ARIUM: CREATE WILL HELP

YOUR GROUP DISCOVER THE

STORY THEY WANT TO TELL.

ARIUM: DISCOVER BRINGS

YOUR BEST IDEAS TO LIFE
THROUGH ROLEPLAYING.
 Arium: Create
Authors: William Munn, Arium Logo Designer:
Natasha Ence, Drew Gerken Heather Gerken

Editor: Charlotte-Mae R. Irrgang Adept Icarus Logo Designer:

K. M. Alexander
Sensitivity Advisor: Mariam Ahmad
Cover Artist: Andreas Rocha
Lead Designer: William Munn
Publishing/Art Direction:
Book Designer:
William Munn
David Miessler‑Kubanek

Playtesters: Emily Earhart, Chase Ingraham, Katie Young, Dalton Obray,

Frank Earhart, Daniel Yocom, Rashelle Yeates, Adam Clayton, Patrick Tracy,
Wade Edwards, J. C. Chambers III, Jonathan Bowen, Katie Rinda, Alex Tulley,
Robert Smith, R. Jon Rock, Meri Munn, Kassie Munn, Emma Munn, Michelle
Bruveleit, Bryan Bruveleit, Joey Bruveleit, Isaac Bruveleit, Lailynn Bruveleit,
Marina Nye, Tyler Rollins, Brent Girard, Jacob Ward, Tim Ryan Scully, Steve
Davit, Michael Mahony, Jeremy Wilde, Chame Dalton, Steven Estep

Additional Thanks: Published by Adept Icarus, 2020

To our friends and families who’ve ISBN 978-1-953128-01-0
been both patient and supportive as we
All rights reserved. Reproduction
worked for untold hours writing and
without the written permission of
playtesting Arium. We love you all!
the publisher is expressly forbidden,
To Alan Bahr, who answered so many except for the purposes of reviews,
dumb publishing questions, he should and for the blank Arium sheets
be listed as a contributor. and quick reference guides, which
may be reproduced for personal use
To Emily and Katie who were there at
only. Interior art images by Tithi
the beginning and the end and many
Luadthong used under license from
of the in-between bits.
Shutterstock.com.
To the RWG. You know what you are?
You’re the best!

To all of the people we forgot to

mention here. We know you’re out
there. Oops.

3
 Arium: Create

Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Where Did This Idea Come From? . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
What Is A Roleplaying Game? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
What Stories Will We Tell? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Playing Arium: Create . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The Realm of Possibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The Abyss of Avoidance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Get Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
How Does This Work? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Wrap Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Find Us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Optional Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Arium: Create Quick Reference Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Arium: Create Results Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

4
Introduction
Hello, to the curious person who picked up this strange little title. We
congratulate you on your sense of adventure, and we’re glad you’re here!
Let’s get the big question out of the way: What in the name of the
stars is an Arium? From this point on, we’ll refer to the concept of an
overarching world, universe, setting, and story/adventure seeds as an
Arium. It also contains the collection of places, people, and things
that exist within the Arium.
Arium: Create is a standalone toolkit for building Ariums for stories
and roleplaying games. It’s designed to streamline creating an Arium
the entire group will want to play in. We’re not pulling your leg when we
say, “anything is possible.”

5
 Arium: Create

• Want time-traveling sasquatches kidnapping kids, or pro-football-

player drama involving concussions, contracts, and the consequences
of insta-fame?
• Maybe the ghost of an ex-United States President communing with
anthropomorphic talking squirrels in the restroom of a Cracker
Barrel restaurant is more your speed?
• Would your characters like a chance to stop by Zapp’s: a proprietor
of demon sap-powered magitech? Maybe they could use it to fight
pirates off the decks of your ship sailing the sand dune seas.
• Perhaps folks want to settle in on an ice-covered planet – complete with
underwater society – on the far side of the universe. One that could easily
be at home in the works of Lewis Carroll or Douglas Adams?
Arium: Create will help your group discover the story they need to tell.
You still with us?
If you’re sick of reading at this point, we posted a handy video that
demonstrates some of the fundamental concepts of Arium: Create, on
the Adept Icarus YouTube channel.

WHERE DID THIS IDEA COME FROM?

The Arium: Create team’s RPG pedigree starts with the popular
systems of the 1980s and 90s, and it extends to modern game
systems like FATE, PbtA, TinyD6, and Microscope. Folks who
have experience in technology, manufacturing, or software
industries may also recognize the hallmarks of lean/agile collaboration
techniques throughout Arium.
For years, Will has been running meetings of all sorts in the corporate
world – complex event scheduling, idea generation, feedback gathering,
simple voting, and more – using only a fistful of markers, a stack of
sticky notes, and a room full of willing (or semi-willing) participants.
Maybe he’d throw in the occasional timer to keep things moving along.
He used those concepts and tools more than once to help brainstorm
and organize ideas for events for various writing groups. That’s where

6
Drew first saw the technique and its potential. His imagination ran
wild with possibilities for ways to use it outside of the meeting room.
Together, Will and Drew collaborated to come up with the concept of
Lean Worldbuilding. They tried it out with members of their writing
group, and the system’s success prompted them to take the show on
the road to FyreCon 2018. There, they demoed worldbuilding with
sticky notes for a modest crowd – about twenty people (probably an
exaggeration).
FyreCon is also where Natasha first got to see the core rules of Arium: Create
in action and give thought-provoking feedback. Later, when Will started
thinking about the concept as a complete game, rather than a fun convention
exercise, he ran some of those ideas by her. Natasha gave even more helpful
feedback. She also suggested several rules concepts she’d already been working
on that fit perfectly with the vision Will had in mind. You’ll see those rules in
Arium: Discover.
So here we are, offering part one of our game to you. We hope you love
it as much as we do.
-Adept Icarus and the Arium Team

WHAT IS A ROLEPLAYING GAME?

By 2020, there have been countless pop-culture references to
roleplaying games. Have you seen Stranger Things? The Big
Bang Theory? Critical Role? Voltron Legendary Defender? Each
references roleplaying games.
An RPG is a bunch of friends collaboratively telling an entertaining
story while they have a fantastic time. Yeah, there are some rules in
place to add strategy and randomness, and to keep the game fun for
everyone. We believe people new to the idea of tabletop RPGs will have
fun with Arium: Create. Grab an adventurous friend and give it a try!

7
 Arium: Create

Requirements
1. A little time. Arium: Create puts a group through a series
THE SHORTLIST of streamlined creation steps that will give you a unique
Arium everyone enjoys in about an hour. Maybe two if you
• One to six friends take your time. Parts of the session are timed, so a timer,
either standalone or on your phone, will also come in handy.
• A gamemaster/
facilitator with a 2. To play in person, you need sticky notes (preferably good
timer (or a phone/ quality, extra-sticky ones). Also, grab some fine-point
watch) black markers (don’t skimp on these either), and something
to use as tokens. Even dice will suffice (and yes, Will freely
• Post-It® brand
admits to being a monster for that rhyme).
3-inch x 3-inch
Super Sticky 3. The Arium: Create Quick Reference will be your
Notes (trust us) best friend if you’re the GM.
• Sharpie® brand 4. Oh yeah, you also need people. Hey, technically, you
markers (or could do this all by yourself, but the voting wouldn’t
another fine-point mean much. Groups of two to six seem to work the best.
black marker) Still, we’ve playtested with as many as twelve (not twenty
like we exaggerated in the introduction).
• Three tokens per
player (i.e., poker a. One of the people will need to act as the
chips, glass beads, gamemaster/facilitator of the group. We’ll refer to
pocket lint) them as gamemaster or GM from here on.

8
 WE LOVE MARKERS
AND STICKY NOTES!
The commitment to sticky notes and markers may
seem obsessive. Still, they are great collaboration ONLINE PLAY
tools for a whole host of reasons. When we started
talking seriously about Arium, the crew was
Running Arium:
curious about Will’s adamant dedication to them
Create with a
as a medium for the game. According to him, the
distributed group
most important reasons for using them are:
is pretty easy too.
We recommend
using any video
STICKY NOTES: conferencing that

1 
allows screen
Limit the number
sharing (Zoom,
of words per entry,
Skype, Discord)
which keeps the session
and an online
streamlined, straightforward,
idea/task board
and easy to reason about
that updates in

2  Are easy to sort

and group
real-time. Trello
is free and easy
to use, so we
use that. Here’s

MARKERS: a Trello board

from one of our

3  Keep entries legible at

a medium distance
playtests: https://
bit.ly/ariumtrello.

