Foundational Setting: Degenesis

This is another case of me getting the blog caught up to the YouTube channel. You can watch this video I posted in 2025, or read it as a blog post below:

Degenesis is a foundational tabletop RPG setting. I’m over 90 sessions into a campaign, so I say this from experience.

You may be thinking, “What the hell does 'foundational’ mean?” Well, to me, it means a setting I can really sink my teeth into as a GM. It’s not just made for one particular type of adventure. It’s a world that provides guidance in the form of published adventures, but more importantly it gives me ideas, seeds, hooks, and bits I can build out into my own adventures, so I can make the setting my own. It can serve as the core of a gaming group’s activities for a long time without exhausting the possibilities. A foundational setting rewards a GM and players the deeper they go into it.

I’m going to tell you why Degenesis is a foundational setting. Then I’ll tell you how to get started with it if you find it interesting.

Here’s an important note: while Degenesis is now out of print, all of the published material is provided in PDF for free by the publisher, Sixmorevodka.

The Elements of a Foundational Setting

These are the elements of what I call a foundational setting. Degenesis has them all: depth, breadth, internal consistency, support, and compatibility.

Depth

The game books give me GM hooks left and right — details, tidbits of information that I can use as raw ingredients for situations, scenarios, and campaign arcs. A deep setting gives me more material than I could ever incorporate into a single campaign.

Breadth

A foundational setting provides a wide range of possibilities. In a setting with real breadth, a GM could run an extended campaign all the way to its end, then start a new campaign without fear of boring the players. A broad setting can never be exhausted.

The areas once known as North Africa, Europe, and Russia all fit into the post-Escheton world of Degenesis. But beyond the geographic range, the setting encompasses seven well-developed cultures, 13 cults, and myriad clans.

Our current campaign is on pause after over 90 sessions. But when it resumes, I’ll likely run another two or three dozen sessions before wrapping it up. Because of the setting’s breadth, I could then fire up a new campaign in which the PCs come from a very different selection of cults — or from a single cult. They could be merchants trying to build their fortune. Hellbent religious zealots determined to convert by blade and bullet. Grim saviors of humanity fighting a doomed battle against the Sepsis. Pirates, smugglers, clan warriors, lawgivers trying to keep order amidst the chaos. The possibilities really are nearly endless.

Internal Consistency

Consistency doesn’t mean predictability. A foundational setting does, however, make sense on its own terms — it’s got that feeling of realness. It’s unavoidable that any setting that provides a dynamic framework for adventure will contain elements that may stretch the bounds of believability. But in Degenesis, these imperfect elements are few, at least to me, and the setting feels organic, real unto itself. There’s a logic to how food is produced, to the economics of Africa and Europe, and to the advanced technology of the Bygones.

Support

For a foundational setting, I want material beyond the core books. I want to understand what forces are impacting the world and creating new conflicts. I want well-defined adventures — even if I don’t plan on running them as-is — because they can operate as guideposts and springboards for my own creativity. I want visual representations of the world to inspire me.

Degenesis provides all this through official materials and through some very high quality, freely available fan-published material. Degenesis is out of print, but all this material is available in PDF for free, and there’s enough of it that I haven’t come close to exhausting it after over 90 sessions. There’s also a devoted fan base ready to help newcomers.

Compatibility

This is even more subjective than the other elements. A setting has to hit you the right way as a GM if you’re going to bring it to life for your gaming group over a long campaign and have fun doing it. Degenesis is a post-apocalypse that blows past the usual tropes. It has deep politics, mysticism and belief, advanced technology that feels right, deep mysteries, and an abundance of moral quandaries. So for me, it’s a great fit.

How to Get Started

If you’ve been looking for a game world to really sink your teeth into, and Degenesis looks interesting to you, go to degenesis.com. It’s chock full of stories, maps, and info about cultures and cults. And if you like what you see, go to the download section and go nuts — it’s all there.

Also, if you’re so inclined, check out my Degenesis fan site, Train to Baikonur.

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