Deep Regrets
Deep Regrets is a strategic horror fishing game for 1-5 players, aged 16 and up, running about 30 minutes per player. Decide what to eat, what to sell, what to mount, and how many regrets you're willing to carry, as you push yourself too far and spiral towards madness and a thrilling victory at sea… or an untimely end to your career.
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Inspired by stories like The Shadow Over Innsmouth, John Langan’s The Fisherman, the Hellboy series and video games like Dredge and Bloodborne (and maybe a dash of Scooby Doo), Deep Regrets is set in a fictional turn-of-the-century Europe where Edmund Halley’s Hollow Earth theory might just have been correct. It’s a world of lonely anglers with heavy regrets weighing on their consciences and gruesome monstrosities weighing on their fishing lines. Unsavory takes on classic British and European folklore haunt the waters. Strange occurrences have upset the natural balance and made the seas a dangerous place for folk who depend on it for their trade.
Back in 1740, Edmund Halley set out on a doomed expedition north to prove the earth was hollow. His subsequent disappearance was met with the sudden appearance of a previously unknown island in the North Sea. The Scottish, who called it Rocabarraigh, established a bustling fishing village there but in 1909, it disappeared again without trace - along with every man, woman and child on its mud-caked soil.
The fishing trade suffered the loss of hundreds of veterans that day, and it's up to you to step in and fill their waders, even if the seas are not so hospitable as they once were.
What did Halley do on his expedition to the north? What did he set in motion? What if the earth IS hollow and the denizens that dwell therein are eager to claw their way out? What if this is the — You know what? Not your problem. Just focus on fishing.
In Deep Regrets, you'll spend a week moving between sea and port, trying to pull in the most desirable creel of fish and fish-adjacent creatures. You'll need to manage your energy, resources and regrets and push your luck to pull in the best haul possible. At the end of the game, you'll score the fish you have in hand, the fish you've mounted, and any Fishbucks you have remaining... and the player with the most regrets will lose their most valuable fish.
The seas have enough plastic in them already, we won't be responsible for adding more. By avoiding and replacing components with bio-degrable and eco-friendly alternatives, our aim is to completely remove plastic from the manufacturing of Deep Regrets. While personal responsibility toward protecting the environment is overshadowed by a handful of massive corporations causing the most harm, we – as a mass manufacturer of physical goods – have an opportunity to meaningfully change our impact on the environment for the better. And to pave the wave for others to do the same. Your support for this project sends a signal to other manufacturers, publishers and developers that the public holds them to account for the state of the world and its natural spaces.
Here's where we're making changes:
- Resin Dice = Wooden Dice
- Plastic Minis = Wooden Meeples
- Plastic baggies = Biodegradable Corn Starch Baggies
- Plastic wrapped card decks = Paper bellybands
- Shrink Wrapping = Small Stickers for sealing
- Plastic organizer tray = Cardboard organizer tray, Molded Sugarcane tray or Ex-ocean plastic molded plastic tray
The last item on that list is still in development. We're hoping to use actual plastic taken OUT of the oceans and recycled for use in manufacturing to literally take plastic OUT of the oceans with this project. But the vendors who provide these materials are difficult to get in touch with and it may not be feasible for a project of relatively small scope such as this. We already have alternate options for molding the tray from sugarcane pulp (an expensive option) or sticking to cardboard (an option that will keep costs down).
