[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] 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.

[Fanzine Focus XLI] Crawling Under A Broken Moon Issue No. 11

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. 11 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.

Crawling Under A Broken Moon fanzine No. #11 brings a sense of humour to the issues of the fanzine with ‘Worship, Umerica Style!’ by Tim Bruns and Reid San Filippo. It presents fourteen new on the Patrons of Umerica. These are kept quite stripped down to a simple rules bonus for their adherents, a list of favoured weapons, creatures considered unholy, and suggestions as how adherents worship. Unlike Patrons for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, there are no specific Disapproval mechanics, no spells, and the like. Instead, there are inventive creations drawing on pop culture. These start with a musical trio of Classica, goddess of Rhythm and Order, Kizz, whose worshippers hunt for ‘Enlightened Awesomeness’ and are particularly keen on the axe as a weapon, and their supposed love child, Technos Discos, the chaos god of music and terrible bringer of beats. There are some lovely touches here, such as the clerics of Santa, the jolly avatar of giving, hope, and joy, prefer to use weapons that use ammunition because shooting ammunition is an act of giving, whereas $ or ‘Cash’, impartial goddess of barter and wealth prefer weapons that do not expend ammunition because it is expensive, unless it can be recovered. Of course, in the post-apocalyptic future of Umerica, there gods of petroleum and its products, Petrolex, and mutations, Nuka, the Mother of Mutants, whilst Elmos is the Evil Puppet Master and corrupter of children! In places, you do wish that there was more detail to these gods, but otherwise this is an enjoyably tongue-in-cheek pantheon that inventively interprets the past of Umerica—and our present.

For ‘Racial Recast’, David VC reinterprets the Halfling of classic fantasy for the Umerica setting with ‘Feral Urchin – An alternative for Halflings in CUaBM’. Instead of Hobbits or Halflings, these are runaway children who answered the call of whispers from someone called Pann, thought to be “past the second star to the right and straight on ‘til morning.” How barbaric they become depends on their Alignment. The Chaotic Wildchildren are known for their abundant Luck, though things around them tend to break, and for flying into a berserk rage called a ‘Wild Rumpus’ when they become beast-like. The Neutral Slingers are crack shots, whilst Lawful Nerds are skilled with Weapon Tinkering, Bot Repair, Computer Use, Vehicle Repair, and General Tech. Of the three, the Slinger is really a bit one-note, but the other two have a more scope in what they can do.

‘Weapons of the Wasteland’ details more arms and armour of the setting, much of it scavenged from the past. For example, Protective Sports Gear is the equivalent of padded armour, whilst ‘Retread Armour’, made from tire treads attached to heavy cloth is equal to studded leather armour. The rare armour includes the Silver Suit and Bubble Helm, which combine to make a whole, very light suit, Force Field Belt, and Power Armour. Common homemade weapons include Can Grenades, Chainsaws, Compound Bows, Pipe Guns, Scrap Guns, and more.

‘Cheap, A.K.A. damaged, goods’ divides items down into Not Bad, Bad, and Total Crap. Each has a higher fumble roll, but at a reduced cost. If an item breaks, there are rules for a quick fix, which can be done on the fly and requires a few supplies like duct tape or instant epoxy. However, this will only last a few rounds or until a fumble is rolled.

The inspiration for David VC’s new Class is, of course, the film Tron. ‘The Hologram’ is an A.I. contained in a Frisbee-like and sized disc. Long since separated from Cyberspace, they can use the disc to both attack and defend, are energy dependent, and can hack computers and explore them as if they are cyberspace. A Hologram will die if the Disc is destroyed, but from Fifth Level onwards, can create a backup. Every Hologram has an Occupation, what their purpose was originally, which could be a video game character, business/financial program, medical, intelligence gathering bot, and so on. Each Occupation provides a Disc symbol, purpose, suggested appearance, and some tools, much a Player Character for a character funnel. This adds some variation and should influence how a player roleplays his Hologram character.

The issue comes to a close with more entries in the ‘Twisted Menagerie’. These include the ‘Scorpionoid’, a greedy, mercenary creature that can get addicted to caffeine-based soft drinks. This is followed by ‘By the way… When deities call in a favor’, a fun table of requests that a deity might make of one of his followers, but definitely a Cleric! The entries vary according to Alignment, but they are a fun way to spice up a Player Character Cleric’s life.

