Earth 2020X Backgrounds

This page catalogs an expanding collection of Troika! backgrounds created using the Earth 2020X process and playlists. Have you created your own? Send it to us.

These backgrounds are the product of a distant AI interpreting Spotify as the sole source of all truth about Earth. The AI has created avatars based on song titles to send to Earth, blend in with the locals, and complete a mission for the AI. That’ll be interesting.

Did we mention that the AI believes that EVERYONE on Earth has a tattoo that declares their worldview and passions?

Playlist

(Embed is limited to 100 songs; go to the playlist for the full selection)

Backgrounds

1 - Chain Smoker

Basically, everything is chains.

Tattoo

  • I like where this is going

Quirks

  • Off the Chain (+1 against any attempt to persuade)
  • In Chains (-1 Sneak, -1 Run)
  • Chained to the Rhythm (must move in time with any perceived rhythm)

Possessions

  • Chains
  • Tiger chain (turns creature on the other end into a tiger)
  • Bone chain (turns item on the other end into a bone)
  • Ball and chain
  • Chainsaw (damage as Greatsword)
  • Chainmail (count as Modest Armour)
  • Comfort chain
  • Rockstar chainz
  • Invisible chains
  • Chain of fools
  • Gold chains
  • Rooster

Advanced Skills

  • 3 Chain Smokin’ (vaporize and smoke any chain)
  • 2 The Great Chain of Being (intuit the deep connections between things)
  • 1 Food Chain
  • 1 Chain Music
  • 1 Chain Reaction
  • 1 Spell - Chain Lightning
  • 1 Spell - Disconnect

Special

Spell: Chain Lightning (2) The caster summons a chain made out of lightning, which electrocutes anyone who tries to free themself from it.

Spell: Disconnect (1) The caster can disconnect any one thing from any other thing(s) to which it is bound.

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2 - The Devil and His Anarchic Surrealist Retinue

Tattoo

  • Hell Yes

Quirks

  • Immaterial
  • Irresistible (+1 Charm)
  • Wide Eyes (+1 Awareness)
  • Manic (+1 Move)

Possessions

  • Prosecco
  • Infinity Guitars (damage as Club)
  • Pigeon Skulls
  • Flowers of Evil
  • Clever Pants (count as Modest Armor)

Advanced Skills

  • 2 Channel the Spirits
  • 2 Unknown Tongues
  • 2 Antisocialmedia
  • 2 Violence
  • 2 Method Acting
  • 2 Spell - Fear Your Mind

Special You have d6 Anarchic Surrealists in your retinue. Boom out a diabolic request for them to do something for you, and Test Luck to see if they obey; a failed role causes them to loudly protest and work directly against your wishes.

Surrealist Names

  1. Breton
  2. Ray
  3. Kahlo
  4. Varo
  5. Mar
  6. Ang

Spell: Fear Your Mind (2) For five minutes, the target is struck by extreme paranoia and debilitating doubt as they begin to question and fear the workings of their own mind.

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3 - Mr. Destroyer

Tattoo

  • Heads Will Roll

Quirks

  • Afraid of Nothing
  • Not Afraid of Ghosts (+1 on any rolls involving ghosts)
  • Not Afraid of the Dark (+1 on rolls during the night)
  • Not Afraid to Love (+1 Emotional Intimacy)
  • Not Afraid to Fall (+1 on rolls when falling is possible)
  • Not Afraid to Die (+1 on any rolls when at 1 Stamina)
  • Not Afraid of Losin’ (+1 Games of Chance)
  • No Fear of Hellfire (+1 on rolls involving demonic forces)
  • Not Afraid Anymore (+1 on any rolls invoking childhood trauma)

Possessions

  • One Armed Scissor (damage as Knife)
  • Tomahawk (damage as Knife)
  • Six Blade Knife (damage as six Knives, 3-in-6 chance of damaging self)
  • Mega Guillotine 2020 (damage as 2,020 Knives, takes d100+66 workers to operate, only works on the ultrarich)
  • Crispy Bacon

Advanced Skills

  • 1 Physical Education
  • 1 Ultraviolence
  • 1 Spell - Airstrike
  • 1 Evil Eye
  • 1 Gammalaser Kill
  • 1 Tiptoeing
  • 1 Poison touch
  • 1 Hornet vision
  • 1 Creepin’
  • 1 Thinking of a Place
  • 1 Eating Unblessed Meat

Special After you first encounter one of your fear quirks, cross it out. When all are crossed out, change “Afraid of Nothing” to “Afraid of Everything (-1 on all tests)”

Spell: Airstrike (2) The caster savagely beats the air, causing it to rush towards a target and strike them (damage as Unarmed).

