Field Trip to Zu is a role playing game supplement written and published by Operant Game Lab for use with Troika!
The supplement is available as a 38 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover and one the Table of Contents. There is a second version of the PDF lacking the front cover.
The first page of content has a hex map of Zu.
The Introduction explains that this is a hexcrawl that contains 36 hexes of post-apocalyptic-Americana, hooks, rumours, exploration rules and some local backgrounds. It explains that thematically it’s a cross between The Wizard of Oz, Fallout and CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, and can range from gonzo to grim. The supplement is basically just a new region with various places of interest and factions.
The main section of the book is Locations. This is divided into four regions; Vanilla Land, Flower Fields, The Scorched Highway and The Steel City. These are each coloured differently on the map and cover multiple hexes. Each region has many different locations, from settlements to dungeons, described in different levels of detail. Random tables are common to determine things such as items possessed and what beings are doing.
Hooks and Rumors has an introduction as to what Zu is, five different hooks to get characters there and a dozen rumours, all true.
Time and Encounters has some exploration rules for Zu and a 2d6 table of random encounters.
Local Backgrounds explains that Zu is intended to be a place to visit rather than come from, but six different backgrounds are provided for characters originating from the place.
Field Trip to Zu in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with enough different sections that these would have been useful. The Table of Contents covers the major sections and some subsections. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be free of errors. There are a variety of custom, mostly black and white, doodle style illustrations and maps. Presentation is unusual.
The choice of drawing some essentially doodles to illustrate and map the hexcrawl does mean that the illustrations do match the text. The style stands out, and actually works with the supplement. Zu itself has plenty of encounters, places and NPCs to encounter, as well as plenty of potential adventure seeds that can be fleshed out or not as the GM desires. Overall, this is an interesting and thematically on-brand supplement for Troika! especially as it’s Pay What You Want; it’s definitely worth more than that. Field Trip to Zu can be found by clicking here.
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