Confluence is an expansive tabletop roleplaying game of in-world artifacts and Atlases, built upon a world and a system that grows and changes as you explore.
Confluence: The Living Archive is a genre-blending TTRPG of fantasy, sci-fi, and horror, built to tell collaborative, place-driven stories. Ajurea is world of meeting, where strange phenomena called Confluxes Pull people, objects, and even entire cities together across 700,000 years of time and over 40 worlds. Come play in the region of Motley Coast. From the kaleidoscopic coast to the underwater labyrinths, everything here is constantly changing.
The Atlas Volume 1: The Motley Coast and Sujatha’s Journal are your immersive, in-world setting books.
The Atlas is written in the many voices of the chroniclers who work with the Ikari Archive Office. This organization is committed to documenting the land and cultures of Ajurea. You can use ephemera included as handouts or plot hooks in your game.
Sujatha’s Journal is written by an outsider to Ajurea, an engineer who catalogs her findings, including the histories of the eras and lineages.
Play Someone New
Ajurea is home to hundreds of original and familiar lineages. In this first release Sujatha explores more than 20 Lineages for you to play. Consider being a color-eating Hahen, a body-modding insectoid Ell’el, or a salamander-like Salian. If you prefer something a little more familiar, you can play as a Mortal, a human equivalent, a fungus and moss–covered Goblin, or a mouse-like Alfira. To take your lineage experience to the next level, try a Mjurn, a fish people evolved to have a face on their tongue, or a Wen, a slug people who speak through spores and grow food on their backs.
Drive Action with the Confluence RPG Engine
You’ll use an exciting combination of dice, tokens, meters, and journals to engage the world, move as a group, and simulate your character’s actions.
The Confluence RPG engine is an original system designed for the world of Ajurea. This system keeps consequences interesting and encourages collaborative story building. The game uses a d6 dice pool as its core mechanic; your pool represents factors in your favor: your abilities, allies, location, and helpful narrative circumstances. To up the stakes or complicate your story, The Story Leader rolls against you, building a pool from your enemies, wounds, hostile landscapes, and narrative detriments. You and your SL compare rolls, and when roll high you take hold of the narrative itself, changing the course of the action. How will you take charge?
Story elements such as locations, items, non-player characters, events, goals, and relationships are represented at the table with their own cards, called focuses. These allow each of your most important story elements to deeply inform your play, alter your narrative, and enhance your dice rolls.
Our custom character abilities are called facets which evolve with the character over time, and add mechanics to your game play beyond the core system. As each facet is unique, you can work together with other players to combine your characters’ talents and solve problems creatively.
A World of Meeting
As a group, you play locals exploring the Motley Coast, finding your way through an ever-changing world, and always encountering something new. Your stories revolve around the communities you live in and the Confluxes that disrupt them.
Use the Group Sheet and our walkthrough of your first session to bring even more collaboration to your game, by choosing your own mix of themes, working out your safety tools, detailing group relationships that grow overtime, and mechanizing the ways your group works together.
The Confluence RPG system illustrates this changing landscape through a constant mix of themes and story elements, encouraging stories that bring your favorite genres together.
You want to play a pirate game about cooking for your found family, or a cutthroat story about overthrowing a corrupt pirate captain with sword and gun? Become a crew in Delrun and rabble-rouse with the locals, or set sail on the seas!
You want to steal time to overthrow a corrupt government? Play a group of farmers from Crop Circle Junction, where rebellion is already brewing, and heist some time from Chrona, a corporate city stuck in a time bubble.
You want to play a group of hedonistic criminals looking for acceptance and exploiting a favor-based economy? Build a business in Motley Coast City.
You want to play small town politics, investigate cult activity, meet hidden gods, or practice gravity magic? Play the locals of the Gravity Isles, and uncover the mysteries in the depths of the Swirling Sea.
You want to play an underwater mystery campaign, researching technology or pollution? Uncover the unknown origins of the Color Dome or head to the Rockwater Isles to find out what’s causing the light pollution in the fisheries.
UNLOCKED PDF: Comic Book $60k - Experience a Pull for the first time in this 5-page digital comic by Shan Bennion. UNLOCKED PDF: Smol Inn Review Book $65k - The collected works of our “Fallen God of Good Sleep” that expands hotels and keepers in the Motley Coast. Explore 12 new locations with focuses to match!
