Lovecraft's Revenge - Darkness Level

First a belated Happy Birthday to Uncle Howard, who turned 126 this past Saturday.  And what better way to celebrate then with another preview of Lovecraft's Revenge?  And this time, we're revealing a feature that controls a good portion of the game play.

So you're playing a game in which your characters face terrors of all shapes and sizes.  What's to keep the terrors from showing up right away?  In fact, what's to keep beings like Cthulhu from ripping your characters' minds apart 5 seconds into your adventure?

While a number of factors influence what you encounter in each adventure, such as locations and random dice rolls, the main factor is the Darkness Level.  The DL is a number that determines how far you've entered into your horror story and how badly the universe is against you.  The higher the number, the greater the horror.

The Darkness Level is actually used to determine a number of factors, from the chance of encountering opponents bent on digesting you, to how many opponents you face, and to what opponents you face.

It also rises and lowers, depending on events in your game, your actions, and those of non-player characters.

Here are some examples:

The police officers enter a graveyard where, because the DL is lower, they encounter a lone worker maintaining the graves.  He seems friendly enough and answers the cops' questions without hesitation.

Now what happens if the Darkness Level was a little higher . . .

The officers get halfway through the graveyard when they hear the sounds of growls.  From behind tombstones, three ghouls appear and begin stalking our heroes.

Here's how an NPC's actions can raise the DL Level:

These ghost hunters enter a mansion and confront Lady Tundra, who has found a rare and mysterious book.  For several minutes, nothing unusual happens.  Then Lady Tundra, in her curiosity, decides to open the book and inspect its contents.

This raises the DL, and our heroes spin around to find several ghosts appearing and floating towards them.

In addition, if the DL gets too high, you could encounter Really Bad Things!

While investigating rumors of horrible beasts in this coastal town, two police officers encounter a Deep One.  Although they manage to defeat the creature, this raises the DL all the way up . . .

"Don't worry, Bob, I'm sure the worst is over."

Finally, we'll throw you one little bone.  Although most of the time, the Darkness Level increases as you move further into your game, there is also the chance is could go down, allowing you brief moments to catch your breath.  Cherish these moments, for they don't happen often.

Oh but don't drop your guard.  If the DL gets too low, a rule called, 'It's Quiet, too quiet,' kicks in, and things can fall to pieces really Really fast.


Lovecraft's Revenge is coming soon from Two Hour Wargames, and it's a game you won't forget.  It's also a game that doesn't play fair!