A post where I rip off someone's post and mashup some tabletop RPG with bad(?) anime stuff

One thing I sometimes like to joke and self mock is being a not-so-closeted weaboo, albeit one who generally tries to keep his anime tastes separate from the general fantasy focus of the blog. However Gundobad Games wrote a pretty amusing post on some unholy setting/games mashup. This got me thinking about my own tables for unholy mashups. Some of these are random tables, some are observations and most of it is quite incoherent since 'anime' is not a genre, its a medium. Albeit one steeped in a variety of its own unique twist on certain genres and others mostly unique to it.

I know posting this one on the OSR MeWe will give people cancer. I'm sorry. Except not really.

Of course, making things anime-like requires more than just genre-blending. At a face value, if described in their simplest terms quite a few anime appear to be much more basic than they really are. The truth, in my opinion at least, is that what makes anime as amazing (and as reviled) is how so many of them have such utterly corny or balls to the walls insane presentation that floors people. Sometimes, that presentation isn't always obvious and just how insane, corny, bizarre or flat out trashy/raunchy can vary immensely from show to show. Some can be legitimately amazing works of fiction deserving of praise, others are utterly terrible and corny. Most exist somewhere in the middle and just become weirder from there. Take the classic shonen fighting manga and grandfather to the genre's entire modern formula, Dragon Ball. It's simply, at least initially, a retelling of Journey to the West but somehow its in a world which is bizarre and anachronistic, where advanced technology coexist with humble farmlands. Where the King of the World is a dog-man and talking, shapeshifting pig-men exist. And then it spirals into wuxia and space opera territory. Anime and manga often laughs at the idea of genre conventions.

Option A: Isekai

The cancerous genre which overtook anime and is only just slowly, maybe, ever so slightly dying down. Now as a concept, what is labelled as Isekai is a perfectly valid concept for a fantasy game and has roots in older works such as Alice In Wonderland, the John Carter novels or even Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions. However, the modern 'Isekai' genre which is total ass cancer was born of the boom in popularity of Light Novels. They are cheap, the barrier to entry is low and the lowly trash of this world will eat up that garbage like I eat a box of Cheez-It when depressed. Isekai is simply, overall as a genre, the transposition of someone from one world to another, generally our world to a generic fantasy land. As a result here are some settings one could use for Isekai. The second table, called 'Set Up or Modification' combines one or more Isekai trend and/or quirk of its (more often than not crappy) writing to spice up the setting and add a level of anime-ness, for better or for ill.

1d8	Setting/Game	Set Up or Modification
1	D&D Setting: Could be Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Greyhawk or even Athas.	Chosen Hero: The characters (or just one of its a solo game) have been chosen to become great heroes and given powers/tools to help defeat a great evil of said setting. The PC are either really powerful by setting standard or more easily eased into/instantly raised to the higher tiers or levels.
2	Exalted
3	Wolves of God	The Overlord: Like the above, except instead of being heroes the player characters are cast into the role of a great evil which must destroy that world for one reason or another. Alternatively they are just overpowered assholes.
4	Tekumel
5	Talislanta	Bringer of Modernity: For whatever reason, the player characters are allowed and/or encouraged to bring in their knowledge or technology and somehow apply it or they have means to use advanced technology in the setting.
6	Pendragon
7	Legend of the Five Rings	The Waifubait: For some reason, a sizable portion of the cast are now cute girls and lovely women (more of the latter if you don't want jail time), including possibly a few major NPC now gender bent. They are both as cute/sexy as it gets yet somehow retain any badassery and skill of their canon counterpart no matter how implausible their age or gender may be within the setting rules. Reroll on this column and combine. If you rolled Exalted for this one, just increase the amount of waifus instead.
8	Go to your book/PDF dump and start looking for something you'd never expect to run!

Option B: The 'Legally Distinct Dungeon Fantasy' Mashup

This one is more directly in line with Gundobad's post. I call it the 'Legally Distinct Dungeon Fantasy' as a joke but what I really and, obviously, mean is Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, OSR and any and all games which are at least partially derived from the original games designed by Gygax and Arneson, which generally involve the Fighter/Mage/Thief archetypes, a group or 'party', monsters, dungeons, traps (not the anime kind, hopefully! Then again...) and generally a lot of fighting if or when things go sour.

Imagine D&D, but with elements of...
1d8	Genre A	Genre B
1	Fighting Shonen: If you are even vaguely familiar with anime you know this genre all too well as it's one of the most famous. These are your Dragon Ball, One Piece or Naruto. If you’re a bit older, it's Fist of the North star. People fight. A lot. They get stronger to fight more and fight more to get stronger.	Idols
2		Mecha
3	Monster-Hunting Organization: Also a fighting genre, but it generally involves humanity under threat from a specific type/category of monsters, a special organization which fights them and usually a ton of grim secrets. This genre can range in style/genre combination from Neon Genesis Evangelion to God Eater or even, arguably, Attack on Titan.	Slice of Life
4		Magical Girls
5	Death Game: There is a big event, tournament or whatever where the characters are involved (by choice or not) where different individuals or teams of individuals fight each other to the death for a prize. Technically Highlander would count in this category.	Urban Fantasy
6		Pseudo-Historical
7	Magical School: Okay, I honestly HATE this genre but it's so damn common it needs to be put in here. While the word ‘magical’ may imply fantastical elements, technically there are plenty of these which overlap into scifi, cyberpunk and even superheroes. Oh and don't forget to add some harems in there to be as cancerously anime as possible.	Cyberpunk
8		Reroll on this column and combine, ignoring this result. Alternatively reroll on Genre A too, I don't know?

