Lighthouse Keepers
A downloadable game
The sea was once a city. The sea is still a city: trenches stretch into the deep, dark and teeming with life, mirroring city-nights above.
In the world above the sea, there is a lighthouse. The lighthouse has always been there.
Lighthouse Keepers is a map-drawing game for 1-4 people about a lighthouse and the things that lurk outside it in the deep. You play a collective of lighthouse keepers living in an offshore lighthouse, a tower that stretches from its lantern high above the waves all the way down to the bottom of the sea in the hadal zone.
The game design is based on Avery Alder’s The Quiet Year and Carter Richmond’s Anomaly. Its themes are inspired primarily by Julia Armfield’s Our Wives Under The Sea and, by happy coincidence, it bears several thematic similarities to Robert Eggers' The Lighthouse.
Lighthouse Keepers involves marine, body and psychological horror. If you prefer to describe your sea creatures verbally rather than look at them, files without illustrations are provided. (The illustrations include sea spiders, giant isopods, goblin sharks, sea bunnies/nudibranch sea slugs, anglerfish, and a whale fall.)
To play Lighthouse Keepers, you’ll need:
- A standard 52-card playing deck (with jokers removed)
- A blank piece of paper, a printed copy of the map provided, or a shared way to draw a map digitally
- Enough pencils or pens for the group (if playing with paper)
- At least two index cards, or a way to track characters, Wonders and Terrors
- Six small six-sided dice
Community copies are available. Every sale contributes an additional community copy to the pool.
This game was written as an entry for the Mock Cover Jam 2, with title and cover both by Yuri Runnel.
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $5 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Exclusive content
Support this game at or above a special price point to receive something exclusive.
Community Copy
If you can't afford the game for whatever reason, please take a community copy! Every sale contributes an additional copy to the pool (to be refreshed whenever the current amount falls to zero).
Comments
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Hi, i'm really curious to play the game. I never played "The quiet year", so i am not sure how to use the 'wonders' and 'terrors'.
And if i draw a card, which suggets to start a project, and after still in my turn i am able to start a second project (as one of the three options per turn), so it would be two projects in one turn? Or does the "start a project" option become obsolete?
This game looks wonderful, and im so excited to run it! However, im a little confused if youre support to start in the hadal zone, and escape up, or work your way down from the sunlight zone. Any further details would be wonderful! You've clearly put a ton of effort into this😊
Hi and thank you so much for playing!! You’ll begin with the hadal zone - the order represents Ys moving upward from the bottom of the sea.
Hey! Really enjoyed playing this game, but got a good chunk in before realizing each suit of cards should have been played in order, completely, as a season. This might have been obvious if you were familiar with The Quiet Year, but should probably be spelled out.
Ah, good catch, and thank you for the reminder not to take people's familiarity with these things for granted! I'll make a note to update that at some point. I'm glad you had a good time, though!