Another day, another game of Sun Rot. It’s been a month or so since I’ve run a game of Sun Rot, but that doesn’t mean I’ve left that world. My friend Blair, who I brought into the fold very early on, has been running HIS version of the game so I’ve been able to put down the forever GM hat and just vibe as a player in the world he’s created. One very different from my own. What a great feeling of freedom that is – to just show up, roll some dice and see what his creativity has spawned.
That doesn’t mean however, that I’ve haven’t been working on my own Sun Rot stuff. Quite the opposite; it’ given me loads of time to allow some ideas I’ve been wanting and stories I’ve wanted to explore to try out bang around my head.
The main idea I’ve been playing with is how to really make the world feel connected. While most of that comes from, in my case because I’m a terrain and kitbash obsessive – is how the world is presented via the board and miniatures I choose to use I felt there could be more connective tissue added between the sessions to help push the idea of this apocalypse happening in wider world that exists beyond just what the players are seeing in the moment.
That landed me on the concept of West Marches gameplay. Some people may be familiar with this style, but for those who aren’t here’s the quick version. Each game session is independent of one another, starting and ending in the same starting location – usually a town in the most classic TTRPG version of this stye. The idea behind this is that each session doesn’t necessarily need to be made of the same players, so when someone inevitably falls victim to the responsibilities of real life and can’t make it, the game can continue on. There is still an overarching world to explore that is very much effected by player agency, but no long-term campaign in the traditional sense. Between games, players that will be playing in the next session decide where in this world they want to explore and adventure next, which drives what the GM creates. Here’s the original post from the creator of this concept for anyone interested in taking a much deeper dive into the this style.
Not all of the West Marches style applies to a TTRP/wargame hybrid like Sun Rot (at least, not the version that currently exists. Who knows what the future holds in terms of what Matt or the growing community will add), but the key aspect does in my opinion – one-off games that all contribute to a world driven by player agency and choices. I’m still very early in trying this out so things will change, evolve, rot and fall off. That’s life though right? One day you’re rocking around the clock and the next your foot detaches itself and you forget it on the bus. Relatable right?
The approach I’ve taken to adding this into our Sun Rot game is pretty low-key overall. The players begin and play the game as normal – the Sun rots in the sky, all manner of horrors beyond our comprehension come out to play, we laugh, we cry, a few people die. Everyone has a great time. Come the end of the game however, if the players have been able to find the final exit (or in the case of my games, the singular exit portal. I tend to run on larger boards with alternate goals in various sections that lead the players to the exit), they find themselves in an unfamiliar place.
Very much inspired by Jack Vance’s Dying Earth, I borrowed the idea of Pandelume and his realm Embelyon heavily for this. An place that seem at once familiar and alien and someone who is in charge of this place that the players never lay eyes on being the most important for what I’m doing. In this place, which I’ve chosen to not represent on a game board or with miniatures, they players are asked to make a choice that ultimately determines the hook for the next session. So not quite a traditional West Marches approach as the choice is made at the end of the session and not between, but it works for us as it’s a fairly consistent table.
The next session is then built on the chosen hook, but the party is considered to either be all new characters and if they aren’t, they don’t recall anything about the last session because magickal shenanigans say they don’t. Here’s the relevant section as well as the hooks I wrote up for our last session where I introduced this whole idea to give you an idea of what I’m going on about.
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You find yourselves in a room unlike any you’ve seen before. There are the familiar sites of any living space – couches, tables, platters piled high with food, carafe’s of various drinks, books scattered about. Even the smell of the place is familiar – a mix of sage and burning candles – like one might encounter in the keep of a scholar or sorcerer. But among the familiar sight are things unknown. Boxes with embedded gems, blinking in sequence. The humming sound of an unseen engine, so pervasive that it’s hard to pinpoint the exact source. The walls are not made of plaster or stone, but what appears to be a metal of some sort. As you gaze around the room, a disembodied voice with a soothing tone – one that seems to come from everywhere at once – addresses you:
“Welcome to my humble home! I hope that it is adequate refuge after that nasty bit of business you found yourselves in! Help yourself to some food and drink, you must be starving. But before that – decisions! If you could please take a look at my work desk, there are choices I require of you.”
You glance around and look for the strange man who accompanied you on your travels, hoping he might be able to help make some sense of all this but he is nowhere to be found. There looks to be a series of obsidian mirrors, set in a row on a desk in the corner of the room. You approach the mirrors and as you do, they spring to life. Upon their face dance a variety of scenes, as if a snapshot of life itself has been captured and placed within.
The voice returns. “Good good, now tell me – which of these scenes interests you the most? ” Unsure of what game he might be playing but starving and in need of sustenance you play along and gaze into the mirrors, hoping to end this quickly so you can feast..
- A mausoleum, lit by guttering torches, a figure clad in noble finery appears to be performing a ritual. Are they trying to end this apocalypse or could they be connected to its beginning?
- A market scene that would be otherwise unassuming if not for the obsidian black monolith that sits in middle of the square. People from all across the city are gathering to worship at it, supplicating themselves. But for what? Or who?
- A band of small humanoid creatures – beings rumoured to live in the forest that surrounds the city – have established a foothold in a residential districts thanks to the chaos of recent days. They seem to be keeping to themselves and only attacking those who seek to harm them. Among the camp they’ve built, you can see an item that appears to hold incredible power. Perhaps that item is somehow linked to what has happened to the Sun?
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So yeah, lots of words on something I’ve been experimenting with lately. I’ll post more about how it’s going – both what works and what doesn’t – as I continue to explore this idea. Thanks for reading!
Scott
Drunk in a Space Hulk 