Tephrotic Nightmares - A unique tactile experience in a sea of ash.
Come with me on a journey through a sea of ash…
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The first encounter with the book is an enjoyable tactile experience that adds some weight to the its intriguing backstory.
This just arrived in the mail today (Monday the 15th) and after a long day at work, I wanted to jot down some of my initial thoughts about the design, it being rather unique and intentionally artistic in nature. The book itself, aside from the contents is designed to be an experience all in itself.
If you’re not already familiar, Tephrotic Nightmares is a MÖRK BORG compatible Hexcrawl game by Luke Gearing, with art and design by Johan Nohr (Jarrett Crader, Editor) and is currently available through Exalted Funeral at the cost of $27USD for the PDF and $45 for the Hardback which comes with physical copies of the maps and and chits. The game tells the story of the Arsonist, who arrived suddenly and burned the once lush forest for a year’s time and in her wake has left behind a giant Sea of Ash.
“Boats built of bone and sinew slice across the grey waves,
Mountains form islands in a sea of Ash and cinder.
hunting the strange fauna and one another.
Once a forest, a verdant proliferation of green.
Then came the Arsonist, and with her came fire.”
Keeping that in mind, let’s get back to the design of the book itself. You can clearly see the book as no spine. That’s not all, the page edges are coated in Matte black ink sealing the pages shut, just slightly, just enough to create a rather unique experience when you open it for the first time.
“The reanimated and partially hollowed out corpse of a Sea-Giant, striding through the Ash, kicking up huge clouds of dust.” - cost just 50 days of water.
The spine, is intentionally missing due to “being burnt” by the Arsonist. I imagine the book sitting tightly, crammed with other books on a shelf, their closeness preventing all but the spine from being burned away.
However, none of his is mentioned in the book itself, or on any of the paperwork that comes with the book. It’s not written on the maps, or anyplace that I’ve seen, and I’ve looked quite closely.
This information is only found, as far as I know, on the Exalted Funeral page for the game.
“Exposed spine: The Arsonist's fires burned this book, exposing its spine like a gaping, blackened wound. This enables the book to lay flat on the table.
Sear-sealed texts: Tephrotic Nightmares' page edges are soaked in black ink which has dried to form a sealing crust, requiring you to tear it open. Either page by page or by grabbing the whole thing and breaking it like you would a human spine. If you want to read this book, you have to first defeat it.”
The sealed pages don’t cause damaged in anyway, at least not for me. The seal is very light as if you’re opening an old book, there is some rice crispy style crunchiness as you handle the pages initially. The first encounter with the book is an enjoyable tactile experience that adds some weight to the its intriguing backstory.
At least for those that know the story. I didn’t in fact read this bit until after I had already purchased the book. It’s a bit of a shame this bit of history is set to be lost so easily, perhaps it’s a bit charming as well.
The missing spine most certainly will worry some, however, Exposed Spine Binding, more commonly known as Exposed Smythe, while uncommon is just as durable as a Case Bound styles and, as mentioned, have the benefit of lying flat.
This creates a unique sensory experience that I feel truly emulates the experience of opening a book that has gone through its own personal hell. Being an avid collector of odd books, I speak from experience. Albeit I don’t think I’ve ever had a book that went thought a fire, fantasy or not.
A few days later…
And I’m deep in the ash sea having just rolled an encounter, a Chained Seer; a false prophet chained to a rock that’s jutting from the grey ashen sea. He’ll give you a ‘Liars Fortune’ with a d8 roll. He’s but a leathery corpse, who’s death never comes. Certainly a conversation starter for any event, however, I’m getting ahead of myself.
Let’s not judge a book by it’s seal…
In a sea of choking dry ash, they who have the water, have the wealth. It’s explained right off that a days worth of water is equivalent to ‘20s’, twenty silver, in the lower left corner, along side a set of suggestions as to the location for the sea of ash itself.
The pages have a light gray tone to them, stippled black dots create a sense of age and wear. The art is reminiscent of Stephen Gammell’s work, one of my favorites since childhood due to the Scary Story series. Artist Johan Nohr does an excellent job of visually portraying the sea and its inhabitants. Their dark charcoal-like drawings set the mood with a rather loose line usage which allows the mind to fabricate extra details.
Luke Gearing’s writing moderates the sea of ash and it’s experiences in such a way that they are both informational and richly visual jumping off points for the imagination.
