Post-Soviet Underground Exploration

This is a sketch of an RPG setting that I want to share here because I don't know anyone IRL that would be interested in these thoughts.

Lately I've had an idea that's been eating away in my head for the past couple of weeks. I was reading through the game Electric Bastionland when I reached the part talking about the "the underground". Around the same time I read an article about the Moscow diggers. The diggers are basically urban explorers who explore the tunnels under Moscow for fun. Some stories I hear are finding abandoned Soviet bunkers, tunnels and catacombs built during the Tsarist period, unused subway stations, rumors of a "secret subway", underground rivers, old quarries, underground monasteries, and communities of squatters and homeless taking up sections of the underground. I know a lot of other cities have these features, but for some reason the post-Soviet setting really made my imagination run.

Reading about these things reminded me of something from my childhood. I spent a huge chunk of my childhood/teenage years in Kyiv, Ukraine. For a short period during that time my family gave foster care to a kid that was a few years older than me. He lived in an abandoned tunnel with other kids. While he was living with us, he would tell me and my brothers strange stories of the Kyiv tunnels, ghost stories, grisly stories surviving, funny situations, etc. It left an impression on me.

All that to say, I think it would be really cool to have a setting set in a fictionalized underground of a post-soviet city. Areas of the tunnels could feature abandoned Soviet labs with weird experimental equipment and mutants, medieval era dungeons with strange magical artifacts and monsters, and other fantastic things. The themes could range from sci-fi to fantasy to political intrigue to pretty much anything else.

I'm thinking of coming up with some random tables and maps and running a short Electric Bastionland game in this setting. I'll post more about my ideas in this thread.

I know some PC games have similar concepts about exploring a Soviet wasteland, most notably STALKER, Metro 2033, and the upcoming Atomic Heart.

- Would you be interested in playing in a setting like this?

- Do you know of a TTRPG setting similar to what I described?

- Do you have any underground urban exploration experience?

- Have you heard weird things about the underground of your city?

That sounds like an amazing setting! I've been interested in trying Into the Odd/Electric Bastionland too, so I would definitely be interested!

Unfortunately, that's a no on the last 3 questions. This would be a new setting to me, and where I live the earth isn't suitable for even basements or subway tunnels, since it freezes then melts very quickly so often - let alone actual bunkers and mines. So, I might not be the ideal player, but I would love to apply!

I did some urban exploration in my youth (back before we had an internet and therefore names for such things (did parkour as well, before we knew it was a thing:))

I was talking with someone who lived through the London Blitz and they were telling me about the bomb-shelters in the Underground (rail or tube) stations. That sparked my imagination to set a game there, but it never happened (Blackout: A Game of Civil Defence brought that setting back to mind).

I actually played S.T.A.L.K.E.R! Which is a novelty for me to be able to say. I have not really played a computer game since then (coincidence).

I have bounced off Into the Odd/Electric Bastionland, still want to put more effort into it, but am not sure.

Apocalypse World jumped out at me immediately as a ruleset that could do this (but then, it is my go-to:). Monster of the Week comes to mind as well, as do a few other Urban Fantasy games, but I don't know how much fantasy you were thinking of, it feels a bit off from the theme. I am sure there must be systems that do the level of scifi you are describing.

Still far away from running a game, but I'll make a note to invite you if I do!
That game has been on my "to-play" list for a long time! Still haven't gotten around to playing it. Years ago my older brother was obsessed with those games, and I remember watching him play through them. The closest thing I've gotten to playing it was reading the book it's based on.
Isn't there a Cairn game going on here? Cairn is a fantasy hack of Into the Odd. It seems like a neat little system I'd like to try sometime.
There is an apocalyptic aspect to the fall of the Soviet union, with the craziness that went on in the 90's and the rampant corruption happening now. Apocalypse World is free right? I'll check it for inspiration some time. I really don't have much experience in PbtA games in general, other than your game I'm in and my experience with Ironsworn.
The whole "exploring tunnels" aspect of the setting I'm thinking of seems to fit well with an old-school-like system(of which there are hundreds of). I've been looking at Mothership for ideas, it has some neat stuff in there. Maybe a modified version of World of Dungeons could work. At this point I'm more focused on fleshing out the setting.

oh this could be anything!. You can have old demented knights turning into "orcs like beasts" if you want fantasy, just next to a cthulu cult (which is also somewhat magical), abandoned alien bases (I heard some of the soviet military architecture is nuts!), all sort of ported "crazy-nazi" game stuff, dead nobody's lands, gang's turf wars, even Putin's secret secret plotting room 😅 I mean, the fantasy is the hardest but you have modern fantasy so, just put a random portal there is you wish to! Really cool idea :D

Perfect experimental setting to try things out :D Particularly since it works really well as episodes (as you should be save whenever you go back to the upper world)

The Schusev State Museum of Architecture has this cool (artistic, not literal) advertising campaign that I think would make for cool concept art for a more political intrigue kind of game.But, I'm also a big horror fan, and dungeon-crawling through some spooky urban tunnels filled with scifi or fantasy monstrosities also sounds like a good time.

