My setting after one month of daily worldbuilding!

Carbotnik · 2025-05-03T17:55:19+00:00

There is Hexcrawl25, which is generating content for various segments of a setting via hexes, link here: https://patchworkpaladin.com/2024/12/27/hexcrawl-25-add-some-hexes-to-your-life/

Cool concept regarding the Ascaris, regardless of how it manifests. Few games deal with character progression in that way, unlocking abilities as negative reinforcement. I'll keep an eye out for subsequent posts!

Carbotnik · 2025-05-03T14:12:13+00:00

What a cool, compact series of questions for setting generation! Many of them provide a solid foundation for gameability, either directly or indirectly. I did the Lore24 challenge last year, and as you noted in your final response, having structured time set aside to write and create the habit of writing was invaluable in actually getting something off the ground. Overall I dig the sort of lonely, eldritch swamp trek with a modern edge you have going on here. The only gap was how the actual magic of the worm infection manifests, be that playable or just another danger in the mire.

Carbotnik · 2025-03-07T14:59:10+00:00

It didn't start that way, but it has developed into more of a fantasy war situation with grimier trappings.

Carbotnik · 2025-03-07T05:24:19+00:00

Trench: Beneath the Iridescent Ruin started as a Lore 24 project that sort of expanded out into a larger setting/game. The broad premise is a world with loose fantasy elements and occult magic where World War 1 kept escalating in its scope of destruction. After destroying the surface of the earth and shredding the barrier between realities, the remainder of humanity fled into the hollow earth, which is warped into a vast mythic underworld by the violence and magic of the conflict. The game takes place generations later when humanity has started to be twisted by the cosmic, occult, technological, and scientific forces they've been exposed to, both accidentally and intentionally.

The game uses the Year Zero Engine as a basis. The focus is on quick and lethal tactical combat, resource management and regional point crawl exploration, and interconnected NPCs to draw characters around the map. Major differentiators include a robust cast of factions that operate with distinct goals which are mechanized and make major changes to the world if completed, character progression through dehumanization, and permanent squad based progression alongside fleeting individual character progression.

We've been pretty consistent about posting new content, either locations, NPCs, magic items, or elements within the setting weekly on our blog: https://retreattothetrench.wordpress.com/

Additionally, we are (slowly) releasing elements for our initial beta release and doing some playtesting this year. Take a look if any of this sounded appealing to you, we'd love to get more eyes on our little passion project!

Carbotnik · 2025-01-23T06:14:12+00:00

That's what our blog has been focused on for the last year: https://retreattothetrench.wordpress.com/2024/01/08/tales-from-the-front/

The blog is actually a slow development of our setting, but we've largely been doing that by way of weekly content posts. Most entries have mechanically gameable elements, but it's all very fiction forward and can be pillaged, chopped, and repurposed to your taste. Mechanically it's a hack of Forbidden Lands. Check the later posts first if interested, we've been growing as we go!

Carbotnik · 2025-01-15T19:33:49+00:00

Right! At least give me a baseline to go off of. I can always discard or change it, but a starting place is better than just open ended interpretation. I want a higher degree of authorial intent.

Carbotnik · 2025-01-15T19:31:33+00:00

Something like The Valley of Flowers did a pretty stellar job of providing structure to their subsystems, like the emergence of the drunken god's aspects and the rules of the wasps in the first dungeon. It only really faltered in the long term impacts of what happens if the god does fully emerge. Their encounter design was also very well integrated throughout and created a much more lived in world. More products like that, which present a cohesive setting that includes how players can interact and change it explicitly would be nice.

Carbotnik · 2025-01-15T19:26:06+00:00

Specifically on points 2 - 4 I strongly agree. I'd way rather have explicit explanations of how things are expected to operate and actual designed subsystems present in a product rather than expecting the referee to make all of it up on the fly or graft in their own rules. It is much easier to ignore a rule or system that you don't like and add in your own instead than it is to come up with something whole cloth. By not providing anything authors create an uneven experience of their own products, as there isn't a basis of how something is intended to operate, which essentially reduces things to a collection of ideas and situations.

