The Sailor and the Siren

played this again last week, and once again had a (tragically) good time!

If you like romance, doom, and the great big sea, this game could be for you.

My girlfriend and I had a lot of fun playing through this game, though I'm not sure it holds a lot of replay value - maybe in a few months, we'll switch roles and try again, but the elegant simplicity of this story means there's only so much room for one playthrough to differ from the next. Still, even for just one round, it was a fascinating experience.

One thing that tripped us up is neither of us read too far ahead, worried about spoiling our own experience.  My recommendation is that, at the very least, read each scene through beginning to end before you play that scene.

When we played, I curated a board of soundscapes to play in different scenes for immersion.  This isn't necessary, but if you're interested, here are my recommendations:
MyNoise - Sailboat for the opening scene / anything on the boat (if your game has a more modern ship, try MyNoise - Tanker at Sea)
MyNoise - Irish Coast for anything on the surface of the water
Talisk - Echo a sprightly tune in the north atlantic tradition, for playing over the other relevant soundscapes during the Dance
MyNoise - In Utero for anything underwater
MyNoise - Chapel Voices to be layered under In Utero for a haunting vocal effect during the Drowning

Got this in a bundle a long time ago and played it recently with a likeminded person. The game was short, but on point. Also had a laugh, when we both played an ace in the end :)

The Sailor And The Siren is a two-player, card-based rpg about exactly what it says in the title.

It's 11 pages, with solid layout and colorful ocean backgrounds that start above water, and then sink into the depths.

You play by playing cards of different suits to indicate how your character (the siren or the sailor) is regarding the other. Higher numbered cards take effect first, and specific cards played during specific parts of the game trigger additional narrative effects.

The Siren starts with a larger pool of cards, and has pretty strong narrative control throughout, so there are definite themes of uneven power dynamics alongside the themes of romance and predation.

Overall, if you like two-player games that are intense, and optionally either dark or romantic, you should pick up The Siren And The Sailor. If that's not quite your cup of tea but you still like the structure, S&S *is* mod-able, but you'll want to read it through once first to figure out where you want the storyline to diverge.

Hello! What a wonderful game :) My favourite part is how well you have interlaced the feeling of danger for the Sailor in all of the scenes that comes from interacting with such an otherworldly being, as well as how the Siren has to navigate through their feelings of love and hunger, how contrasting those are in some points and yet how understandingly similar they are in others. 

A thing that was a bit disappointing is that, the way the scenes are structured, since First Sight always leads to either the Conversation or the Swim the part of the Dance about "Move on to the Conversation if the dance was above the water, or the Swim if the dance was below the water" will never be able to be fulfilled since each scene is played only once. 

My favourite scene has to be the Dive because of the feeling of inevitability that comes with it. Even more so than the final one, I thought this was were the path to one end or another was written. However, I found all of the scenes absolutely gorgeous, and the picture they paint together is very well linked -- and yet it lends itself to a lot of different scenarios thanks to your use of cards and the roleplayers' actions. 

Thank you so much for sharing this game <3