A setting inspired by 9- Phantasma:Essense of the soul


Homebrew and House Rules

Liberty's Edge

Note, this setting is inspired by '9', a film set in a stitch punk/diesel punk world.

The world of Phantasma is one where a timeline might be nessesary, but to make a long story shorter, around the 19th century, scientists discover a miracle power source called Phantasma. Extracted from the bodies of the dead, Phantasma supercharges the technological elements of the era, with the creation of powerful robots, extremely advanced devices, and deadly weapons. However as life expectancies increased as the dread epidemic typhoid was dealt with, the scientists found that Phantasma supplies were running low. Desperate to cause more deaths to enable the generation of more Phantasma, some turned to more insidious methods, including murder and increasing political tensions between the great powers, all while perfecting machines to harvest the Phantasma where ever it might appear.

Eventually some scientists developed a virus that would extinguish life from all living beings in an area. This virus was released, and ultimately wiped out almost all life on the planet, save a few species. It also wiped out all human life. However, machines created to harvest and process Phantasma began work overtime, changing the vaporous Essense into a crystalised form which was then used by the fabricators to create from the remains of the old world, tiny constructs. Sentient and curious, these creations began to explore and interact with the large world around them. Overtime, these constructs have become entire species, from the cloth covered stitched to the doll-like marionettes, the flesh covered Skinned to the near skeletal Remenants. They have divided, and began to shape the world they exist in.

But their world is still fraught with peril, as the ancient machines that keep the cycle of 'life' and 'death' going become more and more unreliable, as the surviving speicies grow more and more intelligent as they feed on the crystal hearts of any construct they can kill, as monsterous aberrations of construct begin to roam the crumbling ruins of the city, seeking new victims to capture and harvest for parts. And even the smallest heroes must rise to face the challange.

Main elements about the setting:

The game is set to a tiny/diminutive scale with medium equating to gigantic in pathfinder terms.

Magic is a part of the setting, coming from manipulating the energy stored within the crystal Hearts of the constructs, or drawing on naturally existing Phantasma.

There are no divine powers in the setting persay but there are various powerful machine gods that the players can be Servents and believers of. These do not grant spells, but do grant unique and powerful abilities to such constructs.

There are no 'living' creatures in the setting that you can play as. The only living species are instinctual, insane and dangerous. The players, and most entities in the setting are constructs, most only about a few inches high. The machine gods are not playable and also are at about 6-9ft high in terms of actual scale.

No money, at least as a currency. Most currency is bartered scrap and therefore has good level of haggling involved to get good trades.

Guns are a strange case. Most of the players are really small, and therefor a bullet is actually quite powerful. All guns are heavy weapons that have extreme recoil. Any shot from a gun will force the firer backwards. So while guns are everywhere, because of small scale and their value, guns are also very difficult to come by. Most cannot carry allot of ammo for the gun, as bullets are naturally quite big.

Mobility is key. Having a grappling hook, a rope or even a zipwire can mean the difference in getting a good position or being dead.

Any thoughts or ideas on how to make the setting work, or ways to improve it?

The Exchange

Well, you should definitely reward certain things such as crafting due to the small size. Who's to say a small creature can't learn how guns and gunpowder works and miniaturize it?

Another thing is how far into the new world does this take place? Long enough for certain places to be made safe? (such as a child's bedroom that is actually an entire city of doll-like constructs who found a few pistols they use as a defensive turret/turrets?) If so the economy would be much more stable and standardized there.

Lastly, if these bits of scraps are used as currency it should also, perhaps, be used as healing kits/potions.

Liberty's Edge

first yes. That makes a lot of sense. Most weapons and items will be made from materials or repurposed tools. A half sissor can make a pretty decent greatsword, as also a scalpel can make a halberd. Some things need to be taken into consideration though. Micro sizing a firearm is going to be the same as an actual firearm. For one, the miniature firearm would probably be primative, regardless of how advanced you try to make it, while a regular sized firearm would probably be more advanced.

As for how far in, the new world has reached the first stages of progress, marked with the decay of some the machine gods minds. The funny thing is no one really knows when the world ended exactly. They have only just started to record information and even then it varies from haven to haven. And the scale of the havens is variable, with some crisscrossing the upper floors of a cathedral.

Scraps are interesting because they are not just currency. To the right person, with the right set of skills, they can be a weapon, a healing item, a distraction, a piece of clothing, a way out of a bad situation, a bargining chip or even just junk. Which is why it is a good idea to consider what kind of scraps are found where.

Also something to mention is the nature of what happens when you Aquire a shard of Phantasma. Phantasma is really valuable, and really powerful. With the right know how, extremely powerful items and device can be made. A shard of Phantasma is like getting a magic item, only it can be made into whatever you want it to be. A device that fires lasers, a gravity lessening backpack, a Phantasma crystal edge is sharper than any known metal and so could made a really great blade edge. You can also use the shards to give your powers a boost, enabling a manipulator of Phantasma to become even more powerful. There is a snag to this though. A lot of Phantasma is very conspicuous, and almost everything lives on Phantasma. A Harvester machine God might see a large amount of phatasma as a great find, and try to remove the Phantasma from the indervidual by force. And they are really tough.

The best defence against a harvester is to run away and hide, and do both quickly.


One problem with making firearms smaller is an increased risk in the gun exploding. The bulk weight of a gun is just reinforcing metal(or in some cases ceramic) to keep it from exploding when the firepowder goes off. Other than that, I love this setting idea.

Liberty's Edge

That's probably true, but does that mean the gunslinger cannot use guns. I would say that (for the most part), most gunslingers are of the bolt ace varient when it comes to the firearms, though guns do still exist and are used. Most guns the players encounter and can use are single shot pistols or derringers, which are still like firing a small artillery piece or rpg. As for smaller scale, the only metals strong enough to withstand the shock of a gunpowder explosion in such a narrow area without being bent out of shape is soulsteel, only made in a few places and requiring both the materials for stainless steel and Phantasma crystals to even process. These firearms have quite a ridiculous range as their bullets(round balls and pointed shard shot only) are launched with quite some velocity.

Ballshot are the standard bullets for the firearm. Pretty common but they do jam, requiring a careful hand and tools to dislodge the blockage.

Shard shot is much rarer, being more similar to the bullets of actual human guns. As such, these tend to fire more easily and have greater penetration against armoured targets.

The Exchange

Well when I was thinking of small firearms, I was actually thinking of smaller fireworks that actually exist. That single shot rifle actually just holds and fires off bottle rockets.

Liberty's Edge

That works too.

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