Hollow Halls: Shallow Grave Edition
A downloadable tomb
"The War of the Half-Light God has ended. There are no victors."
It is a time of turmoil, religious and political, in the wake of a fruitless war. The kings of the west are toiling to refill empty coffers, the caliphs of the east are roiling as they rebuild ashen cities, and all are mourning the untold, uncounted dead.
Yet the inevitable continues, and arrives all the same, as once more—in a small Abbey on the coast of Almería—the World's Maw is rediscovered.
Diving Into Open Jaws
Hollow Halls is a tabletop dungeon crawler that combines the narrative mechanics of Blades in The Dark with the tactical, body grid based combat of Celestial Bodies.
As a Company of Ereban expeditionaries, Levantine agents, or Sígasverð vigiliants, you'll plunge into the dark depths in search of riches, glory, and—eventually—a way out.
The Shallow Grave
The following is included in the 86 page Shallow Grave edition (ashcan) of Hollow Halls:
- Lethal, tactical combat, in which a single misstep may mean death.
- Harrowing , zone based exploration and stealth.
- Over 60 items! Including a variety of weapons, armor, consumables, and spells.
- 11 Destiny defining Souls inspired by those of Fear & Hunger.
- 6 Callings inspired by classic fantasy archetypes.
- The honorable Soldier, bound by a creed
- The indomitable Survivor, cursed to live through every horror
- The crafty Mercenary, led ever deeper by a lust for gold
- The observant Wyrd, motivated by a selfish, insatiable curiosity
- The zealous Priest, enraptured by the womb of gods
- The jolly Minstrel, unable to resist the call of a good story
- Full guides for creating your own Dungeon areas, Magic Items, and Enemies, of which examples are provided.
Join The Discord!
If you liked this game, and want to keep up-to-date on new content, updates, or new releases, you can join the Rotten Shotgun Games public discord using this link: https://discord.gg/UxPf7xHJ
Attributions for Edited Images Used on This Page
- Ardit Alimemeti, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
- Atishots, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Purchase
In order to download this tomb you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $10 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Gifts of the depths
Support this tomb at or above a special price point to receive something exclusive.
Town Copies
If you cannot afford or would otherwise like to see the full game before purchasing, you can download one of these copies gifted by the Maw for free.
Friend To The Town
You can add 3 Town Copies for the community by buying Hollow Halls at a slightly increased price.
Download demo
Development log
- Major Update 0.1.4: New Calling! New Item! Rebalancing!46 days ago
- Minor Editing Update (v0.1.3)Feb 20, 2024
- Major Update 0.1.2: New souls, phobias, abilities, and items!Feb 16, 2024
- Minor Changelog: Added Safety ToolsFeb 10, 2024
Comments
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Disclosing up front that I was a playtester on this, but also it's some of the most fun I've had with a dark fantasy ttrpg full stop.
Hollow Halls is a Fear & Hunger / Darkest Dungeon inspired grimy crawler, where combat is lethal and exploration is dreary and ominous.
Fear & Hunger *is* the primary part of the formula, and a lot of its more immsim elements are preserved. You have the Resident Evil 4 suitcase inventory, and it's also the targeting grid for your character, so attacks can damage your weapons, or items, or empty squares. Even breaking or removing them.
Targeting is done by rolling randomly and then spending points to adjust. Foes can spend these points too, so part of combat involves running enemies out of resources so that you can hit them cleanly. It's surprisingly fluid for how complex it is, and every hit ends up feeling weighty and meaningful.
Setting-wise, Hollow Halls leans on atmosphere and implication, showing more than it tells. That said, it's easy to create characters for. There's enough of a primer to know where to situate people in the setting, and each class comes with a strong sense of identity.
As far as its horror elements go, Hollow Halls is primarily gothic and violent in tone. It doesn't carry over any of the erotiphobic horror from F&H, and it doesn't rely on coinflips and instadeath to sell its lethality.
Ultimately, if you like grim and precise rpgs with hit location charts, this should be at the top of your read list. It kinda casually revolutionizes the genre.