White Mountain Rescue

In this ttrpg, the players are First Responders working in the White Mountain National Forest as a Search & Rescue team. As the game progresses, the characters are exposed to more and more strange encounters that alert them that something supernatural and malicious is afoot in the wilderness. Another realty, known as the Mountains of Verdigris, is slowly merging with our own.

This game uses Carved from Brindlewood mechanics directly taken from the Between and Brindlewood Bay, both of which were created by Jason Cordova and Gauntlet Publishing. However, this product is not associated with Jason Cordova or Gauntlet Publishing, but it is published with their permission.

The playbooks for the First Responders are:

• the Veteran
• the Rookie 
• the Medic
• the Ranger
• the Warden
• the Benefactor 
• with a special unlockable playbook, the Vanished

The game comes with the campaign structure for the Mountains of Verdigris with the Antler King as the primary antagonist as well as 12 Rescues, 10 of which may be played in any order and 2 that must be unlocked in gameplay.  Here are the Rescue summaries:

• The Missing Child: A mother lost her child near a picnic area after looking away for a split second. The child’s sister saw someone strange grab him, but no one believed her. It all just happened within the hour, so show some hustle and fan out.
• The Lost Camper: An off the trail camper hasn’t checked in with his family, so they’ve asked for a health and welfare check. It seems pretty routine, except for all these weird stairs out in the forest. However, as per the interoffice memo, we’re not supposed to talk about the stairs. 
• The Rock Climber: This morning a veteran rock climber and her partner were scaling a steep slab together, but then she vanished. Volunteers and a NFS helicopter on the scene can’t locate her. You must find her even if the mountain is intentionally hiding her.
• The Trapped Spelunker: A caver has been reported trapped somewhere inside of New Hampshire’s biggest cave system. He was searching for an undiscovered waterfall. Now it is you in the darkness and the cave seems to be slowly closing in.
• The Snowbound Geocacher: An extreme geocacher is pulling a stunt by hiding out in a snowstorm in what he is calling, Fort Kickass. He is on a cryptid hunt for more hits on social media, but something might be hunting him. Break out the skis and snowshoes, you need to find him before something else does.
• The Vanished Canoe Trip: An entire college canoe trip appears to be missing on the Androscoggin River. Search crews are looking up and downstream to find them. You’re headed to their last known camp on the river, but you’re starting to suspect that you’re not alone.
• The Honeymooners: Two newlyweds have been spending the weekend up at Carter Notch on the Appalachian Trail. One reports the other just walked off into the woods, but doubts it was really even them. Where is the missing newlywed and who is posing as them?
• The Fallen Photographer: Kings Ravine is one of the toughest, but most rewarding hikes in the White Mountains. A photographer and his hiking guide were knocked off one of the peaks and now the photographer is missing. Lots of volunteers on this one, but they are very skittish because of a strange deer sighting in the area.
• The Forest Fire Rescue: A large forest fire is devastating 100s of acres of the White Mountain National Forest. A missing NFS fire crew needs to be found fast. As you enter the inferno, you soon notice the smoke is acting strangely.
• The Crashed Chopper: One of the NFS helicopters has gone down in the forested wilderness. Teams are searching the last known area and are closing in on a possible crash site. As you get closer, you become aware that the whole thing is starting to feel like bait in a trap.
• The Night of Verdigris: (must be unlocked) A strange, green fog has enveloped the region trapping people in Plymouth, New Hampshire. Can the First Responders protect the townsfolk from things in the fog?
• The Mountains of Verdigris Rescue: (must be unlocked) Someone you know is snatched and taken to the other reality! The First Responders must go in after them and confront the Antler King of the Mountains of Verdigris.

It also features 16 Unsolved vignettes, prompts for the Out of Woods phase, and a map and rules reference sheet located in the appendix.

Note: This game is not based on actual search and rescue operations in the White Mountain National Forest, but instead is portrayed as if it was a fictional TV series based on search and rescue procedures. In reality, these operations would fall under the jurisdiction of local sheriff's departments.

Here is an Actual Play of this game with Alex Rybitski as the Keeper. The rules are slightly different, with the Unsolved being during the Out of the Woods phase instead of the Rescue phase, but other than that this playtest is basically the same game.

Art Credits

The base cover graphic was created with Keynote by Daniel Qualls, the Deathcap Emissary and Shrouded Beast were created by  https://tania-herrero.itch.io/  with the rest being Free Use/Public Domain photography primarily from the National Forest Service. 

NO Generative AI was utilized at any level in the development of this game or it's artwork.

Form Fillable Playbooks thanks to  https://steph-infection-games.itch.io/

A link to a character keeper will hopefully be added in the future. 

You may see the development of this game (and many others) on the Gauntlet's Discord: discord.gg/ScVrPDgfeg