What is EMERGENT?
EMERGENT is an investigation-horror TTRPG about high schoolers who discover they have superpowers just in time to realize an interdimensional Monster has arrived in their hometown. The game draws inspiration from media like Stranger Things, X-Men, Supernatural, It, Alan Wake, and Life is Strange.
In EMERGENT, you aren’t traditional heroes. You’re just kids, not trained soldiers. You have powers, but you’re only just starting to learn them—it will be a while before you come anywhere close to your favorite comic-book hero.
Monsters, on the other hand, are extraordinarily powerful. They are ten times stronger than you and can shrug off bullets with ease. They will mutate and adapt to take advantage of your worst fears. They rarely follow the laws of physics you are so unfortunately bound to. You have no hope of winning—if you fight fair, that is.
By crossing into our world, Monsters develop strange and almost nonsensical weaknesses. Bulletproof scales might dissolve in salt water. Their skin might burn like paper, or become brittle temperatures anywhere close to freezing. They may be unable to see the color purple, or expose a vital weak point whenever they are exposed to strobing lights.
The only way to find these weaknesses is to investigate the Monster—examine the sites of its attacks, observe its behavior, explore its lair. Only then will you be ready to exploit these weaknesses with your powers, your wits, and some jury-rigged weapons you build in your uncle’s garage—and finally be ready to bring it down.
24 Unique Powers
Each character can choose one of 24 unique superpowers to leverage against the Monsters. These range from simple powers like invisibility, control over temperature, electricity, and ESP, to more complex concepts like necromancy, control over momentum, weather-bending, and manipulation of time and space itself. While most powers offer some new ways to fight Monsters directly, most abilities focus on utility, information gathering, and controlling your environment—encouraging creativity in how your characters approach challenges.
Each Power includes a themed Power Tree with fifteen Nodes. You start with Node 1, and every time you level up, you can take a new one its connected to, gaining access to new abilities each time. You can also Power Weave, combining any two powers to create your own unique ability set.
Immersive Character Creation
In addition to choosing your stats and your power, dive deep into your character’s psyche with Strain, Responsibilities, and Fear.
Strain
Strain is what happens when your character gains too much stress. Pick from twelve unique Strain Effects with statistical penalties, ranging from frustration with yourself or friends to implacable terror to never being able to get a full night’s rest. You can’t get rid of those penalties until your friends help you work through them.
Responsibilities
Responsibilities are what your character has to do to keep their normal life—the one where they face final exams and championship games, not Monsters—from falling apart. Choose from sports teams to drama clubs to Honors classes or a part-time job. Keep up your responsibilities, and you’ll maintain your skills, resources, and access to unique locations. Fail to do so and risk people getting suspicious.
Fears
Fears are what your character is most afraid of. No big deal most of the time—until the Monster mutates to take advantage of it, gaining permanent bonuses until you can overcome your fear.
Investigation and Time Management
To fight Monsters, you’re going to need to find their weaknesses—and to do that, you’re going to need to find a way to fit Monster hunting into your busy schedule. In EMERGENT, days are broken up into nine narrative units called Sequences—three are for school, three are for sleep, and one or two will be taken up by your responsibilities. With only one or two free sequences free a day, you’re going to need to start skipping sleep or skipping school. You can’t just wait for the weekend, there’s a Monster out there killing people!
When you are out Monster Hunting, pick from a special list of Activities, including Examining Scenes, Observing the Monster directly, Searching their Lairs, or Researching Artifacts—things they leave behind, like scales, teeth, or caustic ichor.
Crafting and Combat
Once you’ve got your weaknesses, you’re going to need to exploit them. Utilize a streamlined but highly modular Crafting System to build jury-rigged weapons, armor, explosives, and traps to overcome your enemy.
When you’re ready to fight, you’ll jump in to a high-speed, initiative-free combat system. Take actions alongside your friends in any order, combining your powers and working together to take down the Monster once and for all.
Customizable Monsters
Included in the game are twelve hand-crafted Monsters, filled with terrifying capabilities, reality warping adaptations, and cleverly crafted weaknesses. However, if you want to make your own, we’ve got you covered. Our 15,000+ word Monster Builder has all the tools you need to create exceptionally unique yet balanced Monsters.
Want to learn more?
If you want to follow our development, or join some pre-release playtests, join our open discord server!