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4 - Queen of this Shit

Tattoo

  • Queen of this Shit

Quirks

  • Teen Angst (+1 Rebellion)
  • Hot & Heavy (+1 Seduction)
  • Rainbow Veins

Possessions

  • Power Glove (damage as Maul)
  • The Eye of Ra
  • The Queen’s Head
  • TNT

Advanced Skills

  • 3 Regicide
  • 3 Spell - Witch Slap (IOU)
  • 2 Screaming Colours
  • 2 Biblical Violence
  • 2 Glamorous Damage

Special

When you declare “I’m the Queen of this Shit,” all within earshot must test Luck (or Skill for Enemies) or say, “Yass Queen!” and do your bidding for five minutes.

Spell: Witch Slap (IOU) (4) The caster directs an invisible witch hand to slap the target at some point in the future, at the caster’s choice. The witch slap comes quickly out of nowhere, causing 2d6 damage and stunning the target.

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5 - Sunbather

Worshipping the sun, understanding it, bathing in its glow and glory, harnessing its infinite power to nourish, enlighten and destroy.

Tattoo

  • Here comes the sun

Quirks

  • Handsome (+1 on any relevant social tests)
  • Faith (+1 on Luck tests)
  • Memory loss (1-in-6 chance that you will forget a skill entirely when you try to use it)

Possessions

  • Sunrise Projector
  • Black Gold
  • Liquid Summer
    • (Restorative elixir, smells like wet heat and thunderstorms and cut grass, tastes like a first kiss. When consumed, it generates warmth, nostalgia and a subtle desire to lay on the ground, closed eyes to the sun.)

Advanced Skills

  • 3 Spell - Sun Hands
  • 3 Spell - Watch the Sun
  • 2 - Macrodosing
  • 2 - Sparkles
  • 2 - Casual welding
  • 1 - Yoga

Special You don’t need to eat. You get your nourishment directly from the sun, and it heals you rapidly when you bathe in it for at least one hour, stripped naked, hands behind your head, eyes wide open staring up into its eternal Glory.

Spell: Sun Hands (4) The caster’s hands become Sun Hands, casting the blinding light of the sun in all directions and emitting incinerating heat (2d6 burn) onto anything the caster touches. The caster is generally fine, but receives a strong sunburn on any exposed flesh.

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6 - 1 Billion Dogs

You are 1 Billion Dogs, spread out across the planet, telepathically connected, able to act in concert (to a certain extent, must avoid suspicion from the hoomans).

Tattoo

  • We Are All We Have

Quirks

  • Speechless (can’t speak human)
  • Thirsty (constantly need water)
  • Cat Blues (driven mad in the presence of felines) \

Possessions

  • Beef Jerky
  • Memories of Grass
  • Third Eyes (can see in multidimensional spirit planes)

Advanced Skills

  • 3 Meta Mind
  • 3 Superposition
  • 3 Spell - Talk Words
  • 1 Sleep
  • 1 Dreaming
  • 1 Running
  • 1 Running Away

Special

Spell: Talk Words (3) By gathering a group of your 1 Billion Dogs, you can get each of them to say one word in perfectly clear Human, in order (up to a 20 word phrase). You can only state the phrase once, so you better hope the recipient is listening and doesn’t get so freaked out by your speech that they immediately forget what you actually said (test Luck).

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7 - Half-Blood Prince

You were royally born, but missing half of your blood. Your parents, to their own shock and horror, kept you alive through ritualistic draining of the populace. Now you’re out on your own, still thirsty, but trying to fit in.

Tattoo

  • Reign in Blood

Quirks

  • BLOODLUST
  • Cold blooded
  • Bloody knuckles

Possessions

  • Hot Knife
  • BLOODMONEY
  • Various vials of blood
    • Wildblood
    • Snowblood
    • American Blood
    • Hillbilly Blood
    • White Blood
  • Bloody Canvas
  • Bloody Mary

Advanced Skills

  • 3 Bloodletting
  • 2 Smells blood
  • 2 Spell - Bloodhail
  • 2 Spell - Raining blood
  • 2 Spell - Flesh without blood
  • 2 Spell - Bloodcount
  • 2 Knife fighting

Special

You must consume half your weight in blood every 24 hours or die.

