A Taste of Niv Lova

A solo (and more) TTRPG I'm working on

I’m currently swamped with work right now, making it difficult to progress with Waves Breaking. I did begin a collaborative game of Identity by Croaker on Substack Notes, which you can check out if you follow me on there. So far, one scene down and everyone involved is doing great. It’s purposefully slow, one scene per week, which I think works well for the game and our purposes. I mentioned playing Identity and writing it in Posts on here, but I think I’m going to keep to the Notes game instead. I do have the next chapter of Waves Breaking started, so expect me to get back to that in the next post. I also need to get back to my Kal Arath game in notes, along with checking out the drafts from the Kal Arath kickstarter! So many games, so little time.

So this week I needed something that I didn’t have to put a ton of time into. So I’m going to share something I’ve been working on for quite awhile, slowly, in fits and bursts of inspiration.

Kal Arath, by Castle Grief was inspirational because it showed me that instead of just thinking about a thing, I could just go ahead and start doing it. Just start writing a ttrpg! What was stopping me? His simple system, which I played a few times, was minimalist and easy to use, and his tables were evocative. I clearly saw that I could take it and make my own thing from it, in a setting that’s been on my mind since what feels like forever. At first, I wanted to write a novel in this setting (and attempted Nanowrimo a number of times with such an idea) but it never really got going. Then, I realized, I could take the setting and make it into a ttrpg. Kal Arath, when played solo, feels almost like a rogue-like or survival game, and that sort of feeling is exactly what I needed for this setting. I’m adding a few things, (guns, scavenging system, etc.), tweaking others, and shifting the system into a very different setting.

Don’t get too excited. I’m still hashing out the rules and filling out oracle tables. Then I have to complete the layout and art (using Canva, as I get it free through my school…)

For now, I’ll post the introduction and you can tell me what you think.

Greetings, scavenger.

Welcome to Niv Lova, a massive area of the cold north, full of deep forests, wintry tundras, shrub-covered plains, ice-cold waters and mostly-abandoned urban pockets.

Once, it was a contemporary part of the country with cities and towns, paved roads, and all other aspects of modern civilization.

Then, the incident occurred. The theories behind it are numerous. A nuclear mishap. A visitation by aliens. An incursion by Deep Elder Gods. A dimensional rift. A portal into hell itself… 

None who actually witnessed it lived to say what they saw. 

Whatever occurred, it left things behind or changed the things that were there. Strange pockets of radiation, aberrations in the way physics worked, fires bursting out of the ground, electricity surging across surfaces, gravity increasing or decreasing in a localized area for no discernible reason... The flora and fauna twisted, and humans mutated or driven mad, feral and attacking each other. 

The Government tried to quarantine the area, building a wall but found effects still happening outside that. 

They built another wall beyond the first. And a fence beyond that. And then another fence. 

Was the sickness, the taint, the Otherness expanding? Or had they simply misjudged its reach after the initial incident? 

They put up a final wall, called The Boundary, five years after the incident. 

The Government had run out of funding and public concern over Niv Lova had dwindled. Whatever had happened had happened. 

Attempts to study the phenomenon led to deaths and more trouble than it was worth. 

There is still a functioning military base at the edge of the region, manned and outfitted with soldiers that patrol or go on missions into Niv Lova, determined by their superiors for reasons unknown to civilians. 

For now, the government has declared that the region is dangerous and best left alone.  

But human beings adapt and there are some who remain or find their way here. There is not only danger in Niv Lova but prosperity. Within lies Remnants with strange reality-bending powers and through these a fortune can be made. Where there is wealth, trade emerges. 

Niv Lova is the new wild west through which riches can be found for those who are brave (or stupid) enough to try, or for those who have no other choice. 

Though technically illegal to enter, the Government has turned a blind eye to this black market. In fact, it’s been a way to get rid of those citizens who don’t belong in ‘normal’ society. The poor, the criminal, the homeless, shipped to the region on a train line, last stop at the edge of The Boundary, the largest settlement in Niv Lova, Limbus.

Though Limbus is the largest, there are other settlements scattered throughout, ruled by violent leaders, or mercenary groups or bandits or religious leaders, found in the ruins of old towns and villages, scrabbling to survive.

Food is found through scavenging, hunting and farming. Though flora and fauna are different in Niv Lova than other places, life adapts.  

At the heart of Niv Lova is the destroyed city, what everyone calls ‘zone zero’. The hypocenter of the incident. The closer you get, the more dangers you face but the better loot you may find. 

In zone zero, it’s rumored you can find a black cube, a Remnant left behind by the otherworldly force that grants wishes and can change the world. 

Few who’ve entered zone zero have returned alive and those who have cannot speak to what they found or witnessed.

You’re here of your own volition or you were forced. You will scavenge and fight and scramble to survive as long as you can. 

Maybe you’ll find your fortune and escape. Make enough to pay your way onto the train out of Limbus. Supposedly, some have made it. 

Or maybe you’ll find some kind of life out here, as others have, scraping by. 

You will. You have to or you’ll die trying. 

This is Niv Lova. 

Notes:

Niv Lova is made to play solo or with friends with little to no preparation.

The rules included are easy, and minimalist, inspired by the game Kal-Arath, by Castle Grief, who was in turn inspired by Barbaric!, Mork Borg, and Black Sword Hack. 

The mechanics of Niv Lova are heavily inspired by Kal-Arath, taking Castle Grief’s simple, minimalist system, tweaking some things, adding a few systems and adapting it to a different setting. 

Use whatever rules you like with this game, discarding or changing any you find within to your own uses. 

The setting of Niv Lova is inspired by the Stalker games, the story Roadside Picnic and the movie Stalker. It’s a dangerous region filled with mutated animals, bandit scavengers, weird pocket aberrations, and powerful remnants. But it’s not just radiation here, there’s something otherworldly. Perhaps another dimension did enter ours. The why isn’t explained and doesn’t need to be. Something happened. This place is different, changed, altered, from the one we know. You can choose whether it was a dimensional rift, nuclear event, alien visit or supernatural incident, or leave it unknown. It’s your game, make it your own. 

Play first, ask questions later. 

Write Firster

Comments, questions?

Thanks for reading.

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Check out the Table of Contents for previous games I’ve played as well as other stuff I’ve written.