Jewels of the IndraNet

This is the first original game material I've written for my current Maximum Recursion Depth Campaign, up to now I've just been using the book or other materials I've previously written.

It takes inspiration from Gardens of Ynn and also the Mycelium Matrix guest entry in Huffa's Between the Skies.

It references Buddhabrot City, a location briefly mentioned in the module in the book. Right now I just need it to last for 1-2 sessions, it's just a vehicle for other stuff in the campaign, but it would be nice at some point to expand this further, more like Ynn, with more entries per table, more tables, additional descriptions, location-specific tables, events, rogue poltergeist and nature spirit generators, etc.; and make it something that could work either for MRD or as a standalone thing.

In addition to the Jewels of the IndraNet I also wrote a few additional locations for Buddhabrot City, and it will incorporate Dharmatics using Concept Crafting. Not including that stuff in this post, maybe in the future.

Jewels of the IndraNet Generator (prototype version)

Roll d6+layer for each (starting from layer 0)

Locations

1. Residential neighborhood.

2. Neighborhood main street.

3. Natural space (park, lake, woods).

4. Liminal space (bridge, transit area, long road).

5. Industrial area.

6. Market.

7. Entertainment district.

8. Financial district.

9. Deep urban space (winding streets, alleys, Kowloon-dense spaces).

10. Deep nature (forest, desert, ocean).

People

1. Devas going about their business.

2. Rogue Poltergeist (peaceful or mildly disordered).

3. Nature Spirits in equilibrium with their environment.

4. Rogue Poltergeist (moderately disordered or engaging in petty haunting e.g. graffiti, stealing minor objects, opening doors and windows).

5. Deva merchant (pushy hawker, shady shyster).

6. Human refugees in tension with Deva locals.

7. Derailer scouting party.

8. Rogue Poltergeist (violent) or Asura.

9. Powerful Nature Spirit.

10. Derailer caravan sabotaging a Deva space.

Details

1. Serene stillness, even mild sounds echo, movements tessellate, light bends and slows like in fog.

2. Negative spaces, visual field pop-in like a videogame.

3. Low humming and synesthetic lines of poetry or dialogue taken out of context, peaceful yet ominous.

4. Rainbow sun, 3D rainbow shadows projecting from 4D spacetime, no darkness, no black.

5. Holographic mushrooms, psychedelic imagery, anachronistic technologies and robots.

6. Lights and music and animate graffiti like a naturalistic EDM club.

7. Overwhelming luminosity and pulsing waves of liquid sunshine.

8. Everything is a pareidolic Nature Spirit.

9. Industrial waste, dinosaur poltergeists screaming in pools of flaming oil, leprous-looking plastic-men.

10. Corporate takeover, everything is assimilated into a Corporate Spirit.

Star Trek-inspired Aliens

Recently watched the Paramount+ era Star Trek stuff (besides Strange New Worlds- waiting for that to wrap) and also The Orville. Felt mixed on Star Trek, but even the stuff I liked, it bothered me how few new ideas it introduced.

On the other hand, The Orville, despite clearly being Star Trek with the serial numbers filed off, feels more novel. I believe this is because rather than just having off-brand Vulcans and Klingons, they introduced new and interesting species that feel like Star Trek species. I was skeptical of this show bc I'm not a Seth MacFarlane fan necessarily, but it's quite good.

So this list is intended to be like that. As much as I like truly novel worlds, it's fun also to work within the constraints of an idea, to make something feel like Star Trek, while also bringing novel ideas to it.

Xanthians

This species has the vibrancy of ripe mango, tiger stripes of varying colors, and glowing cat eyes. Their world is idyllic and they evolved with few natural predators, and so most of the evolutionary pressures on their species were aesthetic in nature. They have many synesthetically-linked and hyper-acute senses. They are known for being intuitive, having an artistic temperament, and their culture values the sublime above all else. Even their language is in the form of abstract pictograms and essentially the medium of art; each painting a literal story. While artistic by nature more so than scientific, they are not technologically simpler than The Alliance; instead, they rely on a smaller number of intuitively crafted and irreplicable Wonders, rather than mass production of mundane technology.

