[1] The player starts a game by selecting one of the predefined characters, each a mercenary seeking fame and fortune in on a planetary world that is home to an antagonistic peacekeeper body, pirates, and dangerous creatures.

[1] The game is broken up between moving about on an overworld map and engaging in conversation trees to gain quests or shop, and card-based encounters.

The player can also purchase limited use item cards for either deck from vendors, as well as enlist computer-controlled allies to assist in negotiation and battle.

Griftlands takes place in a futuristic science-fiction fantasy setting, where humans populate the game world in addition to anthropomorphic humanoid races such as the crustacean-like Kra'deshi.

There are three playable campaigns available in the game, each following the multi-day journey of a specific protagonist: the formerly indentured servant Sal Ik-Derrick who now seeks revenge on the criminal that sold her into slavery as a child, the secretive and experienced spy Rook on a dangerous mission, and the alcoholic vagrant Kra'deshi Smith Banquod who returns home seeking his inheritance after the death of his wealthy parents.

In Sal's campaign, she travels to the cosmopolitan coast-side city of Murder Bay to seek revenge on the notorious criminal Kashio.

With the help of childhood friend Fssh, Sal negotiates the aid of either rising Admiralty officer Oolo or dangerous Spree overboss Nadan, each seeking to capture or kill the other, to sneak into a high-stakes auction.

To make matters more complicated, the regional operation is being led by Baron Fellemo, a comrade of Rook's from his prior days serving in a paramilitary organization, and there is a reclusive third faction of pagans known as Boggers that worship the Bog itself.

Rook infiltrates both the Spark Barons and the Rise, each believing him to be a double agent loyal to them, but his mission's true goal is to secure a mysterious device located deep within the Bog under the control of the Boggers.

Smith is then contacted by a high-ranking official of the Cult of Hesh, Tei Utaro, who recruits him in a clandestine operation to purge the order of corrupt individuals.

Finally Smith is contacted by a Bogger operative who informs him that Vixmalli has been infested by an ancient parasite that has unique mutative properties, transmitted from the dead behemoth that washed ashore in the Great Beaching.

Utaro speculates that the creature seeks to transform the world as part of a millennia-old cycle, starting with the infection of a group of politicians and foreign dignitaries at an imminent meeting being held by the Cult of Hesh to address the Great Beaching.

Smith has the option of either killing or reconciling with each of his siblings, but nevertheless defeats the transformed Vixmalli, leaving the behemoth to be returned to the ocean by an unseen tentacled force.