Iron Horizons, Genesys TTRPG, World Building: Tropes, Themes, And Technologies

So, we’ve discussed a minimum viable project and what it looks like for the Genesys tabletop role-playing game. Now, let’s take a close look at their expanded setting sheet from the Expanded Player’s Guide. We’ll only focus on the overview and first two steps this time: tropes & themes, and technology levels.

I briefly discussed tropes in my first two posts on dieselpunk in exploring what made a genre, and I talked briefly about the ideas of themes in dieselpunk, steampunk, and cyberpunk. For this, I’ll address them generally and specifically refer to how Genesys uses them.

To start, the top of the sheet asks for the Setting Name and Setting Type. We already have a name (Iron Horizons) and a type (dieselpunk space opera). The worksheet is explained in more detail on page 40 of the Expanded Player’s Guide. I won’t copy the explanations over, but I might summarize and explain.

Setting Overview

Overview is an interesting one, because it’s a one-paragraph (roughly) summary of the setting. Other possible terms are elevator pitch, blurb, or north star. If you’ve done worldbuilding in the past, you know how challenging this is. How do you squeeze an infinitely large universe into an itty-bitty box of text?

Prioritization.

I am aware that it doesn’t make things easier. So, in this case, we need to narrow the focus to the core of the setting. What makes this setting unique? What makes it special? What separates it from the thousands of other settings out there? Iron Horizons is relatively fortunate in this regard, as there are very few, if any, settings that embrace both the dieselpunk genre and the space opera genre. So, calling it a dieselpunk space opera is descriptive and uniquely identifiable. I could just use that phrase to keep things appropriately generic, or I could go a little deeper.

A dieselpunk space opera in an alternate future where humanity spread across the stars with grit and diesel to build a better future, but carried the ghosts of humanity’s past with them in their search for wealth, power, and influence. Former colonies become colonizers, economic liberators become the next trade empires, and scrappy underdogs become the corporate giants that decide the fate of systems, all while the ordinary people try to build lives for themselves, either planet side or amongst the stars aboard a spaceship through trade, piracy, and hard labor.

That adds a lot more to themes and tropes that will be the next sections, but that captures the key ideas and drivers in Iron Horizons. Retrufuturistic tech drives humanity’s expansion into the stars, but can’t escape old ways of thinking, and so destructive patterns from the past are recreated— colonialism, imperialism, fascism, etc. It also emphasizes the focus on the ordinary people rather than Chosen Ones or Magical Dynasties. That takes us to the next part of the page: tropes and themes.

Tropes and Themes of Iron Horizons

These are the meat of this post, as this is where I think Genesys’ sheet really shines. It’s broken into five different parts: tropes that are played straight (for lack of a better term), tropes that are subverted, themes that are played straight, themes that are subverted, and the single element that most defines the setting. I’ve touched very briefly on this in the past, but I love a thematically consistent world, especially one that doesn’t simply relabel tropes and themes from a better-known world. Those tend to feel hollow to me, if that makes sense. They have all the trappings, but something at the heart of the setting is missing.

Anyway! Back to Genesys.

Tropes in Genesys

“Tropes are common storytelling devices, clichés, or both. They can help define a genre, like steampunk or alternate history, or they can define morality, like good versus evil. Tropes can be refined all the way down to specific elements within classic stories, but you should stay more general when developing a setting.” Genesys Expanded Player’s Guide, p. 42

They use the standard definition of tropes, which I appreciate. It emphasizes that the focus is on the story more than the mechanics. They also include a d100 table, with 32 different tropes. Then, at the end, they add a note encouraging people to use tropes from anywhere. They do talk about going through the entire process via random dice rolls, to come up with some truly fascinating concepts. (Post-apocalypse, knights, and underwater, anyone?) Each entry has a sentence or two of description, highlighting its multi-genre nature and how it might appear in settings.

Magic is a particularly interesting case. Its description reads: Magic is an element in the setting, and the acquisition of magic is the goal of most major characters. Now, magic exists in Genesys. It’s a clever mechanical system for player characters that I haven’t had time to examine too closely, but it escapes the D&D problem of massive lists of spells. By having magic as a trope, however, we see that this isn’t focusing on the Magic as a game mechanic. It focuses on magic as a narrative element.

Many wizards have magic, but not all settings include acquiring magic as one of their major goals. Gandalf never tries to acquire more magic, after all. This tells us something about the type of story the world focuses on. It makes me think of Ursula K. Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea. Yes, the story’s main focus was on Ged’s maturation, but much of Ged’s motivation was to acquire magic or to prove his greatness. So, by using this theme, we’re telling players that much of the narrative will be about how their characters learn or discover new forms of magic. In many ways, it reminds me of anime like One Punch Man where the goal is to be more powerful as a superhero. It creates a defined progression system that can be very rewarding to play. I suspect a lot of LitRPGs have some aspect of this trope, as it’s similar to the idea of leveling up.