“The smile of a Raider is wide, open, and honest. For them, there is nothing but survival and the thrill of the hunt across the Sea.”
The wording, for me, seems to deliberately invoke memories and archetypes from deeper in my own imagination, pulling up examples from movies, books as well. The raiders description conjures archetypes from movies like Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, and Water world, two very dystopian-like experiences that to me fit together with both the language, the concept and the art presented.
Traveling across the ashen sea
Ashcrawling, albeit least the affective, slowest and most dangerous is also the cheapest form of working your way around the ashen sea. Bladed, 30’ (foot) stilts are available for any and all member of the game. In fact when a boat is capsized, the surviving members of the crew take to stilts in favor drowning in the ash.
Most travel is typically done by boat, and there are various types of boats including the Rotten Walker, “The reanimated and partially hollowed out corpse of a Sea-Giant, striding through the Ash, kicking up huge clouds of dust.” - cost just 50 days of water. The description is quite creative:
“The control comes from direct local nerve stimulation, requiring a huge amount of rigging to communicate throughout the body.”
That is of course, after it’s been partially hollowed out. Or you can choose the Batwing Surfer, a simpler setup for those who like to sail solo as there is only room for one crew member. Using single giant bat wing, dipped in embalming fluid and attached to a narrow board of wood you’ll be surfing the ash for the cost of 5 days of water (dw).
For myself, I bought a Tephro-Foil Skincraft - a lightweight boat made up of taut beast skins build over a blade.
“…as it gains speed, it lifts itself upwards, balancing atop a shining beam of light.”
Character Creation and Crew members
Yes, this is, or would be where character creation comes up in book if there was such a thing. Instead your expected to use the rules from official Morg Borg rule book, which by the way, a rules light version can also be had for free from the authors, in PDF format if you cannot afford it or just don’t want to buy it for whatever reason. It’s the complete rule book minus the graphical details.
After rolling your character, convert your silver to dw (days of water). You’ll find that any starting equipment from the official rule book will work out fine in in the ashen sea and in the various dungeons and side quests.
There are a total of six ‘Denizens of the Ashen Sea’ aka, Factions, that one can join along the way and instructions for doing so in the ‘Offerings and Rituals’ portion of their description. For example to join the Cannibal Count Faction one must eventually ‘make payment’ as the cost of sanctuary and access to the exacting records. Payment of course could be your own life, a crew member or perhaps another altogether. Joining a faction has benefits and, such as artifact identification, access to archane libraries and the like, all of which are actual locations with maps and details listed in the book.
Before I forget, I mentioned having a ‘crew’ and I think it’s important to note that there is no specific way to manifest or create a crew. You have a minimum and an ideal crew member count marked as such (3 / 5) meaning the minimum is 3, but ideally you should have 5, the value changes based on the ship type. I simply rolled a d5 (love my d5s) and landed on a 3, then added myself to the crew list for a total of 4. Ideally I need one more, but I’m happy with what I’ve got for now.
I worked out the ‘crew’ as I do normally. I pull them out when I need them, but they are otherwise non-existent.
You are welcome to roll out each crew member beforehand, or on the fly like I do. If they survive long enough I work out names and other details later. Otherwise it’s just not worth it.
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First thing I did was roll for the wind direction (red arrow on the compass, not included in the game) and then rolled a 2d (two sided die) to pick one of the main entrances noted by the two hexes marked with an E. I landed on the first one on the left.
Initial wind speed was 1, and though we only traveled a few hexes into the map to The Urniversity (Hex #1) it added 1 to my ship speed bringing it up to 4; that’s four hexes of travel per day which is a lot faster than you’d think. The weather is initially dour (gloomy, cloudy) to start, but it can also be raining, storming, or any one of 8 possible ‘Weird Weather’ effects such as an Earthblood storm where the rust red blood of the earth itself boils up from under the ash. The fumes are poinsonous and often seismic activity follows, causing damages to the faction bases.
While here I spoke with a guard who was hiring under the table. As long as I kept my mouth shut, I would have the privilege of visiting the Slatehead Termite Hive for her and retrieving a collection of some sort. She’d pay me 15dw (days of water).
The scholars of The Urniversity study the ash for answers to stopping the oncoming apocalypse, some say they’ve already found the answer. However there are other places to visit including to acquire some side quests, and scouting missions.
