It’s been two months since I started sharing content for Perseverance, and with 31 posts already published – covering everything from keywords and factions to setting hazards and story examples – it feels like the right moment to finally step back and offer a proper introduction.

This post serves as the front cover of the Genre Pack: a complete overview of what Perseverance is, what stories it’s built for, and how it uses QuestWorlds to bring gritty frontier adventures to life. The initial version of the pack is nearly done – and this page sets the tone for everything that follows.

Welcome to Perseverance

A Space Western Setting for QuestWorlds

Genre: Space Western / Frontier Sci-Fi
Tone: Gritty, desperate, and resilient. Stories of survival, loyalty, hard choices, and carving justice from the dust.
Inspirations: Firefly, The Mandalorian, Deadwood, The Expanse (ground-level), Galaxy Rangers, The Revenant
Themes: Found families, moral ambiguity, local power vs. distant authority, the unforgiving land, and what people owe – and what they’ll risk to pay it back.
What Players Do:

• Smuggle forbidden goods under the Commonwealth’s nose
• Defend frontier settlements from outlaws, megafauna, or worse
• Unearth ancient tech and barter it for survival or leverage
• Navigate tangled loyalties between community, cause, and coin
• Build something new – or burn something old to the ground

Perseverance: A Genre Pack for QuestWorlds

Grit, survival, and freedom on a distant frontier world

Perseverance is a space western Genre Pack for the QuestWorlds roleplaying system.

Built on the flexible narrative engine of QuestWorlds, Perseverance gives you all the tools to tell stories of hardship, loyalty, and resistance on a wild and unforgiving planet at the edge of civilization. With a focus on fast-paced, character-driven play and a setting grounded in moral ambiguity, Perseverance is a frontier sandbox where survival isn’t guaranteed – and justice is always personal.

This Genre Pack includes custom Origin, Occupation, and Community Keywords, GM advice tailored to frontier storytelling, setting-specific obstacles, and a detailed backdrop of locations, factions, and threats. It supports both episodic one-shots and long-form character arcs full of scars, grudges, and hard-earned victories.

“You want to make it on Perseverance? Trust your gut, keep your iron handy, and never owe more favors than you can pay back.”
— Eliza Kane, Commonwealth Ranger

At the Edge of Civilization

There’s a world at the edge of the Terran Commonwealth where the law arrives late – if at all – and survival depends more on grit than good intentions. That world is Perseverance.

Settled generations ago by a generational ship whose passengers never reached their intended destination, Perseverance was never meant to be a colony. It became one anyway. The crash survivors carved homes into desert rock and mountain passes, their descendants inheriting a world that never stopped trying to kill them.

Now, the Terran Commonwealth claims the planet, but its rule is a polite fiction. A governor sits in Fallpoint’s gleaming towers, guarded by dwindling battalions and upheld by fragile treaties with old families and corporate warlords. Beyond the capital? Towns make their own laws. Gunfighters enforce them. And justice? It's as unpredictable as the weather.

“They say Perseverance is part of the Commonwealth. Sure. And a stray dog technically belongs to the man who abandoned it.”
— Marshal Gideon Rusk

The Land Is the First Enemy

Perseverance is a world of extremes.

The equatorial belt is a sun-blasted no-man’s-land of red canyons, salt flats, and mining towns that vanish overnight. Travel by land is deadly, by air only slightly less so – if your skiff’s engine holds out and no storm rolls in.

North and south, the great plains stretch for thousands of kilometers: open, fertile, and deadly. Ironhorns roam in massive herds, unpredictable storms sweep in without warning, and rivers serve as lifelines – and battlegrounds.

Beyond them lie the Blackfang Mountains, treacherous and rich with untapped resources, where explorers vanish and ancient technology whispers beneath the rock. And at the poles? The Frozen Expanse – a realm of ice roads, lost research outposts, and silence. Only the desperate or the exiled survive there.

Who Holds Power?

The Terran Commonwealth rules on paper – but real control is fragmented. Here are the power players:

• The Governor of Fallpoint commands the official apparatus but rarely extends her reach beyond the capital.
• The Commonwealth Guard defends major trade hubs, but corruption, politics, and infighting make them unreliable.
• The Rangers are lone agents of order, respected and feared – but they’re too few to patrol the wilderness.
• Corporate Lords like Victor Lang of Perseverance Metals run company towns like fiefdoms, trading security for obedience.
• Smugglers and Free Traders move goods the Commonwealth taxes or bans.
• Outlaws and warlords carve empires from abandoned zones – like Lucia Vex, “Queen of the Dust,” a former ranger turned ruler.

Where there's no law, power is personal. Respect, reputation, and retribution matter more than rank or badge.

The People of Perseverance

From battle-scarred prospectors to starry-eyed outworlders, from smirking skiff captains to quiet mountain survivalists – Perseverance is home to all kinds. Characters might include:

• Pioneer-bred survivors adapted to thin air and sun-scorched terrain.
• Commonwealth exiles who know how the system works – and how to break it.
• Smugglers, traders, bounty hunters, and vigilantes.
• Corporate enforcers, loyal or disillusioned.
• Dustborn drifters with no roots and nothing to lose.

