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The Stygian Library
71 pages, ebook
Published October 27, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
April 27, 2024
Pretty much the same as Ynn, in both good and ill, just in a different setting - one that I rather prefer over the fairy realm, the bookworm that I am.
The one additional niggle I'd have is that the goals - finding a specific book or piece of knowledge - don't accumulate nearly quickly enough: I've run this adventure a few times, and every time my party ends up right into the very bottom of the dungeon, retracing their steps and getting the exact same results over and over ad nauseam, before they finally find what they seek. Could have used some more results, some easier knowledge seeking, and perhaps a few additional ways out of the dungeon (to a completely random and different location than where the party started, naturally).
The one additional niggle I'd have is that the goals - finding a specific book or piece of knowledge - don't accumulate nearly quickly enough: I've run this adventure a few times, and every time my party ends up right into the very bottom of the dungeon, retracing their steps and getting the exact same results over and over ad nauseam, before they finally find what they seek. Could have used some more results, some easier knowledge seeking, and perhaps a few additional ways out of the dungeon (to a completely random and different location than where the party started, naturally).
January 9, 2023
This is an Old School Roleplaying (OSR) module in an extradimensional library that exists in the places between. It is a beautiful book, with great art, paper, end pages, cover, etc. I really enjoyed the take on a library setting, with creative spaces, tables, and denizens and I'm excited to incorporate it into my campaign.
March 16, 2025
Excellent further refinement of gameplay concepts pioneered in Gardens of Ynn. Discussion with author: https://refereeingandreflection.wordp...
December 30, 2022
"Lost in a library that feels alive. I watch in amazement as charactes from my favorite books come to life before my very eyes. Is this a dream come true or a nightmare?"
-Me reading this adventure.
If mazes, books, creepy librarians, phantoms and other things concerning books (paper beehive, anyone? Yes, please!) tickles your fancy, then here's an adventure for you!
-Me reading this adventure.
If mazes, books, creepy librarians, phantoms and other things concerning books (paper beehive, anyone? Yes, please!) tickles your fancy, then here's an adventure for you!
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February 2, 2026Review of three works by Emmy Allen:
- Esoteric Enterprises
- The Gardens of Ynn
- The Stygian Library
How? People I know talked up "Gardens of Ynn", so when there was a Kickstarter for "Stygian Library", I got on that; and people also talked up the very out-of-print "Esoteric Enterprises" and I found it on auction so.
What? "Esoteric Enterprises" is a modern-day occult game with OSR bones: so you have classes and levels and spell slots. There's some non-D&D things to more fit with the modern-day horror of it all, like HP being split between grit (how you can get beat up and stand up and take a few breaths and be ok) and wounds (where you can't). (I read this a while ago, I might be misremembering.)
In many ways, this reminds me of Kevin Crawford's work, in that there's many random tables, and also some attention paid to how factions might change over time -- and how they might relate to the players. (I am a sucker for a reputation system.)
The setting is thin, with the main premise being that the occult underground is also a literal underground: the people who do magic tend to be in subways and below (so there's pages on the hazards of being underground). That seems to me to be... one way to deal with the urban fantasy problem of "why don't people know" but it also seems to be overly literal and somewhat limiting. (I also don't think Emmy "cavegirl" Allen is doing this just as a literalization of the metaphor: I think she really likes dungeons!)
Most of the setting we get in tables and monster descriptions, another OSR-hallmark, but what there is seems interesting. It's not enough to probably move Unknown Armies from the throne in my heart labeled "modern occult game", but seems pretty solid.
"Gardens of Ynn" and "Stygian Library" are, system-wise, very similar: here is a shifting other-world where things get weirder the deeper you go. Mechanically, this is handled by the brilliantly simple "depthcrawl" method: whereas in other "hexcrawls"/"pointcrawls", where you are equally likely to randomly roll for any location next, here you add the "level" you are in to the roll. Which means that what you are likely to roll for goes higher and higher on the table the deeper in you go.
"Gardens of Ynn" is explicitly a rebuke to grim OSR aeshetic: here we have an Alice-esque Garden of whimsy that is also terribly deadly and full of horror (since the garden was formed by super-elves who fled when they were exposed to the meme, "The Idea of Thorns"). "Stygian Library" has less clear antecedents (for me): the library is The Library of Babel, an endless library of all the books, but it is also a purgatory for souls, and also, a bit, Hitchhiker's Guide, since the core of the library is a computer working out the answers to the end of everything.
