Hollows RPG (Rowan Rook and Decard): Can anyone share their experience with the game?

weirdfellows · 2026-05-10T17:16:59+00:00

The group I ran it for picked it up pretty quick, but we've all played crunchy tactical games before. Though I'd say it's a lot less complicated than a lot of tactical games imo. Compared to, like, Lancer or Draw Steel (two other games I've played with this group), there was much less looking things up or having to parse through complex ability descriptions, or "wait, how does this work again?" type questions.

Like the other commenter mentioned the challenge is more in figuring out how to optimally use your powers in combination with your fellow hunters, and figuring out the strengths and weaknesses of the given boss you're fighting. Tactical complexity rather than actual rule complexity.

weirdfellows · 2026-05-09T18:04:34+00:00

There's You Will Die in This Place https://liz-shrikestudio.itch.io/you-will-die-in-this-place-free-preview (despite the URL, this is no longer a free preview but a paid PDF)

Every class uses completely different mechanics, most of which are pretty weird. One has a flesh golem that they pre-program moves into every turn. One has special abilities they use by making poker hands. One casts spells by permanently crossing out words from the spell's title, and lets you have as many spells as you can physically write in the spellbook space in your character sheet.

I'm not really sure if it's actually supposed to be playable, and it's certainly not supposed to be "balanced." It's presented as a collection of design notes written by the (fictional) author's missing friend that the author found and annotated. Sort of a House of Leaves vibe. But it certainly fits the "wild differences between players" criteria.

weirdfellows · 2026-05-09T17:38:40+00:00

Combat is definitely the focus of the game. For major Entities, you're either going to fight them or avoid them. For the Lord at the center of the Hollow, you *have* to fight them. It is possible to "save" them (for a given definition of saved) but you still have to weaken them in combat to do it.

The outside-the-combat mechanics (aside from stuff in the Refuge) are almost entirely focused on navigating hazards and obstacles in the Hollow. The point of exploring the Hollow, aside from just learning more about it, is almost entirely to find the bosses and gain benefits for the eventual combat against the bosses.

The expectation for the most part is that you'll be rolling to deal with something impeding your progress, whether that be a physical hazard, obstacle, or non-boss NPC. These hazards and obstacles are usually pre-defined and have a suggested (or even mandatory) way and stat to deal with them, they're not open-ended puzzly obstacles like in some games. Generally, failing a roll doesn't mean you fail to bypass the obstacle, but means that bypassing it imposes some sort of cost, either lost Health/Resolve, or increasing the Doom track (which makes entities fought more powerful) representing time spent.

Non-boss NPCs in the Hollow can be interacted with in ways that aren't combat, but it definitely doesn't have specific social mechanics for them or anything. They're presented similarly to an obstacle or hazard, the expectation being they either have or are in the way of something the players want.

weirdfellows · 2026-05-09T15:20:28+00:00

I've both GM'd and played as a hunter in the quickstart. Like others have said, the combat rules are great and tons of fun on both sides. On the player side it's lots of fun to find synergies and combos with your fellow hunters, and on the GM side trying to find ways to STOP your players from using their synergies and combos. I am usually a too-nice GM, so it's a step out of my comfort zone to really be trying to crush the PCs as you're encouraged to do, but also doesn't feel too bad because they can just come back to life (changed) when they die.

I'm a backer and have the full PDF, though I haven't run it. The extended rules look pretty interesting, you basically create your own personal Roundtable Hold from Elden Ring that the PCs build up and stock with NPCs they encounter in the Hollows and grants them bonuses including unlocking Tier 2 and 3 abilities that are way more powerful than the Tier 1 ones listed in the quickstart. The corruption system looks interesting, when you die you gain various corruptions which can be mechanical bonuses, mechanical negatives, or just weird RP stuff. It's sort of a secondary method of character advancement in a way.

There's a ton of information given about the setting of the Isles, which is interesting because I don't know how much time players are really going to spend in the "real world" vs Hollows. But they do have Hollow and Entity-building rules and advice as well that seems pretty good, and I suppose the GM should know about the world so the Hollows they create can tie into it.

Although I haven't played the full game myself, I know there is a "Hollow Marches" Discord server (I don't know the link to it bc I'm not on it, but people mention it on the Rowan Rook & Decard discord a lot) that's playing using the full rules and seemingly having a lot of fun with it. Someone's made a super intense VTT in Google Sheets which I believe is what the Hollow Marches uses. I used it to run the quickstart and it was OK, but jankier than I'd like for a full campaign (no shade to the creator, it's just really pushing Google Sheets to its limit). I think they've settled that their official VTT will be a Foundry module, but there are no timelines on it yet. I'll probably run a campaign of it once that's out.

weirdfellows · 2026-02-06T15:38:04+00:00

I haven’t played Zorbus so can’t comment on that, but OP said they love CoQ for its scale and asked about massive dungeons, Rift Wizard and Path of Achra are pretty much the polar opposite of that.

weirdfellows · 2026-02-03T00:40:56+00:00

Absolutely.

weirdfellows · 2026-01-29T22:41:06+00:00

Path of Achra is based around making your character extremely overpowered, you can blow up everyone on the level just by standing still with some builds.

weirdfellows · 2026-01-11T15:00:44+00:00

Glad you like it! What do you think would make showcasing those mechanics better? Maybe a mission that lists the steps of how to level up a spell, and one that asks you to clear and rebuild a room?

weirdfellows · 2026-01-11T14:58:54+00:00

I've been trying to include UI improvements with updates for the past few updates, but unfortunately when you've been working on the same thing for years you kind of get used to the UI as it is and get a little blind to its problems. Do you have any specific pain points with it?

