Friday Fantasy: The House of Jade and Shadow

Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #15: The House of Jade and Shadow is a scenario for Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and the fourteenth scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set. Scenarios for Dungeon Crawl Classics tend be darker, grimmer, and even pulpier than traditional Dungeons & Dragons scenarios, veering close to the Swords & Sorcery subgenre. Scenarios for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set are set in and around the City of the Black Toga, Lankhmar, the home to the adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser and the creation of author Fritz Leiber. The city is described as an urban jungle, rife with cutpurses and corruption, guilds and graft, temples and trouble, whores and wonders, and more. Under the cover the frequent fogs and smogs, the streets of the city are home to thieves, pickpockets, burglars, cutpurses, muggers, and anyone else who would skulk in the night! Which includes the Player Characters. And it is these roles which the Player Characters get to be in Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #15: The House of Jade and Shadow, small time crooks trying to make a living and a name for themselves, but without attracting the attention of either the city constabulary or worse, the Thieves’ Guild!

This is the set-up for Dungeon CrawlClassics Lankhmar #15: The House of Jade and Shadow, is a scenario for First Level Player Characters and is both an archetypal scenario for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set. A stranger has come to the City of Seven-score Thousand Smokes. He says that has come from Far Kiraay, a realm considered near mythical by many Lankhmarts, but based upon the size of the baggage train and number of men and women he brought with him, as well as the home he has had built in the style of his homeland, where even now he holds parties for the wealthy and the nobility, intrigued as they are by his exoticism and his mystique, he is a rich man. Rumours swirl about his having been exiled from Far Kiraay for the deplorable acts of depravity and cruelty, that he keeps a king’s ransom in jewels, gems, and other valuables in a vault below his house, and that he hosts lavish masquerades for the rich and powerful at which introduces them to the pleasures of his homeland. Of course, every Lankhmart loves a good party and especially one that involves masks, since masks hide a person’s identity and when you happen to be stealing from the host, you definitely want to be keeping your identity a secret! Surprisingly, there is actually a lot of truth to the rumours flying about the Far Kiraayan nobleman, Master Fang-tzu, and both the household he keeps and the soirees he hosts, but there are definitely rumours that are not true and secrets he would not want revealed. Such as the fact that he is a leading member of fanatical cult dedicated to the Snake God, which is why he fled far Kiraary after an uprising, and having found a home in the City of the Black Toga, plans to suborn its rich and powerful as acolytes of the Cult of the Snake God!

However, Master Fang-tzu’s politics and vile practices have not travelled to Lankhmar alone as Xiang-li, a fellow Far Kiraayan has come to the city and wants to employ some local thieves to perform a job for him—in other words, the Player Characters. Suggested by a local contact (which the Judge will need to work into the campaign), Xiang-li wants the Player Characters to break into Master Fang-tzu’s and steal a set of seven jade stones that are necessary to ensure the rightful sovereignty of the ruler of Far Kiraay. Fortunately, the Player Characters’ contact has a way in—an invitation on a very fancy scroll to the very next party hosted by Master Fang-tzu.

Despite a lengthy backstory, the scenario focuses upon the event and Player Characters’ attendance, though they have time to case the joint and collect some rumours before arriving at the party. This enables them to pick up on a rumour or two and probably learn that Master Fang-tzu keeps some strange creatures in the grounds of his house. There is a table of random encounters provided should the Player Characters decide to check out the sewers beneath the house, as it is another possible means of the breaking in, but the route favoured and detailed by the scenario is using the invitation they already have. This enables them to look round the grounds without looking out of place and it also enables the Judge to run some fun roleplaying encounters at the party. Here the Player Characters can make some interesting contacts if they play their cards right. The encounters include being invited to dance by a brazen noblewoman and being called to duel as another nobleman’s champion. These are nice little encounters which give a player a chance to roleplay a scene and his character to do more than sneak around the house. There are only four such encounters as well as an optional one if a Player Character is caught red-handed committing a criminal act and the watch is called. More would have been useful, but these are about enough for the low player count required by the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set.

Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #15: The House of Jade and Shadow is well presented. The artwork and cartography are both decent, but it would have been nice if a few more NPCs had been illustrated.

The sad new is that Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #15: The House of Jade and Shadow is the last release for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set, but it is definitely not a bad scenario with which to bring the licence to a finish. Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #15: The House of Jade and Shadow is a classic theft and mystery scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set, in parts entertaining and horrifying. Plus, it really has some really fun roleplaying encounters. Unfortunately, it is a scenario for First Level Player Characters and there are enough of those for Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set, which really could have done with more scenarios for higher Level Player Characters instead.

