The Wildgrowth Logs: Breaking A World
During the Lockdowns of 2020, I took it upon myself to start writing a skirmish/rpg game, and a world in which to set it. Also in 2020 however, I became a parent for the first time and experienced some rather unpleasant family illnesses which meant that the project stalled out more than once. Unfortunately, a half-finished project eats away at me like a rat on a wheel of cheese, and as a result, I’ve decided it needs to get finished. In order to do that, I’ll be writing a series of blogs on various parts of the world and the rules ideas to both get me back into thinking about where it is and what needs done, as well as seeing how people react to concepts involved. This first part is dedicated to what, where and why the idea came about.
Welcome, to the Wildgrowth
“It is no more and no less than the absolute end. Entropy in creeping form, the final embers of existence attempting to extinguish. We may think we can hold it back, but we are incapable of doing much more than prolonging our own extermination.
Pray, if you must.
Hope, if you want.
Survive, if you can.
-Egeron Manillus, speaking at the Episi Gathering
It all started when looking back at my history with Warhammer Fantasy Battle, and what took me out of the hobby in the early 2000s. It came down to two main things:
1) Being in my 20s
2) Too many answers and not enough unknowable mysteries.
The first part is long lost to the passage of time but the second got my mind ticking over, what was it that drew me in back in the early 90s? The grime, the mud, the feeling of complete horror in the shadows. The Orfeo series, Drachenfels, the elements in 3rd Ed that felt like that didn’t truly fit in, the elements in 4th Ed that opened up new areas of exploration. I loved these little lines and throwaway comments the made me think of what could be, and why it might be.
On top of that, I was considering what the End Times would have been like if it had not became the Mortal Realms of Age of Sigmar. The idea of the Empire being reduced to small outposts in a sea of chaos appealed to me, Orcs and Goblins being overwhelmed in subterranean battlefields as once verdant forests become warped and awful travesties of woods.
This brought up the imagery of the Toxic Jungle from my all-time favorite Studio Ghibli anime: “Nausicaa”. With all these thoughts in place, I began to write up some short fiction, never really considering what would be done with it.
The along came the Locksdowns, and long nights with a three month old, and the concept of this world drove an idea right into my brain.
What if the scenery kept moving in a tabletop game.
Which then led to the question: how? and why?
The answer to this was some form of possession of the very trees, so as the game played, the scenery would be reaching, growing towards the players on the board, cutting off escapes and being a truly chaotic element that forced the combatants to not only face each other, but also a truly hostile environment.
With that basic idea in place, I began writing, taking recognizable concepts and twisting them to fit what I wanted this world to look and feel like. I decided early on that I wanted to go back to the 1988 to 1993 feel that was my introduction to not only Warhammer, but to D&D, RPGs and various other parts of the tabletop hobby I hold dear. I knew I didn’t want to just pull things out and so i went back to basics, researching the starting points of different concepts and drawing comparisons to the evolutional paths they took in different franchises.
Next time, I’ll introduce you to the factions,
““No matter how far I look back into our history, I do not think we could have ever forseen the horror we were about to face. It may have destroyed us, but it will forge us now into something new. We were the Men of the Forest, but we shall become the Beasts The Forest Fears”
”