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De Profundis: Letters from the Abyss
The Diana Jones 2002 Award Nominated game of psychological horror returns in an all new, and expanded, 2nd Edition. Blending the imagination of H. P. Lovecraft and other contemporary horror and conspiracy writers and themes, De Profundis is a correspondence-based story-telling game that can be played from the point of view of participants from a variety of eras. Whether you take on the role of a Victorian investigator, a soldier from the front line during WW1 or WW2 confronted by the Weird, a government investigator looking into the strange and unknown, an internet conspiracy theorist in the modern age who gets in too deep, or someone else entirely, De Profundis provides a great alternative in gaming that allows you to participate in an interactive story with friends old and new. Not requiring the usual face-to-face aspect of most traditional RPGs, the game caters for people who find it hard to maintain a regular gaming group due to time commitments, or for those who don't have any fellow gamers in their neighbourhood. Utilising a mix of letter writing, email and text based gaming - depending on your chosen era of play - it's a perfect game for the modern time strapped gamer.
32 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
November 21, 2018
As I pointed out in a recent blog post, I was introduced, indirectly, to this game via a newsletter (yes, a physical newsletter sent via post) that a fellow gamer created. I was so intrigued that I bought this book and immediately set about reading it.
De Profundis is written in the form of letters, an intriguing conceit given that the game itself is played by writing letters to one another and riffing off of each other's comments, pulling questions forth from your correspondents, and tweaking your responses a bit to construct a shared universe on the fly. It seems theoretically simple, but I'm intrigued to see how it plays out in real-time.
The trick, of course, is managing expectations. To do this, the person proposing the "campaign" constructs, either alone or with other potential correspondents, a "Society," complete with goals, members (i.e., characters), an agreed "convention" (e.g., "X-files" or "High Victorian Society" or whatever), the expected literary "level" of the game, and, for games specific to the Cthulhu mythos (which was the original intent of the game), what level of weirdness or eeriness should be permitted/aimed for during play. And, of course, one needs a starting plot to get things going, a premise, an opening riff.
There are several examples of such Societies given in the book, and this is a good thing, as the high-level description would be too vague without some concrete examples. The authors are very self-aware that there is a tendency to unravel if clear expectations aren't set from the beginning. That said, there is no arbiter, no game "master". All should participate with an equal level of agency and, potentially, input. Dice may be rolled, and random tables are provided with each example, but instructions on when they are to be used are either not there or I lost them in the rest of the text (both possible).
After reading De Profundis, I have dedicated myself to figuring out a way to carry out a campaign with a very select group of my favorite gamer friends. But rather than be subject to the rules vagaries regarding the use of tables, I think I will tweak another great RPG find of late, English Eerie: Rural Horror Storytelling Game, which is a solo game that can optionally be played with others. I don't think it will take much to integrate the two, and English Eerie has more clear guidelines on how to randomize events (using face cards instead of dice - a good excuse to pick up a cool set of playing cards). Combining the strengths of the two could provide a thoroughly engaging game of correspondence. I am excited to experiment with this!
Just the other day, a letter arrived in the mail in response to my blog post. It was from an individual who has become even more disenchanted with social media than I have; a person whom I have gamed with both in person and online, a great roleplayer! Last night, I bought a bunch of decorative (read: dark, gothic) paper and some fancy pens and wrote him a response, folding the paper into an envelope that I'm hoping will survive the rigors of the US Postal Service. He will be one I will definitely invite. I'm take another step back toward analog, toward more personal interaction than what I normally get on social media. Goodreads is, of course, the exception. But it's more than just a social media, isn't it? So much more.
De Profundis is written in the form of letters, an intriguing conceit given that the game itself is played by writing letters to one another and riffing off of each other's comments, pulling questions forth from your correspondents, and tweaking your responses a bit to construct a shared universe on the fly. It seems theoretically simple, but I'm intrigued to see how it plays out in real-time.
The trick, of course, is managing expectations. To do this, the person proposing the "campaign" constructs, either alone or with other potential correspondents, a "Society," complete with goals, members (i.e., characters), an agreed "convention" (e.g., "X-files" or "High Victorian Society" or whatever), the expected literary "level" of the game, and, for games specific to the Cthulhu mythos (which was the original intent of the game), what level of weirdness or eeriness should be permitted/aimed for during play. And, of course, one needs a starting plot to get things going, a premise, an opening riff.
