Another RPG sourcebook! I’m slowly emerging from the month-long frenzy known as midterms, but RPGs are still pretty much the only thing that can hold my attention.
I heard of The Stygian Library when I was browsing some DnD forums, looking for cool homebrew ideas. Everyone who mentioned it recommended it realllly strongly, so I figured I’d pick it up.
They were right!
The Stygian Library is a collection of rooms, details, and encounters based in a labyrinthian library. In play, the DM rolls dice to determine the unique combination of rooms, details, and encounters that Emmy Allen has described. Each room is generated as the players move, so every playthrough is unique, which I love.
The Library itself holds every piece of knowledge ever recorded or known; it’s just a matter of finding what you’re looking for. Allen’s laid out an entire system of Librarians, phantoms, and a really cool “Progress” score to determine how close your players are to finding their desired piece of information. The encounters range from an attack from Paper Bees to a room of respite stocked with pastries and drinks.
I also love the illustrations — I bought what I think is the remastered version from DriveThru RPG which features delightfully creepy illustrations by Alec Sorenson.
My one little nitpick is that a little more copyediting and layout editing would have done it good — there are some strange spelling errors and a couple pages where it looks like some elements are accidentally overlapping. But that’s not nearly enough to put me off.
I can definitely see myself running this, and might even see if I can get some friends onto a Zoom call for a little one-shot. I’d highly recommend for anyone interested in RPGs, or even if you just want to get some inspiration!
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