Grok?!

Grok?!
OSR

Softcover
Published by Lester Burton
June 02, 2022

GROK?! is an adventure role-playing game where you assume the role of an adventurer in a gonzo world of boundless plausibility and use your ingenuity and resourcefulness to overcome strange and perilous threats.

Planet Grok was once a haven for trans-dimensional migrants and a bastion of advanced technomancy, until a cataclysm rendered it a desolate hollow planet. Now, feral monstrosities haunt its chasms, cities float among the clouds, and a derelict space station encapsulates the planet and bathes the world in perpetual phosphorescent radiation. Yet, a new era of enlightenment is dawning. Civilizations grow from the ashes, relics of immense power await those who would learn their lost secrets, and threats of caste warfare loom as leaders vie for power. All the while, a creeping black nothingness peers up through the hollow of the world.

Inspired by the core tenets of old-school adventure games, GROK?! was influenced by greater works such as Cortex Prime, Electric Bastionland, Fate Core, Freeform Universal, Index Card RPG, Knave, Numenera, Savage Worlds, Shadow of the Demon Lord, Technoir, Troika!, and Vagabonds of Dyfed.

Universal action resolution system with description based modifiers.

• A universal resolution system means that every action a character takes is resolved the same way, whether they're fighting a mecha-zombie, casting a magic spell, or bartering for equipment.
• Description based modifiers means that any relevant part of the world can have a mechanical affect on a character's action, and vice versa.
• Together, this allows for highly improvisational gameplay and encourages ingenuity and resourcefulness. 

Player facing fail-forward mechanic, with non-binary outcomes.

• Action outcomes are never arbitrary; they always affect the world in some way.
• A player-facing mechanic allows players to have an understanding of how likely they are to succeed at an action, at least from their character's perspective.
• The fail-forward mechanic gives players leverage to make difficult in-character choices, and expands the range of non-binary outcomes at the same time.

Slot based resource and damage management system

• An all-inclusive resource and damage management system means that the amount of resources they keep with them is constrained by the failure of their actions.
• This also ties in directly with the description based resolution system and player facing fail-forward mechanic.
• As a result, character traits, actions, equipment, spells, and damage all work within a cohesive system.

Author: Lester Burton
Artist: Matias Viro