The Gaming Shelf Hunts for Hellwhales on the Sea of Death
After last week’s Dungeons & Dragons-themed picket I can really feel the solidarity on this blog tonight. Now, in the spirit of industry solidarity, we’re doing something a little different, but for the better. This week is our first showcasing Actual Play podcasts and streams. This edition and the next will feature Actual Plays that are currently ongoing; afterwards we will feature new seasons and new APs.
TTRPG Actual Plays have been around for over a decade, but with accessibility and visibility increasing, it seems kind of silly to keep them off the gaming roundup! We’ll still bring you new releases, current crowdfunding campaigns, and other news, but we’re excited to open up the Gaming Shelf to this extremely popular segment of the TTRPG industry.
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“Hellwhalers is an original TTRPG for 2-5 players and a guide. It is a game of equal parts nautical and Christian religious horror. Cursed whalers, sent to hell for their misdeeds, are promised salvation if they can slay the dreaded Hellwhale, a monstrous denizen of the Stygian Sea. It uses a modified version of the Belonging Outside Belonging system to drive roleplay and put the narrative first, but twists the standard token economy by including a gambling metagame central to the mechanics. Tokens are accrued through roleplay, then bet on a board in hopes of collecting enough to pulse the hellwhale’s heart, drawing in the leviathan for the final encounter.”
“Hull Breach Vol. 1 from publisher Anodyne Printware is a massive adventure and supplement anthology compatible with the new Mothership sci-fi horror RPG 1st Edition. This eclectic hoard of all-new sci-fi scenarios, GM tools, monsters, and more doubles as a complete sandbox campaign setting: effortlessly weaving punchy one shots into multi-session epics.”
“The sun is a Bunsen burner and the weather outside ranges from frigid to arctic to kill-on-exposure; usually the latter. The only places that can contain human life are oil taverns: immense interlinked cabins where folks live together and burn oil on a captured Demon to keep warm. Taxes are high. The rules are few, but harshly enforced. You play as an adventurer, one of the living Intravenous Lines of any tavern. Through dimensional warping, the lowly tavernite adventurer pilfers the new oil necessary to keep the tavern alight from the Plerorealm.”
“Project ECCO is a game of time travel and cosmic horror—a solo journaling game with a twist. Time travel across the pages of a planner, writing in and marking up the dates based on prompts as you go, ultimately creating an artifact of your travels through time. You work for the mysterious organization known only as The Agency , tasked with tracking a time-consuming entity throughout an entire year.
In the end, will you destroy the Entity? Do you dare question the Agency? Can you find yourself?”
“This Ship Is No Mother is an innovative card-based scifi horror TTRPG where you race against an ever-dwindling deck to save yourself and your friends from the absolutely-everything-is-trying -to-kill-you quality of spaaaace. It feels like Dread and was designed to play modules from games like Mothership in a more narrative, story-focused way.”
“S.M.A.S.H. is the latest game from the creative minds that brought you ENnie-nominated Etherscope. Bringing the concept of asymmetrical games design to the superhero genre, S.M.A.S.H. is a game where each character has its own unique rules and systems, and every hero is genuinely super.”
“A 22 level dungeon.”
“Pox is a supplement for the Hunt TTRPG by Gila RPGs. In it, you’ll find a new adventure for your doomed knightly order to complete. The world beyond the forest is being overrun by plague. It is only a matter of time before it reaches your gates. New oaths have been sworn, and the vault has been plundered again in hopes of stopping this ravaging sickness…”
“A new druidic Domain of Dread informed by German and Celtic folklore and rural folk horror. Delve the secrest of the mysterious Erlking and the forest cults that worship him, or learn the dark side of the religion that reviles him. A fully developed Domain of Dread using the format from Van Richten’s Guide, with a map, settlements, denizens, adventure seeds, and more.”
“Wicked West is a paranormal cowboy PBtA [Powered by the Apocalypse] game featuring five playable classic supernatural monsters (including vampires, werebeasts, and witches), over two hundred moves, a reputation tracker to know if your character is seen as a dangerous outlaw or an innocent townsperson, and more!”
“Detect Or Die is a tabletop RPG of neo-noir empiricism, unstable detectives, and total ego death & resurrection, heavily inspired by Disco Elysium and Bluebeard’s Bride. The Detective players each take the role of a part of the Detective’s mind, in conversation with the GM who acts as the World—the Case, the other characters, and the Detective’s own inescapable past. Uses a heavily modified PbtA system.”
Currently Crowdfunding: Monstrous, Infinite Revolution, Brambletrek, Cryptid Creeks,
“Monstrous is the Game Manager’s go-to reference for telling better stories through monsters. In it, Kyle ‘Map Crow’ Latino’s lavish illustrations bring to life dozens of classic monsters from myth, legend, and high-fantasy RPGs.”
