This post belongs to the #AtoZchallenge 2024, where I attempt to turn a word a day into something that can be used in Role Playing Games.

A rhizome is an underground part of certain plants that can either grow out to reach new places or up to establish a new plant. They often come along with tubers that save nutritients to ensure the plants survival, Many pesky weeds have rhizoms, if the weed is only superficially removed, it will regrow from the rhizom. At the same time, rhizoms can be useful in a kitchen, as they are often connected to tubers which store nutrients – the best example of that is probably ginger.

A Rhizome can also be a philosophical and pedagogic concept which stresses the nonhierarchic interconnectedness of knowledge.

How to integrate it into your typical fantasy RPG?

• The rhizom could be a monster that shares HP among all members, to truly defeath those bands, one needs to cut the connections and mob them up in detail, ensuring the destruction of the regenerating nodes.
• Druids could use rhizom networks as information transport lines.
• It could be a more limited form of a hivemind, where participation requires a physical connection via the rhizom.
• It could also be a secret circle of diviners that call themselves The Rhizom and are organized in nodes and patches.