The Lost Bay, suburban gothic RPG launches March 19 on Kickstarter

Grab your one way ticket to 199X and get a standalone game, a setting, and a collection of adventures.

The Lost Bay is a suburban gothic tabletop RPG. It creates an alternate version of 199X, both familiar and uncanny, where the mundane and the magical mix inextricably. Living Saints, rituals, and blood curses are part of your daily life alongside console games, malls and VHS tapes. The game inspired in equal parts by dark fantasy, horror classics, and the 90s indie culture.

The Lost Bay is a standalone tabletop role playing game for one to six players. It’s a set of two hardback books. They contain everything you need to play: character creation, core rules, advanced tips and toolkits, detailed setting, bestiary and adventures. 

Who Is the Game For? 

• OSR, NSR enthusiasts will enjoy the lightweight and hackable rules as well as the semi tactical approach to Powers and to combat.
• Fans of dark fantasy will feel at home playing powerful and weird characters.
• People who want to feel the 199X magic will love references to film and subcultures spread throughout the books.

Key Features of the Game

Strong Vibes. Playable character classes are called Vibes and are inspired by ’90s urban and horror archetypes. There’s ten of them to choose from, like Splinter, Firestarter, Scanner, Screamer. Vibes are granted specific powers and gear.

Lore light and flavor heavy. The lore of The Lost Bay is spread throughout the ruleset, tables, and game procedures. You’ll discover it as you create your character and play. You can customize the setting or dive headfirst into the pre-existing world.

Vast. The Lost Bay is divided in five Districts. For each district (Mall Nation, the Waterfront, Trashland, Sleep Country and the Desert) you’ll get a specific bestiary, pregen pointcrawls, rumors, adventure spark, detailed locations, and lots of tables.

Open and play. The core ruleset is spread over four pages and built around a unique mechanic: roll a d6 pool, keep the higher result; a 6 is a success, and a 5 is a success with complications.  Whether you’re a veteran or novice, you’ll need only fifteen minutes to familiarize yourself with it.

Weird is cool. The Lost Bay is story driven and focused on exploration and character growth in an urban dark fantasy world.

Deadly combat. Combats are fast and epic, particularly if you use one of your Powers.

Community fueled. The game engine is robust and has been extensively playtested and fine tuned thanks to the feedback of a community of early enthusiasts. 

Solo compatible. The ruleset, setting, and procedures have been designed to facilitate and support solo play.

The Lost Bay is a travel guide to a wondrous and wicked place. I’m offering it to you, and if you accept the invitation, you’ll play beautiful and powerful characters, you’ll fight the horror in breathtaking combats, and you’ll rewrite the Lost Bay’s history.

The Lost Bay is brought to you by a team of international designers and artists. Concept and lead design are by Iko, founder of The Lost Bay Studio. All the art is by Evangeline Gallagher, maps are by Strega Wolf van den Berg (Lichoma)

A gang of guest designers contribute with amazing adventures: Watt (Cloud Empress), Alfred Valley (Thousand Empty Light), Samantha Leigh (Anamnesis), Dave Kenny (Nirvana on Fire), Chris Airiau (Bio-Drones & Cryo-Clones), Christian Sorrell, Jacob Marks and Pierre-Philippe Renaud.

The team is completed by the mighty editors and proofreaders Laura Elle, Samantha Leigh and Walton Woods.