Whether your crew defends a single town, roams the plains, or lives aboard a low-flying skiff like the Dust Runner, your story will be shaped by tough decisions, close calls, and hard-earned loyalty.

Why QuestWorlds?

QuestWorlds is a narrative-first RPG system that emphasizes conflict, character, and collaborative storytelling over complex mechanics. It’s ideal for Perseverance’s tone:

• Players create custom abilities and flaws that reflect their backgrounds, gear, reputation, and scars.
• GM and players frame dramatic story obstacles, not step-by-step tasks.
• Resolution is fast and cinematic – success isn’t always clean, and failure opens doors.
• Community mechanics and story points support ongoing character growth and hard choices.

Perseverance leans into the pulp-action roots of QuestWorlds while grounding its stories in grit, survival, and tough moral calls.

“Law’s just a story we tell. And out here? We tell different stories.”
— Sheriff Dale Foster, Rust Creek

What Makes Perseverance Different?

• Frontier survival, not galactic politics: You won’t be commanding fleets or debating space emperors. You’ll be salvaging a skiff motor with a storm rolling in.
• Law is personal: Justice varies town to town. Players will constantly choose between local loyalties, moral ambiguity, and personal codes.
• The land is alive: Weather, terrain, megafauna, and ancient tech buried beneath the dust provide as much drama as any outlaw.
• Community matters: Whether you come from a mining crew, outlaw clan, or Commonwealth regiment, your community shapes your story.
• Everyone’s a survivor: Perseverance doesn’t give second chances – but it does remember

“You see a cave in those mountains? Best keep moving. Ain’t nothing good ever came out of a hole in the ground.”
— Ranger Tessa Dorne

A Game of Grit, Guts, and Hope

Perseverance isn’t about winning. It’s about surviving long enough to make your mark. It’s about holding on to your people, your ship, your town – or just your word. Whether your crew's story ends in glory, tragedy, or something messier… it’ll be one worth telling.

Because out here, you don’t wait for the story to come to you. You ride out and make it happen.

The Big Questions in Play

• Who really holds power here – and are you part of that or fighting it?
• What does justice mean in a place with no consistent law?
• Can you protect the people who matter to you?
• What’s your line – and what happens when you cross it?
• Will you build something, destroy something, or just keep moving?

What You’ll Find in This Genre Pack

• Setting overview: terrain, climate, threats, and trade routes
• Major factions: Commonwealth powers, corporate syndicates, outlaw warlords
• Origin Keywords: from Pioneer-Born and Riverfolk to Outworlders and Frozen-Road Survivors
• Occupation Keywords: Rangers, Smugglers, Enforcers, Rebels, Traders, and more
• Community Keywords for shared backstories and group dynamics
• GM tools: frontier obstacles, power struggles, story structure, escalation rules
• Sample characters, play examples, and pre-written adventure seeds

“The Governor’s got a fancy office, a battalion of guards, and the authority of the Commonwealth. The only thing she doesn’t have? Control.”
— Captain Jerro Quinn

This is Perseverance

A world that doesn’t care who you are – only what you can do, and how far you’ll go to do it.
The stories here are hard, fast, and bloody. But they’re yours.

“Power on Perseverance is as fickle as the desert wind – a man can be king one day, and nothing more than a shadow the next.”
— Lucia Vex, Queen of the Dust

Pick your crew. Pick your cause.
And don’t forget your iron.

Current posts

• Perseverance: a space western setting for QuestWorlds
• Perseverance: The Planet
• Who Rules Perseverance
• Perseverance Origin Keywords (Part 1)
• Perseverance Origin Keywords (Part 2)
• Life in Perseverance
• Factions and Figures of Perseverance: The Commonwealth Presence
• Factions and Figures of Perseverance: Wealth and Influence in the Frontier
• Factions and Figures of Perseverance: Wealth and Influence in the Frontier
• Perseverance: Occupational Keywords (Part 1)
• Perseverance: Occupational Keywords (Part 2)
• Playing in Perseverance – Game Examples (Part 1)
• Playing in Perseverance – Game Examples (Part 2)
• Forging Heroes and Villains: Character Creation Examples
• The Hazards of Frontier, Part 1 – Surviving the Elements
• The Hazards of Frontier, Part 2 – Creatures and Wild Dangers
• Community Keywords in Perseverance
• Adventure Spot: Iron Mesa – Blood and Riches Beneath the Dust
• Factions and Figures of Perseverance: Secret Societies & Fringe Movements
• Dust Runner Blues (Part 1) – Building a Smuggler Crew for QuestWorlds
• Dust Runner Blues (Part 2) – The Rest of the Crew
• Temporary tags and lasting consequences – Adding narrative tags to QuestWorlds
• Running Perseverance – GM Introduction & Advice
• Two Months of Perseverance – Dust, Danger, and Designing the Frontier
• Incredible Powers in Perseverance – Optional, Mysterious, and Dangerous
• Character Growth in Perseverance
• Welcome to Perseverance