Ultra Violet Grasslands Rpg 2.0 Hardcover (1025) (GDR)

At the edge of the Rainbowlands stands the Violet City, the last bastion of civilization upon the edge of the ultraviolet grasslands. Even the civilized lands of this world are strange and alien to our eyes — teeming with a multihued humanity (of greenlanders, bluelanders, etc.), porcelain princes (who simultaneously live in multiple bodies psychically linked), body-hopping ultras, and cat lords — and here, where it comes to an end, the setting teems with a fever dream of the fantastic. The premise of Luka Rejec’s Ultraviolet Grasslands is that the PCs will form a caravan which journeys out into these strange lands and then returns. The group will start by selecting their reason for journeying into the grasslands. In addition to obviously motivating the expedition, this also determines how the group earns XP. Twelve default options are provided. For example: To make money. Provide the party with a financier that loans them the money for their first caravan (and creates a debt), then consider awarding 1d6 x 100 XP for every new profitable trade route discovered, and for every profitable trade completed. The grasslands themselves are not trackless wastes. There are established routes and the players will have a map of 32 branching locations leading from the edge of the grasslands to the strange ruins of the Black City on the edge of an oily sea. The beauty of this is its robust simplicity. What I’m going to call Rejec’s caravan-crawl deserves to be ensconced alongside dungeoncrawls and hexcrawls as a pillar of the RPG artform. It’s an elegant and compelling scenario structure: Rejec provides a clean framework which GMs can fill with content, coupled to a clean set of default actions linked directly to a plethora of potential default goals. The key insight, in my opinion, is the expectation that the PCs will travel these caravan routes again and again and again. Rejec structures and incentivizes re-engagement with the grasslands in three ways: First, the Supply & Survival system forces the PCs to return to civilization to resupply. Second, by making each point on the branching routes an exploration hub surrounded by a cluster of discoveries. Third, Rejec adds a simple Trade & Goods structure. The setting itself is absolutely enchanting. The book draws you in and conjures the grasslands before your mind’s eye in an alluring, all-captivating vision. It’s not just the art — which is gorgeous; landscapes like a young Hal Foster on an acid trip with characters designed by P. Craig Russell. The text positively vibrates from all of the rich ideas and evocative imagery Rejec has crammed between the covers. What impresses me most, though, is how incredibly accessible it all feels. The RPG industry is filled with any number of incredibly ornate and wonderful settings that are incredibly difficult to bring to the table. But despite how fresh and unique and deep the Ultraviolet Grasslands are, I nevertheless feel that I could sit down and start playing this with little more effort than any other game of D&D.