Easing into Degenesis

     Last post I said I would come up with a some short descriptions of the different factions (called Cults) in Degenesis to make it easier for players to build a character without having to read hundreds of pages of lore, using the system hidden inside the old World of Darkness.  First, a short sentence or two description of each faction, then a short paragraph, then the multi-page description for those players who are really interested in that faction based on the previous descriptions.

    At first, I was thinking I'd have to write the short sentence and the short paragraph, but it turns out Degenesis already has a short paragraph on each Cult, and I had just forgotten that they existed after reading another 300 pages past that point.  A glossary helps though, so I made up at least the start of one (I'm sure I missed something somewhere). 

By the way, the edition I'm using was downloaded in April 2020.  The edition currently available is in one combined volume, so I don't know how my page numbers will match up, but hopefully it will help to get you started if you choose to look into this game. 

So, without further ado:

Spitalians – Healers, doctors, medical researchers; the front line against the Sepsis and the Psychonaut threat to Europe

Chroniclers – Information dealers and hackers; they pay for technological relics, with the end goal of setting up a new Stream (global information network)

Hellvetics – The most advanced military force in Europe, armed with triple-barreled assault rifles and full-body armor; often hired out as mercenaries

Judges – Bringers of law and order to northern Europe, by might of their hammers and flintlocks

Scrappers – Recoverers of the past; whether they work alone or as part of a team, Scrappers know where to find relics and technology from before the apocalypse and how to put it to use

Clanners – A catch-all term for any number of relatively small groups; Clanners can be stone-age hunter-gatherers or motorized nomads, but in any case, their Clan is their family

Anubians – African mystics with seemingly magical power over the Psychovores as well as cultural power over other Africans

Scourgers – African warrior caste armed with assault rifles and armor from before the apocalypse, and traditions extending much further back than that

Neolibyans – Followers of a creed first espoused by “the Libyan”, Neolibyans seek economic and political power through exploration, diplomacy, and trade

Apocalyptics – Dealers in all sorts of vice and crime: gambling, drugs, prostitution, human trafficking, piracy, and more

Jehammedans – A new Abrahamic religion, devoted to raising sheep and waging war; their destiny within the Cult is determined at birth

Anabaptists – A religious Cult devoted to wiping out the evils of the Psychonauts and making the Earth into a Paradise once more

Palers – The guardians of the Dispensers, servants of the Sleepers, heirs of the Recombination Group, phantoms in the night

Short paragraphs: pp 50-53 of Degenesis: Primal Punk (Book 1)

Main descriptions: all from Degenesis: Primal Punk (Book 1)

Spitalians: pp 150-163

Chroniclers: pp 164-177

Hellvetics: pp 178-191

Judges: pp 192-205

Clanners: pp 206-219

Scrappers: pp 220-233

Neolibyans: pp 234-247

Scourgers: pp 248-261

Anubians: pp 262-275

Jehammedans: pp 276-289

Apocalyptics: pp 290-303

Anabaptists: pp 304-317

Palers: pp 318-331

Character creation rules: all from Degenesis: Katharsys (Book 2)

Spitalians: pp 46-49

Chroniclers: pp 50-53

Hellvetics: pp 54-57

Judges: pp 58-61

Clanners: pp 62-65

Scrappers: pp 66-69

Neolibyans: pp 70-73

Scourgers: pp 74-77

Anubians: pp 78-81

Jehammedans: pp 82-85

Apocalyptics: pp 86-89

Anabaptists: pp 90-93

Palers: pp 94-97

GLOSSARY

 Aberrant – another name for Psychonaut

Alcove – a small Chronicler enclave

Ambrosia – a nanite fluid that gives Marauders their power

AMSUMO – a security robot; most have been infected by a virus and have corrupted programming

Ascetic – the laboring caste of the Anabaptist cult

Bedain – formerly known as Sicily; now a staging area for African forays into Europe.

Biokinetic – a Psychonaut with the power to reshape its body; generally found in Pollen and associated with Pandora crater.

