Crawling Out Of The Abyss

Crawling Out of the Abyss is a tabletop roleplaying game about waking up in the dark with no memories and no idea how you got where you are. Inspired by Souls-like game where death is not the end, Players take on the roll of a Forgotten, a lost individual hoping to escape from the abysmal place where they woke. Forge ahead into the dark, regain your memories and strength while building who you were and will become, and get back up and try again when the Abyss is able to take you down.

Why play Crawling Out of the Abyss?

1) Focus on Narrative Over Rules

You play a Forgotten, someone tossed into the Abyss with no memory and a burning desire to rediscover yourself and escape. The game is designed so that most of the mechanics of the game revolve around creating dice pools of ten-sided dice and drawing from a Tarot Deck separated by the Major and Minor Arcana. No previous knowledge about Tarot is necessary as short descriptions provide what you need to create your story. 

2) Player-facing mechanics allowing for solo or group play without a GM

Build the story on your own or with others, free of needing a Game Master. Stories form organically depending on the tarot cards you draw. Or for those that wish to relinquish some of the story telling to others, it is possible to include a GM to interpret the cards and help guide your stories. 

3) Fast Character Creation with Deep Character Growth

No back story needed beforehand! Just one or two decisions to decide their initial strength. The Forgotten’s experiences in the game help define them as you direct how they grow.

4) Made to be Modular and Adaptable to create an experience as quick or deep as you desire

While easy for deeper systems to be added or taken out, the core game will provide everything you need to explore the story of your unique Forgotten character. Expansions and a continuation of the story will be available in the future to dive deeper into the lore and expand on the mechanics if you wish, but will not be necessary to complete the core game.

5) Crawling Out of the Abyss is just the beginning for your Forgotten character

The character you create, with their backstory and how they develop during the game, can then be used as the start of a character in your next TTRPG campaign. Or follow the instructions that allow you to skip the game and use the system to quickly create a character with a rich history you can insert into any game.

Exploring and interacting with the variety of locations your Forgotten may find only requires:

This book

A pool of ten-sided (D10) dice

A set of other types of dice (D4, D6, D8, D12, D20)

A tarot deck

One of the printable character sheets