Friday Encounter: Stepwell Passage

Following on from my last Friday Encounter, here's another dungeon puzzle I've used in a recent session.

This encounter is designed to be used as a dungeon room. The room is dominated by a large stepwell - a pit dug into the ground, with a series of staircases leading downward along its sides to allow groundwater to be carried up. The twelth step from the bottom is covered in gold leaf, while the rest are bare stone. The pit is lined with multiple levels of archways stacked on top of each other, allowing water to be retrieved from different points. Each archway contains a door - some are closed, and some are open to chutes leading either up or down to control the flow of water. The doors have no handle, knob, or mechanism and cannot be opened manually. Furthermore, at the very bottom of the stepwell is a door inset in a golden frame.  Also in the room, there are four pillars in a line leading toward the stepwell, each of which has a wheel set into it.

When the PCs first discover the stepwell, the water is sitting at the level of the third step from the bottom. By turning the wheels attached to the pillars, they can open certain doors on the walls and allow water to flow in or out of the pit, thus raising or lowering the water level. The objective is to raise the water level to the gilded step.

Essentially, this is a simple math puzzle - each wheel raises or lowers the water level by a certain amount of steps. The wheels must be turned completely in order to work, so you can't get a partial effect. You can't have a "negative" water level - if you were to drain more steps than are present in the stepwell, the whole stepwell drains.

You can adjust the values as needed (perhaps even using more or less than four pillars if you want), but here's what I did in my game.

• Pillar 1 (furthest from the stepwell) lowers the water level by 8 steps.
• Pillar 2 raises the water level by 5 steps.
• Pillar 3 raises the water level by 10 steps.
• Pillar 4 (closest to the stepwell) lowers the water level by 3 steps.

So, if the water level starts at Step 3 and the goal is to get it to Step 12, the puzzle can be solved by draining the stepwell by turning the wheels on Pillar 1 or 4, then using the wheel on Pillar 3 to raise it to Step 10, then Pillar 2 to raise it to Step 15, then Pillar 4 to lower it to Step 12. You get the idea.

Once the water level hits Step 12, a gong sounds, and all water flushes out of the stepwell. The gold-rimmed door at the very bottom then opens. In my campaign, this door led to the next area of the dungeon, but you could have it contain treasure or a magic item or the like.

Elements of Japanese Fantasy

I've discussed the distinct phenomenon of British fantasy gaming in the 70s and 80s - a movement that had its own tropes and conventions quite different from that across the Atlantic. In fact, that was my first brush with writing on this sort of thing when I first submitted it as a long post on the OSR subreddit that garnered plenty of discussion and made me realize I'd do well with this whole blogging thing. But there's also something to be said about the distinct flavor of the fantasy subgenre across the Pacific as well. Japanese fantasy, as seen in anime and JRPG video games but also in that country's own canon of fantasy literature (there's quite a bit there, even if most of it has never been translated into English) has its own idiosyncracies, and while we're on the subject, I figured that would be a fun tangent to explore.

What's interesting about the fantasy genre in Japan is how much of it was popularized through the medium of gaming. While The Lord of the Rings was translated in Japan and was quite popular and influential there in its own right, what really made Western fantasy take off was when Dungeons & Dragons was imported, receiving a complete facelift with new illustrations from local artists. Early works in the Japanese fantasy scene, like Record of Lodoss War, were direct novelizations of the writers' D&D campaigns. This in turn created a demand for video RPGs, which resulted in Ultima and Wizardry becoming such big hits that they spurred the creation of homegrown takes on the genre like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, and those in turn fed back into the popular Japanese consciousness to the point where RPG-like mechanics are commonly employed in fantasy storytelling even if the story isn't based on an existing RPG - what's called the literary RPG, or LitRPG genre. This can range from game mechanics being reinterpreted as in-universe phenomena (like the concept of "monsters," as I'll discuss below) to characters outright talking about leveling up in-universe with a straight face.

This isn't really something I enjoy. As I've discussed elsewhere on this blog, I prefer my game mechanics to facilitate the worldbuilding, not the other way around. Still, it's an interesting observation when it comes to the history of fantasy gaming, and it's worth noting because it makes up a pretty big part of the genre in the Japanese consciousness.

