# BX CRPG: old-school turn-based D&D-style RPG set in Yonkers and the Bronx

**Status:** exploring. Scott is still working out the main quest. A Getty Square vertical-slice brief is ready
for review and eventual pre-greenlight playtesting; full production has not begun. The current concept and
documents are published at **https://bx-crpg.primedomains.nyc/**.
**Started:** 2026-09-27 in #dev-hub · **Channel:** #idea-bx-crpg

## The idea
A party-based, turn-based CRPG with the same structure as Pool of Radiance (the Gold Box games): a town
hub, a party you roll up, exploration, tactical grid combat, loot and leveling. The setting is present-day
**urban fantasy** in the places Scott grew up, **Yonkers and the Bronx**: a hidden underworld living
alongside everyday people. The art deliberately looks back to the classics (pixel art or a Gold Box-style
look), with modern conveniences added (autosave, tooltips, fast combat).

## Setting and dungeons (from Scott)
- **Parks as wilderness zones:** e.g. Van Cortlandt, Pelham Bay, Tibbetts Brook, Untermyer.
- **Large apartment complexes as multi-floor dungeons:** the lobby, the stairwells, the roof, the boiler room.
- **Subway stations and tunnels as classic dungeon crawls:** the 1, 4, 5, 6, B/D and 2 lines, abandoned
  platforms, maintenance tunnels.
- **Everyday people** (the bodega owner, the super, the MTA worker, the barber) are the quest-givers, the
  shops and the hidden-world contacts.

## Why it could work (from the #dev-hub eval, 2026-09-27)
- BG3 (2023) revived demand for turn-based D&D-rules RPGs; Solasta, Pathfinder and Wasteland 3 hold a steady mid-size market.
- **Closest comparison:** Shadowrun Returns / Dragonfall / Hong Kong, a turn-based party RPG with tabletop
  rules in a modern city, made on a Kickstarter budget.
- Most modern settings are cyberpunk or post-apocalypse. **A real place, present day, with hidden magic** is far less crowded.
- A specific, real hometown (Yonkers/Bronx) is a stronger hook than a generic city.
- The D&D 5e SRD is Creative Commons, so the ruleset is usable. D&D names and setting IP are not.

## Risks
- Scope: this genre takes a lot of writing and content. **Keep v1 small:** one area (e.g. a single
  neighborhood + one subway line), 8–15 hours.
- Real places: make locations recognizable but fictionalized. Avoid real businesses and real people without permission.
- The retro look has to feel deliberate, not cheap.

## Design sketch (to refine)
- Classes mapped to modern roles (e.g. Fighter → bouncer/boxer, Rogue → hustler, Cleric → neighborhood
  healer/botanica, Wizard → hidden-world scholar, Ranger → park-ranger type).
- **Starting hub:** Getty Square in Yonkers, represented as a compressed, handcrafted district rather than a
  block-for-block recreation. Its central streets and transit connections establish the recognizable geography;
  fictionalized local businesses provide the shop, rumors/quests, and safe-house functions.
- Early loop: street-level jobs → apartment-complex dungeon → subway descent → the underworld reveal.
- **First validation slice:** a 30–45 minute Getty Square prologue covering exploration, dialogue, a small
  service-space delve, and grid combat. See [`getty-square-vertical-slice.md`](getty-square-vertical-slice.md).
  It is deliberately compatible with multiple main-quest directions and sets a strict content budget and
  five-person playtest gate before a production greenlight.

