Go away meat person, you do not belong here
In the wake of the apocalypse the mutants and super-evolved animals emerged. Now, alongside the remaining humans, they struggle to survive in a world of enigmatic ruins, deadly perils, and super science. You and your band of Rangers are dedicated to wander this transformed Earth in search of adventure and mystery, to help those who are in need, and unravel the slumbering secrets of the ancients.
A while back, I wrote this little four-page zine RPG named Isotope about humans, mutants, and animals exploring a post-apocalyptic wasteland. It kind of stuck in my mind, and I’ve been riffing on it ever since. The latest version is called Free Isotope, and you can download it on DTRPG.
I’ve been expanding the game through setting by writing a series of short books, each of which presents a unique adventure setting with encounters, monsters, rules, and treasures. Farm takes the Rangers (the PCs of this setting) on a journey through a land where plants are in charge.
What is “Farm”?
This region of Isotope is the remnant of the once vast tracts of genetically engineered farmland created by the ancients. Tended by robots and AI, the ancient farms were largely self-sufficient. In some cases, they plants were engineered to grow in rows, strangle invasive species, and even harvest themselves. When the world of the ancients collapsed, the farms were left to live or die on their own.
You can think of Farm as being the opposite of Fangorn Forest in Lord of the Rings. Fangorn is a last remnant of a vast wilderness that once covered the land. Farm is the last remnant of vast tracts of self-sufficient cropland that once dominated the world.
Plants rule in Farm. Though pollinators thrive, animals are otherwise rare. The region comprises a belt of lush plant-life and rolling hills that includes teeming forests, flowery meadows, orchards, and fertile fields subdivided by small streams and dense hedgerows. It resembles nothing more than tame, cultivated countryside—a farmer’s dream.
But the closer you look, the more un-nerving Farm becomes. Many of the fields are untended, and yet the plants grow in perfect rows of identical stalks, as though programmed to do so by an invisible force. Other fields are tended by the enormous sunflower people who guard their harvest jealously. And others are still tended by ancient machines, operating from their vast drone barns. They are indifferent to trespassers at best, murderous at worst.
Agendas
I want every location to feel different. In my mind, a setting brings its own agendas to the game—experiences, moods, and plots that are peculiar to that milieu. Farm has four agendas to inspire and guide the game master:
Manifest abundance: Show grains, vegetables, trees, orchards, flowers, meadows, and fields full of crops.
Mix the familiar and the strange: Show familiar plants with bizarre twists, common agricultural tropes but with pieces missing or altered. Use the tables later in this book to help.
Make it inviting and yet alien: show parkland, fields, orchards, but don’t show towns, animals, roads, familiar people, or expected amenities.
Think like a plant: Plants grow and multiply; they act with great patience; they can be passive and silent or firm and inexorable. Plants do not worry, tire, or hunger. Do plants feel love? Do they have ambitions? You decide.
Missions
Although exploration can be a goal in itself, a specific goal helps a party of Rangers engage with a region. Each setting book as a d6 list of missions that can be used to give the players and entry point to the adventure. These missions can evolve to become the focus of an epic quest, or take a back seat as the Rangers find someone or something more interesting to occupy themselves.
Each mission in farm highlights a different aspect of the setting—a different terrain, denizen, or challenge for the Rangers to grapple with:
The Farm missions
1. That rare and un-unusual thing you’ve been looking for? It’s known to be available in a particular spot. It’s an active farm, tended by drones. They’re mean, but you can avoid them. I can give you a rough map, if that helps.
2. Malignant drones have been making attacks on the local village, harrying the inhabitants and carrying away valuable resources, livestock, food. The town council has had enough! The demand you trace the drones to their source within Farm and put a stop to it.
3. Travelers usually detour around Farm’s unsettling environs, but my mission is too urgent to go around. I must through! All I need is a guide or escort willing to help.
4. Some enterprising farmers have discovered groups of walking flower folk leaving Farm and gathering manure from their fields. The flower folk have been leaving behind weird, nutritious fruit and bits of useful metal in return. Last week’s stash included a functional autoscythe! Travel into flower folk territory and secure a trade deal on behalf of the local council.
5. There is a strange giant orchid deep in the woods of Farm whose pollen has a startling effect (roll on the table later in this book, or choose). A local scientist requires a sample of this substance. He can provide a containment unit and directions to the right vicinity.
6. Almost overnight, a nearby village was completely claimed by advancing cropland—forests, hedgerows, and rows of grain advancing and growing at a furious rate, encircling the village and driving the people from their homes.. Now it’s advancing in our direction. Are we next? Scout this fast-growing zone and see if you can stop it!
Encounters
Finally, Farm includes a variety of terrains, natural hazards, NPCs, encounters, and opportunities Farm is designed provide 1-4 sessions of adventure, depending on the pacing of your game and how you use it.
In Farm, the encounters revolve around specific types of terrain that will be found, be it sprawling fields of Megacorn, dense woods, or the ancient AI barns that dot the landscape. Each type of terrain has several possibilities, and at least one showcase denizen or encounter that can be found there.
Farm enabled me to cut loose and create some cool encounters, including stampeding cabbages, a cool cactus NPC, and some deep mysteries of the place where plant intelligence and machine intelligence combine.
Players’ map of Farm
Personal notes
I’ve been largely away from Substack for a few months, attending to family, work, and personal matters. I’ve still been writing but finding the time to publish has been difficult. I’m doing final layout on the Farm book now, and the book should be ready within the month.