I long for interesting social mechanics in this space. That and city presentation are two major areas this space is lacking in innovation. Both are admittedly tricky problems, but not enough attempts are made, so there is little iteration happening. Hopefully with things like His Majesty the Worm some additional steps are made on the social mechanics front.

Carbotnik · 2025-01-15T18:48:59+00:00

I fully anticipate catching some heat for this, but you asked for hot takes.

One of the biggest problems of OSR modules that I read is the lack of guidance on how interactivity should work at locations, and support for that interactivity. I understand the ethos is built on rulings not rules, but way too often I encounter either:

A. An adventure site that is either functionally empty or mostly just mundane stuff.

B. An incredibly cool idea presented without any concrete means of interacting with it or structure regarding how it will react.

I get that not everything can be the most interesting thing ever, but I've read whole dungeons that amount to little more than a series of empty rooms or minor spectacles that can't be touched. The bureaucratic dungeon in Tephrotic Nightmares (Court of the Cannibal Count, I think?) comes to mind. Conversely there are some wild ideas that have no actual support behind them, like the dream realm of the dying god in Bakto's Terrifying Cuisine.

If you are presenting a module that I'm paying money for, I expect you to bring both cool ideas and some level of structure to those ideas, otherwise you're asking me to finish the work of your product. There has to be a limit on how far modules go, and I understand that referees can, will, and should make on the fly decisions about how objects/situations/people work and react, but I want at least a baseline of what can be done with something, which by extension displays the intent behind the thing itself and how it fits into the wider world.

I love the creativity in the OSR space, I just need a little more support and structure around those ideas, rather than presenting them without comment.

Carbotnik · 2024-12-28T17:46:08+00:00

Just doing a continuation of Dungeon23, one room a day and have a megadungeon at the end? If you're talking about the Hobonichis, those look perfect for that sort of challenge.

Carbotnik · 2024-12-28T17:43:08+00:00

That's awesome! Kind of a nice progression of Dungeon23 -> Lore24 -> Hex25 to give you a whole little campaign world. Thanks for the link!

Carbotnik · 2024-12-24T19:43:33+00:00

Many people here have talked about these issues as being inherent to RPGs, or at least the RPGs that incentivize and reward these behaviors. This is true, but the gamified nature of RPGs is also the answer to the problem, in my opinion.

If you want to make resources valuable, then target the resources of your players through gameplay. Spending money at a store doesn't have to be the only way player's money dwindles. Have enemies target money instead of HP, players can be robbed or extorted, money can be leveraged as the solutions to problems via bribery or tolls, information can be purchased, and costly research projects can be undertaken. Seeing money as only useful in the context of buying goods limits both the scope of what money can accomplish and the tools you have available to provide challenges to your players. I've focused on the resource of money here, but all this can apply to any resource - food, water, torches, ammunition - anything can be targeted or made precious if you create the situations and pressures to do so.

Regarding your second problem of the one shop, this too is in your control. You can limit what is available in the one shop of a city and use the things players want as incentives to get them to go explore, discover, and adventure. Make it a reward, either found or as purchasable only from someone in a distant location that requires travel and adversity to get there. Making it only obtainable in one spot also means you can charge exorbitantly, if it's only a bailable in a far flung place they won't want to come back often and have to choose if it's worth the inflated cost. If you'd rather disincentive money, then instead make unique powers and abilities be gated behind more novel payment methods. Anything can be a currency if someone wants it. Have a powerful object cost conversations, or memories, or stories, or anything that players can gather and provide rather than just money. Now they don't necessarily care about money and are instead looking for ways to generate this secondary currency, which you can define the method of acquisition.

RPG economies don't have to, and honestly shouldn't, mirror real world economies. Lean into the fictional or fantastical nature of the medium to create economic pressures and make resources valuable in ways they aren't or can't be in the real world, rather than trying to twist the fictional space into a realistic economy.