4 
As an alternative
Help to further limit
to Trello, a
the size and scope
real-time shared
of individual ideas
document like a
Google Doc would
work in a pinch.
Alternatives are great as long as the intent is honored!
For instance, we’ve run Arium: Create entirely on a
large whiteboard with dry-erase markers.

9
 Arium: Create

WHAT STORIES WILL WE TELL?

Arium: Create shines in a few specific areas:
1. Telling stories the entire group can feel ownership of.
2. Helping groups who struggle with indecision when they try to play
traditional story game systems.
3. Creating cross-genre scenarios and mashups of things you always
wished you could see in mainstream games and media.
4. Inspiring general worldbuilding and storytelling awesomeness.
Arium: Create works fantastically for small writing teams who are inventing
all the elements they need to get started writing in a shared Arium.

A NOTE ABOUT CONTENT RATING

AND GAME SAFETY TOOLS
First off, at Adept Icarus, we believe in safety for the entire group first and
foremost. We use safety tools in our games, and we recommend everyone
do the same. We’re building on the shoulders of giants here with Lacunae
(see page 24), but there is plenty more useful guidance out there for making
your RPG a safe and fun place for all.
The practice is simple, it’s essential, and we can’t think of a good reason to
ignore these tools. That said, we aren’t going to recap them here except to
say two things:
1. Be kind to your fellows first, and everything will probably work
itself out.
2. We found a great page detailing safety tools. Please review it if you
aren’t already familiar: https://bit.ly/ariumsafety
In our Arium: Create sessions, we use the Lacunae step to review safety
tools and restrict tone and content.

10
11
 Arium: Create

Playing Arium:
Create
THE REALM OF POSSIBILITY
Arium: Create is built entirely around getting folks in
alignment with the Arium elements they care about most.
Beginning at the highest level, the group will collectively
narrow the possibilities down to a universal concept, or mash-
up a couple. Then, you’ll discover the big-picture themes
and resonance your Arium holds. Next is the creation of cultures and
factions. Once you’ve got those elements down, you’ll create landmark
details and learn where the group is most likely to tell stories. You’ll add
depth and character to the Arium, including the types of people and
things that will be central to your scenes.
These latter elements are ripe to be claimed by players for their future
game sessions.
All told, Arium: Create’s realm of possibility is vast.

12
THE ABYSS OF AVOIDANCE
We don’t discourage much when building an Arium. That said,
see our advice regarding safety tools on page 10.
Additionally, follow the Rule of Cool. If something is hampering
your enjoyment of the Arium, talk with the group. Arium:
Create is very much a game built on concepts of improv. If you can
remain open to ways of making other folks’ ideas work for you by saying
“yes, and,” (see page 15) you’ll probably have a fantastic time.

GET STARTED
So, the gaming group is gathered. You’re caffeinated, hydrated,
or inebriated… hey, we don’t judge. Now you’re ready to forge
a new reality. The group has stacks of sticky notes and Sharpies,
right? If so, you’re prepared to begin.
The goal of Arium: Create is to collaboratively build an immersive
Arium that everyone is excited to explore and tell stories in. You’ll be
working through the seven Creation Steps starting at the overview level, and
you’ll gradually add detail drilling deep into the group’s passionate vision of
an Arium. The group will set everything from the genre all the way down to
the story-driven traits of the people who inhabit the newly-born Arium.
This is an opportunity to create the bones of a remarkable new story.
Arium: Create allows us to accomplish, in a single game session, what many
gamemasters toil over for months – with the added benefit of all players
contributing and buying-in to its creation. It’s important to note: this is a
democratic process – ideas with the most votes win. However, compromise
and adaption are highly encouraged. The entire goal of the game is to create
an Arium that everyone loves so much they can’t get it out of their heads.

13
 Arium: Create

HOW DOES THIS WORK?

First, start by reviewing the goal of Arium: Create – to
collaboratively build an Arium. As a group, discuss the names
of the seven creation steps, and the three creation phases shared
by each step. Also, introduce Creation Tokens. Everyone needs
to know what they are in for:
0
CREATION Lacunae
STEPS
6 1
Goodies Universal
CREATION
PHASES
CREATION TOKENS 1 Timed Ideating

Players each have

three that can be
5
2 Collaborating
3 Voting
2
People Big
used at any time Picture
to “yes, and”
a creation. YES,
AND
4 3
YES, YES, Landmarks Culture &
AND Organizations
AND

TIPS FOR NEW GROUPS

If the group has never played Arium: Create, we recommend running

through the three creation phases on at least two test creation steps as
a warmup. Our favorite two-step sample is “What are the best movies
of all time?“ and then “From those movies, who are the best characters/
actors?” The key is to pick something the group is intimately familiar with
that has a subset for the second step.

This exercise demonstrates the drill-down nature of flowing through

sequential phases of Timed Ideating, Collaborating, and Voting before you
start14into creating the actual Arium together. We have an example of how
this should go on page 33.
CREATION TOKENS
A quick word about Creation Tokens. Each player is
given three tokens (i.e., glass beads, dice, coins, etc.)
QUICK
at the beginning of the Arium: Create session. They REFERENCE
should be encouraged to use them if they absolutely
wish to change or improve and idea submitted
Creation tokens let
by another player without requiring any sort of
a player modify any
collaboration. This is not intended as a player-versus-
idea in the improv
player mechanism. However, the other player could also
tradition of saying
then further modify the idea with their own Creation
“yes, and” to that
Token.
idea. For example:
Players may only say “yes, and” to another player’s “Yes, we’ll have
idea by adding their own twist on it. This is done in anthropomorphic
the spirit of improvisation. fennec fox people,
and nobody has
seen one for 1,000
The first rule of improvisation is AGREE. Always
years”. Leftover
agree and SAY YES. When you’re improvising, this
tokens are saved
means you are required to agree with whatever your
and can transition
partner has created. So if we’re improvising and I say,
to charcter selection.
“Freeze, I have a gun,” and you say, “That’s not a gun.
It’s your finger. You’re pointing your finger at me,” our
improvised scene has ground to a halt. But if I say,
“Freeze, I have a gun!” and you say, “The gun I gave
you for Christmas! You jerk!” then we have started a
scene because we have AGREED that my finger is in
fact a Christmas gun.
Bossypants by Tina Fey (Reagan Arthur Books; 2011)

Players who don’t find a need for their Creation Tokens will find them
beneficial when transitioned into character creation. They should be
encouraged to use them if they absolutely wish to change or improve an
idea. See the optional rules on page 45 for examples of this.

15
 Arium: Create

CREATION PHASES
QUICK REFERENCE
end with small groups, and/or long
FACILITATING CREATION games.
For each of the seven creation
steps, the gamemaster flows the
PHASE 2 – COLLABORATING
group through three creation
phases: Timed Ideating followed by The GM talks through organizing and
Collaborating and, finally, Voting. grouping the notes. Everyone makes
The steps are designed to build suggestions for grouping/combining
on each other and shift the focus ideas for similarity or awesomeness.
from broad to specific. The phases
similarly zoom in as creation
PHASE 3 – VOTING
progresses, but with a focus on one
complete concept at a time. Everyone votes for their favorite ideas
by marking a note with a unique
initial or symbol they will recognize.
PHASE 1 – TIMED IDEATING
The number of votes per person
Don’t discuss... collaborating
is determined by taking the total
comes next.
number of grouped sticky notes
Everyone writes one cohesive divided by 3 ((total grouped notes)/3
idea per note and up to three per = (# votes per person)).
person. The GM keeps time and
For example: if there are 9 idea
can add their own ideas if they
groups to vote on, each player gets 3
wish. The phase ends when time
votes. 15 gets 5, and so on. The GM
is up, or everyone has created
can round remainders up or down at
three notes. Time estimates are
their discretion.
listed in each step. As a general
rule, plan to use the low end of Bring all the winning ideas together
the range for large groups and/ and discard those that didn’t receive
or short games, and the high any votes.

