‘Our Shores’ Kickstarter Campaign Aims To Showcase Southeast Asia’s Thriving Tabletop RPG Scene

Tabletop RPGs are a staple in the wider gaming world, and are making waves in Southeast Asian communities as well. A new Kickstarter campaign called Our Shores, with the help of Sandy Pug Games, aims to showcase those Southeast Asian voices and bring three projects to life.

The first being Navathem's End, a clever kitbash of concepts and mechanics from Powered By The Apocalypse and Forged In the Dark, where you play as Agents of a Tower trying to stop the Apocalypse. Play in a dazzling, chaotic, broken world where you're the last line of defense versus all mayhem breaking loose.

The game is grounded by three main attributes: Blood, Crown, and Will. Each attribute then feeds into a dynamic dice pool that players can optimize through their playbook skills to see if they succeed.

Next is Capitalites, which is a coming-of-age tabletop roleplaying game about Asian young adults living in the big city as they try to find out who they are and get their shit together. Play in a world of gentrified hipster cafes, skyscraper office blocks, penthouse parties, and late-night drinks at the local bar-and-bistro.

Explore real-world themes like ambition, sex, family, and friendships as you go on awkward dates, have terrible one-night stands, and et cetera. It uses an easy to learn, easy to play GM-less system which focuses on listening, discussing, and asking questions to one another to drive the game forward. It uses no cards, no dice, and no tokens!

Lastly we have Maharlika, a ‘techno mystic’ Science Fantasy mecha RPG inspired by Filipino Mythology, centered around ‘Mekanized Weapons’ or Meka, and their pilots: the eponymous Maharlika. You will play as these titular spirit-warriors, mavericks, aces, and knights that all swear loyalty to a Datu, one of the CEOs of the Megacorporations, so that you can protect the techno spiritual galaxy of Arkipelago.

Sometimes, you’re the archetypical noble Maharlika, sworn follower of your Datu and kneeling before their feet. Other times, you’re just an exceptionally skilled person trying to make ends meet, and ‘loyalty’ is just another word for “whatever makes the most money.”

A fantastic collection of creators developing some fantastic games that I’m happy to support. Check it out and support if you’re intrigued like me. :)

I just backed Our Shores: An RPGSEA Compilation on @Kickstarter https://t.co/cl3fcDTLVb — Matthew Mercer (@matthewmercer) January 21, 2021

One of their biggest stretch goals includes a zine of smaller projects by 9 SEA creators from Malaysian, Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines. The team hopes that it will be a promising start to a potentially booming space for Southeast Asian roleplaying game designers.

The Kickstarter campaign is really close to reaching its goal, so head over to show your support.