RPG: ‘Shanty Hunters’– A Game About Collecting And Singing Magical Sea Shanties
The new Shanty Hunters RPG on Kickstarter will finally give you an excuse to make your friends sing sea shanties with you! Rum not included.
The new Shanty Hunters RPG invites you to do what would ordinarily take three pints of rum and a ren fair pirate band: sing sea shanties. But, in a new twist, this game is based around collecting magical sea shanties in the waning decades of the 1800s.
It can be hard to remember January 2021. After all, that was about ten years ago now. But do you recall how everyone was into Sea Shanties for a couple of weeks? Even if you don’t, you haven’t missed the metaphorical boat.
Shanty Hunters is one of the more imaginative RPGs that’s crossed my desk. In the game, you’ll take on the role of sailors and scholars traveling the sea lanes to try to document the dying art of the sea shanty.
With the age of sail coming to a close, the Industrial Revolution and ships of steam start to grind the magic out of the world. It’s up to you to collect Shanties before they’re gone.
But a wicked spirit wants to keep shanties from falling into the hands of “landsmen”. And as you investigate these sea shanties, the imagery and events from each song will play out on deck. Sing a shanty, face perils inspired by it!
It’s incredibly inventive. And if you’re looking for a game that will immerse you in a world of fading majesty, this is it. In this game, these sea shanties promise to breathe a little bit of magic back into your life.
From the Shanty Hunters RPG Kickstarter:
In Shanty Hunters, your character is a sailor or scholar drawn to the sea lanes to document shanties – even though doing so angers the campaign’s villain and imperils your life and the lives of your shipmates. You are defined by your Profession and your Drive.
The book presents twelve example Professions compatible with disappearing to sea for months at a time: from client scholar to spy to three different kinds of sailors (pollywog, shellback, and mate). Your Drive is what compels you to continue documenting shanties, even though doing so endangers you and everyone around you.
The book presents ten examples from occultism to naiveté to romanticism. Creating characters is fast and easy, but if you want to jump right into play, the book presents six pregenerated characters, all of them bold and strongly-written.
Every session, the characters document a new shanty and the players are encouraged to sing it at the table. Then the events and imagery in the shanty begin occurring aboard the ship!
The PCs can use the shanty’s lyrics to try to anticipate what will happen before it occurs, or figure out how to respond to it after it does. Shanty Hunters uses a version of the award-winning GUMSHOE rules engine that’s been streamlined for episodic play.
The Shanty Hunters RPG Books & Songs
Shanty Hunters contains a shanty songbook with seventeen shanties suitable for use at the table. Some are old favorites, like Drunken Sailor. Others may be new to you, like Alabama John Cherokee and A Long Time Ago.
All come with advice on how to use them in your campaigns: what lines work well as obstacles to ‘come alive’, what secret occult information might be hidden in the verses, and which shanties work best with each of the six sample villains and why.
Plus, the book provides a concise history of sea shanties and their influences.
A sample adventure rounds out the book. Things get hairy when the lyrics of the shanty Sacramento come alive aboard the good ship Continental! There’s a mermaid, an ancient tablet, tentacles from the deep, and a terrible curse.
Combine that with a secret cargo, a philologist passenger with something to hide, and a mate who is perhaps too likable, and you’ve got yourself a delightful evening of play!
Want to read some material from Shanty Hunters to get a feel for the book? I’ve released four excerpts on my blog! Check out:
Back the Shanty Hunters RPG on Kickstarter
