It can be fun for Game Masters to sit down with a blank notebook and create whoe worlds for their friends to discover. It can also be fun to dive into worlds full of lore and backstory to inspire adventures at the table. I think every Game Master also has a “Goldilocks zone” that balances open development of ideas with a rich setting that’s already developed. For me, Blades In The Dark hits the right balance between intriguing ideas and the space to develop them for my table. The Wildsea, from designer Felix Issacs, falls into a similar space. There are some great details to hook in a group but then how it all plays out is left to each individual story. Mythworks sent along review copies for this article. Does this game come sail away with me? Let’s play to find out.
The Wildsea is a post apocalyptic game but its direction is more Ultraviolet Grasslands than Mad Max. 300 years ago, the Verdancy struck and caused massive plant growth across the world. Mountain ranges quickly became island chains in a vast sea of green. The survivors adapted slowly but now have something like a nomadic seafaring life. Except the ships are essentially giant chainsaws and the seas are rapidly regenerating forests. This is something that The Wildsea does well over and over again. It takes a concept everyone understands and twists it just enough to make it feel new and exotic.
Characters are built from heritages, backgrounds and roles on the ship. Humans are the most normal heritage in the game with everything else being exotic and weird. This isn’t a world of dwarves and elves but of cactus people and sentient wasp hives pretending to be people. Background details how the characters have survived in the world so far while roles give the character a specific duty on the ship that belongs to all the players. While there are combat roles, the ship options tend to focus on exploration and treasure hunting. The Wildsea is more about how the world has changed and what parts of the old world the players can use in building a new one. There’s a lot of meat here for players that love crafting things and long term projects.
The art gives The Wildsea a very unique look. Much of it is stylised and colorful with an edge to it. It reflects the themes of the game: a world full of overgrown trees feels like it should be whimsical but there are a lot of dangers that lurk below the surface. A lot of games reach for Hayao Miyazaki as inspiration and this is one of the few games that gets the recipe right. Come for the fantastic art, stay for the sad struggle to rescue as many books as you can from a library before the last tree branch supporting it snaps.
The Wildsea is heavily influenced by Blades In The Dark, replacing turf upgrades with the maintenance and improving of the character’s ship. It also introduces the concepts of cuts to the standard dice pool system. If players want to take a specific risk, like aiming for the head of a roving tree monster or desperately pulling out that one last artifact, they can cut their roll to the next level of success down. That can turn a mixed roll into a failure or a clean success into a messy one. The game also introduces the concept of twists, where doubles on a roll create an unexpected turn of events. The GM has final say but the book suggests that they kick it out to the table if they need inspiration for one. I like both of these ideas as an alternative to the sometimes finicky position/impact rules in Blades. I might use them in a lot of games in this style.
While the base game offers a lot of detail without specific backstory, the game provides additional customization options. Elements connected to religion, gadgetry and overt magic are marked in the text with specific symbols. Removing these aspects give the world a different flavor, though I would recommend keeping at least one to help drive home the exotic nature of the game. But for fans sick of magic or steampunk elements of every new role playing game, this makes pulling those elements that much easier.
Bottom Line: The Wildsea offers a beautiful but deadly world full of surreal adventures. Players looking for a different take on post apocalyptic fantasy will find a lot to discover.
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