Pine Shallows
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Small town, big adventures
Welcome to Pine Shallows, a small coastal town. A sunny and cheery tourist destination in summer, Pine Shallows empties when autumn’s chill comes. Strange things keep happening in the town’s off season, but local adults are so focused on preparing for next summer that they simply ignore or write off these strange occurrences. That’s why it's up to you kids to get to the bottom of things.
What is Pine Shallows?
Pine Shallows is a tabletop roleplaying game inspired by The Goonies, Stranger Things, Gravity Falls and middle grade adventure book series like The Legends of Eerie-on-Sea in which you portray small town kids going on adventures and solving mysteries.
The digital book contains the rules to create your characters and play the game. In addition, the city of Pine Shallows is detailed with numerous locations, supporting cast and hooks. Also included are Catch Of The Day & Grasp of the Understory, two complete starting adventures. The Pine Shallows Guide to Adventure is brimful of random tables to generate hooks, clues and supporting characters. With the Solo Rules you can explore Pine Shallows on your own.
Pine Shallows features
- 38-page A5 digital PDF zine
- A simple 2d6 resolution mechanic
- The Plot Points token system gives players narrative control
- 10 character backgrounds, like the Mysterious Orphan, Wiz Kid and New kid in town
- 13 detailed locations in and around Pine Shallows, with their supporting cast members
- Catch of the day, a complete starting adventure as 15-page A5 digital zine
- An extensive Appendix N
New features itchfunding for editing & extra art:
- Grasp of the Understory, a deptcrawl adventure as 11-page A5 digital zine
- No Parents Allowed, downtime clubhouse rules
- The Pine Shallows Guide to Adventure - Brimful of adventure hooks and random tables to generate countless adventures, characters and plots.
- Solo Rules - Rules & procedures to facilitate solo & coop play.
Credits
- Peter Eijk - Writing & Layout
- bertdrawsstuff - Cover & interior art
- Emiel Boven - Chapter opening art
- Evlyn Moreau - Character art
- Tyler Crumrine (Possible World Games) - Editing (main rules & Catch of the Day)
What People Are Saying
“Pine Shallows is a rules-light, story-first game where you play as kids solving mysteries while trying to be home before dinner. Guess which one's harder.” - Jean Verne (Reminiscence of Decay, Oniria's Slumber)
“Reading Pine Shallows I had a constant grin on the face. The coastal setting is at the same time super fun and easy to grasp, the system is nimble and quick to master. The whole game reinterprets 80s tropes with a great feel good and spooky vibe. It's one of my 2022 fave games. Go for it!” - Iko (The Lost Bay Podcast, Skyrealms, Broken Luck)
“Pine Shallows is the perfect pick-up-and-play RPG for anyone wanting to create the paranormal teenage adventures of their dreams! With plenty of character options and locations -- along with an elegant, easy-to-understand dice-rolling mechanic -- this game will have you up and running quickly, especially with the adventure included to help springboard you into this small, spooky town filled with supernatural shenanigans.” - Edaureen Muhamad Nor (Equinox, Honey Hex, Camp Elementa)
Meddlesome Kids
Pine Shallows is a Meddlesome Kids game. It’s the first in a series of planned games. Future games include the Forever Never, a game inspired by worlds such as Oz, Wonderland & Narnia.
Newsletter
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Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $13.50 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Exclusive content
Support this game at or above a special price point to receive something exclusive.
Community Copies
If for whatever reason you can't afford a copy of the game, feel free to take a community copy. If you just want to see the free rules, check the demo section below.
New community copies get added when people buy or review the game!
- Every sale or rating adds a community copy.
- Each review or actual play adds 10 new community copies.
- Each sale of over 15 USD or over adds 5 new community copies.
Development log
- Follow the Kickstarter pre-launch page17 days ago
- Presenting Midnight Light - A Mystery Adventure for Pine Shallows48 days ago
- Pine Shallows Solo Rules v0.3Jun 21, 2024
- Pine Shallows Solo Rules v0.2Jun 17, 2024
- Pine Shallows Solo RulesJun 15, 2024
- The Pine Shallows Guide to AdventureNov 18, 2023
- Presenting the Pine Shallows Third Party LicenseOct 16, 2023
- No Parents Allowed - Pine Shallows Halloween BonanzaOct 10, 2023
Comments
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Super cool game! The core rule book is very well designed to provide structure and still have room for some pizazz, working with some friends to set up our first session and we’re all really excited.
The download doesn't seem to be working - just says "no compatible downloads were found". Is a file missing or something?
Weird!
For me they work. Did you get this for all of the downloads or only specific ones?
Seems to be for every file for me. Other games downloading fine, just not this for some reason.
I’m asking around to see if other people have the same issue.
Other people don’t seem to have this issue.
Do you see the list of downloads?
And, are you using the app or downloading from a browser?
I tried both. This morning most of them worked, only the character sheet png, which I can live without. No idea what was going on but sorted now, thanks!
What's the "special price point" to get the exclusive something special?
I’m not sure what you mean.
The game is in a bundle with some of my other games, but if you get it, you get everything that’s included.
