Field Trip to Zu (Troika!)

Even the most ignorant children know the realm is divided by a massive, transparent wall. Everything outside the wall is “normal.” Everything that lies inside is “wrong.” The “wrong” lands are called Zu. Today, we take a field trip into strangest Zu... 

This is a hexcrawl, arranged to fit a few different adventures, adapted for Troika! This book contains 36 hexes of post-apocalyptic Americana, hooks and rumors for adventures, some quick-and-dirty exploration rules, and a few “local” backgrounds in case you want to use them as backup characters. Thematically, Zu is a cross between The Wizard of Oz, Fallout, and CivilWarLand in Bad Decline. 

Many Troika! books I’ve known and loved are comprised of new backgrounds, spells, and other adventure accoutrements. This one is not. It’s just a big ole region to explore—complete with settlements, dungeons, points of interest, and even a city. It has a history, factions, and interconnections but they’re planted naturally across the hexes rather than being front-loaded in a big GM’s section. Enemy statistics are bolded and listed according to the usual Troika! format— skill/stamina/initiative/armor. And so, if questing through a twisted patch of America—rotten with want, gussied up in gold, and fried in blasphemous magic beyond our ken—seems like a good idea, keep reading.

Field Trip to Zu is an independent production by Operant Game Lab and is not affiliated with the Melsonian Arts Council.