Spicebound

Overview

Spicebound is a tabletop roleplaying game about ambition, exploration, and uneasy alliances. Players take on the roles of a motley crew of adventurers sailing between unexplored islands in search of riches and the fabled Spice of Life. While cooperation is essential to survive the journey, an undercurrent of subterfuge challenges players to weigh trust against self-interest, as alliances among players and other factions can shift and betrayals are always possible.

The core focus of this project is a rich game book that details everything that players and dungeon masters need to understand to run full game sessions. As part of worldbuilding, it covers environments, nations, cultures, economies, and political alliances. It also provides detailed information about player creation systems, interaction and choice resolution, encounters and puzzles. Additionally, it details tertiary mechanics such as the robust reputation system, social influence and in-game time, while providing helpful glossaries and examples to help get games running straight out of the box.

Player Fantasy

Core to any TTRPG is the character creation process, serving as the player’s primary connection to the game world. By shaping a character through a diverse mix of classes, attributes, and proficiencies, players are encouraged to craft not just a mechanical build, but a distinct personality with strengths, flaws, and motivations. 

These characters act as the lens through which the world is experienced. Every decision, success, or failure carries tangible consequences that influence relationships, reputation, and narrative outcomes. As players navigate the game’s challenges, they grow alongside their characters, forming an emotional bond on a personal journey shaped by choice, consequence, and identity. 

An Emergent World

To support the player experience, a range of supporting systems underpins the smooth running of game sessions, providing structure while allowing flexibility for player-driven storytelling. Reputation systems track player actions and decisions, shaping how factions, settlements, and key figures respond, while inter-player and faction relationships introduce evolving alliances, tensions, and narrative stakes. 

Player progression and reward systems are designed to reinforce meaningful choices, offering growth through new abilities, equipment, and narrative influence. Example modules can also be found with catalogues of items and equipment, varied enemy types, combat and puzzle encounters encourage problem-solving and creative use of player skills for game sessions to feel dynamic, engaging, and reactive. 

Modular Systems

The final test of a TTRPG is to run a full module. The design of the example module Wretched Whalers was crafted to ensure that every component and element of the game guide is accessible and has purposeful relation to the player experience. The campaign hosts a number of varied world locations to flesh out characters and the narrative, with multiple branching pathways so that player choices feel flexible yet impactful. Game mechanics players utilise also meaningfully draw from their established character aptitudes and link to meta game systems in a well defined loop with understandable consequences.