Fated Seas

Fated Seas combines elements of traditional role-playing games with the easy-to-learn mechanics of table-top card games. Fused together with a tight and fast-paced combat system, it aims to give players flexibility, freedom of expression and agency in a world of high adventure and exploration.

Players create their characters from a variety of choices based on their Class, their Origin species and their Background. After making these decisions, players craft a custom deck of cards representing their character’s various skills, attacks and abilities. Players are encouraged to tell their own stories by crafting a heroic destiny for their character and guiding their fate throughout the experience. As they fulfill their goals and aspirations, complete milestones and advance the story, they have the opportunity to add additional cards to their deck, further expanding their character’s roles and capabilities. No two characters are alike.

By using cards as a fundamental element in the gameplay, players spend less time flipping through rulebooks and more time chucking dice on the table. While this makes things easy to learn, it also makes it difficult to master by encouraging players to experiment with various card combinations to find unique and powerful synergies. 

Setting

Fated Seas takes place in a fantasy, far-off-future world reminiscent of our own. Earth has been transformed into an uninhabitable ruin from centuries of overpopulation, pollution, war and famine. In order to survive, those that live here must do so by embracing a life reliant on, or more like under, the oceans. They developed technology to adapt to this new environment by fully enclosing themselves in deep underwater cities, called Solitaries.

Central to each Solitary is the Solar Core, an enormous solar projector capable of providing the deep cities with enough light, power and warmth to sustain them indefinitely. The residential, social, and cultural centers of each city encircle these ‘miniature suns’ and must be continually powered by a special fuel called phlogiston to ensure that they are never extinguished.

Various other species besides humans exist in this fictional world - the origins of their uplifting or emergence lost to time. Suffice to say, every species introduced in the book has existed for centuries and have played a major part in the development or advances made since the beginning of the ages.

Features

6 CLASSES

Your character in the world of Fated Seas is a daring adventurer with a diverse background, cause, or belief in who they are and what drives them. They live in a mysterious and shattered world filled with danger, intrigue, exploration, and lost treasure. It is a land of high adventure, forgotten terrors, and enigmatic technology. It is up to each player to figure out how their character fits into this world and how it allows them to express themselves to the best of their ability, whims, and desires.

Maybe you want to play a brooding, relentless bounty hunter? Or perhaps a metal-armed treasure-seeker is more to your liking? Maybe you’d rather be a seeker of forgotten knowledge or a hulking metal-machine of mass destruction? In this section, you will be able to choose a character class that fits an idea in your mind or style of play.

There are six character classes to choose from, each providing its own strengths, weaknesses, and decisions with how it fits within the scope of the game. Each class can play very differently depending on how you choose to build your character and the choices you make, especially when paired with the various Origins and Backgrounds that come later.

• ARTIFICER: With skillful mastery of chemical and mechanical devices, Artificers use wondrous inventions to tinker with the mechanical world around them. They are master craftspeople, able to fashion all types of fancy gadgets, alchemical devices and other tools of the mechanical trade. Driven by a thirst for knowledge and the thrill of discovery, many are brilliant inventors, mechanics and chemists.
• BASTION: Bastions wear cool suits of powered armor, talk tough, and think they are invincible. With the capability to dish out and receive massive amounts of damage, they might just be right.
• EXECUTIONER: As the agents of High Justice, Executioners are sent after the most dangerous criminals hiding out in the remote depths of a Solitary. They are highly-effective killers, but can suffer socially from their public reputation.
• METAL THIEF: Metal Thieves are treasure hunters, relic seekers, and finders of lost fortunes. They are known for their fancy metallic limbs and the ability to procure almost anything… if the price is right.
• THEURGIST: Theurgists study the mysteries of the deep ocean and form a symbiotic relationship with an ancient race of kraken. This forgotten knowledge gives them insights and powers unheard of - sometimes at a great cost.
• WARDEN : A Warden is a penitent jailer charged with serving and protecting a spirit imprisoned within a phylactery. They use the spirit to help those in need, punish the wicked, or gain redemption.

7 ORIGINS

There are seven origins to choose from in Fated Seas and each one provides its own strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities on how you can flesh out and develop the rich identity of your character.

• ARGOS: Argos represents a wide and diverse range of humanoid, animal-like species. Defiant of all authority, bold, and untamed, they represent the fierce nature that is dormant in most people.
• CARABUS: Carabus are a race of bipeds with arachnid or insectoid features. They are curious, inquisitive, and are known for their physical hardiness and adaptability.
• HYDRAN: An amphibious species originating from the ocean, Hydrans are bipedal creatures with salamander, or fish-like features. They are known for their brash, individualistic attitudes and their incredible regenerative abilities.
• REMADE: With unknown origins, and bestowed sentience and free-will, these automatons communicate with one another through a shared connection called a Collective Intelligence and have Remade themselves to better fit their roles in society.
• SIRIN: An orderly and spiritual culture, Sirin are flightless, bipedal creatures noted for their empathetic openness and observational capabilities. They have an unmatched force of will which allows them to “read” the emotions and thoughts of an individual just by watching their body language.
• THANATAE: Consisting of bleached or charred bones and residual ectoplasmic energy, Thanatae are an elder species of magically transformed, arcane-infused beings.
• TRANSHUMAN: Genetically evolved from their contemporary predecessors, Transhumans have advanced beyond simple human means, gaining various evolutionary advances, like being able to see in dark spaces with cat-like eyes or swim and breathe underwater like a fish.

6 BACKGROUNDS

Backgrounds represent your character’s history, life experiences, or current or past profession.  At a baseline, all Backgrounds give characters access to features granting them the ability to recognize important people, organizations, signs, and symbols of the society in which they grew up in. Some give the character access to additional skills, specialized knowledge, other abilities, or contacts. When creating a character, choose 1 of these Features.

• ACADEMIC
  • Focused Education
  • Skilled Researcher
• LAW
  • Know People
  • Bureaucratic Nightmare
• MILITARY
  • Military Rank
  • Covert Agent
• NOBLE
  • Privilege
  • Inheritor
• TRADE
  • Artisan 
  • Guild Membership
• UNDERWORLD
  • Streetwise
  • Silver Tongue

Game Resources

As the gameplay revolves around using cards as a primary way to represent your characters abilities, I have provided various Print & Play options for those who don't want to buy the Print-On-Demand version or the full-on Deluxe Edition.

• Character Class Decks (Print & Play)
  • Artificer
  • Bastion
  • Executioner
  • Metal Thief
  • Theurgist
  • Warden
• Supplemental Decks (Print & Play)
  • Origins
  • Starting Weapons
  • Imbued & Artifact Gear
  • Consumables (Potions, Bombs & Elixirs)
  • Status Effects (optional)
• Character Sheet (Landscape)
• Character Sheet (Letter)