What Hides in the Dark
A downloadable pamphlet game
👉 Note¹: Community copies available, scroll down 👇
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You suddenly realize that the trail of your prey has taken you to a place you shouldn't be. There are thick trunks, and the sky is almost entirely hidden by the heavy branches, a little moonlight escapes through the gaps piercing the mist... you have been drawn to Brumvar, the "Forest That Calls". This forbidden place hides secrets, but there have been warriors from your tribe who have survived it, and you can too, find the light of night and guide your way through the stars, before the darkness or what lurks in it consumes you... and don't let your torch die out!
What Hides in the Dark 😈 is a solo survival and exploration game with paragraph-based story and map design. Inspired by TTRPG classics, Choose Your Path, mythologies and the fictional universe of Mour.
You are a hunter lost in Brumvar, the "Forest That Calls" and you must escape using the constellations in the sky to find your way. The dense forest makes it difficult for you to see and there will be few opportunities to look at the stars.
- Draw a different map using the stars!
- Choose one of three tribes and take advantage of the unique bonuses
- Items are rare, use wisely
- Your test dice runs out, be careful
- You'll need some six-sided dice (recommended 6d6) and a pencil
- You can die at any time, so choose your path wisely!
- You can just use the map rules to add a new possibility to any campaign and any system.
Note
This little game was created during #1pRPGJam in pamphlet format. It is also a project in development and is being tested and open for feedback from you and the community, and focuses on the experience of using constellations as a story progression engine. This game will receive updates at any time. Have fun and good luck!
👉 Additional Information: 1 player | 15 min | Age 10+
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Dear adventurer,
Buying this game, you're supporting my work. However, if you can't afford it, that's fine - if available, pick up a free community copy or send me an e-mail.
You can help me too:
Purchase
In order to download this pamphlet game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $2 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Exclusive content
Support this pamphlet game at or above a special price point to receive something exclusive.
Community copies! 👇
If you can't afford it or just want to try it out, you can download a community copy. Have fun!
Development log
- Update v0.2 - Minor text and layout fixesAug 14, 2024
- Some bugs to fixAug 13, 2024
Comments
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Took me a few minutes to figure out some of the rules but I can see you made some great clarifications to the rules in v0.2 which resolves my confusion. Came close to death several times but managed to find three constellations in my first playthrough and met a speedy death in the second go at it. Very fun and quick to play! Thank you for creating this!
Hi, that's great, I'm glad you enjoyed it. If you have any questions, feel free to share them, I still want to make a new version and improve the rules even more. I'll confess that it took me about three games to find the constellations hehe
Greetings! I find this really interesting, a mixture of styles in a very compact game with an elegant design. But I found many issues which need improvement.
1. On 'Observe the Stars' there's an "f" in "same constellation for roll 7 or less", that confused me a bit, then I realized you mean "or" and not "for".
2. When I gain +1/-1 to Observe the stars is it for the first roll? the second? or both? This isn't well explained in the rules.
3. I think the sentence for 'Journey' isn't very clear too, I took some time to understand what are torches for. It could have been something like this: 3. Camp (instead of Journey) "At the end of your turn you may use 1 torch to recover 1EP and use 1 item."
4. If I succeed in 21 where do I go? It says only for failure. I assume it is 13, but that isn't clear since the text is only after the failure.
5. Couldn't understand how to face a Challenge [CHA], I thought it was as said in Tests, but then I noticed the Difficult part... I think the 'Tests' are well explained, but in the Encounters I find only this [CHA], which is mentioned in Difficulty, and there the rules just say to roll 1d6, but then what?
6. What is this 1d6 always active of the barbarian tribe?
7. I never managed to draw a constellation since I only rolled less than 8 in my entire play, and since I need 3 constellations to win I think the game turned into something totally luck based on these rolls and all the rest of the game becomes blured. Maybe you could think in something to balance this (and here I get back to my question 2).
8. Also, let a little bit more of security blank border, maybe 5mm, not all printers can print closer to the paper border, my printer here is cutting all the page numbers, for example.
9. What if I don't have any EP left? What about Combat or Tests?
But I found this really cool, interesting and well designed, that's why I took my time to give you this feedback.
Hope to get any updated version so I can finish my gameplay! Haha
Thanks! All the best!
Heey! Thank you for your feedback. Some of the rules are difficult to break down in more detail because of the size of the game, but I'm already planning an upgrade after the One-Page Jam event, to go into them in more detail and also add more events. Let's go.
1. Yeap, I made a mistake, the "f" shouldn't be there, I'll fix it!
2. On action 2. " Observe the Stars ", you will roll 2d6 only once. If you choose Thos, the Navigators, you can add +1 or -1 to the roll result. E.g. if you roll 2d6 and get a 3 and 4, your total is 7, you can add +1 to get 8 and observe the stars... but, right now I notice that doesn't need to have a -1, just a +1. Thank for this quesiton.
3. Yeap, just 'Camp' is cool. Noted!
4. Yeap, I made a mistake again, if you Succeed you can go to 13. I'll fix it! THANKS!
5. Well, if you run an event and find a [CHA], you roll "Difficulty". If the result is 2, you'll need 2 Sucess to beat it. If the result is 3, you'll need 3 Sucess. Got it?
6. A 1d6 alwats active means that you have 1d6 that you can roll as [EP] and this die neve will be exhausted.
7. Well, it's a compact game, the luck factor is imperative, to tell you the truth, it's designed to be a "run or die" game. And that leads to question 9, if you run out of dice and need to fight or take a test, you die (in fact, I need to add that if there are no test dice, you fail immediately). You need to manage your actions well so that you rest whenever possible and how you use your dice. But I understand your frustration, my idea was to create a game that would be interesting to explore, once, twice, three times, but really hard, like a soulslike. In the next format upgrade, I'll pay more attention to that.
8. That's fair, I'll fix it.
9. Done on 7 =D
Thank you again, you can be sure that your questions will help the game evolve. When we create, we're often a bit blind to details, which is why this feedback is so nice.
2. Yea, but notice that there's one second roll to determine which constellation, that was my doubt (and for the second roll the -1 could be useful)
5. Humm, understand, but I think you explained wrong, am I right? If I roll 1-3 I need only 1 success to beat, 4-5, 2 successes to beat (and not 5 as you said) and on a roll 6 need 3 successes to beat, right? But how am I supposed to know that? That isn't in the rules, there're just numbers there and nothing explained.
6. This means I have many more chances to win with this tribe I guess?
Looking forward for next updates! Good work!
2. Just for the first roll.
5. Yes, that's it. Sorry, I'll fix the answer.
6. Well, you're saying.
See ya! =D