You are a lone hunter in some remote and inhospitable place, hunting down a terrible and dangerous monster.
The monster has taken something from you. Something important, something irreplaceable. You have vowed to kill it, even if it’s the last thing you do in this life.
But, the monster knows you are following them and is far more clever than you could have imagined…
You are alone and at your wit’s end, quickly realizing that you are unlikely to survive this ordeal. Your supplies are dwindling, the place is dangerous, and all the while the monster waits for a time to strike.
Can you survive this place or will you succumb to its hardships? Are your wits and supplies enough or were they all for naught? Will you defeat the monster or will it destroy you, mind, body, and soul?
You must at least try…
– Description by author
Game Description
This Wretched Hunt of Mine is a journal game about horror, survival, isolation and grit.
It uses:
- A standard deck of 52 playing cards, with jokers removed
- A single six-sided die
- A tumbling block tower (optional)
- 10 tokens or counters
Like most Wretched games, your journal progresses until the block tower falls.
Your deck of cards represents the events that will happen during the day, and the 6 sided dice determines how many cards are pulled for each round of play (a day).
The six-sided die is also used during the hunting phase of the game. (More on this later in the review)
In most Wretched games, the 10 tokens don’t come into play until the end of the game. However, in this game, the 10 tokens represent the health of the monster you are hunting.
Each time you injure the monster, you remove a token. Once all the tokens are gone, the monster has been defeated.
It’s sounds like it might be easy, but the chances of winning are very low.
How to Play
The game is divided into days. Each day has two or three phases.
- The Events
- The Hunt (which is optional each day)
- The Journal
The Events
Roll your die and draw that number of cards from the deck, keeping them face down. A low number means your day was uneventful, while a high number means it lasted well into the night.
Turn over the first card you drew and consult the tables of prompts. If the instructions ask you to do a specific thing, do it.
Continue turning over cards and consulting the instructions until your tasks are complete.
When you have completed all your tasks for the day, discard the cards you have used unless you are told otherwise.
The Hunt (Optional)
After the events, you may choose to hunt the monster.
Roll a six-sided dice and take that many pieces from the tower. The higher the number the more grueling and difficult the hunt.
If the tower remains standing, the monster has suffered a wound and you may remove one of the 10 tokens from the game.
The Journal
Take a moment to consider the events of the day:
– Your hardships.
– The successes.
– What happened during the hunt.
– How you are feeling during all of this.
Record your journal entry for the day.
The Card Prompts
Each of the 52 cards have a unique prompt that relates to the face value, and the suit it belongs to.
Hearts are mostly about your memories and emotions.
Diamond cards relate to the wilderness you are traveling through. You can find things, see things, and hear things.
Clubs relate to your tools and supplies. Weapons, tools, and supplies get damaged, lost, discovered, or used throughout the game.
Finally, Spades are cards where you discover what the monster looks like, how it makes you feel, and what actions it takes.
Note: I don't post actual prompts in my reviews. This is to protect the IP of the designer. You will need to buy the game to read the actual prompts.
Overall Impression
The Wretched Hunt of Mine adds an extra phase that is not normally seen in other Wretched games.
After each set of events, you can decide to hunt the monster. You need to hunt the monster to kill it. There is no other way to win.
However, you need to be careful. Hunting involves rolling a 6 sided die and removing and replacing that number of blocks from the tower.
If the tower remains standing, you can remove one of the 10 tokens. If the tower falls, you have lost the game.
If you can find the Ace of clubs, you can roll the D6 twice and pick the lower number. This is a huge advantage.
The prompts are very well written and provide plenty of variety. The art throughout the manual is really good, and the instructions are clear and easy to follow.
VERDICT : EXCELLENT
Safety
This game includes themes of fear, suspense, despair, violence, and death.
Read and play with caution, keeping in mind that you can take a break or stop completely at any time. Your mental health is important, and this is just a game.
This game is designed to make success very difficult and very unlikely. It is meant to be challenging and harrowing and emotional. If that doesn't sound fun to you, that's absolutely fine.
If you ever draw a card that makes you uncomfortable, or that you do not want to journal about for any reason, discard it and draw a different card.
Remember that you can change, ignore, rewrite or abandon any part of this game that you want.
The Wretched
This work is based on The Wretched, product of Chris Bissette and Loot The Room, and licensed for our use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
THE WRETCHED™ is a trademark of Chris Bissette. If you want to make your own game, the System Reference Document (SRD) can be downloaded from the Sealed Library itch.io page
How to get the Game
The Wretched Hunt of Mine was created by Feral Indie Studio.
Web: https://feral-indie-studios.itch.io/this-wretched-hunt-of-mine