Friday Fantasy: DCC Day #6 DCC Day 2025 Adventure Pack

As well as contributing to Free RPG Day every year Goodman Games also has its own ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day’. The day is notable not only for the events and the range of adventures being played for Goodman Games’ roleplaying games, but also for the scenarios it releases specifically to be played on the day. For ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day 2025’, which took place today on Saturday, July 19th, 2025,* the publisher is releasing not one, not two, but three scenarios, plus a limited edition printing of Dungeon Crawl Classics #108: The Seventh Thrall of Sekrekan. Two of the scenarios, ‘The Fall of Al-Razi’ and ‘Balticrawl Blitz’, appear in the duology, the DCC Day 2025 Adventure Pack. The third is DCC Day #6: The Key to Castle Whiterock. Both DCC Day #6: The Key to Castle Whiterock and ‘The Fall of Al-Razi’ are written for use with Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, whilst the other, ‘Balticrawl Blitz’ is for use with the Xcrawl Classics Role-Playing Game, the ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics’ adaptation and upgrade of the earlier Xcrawl Core Rulebook for use with Dungeons & Dragons 3.5, which turns the concept of dungeoneering into an arena sport and monetises it!

* The late international delivery of titles for DCC Day #6 means that these reviews are also late. Apologies.

As in past years, the DCC Day 2025 Adventure Pack contains two adventures. The first and longest of the two is ‘The Fall of Al-Razi’ are written for use with Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. It is designed for a party of four to six Player Characters of First Level and begins with them in an enchanted forest, come to a grove where a rose bush whose petals are known to have healing properties is known to grow. When they attempt to pick them, a ghost of a knight appears and begs for their aid. Introducing himself as Al-Razi, he was once a great knight, but in an accident, he fell from his horse, but then a fairy queen caught him and stole him from death. He asks that the Player Characters free him from his torment. The opportunity for this will come at fairy parade through the village of Taribat, which takes place only once every seven years. Al-Razi will ride at the head of the parade and if the Player Characters can catch him when he falls from horse, he will be freed. Unfortunately, in order to be able to see past the veil of the fairy, the Player Characters need water from an enchanted pool to wash their eyes in. Fortunately, Al-Razi knows there is such a pool—beyond the Twilight Cave.

The thrust of the scenario is for the Player Characters to enter the Twilight Cave and search for the pool. This is a race against time to the pool and back again to the village of Taribat. There are fun encounters here, such as the giant kittens playing with a giant mouse, a chance to make some purchases from a ‘Ye Olde magic Shoppe’ in what is actually a scenario befitting cliché, and some not entirely unhelpful witches. The second part of the scenario is the parade itself, which will lead from one stone outside the village to another on the opposite side. The whole of the village will turn out to watch and celebrate with costumes, drinks, and music, completely unaware as to the true nature of the parade. Only the Player Characters will have any idea as what the parade is and will only be able to see who really is in the parade by wiping their eyes with the enchanted water. This is a rolling combat as the parade will constantly be on the move and the members of the parade will take action if they realise what the Player Characters are trying to do. The Queen will respond with an array of deadly illusions, backed up with her paper handmaidens, and the Fey Riders encircle Al-Razi.

The scenario requires a bit of staging upon the part of the Judge in order for the Player Characters to get past the Fey Riders and be with Al-Razi at the right time to catch him as he falls. One thing to be avoided is fighting the fairy queen, as she is a very tough opponent for First Level Player Characters. It is also possible to fail—though the consequences are quite minor, as well as do very well. Otherwise, this is a raucous climax to an entertaining scenario.

The second scenario is ‘Balticrawl Blitz’, which is designed for the Xcrawl Classics Role-Playing Game and again for party of four to six Player Characters of First Level. In the Player Characters are invited to participate in the annual Division III Balticrawl Blitz. As this title suggests, this event takes place in the rundown and corrupt city of Baltimore. The Player Characters get a taste of the latter when someone knocks on the door of their hotel room and are offered a bribe to throw the Xcrawl in a particular room! The event itself is very much themed around the city of Baltimore and its history. This starts with the DJ, or ‘Dungeon Judge’, ‘DJ Nevermore’, a thin sallow moustachioed man in Victorian dress with a raven on his shoulder, who has designed the event and will be running it. So, quite literally inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, this scenario has Gothic streak as wide as a white one running through a Goth’s hair. The other inspiration for the adventure is the city’s love of crabs, but this is mainly because the event’s main sponsor is the Elder Bay Spices Company, whose blend of spices is popular with seafood all along the east coast.

