Bones Deep: Spine Ripping Fun on the Ocean Floor

 Written by David Schirduan of Technical Grimore Games 

Print from Igloo Tree - £30

PDF from DriveThruRPG - £12.14

I picked up a review copy of Bones Deep on my trip to GenCon (which was awesome btw), thanks David for taking a chance on me.

So, what is Bones Deep all about?

Premise:

Well, you died, then your skeleton hatched and made it's way to the ocean floor in search of adventure and new memories. Weirdly, even though your Skeleton has a new life after your death, it starts from scratch with no memory of who you were or what you did. It just knows it needs to get the ocean floor. Not all Skeletons make it, some perish (again) on the way, but those that do are the Player Characters in the game.

Rules:

It's designed to be system agnostic, but was built for Troika, which is a fairly gonzo rule set with tokens drawn from a bag for initiative, and a "Test your Luck" mechanic where you roll 2d6 under your current Luck to succeed, but, be warned, each test reduces your luck by one regardless of the result.

It only uses d6s, usually 2 or 3. To succeed in a task you roll 2d6 either under a target (skill, luck, etc) or versus another character where you add your skill to the roll and want to roll higher than your opponent.

One thing that may take a second to grok is a d66 table where you roll one d6 to generate the 10s and a second d6 to generate the units generating 36 results

One of the delightful quirks of the game is that Skeletons can absorb memories from objects, creatures or locations. The memory absorbed will be a vague impression from something recently encountered but increases in detail the longer the Skeleton has contact with it. Absorbing a memory requires that the Skeleton Tests their Luck.  Failure leads to a roll on the 3d6 Memory Mishap table, which has some amusing results, some of which are surprisingly useful considering your Skeleton has just failed.

There are six Skelton types available in the game:

Newborn - the most recently arrived skeletons that, like a fleshy newborn, start off knowing almost nothing but learn quickly whenever they fail.

Carver - they are always carving spells onto their bones, which work without fail but then disappear leaving space for a new one to be carved.

Keeper - they let creatures nest in their ribcage and they return the favour by acting as henchmen.

Junker - the Womble of the ocean, they collect what others see as trash, often managing to turn it into something useful.

Shifter - the only skelton to realise it's just a pile of magic bones and behave as such, no restricting themselves to the humanoid form for the Shifter, swapping between four forms whenever it successfully shifts.

Infested - this Skeleton is literally infested with a parasite, but far from seeing this an issue, it encourages the parasite, growing stronger as the infestation grows.

Each type has its own possessions and skills at the start of the game, with the Shifter's four forms each having a different set.

Each Skeleton starts the game with a Drive they should be aiming for during the session. Engaging these Drives gives the Skeleton a chance to regain Stamina (similar to health) and Luck and replace the Healing Rules from Troika

Creatures:

Most of the creatures in the game are based on real life denizens of the ocean, complete with the scientific names. Each of the creatures has its own special quirks, abilities and a d6 table for personality or mien, which leads to some fun at the table. I've had a troupe of blade eels using their long stiffened bodies as swords looking for a duel with the skeletons whilst 2 at the back distracted themselves in a mock sword fight as part of a mating ritual.

However, some of the creatures are, thankfully, pure fantasy, but perfect for the game, I won't name them here to avoid spoilers.

Spells:

The included spells range from hilarious to gruesome but still funny. The changes to the Teleport spell to account for the different physics of being underwater are genius and were exploited to sublime effect the first time I ran the game. Eject bone could quite literally rip your spine out if you're on the receiving end. Red Tide has been used very successfully by several groups against a boss creature in The Sunken Barge.

Included Scenarios:

There is a wealth of included adventure seeds and location specific encounter tables included in the book to get the more creative of you started on your own campaign. There is also a larger scenario/mini-campaign "The Sunken Barge" which can be adapted a to fit into a convention slot or run more leisurely including the journey to find the location and reaching the conclusion of the captain/necromancer plots to make it a mini-campaign on it's own.

The room based encounters combined with the optional random encounter tables take the players through all the rules of the game quickly and make for a fast paced fun play experience that even my menopausal brain can keep up with. 

My one criticism of the scenario is the map to go with it. It seems to contradict the text in some places, however this was easily solved by cutting out the interior and using the silhouette for the players to pick their entry point and separating the rooms to add back in once they had been discovered (I'll take any excuse to get out the laminator).

Online Support:

There is a very useful free pdf online which includes the character sheets for each skeleton type, a handy Troika rules reference, the d66 tables for random creatures and spells, the memory mishap table and the end paper maps which have proved invaluable at the table. I've run my adapted version of The Sunken Barge online twice and at 3 in-person conventions and the tables, rules reference and a copy of the spell descriptions have been well recieved by the players each time.

Character Sheets, Maps and Tables

Table Bling:

I don't usually go for much table bling other than the odd laminated visual aid, but I went a bit over the top for this game. 

I've got a skull tea light holder and vinyl tablecloth of a seascape which not only helps with immersion (pun intended) but also makes it easy for convention players to spot the right table.

 I use skull beads for the initiative tokens paired with stretchy toy skeletons in the same colour so each player (and I) know whose turn it is. I even found some aquarium decorations to represent some of the creatures the skeletons encounter.

Oh, and I may have handed out stickers for the players to decorate their character sheets too......

Summary:

This is a delightful game with zany rules and I've immensely enjoyed running it.

Action shots from the game: