# Broken Shores tags: #game/rpg/broken-shores ![[Broken Shores (cover).jpg]] **Broken Shores** is a tabletop role-playing game that cheerfully plunges you into the thoroughly miserable existence of a "Drifter" in a world that decided to take the "waterworld apocalypse" theme and run with it, right into the darkest, most brutal corners it could find. Forget sunny sailing; this is a grim struggle for survival in a randomly generated, soggy hellscape where fresh water is apparently a more precious commodity than your own lifeblood. Your mission, should you choose to accept this aquatic despair, is to explore crumbling ruins, scavenge derelicts, and poke around tiny islands that have just decided to resurface, all in search of... well, anything that keeps you from becoming fish food or dying of thirst. Magic exists, naturally, but it's less "sparkling wonders" and more "unpredictable forces that might just backfire spectacularly," so that's comforting. The gods? Dead. Humanity? Facing a cruel, inhospitable world. Sounds like a delightful vacation! It's an ocean hexcrawl focused on exploration and scavenging, perfect for when you want your fantasy dark, your survival brutal, and your chances of a happy ending minimal. The core of how you navigate this sodden existence in **Broken Shores** relies on a d100 ruleset. This means that when your character attempts to do something risky or challenging, you'll typically be rolling percentile dice – that's usually two ten-sided dice, one for the tens digit (00, 10, 20, etc.) and one for the units digit (0-9). The combined result gives you a number between 1 and 100 (with 00 and 0 often read as 100). Success or failure is determined by comparing your roll against a target number or a skill value. Generally, rolling low is good – you're trying to roll _under_ your character's relevant skill or attribute score to succeed at a task. The lower you roll, the better, often leading to more favorable outcomes. This straightforward percentage-based system aims to be quick to learn, allowing for checks related to everything from spell-casting (risky, remember?) to brutal critical hits and wounds (because getting hurt here isn't just losing hit points, it's _brutal_), exploration woes, and the desperate act of crafting something vaguely useful out of junk. While specific nuances like degrees of success or critical failure tables aren't detailed in summaries, the d100 framework means every attempt you make in this watery ruin has a clear percentage chance of success, leaving your survival largely to the whims of the dice gods (the dead ones, presumably). ## References - [Broken Shores (PDF) - Blackoath Entertainment](https://blackoathgames.com/store/p/godshard) - [Broken Shores (POD, Black & White) - RPG - Blackoath Entertainment - Noble Knight Games](https://www.nobleknight.com/P/2148282615/Broken-Shores-POD-Black-and-White) - [Player Aid for Broken Shores - gamesbyfelix.com | DriveThruRPG](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/485938/player-aid-for-broken-shores) - [New video review for Broken Shores, the solo oceancrawl RPG! : r/Solo_Roleplaying - Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/Solo_Roleplaying/comments/17fagjj/new_video_review_for_broken_shores_the_solo/)