Creating Exclusion Zone Botanist led me to search for the origins and critical works of the genre. Here are five common elements of zonecore and a list of zonecore tabletop games for inspiration.
The Science Fiction Encyclopedia has a handy article on the Zone: <https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/zone>. In fiction, not games, of course, and not all fiction concerned with Zones/the Zone need be Zonecore.
I wonder if we can also see Zonecore as a subversion of the ever tedious “hero’s journey” (<https://sf-encyclopedia.com/fe/monomyth>) — the anti-hero crosses over to fetch back something of only dubious value … if she in the end even wants to make it back at all. Presumably, J G Ballard didn’t write Zonecore, but something in the same neighbourhood, and there is a clear New Wave interest in Zones. Does the protagonist need an ambivalent attitude to the Zone, or am I just projecting wildly? ;)
Hah! Of all the hours I spent looking things up for this article, I never came across that SF Encyclopedia entry. It would have saved me a lot of time!
I'm particularly interested in the references to works prior to Roadside Picnic in 1972. There's a lot to dig into there.
Thank you for this comment! Perhaps this post will get an update in the future.
So based on the breakdown, would The Shinning count as a zonecore story? The hotel as the zone, Jack as the non hero stalker (maybe a stretch), the Inexplicable phenomena - the elevator of blood, those twins. The transformation - Jack again. The last one doesn't really apply.
I know its not a ttrpg but it was the first thing that jumped to my mind after Annihilation. I dont know enough games to be able to add to the list but the list was longer than I would have expected.
I could see the hotel as the zone, but also some people live there. So perhaps it is not as zone-like as the ones in Roadside Picnic and Stalker. Definitely the inexplicable phenomena and the creeping transformation are there.
This was mentioned on Bluesky, but I think you are touching upon the idea that TTRPG dungeon crawls and many "weird location" adventures might fit many of these zonecore criteria.
I personally feel calling The Shining "zonecore" would be a stretch, but that's for each person to decide!
Great breakdown of the genre! I've been a fan of "Roadside Picnic" and "Annihilation" for a while so it's fun to see how it inspires other people. Speaking of, I've just opened a Google Doc and I'm brainstorming a game idea blending mechas and zonecore...
I really went down the rabbit hole with this one, turning up so many different stories that I would now like to read. Midwich Cuckoos is just one of many.
I ended up, right or wrong, deciding to focus on Thomas Ligotti for a bit (an author I had never heard of until putting this article together) starting with Songs of a Dead Dreamer & Grimscribe. Interestingly, Jeff VanderMeer wrote the introduction to the Penguin edition.
Great article about a genre I enjoy. Good to see Psycho headcheese’s stuff listed along with Patrick Todoroff’s- both of those have given me launch points for my own homebrewed games. Funnily enough a 4AD type version was just released “Alone against the zone”.
Love this! It's a perfect name -- like Geoff, I instantly knew what you were talking about.
I think my own Chiron's Doom fits: https://ickbat.itch.io/chirons-doom. It's a game about a doomed expedition to explore a mysterious monument, and counts several of the things you've listed here as inspiration.
The biggest inspiration was a novella by Alastair Reynolds called Diamond Dogs, published back in 2003. Blew my mind when I read it, in a similar (if somewhat less literary) way to Annihilation.
Also, this sure sounds like zonecore to me: "There is a monument at the edge of civilisation—an enigmatic structure known as Chiron's Doom. Nobody knows what it does, or who made it, or why. It has defied all previous attempts at understanding. Countless expeditions have torn themselves apart trying to learn its secrets."
"Much more thoroughly successful is Budrys's next novel, Rogue Moon (1960; vt The Death Machine 2001), now widely regarded as an sf classic. A good deal has been written about the highly integrated symbolic structure of this story, whose perfectly competent surface narration deals with a Hard-SF solution to the problem of an alien Labyrinth, discovered on the Moon, a Zone which kills anyone who tries to pass through it without obeying various arbitrary and incomprehensible rules."
Oh man. Curious Archive over on YouTube JUST posted about this about 4 days ago. He calls it "Ecosystemic Horror"
Highly, highly recommend watching it
That’s a much fancier term! 😅
I’m not familiar with that YT channel, but I’ll check it out. Thank you for your comment!
Love giving a name to this! I could tell right away what you were talking about, which is the sign of an effective category.
Malifaux (Wyrd games) was the first example I thought of.
Thank you so much!
I did struggle to find more examples from the board game world. If you think of any others that should be included, please do share.
The Science Fiction Encyclopedia has a handy article on the Zone: <https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/zone>. In fiction, not games, of course, and not all fiction concerned with Zones/the Zone need be Zonecore.