Physically, Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 11 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. 11 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 and superseded by a cleaner, slicker presentation of the material.

Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 11 is an enjoyable issue with lots of sly, slightly silly humour that help bring aspects of the Umerica settings to life. The opening ‘Worship, Umerica Style!’ article is really good, the issue’s highlight bringing the role of the Cleric to the fore with entertaining background material. Although that article is very specific to the Umerica, setting that there is still plenty in the issue that 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 XL] Crawling Under A Broken Moon Issue No. 10

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 Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. One such fanzine is the aforementioned Crawling Under A Broken Moon.

Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 10 was published in in october, 2015 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 is different to previous and that is because it is the fanzine’s ‘monster issue’! Previous issues have detailed new monsters and creatures that the Judge can add to a Umerica and Urth campaign or her own post-apocalypse setting. From the Aetherian War Cat, Bowel Tyrant, and Concrete Giant to Xenotaur, Zilla, and Zmooph presents a total of thirteen new monsters. They include a mix of the weird and the silly and all are given a two-page write up that includes an illustration, stats, and quite a detailed description. Each also includes adventure hooks which lifts the contents far above being a simple, short, mini-bestiary.

The monster list opens with an entry very obviously inspired by one of the inspirations for the Umerica and Urth campaign setting, which is He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. This is the Aetherian War Cat, a combatant so good it has its own Deed Die and can perform its own Mighty Deeds. If a Player Character uses a Deed Die, then he can approach a riderless Aetherian War Cat and attempt to bond with it. When ridden, the only Might Deed it can perform is the ‘Assist Rider’ and the description includes a table of outcomes. The Bowel Tyrant is a tiny, intelligent alien parasite that enters via the bowels of its victims and enslaves them before its slave excretes more when it relives itself, ready in waiting for further victims. It is a bit icky, but sets up an alien invasion of a very different kind. The Concrete Giant lurks in the ruins of broken buildings, its grey, ridged skin looking like concrete enabling it to blend in readiness to ambush its victims and take them back to its lair to eaten raw. Worse are the Cyborg Concrete Giants which are created by the Technomages to lead the other Concrete Giants, being faster, tougher, and armed with shoulder-mounted grenade launchers! The three adventure hooks for the Concrete Giants include them being sent out on random destructive rampages to instil fear by the Technomages; details of where Concrete Giants are forged which could be turned into a raid or encounter; and rumours of road gangs and Concrete Giant wrecking crews actually working together.

Elsewhere, the Flying Laser Ursine, which is exactly what it sounds like, is silly and simple, whilst the Fruiti-Slush Ooze is weird and silly, a jelly formed out of the fruity, partially frozen slushies and partially by the multi-dimensional cataclysm, which do desiccating, freezing Stamina damage that leaves a wound smelling of fruit. Which fruit? Well, there is a table for that! The adventure hooks include harvesting fruity jerky form their victims for exotic gastronomes and having to stand over a cold storage tanker with some sounds of movement coming from inside it… Weird too, is the Harpoonnik, a slimy, batrachian-humanoid with a strange cylindrical mechanism where its head should be. It can fire a tongue-harpoon out of this mechanism, to spear its victims which it drags away and bludgeons them to death! The oddest are the Zmooph, tiny purplish humanoids described as being roughly three grenades tall, but with a quarter of that height consisting of large, speckled cap mushroom that blooms directly from their skull. Ruled by Patriarch Zmooph, they are mostly peaceful, but when they encounter others, they swarm in xenophobic rages and overwhelm the victims of their ire. There is no suggestion as to what they do with such victims or anything about female Zmoophs, but somehow they feel as they should be blue and wear white hats.

Physically, Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 10 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. 10 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 and superseded by a cleaner, slicker presentation of the material.

Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 10 contains a pleasing variety of monsters and creatures—weird, silly, and even more silly (Flying Laser Ursine, really?). Now to be fair, bestiaries are not always the most exciting to read and certainly not the most exciting to review, especially if there is monster after monster and not much else. That could be case with Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 10, but the adventure hooks make the entries and descriptions that much more readable and much more immediately useful. Not so much, ‘Here’s a monster I can use’, but more ‘Here’s a monster I can use and a suggestion as to how I can use it’, Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 10 goes that little further than you would expect. Plus of course, the monsters will work with a lot of 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 XXXIX] Crawling Under A Broken Moon Issue No. 9

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 Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. One such fanzine is the aforementioned Crawling Under A Broken Moon.

Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 9 was published in in August, 2015 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 was a marked change in terms of content and style, but actually quite useful, and one that Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 9 very much continues.

The setting has, of course, gone on to be presented in more detail in The Umerican Survival Guide – Core Setting Guide, now distributed by Goodman Games. The setting itself is a world brought about after a rogue object from deep space passed between the Earth and the Moon and ripped apart time and space, leaving behind a planet which would recover, but leave its inhabitants ruled by savagery, cruel sorcery, and twisted science.

Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 9 completes the task begun in Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 8. This is because it contains the second part of an A to Z for the post-apocalyptic setting of Umerica and Urth, the first part appearing in Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 8. There was a phase of producing to A to Z guides, such as The Dungeon Alphabet from Goodman Games and The Wilderness Alphabet: A Collection of Random Charts, Tables, and Ideas for use with various Games of Imagination. In each case, the entries in these supplements were not simple guides or descriptions of their subjects, but as the subtitle of the latter book suggests, were instead tables that the Game Master or Judge could roll on—sometimes more than one—to randomly determine elements of the setting such as the description of a door or an altar, the look of an NPC, the contents of a chest, and so on. These tables can be used in play, at the table, the Game Master rolling on them as needed or she can consult them as part of her preparation. This particular issue runs from ‘N is for New Vistas’ to ‘Z is for Zoological Horrors’ with every table being accompanied by a short description and instructions as to what dice to roll.

The entries begin with two sets of tables really designed to provide scenario hooks as much as flavour. Thus an entry for ‘N is for New Vistas’ reads “You come across a truly enormous tree that has various bits of different large buildings jutting out of it. Many of them seem to still have electricity as the tree glitters with lights. A community of some sort has built catwalks between the buildings and calls this place home.”, whilst ‘O is for Old Ruins’, an entry reads “The broken remains of four skyscrapers melted together by heat and atomic power. Monsters and giant spiders haunt the place and tons of ancient equipment still in operate inside.” The same goes for ‘Q is for Quantum portals’, only weird, like “...a blue-black sun hangs in the sky and weird plant mutants herd 1d24 near-humans into huge copper colored cages. A large meat grinder-like processing plant is nearby and the sound of suffering echoes across the landscape. A strange temple structure holds 1d8 levels of bizarre dungeon structures filled with weird monsters. It might be a zoo or something far stranger.”

As well as places to go, there are people to met. The Player Characters can find something to buy from ‘P is for Peddlers’, who might have “Two dozen cans of food, all in pristine condition but the labels are quite faded. Could be pork and beans, could be fruit cocktail, who knows? Vendor is looking to move them in a hurry.” or be “A shady looking robot with a push cart selling various pharmaceuticals at cheap prices. It seems too good to be true but 1d5 former customers will swear the medicines are good if any inquiries are made.” A slightly more complex table, requiring multiple rolls of a thirty-sided die enables the Judge to generate places to stop and stay in ‘N is for New Vistas’ . This is not the most complex table in the issue. The most complex table in the issue is ‘W is for Weather of the Wastes’ which provides a complete means of creating weather in Umerica and Urth, all the way up to Freak Storms, which have their own table, whose entries include “Bloated gelatinous clouds discharge a downpour of living slime fragments. Every hour that the storm rages, 1d5-1 Primeval Slimes, each of 1d3 HD in size, (DCC RPG, pg 423) will reform from the fragments in each acre the storm covers.” and “Swirling Purple clouds unleash a downpour of fish, crustaceans, and amphibians upon the area covered by the storm. Unprotected people, beasts, and structures will suffer damage from the fleshy torrent. The bounty that falls is fully edible and untainted but will quickly begin to rot (goes bad in 5d30 minutes) unless properly stored. Areas not cleared of the rotten mess will have a 20% per day to attract large scavenger type beasts for the next week.”

