The Babylon Lottery - RPG Zine Club Review - #1

 Makeshift Magpie's 

The Babylon Lottery

The cover of my copy of The Babylon Lottery. 

Introduction

    The Babylon Lottery, by Jack Fuhrmann and Aina Soley, is an entry into the growing library of story zines published under Plus One Exps RPG Zine Club subscription system. Plus One Exp defines the TTRPG story game genre on its website as games that "...focus on narrative and story. Bespoke games for telling the stories you love or popular systems like PBTA, Carved from Brindlewood & Belonging Outside Belonging." The Babylon Lottery, the RPG Zine club's April 2026 story RPG zine release, is all of these things wrapped up into a compelling setting. 

    

    I love this zine's world building, it's the right combination of bleak, bizarre, Kafkaesque, and nonsensical to resonate strongly with me. It bears a striking resemblance to how any social order works - an arbitrary system of chance governing class and social standing - albeit on a much faster period of iteration. Additionally, the way it is presented, as an isolated civilization that more or less is blissfully ignorant of the outside world, makes it easily extracted from the zine and dropped into another setting.

    The character creation system is great and reinforces the key points of the themes of the game wonderfully. The other central mechanics are pretty straightforward. However, the 'structured encounter' system, which is something I have never seen before, is a bit odd and took me a couple of read throughs to understand fully. Unfortunately, this aspect of the mechanics does not resonate with me in the same way that the setting does. That being said, I do appreciate the authors trying new things and experimenting with building what I suspect is a fully custom encounter system tailored to their vision. 

Art, Tone, and World Building 

    The world building is fantastic throughout the zine. Thematically The Babylon Lottery is a mixture of archaic stylistic elements, dystopian science fiction, cyberpunk, and a light sprinkling of fantasy bits mixed together in what I can only describe as a Kafkaesque hell city. A city ruled by 'academicians' that defend their system as one in which, "There is no fairness, no justice, merely fortune" (pg 33). Which is something of truism for any irrational, unfair, and arbitrary social order - just like the real world. This is, of course, the overarching point the zine, and the short story it is based on, are trying to make. 

    The premise is simple, "Babylon is a city ruled by a lottery" (pg 5). The city of Babylon is run on a lottery, not for the selection of officials among citizens, but for everything. The lottery is the central conceit of the entire society, an entire civilization revolving around this single premise. The Babylon Lottery is a game that examines, as a gameplay mechanic: class and its arbitrary nature in what must be a nightmare city. It's a game wherein players' socio-economic class and profession is randomly decided at arbitrary intervals on the whims of a detached caste of academics who preside over and 'interpret' the lottery. It is a game that states, regarding the quality of medical professionals in the city, "Should you find yourself in need of a physician, you should hope that they've done this before" (pg 29). Suffice to say it is a fascinating concept to interrogate through the medium of a TTRPG story game. 

    There is not a huge amount of art in the zine, but what there is, is good and importantly tonally and thematically consistent with the text. The art, by HodagRPG, is composed of black and white ink line drawings. My immediate emotional reaction to the art and the text is one of a Kafkaesque bleakness and oppression. Vast black spaces predominate the larger pieces of art throughout the zine; creating an oppressive feeling that is almost inescapable when examined alongside the text. The font selections throughout only seemed to add to this feeling of alienation and oppression for me. The only piece of art in the book where we see a humanoid figure's full face is on page 43, where there is also a discussion of  the factions of the city. One of the factions, the 'Absurdists', "a cult of worship to an unnamed God of Cosmic Absurdity" (pg 43) seems to be the one illustrated. The absurdist devotee's eyes are darkly rimmed in black and their face is contorted into what seems to be a mask of enraged madness at the insane system they are forced to endure. The feeling I get from the synthesis of the art and text is positively comparable to what I felt when I first saw the bureaucratic office scenes from Terry Gilliam's masterpiece - Brazil.    

    The world building does not stop with the end of the zine. On page 46 of the zine is a QR code linking to a website containing a long series of what are essentially setting seeds for different periods in the city's history. They are short but evocative and would make an excellent starting place for developing any sort of scenario set in Babylon. Although I tend to not like this sort of integration with technologically perishable things like individual websites, it builds on what is in zine rather than hide essential elements beyond easy reach.  

Character Options & Core Mechanics

    One of the core principals of the rules for The Babylon Lottery is that the eponymous lottery is key to character creation. Essentially, tokens bearing certain runes, which equate to social class and what are the equivalent to astrological signs, are created by the Chronicler / GM in whatever ratio they see fit. Then the players draw them randomly and what rune they draw assigns them to a social class (pg 15 - 16). Players then roll a D6 to determine type of occupational sector they are assigned. They then are given the choice of what occupation within their assigned social class and sector they wish to pursue.  Perhaps one of the most intriguing aspects of character creation is that, "...players may reallocate their stats at the beginning of a new lottery drawing, that is if they survive" (pg 19). I really like this extremely thematic character creation process and potential for players to adapt, a little, to their changing fortunes in a mechanical manner as the lottery occurs in the narrative.    

    Encounters are oddly structured; at least I have never seen it done this way before. The Chronicler / GM rolls a D6 to determine the length of the encounter as measured in turns. The zine refers to this as a 'clock', with each section of the clock wheel representing one turn for a player to act in. If the encounter lasts longer than a single full turn of the wheel then it has a chance to become lethal if the party guesses incorrectly on a coin toss. A system of action points is layered on top of this, creating additional complexity in what is otherwise a narrative first story game. This feels needlessly complex for a story game. That being said, I think what the encounter system could have used for improvement is a short section explaining how to implement it in a satisfactory manner within the context of the setting. Skill checks, on the other hand, are pretty straightforward, a player simply rolls a D20 and adds any relevant modifiers. They then compare the result against the target number and if they meet or exceed it then they succeed. 

    The experience point system is called 'Scars' and scars are essentially narrative rewards for a character enduring either a negative or positive 'inspiration' - physical or mental. They are accrued across multiple categories and can be spent to learn abilities associated with each category. These learned abilities are all pretty powerful and open up all sorts of interesting narrative doors. 

  

Conclusion and Recommendations

    The Babylon Lottery is written by Jack Fuhrmann and Aina Soley, and it is published by Plus One Exp as part of their RPG Zine subscription system. It is a very manageable 48 pages including the 2 page map at the back of the zine. The art, layout, and text build a detailed and evocative world quickly with limited word count. Moreover, the rules themselves reinforce the tone and themes of the game in a way that I often don't see with mainstream games. 

    I must admit I love the concept of an insular walled off civilization inexplicably run by a lottery system presided over by bureaucrats detached from the very processes they use to control the population. The setting speaks to me; I intend to use the zine as a source of material for a bleak Kafkaesque city in an upcoming game I am planning on running.

    The rules experiment with some interesting mechanics; the lottery character creation system and the structured encounter system being the prime examples. While the character creation system did resonate with me strongly the encounter system did not. It felt oddly complex and a little out of place. However, just because it did not resonate strongly with me does not mean it won't do so with you.

    Regardless of my reservations about the encounter rules contained in the zine, I still give the zine a recommendation. The Babylon Lottery contains a unique setting with interesting ideas that I doubt have been explored like this before. The setting and its exploration of these ideas alone make it worthy of adding to any collection. Moreover, I must also recommend the RPG Zine club, if only to expose yourself to ideas and voices that you would have otherwise missed, as it has done so for me. 

One Month in!

