Monochrome Rainbows: A World-Building Game (Patreon)

Dear heroes,

dear other less-heroic readers,

First, A Game

Allow me to present an unexpected game I wrote over the last couple of weeks: Monochrome Rainbows.

This is a mostly collaborative game, where the player(s) take on the roles of eidolons acting behind the veils of time and space and well- forgotten history to create the physical and human geography of a fantasy region of the Rainbowlands.

It is a cross-over between a boardgame and a roleplaying game.

The heart of the game is a regional map the player(s) fill out together - a little bit in collaboration, a little bit in competition.

The end result is a region with terrain and cities and infrastructure and (implied) history and rivalries and—if the competitive rules are used—a winning spirit of the region (player, eidolon) and less-than-satisfied competitors (the other players).

The free pdf of the game is 1 page of rules, another page of examples, a page for the region map, a page for eidolon idols, and and a page for capital events.

New regions can be added at about 3-pages per region.

Origins

This game started out as the germ of an idea for how to start URS, the sequel to UVG. However, after playtesting (thank you Alejandro, Kin, Edd0, and Saker), I realized it is too long and independent to include in that book. However ... it had potential.

A couple of weeks of tinkering later, here it is.

This anti-canon world-building game will also stand in lieu of a setting or gazzetteer book for the Rainbowlands. Essentially, each group will get to generate their own unique Rainbowlands to be use with the Ultraviolet Grasslands and/or Uranium Butterflies.

It will also, of course, work as a region-and-a-bit-of-background generator for many other role- playing games, like Mothership, Troika!, OSE, Rifts, The Famous Fifth Edition Ampersand Game, Black Hack, PbtA, CoC, etc., etc. Etc. Another etc.

I'm planning to add regions, idols, and probably a glossary for some of the other regions of the Rainbowlands, like the varicoloured lands and possibly some other regions.

Second, Some News

This month we're going to have a cool date: 22.02.2022 is a numeral palindrome. The last of its kind for ten years and a day, I believe.

On that day in the sign of twos I'm going to change the tier structure a little: future hero tiers will start from $2 and up. Existing heroes before that day will be grandmastered in—keeping  their current tiers indefinitely. I'm also going to add an annual option before palindrome day (22.02.2022) with a discount. 

The policy on the stratometaship discord is staying the same: once you are in, you can stay in, even if you can't keep supporting the patreon. Lord knows, times change, what goes up also comes down—but if you're a good hero in good standing, you get to stay a good hero in good standing even if you become a hedge wizard or a wandering thief or a lordless fighter.

Third, Back to Monochrome Rainbow

I'm going to eventually make the rules for this little region-making game creative commons, along with affinity assets for hexes, terrains, and a few other things. Once they get a polishing pass and some of the horriblest errors are hunted down -- I bet there are still some game-breaking edge cases about.

To that end, if you play the game and have fun making your own region, I'll appreciate if you share a picture and some notes and tag me (bonus points if its on some kind of social media, where I can use it as free marketing :P). I'll note down the regions finished by ... checks notes ... uhh ... some time in the next couple of weeks ... and get in touch with the good human about an illustration for them. Perhaps of a favoured hero of theirs who wand'r'd into the Ultraviolet Urheim of their World.

Who knows :) maybe we'll eventually make some kind of itch.io game marmelade and end up with whole worlds to build and populate.

Cheers and February Feliciations,

—Luka

EDIT: 02.02.2022 13:47 - fixed some typos courtesy of a wonderful hero. :)