Greetings Nibblers!

This week, we’re charting the core mechanics of Shattered Waters and how we're hacking Carta SRD to fit our post-apocalyptic, anachronistic fishing world. By the end of this development log, you will know more about Fatigue, fishing, and the roguelike elements that will shape your game sessions. Let’s go!

1. The Carta SRD Hack

Shattered Waters uses a hacked version of Peach Garden Games' Carta SRD (found HERE on itch.io). Why Carta? Simply because its card-based exploration fits perfectly with the ever-changing landscapes of our Post-Sundering world. Here’s how we adapt it:

• The Grid: A 6x4 layout of face-down cards forms your expedition map. Each card is a biome, an event, and a fishing spot. In our version of Carta, we do use Jokers though!

• Suits Reimagined:

  • ♠️ Spades: The Wild, the Harsh, the Unforgiving

  • ♣️ Clubs: The Strange, the Clever, the Twisted

  • ♥️ Hearts: The Emotional, the Personal, the Spiritual

  • ♦️ Diamonds: The Lucky, the Rare, the Risky

• Jokers: Represent unique locations that will be revealed in future devlogs... Like if I was going to reveal everything at once!

The full descriptions of the themes relating to every suits will also be revealed later since they are not in their final versions yet.

2. Anatomy of a Prompt: What’s in a Card?

Here’s the breakdown:

A Narrative Description
The scene-setting hook.

An Event to Interact With
A challenge, choice, or encounter.

A Fishing Spot
It's the backbone of the game after all!

A Journaling Prompt
A prompt that helps players with the journaling part of the game. You prefer to draw? Perfect, we also added ideas of stuff to draw in your journal in the journaling prompt.

A Revisit Rule
What changes if you draw this card again?

3. Fishing Mechanics: Fatigue & the Oracle

Determine The Fish: The fishing tables are not finished yet but the first roll is about determining what fish is interested in your bait. The size of the fish has an impact on the Fatigue Cost of fishing. Also, each suit has it's own Common Fish and each card, it's own uncommon/unique fish. These (you guessed it) are harder to catch.

The Fishing Roll: The actual fishing attempt is made by rolling a d10, add any relevant modifiers (weather, gear, etc.) and compare the result on The Fishing Outcome Table. If you roll OVER your Current Fatigue, you catch the fish. If not, no fish for you. If you roll significantly OVER or UNDER your Current Fatigue, this might mean a Critical Failure or a Critical Success. These results can have various effects on your expedition. More about these will be revealed in the future.

Design Note: Fatigue starts at 0. Each card flip or event can add Fatigue. Resting while traveling restores some Fatigue while resting in Anchorage (town) resets it.

Example Play: Ace of Spades

The Mudflats

A river delta shudders as a newborn island of silt and clay surges from the depths. Before you sprawls a landscape that is both beautiful and dangerous: sucking quicksand pits, crumbling earthen spires, and the skeletal remains of a pre-Sundering watchtower half-swallowed by the mire. With every step, your boots sink deeper, and the cold water chills your bones.

Then you see it…

Sunlight reflects on a metallic surface in the ruins. A corroded astrolabe maybe? Unless it is a handmade lure from the Old World. It lies near a bubbling sinkhole where the mud whispers like a sleeping beast. Reaching it means gambling with quicksand… but leaving it feels like abandoning a fragment of the world-that-was.

Retrieve The Relic
Roll d10 - Current Fatigue
≥7 - You wrench the relic free! Gain 1 Valuable.
4-6 - As you approach, the relic sinks deeper in the mud, lost forever.
≤3 - You sink waist-deep. You manage to get free. Gain 2 Fatigue.

Press Onward
As your walking away, you can see the relic sink in the mud, lost forever.

"Sketch the relic you saw or imagine what it might have been. Whose hands last held it before the Great Sundering? What promise did it carry? And as you walk away (or clutch it, dripping), what emotion settles in your chest: regret for what was lost, or dread for what was found?"

When drawing this card again:

• If you successfully retrieved the relic, it is gone.

• If you failed to retrieve the relic, it is now buried deeper. -2 if you try to retrieve it.

• If you sank or pressed onward: The island has stabilized but shrunk—"Press Onward" now costs no Fatigue and reveals cracked footprints leading to where the relic was. It is gone.

Next Devlog: Dive with me into how rods, bait, and trinkets (like lava-waders or weird, magical compasses) can affect your odds in this ever-shifting world.

— Patrick Dubuc, Lead Designer

Shattered Waters is a solo TTRPG in development. Playtest kits are expected to be released in Fall 2025.

Feedback? Send an email at info@bigbitegames.ca!