A CHALLENGE FOR 2026: THE STARTER B⬡X

Here's a sad story in six words.

FOR SALE: RPG SETTING, NEVER RUN

As bloggers, we have reams of loreposts and toneposts and appendices N and classes and bestiaries and all the things which a game is built on- but a dearth of games. There are settings which exist solely as ideas in heads, lauded though they may be, awaiting the day they hatch from the skull that holds them. Look at all these settings from The Nothic's Eye. Of the twelve of them, I think about three of them have ever been run. Three others have absolutely no mention outside of this chart.

This isn't a specific callout post, just an easy example. Although Locheil does owe me thousands of dollars from the ill-fated Ashes to Ashes: the Motion Picture project, I expect this to be mediated by my various eastern European thugs.

Anyways, the trouble with many of these great works and passion projects is that if you don't know the person who wrote it, it's extremely unlikely that you'll get to play it. This runs somewhat counter to the point of the hobby, if you ask me. People played Dungeons and Dragons without needing to have any of the various founders of that game present.

So, here's what I have to offer.

The Starter B⬡X

A challenge, although it has no deadline but the year's end, nor any reward save for having made the thing:

Make a hexcrawl. Seven hexes in a flower shape, like any of these fine posts. If you really insist on including empty hexes, make it one layer larger, but you should have at least seven points of interest.

Include a small dungeon. Five rooms should be fine. More wouldn't hurt.

Make it self-contained. This should be a whole adventure. There should be things to do besides wander around with reasons to do them besides "just because". You can put in plot hooks for an extended campaign in, if you'd like.

Make it iconic. It's your setting. Make it show. Have you got a Product Identity™ monster? Put it in. Got some interesting freak people? Put them in. Is there some kind of overarching setting metaplot? Give the PCs an avenue into it.

Optional: include some pregenerated characters. Even if they aren't used, they'll make a good example for what player characters in this setting could be like.

Above all else, make it runnable. You should be able to hand this to any one of your RPG colleagues and have them run it. If you don't have rules yet, write them. If you don't have classes, write them. You've got a whole year, for God's sakes. It won't kill you.

George Frederic Watts




Comments

  1. AriviaJanuary 5, 2026 at 9:06 PM

    Ping back: I’m doing your thing: https://icequeensthrone.blogspot.com/2026/01/a-2026-project.html

    ReplyDelete

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