the sea around us – coming soon

A fisherman returns from the sea with an astonishing report. A novelist crafts the tale of a perilous journey by water. A documentary crew captures life in the deepest depths. People gather to hear a storyteller bring to life the drama of the ocean's creation.

The sea's stories ripple across time, shaping one another, moving and intriguing generations, showing us a world.

the sea around us is a GM-less tabletop game for 2-6 players where you take on the roles of tale-tellers inspired by the oceans of their world. 

Moving non-linearly in time, you'll describe these tellers and their tales, collectively creating a layered picture of how people and oceans have interacted across history. You'll discover how each story connects to others, past and future, how they build on or disrupt established knowledge and narratives. And you'll learn a lot about your imagined world in the process.

the sea around us is inspired by games like Microscope and i'm sorry, did you say street magic?, and by the sea and the life, wonder, and transformation it brings.

The game is currently in development. It will be around around 20 pages, featuring hand-collaged illustrations and visual prompt tables alongside the rules to guide your table as you dream up and explore your oceans.

Itchfunding

I'm itchfunding the development of the sea around us for Zine Month 2026 because I found the process very motivating and helpful last time – having a bit of interest and backing in advance kept me on track and showed me that the game had legs. And doing it here with a modest target feels like the right fit for my experimental approach (and my health). The game is planned out, the writing and artwork are in progress, and I'm pretty confident I can get it finished by this summer. If you would like to see that happen, your support now will go a long way!

Rewards

The reward is a digital copy of the sea around us as soon as it's released, but a bit cheaper if you get in now :) – no stretch goals for this one as I want to just focus on the core game. Since I don't have a working demo yet, your pre-launch downloadable file is a little visual d6 table of strange oceanic encounters – use it in your games or as a creative prompt generator.

Community copies

These will be available at launch, so if you'd like one keep an eye on the updates. If you'd like to support the game's development with something other than money, shares or comments help more than you might think.

Every purchase adds another free community copy for somebody who needs it.

Physical copies

They will exist! Between all the ongoing postal complications and my own chronic illness, I'm not in a position to handle physical distribution by myself, and itch isn't really built for supporting it, so they're not a level in the campaign this time. But if you'd like to get one in person at a UK con later this year, just hang onto your purchase confirmation for the digital version and come find me for a discounted copy.

Questions/press/retail/other

If you'd like to get in touch about this project for any reason you can email me at toritruslow at gmail dot com, or ping me at tor.tr on discord.

Thank you!