Heliosail
A downloadable game
You and your friends become a crew of space pirates in this solarpunk sci-fi rpg. Earth's surface is uninhabitable due to climate change and the exploitation of industry, but humanity has thrived across the various planets and moons in the Sol system. They seek to settle the solar system and repair Earth, all while navigating the sudden appearance of alien creatures from another reality.
Contains
- Full color, illustrated PDF rulebook, and a printer-friendly version.
- A "Trick-Tracker" to plan out your character with.
- Custom character sheets.
- A short adventure to try out the game! (Lighthouse 16)
Ongoing Support
- We put out new content for your games every week on our Patreon!
- Our Discord server is full of other fans, and the team, to help you with whatever you need.
100% Human Made
This game was made entirely by humans, for humans. This includes all written text, artwork, and mechanics.
Wait, I heard this game was free! Why are you charging me $1?
All the major game platforms (Itch, DTRPG, etc) systematically disadvantage free games in various ways. In the case of itch.io, allowing the downloads to be free prevented us from being able to reach those who previously downloaded the game with important game updates or other vital information.
For this reason, we have set the price at $1. You can still grab a copy for free here by claiming a community copy!
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $1 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Community Copies
Support this game at or above a special price point to receive something exclusive.
Community Copy
Heliosail's base rules are free! However, to make sure that we can reach players with updates or other vital information, we are offering it for free in the form of community copies. If you would like to tip us for our work, you can also just purchase the game at the $1 price point.
Development log
- Final Hours!49 days ago
- Final Week of Crowdfunding!56 days ago
- Heliosail Crowdfunding TODAY79 days ago
- Small UpdatesSep 11, 2025
- Lighthouse 16: A Free AdventureJul 26, 2025
- Heliosail Is Finally HereJun 20, 2025
- The CardsharpJan 22, 2025
- On Heliosail's Release DateJan 14, 2025
Comments
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A quick question:
How do I improve my rating in Core Skills? Secondary skills can be improved by Tutoring and by rolling crits, but it seems like neither of these is an option for Core Skills, and given how modest attributes are, it seems like Secondary skills would rapidly surpass Core Skills in modifier? (Though Core skills will have Tricks)
Hi there! Sorry it took me a couple days to get back to you. I see why you were tripped up: if you look at the Tricks for core skills, you will see that each one also grants you +1 in that skill at the end of the Trick's description.
This means, effectively, that your core skills improve whenever you roll a critical success using them, just like secondary skills do. It is not worded this way explicitly in the rules because certain Tricks have requirements for a minimum modifier, and in playtesting there was confusion about whether the +1 to a skill was taken before or after deciding what Tricks you were eligible for.
If your secondary skills surpass a core skill, this will be temporary, because they are capped at +5. You also will start with higher modifiers in your core skills since the starting modifiers are based on your attributes, and secondary skills just start at +1.
Please let me know if you have any other questions! I am happy to help :)
Aha! That makes sense! That's my habit of not reading the "lists of stuff to pick from" when going through a game coming back to bite me. Thanks!
You're welcome! Like I said, I'm here to help if you have any other questions :)
Love the art deco touch and overall theme!
Thank you!