The Lost Bay

Iko (he/them) TTRPG designer, publisher and podcast producer - runs www.thelostbaystudio.com a one person store/publishing house

[thelostbaystudio]

The Lost Bay comes to life!!!

Hey folks, in the next few weeks I'll be launching the crowdfunding campaign for The Lost Bay, a dark fantasy tabletop RPG set in 199X.

I've been working on it for years, and thanks to the feedback and support of the numerous folks who played the early access version, the game is now ripe to go to print.

But what is it exactly?

The Lost Bay is a dark fantasy tabletop RPG. It’s set in alternate 199X. The Lost Bay is also the name of the game setting, a small coastal suburb, both familiar and uncanny, where the mundane and the magical mix inextricably. Living Saints, rituals, blood curses are part of the characters’ daily life alongside console games, VHS tapes, and phone booths.

The Lost Bay is a set of three booklets. It contains everything you need to play: character creation, core rules, advanced tips and toolkits, detailed setting and bestiary.

The cool thing is that you get to play powerful characters, roaming in a weird and at times dark world.

The system in a nutshell

Three attributes, and a d6 dice pool for all your Action Rolls or Saves.

One resource to fuel your Powers.

Powers always succeed but can get you a Scar.

Scars can hurt you, make you more powerful, or change you. They are specific to each Vibe.

If you get all the Scars and you manage to survive them, you become a Living Saint, an immortal roaming the Bay. YOU become the Lore of the Bay.

What’s in the books?

User Guide: character creation and core rules, ten playable classes, three post-death special classes, custom character growth, Scar tables.

GM Guide: tips and toolkits, advanced rules, adventure building frameworks, examples and designer commentary.

Travel guide: extensive ready to use setting, exploration procedures, pre-gen point-crawls, six full-fledged districts featuring: locations, NPCs, Bosses, complications, rumors, treasures, adventure seeds.

If this sounds cool to you stay tuned for more updates about the game, or follow the Kickstarter page to be notified on launch

Coming soon: The Lost Bay: Suburban Dark Fantasy RPG

The Lost Bay is a dark fantasy game, setting and collection of adventures set in alternate 90s

If you have any questions about the game feel free to fire them, I'd be happy to answer. And if you want to try it come and say hi on The Lost Bay server, we play the game regularly, and I even do 60minutes intro to it for folks who just want to give it a quick try https://discord.com/invite/37XBQVr7eP

Cheers

Iko

[comikbook]

im going to make a masterpost for all of my works relating to my series “In God’s Hands”

[comikbook]

[comikbook]

sweater !!

[thelostbaystudio]

#thisiscool

[plastiboo]

[zedecksiew]

You carry your experiences with you

Some musings about inventory systems, inspired by (though not exactly in line with) this post by K on cohost:

"The Lessons We Take With Us ... are treated very much like an inventory of useful items."

I like things that do a lot with little. So the notion that your inventory of gear is also your list of skills (and maybe also also your health system) appeals to me?

Also Colin reminds me that games like Cairn and Mausritter already have bad conditions (like exhaustion and spellcasting fatigue) fill inventory slots.

And that Iko's The Lost Bay has "Burdens", which represent both items and skills?

So I'm thinking: let's put skills, character abilities, and character advancement in the inventory, too. Your inventory is your whole character sheet.

+

OK OK SO:

Here's your character. The only character stat that matters for our purposes is Capacity, a measure of how much bandwidth you have: physically, mentally, emotionally.

Lets say you start with 7 Capacity slots:

Every piece of meaningful Gear (a bow and arrows, rations, etc) takes up a Capacity slot. This includes stuff meaningful in other ways---ie: valuable Treasure (a golden idol, etc).

Specific Training takes up a Capacity slot. But also adds two Capacity slots. Effectively, having Spear Training means you get to carry a spear without having it take up Capacity. If you have Spear Training, you are both good at wielding a spear and stowing it away so it doesn't encumber you in an adventure.