On that note, I should clarify that, despite being based on Dragon Quest, The Saga of the Ortegids is quite pointedly not a "Japanese fantasy" setting. It's based on the older entries in the series before the tropes of Japanese fantasy fully crystalized into what they are today, and specifically on the artwork used to promote the games in Western markets back in the NES era, which downplayed the series' ties to anime in favor of emphasizing its Western fantasy roots. A big part of that exercise was trying to put what we see in the games through the lens of old-school Western fantasy, and seeing what came out on the other side. However, in researching Dragon Quest and its inspirations and derivative works, it's impossible not to come across some common threads that are worth cataloguing. I'm sure it would be of use to some DMs out there.

Slayers

Not all Japanese fantasy stories and settings tick all these boxes. The world of Japanese fantasy runs the full gamut from the silly (Konosuba) to the grimdark (Berserk), and from settings that are almost indistinguishable from a typical D&D campaign (Dungeon Meshi) to settings that have evolved a constellation of unique tropes and traditions of their own (later Final Fantasy titles). However, there's definitely a few select qualities that are particular to Japanese fantasy traditions I want to enumerate.

• To get the more famous superficial differences out of the way: elves tend to have ears that point to the side rather than straight up. Due to the persistent influence of the early D&D editions, kobolds are more likely to be dog-like rather than reptilian, and orcs are more likely to be pig-faced (often, they go as far to be straight-up anthropomorphic pig people, complete with pink skin and portly physiques). Slimes and oozes are much more common, and almost always are low-level cannon fodder, thanks to Wizardry by way of Dragon Quest.

• 

  Dungeon Meshi

  A major difference I've noted is in the nature of monsters. In Western fantasy RPGs, "monsters" are usually a game mechanic - the term encompasses a number of different, largely unrelated beings, from animals to humanoids to sometimes even archetypes of humans. A "monster" is, effectively, anything with a statblock. In Japanese fantasy, however, it's quite common for "monsters" to be a category of being that exists in-universe and are recognized as such. A goblin, a slime, and a dragon are all, metaphysically, the same class of entity, and are fundamentally different than a human or a horse. It's rare for the cultures and societies of humanoid monsters like orcs and goblins to be explored, and they're usually treated more like exceptionally smart animals. For some reason, it's quite common for monsters to uniformly be edible, and for there to be thriving culinary traditions utilizing their meat.
• If monsters are treated as a monolith, then they will usually be portrayed as servants of a "Demon King," "Dark Lord," "Archfiend," or similar entity. I discuss that some here, but to recap: this is a stock character that serves as an embodiment of evil, but one that exists on the physical plane, with their own territory and minions. They behave as something of a cross between Tolkien's Sauron and a video game final boss, and were inspired by both. Monsters tend to be uniformly or predominately aligned with this figure; in some cases, they're the source of all evil in the world.

  

  Final Fantasy

• Often, the "Demon King" is contrasted with a "Hero." If the Demon King is an archetype that grew from the final bosses of video games, the Hero represents the player character. They are usually chosen by a divine power and may be imbued with special abilities, and tasked with slaying the Demon King. I've seen multiple settings where the Demon King and Hero were both positions in a cyclical cosmic struggle - every time the Demon King is slain by a Hero, there is a period of peace until a new Demon King arises, at which point a new Hero is chosen to oppose them. The Hero is usually the protagonist of the story, but it's a very popular twist to reveal that the prophecized Hero is in fact someone else - so popular that, despite being in many ways the template of this archetype, Dragon Quest has done it twice.
• Religion and deities do not often play an important part in the setting, compared to Western fantasy. There will often be a religion, and clerics will often have D&D-like healing magic, but it's rare for that religion to be defined in a worldbuilding sense. Usually, the aesthetics and structure of this religion will be heavily based on Catholicism, and it will either be monotheistic or worship a vaguely-defined pantheon of gods, but the gods will rarely be named or have their portfolios described. If the religion is important in the setting, it will almost invariably be villainous in nature - how this manifests can be anywhere from "run by corrupt clergy only concerned with worldly power" to "front for demon worship."

