#hellwhalers

By Brewist Tabletop Games

HELLWHALERS is a game of damned whalers hunting a monstrous whale across the seas of hell in a bid for salvation. They'll gamble, fish, sin, and suffer on their journey to defeat hell's most vile sea beast, and should they taste its flesh, discover the rewards of hell's promise.

Expanded content is currently crowdfunding till July 9 on Backerkit here :

HELLWHALERS: Book of Leviathan is dropping into BackerKit on June 10th.

The original HELLWHALERS, back in print. A 40 page expansion of new content.

Grisly whale hunting by damned souls in the afterlife. Hell's promise for bringing down a cursed sea monster is salvation.

How will you fare?

Whether you're a grizzled veteran sailor of hell's waters, or still getting your sea legs, we've got eternal damnation in abundance.

This game of nautical and Christian-religious horror is churning with maritime terrors and biblical traumas.

Between both books, we've got nearly 100 pages of torments.

In HELLWHALERS and its expansion, take the role of damned whalers, sinners in life and afterlife, hunting a demonic whale for the promise of salvation.

Collect enough souls, through roleplay, challenges, or gambling, and use them to call the hellwhale by the beats of its own disembodied heart.

Follow along with the BackerKit and get ready for a nautical journey through hell with some powerful themes. It's gonna be a hell of a time.

Book of Leviathan crashes into BackerKit on June 10th.

Hellwhalers is a No Dice, No Masters game where characters are damned sinners, cast to the seas of hell and now working on a whaling ship trawling the blackened seas, trying to hunt down a leviathan Hellwhale in a bid for redemption. It uses tokens VERY well in its design, tying it into one of the mechanical cores of the game: every midnight of in-game time, characters gather to gamble souls (souls being the tokens also used to fuel character actions in gameplay) at the Devil's Board, which the game mechanically does using a round of Sic-bo!

I've been running it with a group of mine recently, and we've been having a BLAST - it's the first game of this design structure this particular group is playing. It was a very quick game for us to learn overall, with some really tight design (particularly with its use of tokens, and how it interfaces with the game's gambling element - it really makes the resource management of the game stand out as something Quality) and has been real smooth sailing so far! I chose to spend some extra time on my own learning the Sic-bo element of the game though, as someone who really loves when games take inspiration from games used to gamble and who wants to get them right.

this is one of those games that I've, ever since I first saw it, thought would be a DELIGHT making props for. Tokens for the souls, using the Devil's Board from the physical version of the game, decorating the physical space the game is played in, really trying to capture the vibes with some table set design…

My latest essay is about @mossdaggar and @boguscheesecake's "Hellwhalers!" I loved how the game ties into themes of Christian damnation, especially its endings, which dovetailed perfectly with my own struggles with faith. In particular, I discuss St. Leonard of Port Maurice's famous sermon, "The Fewness of the Saved," the odds of getting into heaven, and various theological/literary interpretations of the game's 6 endings. Spoilers start at 18:25, but I think it's worth watching all the way through!

Our playbook reveal for 50 prelaunch followers is... The Returned!

When a character dies from marking all the letters in CLAIMED, they may pick up The Returned afterward. This playbook uses themes of doubt, (mis)trust, and impostor syndrome.

It is the 'Came Back Wrong' trope made manifest.

The Returned is the only playbook to include extra rules aside from those of its moves and lure.

When chosen, The Returned unmarks some crew harm. This can allow a journey to come back from the brink of disaster.

But are you really who you claim? The moves, themes, and moods invite the question.

The weak moves of the playbook reinforce the themes of doubt and sow mistrust among your companions. In your strongest moments, you'll shake that doubt and come through as a valuable asset. After all, it is a miracle you're returned… Isn't it?

The Returned was designed by @boguscheesecake

after discussion of the additional dangers present in Book of Leviathan. Art for the playbook's digital stamp was designed and illustrated by Lepish Susano.

Join us June 10th on Backerkit for Book of Leviathan. It's gonna be a hell of a journey.