16
CREATION PHASES
Each of the seven creation steps (see page 23) consists of three distinct
phases; Timed Ideating, Collaborating, and Voting. The only exception
is Lacunae, which excludes Voting. Review each step’s detailed
description, starting on page 24 for additional clarification and ideas.

PHASE 1 – TIMED IDEATING PHASE EXTRA IDEAS

Each step starts off with a creative frenzy.
Everyone silently writes down up to three ideas If the group wants
(one idea per sticky note!) until time runs out. to create an
This includes the GM at their discretion, but it extremely large or
makes the most sense in small groups. complex Arium,
you can raise
the maximum
Nordic- Fantasy Magic! number of sticky
Influence Steampunk notes beyond the
recommended
three. Just
remember, the
At the end of the Timed Ideating Phase, each person
more ideas you
should have a little stack of sticky notes containing the
have on the table,
seeds that will potentially populate the group’s Arium.
the less streamlined
Not every idea will be a winner, but that’s just fine. The
and straightforward
final result will be incredible. The recommended time
the next two phases
to complete this phase is dependent upon three things:
will be. Make sure
the step you are in, the number of people in the group,
to allow for enough
and the planned length of your story or campaign. As
session time to
such, we give the recommended time ranges for each
complete them.
step alongside their listings – Creation Steps, page 23.
Tune the timing to the group’s needs.
We encourage everyone to avoid talking about their intentions at this
point. Collaborating during the Timed Ideating Phase will often hinder
both creativity and each player’s individual expression. Keep ideas
private and ideate in silence for now. The talking comes next!

17
 Arium: Create

PHASE 2 – COLLABORATING PHASE

Here’s where the GM may take the opportunity to observe and
suggest ways the group could collaborate. Facilitating will be an
easy task with some groups and more difficult with others, but as
always, we recommend asking the group questions rather than
delivering statements or commands.

Intergalactic Fantasy Anime-

Epic Empire Steampunk Nordic-
Inspired
Influence

Magic!
Sci-Fi

Start by collecting all of the idea-laden

Space
Opera sticky notes from the group. Once
they’re all piled up, begin sorting
through them. We really love using a
giant whiteboard for this process, but
huddling everyone around three sides
of a table will do just fine.
The goal during the Collaborating Phase is to go wide with the ideas.
Place ideas in a horizontal row of notes containing different concepts.
One person can read each in turn, or each person can read their own
notes aloud (our preference).
Call out similar ideas or concepts that go very well together based on
the notes everyone wrote. Group these complementary ideas vertically
with the original sticky note. Here’s an example of how ideas might be
grouped together.
Promote discussion throughout the phase and call out items that would
excite you if they were conceptually joined, but always try to honor the
wishes of the folks who wrote the notes. A note-writing player may have
a strong sense that their idea needs to remain separate and distinct, and
that’s perfectly OK. If two or more note-writers agree their concepts

18
 should be joined, they should have the final say. When all the notes have
been read and grouped, there will be vertical groups of collaborative
concepts and horizontal lines of independent ideas that stand alone.
We promise there will be laughing, negotiating, and immediate
collaborating as everyone starts fusing different ideas into one as they
are read. Leave the vertical groupings stacked for voting.

Practical Dark and

Magic A Love Story Horror Lethal
Realism

Intergalactic Fantasy
Epic Empire Steampunk

Magic!
Sci-Fi

Zoomed in detail
of the column
with the most Space
similar idea.
Opera

19
 Arium: Create

PHASE 3 – VOTING PHASE

Once all of the ideas are out and sorted, it’s time for democracy to
work its magic. Get ready to head to the polls with your markers
and vote!
Everyone participating in Arium: Create must know all the
voting options, so make sure that everyone can see and read the grid
of notes easily. Encourage people to move around if they need a better
view. This is why a giant whiteboard works so well, although a flat
expanse of a wall can be just as cooperative. A large table or countertop
works, but the players may need to stand to read the sticky notes.
Each person – including the GM if they choose – gets votes equal to the total
number of distinct ideas, divided by three ((# idea columns) / 3). Round any
remainder up or down at the GM’s discretion. For example, there are nine
columns of ideas to vote on. Two of the nine columns have more than
one note, but the GM counts these grouped ideas as a single column…
so still just nine ideas. They divide the number of columns (9) by three.
Nine divided by three is three (9/3 = 3), so each player gets three votes to
distribute between their favorite ideas.

9 Columns of Notes with Ideas 14 Columns of Notes with Ideas

 
  
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
  

/ 3 = 3 Votes per Player / 3 = 4 Votes per Player

GAMEMASTER NOTE
Adjusting this formula isn’t recommended. However, it’s entirely up to the
group. Limiting the votes that are cast during each step ensures the most
robust ideas continue and that folks buy-in. Universal and Big Picture may
yield only a few winners. In contrast, later steps often produce the most
results. The GM works with the group to decide where to draw the line and
may even choose to keep discarded ideas in their mind palace for future
surprise appearances. This can be a lot of fun for someone who thought
their favorite idea was dead and gone.

20
Just remember the rule of dividing by three. Here’s one
more explicit example. If there are fourteen different idea PLEASE NOTE!
columns (maybe a few of them have more than one note,
but this doesn’t matter). So we divide the number of
The intent of
columns (14) by three. Fourteen divided by three is
using something
between 4 and 5 (14/3 = 4.66), so the GM decides to
recognizable for
round up or down, and so on.
voting helps make
Once you have determined the number of votes each sure that no one
person has for the given step, it’s time to start casting accidentally votes
them. Voting could be done by raising hands… but for the same thing
that isn’t much fun. We prefer to have everyone draw a twice.
unique initial or symbol on their chosen ideas. Allow
everyone a few minutes to review all the options, and
then ballot away!

THE VOTE
In our example, here’s how the voting transpired: Intergalactic Empire
received 1 vote each from Edna (E), Nayle (N), and Wayne (W), for 3
votes. Sci-Fi received 0 votes. Space Opera received 0 votes. Fantasy
Steampunk received 1 vote from N. Magic! received 0 votes. Nordic-
Influence received 1 vote each from D, W, and N, for 3 votes. Epic
received 1 vote each from E, N, and D, for 3 votes. Anime-Inspired
received 1 vote from E. Practical Magic Realism received 1 vote from D.
A Love Story received 1 vote from W. Horror received 0 votes. Dark and
Lethal received 0 votes.

E W
E D D N D
Practical
Intergalactic Fantasy Anime-
Epic N
Empire Steam Nordic- Magic A Love Story H
N punk Influence
Inspired
Realism
E W
N W

Magic!
Sci-Fi

Note: Sci-Fi, Magic!, Space Opera, Horror and Dark and Lethal are not
shown as they didn’t receive any votes.
Space
After the votes are tallied, re-order them so that the top vote-getters
Opera

are grouped together. Put ideas that didn’t get any votes (sad sounds)
into a discard pile. Now the group should decide how many tallies it

21
 Arium: Create

takes to make the cut based on storytelling style, DISCARD PILE

the step, and the distribution of votes. The GM
facilitates this decision, and it shouldn’t be done
Dark and
in a vacuum. If you aren’t sure what the cutoff LethalSci-Fi Magic!
should be, try a finger vote (on the count of Space
Opera
three, everyone hold up the number of fingers Horror

representing the votes they think it should

take for items to make it into the Arium).
Example facilitation: “It looks like we
have three Universal ideas with three UNIVERSAL IDEAS
votes each. Epic scale, sci-fi, and Nordic
D N
influence are probably our winners, with E D
Nordic-
Epic
the others having two votes or less. How Influence
W
N
does everyone feel about an epic Nordic-
influenced sci-fi Arium?”
Intergalactic
If group discussion doesn’t clear things up, the N
Empire
E W
gamemaster may ask the group to consider an
additional round of voting.
Add the low-vote losers to the discard pile,
and copy the main gist of the winners onto LOW-VOTES
a single note if possible. Label this final note
W
with the step title. Some steps may require a Fantasy
few notes for consolidation. Collaborate with Steam
N punk A Love Story

the group to make sure these notes distill the

essence of the winning ideas. Sometimes it may E D
Practical
make sense to just keep the original notes. Anime-
Inspired
Magic
Realism
E
D
Epi
N

CHOSEN Epic Nordi

c-
c

d
Influence
UNIVERSAL
Int Emp

No uenc

Sci-Fi
Infl
erg N

rdi e
N
E

c-
ala e
ir
cti
c
W

Finally, the GM may keep a few of the lower vote-getters in their

figurative back pocket for use later. However, the true winners are the
adopted ideas that influence all future steps. Thoughts secretly kept
aside aren’t Arium canon.

