Seablight Antilles is a blend of pre-established narrative and themes. In most cases, these narratives and themes will overlap within a game session due to the complex nature of a fragmented world, dangerous environment, faction motivations, and progressive storylines. There may be some instances, however, where single themes prevail. GMs can apply specific narrative and storytelling techniques to maximise immersive gameplay for the players.

The main themes present in Seablight Antilles include:

• transformative cosmic horror
• gritty science fiction
• post-apocalyptic survival
• warfare and colonialism
• advanced technologies
• naval exploration
• piracy and slavery
• Western frontiers
• espionage and assassination
• diplomacy and trade

These themes are intermingled throughout the Seablight Antilles world lore, timeline, and cultural backgrounds.

The following section of this chapter outlines GM strategies, techniques, and scenarios unique to three specific themes:

• cosmic horror theme
• climate transformation and survival theme
• diplomacy, espionage, and trade theme

The strategies, techniques, and scenarios suggested for each of these themes in the following pages can be explored in short gaming sessions, ongoing story lines, and campaigns to create a rich and immersive experience for the players involved.

1. Cosmic Horror Theme

This section concentrates on the cosmic horror theme present in Seablight Antilles the Blightdark Epoch. GM techniques outlined in this section are most relevant and impactful when the playing party are highly involved with the blighted aspects of the world – such as exploring a corrupted blighthyve, escaping from a terrifying Apex Seablight Entity, or when captured by Kongregran and awaiting sacrifice.

The Blightdark Epoch is defined by the overwhelming presence of cosmic horror that pervades the Antilles Archipelago shattered by a cataclysmic event. Twisted, blighted abominations and nightmarish entities – born from the initial specimen uncovered on the metallic asteroid Psyche 16 – threaten life on Earth. The remnants of once-thriving cities are transformed into psychic Madre Hyve conglomerations that seek to expand and consume. Human minds are assailed by dark psychic forces, while horrors prowl on land, hide in the sky, and lurk beneath the sea.

The world is also divided between upstart powers, technological enclaves, decaying societal structures, fortified strongholds, clandestine human factions, and limited essential resources. The psychological toll of living in fear of a blighted death, coupled with warring factions and uneasy alliances, forces individuals and communities to adapt to a harsh, unforgiving world. Trust is rare, and the struggle to reclaim and rebuild amidst relentless terror shapes the fabric of existence.

A cosmic horror themed game of Seablight Antilles should balance providing enough information to create anxiety while maintaining suspense through ambiguity. Uncertainty and suspense drive horror, reflecting real-life fears through partial knowledge. Players can be disempowered by a GM when their characters face overwhelming and unfair conflicts. Isolation can be created by stripping player characters of support and trust. Also important to cosmic horror are themes of violation and transgression, targeting what players hold dear. GMs must safely engage players with care while minimising distractions.

GMs can apply the following three techniques to create an atmosphere of cosmic horror:

Alternate the action: Horror fiction often follows a pattern of alternating intense threat and calming lulls, allowing audiences to catch their breath and anticipate the next scare. This pacing is crucial in cosmic horror-themed roleplaying games to prevent player burnout and disconnection.

After each high-tension scene, include a more relaxed one to let players and characters regroup, and to maintain anticipation for the next scare. As your game progresses towards its climax, shorten the lulls and increase the intensity of threats, culminating in a long, intense final scene.

Overwhelm and Outnumber: Players invest more in a cosmic horror themed gaming session when their characters feel genuinely overwhelmed by powerful enemies or multiple threats. The goal isn’t to kill player characters, but to make adversaries seem vast and dangerous.

Initially, player characters might lack tools to fight a menace and must focus on surviving with their lives, health, and sanity intact. Page 24 of the BRP rule book provides guidance on how to include Fatigue and Sanity Points in your games.
Suspense over Surprise: Building suspense over using surprise is essential in horror Game Moderating. Gradually escalating tension and providing incomplete information keeps players on edge, heightening their anxiety and anticipation. This method allows players’ imaginations to fill in the gaps, often creating fear more effectively than explicit threats. By skillfully controlling the flow of information and pacing, a GM can maintain a gripping atmosphere, ensuring a deeply immersive and terrifying experience for the players.