Spell: Bloodcount (1)

Caster discerns the exact volume of blood in target creature, blood type, and count of red and white blood cells.

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8 - Street Fighting Man

What’s he got against Streets?!?

Tattoo

  • Shatter All Organized Activities

Quirks

  • Walk like a mother fucker
  • Unhappy
  • Dark kept secret
  • No filter

Possessions

  • Sledgehammer (damage as Hammer)
  • Bogus badge (allows you to get onto any Street)
  • Diet meth

Advanced Skills

  • 4 Street Fighting
  • 3 Sledgehammer Fighting
  • 3 Fighting in the Street
  • 2 Tactical Manoeuvre

Special

Streets are your sworn enemy. You get +1 on all rolls when on, near, or around a Street.

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9 - Barefoot God

You walk the earth, in constant contact with the soil, harnessing the deep energies of life and creation to spread absolute abundance. More light, more love, more joy!

Tattoo

  • THE RIVER MUST FLOW

Quirks

  • Silver Soul
  • Rhinestone Eyes
  • Delicate

Possessions

  • Crystal dust (massively accelerates growth of living things)
  • Monk’s Robes (1-in-6 chance of finding a useful holy relic at the exact right time)

Advanced Skills

  • 2 Spell - More Flowers
  • 2 Spell - Cough up Cherries
  • 2 Spell - Raining Teeth
  • 2 Spell - Max Lush
  • 2 Spell - Kids
  • 2 Spell - 90-Mile Water Wall

Special

Spell: Max lush (1)

Scans the local environment and determines the maximum amount of vegetation possible, and rapidly increases the lushness to that level. Lasts for 15 minutes, after which the extra vegetation begins to wilt and decay.

Spell: More Flowers (1)

Creates many more flowers where there are already some flowers. The caster chooses 1) more of the same flowers or 2) more, different flowers.

Spell: Raining Teeth (2)

Causes a downpour of teeth, from all manner of species, in all sizes and sharpnesses. Anyone caught in the open takes d6 damage. After the deluge, players may test Luck to find rare and valuable teeth (gold, dinosaur, celebrity, alien, etc) on the ground.

Spell: Kids (2)

The caster summons d6+1 kids to surround, distract, and generally pester the target for 15 minutes or until placated. The age of the kids summoned is d6+5. On a failed casting, the kids surround the caster instead.

Spell: Cough Up Cherries (1)

The target coughs up a bountiful amount of perfectly ripe cherries for five minutes. The cherries are the most delicious cherries ever. On a failed roll, the target still coughs up cherries, but they won’t be ripe for a few days.

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10 - Regular John

Your absolute faith gives you the power to heal your friends, connect to the Lord, and expose the falsehoods that surround you. Most people don’t know this about you, though.

Tattoo

  • We Magnify His Name

Quirks

  • Faith (+1 on all Luck tests)
  • Quiet
  • Suntan (counts as Light Armor)

Possessions

  • The Worship Bell
  • Singing bowl
  • Roses in water

Advanced Skills

  • 4 Spell - Wave of Life
  • 3 Purification
  • 2 Spell - Talk to the Lord
  • 2 Spell - Friendly Fire
  • 1 Spell - No Mask

Special

Spell: Wave of Life (4)

The caster channels the deep spirit of all life and expands it in a tidal wave in all directions, causing all targets in the affected area to regain full Stamina. Can only use once per adventure, and the rest of the party must not know that you are even remotely capable of it.

Spell: Talk to the Lord (2)

The caster is able to open a brief, direct connection with (a/the) Lord, during which they can ask a single question. A successful casting grants a useful answer, failure results in a cryptic message that causes semi-crippling confusion and doubt for d3 days.

Spell: Friendly Fire (2)

The caster summons d6 fire sprites that will obey simple commands and attack enemies, but will not harm allies (damage as Small Beast, burn)

Spell: No Mask (1)

Where once there was a mask, now there is no mask. Works on masks of all shapes and sizes, material and metaphorical.

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11 - The Laughing Man

I’ve heard the children sing this song about you:

No one knows what the Laughing Man knows

No one goes where the Laughing Man goes

No one sleeps when the Laughing Man weeps

No one laughs when the Laughing Man laughs

Tattoo

  • It’s Alright to Feel Afraid

Quirks

  • Eyes like the sky
  • Sincere
  • Hollow (literally)
  • Looped (occasionally glitch-repeats actions a few times)

Possessions

  • Crushed velvet (all clothes made from, counts as Modest Armour)
  • Small hat
  • Music box
  • Little boxes (each filled with a different item from the following):
    • Impossible knots
    • Glitter
    • DEAD FLOWERS
    • Fake Flowers
    • Pictures of flowers
    • Black Tea
    • Strawberries
    • baby teeth
    • Spikes
    • White Sugar
    • Chimes
    • Pigeon skulls
    • Stolen Moments
    • People’s Faces
    • Wires
    • Birthday Cake
    • Cherry Blossoms
    • [etc]*
  • Big black car

Advanced Skills

  • 3 The Secret Art
  • 3 The Negative Space
  • 2 Illusory Motion
  • 1 Protocol
  • 1 Timing
  • 1 Weeping

*Special

There are actually infinite little boxes filled with items in your big black car. Whenever you need a little box with a specific item, test Luck. On a success, the little box is on (or inside) you. On a failure, the box is in your car and will take a little while to find.

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12 - Turtle Neck Man

Suave, smooth, sincere, seeking similar suitable souls. You always wear a turtle neck.

Tattoo

  • I Like Love

Quirks

  • Handsome
  • Cool & Collected
  • Kind of Strange

Possessions

  • Sunglasses
  • Mood ring
  • Midnight wine
  • Marijuana
  • Bad self portraits

Advanced Skills

  • 3 Chillin’
  • 2 Human Connection
  • 2 Soul Searching
  • 2 Luxury Dining
  • 2 Spell - Vibe Check
  • 1 Tongue Kissing
  • -1 Wu-Tang Type Beats

Special

Infinity Turtlenecks

You always have the perfect colored turtleneck for the situation. This gives you a subtle influence on the overall vibe of the moment.

Actual Turtle Neck

You can retract your head into your body, which is otherwise totally human. You don’t know you can do this, it just happens automatically if absolutely necessary to protect your life.

Spell: Vibe Check (1)

By opening themselves up to the subtle social-emotional vibrations of an adjacent room or area, the caster can psychically discern the general disposition and intent of its inhabitants.

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13 - Quantum Mechanic

You don’t know if the machine is working or not-working until you open it up.

Accessing the quantum realm, you can understand and influence the minute chaotic workings of reality. With these gifts, you were obviously put to work fixing things. To most observers, your head is mounted sideways, but when un-observed, you have multiple heads which are mounted at any and/or all angles. To access the quantum realm of any object, you have to sink your fangs into it and taste the multi-flavor.

Tattoo

  • Them Is Us

Quirks

  • Head mounted sideways
  • Dirty mouth

Possessions

  • Fangs (damage as Knife)

Advanced Skills

  • 3 Taste
  • 3 Permutation
  • 3 New math
  • 2 Become death

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14 - Dragon Slayer

A blinding vision of light, death and destruction, floating mercilessly above the ground. The empty vessel of some god hellbent on erasing dragons from the world.

Tattoo

  • My Ego Dies at the End

Quirks

  • Beautiful, but bleak
  • Weightless
  • No eyes

Possessions

  • Purity shards (6, damage as Fusil, emits light as Torch)
  • Bird and flag (bird damages as Small Beast)
  • Crystal sword (damage as Longsword)

Advanced Skills

  • 3 Biblical violence (fighting with Purity Shards and Crystal Sword)
  • 2 Sonic sense
  • 2 Wetwork
  • 2 Walking in the dark
  • 2 Science / visions

Special

Test Luck while disemboweling a creature; success brings you a painful vision of the nearest dragon and a sense of its general location. Failure grants you the vision, but also delivers a vision of you to the dragon.

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14. Plant Thief

Plants, like information, want to be free. You liberate and return them to all members of the One Family of Light and Love.

Tattoo

  • Love is Real

Quirks

  • Computer Face//Pure Being
  • Tenderhearted
  • Pure love

Possessions

  • Lucky clover (+1 on Luck rolls)
  • Garden dove (damage as Small Beast)
  • Bags (filled with various plant matter:)
    • Cherry blossoms (3, restore 1 Luck)
    • Berries (3, restore 1 Stamina )
    • Boneflower (stabilize against death)
    • Seeds
    • Death blooms (6, damage as Pistolet, paralyzing)
  • invisible string

Advanced Skills

  • 4 Language of flowers
  • 3 Yesterday’s forest magic
  • 3 Sowing seeds
  • 2 Inbetween

Special

Test Luck for a nearby plant to assist you in some crucial way.

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TEMPLATE (COPY ME)

Tattoo

Quirks

Possessions

Advanced Skills

Special

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