The Flow of the Crawl Phase
The Crawl is the phase of the game centered on exploring the Underworld. When the guild leaves the safety of civilization to pursue their quests, negotiating with strange creatures, avoiding traps, and excavating ancient treasures, they are Crawling. Most of the game is focused on this phase.
The Underworld is what is called a megadungeon. A megadungeon is inherently strange. It does not need to conform to the players’ conceptions and expectations. It does benefit from having internal logic, however. Learning the “rules” of the Underworld is fun, and having internally consistent logic allows players to make meaningful choices (which is the point of the game).
A megadungeon is composed of smaller, constituent dungeons. Each dungeon is a thematic level, section, or subsection. For example, your Underworld might be composed of five dungeon levels, which are called the Spires, the Castle of Crossed Destinies, the Inverted Castle, the City of Ruin, and the Necropolis of Ot.
Dungeons are separated into different rooms. A room can be any discrete space: a chamber, a feasting hall, a natural cavern, an underground river, etc. Each room should have something interesting for the players to interact with. For example, one room in the Castle of Crossed Destinies could have a giant throne constructed of a titan’s bones, another room could be the lair of a reverse sphinx who needs to hear riddles to survive, and so on.
As the guild explores each room, random events called the Meatgrinder create tension. The Meatgrinder represents the passage of time: torches burning low, patrolling monsters, and other hazards.
Each dungeon level has both a map and a Meatgrinder table, both full of interesting things to discover. When players travel into a new room, the GM looks at the room description. Simultaneously, the GM draws a random card from the major arcana and consults the Meatgrinder table. They then describe the newly-entered room in the context of the random Meatgrinder encounter.
This chapter details what players need to know about the Crawl Phase. Advice for the GM for running the Crawl Phase is found in chapter 10. Procedures for the GM to create the Underworld are found in Appendix E: Underworld Creation.
Play happens through a combination of what the GM describes and the decisions the players make. It’s not a preplanned story.
During the Crawl, the players tell the GM where they want to go. They use an in-character map to make sure everybody is on the same page about where the guild currently is.
The GM describes what the guild encounters as they travel. The GM describes the contents of each room within the context of a random Meatgrinder event.
When the guild encounters dangers—crushing walls, minotaurs, anti-life fields, swindling merchants—the players and the GM engage in a dialogue.
The GM describes the situation, the players ask questions about the scene, and the GM clarifies.
The players describe what their adventurers attempt, the GM asks questions about their actions and their intentions, and the players clarify.
The GM describes what happens as a result of the adventurer’s actions. If there’s risk or doubt about the adventurer’s ability to accomplish their goals, the GM calls for a test of fate (Tests of Fate).
Despite the presence of otherworldly and strange beings, very few creatures attack on sight and fight to the death. (Well, perhaps skeletons. They want to free their boney brethren from the flesh prisons that you’re cruelly keeping them in.) Almost everything can be talked to, negotiated with, or at least avoided. See “Disposition” see Social Encounters & Disposition for an overview of negotiating with the GM’s characters.
When combat cannot be avoided, the Crawl Phase transitions into the Challenge Phase. Once the Challenge is resolved, the Challenge Phase transitions back to the Crawl.
Mysteriously, the Underworld has a property that preserves life. When a mortal blow is dealt, the victim lingers at Death’s Door before dying. This property has prolonged the life of many adventurers who have run afoul of the Underworld’s treachery.
Those who do die in the Underworld rise again as undead…