After looking around for a bit I decide to take the captain up on her quest and headed out for the termite hive in hex #12.
Encounters are rolled on daily, and there are plenty of them, and some are dependent on the location of the map, such as those found in dungeons, faction run locations on the sea, and each is uniquely described such as Thunderlizards:
“The smallest are the size of horses, cataphracts armored in rubbery scale. Beneath their heavy skins teem networks of organs-something like an electric eel, gouts of lighting channelled through their forward-sweeping horns. They bask in the flames these attacks cause. They like to maim prey but keep them alive-as blankets. The cold is killing them— they will be extinct in the wild within thirty years.”
There are stats for both adults and juveniles lizards, and the details are well thought out and portrayed, and in the case of factions broken down in even further into various faction member levels.
Boat Combat and Mechanics
If you’ve played something like Wooden Ships Iron Men, or one of the Flying Colors, or just about any other ‘age of sail’ or uboat style game you are most likely familiar with basic ship mechanics. And I’m gonna be honest, this is one of the main reasons I bought the game. Ship mechanics result in a lot of impulse buys for me, and this was no different.
While they are rather simple, there is basic wind effects that do add to the overall gameplay. For example, winds power can very and does in fact adjust via rolls done on a daily basis. If the winds become to strong, any ‘wind based’ boats need to roll a capsize check every few hours.
In addition, depending on the direction of the wind, the boats speed is either increased or decreased for wind based boats depending on the direction and how it it hitting the boats sails, wings, etc.
There are no turning rules, however, there’s nothing stopping you from adding them in, should you miss them or feel like they are needed; I certainly do and used the ships size and available crew for determining how many movement points I’m allowed of for turning. The way I figure it, my Skinscraft gets 2 turns per every 3 crew members and a +1 bonus if it’s available space is not at capacity. This is on top of my normal daily movement points, however, turn points cannot be converted into movement points, but movement points can be converted into turning points if needed. Those are house rules, however, and not in the book.
Combat is fun, exciting and done through a series of actions, from ‘Resolving Actions on the Boat’ to ‘Resolving Missle Fire, Powers and Specials’, and there is also some nice breakdowns that include ‘Ramming” as well as “Boarding“ mechanics to use and play with as you explore. Combat is typically done in a ‘zoomed in’ map of the area, both of which are hand drawn and really add to the already, perhaps unintentional handmade feel to the game.
The rules also cover ‘Sinking Vessels’, going ‘Overboard’, damage caused by boat fires and even ‘Going down with the ship.’
After several days of travel (3 days) I managed to work my way to the Slatehead Termite Hive. Each location is mapped out and further fleshed out with descriptive details that give a real sense of being there in the location being described.
Final Thoughts
Tephrotic Nightmares isn’t without its flaws, but my only real complaint is that there are no external tables and you’ll find yourself going back and forth a lot within the book over certain pages. I suggest printing the PDF pages, 67 and 19-22 because you’ll find yourself refereeing to those pages, mostly to start, but some even after, quite a bit.
The PDF rises some questions about the chits that game comes with. It appears that, at some point they were meant to be double sided as the PDF contains two sets of identical chits, however, one has the addition of a ‘wind’ tracking chit on one side, while the other would have been blank. There is no ‘wind’ chit in the print addition of the book and the chits are single sided.
Not a deal breaker at all, but something I thought I should note.
The game itself is well thought out, the world detailed and sprinkled with adventure and enough extras you keep you going for a long time and overall provides a person with a unique experience.
Solo play can be hit or miss in some respects, as this is traditionally meant for group play, however, it’s still a very playable game for a single player who doesn’t mind pulling some crew of out their pocket every so often to full in some gaps.
Of course I can’t help but suggest the physical hardback mostly due to the tactile experience it offers, but also because it’s an experience in itself. It feels like, would I could imagine being the first person to open a long sealed grimoire. The pages snap and pop as you peel open each new page, revealing its secrets under the light of a candle. I really hope Tephrotic Nightmares is an example of what a book can be, and influences more of these types of artistic experiences in the future.
And that’s it for this week. It is technically my one year anniversary this week, but I’m celebrating it next week. I hope everyone one is doing amazing, and if not I hope that changes for you soon. Take care of everyone, and one anothe, I’ll see you next week.
Appreciate you all for coming.