I wonder if we can also see Zonecore as a subversion of the ever tedious “hero’s journey” (<https://sf-encyclopedia.com/fe/monomyth>) — the anti-hero crosses over to fetch back something of only dubious value … if she in the end even wants to make it back at all. Presumably, J G Ballard didn’t write Zonecore, but something in the same neighbourhood, and there is a clear New Wave interest in Zones. Does the protagonist need an ambivalent attitude to the Zone, or am I just projecting wildly? ;)
Hah! Of all the hours I spent looking things up for this article, I never came across that SF Encyclopedia entry. It would have saved me a lot of time!
I'm particularly interested in the references to works prior to Roadside Picnic in 1972. There's a lot to dig into there.
Thank you for this comment! Perhaps this post will get an update in the future.
So based on the breakdown, would The Shinning count as a zonecore story? The hotel as the zone, Jack as the non hero stalker (maybe a stretch), the Inexplicable phenomena - the elevator of blood, those twins. The transformation - Jack again. The last one doesn't really apply.
I know its not a ttrpg but it was the first thing that jumped to my mind after Annihilation. I dont know enough games to be able to add to the list but the list was longer than I would have expected.
I could see the hotel as the zone, but also some people live there. So perhaps it is not as zone-like as the ones in Roadside Picnic and Stalker. Definitely the inexplicable phenomena and the creeping transformation are there.
This was mentioned on Bluesky, but I think you are touching upon the idea that TTRPG dungeon crawls and many "weird location" adventures might fit many of these zonecore criteria.
I personally feel calling The Shining "zonecore" would be a stretch, but that's for each person to decide!
Thank you for the comment!
Zonecore has entered the building.
Time to run away, very, very fast.
....i like this term.
Thanks!
Great breakdown of the genre! I've been a fan of "Roadside Picnic" and "Annihilation" for a while so it's fun to see how it inspires other people. Speaking of, I've just opened a Google Doc and I'm brainstorming a game idea blending mechas and zonecore...
Yes! Can't wait to see what you make!
Yeah hopefully I can actually make something out of this idea 🫣
What a wonderfully detailed analysis of the genre. I've been inspired to write such a setting but haven't gotten around to it yet.
I'm glad to see your research turned up Wyndham's Midwich Cuckoos.
Village of the Damned is a great reference for a pre-zonecore influence.
Zonecore takes the idea: what if someone visited a place (like an astronaut going to space) and came back changed, but flips it around.
In Zonecore the place visits us and changes our reality & us as we observe those changes.
Midwich Cuckoos is kinda in between, representing a transition in themes and ideas from one to the other.
Thank you for the kind words!
I really went down the rabbit hole with this one, turning up so many different stories that I would now like to read. Midwich Cuckoos is just one of many.
I ended up, right or wrong, deciding to focus on Thomas Ligotti for a bit (an author I had never heard of until putting this article together) starting with Songs of a Dead Dreamer & Grimscribe. Interestingly, Jeff VanderMeer wrote the introduction to the Penguin edition.
Great article about a genre I enjoy. Good to see Psycho headcheese’s stuff listed along with Patrick Todoroff’s- both of those have given me launch points for my own homebrewed games. Funnily enough a 4AD type version was just released “Alone against the zone”.
This one? https://ganesha-games.itch.io/alone-against-the-zone
Looks like it belongs on the list!
(I'll probably batch the updates and add a few games at the same time.)
That’s the one. I saw that Man Alone has a play through on his YouTube channel already!
Also came to mention Alone Against The Zone.
Noted! Thanks!
Love this! It's a perfect name -- like Geoff, I instantly knew what you were talking about.
I think my own Chiron's Doom fits: https://ickbat.itch.io/chirons-doom. It's a game about a doomed expedition to explore a mysterious monument, and counts several of the things you've listed here as inspiration.
The biggest inspiration was a novella by Alastair Reynolds called Diamond Dogs, published back in 2003. Blew my mind when I read it, in a similar (if somewhat less literary) way to Annihilation.
Thank you so much!
Also, this sure sounds like zonecore to me: "There is a monument at the edge of civilisation—an enigmatic structure known as Chiron's Doom. Nobody knows what it does, or who made it, or why. It has defied all previous attempts at understanding. Countless expeditions have torn themselves apart trying to learn its secrets."
I'll add it to the list in the next update.
Also Algis Budrys’ Rogue Moon (AKA The Death Machine — see <https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/budrys_algis>)?
"Much more thoroughly successful is Budrys's next novel, Rogue Moon (1960; vt The Death Machine 2001), now widely regarded as an sf classic. A good deal has been written about the highly integrated symbolic structure of this story, whose perfectly competent surface narration deals with a Hard-SF solution to the problem of an alien Labyrinth, discovered on the Moon, a Zone which kills anyone who tries to pass through it without obeying various arbitrary and incomprehensible rules."
Sounds zonecore to me!
I love the ending of that book.
No spoilers! 😂