There are several examples of such Societies given in the book, and this is a good thing, as the high-level description would be too vague without some concrete examples. The authors are very self-aware that there is a tendency to unravel if clear expectations aren't set from the beginning. That said, there is no arbiter, no game "master". All should participate with an equal level of agency and, potentially, input. Dice may be rolled, and random tables are provided with each example, but instructions on when they are to be used are either not there or I lost them in the rest of the text (both possible).
After reading De Profundis, I have dedicated myself to figuring out a way to carry out a campaign with a very select group of my favorite gamer friends. But rather than be subject to the rules vagaries regarding the use of tables, I think I will tweak another great RPG find of late, English Eerie: Rural Horror Storytelling Game, which is a solo game that can optionally be played with others. I don't think it will take much to integrate the two, and English Eerie has more clear guidelines on how to randomize events (using face cards instead of dice - a good excuse to pick up a cool set of playing cards). Combining the strengths of the two could provide a thoroughly engaging game of correspondence. I am excited to experiment with this!
Just the other day, a letter arrived in the mail in response to my blog post. It was from an individual who has become even more disenchanted with social media than I have; a person whom I have gamed with both in person and online, a great roleplayer! Last night, I bought a bunch of decorative (read: dark, gothic) paper and some fancy pens and wrote him a response, folding the paper into an envelope that I'm hoping will survive the rigors of the US Postal Service. He will be one I will definitely invite. I'm take another step back toward analog, toward more personal interaction than what I normally get on social media. Goodreads is, of course, the exception. But it's more than just a social media, isn't it? So much more.
August 1, 2018
Moves beyond horror RPG into a more LARPish realm of involvement known as "psychodrama". Visualisation of the Lovecraftian and Cthulhuesque with letter writing to produce shared epistolary narratives.
September 19, 2023
De Profundis is a wonderful book. Half epistolary novel, half experimental roleplaying "game", it is a beautiful piece of metafiction and psychodrama that seeks to bring innovation, psychological depth, empathy, and -- real -- paranoia to gaming circles. As an appreciator of postmodern literature writ large, I am a great enjoyer of Michał Oracz's choice to deliberately blur the line between his fiction and instructions; and as a fan of method acting and certified mental illness haver™, I absolutely adore his feverish, bizarre, and almost certainly maddening advice on how to conjure, through sheer willpower and immersion into collective emergent fiction, the weird and horrible into the corners of your IRL perception as a tool to enrich that fiction.
I think this "game" is a powerful tool even (and perhaps especially) for those who:
a) hate the rote, descriptive, instructive style of traditional TRPG books;
b) cannot cope with the copious amount of math and dice-rolling traditionally associated with those games;
c) want to shatter wholesale the illusory wall between "me" and "my character" -- or, at least, to make it less solid; and
d) have, like me, frequent trouble playing tabletop RPGs with your friends on account of mutually incompatible, busy schedules.
Grab this book, a pen, and paper. Start writing letters to your friends.
I think this "game" is a powerful tool even (and perhaps especially) for those who:
a) hate the rote, descriptive, instructive style of traditional TRPG books;
b) cannot cope with the copious amount of math and dice-rolling traditionally associated with those games;
c) want to shatter wholesale the illusory wall between "me" and "my character" -- or, at least, to make it less solid; and
d) have, like me, frequent trouble playing tabletop RPGs with your friends on account of mutually incompatible, busy schedules.
Grab this book, a pen, and paper. Start writing letters to your friends.
January 31, 2022
Teil 1 macht zieht einen schon richtig in das Spiel hinein. Love it. Kann kaum erwarten es auszuprobieren.
August 2, 2015
While usually nothing annoys my as much as someone repeating in a RPG handbook that it is not a game or that it is something greater than a game, in this case it didn't bother me much. It is a really interesting take on RPGs and I am very eager to start it. Now, lets just find someone who is willing to be eaten by a shoggoth...
Read
April 12, 2020Read this pretty quickly in preparation for a game.
De Profundis is a letter-writing role-playing game set in a vaguely Lovecraftian milieu. For me, Lovecraft is fine: I've read a number of his stories and enjoyed some pretty well. The tabletop game culture's love affair with him has always bewildered me a bit, but when the time and mood strike I can enjoy 1920s New England cosmic horror as much as the next person.
