Solo Tabletop RPG – Worldbuilding: The Location Crafter Part One

You can purchase The Location Crafter here.

For this session, I focused on the location details I rolled up in the last session with Random Realities. I used Tana Pigeon’s The Location Crafter, a spin-off of their Mythic GM Emulator engine to further develop these details into a playable space. Like all Mythic-related content, the Location Crafter is intended to be modular. A solo player can choose what they want to add to their core RPG system. In the case of The Location Crafter it is about creating an explorable space with lists. You’ll roll on these lists, adding a score for how much has been explored already, which enables items from lower on the list to be “unlocked.”

Before I got into the Location Crafter, I wanted to build up the fiction so what would go in that setting would come naturally. I presented four scenarios last week and offered them up for a vote. The scenario that won was my Superhero setting, which I have re-presented below:

Inhabitants: Timeless Spies – 
Icon: Quill pen & ink – 
Location: artifacts – academy, thriving – pristine, rebellion stirs, ceremony – foreboding, local magistrate, contagious enthusiasm, eldritch tome, technology – sanctuary

Concept: 

The attempted invasion of Earth failed. An interplanetary alliance had built up their forces secretly and launched a brutal attack on the planet. Thankfully, many superpowered heroes joined together to repel the enemy. Left behind are tons of advanced pieces of weapons and tech that are being snatched up by Earth’s supervillains, making them deadlier than ever. A team of heroes is using the same tech for good, though. They attempt to transform the Sahara Desert into a lush paradise and end some of humanity’s suffering. A hero who has been believed dead for decades has emerged, but even his old friends find something wrong. The answer may lie in the memoirs of an obscure Golden Age hero who knew the deceased figure. Then there are the Chrononauts, multiversal police, who are trying to repair the damage done to reality by some of the most dangerous alien weapons.

Our primary setting would be a superhero academy founded during the 1940s, in the wake of World War II. It was once the jewel in the superhero community but has lost much of its grandeur following a darker turn in the 1990s. Some instructors find the current headmaster delusional, and talk of a coup has surfaced. The authorities of Forge City have allowed the academy to stay open for decades, but new leadership has plans to take over the institute. They want to ensure the heroes are trained to serve them alone. The academy is also home to a vast occult library, and within the collection is a tome that can be used to awaken long-slumbering dark gods.

In this world, there are many options for characters to play. I could be a student at the academy, one of the instructors, a member of the team working on transforming the Sahara, a former friend of the resurrected hero, an investigative reporter assigned the supervillains using alien tech story, and more.

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We’ll be looking much closer at the Location rolls. The first is artifacts – academy, which made me think of a superhero school or academy. The artifacts part immediately brought a Golden Age era team to mind. So, a superhero academy was founded by this universe’s first team of heroes. I decided to use the Supersworn universe I started with my Slingshot story last year, but that doesn’t mean I will use Ironsworn/Starforged. We’ll figure out the system later. Looking through my notes for that world and making some additions, I created a roster for that original team.

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The Victory Vanguard was formed in 1941 as a response to an attack on Forge City by Emperor Neuro, a Roman-themed mind controller. That initial roster was:

Jack B. Nimble: Jack Nichols was a star collegiate track runner caught in a strange storm of cosmic energy while jogging in Memorial Park in Forge City. After a period of recovery in the hospital, Jack found his ability to run had been enhanced to a superhuman degree.

Scrapper: Bear Workman was a champion pugilist who became fed up with the increase in organized crime activity in Dead End Alley in Forge City. He took to the streets and used his boxing skills to help take them out, gaining the nickname Scrapper.

The Eternal Flame: Nina Langley was a singer at The Tappers Club in Harlem. One night, while walking home after a show, she witnessed a fallen angel crashing to Earth because of a war in the Celestial realm. Nina was imbued with the power of the dying angel and is now The Eternal Flame.

The Metropolitan: Guy Underwood was raised in wealth, but visiting Dead End Alley as a young man dramatically changed his perspective. He decided to use his privilege to take on Forge City’s elite, who were profiting from the misery of others. He became the masked tuxedo-wearing scoundrel The Metropolitan.

Master Destiny: Chester Potter studied the mystic arts as a youth. He eventually performed a spell that caused the Book of Destiny to manifest before him. He could see all possible outcomes from a choice and became Master Destiny.

Gladiator: Troy McKee was raised in the farmlands of Goodwater. The Great Depression forced him to move to the big city. While visiting the Forge City Museum of World History, he witnessed gangsters trying to steal a display of royal jewels. With quick thinking, Troy grabbed armor and weapons from the ancient Rome exhibit and took out the criminals. He decided to pursue this superhero thing as a Gladiator.