Tales of Symphonia

• Japanese fantasy settings tend to be humanocentric, even more so than their Western counterparts. Human polities and settlements will almost always be uniformly human. If other races exist, they will have entirely separate societies. Often times, if there are traditional fantasy races like elves and dwarves, they will largely be present as NPCs and their societies will not receive that much attention; nonhumans are more likely to be major characters if they belong to a race invented for the setting.
• Compared to Western fantasy settings, human civilizations are less likely to be based on a specific real-world culture, and are usually a generically late medieval melange. There are often multiple kingdoms, but they tend to be outwardly similar if not identical in culture. If there are exceptions, there will almost always be a culture based on feudal Japan (for obvious reasons). Ancient Egypt is another popular choice.

• 

  Konosuba

  Anachronistic technology tends to be more common than in Western fantasy settings, particularly in more animesque settings that run on the rule of cool (like Final Fantasy). This tends to manifest as steampunk technology, magically-powered technology, or both. Firearms are more likely to be present in Japanese fantasy settings than Western ones. Even in more grounded settings, there are usually anachronisms that can be attributed to the skewed perception of historical Europe as an exotic foreign culture from the perspective of Japanese writers - for instance, nobles will usually live in Baroque palaces, not medieval castles, even if the domains they govern are feudal.
• Kings and emperors are either ineffectual buffoons, corrupt tyrants, or ineffectual buffoons controlled by their corrupt tyrannical advisors. Queens are usually absent or inconsequential. Princes are spoiled snobs. Princesses are clever, kind, and often secretly yearn for lives of adventure. If lesser nobles like dukes, counts, barons, or lords show up, they are usually evil. The royal family of a kingdom will often have the name of their kingdom as a surname (seriously, once you start noticing this, you see it everywhere.)
• Magic tends to be rigidly codified, even more so than in Western fantasy settings. Owing to influence from TRPGs, video games, and martial arts anime, spells will usually have distinct names, usually of the sort spoken aloud in a dramatic fashion while casting them. Their properties are well-defined and predictable, and they may have distinct "levels" of power or difficulty to master that are known in-universe.

These are just some observations I've made through consuming this sort of media. There are almost certainly more - and if I've missed anything, feel free to leave a comment below. If you're making a fantasy setting that's inspired by anime or JRPGs, using tropes like these will help it feel more authentic, while at the same time imbuing a flavor quite distinct from Western fantasy.

Friday Encounter: Chamber of Tremors

Here's a fairly simple dungeon puzzle I used to great effect at my last session. It's based on Zhang Heng's Han Dynasty-era seismoscope, which was used to detect the direction of approaching earthquakes. Growing up, I had a book on the ancient world with a diagram of the device, which astounded me then and stuck with me well into my adulthood - so it only seemed fitting it would one day find its way into my games.

For this encounter, there should be a large central room in a dungeon dominated by a strange sculpture - a four-sided pillar, with a dragon sculpted on each side, facing each cardinal direction. Each dragon carries a pearl in its mouth, and positioned directly below it is a frog with a wide open mouth, looking up. Close inspection will reveal that the pearls in the dragons' mouths are a separate piece, but cannot easily be removed by hand. There should also be four doors on the walls, leading in each of the cardinal directions.

In each of the rooms surrounding the central room, there should be some sort of interactive element that can generate a tremor. Examples might include striking a gong, dropping iron weights from a ledge, animating a heavy statue, or getting an ogre to strike the floor with its club. I'll leave the exact details up to you, in case you have other ideas - the important part is that the ground should shake on successful completion of each room's task. If the PCs find a way to create a tremor through means other than the intended solution, such as a thunderwave or similar spell, this should also count as a successful completion of the puzzle. The physics at play here is what's important, not the finer details.

When a tremor goes off in each room, it is felt by the mechanisms in the central room. Each dragon is attached to a lever connecting to a pendulum inside the pillar. When the ground shakes, the pendulum is shifted in the direction of the vibration, causing the corresponding dragon's mouth to open and the pearl to drop into the mouth of the frog below.

If the PCs remove the pearl from the frog's mouth, they will hear a clicking noise, indicating that a pressure plate inside the frog has been relieved. The pearls contain no special attributes. If they are placed back in the dragons' mouths, the mouths close and another vibration must be produced in that direction to release the pearl again.

Once all four pearls have been dropped in the mouths of the frogs, the dragons' and frogs' eyes begin to glow blue. If the party stands by the pillar when it is in this activated state, it lifts off the ground, serving as an elevator to take them to a previously inaccessible location in the dungeon.

