Sail the treetops in Wildsea, a futuristic RPG inspired by Bastion and Blades in the Dark
Featuring chainsaw ships.
Become part of a crew of sailors in a world where ships travel on top of trees in Wildsea, a tabletop RPG inspired by video game Bastion and Blades in the Dark.
Wildsea is a tabletop roleplaying game that’s set over 300 hundred years into the future, where humanity lives in, around and on top of enormous forests that have taken over the earth. After an event known as the Verdancy, a wave of greenery spread across the land and society survived by constructing ships capable of sailing on top of these trees and foliage by cutting through their top layer with chainsaws attached to the bottom of the unwieldy vehicles. Thanks to this rapid change in the environment, entirely new peoples have sprung up from the earth, including people resembling anthropomorphic fungi and spiderfolk.
Players take the roles of wildsailors - crew members of these chainsaw ships whose way of life is bound to the forests their ship surfs on top of - with the option to choose from several different roles and cultures. Whichever role players decide to give their character will determine what kind of skills, aspects and resources they have access to throughout the game. For example selecting the surgeon role for their character will give them the ability to mend bones, cultivate plant matter and heal the sick.
There are also multiple bloodlines to choose from in the upcoming RPG, each with their own distinct histories and cultures. There are the descendants of humanity - the Ardent - the spider-like hive-mind forms of the Tzelicrae, the cactus folk of the Ektus and those originating from fungi and mould, The Gau.
Besides making their characters, players will also be able to design their own ship, with its different aspects determining how effective it will be at evading attacks or racing through the world’s foliage. As players progress through their story, they will gradually be able to build upon and improve their ship - creating a more stable and comfortable environment to live on.
Wildsea uses a narrative d6-based system that sees two to six players describing their characters’ intentions before rolling two six-sided dice and discovering whether they succeed in their actions. Whereas rolling a six or above signals a complete triumph, rolling under that amount indicates that there may be varying setbacks. Rolling doubles provides an unexpected outcome that will have effects entirely determined by the firefly - otherwise known as the GM.
The creator behind Wildsea is Felix Isaacs - the roleplaying game being their first major creative project - with art and scripting coming from Pierre Demet, Omercan Cirit, Katy Peacock, Kyllian Guillart and Taylor Alexis.
Wildsea is being published by Mythopoeia, the studio responsible for a romantic rules-light roleplaying game inspired by late ‘70s and early ‘80s sitcoms, The Love Balloon, alongside several indie RPGs and multiple playbooks for Blades in the Dark.
The Kickstarter campaign for Wildsea is live until November 25th with a pledge of $49 (£37) getting backers a copy of the rulebook set to be released next August. There is also a digital version of the rulebook available in PDF form for a pledge of $25 (£19), arriving in July 2021.
Backers from underprivileged backgrounds can get a copy of the PDF version of Wildsea at a reduced price of $12 (£10). There is also a free set of quickstart rules available on the Wildsea website.