Nightmare at the Rockport is a roll and write game where you and a friend are spelunkers exploring the caverns. While in the caverns, an earthquake hits the area and catastrophic geologic nightmare ensues. Rock slides block pathways and the water begins to rise from the lowest point of the caverns. To make matters worse, in all the confusion, your friend gets injured and separated from you in the caverns. Your goal is to find your injured friend and escape out of the caverns before the water overtakes you. If you run out of Life points, unable to escape the caverns, or you are overtaken by the rising waters, you lose!
Each turn you will roll for two rock slides. Next, you will raise the water level in the caverns. You will then take two actions to either move, climb, dig. After completing your actions, you will roll for an event. Two of these can be beneficial ... but don't get your hopes up! The event die can really thwart your effort to get out of the caverns.
Once you get to close enough, you will call out to your friend and the location of your friend will be revealed. You will then trudge your way through the caverns to reconnect and escape out of the caverns.