All of the example tropes have that same broad, cross-genre perspective. The entry on knights, for example, includes traditional knights, modern knights in a secret society, and futuristic knights whose mounts are giant robots. This is one of my favorite examples of how they separate tropes from genres. In the case of building an RPG setting, it’s important to distinguish between individual elements and the setting overall. Eberron, for example, is fantasy, but also has trains (because Eberron is the type of setting that needs fantasy train robberies).

Importantly, it asks for tropes that are used in the setting and tropes that are subverted in this setting.

Tropes in Iron Horizons

Now, for Iron Horizons, there’s some tropes on their chart that I can just grab and use.

The first is Alternate History (described as ‘What if’ real-world scenarios with a few changes that, over time, have resulted in major divergences from our reality”). Now, the biggest change in the historical timeline is that Nikola Tesla invented a way to negate gravity, allowing for the much earlier development of flight technology, and then he gave it away for free as he wanted to do with some of his other inventions. The second is that Albert Einstein created a new mathematical theory that helped eventually access faster-than-light travel. Now, amusingly, this is also one that I am subverting, because Iron Horizons takes place in the future. For this, I borrow a term from the Golden Age of Sci-Fi— future history. I could use that as a trope, but I’m not sure how I would define that quite yet. It’s something that still needs more thinking on.

The second trope would be New Frontier, described as “the setting takes place at the edge of civilization and beyond, whether in space, the deep ocean, or a new dimension” (EPG 43). Space, of course, is the frontier. This one I do play pretty straight, as it’s sort of the underlying assumption of the setting that helps make it space opera. The other trope in the chart that ties into this is Interplanetary Travel. Which, in this one, is exactly what it sounds— travel between worlds. The description does include descriptions for genres as diverse as steampunk, fantasy, and modern-day.

If I wanted, I could combine these into a single trope: dieselpunk. It would be paired with the preexisting Genesys trope/setting of steampunk. I suppose this might count as being a subverted trope, if I wanted to use steampunk instead. Instead of being steampunk Victoriana with steam-powered technology, it’s based on the 30s and uses diesel. Since I already wrote two posts on dieselpunk (part 1, part 2), I don’t particularly want to get into the weeds again. I will, however, make a quick description based on the steampunk one.

Dieselpunk: A pseudoscience fiction in which advanced technology is replaced with equivalent machines inspired by, or based on, technology that existed approximately from 1900 to 1950.

Easy enough, I suppose? So, that gives us a set of tropes that we are using (from the chart, anyway) and one that we are sort of subverting (steampunk). Good vs Evil is also a trope that is in the chart (one in which there are objectively morally good and objectively morally evil elements), which would be another one that we are subverting, at least compared to what many people expect from space opera after Star Wars. Dieselpunk, I suspect, lends itself well toward subverting the trope. Space opera is an interesting genre, because depending on the era, it could mean anything from fantasy-in-space to hard-boiled cosmic noir in space. That might be a future blog series as well, but we’ll have to see.

Themes in Genesys & Iron Horizons

Themes are similar to tropes; however, they speak to the types of stories you want to feature. Themes are primarily broad ideas or questions, often tied to specific conditions and emotions. (EPG, p.42)

There is, unfortunately, only a small section about themes, and the definition likely feels familiar to anyone who struggled with identifying themes in high school. To try and make the Genesys definition simpler, a theme is what the setting is about. Not what’s in the setting, but the ideas and feelings the setting explores.

Yeah, clear as mud. The EPG describes themes as questions that the setting explores, or the kinds of stories that the setting focuses on. I like the idea of viewing RPG settings through the lens of questions. It adds focus to the world that would otherwise be lost. This, I suspect, might be one of the reasons I dislike “kitchen-sink” settings. They lack a thematic center, which means the entire setting feels loose and disconnected.

For Iron Horizons, there’s a couple ways we can approach this question. One is the World Anvil setting primer. Another is the post from earlier this month introducing Iron Horizons in a little more detail. Those, however, take a big picture view that is primarily oriented around the fiction aspects of the setting.

For this project, we’re looking at the expanded setting guide in view of a role-playing game setting. TTRPGs are a different medium than fiction, which means the rules and foci are also going to be different. I’ve talked about what the overall project is about, but we haven’t asked what the RPG is about.

Like the Star Wars TTRPG that preceded Genesys Core Rule Book, a space opera setting has a vast amount of options. For comparison, just check out the various supplemental books for the first edition of Stars Without Number. They had a source book for merchant campaigns, one for naval campaigns, one for military campaigns (especially as mercenaries), one on alien ruins, one on space magic, and so on. Now, we don’t have space magic in Iron Horizons right now (and I’m still undecided if it ever will make an appearance).