22
CREATION STEPS
1-3
STEP 0 mins What does not belong in our Arium?
(Note: This step has no limit and no vote.
LACUNAE Creation Tokens also do not work here.)

1-3
STEP 1 mins Genre, tone, flavor. Stay as broad as
possible.
UNIVERSAL

1-5
STEP 2 mins Backdrop and scope of the Arium (i.e.,
continents/wars). If there is magic or
BIG PICTURE tech, how accessible is it? How does it
influence the Arium?

2-9
STEP 3 mins Beliefs, peoples/heritages, legends,
past events, secret groups, schools,
CULTURE & institutions.
ORGANIZATIONS

1-5
STEP 4 mins Narratively relevant places you could point
to on a street-level map.
LANDMARKS

2-9
STEP 5 mins Folks who live here: Names, pronouns,
quirks, descriptions.
PEOPLE

1-5
STEP 6 mins Narratively important stuff. (i.e., items,
vehicles, etc.)
GOODIES

We’ve found some groups already have a firm idea of what

they want for steps 1 and 2. We recommend going through
23
the exercise anyway, but feel free to consider the steps
as components you can play with.
 Arium: Create

STEP 0 – LACUNAE [1-3 MINUTES]

OPTIONAL Focal Point: What does NOT belong in
HANDLING our Arium?
FOR LACUNAE Luh-KYOO-nee. The plural version of a
lacuna. Lacuna has a couple of relevant
definitions: An unfilled space or interval; a gap. A
If the group might
missing portion in a book or manuscript.
benefit from
discussion lubricant A crucial point about Lacunae: this is the only
regarding Lacunae, step that has no submission limit and no voting.
the following could Creation Tokens cannot effect Lacunae. If a lacuna
be helpful. Ask is written, it is real. No exceptions.
everyone to add
For our purposes, lacunae include items and concepts
a symbol to the
that we don’t want to be part of our Arium for any reason
beginning of each
at all. We want them to be absent, and the reasoning
lacuna as they write
doesn’t really matter. For example, a person may request
it. The symbols
a complete lack of Pokémon. Perhaps they just don’t want
will help to guide
Pokémon in the Arium, or maybe they have a deathly fear
discussion during
of Pikachu. The point is, it doesn’t matter.
collaboration.
Anything listed during the Lacunae step is treated
* The lacuna is
the same way as a Line from the Lines & Veils safety
non-negotiable. It
tool (see https://bit.ly/ariumsafety). It doesn’t exist
cannot exist and the
in the Arium, either through actual appearance or
individual would
indirect reference. That said, if you’d like to draw a
rather not discuss it.
Veil across something and have it exist but not have
+ The lacuna on-camera time, make sure it is called out as such on
operates similar to the sticky note.
a Veil. It only exists
We utilize the collaborating phase to ask clarifying
in background but
questions and ensure the group understands the
never on camera.
intent of each lacuna. If someone writes “no high tech
- The lacuna could stuff,” you may want to ask for clarification on where
be replaced by an the line is drawn. Does the restriction start with a
alternative that fills a particular tech? Is there electricity? Gunpowder? Steel?
similar role as long as
Lastly, the Lacunae step could be weaponized by
the Arium doesn’t use
groups with real-life disagreements or ideological
this specific thing.
differences outside the game. We never saw this kind
of aggression in playtesting, but we shudder to think of

24
the possibilities. One of a GM’s most important duties: to coach the group
through avoidance of systemic bias, micro-aggression, and other issues
that may negatively impact marginalized player(s) at the table. Given
the right circumstances, we believe it’s possible to game together with a
group that might fundamentally disagree on some issues. We hope groups
take these opportunities to learn from one another in the process when
possible. Handled poorly, the group may never get beyond the Lacuane
step, and worse, players may leave traumatized and with unkind feelings
toward one another. If the gamemaster can’t help opposing sides talk out
a concern, they may consider banning an inappropriate lacuna.
We aren’t here to tell you how to game in these situations, and honestly,
there are much better resources than this book to aid in understanding how
marginalized people face discrimination. We sincerely hope folks playing
Arium will maintain a mindful kindness toward one another. It is our firm
belief that roleplaying games are a tool to draw people together. These
games can help us understand one another, and even see through the eyes
of another whose life experiences differ significantly from our own.
You must remain alert as the GM, and use your authority to the benefit
of the group. If you can’t help opposing sides talk out a concern,
consider banning an inappropriate lacuna.

Unicorns Modern Drug Addiction

Technology

+ Unicorns are veiled * Drug Addiction is

because they are – Modern Technology not something that the
believed to exist but are doesn’t fit with the sci-fi players want to deal with
never seen in our game. elements in the game. in this game.

STEP 1 – UNIVERSAL [1-3 MINUTES]

Focal Point: Genre, tone, flavor. Stay as broad as possible.
Next, we shift focus to the foundation of what is in our Arium.
What is the group most interested in? Sci-fi? Fantasy? Feudal
Society? Post-apocalyptic? Noir detectives? This step is the broadest
of strokes and should focus on the fundamental ideas of the Arium.

25
 )
Arium: Create
ng y(ish
Portal Fant Big Da Scar
asy
Heroes

Universal will help dictate how specific a genre the group is looking
for. Is it a high, low, or concept Fantasy, or is it Sword and Sorcery? A
Wizarding School? Sometimes the Universal ideas can bleed through
to into more Big Picture ideas, and that is okay. The Universal step will
always affect the Big Picture step.
If the group is already set on a Universal concept before you begin, use this
opportunity to have the group better inform the Arium with more specifics
If the group is dying to play a Sci-fi game, use this step to determine if the
Arium will be Space Opera, Space Pirates, Hard Sci-fi Space Pioneering,
Spec-Ops Space Exploration, or any other twist, take, or subversion.

STEP 2 – BIG PICTURE [1-5 MINUTES]

Focal Point: Backdrop and scope of the Arium. Issues, events,
story hooks (i.e., continents/wars/history).
Now that the group has established their Universal concepts,
it’s time to start thinking about the Big Picture. The scope of the
collective creation will largely be determined during this step, and this
will help frame the remaining steps as well. While Universal dictates
the flavor of the Arium, this step gives us, in the broadest sense, the
themes and landscape in which the story will play out. These ideas will
be the fuel for great stories and many adventures – they will also grant
a sense of realism. The Big Picture will help the gamemaster design an
immersive story arc with several storylines.
It can include Arium details on a sliding scale ranging from a corrupted
desert oasis, to an urban fantasy guild-ruled metropolis, to a series
of outer-rim space colonies. Direct your focus as broadly as cities,
countries, continents, or maybe even planets. Also, if the Universal step
mentioned anything about magic or technology, now would be a good
time to start determining what that scope might be. Remember, the Big
Picture step will always influence everything that follows, from Cultures
& Organizations to Landmarks, People, and even Goodies.
Examples include a verdant island of rolling green hills with near-
tangible leylines of magical power. A decade-old space station labyrinth
where the rich hunt the poor. A war-torn continent of feuding noble