Eclectic Dragon's One Month Update

    At this point I have been writing this blog for about a month's worth of time. In this short period of time, I have managed to turn around five substantive blog posts averaging over two and half thousand words, for over ten thousand words total. I am pretty proud of all of this, but I realize this rate of production is unsustainable. Moving forward, and as my schedule stabilizes at my day job, I will have less free time in large uninterrupted blocks to work on entries for the blog. In order to maximize both my enjoyment and the longevity of this blog, I am going to be working with continued focus on games and products that speak to me in some fundamental way. This means you will never see me review something that I don't have some sort of personal interest in. For example, I will very likely never review a modern 5th edition Wizards of the Coast product, or anything recently published by Paizo. Both companies' modern products tend to not resonate with me. That being said, I will continue to be honest about the independent/ niche games and products I do talk about. If they have flaws or quirks, I will mention them and it will color my final judgement of the game/ product. I just will be polite about it and try to, 'not yuck anyone else's yum' as it where.  

    I am deeply enjoying writing about a topic I love; TTRPGs! I am, apparently, also learning a fair bit about myself as well. I am learning that art and layout in TTRPGs is something that is crucial to my enjoyment of a TTRPG book/zine/product. I am finding art/layout go a very long way towards establishing the prevailing tone and mood of a product. I have also come to realize that my vocabulary and base of knowledge for expressing my opinions about art in TTRPGs is limited, and that it is something I need to improve on moving forward. Regardless, of where I need to improve, I am slowly but surely developing out a distinct voice for myself as a writer - it is an interesting process to observe happen with your own work in real time. 

Upcoming Reviews and Articles

    Regardless, I suspect the very few people that are reading this will want to know what I have next on my docket for reviewing! The next two games I am working on writing posts about are a 'first impressions' review post on Chain X Link by Glyph Tide Games / Plus One Exp, and an 'actually played' review of the Shadowdark hack DarkSpace from DMing the World. The Chain X Link impressions review should come out some point in June and the DarkSpace one in July after I run it. 

    I am also thinking of doing a recurring series where I review and write about my favorite entry from Plus One Exp's RPG Zine club each month. Furthermore, I am thinking about doing a monthly review of an adventure or two from an old issue of Dungeon Magazine - of which I have enough to last for... years. 

    I am slowly but surely building out ideas and thoughts for two large essays: There are some TTRPGs I Own but will Never Play and that's OK, and TTRPGs and the Importance of Art. The first essay I think I can write in one feverish evening just by looking over my collection. The second essay is going to take substantial time, research, and work to figure out - it might not be out for a few years to be honest. 

One Final Thing...

    For those very few of you that have made it this far, I do have a favor to ask of you. If you have enjoyed any of the reviews, I have written please take a few moments to leave a comment or share links to the articles or even follow me on Blue Sky - I would appreciate it! 

All About The Long Road

An Interview with 

Unicycle Games' 

Alan Tyson and Lex Lionfell

The cover of The Long Road Ahead.

Introduction

    I asked Alan Tyson and Lex Lionfell, over written correspondence, to speak to me about their game The Long Road Ahead (TLRA). As you will see I asked them a bunch of questions about their decisions going into the design of the game as well as where they are planning on going next with Unicycle Games and The Long Road Ahead. Their answers were illuminating. I learned a great deal about why they did what they did with the design of the game, its art direction, and that I know very little about the Powered by the Apocalypse sub-genre of narrative games. I have edited it a tiny little bit for readability: changing the questions and answers from a list into more of a traditional conversation format. I hope you enjoy the interview and if you have any feedback I would love to hear it - good or bad.  

 Art, Layout & Graphic Design Questions 

Eclectic Dragon: Why did you decide to use pixel art as the art style for the game? I must admit it took me a little while to get used to, but I found myself liking it a fair bit. Moreover, I think it worked well with the tone of the text. 

Alan: I'm really pleased to hear that! I completely understand about it taking some getting used to, it's not at all the kind of thing you see in RPGs that aren't going for a very specific video game-inspired look and feel. Honestly, the choice to go with pixel art was kind of a happy accident. My original idea was to go with a very "warm dark" pen-and-ink look that was all dark browns and creams, something to evoke the illustrations you'd find in old fantasy paperbacks. I did one piece, and while I liked it, it just took far too long to produce, I've always been a very slow artist. At around the same time, I'd just started experimenting with pixel art as a hobby, and one night I just got inspired to see what it would look like in a more illustrative style rather than as imaginary "game assets." Lex and my partner (and our PR manager) Kitty really liked it, so we decided to go with that. I think the reason it works, aside from my ability to create it at a pretty decent speed, is the reason why any good pixel art works, which is it invites the viewer to fill in a lot of the "gaps" between the blocks of color. The viewer has to "finish" the piece with their eye, and that automatically makes it feel more fantastical and evocative. 

Eclectic Dragon: As a follow up the tone I get from the sum of the text and art is very hopeful. Was this the intention and if not, what was the tone you were going for? 

Lex: That was absolutely intentional, yes. Epic quest fantasy, TLRA's core genre, is inherently hopeful. The ultimate message of every epic quest fantasy I can think of is: yes, there is darkness, there is evil, but there is no such thing as a darkness so dark that hope can't be found within it. 

Eclectic Dragon: The usage of separate boxes outside of the main text to present the examples seems to work rather well, I also liked the continuous narrative flow and consistency among the characters in the examples. They are, however, prolific throughout the text, was there a reason for breaking it out into some many individual examples vice having a longer standalone section as it sometimes is? 

Lex: I'm a novelist and game designer by night but by day I'm a technical writer. The upside of that is that Alan and I could approach book layout with my expertise on how manuals and instructions and educational materials are written. Finding an example right next to the thing a person might be referencing, like a particular Basic Move, makes it more useful and usable as a resource. I don't think standalone sections of play examples are bad, to be clear! But when you ask a person to reference a second page just to learn something they need to know, you're adding friction. They won't remember to check the example section, or they'll get frustrated when they need to make a quick call at the table.

Alan: I grew up reading role-playing game books that have entire short stories as chapter lead-ins and prologues, and while those can be great for sparking the imagination, as I've gotten older I've more often found myself skipping past them, because it's such a harsh break from talking about how to actually play the game. Our goal with the shorter examples was to set up a kind of rhythm: explain the rule, give an example of it in use, add in a few clarifications or conclusions, rinse and repeat. Less exhausting for the reader and, we think, better at actually conveying information. 

Rules / Design Questions 

Eclectic Dragon: What were your overriding mechanical design goals for this project? 

Alan: We knew we wanted to make "our" fantasy game, the one that gave us everything we love about the genre and the hobby in one neat package. Now, fantasy RPGs obviously are not exactly unique in the RPG market. We decided pretty early on that we wanted our game to be one that focused on a single long journey, and on how that journey changes the characters and what it costs them. That's the heart of some of the best fantasy stories, some of the best stories, period. We knew combat and magic would be present, because they're present in those stories, but compared to lots of other fantasy adventure games, we decided early on that in TLRA they'd be no more present than, and mechanically not much different from, rules for enduring a hard climb up a treacherous mountain, setting up the camp for the night, or talking your companion through a moment of emotional crisis. If the rules treat all these moments as equals, then the players will hopefully do the same, and they'll make the choice that further their journey, not just the choice that they unconsciously think the game wants them to make. 

Eclectic Dragon: As a follow up; in your opinion did you achieve them? 

Alan: The subtitle "A Game About Great Journeys and Great Sacrifices" came to us very early, and it was always our guiding star when making design choices. Every time we've played it ourselves, or had the privilege of watching others play it, the game has felt like it lived up to that subtitle. 

Eclectic Dragon: A similar question to the first one, why did you decide to use the powered by the apocalypse (PbtA) engine and not a custom game engine or some other narrative focused system like Fate? 

Alan: We had both played around with designing custom systems on other projects together, and while those are very fun for us to make, they take a long time. We felt early on that we had something cool here, and we wanted to make it into a playable, marketable product in a relatively short amount of time. Using a preexisting, tried and-true system, or framework really, like PbtA was the way to do that for us, and in the case of PbtA, it was something we were playing a lot of at the time and felt like we had a pretty good handle on it. 