At just five locations, ‘Balticrawl Blitz’ is a small scenario. It is playable in a single session if paced right and some of the encounters are tough for Player Characters of First Level. A Player Character Messenger will be needed to provide healing. Another issue is that it is a very American scenario and not everyone is going to be fully aware of Baltimore’s history, and having to explain some of the references will break the immersion. Otherwise, a solid scenario for the Xcrawl Classics Role-Playing Game that is easy to slip into a campaign.

Physically, DCC Day 2025 Adventure Pack is as well done as you would expect for a release from Goodman Games. The artwork is decent, but a little cartoonish in places—which actually suits the Xcrawl Classics Role-Playing Game—and the cartography is definitely better for the Dungeon Crawl Classics scenario than the Xcrawl Classics scenario. Similarly, the cover is very cartoony, but it still works.

DCC Day 2025 Adventure Pack delivers two good scenarios for two different games, but of the two, ‘The Fall of Al-Razi’ is the more inventive and interesting. Both are easy to add to a campaign though and both could be run as Character Funnels, though ‘The Fall of Al-Razi’ is probably the better of the two for that as well.

[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.

Friday Fantasy: DCC Day #6 The Key to Castle Whiterock

As well as contributing to Free RPG Day every year Goodman Games also has its own ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day’. The day is notable not only for the events and the range of adventures being played for Goodman Games’ roleplaying games, but also for the scenarios it releases specifically to be played on the day. For ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day 2025’, which took place today on Saturday, July 19th, 2025,* the publisher is releasing not one, not two, but three scenarios, plus a limited edition printing of Dungeon Crawl Classics #108: The Seventh Thrall of Sekrekan. Two of the scenarios, ‘The Fall of Al-Razi’ and ‘Balticrawl Blitz’, appear in the duology, the DCC Day 2025 Adventure Pack. The third is DCC Day #6: The Key to Castle Whiterock. Both DCC Day #6: The Key to Castle Whiterock and ‘The Fall of Al-Razi’ are written for use with Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, whilst the other, ‘Balticrawl Blitz’ is for use with the Xcrawl Classics Role-Playing Game, the ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics’ adaptation and upgrade of the earlier Xcrawl Core Rulebook for use with Dungeons & Dragons 3.5, which turns the concept of dungeoneering into an arena sport and monetises it!

* The late international delivery of titles for DCC Day #6 means that these reviews are also late. Apologies.

DCC Day #6: The Key to Castle Whiterock does come with a bit of backstory. It is a preview and adventure for Castle Whiterock: The Greatest Dungeon Story Ever Told published by Goodman Games, which is the subject of a forthcoming crowdfunding campaign. This crowdfunding campaign brings back and updates Dungeon Crawl Classics #51: Castle Whiterock, originally published in 2007. It received its own preview for Free RPG Day, in 2007, in the form of Dungeon Crawl Classics #51.5: The Sinister Secret of Whiterock, and Castle Whiterock: The Greatest Dungeon Story Ever Told has already been given a preview in the form of The Dying Light of Castle Whiterock, published for Free RPG Day 2025. Both Dungeon Crawl Classics #51: Castle Whiterock and Dungeon Crawl Classics #51.5: The Sinister Secret of Whiterock were written for use with Dungeons & Dragons 3.5, but both Castle Whiterock: The Dying Light of Castle Whiterock and Castle Whiterock: The Greatest Dungeon Story Ever Told are written for use with two separate roleplaying games. These are the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. DCC Day #6: The Key to Castle Whiterock differs in that it is solely written for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game.

