Confluence: The Living Archive could be the next great D&D competitor
Fantasy heartbreaker – a term coined in 2002 by Ron Edwards on the indie RPG website The Forge – originally meant a game where the serial numbers were more or less removed D&D while the intention is to offer a fresh take on the genre. Since then, it has evolved into any fantasy game that could achieve widespread popularity. Contenders for the crown today include upstarts like Darrington Press DaggerheartMCDMs Draw steeland Son of Oak Legend in the mist among others.
Confluence takes a classic fantasy heartthrob and fits it into a wide range of settings, cultures and over 700,000 years of history; creating an easy-to-learn game that positions itself as the Swiss army knife of tabletop role-playing games D&D has become over the past 50 years – and more. Confluence has been in development for the past two years, with a team of over 15 developers who have previously worked with companies like Paizo, Darrington Press, Rowan Rook and Decard, and more.
Ajurea, the main setting of Confluenceis ‘a world of encounters’, as the Backerkit campaign describes. Phenomena called Confluxes bring together forty settings of people, objects, and locations into a unified mechanical system, which will initially manifest in four physical books and two zines.
The core texts build on the tradition of D&D books like Volo’s Guide to Monsterswhere they are presented as documents in the universe. However, with the convergence (or should I say confluence) of these different cultures and perspectives, the standard multi-column form D&D players are used to seeing the rules of the game littered with conflicting perspectives. The text acknowledges that history passes through many hands, with diegetic ‘additions’ such as newspaper clippings, handwritten notes and hidden mechanics – stylistically ‘torn’ from books on tabletop mechanics – written, stapled, typed and smeared in the margins.
With this seemingly infinite number of choices, decision paralysis could easily prevent new tabletop fans from picking up the book. However, developers have prioritized the ease of access this makes D&D so attractive to new players. The pre-campaign calibration guide uses a series of questions to ask players what type of game they want to play, before directing them to the appropriate sections. On ConfluenceOn this system’s crowdfunding page, the list of genres and stories this system can tell includes pirate tales, heroic uprisings, criminal underworlds, occult investigations, climate exploration, and Atlantic sci-fi, allowing players to tell their stories without having to search for a other new system or addition from a third party.
Confluence also uses familiar playing frameworks D&D fans have grown accustomed to liking a game master (called the Story Leader in this system) and dice-based resolution systems. However, Confluence adds developments from some other Fantasy Heartbreakers, trading the d20s for an evolving dice pool of d6s that rely on narrative developments and character skills, while adding physical cards called Focuses that allow for more deliberate storytelling with mechanical benefits.
The tabletop game will conclude crowdfunding on November 15, with PDFs expected to be available in July 2025 and physical materials in September 2025.