"Dagon - The Necronomicon Gamebook" is a literary adventure (adventure game book, Gamebook, Book-game, call it what you like!), signed by Valentine Sergius and illustrated by Albert Dal Lago e Jacopo Schiavo per Meningi workshop. The project was born in collaboration with Rubber, creative agency of the International School of Comics of Padua and Peruzzo Graphic Industries, and was presented to Lucca Comics & Games 2018.
Go with the intro!
"It shall not find me. God, that hand! The window, the window! "
HPL
Sources of inspiration and style of "Dagon - The Necronomicon Gamebook"
"Dagon - The Necronomicon Gamebook" is a very faithful adaptation of some HP Lovecraft stories related to Cthulhu cycle"Dagon","The ritual"and "The hound"(In addition to some passages from"The dreamlike search of the unknown Kadath"). The game, however, is something more than a simple crossroads narrative, if you are interested in that kind of adventures, always of matrix Lovecraftian, we talked about it here. It is in fact a summa of some great classics gamebook and the latest incarnations of the Choose Your Own Adventure books. The adventure is punctuated by very complex and engaging mechanics and puzzles, which allow you to fully immerse yourself in the distressing atmospheres, in the intimate horror and in the abysses of madness, characteristics of the stories of the Solitaire of Providence. Even reaching the only truly positive ending is no small feat!
The story of “Dagon - The Necronomicon Gamebook” up to this point
In this adventure we will immerse ourselves, and it is not so much to say, in the role of a young man who, left alone on the ship attacked by the Germans, at the dawn of the Great War, his girlfriend will escape finding herself in the open sea off the coast of New England. Once we land on the mainland we will find ourselves walking through the foggy streets of Kingsport, where we will be forced to confront the growing madness and the monstrous creatures that haunt it, until we cross the tenuous border that divides Reality from the Realms of the Dream. Will we be able to stop the dark Yule rite and thus save humanity from a fate far worse than death, or will our minds break first in the attempt?
The map is only for those who participated in the Kickstarter!
Game mechanics of "Dagon - The Necronomicon Gamebook"
The rules system was designed to make the most of Lovecraft's narrative style. The setting is still fairly standard, as in the great classics of the genre [just think of Joe Duty ( "Lone wolf") Ed Herbie Brennan ( "At the court of King Arthur“)]: Pencil and 1d6!
In the first pages, after theIntroduction and Rules of the game, shows off the Diary with our characteristics. These are the Force, that is our physical prowess, the Will, that is, the ability of our mind to face the unspeakable horrors and the Resistance, the 10 damages that separate us from death. There is another very important trait, the level of Madness which will influence i Will rolls and those carried out in Realms of the Dream (we'll talk about it later). In addition to our features there is the section where to mark theEquipment that we can take with us during the adventure (only 5 items, including weapons).
Everything described so far, can be easily replaced with a simple sheet of paper by the most nostalgic players!
Last but not least is the Fighting card and Comparison table, which will be useful every time we run into an opponent, human and otherwise. The clashes in "Dagon - The Necronomicon Gamebook", although present (and from which it is difficult to get out unscathed), they are not as preponderant and necessary for the continuation of the story, as in most fantasy gamebooks. Being an adventure of the mold Lovecraftian, are the choices concerning horror and madness that will give us the keys to unravel the intertwining of the events we are experiencing. The point in favor of the system designed for this adventure is that physical death, or the definitive breakdown of our psyche, is not a mere consequence of an unlucky roll of the die, they are the cornerstone of the game, which will make us fully appreciate. our premature demise.
Dagon - The Lands of the Dream
Who better than him to introduce the chapter of the Dreamlands?
The real strength and distinctive character of this adventure is the possibility, in some paragraphs, to fall asleep thus ending up slipping into the Dream lands. This is a 10-paragraph section that expands the possibilities of investigation and madness for the most daring investigators!
"Dagon - The Necronomicon Gamebook ”… conclusions
Although today there is a great proliferation of role-playing games, board games, book games, etc. inspired by the work of Grandpa Theo (one of the countless nicknames with which Lovecraft signed), "Dagon - The Necronomicon Gamebook" that we hold in our hands, as if it were the manuscript that made us completely lose our senses, is a must for lovers of the genre as it offers an attractive challenge to face!
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