HostileHex24
Where did that month go? I've been rather busy as of late, not the least because I have (belatedly) started a daily challenge-style project inspired by this wonderful blog post. The world I have outlined is a small region of a country which was once a colony of an invading empire which later collapsed. Since then, the colonisers and native people have been forced to form a society side-by-side, and this co-evolution over the hundreds of years since the empire collapsed had lead to a new society largely divergent from either of the original cultures.
The intention is for the players to explore the now-largely uninhabited heartlands of this country, traipsing through the accumulated ruins of a failed colonial power and a now-faded indigenous culture. However, in keeping with the hostility outlined in the Playful Void post, much of this region is opposed to exploration, with all manners of creatures and semi-sentient beings attempting to prevent interference with their activities.
I shan't go into too much detail of the campaign I wish to run in this world as I believe some of my future players may read this blog at some point or another, but I will note that the intent behind the design of the world is one where smart, risky play is encouraged, and even small victories are rewarding. To this end, I intend to use a level-less system such as Cairn so that players are incentivised to focus on diegetic advancement rather than plundering ruins for gold and treasures. In tandem with this, I have developed a slightly refined hexcrawling system that runs off of 3-mile hexes as discrete units which aims to promote enjoyable exploration for my players.
Regarding the actual challenge itself, aside from having to catch up from my late start, my greatest trouble so far has been in finding the balance between the hostility of the reference overworlds such as Elden Ring, and the principles of OSR-style play in which negotiation and interactivity are essential. After all, if it seems as if everything wishes to kill you, why bother trying to negotiate? Hopefully I will find myself better able to walk this knife-edge as the challenge progresses.
More reports of the development of this setting and the challenges that come along with it will surely be posted here in the future, but for now I have a hostile overworld to get back to.