Friday Encounter: Haunted Inn

This encounter is to be used if the PCs decide to stop at an inn, whether that be along the road or in a town. It should ideally be an inn that the party isn't familiar with.

When the party asks about rooms, the innkeeper gives their normal rates of 2 SP per room, but mentions that there is one particular room that guests can stay in for free. The reason? The room is said to be haunted, with guests reporting hearing strange whispers and feeling drafts that seem to come from nowhere. One guest even reported finding ectoplasm on the walls not too long ago. In addition to the strange phenomena observed in the room, it seems that anyone who stays in the room is stricken by misfortune; in the last year alone, two of the guests who stayed there fell ill and died, and a third was cut down by highwaymen. Regulars of the inn are also familiar with the rumors, and may have their own stories to tell, but none of them have ever stayed in the room - they wouldn't dare risk it.

Still, it's a free room, and it may well be something worth investigating. In my experience, dangling the prospect of a haunting in front of the PCs will encourage them to look deeper into it far more often than it will scare them away. If the PCs ask for the room, the innkeeper will allow them to have it for free, but not without attempting to talk them out of it.

The haunted room has two beds and meager amenities, with little more than a wardrobe for storing clothes, an end table with a lantern on it, and a rug strewn over the floor. Compared to other rooms in the inn, the haunted room is clearly unkempt - the sheets are askew, and there is dust built up on the furniture. The staff are wary of the haunting and avoid the room whenever possible.

The room is indeed haunted by the ghost of a tax collector named Uther von Gerholdt, who stopped at the inn some thirty years ago. The innkeeper, Holger Kunze, is a stingy, paranoid man who knew Uther's reputation as a shrewd professional who always collected his share, no matter how his clients attempted to get out of paying. Unwilling to part with his money, and feeling squeezed by the local nobles, Holger gave Uther a tankard of ale drugged with a powerful sedative, and, when he grew drowsy, offered him a bed at the inn so he could sleep off his stupor for the night. When Uther fell asleep, Holger stabbed him to death and buried his body under the cellar.

However, since Uther was fast asleep when he died, he doesn't actually realize that he's dead, or that years have passed since his murder. He believes it to still be the night that he visited the inn - and thus, he views guests as trying to barge in and invade his privacy. His anger subconsciously manifests as the effects observed in the room, trying to drive "intruders" out.

Uther's ghost cannot be seen or heard directly by those staying in the inn. However, using a see invisibility spell will detect the flickering figure of a man in fine clothes lurching about the room. One can perform a seance using a contact other plane spell, a spirit board, or other means to communicate with the ghost. Uther will tell them of the events leading up to his death, but admits his memory is hazy due to being so drunk.

PCs who spend the night in the room are able to gain the benefits of a short rest, but they hear shuffling, whispering, and moaning through the night, preventing them from getting the full benefits of a long rest. Additionally, the DM should have some form of misfortune befall any PCs that spent the night in the haunted room. This is up to their discretion, but it should target those PCs specifically - a powerful enemy might take a special interest in them, or they may be stricken with a mysterious illness with no apparent cause. Once this event occurs, they are no longer haunted and no longer suffer misfortune.

Holger suspects that the rumors of the ghost is related to the murder he committed years ago, but will adamantly deny any involvement and takes great pains to cover his tracks. In fact, he's deliberately played up the rumors of the haunting, making sure to tell any guests the story to try and scare them away from staying in that room just in case Uther gives them any clues. If the PCs are able to discover the truth, however, they may seek proof.

Holger keeps the basement of the inn locked at all times with a key he wears around his neck; it is a DC 15 check with thieves' tools to pick this lock. The basement has a rammed earth floor; if the PCs spend an hour digging in the basement, they will unearth Uther's skeleton, still wearing the signet ring of a tax collector in service to the local nobility. This task can be divided among multiple PCs - two characters digging will unearth the skeleton in 30 minutes, three will unearth it in 20 minutes, and so on.

If presented with the body, Holger will have no choice but to confess to his crimes, and will be hanged by the local guard. It is up to the DM what happens to the inn now that it has no owner. If the party needs a base of operations, this could be an opportunity to give them one.