DCC Day #6: The Key to Castle Whiterock is designed for a party of First Level Player Characters and designed to introduce Castle Whiterock: The Greatest Dungeon Story Ever Told. If completed, the adventure will provide the Player Characters with a map of part of Castle Whiterock, details of one of its secrets, and some treasure, as well as some surprising allies. In doing so, they will go all the way back to Castle Whiterock’s origins as Clynnoise, a monastery that was home to the Order of the Dawning Sun, over a thousand years ago. Since that time, it has been sacked multiple times and been occupied by Orcs, cultists, a Red Dragon, and more recently, a band of slavers. In doing so, they will go all the way back to Castle Whiterock’s origins as Clynnoise, a monastery that was home to the Order of the Dawning Sun, over a thousand years ago. Since that time, it has been sacked multiple times and been occupied by Orcs, cultists, a Red Dragon, and more recently, a band of slavers. The Player Characters have set out to explore the dungeon of Castle Whiterock, but due to good fortune have come into possession of another map. This shows the location of a lone tomb in the Ul Dominor Mountains near Castle Whiterock. Deciphering the text on the map reveals that the tomb is the burial place of Reglee Callim, famed architect of the Clynnoise, and that she was buried with “[H]er wisdom, plans, and keys”. It suggests that she might have gone to her grave with notes about the building and layout of Clynnoise as well as the means to access the ancient ruins.

The adventure itself begins at the entrance as marked on the map, high up a circuitous path overlooking a valley. Beyond the entrance lies the Callim family tomb complex, a simple, two-level complex of tombs, chapels, and more, marked by sarcophagi, burial niches, and the like. There are undead and there are ghosts, just as you would expect in a tomb complex. There is also some treasure to loot, but not a great amount and barely a handful magical items. All in keeping with the low treasure rates to be expected of a Dungeon Crawl Classics scenario. However, the scenario is not just a tomb to be looted and there are a couple of good story strands to what is quite a simple dungeon. The first is that the dungeon is not infested with evil monsters, rather that the resting dead tends towards Law rather than Chaos. The second is that despite being dead for over a thousand years, the Player Characters can talk to Reglee Callim and gain some clues as to what to expect on the second level. However, whilst the third and final strand of the scenario is to be found on the second level, it is wholly unexpected. This is that the Player Characters are not the only invaders to the tomb. As the Player Characters have entered from above, a band of Goblins, lead by a would be Hobgoblin warlord, has entered from below and as the Player Characters discover, are looting from below.

The scenario offers two options in terms of how the Player Characters might react to the goblinoid presence. In classic style, they could slaughter the lot, though the band is quite large for a group of First Level Player Characters to defeat. Alternatively, the Player Characters could negotiate and even enter an alliance with the Hobgoblin warlord. For a share of the treasure, the warlord even provides several Goblins to fight alongside the Player Characters as well as to make sure their Hobgoblin boss gets her share. It brings a degree of co-operation to play that is not normally present in this style of roleplaying and often not at First Level as well as an unexpected element of roleplaying. The Hobgoblin warlord and her Goblin cohorts are nicely detailed, helping the Judge to portray them as they interact with the Player Characters.

Physically, DCC Day #6: The Key to Castle Whiterock is as well done as you would expect for a release from Goodman Games. The artwork is decent, but a little cartoonish in places, whilst the cartography is not as interesting as that usually found in Dungeon Crawl Classics scenarios. The cover is very nicely done, showing the moment the final confrontation in the dungeon.

DCC Day #6: The Key to Castle Whiterock has a lighter, though a not humorous, feel than most adventures for Dungeon Crawl Classics. If the Dungeon Master was willing, it is easily adapted to Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition as per the guidelines given in Castle Whiterock: The Dying Light of Castle Whiterock. If the scenario is lacking, it is perhaps a good hook to keep the players and their characters interested to want to explore Castle Whiterock, but as a prequel to the campaign and if a playing group has set out to play Castle Whiterock: The Greatest Dungeon Story Ever Told, then DCC Day #6: The Key to Castle Whiterock is a solid addition to the campaign and sets the Player Characters with an advantage or two in readiness.

[Free RPG Day 2025] The Dying Light of Castle Whiterock

Now in its eighteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2025 took place on Saturday, June 21st. 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. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

—oOo—

Castle Whiterock: The Dying Light of Castle Whiterock is a preview and adventure for Castle Whiterock: The Greatest Dungeon Story Ever Told published by Goodman Games. It comes with a bit of backstory and is the subject of a forthcoming crowdfunding campaign. This crowdfunding campaign brings back and updates Dungeon Crawl Classics #51: Castle Whiterock, originally published in 2007. Further, Dungeon Crawl Classics #51: Castle Whiterock received its own preview for Free RPG Day, in 2007, in the form of Dungeon Crawl Classics #51.5: The Sinister Secret of Whiterock. Now both Dungeon Crawl Classics #51: Castle Whiterock and Dungeon Crawl Classics #51.5: The Sinister Secret of Whiterock were written for use with Dungeons & Dragons 3.5, but both Castle Whiterock: The Dying Light of Castle Whiterock and Castle Whiterock: The Greatest Dungeon Story Ever Told are written for use with two separate roleplaying games. These are the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition.