The Result: Magical Dragon Idols & Cybermagical Dungeons

So I made those half-assed tables and tried to see what abominations I could come up with. By themselves many of these results aren't that weird, so keep in mind it required me to stretch the premise by taking time to develop what sort of anime insanity and awful/amazing nonsense could exist under said premise, possibly even character concepts.

In the end, I settled on a single concept. Its stupid.

"Imagine D&D...but with elements of Monster-Hunter Organizations, Idols and Cyberpunk"

Okay this one is kind of easy, but still a bit weird. The thing which immediately just to mind, at least to me, is the Symphogear franchise. In a world combining fantasy and dystopia future, the player characters belong to an organization which hunt down a specific threat to mankind. Now, perhaps the best way for this to go is to go down the darker path that Idols are very corporate and make them an Idol group which is back by a mega corporation or some shady organization with ulterior motives.

In a grim, gray and neon-lit far future world where mankind learned to tap into higher/lower dimensions for near infinite power and technological advancement, bubbly and nice idols exist as a ray of sunshine which bring hope and joy to those living in this gray and gloomy world. Yet under the surface, things go run much deeper. Reality is shattered by the multiple cataclysm which mankind endured and self-inflicted. Thaumaturgic Technology was once so advanced as to functionally make humanity's overlords nearly gods but mankind's greed and despair grew too much and many cataclysm endured. Humanity in the current age is still trying to advance but the government and medias keep a tight lid on the true historical origins of why cities were built upon layers and layers of ruins, why the the few non-arcology forests are cancerous masses of living trees and why dimensional wastelands exist. Beyond the grey and neon-lit cities, the world is a techno-magical wasteland.

The monsters from beyond the veil are drawn to despair and negative emotions, which are naturally plentiful in such a depressing world filled with salarymen with little to live for. And so young girls trained as idols are given the ability to tap into supernatural powers. In between their bubbly antics and idol shows, they repel the darkness just as much as they dive into the cybermagical ruins to recover artifacts so mankind is able to sustain itself and, hopefully rebuild.

Some random thoughts about all this:

• Do the fantasy races exist and, if so how do they fit into the setting? One option is they are similar to the Meta-Humans of Shadowrun and born of human tampering into Thaumaturgic Technology over the centuries.
• Perhaps the fantasy races, being mutants or reincarnation of beings from the 'other side' are the only ones with innate magic of some kind? Perhaps they exist outside the human arcologies. In that case, the idols may in fact be recruited from these changed people and given a new chance at life and luxury (at a price) inside the much safer arcologies in exchange for their services. Its possible some races may exist and be integrated into human society, possibly as elites or in secret. Elves come to mind.
• Perhaps the Magical Girls can hide their true race somehow, if needed? And if such an angle is pursued then each race is suitably redesigned to be more anime-like and this is where the so-called 'bad' races of modern D&D can come in handy. Tiefling are just cute anime people with little Oni horns which tend to produce delinquent idols. Halflings are stuck looking small and cute their entire life, be it as looking underaged or alternatively being shortstacks. Same and more so with Dwarves. If one is degenerate as shit this could easily escalate into monstergirl territory.
• Is there an Idol class everyone must take levels/be a hybrid of? Is it more like a Bard. That doesn't seem all that great when one think about it. Instead perhaps the Idol class is more like a form of singing-focused Paladin, complete with some Idol Code about always being bright, shiny, happy and all that?
• I'm going to hell for writing all this.

The Yakuza Series, Sandbox and Setting Density

The North American PS2 cover
of the original game.

The Yakuza videogame series, or Ryu Ga Gotoku (Like A Dragon) in its original Japanese title, is a SEGA-produced beat 'em up/sandbox. Originally confined to the Playstation console for a long time, it has since seen the first three chronological entries (or rather, the remakes of two of them) ported to PC. This is how I finally got to play these games since I haven't owned a Sony home console since the PS2 days. This has allowed me to since experience Yakuza Kiwami 1 and 2 (the remakes of the original two games) and the prequel Yakuza 0. As one would expect, the Yakuza series is a beat 'em up/adventure/sandbox game about the seedy Japanese criminal underground and the world of the Japanese mafia, the Yakuza. At least on paper because this is a series which is truly the king of mood whiplash, going from a hard biting crime drama full of drugs and murder to silly side stories about remote car racing or helping a young woman become better at her job when said job is being a dominatrix in an S&M club where she's too nice and polite for her own good. Yakuza is fucking weird.

The real standout element of these games, at least to me (beside hilariously surreal sub-stories) has been its setting, the fictional Kamurocho which is a fictional counterpart to Kabukicho. The interesting about Kamurocho, as a setting for an open world game, are two factors: one, its really damn small and two it return in every game as the story continues ranging from the 1980 of Yakuza Zero to the 2000 of Yakuza and forward into the 2010 and beyond as the series continues. Most open world games tend to go for truly massive scale or at least an attempt at faking it. In addition, most open world videogames usually go for a completely different map with each incarnation of the series to keep exploring fresh. Yakuza, however, completely and utterly sidestep this concept with Kamurocho. While the map does change slowly over time due to the place being renovated and rebuilt (as well as game and engine tweak) as well as adding other areas or places to explore, Kamurocho itself is a mostly static place when it come to its size and shape. The businesses obviously change location once in a while with each iteration of it but this is a fairly natural consequence of life in Tokyo as buildings are brought down, renovated and business change place. With its key streets, features and staple in place from Yakuza 0 to Yakuza 6, Kamurocho may yet be one of the most fleshed out and realized videogame settings out there. While the stories can get goofy and the protagonist ability to dispatch various punks and thugs border on the absurd, the location themselves feel very grounded.