Since the setting of Umerica and Urth is a post-apocalyptic one, the ‘S is for Scavenging’ table with entries that include “Whether it turns out to be just a useless pastime or opens a door to another realm, this six-colored glowing puzzle cube beckons to be solved.”, “2d3 plastic eggs containing sheer pantyhose. If nothing else you’ll look great at the tavern this weekend. And your next hold-up will be memorially fashionable.”, and “A complete magician’s kit with top hat, cape and wand. Mystify your friends with over 250 tricks, from guessing your card, shoving a nail through a piece of glass, spot the ball under the cup and the ever famous, “Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat.””. These are all very entertaining, and perhaps of any of the tables in this issue or the previous one, this is all but mandatory since a major aspect of play is scavenging for things from the past. That said, a whole issue of Crawling Under A Broken Moon could have been devoted to items to be scavenged and everybody would have been happy with it.

Towards the end of the issue, the tables get a little weirder and out of this world. ‘U is for UFOs’ and ‘X is for Xenotech’ cover potential extraterrestrial encounters and the devices that might get left behind following such encounters. However, the most interesting table is ‘Y is for Yestermen (or “Who is in that Cryochamber?”)’, which details the origins of ‘Yestermen’. Each one is grown in a Seeder, a genetic depository which when supplied with raw materials creates robot servitors, then life, and lastly the means to support the wholly new ‘humans’ known as ‘Yestermen’. Originally Seeders were a scientific experiment, then a national and military necessity if a nature is to survive, and then a commercial venture. After that? Who knows? So Yestermen of any Seeder can be of any culture from before the apocalypse and of any persuasion, making any encounter with them more random than normal! They could also be used as the background certain Player Character types, as yet not exposed to the wider damaged world of Urth. Lastly, Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 9 includes the ‘B is also for Bonus Table! Post-Apocalyptic Lucky Roll Table’, which replaces the ‘Table 1-2: Luck Score’ in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game core rulebook, specifically for the Umerica setting.

Physically, Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 9 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. 9 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 and superseded by a cleaner, slicker presentation of the material.

Like the previous issue, Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 9 is by nature bitty and disparate with its numerous different entries and writeups. It is not an issue to read through from end to end, but to consult from time to time in search of something that will make a Judge’s game just that little bit more interesting and more exciting, which all of its entries have the ability to do. Further, because there really is no specific setting detail given in its various tables, the contents of Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 9 will work with a lot of 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 XXXVIII] Crawling Under A Broken Moon Issue No. 8

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 Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. One such fanzine is the aforementioned Crawling Under A Broken Moon.

Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 8 was published in in July, 2015 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, whilst Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 6 and Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 7 continued that trend with another inspiration, Mad Max, with a look at vehicles of all types. Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 8 marks a radical shift in content and style, but one that will be familiar to the Old School Renaissance.

The setting has, of course, gone on to be presented in more detail in The Umerican Survival Guide – Core Setting Guide, now distributed by Goodman Games. The setting itself is a world brought about after a rogue object from deep space passed between the Earth and the Moon and ripped apart time and space, leaving behind a planet which would recover, but leave its inhabitants ruled by savagery, cruel sorcery, and twisted science.

Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 8 contains the first part of an A to Z for the post-apocalyptic setting of Umerica and Urth, the second part appearing in Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 9. There was a phase of producing to A to Z guides, such as The Dungeon Alphabet from Goodman Games and The Wilderness Alphabet: A Collection of Random Charts, Tables, and Ideas for use with various Games of Imagination. In each case, the entries in these supplements were not simple guides or descriptions of their subjects, but as the subtitle of the latter book suggests, were instead tables that the Game Master or Judge could roll on—sometimes more than one—to randomly determine elements of the setting such as the description of a door or an altar, the look of an NPC, the contents of a chest, and so on. These tables can be used in play, at the table, the Game Master rolling on them as needed or she can consult them as part of her preparation. This particular issue runs from ‘A is for Aliens’ to ‘M for Mutants with every table being accompanied by a short description and instructions as to what dice to roll.

The entries begin with the most complex of the tables, ‘A is for Aliens’ and ‘B is for Barter Goods’, requiring more than a single roll in each case, but most require only a single roll. Most entries consist of items and locations that can be found and added in the moment, such as “T-shirts with offensive language, pants with ‘Sassy’ written on the backside, and something called “Capri’s”. It’s no wonder the world ended. Moth-eaten clothes. 1d100 buttons, 2d30 zippers, and 2d24 pieces of cloth.” in ‘G is for Garbage’ or “Hunter’s Stew - An old standby of whatever was caught, captured, foraged, or found thrown into a pot with water, ground grain, and maybe a seasoning or two. Only a 1-in-20 chance of choking on a bit of bone, talon, or button. Value: 4cp per bowl the first day, 2cp per bowl after that.” under ‘E is for Edibles’.