Castle Whiterock: The Dying Light of Castle Whiterock is an adventure for Second Level Player Characters for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition and is an adventure for First Level Player Characters for Dungeon Crawl Classics. It is written for use by the Judge in Dungeon Crawl Classics and the Dungeon Master in Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, so there is a lot of technical phrasing and terminology for both games throughout the adventure. This begins with a conversion guide between the two roleplaying games, which covers Level ranges and attribute, saving throw, difficulty class, and damage descriptor equivalents between the two, as well as an explanation of how Advantage and Disadvantage are handled in both. It is an interesting read which explores the differences between the two and how they handle various aspects of similar game play.

The scenario, Castle Whiterock: The Dying Light of Castle Whiterock, opens with news that a beacon of light has been seen shining out of a suddenly revealed watch tower, known as Swornlight Tower, over Galena Pass in the Ul-Dominor Mountains. The Player Characters may be simply travelling through the pass and want to investigate or look for refuge; they may have been sent by the Merchant-Lord, Nigel the Bald, to look for some missing merchants; or a monastic order of scholars, the Order of the Dawning Sun, seek to claim the watchtower, and so employ the Player Characters to clear it out of any dangerous creatures which have made their home within the walls.

The adventure begins with the Player Characters outside a crack in the rock below the watchtower. They can either explore the crack or make the difficult climb up the rock to the top of the exposed watch tower where they find weird moths circling the light. Inside, they will find signs that the watchtower has long been abandoned, covered with rock and debris, some of it filling the windows and flowing into rooms, as well as signs of recent occupation. This is by a lone monk of the Order of the Dawning Sun, who will be more than felicitous in his welcoming the adventurers, apologising for the traps he has laid to protect himself against intruders, and offering them food and ale. The Player Characters may have some idea that there is something wrong in the watchtower, depending upon their means of access. If they climb to the top and descend down through the floors, they will discover hints that something weird is going on, whereas if they enter from below via the crack, they will certainly pick up hints from the monk’s demeanour… There are some nice moments of horror in the tower and the monk is ever so slightly creepy.

Ultimately, the secret of Swornlight Tower will be revealed to the Player Characters in the antechamber below the tower following a tough little combat puzzle. This also sets them up for the scenario’s final confrontation and if successful, prepares for further exploration of Castle Whiterock when Castle Whiterock: The Greatest Dungeon Story Ever Told is published. There is potential that the Player Characters may suffer a curse during the adventure, but lifting it lies outside of the scope of the Castle Whiterock: The Dying Light of Castle Whiterock.

Rounding out Castle Whiterock: The Dying Light of Castle Whiterock is a pair of appendices. The first contains stats and descriptions for the monsters and NPCs in the adventure. The second details the two new magical items available in the campaign and two handouts which help lay the groundwork for the final confrontation and the puzzle before it.

Physically, Castle Whiterock: The Dying Light of Castle Whiterock is cleanly and tidily laid out. The look of the scenario feels like a blend of the two layout styles used by Goodman Games, one for Dungeon Crawl Classics and one for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. The cartography is very clear though is done in an overhead view rather than the isomorphic view normally used for Dungeon Crawl Classics. The artwork has some creepy moments that are very appropriate to the scenes they accompany.

Castle Whiterock: The Dying Light of Castle Whiterock can be run on its own, inserted into a Judge’s or Dungeon Master’s own campaign, or it can be run as a prequel to Castle Whiterock: The Greatest Dungeon Story Ever Told. Either way, this is a creepy, slightly horrifying scenario that works as written, but better as a prequel to Castle Whiterock: The Greatest Dungeon Story Ever Told.

[Fanzine Focus XXXIX] The Valley Out of Time: Rotten at the Core

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 be 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 and the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game from Goodman Games. 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 Valley Out of Time.

