Halloween soon approaches, and like last year, I’ve been working on a special holiday project!
The Unseen World is a solitaire gamebook of paranormal investigation and horror set in modern-day Japan. You play as a paranormal investigator traveling to many towns across Japan, investigating haunted locations in order to collect evidence. You’ll spend evidence to earn money, but your goal is to earn enough evidence to prove that the supernatural world is real!
Overview
You’ll explore towns, conduct research to learn about the local haunted locations, then go on investigations in search of evidence. Each haunted location has a unique set of random encounters, some more challenging than others, but all offering different types of evidence. Gather and spend evidence to earn money and upgrade your equipment, acquire rare oddities, and expand your ghost-hunting team with the NPCs you meet.
Card-driven Gameplay
The game’s main mechanism uses a deck of standard playing cards split into two decks. Your deck, the Action deck, uses the 2, 3, and 4 of each suit plus one Ace at the beginning (you can earn more Aces as you level). You’ll use a hand of 4 cards against the Challenge deck, made of the 6, 7, and 8 of each suit with one 5 and one 9.
A Check is made by playing a card, applying modifiers based on the situation, then optionally making a Push by adding the top card of the Action deck to your total. Meet or exceed the Challenge card to succeed.
Endless Towns and Stories
Towns, locations, NPCs, and haunted backstories are generated randomly using a series of tables, allowing for a near-endless variety of horror adventures. Seaside harbors, old shrines, mountain lodges, quiet farm towns, and many more, each filled with haunted places to explore and backstories to uncover.
Thomas P. King, author and game designer 
One thought on “The Unseen World Preview”