I'm working on Degenesis as a freelancer, and though I'm familiar with the universe and setting I want to force myself to do another deep dive into the whole setting and really force myself to work through it again and in more depth than I have before. Primal Punk is one part of the two-book core of Degenesis, the other being KatharSys. Primal Punk handles most of the setting elements, while KatharSys includes things that should be secret from players and some additional setting elements that are more directly tied to rules, but mostly talks about rules.

I'm going to be doing a quick write-up as I go through each major section of the book, with the exception of the opening Jackal's Prophecy, which is tied to meta-plot and is not necessarily going to be something that I want to get into (both because I've had access to stuff I can't discuss publicly and I don't want to inadvertently violate that NDA, and because I start to sound like a raving lunatic when I get to interpreting it, even if I am correct).

Warning: man-butt.

Note that for this part I'm including both Part 1: Forward and the earlier content other than the Jackal's Prophecy.

Fiction: Rebirth

This is a little opening fiction. I've heard it interpreted a variety of ways, but it's a great opener to the setting.

I'm ashamed to say that the first time I read it I interpreted it wrong. I was familiar with the Spitalians as a setting element because I was accustomed to Degenesis from its first edition (which is hard to find now, and objectively inferior to the Rebirth Edition that is now available; I still say that it's good, as I did when I reviewed it back in the day, but it's definitely not as polished), and I assumed that the story was part of the current game timeline (e.g. the 2500's) rather than the late 21st century prologue.

I've heard interpretations that differ in terms of what actually happened in the story; we don't learn much yet about the universe, other than watching the protagonist metamorphose into something very abhuman very quickly and seem unaware of it, something which is true of the psychonauts (abhuman monstrosities that are one of the main antagonistic forces).

One of the things that I like as a game designer is that this sets the theme very well. Degenesis fits a genre described as "primal punk", and while body horror like what happens to the protagonist of Rebirth isn't necessarily a core element of the setting, it goes a long way to establishing how weird and how terrifying the universe can get.

What is Degenesis?

One thing that I like here about this section is that the description of the game doesn't talk at all about mechanics. Now, to be fair, Degenesis is split into two books, and Primal Punk isn't at all about rules, but a full seven paragraphs pass before Degenesis itself is mentioned, and the rest is sublime setting-building. The whole thing is over in less than a page, and I'm going to excerpt it here so you can see it (I'm generally not going to be copying out parts of the book, but since this is basically an advertising blurb it's worth sharing; used under fair use).

One thing I like about this in particular is that it talks about each of the regions in a very concise way, and it gives one defining trait to each. It also touches on the philosophical foundations of the setting, something which a lot of games never touch on.

Sidebar: What is a Roleplaying Game?

This is your more basic mechanical overview that explains what an RPG is to someone who's never played an RPG before. Functional. Names key terms. Not of much use in Primal Punk because other game rules don't show up, but since Primal Punk is "Book 1", you need to have it here so that people know what they got into. It helps explain what you find in each book, and is sort of "meta" in the sense that most of this section doesn't actually talk about the game itself but the sidebar talks freely to the players. This is probably of great help to novices, though I think that some people who get confused about PP/KatharSys and the distinction between them skip this section because it's so common across roleplaying games and usually you can skip it if you're not a total novice to roleplaying. Combining this part with the "What is Degenesis" section may keep this from getting passed over.

Though, to be honest, I would buy Degenesis just as an art book with setting attached, but we already know that I both love Degenesis and work for them, so take my suggestions with a grain of salt.

What's in the Two Books

Prefaced by some word art of a quote from T.S. Eliot (I believe from "The Wasteland", but it is not attributed to a work).

An overview of the four overarching sections across the two books: Primal Punk in... Primal Punk (wow, big surprise!), and Katharsys, Almanac, and Forbidden Zone in KatharSys (I'm stylizing them differently to represent the ruleset and the book containing the ruleset, though this distinction does not follow in the source text).

Necessary organizational elements. I'm not going to comment further.

Followed by a one-page illustration of what appears to be a Scrapper in some ruins.

1. Forward

Abstract design followed by 2-page art depicting the Reaper's Blow, the aftermath of the Eshaton (which killed the world, see above). Beautiful, but also very morose. Followed by one page showing a boarded window with bright light streaming in from outside.

The Beginning of the End

Short fiction showing, apparently, a survivor's response to Eshaton. Survivor is the wrong word, since he seems to die in the end. Great mood-setting, also very abstract. I had forgotten how much pre-Eshaton and Eshaton-intersecting stuff is in Primal Punk.

Info Dump

The next bunch of pages are all on a similar background, with interspersed art. I'll comment on each.

Timeline

This is actually a series of sections ("Eshaton", "Ice Age", "Resurrection") that I'm combining because of similar function. First page shows graveyard of crosses as a background, as does second.

Serves to talk about what happened in 2073, briefly covers the following dark age, and then brings us to 2595.

What I really like about this is that it sets up a sense of conflict; it explains the exposition (2073), the inciting incident (how the world lingered in a dark age as the psychonauts and company did their things), and then sets the stage for the current adventures in a sort of rising action.

Sepsis

Again, this is actually a series of sections ("Infected", "Sepsis", "Mother Spore Fields", "Burn", and "Phenotype") that are accompanied by illustrations of scientific diagrams and spore fields. This explains the Primer, an alien substance that alters DNA of host organisms to create new lifeforms, and also how the human survivors of Eshaton fought against its influence. It talks about the spore fields where the Primer has its most lasting influence, and the reasons why humanity messes with its power (Burn, a powerful psychoactive drug), as well as the combination between the Primer and mystical elements of the setting (the chakra, in particular).

