Review: What Lies Beneath

Disclaimer: I was provided a review copy of the game. Also, some of the links below are affiliate links (meaning I get a small percentage of the sale without extra cost to you or the publisher).

Written by Chris Scaffidi and published in 2023 by Fervent Workshop, What Lies Beneath is described as "a solo dungeon-crawler of dice, decisions and death" that is "structured as a branching narrative". We all know what this really means: it's a gamebook!

In case it needs explanation, a gamebook is a form of interactive fiction delivered in book format. The text is arranged into numbered paragraphs (or sections) that you don't read linearly. Instead, at the end of each section you are given a number of choices that direct you to different paragraphs, leading to different outcomes in the story. Some gamebooks are literally just this (like the Choose Your Own Adventure series), while others also have detailed game mechanics.

While a lot of modern gamebooks strive to be epic in scale (often having a thousand or more sections), WLB is relatively short even compared to the classics (241 sections vs. the standard 400 of Fighting Fantasy). What it may lack in size, it makes up for in depth and mechanics.

Let's start at the beginning. There's no detailed backstory; you are thrown right into the game. You wake up in a dungeon with no memories or equipment and an apparently infected arm. Then the game describes how you are supposed to use the book, and you get to make your character (just a few stats, really).

The next few sections introduce the various game mechanics by example (e.g. you are taught how Hit tests work by having you encounter a giant rat). This sort of tutorial and teaching only what's relevant at a time reminded me of Metal Heroes and the Fate of Rock — and I loved it there as well.

I found it really interesting how WLB handles testing the three stats differently:

• Hit tests are the most straightforward. You roll as many dice as your Hit stat, and you need at least one of them to meet or beat the target number.
• Wit tests are about dice manipulation. You roll a number of dice equal to the difficulty then try to arrange them into a sequence (or run). For each point of Wit you have, you can either re-roll a die, flip it, or increase/decrease its value by one.
• Testing Dex involves physical dexterity. You place two dice on each other to form a tower. You need to flick a third die at the tower from a distance in inches equal to the difficulty so that it touches the tower without knocking it over. (There is an alternative system provided in an Appendix in case you don't have room for or don't want to flick dice around.)
  

On the one hand, these mechanics often got me out of immersion. It's hard to retain the gritty atmosphere built up by the text when you have to handle dice to such a degree. However, engaging the mechanics has never been this much fun for me with a gamebook (not even The Sword of the Bastard Elf with its simple but elegant resource management or DestinyQuest and its gazillion combat abilities). Or perhaps I just like dexterity games.

Let's talk about the atmosphere. This is gritty fantasy through and through. You wake up behind enemy lines, and your only concern (at least at the beginning) is survival. You must balance risk and reward, because the game doesn't pull its punches (but you're never thrown into more trouble than you really ask for either). Descriptive texts are brief and evocative. Illustrations are plenty, but they're fairly small.

Getting out of the dungeon also works as a checkpoint in the game. You get to save your current stats and also spend your XP to improve your character a bit. When you die, you don't have to start over from the beginning (although you might still want to). From then on, the game focusses on overland exploration — this is where the low number of sections is felt the most. Since you can go in any cardinal direction, you essentially have four different stories, and not all of them felt particularly satisfying.

For gamebooks, I like to use a different scoring method largely based on the Lindenbaum Prize judging criteria (it just makes more sense for these games). Note that I don't weigh all the categories equally, and I score on a 1 to 10 scale:

• Literary Ability (20%) Well-written and evocative with good grammar and spelling. The narrative is minimal (it's mostly concerned with survival and getting back your memories), but it's not an issue. A solid 7 out of 10.
  
• Game System (30%) The mechanics are simple but varied. Beyond the three main test types described above, there are a handful of unique situations with even more dice manipulation or different dexterity-based challenges. It's all reasonably difficult. There is an interesting connection between Wit and dice manipulation, and in turn Dex and flicking dice, even if the mechanics can disrupt immersion at times. Never boring, though. And it's all explained succinctly and unambiguously (apart from how the distance is measured for Dex tests). Equipment tags and story keywords are also competently used. I'm giving it 9 out of 10.
  
• Story (30%): The narrative you experience is overall satisfying, but it's mostly to do with overcoming challenges. WLB is very much limited in scope, for better or for worse. Getting your memories back can be interesting. There are many different endings, and the consequences of your choices are meaningful. 5 out of 10.
  
• Technical Ability (10%) The section links never lead to a dead end. Everything is hyperlinked in the PDF. There is no ambiguity when it comes to resolving the mechanics (although measuring from the middle point of dice is annoying), and all outcomes are accounted for in the text. 9 out of 10.
  
