Thursday, August 20, 2015

Commentary On Crawling Under A Broken Moon Issue #1 & The Dungeon Crawl Classics Rpg Quick Post Apocalyptic Adventure Design

Having the DCC rpg rule book puts things into a new light in this case the fact that Crawling Under A Broken Moon is definitely a plug and play game. The fact that several of the more esoteric elements of the fanzine suddenly make a whole lot more sense. The emulation of certain old school post apocalyptic rpg's is pretty damn perfect. Because it allows many of the systems that DCC gets right to be showcased to new players and we'll take a look why.
Grab Issue One of Crawling Under A Broken Moon right over HERE








Now yesterday I wrote about Lamentations of the Flame Princess and its applications for gaming in a post apocalyptic venue for long term campaigning. Today I'm going to talk about its opposite number in the form of Dungeon Crawl Classics and the Crawling Under A Broken Moon fanzine. In this case issue #1 of Crawling Under A Broken Moon and its applications for use as an OSR resource.
  Fanzine have been a mainstay of  the DCC rpg over the last seven or eight years, they allow Goodman games the makers of DCC to do advanced marketing at very little cost by allowing others to lisence the DCC rpg system in a limited way in markets. Goodman controls all aspects of DCC including its trademark and copyright, so these fanzines must be approved by them. This is simply sound business sense. Reid San Filippo has created some top draw post apocalyptic content here. DCC emulates and twists the old school experience with lots of bells and whistles in their system. Well the Crawling Under A Broken Moon magazine cleverly takes every trope of Gamma World and Metamorphosis Alpha 1st edition & every piece  of the post apocalyptic sci fi and science fantasy genre and throws it through a DCC wood chipper. No seriously it does exactly that.
There is actually enough material in issue #1 to create an adventure location plus monsters and vile villain right from the ground up. Simply work from this issue backwards by taking  'Bloom Fashion' and set it within an abandoned post apocalyptic mall. Add in a mad technologist at the center controlling a bunch of security bots and mad mutants. Take the whole thing and set it with a post apocalyptic California and you might be good to go.
OSR Adventure Hack Of  Chopping Mall
If this sounds familiar it should, the idea of this came from the cult classic Chopping Mall. Take a bunch of adventurers from the local villages add in the local mutant gun smith and set the mall near a sea side former resort for further fun and your almost good to go.



Many of the mutants, madmen, and bots featured in issue one are perfect fodder for a rite of passage style visit to the abandoned mall. Everything lines up quite well with that ever present 70's and 80's vibe plus its the perfect excuse to rewatch this cult classic with Kelli Maroney, Tony O'Dell, Russell Todd, Karrie Emerson. The situation of eight teenagers being  trapped after hours in a high tech shopping mall is the perfect venue to get PC's into the Gamma ended action of this style of adventure. Because it showcases all of the options that DCC does in spades and puts them on parade for new players. By setting the adventure by the sea the PC's have a further adventuring option should they survive the high tech terrors of the mall.
Many of the interior and exterior shots of Chopping Mall were shot in the Sheman Oaks Galleria and there's actually a full wiki entry on the place right over HERE.
The mall is so iconic that it is featured in a lot of films and is part of pop culture back brain. According to wiki:  the Galleria was featured in scenes in several films. Fast Times at Ridgemont High,[18] Valley Girl[7][18](aerial, exterior shots), Night of the Comet, Commando,[22][23] Back to the Future Part II,[23] Albert Brooks' Mother,[23] Terminator 2: Judgment Day,[24] Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge,[25] Walk Like a Man (1987),[26] Innerspace[27] and Chopping Mall[28] were filmed at the Galleria, as were scenes for the 2011 release Crazy, Stupid, Love. There's a wonderful official site for the place that has lots and lots of potential for adventure design right over HERE

Now when it comes to really dealing in high tech 80's style malls and abandoned malls for that matter the Dead Malls site is the site to go.Lots and lots of fodder for your post apocalyptic gaming. This site is entry after entry of potential mall adventure location generation fodder for your games seriously fun site to zip around. I've got ideas for at least three adventure projects. My advice is to have a DCC wizard on staff for these styles of adventures.
To further pad this issue out or use it as a jump off point, you can use several of the other monsters featured in issue number one as a part of an abandoned high tech aquarium or as a part of a sea side resort. 
A good solid candidate for this might be Marineland of The Pacific which is just as iconic as the Galleria.
You can find a ton more information right over HERE



Good luck mutant adventurers and keep that laser pistol handy!

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