Does a good job emphasizing an important part of the setting.

I think that this section in general (i.e. Forward as a whole) does a really good job at pointing out what's different between our world and that of Degenesis. As a game reviewer, I've seen a lot of games, and I see games that explain a lot of little details over and over. Drawing analogies to our world is fine, but it gets to be boring, and one of the things that's working well here is that it doesn't touch on much of what we're used to seeing in our lives so it can focus just on what's weird and unusual about the setting of Degenesis.

Homo Degenesis

Multiple sub-sections, "The Seed", "Epigenesis", "Portents and Wonders", and "The Final Battle" brought together. Half-page organically interspersed (e.g. not a rectangular cut-out) image of a man's face with a demoniac appearance, screaming in agony, with nodules growing out his skull in two rows.

The art goes a long way here to tie into the theme of the monstrosities that are the psychonauts, and important game elements such as the Leperos (infected humans who are not psychonauts) and the conflict between humanity and the spore fields across Europe.

Five Raptures

An overview of the psychonauts of each of the major regions of Europe (except for Borca, which has none of their own), giving a context for each of them. Symbols are used to represent each, though they're not repeated frequently enough throughout the book to serve as an identification and instead represent a sort of mood-setter. Although abstract, they have a deep symbolic meaning at times (or maybe can induce one to look for one). Downward-facing triangle is a central theme, though I'm not sure if this is a repeating element, and each is centered in a mandala or similar geometric construct.

Symbol of the Psychokinetics, the inhabitants of Purgare (modern day Italy, kinda).

This is presented with a sort of opening header, then each of the five regions are presented serially.

The Earth Chakras

Same format as the Raptures section, but without the symbols. Explains how each region of the game is associated metaphysically with a particular symbol, and reveals the central heart of each of the mother spore fields from which the psychonauts are derived and the particular threat they pose to humanity.

Psychovores and Discordance

Half-a-page of text explaining the osychovores, a parasitic plant that are the equivalent of the psychonauts in being a Primer-infused evolutionary step. The area where the Primer conflicts with itself results in discordance, errors in programming that result from the two paths that it took. The concepts are backed up by another page and a half of illustrations in the form of technical drawings of psychovores and creatures of the discordance, including mock-up slides of the cellular makeup.

The visual here helps to show what the description in text struggles to get across, and also provides a good mental picture of the setting. While the psychonauts are monsters of disorder, the psychovores are almost too-orderly, an imposed and alien structure, and this would be difficult to convey without having some illustration to back it up.

The Crow and the Lion

An overview of each of the regions (Borca, Franka, Pollen, Balkhan, Hybrispania, Purgare, and Africa), and how each of them have formed a cultural identity after the Eshaton.

Page and a half of art (hard column break without natural edges this time) depicting two men looking at the reader, in black and white against a smoky background. Word-art of a quote from Stanisław Jerzy Lec makes up part of the background ("Do not expect too much from the apocalypse."). Maintains visual interest, even if it doesn't have deep meaning as far as I can tell other than just illustrating two characters from the world of Degenesis.

The snippets here are great examples of what drew me into Degenesis in the first place; very terse, bleak, slice of life commentary about the inhabitants of the world.

There's also very clear conflicts in each region, and they're very different. This is often used as a negative for Degenesis (after all, it's slightly more difficult to get characters to share motives), but it also highlights a bunch of different points of interest for different sorts of games.

Thirteen Cults

This is a formal overview of each of the playable factions (the regions and cults each serve as an opportunity to define a character, but the latter is more significant).

Each faction is presented through their own perspective, and this adds some character to them. Each has a symbol which is presented with the heading, as well as an epithet (e.g. "Spitalians: The Last Bastion"), and the intensely personal presentation helps one picture the average member of each group.

The section is largely text, broken up by an image of a man in a gas mask (presumably a Spitalian, though no insignia is seen) looking at the reader. Word-art of a quote from Erich Maria Remarque appears on the side of the image, with text in white on black-space.

Really, most of the feedback of the above sections applies here, though it's got a perspective shift into individuals, which helps to pull players into the guise of their potential characters.

Marauders

Background for the Marauders, survivors of Eshaton who are still around 500 years later due to nanomachines, son technological life extension. There's a fairly sudden transition into fiction in "Core Data: Aspera" which is presented in the same way as info blurbs have been throughout Forward, but is a story written in first-person perspective from a Chronicler. Great setting-building, plays up the deific personae of the Marauders.

There is a transition between the different marauders; Aspera is aligned with the Chroniclers (but only in a nominal sense), the nwe get sections on Chernobog, another Marauder. A half-page illustration, presumably of Chernobog, of a grotesque figure whose flesh has rotted and whose eye has been replaced or covered with cybernetics, drives home the nature of the Marauders.

Unlike the section on Aspera, Chernobog's section reads like a history of a religious movement, which has the added effect of providing a sense of context to the Marauder's influence in the world.

Then, Forward is completed

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Analysis

Generally, one of the things that Degenesis does really well is have some versatile worldbuilding that comes together with a strong focus on key elements.

There are very few attempts to link to reality within the book, because the underlying assumption is that Degenesis is our world, but messed up by both human nature and forces beyond our control (namely the Primer and the Recombination Group, which we've only heard whispers about so far in the Marauder section).

One of the things that Degenesis does really well is to have fans that interpret and analyze everything, but a lot of that comes from the level of mystique.

It's also worth noting that as a setting for a roleplaying game, there's a lot of room for flexibility here that's been left on purpose. Later sections go into more detail about the world of the game, but the first section is just sketching out the key details, and it does so very well as a gist.