With his killer brought to justice, Uther will move on to the Land of the Dead. He appears before the party one last time to apologize for any trouble he caused and to thank them for their aid before leaving them his signet ring. It can be sold for 50 GP, and could be used to forge official documents. Additionally, due to the residual ghostly energies permeating the ring, characters wearing it will automatically succeed on their next death save, but the ring breaks afterward and can no longer be used. Staying in the room from then on no longer carries any ill effects.

Thoughts on the British Old School

I first shared this post to the OSR subreddit seven years ago, long before I had a blog. It garnered some very interesting discussion in the day - I even inspired an entire blog centered around the subject that offered some great insights but sadly no longer appears to be online. It's still a topic that I'm interested by. I consider the Lunar Lands to be, spiritually, a setting in the British old-school RPG tradition, as it draws consciously or unconsciously on much of the same ground - and perhaps for that reason, I've felt more of a resonance with British fantasy of the era than with the stuff from across the pond. So I figured it would be helpful to have an archive on my blog.

Some trends in the OSR community that I cited back then aren't quite as relevant these days; the OSR hasn't trended so heavily toward weird fantasy since...what, 2019? But I still think it's helpful to outline the qualities I find a consistent, and identifiable, thread across British fantasy gaming from the 70s to the 90s, and in a place I can easily look up and link to. Besides, I think it's a subject that's still ripe for exploration.

Friday Encounter: Fallen Star

This encounter definitely isn't for everyone, and that's okay. It introduces elements of science fiction into the campaign, which might work in a setting that trends more gonzo or isn't afraid to mix genres, but would probably be about as jarring as a brick to the face in a campaign with a more mythic or purely fantastic tone. But the beauty of D&D, as I've outlined before, is that it can do both - and my recent discussions on sci-fi put it in my head. This isn't an encounter I would use in my typical campaigns, but maybe it would work for you.

This encounter is best used in the wilderness, but it could also work on the road or in a more settled area. It probably has the most potential if used in a low-tech setting - most medieval fantasy settings would qualify, but in a campaign that already trends toward science fiction, it could be used on an underdeveloped backwater planet. The idea is to put advanced technology into the hands of the PCs, and explore how that impacts the world around them.

The PCs should ideally hear rumors of a comet sighted in the vicinity - a bright light in the night sky that went shrieking toward the ground, after which a great tremor was felt through the earth. Or the PCs might observe such a phenomenon themselves and decide to investigate.

Either way, if the PCs decide to investigate the site where the "star" was said to have fallen, they will discover a strange mass of smoking twisted metal, about the size of a large carriage, lying in a crater. It appears to be a machine of some sort, but using mechanisms and components beyond anything they've seen before. There is a door on the machine - it is bent and warped, but a DC 10 Athletics check can be used to force the door open; this check can be made with Advantage if a PC has a crowbar or another object that could be used to wedge it open.

If the door is opened, the PCs will discover a compartment inside where two skeletons of an unknown humanoid race are seated before an array of lights and switches, dressed in strange and tattered attire. Further investigation will yield documents in an indecipherable language. Using comprehend language will determine that these are orders from the "Ashtar Galactic Command" to patrol the "Omicron-92 Sector" to protect against "piracy and incursions from the Lidarian Federation;" if the players press further, make up more contextless sci-fi sounding jargon as needed. Furthermore, each of the skeletons is carrying a holster at their hip containing a pistol-like device; another such device, like an oddly-shaped arquebus, is located in a cache behind them.

The "falling star" was in fact an alien spaceship that crash-landed on the campaign world - and left its advanced technology behind. The pistols are laser pistols, and the other gun is a laser rifle (see the Dungeon Master's Guide section on firearms). You can also throw in other advanced technological devices for the PCs to plunder if you wish. These don't have to be anything fancy - for example, a device that can create a flame at the press of the button without the need for fuel (ie, a lighter) would be an incredible treasure in a world where fires are lit by flint and steel.

In a typical medieval fantasy world, these weapons will be more powerful than most mundane weapons available - but on the flip side, no one will be familiar with what they are or how to use them, and the PCs must discover their properties through trial and error. They will also likely be quite valuable if the PCs can find the right buyer - a feudal lord or bandit chief with access to such power would be nearly uncontested. However, that same value could easily paint a target on the PCs if knowledge spreads that they are carrying such items.

