Stillfleet is a grimdark, politically charged tabletop roleplaying game (RPG) set in space, far into the ruinous future. Spaceships are just dungeons, hanging in the dark…
We are excited to announce a Zinequest 3 ambush in the form of a zine about nanotech AKA the Blood…
SUBTLE FLUID will combine all of the rules on the blooder class, the nanofluidics advanced powers, and nanotech items along with new art, lore, and world-building details. In addition, we’ll be doubling the nanofluidics powers, greatly expanding the options for the blood class. Plus, for the first time, we’re offering a print option through DriveThruRPG.
Note, we are also opening up content direction from backers: we hope to offer a few mini-ventures drenched in self-assembling mayhem… And we’re excited to be able to offer a nanotechnology theme song from Music d20! I mean, how often do whole strata of technological evolution get theme songs? Not often enough!
Thanks to everyone who has played the game and helped us develop it from homebrew idea/rambling science fiction into a visualized world. (Now with new logo!) We truly appreciate you.
Reloading this page will generate a new, random, playable 1st-level character. Note, this is a working draft: if you see something wacky, please feel free to reach out on Discord and let us know.
Provincial (Kavaraaq) Snakehead level 1
Rankstillfleeter minima nonfactor, subclass leerling −E
You are an observant competitive eater from Kavaraat. You are a self-taught hell scientist—somehow capable of touching the Weird without the careful manipulations of the Archivists. Quite possibly, you were granted your powers by an ultrasapient patron of some kind—a cthulhicate entity from the deep void, an unearthed and insane Late Tephnian warmachine, or an utterly unfathomable extradimensional being from the Escheresque.
LanguagesSpin and read the glyphs of the grey Tetra-solarian aliens
ScoresCOM d6 MOV d12 REA d6 WIL d8+1 CHA d10+1 HEA 18 [maxCOM+maxMOV] GRT 20 [maxWIL+maxCHA] DR 1 [gear]
Powers
Species
Different gravity back home (permanent) – You gain a +1 bonus to all non-Weird rolls related to health—resisting disease, fighting poison, not falling asleep when you don’t want to, etc. This does not help with resisting Weird forms of mind control.
Gladhander, palmgreaser, climber (permanent) – You gain a permanent bonus of +1 CHA. [already included]
Kavaraat (homeworld) – Bizarrely unbound from time, this world sports a human province superimposed onto a paleolithic human society as well as a hostile alien civilization. The province is medieval—until you fall forward or backward through one of the infamous Kavaraaq “timeslips.” You speak Spin and one other language: choose to either fluently bark the proto-language of apes and monkeys or to read the glyphs of the grey Tetrasolarian aliens. (You are not able to communicate in Tetrasolarian without visual symbols, however.)
Subject of empire (permanent) – You gain a permanent bonus of +1 WIL. [already included]
Class
Evoke (special/free) – Hell science is the evolution of consciousness—the merger of the human imagination with physical reality. Hell scientists use their imaginations to sculpt timespace. Thanks to some terrible mutation, you can control the Weird. You can use hell science powers that you don’t even know about. Instead of using a Weird power you actually understand (that is, using the power channel hell science, below), name the power you want to use. Then, as a free action, burn d20 GRT and make a WIL check. If you succeed, you may use the power as described, paying the associated GRT cost. Also, your eyes glow, your breath mists with electrified blood, and so forth. If you fail, you don’t lose your action for the round (trying is a free action), but you do lose the d20 GRT. Note: using a power once does not teach you how to safely do so again!
Call patron (free) – You supplicate to your always-watching patron: make a standard CHA check. If you succeed, you get the attention of whatever ultrasapient grants you your ability to manipulate reality on a quantum scale, and it takes hold of you, taunting the pitiful beings around you to react. If anyone attacks you for the next your-level rounds, they suffer d30 +your-level damage as a warmachine strafes them with micro-railgun drones, or a cthulhicate lashes at them with tentacles of purple hate, etc. After you call your patron (that is, after the power ends), you must sacrifice d20 GRT to it or else fall to 0 HEA, prone, as it sucks out the juiciest parts of you as punishment.