Regarding Fate Points
As mentioned in the BRP in Chapter 5: System, Fate Points should not be used in games involving Cosmic Horror tropes:

“A horror setting should not utilize this system, as a key component of horror is the inability to control one’s fate, and a means of manipulating outcomes is counterproductive to that end” (BRP Rule Book page 115).

Cosmic horror is only one of the many genres and possible narrative structures within the Seablight world. If using Fate points, a GM may choose to toggle this system off and on at certain junctures to accurately represent scenarios involving cosmic horror.

Cosmic Horror Theme Scenarios

The four scenarios below describe narrative structures and provide examples of how cosmic horror may be applied in the Seablight Antilles world.

These are example contexts only – use as written if they fit your imagined scenario, but adapt the narrative structure to fit your gameplay and player context.

Scenario 1: The Moral Dilemma – Instant or Deferred Gratification
Hopesail Confederacy Perspective

A Hopesail Confederacy Meridian Dragoon has an opportunity to snipe and kill a Low Blightspeaker performing a ritualistic sacrifice of citizen prisoners. Taking the shot, however, would alert a host of nearby Awakened Blighters to the squad’s location, with no exit strategy. Does the Dragoon take the shot (instant gratification) and jeopardise the party or wait for a safer moment to strike (deferred gratification)?

Scenario 2: The Moral Dilemma – Principle vs Need
Masqued Guildas Perspective

After finding a small blighthyve on a remote coral atoll, the Masqued Guilda crew investigate the surrounding area. On their way back to the vessel, they encounter a Serpentine Marina that assails the party and captures a young NPC Seehändler. The Seehändler can be heard screaming in terror as they are dragged on to the beach and towards the blighted sea.

Knowing it will be very difficult to take down the Serpintine with light weaponry, does the party sacrifice the Seehändler to escape, or stay and fight against the creature, risking their own lives, the vessel, and their mission?

Scenario 3: The Player Death and The Return
Pyrate Republic Perspective

After a skirmish with a Blight Swarm on the outskirts of El Castillo, one of the players has suffered an infected bite to their shoulder. After witnessing the player’s agonising transformation from the blight, the player transforms into a Cambiaformas. How does the party react to this transformation? How does the transformed player feel?

Scenario 4: Body Horror, Mutilation, and Transformation
Blighted Tribes Perspective

The player is a Kyndrid Kongregran that has suffered a horrific arm wound. They are now slated for hyve consumption at the Awakening of the Tides Ceremony. Rather than being consumed, they are instead transformed into a Low Blightspeaker. How does the player experience their new psychic connection to the hyve?

2. Climate Transformation and Survival Theme

The following section concentrates on player survival and resource management on a post-apocalyptic Earth. GM techniques and scenarios outlined in this theme section are relevant when the playing party experiences scarcity, isolation, and tests of endurance. They may become lost, run out of food/munitions, or may be involved in an extended battle.

The Blightdark Epoch is a harrowing era where survival and resource management are paramount. Player characters struggle in a world of dwindling supplies and relentless threats. Human communities are fortified and resources are fiercely contested by the powerful. This leads to desperate measures for basic supplies. Ancestor technology from a previous age is rare and highly coveted, adding another layer of tension as players scavenge for functional remnants to ensure their survival.

Managing resources is a daily challenge. Players need to ration supplies and make difficult decisions about what resources to prioritise. The environment is unforgiving, with hazardous blighthyve spawnings and dangerous creatures lurking in the shadows. Players need to be vigilant. The theme of survival is further intensified by social dynamics, where trust is scarce and alliances fragile. Every interaction and decision can mean the difference between life and death. The Blightdark Epoch is a gripping and immersive setting for exploring the depths of human strength, cunning, and ingenuity.