• Miscellaneous (10%) WLB weaves a lot interesting concepts together into a coherent whole: tags and keywords, checkpoints, varied dice mechanics, dexterity-based tests, etc. None of them are unique to WLB in the realm of gamebooks (except maybe for the dexterity stuff), but the way they all work together makes it great. The layout is clear and easy on the eyes, and the illustrations are charming. 8 out of 10.
  

This comes out to a respectable total of 73 (it would've been 76 if all categories weighed the same). Although a fairly short affair, WLB is a fun romp with lots of replayability packed into its small package.

What Lies Beneath is available on Amazon, itch, and DriveThruRPG. You can also check out a preview on itch or DriveThru. You can also check out the preview of an upcoming prequel, Dwarfdom (again, on itch or DriveThru) — it looks just as interesting mechanically without being a repeat of WLB.

Gamebook Flowchart: The Cluster of Echoes #1 Nightshift

Inspired by The Outspaced Shrine, I decided to map my gamebook ventures using Graphviz. Transcribing my written notes into the new format is tedious, but I have a high tolerance for monotony. I've only completed one so far: the first volume in The Cluster of Echoes series, Nightshift (which I talked about here).

You can get it in svg or svgz format. Needless to say, it contains spoilers!

Review: The Cluster of Echoes #1 Nightshift

Nightshift is a horror gamebook written by Victoria Hancox and was originally published in 2019. It is a self-contained product, but the most recent offering (2nd edition) ties it to the author's later gamebooks, forming a series called The Cluster of Echoes. I should note that the connection is fairly surface-level; I actually started with book #3, and it didn't impede my enjoyment or understanding one bit. Apart from the sixth and final book in the series (Game Over), you can play them in any order you like.

In case you're not familiar with the tern, a gamebook is a form of interactive fiction. The text is organised into numbered sections (or paragraphs). Most sections offer you multiple ways to progress, and depending on your choice you are directed to another section to continue, hopping from section to section in the book.

Writing and Art

The text is conversational but competent. Apart from a few typos and missing commas, it's all pretty clean. Because the game is structured very much like a puzzle, I didn't really experience a sense of dread, but there were definitely a couple of horrific scenes in there.

The game has 400 sections in total (reminiscent of old-school gamebooks) plus one that ties it to the series, with 42 "bad endings" and one victory paragraph. The interior images are all black-and-white. I liked some of the filler illustrations meant to break up the text. The art ranges from serviceable to off-putting; some of them are quite pixelated for some reason as well.

Mechanics and Structure

Nightshift is much closer to the Choose Your Own Adventure series than Fighting Fantasy in that no randomisers (cards or dice) are used. However, much like old-school gamebooks, it is about collecting items, gathering clues, and solving puzzles. There are a few cases where you can progress by sheer luck, but it's never because of a die roll.

Although I enjoy elaborate mechanics as much as the next nerd, I've come to like this approach just as much — as long as the puzzles are varied and challenging, and there are ample opportunities to gather information to help you make the right choices.

There a few riddles in there, and another puzzle or two test your knowledge of the real world, but most challenges require an item or a specific action for which you had hopefully found a clue earlier on. There are a couple of these that you can easily miss out on but absolutely cannot finish the game without. It can be a little frustrating unless you keep track of your runs.

There's one red herring in particular that I thought was both ingenious and cruel. Not everyone you can talk to is a friend (although most of the time you can tell who's on your side).

Story and Gameplay

You work in a hospital as a nurse. It's the night shift, and you're just waking up from a nap between two emergencies. You immediately realise something's wrong when you find your colleague murdered, and the murderer is still around... Can you survive the night shift?

As you explore the hospital, it becomes apparent that you're not in Kansas any more. Creeping along the dark hospital corridors, it all starts to feel like you're in a nightmare, with an appropriate cast of creepy characters and surreal environs. It's not just a terrifying hospital; it's weird and otherworldly too, which makes it feel much more like a game, but it also means there's always a chance of something crazy awaiting you in the next room, rewarding exploration with a clue, description of a gory scene, or an interesting way to die.

Navigating the environment is IMHO unnecessarily challenging. Although a lot of times various sections of the hospital are named explicitly ("if you want to enter the vascular ward, turn to XX"), there were still numerous "left or right" choices without any hint whatsoever. I'm told that the hardcover version actually contains a map of the hospital (but it's also available on the author's website).

Summary

Overall, Nightshift is a great little puzzle if you're not squeamish about body horror (it takes place in a nightmarish hospital after all), and you don't mind the occasional "you hadn't picked up the right item so you die" sections. It's not perfect by any means, but it's a decent romp, especially from a first time designer.