A Mastery takes up a Capacity slot. But also adds three Capacity slots. If you are a Master Thief you are so good at various thiefly trades that your tools are a part of you (so to speak), and you are always open for new opportunities.

An Ally (think henchmen, animal companions) takes up a Capacity slot. But also adds three Capacity slots. They are like Masteries, I guess? It's good to have skilled, loyal friends!

A significant Experience takes up a Capacity slot, and adds a Capacity slot. They are like Training---but where Training gives bonuses in a specific field (you are good at spear-fighting), Experience gives bonuses in general areas related to it (Fought A Dragon In A Riddle Contest gives you bonuses when encountering dragons and riddles contests, etc).

Stuff that hamper a character, like Injuries (broken limb, bleeding wound) or bad Conditions (scared, tired, hungry) take up one Capacity slot each. If you have a broken hand you'll think about it, favour it, try to keep it from getting wet, etc.

Some notes:

Carrying stuff you have no training in takes up Capacity, essentially. This is not just physical encumbrance, but mental also: "Man this bow is getting in the way." "Ok which pocket did I put my water bottle in again?"

If you have less than half your starting Capacity slots free, you are encumbered in mind and body. This should represent disadvantage in all areas, becoming more severe the more you go over the limit. All your stuff occupies you!

You could pick up Training or Mastery in things like Mindfulness or Packing---expertise specifically for increasing Capacity. (Since these fields don't have items associated with them, you basically get an extra slot.)

Things that are Storage (houses, wagons, etc) take up a Capacity slot, and give lots of extra Capacity---but you don't necessarily have them around you reliably. (You can't bring your house into the dungeon.)

Experiences should be malleable. If you riddled with a dragon, then entered a riddle contest with a demon, both experiences should get "upgraded"? Riddle Mastery? (That Training can get upgraded into Mastery is a given.)

Trainings and Masteries should be as bespoke as Experiences. Training: Master Qi's Spear Art and Training: Spear-wall Formation Fighting In The Vedocci Legion imply different things, and should lend you different ways of wielding your spear.

+

Yeah, so that's my quick and dirty "Experience Is Inventory" system. Thoughts?

Personally I'm torn. On the one hand: I'm pleased / stimulated by how simple and abstracted and (potentially) easy this is? Your character sheet is a mind map, basically. As you play, the sheet grows, becoming a record of your character's history and who they are, what friends they have, what stuff they value.

On the other hand: is this too abstracted, that it detracts from the concreteness of an imagined space? I know that when I play games my fun starts ebbing when I feel like I'm playing rules and jargon, not the fiction.

(Also I'm sure some maverick innovative indie game has done this kind of skills-are-gear thing before. What games handle things in similar ways?)

[thelostbaystudio]

After a few iterations The Lost Bay RPG character sheet is now stripped of numerical stats (PCs only) - here's the character sheet draft (above) Bruno Prosaiko is going to draw it this spring - below is the older sheet by Bruno - I can't wait for the final one. This bubbly design is inspired by @zedecksiew post called "You carry your experience with you" and published in an incredible moment of synchronicity as I was deciding to ditch the last 2 numerical stats from the game and keeping only the mixed-items-abilities-prayers inventory.

[thelostbaystudio]

@zedecksiew I'm getting back to this. What's happening to me?

[thelostbaystudio]

All The Lost Bay playable Vibes

Which one are you?

Firetstarter

Monarch

Scanner

Screamer

Seer

Wildling

Shifter

Junker

Splinter

Sunken

Art by Evangeline Gallagher

[thelostbaystudio]

The Shifter

Hey folks, haven't posted in a while, but I thought you might like this illustration, the Shifter, by Evangeline Gallagher, one of the playable classes in The Lost Bay rpg

[thelostbaystudio]

We're Punk Monks

We're humans

We publish RPG zines for humans

We don't use AIs or NFTs

We cherish the craft

We value creative minds and hearts

We love gamers

Zines https://thelostbaystudio.com

Newsletter https://thelostbaystudio.substack.com/subscribe

Logo by Hinokodo https://hinokodo.itch.io/human-made

Art by Evangeline Gallagher https://bsky.app/profile/egallagher.bsky.social

[thelostbaystudio]