Eclectic Dragon: What drew you to the PbtA system? 

Lex: To be blunt? The core of TLRA was born after I tried to run Dungeon World. In its defense, Dungeon World was one of the early hacks of PbtA, so it has weaknesses that got addressed in later generations of the "genre"... but I think Dungeon World fails at one of the things that PbtA does really well, which is presenting a particular genre. I was ranting to Alan about how badly the game went, and Alan asked a fateful question: "How would we fix it? How would we do epic quest fantasy in PbtA?" 

Eclectic Dragon: I must admit I have not read the original Apocalypse World, but I have read UFO Presses’ Legacy: Life Among the Ruins. So, I have a small idea as to what is at the core of the of a PbtA game mechanically speaking. What tweaks did you have to do to underlying engine to fit your vision? 

Alan: PbtA really is almost more of a design philosophy rather than a specific ruleset, and you can find examples of games that are really different when compared to the original Apocalypse World. We added some new things, like Party Moves and the Sacrifice mechanics, but the foundation is really not much different from other games that were out at the time we were designing TLRA. 

Eclectic Dragon: The struggles mechanic is new to me as I have never heard of let alone played MASKS: A New Generation until I read The Long Road Ahead. Why did you decide to incorporate it into The Long Road Ahead? 

Alan: We knew that we wanted a mechanic to help players track their character's emotional states and to drive them towards dramatic choices and interactions, because that's very present in all of the material that inspired TLRA. In MASKS — where they're called "conditions" instead of "struggles," but otherwise they work the same way — there was already a mechanic that did exactly that. We tweaked it to our needs, but we already knew it would work, because I had played a lot of MASKS up to that point and seen the effect it had on player decisions and character portrayal. It was just tailor-made for what we wanted. 

Eclectic Dragon: Did you consider any other ancillary systems that did not make the cut? If so which ones and why? 

Alan: Not in the same way as Struggles, certainly. A lot of mechanics we do use, like the Harm system for tracking health, tags for different weapons and magical effects, and gaining Experience on misses. These were, and are, very common in PbtA games, so they don't really feel ancillary to me, even though there are PbtA games that don't use them. 

GM / Scrivener Questions 

Eclectic Dragon: The system of having the Scrivener ‘moves’ as a way of organizing and breaking down common narrative elements of an adventure seems like an unusual choice. At least is not one I have seen before. The idea of further distilling them down into categories of ‘Hard’ and ‘Soft’ made it very easy for me to understand how they should be used – I liked it a lot! To the point I plan on printing them out and using them as a reference sheet during play. What was the reason for presenting the ‘moves’ the way you did? 

Alan: If you want to watch an entertaining but ultimately frustrating argument, ask three people who've run PbtA games to define "Hard" vs. "Soft" GM moves. Depending on what games they've run, you'll get some pretty different answers! There are definitely some games whose GM sections do a very good job explaining the GM's tools and how, when, and why to use them, and then there are some games with really mushy or thin guidance for what is in many ways the hardest role at the table. We wanted to be one of the former, and that all came down to how Lex presents the job, tools, and goals of the Scrivener.

Lex: GM moves that represent narrative elements and the "Hard" vs "Soft" GM move are both central to the PbtA system. In fact both date back to the original Apocalypse World, so I'd hate to take credit for something that wasn't really ours! That said, it was very important to me in the writing process to help Scriveners understand what it actually means to make a hard vs a soft move, as well as things like explaining what a "golden opportunity" means and can look like at the table. I've played and run several different PbtA games, and some books are definitely better at explaining it than others. I really wanted for TLRA to be a guide not just for how to understand TLRA's "Scrivener" moves, but also something that would help teach what this component of the game is doing for people who then go on to play other PbtA games. 

Eclectic Dragon: Was it inspired by anything in particular? 

Lex: Alan and I are both storytellers and writers and GMs, so we pulled on our understanding of narrative and story beats to create the Scrivener move list and then distill it down into something that would be both usable and effective during play. 

Alan: We mostly just did a lot of thinking about our inspirations, looking for common elements to the big dramatic moments. After that, it was really just a matter of naming and defining them. 

Eclectic Dragon: Are there any world building / adventure design techniques that you use or recommend that did not make it into the book? 

Lex: Not really. The Scrivener chapter was kind of my baby on the project and I tried to include all the things I find helpful when planning out an adventure or a campaign. If anything maybe I would stress the value of a couple things that are referenced in the book: planning what would happen if the party doesn't intervene and making sure to think about how the bad guys are achieving their goals. The former helps you know what NPCs are doing while the party are poking around or investigating, and the latter makes it easier to present opportunities for the party to interrupt the bad guys' "supply lines" as it were. 

Alan: We do kind of touch on this a little bit, but if I were to give Scriveners in general a piece of advice, it's to not let the Adversary become a punching bag that never hits back. Players want wins, and they should get them when they earn them, but showing off the Adversary's power, influence, and ruthlessness at the right times will make those wins have value and meaning. The Uruk-hai kill Boromir and abduct Merry and Pippin, the Empire chases the Rebel Alliance off of Hoth, Ba Sing Se falls to the Fire Nation; these are moments that are just as memorable in great fantasy epics as the big wins — don't neglect them!

Eclectic Dragon: As a follow up, how much preparation do you recommend for GMs running this system? 

Lex: As with any PbtA game, and like we say in the book, the overall prep load for TLRA should be low. You want a sense of where the story is going, what you're trying to do with the current story beats, and any information about places or people the party might meet that can help you improvise in the moment. But the game is meant to be really loose and flexible. In PbtA a player is not only allowed but encouraged to make up things on the fly, and sometimes that completely changes the course of a session or a story arc. If you prep too much, it's so much harder to let go of your own ideas and see where the player's idea takes you. 

Alan: I'd recommend planning one, maybe two sessions ahead, but doing so very loosely: know what kind of Arc you want to offer to the players, which elements of the wanderers' backstory you want to highlight, write down a cool location and sketch out the important figures there. But there's very little you need to do in terms of "encounter design" or mapmaking or anything like that. Give the players a destination, but let them decide how they get there. 

Other Questions 

Eclectic Dragon: The book seems to have a very clear vision for the sort of game it wants to be. It is focused and written with clear intent. In that vein: How would you describe your vision for the game? How did it change over time, to its current state? Do you think you achieved it satisfactorily? 

Alan: We really did kind of lock it in during that first discussion, or maybe those first two. Our vision was primarily inspired by the epic quest stories that we loved the most: obviously, Tolkien's Middle Earth stories were at the heart of that. I brought in some of the darker, maybe weirder 80s fantasy stuff, like The Dark Tower Cycle, Ralph Bakshi's Wizards, and other influences that blended fantasy, sci-fi, and horror. I, at least, envisioned a game that was kind of dark and unsettling around the edges, but bright and mythic at the center. I like to think that still comes across, even if players have never read or watched any of my favorite weird, hard-to-pin-down 80s crap, hahaha. 

Eclectic Dragon: By the time I got to the back of the book I was pretty sold on Unicycle Games as a developer, and I got excited when I saw the advertisements for The Long Road Ahead: New Horizons and Super Teenage Ultra Fightin’ Force. Do you have a timeline for when they might come out? Also is there anything you can share about them?

Lex: No concrete timeline presently, but we're currently beginning playtesting for Super Teenage Ultra Fightin' Force. It's a fully original game engine, so we anticipate it'll be a little while longer before we're ready to open it for a public playtest. As for New Horizons, it's a TLRA splatbook! It'll include some new, more niche playbooks and other goodies. 

