Trinary is now Anomaly

Art by Leo Chuang

Welcome back to Fragments from the Rim; I was musing over on Facebook today that I needed to brush the cobwebs off this site and get it going again. Life has been rocky and rough lately, and my various forms of artistic expression have taken the brunt of my lack of drive and neglect. Part of me getting things back on track is getting my creative juices flowing again and enjoying the work I do. So; here's hoping this is a start.

Last October I posted an entire month of posts about "Trinary", a new campaign world I had kicking around my head that I finally attempted to get some traction on.  It's been a long while since I've made anything as grand as a campaign world; my Twin Worlds setting back in College was my last journey into world-building, and I had a lot of fun with that.  I poured countless hours of work into developing that setting for several Dungeons and Dragons campaigns that ran in the years following. Had many a good time and adventure that my players still talk about today.

I've had an idea for a long while, a theme that spawned the creation of a cluster of stars in the corner of a far-flung galaxy (no, not THAT Galaxy Far Far Away; I do enough campaigns in that one). The 30 Days of World Building exercise gave me a basic skeleton and a lot of ideas to work with. Looking back, I'm not happy with a lot of the names, but I am pleased with a lot of the ideas that exercise spawned.

Art by Luvisi

My biggest hangup has been the name; "Trinary". I had a few reasons for choosing that name, but it never sat right with me. It felt too clunky, too easy to miss-speak and call it "Trinity". Also, the name wasn't very evocative. I've been trying on other names for the campaign world for a while now; the name really drives a lot. Sure, I could try and develop a world and see if a name for the campaign pops out, but that's not typically how I operate. I try to put a name to the idea that I have, and everything that comes after is better designed to fall in under that umbrella. It fits with the themes and the stories I want to create for that setting.

I've decided on the name "Anomaly" for my game world.  The name hints at the fact that something is amiss and highlights the irregular, which for the most part includes most player characters. There are many anomalies in the game; social anomalies, stellar anomalies, cultural anomalies. Gravametric anomalies allow for Faster Than Light travel. Genetic anomalies hold the key for powers long lost to be reborn. There may even be a temporal anomaly or two that must be dealt with.

GM Phil's Anomaly (Yes, I know I need a new banner image...)

So now I've got a name I can work with. Next is trying to refine what I want into a very basic campaign setting that players can use.  I need to remember that I don't need to present them with the entire setting all at once, just enough for them to grasp the concepts of the setting, get a feel for the political powers, and understand the themes within the campaign world.

Here we go...

Art by Lino Drieghe