Troika! is a science-fantasy RPG of old, decadent crystal Spheres; worlds hung across a hump-backed sky and reachable by golden-sailed barge, labyrinths of non-Euclidean geometry, and eldritch portals. The player characters are odd, inscrutable, and dangerous with murky backgrounds and possibly mysterious histories. In the next few months I’m going to dive deeply into this setting to build it into worlds to explore and strange weird people to meet.
Troika! is built as if D&D’s Appendix N was based on British New Wave instead of American Pulp. It is why Troika! is the world’s second most popular roleplaying game. A ten-year span of movies focused the struggles of working class life. In a related way, PCs are private detectives, golden barge pilots, merchants, and more trying to survive a decadent and decaying ancient society of weird science and dangerous magic.
Troika! products can be found for sale on Melsonia and on Exalted Funeral. There is also a monster filled Patreon. I have also done A Played It Review on EN World and An Interview with Daniel Sell on EN World.
The Roleplaying
The setting is not spelt out in a complex history or a map with kingdom and geographical details. Instead, bits and pieces of a possible world are hinted at and detailed in short vignettes, in character creation, and in monsters and adventures. It is a fascinating place just asking to be fleshed out into a complete campaign setting.
Spheres, planets and perhaps other oddities, are scattered across a humpbacked sky. The night black space between the Spheres mutates life, so travel between the Spheres is handled via golden sailed barge (space sailing ships), magical portals, and mazes whose passages do not conform to known geometry.
And even without traveling between the Spheres, many Spheres offer a lifetime of adventure. Some Spheres are lost, like Corda, or truly remote, like post-apocalyptic Spheres or Spheres of intelligent prehistoric life instead of the humanoid cultures found on most Spheres. A great Wall rises up on one Sphere, the ancient noir city of Troika, home to a school of magic and scarf-worms, is centrally located on another, and others offer other wonders and terrors. There are disenfranchised kings, talking owls on the run, ancient robots, assassins, adventurers driven and powered by culinary delights, and so much more.
Perfect for RPG world building.
The Rules
I’m just going to touch on a few of the rules that bring the worlds of Troika! to life for me. These rules enhance the setting and fill in needed details to the implied setting.
Initiative
Each player character and monster gets two chits or markers. Along with an end of the round marker, these chits are mixed in a bag. Initiative is drawn randomly with the end of the round coming unexpectedly. This chaos not only perfectly captures the fog of war, it also speeds up play (no rolling and writing down initiative) and captures the unpredictable nature of the numberless crystal Spheres.
Backgrounds
The setting of Troika! comes to life for the players for the first time through a rolled Background. Each Background has a paragraph of background lore and setting information, possessions, and advanced skills.
For example, the Ardent Giant of Corda are searching for lost Corda. As expected they may have an enormous Blue Star Map which tells where any portal leads with a successful Astrology test. And, of course, the Giant has 4 Strength and 3 Astrology which all link together.
There are also fantasy races, like Dwarves, but also the Sceptical Lamassu. Yes, the bull with the head of a man and wings of a swan. The Lamassu has left heaven or hell to find a path among the stars armed with claw and hoof and three random highly skilled spells. They can also fly as an advanced skill.
Spells
Spells cost Stamina to cast and a fumble requires a roll on the Oops! table. There are two straight forward damaging spells: Jolt and Fire Bolt. There is also Brittle Twigs, cast to attempt to break an enemy’s bone and Cockroach to turn a foe into a harmless animal. Forever. And Zed which no one knows the effect beyond anyone casting it disappears. Forever.
Enemies
Foes come in an easy to read format along with setting details. There is also a d6 Mien table, to see what kind of mood they are in. A wandering knight of the road might be curious, wary, drunk, rowdy, predatory, or friendly for example. An encounter can go in many different directions depending on how NPCs and monsters are feeling in the moment.
Items
Plasmic Cores power exotic Weapons. They can also be cracked open and huffed by a wizard in place of spending Stamina. A fumble results in a fatal overdose however and a dead caster.
GM World Building
The GM is not jettisoned into the humpbacked sky with no astrology to guide them. The included adventure, The Blancmange & Thistle, encapsulates everything grand about Troika!
The PCs arrive at a grand hotel, perhaps confused and a bit lost. The adventure gives clear directions to the bar. They may also be seeking a Patron for possible employment opportunities. Getting to the top floor to the Feast of Chiliarch party where a variety of Patrons are gathered is harder than it sounds. First, the PCs must choose to either take the stairs or the lift. Along the way they will meet a variety of hotel guests. Some are possible friends, some could become foes, and most are puzzling and strange.
For example, a Cloud of Green Gas (a person) may get onto the lift. The mandrill running the lift puts on a gas mask. PCs will find out that the Cloud fills the whole lift and they start to Drown. The Gas Form is a higher life form and doesn’t understand solids very well. Charades via a successful Etiquette skill check may help it understand the danger it poses and cause it to contract into a small dense ball.
Should You Get Troika!?
If you treasure the experience of finding a truly alien world that someone how feels familiar and sharing it with your players, then yes buy this. It is like watching Star Wars for the first time or that first D&D dungeon crawl with all the fear and exhilaration and confusion all mixed together. There is plenty of support in the form of adventures, rule supplements, and unique settings. Troika! is a true treasure of an RPG and my go to system for world building and running exciting adventures.
Picture credit: Pixabay
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