For a variation on this encounter, perhaps the PCs aren't the first to get to the crash site. Maybe the ship has landed near a town, and the people have already salvaged its technology - if so, the party might hear rumors of people armed with powerful "magical" devices that they guard fiercely. Or the devices might already be in the hands of entities hostile to the party. Either way, it's unlikely that they'd give such things back without a fight.

And if you really want to shake the campaign up, perhaps the ship's employers might come back looking for it...

The Sci-Fi Kitchen Sink Setting

Don't ask why. Ask why not.

There has never been a successful RPG that has done for science fiction what Dungeons & Dragons has done for fantasy.

Already, I'm sure there are hundreds of hands running to keyboards to tell me I'm wrong. Surely I can't believe that - there are all kinds of successful sci-fi RPGs out there. What about Traveler, which has a history almost as long as D&D's own? What about games like Spelljammer and Starfinder, which build off D&D's rules to facilitate space adventures? Star Frontiers was being published by TSR at the same time they were publishing D&D; surely that counts. There's all manner of RPGs based on existing sci-fi properties, like Star Wars or Warhammer 40,000. And if we step outside the space opera subgenre that's dominated this conversation so far, we'd be remiss to forget Cyberpunk and Shadowrun. Science fiction surely has as much support as fantasy does in the TRPG landscape!

And that statement is absolutely correct! However, that isn't the point I'm making. I don't mean to say that there has never been a successful sci-fi RPG. I'm saying there has never been a successful sci-fi D&D.

All the games I just listed, to some degree or another, have their own defined tone, look, and feel. They all have a setting they're either built around or heavily associated with. They're geared toward playing a specific kind of sci-fi. Most RPGs are like that - D&D, despite being the oldest and most popular of them all, is somewhat of an outlier in that it doesn't try to emulate a specific subgenre of fantasy.

Much has been made about the "kitchen sink" nature of a typical D&D campaign. If you asked what kind of fantasy D&D is, the answer would be "yes." It combines Tolkienian elves, dwarves, halflings, and orcs with the barbarians of the Hyborian Age, monsters from myth and legend, Hammer Horror vampires and werewolves, Lovecraftian elder gods, and even some original creations. That's been tempered somewhat in recent years, as Wizards of the Coast has tried to lock down a canon for the game, and while I understand why that is - they're part of Hasbro now, and a game about an entire multifaceted genre doesn't do well to attract investors or establish a brand identity - I can't help but feel it's lost something. To me, D&D is at its best when it's a game that can cater to and accomodate pretty much everything under the fantasy umbrella, allowing DMs to create their own fantasy worlds with whatever colors of the genre's broad spectrum they choose.

Science fiction has long been viewed as fantasy's sister genre, but it doesn't have anything like that. And I've always found that curious. Really, there's not much of a difference between expecting every high fantasy setting to include elves and expecting every space opera setting to include Wookiees. Both races were created as something specific and idiosyncratic to a seminal work in their respective genre, but one expectation is normalized, and the other sounds completely insane.

Part of it might be because of copyright laws. Tolkien, after all, was building off of a long tradition of mythology and folklore. He might have codified the ways we view elves and dwarves, but no one owns elves and dwarves, as a concept. Meanwhile, most of the classic sci-fi races were created out of whole cloth in living memory, and are protected by large and litigious corporations. Gygax faced legal trouble with hobbits and balrogs, after all. But, on the flip side, he was able to get away with basically using them as-is once he changed their names, and no one stopped him. No one in sci-fi has even tried that.

It could also simply be the fact that D&D was the first of its kind. When it came out there was no real precedent for what a roleplaying game was supposed to be, and TSR was allowed to make their genre as broad and as open-ended as "fantasy," with no further qualifiers, without anyone telling them not to. So too, it was a game made by and for fans of the fantasy genre, not by any large-scale corporation, so it's understandable that the people behind the game would want to make something to capture the magic of their favorite stories instead of trying to stand on its own within its genre as a product that could itself be marketed for its background lore, as later games would do.