26
houses. A near-future Earth where speed tubes allow transport (and all
sorts of sneaky smuggling) to happen in mere hours.
Good stories often need conflict. Big Picture is also where these begin to
take shape in the form of themes.
Some themes will be universe-spanning. They represent driving factors
for storylines, as well as building overall uniqueness. A significant concept
should have a wide-spread impact on the Arium’s daily turnings, and
possibly turn the very course of history. Tampering with alien DNA and
causing a ravenous mutation of a rapidly growing species aboard a space
station would definitely have striking repercussions. The return of the Fairy
Queen to reclaim the lands of men would also be a principal, global theme.
More immediate themes are the perfect opportunity to sow adventure
seeds into the Arium. They also add a layer of complexity for People
proposed in a later step. These motifs will typically be smaller in scale and
have a more local impact on the campaign. Perhaps a church is believed
to secretly be run by a group of disciples to Cthulhu. Maybe
kids are going missing from a town during nights with no
moon. It’s possible a frontier mining boomtown is being
OPTIONAL
raided by forces unknown. These themes are localized and
may not have a massive impact on the Arium at large. Still, If the group is
they can offer plot ideas for any RPG or story. mostly made
up of writers
A giant
Our kingdom Westphilia is mushroom or creatives
forest surr
has always a small city at ounds Here there be who really get
everything
been peaceful the center of . dragons!
until now! the kingdom It could be into high-level
haunted!
worldbuilding
ideas, you
can split the
STEP 3 – CULTURE & ORGANIZATIONS Culture into
[2-9 MINUTES] one step and
Organizations
Focal Point: Beliefs, species, past events, secret
into another.
groups, schools, politics, historically relevant events.
Shorten the
Now that we have our guiding concepts, it’s time to timer to 1-5
figure out the rest of the abstract elements. This section minutes for each
includes ideas pertaining to histories, belief structures, different step if you take
heritages, etc. This is the opportunity to lay the foundation this approach.
for future steps. If someone really wants to play a minotaur,

27
 Arium: Create

there should be mention of a minotaur culture here. If your Arium deals

with interplanetary settlements, mention of a global killer disease/natural
disaster on Earth could be an appropriate historical motivator. A weird west,
postapocalyptic wasteland may have geographically relevant mutations. A
second-world feudal Japan likeness may need warring clans, backgrounds, and
beliefs. This is also the place to begin subverting any and all tropes.
Organizations can be anything from religious sects, to political parties,
to a secret sisterhood bent on crocheting the perfect doily for every table
in the city. The ideas brought forth during this step should elicit a sense
of immersion and begin planting even more seeds for adventure ideas,
character concepts, and the in-Arium opposition to the group’s efforts. Take
this opportunity to give depth and texture to the beginning of your Arium.
All sorts of intrigue, conflicts, alliances, and machinations of the nefarious
and benevolent now come into play. Maybe ogres have formed into
several nomadic tribes to keep their families free from predatory slavers.
Or perhaps they’ve begun the first school dedicated to space dogfighting.
We encourage subverting tropes to create something new and glorious!

GAMEMASTER NOTE
As the gamemaster, Cultures & Organizations – well – they can be a bit of a
double-edged sword (or a finicky blaster). On the one hand, generating more ideas
will give your Arium a more vibrant feel. On the other, some of the ideas that
make it through the voting phase are undoubtedly going to need further work and
detail – that’s more creation for you after Arium: Create. Finally, we encourage
extra mindfulness of the group’s designated Lacunae during this step. Be sure to
avoid any –isms or situations that might allow them at the table. Be prepared!
As players influence the Arium to include their particular intentions, the
gamemaster should allow them to exercise their vision. Be prepared to
facilitate a compromise discussion if disagreements arise. If a player seems
to be overtly pushing the group towards a specific idea, pause the step and
ask why the idea is relevant to them. Most likely, they’ll tell you all about the
concept of the character they’ve wanted to play. Help the group decide if
there’s a realistic way to enable the player’s vision. If not, then the idea will
probably lose out during voting,
and the player will need to find eated
The Pu Unfairly tr re
inspiration in another aspect of Dragonriders: rple c re atures a
School d may
the Arium for their character. “Need a lift?
Portal M for fed up an ant
. I w
That’ll be $10!” a
(a franc ges rise up
28 hise to be one
!
)
STEP 4 – LANDMARKS [1-5 MINUTES]
Focal Point: A narratively relevant place you could point to on a
street-level map.
Congrats! You now have a conceptual Arium to play in. It’s time to
make some of these ideas concrete and fill in the landscape with
unique Landmarks. Did you create an impressive Organization in the
last step? Do they need a headquarters? Now is the time! Maybe the
group decided the realm (or galaxy) is ruled by a grumpy and reclusive
emperor during Big Picture. Their remote mountain vacation chateaux
could show up here. You can also let your imagination work on places
that could be relevant to actual People who’ll show up in our next step.
During the Landmarks step, we focus on charming places or fascinating
features that would mostly fit within a person’s field of vision if you were
standing within three-hundred feet of it. The ring from Halo is too big.
A Landmark should also be visible from at least 50 feet away as long
as you have a line of sight and it isn’t invisible! A new frontier saloon
or an abandoned mine entrance would be appropriate. The skyscraper
headquarters of a high-tech company bent on stealing the private
information of every citizen in the Arium is also entirely acceptable.
As with every step in Arium: Create, everyone should feel free to be
wildly imaginative and propose ideas that tell a story in a few words.
The Temple of the Ogre King has a nice ring to it. Maybe you’ll want
to visit The Grand Collegium of the Exalted Galactic Chancellors
or dare to trod The Haunted Pass of Rookguard. Or perhaps, you
wish to report a crime at Twenty-Third Precinct Stationhouse of the
Behrgermeister’s Special Police.

Giant tr
ee
middle in the
kingdo of the The Windmill
Dark V
alle
m.
imposs Almost Dragon Hotel. Ravine y
ible to
get to
the top Dragonriders
.
are often
found  here.

29
 Arium: Create

STEP 5 – PEOPLE [2-9 MINUTES]

Focal Point: Folks who live here: names, pronouns, quirks,
descriptions, personalities.
On to the individuals who will inhabit our Arium! As a group,
you’ve voted through concepts that feed into a collective Arium of
awesomeness. You have created, compromised, and molded everything
to a shape that’s exciting to all. 
The first thing to note is that most of the People concepts in this stage
will be used to populate the world with NPCs. Some of them indeed
can become RPG player-characters. Still, we recommend not getting
too deep into the character creation mindset right now. Just focus on
interesting People concepts that fulfill the promise of the ideas created
in the previous steps!
Your Arium is grand in scope, and it needs many interesting People to
populate it. Some, the players will fall in love with. Some they won’t like
at all. Pay attention to all of the discussion about each of the ideas and
feel free to make notes. After voting, it’s especially delightful to take
the sticky note, in secret, for a Person concept that the players loathed.
We don’t want to tell anyone how to GM – ok, maybe we do – but that
Person could make a villainous appearance somewhere in the coming
adventures. The Ogre King and his Big Stick, Grendel the Fearless
Goatman, Jaxi the Space Princess of Doom, Slippery Ootch, the Jada
Jones an Average Everyday Xenobotanist, and Bhurmaht the One-Eyed
would be excellent People ideas.

e
Grendel th Jaxi th
eS
The Ogre King Fearless Prince pace
ss o
and his Big Goatman Doom f
Stick
Bh
da ur
The Ja n On maht
e s a e-E the
Jon yed
ge
Slippery Ootch Avera y
v e r y d a
E
o b o t anist
Xen

30
 GAMEMASTER NOTE
It is important to note that each Person should fit the scope of the Arium
presented. As the gamemaster, you may see opportunities to discourage a
Person concept that feels drastically out of place. Talk it over with the player
and remove the note before voting if the Person cannot be successfully
modified to fit the Arium. Use this approach as a last resort only and
consider awarding the player a creation token in compensation.
People who are voted through go into a non-player character (NPC) pool.
Give them a specific place or purpose in the Arium by tying them in with
the results of the previous steps. The group has creative license to make
this happen. The great thing is that by this point, the NPCs should already
have a fitting place in your Arium. Keep building on the foundation of
the previous steps.
Now a quick tip for after the voting is done. When you’re setting the
boundary for the votes a Person idea needs to become part of the Arium,
set that target a little lower than you would in other steps.

OPTIONAL
Aster Blade.
Protective If you’re using the
of people optional rules for
she sees claiming, don’t toss any
mistreated. ideas with zero votes
e Lip.
Phlip th fella,
e until after the claiming
Talkativ ture.
ta
short s g is complete. This will
Missin The G
an eye
. Mage reen give more People to
of
Valley Damp work with to make your
(they’r Ravine Arium feel like a living,
e trick
y!)
breathing place. For
rules enabling players
to select People from
this phase as their own
characters, see page 45.