Other tables lend themselves to a longer and greater effect upon a campaign. For example, “When the world fell apart, select government officials retreated into underground bunkers to wait out the cataclysm. With no end in sight, life in the bunker broke down into barbarism. After 1000 years, a new force has emerged from the bunkers. Calling themselves the “Shadow Government”, this faction uses ancient technology and robotic soldiers to subjugate the surrounding communities.” from ‘F is for Factions’ and “A former weapons factory, this lab has been converted into a makeshift ammo factory. There are weird and slightly radioactive powders around the place. There is a 20% chance of moving any of the highly valuable firearm parts that a minor radiation hazard will be stirred up. Make a mutation check after 1d10 hours of checking through this location.” for ‘L is for Laboratories’. There are entries where the authors are having some fun with us, as the “A small mainframe computer that is already running. The screen shows obscure coordinate information and an alert box will pop up requesting “CONFIRM TARGET [YES/NO?]”.” entry for ‘C is for Computers’.

Physically, Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 8 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. 8 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 and superseded by a cleaner, slicker presentation of the material.

Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 8 is by nature bitty and disparate with its numerous different entries and writeups. It is not an issue to read through from end to end, but to consult from time to time in search of something that will make a Judge’s game just that little bit more interesting and more exciting, which all of its entries have the ability to do. Further, because there really is no specific setting detail given in its various tables, the contents of Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 8 will work with a lot of 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 XXXVII] Crawling Under A Broken Moon Issue No. 7

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 Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. One such fanzine is the aforementioned Crawling Under A Broken Moon.

Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 7 was published in in December, 2014 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. The setting has, of course, gone on to be presented in more detail in The Umerican Survival Guide – Core Setting Guide, now distributed by Goodman Games. The setting itself is a world brought about after a rogue object from deep space passed between the Earth and the Moon and ripped apart time and space, leaving behind a planet which would recover, but leave its inhabitants ruled by savagery, cruel sorcery, and twisted science.

Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 7 continues heavily from one of the major post-apocalypse genre’s touchstones for the inspiration for its content, which was the Mad Max series of films. Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 7 continues to draw from that inspiration, but provides content beyond the notions of vehicular combat between radically customised vehicles across the post-apocalyptic landscape. So alongside new vehicles and rules for them, it adds a new Class that continues the mechanical feel of the previous issue and details a major location within the setting of Umerica and Urth.

The new Class is ‘The Cyborg’. This Class is adept with any and all missile weapons and one-handed or built-in weapons, and because it has artificial body parts, it is more difficult to damage. This reduces the amount of damage it might suffer from any source and also from critical hits. However, damage suffered to the mechanical body parts cannot be healed, but must be repaired. What this means mechanically, is that any damage suffered is divided into two parts—‘Meat and ‘Non-Meat’—but together still represents the total amount of damage suffered. Although this combines to give an advantage and a disadvantage to the Cyborg, it also increases the record keeping for the player. The ‘Juryrig’ ability and its associated die enable the Cyborg to repair itself—or at least its ‘Non-Meat’ bits—and other bits of technology and even find salvage. At First Level and then every third Level after that, the Cyborg can upgrade itself, with ‘Advanced composites’, which decreases the amount damage that the Cyborg will suffer to its ‘Non-Meat’ bits, ‘Targeter System’ that give a bonus to all ranged attacks, and ‘Armoured Plating’ which increases its Armour Class. All of the Upgrades can be selected more than once, but the bonuses gained are marginal. This is a pared down version of a Cyborg Class which could have been much more complex than it is.

If Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 6 dealt with automobiles, ‘Trains, Planes, and Mobile Suits’ in this issue deals with the rest—and more. First trains, dividing engine types into small and large and adding a handful of cars as well as traits to add to them like ‘Refrigeration’ and ‘Super Hauler’. Driving a train is treated like driving a vehicle, though with minor adjustments and a ‘Locomotive Wipeout Results’ table should the engineer lose control of the train. Added to this are rules for ‘Gyrocopters and Ultralights’ a la Mad Max 2, which are more complex. They have their own cruising height and the higher an altitude a gyrocopter or ultralight is at, the harder it is for its pilot to target ground targets and for anyone on the ground to hit him, whilst there is a lower chance of turbulence at higher altitudes and lower penalties to the aircraft’s Handle Modifier. Crashing from higher altitude increases the damage taken, of course. The Handle Modifier is used for the Vehicle Control roll and if the roll is failed, gyrocopters and ultralights, have their own ‘Aerial Wipeout Results’ table. gyrocopters and ultralights also have their traits, such as ‘Auto Rotate’, ‘Bomb Rack’, and ‘Glider’.

Unlike trains and ground vehicles, aircraft are not easy to pilot and pilots must use a much smaller Action Die whilst learning to fly and getting in sufficient practice. The same is true of the last type of vehicle covered in the article, which are mechs and other robo-vehicles. These are also divided between light and heavy mechs and have their own traits, like ‘High Maintenance’ and ‘Mecha’, the latter means that it can move in an anthropomorphic fashion. All of this mixes and matches a lot of different apocalyptic genres, but the inclusion of trains suggests a post-apocalyptic where societies have been founded and begun to recover or construct old technology and thus create infrastructure and a semblance of civilisation. Of course, there are regions still recovering or still lawless, so the other vehicles are perhaps better suited those.

That sense of growing civilisation is more fully explored in ‘The Citadel of Scrap’, an entry in the ‘Interesting Places To Die’ series. This describes an actual metropolis, best known for some of the best-preserved artefacts from the twenty-first century, surviving infrastructure and railway hub, and being run by a triumvirate magocracy formed of the cybersorcerers, the Three Royals, who together have built the tallest building in the city, the four storey Growling Tower, to encase the Pit of the God in gears and metal, whilst each hopes to be the one powerful enough to control the god when it awakes. Each of the city’s various districts are described, including the Trash Mines in The Ruins, where a greetings card factory has been found and Forgotten Home, an immaculately maintained replica of twenty-first century living where the inhabitants live in denial of the Broken Moon. Included is a small table of job opportunities—there could have been more, and whilst ‘The Citadel of Scrap’ further develops the world of Umerica and Urth. A map of the city would have been useful.

‘The Rail Wastes’ is a companion piece to the earlier ‘Trains, Planes, and Mobile Suits’, a set of short tables of encounters that take on the railway lines or in the ‘rail wastes’ that run parallel to the line through unoccupied or barren territory. Which means that can happen whilst the Player Characters are aboard a train, whilst ‘Spare Change’ covers the coinage and means of exchange in Umerica and Urth, including ‘cp’ or ‘charm pieces’, ‘sp’ or ‘shells and powder’, and ‘gp’ or ‘Gasoline/Petrol or Gas Promissory Note’. It keeps it simple and again builds on the setting’s growing civilisation.

Lastly, the regular ‘Twisted Menagerie’ presents in some detail three new monsters: the Autogiest, the Bounder, and the Discarded. The first is a conglomerate spirit of those who have died in violent car wrecks and joined together to punish the living, searching the wastelands for a suitable vehicle to possess and then it goes on a rampage as an undead car fiend, attempting to run down anyone it finds. Although the body, that is, the vehicle can be destroyed, this only frees the spirit to hunt for another vehicle. It must be exorcised to truly defeat it. Each Autogiest has its own, random special ability. The Bounder is the mutated descendant of kangaroos kept in North American zoos, which can be ridden—often by nomads—and can have its very Australian-themed special abilities. Lastly, the Discarded is an agglomeration of old, broken, or unwanted cyber implants which together hunt those who discarded them! These are all fun additions to the setting.

Physically, Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 7 is serviceably presented. It is a little rough around the edges, as is some of the artwork, but overall, it is another decent affair. Of course, the problem with Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 6 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. 7 is a companion piece to Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 6, continuing the mechanical theme with more vehicles and the Cyborg Class. Yet it also develops the setting itself with the description of ‘The Citadel of Scrap’, providing context for many of the articles in this and previous issues. Plus, the articles in this issue complement each other, with their focus on trains and infrastructure and that major settlement, so beginning to bring the world of Umerica and Urth to life.