Project Update
Mar de Oro Public Playtest Released
Published
Mar de Oro is a new, free, system-neutral naval and airship TTRPG campaign setting released for public playtesting on 30 July 2026.
Set across the contested waters and early air routes of the Golden Sea, it supports campaigns of privateering, naval warfare, exploration, imperial rivalry, political intrigue, dangerous voyages, and shipboard adventure.
The public release brings together the core setting, practical material for players and Game Masters, a complete introductory adventure, system-adaptation guidance, and tools intended to help groups bring the world to the table.
Release information
- Release date:
- 30 July 2026
- Format:
- Tabletop role-playing campaign setting
- Genre:
- Naval adventure, Age of Sail, flintlock fantasy, and early airship science fantasy
- System:
- System-neutral
- Status:
- Public Playtest and Community Review
- Price:
- Free
- Creator:
- Johnny Crown
What was released?
The public-playtest release provides the material required to understand the Golden Sea, create characters and crews, prepare a campaign, and begin playing.
- Mar de Oro Player’s Handbook
- Mar de Oro Game Master’s Guide
- San Telmo Quickstart
- Community Review Edition
- Character Creation Kit
- One-Page World Primer
- system-neutral adaptation guidance
- optional system-conversion notes
- downloadable Game Master tools
- the growing online Codex
- interactive character and campaign tools
A setting built for naval campaigns
Mar de Oro was built from the deck up as a setting where ships matter.
The Golden Sea supports privateers, fleet officers, blockade runners, smugglers, explorers, merchants, diplomats, engineers, intelligence agents, and crews caught between competing powers.
Ships are more than transport. They are workplaces, homes, military assets, political symbols, and shared characters with histories, reputations, weaknesses, and crews that depend upon them.
Campaigns may remain at sea, move between contested ports, follow trade and military routes, or rise into the early air war above the archipelago.
Airships in an Age of Sail
Mar de Oro combines an Age-of-Sail foundation with the beginning of controlled flight.
Its airships are not modern aircraft disguised as wooden vessels. They are working ships shaped by lift systems, structural limits, recoil, weather, altitude, maintenance, crew requirements, and the dangerous properties of Éterlumin.
This allows sea and sky vessels to belong to the same world while producing different campaign pressures and tactical choices.
System-neutral by design
Mar de Oro is a campaign setting rather than a proprietary rules engine.
Groups may use a tabletop system they already know and apply the setting’s system-neutral adaptation guidance. Published conversion notes provide starting points for several common systems, while the optional 2d6 Resolution Bridge offers a lightweight alternative for groups that do not want to bring another rulebook.
The setting supplies the world, conflicts, factions, campaign structures, ships, characters, and consequences. The chosen rules engine resolves uncertain actions.
Open for Community Review
The public playtest is also an invitation to examine the setting critically.
Players, Game Masters, readers, designers, and actual-play groups are encouraged to report what works, what remains unclear, what is difficult to use at the table, and what needs stronger explanation.
The purpose of Community Review is not to collect praise. It is to improve clarity, usability, consistency, accessibility, and practical play.