My first stab at a paragon playset is now available:
https://olddoggames.itch.io/odyssey-aquatica
It’s Jacques Cousteau, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, some Subnautica in there too.
I’ve always wanted to do a Life Aquatic RPG of some kind and Paragon felt like the perfect fit! Check it out, let me know what you think.
Tim, this is SO GOOD. You have raised the bar with this one.
Thanks John! I felt I needed to put a bit of special effort in since I knew it was such a niche idea (inspired by a film from 17 years ago that was a commercial flop, haha).
Really incredible! I’ve been a bit scared to put this much work into a playset, but you make me wanna return to my released ones and make them super cool.
Your work is awesome.
It’s really really inspiring. Thank you: now I want even more to work on my next one.
What made you feel like Paragon was the best fit for this? I think it is a great choice, I’m just curious what your thoughts are.
I’ve actually wanted to make a Life Aquatic game for quite a while, partly just to play around with the aesthetic in layout. But it always felt like overkill - like if it was a Forged in the Dark game, do you really need multiple playbooks and long equipment lists and a long-term campaign within that kind of kooky Wes Anderson premise? It probably wouldn’t hold up.
Paragon felt like the perfect fit; it’s fast-paced, no playbooks or other extra baggage, and a resolution system that’s abstract enough that it can easily adapt to anything from a gunfight against pirates to a deep-sea dive to piloting a submarine to starring in your own oceanographic documentary. It’s an agile system in that way, it can contain multitudes.
And then once I gave it more serious thought, the parallels become more obvious - Jacques Cousteau had a real thing for the Odyssey, which ties it back to AGON, and of course the whole “genre” of oceanographic adventure science is essentially a group of protagonists going from situation to situation in a boat… It just felt like a neat fit!
Those are great reasons! Yeah, sounds like it is a great choice. Plus, like you’ve said elsewhere, the playset format lets you focus on the theme and presentation (which is also my primary interest).