I'm working on a setting for Genesys, and well, I've shared the document on the twitters but thought I could share it here as well and perhaps even get a different viewpoint on certain things.

The setting so far is focused on a town and a city that has grown together, gothic buildings meeting a rural town at the edge of a fae forest (there's very little about that so far but I intend to expand it). The bulk of the document is the 20 archetypes — I went with making them very specific to the setting rather than broad. 30 careers which need way more text to them, and a few talents.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UEgR8mawmhUHUYfF0yzpA1yC7n2RTSUWoC9AYoDuHYQ/edit?usp=sharing

Looks nice, but the only problem is we can't download to read offline. I usually don't have my laptop on while I run my games and if I wanted to hand out the creation rules players would need to look online to get them.

8 hours ago, gilbur said:

we can't download to read offline.

Worked for me, File -> Download -> Select document type

Yeah, the file > download offers both PDF and ePub, and it is right now still a very living document so linking to a PDF that might already be a little out of date seemed pointless. Since I posted, I think I've fixed one and added another archetype: the mimic. That one's XP might not yet be even close to fine-tuned.

But I'm happy to see what people do with it and ideas that might make things better that I haven't even thought about.

Looks pretty fun! Looks also like more of a reference doc than a full game setting, but for me: I like that.

And all of the references I thought would be the inspiration for this were absent from the list at the end, so thanks for the recs of new things to go read!

On 8/16/2019 at 4:00 PM, BrickSteelhead said:

Looks pretty fun! Looks also like more of a reference doc than a full game setting, but for me: I like that.

Yeah, I like settings where you have enough information to extrapolate and improvise but at the same time avoid making reading up on it seem like homework. So there will be expansions about the city, the fae woods will be far less explored but there will be some so that remnants and local beings can be an easy to GM wilderness adventure. It also helps to make the setting follow the game rather than the opposite. (Even though devouring setting lore is a favourite past-time.)

There's also a Burning Wheel circles function with Knowledge (location) as skill being tested.

But now I'm also curious to know what you expected the inspirations would have been.

18 hours ago, nyvinter said:

But now I'm also curious to know what you expected the inspirations would have been.

I was getting the vibes of China Mieville's Bas-Lag trilogy, GHOSTWALK by Sean K. Reynolds and Monte Cook, and Arcane Studios' DISHONORED, among many, many others.

Thanks for the reply and the cool setting!

The Grey Forges might have some smaller inspirations of the Scar but otherwise both the Bas-Lag and Dishonored series are a bit too industrial and modern.It didn't feel right in a place that clashes between rural and gothic and the industrial revolution were both early and abandoned. (Presumably due to magic.)

For other people who might be interested, this is the expanded inspiration and sources list.

APPENDIX 2: LITERATURE AND MEDIA

Achebe, Chinua. Collected Poems.

Anderson, Darran. Imaginary Cities.

Bachelard, Gaston. The Poetics of Space.

Carter, Angela. The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories.

Hodgell, P. C. God Stalk.

Law, Stephanie. Shadowscapes Tarot.

LeGuin, Ursula K. Steering the Craft.

McDowell, Linda. Gender, Identity, & Place.

Sinclair, Iain. Lights Out For the Territory.

Thompson, Amanda. A Scots Dictionary of Nature.

Valente, Catherynne M. Palimpsest.

Wendig, Chuck. **** Fine Story.

Wooding, Chris. The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray

Crimson Peak

The Duellists

Fullmetal Alchemist

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army

Ladyhawke

Over the Garden Wall

Ratcatcher

Spice and Wolf

Stardust

Titus

Winter’s Bone

Black Mountain: In the Future

CALLmeKAT: Mouth of Time

The Decemberists: Picaresque

Feivel: My Mind and the Thunder Sky

Nine Inch Nails: The Downward Spiral

PJ Harvey: The Hope Six Demolition Project

The Unthanks: Last