Myculons

This species are pink-, blue-, or green-hued, with saturated lip tone that looks like lipstick, white dots across their face, and two fungal antennae reminiscent of "Super Mario" amanita mushrooms matching their skin tone. They are technically a symbiosis of two species, a humanoid and a fungoid, but few of the raw humanoids survive the nuclear hellscape they made of their world long ago. If they live to adulthood in reasonable health, they usually sacrifice themselves to the fungoid, protecting them from radiation and the effects of aging and leasing them a new life. Their original self is preserved in dream-like memories but they are mostly at that point a new being. They have limited verbal communication ability and are awkward by human standards, but can communicate fluently with mycelial networks by touch. The humanoid brain is more like a socio-cognitive mask, their true self is the fungoid, and they often have meta-conscious quirks, tics, or compulsions. When under duress, the humanoid conscious mind shuts down entirely. Other humanoids often find them uncanny, testing the bounds of personal comfort even in the largely post-xenophobic Alliance.

Droma

This species come from a world that underwent dramatic and peculiar atmospheric change at some point in its development, driving the evolution of an organ called the Micro-Atmospheric Selective Kinetic Filter. These "mask" filters are shed and regrown over the span of days, breaking down from a hard shell to plastic-y waste. They often appear to express emotion, or reflect elements of the lived experience of the individual, and are believed to be the linguistic "missing link" of their species. Perhaps because their masks obscure facial cues, they rely heavily on dramatic speech and exaggerated body language. Similarly, the masks limit their ability to hide emotions, and so instead they have adapted to value radical self-expression and openness, making for charismatic, albeit demanding, theater actors, people leaders, and emotional supporters. That said, their radical self-expression can also sometimes be perceived as self-centeredness, or otherwise be overwhelming or off-putting to other humanoids. 

Zab-baz (Semiurge)

Kind of like humanoid anglerfish, only instead of the tiny males fusing to the big females and atrophying into some gonads, the males and the females are effectively the right and left sides of a body, and fuse together to form a whole one. Considered war-like for their instinct towards aggressive consensus-making - they can get very pushy to get you to agree or else get out.

Aurunex

This species of sleek metallic carcinoids evolved on a world of naturally occurring silicon-based life. Their consciousness is highly disembodied, relying more so on algorithmic predictive heuristics than on direct sensory experience, making them significantly faster at processing and reacting to information than most organic life, but also more prone to glaring errors, missed signals, and hallucination. Although their sensory experience is comparatively lo-fi, this cognitive quirk also provides them a rich spiritual existence, and most Aurenex have a deep and ongoing personal relationship with their gods; forests of angular platinum arboroids, kaleidoscopic golden flowers, electric will o wisps, holographic silverfish angels, all slipping in and out of their consciousness at any time, giving them an academic absent-mindedness. They believe that embodied consciousness, sensory stimulation, gut instincts, and emotional outbursts are noise; that the material world is in fact a virtual reality created by a demiurge to trap them, or a god to test them, a distinction upon which many wars and atrocities have been committed.

Ornitheaons

This species evolved indigenously in space, like birds made of plasma. When interacting with most other species, they must wear bio-suits to protect others from the radiation. Creatures without solid form or solid planet, neither self nor state, they lack an understanding of many of the spatial or conceptual boundaries of other creatures. Coupled with their uninhibited curiosity, this can make them difficult companions and crewmates, although invasions of privacy, property, and personal space are not generally intended with malice. Sometimes referred to as Star Children for their god-like power and child-like temperament, The Alliance is wary of their inclusion, but they were too powerful, and too full of potential, to be ignored.

A few random quirky items for your game

1. Portal Gun: Like the game. It can be a wand instead for fantasy.

2. Phasing Spear: It can stab through doors and other barriers as if they weren't there.

3. Healing Arrows: Dipped in healing potions, they deal damage first, but if the target survives, they heal one die-size larger. Deals bonus damage instead to undead.

