Grim Voyaging

Grim Voyaging

The Grim Bay in the village’s southeast is bounded not by mist, but by sea-fog. It is - the same material, but somehow made different by the presence of the ocean.

Exploring this ocean comes with risks - sharks, Gulls, even the occasional LimPest that reefed outside the caves - but also rewards: the ocean is the temporary resting place of all manner of valuables.

The Grimsby natives are understandably cautious about seafaring, but Areefa - Grand Dame of the Sirenade - sees opportunity enough to justify the risk, and has begun encouraging villagers to set out in search of treasure.

How It Works

Grim Voyaging is a push-your-luck mini-game, based around exploring 2D “cells” of Grim Bay for treasure. It’s about resource management, and risk-versus-reward judgements. It’s also risky; you may find treasures, but there’s significant potential for Consequences, or even Wounds, if you go too far.

The game is based on the physrep of a small collection of drawers in a 5x5 grid. Players begin in the top-left drawer, representing the beach, and can move one drawer at a time orthogonally (not diagonally). The drawer will then be opened, and whatever’s inside will be added to one of two piles: Loot, or Damage. (Broadly: good pile, bad pile.)

At any stage, the voyaging party can choose to return, but there will only be a limited opportunity for voyages each week - and with each voyage that returns having explored the safer regions, the risk for subsequent ones will rise.

Sometimes, a drawer will contain an Event: a point of decision-making, or something unusual. The voyaging party will then have the opportunity to make that decision, though be warned - results may not be the same every time. Skills learned from your weekly Activities may be very useful here.

You can cross back over spaces you’ve already been to, but there will usually be nothing there.

Notably, loot is finite, whereas Damage is (usually) per-player. This means that, while a larger group will find Events easier to handle, the total risk:reward ratio gets worse.

An example Voyage.

Beach (Start)	Move 1 - Results: Loot (Kelp)
Move 3 - Results: Consequences (Art, by Any Means)	Move 2 - Results: Loot (Lily-Pads); Consequences (A Wobble of the Ghost)
Move 4 - Results: Loot (Sargassum); Consequences (Oversensitive)	Move 5 - Results: Loot (Rite-Paper; Ash-Grey pigment); Wound (A Loss in the Family)
	Move 6 - Results: Loot (Fish-Flesh); Consequences (Grim Outlook: Salted); Wound (The Spirit Calcifies)

In this example, after the sixth move, between two Wounds and two Severe Consequences making a third, the voyaging party returns home. They are at their Wound limits, and don't want to test fate. Still, they retrieved some Plants, some Rite-Paper, a Pigment, and some Treats.