Yellow Bricks: Emerald Revolution

System Neutral Setting by Lightspress

Book I of The Modern Dream of Oz. A system-adaptable, punk-infused modern narrative roleplaying sourcebook inspired by The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum that’s fully compatible with The Simple Approach system in structure and philosophy of play.

Oz has always been a dream of freedom disguised as a fairy tale. Yellow Bricks: Emerald Revolution reimagines L. Frank Baum’s first journey down the Yellow Brick Road as a surreal act of rebellion. Built for The Simple Approach, it transforms classic wonder into narrative resistance where every choice reshapes both world and self.

This book defines a modern, punk-infused Oz fantasy. The genre mixes magical surrealism with social commentary, blending myth and protest into living allegory. Expect color and contradiction, innocence and outrage. Stories rise from abandoned suburbs, digital kingdoms, and fractured hearts that refuse automation. In play, Oz becomes a shared dream of meaning reclaimed from noise.

Use this book to build stories about courage, identity, and community under pressure. Create or randomize characters, settings, factions, and story sparks that all serve emotion and consequence over tactics. Every entry exists to provoke reflection, conversation, and drama. Nothing here asks for optimization; everything asks what kind of truth you’re willing to face.

The material follows The Simple Approach: traits describe narrative roles, relationships, and motives instead of stats. Each section translates easily to any system where storytelling matters more than math. The Principia core book deepens play but isn’t required.

These tools work because they invite improvisation and empathy. They help groups build arcs from contradiction: hope amid decay, kindness as defiance, courage that questions authority. Whether you play for an evening or an ongoing campaign, the format stays fluid and human.

No table is too small or too rule-heavy to use this book. You can adapt it to any style, from structured sessions to open collaborative storytelling, without losing its voice. The goal is conversation through imagination.

Step onto the road. Follow the color that calls to you. Let Oz remind you that every journey toward authenticity begins with a refusal to bow to illusion.

This Book Contains

Every world begins as a question. Yellow Bricks: Emerald Revolution asks what happens when imagination refuses to obey power. It transforms Baum’s story into a punk-infused Oz where meaning is currency and courage is dissent. The book turns wonder into critique and fantasy into method, inviting players to rebuild a world of color from a society that grinds everything gray.

Each section expands a piece of that vision. Together they form a toolkit for narrative roleplaying grounded in emotion, consequence, and the will to change.

• Emerald Revolution: Explore the themes of illusion, control, and awakening. Translate each scene into playable moments where revelation becomes reward.
• Characters: Meet wanderers, dreamers, and rebels shaped by loss and conviction. Use sample traits to define voice, purpose, and fracture, or adapt them for your own creations.
• Settings: Build surreal geographies of memory and influence. Mix decaying suburbs, glowing networks, and impossible terrains that mirror modern anxieties and hopes.
• Factions: Create unions, syndicates, and resistance movements that struggle over color, truth, and autonomy. Each faction trait defines motive, secrecy, and power.
• Stories: Draw from allegory and unrest. Use traits and hooks to weave adventures about self-discovery, deception, and collective transformation.
• Genre Tools: Apply narrative methods that reflect Oz’s tone, fluid identity, visible systems, and the search for authenticity, within any adaptable rule set.
• Techniques: Use pacing, symbol, and perspective to capture the surreal rhythm of Oz. Encourage improvisation and consequence rather than control.
• Glossary: Clarify the shared language of Oz fantasy and The Simple Approach to keep tone consistent and meaning accessible.
• Bibliography: Extend understanding through works that examine myth, rebellion, and human imagination. Each reference deepens the modern dream of Oz as both story and statement.

Yellow Bricks: Emerald Revolution is available through DriveThruRPG in PDF.

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