BLOODWATER RPG: SHARK BORG

Five Years in the Making

I first released Bloodwater: Scourge of the Sharklord as a beta on July 28, 2021. Back then, Bloodwater was a 214-page D&D 5e setting and adventure set within the Forgotten Realms. I described it as something like Jaws meets Cthulhu meets Ghosts of Saltmarsh and Curse of Strahd. It was a giant “Sharkenstein” made from my love of sharks, pirates, horror, fantasy, sea monsters, games, movies, music, artwork, and decades of playing Dungeons & Dragons.

Five years later, Bloodwater has become something I never imagined when I released that first beta.

I'm rebuilding the entire project from the ground up as its own tabletop roleplaying game, powered by my Depth & Doom system. The D&D mechanics and borrowed foundations are disappearing. In their place are original classes, monsters, factions, Abyssal Rituals, naval combat, the 13 Dooms of Bloodwater, Deepkin, Bluehaven, the Dread Mist, a completely rebuilt Scourge of the Sharklord, and a mythology that has grown far beyond the original setting.

The influences are still there. Jaws. Lovecraftian horror. Pirate stories. Gothic horror. Heavy metal. Shark movies. Dark fantasy. Old-school RPGs. MÖRK BORG and PIRATE BORG have had a major influence on the direction of the new rules and presentation. But after five years of writing, rewriting, experimenting, cutting, rebuilding and figuring out what Bloodwater actually is, it finally feels like its own game and its own world.

The funny thing is that the heart of it hasn't really changed.

There's still a blood-red sea. There are still pirates, criminals, monsters, treasure, greed and terrible things beneath the water.

And Kharkass is still waiting down there.

Bloodwater started as my dream of making my own D&D adventure. Somewhere along the way, it became my dream of making my own RPG.

New Cover: 

Original Cover: 

Thank you for checking out my project! I am currently working on a Tabletop Roleplaying Game called BLOODWATER. This shark infested nightmare is compatible with MÖRK BORG and Limithron's Pirate Borg! Check it out and follow the project to support and get updates. Thank you! 🦈🩸

I’ve loved RPGs, card games, and tabletop games my entire life. I grew up rolling dice, building worlds, and getting lost in games like Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, and Shadowrun. That obsession never really left...

During the pandemic, everything stopped.

No touring. No shows. No stage. I was forced to take a break from music and stand-up comedy. So I went back to one of my favorite past times. I ran DND campaigns in-person and online with friends from all over the world.

I sat down and began writing a world - something dark, brutal, and completely my own. A cursed ocean. A broken paradise. Sharks. Blood. Doom. That world became Bloodwater.

What started as a simple setting and a single adventure slowly turned into something bigger. Over the years, I kept coming back to it refining it, expanding it, pushing it further into madness. Lately I started messing with the game again. I tried to run it so I could playtest. And something about the system we were using, just didn't really fit the vibe and the story I was trying to tell. I ripped it apart several times and put it back together again. 

Then I discovered MÖRK BORG and PIRATE BORG. It clicked immediately. 

The tone. The chaos. The brutality. The freedom. Bloodwater found its system.

Now, after countless hours of writing, designing, and working with incredible artists - Bloodwater is starting to surface.

This isn’t just another TTRPG. This is a passion project. A labor of love. A world I’ve been building for years - one filled with cursed seas, savage creatures, lost treasure, and inevitable doom. And now I want to bring it to life. With your help, Bloodwater becomes real!

Welcome to the Deep. Welcome to Doom. Welcome to Bloodwater. 

Bloodwater was originally written for Forgotten Realms and was published on the Dungeon Master's Guild in 2021. The setting was heavily inspired by Ghosts of Saltmarsh, Curse of Strahd, Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, Night of the Shark, The Sea Devils, The Threat from the Sea Trilogy, Dark Tides of Bilgewater, Warhammer, Pirate Campaign Compendium from Legendary Games, Magic the Gathering, Pirates of the Caribbean and the list goes on. I was going for Jaws vs Cthulhu! I have a deep love for shark movies such as Jaws and Deep Blue Sea, books like The Meg Series by Steve Alten, horror films, fantasy media, comic books, heavy metal, science fiction, board games, card games, music, comedy, art, and the list continues. I put a lot of myself and my own experiences into this Sharkenstein of a TTRPG adventure. I took a bunch of my favorite things, threw in some of my own inner demons, mixed them with my favorite RPG settings and adventures - and put them all into a blender. The result is what you will find in Bloodwater. Thanks for daring to explore some of these dark depths and eccentric corners of my mind. Have fun and good luck! 

Beta Version for 5e: https://www.dmsguild.com/ko/product/366215/bloodwater-scourge-of-the-sharklord-preview-beta

Noah “Shark” Robertson