UNLOCKED Accessory: Dice Unlock $70k - Roll with style! Motley Coast–themed d6s are now available as an add-on. Comes in packs of 6 and 36.
PDF: Ephemera Pack $75k - The Ephemera from the Atlas is brought together in one handy PDF for you to use at your table.
The Atlas Volume 1: The Motley Coastis the heart of Confluence RPG. It is a text from the world of Ajurea welcoming you to the Motley Coast, on the continent of Wemrel. Written by Ikari Archivists, the Atlas explores a myriad of cities, towns, cultures, flora and fauna, and so much more! The Atlas bears the notes, drawings, warnings, and commentary from those who carried it before, and includes ephemera with mechanics, story hooks, and characters to interact with. As you, your character, and your group spend time in these places and travel the region, you add to it.
Sujatha’s Journal isa text written from the perspective of Sujatha, an outsider studying Ajurea. In this colorful lore book, Sujatha shares her discoveries about Ajurea and its many peoples, magics, and technologies. Find inspiration for your character’s origins, learn more about the strange universe of Confluence, and experience the world through the eyes of a unique character.
The Confluence Guide to the Living Archive (CGLA) contains the rules of the game for players and Story Leaders. From the core d6 system to Wounds, location rules to building story elements, character creation to collaboration, moves to extended SL material this book has the answers.
The Catalog of Lists is your one-stop shop for all the lists you need. Choose a facet or calling to represent your character’s experience with close combat, or select a specialty that demonstrates their dedication to the magic of Tensormancy. Find an index containing information from all books, including lists of focuses and themes. This is your tool to navigate Confluence RPG’s extensive information.
Calibration is a walk through your first session. This step-by-step guide to starting your campaign brings players together clarifying play styles and safety tools, determines your starting area, themes, and expectations, walks you through character and group creation, and helps you start your world. By the end of your Calibration session, you’ll be introduced to the game’s setting, mechanics, and books.
So You Want To Build It?is a zine dedicated to building your own mechanics. If you love tinkering with mechanics, this toolkit gives you everything you need to make your own rules for Confluence. Bestow your character with customized facets or wound them with personal consequences. Build your own area traits and add mechanics to your focuses to bring your world to life!
Publishing Goblin's roots are in record-breaking tarot projects so it was only right that Confluence: The Living Archive partner with tarot-based TTRPG Fatebound, where the decisions you make at Aetheria Academy shape not only your destiny but the fate of Witchdom itself. If you back both campaigns at PDF level or higher you will receive an exclusive adventure combining our systems when we both fully fund.
In The Fates of Those Who Dream you will play as first-year students and Walkers of the Dream, a group of people tasked with keeping the waking world safe from nightmares. Student Yikun Ma has been pulled to The Dream realm, creating a new Gate between Aetheria Academy and the world of Ajurea. Nightmares leak through the gate and dreams become real, roaming the school's halls. Your group must find Yikun in The Dream and get home before the forces wreak havoc on both worlds. The adventure will combine Fatebound's Tarot system with the Confluence Dice system and give you a taste of how flexible these games can be.
Confluence RPG will be available to all backers at PDF Bundle level or higher on Alchemy RPG as a Content Universe.
Alchemy is the world's first virtual tabletop (VTT) built specifically for cinematic immersion and theater of the mind gameplay. Its scene-based structure empowers gamemasters to tell incredible stories with animated environments, particle effects, ambient sound, and music.
The Confluence Team has partnered with Pixel Table, to bring our userbase custom digital tools including a Confluence Wiki, Focus Card Database you can add to, and an interactive Infinite Canvas with character and Story Leader support.
BUT, in the case of Pixel Table we need your help to make it happen. These tools are a stretch goal on our campaign.
If we can fund our Pixel Table stretch goal backers of the PDF level and higher will receive the Founder designation which includes:
Perpetual access to The Motley Coast materials
1 Board with 1 Story Leader slot and 5 player slots
Perpetual access to use and add to the Focus Card Database
Three Actual Play Stretch Goals
Queer RPG (???) - 6-10 episode actual play podcast of Confluence RPG, premiering in fall/winter 2025.
