Welcome in everyone, sit down by the fire and have a listen. This week we’re taking a look at Crypts of Obscurum, a pen and paper, playing card-based dark fantasy role-playing game from Oh Hi Games.
Overview
Crypts of Obscurum is a prewritten, captivating solo or cooperative dungeon crawl tabletop adventure that pits you against the ancient horrors lurking below in an ancient crypt. Lured down by a grimoire filled with spells, you travel room by room, using a deck of standard playing cards and a set of polyhedral dice. A narrated, multi-choice experience unfolds as each card is flipped, revealing each new room and its contents.
Well written and frequently updated, the PDF version is currently set to ‘Name Your Own Price’ on Itch.io and physical copies recently showed up at DriveThruRPG and Lulu’s if you’re a fan of matte covers (♥).
Check out my review/breakdown below and be sure to check out Crypts of Obscurum once you’re done.
Character Creation
Attributes include Guts, which measure strength and the ability to resist fear; Skill, which focuses on dexterity and stealth; Insight, which is similar to intelligence and measures one’s arcane abilities as well as ‘diplomacy and wisdom’; along with Resolve, which measures the ability to resist damage and bodily afflictions such as poison. Different wording, but the same basic idea, and I find the renaming of stats refreshing, albeit they are basically the same as in other RPGs.
There are three types of characters in Crypts of Obscurum (CoO), my favorite choice being the Occultist, followed by the Cutthroat, and finally the Templar. You’d think it would be the opposite way around, but it’s fun, I like to play out of character instead of someone/something that is more attuned to my general nature. Each type has its advantages and disadvantages, of course, and is further broken down by a secondary background choice which further deepens your character. Some examples are Ritualist and Oracle for the Occultist, Deadeye and Miscreant for the Cutthroat, and finally, a Predicant or a Zealot for the Templar. There are three choices for each and each background gives helpful bonuses to the character’s attributes according to their chosen background.
Distributing background bonuses is where the game takes a different turn, perhaps not unique, but for me it’s a competent new idea, customizing your stats by choosing which type of dice apply to what stat.
From the rule book:
“For example, if you’ve chosen a Miscreant Background, you’re going to rely on your Skill often. So, it may be best to assign the 1d12 to that attribute, giving you a chance to roll high. Followed by 1d8 to your Insight, 1d6 to your Resolve, and 1d4 to your Guts.
When making tests, you will always use the allocated dice. If the test is impossible, you automatically fail.”
Tests are discussed earlier in the text, in fact it’s brought up in the Introduction under ‘Performing Attribute Tests’ which is… kinda of a weird place to put it if you ask me. Not a big deal, but it certainly would have driven me nuts trying to figure out how to roll a test later on as that would be the last place I’d look if at all. Preferably “Introduction” should be called something closer to what it is, the beginning of the rules that tell you how to play.
Hit Points and Sanity
Each player starts out with 40 HP and 15 SP (Sanity Points) if playing solo. 25/12 for two players and 20/10 for three players. It’s not specified if more than three players can participate and I’ve no way to test that myself; but feel free to try, and I’d personally suggest 15/7 per player for a four-player game, just to follow the suggested pattern.
Starter Weapons
Weapons have not only a damage ratio (d4-d8) but they also have secondary attributes that add a Weapon Ability with each of my two weapon choice’s. For example I chose a Force Cudgel and an Arbalest, which have a Cryptic and Rapid abilities respectively. The cryptic ability allows me to disorientate my opponent on a critical strike, and the Rapid ability allows me to fire off two shots per combat turn. These choices more than make up for my character choices lack of ‘Guts’ in my opinion.
In addition there is a Legendary Weapon Generator and armor that can be acquired later through various choices and experiences.
Magick
Note the added ‘k’ which was introduced by Aliester Crowley as a means of differentiating stage magic from the practice of magick by practitioners such as himself. Casting spells comes at a cost, peering into the Tome of Obscurum, a leather bound grimoire containing various spells that causes ones sanity to lower by one point per spell and if you roll a 1, it causes a pandemonious event and where one must roll on the Pandemonium Table.