Density Of Details

Kamurocho's oldest map chronologically
in Yakuza Zero (1988)

Kamurocho is very small by sandbox standards. If Tokyo as a whole was a hexcrawl, then it would be but a single hex. The difference is that Kamurocho feels rather 'lived in' and not just because it sometimes looks old and like crap, especially its back alleys. Every store, building, office and more displays a unique appearance of flashing neon signs. Every building is unique, even if due to gameplay limitations only a sparse few can be entered per game. One interesting aspect is that even in the mere few city blocks which forms Kamurocho, one can get a very different 'feel' from their environment, with the main streets such as constantly lit by neon and abuzz with people feeling quite different from the cramped Champion District, which is nothing but super cramped old buildings, back alleys and tiny bar. In addition to all this, there are added details such as the various restaurants which naturally do the locations: those which can be entered by Kiryu (the protagonist) all have their own unique menu of food and drinks, unless its a chain restaurant in which case the menu will be the same across Kamurocho or even other places which can be visited such as Sotenbori.

Another detail of the Yakuza series which is both budget-saving as much as it add to the setting is the fact that, since the world which the protagonists inhabit is so small, they are bound to constantly run into action in the same locations. From random encounter of thugs and drunks as one walk by them to side quest and story missions, there are only so many street corners and buildings in Kamurocho. As one plays through Yakuza, both a single game and sequels, there will slowly form a tapestry of stories which unfolded in certain locale. In any other game, a location called 'Park 3' where homeless people gather would be rather forgettable as a dime a dozen city location that looks like shit. However, in Yakuza 1, when a cutscene occurs there I am reminded that in Zero, more than a decade ago in-universe, this was a location of a quest where some bums want booze and turns you into an errand boy. This may seem innocuous or not-so-noteworthy but within the context of Yakuza Zero the information they give set the protagonist further along the path of starting the story of said game proper and uncover the mysteries of its plot. Playing through a few Yakuza games slowly build a sense of familiarity with Kamurocho, turning even empty backlot into places where some story, no matter how minor, may have happened. For another example, the South eastern parts of Kamurocho are fairly barren streets in mosr games, lacking any major plot location or more than a single diner or a single mini-game location. Yet even an area which seem devoid of content is not, because these streets were the location of other side stories which began elsewhere in the neighborhood.

Is such a small scope setting suited to all tabletop campaigns? Obviously not. However there a few things to learn from Kamurocho. While a location in a campaign may initially just be randomly generated (and that's fine), the small and tightly knit Kamurocho make me ask: "Why create a new location if you don't need it?". Perhaps the next time players are chasing a goblin infestation or trying to corner a thieves band, their enemies run back into a known location which has been previously visited by the players. Describe the same old alleys. There is something to be said about the familiar and it slowly but surely build the setting into its own character. Why create new locations which are described in crude terms once when one can slowly build on top of a pre-existing setting? Of course, it doesn't mean that the setting can't change over time: it will, absolutely. New buildings pop up, old buildings are torn down. People move in, people move out. New criminals enter an area and cut their turf in new ways. However, with a solid foundation of recurring locations it make people, in my opinion, care more.

Slay The Ascended: Full Premise

This is a rework, rewording and expansion of my Slay The Ascended! post which, hopefully, better outline the ideas and concepts since that original post was an old draft I one day decided to just overhaul a bit and finish just because it was the mood for the day, not knowing it would become one of my most viewed posts. The original ideas, outlined less formally, can be found in that post and its recommended to read it first.

The Time of Ending

On some fundamental level, Mankind always understood there would come a time where our species would end. It could be a species-wide fear of the inevitability of Death as every civilization out there, every culture, speak of the end of time: be it a permanent end or a great cataclysmic era which will usher in a new era. From the Mayan Calendar to the Book of Revelation to the cycles of the Kalpa to Ragnarok. On some level we always knew it was coming. Or maybe its just species-wide neurosis and fear of death and change or, perhaps, we knew that whatever great unknown would follow would cause is great distress and reveal to use new fears beyond our imagination.

Art by Mario Alberti.

The Ages turned. Around 2030, it just seemed humanity was falling apart: pandemics were in increase even after the somewhat hysterical (at times) response to the 2020 pandemic. The first superbugs arose in the following years and made a Chinese flu look like a complete joke. Entire species of animals and plants died in a mere year or two. Those were the easier times. As the world seemed on the verge of collapse, political and social tensions of all stripes just seemed to unravel at an ever escalating pace, with every continent erupting in either war and/or civil disorder and millions died. More died from the superbugs. The rest? It was merely the start of a new nightmare in a depleted world. The voices started. There were spikes in mental cases which many attributed to the decade of chaos but as time progress, it seemed as if some deeper madness was gripping humanity as mental breakdowns escalated and turned people into monsters: cannibalism, cults and the likes arose in this period which only fueled the chaos.

By 2040, the brief Age of Monsters had begun. Unexplained freak mutations had dramatically increased in the past decade but by the 2040 it had reached a boiling point as nature itself seemed to unravel in ways which past science could not explain. Cancerous growths of unexplained fleshy matter, parasitical worms with mind control and farm animals reverting to an almost primal state, such as chicken growing teeth and a taste for flesh. As mad dreams and visions kept increasing, the humans changed as well, only further driving humanity in a frenzy. Entire new religious branches were born then, only to fuel the fires of war, as entire population began accusing each others of devil worship or similar concepts. Others blamed the government mandate vaccines of the 2030 which had prove ineffective at best or dangerous at worst. It seemed humanity would never catch a break. The wheel of the Ages was turning. There was a new reality boiling on the surface of the world which seemed ever stretched. Night kept growing darker. Madness kept running deeper. Stars burnt out in the sky. Freak or still births peaked to three quarter of all births in a single year. It rained blood. Entire populations shuffled into the wilderness, naked and screaming the names of what could be alien gods. The end of days had come.

