Hello, and welcome to the Yaaargh's itch.io page!

What is Yaaargh ?

Yaaargh is a tabletop game based on a choose-your-own-adventure style gamebook.
It aims to offer a simpler way to experience cooperative adventures than traditional TTRPGs, by removing the need for a GM, removing the need to write or prepare a scenario, and drastically reducing prep time (yes, I’m lazy…).

The players are part of a pirate crew sailing the seas of the Mare Omnium, a fictional world inspired by our 17th century: a giant ocean dotted with islands emerging here and there.

You are chasing glory and renown, and you’re ready to weather any storm to become the most famous pirate in the region. The storm season is about to end, and you’ll only have a short window of time to prove your worth before it returns.

Game principle

Yaaargh is a multiplayer pirate gamebook for 3–8 players. You all play members of the same pirate crew, sharing one ship, its health and its supplies. You must cooperate to survive the journey, but each character also has their own role and personal objectives, so there’s always a bit of rivalry.

A game is played as a series of voyages:

1. The crew chooses a destination and sets sail.

2. You resolve a sea crossing, which may be peaceful, dangerous, or lead you straight into a storm.

3. You arrive at an encounter (an island, a ship, a port, a strange phenomenon…) and read one or more paragraphs in the gamebook.

4. As a group, you make choices, roll or draw for the outcome, and discover what your decisions cost you: time, wounds, supplies, reputation… or maybe treasure.

There is no GM: the gamebook (the Fortunae Mundi) and the cards handle all the surprises and consequences.

If the ship sinks, or the storm season catches you too far from home, everyone loses.
If you make it back to port in one piece, the crew wins together — but only the most legendary pirate will be remembered in the songs.

(For now, this is a print-and-play prototype: rules and materials may evolve based on feedback.)

Note on AI usage

I use AI as a kind of assistant to help me brainstorm ideas, refine wording, and do similar “support” tasks.
For the prototype, I’m using it regularly to keep things moving.

However, if I ever decide to create a full, polished physical edition of the game, I intend to reduce AI usage to a bare minimum (spelling, grammar checks, small rewrites, etc.).

For me, AI is a very useful tool — but it should remain exactly that: a tool, used consciously and within clear limits.

Licence

All textual content available on this page is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA licence.
All visual assets and music are all rights reserved.

Current status of the project

Yaaargh is still in a very early stage. I’ve just wrapped up the first draft of the rules, and I’m now creating print-ready components and story content to get a functional prototype on the table.

Any feedback is very welcome !