“In Infinite Revolution, you play as a Revolver—a human whose spirit burns so hot, quick, and bright it would reduce their atoms to ash if for not an implanted turbine called a Revolver Drive. A race of entropic predators called the Veil has swallowed most of your system, and now it’s time to take it back—for yourself, for your friends, and for everyone back on Earth. They’re counting on you.”
“Cryptid Creeks is a tabletop roleplaying game using the popular Powered by the Apocalypse engine and is ‘Carved from Brindlewood’, a term for content based on Jason Cordova’s award-winning Brindlewood Bay. In this supernatural mystery, you’ll play river scouts, a crew of young adults setting out to stop a rapidly spreading curse with the help of ancient cryptids of your own invention.”
“You belong to a legendary rogue mercenary unit called FIST. You are a soldier of fortune who doesn’t fit into modern society. You are a disposable gun for hire, caught up in the death and destruction of pointless proxy wars and oppressive establishments. You may also be someone who can turn into a ghost or control bees with your mind.”
Actual Plays and Podcasts: The Library of Last Resort, Unconventional DMs, Bloom & Blight, Abraxas’ Precipice, The Atomless, The Badlands, Tales of the Forsaken
Ancient Brits stumble through the classic Paizo Age of Worms adventure path. Season eight launches October 12, with new episodes every Thursday!
“Unconventional DMs showcases two-hour sessions of one-shots and short campaigns, showing how pace and action can produce exciting, tight experiences—like in the best convention games, hence the name!”
“Bloom&Blight is a queer and trans led Girl by Moonlight actual play podcast following the titular magical girl team Bloom. After securing victory against their nemesis at a devastating cost, the strained team finds themselves drawn back together as whispers of evil begin again.”
“Abraxas’ Precipice, The Expanse RPG Actual Play returns for Phase 5, Damocles Cage. Thinking their future in the Aethra System is secure, the crew of the Sin Claire finds themselves and the other inhabitants cut off from the Ring Network as unknown political machinations threaten everything known to humanity across all 1,300 solar systems. But can they trust those that have threatened their very existence in the past with their survival on humanity’s frontier? Damocles Cage starts, LIVE, September 12th at 6pm PST on Twitch.”
“The Atomless is a Starfinder Podcast and Actual Play following the rag-tag crew of The Patchwork traveling through the homebrew Aesir system and beyond. Join Ayg, the meek smuggler Ysoki Technomancer; Azhaam, the stony ex-rebel Ifrit Envoy; Theriac, the neurotic xenoecologist Raxilite Biohacker; and Skye, the bold teenage Human Mechanic as they chart their way across the Atomless Sea in this ongoing campaign. What strange encounters await this daring band of space-faring adventurers?”
“Mage Hand High Five, your brand new third-favorite TTRPG Actual Play Podcast! Join four actors, writers, and friends as we explore genres that don’t normally see the light of a tabletop, from wild westerns to who knows what else! Our first campaign, a fantasy western called The Badlands, draws inspiration from a variety of media including The Dark Tower, Fallout, and classic spaghetti westerns.”
“Tales of the Forsaken is an actual play RPG, Fate Core Podcast... Welcome to Ryllian, a western fantasy world where magic needs fuel, and that fuel is mined and refined into Ectin. A place of vast deserts, dark rituals, and greedy mining companies. A dwarf awakens and has forgotten who he is. Who is Verboden and how will he seek to remember his past in the midst of this harsh world?”
In Other News
Inspired by Ghibli films and hopepunk, ACHROMA has released an expansion to its TCG — A Conjuring at Curdle Cove, which is now available.
A group of designers have banded together to create a Help Stray Dogs TTRPG bundle to help NGOs in Brazil who are supporting the over 185,000 animals abandoned in shelters.
Queen by Midnight, an original board game from Darrington Press, developed by Kyle Shire, is now available after selling like gangbusters on Gen Con.
Two supplements, Angel Dust and King for a Day, are available for preorder on Backerkit. These books are the sequels to The Real Thing RPG, released in 2022, an official Faith No More RPG based on themes from the band’s albums and loaded with callbacks to its music from the 1990s.
Paizo is playtesting two new classes, animist and exemplar. The playtest will run from September 1-October 2.
AcadeCon is a three-day tabletop gaming convention that runs from November at the Dayton Convention Center in Dayton, Ohio. It is crowdfunding its event through Kickstarter, where you can buy badges.
Moria — Through the Doors of Durin is a new campaign module that delves into the depths of Khazad-dûm. It’s currently crowdfunding and is compatible with Free League’s The One Ring RPG and 5e.
Animon Story is now available after a successful Kickstarter!
The Blue Skies Bundle is now available on itch, a selection of games that are from designers who are no longer using X (formerly Twitter) to advertise.
Rollacrit’s Messenger Bag of Holding has already surpassed its funding goals on Kickstarter.
Eren’s Arcane Compendium of Characters is now available to order.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
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