Riso print made at/with `Spazio Florida Milan

To make The Lost Bay RPG more accessible we are working to:

* Make a 4 p. quickstart, easily translatable

* Support 3RP designers who use non English languages

* Provide Spanish, Chinese, and French support/content

* Prep a full translation in Spanish

[thelostbaystudio]

Tonight! join us on The Weekly Scroll and discover if Sarah, Johnny and Dante will survive Deep Water - I'll be running a variant of the intro session to the campaign I'm running in TLB server.

[isbergillustration]

:P

[yodaprod]

Cybercafé à Paris (1995)

[acid-lich]

The limit does not exist (what a seizure feels like)

[thelostbaystudio]

Appendix N

Working to support designers in other continents than mine with designing The Lost Bay RPG content, I was chatting with a Taiwanese GM and was reminded how much The Rebels of The Neon God hits the TLB vibe

One of my all time fave films, if you can try and watch it, a superb movie.

Goes straight into TLB Appendix N

[peregrine-coast]

Milk Bar: my sci-fi RPG set in a post-Soviet Poland is now live on Kickstarter!

Hey folks!!

Milk Bar is a sci-fi tabletop roleplaying game set in an alternate-timeline, post-Soviet Poland. After the Soviets grew in power, their ultimate clash with Capital left your city in ruin. All you can do now is gather your fellow Communards, salvage whatever you can, and build your Milk Bar.

Based on RPGs like Cairn, Mausritter, and Mothership, and video games like Disco Elysium and Control, Milk Bar is a game about the post-collapse and rebuilding.

A 100-page book featuring:

Quick, simplified rules in the old school tradition

A toolkit for generating a retro-futuristic, alternate-timeline post-Soviet Communist Poland

Funnel Rules which have your group of upstart Communards find and take back a Milk Bar from the grasp of Capital. Start at level 0 and Cut Your Milk Teeth. 

Unique progression system tied to basebuilding. Want to stitch up those wounds? You better build an Infirmary and find a Doctor

Abandoned Soviet Superstructures containing reality-bending Future Tech deep within

A Bestiary melding Polish and Slavic mythology with classic science fiction

Solo Rules. Become the Biggest Communism Builder of the year '24!

Gorgeous production values: high-quality, uncoated paper and an exposed, yellow thread binding. Full of graphic design work from Eryk Sawicki (me!) and art from SADGHOBLIN

Pierogi

Milk Bar: sci-fi roleplaying in post-Soviet Poland

Create your Communard, dive into abandoned Soviet research facilities, and upgrade your Milk Bar. For the people!

[partyofonepod]

New Episode - The Links Between with Ell

It's the match of the century. You won't want to miss this, wrestling fans!

[indiepressrevolution]

It's officially #zinemonth, and that means there are a ton of incredible TTRPG projects funding right now. We want to feature as many of these projects as possible in our February newsletter, so if you're running a project or know of a cool one (this part is a trick, they're all cool) please promote it here and/or email us about it, [email protected]

[thelostbaystudio]

Cursed Tamagotchi RPG

🔥 Final cover art by Evangeline Gallagher for PARABYTE by @goblinmixtape for The Lost Bay RPG KS - cursed tamagotchi user manual Will you let them feed on Fresh Blood and Memories? Will you still love them once they grow into a Torso with a hundred hands or a Fleshy Millipede?

You guys, I'm super excited about this contribution by Sam. It's so wild, written in a super fun way. A great module to hook into your campaign, to play solo, or just to enjoy reading and grin :)

It's written like an in-game user manual, and will take you through all the steps to grow your own hellish tamagotchi

I'm so grateful it's in The Lost Bay pack, but above all, I can't wait to play it!

Would you let them feed on you?

Follow https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thelostbay/the-lost-bay-suburban-dark-fantasy-rpg

Info https://thelostbaystudio.substack.com/p/announcing-the-lost-bay-rpg-a-dark