Channel hell science (varies, typically standard) – You begin play with 2 hell science powers, chosen freely from any of the 6 paths [already included]. Each time you gain a level, you can gain 1 more hell science power. Almost all hell science powers cost GRT to use. The psyonic equivalent of COM is REA, unless otherwise stated. When you psychically attack someone, your opponent rolls WIL instead of MOV to resist (to mentally “dodge”). N.B., most people tend to be very suspicious of other people who can bend timespace simply by thinking.
Surge (special/free) – You can use hell science powers in ways that defy the understanding of even the most erudite Senior Archivists: when using a hell science power, burn the requisite GRT +X more GRT, where X is equal to or less than your level × 3. The effect of the power is now +X, whether that applies to damage, damage reduction, duration in minutes or hours, or any other measurable effect. If the effect is not measurable, it is qualitatively amplified a ginormous amount. X minutes after using the power, you feel weak and cannot use any Weird power for X rounds. During this time, you smell sweaty and can’t speak eloquently.
Hell Science
Catch snake (standard) – Burn 7 GRT: you induce paralysis in one target within 5 M for a number of hours equal to your level. The target cannot move or act in any way, and they cannot use hell science powers.
Think with (standard) – Burn 4 +X GRT, minimum 1: you establish direct telepathic contact with X beings, transcending language—regardless of whether they are intelligent, visible, or even in this universe—as long as you know they exist. Your range of contact is bound roughly by how far you perceive but is not tied to visual data. Telepathic contact with an Old One, warmachine AI, or extradimensional being is foolish but entirely possible and does not require burning additional GRT. Thinking with lasts a number of hours (not minutes) equal to or less than your level, and you can disestablish it at any time. Thinking with is two-way and unrestricted…
Flaw
Your every uttered syllable is backed by a very faint tritone sound.
Gear
Weapons
Unwieldy castiron support from an old bridge (1 clank) – d4 damage. 5 gl.
Provincial shite, e.g., fungusbark (1 clank) – DR 1 [already included]. Smells foul. -1 to negotiate and seduce checks. 10 gl.
Other
Gasmask (3 clank) – Gasmaks allow you to breathe tainted atmo and protect your eyes from stinging vapors. 25 gl.
Graxanna, 8 patches (1 bio) – Now ubiquitous across the Co. worlds, Gigoix “goblyn moss” is a bitter-tasting but edible nonvascular plant that acts as an anti-inflammatory and stimulates the human body’s immune response. Each patch, if chewed for one round, heals d4 HEA. A human can safely heal 4d4 HEA in this way per day; additional chewed patches carry a 1 in 6 risk of serious liver disease. Graxanna has no effect on amphibians and reptiles and is (perhaps obviously) useless to plantoids and automata. A chewed patch of “gob” will heal a wetan, harajoon, or mongrel only 1 HEA. 16 gl. (2 gl/patch)
Some shit you’ve found, potentially useful – Copper pot full of medicinal salsa (heals 2d4 +dREA HEA, 1 time), 5 hits of gunch, pack of chewing gum. 5 gl.
Thinkyboost, 9 pills (2 bio) – Manufactured by the Archive, these very popular and highly addictive pep pills allow you to recover d4 GRT per dose. You can use dWIL doses per day safely (roll each day); if you have one dose more, you go insane for 10 -dWIL days, minimum 1. Thinkyboost’s withdrawal symptoms and duration are similar to those of gunch. 90 gl. (10 gl/pill)
Wetgill (3 clank) – Wetgills allow dryair sapes to breathe beneath the waves. 30 gl.
Oddment – Thick yellow book of coupons, mayhap useful as a buckler.
Stillfleet is a tabletop roleplaying game (RPG) about exploring ruined spacecraft—“hulks”—as well as habitable earth-like planets long-ago colonized by terrans but then cut off from contact with the greater galaxy for decades or centuries—“rocks.”
Thus Stillfleet is really two different games, one hulkside—a series of grimdark explorations of advanced technical structures, hanging in the void—and the other rockside—a political game about managing a company distributed across space.
Players take the roles of various explorers working as part of the Worshipful Company of Stillfleeters, more often known simply as “the Company,” abbreviated the Co. Theoretically, the players are working together… In practice, this is not always the case.
The term “stillfleet” comes from the fact that many planets were once colonized by humans, and that most of these planets (or all of them?) are orbited even today by massive, “dead” ships. However advanced, these ships never work as originally designed.
Their tachyon drives are unpowered, their dimension mills broken. To reach them, fleeters use not other ships but the timespace gates called stiffworks.
