Ultimately, this is really only an opportunity missed as there is no reason given for the Player Characters to explore the bunker. Perhaps with a hook or two, there might have been? If they do, there is potential for the Player Characters to restore the bunker and turn it into a base.

The fanzine’s fiction, ‘The Hunted’, continues. Its continuing appearance is an excuse—or is that a need?—to go back and read the previous given that it has been so long between issues. It takes a while to get back into this, and it is enjoyable enough.

The second adventure in the issue is ‘Adventure #2 – Cicero’s Zoo’. This describes what was before the apocalypse a private zoo of endangered and deadly creatures. Its tight security and walls meant that it has survived, but still affected by radiation and other biological or chemical agents. The scenario takes the idea of the intelligent ape given earlier in ‘Horrors of the Wasteland’ and develops its potential. It is not an adventure as such, but rather an adventure site that the Game Master can add to her campaign. In typical Planet of the Apes fashion, it is led by an ape with a Classical name, in this case Cicero. He is intelligent and can read and talk and will trade and treaty with visitors. The zoo is nicely detailed and has a good map—though it could have been bigger for clarity—useful if the Player Characters want to raid it or break in. Cicero is given some motivations, but there is little in the way of advice for the Game Master on how to use it. The Game Master will need to work hard to do more with this, but otherwise, Cicero’s Zoo is ready to drop straight into her campaign.

The issue moves to a close with a Loot Table for ‘Office Desk Search’ which is serviceable enough and two ‘Artifact Use and Operation Charts’, one for ‘Simple Trap Detection’ and one for ‘Mechanical Trap Detection’, which develop the concept of working out what an artefact does into a broader application. Lastly, the issue closes with ‘In Memoriam: Jim Ward’, a short tribute to the designer of Metamorphosis Alpha: Fantastic Role-Playing Game of Science Fiction Adventures on a Lost Starship, the progenitor of Gamma World. It is fitting, but perhaps a bit short.

Physically, Gamma Zine #4 is neat and tidy. It is decently written and nicely illustrated with good art throughout. Each of the scenarios is accompanied by excellent maps.

The ultimate problem for Gamma Zine #4 is the gap between it and its previous issue. This leaves the fiction unmoored and requiring more work to remind the reader what it is about. Elsewhere though the content is good and it is useful, but the adventures warrant a bit more to make immediately useful and applicable to a Game Master’s campaign. The content is easily adapted, but better suited for post-apocalyptic roleplaying games with a drier, slightly less fantastic tone, such as Free League Publishing’s Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days. It is debatable whether the wait for Gamma Zine #4 has been worth it. The content is good, but the adventures need some plot and some hooks to make them really useful.

[Fanzine Focus XLII] Crawling Under A Broken Moon Issue No. 12

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. 12 was published in in January, 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 continues the humour of the previous issue and puts satire right on the cover with the depiction of a clown-like server delivering a tray of fast food whilst wearing a badge that reads, “I HEART to serve man.” Which can be interpreted in many ways. Except not, because let us not dance around the issue—or rather, the theme of the issue. To cut to the chase, Crawling Under A Broken Moon fanzine No. #12 is the cannibal issue and Crawling Under A Broken Moon fanzine No. #12 is the fast food issue. Both of which are combined in a cannibal cult that is a parody of certain global fast food franchise. Subtle Crawling Under A Broken Moon fanzine No. #12 is not.

The issue also continues the examination of religion from the previous issue, because patrons know that at every branch of Buddy O’Burger, for a small donation, be served fresh,  tasty food by happy clowns and receive the word of the humour-filled gospel of Buddy O’Burger, the beneficent Burger god. So effectively, Buddy O’Burger is very minor cult with a lot of branches. Except that both the restaurants and the cult dedicated to the Burger god are a front. Where Buddy O’Burger, the beneficent Burger god appears dedicated to feasting and customer service, it is actually dedicated to feasting, customer service, and cannibalism! Most people accept the branches of Buddy O’Burger for what they are, but there are heretics and naysayers (otherwise known as food critics), who criticise both food and the cult. Often when a new branch of Buddy O’Burger opens up, they are the first to disappear.

