Product Spotlight: The Well RPG

We just got in two copies of The Well, by Peter Schaefer of Shoeless Pete Games.

The Well is an original tabletop roleplaying game about exploring the abandoned crypts of your people's ancestors, putting down the undead abominations that have risen from their remains, and escaping with as much loot and as few scars as possible. It's a classic dungeon delver with modern RPG sensibilities, an original, light-weight game designed for speed and narrative integration. The system gives players options without complication and lets them fear for their characters without taking away control over their characters' fates.

The title refers to the Well, a massive shaft of emptiness pointing straight down, one hundred meters in diameter and ringed on the interior wall by a helical stairway that climbs into the black reaches above and recesses below. Every one-third rotation around the Well, massive double doors open outward into currently or formerly inhabited tunnels. People live in Bastion, the Last City, through one set of those doors. When the city empties the stone and soil of resources, and when generations of entombed dead fill the halls, the people migrate downward and carve a new home out of the rock. They've done it dozens of times over hundreds of years. Above them, some evil force animates the honored dead, turning them into murderous monsters and abominations until they threaten to overwhelm the city. That's where gravediggers come in. Where YOU come in. Something sets you apart from everyone else. Bravery? Desperation? Your obsession with searching for what's really up there, in the past we think we've buried? Whatever it is, every couple weeks, you gather your gear and your friends and head up the Well. You're looking for unlooted crypts and unbroken tombs, places with enough danger to escape alive and enough loot to make it pay. Welcome to The Well, a roleplaying game of exploring dungeons, finding treasures, and collecting grievous wounds.