Setting Overview
Hidden World
AX.GHW.01.01
AXIOMRPG GENRE CATALOG
Contemporary Urban Horror & Fantasy
Reference Code: AX.GHW
Lineages: 6
Organizations: 10
Professions: 24
Power Traditions: 6
Threats: 48
Compatible with AxiomRPG Core Rules (AX.C)
Required Core Sections: AX.C.01 through AX.C.14
This Catalog defines setting-specific content for the following
Points in the Core Rules:
AX.C.01 - Setting Details - Override
AX.C.06 - Lineages - Override
AX.C.07 - Professions - Override
AX.C.08 - Perks & Powers - Supplemental
AX.C.09 - Equipment - Override
AX.C.13 - Threats - Override
AX.C.14 - GM Tools - Override
All other Core sections apply without modification.
It's Your Game
There is a significant amount of detail provided for the purpose of variety and options.
Not every lineage, organization or threat has to exist in every version of this setting.
If the story you want to tell is operational without one or more aspects of the setting, ignore what doesn't fit. The goal is to enjoy the story and experience. Don't overcomplicate or overwhelm by trying to use everything at once. Introduce other details at your own pace.
This catalog presents a contemporary urban horror and fantasy setting for AxiomRPG, a world where the supernatural is real, hidden from ordinary society by a combination of active concealment, human psychology, and institutional suppression.
Characters are people who know the truth: hunters who pursue threats, agents who classify and contain, supernatural beings navigating the space between two worlds and investigators who have seen too much to pretend otherwise.
The tone draws from the genre's established canon:
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer's combination of horror and functional community
- Supernatural's road-weary expertise and mythological depth
- Grimm's law enforcement perspective on a world most people can't perceive
- Dresden Files' urban magic embedded in a recognizable city
- X-Files' institutional ambiguity and evidence management
- Sanctuary's position on what "monster" actually means
The catalog does not require familiarity with these sources. It does inherit their core premise: the monsters are real, most people don't know, and the people who know have to figure out what to do about it.
This is a setting of practical moral complexity. The threats are real and dangerous. So are the people fighting them. The organizations with the authority to respond don't always respond well. The beings classified as threats don't always deserve the classification. The Veil that keeps ordinary society safe from knowledge of the hidden world also keeps ordinary society from having any say in decisions made on its behalf. These tensions are not resolved by the catalog. They are the setting.