Both of these locations are full of exciting places and enemies, all on random tables. (Oh, one other thing to love and steal: the random locations are formed by "random adjective" "random location", so you might find a clockwork greenhouse or a burning greenhouse or just a greenhouse.)
Yeah, so? I really enjoy all of these books, and if you can detect some hesitation there, it's mostly because I can't see myself using them in any particular way at the moment. I've filed away some of Allen's inventions and thoughts (depthcrawl, random adjective + random noun for variety), but will I actually run players through either of these places or run an EE game?
- Esoteric Enterprises
- The Gardens of Ynn
- The Stygian Library
How? People I know talked up "Gardens of Ynn", so when there was a Kickstarter for "Stygian Library", I got on that; and people also talked up the very out-of-print "Esoteric Enterprises" and I found it on auction so.
What? "Esoteric Enterprises" is a modern-day occult game with OSR bones: so you have classes and levels and spell slots. There's some non-D&D things to more fit with the modern-day horror of it all, like HP being split between grit (how you can get beat up and stand up and take a few breaths and be ok) and wounds (where you can't). (I read this a while ago, I might be misremembering.)
In many ways, this reminds me of Kevin Crawford's work, in that there's many random tables, and also some attention paid to how factions might change over time -- and how they might relate to the players. (I am a sucker for a reputation system.)
The setting is thin, with the main premise being that the occult underground is also a literal underground: the people who do magic tend to be in subways and below (so there's pages on the hazards of being underground). That seems to me to be... one way to deal with the urban fantasy problem of "why don't people know" but it also seems to be overly literal and somewhat limiting. (I also don't think Emmy "cavegirl" Allen is doing this just as a literalization of the metaphor: I think she really likes dungeons!)
Most of the setting we get in tables and monster descriptions, another OSR-hallmark, but what there is seems interesting. It's not enough to probably move Unknown Armies from the throne in my heart labeled "modern occult game", but seems pretty solid.
"Gardens of Ynn" and "Stygian Library" are, system-wise, very similar: here is a shifting other-world where things get weirder the deeper you go. Mechanically, this is handled by the brilliantly simple "depthcrawl" method: whereas in other "hexcrawls"/"pointcrawls", where you are equally likely to randomly roll for any location next, here you add the "level" you are in to the roll. Which means that what you are likely to roll for goes higher and higher on the table the deeper in you go.
"Gardens of Ynn" is explicitly a rebuke to grim OSR aeshetic: here we have an Alice-esque Garden of whimsy that is also terribly deadly and full of horror (since the garden was formed by super-elves who fled when they were exposed to the meme, "The Idea of Thorns"). "Stygian Library" has less clear antecedents (for me): the library is The Library of Babel, an endless library of all the books, but it is also a purgatory for souls, and also, a bit, Hitchhiker's Guide, since the core of the library is a computer working out the answers to the end of everything.
Both of these locations are full of exciting places and enemies, all on random tables. (Oh, one other thing to love and steal: the random locations are formed by "random adjective" "random location", so you might find a clockwork greenhouse or a burning greenhouse or just a greenhouse.)
Yeah, so? I really enjoy all of these books, and if you can detect some hesitation there, it's mostly because I can't see myself using them in any particular way at the moment. I've filed away some of Allen's inventions and thoughts (depthcrawl, random adjective + random noun for variety), but will I actually run players through either of these places or run an EE game?
Read
June 12, 2023Hmm, I'm a little disappointed with this. I like the procedures for generating the library, the possible results changing as the players descend deeper and deeper, and some of the monsters are cool. But the rest feels a bit uninspired, like the actual stuff in the rooms, or what you find if you search, and so on. Stuff that you'd be spending a good percentage of your time interacting with, and it's flat. I could make this work for me, but I'd have to fill in a lot of the gaps myself, and sort of the point of books like this is they're supposed to have done that work for you.
June 5, 2025
A dungeon-crawl seting in an endless library. There is not scenario to speak off in this book, but rather a congregation of random event tables that are sprinkled with a whole lot of quirkiness. But it works as a whole in any fantasy setting you might be playing in.
May 13, 2021
Another wonderful book, in the vein of Gardens of Ynn. I can't wait to use this at the table.
May 17, 2021
Even better than the Gardens of Ynn.
January 1, 2022
Not only do I like this alot because I'm a bibliophile but like the Gardens of Ynn, it's really well written. However like the Gardens of Ynn the players exhaust the locations rather quickly.
August 3, 2023
Delightfully creative!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews