Down Amongst the Dead Books
Bookshops and libraries are wondrous places. Every shelf filled with stories. Each book a door into magical places real and imagined. We use phrases like ‘getting lost in a book’ to emphasise the compelling nature of the written word. As you look up from a book to realise hours, not minutes, have passed you don’t regret the time spent in written reverie.
The Stygian Library is an adventure supplement that takes the idea of ‘getting lost in a book’ to its logical extreme: what if the places we find books in, are connected to something larger. A place of infinite knowledge where books known, forgotten, and lost can be found. These places are not silent. Oh no. Librarians exist even in this liminal place, and much, much more besides.
The Stygian Library is written by Emmy Allen and illustrated by Alec Sorenson. It is available in PDF form from Drivethrurpg, but I have the printed version from Soul Muppet Publishing in the UK.
I bought The Stygian Library with my own money. There are affiliate links in this piece to the supplement on DrivethruRPG
I’m honestly not sure how to review an RPG supplement, so lets take this journey together. What I can tell you is that this review is based on using Stygian Library in play. I’ve used it for my Into the Odd campaign and it has featured heavily in the last couple of sessions.
What is the Stygian Library? It’s a book that gives you the tools to procedurally generate an effectively infinite library, with a narrative running through it specific to that place. You can of course introduce your own story like I have. The library can be accessed from places that also contain books, as long as there has been a death there. This simple fact gives us a border of horror inflected, liminal spaces with which to put out library inside. Many of the events and denizens you will encounter along the way will reinforce this ideal, and give a sense of place as you plumb the depths.
Depth is the measure of progress here, and it alters all the details you will come across. When a party first enters the library you roll a d20 on the location table to find out where they start out. You also roll up some details for the place and an encounter. This will give you the details of your level 0 room.
For instance my first room was a room with display cases in it contain vials of blood from various animals. It contained a treasure pile hidden in the cases and it was the territory of a Paper Golem that made its presence known pretty quickly. It was a brilliantly evocative first location.
The Stygian Library is not interested in what the rest of level zero looks like. Endless corridors of books, musty smells, creaking floorboards, etc. It assumes you know what the rest of the floor looks like, and is only interested in that one weird place that sticks in the mind. Then it asks ‘Do you want to go deeper?’
While you could use this book as just a weird dungeon, there is a reason the book suggests you go there. Knowledge. With the passageways of paper The Stygian Library contains everything from a regular encyclopedia to, as the book puts it, ‘Information that has never been uncovered in the real world’.
The rarer the knowledge that you seek, the deeper you have to go to find it. A value called Progress is assigned to the type of book you want to get, and as you venture into the hallways this increases. Events, encounters, and NPCs along the way can help you reach this goal faster.
As you go deeper you add the level of the library you are heading to on top of your d20 roll. Locations get stranger, and you begin to realise there is more to the library than just books. There is something at work in the musty, knowledge ridden corridors.
I’m not going to spoil the surprises as the intention of the book is to procedurally generate these places as you go. GMs should just be aware that if they want there is a whole narrative to explore within the corridors of the library. It is not explicit, it just slowly emerges and I really love that.
How easy is it to generate this place on the fly? I found the experience surprisingly smooth. As mentioned you have a Location, Details, and the Encounter. The three parts of each room are in the same order in the book: all the Locations, then all the Details, then the Encounters. These are arranged A-Z making it easy to find each entry from a scribbled note. In addition each entry in the tables has the page reference next to, making a quick look up even easier. I also realised, after I had basically used the book, that there is an online generator for the book. It can be found on the Soulmuppet site and is simple but seems great.
At the back of the book are even more tables to flesh out some results or just add details as you see fit. Tables for rumours, books, what happens when you search the room/body and more besides. This is all solid layout, but all of it would be for nought if it wasn’t for the contents which are excellent. From the Help Desk to the strange Statuary and the Paper Beehives the rooms give you just enough detail to put your own stamp on it
The Details section isn’t quite as exciting but it serves to just flesh out the location. It’s the Encounters where things get really wild.
From Animate Books, to Paper Bees that farm ink, Phantoms that power some of the technology, and Paper Columns. There are fresh ideas and twists on old dungeon favourites that will give you ample creatures and denizens to play with.
My personal favourites have been the various orders of Librarians that maintain this space. My players have encountered many of these cloaked entities and had fun interactions with them all. As the characters haven’t run rampant through the Library the custodians have treated them well. The librarians have different colours of cloaks indicating their job within the library. This is a detail that makes it easy for the characters to know how an individual might react to them, and allows me as the GM to convey information quickly.
If your characters do make enemies of the librarians then there is a second encounter table table that turns the heat up, making things more dangerous for the characters. This is a nice touch that saves the GM a bit of work.
The production of the book is top notch with a beautiful cloth bound cover and evocative art from Alec Sorenson. Emmy Allen’s writing feels detailed without being complete, giving you space to add your own flourishes as and how you need to.
My only slight criticism is that there is a rule about losing progress towards finding the books you need. This happens if your characters flee from a place, you reset the progress to the base number based on one character’s intelligence. I personally ignored this rule, as it felt it was too punishing. I didn’t want our journey into this miraculous place to feel like a drag.
I have not regretted picking up The Stygian Library for a moment. It has given me a lot as a GM and been smooth to run. My players have enjoyed figuring out the library, and picking their way through its myriad mysteries. As someonewho hasn’t really gotten on with adventure supplements in the past, and it has been something of a revelation. It will no doubt find its way into future games as players seek knowledge common, forgotten, and never known.
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