It's coming together, so let's start talking about it. What is Hellwhalers? It's an upcoming TTRPG made of equal parts religious horror and thalassophobia. In it, you play as damned whalers, set upon a lightless sea of hell, cursed to hunt a monstrous whale for salvation of your immortal soul.
The game is loosely based on the Belonging Outside Belonging system, but has some unique twists. Like BOB games, you'll accrue tokens through roleplay and interacting with the world, gaining tokens for placing yourself in vulnerable positions or exposing your flaws, and spending tokens to resolve problems or shine in a scene. Unlike other games in that system, you're led by a GM, and you can bet your tokens on a game of Sic Bo to potentially earn more.
By chime of midnight, the whalers gather 'round the board and bet souls, hoping to earn enough to empower the Hellwhale's Heart, the literal disembodied heart of their quarry. They know it's the only way to call the hellwhale close enough for the hunt. Should enough souls be fed through the arteries, the heart will pulse, and the whale will be called.
As the crew of the damned vessel is hunting, so too is their captain: a vile, wicked tempered figure said to perhaps be the devil himself. The captain is an NPC character controlled by the Guide, and has mysteries to uncover throughout play.
Speaking of mysteries, this game has plenty of them. With 6 starting 'storylines', and a handful of possible endings, there is no shortage of secrets for the whalers to uncover. In addition, there is a writeup to help Guides to craft their own stories.
I'm working with a very talented collaborator for this project, and I'm excited to have it all put together. Expect Hellwhalers to potentially be our first physical book available in 2023. PDFs will also be available once the game is finished. The estimated final page count for Hellwhalers at the moment is 40, making it our largest game to date. The art will be a combination of custom linocut stamps, as you see here, and public domain images of whaling diagrams, occult figures, and old timey illustrations of oceanic miscellanea.
I'm so excited to put this thing together for you all. It's a departure from some of my other games in tone, but I trust you'll enjoy it regardless. Expect Hellwhalers available at some conventions, and on the Brewist Tabletop Games Itch page in 2023.
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