THE WHERE & HOW

The action takes place in the dark & weird fantasy continent of Bödengärd. There are nine distinct regions for you to explore. From the Würstreich, a Faustian, brutal empire built on mysterious ruins, trying desperately to bring a tribal society into modernity & onwards, to a blasted Wasteland where power-hungry wizards advance armies of goblins & demons. You can travel to the hallucinatory, claustrophobic dimension of the Void or the lonely weirdness of the Moon & that’s just what has been uncovered thus far!

I blend classic fantasy tropes, the scenes you’d find airbrushed on the sides of vans, the scenes of metal record sleeves, black light posters, the grit of Oldhammer with the fun & unexpected twists of the classic Japanese Role-Playing Video Games.

For the LowLife system I used an OSR chassis & modified the hell out of it. I kept on imagining myself making a hot-rod out of a Volkswagen Bug.
With the core game loop players describe intent (Ask), the Würstmeister (GM) sets the difficulty & stakes (Answer) & the dice determine the narrative outcome (Test).
Meat & morale are one. Damage breaks your spirit before it kills your body.
Combat is simultaneous, fast & deadly.
Tests revolve around a d20-based, roll-low system.
The Würstmeister makes common-sense rulings.
Characters are divided into Types, determined by your Stats.
Factions draw the lines. They decide who watches your back & who stabs it.
Heat tracks your wanted level. You start with a target on your back.
Experimentation grants Experience. Try, fail, survive, learn.
Levels have been simplified to Beginner, Intermediate & Expert.
Magic is taboo & dangerous.
Magic users harness energy to distort reality through the natural methodology of Witchcraft or the egocentric way of Sorcery.
Magic is a violation of natural law. Whether through Witchcraft or Sorcery, the universe will snap back.
Morale is a key decider in results.
There are no skills - your character’s abilities are based on their Type & tested with statistic checks & difficulty modifiers.
Your characters are human, variety is explored in other ways.
You have gear slots, so holding stuff isn’t a mathematics nightmare.
World travel is conducted on an enormous, beautiful hex map where the focus is on the journey & discovery rather than getting from point A to point B.

THE WHERE & HOW

DUNGEON DEGENERATES © GOBLINKO

GOBLINKO@GOBLINKO.COM