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Sleeping Gods
A hand-painted open world you sail through one session at a time, and it can absolutely wreck you.
Designed by Ryan Laukat (Red Raven Games) · 2021
If you want a story-first co-op you can stop and resume forever, this is one of the best on the table. Just keep the player count low and make peace with combat that occasionally hits back hard.
Best for: Solo or two-player groups who want a slow-burn exploration story
What it is
Here's the pitch. You're Captain Sofi Odessa and her crew, yanked into a strange sea in 1929, hunting totems to wake the gods and get home. You sail the Manticore around a giant atlas, flip to numbered story passages in a spiral-bound book, and decide where to go next. Ryan Laukat wrote it, drew it, and published it through Red Raven, so the whole thing feels like one person's painted daydream. Players keep calling it the exploration game that finally gets exploration right.
The catch
Now the honest part. Push past two players and it sags. Every ship decision is a group decision, so three or four people means quarterbacking, long downtime, and one poor soul reading passages aloud while everyone waits. Combat is the other sore spot. It's a clever grid puzzle when it clicks, but it can spike without warning, and reviewers describe staring down a seven-defence enemy with no gear and just drawing fate cards in despair. The icons don't help. A skull meaning accuracy trips up a lot of new crews.
Who it's for
So who's this for? People who'd rather wander and read than race a clock, playing solo or with one trusted partner. The save system is the quiet hero here. You mark a log sheet, pack it up, and resume weeks later right where you stopped, which is rare and lovely for a campaign this big. The catch is replayability. That first voyage is magic, later runs lose some spark. Buy it for the journey, not the loop, and keep the table small.
What other players say
This write-up is grounded in real reviews and player discussion, not just one opinion. A few worth reading:
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