31
 Arium: Create

STEP 6 – GOODIES [1-5 MINUTES]

Focal Point: Narratively important stuff. Items, vehicles,
equipment, etc.
This is it, the last step! Simple and fun, it’s one of our favorites.
It’s the opportunity to add some neat items, provisions, vehicles,
and more to the Arium. If the Ogre King with his Big Stick is a Person
idea that gets voted into the game, then his Big Stick should be a named
Goody. This step is the closest one in Arium: Create to being optional.
Gamemasters should consider the game balance of any Goodies they
want characters to potentially start with. Goodies are balanced during
roleplay depending on the type of game the group is playing. A simple
way to balance a Goody that sounds too high-powered is to require
game time to become fully functional. Assume the in-game character
doesn’t understand it or its full capacity.
Honestly, if your Arium has Goodies, don’t set too many limits.
Anything goes – as long as the item makes sense. Possibilities should
reflect the Arium. In a cosmic defender comic book hero Arium,
practically anything is possible. Expect folks to come up with something
as epic as Thor’s hammer or as disabling as Kryptonite. Whereas if
you’ve set up a gritty urban Arium, those items would be out of place.
Items can range from simple and effective, like a shiv or a feather duster,
to complex and powerful like a spaceship that can blow up a star, or one
ring to rule them all. The critical thing to remember is that Goodies are
always narratively important. No adventurer’s packs required.

OPTIONAL
Magical bubble
transports. Only a
few people have
Allowing players them, and they can
fly you anywhere, Curiously
to select Goodies but everyone can light wand
from this phase see you.

for their own

characters, see
page 45.
Flamin
g
of Tru Sword
e Hea
ring

32
Example
The following example shows a group experiencing Arium: Create for
the first time as they go through test creation steps together.
Here’s our cast of “characters”:

THE THE
GAMEMASTER PLAYERS
 ZIMI  NID
 BOMA
 KELCE

33
 Arium: Create

THE SCRIPT

HOW AN ARIUM: CREATE INTRODUCTORY SESSION

WORKS IN THE WILD
INTERIOR. A GAME TABLE
IN AN AVERAGE HOME
 ZIMI: Ok, my peeps! Are we
ready to make our Arium?
 NID: I’m game!
 BOMA: I guess, but I’d rather
play D&D.
 KELCE: Shush, Boma. We’re
trying something new!
 BOMA: Fine.
 ZIMI: I mean, we could vote
on what game we’ll play again, but
you weren’t against it the first time,
Boma. I’d like us all to agree before
we move on.
 BOMA: I’m good. I just love
D&D, and I don’t want to learn
something new… but if everyone
else wants to, I’ll play whatever-it’s-
called.
*Some side-eyeing from
everyone  else.*
 NID: Arium!
 BOMA: Right. Arium.
 ZIMI: Ok. So, I have Sharpies
and Post-Its because those are my
go-to, but the rules say you can use
index cards and pens or whatever.
The point is that they’re easy to
read, organize, and don’t have
room for a novel.
 BOMA: I want the pink sticky
notes.
 KELCE: That’s the only pink
pad, the rest are regular yellow.
Does that mean the pink sticky
notes are for you, Zimi?
 ZIMI: Nope, he can have them.
The colors don’t matter. This is
just what I had lying around. Also,
I didn’t want to use my green ones
for this!
 NID: Holdin’ out on us, eh?
*Everyone takes a pad of sticky
notes and a Sharpie*
 ZIMI: Yep! *pause* You’ll also
need three tokens each. Here’s a
bag of ‘em I use for playing Magic.
*The bag of tokens is passed
around until everyone has 3*
 BOMA: What are these for?
 ZIMI: They call ‘em Creation
Tokens, and at this point, they’re
made for you to build on someone
else’s idea if you want. They have
other uses too. So, I guess… keep
some around?

34
 BOMA: ‘Kay. all write down what we each think
the three best movies of all-time
 ZIMI: They have a practice
are. One title per sticky note. But
exercise, so we all know what
first; last chance for a bathroom
the eff we’re doing when we do
break for a whoooole minute. All
the real thing. I think we should
good?
probably do it. It’ll give me a
chance to practice too. Is that ok? PLAYERS: Let’s get this show on
the road. I’m ready. Go, go, go!
PLAYERS: Yeah. Sure! I’m down
for whatever.  ZIMI: Ok. Starting timer…
now.
 ZIMI: Right. The example is
movies, and it just has two steps *Everyone starts writing hurriedly*
where the normal version has
 ZIMI: Just put each sticky note
seven. It’s supposed to show us
in a stack front of you for now.
how the steps and the *makes
None of us are sitting on that
air quotes* drill-down part of
*points with a Sharpie* end of the
Arium: Create works. We’ll start
table, so the notes can all face this
there. Each step has three parts.
way *points to themself* when we
The first part is called Timed
start the collaborating phase.
Ideating, and we’re supposed to do
it without talking to each other. *People start slapping sticky notes
It’s also supposed to be timed. So, down on the table*
here’s what we’ll do. I’ll set a timer
on my phone for 1 minute. We’ll

Jaws Fellowship RotK E.T. The Avengers

Two Towers

t
Quie
Alien The ce The Princess
P l a Casabla Snatch FotR
nca Bride

35
 Arium: Create
*Timer beeps and Zimi silences it*
 ZIMI: Ok, the next part is
where we’re supposed to talk,
collaborate, merge duplicates,
and stuff like that. Whoa! I didn’t
realize we had such different takes
on the best movies!
 BOMA: Well, anyone who
doesn’t say Lord of the Rings is
wrong in the head.
 ZIMI: I do loooooove
Fellowship. I put it down too.
Fellowship Two Towers
 NID: Wait. Wait. Wait. Shouldn’t
those all count as one? We’re
deduplicating or whatever, right?
 BOMA: No way!
 ZIMI: At this point, the
Fellowship
FotR
36
But wait, lets back up. Everyone
is supposed to read their own,
then if someone else had the same
thing or really similar, we join
them. Boma, you want to go first?
 BOMA: Sure. Y’all know I love
Lord of the Rings. Frodo lives! So,
I picked Fellowship, Two Towers,
and The Return of the King.
*Zimi arranges the three notes in
a horizontal row in the middle of
the table*
RotK
group is supposed to decide that
together. I’d say no, partly because
I made mine for Fellowship of
the Ring.
*Moves their FotR note up to
overlap Boma’s Fellowship note*
Two Towers
RotK
 KELCE: Isn’t there a voting  KELCE: Can I read mine?
part coming up? Can we just
 ZIMI: Sure!
resolve this with that?
 KELCE: *Reads as she places
 ZIMI: Sure, we can, but if
notes* I wrote Jaws, because
everyone wanted to join those
JAWS. The Quiet Place, because
three movies into one thing to
Emily Blunt is rad, and I loved it,
vote for, we could.
and The Princess Bride, because
PLAYERS: Let’s not. I’m fine with it’s gold.
it this way. Yeah, no worries here.
 NID: Hallo! My name is Inigo
 ZIMI: Great. So, we’ll just Montoya. You killed my father.
combine my note with his, and
All: Prepare to die!
someone else can go.

