Dead Inside

Dead Inside is a 128 page horror RPG set in a conceptualized version of our world where the characters are broken vessels that need mending to be made whole again. While this RPG could simply be categorized as genre horror it is unlike average run of the mill horror games. Dead Inside was written by Chad Underkoffler, published under the Atomic Sock Monkey banner, and is currently available as a PDF from RPGnow for $13.00 or in print as a POD item from RPGmall for $25.00. A free 13-page PDF of the PDQ core rules is also available for download from the company site.

Time Required: Time intensive.

Core System: Roll + Variable Modifier vs. TN.

Requirements: 2 six-sided dice.

Playability: 5 ½. Not for everyone.

Complexity: 8. Potential learning curve.

Quality: 7. The PDF is well laid, however the art is inconsistent.

Originality: 7 ½. The game premise and character goals combine to form a unique game environment not entirely like that presented in any other game.

Grade: B-

Overall Rating: 7 out of 10 golden apples.

The two things every gamer reading product reviews wants to know is what the game is about and whether or not it’s worth buying. To find that out we first need to see if the design goals of the system were met and determine if said system- and it’s milieu- appeal to us. Because if either one of those fail to meet our expectations as a gamer then so, too, will the game likely not be worth our time, effort, and hard earned cash. It’s sad but the cold hard facts are no matter how well written the rules of an role-playing game are if the game premise doesn’t capture our attention and inspire us to want to play- or run it as a Game Master- then the game rules ain’t worth spit.

Dead Inside’s stated design goals and established premise are not that easily compressed into a simple two or three paragraph summation. For instance, from the introduction: “I wished to see if I could write a roleplaying game (RPG) on my own, which did all the things I wanted it to do. That is, a rules light game that eliminates unnecessary randomness, permits interesting randomness, encourages player choice when appropriate, and - when choice is not appropriate for a character in a situation- rewards player reactions and performance.” While those are well and clearly stated design goals they are also rather lofty. To properly achieve all that in a “rules light” game the rules have to be well conceived and the game setting really special.

Thus, before we delve into the system mechanics, let‘s first examine what this game is all about. Find out what the premise of Dead Inside is and then determine if the milieu built upon the presented rules works for us.

Premise: Dead Inside is relatively similar, conceptually, to Ronin Arts The Whispering Vault and Politically Incorrect Games Unbidden. Which is not entirely surprising considering the author of Dead Inside opens the segment of text quoted in the summary section above with “Phil Reed and I were talking about working on a project together”. That’s Phil Reed, as in the author of The Whispering Vault.

So does that mean Dead Inside is a clone of that game?

Not any more than Unbidden can be said to be a carbon copy of The Whispering Vault. Both games share certain conceptual similarities but the world, game goals, and systems they use to establish the game milieu are very different. For starters the basic game premise here is that your character doesn’t have a soul, whether they were born that way or their soul was stolen, your character is literally “dead inside”. Which explains the title. However that‘s not all. Your character has become aware of this deficiency. They were probably none too pleased, to say the least, about this dark epiphany.

Yeah, ok, but what does that mean? For starters it means that this game is not going to be for everyone. This game deals with matters of the spirit, sets out to establish one potential view of the nature of the soul, things which certain people may find to be inappropriate for any number of independent philosophical or religious reasons. That means that this is probably not the best game choice to introduce those unfamiliar with the conventions of role-playing to the hobby. If you, or your gaming group, has one of more of these people please stop reading now. This game is probably not suited for you. What? Your morbid curiosity kept you here? That’s the spirit! Sure you want to read more? Alright then!

Here‘s what the game says on the subject, “In DI, the soul is a mystical essence that is separate from yet dwells within the body. It rarely interacts with gross matter. It's energy, impulse, willpower, chi, force. It can be grown, wasted, burned, given, traded, stolen.”

So does that mean that the “soul” of a character has been reduced to a measurable attribute mechanic, or reduced to a commodity, like iron rations or bullets?

Game Mechanics: Dead Inside uses the same “Prose Descriptive Qualities” (PDQ) system that underpins Atomic Sock Monkey’s humorous tongue-n-cheek role-playing game Monkey, Ninja, Pirate, Robot. The PDQ system, taken at a glance, appears to be either a direct variant of FUDGE or a distant cousin offshoot inspired by that system. Both systems use adjective descriptors tied to a set of positive or negative numerical values. For instance the Fudge trait levels are: Superb (+3), Great (+2), Good (+1), Fair (0), Mediocre (-1), Poor (-2), and Terrible (-3). Whereas the PDQ system breaks their descriptors down as follows: Poor (-2), Average (0), Good (+2), Expert (+4), and Master (+6). Granted those are somewhat superficial similarities. Yet similarities nonetheless.