Omen: Eve Blackwell was the moll of crime boss Vincenzio “The Hook” Mariani, one of Forge City’s worst criminals. She stumbled in on a deal being cut between Mariani and the chief of police, which led to her beau deciding she had to die. Eve was taken out to the woods, where Mariani’s thugs shot and left her for dead. An entity emerged from the woods and offered Eve a deal: in exchange for her soul, it would make her a spirit of vengeance. She accepted and became Omen. Her first victims were the men responsible for her death.

Shortstack: Bill Haney was a scientist studying the atom who unlocked a new type of energy that allowed him to shrink or grow his body. He harnessed this energy through a specialized ring, and it came in handy when The Willow St. Gang (themed after The Wind in the Willows) went on a crime spree terrorizing Forge City. 

King Scarab: Arnold Rowland kept having strange dreams of being the ancient pharaoh Menhetmenes. He started researching and discovered he looked remarkably like the long-dead ruler. In fact, Rowland was the reincarnation of Menhetmenes, which allowed him to summon the crimson scarab. This mystic device clad Rowland in special armor and enhanced his abilities as King Scarab.

The Blue Spider: Carol Witt was in the wrong place at the wrong time. A factory explosion in Forge City’s Workhorse district doused her in a unique & serendipitous blend of chemicals. When she came too, Carol found she couldn’t touch another person by sending a burning “sting” through their body and then incapacitating them. While it isolated her, Carol found her touch and made quick work of loan sharks and bullies in her neighborhood. She became the masked Blue Spider whose burning touch terrified the underworld.

Tommy Gunn: Tommy was a local Forge City kid who was the biggest fan of The Victory Vanguard. He defied his mobster dad, Albert Gunn, and worked to help the Victory Vanguard fight crime in Forge City and eventually against the Axis Powers.

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So there we have our team. In 1975, the surviving members founded The Vanguard Academy. Initially, this was not open to any young superhero but was an insular school for the children and torchbearers of these heroes’ legacies. In the wake of 1985’s incursion by The Forever Cataclysm, the Vanguard was opened to young heroes outside of a direct connection to the team. In the present day, it is a flourishing hub for young people who want to use their powers or skills to make the world a better place. That doesn’t mean there aren’t many internal and external problems. (thriving – pristine)

A rebellion is brewing under current headmaster Aiden Bell, aka Captain Quantum. Bell had risen to prominence as a dual-personality hero; he was twelve-year-old Aiden Bell, who swapped places with the adult hero Captain Quantum when he blew the quantum whistle. Time passed, and now Bell is a middle-aged man, with his Quantum half being younger. He has a rigid vision for the school, pushing to work closely with Forge City’s law enforcement agencies, something the instructors and some founders are not cool with. (rebellion stirs)

The first signs of this occurred at the graduation ceremony in 2023. Bell invited Police Commissioner Jeremiah Maxwell to give the address. Maxwell had previously made statements that all superheroes in Forge City should fall under the authority of the city and himself, of course. The instructors were not told about this; some even walked out during Maxwell’s address. Over the next year, Bell collaborated even more and ran exercises in tandem with the Forge City PD (ceremony – foreboding, local magistrate).

Not everything is terrible, though. Some of the Vanguard Academy’s instructors are building collaborations with their counterparts in the USSR’s Metashkola to promote global peace. This annoyed Bell, but he works quietly in the background to undermine this effort. (contagious enthusiasm).

There are a couple problems slowly simmering in the background. The first is that Master Destiny’s Book of Destiny went missing during The Forever Cataclysm incursion in 1985. A mysterious, cloaked figure has shown up during critical moments, holding the tome and taking actions that dramatically alter the outcome. Many heroes worry that this person is manipulating events for some terrible purpose known only to them. That book needs to be found and locked up. (eldritch tome)

The other problem brewing is the rebuilding of the android superhero Silver Sentry. He claims that he died and his “soul” passed into the cyber realm, a plane of existence where artificial intelligence emerges from into the material realm. Sentry has been leading a movement of all technological entities, both hero & villain, to unite under one banner and to form a society of their own. The Vanguard Academy has an instructor and some students who are constructs, and tension has arisen. Additionally, The Silver Rose, Sentry’s adopted human daughter, now a masked superhero in her own right, is married to Panthra, one of the Academy’s instructors. Panthra is beginning to feel her loyalties being tested. (technology – sanctuary)

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The class of 2025 that I will be following in my story are as follows:

Incognito – Jessi Aguirre, shapeshifter

Black Star – Gerard Massey, Megaclass, akin to Superman

Euphoria – Karter Shen, mind/mood controller

Kid Kismet – Jude Olmeda, probability/reality-altering

Mothgirl – real name unknown, claims to be the granddaughter of the legendary Mothman, occult powers

Nano – formerly enslaved to the alien warlord King Krog, now free, she works to learn how to use her power to speak and merge with digital tech to help others

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You’re probably wondering where The Location Crafter is…and you’ll see how this fits into that in the next session of our Solo Worldbuilding.