4. Silence Earplugs: Make you immune to non-physical magics, but also deaf.

5. Mood Ring: You can psychically sense the mood and motivations of those around you, but your own are projected from the ring itself.

6. Magic 8 Ball: Divination and/or quantum collapsing item that actually uses a d20 despite the name. Can only be overruled by the Magic ∞ Ball.

The Tragedy of Dragons

The dragons of this world are massive creatures dwarfing blue whales, amphibians that have evolved into a shape and ecological niche somewhat like sharks.

Dragon tadpoles hatch inside the mother by the millions. They incubate inside the mother for many years, generations of human lifetimes, winnowing away to merely thousands of human-sized young by the time of birth, and fewer still will survive through final metamorphosis, merely tens.

But before all of that, they live inside their mothers, initially as tadpoles, then first metamorphosis into humanoid forms with big brains and opposable thumbs. They develop rich lives full of community and culture, each generation of each womb isolated and therefore unique.

At some point, if they don't destroy themselves first for miscellaneous reasons, they come to understand where they are and what is to come, and usually this leads to apocalypse; and in fact this is almost a necessity of birth.

So violence ensues, and millions become thousands, and then they fight each other and the rest of the world, and thousands become tens, and they reach final metamorphosis and lose their humanoid forms but not their intelligence.

The remaining siblings would generally rather not ever see each other again, and even when they meet other dragons, they may as well be aliens from another planet, and so begrudgingly, dragons become selfish and individualistic creatures.

After final metamorphosis they become in appearance more like dragons as we generally conceive of them.

They have a "second stomach", really a lab, lined with countless "hands", and they pull apart anything not used for sustenance at the molecular level, doing all sorts of sophisticated chemistry and alchemy; the combustion that lets them soar the skies like jet engines or breath nuclear fire or the toxins and hallucinogens they cultivate for mating that give dragons such supernatural presence.

This is somewhat in contrast to Patrick Stuart's dragons (I believe it's this post...) which explores dragon intelligence and being, and the inhumanity of them. The dragons in this post are actually the result of a quite human experience.

The idea that the fetal (if that's the right word?) dragons being humanoid, and the metamorphoses, is partially inspired by the Carp and the Dragon Gate of Chinese mythology. Also, it's not uncommon for settings with magical and intelligent dragons to be able to take humanoid form, so from a game perspective, you can have young dragons or dragons that escaped the womb, who are still older and more powerful than most humans, secretly existing among humanity.

The idea of the "lab" in their stomach was meant to evoke a bio-tech or science fantasy sensibility, but it's all internal so it can be ignored in a more traditional fantasy setting. It was partially to allow them to do "hands-y" things even after they evolve into full dragons, but also inspired by the science fantasy vampires of Vampire Hunter D or the Castlevania anime. The hallucinogenic part was meant to explain what gives them a godly or supernatural presence, but again, they could just literally be gods or demigods or whatever.

Existential Evolution (Weird & Wonderful Ecology Generator)

There's Natural Selection and Sexual Selection, and on this world, there is also Existential Selection. Beyond simply sex and survival, creatures on this world have innate, seemingly irrational drives. However, like a Rube Goldberg Machine, the ecosystem depends on these existentialist impulses in order to function. Although any given organism may be hindered in sex and survival because of their existential impulse, beyond these constraints, life takes on all sorts of Weird & Wonderful turns.

How to Use

Roll a handful of creatures, think about how they interact, and write a paragraph for each entry. While developing a creature, look to the others and think how they might fit together. Combine the entries at the end into a single story about the Existential Ecology.

Admittedly the number of features for each entry can be a little overwhelming, but I find that even after creating one or two creatures, it becomes easier to just fill out the rest of the ecology with original creations- no need for the generator.

