The Best of the TroikaFest Jam – Part 2

I’m continuing to read through all of the entries in the TroikaFest Jam 2021, which ended last week. Here’s a few more of the entries I thought were particular standouts. Part 1 is here.

The Greate Phalanstère by Karol Popow

A 10-page setting exploring a 19th century inspired city called Phalanster. It’s described as a “weird 19th century burgeois utopia”. Clearly inspired by Walter Benjamin with a bit of Kafka. Nice use of public domain art.

It includes a D66 table of public and private places found in the Phalanster. It has the backgrounds Flâneur Writer, Clerk Ad Hoc, Insurance Agent, and Proletarian

Favorite Bit: A bit of a 4th wall break: A Flâneur Writer seems to know it’s a character in a game.

Hyperbolic Sewer Maze by Ewan Wilson

This is set in a vast sewer system, beneath the city of Troika (or any fantastic city you like). It’s got Rat Kings, Mudlarks, and Dung Knights. The setting can be a little gross and scatological, but it has a seedy charm.
Eleven backgrounds are provided along with a D66 table that has 36 short descriptions of locations in the sewer.

Favorite Bit: A Sin Eater can, once per day, swallow anything not larger than itself, and permanently get rid of it.

Immortal Machines by Steve Walsh

A world of colossal machine-cities roaming a post-apocalyptic wasteland. It’s got a whole Mortal Engines vibe to it. It describes the regions of the world, the different types of cities, and the factions that live in and around the cities. There are seven backgrounds to choose from. Simple rules for creating and fighting with machines are provided. There’s a sample machine city and plot seeds.

Favorite Bit: The Grandmasters are a group of hostile chess themed machines roaming about. Knight, Bishops, Rooks. etc. They’re searching for their missing King.

The Deconstructed Ziggurat & The Forest Primordia by J. A. Kordosh

An adventure where the players are passengers on a wrecked pleasure barge. They have to search to find a way to escape, braving mechanical knights, chaos gods, and faeries.
This one comes with a lot of stuff: several new backgrounds, a forest hex-crawl, a dungeon crawl, a PC backstory table, and even a Spotify playlist. Of all of the TroikaFest items I’ve seen so far, this one is probably the easiest to run straight away.

Favorite Bit: A village whose main food source is the body of a dead god, that regenerates each day, providing an infinite supply of Godmeat.