I'm very intrigued how this will play out - a group creates characters, a Society that is writing letters to one another about mysterious events they are experiencing, or a mystery they are embroiled in, etc. A general time and place is chosen, a basic "plot" (i.e., some level of inciting incident or incidents across characters) and then you...go. You write a physical letter to another character describing what's going on with you, what issues you're facing, etc., and mail it to them. They respond, escalating or twisting things, either supporting your narrative or becoming a main driver of action that needs to be supported in turn, etc.
The book isn't organized well, though - it definitely needs an endsheet or two describing the steps needed to set up and begin a game.
It sounds like a great deal of fun, just now, and I'm excited to try it out. A whole character and backstory have just sort of sprung into my head during idle moments of the past few days, as I've been reading the book. We'll see how the game turns out.
De Profundis is a letter-writing role-playing game set in a vaguely Lovecraftian milieu. For me, Lovecraft is fine: I've read a number of his stories and enjoyed some pretty well. The tabletop game culture's love affair with him has always bewildered me a bit, but when the time and mood strike I can enjoy 1920s New England cosmic horror as much as the next person.
I'm very intrigued how this will play out - a group creates characters, a Society that is writing letters to one another about mysterious events they are experiencing, or a mystery they are embroiled in, etc. A general time and place is chosen, a basic "plot" (i.e., some level of inciting incident or incidents across characters) and then you...go. You write a physical letter to another character describing what's going on with you, what issues you're facing, etc., and mail it to them. They respond, escalating or twisting things, either supporting your narrative or becoming a main driver of action that needs to be supported in turn, etc.
The book isn't organized well, though - it definitely needs an endsheet or two describing the steps needed to set up and begin a game.
It sounds like a great deal of fun, just now, and I'm excited to try it out. A whole character and backstory have just sort of sprung into my head during idle moments of the past few days, as I've been reading the book. We'll see how the game turns out.
August 31, 2025
This is an intriguing concept, but not a new one. That being said, I do not think I am the right audience for it. I have been doing online forum writing for years and keeping extensive character journals for TTRPGs. So the ideas in this book were not new to me, so I found it hard to keep reading.
This is basically putting rules to those forum writing concepts to try to get other players to do the same via letters.
I really enjoy forum writing and immersive character experiences like this, so I appreciate there is a book out there to explain this to people who may not have known this was a thing. It may be a good book to try to convince friend's to write with me, who may be new to this line of creativity.
However, I have found games like these have a tendency to be pretty slow and finding someone interested in writing back is difficult. People like to talk about ideas and concepts, but seem to draw blanks when it comes to putting concepts down on paper. Then, it gets frustrating because expectations are not met for the person hoping to write a detailed story with someone else.
As the book explains, you need to develop a 'society' of writers who are highly invested in character development, world building, and story writing. This can be a monumental task in today's world where people are reading and writing less.
This is basically putting rules to those forum writing concepts to try to get other players to do the same via letters.
I really enjoy forum writing and immersive character experiences like this, so I appreciate there is a book out there to explain this to people who may not have known this was a thing. It may be a good book to try to convince friend's to write with me, who may be new to this line of creativity.
However, I have found games like these have a tendency to be pretty slow and finding someone interested in writing back is difficult. People like to talk about ideas and concepts, but seem to draw blanks when it comes to putting concepts down on paper. Then, it gets frustrating because expectations are not met for the person hoping to write a detailed story with someone else.
As the book explains, you need to develop a 'society' of writers who are highly invested in character development, world building, and story writing. This can be a monumental task in today's world where people are reading and writing less.
November 14, 2017
De Profundis is part role-playing game, part letter writing, and part performance art. It is a game of writing letters as characters from an H.P. Lovecraft story and the game is written as a series of letters. The game looks like an interactive experience that would push the boundaries of imagination and sanity. I will definitely try this game out.
July 14, 2019
On the one hand, this is a fascinating notion for a game, one that allows the players to work as equals in creating an environment of dread and paranoia that most horror games can't match. On the other hand, this is a LOT of expectation placed on the players, and the quality of the game as described in the first half of the book is a HIGH bar to set.