Edit: oh wait, yeah that’s itch language for their Rewards system, which I’ve used to give out free community copies for people who need it
Oh, thank you! Yeah, that's what I was talking about. Thank you~
Ran a 4 part adventure (catch of the day) with some cool people for YouTube series and we all had a great time, it was fun to GM and easy to build off :)
They all said they'd be down for more adventures in pine shallows
Hope it's okay to link to the first video.
Awesome!
I’m now somwhere with a crappy internet connection, but I can’t wait till I can watch it.
I plan to run Catch of the Day on Halloween as a get-together :) Is there any map (official or fan-made) or any more adventures except for Grasp of the Understory? Is there a site for fan-made content? And will there be more adventures in the Future? :)
Cool, hope you’ll have fun with Catch of the Day. I’ve run it multiple times and each time the players surprised me.
At the moment there are no more complete adventures, but you might get quite some mileage out of the random adventure generator tables.
I have a few more adventures in the works, but time is always scarce!
Maybe I should run an itch jam in the future to get more content, there is a license for Pine Shallows, so anyone can create stuff!
The Halloween adventure was a blast! My friends enjoyed rescuing the merfolk and their shenanigans included cleaning the whole Museum of Maritime Mysteries with the Sea Owls to get a free aquarium for transport :) Perfect for a night of fun!
Love to hear it!
The first 3rd party adventure for Pine Shallows has been published:
Proud to present Midnight Light - A Mystery Adventure for Pine Shallows
Strange lights. Forgotten secrets. A chilling mystery. It’s perfect for Halloween!
https://o0sully0o.itch.io/midnight-light
Just finished playing a mini campaign and I loved the system!! The character creation is pretty interesting and fun, and I love the different archetypes you can play!!!
Thanks!
I’d love to hear more about the campaign!
It was a 1GM 1 player campaign run by my partner (their first time dming!) and the plot was about freeing a woman from a magic necklace she had been trapped inside of :D My partner played a bestie NPC to compliment my character and guide me a bit when I got stuck, and it was quite fun! The system is very intuitive and simple, but it packs a lot of story potential, which makes it super versatile and fun! Thanks for your work, it shows you gave it a lot of thought!!!
Cool, that sounds like a perfect Pine Shallows adventure.
Glad you liked it, and getting feedback like this really makes my day!
Playing solo right now! I believe there is a typo. The yes/no oracle has no result for 'no'.
Ok, that’s embarrassing!
Result 4-6 need to be ‘no’.
I have no idea how that one slipped through, I’ll update it later today. Thanks for letting me know!
Hehe, the most obvious typos are sometimes the most difficult to catch. Having a blast playing so far!
Thanks again!
A fixed version has been uploaded!
This was the best laugh I've had today. haha
Happy to be of service :)
Is there going to be a physical copy?
I am thinking about it for sure!
Maybe after I’ve fullfilled my current Kickstarter, I’ll run another campaign.
I do want to have a few more adventures available before, maybe two zines: a rule book and an adventure bundle!
(Adventure number 2 is being playtested, shoot me a mail at jimmy@jimmyshelter.nl if you’re interested…)
Awesome. I'll send you an email asap.
how many players is this?
Like most ttrpgs it depends on how a GM runs it. At least 1 GM and one other player, up to a GM with 6 players.
I like it best with 4-6 players including GM
The Pine Shallows Town Guide is adorable. I love the Pine Shallows Town. Lovely game, Jimmy.
Thanks so much!
Winner of the SMAFF RPG Awards 2022.
Thanks Randy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdf83izRh8s&t=205s
I know it's early for making this question but the various Meddlesome Kids games will be compatible with each other? I'd like to use a character I made in this game in The Forever Never once it comes out.
That’s the plan!
It’ll include some new character backgrounds, but the idea is to have the same core concepts and rules.
I know that it's still early in the process but I do see a LOT of typos and errors in the text of this thing so far - which is weird as there is already a credited proofreader.
At any rate, it looks like a nice, breezy take on the core PbtA engine - although it would be nice if the character archetypes had a few more leveling up options in regards to adding new skills/abilities.
I do like that hit points are replaced with a morale system but I am curious how that might apply to dealing with enemies/monsters/static objects that needs a whacking (unless all of that stuff is dealt with purely via the fiction rather than mechanically).
Hi!
It is indeed very early in the process! All errors are mine, while there is a proofreader credited, I’m still working on the text.
People who buy it now will get the WIP text now, with regular updates. And if we manage to fund the editor, the complete and edited version will be made available to everyone who already bought it.
Replacing hit points with moral is indeed to encourage using the fiction whenever a combat occurs, but ideally most problems are solved differently anyway.
In playtests so far it has worked great! For people interested in playtesting, visit the Lost Bay Discord where we have a dedicated Pine Shallows channel, or contact me on Twitter
Are there character sheets to keep track of stats?
There are not… yet.
Pretty high on my TODO list, but I guess I need to bump it a bit ;)
Ok. I wasn't sure if they weren't done yet or if it just didn't come with them. I already purchase a copy so I'm guessing I'll be able to download them when available.
You will! All additions and improvements will be available to everyone who bought the game.
I really dig this. The art, the setting, the mechanics, and the writing, all work well together. Wishing you much success with Pine Shallows. :)
Thanks so much!