The Ascended

No one knows for sure when exactly the first of the Ascended arrived. Perhaps they had always been among us, even if this seems unlikely or, more likely, they are the byproduct of those times of ending when the ages of the world turned. When they appeared it didn't take long for people to take notice and, within days of their appearance, small towns and outpost had fully surrendered to their new master without a single weapon being fired. There was something so fundamentally perfect about the Ascended which, combined with their innate gifts, just made them natural leaders. Some were gurus and philosophers while others presented themselves more akin to warrior-gods who would help their faithful reclaim their lands from raving bands of lunatics or particularly dangerous bandits and traffickers. One by one, the various remaining pockets of human civilization bent the knee to their new masters, the new rulers of mankind and our species direct successors: the Ascended. Their reign had come.

Ascended Culture and their Thralls

Art by Anthony Jones

The Ascended are called that way because they are above and beyond the mere humanity they emerged from. They do not hide that they were once human, because much of their perfection is an improvement upon humanity. Ascended have a language of their own and their own word to describe themselves but this language cannot be spoken by human or even understood by our puny, primitive minds. They communicate in a language with concepts utterly beyond our understanding but beyond that little is truly understood of their emergent culture. Ascended see themselves as above and beyond human failings and the natural leaders of our species from here on out. They have emerged across all human cultures and all creeds and claim to be beyond and above petty distinctions of mankind, even if many speculate they must have their own cliques, philosophies and beliefs but we would not be able to understand them.

An Ascended is the master of any settlement, with the largest settlements on Earth hosting a population of Ascended in a certain hierarchy which vary depending on the local culture. Different Ascended groups, called either pantheons or cabals have different societal organization depending on the ruling Ascended's specific plans for humanity, as they organize mankind and tend to them much like in a way we would tend a garden. Some Ascended have created military-like places, ruled with an iron (but just?) fist, with a meritocratic system rewarding skill and loyalty for the human soldiers as to encourage them to see themselves as mankind's defenders. In other places, they create almost anarchist commune of pot-smoking pseudo hippies which encourage free love while in others they could create religious cults or even hyper traditionalist places with the goal of ensuring a steady breeding of new humans for generations to come. War between different pantheons and their thralls should be seen as non-existent, even if in reality it is more complex.

Those who serve the Ascended are wholly devoted to their new masters. After all, are they not perfect? All Ascended have an innate charisma and magnetism which borders on mind control and they are able to draw strong emotions from entire human populations. This is not pure mind domination, however: very few Ascended (if any) can truly order a human like a full puppet. Rather, they built their devotion through the years by engineering a culture where the Ascended are not only seen as infallible gods but also by ensuring people have a reason to believe it. Ascended-ran settlement are the most prosperous, stable and safe of all the world's remaining human cities. Any mutated monster in the area is slain in glorious combat by the local Ascended, their heads display on pike or their skins turned into coats and capes. The Ascended cultivate an image of heroism and godhood which help reinforce the belief system they have created. Slowly but surely, humanity has slowly changed and simply accepted that they must defer to the superior Ascended, much like how a child defer to their parent because their parent knows more. To be a second class citizen and chattel to the Ascended is a gift and a privilege, for who would not want to be loved by living Gods? Some are driven by love, by faith or even by lust as many Ascended have such a perfected physique and raw animal magnetism that entire crop of humans willingly surrender to become their sexual slaves and perhaps one day hope to help them birth Ascended children.

Ascended Biology

Art by Nyctoinc Illustrations

Each Ascended began its life as a mortal human and was transformed into another Ascended through infusion of genetic material. The process is dangerous and unstable as well as excruciatingly painful as well as utterly destructive to a human sense of self and identity. After days of agonizing with a body riddled with ever creeping cancerous, alien growth the flesh will slowly dissolve and the body will seemingly melt and then harden into a crystalline cocoon, at which point transformation into an Ascended can begin. Nothing of the original body remain unchanged and the individual is changed at a cellular or even molecular level. The trauma and confusion of Ascension leaves the individual original humanity behind no matter what. There are no 'friendly neighborhood Ascended' who secretly retain their old personalities. While they can retain their memory of past lives, most willingly discard them as their newly born body continues to mature.

Ascended appear, at least initially, as physically perfected humans even if this can somewhat vary. They are tall (most start at six feet and a half and can grow to eight feet tall), clean limbed and perfectly symmetrical. Some appear eternally youthful while others have a completely cosmetic age, appearing as well formed and well preserved older individuals: these tend to radiate more a sense of wisdom, kindness, paternal love or intellect. Yet even the 'old' looking Ascended have a supernatural, nay, unnatural beauty and perfect to them. Their skin tone and hair color can vary and can include all human permutations and even colors or traits which do not exist in humans, such as green hair, pure white skin or even blue skin. Their eyes tend to almost shine in the darkness, with some even having flat out glowing eyes. Some are elfin, with a thin and tall wispy beauties while others are brawny, with a perfectly sculpted physique no human could ever hope to match. Different strains of Ascended have different styles or even fashion to their biology, such as those who prefer a more divine or even almost 'demonic' appearance, with horns and fangs or even growing an extra pair of arms. One must keep in mind that the subtle mind warping of Ascended ensure that human thralls are not bothered: indeed, should a particularly popular Ascended decide to reorganize their biology on a whim, expect sycophants to self mutilate to emulate their master or mistress. To some extent, Ascended biology is just as much sculpted and engineered as it is part of their biology, as each represent an idealized form of perfection to their old human selves. Several Ascended are also hermaphrodites or, in some odd cases, utterly lacking in sexual organs if such was the perfect the individual desired.