Alan: Super Teenage Ultra Fightin' Force is kind of a palate-cleanser for us, design wise: totally different genre, totally different approach to narrative gaming. What it has in common with TLRA is that it's a genre that Lex and I both really love, and we're putting that same love into this game. 

Eclectic Dragon: Finally, was anything cut from the core game book that you wish you could have been included? What was it? And can we expect to see it in The Long Road Ahead: New Horizons? 

Lex: I wouldn't say this was "cut" from the game but I wish we'd discovered it early enough for us to include it in the main book. Toward the end of my first TLRA campaign I built a multi-stage custom move that covered multiple steps for the party to retake a city controlled by the Adversary. It worked really well, but the book had come out by then so we couldn't add it. But! It inspired a section in New Horizons for us to share tips and tricks for how to build more complex custom moves for bigger sequences like that one, so keep a sharp eye! 

Alan: One of the reasons we settled on the visual theme of New Horizons was because I started noticing a lot of people asking about how things like sea travel and even space travel would work, and maybe if we'd thought of that earlier on, that might have been something we'd included.

The Long Road Ahead - It's Always the Journey That Matters

 Alan Tyson and Lex Lionfell's

The Long Road Ahead:
A Game About Great Journeys and Great Sacrifices

My copy of Unicycle Games' The Long Road Ahead.

Introduction

    The Long Road Ahead by Alan Tyson and Lex Lionfell is the first tabletop role playing game publication from Unicycle Games. Tyson is also responsible for the art of the book with additional graphics by J Gravelle. It is, as the name suggests, a game about epic quests, and the related journeys and resulting sacrifices, that a party must endure. This 'road' that the party must travel to face the adversary is the core narrative hook on which the entire game rests. This is true to the point that the entire first chapter is simply explaining the road and the commonalities that occur across all games of The Long Road Ahead. The game is inspired, explicitly so, by the common fantasy fiction narrative of a heroic quest where the vast bulk of the story is about the journey to defeat the given adversary and how the characters change and grow throughout the adventure. The Long Road Ahead provides several examples of this journey, from the ancient Homer's Odyssey and Exodus to the modern Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Banner Saga (pg 2). My personal favorite piece of fiction from this genre is Villains by Necessity by Eve Forward, wherein a group of the few last remaining villainous individuals go on a 'heroic' quest to return balance to a world threatened with being totally consumed - and destroyed - by the power of good.

My well read copy of Villains by Necessity.
It is an excellent 'anti-hero' example of the genre.

    The art, layout, and tone of The Long Road Ahead is, whether intentional or not, hopeful and a little lighthearted at times. Regardless, the art is both excellent and prolific throughout the book. The layout is eye catching and reinforces the hopeful tone with its choice of brighter colors. Functionally, the layout breaks up information well, though it can feel a little crowded at times.

    The ruleset is very much that of a Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) game, with the struggles concept from MASKS: A New Generation adapted for The Long Road Ahead. Moreover, a third key system is introduced in the book - character sacrifices - which have mechanical as well as narrative weight. These three systems fit together well and were clearly designed with intention to create a very specific kind of experience for players. Rather than provide character options in the traditional manner of race and class, the game provides them in the form of twelve playbooks. These are very dynamic, malleable, and the lion's share of character concepts can find a home here; from the strange to the mundane.

    A full 85 pages of the book, slightly under half, is devoted to the advice and guidance for the 'Scrivener' (the game's name for the Gamemaster (GM)). This advice is interesting and is focused on the creation of compelling narratives within the construct of The Long Road Ahead's mechanical and narrative frameworks. Some of this advice advice is arranged and presented in a manner I have not encountered before, but it made sense within the book's structure and narrative focus. Moreover, I found the advice practical and potentially useful, particularly the concept of GM moves, in other narratively focused games regardless of system.

Ruleset 

    The Long Road Ahead's core mechanical foundation is that of a PbtA game. This is a tried-and-true foundation on which to build a narratively focused game, as shown by the many other excellent PbtA games that have come before. However, The Long Road Ahead layers on top of this mechanical core two other systems that together differentiate the game from competitors: the struggles system, inspired by MASKS: A New Generation from Magpie Games; and the 'Sacrifices' system. Moreover, the thoughtfully designed character playbooks all interact strongly with these three foundational systems acting as the interlocking mechanism that transforms the game into a cohesive narrative engine. 

    The Long Road Ahead is a 2D6 system; when attempting to perform a move a player simply rolls 2D6 and adds or subtracts any relevant modifiers, and the final number determines level of success or if the roll is a simple failure. Anything above a 7 is a hit/ success of some kind with rolls in the range of 7-9 as 'mixed successes', while rolls of 10+ are unequivocal successes (pg 9). These rolls are primarily influenced by several core sources: character trait modifiers, 'forward' or single use modifiers - either negative or positive, and ongoing situational modifiers.  

    There are four-character 'traits' or stats in The Long Road Ahead: Folk-Wise, Iron Will, Nimble Mind, and Stout Heart. Each of these core stats has two basic abilities or 'moves' associated with, and governed by it. These basic moves all have a similar structure to them; on 10+ hit an effect occurs with no complications, on a 7 - 9 mixed success the effect still occurs in addition to a complication, and on a miss "the scrivener complicates things" in some manner per the description of the move (pg 12). The complications and the effects all have a great deal of room for narrative expression, to say nothing of the Scrivener complicating things on a miss. Some of the moves like "Bend Reality" and "Take Up Arms" have very specific effects and complications, while others like "Know Their Mind" have almost entirely open-ended narrative based outcomes.

    Certain moves will create a meta-currency called a 'hold' that, "you can spend for various effects depending on the move that granted you the hold" (pg 9). A good example of an action or move that generates holds is the 'Ultimate Sacrifice' which can, depending on circumstances, generate over ten holds and have a bevy of different effects. These range from "taking out a large number of minor foes" to "giving another wanderer one of your Playbook features for free" (pg 27). Holds generated by other moves tend to be less dramatic but still very useful.  

    The struggles system is pretty straight forward, mechanically speaking, but very narratively complex.  At its core when struggles are applied to a character it is represented by a -2 to a trait and all rolls associated with the trait (pg 29). Narratively, they are the inversion or over amplification of one of the core character traits, and represent an emotional challenge or trauma that a given character is facing as a consequence of their time on the road. Struggles can be 'cleared' i.e. removed from a character in several ways, but perhaps the two with the most narrative potential are 'snaping' and as a potential consequence of another character's ultimate sacrifice. Snaps are, "selfish, misguided, or needlessly aggressive actions, driven by the Struggle..."(pg 30). Each one of the eight struggles - two per trait - one for inversion and one for amplification, has a different narrative means and resulting form of consequence for clearing it. This system of 'snaping' at or out of something resonates with me on a personal level, as I am guilty of my fair share of such incidents - each one I deeply regret. I suspect it will resonate with most people as well, as 'snapping' is very natural response to extreme stress.        

    The sacrifice system as presented is a very potent mechanical / narrative tool for both players and the Scrivener. The system breaks down into two types of sacrifices: the 'Willing Sacrifice' and the 'Ultimate Sacrifice' (pg 23 - 28). A willing sacrifice is simply a character sacrificing something of high importance to them for a narrative outcome in pursuit of the greater good, while also suffering a substantial narrative complication as a result of the sacrifice. The 'Ultimate Sacrifice' while traditionally the sacrifice of one's own life, in The Long Road Ahead can also mean that something else fundamental to the character is sacrificed forever altering them and very likely having them leave the party. If handled well in the narrative by both the Scrivener and the players, the 'Ultimate Sacrifice' clearly can add a tremendous amount of weight to a character's death or other monumental selfless sacrifice. 