GMs running sessions of Seablight Antilles involving environmental degradation, exploration, and resource management can employ a variety of strategies to engage players and create immersive experiences. One key strategy is creating a realistic, gritty, and harsh environment that forces players to constantly adapt and plan. Balancing resource scarcity ensures players must make tough choices about what to prioritise, such as food, water, supplies, and shelter. Incorporating crafting systems (page 159 of the BRP rule book) allows players to turn basic resources into essential tools and equipment.

Social dynamics – including alliances and conflicts – introduce additional layers of strategy and risk. Time management elements, such as day-night cycles and limited time for tasks, increase pressure and urgency. Player death or significant consequences for failure raise the stakes and enhance the sense of survival.

To encourage exploration and survival, GMs can implement a resource management system, add time pressure, and introduce isolation and predation, as follows:

Resource Management Systems: GMs can encourage exploration by rewarding players with hidden resources and knowledge. Implementing detailed resource management systems can deepen the survival experience. As noted in Step 8 of Chapter Two: Characters on page 16 of the BRP rule book, as well as the Seablight Antilles Equipment page, players start the game with certain equipment.  GMs may wish to add and track the inventory of food, water, fuel, and other necessities, requiring players to account for consumption rates and plan resupply missions. A buying and selling guide to common trade goods is provided in the Equipment page.

Detailed records of usage and supply levels can create tension as resources dwindle, forcing players to think strategically about how to allocate their provisions (hunger and thirst parameters are outlined on page 146 of the BRP rule book). This management aspect encourages players to be mindful of their actions and decisions, reinforcing the survival theme.

Time Pressure: Introducing time pressure is another effective way to enhance a survival atmosphere. Deadlines while exploring, finding safe harbour before nightfall, limited time to complete rescue or retrieval missions, or looming threats -such as encircling groups of opposing factions- contribute to a sense of urgency.

Introducing a time constraint forces players to prioritise their actions, often leading to tough choices about what to address immediately and what to delay. The constant ticking clock can heighten tension and make every moment in the game feel vital, contributing to a more immersive survival experience.

Isolation and Predation: Creating a sense of isolation combined with external threats can intensify the survival atmosphere. This isolation can be physical, such as being stranded after exploring in a remote wilderness, or social, such as being in a hostile environment where trust is rare. The feeling of being alone against the world can amplify the stakes of every decision and encounter. Additionally, an ever-present threat of predators, whether human or blighted, can emphasise the survival theme and keep players engaged. The need to always be on guard, set traps, or find a fortified location adds a layer of tension and danger to the game.

Motivation for Exploration: With detailed world-building and rich lore already present in Seablight Antilles, GMs can promote movement throughout the world by a number of mechanics. Artifact retrieval, scouting missions, mapping uncharted waters, or investigating specific landmarks are mission narratives that naturally lead to exploration and discovery of resources. These factors, coupled with an environment that is dynamic and ‘alive’, can drive engagement through the thrill of the unknown and endless opportunities for engaging game experiences.

Climate Transformation and Exploration Scenarios

The four scenarios below describe narrative structures and examples of how survival and exploration can be applied in the Seablight Antilles world.

Scenario 1: Environmental Challenge
Hopesail Confederacy Perspective

While on a scouting mission to a remote location, the party enters an area of heavy blight. The terrain has been twisted and warped beyond recognition. While travelling through this area, the party must act quickly. The longer they stay, the more psychic damage they experience from the environment (use ‘Damage and Healing’ rules as described on page 134 of the BRP rule book). There is also the threat of shifting Seablight tendrils, contributing to a feeling of cosmic horror

Scenario 2: Illness and Injury
Masqued Guildas Perspective

A mystery illness sweeps through the party while on a recovery mission in the waters to the East of Puerto Asentamiento. They must manage how the illness spreads, establish quarantine protocols, and aid in the recovery of both PCs and NPCs (use the framework for Disease on page 146/7 of the BRP rule book).

