In May 2023 we presented the Sorcery & Super Science Quick Deal featuring the 2010 gonzo-apocalypse SFRPG Sorcery & Super Science from Joseph (Arden Vul) Browning at Expeditious Retreat Press. In 2112, time unhinged due to mad experiments into the nature of the universe, and the world changed. Objects and people from the past and the future appeared with little apparent reason. The changes sparked panic and chaos. Plague, war, and famine soon followed. The few Earthbound survivors looked upward to see even the Moon itself had shattered.
Out of the ruins new peoples – mutants of human, animal, and even plant stock – now toiled next to a few remaining humans who developed – some say, redeveloped – the art of sorcery. Spirits that had invisibly coexisted with humanity now could be forced into artifacts of mystical power. But such power corrupts, and sorcerers who once assisted their fellows in the perilous new world turned evil and domineering, becoming foul wizards.
It is a dangerous new world where advanced technology exists alongside mystic artifacts; where super-scientists use their knowledge to create tools for trade, health, and combat; where mutants pit their powers against the terrors of the wilds. Flex your mutated muscles, whisper the words of long-dead sorcerers, or repair the technology of a world long gone. Get your Thundaar on, because the world below the shattered moon is yours to explore.
Sorcery & Super Science characters can be humans, mutated humans, or mutated animals or plants. You have a “Destiny” (class) such as Sorcerer, Super Scientist, or the catchall Catalyst. Your seven primary abilities are rated from -4 to 20; typical human range is 1-3. You roll random abilities and “highlights” (unusual features). It’s all pretty free-spirited in the Gamma World 1E style.
The “floating dice” system uses every kind of polyhedral die from 1d40 to 1d20 – including a d16, though (it says here) “2d8 will work in a pinch” – in ability checks against a target number or an opponent’s ability. The die you roll is based on the total of your ability rank and your opponent’s rank; if you both have rank 4, say, you’ll roll a d8 (4+4). If the die roll + your rank matches the maximum roll on that die (in this case, 8), you succeed – but you really want to beat that target by at least 2, a “greater success.” Some checks specify a required minimum skill level. Combat damage is characterized as conditions such as Staggered, Bleeding, Blasted, Diseased, Radiated, or Melted. As written, combat is deadly and injuries debilitating, but you can spend Fortune points to modify almost any result.
Much S&SS interest lies in its many small, concise, high-spirited supplements that add lots and lots of mystic artifacts (Exploratory Dirigible, Horse of Eternal Emptiness, Pump-Action Broadsword, Mark III Laser Rifle), weird factions (the Church of Parkour, Lordship of Fingers, Confederated Gator Lords of Okefenokee), and odd creatures (Winged Carnivorous Mastodon, Brainy Bison, Scavbot, ScandiaFlex sapient exercise machines). (Yes, that was Horse of Eternal Emptiness.) Just wander through the 21-page ZZZ Quick Guide to North America – from the People’s Republic of Quebec and their bitter enemies, the Quebec People’s Republic, west through the Dark Lands of Kalamazoo and the Bean Lords of Bad Axe to distant Pudlandia – and you’ll find plenty to fill out any Apocalypse World, Mutant Year Zero, Fallout, or Masters of Umdaar campaign.
This all-new Sorcery & Super Science Quick Deal presented Expeditious Retreat’s complete S&SS RPG line, plus seven novels, for an unbeatable bargain price. There were twenty-one titles in our Super Science Collection (retail value $61) as DRM-free ebooks, including .PDFs of the complete Sorcery & Super Science! corebook (plus the free adventure The House of Blue Men); The ZZZ Quick Guide to North America location sourcebook; ten mini-supplements that gather Characters, Creatures, and Objects Below the Shattered Moon; the adventures Scourge of the Mall Rats and Vulture Men of Waukegan; and ePub versions of the seven-novel Shattered Moon series by Expeditious Retreat owners Joseph Browning and Suzy Yee.