    

Art/ Tone, Layout, and Graphic Design 

    

    A friend of mine who is also reading through The Long Road Ahead summed up the art better than I could have by saying, "The art in Long Road Ahead is stunning. That big pink/lavender landscape opener? Let's [expletive] go!" All of this is true, the art is excellent and clearly showcases Tyson's skill in the medium of pixel art. Two pieces stood out to me above the others: the cover and an illustration of a meaningful and willing sacrifice.

Used with permission of Unicycle Games LLC.

    The cover piece reminds me of the start menu of a 1990s RPG video game after it just loaded. I can almost see the choppy animation. It depicts a party of travelers, presumably just starting on their journey, looking down on a city in the distance from the top of a hill with a ring world stretching infinitely into the horizon. I find the idea of a fantasy world organically growing from the remains of an impossibly ancient ring world to be fascinating and well worth exploring. It is an idea I intend explore to the fullest as I build out my setting and scenarios for my game of The Long Road Ahead. 

Used with permission of Unicycle Games LLC.

        The sacrifice piece (pictured above) features an image of the immediate aftermath of a major confrontation gone wrong: a knight or paladin is laying down their weapon, and it is implied - their life, to the shock of their comrade in order to save the life of a third companion held at knife point by red robbed cultists (pg 23). This does an excellent job of reinforcing and visually communicating the central theme of the rules text for a "Willing Sacrifice" which states, in part, "You put yourself directly in harm's way, give up something important to you, or compromise on an ideal or oath you hold dear, all for the greater good of the party and your quest" (pg 23). It is intentional, well done, and it immediately conveys the needed gravity of both a willing and ultimate sacrifice. Also, frankly I was a little moved by it. 

  

    The tone conveyed by the synthesis of art and text of The Long Road Ahead is very positive and hopeful. This makes sense, as one of key principals of the game is, "Hope is distant, but never absent" (pg. 4). This is further reinforced by the first of the Scrivener / Gamemaster (GM) principles "Make the Journey Hard but Rewarding" (pg. 105). The pixel art style and bright colors that dominate the layout scheme only continue to serve this hopeful tone. This is not to say that you could not use the systems that The Long Road Ahead presents to create a grim-dark game, but it might be a little tonally jarring. It is just hard for me to imagine the pixel art characters that dominate the book committing horrible acts in a grim and grimy Morkborg or Warhammer 40k style world.  

   Overall I like the layout and graphic design of The Long Road Ahead, it is eye catching and effective at presenting information in a readable and pleasant manner. One interesting aspect of the layout and graphic design, is the proliferation of text boxes throughout the book. Frequently Tyson and Lionfell will present an example of how the rules work in practice through a narrative example outside of the main text. These examples are universally excellent and I liked that each example was adjacent to, or otherwise collocated with, the actual rules text. This is a small thing, but it made everything very understandable and illustrated how the rules should function in the context of an actual game. Perhaps because of this proliferation of examples, the layout can at times feel crowded, but none of it feels superfluous. 

Playbooks and Character Options

    The Long Road Ahead has substantial options for players in the form of twelve character playbooks. These playbooks take the place of ancestries, classes, origins, etc. They are substantially less rigid than traditional classes (Fighter, cleric, rouge, ranger, wizard, etc.) and represent common motivation/ character archetypes from fantasy fiction. Because of this, each of the playbooks has options that align with multiple mechanical and narrative play styles. For example, "The One Who Turned From Shadow" has features that would allow it to make an amazing ranger or druid, a terrifying wizard or cleric, or a mighty berserker or blackguard. It just depends on what playbook features are selected and how they are narratively elaborated on. All of the playbooks have this level of versatility, or could have it with a very minor amount of narrative tweaking on the part of the Scrivener / GM.  

    Each of the playbooks is arranged into several sections: description, feature notes, first impressions, a back story generator, the playbook's features, and a milestone advancement section. An excellent and very welcome feature of each of the playbooks' descriptions, is advice on how to incorporate that given archetype at the table and the kind of impact it will have on the rating and tone of the game. This is good advice players and Scrivener/ GMs should take careful note of it. The back story and first impressions sections are handled by a simple set of tables unique to each playbook. They are explicitly designed to create a narrative basis for how the character appears to others, and a compelling reason as to why that character would even be on the road in the first place. While these tables are small, there is nothing stopping a Scrivener / GM from working with a player to develop custom options using the tables as guideposts.  

    Interestingly, there is no discussion of character ancestry. I suspect that is because it is immaterial to how the playbooks function. To be sure it may be critical to the narrative story of a character, but it does not have any bearing mechanically on the game. Unless, of course, the Scrivener / GM and the player want it to do so, and figure out a way to make it narratively meaningful in the shared fiction. 

    The playbooks, while excellent straight out of the book, are an aspect of the game I think Scrivener / GMs should be very willing to experiment with. The underlying systems are so strong that making cosmetic or minor mechanical tweaks to the playbooks seems very approachable and would be unlikely to cause any major system issues.   

Scrivener / Gamemastering Sections

    Fundamental to The Long Road Ahead, is the proverbial road and the journey along it that the party takes. Therefore, it makes sense that much of the advice contained in the GM/ Scrivener focused chapters of the book deal with making that journey and the world within memorable and dynamic for the play group.

    

    An aspect of the game I found fascinating was how it treats the Scrivener player as just another player at the table, rather than abstract away from that role into something beyond that of a normal player. To that end Tyson and Lionfell encapsulate many common narrative or Scrivener / GMing actions into nine distinct 'moves'. Which is not something I have seen done before - though apparently it dates back to the original Apocalypse World.  Each of these moves is further broken down into a 'hard' and a 'soft' variant. The hard moves "...are irrevocable and nasty, and the wanderers aren't given a chance to avoid it" (pg110). Whereas the soft moves are "...used to establish (either blatantly or subtly) threats or situations, and the wanderers can react..." (pg 110). Unlike the PC moves, which have more narrowly defined potential mechanical / narrative effects (as discussed above), the effects of the Scrivener moves are loosely defined and unbounded by mechanical / narrative constraints. I like this advice and how the follow on advice for constructing 'custom moves' is presented. It is intuitive, easy to understand, yet it is advice that can be applied to any other narrative game with only minor tweaking. 

    The Long Road Ahead places substantial emphasis and applies some structure (in the form of a helpful checklist) to session zero. The major reason seems to be because session zero is intended to be, in part, a collaborative world building exercise that defines the trajectory for the rest of the campaign. This session is intended to be where crucial details about the game world are defined, along with the entirety of character creation. When it comes to creating the world, the book encourages against using established settings, advising"...to use worlds without many fixed or established details, to give everyone (including you as the Scrivener!) room to improvise and roll with new ideas that arise during play" (pg 128). Thankfully, Tyson and Lionfell provide a couple of basic methods for starting to build out the world: adversary first, road first, or wanderers first. Each of these methods offers practical advice for how to get started world building as a group. 

 

    As one might expect Tyson and Lionfell spend a fair bit of time in The Long Road Ahead talking about storytelling and building narratives. However, at its heart The Long Road Ahead is a collaborative narrative role playing game, meaning that the way the game is played does not lend itself to traditional structured adventure/ scenario design. So traditional adventure design advice as presented in something like Matt Finch's Tome of Adventure Design, is likely not going to apply in the same way it might to a Pathfinder 2e game. Tyson and Lionfell go so far as to state as the fourth principal of the Scrivener / GM "Play to See What Happens Next" (pg 106). They further expand this out to "...let the players' actions especially the moves they make and whatever moves you think to make in response - determine the course of the story" (pg 106). To that end, they tailor their advice to support this more freeform kind of narrative experience.  This translates into The Long Road Ahead focusing in on the idea of "...the Road as comprising Arcs, which are in turn made up of many Scenes" (pg 172). Helpfully, in the 'Scrivener Appendix I: Designing Grand Designs' Tyson and Lionfell talk a little bit about how to use the 'Grand Design' of the adversary as a sort of guide to generate arcs. As someone coming from the more regimented world of 'traditional' simulationist TTRPGs, I found these sections very useful in providing ideas on how to marry up the overarching story of the campaign to smaller stories of the individual arcs. Though I must admit, I did wish the examples provided were expanded on a little bit more.  

