This is a strange, clever and oddly beautiful book. Essentially a bizzare library generator, the descriptions are highly evocative and creative. You can get loads of ideas just from flicking through it. It is intended to bo used at the table to create the environment on the fly, but I cheated and used it as a pre-generator as my group has a poor inactivity threshold. Lots of lovely fantasy art from the early 20th century (copyright expired), I've discovered a few artists I hadn't heard of. I've been using it in a USR adventure so I had to recreate the stats for that, but it wasn't hard. The players loved this part of the adventure and it certainly put them outside their comfort zone. Emmy Allen/Cavegirl is one of the most imaginative and different RPG writers out there at the moment. I look forward to reading more of her stuff. Addendum: It now has art from the awesome Alec Sorensen (Electric Bastionland) which makes it even better.

Excellent, eminently playable supplement. Loaded with atmosphere and imagination, this can be dropped easily into just about any game or campaign. The Library can function either as a brief side-quest or visit or be expanded into the site for a full adventure.

Would love to see a 5E conversion for the monsters, but that's a minor quibble. Tons to love here, and makes a great addition to any DMs toolkit.

I bought the POD copy (dont like PDFs) and am exceptionally happy with the content. The thing i liked the most about it was that it seems nearly plug and play into any campaign you're running. Is there a local alchemist in this town? They could know about the garden and once they trust the Characters... BAM - instant adventure.

I dont think I'd be smart enough to use this book and generate the gardens at the table, I'd be more likely to generate 5 to 10 pre-session, put them on an A4 sheet each then randomly select one when they go deeper.

I need to read it again, because I was not 100% sure how the "go deeper" mechanic worked narratively- are there meant to be hedge tunnels leading away on the sides/back of each garden that the players can just dash to? Either way though, it was a great read i consumed over 2 nights and want to include in my next game.

A few typos let the presentation down, but the content and tables were so good that I highly recommend this book to anyone that wants a few session adventure in an extra-dimensional garden. 9/10 so good.

I was pleasantly surprise with layout and illustrations in Dolorous Stroke. The rules read very easily. It introduces cleaver ways of role playing in a table top wargame, making altercations become more than just about "the beat down". Players can really delve into their settings and characters.

My only negative (and its a big one) there are no scenarios...at all. the book tells you step by step how to build one but never presents you with some sort of pre scripted setting. I feel this would have given players a spring board form which they could build from. If anything it would give you a clear understanding how the game was meant to be played. This may not be in issue for some, but the first time I sat down to play I felt like to make the game come to life would be a chore.

There is a lot of good content for story building, but just no story pushing me to use the combat system over over another I'm more familiar and comfortable with. I give The Dolorous Stroke a 3 out of 5

Side note: I'd be more than happy to return to this system if the publisher/designer were to write a story expansion.

Quite simply one of the best, most usable supplements I've ever purchased. Room-by-room dungeon generators that are detailed enough to be fleshed out, yet rapid enough to be used at the table on the fly, are extremely rare, and this one works a treat. Its theming is incredibly cohesive and manages to strike a fine balance between whimsy and grimness that so many OSR products seem to miss: dark, but not too dark; funny, but not too funny; complementary tendencies that help create a unique tone. Well worth the asking price.

[TL;DR - If you liked Gardens of Ynn, just go buy this right now]

The Method

Library uses the same "flowchart generation" mechanic as Gardens of Ynn did. The library's layout starts from scratch on every visit. When the players enter, the DM rolls for a location, a detail that modifies it and an encounter with a strange inhabitant. From there, the players backtrack or Go Deeper to discover the next location. Progressing further into the Library opens up stranger vistas as the tables are modified by your Depth score (the number of rooms you have progressed from the entrance). Lurking in the shallows gets you help desks and reading rooms, while high Progress scores reveal dissection theatres, jarred brain storage and infernal gateways.

Using the same system as before allows us to take a more objective look at Library. Since it doesn't have the same the rip-your-dick-off feeling one gets when looking at a completely new and fresh idea, I can focus on the content of the adventure and how it all hangs together without spending all my time extolling its innovations.

What's Inside

Emmy can really go the extra mile in filling out a module. The locales and descriptions cover anything and everything you could want in a library. In addition to the ever-present bookshelves we have catalogues, display cases, storage vaults, printing machines, phantom storage and the dreaded Sheol Computer!

