Seas of Sand

By day, the sands are liquid...

People sink and ships sail. By night, the sands are solid. People can walk and ships are stuck. Different sands have different definitions of solid and liquid, but this basic principle holds: if you’re caught out on the sands at dawn without a ship, only prayer will save you. Welcome to the Seas.

Seas of Sand is a toolbox setting guide for old-school RPGs about a vast desert-ocean of liquid sand. By day, the sand is liquid, and ships sail across them while people sink; by night, the sand is solid, and ships freeze while people walk free.

Map the seas with seven sands, build its many wondrous cities, determine trade routes and pirate havens, then turn the crew loose and see what adventure lies along the way. Seas of Sand can function as its own standalone setting for a complete campaign, or you can slot a sand ocean into a larger map just as easily. 

The book contains:

• Procedures and content for building and populating a map of the Seas and its cities.
• Details on each of the seven sands and how they behave (along with 1d100 encounter tables for each).
• Lightweight, easily-modified rules for sandships, trading, piracy, smuggling, and recruiting crew.
• 36 fauna (monsters), 20 flora (plants), and 20 phenomena (weird stuff) unique to the Seas.
• Dozens of tables of trade goods, ships, NPCs, messages-in-a-bottle, and more.
• 1d100 revelations—world-altering mystical truths, triggered through prayer, visions, and sacred drugs.
• THE WORM! IT RISES FROM THE SANDS TO CONSUME YOU! PRAISE BE!
• And more!

Also included are digital files for a two-sided 24" x 36" map containing two possible versions of the Seas, and a 24" x 36" poster with art and apocrypha of THE WORM.

SAM SORENSEN / Writing, Illustration, Layout
JASON RIPPLINGER / Cartography
MATTHEW K. Copyediting, Developmental Editing
NUCLEAROBELISK / Cover, THE WORM
ROZ LEAHY / Proofreading
WALID RAOUDA / Additional Writing, Sensitivity Editing

264 pages
Half letter sewn hardcover book
Color cover, B&W interior
24" x 36" map, color printing on both sides
24" x 36" WORM print, color printing on front, black & white on back
Includes PDF