Soviet and Nazi stuff, especially hidden things are very interesting. Some examples I can think of are:

The Missing Amber Room
Secret Nazi Base on Antarctica
Die Glocke
The Dyatlov Pass Incident
Russian Sleep Experiment
The Lost Cosmonauts

I mean you could have a shit ton of fun with Nazi and Soviet mysteries to include secret places, chambers or bases. One system that comes to mind for me, is Genesys, which is very cool and generic, yet can be applied to anything. I mean if you run a game that had some big mysteries or possible paranormal stuff, in addition to secret underground stuff, that could be a very cool game.

Nice! Those are really neat. I'm also filling up a folder for visual inspiration so these are useful.

I just found something that will be super useful: Lowlife
It's a toolkit all about exploring tunnels and spelunking, going to make a note of it.

I have successfully used Apocalypse World for non-apocalyptic stuff, and for generic space adventure. You can either tone down the Weird (exclude a few playbooks) or change how it is presented from the classic Psychic Maelstrom to any form of mystic strangeness or tech.
No. They did have the first edition PDFs free on the website, but I saw they were missing the last time looked. Maybe you can still find it on the wayback machine. But I would recommend the second edition for this, it has some more rules for buildings and vehicles and tactical support and subterfuge that may be desired for this type of game.

They do often give away free copies on the itch.io page.
I thought about Ironsworn, or, more specifically, about Delve, but it can be a bit opinionated on what sort of things you find and can warp the tone to fit its random tables.
Like, maybe: World of Dungeons Turbo: Breakers? You can adjust the era and turn the incursions into vaults and it will work.

World of Dungeons does sort of rely on familiarly with PbtA games, as it has no GM (or player) help in the text, just the rules. It is less 'rules-lite' as much as it is 'rules-omitted'. But that is often the case with such, short, low-page-count systems.
Mothership was a bit too horrory for my tastes, but it does seem like a good fit.

As an Unknown Armies fan my kneejerk reaction is "well of course this is a UA setting; the cabal meets an avatar channeling the archetype of the Hermit in one of 333 caverns buried under Tbilisi"… But no matter what genre you end up going with it’s a great idea!

Sweet ideas here. Love Stalker, Metro, etc. System-wise, I think you might want resource management, procedural area generation, equipment that matters, factions, etc. Electric Bastionland would work fine as a base, but that puts a lot of the mechanics in your hands to develop, and if you're really following that design ethos you'll have to come up with bunch of failed careers or their equivalents. Cairn is Into the Odd combined with Knave and might be a nice fit, but bear in mind the ItO games can be awfully deadly.

I'd probably whip up a Black Hack hack personally since it's got slick mechanics for resource management and is very easy to bolt things onto. Some of the solid generics would also work well -- Fate, SWADE, Everywhen, etc. Something like a lightweight Year Zero Engine or Forged in the Dark game could also work, as could ICRPG. Also agree that WoDu, Mothership, and Breakers are worth consideration.

Tons of options!

To answer your original questions, Sunny...

- Would you be interested in playing in a setting like this?

Yep!

- Do you know of a TTRPG setting similar to what I described?

See above.

- Do you have any underground urban exploration experience?

Urban? No. Lots beneath old fortifications and such, though, and I've spend some time below-ground in industry facilities, dams, etc.

- Have you heard weird things about the underground of your city?

Denver doesn't have much underground, but there are always the crazy rumors about the airport... and lots of secret mountain complexes of course. :) My hometown is much older, but doesn't have much of an underground other than the aforementioned ruins / historical fortifications...

I was thinking something along the lines of "deadly and weird", the idea of failed careers fit perfectly with the post-Soviet 90's setting I'm thinking of, it would be fun to come up with related failed careers.
I'll look into Black Hack, I keep hearing neat things about it in random RPG circles. I'm sure there are dozens of systems that this setting could work with, I think the thing I have to work out is everything else related to the setting.
Was that for work? What are the potential hazards being in those places?

If you follow the EB model and do the career work, it'll also seed the adventures / plots / story / background, as well. You could even do the 'who do you owe?' thing, and have the factions and institutions and locations appear in the failed professions. It's a genius bit of RPG design. Dig it a lot.

TBH / system -- yes, lots of things would work. Sounds like you know the drill. Find something with mechanics and an approach that you like and build the Russian underground stuff from there.