Fellowship Two Towers

FotR RotK
t
Quie
The ce
Pla

Jaws The Princess

Bride
movie. For me, at least.
 ZIMI: *Adds an “s” to the end of
the note previously saying “Alien”*
 ZIMI: *Chuckles* Solid choices
Ok, that’s an important distinction,
for sure. Not seeing any duplication
I think.
or anything here. Should we move
on to…  NID: Yeah, it is!
 NID: Yeah, here’s mine. *Plops
notes in the middle and Zimi
E.T.
meticulously rearranges them while
The Avengers
they talk* I’ve got E. T., Aliens, and The
Avengers.
 KELCE: Awww, but your note
says Alien. I’d vote for that one, but
not Aliens.
Aliens
Alien
 NID: Nah, Alien is fine, but a
little slow. Aliens is the superior

37
 Arium: Create

Fellowship Two Towers RotK

t FotR
Quie
The ce
Pla

The Princess
Jaws Bride

E.T.
 ZIMI: Ok, I think all
of those are unique, too,
unless anyone objects. *Silence*
Great. Then here are my last
two. *Moves notes to the end of
the row* Casablanca is the true
definition of a classic. Probably
the greatest movie of all time.
Also, Snatch. I love Guy Ritchie
movies, and this one’s probably
my favorite.
 BOMA: Even over Lock Stock?
 ZIMI: Yep!
 BOMA: Okay then. I like Guy
Ritchie a lot too. Wasn’t really
thinking of those kinds of movies,
but I guess you didn’t say. My
head just went straight to Tolkien,
because, yeah. I do LOVE those
movies. Makes me think, though.
 KELCE: Yeah, I mean, these
are all pretty good, but we were
only supposed to pick three, and
we didn’t have very long, so I just
went with three that came to mind
first.
 NID: Seems like that’s how it’s
s’posed to work.
The Avengers
Aliens
nca
abla
Cas
tch
Sna
 ZIMI: I guess so. Now we’re
onto the last part. The voting.
Should be pretty simple. Everyone
is supposed to use an initial or a
symbol we can recognize as theirs.
I guess it gets into that later?
Anyway, it says to divide the total
number of ideas by three. We
have eleven, divide by three… I’ll
round that up to four. We each
have four votes.
 NID: So, we each just mark ‘em
with our initial or whatever?
 ZIMI: Yep. Pick the three you
think are the best.
PLAYERS: Okay. Okay. Right.
*Everyone marks their votes*

38
 Fellowship B B
K iet FotR B Two Towers RotK
Qu
The ce
Pla Z
K
K
Jaws The Princess
Bride
Z
N
The Avengers
E.T. Aliens

VOTES IDEAS N
N

3 each The Princess Bride,

Snatch
Casabla
ncaZ
2 each Fellowship/FotR

1 each Aliens, The Avengers,

Casablanca, E.T.,
Jaws, The Quiet K SnatchB
Place, RotK, Two
Towers Z

 ZIMI: Chill. That didn’t come
out the way I thought at all.
*The group discusses their votes
for a minute, but in the end,
everyone picked for different
reasons, and they are happy with
the result*
 ZIMI: I guess this means our
top choices are definitely The
Princess Bride and Snatch. Funny
combo for real. I’ll consolidate
them on one Post-It, and we can
recycle the rest.
 BOMA: What about
Fellowship?! It got two votes!
 ZIMI: I think if these were the
real game, we’d probably keep it
in, but for the trial run, let’s keep
it simple. Fair?
 BOMA: Yeah, I guess.
 ZIMI: OK, then, let’s move on.
The next step in the example is
supposed to be the best character
in a movie.
 NID: Boba Fett!
 BOMA: Not this again. He was
barely in the movies.
 NID: Fine! Mando from The
Mandalorian, then.

39
 Bullet Tooth
Arium:
Tony Create
 KELCE: Not to bum you
out, but The Mandalorian isn’t a
movie, it’s a TV show.
 ZIMI: I think I can end the
dispute for now. We’re supposed to
limit ourselves to characters from
the movies we already picked. Just
Princess Bride and Snatch.
 BOMA: Harsh! I want
Fellowship back now.
 ZIMI: I’m fine with that if you
really want to.
 BOMA: Nah, I’m kidding.
Mostly!
 ZIMI: Ok, so we’re back to the
quiet ideating thing, so get your
Sharpies ready. I’ll set the timer
for 2 minutes this time because
it’s harder to think of character
names. Feel free to look them up
if you want. Any other thoughts or
questions before we go?
PLAYERS: I’m good. Chill. For
Aiur!
 ZIMI: Max of three each.
Starting… now!
*Everyone scribbles away on their
notes. They all finish before the
timer goes off and Zimi cancels it*
 ZIMI: That went quick! I’ll read
mine first this time. *Places notes
as they read them* Bullet Tooth
Tony, of course, ‘cuz Vinnie
40
Mickey
The Impressive Mickey
Clergyman!
Jones is a god. And Mickey. Turn
on the subtitles when he talks, it’s
amazing. And last, I have… The
Impressive Clergyman!
All: Mawwiage!! *Laughing*
 ZIMI: Any duplicates?
 KELCE: I put Brad Pitt. Is that
who plays Mickey?
 ZIMI: Yep!
 ZIMI: Nothing else? Who’s
next, then?
 KELCE: Already got one of
mine, so here’s the other two.
*Places notes* First, Inigo. Duh.
There’s no one more iconic. *Some
nodding* And Buttercup. She’s a
trope from head to toe, but there
has to be someone playing the
trope to subvert it, right?
 BOMA: Hell yeah! Buttercup
for the win! I picked her too.
 KELCE: This doesn’t reassure
me.
 BOMA: She’s super chill, like,
she’s willing to sacrifice everything
for her one true love. I respect
that.
 NID: Yeah maybe. But I did get
Inigo too. I thought everyone would!
 The Princess
Bride
Snatch
Butte
rcup
The Impressive
Clergyman!
Pr
Bu inces Inigo Bullet Tooth Mickey
tter s
cup Tony Brad/Pitt

Inigo Monto
ya
 ZIMI: Ok, so that’s it for Kelce. Nid,
you want to go next?
 NID: Yep, yep. Besides Inigo, I’ve
got Fezzig (RIP Andre), and I also have
Mando. *Places notes*

The Princess
Bride
Butte Snatch
rcup
The Impressive
Clergyman!
Pr
Bu inces Inigo Bullet Tooth Mickey
tter s
cup Tony Brad/Pitt

Inigo Monto
ya
Fezzig

ndo
 BOMA: You can’t do that! Ma

 ZIMI: He’s right. You’re not supposed

to pick people outside our two movies.
 NID: Yeah, I know. Figured I’d try to slip
it in. I’ve never seen Snatch, so I didn’t know
anyone from there.
 ZIMI: We’ll remedy that! Group movie night!
  BOMA and KELCE: Yeah!
 NID: That’s fair. I’ll take down Mando. DISCARD PILE
That show is so good, though.

41
 The Princess Arium: Create
Bride
Snatch k ish
Butte Tur
rcup
The Impressive
Clergyman!
Pr
Bu inces Inigo Bullet Tooth Mickey
tter s
cup Tony Brad/Pitt

Inigo Monto
ya
Fezzig  ZIMI: Yes, yes, it is. Any other
duplicates? Boma?

Fezzig
 BOMA: Oops, yeah. I do have
Fezzig. Also, Turkish. Jason Statham
is my man. *Places notes*
 ZIMI: Time to vote again?
PLAYERS: Yep. I’m ready! This is the way.
 ZIMI: Ok, I think we know the drill now, but I’ll
repeat it just in case. Use your symbol and vote…
There are only seven different characters, so rounding
down gives us two? I think I’ll say 3.
 KELCE: Only 3, though? I like a lot of these!
 ZIMI: You just have to figure out which are your
favorites, I guess.
 KELCE: Yeah…
*Everyone votes*

The Princess B
Bride
Snatch kish
Butte Tur
rcup K
K The Impressive
B Clergyman!
Pr
Bu inces Inigo
N Bullet Tooth Mickey
tter s Z
cup N Tony Brad/Pitt
Z
Z K
Inigo Monto
ya
Fezzig *Everyone discusses the outcome
N B for a few moments*