This, however, is a lie.

Art by Marcus Siergiejew

The idealized human form of an Ascended is not their true form. Their 'godly' form is a coping mechanism of the newly reborn Ascended, as their real form is utterly alien and disgusting. While there is an eldritch, unnatural and alien mindset inside every Ascended they retain enough of their humanity for vanity. Indeed, such vanity is generally enhanced to an absurd degree. The true form of an Ascended is always unique and always alien and disgusting to look upon, with some even lacking a human form at all are nothing but a head and snapping, razor-tipped tentacles or stretched multi limbed bug-forms with ephemeral wings or floating piles of organs held aloft by gaseous excretion. The Ascended never show these forms to their followers and most, if not all, are unaware of them.

Ascended are eldritch monstrosities, with an unnatural physiology. They are by default stronger, faster and smarter than the average human and able to heal extremely quickly without any lasting consequences, even if healing larger wounds require consumption of human biomass. As one would expect given the thematic, the Ascended are vampiric creatures and they sustain themselves off of humans. Actual consumption of flesh and blood is rare, usually every few months and rather they live off the mental energies and devotion of their human thralls. Through a mixture of pheromones and psychic abilities, the Ascended inspire the blind devotion in humans they crave so much and in turn slowly feed the mental energy this generate as human minds are slowly warped and sucked of their sanity. The full abilities of the Ascended are unclear and it is likely even they are not aware of their full potential and limitations.

Despite their clear advantages, however, Ascended are not immortal (even if its likely they do not age). They are still flesh and blood, even if said flesh and blood can sometimes appear to bend the rules of reality a bit. When not surrounded by their entourage of thralls and servants, an Ascended can be cornered and killed with human weapons. Blowing their brains out and then setting the twitching remains on fire usually works, as does hacking or blowing them apart. According to their own propaganda they are true immortals but this is false: around the world, some have already been killed in gruesome manners. They are not Gods. They are creatures of flesh. They can be killed.

The 'Slay the Ascended!' Sandbox

Art by Lina Porras

A 'Slay the Ascended!' campaign is very well suited to a sandbox and a lot of it can overlap with typical fantasy setting sandbox, even if it is set in the near, post apocalyptic future. There are ruins to explore (the lost cities, full of mutations, madness or cults) and there are monsters roaming around, namely the remaining mutations from the Age of Monsters. The key difference, however, is that player characters plays the part of the 'Rogue Humans', which are these human populations which have either not submitted to the Ascended or composed of people who have slowly broken away from the brainwashing and fled their fellow thralls. The key locations in a Slay the Ascended campaign are the various settlements under Ascended control, which own the most resources be it food, water and/or guns. Functionally, this mean players are either going to be functionally bandits and raiders or they will be saboteur, spies and 'fifth columnist' inside the Ascended-ruled settlements.  The more characters attack Ascended stronghold the more they will be hunted. This can be a good chance to take down an Ascended for good, should they be goaded to attack themselves.

One issue they will need to deal with is that most of their enemies are humans too. A life freed from the Ascended is not an easy life nor is it a good life. It requires, more often than not, to kill and steal from fellow humans and to uproot their way of life and ruin their day. The world of 'Slay the Ascended' is a bleak place and doesn't shy away from the realities that a resistance group can be a particularly violent and dangerous group that often cause more harm than good. To oppose the Ascended may be morally right in terms of human freedom but it requires one to actively harm other humans which is a difficult moral choice to make. Rogue humans are seen, by the thralls, much in the same way we see dangerous fringe groups and/or insane preppers who amass guns in their bunkers for the 'coming race war' or similar concept. From the POV of a Thrall civilian, a 'Rogue Human' is a dangerous, narrow minded, bigoted and irrational unbeliever at the best of times and an absolute monster at worst. Even those few in the Thralls who know the Ascended brainwash (and sometimes eat them), the life of a Rogue Human seems dangerous or even destructive: after all, modern society of the 21st century generally required us to accept that sometimes, things are rather imperfect and that we sometimes work for bad people doing morally dubious things. To those folks, serving a flesh-eating alien man-god isn't really much different from their parents who worked for a soulless global mega corporation which exploited uncertain child labor laws in foreign countries while pretending to be virtuous. At the end of the day, its meet the new boss same as the old boss, right?

Who is really in the right here, anyway?

One difference, of course, is that the Ascended are not human. Not anymore. They are creatures of an alien origin, even if they were derived from human stock initially. Many 'Rogue Humans' are individuals afflicted by some odd form of 'madness' which fills them with a revulsion for the Ascended. Perhaps this is akin to a species-wide immune response to a parasite having entered the body of collective humanity. The same alien dreams which drove people mad in 2030 and onward are still there. There is an unspoken fear that the Ascended are but the first step toward...something? Slowly the Ascended are changing humanity society, creating these assemblages of human civilization toward a certain goal they themselves perhaps don't understand. They have only ruled for a few decades, after all. Whose to say their existence is not the mere first step toward a horrific transformation for humanity, as we are turned into food, cattle or who knows what else for alien powers. After all, where did the First Ascended come from? Who created them? And why?

You can feel it gnawing at your brain. The wheel of the ages hasn't finished turning. You know it in your gut: this is just the start. The parasites must be removed from humanity before its too late, before they consume us and make us into something else.

Game Concept: Warhammer 25 000

It is the 26th Millennium. For more than two thousand years, Mankind's fate

in the galaxy seemed to have been in a state of decay and uncertainty.

