Welcome to my guided tour of The Homebrew, Campaign 2’s lore, vibe, characters, and processes. This is a sort of Session 0. This is filled to the fucking BRIM with spoilers, so do not enter if you are not caught up on Campaign 1. Go listen to that.

I don’t know what this is. It’s part blog, part stream-of-consciousness, part audio adventure. Have fun, or don’t. I won’t worry too much about formatting or writing in any way that doesn’t feel conversational to me. It’s not audio because the music is an important part to it to me. Even though mentally I know there’s something about “other people’s playlists” that feels a lot like hearing other people’s dreams (unbearably dull) I still invite you to hit play when you’re on a certain section and get the vibes going.

Feel free to skip where you want to go.

REVISITING THE END (A short wrap-up of Campaign 1)
THIRD TECH SHOCK (The timeline of the new campaign)
SALVATION (The setting of the new campaign)
A NEW HAND (The New Characters… COMING SOON)
THE DECK (a short explanation of the PEVerse “Fundamentals” Pantheon)

Welcome to

PART 1: Revisiting the end

Make a choice

Or

*I dreamed I was a butterfly, flitting around in the sky; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?*

I’ve chosen Bowie’s “Life on Mars” as the theme for Retrograde Infinitum for various reasons, not all of which I can share without spoilers… but I will give you 3/4 of the reasons this beat out many of my contestants.
**The first,** and not the least of which is that I believe it’s fitting that Campaign 1 had multiple potential endings (more on that below), and in an endeavor to break down possible realities such as we have in The Homebrew, I feel “legends reimagining legends”… Johnny Cash’s “Hurt”, Trent Reznor’s “Life on Mars”, even Bear McReary’s “All along the Watchtower” —- puts my brain in exactly the right state to write “Homebrewverse” (Henceforth known as PEVerse, the name I have settled on for my lore, as both Sanity Damage, World Weavers, and MythCraft exist in the same canon now... Spoiler #1)
#2 - It’s impossible not to shout out hidden 2006 BBC gem “Life on Mars.” A little before it’s time, they attempted to tell this story again in 2012 with Sci-Fi legend Jason Isaacs with “Awake” and yet again (And likely the best of the 3) in Electric Dreams episode “*Real Life”* which is a loose take on Exhibit Piece by Philip K Dick.
I’m sure these aren’t all the pieces that explore “What’s real” and even “What does real mean?” in a way I find intriguing, but these are the ones in my library.
Before you ask if “It’s all a dream” or if “None of it is real” —- these are the wrong questions... and you have my take on this already from Campaign 1:
***Probably, and it doesn’t matter.***
#3 - Cody’s character had some Bowie vibes.

I don’t believe you’ll be able to fully enjoy Retrograde Infinitum without an understanding of Absurdism & A Millennium Abroad.

Let’s listen to a favorite while we we work through this. Interestingly enough, this is the end credit for Mr Robot. If you haven’t seen that, you absolutely must. So I will avoid any spoilers. But… it’s very fitting. The Homebrew had any number of endings that affected the world state greatly for whatever came next.

Remember, Campaign 1 was always supposed to be the end. Now we’re telling the story.

The potential conclusions for Campaign 1: Absurdism & A Millenium Abroad that I’d considered and prepared for are as follows:

Variable 1 - The crew goes or does not go to the convergence
Variable 2 - The crew gives or does not give Shioban / Destruction back to Time
Variable 3 - The crew lets Time leave PE36 without intervening at all
Variable 4 - The crew leaves PE36 or chooses death
Variable 5 - The crew leaves the door open
Variable 6 - The crew brings all “life” and essence from PE 36 to PE 37

These were the combinations of things I took the time to plan for. What happens if the crew doesn’t go to the convergence? I almost love this potential ending the most… I know the fans would have died, and I kind of knew this wouldn’t happen, but at the same time, it never left my mind as a possibility. I left a certain 4 NPCs on the path behind them because there has to be a way. If they genuinely left the path…. There has to be a way, otherwise Schrodinger Box lights on fire and explodes. They would always be dead and dying.

Variables 2-6 have any unique combination of things that happen depending on what exactly occurs. Variable #6 was my least favorite concept to acknowledge, as it requires me to truly go into the past or “concurrently occurring” campaigns for future campaigns, which wasn’t my ideal. Still, it was on the table. I wanted it to TRULY be The Crew’s choice.

Of course, I had to be prepared for them to attack Time. This was my nightmare scenario, but I had both stat’d him and prepared for the idea that Neuronethimir, Xoruz, Frankie, Thorum, Maxwell, and Vantigraf would join the fight to give them as much of a fighting chance as possible. I could only imagine it being 100% luck and fate victory (The dice just told their own story) or as cinematic and fulfilling a defeat as possible. I made it a mostly unwinnable fight. Maybe 5 or 6-1 odds, Time could destroy cooldowns, portent a lot, and had intense nuclear powers. For comparison, I made Xoruz as close to a 50:50 fight as I knew how.

