Tidal Secrets ⚓️: A Booklet Storyset 📖 for Tableau Games (Print-N-Fold)

Dive into the abyss of Lovecraft Country: Tidal Secrets ⚓️, where ancient tales meld with the ocean’s roar, guiding the curious and ensnaring the unwary.  A two page Booklet Storyset📖 supplement for Tableau: Collaborative Cinematic Storytelling (available here on itch.io as Tableau Core ꩜ Rules in a “name your own price” Print-N-Fold Tableau Booklet 📖 edition).

Also adaptable for use in other  ‘belonging outside belonging’  style storygames, this Storyset 📖  amplifies narratives that blend seafaring lore, coastal enigmas, and the inexorable pull of the shadows of family history.

Anchor your tales with these five maritime Story 📖 Elements:

• Setting Lovecraft Country 🏘️: Venture through a land haunted by its own myths. Here, every wind whispers an old tale, every creak could be a beckoning from the deep.
• Setting Innsmouth 🏘️: Etched by time and tides, this quaint seafaring village echoes with the breath of the sea. Tradition seeps through its winding cobblestone streets, aged houses, and salt-encrusted boats, crafting a rhythm of life as enduring as the sea’s tides.
• Theme Family of Origin 💢: Dive deep into the heart of relationships, where every shared memory might be a treasure and every secret, a potential tempest.
• Genre Beats Generations 🥁: Embark on an odyssey through time, witnessing the rise and ebb of a family's legacy. But be wary, for every era brings its own trials.
• Faction: Kin of the Deep 🫂: Engage with the veiled guardians of the abyss. Some seek to preserve age-old rituals, some long for transformation, while others guard their secrets with a fierce determination.

In Tidal Secrets ⚓️ every decision ripples with the ocean's might, every bond can anchor or set free, and every legend might just reveal a truth waiting to surface. As the tide rises and falls on these stories, how will you navigate the waves of mystery and legacy?

We hope this Storyset 📖 inspires you to signup for future Lovecraft Country Playsets 🎞️ and Storysets 📖.

Tableau Booklet Storysets 📖

Tableau Booklet Storysets 📖 supplement Tableau stories with additional rules and story elements, but you'll require a Tableau Playset 🎞️ or the Tableau Core ꩜ Rules  to play. Storysets 📖 also are easy to incorporate into most ‘belonging outside belonging’ style storygames, and are adaptable for use with many other styles of tabletop role-playing games.

Storysets 📖 don't possess the same flexibility as a Tableau card-based Playset 🎞.  Instead, they are designed for a similar style of play using small, card-sized Booklets easily printed on US Letter 8½''x11'' paper. To utilize a Storyset 📖 just unfold the Booklet to a particular Story 📖 Element page and have a storyteller Take Up 🫰 the Booklet for control that Element just like a card with Story 📖 Element.

Assembly: Print booklet, single-sided. Fold long way (11'') with text out, then unfold. Fold short way (8-½'') with text out, then unfold. Fold short sides ¼ and ¾ inward with text in. Cut center guide, stopping at the ¼ & ¾ folds—don’t cut to page’s end. Refold as per image. Ensure cover is on front. Tighten creases.

About Christopher Allen (Writer & Designer)

I am fascinated by the art and craft of collaboration, and have its practice and the study of how and why collaboration works at the center of my professional career as an entrepreneur, a software architect, as well as a creator, producer & publisher in the game industry.

I have been a fan and supporter of games (especially roleplaying games) for decades, with old favorites including Call of Cthulhu and RuneQuest II, while my new favorites are the collaborative games that have emerged in the last couple of decades, both in the form of GMless story games as well as in board games.

Professionally, I've done considerable work in the computer game industry: I was the lead designer for Castle Marrach and Lovecraft Country online games and producer for mobile adaptions of several strategy games by Reiner Knizia and Michael Schacht.

In the tabletop games industry, I produced Chaosium's award-winning Beyond the Mountains of Madness RPG supplement, resurrected Arkham Horror cooperative board game before licensing it to Fantasy Flight for their bestselling 2nd edition, and I support the tabletop gaming community as the owner/publisher of the popular website RPG.net.

Recently, I have been doing more personal projects, directly creating releases for the tabletop industry: I co-authored with Shannon Appelcline Meeples Together: How and Why Cooperative Board Games Work published by Gameplaywright with a successful Kickstarter in 2018, a successful Kickstarter in 2019 for the original 18-card Gate Watch 2019, and a 2023 Kickstarter for the first two Tableau Games, my cooperative storytelling card game system. I will be releasing other games & media through Dyvers Hands Productions. I am also an avid supporter of other game designers on Kickstarter and Patreon.

About Dyvers Hands Productions (Publisher)

“Dyvers Hands” is an archaic phrase used to refer to a project that has been contributed to by many people. Divers is a word of Latin origin (diversus) that is still commonly used in modern French language; it literally means “many and varied”. ~ Wikipedia

At Dyvers Hands Productions, we are passionate about creating and developing collaborative storytelling experiences across a wide range of media. Our focus includes tabletop games, online communities, graphic novels, short-story anthologies, and we hope to one day expand into TV and movies.

We believe that the best stories are the ones told together, and our mission is to foster creativity, promote collaboration, and bring people together through immersive and engaging gameplay.

Our latest project, Tableau, successfully funded on Kickstarter, is a storytelling game system that emphasizes shared storytelling and character development.

Credits

Tidal Secrets ⚓️  A Booklet Storyset 📖 for Tableau Games was written & designed by Christopher Allen. (r1 v1 2024-02)

©2024 by Dyvers Hands Productions, LLC. — All Rights Reserved.  Images © original creators & are Permissively Licensed. More info & image credits at  DyversHands.com/Tableau.

 Tableau Games™, Dyvers Hands™, and Lovecraft Country™ are trademarks of Dyvers Hands Productions LLC.