Once it seemed as if mankind was poised to conquer the stars,

even in the shadow of the Eldar's galaxy-spanning Empire.

From their humble beginning on Earth, the human race has expanded

into the great void of space and mastered nearly all areas of science

that they could ever hope to discover with their mortal minds.

In their folly, the greatest minds of the past unleashed what could have been our doom.

The birth of Artificial Intelligence, now deemed Abominable, was both a blessing

and a curse. With their aid mankind expanded ever further. And, for a time, it was good.

This age of artificial evolution has come to an end in the devastating conflicts.

Mankind emerged victorious but diminished. For a brief moment it seemed as if

the horrors of the past would have been put behind us. We were wrong.

Earth has grown silent. The invisible, immaterial realm of the Warp is stirring.

Mankind is on the cusp of either a true rebirth as a Psychic species or, perhaps

at the very edge of a damnation we cannot even fathom the depths.

To be a Man in those times is to live in uncertain times. It is a life focused on rebuilding

what has been lost while fearfully looking to the future without a clue on what it may bring.

To stand in the sunset of Mankind's greatest era and to fight to keep Old Night at bay.

These are the tales of those times. Preserve the power of Technology and Science,

for so much more risk being lost every day. Cling to the promise of progress and

understanding, less savages we become. For in the dying light of the future, there is

only uncertainty and the stirring of thirsting Gods.

Art by Adrian Mihai

Call it a silly pipe dream if you will, but one idea which has long haunted the wildest dreams was to run a tabletop campaign set in the Warhammer 40 000 universe, albeit away from the two major eras of the timeline, namely the Great Crusade/Horus Heresy, set in M31, and the 'modern' 40k set in M41 to M42. Its been a long established fact that giant chunks of the lore remained (thankfully) unexplored. Being a big fan of Kevin Crawford's work, I've realized that a lot of the material present in Stars Without Numbers seems rather similar to what we could extrapolate to have existed near the end of the Golden/Dark Age of Technology and the beginning of the Age of Strife. While any mention of crunch here mention Stars Without Numbers, this could easily be ran with a very heavily modded Dark Heresy or even GURPS.

There's going to be quite a bit of 'headcanon' going on here. I don't claim to be an expert who know all the minutiae of 40k lore down to the very last bit. In addition, since this is an era which will likely forever remain shrouded in myth, it means a lot of assumptions have to be made. As a final note, the tone of such an era is different from 40k. Because that's the point. To showcase the galaxy-that-was.

Can 'Stars Without Numbers' support such an era?

Most worlds which have not
degenerated would be TL4, with
some TL5 (but not all)

In my humble opinion, yes absolutely. In fact, it was looking at the Tech levels as outlined in the game that I realized that TL4 and TL5 would be fairly close to the level of technological prowess of post-Men of Iron humans. Most, if not all of the things outlined in there do in fact already exist in Warhammer 40 000 and have existed for most of the game's history. They simply represent forms of technology which aren't mass produced for consumer and civilian use but exist in extremely limited forms across Imperial technology:

• Cybernetics: These are extremely commonplace in Warhammer 40k, just in a somewhat more clunky form than they would be in the past. The Imperium and the Mechanicus make use of robotic limbs and cybernetic implants all the time. However they are rather ugly, bulky and baroque things full of wires and tubes. If I was to theorize, I personally believe a lot of the Mechanicus tech isn't so much the most advanced as it is the most rugged and versatile, able to sustain itself with minimal maintenance for centuries. Late Golden Age technology in this area is likely somewhat sleeker. However the most advanced designs are now lost tech and the implants are changing, increasingly devolving toward the clunky, techno-gothic style we all know and love.
• Genetic Manipulation: We know for a fact that, by around M22 the Navigators were deliberately genetically engineered. With that in mind we can assume that, prior to the initial phase of technological decay, humanity was reaching well into TL5 (if not TL6 of 'techno magic'!) areas of biological engineering. If anything, with the increase in Psyker population, the stirring of the Warp likely increasing mutation chances and the need to further engineer populations to better thrive on alien worlds (now that Earth has been 'lost'), this is one area which is likely currently thriving. It is likely most Humans by M26 descend from genetically augmented stock, healthier and engineered to reduce the odds or to eliminate genetic defects and diseases. It is my theory that this engineering, still existing within the genome of the Imperial population, can and does go 'haywire' due to pollution and other degradation, explaining why so many mutations in older 40k books seem so random. Not every mutation is Chaos (although many are). Some could be long dormant, spliced genes going crazy and suddenly expressing themselves.
• Near Immortality: This one would be 'lost technology' right from the get go, but there is some lore evidence to suggest that aging could have been, at the peak of the Golden Age, a thing of the past for the elite. Considering that 'Juvenat' treatments exist in 40k and that the Space Marines and Custodes are near-immortal, the posthuman elites of the Golden Age could have been able to indefinitely suspend aging.
• Localized Temporal Manipulation: These exist in 40k too, going far back into the lore as the Stasis Grenades. This type of technology is called Stasis Fields and they are still in use in the modern Imperium.
• Artificial Intelligence: This one is a no-brainer, as we know that the creation of the Men of Iron is what led to the development of the STC and the true dawn of the Golden Age.

Art by Tim Razumovsky

As one can see, much of this technology has long existed in 40k lore. The key differences, however, are in two things: how common is it and how is it treated? A game set at the start of the Age of Strife would see everything listed under T4 as commonplace on any sufficiently large and industrialized world which isn't too damaged by past centuries of war. The overall standards of life would be massively improved over the basic Imperial menial and these worlds would be, in many aspects, closer to our time. Personal computers used for both work and entertainment, a decent access to medical care (which, even in a highly diminished state, would surpass our current medical technology) and more would be the norm whereas in the Imperium these things are at best used only by Nobles. Even on a planet which spent centuries rebuilding from the conflict with the Men of Iron, technology would still be beyond that of the average Imperial world.