Conclusion and Recommendation

    The Long Road Ahead is a game made by people with a deep love for TTRPGs, and narratively driven ones at that. They clearly took the time to develop out a game they wanted to play. This is shown not only in the very high quality of the game and book itself, but also by the authors' own words. Lionfell states in his bio on the Unicycle Games website that the genesis for The Long Road Ahead came from, "... when I realized that I was really dissatisfied with a particular indie dungeon fantasy game that was not doing the things I really wanted and expected it to do." 

  

    The heroic journey is a popular genre for fantasy fiction for a reason. It provides a tremendous amount of space for character growth, while also laying down an approachable framework for building the narrative within. It is an excellent conceit to build a TTRPG around, and while explicitly focusing in on the journey has been done before, a major example being Fellowship by Liberi Gothica Games. I would argue that The Long Road Ahead by virtue of what it does, focusing in on the struggles and sacrifices of the characters both narratively and mechanically, sets it apart in a meaningful manner. 

   Although I have not played The Long Road Ahead (it is the game my group is going to use for our next big campaign) I feel I can give it a strong recommendation based on the strength of the book alone. It is currently available via a couple of digital store fronts to include itch.io and drive thru rpg. Though if you can manage to find a physical copy I recommend you snap it up, as I fear they are few and far between. Especially since I bought two of them. 

 

Bleakness and Despair the Setting

 Charlie Ferguson-Avery's 

The Vast in the Dark: Expanded

My copy of The Vast in the Dark: Expanded.

Introduction

    Charlie Ferguson-Avery is an Ennie nominated artist, art director / co-creator of Feral Indie Studio, and two of his other works, Into the Cess and Citadel (originally published in 2022) and Into the Wryd and Wild (originally published in 2019), are major reasons why I have been drawn so deeply into the indie TTRPG space over the past two years. The Vast in the Dark, originally written by Ferguson-Avery in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, lays directly in between the other two works and is by far the most focused and tight of the three. This makes sense as the other two are books and are designed to provide GMs with larger toolsets to create different and, frankly, larger experiences/ settings.

    The Vast in the Dark: Expanded, is a short but oversized zine focusing on providing the tools for a GM to build a unique but very specific kind of world on the 'fly'. The zine also provides a menu of sub-systems tailored for the setting's flavor as well as the tools to generate the world, dungeons, and encounters. All of these can be used in part or wholesale, though it is likely some of the flavor and themes would be diluted if too many of the systems were cut out. The themes and tone of the setting are masterfully crafted with the art, layout, and text all building off each other in a manner rarely seen in any other TTRPG titles, let alone mainstream titles.

    

Art, Intent, Layout, and Tone

    Ferguson-Avery goes out of the way to make it very clear in his "From the Creator" section on the very last page that, "The Vast in the Dark was originally written in 2020, in the middle of the global pandemic, as I was trapped in home, and while I was dealing with some other scary things in my personal life" (pg 40). In that same section he further elaborates that, "Working on the expanded edition it has has become very personal to me and far more expressive than I had planned" (pg 40). Therefore it makes perfect sense that the sum of the art, layout, and tone of The Vast in the Dark: Expanded is in a word; bleak. It is other things too, it is hopeless, terrifying, and anxiety inducing as well. To the point that I am surprised that it does not include any kind of mention of safety tools, or content warnings. 

    Even before I got to the last page and understood just a little of the context for the work, I was floored by the emotional energy of the sum of the zine in a way that a TTRPG has never made me feel before. Moreover, it conveyed its emotional energy in such a visceral manner I have rarely felt from even world renowned pieces of art. The context of time, place, and creator, is to my mind, crucial to my understanding of why The Vast in the Dark is as bleak and hopeless as it is.

   All of that being said: the art, layout, and text in The Vast in the Dark is all excellent, both technically and at keeping the themes and tone consistent throughout. Blues, grays, whites, and a healthy dose of black predominate throughout the zine. The cover, a somewhat abstract image of three wanderers being erased by the environment of the 'The Vast', is an excellent sample of the both the style that predominates throughout the zine and its tone. 

   There is a distinct contrast between the brutalist architecture of the lodestones and ruins, versus the 'human' character figures scattered throughout the art in the zine. The ruins and lodestones shown, explicitly inspired by brutalist architecture, have a deeply alien, and cyclopean quality to them. Moreover, the ruins as described are fractal and liminal in their emptiness, populated by equally strange body horror monstrosities. Whereas, the images of the humanoids are messy, dirty, covered in odd little bits, and very well, human and vibrant - they clearly have personalities and are resisting erasure. The style of the humanoids more closely resembles the knight creature from the IV page of Into the Cess and Citadel, than it does the landscapes throughout the The Vast in the Dark. This contrast works well at illustrating that the environment is alien and hostile to humanoid life. This is further elaborated on by the image of a party of delvers discovering the 'Thespian', an unmoving multi eyed giant (presumably a member of the ruin building civilization) found only in a randomly generated room of the ruins (pg 22). The delvers are tiny and insignificant compared to the alien monstrosity towering above them. 

    The only image of the body horror monsters, referred to collectively as 'The Crawl', that make up the non-humanoid population of the The Vast in the Dark is hellish in appearance. It is a grasping thing of fingers, chittering skulls, bodiless legs, and eyeless cyclopean skulls all with thin skin stretched across the mass.  Frankly, it looks like the sort of thing the cenobites from Hellraiser would have designed. One of 'The Crawl', the innocuously named 'Griffon' is described as, "Dozens of hands writhe in the guise of wings and a face. Fingers twitch hungrily around drooling jaws..." (pg 39). All of the other descriptions are equally unsettling. The special abilities of 'The Crawl' are equally disturbing and some of them provide setups for truly challenging and trying encounters. For example, the Wyrm can mimic any mortal it has heard perfectly, "It prefers to ambush, luring with its many tongues" (pg 39). 

Core Systems and World Building Systems

Core Player Facing Systems

    The rules content provided in The Vast in the Dark are designed to be system neutral, but have a distinct old school feel to them. This is reinforced by their implied high lethality and in the choice of recommended systems provided on page 2. 

     Ferguson-Avery does make it very clear early on that, "The Vast in the Dark was made with the intention of being modular and easily adapted into any game" (pg. 2). Despite this, the zine does include some systems which make it what I might call a 'partial system' if they are all included wholesale. These include a system for replacing hit points called, "Grit and Flesh" which is designed to be, "a representation of superficial harm and pain tolerance versus serious injuries" (pg. 5). A draconian slot based inventory system that is reminiscent of Old School Revival (OSR) games like Shadowdark. And, perhaps the most crucial system to the tone of the setting is that of memory loss implemented in a devilishly simply system called the "Harrowing." Essentially characters enter the setting with a set number of memories and when they suffer an extreme hardship they lose one, and when they are out of memories they are essentially out of the game, as their mind is too shattered to continue. There are very limited ways to recover memories in the setting, and at least one of them involves stealing memories. The memories system, I suspect, would induce a fair amount of anxiety in players as their characters very self is slowly whittled away by their time in 'The Vast'. Which is the point. The final sub-system is more functional, and details the use of a D6 and various compounding resources in an innovative way of representing navigation in a world of only landmarks and no means of utilizing compasses or stars. It is frankly, brilliant, and I intend to use it in other equally strange settings where more conventional means of navigation would be unavailable. These rules taken collectively seem like they would do an excellent job of reinforcing the sense of hopeless struggle a party 'adventuring' in the setting would and should endure. But as Ferguson-Avery makes clear above they are modular and can be mixed and matched at will. 

