A Light In The Dark: Strange Sites Lie Underground

Cavernous chambers, strange creatures, bugs, and the remains of lost civilizations are all lying dormant under your feet, just waiting to be found. What’s waiting underneath for you?

Underneath is a game of what we encounter when we venture alone in the dark.

In Underneath you’ll explore: generate and map cave chambers; journal: fill an excursion journal of the things you encounter; and face down perils: overcome obstacles and confront unexpected cave dwellers to keep exploring. Choose your caver, each with their own specialty and skills that impacts how they navigate through the caves. Once you pick a caver, get ready to spelunk into the depths of an undiscovered cave system. Build out the map, encounter strange formations and inhabitants, and try to survive your excursion.

Underneath is a solo game of map-making and journalling that you will play between the game book, your excursion journal, a map, and a pair of six-sided dice propelling your character through an undiscovered cave system.

Pick your character and start rolling, the cave system has much to discover, such as: Features, Paths, Encounters, Obstacles, Discoveries, and Caverns. Each of these different elements of the cave builds out the system and what you will find there, with each new path potentially leading you into a Scenario cavern, a large room in the cave that holds many secret and strange things. Find yourself in Scenarios such as Arora’s Cove: a fungal nightmare; The Still: a vast quiet lake, or The Database: a series of interconnected terminals built into the rock.

Once you’ve entered the cave, it’s time to map the system, charting your exploration alongside recording your findings and responses to the prompts associated with each part of the cave into your excursion journal. Manage your gear, your skills, and the dangers in the environment while still trying to find your way back out alive. 

What’s it Like to Play?

• Create a meandering cave system filled with large chambers, cramped passageways, and treacherous tunnels to traverse.
• A quick and easy cave generation system using only two six-sided dice.
• Discover strange sights, unusual flora and fauna, or the remains of lost civilizations buried beneath kilometres of rock.
• Create artifacts of play through your excursion, map the cave system as how you discovered it and record your finds along the way.
• Play as one of 6 unique cavers, each with their own skills in exploration, or create your own!

Backing the Kickstarter will get your access to the digital or physical editions of the Underneath game zine. Plus, a Kickstarter exclusive Spelunker tier with everything you need to play the game and some goodies for your own excursions (climbing harnesses not included).

Live on Kickstarter Now!
Underneath will be on Kickstarter from Feb 4th to 27th.