Burn – a drug found in spore fields, trafficked by Apocalyptics; use of it contaminates the body with Sepsis

Bygone – people, technology, or times from before the Eshaton

Chakra – an early Hindu concept concerning energy centers in the human body; the Chakras seem to correspond to the Earth Chakras and the different Raptures

Cluster – a large Chronicler enclave

Codex – the system of laws enforced by the Judges, as set down by the First Judge and amended ever since by the High Judges

Corpse – the landmass formerly consisting of Sardinia and Corsica; now a stronghold of Apocalyptic pirates

Cusp – a papery growth found in spore fields containing Burn

Demiurge – in the Anabaptist tradition, the enemy of God and source of all evil

Dinar – the major currency of Africa; a gold coin

Discordance – a zone between the Earth Chakras of Europe and the Psychovore forests of Africa; the Primer creates strange, ethereal, membranous creatures here

Dispenser – cryogenic sleep chambers set up by the Recombination Group; Sleepers are supposed to emerge every hundred years from the Dispensers, although something seems to have gone wrong with the plan

Draft – the major currency of Europe; fiat currency issued by Chroniclers and pegged to the Dinar

Druschinnik – bodyguard of the Piast of Wroclaw (Pollen)

Dushani – Psychonaut with a sound-based powers that exert wave forces and manipulate minds; associated with the Balkhan and Usud crater

Earth Chakra – craters from the asteroid bombardment of the Eshaton; so called because they seem to correspond to the Chrakras of the human body from ancient Hindu beliefs

Elysian oil – oils made by the Anabaptists which enhance various mental or emotional faculties

Enigmate – Pregnoctic prophets who aid the Hybrispanians against the African conquerors

Eshaton – the apocalypse; caused by asteroids containing an alien mutagen 500 years ago

Famulancer – low level Spitalians, just beginning their study of medicine

Filament – a sharp force-field generated by Psychokinetics

Fractal Forest – strange forests that spring up from dead spore fields; revered by Anabaptists, distrusted by Spitalians, burned by Apocalyptics

Garganti – a Clan whose lifestyle is based around mammoths, which were genetically re-engineered before the Eshaton

Gendo – a wolf-like predator

Guardian – the technicians maintaining the Dispensers; Palers and their ancestors

Guerrero – a Hybrispanian Clan fighting against African conquerors

HIVE – Human ImmunoVirus Extreme; an airborne version of HIV

Iconide – Jehammedan mystic and maker of holy icons

Imiut skin – the skin of a jackal or Gendo, which an Anubian can sew a recently dead body into to return it to life

Janite – foreign mercenary soldier of Osman (Borca)

Kom – battle buggies used by Scourgers

Leperos – a person afflicted with Sepsis beyond help or hope; usually a Burn addict

Marauder – a creature (person?) of godlike power, powered by Ambrosia

Marduk oil – oil created by the Anubians; a layer of it on the skin blocks the effects of a Pheromancer's power

Mirar – the Earth Chakra of Hybrispania; associated with Pregnoctics

Mnemonid – a type of Pregnoctic

Mollusk – a biological device created by the Spitalians to detect Sepsis

Node – a powerful type of Pregnoctic

Nox – the Earth Chakra of Purgare; associated with Psychokinetics

Orgiastic – the warrior caste of the Anabaptist cult

Pandora – the Earth Chakra of Pollen; associated with Biokinetics

Pheromancer – a Psychonaut with pheromone based mind control powers; generally found in Franka and associated with Souffrance crater

Piast – the leader of Wroclaw (Pollen)

Pregnoctic – a Psychonaut with time based powers; generally found in Hybrispania and associated with Mirar crater

Preservist – a member of the security branch of the Spitalians

Primer – the name given to the alien mutagen which has given rise to the Earth Chakras, Psychovores, and Discordance

Protectorate – the area governed by the Codex of the Judges; capital: Justitian; stretches across parts of Borca and Franka

Psychokinetic – a Psychonaut with telekinetic and force-field type powers; generally found in Purgare and associated with Nox crater

Psychonaut – descended from humans, but no longer human, Psychonauts have strange powers that threaten humanity as we know it

Psychovore – Primer-altered plants from Africa; their thorns cause Raze

Rapture – any of the five main categories of Psychonaut powers

Raze – a type of poisoning from Psychovore thorns that inevitably leads to death if left untreated; Anubians are resistant to the Raze

Reaper's Blow – a long scar across Europe left by an asteroid strike; a region of magma flows, only crossable at certain points

Recombination Group – a Bygone cult based on memetic manipulation; built the Dispensers and the psychological environment of the Guardians just before the Eshaton so high-ranking members would be kept alive cryogenically and reborn into a world ripe for their takeover

Sepsis – contamination by the Primer

Shutter – a Chronicler assassin

Sleeper – Recombination Group cult members who were supposed to be released from cryogenic sleep in waves to take positions of power in the post-Eshaton world

Souffrance – the Earth Chakra of Franka; associated with Pheromancers

Soulless One – a Psychonaut

Spital – the headquarters of the Spitalians

Spitfire – a flamethrower used by the Anabaptists

Splayer – a spear-like weapon with scissoring blades used by the Spitalians

Stream – pre-Eshaton information network

Sun Disk – electronic tools that can be used to control technology and systems within the Dispensers

