Thousand Hells: The Underworld Heists

The closest I've personally come to a non-combat focused GMed TRPG session creator by a good and creative GM.

Great writing, and compelling mechanics that make it interesting to come back to again and again to try different paths!

I played King of Dragon Pass years ago, loved it, and I bought this one (though it's a very different game from KoDP) on the strength of the developer's name. Short answer: it's good, different from other games, and you should play it. Caveated longer answer: I found Thousand Hells amazing / awe-inspiring for the first few runs (I loved the novelty of the setting), but I liked it a bit less as I went along. The main concern I have is that there aren't enough hells for the number of narratives -- 10 narrative adventures, which you can carry out in your choice of 4 hells. So you end up re-running the same environments more than a few times as you go through, and although there are choices of route etc. (and maybe some lingering changes in the worlds caused by your prior runs? not sure), which offer variety, I felt like the shine of the worlds had worn off for me a bit by the time I did my last run. Adding more random encounters etc. would help with this. Unlike some of the other reviews here, I didn't have much of a concern with the difficulty. I lost some runs, maybe half or so, but I usually had a pretty good idea why, and I felt like the "insights" system worked well to compleme…

Recommendation: Yes (With Heavy Reservations / Would choose "Neutral" if possible). Having played and loved King of Dragon Pass and the Six Ages series, I went into Thousand Hells with incredibly high expectations. While the game is worth playing, I strongly suggest waiting for a deep sale. The currently available content lacks both the polish and length to justify full price. Gameplay & Comparison The gameplay mirrors the "Other Side" rituals from KODP, where you select dialogue options to navigate a narrative path. Every run follows a highly predictable loop: assemble a team of four semi-customizable members, journey to one of four hells, attempt a mission, and return. Unfortunately, matching your party to situations feels far less satisfying or effective than matching a ritual participant in KODP. Once you grasp the core mechanics, an entire run takes a mere 30 minutes. Frustrating RNG & Mechanics The game's randomization is uniquely punishing compared to its predecessors. In Six Ages, sending a renowned combat hero like Yakatan on the Elmal Guards the Sunpath quest yielded a near-certain victory. In Thousand Hells, you can draft a warrior, match identical attributes (like …

Too random and too little player agency.

the spaniel is the true final boss of Thousand Hells. so many runs and hours wasted to beat a medium-sized dog whose most distinguishing feature in ALL of media is that she likes to run after and chew rocks