That is way too much for our idea of a minimum viable setting, however. Like we did with the overview, it’s time to zoom way in. What is the minimum amount of content that a group would need to play? Let’s assume a small group of players and their characters, with their own ship/in the process of acquiring their own ship, and a way to pay for expenses. Bit of a space trucker vibe in that case.

In that case, this could be a theme: “What is it like to be an ordinary person in an extraordinary world?” It keeps the emphasis on the blue collar, everyday person, while also acknowledging and exploring the fantastical nature of a diesel-driven space faring society. It’s small scale, and easily manageable. It puts the player characters in a broader context of the setting.

Another possibility, focusing on the external conflicts: “How do ordinary people react to the collision of extraordinary forces that sees them as assets and not people?” That one adds a very punk vibe to the setting, which I like. It creates a PC vs Social Systems dynamic that catches many of the different elements. Or, perhaps, in the broadest possible theme, Iron Horizons is about the struggle between the individual and societal power brokers. Power of the individual versus the power of institutions.

With these themes, we’re looking at an RPG that’s about making a living in a difficult societal structure, even one that is interstellar in scale. I like that. It’s very punk and matches our discussions of dieselpunk that we had in the past. It’s manageable to put together the content and manageable for players and other game masters to set some basic campaigns in place. So let’s focus on that theme.

Step 2: Technology Level

I roped this in with the first step because of the alliterative opportunities, but also because it’s very short. Additionally, it is also the last step of what I call the meta-setting. Essentially, external ideas and aspects about the setting as a whole rather than material that exists within the setting. The EPG includes a quarter-page discussion of technology levels, noting that it affects the gear, equipment, vehicles, and, more importantly, the feel of the setting. There’s nothing in this section that particularly stands out as being exceptional, but I appreciate the acknowledgement that tech affects how a setting feels.

The rest of the technology level section is composed entirely of a table of possible technology levels. Now, this isn’t as standardized or formally consistent as GURPS’ tech level system, but this has a narrative-first approach that I appreciate. Again, it is a d100 table that you can roll on if you don’t know specifically what you’re looking for. We start with the stone age and advance through technology levels, mostly sticking to the real world (roughly speaking, the information age), and then expanding into futuristic levels, ending at what they call the “Psychic Awakening” in which technology is replaced by psychic powers. Before this is the quantum age, which involves manipulating reality through quantum technology, and the intragalactic age, which is the traditional space opera idea of easy FTL travel and a galaxy-wide society, with seemingly impossible, perhaps even magical, technologies.

Iron Horizons is in a bit of a weird spot for this one, as it doesn’t fit easily into any of the listed categories. If anything, I would say it’s a combination of the Late Industrial Age (which focuses on the 20th century and the development of petroleum powered vehicles), the interplanetary age (space travel is possible, but not magical, and takes large amounts of time), with the scope of the intragalactic age, although humanity in Iron Horizons has only explored a tiny fraction of the galaxy surrounding Earth.

Like the tropes and themes, the book acknowledges that are infinite possibilities for a fictional setting, so they suggest mixing and matching, taking parts from multiples, or having different tech levels simultaneously depending on societal focus.

I’ve talked a couple of times about the technology in Iron Horizons so far. For this, the sheet includes technology levels, unique and notable technologies, and technologies deliberately excluded (just like the tropes/themes included the section on subverting themes).

So, filling out the sheet, the technology levels section reads “Early intragalactic, with late industrial revolution-based technology, that leads to an interplanetary setting spread across a portion of the Milky Way.” Pretty chill, and I think it’s specific enough to give people an idea, especially when using the term dieselpunk to give a sense of what this looks like aesthetically.

The second question (unique and notable technologies) would be fairly easy, as I’ve already established the key technological concepts. The first is the –Nth Dimensional Engine, based on Einstein’s theories of negative dimensional space, which is what allows for faster than light travel (average speed is 1 light year per 1 Earth-day, for context). The second is Nikola Tesla’s process for countering gravity, and the process for creating ultra-refined diesel. Basically, the technology needed to get humans into space, get them traveling between planets efficiently, and then, the ecoforming process, which makes planets habitable. With those basic technological concepts, the setting is plausible and all other concepts can be derived from them. Nice and simple.

The final one is technology that is purposefully excluded. Not forgotten or overlooked. Excluded. On purpose. Or, in other words, removed to accomplish a specific effect. For Iron Horizons, that technology is transistors and digital computing. With those two, the technological path would have ended up looking significantly more like ours, which I wanted to avoid. As the digital computer is the most defining piece of technology in our era, I opted to exclude it to ensure a distance between Iron Horizons computer tech and our own.

And that’s it for today!

Up next, we have step 3- building the world! At this point, we’ll be transition into the setting itself, first looking at the geography (or perhaps astrography) of the setting, and getting into the fun stuff of properly building the setting.