Yet PDQ appears to be a distinctive system, for where FUDGE has built its mechanics around a non-standard dicing game the PDQ system uses two standard six sided dice in a straightforward roll vs. TN. However, while the rule mechanics are simple enough to understand, the GM will need to read Dead Inside cover-to-cover to fully grasp the game milieu. Once the GM has done that they should be prepared to sit down with players to answer any questions that arise. Expect many, hope for few.

Yeah, ok, but what does that mean? Task resolution uses 2D6 + Quality Rating versus a Difficulty Rank (DR). The DR translates numerically as follows: Poor (5), Average (7), Good (9), Expert (11), and Master (13). This means that if you have a character with the Quality of, say, Alchemy- rated at Expert- and they want to make the Philosophers Stone you would need to know what the DR of creating the Philosophers Stone is. Let’s say it’s a Master effort. This means your character should have to roll 2D6+4 vs. a TN of (at least) 13. Or rather those are the basics. The rules allow for Upshifts and Downshifts, these being on the fly modifiers that that Game Master can apply to any given situation. For instance if a GM rules a character has a better than normal chance at achieving a task they can award an Upshift, which allows the player to roll the action as if they had the Quality one rank higher. Thus, in the example above, if an Upshift were awarded the character, in their effort to create the Philosophers Stone, would instead roll 2D6+6. However, the reverse also holds true, thus the existence of Downshifts.

Perhaps more important than task resolution is- or should be anyway- the mechanic that underpins the setting of Dead Inside, which is Soul Point Pool. This is related to Soul Loss, both of which are directly tied into the one quality every character has: Type. The only real problem I encountered here was that the text explicitly states: “The Initial Soul Point Pool of a character depends on their Type.” Then lists Dead Inside characters as starting play with 1 Soul Point, but doesn’t list SP for any other Type that I could see. In fact all the sample characters are listed as being “Average [0] Dead Inside”, the conclusion I made here was that everyone is supposed to start play as an “Average [0] Dead Inside”. If that is the case, which I believe it to be, the section on Soul Points needs to be rewritten. If not, then it needs to be expanded so that players, at a glance, can determine their characters “initial” Soul Points without having to search the document in vain.

That said the Soul Point pool is designed to function as a variable during play that can increase or decrease. The mechanic is (apparently) designed to allow for shifts in character Type as the game, and characters, evolve or devolve during play. Setting is key to understanding why the mechanics are set up this way.

Setting: The backdrop of Dead Inside is the world outside your window, with a twist. That twist being your character has come to the realization they have either lost a part or all of their soul. Terrible thing that. The setting- which is sort of a balanced yin-yang of two parts, the Real World and Spirit World- presents a highly conceptualized pseudo-cabalistic game environment in which the player character’s goal is essentially to heal their own broken vessel, manifested in game terms as their body, and regain it’s missing or diminished soul. This is accomplished essentially by journeying through the veil between the world of manifestation and going into the “Spirit World”. This being a sort of pseudo-shamanistic otherworld where Dead Inside characters can see, in waking visions, all manner of strange and wondrous sights.

This otherworldly realm sounds, on the surface, to be superficially patterned after Hades. There is one central city bounded on all sides by strange and wondrous landscapes, just as Hades is dominated by one central citadel. Yet, this is not Hades, nor any other traditional vision of heaven or hell. This is a between realm, not quite Limbo, yet perhaps conceptually similar. It is that place our veiled mortal eyes do not see. Relatively speaking it is as substantially different, and subtly similar, as is Assiah to Yetzirah. Here there be monsters, or rather wandering spirits. Spirits only the Dead Inside can see or interact with!

Stylistically this game would best fit into a category of horror role-playing for games designed to present supernatural psychological drama with shades of the occult pulp action genre. There exist very few games that fully fit into this category. Among these games are those with superficial similarities to the basic milieu of Dead Inside such as The Whispering Vault, Unbidden, and perhaps an older RPG-, which may have been the first to tackle this concept- called Lost Souls. Even so the characters and in game goals combine to form a rather unique setting that is not entirely like anything else.

Character Creation: As with Monnipir character creation is fairly straightforward:

First, players establish their character’s “Personality”; second, players write-up their character‘s “Back story”; third players must explain their PCs “Soul Loss“; determine how they came to the “Discovery” that they are Dead Inside; determine their Qualities (talents, skills, &tc); determine the “Type” of being they are; establish a “Soul Point Pool“; and fill in the basic physical characteristics and other miscellany.

