Nostos (Preview Edition)

Explore strange vistas and find closure in this TTRPG about life after a metaphysical apocalypse

I don’t know your story.

I don’t know how it happened, or where, or even when. All I know is that you were brilliant: you were courageous, full of life and fervor and will. You, all of you, stood against the greatest threat the world has ever known. You were heroes, the only ones who could rescue the universe from total annihilation. And at the final moment, when all hopes lay upon you, and you and your friends raised your hands to save the world—

You failed.

It didn’t matter. It should have mattered. But no matter your courage, your love and care, the righteousness of your cause — none of it made a difference. You failed, and your universe was destroyed. 

But.

This story hasn’t ended, yet. Despite all that’s happened, you and your allies weren’t broken down with the rest of the world.

You’re still alive. You’re still here.

Maybe, there's a chance you could fix all this.

Maybe, you can find a way home.

Nostos: A Game About Sailing Home and Saying Goodbye is an emotionally driven, character-focused tabletop role-playing game about life after the end of the world, launching now as a text-only Preview Edition in anticipation of crowdfunding campaign later in 2025.

Inspired by modern writers like Italo Calvino and ancient poets like Homer and Lucretius, Nostos casts players as a band of wandering heroes, people who managed to survive the unmaking of their old world and now find themselves in a universe of indefinition and possibility. They'll embark on a journey homeward, sailing across the Sea of Irreality on a ship cobbled together from the flotsam of their old universe. Along the way, they'll learn new things about themselves and each other: what they value, what they love, and whether they can say goodbye to the world they've lost.

The Preview Edition sits at 130+ pages, in which you'll find:

• A detailed guide to creating the universe that was destroyed, including a prologue to help flesh out who the PCs were in the World That Was
  
• Rules for creating and playing characters who can manipulate the laws of reality with Trinkets, powerful keepsakes that are all that's left of their old lives.  
• The strange and fantastical worlds of Islands, pockets of stable reality in a sea of roiling possibility 
• Conflicts, narrative story-sets that reveal each character's emotional struggles and drive them towards finding closure 
• 7 ready-to-play Islands, with in-depth descriptions of their inhabitants, locales, and nature, plus guidelines for designing your own Islands 
• Extensive advice for GMs on how to run a campaign of Nostos, including how to bring your story to its close

Listen to Erica talk about Nostos on Stillfleet Studio's Why We Roll!

The Game

Nostos is a narrative-driven, rules-light TTRPG designed to focus on roleplaying  nuanced player characters over the course of a short campaign (usually 6-10 sessions). Each session, the PCs will arrive at and explore a new Island on the Sea of Irreality, engaging with the people there as they grapple with their own personal issues. Islands can be strange and dangerous, though, because of their Aspects: laws of reality specific to each individual Island, as normal to its inhabitants as gravity or sunshine.

When working within an Island's laws of reality, PCs can overcome obstacles with Action Rolls, contests of skill where PCs employ the abilities they honed in the old world, rolling varying sizes of dice depending on their own level of skill.  Unlike the inhabitants of an Island, though, PCs can resist Aspects because they possess Self,  an inner reserve of willpower that they can use to break the laws of reality and do the impossible.

PCs can spend Self to reshape an Island's very reality: they can ignore its Aspects, create temporary Aspects of their own design, and manifest Miracles, incredibly powerful abilities that warp reality towards a specific end, like “unlocking any door” or “escaping any bonds”. These Miracles are tied to Trinkets, small objects that survived the end of the world alongside the PCs and carry strong sentimental significance to them.

While exploring Islands, players will guide their PCs through Conflicts, sets of narrative prompts that drive a PC towards processing their trauma and grappling with their current situation. By hitting these narrative beats, PCs will be able to resolve their Conflicts and gain new abilities and resources to help them complete their journey. 

At the same time, PCs will be working collectively to complete the Mission, a series of narrative prompts that catalogue a variety of grand moments, deeds, and revelations the players might achieve over the course of their journey. As they progress through the Mission, they’ll unlock powerful rewards that will ultimately allow them to reach their destination and bring their journey to a close.

About the Author

W. Erica Bridges is a TTRPG Designer with a Ph.D. in Classical Studies. Nostos is her first published game.

Cover illustration by Flora Kirk.