About The Project

---

The World of Azraeém Is Falling

And No One Knows If It Can Be Saved

---

Ash and Flowers takes place at the brink of what very few people know to be the world’s collapse. Magic is running wild and everyone can have access to it. What few people who do know about it’s collapse either seem invested in making that a reality or are desperately trying to stop that from happening.

When developing the world, I wanted it to feel just like a classic TTRPG adventure. The stakes are high, the heroes come from humble beginnings and yet some how – in spite of everything – they’re able to beat the odds and achieve great victory. So the question started to come in as to what does that exactly mean?

Well, as a Millennial who has faced I don’t even know how many Once-In-A-Lifetime experiences, I started to realize that this is what it’s felt like to just be alive at this time. Every few years ever since the 80s, it feels like there’s a new world shattering event that we need to brace ourselves for that will change life as we know it. Every year brings on a new anxiety around what will happen now? What new ending will be be blamed for? What new travesty could have been prevented if the generations before us gave enough of a shit to stop it?

And even worse: How will we be a contribution to this world’s ending?

Enter Azraeém – an analogue to what I feel living in today’s modern world is like. Magic is free: The internet is everywhere. At no point in time has it ever been easier to find out anything, connect with anyone and even more interestingly – gain easy access to instant validation. Technology has made our lives undeniably easier than it ever has and yet somehow we are all struggling, so many of us poor, abused and mistreated. We’re still fighting the same wars that our Forefathers swore would never happen again because never once could they have prepared the future for a world where anything – everything – was a possibility.

While developing the world, it became easy to understand why I fell so hard for Fantasy to begin with. It was such an easy way to try and quantify what I was experiencing in day to day life while offering a healthy and safe distance to make it more digestible. Whether it was young Lyra finding out about the truth of her world and what was happening or Frodo braving the harsh and cruel world of Middle-earth, one thing that they did for me continually is remind me that even if the world may at times seem cruel, there’s still the chance for change to happen and whether or not I realized it, that was ultimately what led me towards playing TTRPGs around 15 years ago.

I found myself lost in one of the worst job markets and while everyone was convincing us that we were definitely bouncing back from a financial crisis that I honestly believe we’re still experiencing the impacts of. We were still fighting a war that began when I was in High School that I still didn’t understand what the purpose was for. We were witnessing horrific natural disaster after horrific natural disaster and I was incredibly desperate to feel like I – a poor Millennial who felt up against the world – had the capability to change anything.

Not because I truly believed myself to be a hero of god-like capabilities, but because I truly do believe that good things can happen if we as individuals make decisions – big and small – for things to start changing towards a better world and I just wanted to be one of them.

The game takes place in what most would consider your standard run of the mill Fantasy world. There’s Orcs, Elves, Tieflings, Gnomes – you name it. The only real ‘twist’ (if you can call it that) is that the brunt of the world takes place in a tropical climate on a massive Supercontinent similar to Pangea that is Azraeém. However, there are ways to visit parts of it that will expose players to more difficult terrains like cold, harsh wintery climates.

It is built to be loosely open world with the option to do a Hexcrawl in order to further explore the world of Azraeém and get a deeper look as to what’s happening to add more depth to your game play experience (more on that later). The only thing that players will need to be mindful of is when they’re close to Magic Hot Spots as – depending on the lineage that you’re playing – you will have an adverse reaction to the kind of hot spot it may be…

Which, speaking of —

The Power of Magic

And It’s Ability to Corrupt Everything

As stated, everyone has access to Magic. In fact, regardless of what Pursuit (our version of Classes) you choose, you’re able to have access to using magic both within the Pursuit specific abilities or through the use of other things like Spells and Charms that can easily be learned and made. It’s just that depending on the kind of pursuit you’re playing, it will rely on one of either kind of magic available: Raw or Concocted.

Raw Magic is likely what you think it is: an innate ability to manipulate one’s own energy to influence the world outside of them. Many who take part in Raw Magic have their own names to define it’s source whether it’s a Spark for a Bard or the Crux for a Witch. Concocted Magic users, on the other hand, have the ability to tap into an externalized source of magic and manipulate it for their own purposes. Examples of Concocted Magic users would be Alchemists making potions or Hunters engaging with the wild.

The main reason why I wanted to do this was because I wanted to mess around with how the different types of magic can actually effect game play experience. I didn’t want it to just be something that I could use to fight foes, I wanted it to actually impact the characters that I could be playing to better encourage conscious engagement.

This is what led me towards creating inclinations and sensitivities for the Lineages to add an added layer to the game play experience.

