Whalesign: Design

Whalesign is a turn based game about hunting demon whales in a fictional world with late-nineteenth century technology. The player controls the crew of a well armed steam ship and must kill their prey, but demon whales fight back.

The game has two modes. First is port mode, where the player can make choices about how to equip their ship and consider rumors about what kinds of demon whales are in various regions. These rumors are usually true but not entirely reliable. The second is battle mode where the player gives orders to the crew. Battle mode ends when the demon whale dies, when the ship runs out of hull points and capsizes or when the of the crew is incapacitated.

Demon Whales

A demon whale is a ferocious beast but it can be killed. Each whale has a unique combination of traits and abilities. All of them can wreck a ship by battering it to pieces or capsizing it and most have at least one special attack. They can be small, medium or large. At any moment the demon whale is in one of a small number of states, which deterines which kinds of attacks and defenses it can use.

• Surfaced: partially above the waves. Demon whales must enter this state every so often in order to breathe. Some can hold their breath longer than others.
• Submerged: visible below the surface. Demon whales in this state can usually be seen but are resistant to cannon shells and harder to target.
• Deep: far below the surface. Direct targetting is impossible against whales in this state, but tow lines and reackoning may make it possible to harm one using depth charges. Demon whales start the battle in this state.
• Dead: getting them to this state takes a work but that's the job.

Demon whales have a variety of potential attacks:

• Ram: all demon whales can do this when surfaced or submerged, but not when deep. This does moderate damage to the ship and creates strong tremmors that can knock over crew members.
• Bite: demon whales with especially sharp teeth can bite into ships, causing heavy damage and mild tremmors that might knock crew members over.
• Pull: a whale tethered to a ship may move deep in an attempt to damage the ship.
• Spikes: some demon whales can shoot spikes when surfaced that act as a powerful anti-personel weapon.
• Summon: some demon whales can call upon mermen to climb onto ships to kill or at least distract the crew.
• Tentacle: long protrusions that can act on the deck of the ship. These can attack crew, slam the deck or grab the ship in an attempt to drag it to Davy Jones' locker.

Every whale has one of the following sizes:

• Small: 500 - 1500 hits. Can be dragged by the ship when tethered.
• Medium: 1000 - 3000 hits. Can't be dragged when tethered, but suffers reduced movement speed.
• Large: 2000 - 6000 hits. Drags the ship when tethered at a reduced movement speed.
• Huge: 4000 - 12000 hits. Drags the ship when tethered at full movement speed.

Ships

Each ship consists of a top deck and a bridge. There are several stations that the crew can use.

• Hardpoint: here crew can operate mounted weapons such as explosive harpoon guns, cannons and the like.
• Bollard: protrusions with ropes or chains that crew can use to lash deck items like cannons or ammuniction barrels in place.
• Locker: here crew can retrieve a life preservers, cutlasses, rifles or other items.
• Stairs: here a crew member can go below deck to be relatively safe -- assuming the ship survives. Incapacitated crew members can be dragged here.
• Bridge: here the ships wheel can be used to steer.

Ships bring a variety of mounted weapons.

• Cannon: fires shells that do heavy damage (50 - 100 hits). These are most effective against surfaced whales but can still do some harm to submerged whales.
• Harpoon Gun: launches sharp spears into the body of a demon whale to weaken (and eventually kill) it. (10 - 15 hits)
• Tethered Harpoon Gun: like the harpoon gun, but with a rope that can reel in smaller demon whales. Larger ones can pull the ship by the rope, though it might snap. Tethers can be released by reloading or cut with a cutlass. (5 - 10 hits)
• Chain Harpoon Gun: much slower to reel in than the harpoon rope gun but also much less likely to break. Chains can be released by reloading but are not practical to cut. (10 - 15 hits)

Crew

The player controls ten to twenty crew members.

Crew members get 5 - 10 hits depending on stats.

A crew member has a stability score that can be affected by some actions, but is reduced by shocks such as whales ramming the ship. When stability is low there is a chance the crew member will slip and even fall overboard. Crew members can lash themselves to the deck but this limits their movement range.

Each round a crew member gets 10 to 20 action points to be spent each round:

• Move (2ap standing): repositions the crew member on the deck or bridge. Not available to prone crew members.
• Stand (10ap prone): This changes the state of the crew member to standing.
• Drop (1ap standing): This changes the state of the crew member to prone.
• Grab/discard (1ap): collects or discards a personal item, such as a cutlass or rifle.
• Cut (5ap standing): draws a knife and deals slashing damage to a creature or object adjacent to the crew member. Automatically cuts ropes.
• Slash (4ap standing sword): deals slashing damage to a creature or object adjacent to the crew member. Automatically cuts ropes.
• Stab (4ap standing sword): deals piercing damage to a creature or object adjacent to the crew member.
• Fire (4ap standing firearm): diels ballistic damage to a creature or object targetted by the crew member.
• Activate (3ap standing system): provides effort to and adjacent ship system, such as a cannon.
• Drag (3ap standing deckitem): moves a deck item or disabled crew member at a reduced movement speed.
• Brace (5ap standing deckitem): recover some stability.

Crew members can have a variety of roles:

• Captain: gives a large boost to morale when active
• First Mate: gives a small boost to morale when active
• Quartermaster: manages provisions

Crew members have attributes and stats. Attributes are immutable and determined when the crew member is created. Stats can improve with experience as the crew member develops skills.

Let's start with attributes:

• Brawn: affects damage output
• Agility: affects stability
• Will: affects morale
• Sight: affects accuracy