Scenario 3: Social Dynamics, Trust, and Limited Supplies
Pyrate Republic Perspective

After a conflict with a small Hopesail Confederacy patrol, the crew captures a wounded KLA trader. The party discovers an ally NPC sharing a first aid kit on board the vessel with the captured personnel, draining the kit’s capabilities. If this continues, it will leave the party without first aid. How do they proceed? Is the party split on how to handle the situation?

Scenario 4: Communication Breakdown
Blighted Tribes Perspective

The Madre Hyve psychic pulse linking a blighted hunting pack has been broken by an EMP detonated by the Nu Providence Aqua Charter (NuPAC), rendering telepathic communication useless. The part is spread across an active battlefront between Despertado Kongregran and NuPAC coast wardens. The party must find new ways to communicate with party members who are now isolated and outnumbered.

3. Diplomacy, Espionage, and Trade Theme

The following section concentrates on the diplomacy, espionage, and trade theme present in Seablight Antilles. GM techniques outlined in this section are most useful when hidden information is involved, when vital gadgets are held by opposite factions, or when clandestine movements are needed to secure objectives.

In the midst of chaos and conflict, the Blightdark Epoch also sees the emergence of complex diplomatic manoeuvres and espionage. Factions engage in intricate negotiations, forming and breaking alliances to secure their interests and protect their territories. The presence of spies and covert operatives adds an element of intrigue, as secrets are traded and betrayals are orchestrated behind the scenes.

Alongside this, resource scarcity means that trade within the Antilles Archipelago is critical to continued survival. Established trading partners, Free Trade Zones, and faction control over scarce resources make engagement with factional exchange imperative for survival. The interplay of diplomacy, espionage, and trade between factions are cornerstones to the Bligdark Epoch’s narrative, as factions navigate a delicate balance between cooperation and conflict, ambition and survival.

Effective diplomacy, espionage, and trade strategies involve a blend of nuanced tactics and player engagement. Detailed character backgrounds help players understand motivations and provide leverage during negotiations. Hidden agendas and secrets can lead to compelling espionage missions where players gather information or sabotage opponents.

The techniques presented in previous themes can be applied in this theme. Integrating resource management into trade systems encourages strategic thinking about supply and demand. Creating intricate trade networks with fluctuating markets and rare ancestor relics adds complexity and rewards players who buy into the system. Involving players in large-scale political events, such as treaties and summits, fosters a sense of impact and significance. Facilitating player-driven diplomacy and espionage, where they shape the world through their actions, empowers them to feel like true agents of change within the game’s narrative. A feeling of tension, dread, survival, and cosmic horror can hang heavy over these activities.

There are several ways for GMs to create a gaming atmosphere involving diplomacy, espionage, and trade. These include using the Seablight Antilles lore and history, introducing a reputation system, creating detailed NPCs, developing hidden information, and setting up an intricate and dynamic trade network.

Use what you have: GMs should look to the Seablight Antilles lore as their first port of call in creating an atmosphere rich in diplomacy and intrigue. Doing so will assist NPC character development and social interactions. Seablight Antilles has a detailed world with multiple factions, sub-factions, leaders, followers, and wanderers; each with their own motivations, agendas, alliances, and conflicts (see Chapter 2: Cultures of this document). This provides players with a variety of parties to negotiate with. The complexity of the relationships and the fragility of alliances adds depth to diplomatic efforts. A GM can create a fluid and dynamic political landscape, where relationships change based on players’ decisions, external events, and the actions of other factions within a living worldspace.

Reputation and Influence Systems: GMs can implement mechanics that track players’ reputations and influence within the game world. Actions in diplomacy, espionage, and trade should affect how NPCs view and interact with the players, adding layers of strategy and consequence. Further advice for a reputation system is outlined on pages 216-217 of the BRP rule book, while page 51 provides modifiers to the Status skill as a way to track influence changes in-game.

Complex and detailed NPCs: If you take the time to develop well-rounded non-player characters (NPCs with distinct personalities, back stories, and agendas), then an environment where all individuals hold important information is created. Players are far more likely to invest time into NPCs that they find interesting or potentially have beneficial information. The knowledge specialties of Politics, Literature, Linguistics, Law, Philosophy, Etiquette or specific Cultures (page 44 of the BRP rule book) are useful here.