42 Fezzig
 ZIMI: Okay, that’s it for the
example. Now we do the real thing.
 BOMA: That was fun enough.
So, we’re not playing an RPG set
in Snatch-meets-The Princess
Bride starring The Impressive
Clergyman and Inigo Montoya?
 ZIMI: No. That was just to help
us all understand how this works
before we do it for real.
 BOMA: I don’t know if I can
take LotR losing out a second time.
 ZIMI: We don’t do movies in
the real game, so… not an option?
 BOMA: Uh…
 ZIMI: Yeah, we’re coming up
with our own Arium, so there’s a
little more to it than just picking
movies.
*Pulls out some sheets of paper*
 ZIMI: I also printed off a
couple of the Arium: Create
Quick Reference sheets. If you
focus on the left side, it has the
steps we’ll be going through.
 NID: What’s lah-coooo-nuh? Is
that like a play on that song from
The Lion King that Timon and
Pumbaa sing?
 KELCE: I’ve got it here on my
phone. Google says it’s the plural
of a lacuna. Quote: a missing
portion in a book or manuscript.
 ZIMI: Yep. That’s it. They’ve got
the pronunciation here, and it’s luh-
kyoo-nee. It’s meant to represent
things we don’t want to be included
in the Arium for whatever reason.
Skip over them because they’re
boring, because we don’t want to
have that kind of game, or because
we don’t like whatever the thing is.
You know, like how we all ixnayed
Boma having his character tea-
bagging dead goblins.
 BOMA: Yeah, I really am sorry
about that.
 KELCE: We know! That’s why
you’re still in the group!
 ZIMI: Yep! Anyway, the
authors of Arium say they stole
the idea for Lacunae from The
Great American Novel RPG.
 KELCE: The dirty thieves!
 ZIMI: Right? Anyway, Lacunae
is step zero. We’ll start there. It’s
the one exception to the way we
just voted, and limited notes in the
example run we did with movies.
It’s still timed, but you can write as
many items as you like. They are
also all 100% things we will exclude
from the game. They say we do
it this way because Lacunae also
doubles as the table safety tool like
Lines and Veils or the X-Card. I’ll
set the timer on my phone for two
minutes, and we can go from there...
*Play continues through all the
Steps of Arium: Create*
43
 Arium: Create

Wrap Up
So that’s the gist of Arium: Create. We’ve learned a ton the last year-plus
of playtesting and design. We hope you’ll run some marvelous sessions
with it. Groups tend to get all-in on the Ariums they create using these
rules, so be prepared for that!
Drop us a message and let us know what you think! We love getting involved,
answering questions, and hopefully creating great games peeps will enjoy.

FIND US
We maintain contact info on our website. Feel free to ask us anything.
We’re nice! https://adepticarus.com

44
OPTIONAL RULES
Arium: Discover, our RPG character creation and gameplay book for
Arium, is coming soon or already released. Here are some optional rules
for Arium: Create that blur the line between the two.

OPTIONAL FOR USE WITH ARIUM: DISCOVER

Players pick a free Person to be their character and a free Goody for that
character. If a player chooses not to select a free Person of Goody, they
may make up one of their own. The GM will need to give final approval
on these last-minute creations. Additional claims cost Creation Tokens
and are treated similar to Goodies (i.e., a Landmark becomes a hideout
or helpful place, a Person becomes a trusted confidant or contact, etc.).
Resolve initial claims for Persons before moving on to Goodies. Players
must wait for everyone to have a turn claiming Persons or Goodies before
they can claim any extras. Take turns with multiple rounds of extras as well.

CLAIMING YOUR FIRST PERSON AND GOODY

Each player may circle the initial/symbol they marked during Voting on
one of the People and one of the Goodies they’d like for their character.
If their mark is not already on the note because they didn’t initially vote
for it, they can add it and then circle it. If only one player marked the
person or item, it’s theirs! These first claims will be given a set strength
in the Arium: Discover rules.
See Resolving Duplicate Claims if more than one player wants the same thing.

MORE CLAIMS
Players must commit at least one Creation Token to make an additional
claim. They may then claim another Person, Goody, or even a
Landmark for their character by circling their initials or symbol on
the idea. If the player didn’t already have their mark on it, they may
make it now and then circle it. Players can also make up new things to
claim, but at this point, the GM will need to approve them. Take turns
claiming extras until everyone is satisfied with their claims or until they

45
 Arium: Create

run out of tokens. At this stage, there is a direct correlation between the
power level of the idea claimed and the number of tokens spent on it. If
the Wizard’s Wand is going to have phenomenal cosmic power, commit
all three tokens to it. Just know that if your character loses the wand,
they’ll be significantly nerfed.
See Resolving Duplicate Claims if more than one player wants the
same thing.

RESOLVING DUPLICATE CLAIMS (VIA BIDDING WAR)

If there is more than one claim on any item during either initial or
additional claims, auction-style token bidding proceeds until one player
wins. The first player to bid 3 tokens automatically wins the contest.
The amount of the winning bid determines the ultimate strength of the
item. See Arium: Discover for more info on this.
After a bidding war, the losing player receives ½ of the winner’s bid
tokens, rounded up, and they may either select another Person or
Goody or make up their own.

RESOURCES
We’ve included a couple resources for use when you create your Arium.
Printable Arium: Create Quick Reference (printable as 8.5” x 11”) (see below)
Printable sheet for gathering the results of Arium: Create steps
(printable as 8.5” x 11”) (see below)
You can also download the resources for free at https://ariumrpg.com.

46
47
 Arium: Create Arium: Create

CREATION PHASES Phase 1

Use each phase to zoom in from
broad to specific as you go, with
each step focusing on one complete
concept at a time. The GM helps flow the
group through the process until you’re ready.
Timed Ideating
Everyone (may include the GM) silently
writes down up to three ideas (one idea
per sticky note!) until time runs out.

PLAYING ARIUM: CREATE

The Realm of The Abyss of Get Started: Use

Possibility: Arium: Create
is built entirely around
getting folks in alignment
with Arium elements they
care about most.
Avoidance: Don’t the Requirements
discourage much when Shortlist, collaboratively
building your Arium, and build an immersive
follow the Rule of Cool Arium all players are
by saying “yes, and” excited to explore and
when appropriate. tell stories in.

REQUIREMENTS SHORTLIST

• One to six friends (to play)

• A gamemaster/facilitator with a timer (or a phone/watch)

• Post-It® brand 3-inch x 3-inch Super Sticky Notes (trust us)

• Sharpie® brand markers (or another fine-point black marker)

• Three tokens per player (i.e., poker chips, glass beads, pocket lint)

ONLINE PLAY

Running Arium: Create with a distributed group is pretty easy. We recommend

using video conferencing that allows screen sharing (Zoom, Skype, Discord) and
an online idea/task board that updates in real-time. Trello is free and easy to use.
Here’s a Trello board from one of our playtests: https://bit.ly/ariumtrello. As an
alternative to Trello, a real-time shared document like a Google Doc would work
48
in a pinch.
Quick Reference Guide
Phase 2 Phase 3
[Printable sheet for gathering the results of Arium:
Collaborating
Create steps (should be printable as
Voting
8.5” x 11”)]
The GM collects all of the sticky notes The voting formula: # of columns with
from the group and begins sorting them, related ideas ÷ # of participants (may
with or without a whiteboard. include GM), rounded down.

CREATION STEPS
1-3
STEP 0 mins What does not belong in our Arium?
(Note: This step has no limit and no vote.
LACUNAE Creation Tokens also do not work here.)

1-3 CREATION TOKENS

STEP 1 mins Genre, tone, flavor.
Stay as broad as
Players each have three
that can be used at
UNIVERSAL possible. S , any time to “yes,
Y E
A ND and”a creation.
1-5
STEP 2 mins Backdrop and scope of the Arium (i.e.,
continents/wars). If there is magic or
BIG PICTURE tech, how accessible is it? How does it
influence the Arium?

2-9
STEP 3 mins Beliefs, peoples/heritages, legends,
past events, secret groups, schools,
CULTURE & institutions.
ORGANIZATIONS

1-5
STEP 4 mins Narratively relevant places you could point
to on a street-level map.
LANDMARKS

2-9
STEP 5 mins Folks who live here: Names, pronouns,
quirks, descriptions.
PEOPLE

1-5
STEP 6 mins Narratively important stuff. (i.e., items,
vehicles, etc.) 49
GOODIES
 Arium: Create
LACUNAE UNIVERSAL

BIG PICTURE

CULTURE & ORGANIZATIONS

Results Sheet
LANDMARKS

PEOPLE

GOODIES
Welcome to Arium: Create, a simple game with infinite possibilities.
This RPG worldbuilding toolkit runs on pure storytelling, imagination,
and teamwork. In Arium: Create, you’ll find everything you need to
guarantee everyone at your table loves the story your group is telling
and the world they are doing it in.

Arium: Create was born from gaming groups that sat down to play
well-crafted sessions that fell flat at the table. Numerous hours of
planning, writing, and designing lost to a straightforward issue - not
everyone in the group was interested.

Within these pages, you’ll find our solution to the problem that’s as
old as RPGs.

Next, move on to Arium: Discover by Adept Icarus, our streamlined

rules for roleplaying in your newly created world.

AI-1001