#115: Running around Infinigrad!
And help me pick the next setting to review by voting!
I. Dear Reader,
We continue our series, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Cities”, where we look at urban settings in TTRPGs. To learn more, read the introduction post. Previously, we looked at Doskvol, Spire, and Endon.
Infinigrad is the creation of Michael Raston of Lizard Man Diaries and Gorgzu Games. It began as a series of blogposts that were expanded and collected into the Infinigrad: The Weird City Toolkit. It is essentially a set of random tables that have been turned into a bundle of offline, automatic generators. The key thing to note is that you only see the results - never the whole table. Which works fine for me because it seems like the tables are so big that I’d never want to actually roll on them all individually.
Key Features
Infinigrad is the “infinite city”, a place beyond the normal laws of physics. It is multiversal, multitudinous, and so very gonzo. Each district is untethered from the logic of any others. Things are going to get weird.
It is a city ruled by powerful, monstrous guilds that waged internecine war for centuries. This was until, for the sake of saving the city from total annihilation, they agreed to a self-imposed metaphysical curse (just called the Law) that would destroy any guild if they directly attacked another.
This is basically all the lore that exists!
The first generator is for creating interesting rooms (which are essentially situations). It provides a person, a trap, a vibe, a unique look, and a strange device or treasure.
I generated a sort of dilapidated, rotten greenhouse where the walls were lined with jeweled, ever-burning helmets. The distracted gardener of this place used a device that grew fruit trees by essentially confusing reality till it thought it was a fruit tree. Green liquid pooled around the base of the trees, emitting a gas that stupefied any who had uncovered nose or ears.
There’s also a generator for guild dogs, the adventurers or freelancers that the players will be.
The next generator is for jobs. This spits out a target, a goal, a location, a complication, and a reward.
I generated a job to record the life of The Calm One, a venerable and ancient holy being that seemed to be slowly fading out of existence. The job took place in a kind of heavenly pocket dimension at the top of a skyscraper which was littered with fake treasure of every sort.
The last generator is a huge one. It generates districts. These districts have an overall description and can then be stocked with various buildings. Then, you have generators for residents, merchants, fashions, trade goods, magical items, entertainments, gangs, police, temples, dungeons, and so on.
Each of these districts can be turned into a full location with its own unique identity and ingredients. These are adventure sites with many of the sorts of things that adventurers might need.
There are lots of examples from his blog of districts that Raston made using these generators. They’re quite long so I won’t even try to make an example here.
Conclusions
Infinigrad mostly throws aside the prevailing logic of cities that I’ve seen so far. We see some of the same themes - academia, law, business, decadence, and so on - but they’re all subsumed under the greater logic of “what is a weird and fun place to explore”.
And it does feel fun to explore. The job generator throws up ideas I’d never have come up with. They’re buzzing with potential - but that sense of potential is also a bit dangerous. I’m wary of it. Because the weirder they are, the less I understand how to actually play them out. What does recording the life of an ancient entity look like? I can guess what the characters do but what do the players do? It’s tricky. While I think there are no right or wrong ways to do this stuff, I’m sure there are ways that will feel more or less satisfying. And I don’t know how to make sure I do it the satisfying way.
Also, this isn’t a setting. It’s a toolkit to make your setting. As a toolkit, it provides only the creative sparks. There is a lot of (fulfilling) work to be done in taking these sparks and turning them into a world that lives, breathes, and thrums. I can imagine a lot of GMs enjoying this process and a lot of them hating it. I know my own preference changes based on what kind of week I’m having.
Regardless, this toolkit is a testimony to the power of combinatorial creativity - these prompts, when mixed and matched and when freed from boring laws of physics, create something that is truly greater than its constituent parts.
Yours permutationally,
Thomas
Okay, folks, another poll time! These are the cities I’ve shortlisted. I don’t even own them yet but have heard lots of recommendations so your votes will also decide my purchasing order. Let me know which one I should do first!
II. Listen of the Week
Nothing this week!
III. Links of the Week
Sandro of the Fail Forward blog talks about verbs in play as well as illustrating the concept by comparing Destiny 2 (the hit videogame) and LIGHT (a ttrpg based on Destiny).
National Game Design Month is happening in November as usual. It’s a month-long jam to make games akin to NaNoWriMo.
Tanya Floaker, designer from Edinburgh, is taking their game Be Seeing You and turning it into art installation that looks at surveillance and other issues.
Dicebreaker announce a new awards programme which will have categories for boardgames, RPGs and cardgames.
A helpful reddit thread with tips for running The Between, the victorian monster hunting game.
The Alexandrian has a nice write-up about the depthcrawl which is my favourite crawl format that I have never actually tried out. It just feels like the right amount of abstraction for me given that I’m not particularly interested in concrete maps and things like that.
IV. Small Ads
All links in the newsletter are completely based on my own interest. But to help support my work, this section contains sponsored links and advertisements. If you’d like your products to appear here, read the submission form.
MÖRKTOBER is here! Each day in October, make something for MÖRK BORG inspired by the prompts and share it. An item, scroll, weapon or anything else. Tag it #MÖRKTOBER2022.
This newsletter is currently sponsored by the Bundle of Holding.
It’s GURPS! A bundle with some GURPS 4E essentials as well as another all-new bundle focused on horror!
Also, a bundle of weird fiction from icons like Clark Ashton Smith and various others.
Hello, dear readers. This newsletter is written by me, Thomas Manuel. I’m half-man, half-beast, half-journalist, half-game designer.
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