What Lies Beneath

YOU wake up in a dungeon with no memory. Yeah, it’s a plot device that’s been used a lot. But at least you’re not being sent on yet another wizard assassination, going it alone because sending the army is too much trouble.

As you make your way out of the dungeon, you will be touched by good and evil, and you may start to remember your name. And you will definitely run afoul of shape-shifting goblinfolk wearing red beanies. And if you make it out of the dungeon, you still have to find your way home… if you know where that is.

But the good news is that there is no single truth, no single home to find your way back to. You can find peace and health at a retreat, or stage a coup, or get a good job with the government, or join the goblin army, or become a hermit, or a dozen-plus other ways to make a life once this dungeon thing is done.

But chances are you’ll die in the woods.

Enjoy!

Review and Opinion

It’s a dungeon crawl, then into woods/marsh to find your way… to whatever is ahead of you.

The writing is interesting, and I’m not sure how to describe it. It’s not exactly deep world building, but then again as you meet the gnomes, or the goblin army, or the mages who hired you, it takes on a character that is missing from the initial dungeon crawl. Maybe “end heavy” described it? You wander an anonymous dungeon from unspecified “weefolk” for some time, before the world gains any real character. But once it does, it’s worth it.

An interesting part of that writing, is that effects, events, and items are referred to by code strings, e.g. not “you find 5 gold coins” but “gain item BHG” You look in the appendix and see that BHG is Big Handful of Gold. You overhear people talking and gain tag MFR… which you have to look up to find is “they plan to replace people with shapeshifters to cause trouble.” This is reflected in the book’s typography, as well, as if it is meant to be machine-readable: “if haveitem BHG turn to 307; else gain tag OTH then turn to 307”. On the one hand it makes the typography consistent and makes for quick scanning of the contents, and it avoids duplicating narrative, but on the other hand feels very separate from the story and really breaks what immersion there is.

What I really enjoyed, is that there are many endings and there is no single truth or successful win. On one path you were a woodsman coming home to a destroyed village. On the other you were an adventurer/investigator, coming home to organize a coup or maybe to get a sweet government job. Or maybe you accept your amnesia and build a new life with the goblin army. Some are more satisfying than others, some more exciting, some more conducive to a long and happy life; but all are equally true. And I like that.

Also very neat, the book has some novel mechanics that are more than just rolling dice. A Wit test, for example, is to roll a series of dice and then you have X actions to make them into a sequence. A Dex test is to stack two dice X inches away, then flick a third one at them and try to hit them. There are several mini-games too, with to simulate attacking a castle with a cannon or to get your soul in order to find peace and wisdom. So that part was really fun and interesting, as well.

So, while not necessarily a favorite, it’s a good game book and I will share it with friends for narrative game book nights.

Errors

Several items/tags do not seem to exist in the text but are listed in the glossary: FFL, STP, and WCF1. I don’t see any requests about these items, so they don’t seem to affect the game. However, several choices refer to item MDI, a disguise that solves a lot of problems – but this seems not to exist, even after I went through every single page.

Page 88 when you are beaten down, asks about item GHJ. Item GHJ is not mentioned in the appendix and I never found one.

From 70 you have three choices. If you go into 80 (barracks) you are given an option to back out… but only to the bone crusher (47) and not to the double doors (80) which were present.

Making your way into the woods, the options for finding assistance are inconsistent. If you sleep in the barn, the woods are on page 117 and you can make a Wit test to recognize your location. If you run for the forest through the sunlight, the forest is 150 and you can use item PFA1 to do some ethereal scouting. If you go back inside for food and end up in the forest at 196, you have neither option. Doesn’t make sense that these three arrivals to the forest have different behavior.