Salt and Shore

You're a mermaid, and you have one year to work out where you belong. Every moon the current pulls you one way or the other, things sink down from the world above, and someone comes by: a lighthouse keeper rowing out at dusk, your sister with news from home, a diver in a brass helmet who has seen you. Then you choose. Stay below and your Salt goes up. Go up to the surface and your Shore goes up. If you want something badly enough, the sea-witch of the Tide Court will give it to you: legs for a night, a pearl that holds someone's voice. She takes a song you'll never sing again, or a memory you write down and cross out, and your Debt climbs. Three times a year the Court sits and collects. If Debt reaches 6, the deep keeps you. After the thirteenth moon your tracks pick the ending: the Sea, the Shore, Between, or Lost to the Deep. We simulated the rules 5,000 times before laying out a page. Follow your heart and you usually get the ending you leaned toward. Being lost is possible (about one year in sixteen) but it only happens if you keep bargaining. In the book (30 pages, eight paintings): - Rules, a quick reference, and one moon played out as an example - Three reef-homes, six mermaid voices and a character sheet - Two d66 tide tables (72 prompts), the current table, and the sea-witch's bargains - A year-at-a-glance log and a writing page for each of the thirteen moons - The Turning Tide, four endings and a page to write yours You need two six-sided dice and a pencil. A moon takes about an hour.