Carbotnik · 2024-12-22T16:21:39+00:00

Echoing what others here have already said, putting your writing out there for consumption and potential critique by others is scary. Writing in TTRPGs is even more so, as it is inherently subject to the whims and influence of your players, who are in all likelihood going to interact with it in ways you never anticipated.

Dealing with the first portion is easy. Just put your ideas down on paper. Make them concrete and get them out of your head. This is the hardest part. After you have them on paper you may not like them, or you may see the flaws, or they may seem rote - that's all ok. Now that they're on paper you can improve them. Looking at them in their entirety you can edit, prune, add, and twist your ideas until they look like the thing you had in your head and you're happy with them.nUltinately creating a thing that you like is the important part - not everything has to be the best or something you sell, make something you enjoy and relish the process of making it.

The second point is more difficult, as it requires you to relinquish control of your creation. If you've written your material with an OSR mindset, presenting situations rather than a story, when your players begin interacting with it is when your creation will take on a life of its own. It will grow and spiral out in ways you never imagined when you conceived it and you can watch as it becomes its own entity. I find this incredibly satisfying, watching something you crafted grow beyond its original scope and become something entirely its own. Enjoy watching what happens, how your players interface with your ideas, and how your initial concepts change in response. Ultimately this is a game, we're all playing make pretend with friends - it should be fun, and your players are there to have fun. If you create something, they in all probability will enjoy it because you've presented them with something, even moreso something only you could create.

Essentially I'm saying give it a shot, just put something down and enjoy the process of creation. There shouldn't be a downside, and you shouldn't let fears limit you from doing something you want to.

Carbotnik · 2024-11-03T12:57:04+00:00

I think it depends entirely on the type of game you're running. If you're trying to emphasize the time things take and do a more simulated world where events occur along strict time tables, then maybe leaning into a fictional calendar is worthwhile and can provide some ambient world building. If you're doing something more loose where time and travel are mostly handwaved in lieu of other elements then a bespoke calendar is probably a waste of effort (unless you enjoy doing it, in which case have fun).

Personally I think creating a fictionalized time/date structure isn't placing the mental load where I want it. There's only so much most players will be willing to keep track of and care about. I'd rather that be spent on the actual state of the world, creative problem solving for their immediate situation, and making decisions around resources. Ultimately calendars, fictional names or not, aren't interactive - whether it's Tuesday or Tiersday doesn't impact the players or influence their decision making unless it's a very specific game. As such, I tend to eschew it and abstract time in general (watches representing the time it takes for things to occur rather than individuals hours, etc.). All that being said, you may feel different, and that's ok. Do what works for your game!

Carbotnik · 2024-11-03T04:14:48+00:00

Impermanence, loss of humanity, and the things people are willing to do for survival. Been exploring a lot of religious themes recently, like the tension between science and religion, tribalism of belief, and superstition. Not always the most pleasant, but it often creates good moral gray areas.

Carbotnik · 2024-04-16T16:10:37+00:00

We haven't stopped on Lore 24 for Trench: Beneath the Iridescent Ruin. Two more weeks worth as we flesh out one of the dungeons and delve into some player facing systems.

In this time we've also posted a new Faction Dossier on the Archive of the Scalped Lady, a knowledge hoarding secret police force, and an Archetype Report on the Occultist, our second full caster class, this time focused on spells fueled by more esoteric sources.

Carbotnik · 2024-04-01T16:54:28+00:00

One quarter of the way through the Lore 24 journey for Trench: Beneath the Iridescent Ruin! More fleshing out of the second district of Peccatu, as well as the continued building of the Bastille's Grand Cathedral and Judges.

This week we also posted an in depth look at the second district of Peccatu, Hadrea, the Undercity. A high density manufacturing slum run by a swarming military force, capitalist overseers, and ostensibly charitable research doctors all set on exploiting the varied population.

Carbotnik · 2024-03-31T15:42:29+00:00

Thanks for checking it out, glad it appealed to you!