Similarly as with Monnipir the only real mechanics involved in character creation appear to be assigning Ranks to Qualities. Which is to say there are four “packages” players can choose from. Each package outlines the type and number of Qualities a starting character gets. There doesn’t appear to be any dice rolling required. In fact the entire character creation process seems to be little more than filling out a back-story rationale explaining who your character is. Seems simple enough, though I’d rather have a quick and dirty random element rather than rely on players to be able to fill in the blanks on their own. Just speaking from my own personal experience here. Seems fine otherwise.

Once the concept of the game environment and setting milieu have been digested and generally understood by the players actual play should proceed smoothly once characters have been created. However, some GMs may feel the need to run at least one “test” game with their group to get a better feel for the system and it‘s unique setting. In fact I highly recommend that Game Masters first familiarize themselves with the system by generating sample characters and using those pre-generated characters to introduce players to the game. Once they have become familiar with the basics of the rules and world concept allow them to create their own characters. Again, that’s just a suggestion.

Dead Inside is powered by the Prose Descriptive Qualities (PDQ) system. This system is rules lite, however players are faced with having to digest a unique and highly conceptual game milieu and learn what the potential roles of their characters within that environment are. The game also presents a synthesis of ideas drawn from various schools of thought regarding the nature of spirit and the soul in addition to presenting a rather distinct cosmoconception that requires a complete read through to fully comprehend. There are thus certain myth-conceptions that bear addressing; such as aspects of the game metaphysics as outlined in the section titled “DI Cosmology” and elsewhere as touching upon matters integral to the ascribed nature of the spirit and soul.

As these topics may be seen as troubling to some I must caution against reading further as that is precisely what is about to be discussed. Why? Primarily because they have led this reviewer to mull over more than a few questions about the game. For instance I found myself faced by several curious quandaries. Not the least being what is outlined in statements like: “the soul is a mystical essence that is separate from yet dwells within the body”.

That is essentially describing the “Etheric Body”; what the ancient Egyptians referred to as the Ka. However the further statement: “It's energy, impulse, willpower, chi, force. It can be grown, wasted, burned, given, traded, stolen.” Could be seen as blurring the line between that which constitutes the quintessence and superluminal body. For Ch’i, being that transcendent vital universal energy permeating all things, is conceptually equivalent to Prana. This constitutes the subtle vital energies that the occult sciences have called any number of things from orgone to vril. Obviously this is a vital essence that permeates matter and the superluminal body, but does it fully equate to the superluminal body itself?

Not really. In continuing with the preceding remarks the game states: “When you lose too much of this energy, you become Dead Inside. This means that there is hole in your self that cannot be filled with anything for long; you hunger deeply for something you can't quite identify; you're gripped by an internal chill that cannot be measured by any thermometer.” It can be argued that in a philosophical model where there exists both soul and super soul that what is lost here is the lower, or animal, soul. However as the game makes no overt distinction between nefesh and ruah anymore than it does between Ka and Ba the point is rendered a bit blurred and mostly moot. Which is odd considering the fact this entire game is built around players running soul-less and soul-lost characters. It does seem odd that no over explanation is offered within Dead Inside’s outlined soul model. All of which makes me want to ask . . .

How is this possible?

One could assume that Nous takes over where Pneuma is lacking, sadly the game doesn’t expand upon matters of the Mind, much less delve into the relationship between Spirit and Soul. It would have been nice to see the game delve into such matters. Though, from a design standpoint, it is understandable why such matters were skirted. By skirting such issues a number of potential problems have been sidestepped, not the least of which is too closely identifying the game with a specific religious or philosophical mode of thought. However, consider the following from page 9: “If a Dead Inside regains his soul, he becomes a Sensitive; if he loses the last dregs of his essence, he becomes a Qlippoth (see below, Spirit World Inhabitants). When a Dead Inside dies without regaining a soul, he becomes a Zombi.”

Qlippoth are the cabalistic spheres of the inverse Tree of Life. This is not a common term so one assumes the author did quite a bit of research to find it. In cabalistic terms the qlippah are husks, empty shells, more specifically they are dead and devoid of life. I have to say, at this point, the game had me both a bit confused and sitting up wondering where the author was going to take this material.

Initial Impressions: My initial impressions of this game? It is not standard game fare. While the PDQ system does bears superficial similarities with the FUDGE role-playing system framework it uses standard six-sided dice, as opposed to the special dice employed by FUDGE. Even so those familiar with FUDGE like systems should really enjoy the game mechanics. Too, if I ever played any of the “World of Darkness” games I’d probably also find comparisons to make with the White Wolf line. However while I do see shades of The Whispering Vault and Unbidden here I never got into the White Wolf games, thus while I may suspect there may be more than a few passing similarities to something in one of them, you are mercifully spared such banal comparative commentary. Believe it or not that’s pretty much the sum total of my initial impressions. Kind of anticlimactic, eh?