I can't help but wonder, if D&D was made today, assuming the TRPG landscape was otherwise identical, would there still be elves, dwarves, and halflings, or would it just be dragonborn, tieflings, and kenku? Many have noted a greater trend toward players wanting to use D&D original races instead of those grounded in Tolkien, but I have to ask if that's truly just a player thing, or if it's what Wizards wants - after all, they can establish dragonborn as their thing. They can't do that for dwarves. And we were getting setting-specific RPGs as early on as Empire of the Petal Throne. Sci-fi RPGs, then, had to enter a world where merely being a sci-fi RPG wouldn't set them apart. They needed to create their universe from the ground up, and be RPGs about playing in that setting, not just in a sci-fi setting.

Now, you'll notice the qualifiers I used. I said that no successful RPG has pulled off a sci-fi kitchen sink setting like this. That was on purpose, because there have been attempts. Grognardia, which has a very good article on this very subject, reviewed 1980's Space Opera, an RPG by Fantasy Games Unlimited that probably came closest out of any published RPG to what I'm positing here. To pull a direct quote, "this is a game where Flash Gordon, Chewbacca, Ming the Merciless, Barbarella, and assorted aliens can meet in a cantina and go adventuring among the stars without the petty concerns of rhyme or reason." Alas, Space Opera was burdened with an incoherent ruleset and the shadow of Traveler, and never caught on.

But I also want to talk about something outside the scope of TRPGs. I want to talk about Star Schlock.

Star Schlock is a skirmish wargame by Wunkay Games that's seen steady releases for the last few years, with both rules and an official miniatures range. It's themed around science fiction cinema and TV from the late 60s to the early 80s. I don't have much interest in the game itself, but as someone who's been steadily getting back into miniatures, and as someone who's always been interested in retrofuturism - and in particular, the cassette futurism movement of that era - it scratches an itch for me, and I've picked up several of the minis for my collection.

But even if I might not ever play the game, I'm fascinated by Star Schlock's setting. The developers have made no attempt to hide its origins. Their ranges all draw heavy inspiration from assorted source material. The two armies included in the starter set are the Explorer Corps, an agency of scientists and explorers charting the final frontier led by "Captain Timothy J. Curt," and the Simian Star Kingdom, a brutal regime of ape despots and their oppressed human slaves led by "Dr. Zayce." Other factions include the Eternal Empire and its faceless, white-armored "Dronetroopers," the zombie plague of the Necronauts, and the Viper Legion, a ruthless terrorist organization led by a megalomaniacal masked commander. There are stat profiles for lawyer-friendly versions of Boba Fett, Buck Rogers, Robbie the Robot, and even Ro-Man from Robot Monster. To my delight, the cuts run so deep that there's an entire faction that seems to be based on the concept art from Alejandro Jodorowsky's aborted Dune adaptation, complete with a miniature of Salvador Dali as the Emperor of the Known Universe.

It's a game that unabashedly started as an exercise to mash up forces from different sci-fi universes and find out who would win. But in order to justify that, the game has spun a setting with surprisingly deep and extensive lore that places these different factions in the same universe - and it works. The starter set includes a "Galaxy Guide" devoted entirely to background information, and the official Schlocklog magazine publishes enough articles on the setting that I've found them an engaging read even when I have no plans to play the actual game.

This, to me, is what a setting that does for science fiction what D&D has done for fantasy would really look like. And I'd argue that it's a setting that would work very well for roleplaying. There's enough background material out there for a prospective DM to get started on a campaign, with a number of distinct factions and power players; there's even been multiple planets that have gotten their own dedicated writeups in the pages of Schlocklog. So too, the mix-and-match nature of the setting makes it easy for newcomers to get in - chances are they'll be familiar with the series these factions were drawn from, and can come to the table with their understanding of what they can expect from them, no expodumps needed. It might have been written for a wargame, but the information would be just as applicable, and just as useful, for a TRPG.

Am I asking for an official Star Schlock RPG some day? Not necessarily - though it would be cool. But I do think what's there could prove just as useful to DMs as it could to wargamers. It would be a good fit for Retrostar, an RPG designed to emulate science fiction film and television of the same era, if one wanted to lean into the genre conventions (the system even puts a limit on how many actions can be made per session to ensure "episodes" fit into a 30-to-60-minute timeslot). But if one didn't want to go such a meta route, I'd argue that you could grab a sci-fi ruleset of your choice, use the Galaxy Guide and Schlocklog as your campaign setting, and be good to go.