This post is part of the ongoing development of Beneath Ahknoor, a Carved from Brindlewood megadungeon where understanding is survival. Session chronicles, design context, and playtest notes live on the campaign page.
The Above Ground phase does several things at once, and I want to walk through all of them before we play.
Here is the briefing I read at the start of every Above Ground session. Then I'll explain what it's trying to do, and where the design is still working itself out.
Before we start, here's where we are in the cycle of play.
We're in the Above Ground phase: the part of the game where the dungeon lets go of you, and Limbross takes you back in.
Up here, things always happen in a set order.
First, if any Retainers have tension marked, we make the Retention Move. Limbross is where relationships either mend or crack: over a meal, a quiet talk, or a hard truth.
Second, each of you chooses one of the two core moves: Camaraderie or Resupply.
Camaraderie is the emotional work: conversations in taverns, confessions on rooftops, moments where the town gives you space to breathe and maybe clear a Condition.
Resupply is the practical work: smiths, scribes, herbalists, debts, favors, and the economy of Limbross pulling you back into the world of the living.
Third, if a new level is opening, we tell a Saga.
This is Limbross speaking: its storytellers, its memories, its fears. You're not your characters for this part; you're the voices shaping the myth the dungeon will answer.
Fourth, if you've gathered enough clues, we make the Unlocking Move.
That's where you lay out what you've learned, propose an answer to one of the level's core questions, and accept what it costs you. Limbross is the only place safe enough to say it out loud.
And here's the new piece.
Once a level has been reckoned with: once all its questions are answered and the Reckoning Move is made, that level becomes part of the Above Ground space.
It joins the space between Limbross and the dungeon's mouth.
You can revisit it without delving.
Factions can move through it.
Its locations and people can become part of the web of Ties that connects you to Limbross.
It becomes part of the world you're trying to save. Or part of the world you're slowly corrupting.
Everything in this phase: every conversation, every repair, every story, every reckoned-with level, is part of your Above Ground life now.
This is the place that shows who you were before the delve, and the mirror that shows who you're becoming after it.
Once we finish these steps, you'll choose whether to re-enter the library or descend deeper.
But for now, we're in Limbross.
Take a breath.
Let it matter.
Above Ground needs to do a few things at once, and I want to be honest about what those things are.
It needs to give players a breath after the delve. They need a place to talk, regroup, and decide what they believe about what happened down there.
It needs to keep Limbross present as a place. The town cannot be a loading screen between dungeon visits. It has people, places, fears, gossip, grudges, and needs of its own, and those things should be changing in response to what the Adventurers are doing.
It needs to make corruption visible before it becomes catastrophic. The dungeon should not only change characters when a move fires. It should change what waits for them when they come home. That is the thesis of the phase in one line: the dungeon's consequences learn your address.
And it needs to make the next delve feel chosen under constraint. You can go back down. But you do not go back down as the same people, with the same support, from the same town.
What Happens to a Reckoned Level
Once a level has been fully Reckoned with, it does not go back to being ordinary dungeon. It becomes part of the Above Ground space. That does not mean it becomes safe, or civilized, or welcoming.
People from Limbross will not go there. It is still a dungeon. It still remembers what it is.
What changes is the Adventurers. Having reckoned with a level fully: having answered its questions and paid what the Reckoning demanded, they are no longer strangers there. They are something the Deep recognizes. That is why they can return without delving. Not because the level has opened itself to the world above, but because the world above has less and less claim on them.
The factions and locations of a reckoned level can become Limbross Ties: the connections that accumulate above ground and give Limbross its weight. But these Ties pull in a specific direction. Back down, not up toward daylight and ordinary life.
This matters because Beneath Ahknoor is not only about going deeper. It is about what going deeper costs. A reckoned level is not a victory lap. It is evidence. The dungeon has marked the people who answered it, and now they can walk through that marking like a door.
The dungeon does not shrink. The Adventurers belong to more of it.
What I'm Watching in Playtest
The open design question right now is how hard the Ties should bite.
Too soft, and they become color: nice scenes with no consequence.
Too hard, and Above Ground becomes another dungeon with different wallpaper.
The target is narrower and stranger than either of those. A good Tie should make the next decision harder without making it feel predetermined. It should remind the players that the dungeon does not end at the exit, but it should still leave them room to choose what kind of people they are becoming.
That is what I want Above Ground to do. Not reset the game. Not heal the party for free. Let the light show what the dark has done.
If you've run a surface phase that carried real weight: something that pressed back against the players rather than restoring them, I want to know what made it work or what broke it. Find me in the comments or over on Buttondown.
No comments:
Post a Comment