* You like firearms, military equipment, weapons in general, and are interested in playing a RPG that does guns and weapons proper justice
* You enjoy your RPGs on the crunchier, combat- and item-oriented side of things
* You like your combat to be interesting and coherent, more so than grounded and realistic
* You do not mind seeing a mix of realistic and fantastic elements
These are completely optional, but you might have a better appreciation for MazeWorld this game if:* '''You are patient''' (This project has begun life in February of 2011, and the completion of this wiki will likely take quite a while)
* You are familiar with ''Touhou Project'' (the concept of youkai and youkai species, in particular)
* You have played other tabletop RPGs before
* You have played ''roguelike'' video games before
'''Content advisory; :''' This game contains, or approaches the following themes:
* '''Violence'''
* Mild adult Adult themes
* Drug and substance use
* [https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FantasticRacism Fantasy racism/Speciesism]
MazeWorld is set in the realm of '''the Mazes''', a strange and complex dystopian world made up of inter-connected rooms, doors, and corridors, where the concepts of inside and outside are reversed. In this world, "inside" is common, and "outside" is rare. Within this realm are many creatures; tens of thousands of sapients, and countless non-sapients. All are vying for survival, with the sapient inhabitants living in, and competing for control of a number of townships.
The [[creatures ]] in the Mazes are very diverse and varied; you will find [[humans]], [[halflings ]] (humans with animal genetic traits, granting them ears, tails, claws, and inherited behavior patterns), [[youkai ]] (creatures similar to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%C5%8Dkai youkai] of Japanese folklore), [[angelic ]] and [[demonic ]] creatures, as well as a smattering of animals, monsters, constructs, and other, less-sapient, but no less dangerous beasts.
This is a world where technology and magic both coexist; however both are, to a certain extent, limited. While it seems that the Mazes have not progressed past the mid-1990s in terms of computing, and have rudimentary networking skills, power and electricity are largely sourced from [[Serpentium]], a valuable mineral [[ore ]] that can be processed and converted into clean electrical power. Magic exists; certain creatures and certain things have clearly fantastic capabilities; mushrooms healing wounds, creatures throwing fireballs or protecting defensive shields, blessed objects granting greater strength or resistance to pain... However, these forms of magic are limited in scope and usefulness, largely confined to innate talents from the few species blessed with them.
The world of the Mazes can be separated into two kinds of places:
* The townships, cities, communities, referred to as the '''[[Civilized Areas]]''' or simply '''the Towns''', which are organized, may or may not be controlled by one of the major factions of the world...* ...and what is referred to as the '''[[Uncivilized Area]]''' (or simply '''the UA'''), where the roads and routes between each town can be found.
The Towns are what you expect of them, with houses, shops, facilities, and inhabitants, and a relative sense of safety.
The UA, however, is a little more dangerous. You see, in the UA, the only thing that is certain is whether the route connecting one town to the next will lead you where you need to. The Uncivilized Area is composed of '''random, constantly shifting and changing rooms''' which are generally filled with '''hostile creatures''', as well as the occasional outcast, marauder, and other violent criminalcriminals.
Survival is a constant concern; in order for a town to not be overrun and turn into a ghost town that will fade into the UA, it is generally the duty of each town to defend their own existence from the occasional creature invasion, lest that town falls into ruin and disappears. Everyone has their idea on what constitutes effective survival - it is not sufficient to simply be an autonomous community living in autarky; trade, mutual help, and agreements are necessary for each community's survival. However, because leaving a town necessarily means entering the UA and facing its dangers and uncertainty, it means that all but the most reclusive of the people in this world are expected to know how to fight.
For this reason, most people in the Mazes are armed. '''[[Weapons|Very, very well-armed]]'''. Weapon usage and [[Unarmed combat|martial arts ]] are not just common, it is almost culturally expected to know how to fight and handle yourself. Therefore, it is a world full of firearms, melee weapons, explosives, and other tools of defense and destruction.
That is where the major factions of the world come into play. Each faction has its own stated goals and at least some vision on how to make the world of the Mazes safer. There are six major [[factions]], and they can be grouped into pairs of opposed factions, due to long-standing ongoing conflicts.
* The '''[[Maze Military]]''', an organized and uniformed force composed of humans and halflings. Their official mission is to patrol the UA and defend the inhabitants of the Mazes against creature and monster threats, but corruption and discriminatory movements, as well as a long-standing rivalry with youkai, have made the Military seem more interested in waging war against youkai than anything else.
= What do I need to play? =
MazeWorld is a type of TRPG TTRPG that was designed exclusively for play via instant messaging over the internet. The current iteration is designed to be played on '''Discord''', and makes extensive use of two types of bots; a regular '''dice bot''' for rolling virtual dice, and a '''random item bot''' for rolling random objects, creatures, etc. in a convenient manner. We use and strongly recommend '''[https://github.com/ArtemGr/Sidekick Sidekick]''' for dice, and we have developed [[Tsuchinoko (bot)|Tsuchinoko]] for items.
Those two bots, a Discord server to invite them on, a GM with knowledge of the game (which is provided to you in this very wiki), and at least one player: Those are the minimum requirements for playing MazeWorld.