Another Horror Bundle - Best Left Dead

[ffutures]

The first of the Bundle of Holding horror RPG offerings in the run-up to Halloween, a rules-light cross between conventional fantasy RPGs and horror:

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/BestLeftBuried

Best Left Buried talking points

This all-new Best Left Buried Bundle, part of the site's annual "October Horrors" sequence, presents Best Left Buried, the rules-light fantasy horror RPG from SoulMuppet Publishing where the monsters are scary and the players are scared. Players take the role of Cryptdiggers, professional dungeon-divers who venture underground in search of riches. Cryptdiggers brave dark tunnels, solve cryptic puzzles, and face terrifying monsters. Characters who survive might be permanently changed by their experience. They are often broken, beaten, and diminished – as ruined as the crypts themselves.

Taking an old-school minimalist approach, Best Left Buried assigns characters just three stats (Brawn, Will, and Wit) rated 0, +1, or +2, plus all-important scores for Vigour (Brawn +6) and Grip (Will+4). To make an ability check, you roll 2D6+stat, trying to score 9 or higher. Many character Advancements and situations give you "Upper Hand" or "Against the Odds" conditions that change the number of dice you roll. Gameplay is based on mitigating risk by increasing your dice.

Cryptdiggers lack a wide array of spells and cool abilities – they start with one cool trick and five or so useable items. Combat isn't balanced or fair. Enemies are real antagonists doggedly pursuing their goals. Getting into anything resembling a fair fight is a terrible idea. To win, players should scrape together every single advantage to tilt the odds in their favor.

The thrill of success in Best Left Buried comes from overcoming challenging situations. Deadly challenges aren't primarily for killing player characters, but a stage for showing off their skills and ingenuity. For instance, deciding the best approach for a fight is a type of puzzle. The simplest approaches are also the worst and cost the most Grip and Vigour. Monsters with idiosyncratic abilities or behaviors usually telegraph their weaknesses. Observant players can discover and exploit the flaws, creating more varied and interesting encounters.

Combat uses a simple Zone-based range system and Wit-based initiative. Attacks have a target number from 7 to 11. Roll 3D6, add two of the results to beat the target number, then deal the third die's result as damage to the opponent's Vigour. You can spend Grip to reroll dice and to cast magic – but be careful, because Grip is difficult to recover, and if you lose all your Grip points, you basically go nuts and are out of the game. A damage die of 6 is a Critical Hit and inflicts an Injury. Best Left Buried characters accumulate many debilitating Injuries and permanent Afflictions (despair, fear, various neuroses and manias, even an Unholy Communion with a Dreaming Ancient).

Afflictions are always severe and can present a roleplaying challenge. The preface to the Cryptdigger's Guide includes a Content Warning that sets expectations. "Best Left Buried explores topics including violence, mental illness, death, injury, trauma, ableism, mutilation, body horror, cannibalism, blood, addiction, and drug use. In particular, Best Left Buried contains extensive mechanics for psychological Afflictions. Many resemble real world mental illnesses, warped to the extreme and viewed through a 'gallows humor' lens. These Afflictions are not commentary on real mental illness or a condemnation of people's medical conditions. Best Left Buried shows the powerful and worldchanging acts anyone can make – even if living with physical and mental illnesses."

We provide each title complete in .PDF. Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these ebooks have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their devices. (By publisher request, the DriveThruRPG versions of these files are inobtrusively watermarked.)

Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to this Best Left Buried offer's designated charity, Direct Relief. Direct Relief sends protective gear and critical care medications to health workers, with emergency deliveries to medical facilities across the US and to regional response agencies across the world.

The total retail value of the titles in this Best Left Buried Bundle is US$122. Customers who pay just US$7.95 get DRM-free .PDFs of the Deeper compilation (retail price $25), funded in a September 2020 Kickstarter campaign, of the three Best Left Buried core rulebooks – Cryptdigger's Guide to Survival, Doomsayer's Guide to Horror, and Hunter's Guide to Monsters, plus the free Zini Edition quickstart rules – along with three short "Expanded Character Options" supplements (retail $9 each): Ancestries, Consequences, and Heroic.

Those who pay more than the threshold (average) price, which is set at $19.95 to start, also get our entire Bonus Collection with five more titles worth an additional $70, including the 308-page sandbox campaign Throne of Avarice (retail $20) and four old-school hexcrawl modules (retail $12.50 each) – Beneath the Missing Sea, Darkling Seas of Islesmere, Spoils of the Gorgon Coast, and Spy in the House of Eth.

I'm not entirely convinced by this one - it's an interesting idea but the fantasy world setting means that some of the more interesting horror tropes don't work so well, and there is probably a tendency for games to turn into conventional "loot, kill and run" dungeon-bashing. You do get quite a lot for your money, and if you're into fantasy RPGs it's probably worth a look.