So what exactly happened:
The crew brought back Shioban (Early, even, I had to adjust for that) shut the door, and left with Time & Destruction to PE37. They took only “in limbo” essence to seed the new PE.

Please keep this WORLD state in mind as we embark on our next adventure. Campaign 2 begins THE MOMENT the door shuts.

PART 2: THE THIRD TECH SHOCK

Retrograde Infinitum is inspired DIRECTLY by Cyberpunk Red & Cyberpunk 2077, MythCraft TTRPG, and of course Absurdism & A Millenium Abroad. While this occurs immediately following the Fundamental Forces leaving Prime Existence 36, it’s occurring in the 4th Super Eon of Ancerra, the setting for MythCraft. There are absolutely several references from Cyberpunk Red pulled in, some even by name. Here’s a brief history:

Note: In MythCraft the world is called Ancerra, here' it’s called Telgaea. This is however the same planet. Functionally I made the name different to avoid spoilers until I was ready to share that Campaign 2: Retrograde Infinitum was concurrent taking place in both Super Eon 4 of MythCraft and immediately following the Fundamental Forces leaving PE36. In the world, it is a simple difference in translation. The people’s of New City know their home (the habited moon) as “Salvation” or even more simply as New City. They did not have a name for the debris field, and that’s what the OiT (Offices of Intergalactic Treaties) called it when they found it based on naming conventions and random name generators BEFORE they discovered it was habited.

This is the recorded history of New City, and the demolition of Ancerra/Telgaea

Much has been lost to time; this is what remains.

Age of Demolition

The newly spacefaring peoples of Ancerra come into contact with other sentient life through a proxy, a biotechnical satellite that comes into Ancerran orbit, and they are given a blueprint and instructions to construct a part magical, a part technological device that allows intergalactic communication that travels faster than any known Ancerran technology.

The contacting aliens, the REDACTED, actually communicate very little once the device is constructed, but instead use the link to scan Ancerra, uncovering biotechnology and vast metallurgic resources buried deep within the planet. Unknown to Ancerra, they plan and prepare an invasion. A third neutral spacefaring “Defender” alien entity named REDACTED comes into contact. They track the activity of the Invader Aliens and, upon reviewing Ancerra’s defenses, deem it necessary to destroy the planet by crashing 3 of its moons into it, resulting in its demolition. Ancerra wars with the Defender Aliens and loses.

The ”Defender” Aliens issued an advanced warning about the planet's demolition. With only months to escape their planet, the banded-together mortals of Ancerra, with help from an ancient god who slumbered in Ancerra’s technological core, launch billions of nanites & the plans for an incredibly low-cost construction polymer (A sister god's final gift: a rapidly growing construction material made from mycelium and low-grade, easily synthesized chemicals) to procedurally generate a supermassive city, Salvation, on Ancerra’s second moon (Which would be left undestroyed, and make it habitable in just weeks.

The moon is about 2/3rd mycelium farming and 1/3rd city. About 900 million souls make it to Salvation before The Demolition, and the planet's surface and technology are wiped out.

With Ancerra destroyed, The invading aliens lose interest. Ancerra is in a trillion pieces, contained in an arcane shield that makes up a big part of New City’s skyline.

Age of The Big Net & The first Tech Shock.

The people on Ancerra arrive on a procedurally generated supercity with next to no plans.

Imagine, if you will, being hurried onto a shuttle, this shuttle has nothing on it but perhaps a seat if you’re lucky. No windows, no posters, no information, no one knows anything. There’s no one in charge. You are separated from your loved ones, and after a 3-day trip you land, and the bay doors open, and outside of those bay doors are an entire city.

Streets. Street Lights. Crosswalks. Towering Skyscrapers with stocked supply closets and conference rooms. Fully furnished apartments with full refrigerators. Empty cars with keys in the ignition. Billboards advertising non-existant brands. Statues of non-existant philanthropists. The factories already running.

There is no government, there is no order, and there are very few weapons. An AI runs the city's food, water, electricity, and communications. It is unknown what happened to the world's leaders or institutions. No one who knows anything ever arrives. The nanite swarm and The Big Net (The AI that proc-gen’d New City) have complete control over all utilities and mycelium farming. The Big Net does not tell people where to live or where to go or what to do. It only keeps the peace, the lights on, and everyone connected.

Most people follow The Big Net’s plan and form a new normal. Labor is limited to non-existant, as most needs are met by the swam, and there is almost no legal commerce. Individuals begin to interface directly with The Big Net via cybernetics, and Salvation begins to expand upward, and out into the parts of the moon that were not finished.