Nightshift is available in softcover, hardcover, and Kindle formats on Amazon (com, uk, de, etc.).

Lindenbaum 2021/22: The Eldritch Key (by Tiago Filipe Costa)

This is part of a series where I briefly talk about the Lindenbaum Prize winners and runners-up. This is a friendly gamebook writing competition, organised yearly by Stuart Lloyd. The entry discussed below was submitted for the 2021/2022 competition and won a Commendation Award. You can find the details of the competition here, links to all entries here, and the announcement of the winners here. Needless to say, all of these are available for free in PDF.

In this gamebook you play a master thief who must steal a dangerous artefact known as the Eldritch Key. Although there are multiple routes to get there, the end game plays pretty much the same, and there's only one "good ending".

The game is set in the lawless city of Makivel, located on Anarlan, the Prison-Island. There's magic and weird creatures, and the game has explicit Cthulhu mythos influences.

The combat mechanics are fairly involved: 2d6 + Dexterity vs. 2d6 + Dexterity, greater wins. Then the loser rolls 2d6 + Avoidance vs. the winner's attack score. If the defender succeeds, they avoid damage. Otherwise, the weapon's damage is deducted from the defender's HP. The character's basic stats are fairly decent, but to reliably defeat the stronger foes (especially towards the end), a handful of items are needed to boost the character's stats. I very much enjoyed the item-hunting aspect, but the endless rolling without any decision-making definitely felt tiresome.

At the beginning, the player chooses three abilities from a list of six (things like lockpicking, dark vision, or clean kill). These abilities can be used when explicitly offered as an option, and they are largely responsible for facilitating multiple ways to get to the finish line.

The writing is all right. It's simple, apart from a few embellishments here and there, much like an adventure game; the emphasis is definitely on solving the game like a puzzle.

The game features 100 sections, and the whole document has about 13,300 words, including the rules and background info. Apart from the fights, there are only a handful of game-ending choices (they can be avoided by gathering info or having luckier dice).

Things to improve upon:

• the combat system involves too many rolls (this is especially true near the end)
• the inventory system is nice; if expanded upon, I definitely want more of this
• it's unclear whether damage from wielding multiple weapons stack (I assume the answer is yes)
• a few of the "save or die" paragraphs felt too punishing particularly the loose stone block, but to be fair, some of these can be ignored with the right abilities and/or items
  

Lindenbaum 2021/22: Archer (by Morten Gottschalck)

This is part of a series where I briefly talk about the Lindenbaum Prize winners and runners-up. This is a friendly gamebook-writing competition, organised yearly by Stuart Lloyd. The entry discussed below was submitted for the 2021/2022 competition and won a Commendation Award. You can find the details of the competition here, links to all entries here, and the announcement of the winners here. Needless to say, all of these are available for free in PDF.

In this one you play a young hunter. You need to gather the funds to enter an archery competition and be ranked among the best three to have enough money to support your family (and perhaps allow you to take some time off adventuring and travelling). In this sense, some outcomes are better than others, but you don't need to win the competition to get a "good ending".

Mechanically, it's very straightforward. You need to keep track of your money (you need ten crowns to enter the competition) and your single stat, Concentration. Tests are rolled on 2d6, and you succeed on an equal or lower result. Concentration begins at 8, but it may be modified depending on your actions. Difficult tasks are usually represented by adding a number to your roll, or sometimes having you roll twice or with a different number of dice.

The author writes in a competent manner, using fairly descriptive and evocative prose. Word choices are mostly fine, and the details mentioned indicate a clear vision in the author's mind. However, the text is full of typos and grammatical errors. It's not worse than what an average internet user may encounter in any international space, but it still felt distracting.

The whole game consists of only 83 sections (numbered from 1 to 93, with a handful of missing numbers, and one unreachable paragraph), in circa 20k words. There are 20 bad endings and 5 good endings. It seems pretty rough, and luck obviously plays an important role, but overall I'd say it's pretty fair. Maybe a few of the bad endings could have had a few more steps, but I'm much more tolerant of harsh consequences in a short gamebook. Plus, if you could wander about too much, it would lose focus and stop being a short gamebook in the first place.

Things to improve upon:

• spelling and grammar (the prose would otherwise be pretty good)
• making sure all sections are reachable
• a few times the wording on modifiers was ambiguous (although the intent is trivial to work out)
• the game didn't really need both silver and gold coins; one of them should have sufficed
• I missed one particular outcome winning 1st prize in the competition but it's also sorta humbling not having it in the game
• the deal with the pouch of dust felt disconnected; maybe because of the length constraints? I thought it was a little random, to be frank