The Valley Out of Time is a six-part series published by Skeeter Green Productions. It is written for use with both the Dungeon Crawl Classics RolePlaying Game and Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, ‘The Valley Out of Time’ is a ‘Lost Worlds’ style setting a la X1 The Isle of Dread, and films such as The Land that Time Forgot, The Lost World, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, One Million years, B.C., and others, plus the artwork of Frank Frazetta. Combining dinosaurs, Neanderthals, and a closed environment, it is intended to be dropped into a campaign with relative ease and would work in both a fantasy campaign or a post-apocalyptic campaign. It could even work as a bridge between the two, with two different possible entries into ‘The Valley Out of Time’, one from a fantasy campaign and one from a post-apocalyptic campaign.

The Valley Out of Time: Rotten at the Core is the fifth issue in the series and like the fourth issue, The Valley Out of Time: Tribes and Factions, before it, it does something more than just give the Judge one more dinosaur or megafauna or one more fight with one more dinosaur or megafauna. For the Judge that wants fights and monsters, the first three issues of The Valley Out of Time were perfect, but for the Judge wanting more, they were a disappointment. What the series promises is set out on the back cover: “The Valley Out of Time is a series of ’zine-sized adventures from SGP. This valley can be placed in any ongoing campaign, and is set in the “Neanderthal Period” of development. Huge monsters – both dinosaurs and otherwise – and devolved humanoids plague the area, and only the hardiest of adventurers will prevail!” The problem is that the series failed to deliver on anything more than just dinosaurs and at best, very minor encounters, all of which emphasised combat rather than interaction or exploration. Certainly, until The Valley Out of Time: Tribes and Factions, the series failed to provide what might be called an adventure as promised on the back cover. In addition, it also failed to provide anything in the way of an overview of the Lost Valley and its history and it also failed to address anything in the way of Player Character motivation as to what did once they were in the Lost Valley.

In fact, The Valley Out of Time did not so much fail to address Player Character motivations as actually refuse to address them. So, it is actually odd to see the author write, “In the Valley Out of Time series, much of the background motivations have been left out, specifically to allow freedom and flexibility of design for the judge. However, in this penultimate Part 5 of the series, let’s look at some specific motivations for the adventurers to ease the burden on the poor judge.” The question is, if the lack of motivations for the adventurers was such a burden for the Judge, why did the author place that burden on the Judge? Not for one issue, but four issues? Why did the author ignore for so long the two fundamental questions that any player is going to ask upon finding his character in the Lost Valley—“How did I get here?” and “What do I do now?”. Obviously, such questions are not going to be answered in the fanzine, but what they highlight is a conceptual design flaw upon the part of the author. Instead of providing options in terms of how and why the Player Characters are in the Lost Valley and what they might do next that the Judge could take, use, adapt, or ignore, he gave the Judge no choice but to create her own. The author asked the Judge to create content and do work that he should have done himself. That is the burden he placed upon the Judge and it shows a fundamental misunderstanding as to why the Judge would have bought The Valley Out of Time series in the first place.

There is also some sense of what the Lost Valley is with this issue. Previously, it has never gone beyond being an isolated range “…(i)nhabited by ‘unevolved’ humanoid tribes, mega-fauna, giant insectoid life, and other unusual hazards.” However, with this issue, the author tells us that it was “Originally created as a pristine and unspoiled oasis outside of others, the Timeless Valley as nature intended – with a balance of benefits as well as misery.” The description raises another question—‘Who created the Lost Valley?’ Sadly, it is another question that the fanzine ignores.

The majority of The Valley Out of Time: Rotten at the Core is devoted to ‘Rotten at the Core’, a scenario for between four and six Player Characters of Sixth to Eighth Level. This is also the first time that the series has suggested what Levels the Player Characters should be. Anyway, the scenario assumes the players and their characters will have played through one or more of the encounters in previous issues and later on in the scenario, that might have played through ‘Why Did It Have To Be Snakes?’, the scenario involving the Ophidian Beastmen, in the previous issue. Either way, by the beginning of the scenario, the Player Characters should have had some interaction with the Urman tribes and even befriended some of them. The Cict Urman tribes asks for the Player Characters’ help. Their leader, Barbreitte the Rose, was kidnapped by Ophidian Beastmen and taken to an underground complex reasons they do not understand. Of if the Player Characters have played through ‘Why Did It Have To Be Snakes?’, they will. The Cict Urman scouts have checked the area where she disappeared and suggest that her abductors might have taken her into the caves and sinkholes in the nearby hills known to be home to hideous monstrosities. The tribe also thinks that a hidden tribe which lives underground nearby might have some information.