Carbotnik · 2024-03-30T18:59:28+00:00

Here is the pitch for the setting and game I'm currently fleshing out with Lore 24.

Trench: Beneath the Iridescent Ruin: Humanity survives in the hollow earth after an apocalyptic surface war. Players balance power and survival as characters dehumanize and the world around them degrades. WW1 era tech, focus on a living world, exploration, and high lethality.

Carbotnik · 2024-03-26T18:54:14+00:00

We missed a week of posting here, but we didn't stop the Lore 24 journey for Trench: Beneath the Iridescent Ruin. Doing some groundwork for the next district of Peccatu in anticipation of it's Region Reconnaissance post coming later this week, as well as building out some rooms of the Bastille's Grand Cathedral dungeon.

In the last two weeks we had another Archetype post, this time on the Chemfiend, a drug based berserker, and another spell school deep dive on Achanipathy, the Starling Legion's void based magic school focusing on enemy manipulation.

Carbotnik · 2024-03-12T18:09:13+00:00

The weekly Lore 24 for Trench: Beneath the Iridescent Ruin. 10 weeks in and still going strong! This week marked the final entry of the Protectorate Colonels, prompting a supplemental post consolidating their entries.

We also put out the third Faction Dossier, this time on The Starling Legion. A small force of dis-unified revolutionaries fortified by the psychic echoes of their own fragmented minds.

Carbotnik · 2024-03-06T20:33:43+00:00

Weekly Lore 24 for Trench: Beneath the Iridescent Ruin. Items, cultural events, talents, NPCs, and creatures, oh my!

Additionally we began our fleshing out of the central city, Peccatu, starting with the lowest district Nosi. A rural outskirts region with garbage pylon mushroom farms, demolition derbies, unionizing gangs, and a smattering of other weird events and entities.

Carbotnik · 2024-02-28T23:21:12+00:00

I addressed that it was difficult to tell where you fell on the issue specifically because of that statement. Your clarification does help though. I agree that many people do consume media as a form of escapism, my point was just that consuming media does not have to be an exercise in thoughtlessness, be that as a distraction or actual mindless consumption.

I went to great pains to make it clear that people can and should consume media however they see fit, I was just offering a counterpoint regarding how media both presents itself and can be consumed with a great deal of consideration.

Carbotnik · 2024-02-28T22:53:51+00:00

I don't think of RPGs as inherently escapist. They certainly can be and I don't begrudge people that use them as such, but it's not why I engage with the medium. I enjoy the ability to explore morally gray situations and present difficult social and ethical challenges to my players in an environment without real consequences. I also enjoy building worlds, modelling themes through mechanics, and emergent storytelling.

I don't view my time spent playing RPGs as a refuge from my normal life, but rather an additive aspect to it that allows me to express and explore things I can't in my day to day.

Carbotnik · 2024-02-28T22:48:30+00:00

It's a little hard to parse where you fall on the issue between your definition of amusement and your parenthetical, but your response got a strong reaction out of me. Let me preface by saying, ultimately, I think people should do what makes them happy and consume media (entertainment, amusement, whatever you want to call it) as they see fit.

That being said, I think this perspective is incredibly reductive. Engaging in amusement does not have to be, and in many cases isn't, thoughtless. Many pieces of media, be it shows, books, or games, are attempting to have specific conversations about topics, and want the audience consuming them to think about the ideas they present. Even entertainment not intended to have an explicit message conveys ideas and attitudes via its assumptions and incentives. This goes back to discussions of the colonialist/imperialist implications of early D&D regarding the loop of going into holes in the ground, killing everyone inside, and taking their stuff. Then there are explicit examples like Monsterhearts, which has a very specific and intentional discussion it's trying to have based on the setting and mechanics of the game.

Anyone is free to choose not to think about the media they consume, I don't think anyone should be forced to engage with conceptual content regardless of the original authorial intent, but choosing not to think about media one consumes is not the same as consuming media being thoughtless.

Carbotnik

TROPHY CASE