There have been many fans of RPG games for years. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to gather teams with which you can fight in fantastic worlds. Then paragraph games are an alternative. Recently, through Kickstarter, it was possible to publish a title prepared for fans of HP Lovecraft's works. So let's check what The Necronomicon Gamebook: Dagon is .
From the rain under Plantage
In The Necronomicon Gamebook: Dagon, we have the opportunity to experience a first-person adventure in the world known from HP Lovecraft’s books. We assume the role of ourselves. During the voyage, our ship was attacked by privateers and we were taken prisoner. However, we manage to free ourselves, jump on a lifeboat and reach an island and the village of Kingsport. It quickly turns out that we are not safe at all, and being a prisoner was not such a bad fate.
From Italian soil
The originator and creator of The Necronomicon Gamebook: Dagon is Italian Valentino Sergi. His countrymen, Alberto Dal Lago and Jacopo Schiavo, are responsible for the drawings. It was these three who picked up stories such as Dagon , The Feast , The Hound and In Search of the Sleepy Kaddath and turned them into a paragraph game. Of course, its release required the money that the creators were lacking. That is why the project found its way to Kickstarter. The fans liked the idea so much that it took four days to collect the necessary amount. Ultimately, instead of 5,000 Euro, more than three times more was collected. Thanks to the publishing house of Officina Meningi, the game hit the market, as well as in the hands of the Last Tavern.
Before you set off, be sure to …
The Necronomicon Gamebook: Dagon is of course published in the form of a book. It’s not too thick, just over 30 pages. However, it will quickly turn out to be enough for fun. In addition to it, we will also need a pencil and a cube. The game was published in English, so you will need to know it, at least to a good degree. At the outset, we will get the rules of the game. We will learn how we can fight, what happens when we lose, how to accumulate equipment, resolve conflicts, or what happens to us while we sleep. Everything is on just three pages and most will find it easy to understand. Then we get our Diary. It is here that we will note the points of life and madness, and mark whether we are under stress or if we are already falling into paranoia. There is also a place to save the collected items. Of course, the Diary it is disposable, so it is worth photocopying it or printing it as a copy, which is available on the publisher’s website. After such an introduction, one should feel the atmosphere. To make it easier for us, the creators took care of the appropriate graphic design and descriptions, taken straight from Lovecraft’s novels. Each page of our tutorial is dimmed at the corners, and every now and then we will come across a black and white drawing of an object or scene described on the page. And so, point by point, we will explore Kingsport, learn its secrets and try to survive and not go crazy. And if we manage to do that, we will also be able to save humanity.
Summary
If you like paragraph games or are Lovecraft fans then The Necronomicon Gamebook: Dagonis a game just for you. If, in turn, you just want to get involved in this type of game, I can also recommend this title. The rules are simple and well described, the atmosphere is clearly perceptible, and the story itself is addictive. However, I immediately warn you that the game is not the easiest one anymore. You will have to think a lot about what to do in a given situation in order to complete the missions successfully. You will also need luck and good dice results in order not to get killed by the cult and not go crazy. It will quickly turn out that it is not so easy to save humanity, and that instead of being a hero, the first thing to do is to take care of your own fate. However, if you fail, you’ll want to get back into the fun and try again, correcting your own mistakes along the way. Thanks to this, the adventure will not be a one-off, which is its next plus. So the game is worth recommending. I also hope that Polish publishers will also be interested in it and over time we will be able to receive it in our native language as well.
More information can be found on the website .
