I've been fiending to run a game set in the dark abyss of the ocean. I've been tossing around the idea of a deep sea biotech lab (because I love body horror) that is now flooding and the experiments have gotten loose. But iam open to other ideas.
is there already a system that could run this, or a mostly underwater campaign/game I could cannibalize from?
I think there's a setting for 3.5 D&D called Cerulean Seas, I cribbed off that quite a bit for my own underwater setting/campaign that's in development.
It's like a Sword and Planet story but in the alien realm of underwater. It's quite a bit like Dark Sun as well, being in an apocalyptic world and having to use strange materials due to scarcity or feasability. I'mgoing to be running it in 5e also, whose rules for underwater combat are fairly straight forward.
I'm thinking of keeping humans as they are as default, having them live in bubble cities beneath the sea mostly, nor can they breathe underwater so they need to use alternative means to do so, like magic, a mechanism, or some alchemical process. I'm not sure if this is too alienating for a world that's almost entirely underwater. Thoughts?
There's Polaris but I don't know if it got translated in English or not.
I keep thinking the setting for SOMA would be neat, if you had a group that was crewing a sub just after the impact event.
Here's one... About earth freezing over above and mankind retreating to the ocean depths. Most of the nation states have created empires beneath the seas as the land has become nigh unlivable.
It's a d100 system.
jasoncamp.net/stuff/exiles/
It is dark.
You are eaten by a sea grue.
What is a sea grue?
An aquatic land grue.
Like pic related, but with focus on horror
Submarine goes dark, players start hearing knocks coming from outside
or they are returning to the submarine and they find out that the rest of the crew is gone
Something based on The Sphere, by Michael Crichton.
Pathfinder, actually. Not that there's all that much difference.
No one has recommended Blue Planet yet? That game always gets me a speculative sci-fi boner.
I'm pretty sure that setting has a surface.
Mechanics have little to do with water. I'd use a good game and handle any submarine/harpoon/rebreather rolls in the situation.
There's a bunch of late 80s movies about submarine adventures, from Abyss over Leviathan to Red October. Ice Station Zebra may also be worth a look. And if you are so inclined Operation Petticoat.
As for roleplaying settings, I don't know. There's a bunch of waterworldy games, but nothing completely set under the sea. Maybe a Deep Ones excursion in CoC or DG?
Also: Das Boot.
...
OP, do I have a system for you.
It's called "Blue Planet", and the best way to describe it would be as a sci-fi western on a water world.
The game mostly takes place on the surface of the water and the archipelagos, but there's nothing stopping you from playing entirely underwater. There's plenty of incorporate black sites experimenting on gene-therapy with long john or the aborigines to give you that body horror theme, and the game is VERY supportive of aquatic adventures, that's what the whole thing is set around.
I will warn you the system is hard-fi and the rolling isn't very intuitive. You might be better served doing another system, but I personally really enjoy this game.
I ran an underwater one-shot, planning on doing a campaign.
Tell us more.
Pagan Publishing did a very detailed scenario called Grace Under Pressure, which takes place on a deep sea research submarine.
ugh, Rush
bump
That book was shit.
If you want ocean body horror, Starfish by Peter Watts
Finished it's Kickstarter about a week ago.
OK.
I told the players to make any level 3 characters that could breathe underwater. The party was a Soft (Squid-like race) Crusader, a Sea Ogre Mage (went full muscle wizard though), and what was essentially a giant moray eel with arms and sonic breath. They came to the Snid (crab people) city of Thorbjorn's Rest, hunted down a double headed lamprey, fought a couple Snid in the Colosseum, and solved the problem of surface-dwelling Snid fruit farmers being eaten by giant Kiwi birds. It was fun.
You could check Blue Submarine 6. It's an anime where Earth is being flooded by a mad scientist melting Antarctica. He has splices of human and animal and other bizarre genetic creatures to fight what's left of Humanity.
>Rifters
The patricians called, they want their taste back
Lennie Clarke did nothing wrong
>Rifters
Damn, such a good series. Maelstrom is my go-to guide for how to malware.
Don't know if you're a fan of the show, but this might give you some ideas. It's mostly underwater with occasional forays to the surface.
viral marketing
Trying to find that show...