The 'descriptions' section adds the interest and replayability to exploration in the Library. It's one thing to delve a dungeon with a changing layout, quite another when the rooms have different properties every time. Again these are really good: silent, negligible gravity, too small, too large, semi-corporeal and time-locked are a few examples.

Rather than filled with desolate, rotted grandeur like Gardens, The Stygian Library feels lived-in. The librarians (little jawa-like robed figures of 5 different orders - red, yellow, black, gray and white) guard vital areas or putter around, fixing things and attending to emergencies. Researchers and university students wander through. Occasionally a demon shows up to bargain for your soul. Even the random encounter tables change based on the PCs' actions!

The FORTY-piece bestiary is my second favourite part of this module. It ranges from hungry books and dust moths to ink-elementals and neurovores (renamed Mind Flayers). Such a comprehensive list feels like a callback to the style of Red & Pleasant Land: a complete OSR crawl setting in a single book. You could probably run an entire campaign in the Library and (although your players might tire of the scenery) you'd never run out of foes.

While it might be possible to fight everything, it's not exactly the spirit of the module. You're just as likely to be drawn into a conversation with the skeleton cleaning-crew or some talking mice. In this respect the feel is similar to Gardens, which bore the fairy-tale legacy of R&PL quite distinctively.

And the tables! Even if you never run this module, $4 for the pdf is justified by these alone: Types of Books, Extraordinary Books, Treasure, Magic Weapons & their Properties, Rumors, Dreams & Portents... fuck me man. This is what I want to see in a damned OSR product. All the entries are interesting and imaginative, starting from the basics and spreading outwards into bizarre stuff (the extraordinary books especially can change your PCs' lives forever).

Progress

So the PCs want information. Where do they go, the local sage? The church? A book club? Wikipedia?

To the Stygian Library! Wherein, an abstracted 'progress system' is included for tracking how close the PCs are to their informational goals. Speaking to the inhabitants about related topics, learning more about the library's layout (such as it is) and finding relevant books will all increase your progress score, which starts equal to the highest INT score in the group and must reach a certain number based on the obscurity of the information sought (20 is basic information in most libraries, 40 is something heretofore undiscovered).

This is a good idea, but I wonder how I would describe this to my players - "You feel closer to your goal"? "You're on the right track"? It's a somewhat dissociated mechanic. The PCs have no choice but to move through the dungeon and hope for encounters/loot that could increase their progress score, rather than analyzing the environment and deciding on their next move.

I suppose that's really my only complaint about this module - procedural generation removes an element of choice. I feel like we're treading into some sort of bizarre double-blind quantum ogre territory here. The players can't plan or make informed decisions, because there is nothing to plan for until the next room is rolled up.

On the other hand, this is ameliorated by the Library being such a sociable place. Instead of learning geographical & tactical information about the layout of the dungeon (a normal exploration-based method), the players interact with the inhabitants to learn about the social landscape, faction allegiances and the rules (social or uh, metaphysical) which govern the place.

Conclusion

Will I use this in my game? Hell yes. Few people are doing this kind of fantasy in the OSR and I'd rather have more modules like this than another grimdark excursion. (I can do those myself anyway). I will throw in some new rooms, monsters and treasures specific to my campaign but I'm sure anybody would.

One final caveat: like Ynn, prolonged adventuring in this region could have long-lasting repercussions throughout your game world. Plan your trips accordingly!

[This review is based only on the PDF version.]

Originally posted at: https://terriblesorcery.blogspot.com/2019/06/review-stygian-library.html

Normally I would give it a five. But I bought the printed copy, without reading the pgf. While I did love the information, and the pictures were nice, the print is way too small. I had to use my magnifying glass to read it. Surely for the price they could have added a few more pages, or increased the dimentions of the book so it had a more reasonable tyoe size.

I love OSR. It's not exactly what I thought going in, because it's a not a map or a dungeon crawler exactly. You might say it's just a random dungeon generator, and you'll be write. But it's very well written.

A well thought out OSR look at life at the edge of the big ice- its lovingly crafted, with supplementary info on adding some old school eldritch horror and magic to your taste. The core is very kin to DnD style systems, and the magic system is decidedly Vancian - my only grief was the lack of a shamanic/priest /spiritual system to supplement the proto mage part. Highly recommended for all it does have though.