3 Black Halflings (???) - 4-episode actual play podcast and an additional deep dive into the game of Confluence RPG, premiering in winter 2025.
Transplanar (???) - 3-5 episode streamed playthrough of Confluence RPG by our friends Transplanar premiering late 2025/early 2026.
"Upon getting a good read of the full books I can confidently say that Confluence truly is doing something I have never seen." - Tomás Giménez Rioja wrote this stellar review on Tribality
"The worldbuilding in Confluence RPG is a collaborative effort between the story leader and the players, but get this, also between gaming groups. Yes, you heard that right! Publishing Goblin is working on creating a public Focus Card Database that can be accessed and edited by anyone around the in real life world. I think that's super cool!" -Kenzie Tartaglione recorded an outstanding showcase on Spotify and Apple Podcasts
"This might be the only TTRPG that does the multiverse correctly!" - V.J. Harris showed high praise on TikTok
"I was able to see a preview of some pages of this game and it is one of the most visually stunning RPGs that I have ever seen." - Sam Leigh (GoblinMixTape) had high praise in this fantastic review on YouTube
"By building a diegetic sourcebook they are inviting readers to reframe their understanding of what canon can be." - Aaron Voigt had great things to say about the ephemera on YouTube
We intend to have the core PDFs available by July of 2025.
We intend to ship all physical material including physical stretch goals by September of 2025.
Digital stretch goals will work on their own timeline and may come out later than the six core books. We intend to have all digital stretch goals available by December 2025.
If you backed both the Fatebound campaign and ours, you will get two PDFs, one when you receive your Fatebound core book and the other when Confluence’s core books are published.
Please note that this timeline is an estimate, and we’ll keep you updated every step of the way.
After the campaign ends, we’ll send out BackerKit surveys via email. These surveys are to collect information about your pledges, and to give you the chance to pick up any add-ons you want. To receive your rewards, you must fill out your survey.
We will provide regular, frequent updates about our progress and give clear instructions on what the next steps in the campaign are. When we are close to completing fulfillment and you haven’t completed your survey, we’ll send reminders for you to do so.
If you still haven’t completed your BackerKit survey after fulfillment is complete, we will send you an email to let you know that we need your survey information. You’ll have 30 days from the date of that email to complete your survey, which we will use to ship your rewards.
If you don’t complete the survey during this grace period, we will no longer be able to ship your rewards or offer any refunds.
Refunds and Shipping
Refunds: We can accommodate full refunds until December 15, 2024. We are unable to offer refunds beyond this period.
Shipping and Fulfillment: You are responsible for providing your current email address and mailing address, and for paying shipping. We will charge shipping closer to the time of fulfillment. That means you are not being charged for it now, or for VAT or IOSS, or any other taxes or fees unique to your country. You’ll receive a tracking number by email once your rewards are on their way to you.
Damaged or Missing Items, Lost or Misdelivered Packages: Please email us at [email protected] about any damaged or missing items within 30 days of receiving the package. For packages that go missing, send us an email at [email protected] about the missing package within 45 days of receiving your tracking number.
Risks and Challenges
Thank you for supporting us! With our proven track record of fulfilling rewards for over 20 campaigns (this is our 24th!), we are confident that we can deliver this one as well. As with anything, there are risks and challenges. We will keep you updated on our progress and setbacks as we move forward.
Publishing Goblin is owned by Seven Dane Asmund. I’ve been on an independent publishing journey for some time now! In 2010, I self-published my very first book, Limping Concrete, a collection of my poetry and short stories. It featured work from as far back as 2007. I immediately followed it up with additional books the next two years, and since that first book, I have published over 40 books, made some music, a fictional podcast, roleplaying games, board games, card games, tarot decks, oracle dice, small video games, and more. My crowdfunding journey started under the name Cosmic Mirror Games in May of 2016 on Kickstarter. I have since run 25 projects on crowdfunding platforms now, shifting from games to tarot and divination tools under the name Seven Thirteen Books, until finally accepting my title, Publishing Goblin. Now, I’m just going to start publishing anything and everything I want, and I thank you for joining me on this journey!