Although quite detailed, there is actually very little to the scenario in terms of plot. The Player Characters can approach the Ophidian Beastmen cave complex and sneak in and attempt to find the Barbreitte the Rose, or alternatively make the trek to the Nua Urman tribe’s underground home and attempt to get information from them before finding the Ophidian Beastmen cave complex. Both locations are described in some detail and everything is given full stats, even the Nua Urman tribe and its caves, just in case that the Player Characters want to assault it. The journey to the Nua Urman is described as an interlude, but it is a very long interlude given that it makes up a third of the scenario in length. Consequently, so much of the Nua Urman description feels unnecessary to the play of the scenario unless the Player Characters simply want to slaughter them. That said, the Nua Urman are slightly more interesting in that they do use some interesting weapons, including diamond war axes and a last-ditch cannon that uses Blackstone powder. Whereas in Ophidian Beastmen cave complex will reveal greater threats and darker secrets that will probably lead to further adventures. The final encounter will be with very tough beastman, or Rakshasa.

What the Player Characters may learn is that there is a greater evil in the Lost Valley, a corruption that was accidentally overlooked when the valley was originally created—again, by whom?—and has since grown into a festering blackness that threatens the whole valley. This is ‘Yaath, Mother under the Hills’, a giant, amorphous, black globule of bile and evil. Effectively, an almost unkillable Great Old One that carries on the Lovecraftian feel to the Lost Valley begun with the Ophidian Beastmen. It is an end of campaign level confrontation, though the Judge will need to develop how the threat of Yaath manifests in the Lost Valley in order to lead the Player Characters to its lair…

What is notable about all of the encounters in ‘Rotten at the Core’ is that they presented for both Dungeon Crawl Classics and Mutant Crawl Classics, including both the stats for the monsters and the treasure that the Player Characters might find. So, for example, a rumpled sheet turns out to be a Flying Carpet for Dungeon Crawl Classics, but a Holo-Cloak for Mutant Crawl Classics. It good to see the distinction made clear and implemented throughout.

The Valley Out of Time: Rotten at the Core is rounded out with an appendix of new monsters, essentially replicating the monsters and creatures given in the scenario, and the replication of the information on ‘Resources of the Valley’ with added detail of diamond. Lastly, there is joyous emptiness of the ‘GM Notes’ pages where the Judge is expected to write down all of the details that the author resolutely refuses to provide her with.

Physically, The Valley Out of Time: Rotten at the Core is well presented and well written. The artwork is of a reasonable quality.

With The Valley Out of Time: Rotten at the Core, the series presents its first big scenario. It is a decent enough combat and exploration-focused scenario, although its interlude is too long and does not add very much to the scenario whether the Player Characters decide to engage with it or ignore it. Given that it is written for Player Characters of Sixth to Eighth Level coming to the end of a ‘campaign’ in the Lost Valley, it feels right it should be in the penultimate issue, almost as if a campaign is coming to head and the Player Characters will face a major villain in the final part. Yet The Lost Valley series has not supported the Player Characters getting to this point in their exploration of the Lost Valley. It has never presented the Lost Valley as a setting, let alone a ‘campaign’. There have been only minor encounters in the first three issues, all of them of the same tone and set-up, and only proper scenarios in the fourth issue.

Ultimately, The Valley Out of Time: Rotten at the Core begs yet more questions. “Why is the author giving us a full-length scenario now after ignoring them for so long?” and more importantly, “Why is the author so concerned with motivation all of a sudden after resolutely refusing to address it previously?” Addressing it so late in the fanzine’s run gives The Lost Valley a weird split identity as if the author wants it to be a proper campaign setting, but did not realise it until now. The Valley Out of Time: Rotten at the Core shows how poorly the series was conceptualised and realised. Undoubtedly, there is good content in The Lost Valley, but the author has defiantly left the development of that content into something playable in the hands of the Judge.

[Fanzine Focus XXXIX] Silam No. 2: The Trials of Riao

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 showcased how another DM and 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 be 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 and the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game from Goodman Games. 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 Silam.