## Art, map and travel recommendation (2026-09-27)
- **Decision:** approved and locked by Scott on 2026-09-27. Treat the art direction, compressed node-based
  geography, v1 map scope, and travel methods below as the baseline unless playtesting gives us a reason to revise them.
- **Art direction:** stylized 2D pixel art in a three-quarter/top-down view, built from modular tiles and props.
  Target a deliberately limited palette and readable silhouettes rather than attempting photorealism. Use Godot
  `TileMapLayer` scenes for exploration and the combat grid; draw characters, portraits and landmark set pieces
  separately so repeated street tiles still feel specific.
- **Production pipeline:** block out maps in Godot using placeholder tiles, then make the reusable environment kit
  and character animations in Aseprite/LibreSprite or Krita. Use real photos taken with permission and map data as
  reference. Generative images can help explore moods or compositions, but final shipped assets should be redrawn
  into one controlled style for consistency and clean rights provenance.
- **Geography:** OpenStreetMap covers both Yonkers and the Bronx and can be used under the ODbL with attribution;
  NYC also publishes Bronx street-centerline data. Use those sources to trace the broad street pattern and locate
  landmarks, not to reproduce every block. Do not copy Google Maps imagery or tiles.
- **World structure:** do not build continuous 1:1 Yonkers and Bronx maps. Use a transit-style node map joining
  5–8 dense, handcrafted districts. For v1, ship one neighborhood hub plus 3–4 adventure areas (an apartment
  complex, a park, a station/tunnel section, and an underworld location). Other borough/city areas can appear as
  locked or named nodes and become later chapters.
- **Travel:** walking is the moment-to-moment exploration mode inside a district. Subway, Metro-North and buses
  provide fast travel between discovered nodes, with short illustrated/text encounters that can become ambushes,
  conversations or quests. Taxis/rideshares can be a paid emergency shortcut; supernatural tunnel routes can
  unlock later. Avoid player-controlled cars in v1 because they require a much larger world and a separate driving
  system.
- **Graphics cost:** the baseline toolchain can cost **$0**: Godot, LibreSprite, and Krita are free/open-source,
  and the game can be made without a paid image generator. Aseprite is an optional one-time paid convenience rather
  than a requirement. AI concept-image services may charge through a subscription or usage credits depending on the
  service and account; budget approval is required before relying on one. The meaningful production expense is the
  artist time needed to redraw, animate, and enforce a consistent, commercially safe visual style.
- **First visual-development artwork (2026-09-28):** the preview site now includes a full-resolution,
  AI-generated gameplay-screen concept for the Getty Square transit plaza at dusk. It is a review target for
  camera angle, palette, character scale, street density, and the balance between grounded city detail and subtle
  magic—not a finished or production-ready game asset. Any shipped art should be redrawn into the controlled
  modular style and rights-provenance workflow above.

## Open items (numbers stable in the thread)
1. ~~Just curious, or incubator?~~ Answered: make it an incubator idea (2026-09-27).
2. ~~Setting?~~ Answered: present-day urban underworld in Yonkers + the Bronx.
3. Scott: the main quest / mission goal (he's working on it).
4. ~~Platform?~~ Answered 2026-09-27: Scott wants the most reach. Plan: **PC/Steam (+ Steam Deck verified) at launch**,
   a **free web demo** (itch.io/browser) for word of mouth, then **Switch + iOS/Android premium ports** ~6 months later.
   Build in **Godot** with controller + touch-friendly UI from day one.
5. ~~Engine?~~ Answered 2026-09-27: **Godot.** The engine is free and open source under the MIT license,
   with no royalties or revenue cap, and it supports PC, Steam Deck/Linux, web, Android, and iOS exports.
   Switch is still possible, but is not a free one-click export: it requires Nintendo developer approval,
   proprietary SDK/devkit access, and either a third-party Godot console port or an in-house port.
6. ~~Art/map scope?~~ Answered 2026-09-27: Scott approved and locked the modular 2D pixel-art direction, real
   geography compressed into a transit-linked node map, one neighborhood plus 3–4 adventure areas for v1, and the
   proposed walking/transit/taxi/supernatural-route travel model. The core toolchain can be free; paid art software,
   generation services, and commissioned artist work are optional production costs.
7. ~~Starting hub?~~ Answered 2026-09-28: **Getty Square in Yonkers**, built as a compressed, handcrafted
   first playable district with recognizable geography and fictionalized businesses.