# Downcrawl: Serendipitous Adventures in a Weird Underworld



## aaronareed (Jul 31, 2019)

_**By the author of *2019 ENnie award winner Archives of the Sky*.**

_*Downcrawl is a system to help gamemasters run randomly generated, open-ended adventures *in a weird and fantastical underworld called The Deep, Deep Down: a place so far from the surface that the sun and sky are only legends, and so vast that no bounds can be placed on its dimensions or contents. [Print or PDF] [Free Web Version]



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Compatible with any fantasy roleplaying system*, _Downcrawl_ contains rules for taking dangerous journeys through unmapped places, tables of fungi with curious effects, procedures for GMs to generate strange new peoples, places, and encounters, and tips for running a satisfying, spontaneous campaign when your players might explore in any of six directions. Oh, and huge intelligent spiders who eat faces. Watch out for those.



Gives GMs tools to create *player-driven hexcrawls* that maintain a sense of wonder and narrative momentum
Roll dice to *generate weird, story-rich Volumes* for players to explore, or grab some pre-generated ones:
Vertical city _Bone Falls_, where no one can stay for long
_Deepness Bastion_, decadant knights at the gate of a long-forgotten portal to evil
...and more

Each volume contains *strange new intelligent creatures*, and there's a generator (and examples) for those too:
_The Chitter_, creepy but polite insectoid constructs
_Pesh_, rock-folk whose hands can shape stone like clay
_Lime Lillen_, delicate creatures who guide the painfully slow formation of stalactite art
...and more

A *Random Encounter generator* that focuses on strange situations rather than yet another monster
A *full Journey system* for underground expeditions
Rules put the focus of rolls on *Success or Complications*, rather than Success or Failure
*Learn to forage for fungi* and enjoy their many curious effects, or seek out a Fungal Druggist to get a more potent variety, with only a small chance of all-consuming addiction
Tips on running a campaign in an infinite world where *languages, races, money, and maps are always changing

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Find out more at downcrawl.textories.com!


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