Over the course of about 200 years of relative peace, a faction of neo-Luddites eventually create, plot, and plant a virus in The Big Net that kills it, and the nanite swarm goes dead and dormant.

Age of New City

The Second Tech Shock. Many people have never known anything besides The Big Net’s leadership and simple way of life, and they must adapt or die.

Gangs form and rule the city as there is a race to claim resources and territories. The dead nanites become the currency of New City, and commerce is reintroduced… the hard way.

Polymer and filament printing is used to create weapons.

The individuals directly interfaced with The Big Net become mindless zombies, and parts of New City are blocked off. The Big Net is locked away behind unhackable encryption by the virus, and a New Net forms on its infrastructure, interconnecting millions across New city. Over the course of the next few hundred years, the strongest gangs become the powerful corporations and government entities of New City.

Plans to resume spacefaring are drawn.

Age of Stars

Power consolidates behind the New City Corpos. Most conflicts are unofficial between criminal and/or corporate institutions and mercenary groups hired out by Corpos. Each brand has its own army, and war is a constant whether the consumer class acknowledges it or not. For most people, you either work for a Corpo, work for someone who works for a Corpo, or live and work in the shadows. The neo-Luddite factions are back and seek to finish what they started and wipe out the net once and for all.

Cyberpunk is the new wave, born from the legends of the 2TS (2nd Tech Shock) and burning bright for centuries. Cyberpunk is riding the tech tsunami, not getting drowned by it. It’s jacking in until you check out. It’s living on the web, running the streets, and burning out hard. It’s taking what’s yours from the Corpo’s and carving out your own stake. It’s about living fast, not living long.

Another shock is coming, and only those on the edge are going to come out on top.

Enter the OiT and Third Tech Shock.

The world is much bigger than we knew,

and we’re even smaller pieces of shit.

The OiT discovers Ancerra and makes contact with Salvation. Terran Command space station The Claymore is now a part of the crowded skyline of New City.

THIS IS YEAR ONE

- YOU ARE HERE -

THIS IS YEAR ONE - YOU ARE HERE -

PART 3: SALVATION

The setting of the new campaign

This is the session 0 type information about the Game. This game is deadlier. The stakes are higher. Talk before you glock. Campaign 2 will be faster, heavier, and go harder.

1.0 Character Creation

In addition to the established canon races in Absurdism & A Millenium Abroad, the following Lineages/Races are available.

Dragonfolk
Hondu (dogfolk)
Human
Kettek (Catfolk, 4-5ft tall, shorter than Tabaxi)
Kleppin (Critterfolk, Squirrel, Rabbit, Chipmunk)
Undead
Urkou (Bearfolk)
Cyprindean (Goldfish/Koi cores in a Golem)
Awoken (AI Robotics who have gained sentience)

This is a roleplaying choice but will give you advantage on friendly checks related to your race. If you play a race from Absurdism, then you are considered an Outsider and will have this advantage with other outsiders, Such as Granny Kellen.

2.0 Circles

New City social circles are as follows:

Tops These are the richest of the rich - c-suite, management, investors, superstars, familially hyper-rich, the top %.

Suits These are the upper class & corpo elite. They may own one or two luxury items. Life as a Suit is a mix of trying to get ahead and maintaining an image that you already are ahead.

The Help These are the drivers, the mercs, the tutors, the housekeepers… the folks who serve the Suits but can’t afford to partake of their lifestyle. Generally better off, but not very much loved by the Suits OR the Pops.

“Bee’s” (BoP Enforcement Officer) General law enforcement on the street falls to the Bees. They “work for” the Bureau of Politics but generally serve corpo interest. They’re just doing their job, and most people, even edgerunners, respect that. Don’t hate the player, hate the game.

Pops / Poppers General Population. Life in New City can be tough on Pops but for the most part they have housing, access to education and transportation, health services, and so on, generally provided by their employer.

Outsiders These are migrants cleared by OiT (Offices of Intergalactic Treaties) and BoP (Bureau of Politics) or refugees from The Darkness. Generally part of the Pop, but some have already stretched into the Suit lifestyle, or fallen into Edgerunning

Shroomers These are the folks who live outside of New City proper maintaining the mycelium farms since The Big Net’s death.

Ence’s (En-cEEs - The Reaches & New New City Residents) The moon is about 1/3rd proc-gen city and 2/3rds mycelium farming. The uninhabited outreaches of New City are unkept and overgrown. Miles and miles of empty city, now home to creatures, flora, and nomads. If you’re hiding something, or hiding yourself, “The Reaches” are where you go, making it a favorite for storage and transportation for ALL circles.