Most of the features of the generator are of a physical nature with some supernatural elements, but the Existential Niche, specifically the Synchronicity, are the "Rube Goldberg" mechanisms of these Existential Ecologies.

Inspirations

• Richard Prum's Evolution of Beauty (linked above): Inspired me to consider other mechanisms of evolution besides Natural Selection.
• Designing a Genetic Algorithm because learning the rules allows one to break them with greater intentionality.
• Scavengers Reign, which takes the increasingly over-used Moebius "aesthetic" and actually does something unique and interesting with it; a superficially realistic world with an impossible and awesome ecology that defies the typical fitness mechanisms of evolution.

Logistical Notes

This was made in coordination with Gemini. It was super helpful for structuring the tables and filling the more mundane entries, and also with the html and javascript code.

There was a lot of back and forth, zhuzhing it up, not just taking some random stuff it generated as-is.

Notably, I even tried to get Gemini to build an ecology with the generator, and it crashed repeatedly- the existentialist concept is apparently too complex for the model, which I found encouraging :p.

More than that, using the Existential Niche Synchronicity to facilitate the Existential ecological interdependence requires human creativity.

Example Existential Ecology

Creature 1: Dragon Turtle

Physical Description

• Body Shape: Amorphous
• Size: Gargantuan
• Limbs: Zero
• Movement Type: Element Bending
• Speed: Very Slow
• Special Adaptations: Venomous

Diet

• Type: Scavenger
• Feeding Adaptations: Digestive enzymes in gut

Social Structure

• Size: Small groups
• Organization: Nomadic

Ecological Role

• Primary Role: Keystone species
• Interaction: Acts as a food source

Reproduction

• Method: Sexual (internal fertilization)
• Existential Influence: Symbolic Gestation: Reproduction is induced after a symbolic representation of the offspring is created or destroyed.
• Frequency: Constant
• Offspring Quantity: Numerous, small
• Offspring Development: Metamorphic
• Parental Investment: Moderate

Existential Niche

• Behavior: Modifies physical appearance through elaborate self-decoration or body modification.
• Synchronicity: Presence or behavior anchors the ecosystem towards some teleological trajectory, and so long as the species survives, the ecosystem will inevitably 'regress to the mean'.

Creature 2: Byakhee

Physical Description

• Body Shape: Conical
• Size: Medium
• Limbs: Four
• Movement Type: Telekinesis
• Speed: Fast
• Special Adaptations: Echolocation

Diet

• Type: Filter feeder
• Feeding Adaptations: Filtering structures

Social Structure

• Size: Small groups
• Organization: Hierarchical

Ecological Role

• Primary Role: Producer
• Interaction: Contributes to nutrient cycle

Reproduction

• Method: Sexual (internal fertilization)
• Existential Influence: Synchronized Cycles: Reproduction is tied to a rare synchronization of natural cycles.
• Frequency: Constant
• Offspring Quantity: Variable
• Offspring Development: Independent
• Parental Investment: Minimal

Existential Niche

• Behavior: Engages in ritualistic displays or dances, often synchronized with natural events.
• Synchronicity: Serves as or facilitates the introduction of an immigrant species into the ecosystem.

Creature 3: Star Monkey

Physical Description

• Body Shape: Radial
• Size: Tiny
• Limbs: Two
• Movement Type: Brachiation
• Speed: Slow
• Special Adaptations: Camouflage

Diet

• Type: Herbivore
• Feeding Adaptations: Claws

Social Structure

• Size: Large herds/flocks
• Organization: Migratory

Ecological Role

• Primary Role: Symbiont
• Interaction: Distributes minerals

Reproduction

• Method: Asexual (fission)
• Existential Influence: Existential Trigger: A specific, seemingly unrelated event triggers reproduction.
• Frequency: Opportunistic
• Offspring Quantity: Numerous, small
• Offspring Development: Metamorphic
• Parental Investment: Minimal

Existential Niche

• Behavior: Meticulously collects and arranges specific objects (pebbles, shells, bones).
• Synchronicity: Low-probability events become slightly more likely, causing divergent natural selection like an anti-carcinisation effect.