Well written and refreshing setting. I tried adding this to my current game and had so much fun with the options and it inspired a good night of adventures that could extend for a LONG time! Highly recommended for any setting or campaign that could use a somewhat lighter touch now and again.

extraordinarily well written. an amazing adventure. many people have been able to utilize language in a much better way than me to convey just how great this is, so instead of like, throwing words at a weed wacker for 45 min i'll just kind of like ahh, prematurely end here. but it truly... truly.. is amazing.

my only complaint, and i hate to nitpick, but, the cover is pixelated, it's as if there was a slight mismatch between the digital cover resolution and the printer (the printer can clearly print a higher resolution, as the ISBN/barcode font is perfect). i think somehow this might be fixable. the book is so amazing i seriously feel horrible complaining about it and i think i'm breaking out in hives right now as a result. if the author wrote this entire book out on a stack of paper towels and then mailed it to me, i would still give it 5 stars.

This adventure is fantastic. It absolutley drips with atmosphere and a coherent theme while maintaining an ease of use that's inviting to veteran players and newbies alike. The simplicity of use and the efficiency in which they are presented are showcased throughout. There is no wasted space or pretense while ideas are conveyed in a clear and concise manner. Take note, this should be the standard for writing adventures

Very imaginative and inspiring. This abandoned garden is surreal and haunting. Great stuff for an exploration adventure.

Can be run straight away, with no or little prep. Very atmospheric. Weirdly both creepy and kind of cute in places (it certainly allows that kind of gameplay). Strange and wonderful environment, but imediably relatable. Like Gardens of Ynn there are elements clearly inspired by Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass. It also has a bit of Jorge Luis Borges and Umberto Eco, a hint of Lovecraft's Dreamlands and a good dash of old school science-fantasy; all in all it might be the most wonderfully horrible fun you can have for $4!

The Stygian Library follows the same structure as The Gardens of Ynn: it is a procedurally generated environment, with plenty randomness, but also with a strong thematic coherency at the same time.

The Library is made up of randomly generated locations (mostly rooms). The player group begins on Depth level 0, then move deeper and deeper. For each step, the DM rolls a Location and a Detail, combines them. The Depth rating is always factored into the generation of the next room, so the Stygian Library gradually opens up, and the players are able to reach the more obscure and weird places.

There are also randomized Events and Encounters with the inhabitants of the Library. The Bestiary is quite extensive, full of library-themed creatures: animated books, origami golems, dust elementals, and, of course, the Librarians: they are divided into five color-coded orders, each with its own set of duties, spells, abilities.

I really dig the atmosphere and the tone of this setting. This is how Emmy describes it in the introduction: Whilst some of the contents in this book can be portrayed in a rather dark light (it is, fundamentally, about necromancy), it’s not intended as a particularly grim setting. One thing that often strikes me about the fiction I enjoyed in my youth is how the dark and the whimsical so often go hand in hand. Not as a subversive contrast, but rather how the imagination (when allowed to wander) will flit between ideas that fill us with wonder and with dread. Like exploring an empty house, all it takes is a slight change in context (nightfall, say) to make the experience creepy. So, The Gardens and the Library are built using the same principles, There is one major difference between the Gardens and the Library. Ynn is all about exploration, wonder and adventure. The Stygian Library offers the same "sense of discovery", but it is also vast (potentially infinite) repository of knowledge, so it is very likely the player characters visit it with a specific goal in mind.

Emmy presents a simple, but elegant subsystem for tracking the players' progress towards their goal. There is a Progress score, its initial rating is tied to the highest Intelligence rating in the group. The score increases if the group talks with somebody knowledgeable, or finds a book about the topic they are researching, etc., and decreases if the party is lost or misinformed. The DM sets the difficulty of finding the information (e.g. 20 for basic knowledge, 35 for dangerous obscurities). If the Progress reaches this value AND the group is deep enough into the Library, the precious information is found.

Furthermore, the presence of the Librarians, their active and engaged factions, also gives the Stygian Library a different, more "narrative" style, than the slightly more passive, dreamy, utterly lost inhabitants of the landscapes of Ynn.

So, overall, I think The Stygian Library is not only a great follow-up to The Gardens of Ynn, but also presents its own developments.

The only minus is that the .pdf is still just a simple text, without any hyperlinks or bookmarks... This book would benefit ENORMOUSLY from a well-marked structure. For example, it'd be great to be able to click a header on the Location Table, and be taken to the description. Maybe something for a future edition?

Review originally posted at https://eldritchfields.blogspot.com/2018/10/reviewoverview-stygian-library-by-emmy.html