DISPARATEUM: The Travel Guide
A downloadable setting
Welcome to the City at the end of the world, the puzzlebox city, the nexus of the idiosyncratic, the city of a single dream, and the stepping-off point to the endless prismic fractal of worlds known as Disparateum! But the outer worlds are full of stories for other days- we're here to enjoy the City itself! So lose yourself in the Theater, get some melancholy-flavored ice cream at Parlor Tricks, walk through a painting of yourself in the Museum of Arts and Magic, learn to spit caustic blood in the Undercity, and just when you think you've done it all, see it through dreaming eyes as the City sleeps as one!
Featuring:
Dead gods!
Magic lanterns!
Portable TVs!
A lethal petting zoo!
Pretentious theatre!
Vile machinations!
Cool tattoos!
A door that kills you!
A vending machine!
No mechanics!
Yeah I know!
Probably next time though!
Disparateum is a project I've had rattling around in my mind for quite some time now, and I hope this early taste of it piques your interest. Trust me, this ride is gonna get weird, and I hope you join me on it. Until then, enjoy getting lost in the City, and tell the Smuggler I said hi.
(Credit to Meiying Ng for the lovely cover photo, and to Mitch Harris and Nareeta Martin for the images in the book! Honestly, everyone on Unsplash should be hailed as heroes.)
EDIT (7/23/21): Pssst hey, hey you. Yeah, you. Wanna see a sneak peek of what I'm planning on doing with Disparateum in the future? You've come to the right place, cuz I just added a sneak peek excerpt of a full game set in the Disparateum setting. Give it a look!
Purchase
In order to download this setting you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $6 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Community Copies
Support this setting at or above a special price point to receive something exclusive.
Community Copies
The City's open to all, and so is this. Every bought copy adds a copy to this pool, and anyone can claim a community copy if they need to. Enjoy!
Comments
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so, how different is this from the main disparateum game on your main site?
This was an early release, mostly about putting some setting stuff down on paper for a game jam. More specifically, this has early drafts of the City and the Dreaming, which are included in full and expanded on in the main book. The book's also got four more layers, mechanics, rituals, annotations, and more.
The book's currently unfinished, I'm currently working on Act II and a couple fun supplemental materials, but as it stands it's already much more developed than the Travel Guide. My current plan is to turn this into an archive of sorts, adding other outdated Disparateum material here as I continue to work on the main game.
thanks, i got the bigger one anyway, just wanted to make sure
For sure, appreciate you asking!
Absolutely love it (it's most Barker-esque thing I've come across in years) - man, do I ever want to move here!
Something went wrong though and I ended up paying $6, not more, so I didn't get any exclusive content - what do I do to remedy that?
Thanks.
oh weird, you should have everything. lemme email you a key, hopefully that helps.
and thank you so much, im really happy with how it came out! ive got a load more planned for Disparateum, so keep an eye out for that.
Nope ... it seems I was panicking about nothing - I got all that with my download, so I must just have misinterpreted it (I thought I needed to pay more for the extra/exclusive content).
no worries! itch can be weird at times, and these things happen. feel free to give those keys out if you'd like! tis the season.
I intend to mix it up with a whole slew of (around ten or so) other systems, the rules of which I will completely ignore in favour of the spirit in which they were intended - after I've done terrible things to that spirit in the dark (the kinds of things that would make even Clive barker turn white in horror ;)
And I can see Disparateum forming a significant hub (spiritually twinned with, but not as harmless as, Fallen London), in a KATABASIS plane inhabited by the lost spirits of (Little Fears) children who don't know they're (Nobilis) Powers - amongst other things.
I anticipate it being the kind of place I lead the players to in the anticipation that it will be a glorious Abarat/Imajica-esque refuge only for it to transpire that it's far from it and, before long, have them weeping not only in snot-filled, underwear-staining terror but sheer nervous exhaustion (if I can induce psychotic breaks, so that they walk under cars and buses when they next set foot outside the door, I'll have done my job ; )
So, I need you to keep working on both this an KATABASIS but especially Disparateum.
oh hell yea, Disparateum's 100% intended to be a bizarre mishmash mess, flay it and stuff it with whatever wacky nonsense you like. just remember to take care of your players, keep your hands, feet, and trauma within the magic circle at all times!
"keep your hands, feet, and trauma within the magic circle at all times!"
You know it. I know it. Even they know it.
But will they get that chance?
Or will they forget themselves in the moment and do something foolish? They might be all-powerful beings capable of rending the fabric of the universe with a thought, but secretly they suspect they're only little kids ... and they're a long way from home.