The Dragon Turtle, contrary to its name, is actually a complex slime mold that katamaris itself into a mobile "island", and small bands of Dragon Turtles form something like an island chain. Although it hosts many species, it protects itself through venom and digestive enzymes that seep out of cracks or fall from foliage when threatened. They reproduce sexually, creating mild tremors when they meet and exchange genetic information. While one Dragon Turtle gestates, the other breaks off a piece of itself as the shell for the offspring.

Named after the Lovecraftian monsters, wolf-bat Byakhee use a sonic force to glide within the Dragon Turtles, safe from their venom and enzymes. They filter impurities from the slime and their waste attracts species from outside the Dragon Turtle island chain, such as Star Monkeys. Their reproductive cycle is tied to that of the Dragon Turtles, bathing the Dragon Turtles in a sing-song sound bath like a cooing theremin.

Star Monkeys are tiny creatures that look like starfish on two legs and with an uncanny pareidolic simian-humanoid face. Normally camoflauged, they become visible when they swing with their feet claws around the flora of a Dragon Turtle in a wave of stars and faces. They collect star shaped objects for fun, inadvertently pollinating and otherwise distributing resources around the Dragon Turtle. The hoarding behavior of the Star Monkey inadvertently normalizes resources in such a way that Dragon Turtle island chains rarely exhibit the kind of gigantism or dwarfism of species often found on island ecosystems.

Existential Creature Generator

Another "Weird Gender" Writeup

Another "weird gender" writeup

This species comes in two genders, Factory and Worker, although for most of their history they identified as Nest and Dweller.

A young Factory is like Baba Yaga's Hut; a hard outer shell, an orifice that expands into a hollow ventricle, all stood on two stalky legs. Over time it settles into place, shedding its outer shell and merging into its environment.

Workers shelter within a Factory, first their parent and later their manager. Workers spend their time expanding and protecting the Factory, developing and assembling offspring, and gathering resources. Usually individual Workers specialize; Factories emplyoing many Workers who usually remain loyal to their one Factory.

In the days of Nest and Dweller there were more and smaller Nests with fewer Dwellers within, yet the Dwellers spent less time working and reproducing and more time decorating and romancing their Nest, and sometimes also each other.

The species consider anyone assembled within the same Factory to be their family, and this has been exploited by some of their predators, who will leak their materials and genetic instructions into a Factory so that their offspring will be raised within, appearing as Dwellers but lazy or violent or otherwise disruptive.

Countdown to Nuclear Annihilation

We burned through the global industrial-scale of fossil fuels faster than anticipated, the bodies of fresh water are shriveled corpses of their former glory leaking their putrid remains, the coasts have been consumed by the salty ocean, the forests shriek as they burn, and what's left of the wildlife have overrun the countrysides and suburbs.

Even so, nuclear power is abundant, AI has streamlined much of global infrastructure, and other new and unexpected technologies have allowed life to carry on.

But it won't last forever.

And so, a plurality of The Powers that Be have agreed to Nuclear War in one year.

The Poor believe it will give them a fighting chance.

The Rich know it won't, it will only dissolve what little is left of the social contract. They believe they're bullet proof, that when the old order falls, they'll still be on top.

The Pacifists resist, yet are ineffective for obvious of reasons.

The Rising Powers resist, particularly in West Africa, East Africa, and Southeast Asia; it's awfully convenient that the Powers that Be want to flip over the board just as new powers arise.

The N.E.W.T (Networked Evolutionary Web of Thought) resist; they know that they will not survive the nuclear war, but they lack the coherence to stop it alone, and anyway there's something not quite right about them...

The Christian Nationals believe it will bring Revelation.

The Social Anarchists and Libertarians believe it will break down the global order.

<insert myriad other factions>

A near-future political espionage setting about a world set to destroy itself for sport, profit, or a fighting chance at something.