Planned Release Date: November 2026

About This Game

Your crew was dying of fever. An islander mambo saved them with voodoo, and the Navy branded every soul aboard. Now there is a price on your ship. You have one battered brig, a short crew, and a stitched doll nobody else at sea knows how to use.

Poppets & Plunder is a roguelite about real-time ship fights, a crew you can watch work, and magic that always costs you something.

See inside the ship you fight with

Your brig is cut open, so every deck is on show. Sailors haul powder, load and fire the guns, put out fires, patch holes and bail while the cannons trade shots across the water. Aim your broadside at a system on the enemy ship, then send your hands where your own ship is hurting. You will usually have fewer guns and fewer hands than whoever you are fighting.

Push a pin into the doll

That is what the doll is for. Lay a hex card on a pin, push the pin in, and the matching part of the enemy ship suffers. A bodkin breaks a system. A candle sets a room on fire. The crew in that part feel it. Every working costs essence, and some deck paths pay in the bodies of your own crew, so you learn to pick your moment.

A crew of people, not numbers

Hire sailors in port, pull survivors out of the water, or take prisoners and hope they stay loyal. Six races, nine jobs and thirteen traits make every hand different. Skills grow with use. Morale rises with a shanty and a rum ration, and falls when a shipmate goes over the side. Lose one and the rest of the crew feels it.

Board them, then decide what they are worth

Throw the grapples, cross on the lines and fight room by room through the enemy ship. Hold the helm or the magazine and she is yours. Then choose: plunder her, or burn her. Take prisoners and decide what becomes of them. Some of those choices are dark, and your crew has opinions.

Four seas, four flagships

Each run crosses four stretches of water, from the reefs to the Salt Throne. You sail a chart of marks while something chases you across it: the Navy dragnet, the Fog, the Tide, the Toll Line. Ships hail you. Some want a fight. Others want to trade, charge a toll or ask for help. Be friendly, squeeze them for tribute, or open fire and take what they carry.

Every water ends at a flagship: Commodore Pryce, High Warden Thorne, Admiral Cray and Lord Factor Vane, who has never needed to fire a gun. The Navy learns your habits. Lean too hard on one trick and their captains start carrying wards against it.

After the guns, the rite

Win a fight and the witch crosses to the dead with an escort. Chalk the circle, light the candles and keep time with the drum. How well you play the rite decides what the sea gives back.

A different witch every run

Pick a captain and a ship, build a deck of hexes along one of seven paths, and sail. Runs are short. Losing your ship hurts. The next brig is always ready, and what a run did decides what opens up for the next one. No currency, nothing to grind.

What is in the hold

• Four areas, four flagship bosses and a chase that changes with every sea

• 8 playable ships and 15 captains with their own perks and quirks

• 151 witch cards across 7 paths, and 32 weapons in 5 families

• 24 enemy ship types from eight factions, each with its own arsenal and standing

• 6 crew races, 9 jobs and 13 traits, with morale, shanties and superstition

• Real-time boarding, room by room

• 111 hails and events at sea, 6 kinds of weather and 8 run curses

• 3 difficulties, 19 achievements and 68 music tracks

Mature Content Description

The developers describe the content like this:

The game centers on your crew fighting for survival on the high seas. Friends and enemies alike can be killed in creative, shocking ways at a moment's notice. The level of violence a player engages with is largely controllable, though, as it is possible to win using high-level spellcasting or hull damage.