      Ferguson-Avery uses phrases throughout The Vast in the Dark like "Save vs. breath" but nowhere that I can see in the zine are these defined. I happen to know what is meant because I can look it up in my copy of Into The Cess & Citadel - it means a save related to "moving and dodging" or in simple terms a dexterity check. This is a little frustrating and I suspect that the page explaining this terminology, present in both Into the Cess & Citadel and Into the Wired and Wyld was left out to reduce page count more than anything. This is a minor issue, but an issue none-the-less. 

Worlding Building and World Building Tools

   At is core the Vast in the Dark is a series of tools for creating a unique world and tone in a very specific setting. Thus it makes sense that the bulk of The Vast in the Dark is filled with tables and rules for randomly generating the world. The Vast in the Dark builds its world map using the same system found in Into the Cess and Citadel, that is to say a high level hex map generated using the random throw of a handful of D6s. With smaller scale hex maps generated for each of the larger scale hexes as needed. When the D6s are rolled they are rolled on top of the hex map and the face up number then equates to the contents of that hex. Each hex can contain one of three things: empty wastelands of sand and rubble, ruins of a truly alien cyclopean precursor civilization that sometimes contain settlements of bedraggled residents, or vast monolithic pillars of lodestone that hold up the distant ceiling. While the back page of the zine describes the system as "No-prep World Generation" I think trying to do this at the table would be time consuming. However, I have found that this system is great at providing a detailed starting point for fleshing out the world. It fires up my mind creatively speaking.    

    Each of the three core biomes (ruins, settlements, and pillars) is then further procedurally generated using D6s and the occasional other types of standard TTRPG dice. The pillars are the simplest to generate and use a system of D6 rolls to simulate a series of tunnels and caverns. The ruins are more complex to generate using a combination of a two D6s (ie D66), a D20, and a D12.  Given the number of possible combinations a GM might benefit from creating ruins in advance and making them a little intentional - especially if a specific plotline is being explored. One of the more interesting mechanics presented for both the pillars and ruins is a system for escalating the results of the die rolls higher, to ensure that as time goes on things get worse and stranger, to simulate the increasing alienness of the locations. Because of this escalation mechanic, the 'Pillar Events' table goes to 15 on a D6 roll, the 'Ruin Encounters' table goes to 22 on a D12 roll, and the 'Ruin Features' table goes to 31 on a D20 roll. The settlements are generated using a D6 and a D12. 

    If you were expecting the settlements in this setting to offer a break from the despair and hopelessness that runs rampant throughout zine, you would be wrong. For example, the most 'hopeful' of the entries from the settlement atmospheres table reads in part, "...The hedonistic denizens make their homes and work in communal spaces, most growing anxious or frightful at the prospect of being alone" (pg 14).

    Each biome, other than 'The Deep', has several factions associated with it. Each of these gets a short write up, quest seed, and reward/ mechanical benefit associated with gaining its approval. The 'Travelers and Denizens' page of the settlement section contains some of the shortest and most evocative descriptions of NPCs I have seen. These entries each include a colorful quest seed that hints at a potential larger plotline.

   The ruins do have a unique feature found nowhere else in the setting; the potential to generate an entrance to 'The Deep'. 'The Deep' is essentially the setting's high level or 'end game' area, albeit a tonally consistent one. Unlike the rest of the setting which can be generated randomly, 'The Deep', is set in the challenges it contains and the order they are presented in. Perhaps my personal favorite element of the zine is the monster that hunts the party in this region, I won't spoil much of it other than to say that it bears a passing resemblance to Machin Shin, "The Black Wind," from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series.  Similarly, I won't spoil the six challenges of 'The Deep', but suffice to say they are all a combination of challenging, depressing, and anxiety inducing, with the final one being perhaps one of the most emotionally brutal things ever written for a TTRPG from a PC's perspective. 

Conclusion and Recommendations 

    The Vast in the Dark: Expanded is a system neutral zine from Charlie Ferguson-Avery of Feral Indie Studios, it clocks in at a reasonable and very art heavy 40 pages. The atmosphere created by the conjunction of the art and text is that of a barren alien wasteland eternally decaying in an endless night. The bleakness is only punctuated by the futile attempts of the pitiful residents to survive and retain a sliver of who they once were, while their personalities slowly decay. The rules and world building systems in the zine reinforce this atmosphere exceptionally well building, with minimal word count, a world that will create a sense of anxiety and despair in any party unlucky enough to get trapped in this liminal hell. To that point, I actually have reservations about running this setting for my main gaming group, because I feel to do it well might run the risk of triggering some of my players, and perhaps even triggering my own depression. As disappointing as that revelation is, it does not preclude me from admiring the zine for its obvious merit as a work of art and tabletop RPG setting. 

    As much as I would have enjoyed reading more about the world of the zine, I can see that the setting presented by The Vast in the Dark is complete as it is - focused and done with clear artistic intention. Any additional content provided would have run the risk of diluting that expressive focus. In the same way that Eat the Reich is a masterclass in how to make a self-contained game and adventure, so too is The Vast in the Dark a masterclass in building a self-contained setting.    

     As much as I like this zine, and I do, I think my recommendation should come with a caveat: it is depressing, dark, and hopeless in tone. That's sort of the point. It deals with and focuses on themes that people can find difficult to deal with, yet must contend with in their daily lives. Even more so in what seems to be an increasingly hopeless and bleak reality in 2026. If your group does not like deeply dark settings then this is not something you should run for them, at least not without a very serious conversation about safety tools ahead of time. Despite this, I strongly recommend this zine for GMs that want to add a deeply bleak setting to their repertoire. I would also recommend it to anyone that appreciates a quality piece of dark emotional art, as I do.

Lovecraftian Horror by Committee

Joshua Fox and Becky Annison's

Lovecraftesque: A Story Telling Game of Eldritch Horror Mysteries 

 

Black Armada's Lovecraftesque Second Edition.

 Introduction

Lovecraftesque: A Story Telling Game of Eldritch Horror Mysteries is published by Black Armada and written by Joshua Fox and Becky Annison. It is part of a growing genre of cooperative narratively driven board games that blend elements of RPGs and traditional board games together. It might be better to call it a collaborative story telling engine more than a 'game' in the traditional sense of winners and losers. The phenomenal youtube channel, Quinns Quest, did an excellent review of several of these sorts of games late in 2025. The rules booklet is detailed and a bit dry with some art spread about to break up the text. The rules flow very well during actual game play, but take one or two games to really understand. The rigid-ish structure of the rules forces the game into a distinct framework that ensures the players' narrative has clear acts with a distinct arc. Despite this somewhat rigid framework, the game has no problem generating wild and unique stories. I would be shocked if any two of the narratives generated by the game's engine are even remotely similar - even if players use the same scenarios. 

Art and Tone

The art for the game is evocative and does an excellent job of communicating the fear of the unknown that is central to the cosmic horror genre. Some of the art pieces are more surreal than other pieces, but it all holds together well.  I would argue that the best piece of art in the game is either the box art or the board itself. The art direction and graphic design is also quite good and the text layout is good and easily understood.

The board for Lovecraftesque, showcases its art style quite well.