As well as presenting the history of the cult from its founding to its current widespread status, the issue presents a handful of scenario hooks, amusingly listed under the ‘O’Burger Adventure Value Menu’. These include having to rescue a warlord’s children that have been harvested for the O’Burger value menu or having to defend against an O’Burger hit squad determined to stock up on meat. It is possible to play a Buddy O’Burger cultist in the form of ‘The Clownight’, who looks like he is wearing clown makeup, but has actually been transformed into a clown and been ‘blessed’ with all of a clown’s garish, bulbous features! ‘The Clownight’ has rubbery skin so gets an Armour Class bonus, a jaw filled with multiple rows of ever-sharpening, gnashing teeth for bite damage, and can gorge himself to temporarily enter food rage and gain an Attack Bonus Die. As Classes go, ‘The Clownight’ is definitely weird and creepy, and possibly too unsettling for some due to the high probability that the Class is a cannibal.

Buddy O’Burger himself gets the full Dungeon Crawl Classics treatment as a god in ‘Buddy O’Burger: the god clown patron’, which though replicates some description given earlier in the issue, does present some entertaining spells for his devotees. The Crave inflicts hunger on the caster’s opponents, Healing Feast summons a range of options from the O’Burger menu, and Meat Harvest opens a portal from the High Burger Temple through which giant gloved hands reach forth and grab the caster’s opponents for meat processing. The parody of the fast food franchise continues with ‘The Circus of Friends: The pantheon of the immortal servants of Buddy O’Burger’ including the Grumpus, a purplish, hippopotamus-like creature only placated by a frosty O’Burger milkshake, but is rumoured to mumble out prophecies that come true (which is why he is kept locked up by Buddy O’Burger in the High Burger Temple where he has his own agenda) and the Fry Filcher, a shadowy cloaked figure who steals french fries, but actually operates as a spy for Buddy O’Burger. Parallels between these servants and the other characters from that other fast food franchise are intentional, but given a sharp twist.

In between, ‘What is in that Jolly Meal box?’ gives a range of thematic, but minor artefacts such as Pocket Compass that always points to the nearest branch of O’Burger and collectable toys that give benefits if the owner eats at a O’Burger restaurant at least once a week, like being able to reroll a failed vehicle control roll once a week for the O’Krazy Kar toy. The inventiveness does not stop there, ‘The Delicious Artifacts of Doctor Dippinstein’ describing several artefacts in some detail. For example, each time a bite is taken out of The Double Death Deluxe Burger, it permanently increases the Stamina and Luck of the consumer, but several random creatures or persons within a mile drop dead. The consumer is aware of this. Eat blithely or at the peril of conscience…

The theme continues in ‘Twisted Menagerie’ with more fast food inspired monsters. The Clownug is a trusted servant of Buddy O’Burger which uses its clown-fun image to harvest ‘meat’ for processing, whilst the ‘Clownaut’ is the ultimate protector of the Buddy O’Burger, a giant clown. Lastly, the Fryder is a spider-like golem, searingly hot because it is made of fresh French fries. They hate all humanoids, but as you would expect, are very tasty once killed. Lastly, the issue ends with ‘Avatar Golems: The tools of the lesser mascot gods’, which gives the Judge the means to create lesser known mascots of the pre-cataclysm world and turn them into aspects of her own campaign world.

Physically, Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 12 is as serviceably presented and as a little rough around the edges as the other fanzines in the line. However, some of the artwork is better than in past issues, perhaps inspired by the theme of the issue and consumption of a Buddy O’Burger Jolly Meal box. Of course, the problem with Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 12 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.

Your reaction to Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 12 is going to vary depending upon how you feel about clowns and cannibalism, let alone fast food. The contents in the issue are tasteless, even distasteful, but they are parody, adding a fresh and garnished meat patty of dark satire to the world of Umerica that is decidedly well done. 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.