What Lies Beneath (2022)

Winner:
2nd best overall game in the BGG 9 Card Nano Game contest.

Synopsis:
You dream you’re in an old church. The familiar scent of thick stone walls and incense penetrates your sleep. A sense of unease washes through you. The comforting smell is just a veil. The core is much more macabre. A graveyard. Dust, bones, and dried death. You awake in the darkness. You’re underground. It must be some kind of crypt. Your surroundings are unfamiliar and you have no recollection of how you got there. In fact, you remember nothing. Not even your own name. A torch flickers on the other side of some rusty iron bars. You wait. Listening for sounds, watching for movement, anything to provide answers. Nothing. No one. Your eyes have grown accustomed to the limited light. The cell is small. You crawl over to the bars and find the door is unlocked. You listen. To avoid making a noise, you squeeze around the entrance. A breeze in the corridor brings the stench of rot. You gag. Still, a breeze means you’re not sealed in. There is a way out. You take the torch, determined to get out of here alive.

The game is played in two chapters. Each chapter contains a number of Encounters that you must overcome to reach safety outside of the Crypt walls. This is done in a style similar to choosing your own path. Chapter 1 takes place within the Crypt where you will face three Encounters. Chapter 2 takes place in the Mystic Forest and it also contains 3 Encounters. At the end of Chapter 2, you will encounter one of two bosses. The game contains a variety of endings depending on the difficulty chosen as well as your final score.

The game is a simple and quick solo dungeon crawler with elements of re-rolling and locking dice to complete sequences. The game also contains elements of role-playing as well as item management. The length of the game is 15+ minutes and is suited for ages 12 and up.