The intended tone of Lovecraftesque is very much that of cosmic horror, but not that of its namesake H.P. Lovecraft. Unlike some Lovecraftian games, Lovecraftesque makes a concerted effort to divorce itself from its namesake's legacy of racism and bigotry in a meaningful manner while preserving the tone of the genre he helped pioneer. This is a worthwhile endeavor and Annison and Fox, I would argue, succeed at it. The core scenarios and the expansion scenarios are all devoid of problematic elements, such as harmful ethnic stereotypes or allegories about the 'evils' of mixed race couples, that are common in some Lovecraftian games and stories even to this day. True, players could lean on these common tropes as they develop out their narratives but the game's text does everything it can to discourage it. I would further argue that many of the scenarios provided actively discourage this. For example, the scenario "Through the Waters, Darkly" from the expansion Waves of Darkness includes a multi-ethnic cast lacking in stereotypes. More explicitly, one of the expansions, Citadels of Shadow, goes so far as to turn the tables on traditional bastions of bigotry - entrenched power structures - and make these organizations the explicit homes of cosmic evil. Two of the scenarios in this expansion stand out as examples: "We Serve and Protect" which deals with police violence and "The Hidden Cabinet" which deals with corruption in the halls of power. I suspect both of these scenarios would be very hard to play through in 2026.

Moreover, the authors helpfully include two sections in the extras manual, "Lovecraft and Race" and "Lovecraft and Mental Health." These sections give examples of Lovecraft's bigotry and advice on how to counteract their influence on the genre during gameplay. I personally found these sections illuminating and useful to how I approach Lovecraft and cosmic horror. 

The extras manual. It has some excellent advice on handling H.P. Lovecraft's problematic legacy.  Read it, implement it.

 

The Ruleset

This is a cosmic horror game that can touch on issues that are painful or actively harmful to some people. However, Annison and Fox clearly want to make the game accessible to as many people as possible, in as safe a manner as possible. To that end the game wisely includes at the very beginning of the rules a section entitled "Making the Game Fun for Everyone," that details several safety tools that are more common in the modern table top role playing space, and an exhortation that they be adjudicated at the start of every game. These tools include a ban list and what are essentially two variations of the X card. 

Annison and Fox's rules are little complex to understand straight out of the box and require careful review by at least one of the players ahead of time in order to guide the rest of the group. However, once things get started the rules flow remarkably well during actual gameplay, as they follow a simple series of gameplay loops. The game can either be played using a custom scenario designed using the guidance contained in the core rules, or by using one of scenarios included with the game or the expansions. 

The game is divided into three acts and the conclusion: Signs and Portents, Impending Doom, Journey into Darkness, and the Final Horror conclusion. These acts are divvied into eighteen distinct scenes across all acts, the conclusion, and the epilogue. Each act has a set of rules that bind the narrator and the witness roles to specific limitations that help shape the structure of the emergent narrative. The rules change four times throughout the game at set intervals, allowing for the escalation of the cosmic horror from the subtle to the overt and violent in a very satisfying manner. 

The Lovecraftesque rules manual. It clocks in at a reasonable 43 pages.

During each scene one player takes on the role of the narrator another the role of witness (ie the main character in the scenario) and everyone else takes on the role of whispers. The narrator controls the story and can play mystery 'clue' cards to add an additional element to the narrative. These elements range from the subtle, like "Unusual Weather", to the more overtly strange such as "Horror Out of Time." Helpfully, each card includes multiple examples of what the clue could be. The witness player is supposed to embody the main character of the scenario and react to scene that the narrator is building. Whispers, on the other hand, are there to interject and add flavor to the scene. Once the narrator is done with a scene the roles are passed on to the next player in line and the process begins anew.  At the end of each of these scenes each player is required to write down what they think the horror is, on either scrap paper or a sheet from the conclusions pad included in the core game. These conclusions are kept secret from the other players in order to prevent collusion and to keep the Final Horror a surprise for everyone involved. This is also a good exercise for helping players keep track of the narrative and organize their thoughts while preserving a strong element of suspense. 

My badly spelled notes and conclusions from our second game.

This loop of narration continues until possibly the end of the seventh or eighth scene wherein the third act, The Journey into Darkness, begins. This third act is much faster, with the game play loop changing to that of each player adding a detail before passing the speaking role on to the next player as the narrative charts the protagonist's journey towards the final confrontation with the horror. The confrontation with the final horror can be trigged at any point from the thirteenth step/ scene through the sixteenth scene by any player who is actively the narrator. It is at this point that the final horror is revealed in a suitably dramatic scene.   

It is important to note that there are a couple of cards that allow the narrator to radically violate the rules for any given act of the game in a profound manner. These special cards can and will change the narrative and structure of the game in an extremely satisfying manner if handled well. 

Play Experience

Annison and Fox's ruleset took my play groups a little while to understand and implement the first time. However, once we understood, the rules were intuitive and worked very well; the core gameplay loop of passing the narrator role around the table worked exactly as intended. Both groups built on each other's additions in a constructive manner generating a plot and story of eldritch terror on the fly.

The first game of Lovecraftesque that we played we built out our own setting and characters using the rules for doing so from the rule book. Our first go at the custom scenario involved a disgruntled college football mascot as the protagonist. It ended with a rakshasa-esque cat and its minions devouring the personality of the protagonist. This game went well enough, though it became a little competitive around the second act as players tried to implement their own vision while incorporating the additions of everyone else. I think this was more do to with us trying to start off our first game with a bespoke scenario rather than an intentionally designed one.

The second game was played with a slightly different group of people, and we tried a scenario from the expansion Waves of Darkness dealing with an isolated research base in the Challenger Deep. This game started out with a bang during the first scene with the narrator playing the special card, "An attack", and destroying a large portion of the Challenger Deep research base. By the end of this narrative our protagonist and the supporting characters were dead, devoured by a monstrous hermit crab monster masquerading as a H.H. Geiger-esque city. This second time things went much smoother, despite two of the special cards being played and radically shifting the story around very quickly. 

During both our games things tended to start out a little silly but slowly became more serious as we grew attached to the protagonist and the suspense increased. During the final few story beats during each game everyone was hanging on the words of everyone else waiting for the final horror to be revealed. The confidentially component of the conclusions and note taking preserved the suspense remarkably well in practice. 

Expansions, Support, and Alternate Game Modes

Lovecraftesque has three expansions: Citadels of Shadow, Echoes of the Past, and Waves of Darkness. Each add several scenarios based around a central theme to the game. Citadel of Shadows adds scenarios focused around the malevolence and corruption of those in power. Echoes of the Past focuses on ancient and lost histories. While the final expansion, Waves of Darkness, deals with oceanic themes and the unknown of the deep depths. Each expansion is well written and thought out, with each of the component scenarios offering a very specific experience. The core game box helpfully includes a tray explicitly designed for the neat inclusion of all three expansions. This sort of nod towards practicality is very welcome! 

Interestingly, rules are included in the extras booklet for solo and two player game modes. This booklet also includes advice on legacy play across multiple sessions with recurring locations and horrors. The game does make it clear that doing legacy play does require players to generate their own cards for use, but it does helpfully provide guidance on how to do so. I suspect that there might be a way to hack this game in manner more closely resembling a traditional RPG as well, with one player taking on the role of narrator for the duration, and the rest of the players acting as a group of witnesses. Though, figuring out the details of such an implementation are beyond the scope of this review.  

Remarkably, Lovecraftesque has an official Roll20 module, that is pretty affordable and functional. It is even possible to conduct a hybrid game using the physical and digital product in unison. Though it is not a simple thing to do, keeping everything synched up between the physical and digital during the heat of game play. 

Conclusion and Recommendation 

Lovecraftesque does a very challenging thing; create a satisfying cosmic / eldritch horror game while distancing itself from problematic elements of the genre. The rules are fantastic and preserve the narrative suspense throughout by masterfully building and preserving tension. I would not play this game with anyone younger then fifteen or sixteen and even then it would need to be a pretty mature teenager given the potential for it to generate nightmare fuel. Regardless, I give this game my highest possible praise - I'll play it again and I am looking forward to it.