The goal wasn’t to treat engaging with these different kinds of magic as a penalty but as a natural consequence which can be – depending on the character you’re playing – good or bad. These effects are dubbed Beguilements:

As much as these may impact Combat, I also wanted to use this to create potentially interesting Role Play opportunities. For example, Orcs have a sensitivity towards Raw Magic. This means you could create an Orc that plays a Pursuit that relies on Raw Magic like a Brute (our version of a Barbarian) and actively enjoys the high they receive because they know that this heightens their power and they have no reason to consider or care for pleasantries – only bashing and breaking whatever they see with extreme efficiency.

I did want to include a way out of it if that’s not the kind of character you’re into, but I did want to make it so that there is a cost to try and alleviate the effect until you’re out of proximity of the area. This is where there will be a compulsory penalty where they’ll need to spend 1 action at the start of their turn if they want to find a way to regain focus and fight against the effects of the Beguilements.

Don’t worry, though. So long as you can move your character outside of the realm of effect, this won’t be a requirement on every single turn.

The MalEffected

While there are the usual kind of foes that you’ll meet in the game, there are other foes that should be expected: Creatures that have been mutated beyond repair by over-consumption of Magic. These are creatures that can be humanoid creatures that may have chosen to become over-powered in their thirst dominance or monsters that have been transformed because their habitat has been destroyed either due to the People-made Circuitry to siphon off of the magic in the world around them or naturally formed Raw Fissures that have become completely out of control in the influence that they have over a designated area.

Depending on the type of Maleffected that you’re fighting, it’ll be important to see whether or not they’re fueled or discouraged by the kind of magic because it will definitely be possible that this is something that can make or break a battle and your capacity for winning – especially because they have a sphere of magical influence that can influence anyone who has a sensitivity to a specific kind of magic as well.

We’re still messing with the possibility that PCs could potentially be Maleffected because at this point if this is a game mirroring our world, it doesn’t really seem out of the question to pursue in any capacity.

---

How To Stop The Clock

Or Writing a Story That Relies on One of Dre’s Least Favorite Gameplay Mechanics

There are more than enough TTRPGs out there that are basically trying to be DnD or PF2e but better which put me in a weird position of trying to figure out what it meant for me to even want to make a TTRPG. For me, it wasn’t about game mechanics but the fact that I never got to actually play through an actual adventure. To me, the mechanics were nothing but the rules that defined how you engaged with the world you were playing in and subsequently the tools that helped you get from the beginning of an adventure to the end so my issue was never with what numbers rolling meant. It was just the fact that the numbers for some reason were constantly distracting from the story.

This is where I started developing the game around having an actual Clock that at the beginning of the game, the characters aren’t even aware exists. This was done because the other issue I had for the majority of games that I played was that it never felt like any decisions I made even meant anything.

Nothing I did impacted the story, nothing I did impacted the momentum and subsequently meant that nothing I did added up to an ending.

Enter The Augur Clock (ignore the typos):

It’s true: I honest to god hate timed quests in games. The moment I start hearing that clock ticking, the fun of playing the game ends and the reality of life or death begins and I typically play games to like… not get sucked into the reality of living.

But after feeling so dissatisfied with playing TTRPGs, I started to embrace that this may be a necessity for me personally. It really adds a lot of gravity to everything that’s happening and that you’re experiencing. It ends up working as a reminder that the decisions you make have an impact on where things can end up going and honestly? It’s a pretty intense barometer for whether or not you even give a shit about what you’re playing.

Playing the TTRPG isn’t on a clock. You’re free to play when and as you feel like playing so why shouldn’t I have something the serves a reminder that the story is what’s important and the highest priority? At least in this context, I’m not being forced to hear the impending Tick Tick Tick in the background that keeps getting faster the closer to time running out so I can at least enjoy what it’s offering in relationship to the story.

---

Enter The Vanguards

The Heroes In The Margins

Every TTRPG needs a reason why the characters are involved in the story to begin with and this is where The Vanguards come in.

The Vanguards are essentially a secret group of adventurers that Queen Kuli and other Puck Courts have decided to establish to explore Azraeém to figure out what’s happening. Because of reach of The King of Swancoast, The Puck Courts have decided that it’s especially important to hire individuals that are either seen as outcasts, ignored or unseen to society. Backgrounds to choose from include anything from an ex-prisoner to a veteran to healer, though we’re currently expanding the options until the game is ready for what we believe these should be.

There are Station set up throughout Azraeém within the Puck Courts that the Players will be able to access in order to first enlist and also gain access to any other items they may need along the way. This will also open up the opportunities later in the game for players to have access to the Puck Court Balls for a roaring good time.

Choose YOur Player

The game will have 12 Lineage and Pursuit Options.

With everything developed based around flavor more than anything. I mean at this point with how much the world of Fantasy has been developed, we only really have the option to put our spin on things unless we want to spend years upon years developing everything.