Any character can cast spells without restriction which is an aspect I really enjoy and often is a mechanic I employ on own.
Some of the more interesting spells (and they are all interesting) include Grasps from the Void, “The target is overwhelmed by unseen demonic entities. They become grappled” and Putrid Needles, which causes “A flurry of hissing needles make their mark. Deal 1d4 toxic damage to the target. They become afflicted.”
Grappled and afflicted are statuses and ailments and can plague both the player and enemies and are quite common in many games. Immunity is also possible for both players and monsters as well, and this plays very well into the narrative backstory of both the written and imagined aspects of the game. Not a unique mechanic by any stretch but well composed and implements additional details that add to the overall game play just as expected.
Gameplay
To start, a standard set of polyhedral dice are needed, two sets of different colors are suggested and helpful. You’ll also need a deck of playing cards, something to write with and if you like a character sheet or two and someplace to write down notes and such.
Death comes often, CoO is not meant to be an easy game and has an enough content and choices to keep things from overlapping for awhile. Even when you encounter a ‘room’ you’ve entered before you can simply make another choice, either randomly or because you know better this time. When you reach zero hit points, you’re dead.
Gameplay is rather simple, lay out nine cards, minus the Aces and Jokers, and then lay down a final 10th card from the Ace pile as the boss card. Each card represents a specific type of room with its own varied events, and situations.
And this is where the game gets really interesting. Each room (card) has a unique title and introduction, for example “The deep holds many secrets.” Which introduces often descriptive room details, followed by a set of multiple choice statements which lead to different scenarios and results.
(SPOILER)
“You step carefully along the passage, your feet falling on spots you’re sure are safe. This prolonged method of travel strains your sense of impending doom [Sanity Check]. Though tiresome, you safely traverse the bone halls.”
(/SPOILER)
The result of one of my choices, phew! That could have ended quite differently!
Combat
Obviously combat is an important topic to cover and can often be a deal breaker for lots of people. CoO offers some interesting combat mechanics. Combat is completed by following a set of phases. Start, Player/Ally turn, Enemy turn(s) and finally, and End of Round happenings are dealt with, and if needed, this pattern is repeated until the desired results are achieved.
Characters that are currently lethargic can’t do anything during the current round.
From the rule book:
“When a player makes an action that has no target, you will often need to make a Contested Test. To make one, choose the enemy with the highest Combat Value (CV) die. For example, if facing two enemies, one with CV(1d6) and another with CV(1d8), all contested rolls are made against the CV(1d8) until it is vanquished. If targeting an enemy instead, the difficulty uses their respective CV.”
Aside from the anticipation of the dice rolls, some of which can be a bit predictable and thereby avoided altogether, which is my only real complaint, the game is quite fun and challenging. There’s a lot of content, and even results where you end up pulling a card from previous attempts there are still various other choices that can be made if you’ve already ‘visited’ this room previously adding to the overall replayability.
Ememies are varied, and their details and stats listed when encountered, and are of course incorporated into the room in a curated and manicured sort of way.
The room descriptions are detailed, but not over detailed and are well written and quite interesting. For example:
(SPOILER)
“The heat emanating from this room can be felt even through the solid walls of the crypt. As you enter, you immediately identify its source: a writhing mound of corpses engulfed in an inferno of hellish flames.”
(/SPOILER)
Aside from a some rather forgivable occasional typo’s here and there, the game is quite fun, offers some unique, to me, mechanics along with some more common ones, but overall is a fun and exciting experience that’s provides a lot of depth, replayability and challenge. I’m most certainly ordering a physical matte copy sooner than later.
And that’s it for this week, and with that it’s time to start fresh again as things hopefully clear up a bit going forward. Spent the weekend camping with family, celebrating the first day of Summer. One of hopefully many trips this year. Thank you all very much for attending, please take care of yourselves and watch out for one another. Appreciate you all very much, have an amazing week.