Secondly and, most importantly, much of this technology would still be understood. Maybe not completely, as the massive databases and the complete STC have been lost but much would still remain. These people would not regard technology with superstition. Now obviously these people would know and understand that things used to be better, that in the days of their great grandparents there used to be inter planetary transit on a much larger scale before these warp routes were lost, that people used to live several centuries more and that machines automated even more to the point it was a near utopia. However there would be none of that superstition which is built into the 'cargo cult' of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

The Gene-Wars and Psychic Abominations

Art by Vlad Bolotov.

One of the greatest dangers of this dwindling age, beyond the isolation of entire systems or planets by the Warp, is the threat posed by rampant genetic engineering and the growth of the 'Psyker' phenomena. Psykers were recorded among humans as early as M22 but they would presumably only explode in numbers around the start of the Age of Strife. But why are these two factors so important to the downfall of mankind? Codex: Custodes states the following:

"Thinking machines and the development of ever more esoteric weapons and transportation technologies played their part, but the single greatest factor to drive this expansion was the ability – and the reckless will – to manipulate human genetics. Utterly certain of their own primacy, scientist-kings and techno-demagogues followed every strand of curiosity and exercised powers of creation that made them seem like gods. Ultimately, their hubris led them to catastrophe, and onwards to the very brink of extinction. Worlds were overrun by bloody uprisings within their own populations, much of which were mutated beyond sanity and recognition. Gene-wars consumed entire star systems, while a psychic apocalypse drowned the stars in fire. The vast empire of Humanity was shattered amidst horror and anarchy, and the oppressive shroud of Old Night settled over all."

My personal theory on the matter is that, since Mankind could not rely on thinking machines as much they sought alternate ways to expand their power. With true artificial sentience outlawed/destroyed on any surviving world, power hungry individuals had to find something else. The human body and mind provided the right 'canvas'. The increased rate of mutation attracted scientific curiosity and, as with all things, someone somewhere will see it as a mean to gain more power. At first there would not really be anything seen as truly malicious in this, as humanity would already be used to posthuman modifications. However, humanity in that era was also quite naive and the powers of the Warp were misunderstood and the full ramifications of tapping into the Immaterium would not be immediately clear.

Fear and loathing of the 'mutant' would not be universal, especially on still well developed worlds. There would be a certain naivety to it all, as players could be allowed to take Psychic or even Arcane Foci. It would be treated no differently than any other technology. At least, until someone somewhere had a particularly bad roll. Human variations would also be commonplace and no one would really blink an eye, unless they were particularly repulsive or hostile. However, in the slums and former war zones the first true mutants, as modern Imperials would recognize, are being born. Without the full knowledge of ancient sciences, many anomalies are growing inside the human genome. These, in time, could create divergent strains of humanity which would unfortunately be exterminated by the Legiones Astartes five thousand years later. Other, more stable breeds would become the Ogryn, Ratling or the infamous Squats.

Another area of divergence to take into account is that of pre-Warp travel human civilizations. In the Warhammer universe, humanity was already spreading across the stars far before they ever invented primitive Warp Travel (around M18) or the Navigators (estimated M22). Even before the true dawn of the Golden Age they had already been colonizing their own solar system and nearby (or even distant) worlds for a very long time, using generational ships filled with enough raw material to enable self sufficiency for the colony. These worlds, assuming the colony did not die, would develop radically different ways of life or even biology. According to the old lore of a 1991 issue of White Dwarf, Mars' terraforming began (and seemingly, somehow, ended) in M3! In other words, it began in our own millennium. This means that by the start of the Golden Age, where Warp travel began connecting all these worlds, that humanity already had existed in isolated pockets outside of Earth for about 15 000 years.

Posthuman Augmentations

Art by Josiah Duncan.

For players, genetic engineering and biomechanical augmentation are a viable option when it come to increasing the capabilities of their characters. While the most advanced of genetic augmentations are now considered lost following the destruction of the Men of Iron and the most technologically advanced STC patterns (which logically would include medical data) and while the Emperor hasn't yet obtained the greatest troves of knowledge left on Terra to combine with His genetic material (to make Custodes, Primarchs and Astartes) this hardly prevent now stranded human colonies from creating super soldiers. True, they will never rival the future Astartes but we know from established 40k lore that genetic enhancement to make bigger, stronger, faster soldiers do exist. These type of people still existed early into the Great Crusade, before either falling in battle or being assimilated into the greater Imperial populace. In addition, with Psykers on the rise and the abilities of Biomancy, warp-fueled genetic modification is an area where the maddest of genius would dare to go.

• The Diehard and Iron Hide Foci from the Core Book, as well as Arcane Mind and Arcane Physique can all represent different expression of the Transhumanism used at the start of the Age of Strife. This can range from being born from a genetically engineered sub-species/ethnic group within the sector the game is set (whose descendants would one day be classified as Abhumans by the Imperium) to simply being an elite soldier or special agent whose rich and powerful masters have allowed access to permanent augmentations. Others might be Warp-tained and not even aware of why their bodies and minds are enhanced and the full extent of their degeneration has not manifested yet.
• Alternatively, these augmentations could be mechanical in nature. While the Mechanicum currently doesn't really exist in anything resembling its future form, it isn't as implausible as it sound for select individuals on these far off worlds to be implanted with mechanical augmentations which are similar in function or even directly based off the design templates which form the full range of Mechanicus implants, if not for them to carry augmentations which are lost in the modern Adeptus Mechanicus. Possibly, the Hacker Foci could be restricted to those whose bodies are implanted with these augmentations as they are able to more easily plug into the Noosphere, which would presumably also exist on these worlds through all the wireless technology which still exist.
• Playing a member of the Navigators is also an option. Presumably they are not quite as inbred and monstrously deformed in those days. With the Warp storms growing in potency, the Navigators cut off from Terra have settled on worlds which remain relatively stable and have become a local nobility of sort, sometimes attempting to mount reckless travels to reach nearby worlds and obtain rare resources. Navigators would use the Starfarer or some similar Focis to represent their Warp eye. However they would only ever be able to reach the nearest of star systems and only under considerable strain.