The PDF: Distributed as a 7.1 MB ZIP file Dead Inside is uncompressed into a well laid out PDF with not entirely complimentary artwork. That there are but a scarce few illustrations within the document only draw additional attention to how bad certain of those included are. Sadly, the few pencil sketches included that are complimentary to the text have a fuzzy low resolution look them that makes them an even worse distraction than the other art. Otherwise the PDF is unlocked; search works, and pages print (for the most part) clearly and without incident.

Negatives: I had some minor problems with test pages on my printer. Specifically on page 70, in the header at the top of the page and in the text box, the letters “DI” printed as a solid block of black. I think this may have been a font issue as something similar occurred when I test printed page 81. Only there the section headings came out not as a solid black mark but with the characters raggedly filled in and unreadable. Otherwise individual entries are fairly well written even though some of the illustrations leave much to be desired.

The document could be edited to provide a clearer idea of what exactly the game is about, specifically touching upon its general focus, much earlier in the document. If you were to ask me I’d further suggest the current artwork be shelved for future print editions and a artist approached to do fresh illustrations using a central theme, perhaps translating the world of Dead Inside into tarot imagery portraying the journey of the Fool through the atouts as a freshly awakened Dead Inside character?

Positives: The document is well indexed with bookmarks and a static table of contents. There is a 22 page introductory scenario included in addition to a rather well done chapter on GM advice. Even though this game is supernatural horror it could appeal to a wider audience. For instance those following the fad sweeping the nation about dead people, or rather not quite living people who aren‘t undead but have died, sort of- as in Showtime‘s new series Dead Like Me- may find this game interesting. Dead Inside might even appeal to those following the Hollywood cabala fad. Seriously the game premise is more or less in the same general ballpark area, which means this could be used as a valuable teaching aide and tool. More to the point, in reading this game you are bound to learn something as you will find yourself moved to look things up. Like the word cynosure. Kudos to any game that is both entertaining and moves you to learn something!

Like so many fantasy role-playing games with trolls and orcs and elves there is no rationale given for the shape of the world beyond that’s the way the world was written therefore that’s the way the world is. When all is said and done the rationale behind the game is the last thing we should be worrying about. Yet Dead Inside is a game that leads one to question certain basic assumptions. While the PDQ system should be relatively easy for veteran gamers to understand the premise of the milieu, as outlined above, touches upon matters of philosophy and religion that some may feel uncomfortable with. Thus this game may not be for everyone even though it may appeal to armchair intellectuals and closet philosophers.

And what about that PDQ system? Was it consciously designed to address perceived faults with the Fudge mechanics?

In an e-mail interview with the author I asked the following: “On the surface the PDQ system bears a uncanny similarity to certain conceptual design mechanics in FUDGE. Was this an conscious effort to create a more straight forward and easier to understand (and play) system based on those design concepts, or did the PDQ design evolve independently of that system?”

The author had the following to say about that, “Actually, I'd never really looked at FUDGE until after DI's publication, though I'm sure that some of its ideas probably percolated into my head via gamer osmosis. Ultimately, the systems whose fingerprints I see on PDQ most are MSH -- Upshifts and Downshifts are Column Shifts by a different name -- and Castle Falkenstein. (I *think* that CF was influenced by FUDGE, but I'm not sure.) And emulation of the free-wheeling chargen and playstyle of MSH and CF was a definite factor in the design of PDQ, but I didn't necessarily see my efforts as a precis or summary of those systems.

Thus, despite the similarities, it does not appear PDQ was consciously designed with FUDGE in mind. Nevertheless the PDQ system could serve as a stand-in for the Fudge system for those who are looking for a simpler more straightforward system using standard gaming dice. More simply put: PDQ is not FUDGE, but it’s a bit FUDGE like and may thus be a viable alternative to FUDGE.

Now for the all-important question: Is it fun to play/worth buying?

That depends. If you think a game in which your character is soul-lost or soul-less and attempting to regain their soul sounds like fun, or something you’d like to explore with your gaming group, then Dead Inside is for you. If not then approach with caution. Otherwise the system is exactly what the game let on, a rules light system. It’s really very easy to learn, far easier by far than digesting the game world at a glance. And the rest of the stated goals quoted in the summary? Those are very subjective. Some will probably feel the rules did not fully meet their expectations while others will undoubtedly feel the rules exceeded them. It’s that kind of game.