When I first encountered Troika, it seemed like the furthest frontier of weirdness in modern RPGs. And I don’t mean the old-school flavors of gonzo weird that have become fairly prosaic in the hobby. I mean deeply, surreally, borderline incomprehensibly weird. To the point that, while I recognized the rules were derived in part from a very comprehensibly Advanced Fighting Fantasy, I somehow did not know what to do with Troika, delighted though I was. It took Fronds of Benevolence (2019) to (somewhat) clear things up for me.

 The point crawl is entirely Andrew Walter’s doing — both writing and the delirious art — and it is, I think, an essential part of Troika. Andrew’s tone throughout is sensible throughout, even if the subject matter is utterly nonsensical. There is so much randomness baked into Troika’s systems, let alone the game’s bizarre world, that the only rational response is to pretend everything going on is entirely plausible and expected, even when it most obviously is not. The players, and to some extent, the GM, are little islands of stability in a raging sea of chaos, and they survive from point A to point B by insisting everything is totally under control. Or, at least, that’s how I make sense of Troika. YMMV, as always.

Fronds is certainly a sea of chaos. Sailing it is pretty much the point — getting the rare earth that will save the life of the Duke DeCorticus (the intelligent plant to whom the title refers) and foiling the schemes of the evil Overseer Feng…I hesitate to say those things will automatically happen, because the players can screw up even the surest of destinies. Rather, I would say that taking those objectives too seriously will likely make accomplishing them more difficult. See the sights of the Rainbow Badlands! Deal with Asteroid Mole people! The Gardner Knights and the Holy Tuber will still be there when you’re ready.