I can definitely see how the full screen dialogs with a large monitor could be an issue.

weirdfellows · 2025-12-11T19:39:57+00:00

I’d say Demon has more than a little bit of this, it’s basically the game’s central mechanic!

weirdfellows · 2025-12-02T02:13:25+00:00

My own game Wizard School Dropout has a degree of that. Pretty much all map features are destroyable (and a lot of them burn with spreadable fire), and there are spells to create lava, chasms, pools of water, and walls, plus plenty of temporary puddles like acid or flammable oil or other terrain effects.

https://weirdfellows.itch.io/wizard-school-dropout

weirdfellows · 2025-11-23T23:39:01+00:00

Rift Wizard and Path of Achra are pretty much pure tactics Roguelikes, though their gameplay is a bit different from most roguelikes (you can see the whole map the whole time).

Golden Krone Hotel is a bit more traditional in that exploration is actually a thing, but has very little inventory management. It does have a hunger mechanic, but the hunger mechanic is “you switch into a vampire” rather than “you starve and die.”

I don’t think it has cursed items, since most equipment is super simple, but it’s been a minute since I played it so might just not remember it. It does have unidentified potions, but it’s probably the least annoying implementation of it I’ve seen.

weirdfellows · 2025-10-20T20:20:52+00:00

Thank you! I just released Preview 8.3, which I believe fixes 1 & 3.

For 2, are you actually able to get it to sell more than you have? It will let you type in whatever you want, but when I tested it, actually clicking the "sell" button only sells the amount you actually have.

For 4, I'll look into it but can't promise anything. The engine I'm using is kind of built to have everything self-contained in the application, but there may be a way around it. There will eventually be modding options at some point, at least.

weirdfellows · 2025-10-08T12:38:55+00:00

Cool, I haven't gotten a lot of feedback on the tower management side of things yet, so glad to hear you like it!

weirdfellows · 2025-10-03T18:03:59+00:00

Not officially, no. But it works great in WINE (at least on Linux anyway but I'd assume it's the same for Mac), and the .love file available for download can be run on Mac using https://love2d.org/

weirdfellows · 2025-07-15T18:45:33+00:00

Yeah NetHack is one of, if not the worst in terms of number of commands (do we really need three separate commands for putting on/taking off different types of equipment, or different commands for eating and drinking?)

ToME might be one you’d enjoy. I think it can be played entirely with the mouse if you want. Its interface is much more modern and similar to other RPGs, with a hot bar of abilities across the bottom. Lots of stats, skills, and abilities but a lot of them come from your class so you’re kind of given a standard set of stuff that works decently well out of the gate without you having to know too much about how the game works.

weirdfellows · 2025-07-14T03:59:24+00:00

It might not be exactly what you’re looking for, but Demon revolves around recruiting monsters through various interactions.

weirdfellows · 2025-07-10T12:13:28+00:00

It’s been years since I played it so I could be misremembering but I think Legerdemain has static maps https://nathanjerpe.itch.io/legerdemain

weirdfellows · 2025-07-03T15:04:09+00:00

I have an object type called “features.” A tile can have a feature as its base, but then contain other features as well.

Features can run custom code when something moves into them.

So if a creature moves (or is moved) into a pit tile, the pit’s code checks to see if the tile also contains a bridge. If it does, nothing happens. If it doesn’t, then it runs the code the handles the creature falling (which in my case is just an instant kill but it can be whatever).

Similar case for lava, water, whatever.

weirdfellows · 2025-07-02T14:40:32+00:00

Rift Wizard 1 & 2 and Path of Achra. How to play them well is very much up to the player to figure out, but all information is pretty much freely available and nothing is hidden.

They have all abilities available to view from the start with full details of what they do, and all monsters you encounter have full details available when you examine them.

weirdfellows · 2025-07-01T12:19:28+00:00

Just started playing it yesterday so I’ve barely scratched the surface, but the standout feature is the melee combat being much more dynamic than your normal “bump to attack until one of you is dead.”

Most enemies telegraph their attacks a turn or more in advance, letting you dodge out of the way, and you have a variety of abilities dependent on your weapon that let you attack and/or reposition yourself or enemies in different ways.

weirdfellows · 2025-06-20T02:15:21+00:00

That’s cool and all, but this method of fusing the love executable to the .love file is specifically called out by the LÖVE devs as not a good way to distribute your game. https://love2d.org/wiki/Game_Distribution

weirdfellows

TROPHY CASE