January 28, 2017
Leseeindruck
Fangen wir doch mit den Negativitäten an um dann dazu zu kommen warum mir das Buch doch gefallen hat. Einige dieser Negativitäten rühren vom Druck des Buches her. Es hat wirklich eine miserabel Druckqualität. Den Brief am Ende des Buches konnte ich kaum lesen. Die Schrift im sonstigen Teil ist winzig und auch die Bilder sind manchmal über Gebür verschwommen. Ich hoffe das hat sich in der anderen erweiterten Neuauflage geändert. Zuerst empfand ich den Schreibstil des Autoren zu ausgefallen, zu überladen, zu pompös, dies hat sich aber geändert als ich bemerkte, dass dies die Eigenart des Charakters des Autoren ist. Besser lässt es sich wohl nicht beschreiben. Der "Michal" der diese Briefe verfasst ist einfach ein Typ der übertreibt und viel beschreibt. Ihm ist einfach so großes Hobby P&P so in Fleisch und Blut übergegangen, das er so ist. Das gesamte Konzept, das hinter De Profundis (es gibt einen gleichnamigen Song meiner Lieblingsband ASP - Aus der Tiefe) steckt ist anders und gut so. Es ist spannend und hat mich einfach interessiert. Doch es ist auch wirklich gefährlich Wahnsinn über lange Zeit zu "spielen". Hauptsächlich fasse ich das Konzept jetzt einfach mal so zusammen. Das Buch lehrt dich, durch deine Psyche mehr Doppeldeutigkeiten in Situationen, Orten und Gesprächen zu sehen und dies dann einem Brieffreund mitzuteilen. Es ist ein bisschen so, als würde man von einem auf den anderen Tag ein Verschwörungstheoretiker werden. Dieser andere Spieler weiß natürlich, das man sich nur in einer fantasievollen "Parallelwelt" befindet. Ein Freund von mir sagte, es geht eher darum Mysterien zu finden, aber für mich geht es eindeutig mehr um Wahnsinn und Schrecken. Wenn ihr etwas Geordneteres oder mehr darüber Wissen wollt, müsst ihr es lesen. Ich kann diesen ganzen Wissensknoten in meinem Kopf nicht wieder ganz aufdröseln. Das ist jedenfalls mein De Profundis.
Fangen wir doch mit den Negativitäten an um dann dazu zu kommen warum mir das Buch doch gefallen hat. Einige dieser Negativitäten rühren vom Druck des Buches her. Es hat wirklich eine miserabel Druckqualität. Den Brief am Ende des Buches konnte ich kaum lesen. Die Schrift im sonstigen Teil ist winzig und auch die Bilder sind manchmal über Gebür verschwommen. Ich hoffe das hat sich in der anderen erweiterten Neuauflage geändert. Zuerst empfand ich den Schreibstil des Autoren zu ausgefallen, zu überladen, zu pompös, dies hat sich aber geändert als ich bemerkte, dass dies die Eigenart des Charakters des Autoren ist. Besser lässt es sich wohl nicht beschreiben. Der "Michal" der diese Briefe verfasst ist einfach ein Typ der übertreibt und viel beschreibt. Ihm ist einfach so großes Hobby P&P so in Fleisch und Blut übergegangen, das er so ist. Das gesamte Konzept, das hinter De Profundis (es gibt einen gleichnamigen Song meiner Lieblingsband ASP - Aus der Tiefe) steckt ist anders und gut so. Es ist spannend und hat mich einfach interessiert. Doch es ist auch wirklich gefährlich Wahnsinn über lange Zeit zu "spielen". Hauptsächlich fasse ich das Konzept jetzt einfach mal so zusammen. Das Buch lehrt dich, durch deine Psyche mehr Doppeldeutigkeiten in Situationen, Orten und Gesprächen zu sehen und dies dann einem Brieffreund mitzuteilen. Es ist ein bisschen so, als würde man von einem auf den anderen Tag ein Verschwörungstheoretiker werden. Dieser andere Spieler weiß natürlich, das man sich nur in einer fantasievollen "Parallelwelt" befindet. Ein Freund von mir sagte, es geht eher darum Mysterien zu finden, aber für mich geht es eindeutig mehr um Wahnsinn und Schrecken. Wenn ihr etwas Geordneteres oder mehr darüber Wissen wollt, müsst ihr es lesen. Ich kann diesen ganzen Wissensknoten in meinem Kopf nicht wieder ganz aufdröseln. Das ist jedenfalls mein De Profundis.
Want to Read
March 27, 2017(bought at drivethrurpg.com - can't edit that in)
January 14, 2013
This book is remarkable. I found reading it to be both fascinating and inspiring. I just want to go create now!
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews