Drowned Isles Beta

Hey, did you hear it’s the Year of the Beta (at least according to Prismatic Wasteland)? And did you know that the year is… almost over^[1]?

Well (ready or not) I guess I have to put out a beta of my game: The Drowned Isles.

What’s the game?

It’s an adventure RPG with a DIY spirit, sort of mashing up Blades in the Dark: Deep Cuts with an OSR game like Brighter Worlds or the GLOG. Players take on the role of Wardens, super-powered investigators who sail the seas of a science-fantasy world. They arrive in a dangerous place and are presented with a mystery, explore and learn what they can, probably confront mortal peril, and publish their results.

I’m particularly happy with the Power system^[2], which has done a good job balancing free-form play and mechanical adjudication. Players each have a specific Power which outlines the nature of their supernatural ability. When they want to use it, they describe the fictional outcome they want (I buffet away those incoming arrows with a gust of wind, can my animal companion dig us a safe tunnel to pass under the danger?, let me I send my spirit through the Investigator-Priest’s wards to examine the crime scene). Then we assess the mechanical cost together, they spend their resources, and get their effect. Over time players can also create Techniques, which both restrict their actions and lend them greater fictional power.

(The rules are also free and on the web, so you can just go click on that link and read 'em.)

Why’s the game?

Basically I wanted to run some OSR adventure modules, but I don’t like many D&D-style games. Often they feel like a combat system with some other mechanics bolted on the side. It’s always a bummer to crack open a game and see “The Pyrokineticist class” …and then read that they have 20 spells that all do the exact same thing: “fire damage to target.”

Also I’m not a big Tolkien person, don’t like Lovecraft, never tried Conan, and couldn’t get into Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser; the inspirations behind lots of D&D / OSR games don’t do a lot for me. In their place are things like Nausicaä, A Wizard of Earthsea, the Book of the New Sun, the Steerswomen series, some anime, and Friends at the Table. In various fits and starts I’ve spent years making stabs at a far-future, sea-rise-inflected game about ruined cities. Now I’m actually getting to play it.

This is a game I wrote for myself to run, and my weekly group to play; I can whip up a new Skill or Power with an hour or two on a park bench, and show it to my audience right after. Even the core mechanics are somewhat interchangeable. I have a travel system written that will see play for the first time this week; depending on how it goes, that system may get totally re-written. The game is malleable so that we can change it as we go.

How’s the game?

Great, thanks for asking! My group is five sessions^[3] into our campaign and I’m very happy with it. Last week a player created a new Technique for her character (a monkey-kin who is on the hunt for the secrets of immortality):

Swiss Army Hands: You can harden your fingers into Excellent tools for a Few Minutes.

• You can’t use it while in danger.
• If you use it against a potential friend, you lose the finger.
• To activate it, you have to eat a Siglos.

This is basically the perfect outcome for the system. She’s crafted her own character upgrade and put her own (fun, strange) restrictions on it, as guided by the game system.

Reader Beware

• There is very little Referee advice, because I am my own intended audience. Do feel free to send questions my way^[4] if you want to run it, though!
• Many of the Powers are incomplete or totally untested.
• The Skill section of the game is very much incomplete.
• The game world is fragmentary and exists largely in my own head.
• I keep switching between addressing the players directly (Apocalypse World style), addressing the Referee, and some kind of secret third thing. I may eventually decide on a style and shoot for uniformity but I probably won’t bother.

If anyone does read the game, take inspiration from it, or even run it, I’d love to hear about it!