What Do You Do on Perseverance? Introducing the Perseverance Tales

“Great settings spark endless stories. But great games? They show you where to start.”

This post was born from a fantastic comment on RPG.net, which raised a crucial question: What is the default thing you do in this setting?

It’s one thing to build a world full of factions, danger, dust, and opportunity. But without a strong narrative engine — without a starting frame — it’s easy for even the most exciting setting to feel paralyzing.

Let’s talk about that.

The Sandbox Temptation

One of the easiest traps when designing a QuestWorlds genre pack — especially one you love deeply — is the urge to offer everything. Here’s the whole world, you say. The maps, the factions, the biomes, the rumors, the stories. Go play!

And that’s great — for you, the designer. But for players or GMs just opening the book?

That infinite freedom often leads to one thing: uncertainty. What’s the game actually about?

Most players don’t study the setting before Session One. Most GMs don’t want to invent the entire campaign frame from scratch. They’re busy. They need something clear and playable.

That’s why I’ve come to believe that starting constraints are enabling. They’re not fences. They’re launchpads.

What Is a Core Activity (and Why It Matters)?

A genre pack’s core activity is its answer to the question: What do the protagonists do week to week?

This isn't about limiting choice — it's about enabling momentum. A clear core activity gives players purpose and gives GMs something to build around: tone, contest structure, community relationships, story pacing, and advancement.

QuestWorlds examples from the core book include:

• Free traders exploring dangerous frontier worlds (Pioneer Space)
• Superheroes protecting abandoned neighborhoods (Age of Miracles)
• Colonists carving out a place in the New World (Brave New World)
• Street-level survivors in a czarpunk city (Ouvergend)

Each one focuses play without closing doors.

Inspiration: Tales from the Action Flicks

The idea behind Perseverance Tales didn’t come out of nowhere.

They were directly inspired by the brilliant Action Flicks format in Outgunned, an action-movie TTRPG by Two Little Mice. That book presents its setting not as one unified world, but as a series of short campaign frames — each built around a specific theme, cast archetype, and core activity. Whether you're playing rogue agents, stunt drivers, or war reporters, each Flick gives you an identity and direction right away.

That format clicked instantly for me. It showed how a setting could support many kinds of stories without overwhelming the reader — or the table.

Instead of trying to define the story of Perseverance, I could present a collection of them. Not just one campaign — but several lenses through which to explore this harsh, mythic frontier.

The Perseverance Tales are my answer to that structure: focused, flexible, and grounded in the system and tone of QuestWorlds.

Perseverance Tales: Focused Story Engines

Each Tale is a short-form campaign arc that offers:

• A crew concept (Rangers and their posse, smugglers, rebels…)
• A strong core activity tied to that group’s role
• A set of evocative themes
• Sample episode hooks
• Optional starting cast or ship/base

Rather than one fixed “default frame,” Perseverance offers a curated library of Tales — each a ready-to-run foundation for long-form or episodic play. Tales make it easier for GMs to prep, easier for players to build focused characters, and easier for a group to hit the ground running.

The First Tales

We’ve launched two fully fleshed-out Tales — both ready to run or remix.

Dustbound Justice

A Ranger and their posse ride across the wildlands, answering calls for help, confronting corruption, and walking the line between law and justice. Themes: justice vs. law, moral dilemmas, community protection. Tone: mythic, serious, frontier.

The Long Haul

A smuggling crew struggles to stay airborne, running dangerous jobs, dodging betrayal, and scraping together one more payday. Themes: survival, loyalty, freedom, desperation. Tone: tense, fast-paced, found-family.

And more are coming:

• A miners’ revolution, where working-class characters organize against corporate and Commonwealth control.
• A frozen frontier expedition, blending relic-hunting, survival horror, and lost tech.
• A separatist rebel cell, on the run from both the law and their own pasts.

Each Tale is playable with your own cast or using the sample crews provided.

What This Means for You

By offering multiple starting frames instead of just one, the genre pack becomes more accessible, more replayable, and more modular.

You don’t have to read every setting post to begin. You just need to pick a Tale, build your crew, and dive in.

This structure also supports:

• Troupe-style play, with rotating cast members across episodes.
• GM prep shortcuts, with sample missions and built-in conflicts.
• Targeted keywords, character growth advice, and faction tension tuned to each Tale.

Why This Is a Shift

Earlier drafts of the genre pack revolved around a single frame: the Dust Runner crew — a team of smugglers and freelancers navigating life on the edge. That frame still exists — but now it’s called The Long Haul, and it’s one Tale among many.

The new approach doesn’t discard that foundation. It builds a library of launchpads on top of it.

Final Thought: Clarity Without Constraint

You can still play anything in Perseverance — bounty hunters, riverfolk, mystics, ice runners. But starting with a Tale gives your group direction, a reason to care, and a structure that carries you forward.

The world is still open. The dust is still wild. You just know where to plant your boots first.