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From publisher blurb:
The old empire of Tuje committed many foolish acts in their search for power, and one of them was to dig so deep they tore a hole in reality. Now, a thousand years later, a strange elevator-like device has been discovered above an apparently bottomless borehole. One expedition went down, and the elevator returned, empty. Now it is up to you to find out what happened, rescue any survivors, and uncover the secrets of this strange site.
In this combat-optional, system-agnostic fantasy adventure, delve into a weird and unearthly realm, uncover its secrets, and find out what kind of a person you really are.
Content warning: mind control, claustrophobia, death.
What sort of system to use?
You don't need much other than some kind of mechanism for resolving outcomes based on players' abilities. It was playtested using a very minimal system we made up on the spot. The decisions the players make are most important.
It's assumed magic exists, technology is limited, and little is known of what happens if you dig too deep underground. It could work for many popular and unpopular fantasy adventure systems, so long as your table likes character-driven stories, and could probably work with many modern or sci fi games, with some adaptation.
There is the opportunity to add combat, but if it combat occurs, you will need to select appropriate monsters for your game system. It is not a major focus of the adventure.
This game lasts about one session, but could be added to a larger dungeon complex or other area to explore.
- Gives extra experience.
- Can be fun when it leads to interesting situations (like drawing second round of cards before entering museum).
- Allows for specific deck strategies (e.g., Safhina Russo griefer deck).
- Can make players draw cards and shuffle weaknesses.
- Has become too 'gameable'.
- Enables strategies that are not about winning but about griefing or other players.
- The experience gained comes with drawbacks like shuffling weaknesses.
- Can be turned into a 'crappy little guy' that can't change his deck.
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Card Draw Incentive — When played, it can lead to drawing extra cards or shuffling weaknesses into the deck.
- Deck Manipulation — Can be used to put cards into the victory display or shuffle weaknesses into the deck, affecting gameplay.
- Mystic Event — A Mystic event card that provides extra experience.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- So, it's one of those things. If there's a mistake
- this could be any from the cycle except for Street Wise.
- They're all they're all kind of just like there and make your deck better for including them no matter what it is that you were trying to do.
- And also cuz it's so cheap now. It's not they don't cost anything anymore for Taboo. Basically.
- Or other kinds of cards like that that ask you to build a deck in a way that it doesn't do anything without the asset in play.
- I'd judge you if you brought a sharpshooter deck.
- Like uh like Trick to the Plan. I think that card is cool.
- stick to the plan I think is an example of a worth the 6P but not really
- Like an example of I think of a bad permanent recently is that one that came out in Hemlockk that's just gives you an extra slot for a blessed or curse thing.
- I too think charisma and relic hunter are bad cards.
- It gives a hand slot, which I feel like is like just kind of over the top for the permanent position.
- I also think talent should be limited.
- Honestly, that would be a great parallel Bob. Like that would actually be hype as hell.
- your items cost one less for each item in play that has the same name.
- the big big things that were good they added was the right of seeking 2.
- Lockpicks was a great thing for uh Rogue.
- That's a it's a cool like engine piece that uh
- And I even like the upgraded emergency cache.
- it kind of feels a little bit like like prepare for the worst. Sorry, not I've had worse four for the guardians. It's like give us number give us level two. Give us the level two version high.
- Alcon 3 still blows my mind like this. Like has anyone I I kind of don't believe that anyone's played with that card and been like this is worth it.