Below ground: I worked as an archaeologist for ten years or so, and did a some underground excavation -- beneath an 18th century church, in the previously sealed / buried gun casemates of the big 18th/19th century fort that dominates my home town, etc. Also worked in some places that provided access to tunnels and such... which we would explore for fun. On breaks, after work, etc. In both cases, the real danger was histoplasmosis and other fungus-based lung ailments & infections. Not as fun as spiked traps, I know. But thinking back: it was dark in those tunnels, there were bulging / collapsed walls, there was standing water, there were quite a few critters, and there was a lot of detritus and junk to get around at times -- rusty metal, glass, old broken down equipment, etc.

The one place were we (two of us were young and foolish) did the most exploring was a small island in the middle of the harbor... a snake-infested island. Didn't find those in the bowels of the fortifications, though. They liked the long grass and rotten wood piles in the parade. Good times!

This post basically stream of consciousness writing, so bear with me if I'm not coherent lol.

I decided to make the setting of this completely fictional, no references to real nations and politics. "Papers Please" did a good job with a fictional Eastern European setting that still felt natural, so I'll do something similar with this setting. I want to avoid any sort of political commentary in my game, since there are a lot of strong opinions on politics and nations in Eastern Europe.

I found a Russian forum all about underground urban exploration. I found a lot of interesting topics there, tips and survival guides. Interesting stuff.

A surprising amount of talk about dosimeters and avoiding irradiated areas, I might add that aspect to my setting.

Some grizzly deaths I read about include dying of hyperthermia, drowning in unexpected rising water, unexpected cave-ins, getting trapped in an area and dying of hunger.

Some hazards I found out about include poisonous gas, heatstroke, frost-bite, cuts, dehydration, and injury due to over-exertion. There was also an interesting topic where people were talking about dealing with stray dogs.

I also need to look at spelunking and speleology forums for ideas, since there seems to be a large overlap between underground urban exploration and spelunking.



I can't help but think of using some things from Shadowrun, especially the idea of players having personal contact NPCs, finding help through fences and fixers, and dangerous drugs. On the forum I found some people trying to give dubious medical advice, some even recommending illegal drugs as pain-killers. I certainly don't want my game to encourage drug use, but it would be an interesting mechanic to have items that would help you temporarily but can also be dangerous.

I'm thinking of adding a "rescue" mechanic, where if you get stuck, you can have close friends or family send a rescue team to find you if you don't return after a certain period. This can save the party of a TPK, but it can also compromise things for the players.

The more I think about this, the more I realize I need to come up with more game incentives to explore and find things underground to avoid turning the game into a typical urban criminal game.
That's really fascinating, have you ever drawn from those experiences in the games that you run? If so, in what way did you do it?

All the time. We all draw on our real-life experiences, right? Especially in this case for the sights, smells and sensations of just being underground. How wet and dark it is. What it's like thinking you see something moving in the darkness, etc. I mean -- dungeon crawls. :)

Even in natural caves radiation can be a concern (though not enough that we tested for it). But in the area you are describing there could be nuclear waste or weapons stored underground (that is the only thing we know to do with it) and leaking out. So that would make a reasonable constant background threat, or ticking clock to keep things moving (no 'one encounter per long-rest' game, this one:).
Caving, like high altitude mountaineering, is the tale of 'grizzly deaths'. Small mistakes can become deadly dragging out the injured or dead will kill the rest, and help is far away, even more so in caves than on mountains where helicopters are viable.
Look into 'rats and caves'. It is surprising how little this happens once you get away from human contact areas. In the areas where you have humans and human waste, you have rats, where you have rats you gets things that eat rats, including dogs.
That was why we did it. When we could not get to the caves we did our caving in the city. :)
As a caver (we did not use fancy words like spelunking, since no one else knew what that means and only a few of us had read books about it to learn the word:) the idea of being rescued was pretty far from our minds. This made us a lot more careful than we would otherwise have been.

You will find this attitude a lot on the spelunking forums. But a game does not have to represent reality, there could be some expensive (future-tech or magic?) mechanism for rescue even if getting a team to your exact location (what is your location, in this maze of twisty little passages, all alike?) to extract you is challenging.
That is always a big challenge when making a game. "Is there enough here to incite play for more than a scene or two?".

I think you would need to use this as a backdrop --the place the game happens-- rather than the actual game. It is an interesting setting, but needs a raison d'être.
Is a logical game format and reason to play.
Urban Exploration is often illegal, or illegal-adjacent. Often is is as simple as trespassing (but your setting may have military access-restrictions as well), therefore going to hospitals and explaining how you got hurt could be a problem, so I could see many resorting to illegal medications or backyard surgeons. We were young and immortal (and lucky) so that never came up.
Exhausted and starving, down at the bottom of a cave knowing it will take 9 hours or slogging to get out? I can see the desire for a quick stimulant.