Usud – the Earth Chakra of Balkhan; associated with Dushani

Voivodate – a part of Balkhan ruled by a voivod (warlord)

Voivodule – a member of a Balkhan Clan of old (supplanted) nobility

Warpage – an area of Hybrispania where time doesn't work right as a side effect of the Pregnoctics and Mirar crater

Warui – a side effect of the Psychovores that creates a natural understanding to those affected; they can express complex thoughts with very few sounds, regardless of whether they share a common language

Easing Into Extensive Setting Backgrounds

I saw the Degenesis: Primal Punk post-apoc book in the DriveThruRPG newsletter today, which is a funny coincidence, because I downloaded it last April and have only recently gotten around to reading it. It is 368 pages of beautiful art, 500-ish years of history, seven regions spread across two continents, and 13 "cults" (some of which are cults, but they would be better thought of as "factions", and even then, that's too specific for some of the broad groups described), and a whole bunch of references to aliens/mutants that are somewhat related. Whee doggy, that's a lot of reading, and as you might have guessed, and it's hard to get a handle on the setting without at least some idea of what every single thing is. The first read through is like drinking from a firehose, and until I was about halfway in, I just resigned myself to understanding that some of the names just weren't going to mean much until later. This does look like a very interesting setting though, and it would be a shame to think that it is essentially unplayable without every player in a group having the buy-in from the outset of reading not only this book, but the second book in the system (Degenesis: Katharsys) as well, entailing another 368 pages of art, game mechanics, and more background material. But there is a better way! 

 Anyone who was gaming back in the 90's (and probably most people who started since then) should be aware of the World of Darkness. Every major game in the series had a huge, fat book just crammed full of background material, and more splatbooks followed padding it out further. (Reading through the 20th anniversary edition of Changeling: the Dreaming is a big reason I'm only now getting around to reading things I downloaded 10 months ago.) They also required some pretty massive buy-in from players, and their main saving grace was the huge popularity of the WoD at that time. Even at that, it certainly helped if players could make some meaningful decisions in building a character without having the read the entire canon first. Fortunately, the WoD games (at least a few of them) had some decent tools, even if they weren't clearly pointed out to the poor Storyteller trying to get his players up to speed. 

 Mage: the Ascension has Nine Mystick Traditions to choose from, and they are given a decent overview in the 73 pages dedicated fully to background material. That's still a lot to read for a player brand new to the setting, though, even if it is a significant drop from the two page spread each Tradition gets once the rules start being discussed. The method I settled on for easing new players into the sweeping background of M:tA (and I will point out again, that none of this was laid out for the Storyteller, I had to come up with it myself) was to turn to the two page character creation summary (pp 138-9 in the 1997 edition) and have them read over the one or two sentence descriptions of each Tradition. Then, once they have a couple of interesting leads they can go back and read a couple of paragraphs for each Tradition in the background section of the book, and THEN once they've decided which Tradition they want their character to be, they can read the whole two page spread in the rules section. They can go look at the splatbook if they need to while making their character for the last few needed details. The almost 300 pages of the main rulebook are cut down to as little as five pages to get a decent grasp on a character concept, and the rest of all that massive canon can be spoonfed in-game as needed. 

 Similarly, in Werewolf: the Apocalypse, characters each have one of three different Breeds, one of five different Auspices, and one of 13 different Tribes. The best way to get a new player spun up on the intricacies of werewolf culture is to go straight to the character creation overview and let them look at the bullet point summaries for each one, going on to the short paragraph discussions to help choose their interests, and going to the full description once they've nailed down their character concept.

Degenesis could have used such a system, even a halfway hidden one like WoD had in these two books.  And a lot of homebrew game settings that I've seen, and even that I've made, could stand to have something similar.  A game setting that you've dumped thousands of hours into is probably going to be pretty cool, taken as a whole, but unless you can get, not just one or two people, but a good sized gaming group, hooked on at least a part of the idea, the grand scheme will never get its due appreciation.  

I think I'll give a go at writing up some one-line descriptions as well as short paragraphs for the different factions in Degenesis once I finish reading at least the first book, not only to provide an easy slide into a game, but to showcase a setting that seems too intimidating to get the recognition it should have.

EDIT: I would be remiss not to include some links.  You can download Degenesis: Rebirth edition at https://degenesis.com/downloads/books/degenesis-rebirth-edition.  This is one 720 page book, and appears to contain all the information in both books (Primal Punk and Katharsys) I downloaded last year.

It can be downloaded from DTRPG at https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/344920/DEGENESIS-Rebirth.