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Many years ago, a young boy rode the train into the city. He didn’t know that one day the train would stop. He didn’t know that one the city would fall, that its skyscraper heights would be bleached by sun and salt and yield to burgeoning coral beds. He didn’t know that his seat would become a planter, a dug-out bin of dirt and moss turned on its side and cared for by a mother and her daughter, who wanted to grow tomatoes in the bright sun . . .
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Waxworm is a game about legacies, survival, spite, love, and reclaiming a world taken from you by others. It is also a rule-light solarpunk tabletop role-playing game set in a world covered in water and broken concrete spires baking in the sun, and named for the questionable theory that waxworm moths might be well on their way to one day digesting plastics. Players may find themselves helping regrow broken communities adrift on the waves. They may also find that they are adrift themselves, searching for a community in which they can grow.
In Waxworm, each player acts as a Crew, rather than an individual. These Crews work together to grow and support each other, and face down adversity upon the waves and islands. The core of gameplay involves exploring relations within and between Crews, and exploring how those dynamics shift as crewmembers come and go.
Players also get to build and develop their Crews' vessels, ships which serve as homes and sources of additional moves and customization. Vessels, like crewmembers, come in a variety of classes, each with unique features and form. Additionally, Crews work together to build and improve a collective village-vessel, their greatship, used as a home port and base of operations during adventures.
Waxworm is a GM-optional game. Play without a GM is best suited for players who want to focus on exploration, lore-building and discovery, and peaceful construction of a new community. GM-driven play is useful for players who want a nudging hand in establishing overarching plots or interactions with external forces, for good or ill. The rulebook also contains suggestions for campaign premises and rule variants, some of which can, in combination with a GM, make for a more traditional style of RPG play. With or without a GM, Waxworm makes use of a standard set of playing cards to help determine random events, and dice to determine the success of players' actions.
Inspiration for the game is taken from various sources, including Spiritfarer, The Quiet Year, Stardew Valley, and real-life ocean exploration. Waxworm revolves around the "sweet" of "bittersweet," encouraging players to develop stories of healing and joyful, summer-bright growth.
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Included in the download is the complete, 24-page rulebook for Waxworm, which contains lore, creatures, and player reference sheets - all sized to standard 8x10 printer paper. The Waxworm download also contains a separate PDF of just the major reference sheets, the useful pages for individual players to print or keep handy to keep track of their Crews (and which GMs can easily distribute or reprint as they see fit).
It is recommended that all these documents be printed double-sided for the best formatting (and paper-saving!) experience.
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Beyond the rulebook and player sheets, materials recommended for play include a deck of standard playing cards, used to determine encouters and events, communal map and drawing materials (either physical or via an online cloud-based drawing tool), a log sheet for players to keep track of lore, creatures, and other discoveries, and a set of standard ttRPG dice or a digital equivalent (d20, d12, d10, d8, d6, and d4).
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Enjoy, explore, and grow your legacies!
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