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TTRPG Tuesday: More World Seeds??

What the heck, why not another TTRPG Tuesday? There’s no law against it is there? And even if there is, I’d say my approach to this blog makes it abundantly clear that I care little for the breaking of laws.  I’m back with more World Seeds for Spectres of Brocken (link to the upcoming KS: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ehronlime/spectres-of-brocken) just like last time, almost like I kept thinking about them and this is just a part two to my previous entry.


Bone Metal

Necromancy was supposed to fix everything.  It promised a utopia unending, and instead we got an empire on whom the Sun neither sets nor rises.  People live and toil the same as they ever did, but do so now under black skies as the charnel houses spew their fumes around the clock.  And no longer is death any sort of release, for the souls of the departed now power the mighty constructs that stalk this blasted Earth.  Wrought from obsidian and onyx and tarnished silver, pitted iron and smooth carbon, but most of all from bone: The Ghost Engines.  Moving, chain and staff-wielding monuments to the hollow majesty of the sorcerous few whose petty squabbles scar and ravage the world.  The Conductors of these mechanical abominations draw from the ancestral spirits of their bygone bloodlines to control their charges - but will they side with and serve the powers that be? Or has the time come at last to throw off shackles and Eat the Lich?

The Woodcutter Hymn

1600, by the reckoning of the new Gregorian calendar.  4297 by the Chinese calendar, 11.19.1 by the Mayan.  45 years ago, the world changed.  Just as humanity began to understand its place in the universe, the universe came to us.  The Infernals descended from the sky, cities were razed in an instant, and an army beyond mortal imagination stood poised to enslave or exterminate our race.  But in the silence of the Gods, Fate smiled strangely upon us with a plague, one that humanity weathered poorly but which felled the Infernals entirely.  Within a month, the would-be conquerors were gone, their foul work unfinished, their rapacious machines quiet, inert.  As we struggled to rebuild, the tools closest to hand were those selfsame vehicles.  The means of our annihilation became the key to a Bright Age, as we learned and applied the secrets of the Infernals.  Now the world spins fast as a coin, each new day bringing with it some novel wonder born of Infernal technology.  But as time slips by, the memory fades, of a world united in common cause.  Ancient enmity and modern betrayals wait to burst forth, as the Infernal Woodcutters are turned once again to their original purpose: the waging of war, and the scouring of the land.

Gearworld!

You’re 13 years old, you’ve just gotten your Gear operator’s permit, you and your pet Compsognathus are ready to embark on a journey to become a Gear Operator: Master-Class.  Travel across the different regions of the Continent, learning mechanic skills, engaging in Gear jousts with fellow Permit operators and itinerant Instructors, and gaining new Cogs to power up your Gear.  The friends you make and travel with will form memories you’ll never forget - not even in the bitter conflict waiting in the wings.  The coming war will change everything - but that’s not your problem yet.  Right now all you have to do is figure out how to install that Cog, feed your pet dino, and read up on the Gear Master Guidebook before tomorrow’s joust.  Your destiny awaits - one glorious day at a time.


Alright, time to cop to the influences: for Bone Metal, I wanted to do a setting that wasn’t just “sufficiently advanced technology”, but literal magic.  Plus I’ve been reading a looooot of necromancy books (Bone Shard Empire, Old Kingdom, Locked Tomb) so that’s naturally the school of magic my mind went to.  For The Woodcutter Hymn, I wanted to look to the past, not the future; so this is a chance for an alternate history / period piece.  Definitely lighter on the specifics but that’s meant to encourage people to think about the cultures (not just Western) that preceded our modern states, and how those might’ve turned out differently.  Not inspired by anything in particular, though that’s absolutely why I asked this question on Twitter (https://twitter.com/FinCoe/status/1551426158293651456).  And finally for Gearworld! that’s just pokemon baby, along with every other low stakes bildungsroman anime I watched as a kid (though to be extra truthful, I should specifically credit the fanfic “Pokemon Fire Strike” by Uiru, which was a defining text for me).  Not a damn thing wrong with the old pocket monsters, and you can still tell an emotionally wrought as fuck story with em.

Alright, that’s three (was going to be two but I did two last week and WE ALL KNOW HOW I FEEL ABOUT THE NUMBER FOUR) and plenty to be getting on with.  Again, check out Aaron Lim (@ehronlime) on Twitter for more about Spectres of Brocken, and thanks as always for reading.  Til next time!

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