In the 26th Millennium, overall the nature of 'humanity' would be a lot more open ended. Being set in an era where genetic engineering is still commonplace means that the fear of mutants is not quite ingrained into humanity yet. While there are monsters and abominations lurking, the full scope of the isolation of Old Night hasn't fully taken hold yet and Abhumans don't exist so far. The worst is also yet to come on the subject of Psykers and Warp taint.

Familiar Foes

Were you expecting something else?

One of the reasons to set something within the Warhammer 40 000 universe is to, after all, make use of pre-existing material. While many of the game's factions would not exist in M26, there's still a pretty good amount of critters and aliens which are indeed recognizable from the lore, especially Rogue Trader-era lore.

• The Orks: An ever-present menace, the Orks have been a blight on the galaxy since times immemorial. At the height of the Golden Age, the superior technology of mankind kept the monsters at bay, destroying entire Waaaaagh!!! and leaving behind, at worst, scattered pockets of Feral Orks growing from the spores. However, in this period of isolation, instability and technological decay the Orks are growing bolder again. Space Hulks emerge from beyond the veiled Warp routes. Rumours are spreading that the green tides seen in past centuries were but minor incursions. The Orks encountered in the sector where my game would be set would be, as a nod to 1st edition lore, mostly of the Blood Axes clan and an overall more intelligent, sneakier lot. There is also a nod to the Beast Arise series, which depicted Orks as more intelligent and organized when under the influence of so-called Prime Orks, who will still be alive in those days. Overall these would be full of nods to 1st and 2nd edition Ork lore.
• The Eldars: As of M26, the empire of the Eldars has not fallen yet. The race has not yet splintered into Craftworld Eldars, Dark Eldars, Exodites or other groups. Their race is very powerful but also incredibly corrupt, as they are on the downward spiral that will eventually lead to the Fall of the Eldar. The best one can hope of the Eldar is that they simply leave humanity alone.  It seems most likely that Eldar machines were more often seen and interacted with than an in-the-flesh Eldar so overall the race remain mysterious.
• The Necrons: Initially it may seem silly. However, there indeed was Necron activity before M41 as there are mentions of Tomb Worlds slowly waking up during the era of the Great Crusade. There is so much we don't know about Necrons that they can still fit within such a 'prequel'.
• The Slanni: The reptilian Slann date back to Warhammer 40 000: Rogue Trader and were essentially the Lizardmen analogues before 40k reduced the amount of races it had that were copy pasted from Fantasy. The Slann encountered in M26 would be greatly diminished tribes of reptilian/amphibian creatures with ties to the Old Ones.
• The Hrud: The nomadic buggers have been around far before the time the Imperium ever found out they existed. Indeed, they most likely predate the rise of humanity as an interstellar species. It is likely they existed beneath mankind's notice, much like how mankind was beneath the notice of the Eldars.
• Warp Predators: There are creatures from the Rogue Trader book which still exist within the lore and would be around in this era, such as Enslavers, Vampires and Psychneuein. With the unregulated and misunderstood psychic powers going wild, these creatures could pop in anywhere.

Overall, not a bad list despite the lack of any Imperial factions, Chaos (beyond daemons) and Tyranids. Obviously Tau also be completely out the picture as they are still busy banging rocks together trying to figure out fire. Same with, presumably, the Kroots.

Madness & Damnation

Art by Johan Grenier.

One addition built into such a campaign would be the Sanity found in Silent Legions. Now, unless the characters are civilians generally speaking there shouldn't be too much that put a strain on their sanity. As the past centuries have had plenty of wars and societal decay at some point or another, soldier, assassins and mercenaries know what to expect. After an encounter or two with some Xenos, things get pretty easy to process, as these people aren't as brainwashed as modern Imperial citizen.

However there is one aspect of the universe the mind is not ready for yet and that is the Warp and Psychic powers. At this point, humanity knows that the Warp exist (having used it to travel since M22) and Psykers are becoming more common. The problem which is arising is that of Daemons and Warp Predators increasingly being attracted to the growing psychic potential in humanity. When the fabric of reality gets torn asunder and some Daemon of Tzeentch or some other ruinous entity emerge and start murdering people and eating their souls, this is where madness come in.

And yet, Hope?

Art by Sergi Sokolov.

However in the end things are not Grimdark. Not yet. Within the life span of the player characters, things may not look so bad. The best analogue for this era would be a game set during the fall of the Roman Empire. No one could predict how long the fall would last and how much time it would take to climb back to the heights of such an era. Five thousand years is a long time. Ultimately, this is an era which, while connected to 40k lore, in many way still draws more upon classic space opera and pulp scifi. Humanity isn't yet this degraded, crazy, superstitious and hateful thing whose sense of idealism has been utterly crushed. Yes, things will one day be truly terrible. The Grim Darkness of the Far Future will come but not today. Not tomorrow. It isn't here yet.

Time to hold back the darkness. One day at a time.