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This solo card game is a roguelike adventure in the form of 90 cards (2times the size of a classic MtG card) with pictures on the whole front sides and texts on the whole back sides.
You represent a doubtful hero struggling through his miserable fate in a grim medieval open world full of mortal dangers and cruelty.
On every turn, you take 3 cards from the top of the deck that represents your future. From the three cards, just based on the images, you choose one path to reject, one path to postpone, and one path to go. The path you have taken is then revealed - you turn the card, read the story, make some decisions according to the text and apply the eventual changes, losses, or gains to your character sheet or just a piece of paper. This way you build your fate of a medieval pilgrim-hero and you try to survive the whole journey to the bottom of the "your future" deck. There are fights, NPCs, equipment, and many more... just as in a gamebook (a very grim & dark one, full of odd meetings) but there is no dice rolling, everything depends on your decisions and on the path you had gone before. For the next play, you will possibly remember what image hides what kind of event or fight, so you may choose your path wiser, according to your current equipment, and fitness.
—description from the publisher
- Great entry point with the new tin version
- Designer is expanding the game
- Awesome art
- Easy to learn
- Interesting and evocative world
- Fascinating twisted dark fantasy fairy tale world
- Translation can be a little rough and problematic at times
- exploring a world and creating a story
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Card-based exploration — Consists of a ton of huge cards with all kinds of awesome art... on the reverse side you have stories you have little paragraph Adventures... you are laying out a couple of cards... choose one card and you will put the other cards on the bottom of the deck and then you will have to encounter this card.
- Keyword triggers — Keywords trigger off things and you have to kind of navigate that space.
- Stat tracking — It's kind of a stat tracking game but it's not a resource management style game.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I love this game it's one of my favorite little solo games
- I think he is one of the most interesting artists working in the tabletop gaming space right now
- It's a super fast-paced game very easy to learn super interesting and evocative
- The world of Doom Pilgrim is absolutely fascinating
- I love this kind of Twisted dark fantasy kind of fairy tale world that this game exists in
- This little game here is kind of divided into two different activities... scouting and Reporting and solving the problem... a tool to facilitate a world Creation with events and NPCs and places.
References (from this video)
- Atmosphere: art and writing create a compelling world
- Accessible base rules with a clear core loop
- Modular expansions add depth without breaking the vibe
- Base game offers limited player agency or meaningful choices
- Expansions may increase complexity and doom interactions
- Box storage may become crowded with multiple expansions
- doom, perseverance, fate, and narrative-driven exploration
- A dark, doom-filled fantasy world where doomed pilgrims undertake perilous encounters.
- card-driven storytelling with story text and keyword-based effects
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Character sheet bookkeeping — Record events, keywords, and tags that influence future encounters.
- Deck-driven encounter selection — Draw three cards per encounter, choose one to resolve and read its story.
- Keyword-based event triggering — Keywords gained on cards trigger ongoing effects and unlock future interactions.
- Resource Management — Manage dooms, diseases, poisons, curses until the deck is exhausted.
- Resource management and doom-tracking — Manage dooms, diseases, poisons, curses until the deck is exhausted.
- Reward choice and potential postponement — Choose rewards and use keywords to postpone or overcome conflicts.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Doom Pilgrim is a game that I return to often. I think this game is super interesting. I love the world. I love the art.
- The base game is pretty simple. It's almost an idol game.
- My little box of doom pilgrim. My little box of doom. I love this thing so much because when I open it, I really do feel like I am entering in to this interesting world and I know I'm going to have a weird and wild time.