Ocean

Frame · Nature and environment thematic

Endless expanse, hidden depth, a journey across water – the ocean as boundary, connection and mystery.

Design question – Imagine your game is set on the ocean. What lies beyond the horizon – and what lurks beneath the surface?

Associations

• Typical Activities – Navigating, Exploring, Trading, Fishing
• Typical roles – crew, solitude, encounter between cultures
• Typical spaces – open sea, coast, islands, underwater world
• Typical conflicts – navigation, discovery, danger, isolation

Atmosphere

freedom, awe, threat, vastness

Coherence

Implied Activities: Navigating, Exploring, Trading, Fishing. Mechanisms: Exploration (revealing the map), Movement (wind and current), Pick-up and Deliver (transporting trade goods), Push Your Luck (risking a storm). Ludic Organisational Structures: spatial order (open sea vs. islands), economic order (trade).

Compatible with

• Tranquillity (AT-01)
• Uncanny (AT-14)
• Awe (AT-21)
• Uprising (SI-05)
• Crisis (SI-08)
• Neutrality (SO-04)
• Guild (SO-06)
• Island (SP-01)
• Outer Space (SP-20)
• Antiquity (TM-02)

Tension with

• School (TH-08) – A floating school on the ocean. Learning and navigating at once: every lesson leads to a new island.