Ishanekon: World Shapers is a free-to-play Tabletop Roleplaying Game (TTRPG) developed by Jan Luyken. As the name suggests, this game can be adapted to any setting of your choosing.
Indeed, one of the first impressions you get of Ishanekon is one of boundless possibilities. The beautiful art style also leans into that feeling, with soldiers, sorcerers, rock stars and alien bounty hunters standing side by side ready for action!
I was lucky enough to join in a one-shot game of Ishanekon set in the Mass Effect universe run by Jan and to talk with him about the game afterwards.
Creating Characters in Ishanekon
Getting started with learning the rules of Ishanekon, it was clear that the creative vision of the game’s users comes before anything else.
For us we had the setting of the Mass Effect universe. The brief was that we’d be working for a known character called the Shadow Broker, in a mission set before the events of the original game.
I was very excited to have a Mass Effect adventure of my own!
I liked the idea of being a Vorcha; one of the more feral species in the game. An idea formed about this Vorcha having the duality of violent destructive tendencies with wanting to be a good person and help his friends.
The game’s character creation system allowed me to bring these ideas to life. There are 10 archetypes each with 11 sub-archetypes. This means that there are a total of 110 sub-archetypes. Already, Ishanekon has offered much more choice then you’ll usually get in a TTRPG! I named my character Garol and chose the Demolition archetype. That fitted my idea of him using his destructive tendencies for good (or at least his interpretation of good). I then chose the Grenadier sub-archetype as it seemed to be the most direct way to have Garol make big booms!
From then on, I was able to make use of Ishanekon’s online character sheet and the character creation guide which did a lot of the hard work for me. I was guided to pick out a mixture of stats, skills, features, talents and abilities that helped me turn Garol into a character that could fully interact with the world.
Playing as one of Mass Effect’s Vorcha in a TTRPG setting was an interesting experience!
Playing the Game
When we started playing, it was easy to pick up as the rules of Ishanekon were similar to a lot of other TTRPGs. The Game Master (GM) guides the players through scenarios while the players choose how they want to respond and roll dice to determine success.
That said, there are quite a few novel features that were unique to Ishanekon. Combat sessions are nice and fluid using Action Points that help you keep track of what you can do during your turn. As well as wielding weapons and using abilities, there is also a list of additional actions we could do such as sprinting, taking cover or disarming opponents. There is also a feature called Upcasting, which allows you to boost the capability of an ability by spending points of Willpower.
But our favorite feature was something called Cinematic Actions. This feature allows characters to do whatever they want, as long as the GM agrees, by spending Narrative Momentum points. This proved very useful when we were getting mobbed by cyborgs and wanting to turn the tide of battle. One of the other players used their Cinematic Action to fire off electrical shockwaves, whilst I used mine to pull an ally out of the fray.
All in all, the game felt very intuitive and satisfying. It allowed us to seamlessly put ourselves into the Mass Effect universe and feel like a bunch of capable badasses! Afterwards, I was very keen to talk to Jan all about this compelling game system he’d created.
Jan’s Motivation for Creating the Game
Ishanekon: World Shapers has clearly taken a lot of time and effort to put together, all of which Jan has done for free. When I asked about his motivation for doing this, he talked about his experience wanting to play more mainstream TTRPGs. For him, one of the big barriers was the upfront price of rule books. That’s when he started putting together a game called Orders of the Cross inspired by his own Christian faith. The game setting involved 7 Christian Factions (Orders of the Cross) in a war against 6 Satanic Factions. Each of these factions had their own lore, base of operations and abilities.
This proved to be a lot of work so Jan decided to pay up for other TTRPGs instead. However, he ended up encountering design issues that got in the way of playing and running games the way he wanted. He returned to working on Orders of the Cross to create something that didn’t have any of these barriers. He changed it so that it could be applied to different settings. The idea was that that anyone could play regardless of faith, background or financial situation. This is why he has a strong commitment to it to being a free-to-play game to remove any financial barriers. He also wanted to make the games system flexible and intuitive enough that anyone could get into it. As he expanded and adapted this growing TTRPG, he renamed it Ishanekon: World Shapers.
Jan and his mythical alter-ego wielding the blade of Ishanekon.
Making the Game Accessible
Anyone with a laptop or smart phone and internet can access the game system through the website for free. Already, that’s a big barrier out of the way! Jan further made the game accessible to anyone wanting to try it through the use of Complexity Ratings.
Jan recognized that different players have different preferences when it comes to how complex a TTRPG’s system is. This feature allows players to select a level of complexity for multiple character features. You can choose complexity levels from 1 to 4. 1 being the level with simplest options and 4 with the most complex options. When creating my Vorcha character, Garol, I chose Level 2. This gave me an array of interesting abilities and features I could easily figure out for one-shot.
Intuitive character creation thanks to the World Shapers website!
Jan also spoke about the Cinematic Action feature being partly intended to help with accessibility. This allows players to think outside the regular rules and get creative. For Jan, encouraging that kind of creativity was very important to him. He also wanted to allow players to build characters how they wanted without the risk of ending up in no-win situations. Cinematic Actions allow players to get around those kinds of challenges so they can focus on being creative with their character than optimizing them for every possible scenario.
Advice for Aspiring Game Makers
Ishanekon: World Shapers is clearly a labor of love for Jan. It took a huge amount of time to put together since he first started on Orders of the Cross 3 years ago. As stated before, this is a free-to-play game that he has received no money for, all while holding down a full-time job. I had to ask how he’s managed to do all this.
The main piece of advice he had for anyone else wanting to design their own TTRPG was to be patient with yourself and your process. He didn’t make Ishanekon by spending lots of time on it all at once. Instead, he did a little bit every now and again over a long period of time. He has used time in his evenings, in his breaks from work, even his holidays to put this together and it has still taken 3 years to get it to where it is today.
Sometimes things came easily to him when he was in a good creative flow, and other times it was more challenging. But even the challenging times were worth it when he got to run playtests and see players enjoying what he has created.
What You Can Do to Support Ishanekon: World Shapers
Jan is very resolute on Ishanekon always being a free-to-play TTRPG that everyone can enjoy. For him, his reward is simply creating something that lots of people can enjoy. The game has been designed with care and attention to be accessible for as many people as possible and it can be played in so many ways. We’ve seen how well it let us play a Mass Effect adventure but we also talked about what else we could do with this game. This ranged from all kinds of fantasy and historic scenarios, all the way to Pokémon, thanks to the player ability, capture! And of course there’s many things that could be done with the game that have yet to be imagined!
So many unique Sub-Archetypes to choose from and make your own. Which will you go for?
So really, the best thing you can do to support this game is to simply play it. His wish for you is to have some amazing adventures and engage with his social media about it. That way your shared stories can encourage others to play and enjoy it too.
To start your own adventure, click on the link in this sentence to access the Ishanekon: World Shapers website.
The website will show you everything you need to know about the game. However, you can also access an audio book explaining everything (complete with artwork and rousing music) right here:
Finally, if you would like to become part of the Ishanekon community, here is an open invitation to join the Ishanekon Discord.