Silam No. 2: The Trials of Riao was published in 2024 by Wizards With Laser Rifles following a successful Kickstarter campaign as part of ZineQuest #2024. It follows on from Silam No. 1: The Spike of Dosku which introduced a new setting for use with Dungeons Crawl Classics. This is nation of Silam which nearly fell to a civil war between the Lawful and Chaotic use of magic by Clerics and Wizards. This was forestalled by the creation of The Three Powers, consisting of the Lawful Clerics and the Chaotic Wizards with Neutral Wizards and Druids providing a balancing force between the two. Together, they built Spikes, subterranean bunkers where members could study magic, train, live, and protect themselves. Five centuries ago, the young Queen Budhi initiated The Shattering which destroyed The Three Powers and then executed any magic-using member of her court and those that had participated in The Shattering. The strife continued for two decades until a powerful cleric rose to usurp the queen—and almost succeeded. Great walls were erected between the lands of Queen Budhi and those held by the supporters of the cleric. Since then, a cold war between the Crown of Nicsa and the Tribe of Lliram has divided Silam as much as the walls.

At the beginning of Silam No. 1: The Spike of Dosku, that war has suddenly turned hot… In addition, Silam No. 1: The Spike of Dosku included details of three new Races particular to the setting and the Character Funnel, ‘The Spike of Dosku’. The Character Funnel is the signature scenario of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, one in which the players take control of four Zero Level Player Characters and attempt to have them survive an adventure or dungeon. Any Player Characters that do, gain sufficient Experience Points for them to be able to pick a Class and become First Level.

Silam No. 2: The Trials of Riao expands the world of Silam, but to be fair, not by very much. This starts with five new deities. They include Magron, the Lawful Mother-Father and Husband-Wife. Their worshippers build and protect, and their Clerics are skilled in building and repair buildings and defences. The Chaotic Lliram is the god of practicality and is worshipped by those seeking inspiration and skill. Metasig is Lawful god of stone and the cycle of life primarily worshipped by the Slate, the tall, long-limbed humanoids with slate-like skin that gives an Armour Class bonus when not wearing armour and with ‘Metasig’s Touch’, grants them a Charge Die in combat. Haus is Neutral, a god of consumption worshipped in very few numbers and then by hedonists. Lastly, the Neutral Farn is the god of sleep whose worshippers prize relaxation, but only after their work is done. All five gods are nicely detailed with information about their clerics including holy symbol, weapon proficiencies,  the effects of their ‘Lay on hands’—such as the Farn’s Clerics also inducing pleasant dreams that heal extra Hit Points, and listing their particular spells. None of them have new spells to learn with all of them coming from the core rules. Each is followed by a ‘Disapproval Table’. Overall, these are nicely detailed, but the main issue with them is context as the broader world of Silam is not yet described.

Silam No. 2: The Trials of Riao does include one new spell. This is Riao’s Magnificent Strike. This turns a single punch by the caster into being capable shattering his target. Effectively, a martial arts strike. This is a solid little spell which perhaps could be the basis of Monk-style Player Character.

Half of the fanzine is the adventure, ‘The Trials of Riao’. This is a First Level adventure, intended to be run after the Player Characters have been through the Character Funnel, ‘The Spike of Dosku’, in Silam No. 1: The Spike of Dosku. Here, the Player Characters descend into the Spike, essentially a seminary where students train and study to serve Metasig. This involves passing several tests against the elements, physical as well as mental, the latter involving the student having to think his way around an obstacle rather than simply fight it or endure it. What is clear as soon as the Player Characters enter is that it is many years since anyone visited the Spike as there are still signs of the battles between the defenders and Queen Budhi’s soldiers. The Player Characters effectively replace the dead students and have to find their past the trials in the Spike without the benefit of years of study! It is a decently done dungeon with a mournful atmosphere and a strong emphasis on puzzles and tests over combat.

The issue with ‘The Trials of Riao’ is one of motivation. It is not readily clear in the adventure why the Player Characters have come to the Spire. The specific reason is that they have come to further study under Master Riao in the Spike, but this is not made clear until the very end and the overall reason is not given at all. It is actually to learn and protect the ways of magic—both arcane and divine—that the Crown of Nicsa wants destroyed.

Physically, Silam No. 2: The Trials of Riao is very well produced. The maps are nicely done and the artwork is excellent.

The setting of Silam with new Races and the politically and culturally different attitudes to magic of all types is potentially interesting, but although Silam No. 1: The Spike of Dosku worked hard to set it up, that potential is not realised as much as it should be with Silam No. 2: The Trials of Riao, primarily because the two do not feel as connected as they should. The scenario in Silam No. 2: The Trials of Riao is meant to be sequel to the Character Funnel in Silam No. 1: The Spike of Dosku, but it does not feel like it. Future issues need more of the world, need more of a threat to motivate the Player Characters, and more context to help the Judge more easily make the connections and build world for her players.

[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.