Some Game World Lore

This is just a post detailing some of the backstory of the world in which the Bobo RPG takes place. 

The Bobo TTRPG is set in an alternate reality where animals, humans and damn near everything else all have the ability to speak and communicate with one another.  You're just as likely to see a human walking down the street as you are a minotaur, a living cartoon or even an animated armoire, and that's just the way it's always been.

The main setting of the game is the country of ‘Merica, specifically the city of New Gothtropolis. ‘Merica is, unsurprisingly, a chaotic parody of modern America, only with more talking appliances and infernal corporate meddling. New Gothtropolis draws inspiration from every major comic book city and takes its name not so subtly from two of the most iconic.

While figurehead politicians run the country on paper, real control lies in the hands of shadowy organizations. Chief among them is SinTech Global, a seedy megacorp with literal ties to Hell. SinTech has embedded itself into daily ‘Merican life through advanced nanotech, pharmaceuticals, sketchy resurrection serums, and mass-market household items—like the BBOI: The Bag That’s Bigger On the Inside. Nicknamed "BBOI Bags" by the same people who say “ATM Machine” and “PIN Number,” these infernally enhanced bags use Hellish tech to store more than should be spatially possible. The occasional demon escape hasn’t slowed sales.

SinTech’s rise is tied to its deal with Lucifer III, son of the Devil. After his father’s unfortunate death in a freak blender incident, Lucifer III—uninterested in ruling Hell—dragged what remained of his father’s soul to SinTech. In exchange for bringing dear old dad back, he gifted the company the tech behind the BBOI, which handed them untold wealth and unchecked power.

The game takes place during the one-year deadline Lucifer III gives SinTech to pull off the resurrection. In that time, SinTech’s expanding influence and unregulated experiments wreak havoc across New Gothtropolis—causing everything from nanite-injected zombie outbreaks to escaped test subjects and the occasional superpowered villain. The city is a mess. And it needs heroes.

New Gothtropolis might be the default setting, but it’s far from the only one. You can run your campaign anywhere—because Bobo’s world features over-the-top, exaggerated versions of any real-world place you can think of. Since I live in America, ‘Merica is the core setting for now, but Game Lord tools will be included to help you convert any country into a fully playable setting.

Could I add other countries myself? Sure. Should I? Absolutely not. I’m an ignorant American who’s never left the country—not even to Canada or Mexico. If I tried to create a version of your country, I’d probably butcher it, you’d probably be offended, and the whole thing would end with either international conflict or even worse... you deciding not to play. Instead, I’d rather give you the tools to do your own country justice.

Now, that’s not to say I won’t bring in dirty, dirty foreigners to write official campaign settings or adventures if the game takes off—because that is 100% on the roadmap. Plus, with the OGL-style licensing, you’ll be able to do whatever the hell you want with the system once it’s released.

Next update I will talk about some of the different planes of existence that the game ventures to, like Hell, the M.O.P., and Nimbus Prime.

In the meantime, thanks for reading and I hope to bring the game into the real world soon!

Thanks a lot,
A-ron