Since the world of Azraeém is fairly integrated, a lot of cultural influence that you can add to your character will come from the region they grew up in. There are also a number of different languages that you can learn and – depending on where you grew up – can know as well.

This will include a Hexcrawling feature if that’s something you’re into if you want to get a visual understanding of where you are in relationship to major things developing both within the story and within the world’s history.

Death

So remember how I keep harping about my gripe that part of my burnout from playing TTRPGs is that actions don’t seem to have consequences? Well, with how Magic has completely twisted and warped how a lot of the world worked, I realized that this would likely extend to the idea of dying within Azraeém as well, this is where the Deathseer Mechanic came in.

When a PC dies, they’re able to be brought back if you’re able to be brought to a Death Spring in time which are located all throughout Azraeém (If you’re playing it as a Solo RPG, you’ll have a choice of NPCs to aid you on your adventure that can do this for you). However, when a character comes back, they aren’t brought back the same (which we’ll be covering in one of our short stories so this little section will probably change in the future to include a link when it’s complete). They’ll have the ability to “Piece themselves back together” (name not final) which will require a few tasks they’ll need to complete over a certain time frame, otherwise they’ll take on the Deathseer status.

A PC can die and be brought back up to 3 times before permadeath but the Deathseer status comes with it’s own impacts to gameplay both In and Out of battle:

In the situation that you decide to Piece Yourself Back Together, you can only do so after the first time you’ve died and will have a permanent effect where:

• You can see and speak to the dead;
• Are able to foresee death coming and provide some kind of protection to yourself or others;
• or Leave the land of the living when you sleep to explore what’s happening amongst the dead to find out more about what’s happening

This is probably by far the biggest mechanic we have to work through because there’s a lot of things we’ll need to consider but regardless, we’re excited as fuck to dive into it further.

Keeping Busy

Another thing we wanted to do was highlight and flesh out a number of downtime activities that Players can do while adventuring. The currently planned activities are:

• Crafting – Which I (Dre) am unnecessarily excited for because it always drives me nuts in TTRPGs that this is a thing that you can do but not something that it feels like you as the player are taking part in any capacity;
• Training – Which I (E) am excited for because it’s our way of giving players a way to learn skills from other pursuits without having to commit to something that would require they go down an entirely new path to do;
• Rituals – This is an activity that will play a pivotal role throughout the game – including in the final Battle Quest with Thirteen;
• and Games – This one will hopefully provide an immersive experience as they’ll be games that we’ll be making that will give insight into different cultures around Azraeém and the kinds of things that they do to keep themselves busy and entertained regularly.

The first one that we started developing is called THE FATEFUL FOUR which is one of the standard ways that the people of Azraeém take part in fortune telling and will only require rolling a 1d4 and 1d6 to play in game.

We already have a rough 72 different meanings for each card in the game deck with each card coming with a set of 3 different meanings for you to use when playing.

Fleshing Things Out

Okay. It’s not really subtle that this is turning into a huge undertaking. We realized that we have to break things down into easily digestible portions to make this an actual solid good game that we’d even be interested in playing. Right now, our main priority is on:

• Get the Game Mechanics tightened. We’re going with a Three-Action Economy with the typical turn based combat where people roll for initiatives and have figured out the basic Mathing to make sure combat is able to Math correctly in a way that we find interesting which will require testing;
• Get a very tightened idea of the story and the beats we need to be hitting along the way so we understand what we’re writing;
• And figuring out a realistic list of expectations of what I actually need to be drawing for the book to be considered complete.

This means we had to come to the decision that what would essentially be considered “The Game” needs to be done immediately because we realized that there is a huge difference between developing A Game vs. writing An Adventure. Developing The Game is honestly kind of easy since we’re not trying to re-invent the wheel, but it is a hell of a lot of work and still takes up a lot of time and energy. We realized that this is a project where we’ll need to pace ourselves moving forward to make sure that The Adventure actually makes sense, is coherent and that we’re setting it up so that we have A Fully Completed TTRPG at the end where we feel like the decisions we made (Both as players of the game and as developers) add up to something fulfilling.

SO! We needed to find a way to also keep us invested as players in the game so that this is something we’d want to do continually which is where we came up with the idea of making The Vanguard Annex. We’ll be developing them for batches of levels at a time with the first Vanguard Annex being made for Level 0. It’ll contain a massive list of Adventure Prompts that you can use to make your own homebrew adventures and creatures/monsters/bad guys to use to go with them within the world of Azraeém as well as Adventure Prompts that will give you more insight into what’s happening around the world as well.

This will include a Hexcrawling feature if that’s something you’re into if you want to get a visual understanding of where you are in relationship to major things developing both within the story and within the world’s history.