The GM can add further nuances. If the players invest into a NPC relationships, psychological hacks such as the establishment of trust (so it can be reinforced/broken later, creating feelings of reward/betrayal) and the Ben Franklin Effect (a person being more likely to do a favour for someone if already have completed a previous favour) can be used to immerse players in political intrigue.

Hidden Information: When communication needs to be passed between players and NPCs, GMs can choose to add a level of secrecy by using ways to keep the information concealed. Coded messages help to do this, as do NPCs in disguise, forged documents and infiltration missions. Knowledge specialties in Espionage (page 44 of the BRP rule book) may give bonuses to players in this area. Additionally, the disruption of essential plans or expeditions where the planting of misinformation is the goal help to raise the importance of having correct intelligence.

Dynamic Trade Networks: Creating a unique economy with fluctuating markets, rare goods, and trade routes is a way to establish and encourage investment in trade within games. Support players to engage in this aspect of game play by balancing supply and demand, seeking profitable opportunities and making economic decisions that impact the overall game. The Navigate skill and Knowledge specialties of Accounting, Business, and Law (page 44 of BRP rule book) aid this area.

Diplomacy, Espionage, and Trade Scenarios

The following are four scenarios involving diplomacy, espionage, and trade that GMS can implement in their games:

Scenario 1: Large-scale Political Events
Hopesail Confederacy Perspective

The Hopesail Confederacy’s embattled leaders, Andrew Kim-Smyth and Consuelo II Platt, are hosting the inaugural Antilles Archipelago Peace Summit in Encore Station. Dignitaries from the Pyrate Republic and Masqued Guildas are in attendance. Held over three days, the Summit will focus on territorial disputes, contested trade routes, and the establishment of a tri-lateral peace pact. Day two focuses on redoubled efforts against the Blighted Tribes, while the third day of the Summit will be the focus on Ancestor gadget technology and trade – jointly hosted by the Azora Guilda, KLA, and Yucatán Flotilla.

The party is to attend diplomatic meetings and hold plenary sessions throughout the Summit. Tensions are high, and any misstep could have serious consequences for the Antilles Archipelago. The information, agreements, and alliances gained can be used in future missions.

Scenario 2:Infiltration Missions
Masqued Guildas Perspective

As members of the De Souza Guilda, the players have been tasked with infiltrating the Kontore League Atlantica in the Southern stretches of Katze Island. Posing as Yucatán Flotilla deserters, they are to create a backstory and seek refuge, gain employment, befriend locals and blend into society with the ultimate goal of obtaining military schematics, particularly those relating to aeronautical engineering. They must then relay information periodically back to their Masqued Guilda and/or the Mascarada Cabala leaders at their own risk. They go into this contracted mission unarmed and without hope of extraction. They must rely on their fictional persona, guile, and cunning to make it back out alive.

Scenario 3: Unstable Alliances
Pyrate Republic Perspective

After fighting naval skirmishes in the Northern waters off Empresario for several weeks, leaders of the Masqued Guildas and Hopesail Confederacy have gathered on the deck of the player’s Barco De Chatarra in an effort to broker peace. Almost immediately into the negotiations, however, it becomes apparent that it will be impossible to appease both factions; one will leave as an enemy, the other as an ally.

Players’ must weigh up the potential ramifications of both options and make a choice, with the implications of the decision effecting the course of forthcoming events.

Scenario 4: Disrupt and Disturb
Blighted Tribes Perspective

Having watched the Free Trade Zone from the shores of North Western Tainos Supremo for weeks, the player’s crew of Kyndrid Kongregran captures a Malvada Armada trade vessel that strayed too close to the coastline. Before letting their party consume the pyrate crew, they are faced with three options: let the feast of flesh begin among loyalists; give the captives over to High Blightspeaker La Almirante for the Procession of the Three Tides; or explore the Malvada Armada captain’s offer to return them to Habaguanex in exchange for slaves. Which option do the players take?