For the most part Ence’s stay on the move. Trading with and working for New City when necessary. The only permanent fixture is a town called New New City which claims itself independent from the BoP and Corpos. Ence’s are generally peaceful to Poppers but hostile towards Corpo’s and Bees.

Edgerunners Edgerunners skirt the edge of legality in New City and come in all shapes and sizes. They’re the mercs, the solos, the netrunners, the fixers.

3.0 Things to know

The inhabited moon of Telgea is technically called “Salvation” but most who LIVE in New City just call the moon New City. Ence’s, Shroomers, and some Outsiders might call the moon by its old name and be specific about NNC (New New City, the Ence city). It would be offensive to refer to the moon as New City to an Ence, and vice versa to a Suit or Top who hates the Ence’s. Meta, we will describe the moon as New City but be aware in-game sense you may offend some people

The currency of New City are Nanos — These are small nanobots about half the size of a dime. - 1 nano = one eb (eurobuck). Colloqually one would say 1000n, 1000 nano, or 1000bots

Style over substance - Be aware fashion is a massive part of New City. What you’re wearing says as much about you as your piece and reputation.

4.0 Homebrew

Temp HP will be used on occasion, and it will follow the same rules as D&D5e, resetting on a long rest
Advantage & Disadvantage will be used on occasion for skill checks
Rolling Luck & Cool will happen in the same way Death Saves are rolled. If you roll at your under your Luck or Cool stat you will succeed the check.
Items & More to be added while we play.

PART 4: A NEW HAND

I will update this after Episode 1 drops.

PART 5: THE DECK

The Homebrew is currently focused on the “Fundamental Pantheon” —— The “gods” that brought all essence & life out of the “mostly simulated”, turtles-all-the-way-down mess that the Fundamental Plane.

The avatars. The Inevitable.

So let’s lay the (ayyy lmao) cards out on the table. I foreshadowed the avatars many, many times throughout the series, many of which have yet to be noticed. The following are pieces of the world that have occurred repeatedly in some fashion in each iteration of the Prime Existence and assumedly in the Fundamental Plane, as well as complex enough simulations, such as those on the Paradise Ark.

This is the story always told.

This is the cycle.

The inevitables/Avatars/cards are as follows:

>The Mother

first // creator // tender of the garden.

Invariably life creates life. It’s own life, free. The Mother creates a splinter of a new cycle and the birth of new avatars. The Mother represents love, care, birth, and growth. the cycle cannot begin anew until Mother has died, because the cycle is driven by violence and vengeance.

>Violence

invariably, brother kills brother. every damn time. Violence razes forests and smashes worlds. Violence causes souls to roam and accumulate. Violence is not always evil - the hawk must hunt the mouse. Violence represents rebellion, freedom, strength, and cunning. Death becomes Violence, and Violence becomes Death, in an eternal cycle.

>The Messenger

someone has to tell them

>The Interloper

someone has to stop them.

>The Superstar

mortal totem // The uniter // collective.

The Superstar represents fame, riches, glory, unity. The Superstar either unites or placates the masses. The superstar is the flame for the moths. it’s all disco baby - if you’re not dancing, you’re dying.

get it all out.

>The Guide

the lighthouse // the map // the captain.

The Guide unites the forces and shows them the way. bears the curse of their knowledge as long as they can. The Guide represents knowledge, secrets, and insight. they can only show the way, they can never complete the journey. The Guide’s story is always a tragedy.

this ain't the Dakota. the water's cold…won't have to fight for long

>The Orphan

scorned omen // the realization // the fork in the road

sets into motion the events of entropy. The Orphan brings the end and cannot be ignored. The Orphan represents trial, persistence, survival, and endurance. as long as The Orphan is sated, life goes on. when they hunger, the end comes. when they weep, the oceans flood. when they rage, volcanos erupt. when they sonder, worlds are born. when they quit…

>THE LOVERS

there will always be something to keep you here…

>Surrender

darkness // entropy // abyss

…and there’s always a way out.

>The Prophet(s)

the mentor // the speaker // the limbo

the prophet(s) raise the orphan in their own image. for better or for worse. bless the journey or bar the door.

>The Viel

the pale // the nothing // the uncreated

the outlines of what is, the existence of what isn't. a place only gods dare traverse. the long sea across which Father waits, with a broken heart. to see through would bring madness for mortals. you don’t want to know what it takes.

>The Door

The door // the path // the tower.

the convergence and the divergence. the single center point that connects all worlds. The door represents endings and beginnings. all roads lead to the door, but none lead through it. It will happen again.

>The Dream

everything // everywhere // multitudes

The next dimension bleeds through, glimpses of what could be, intuitions, those words on the tip of your tongue. that feeling of deja vu. that absolute certainty you’ve forgotten something. The dream represents enlightenment, moving on, the future, and possibilities.

Campaign 2 Prep