Dead Inside (game)
Dead Inside cover
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| Designer(s) | Chad Underkoffler |
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| Publisher(s) | Atomic Sock Monkey Press |
| Publication date | 2003 |
| Genre(s) | Horror, Fantasy |
| System(s) | PDQ |
Dead Inside is a horror/fantasy role-playing game published by Atomic Sock Monkey Press based around the concept of characters who have lost or were born without their souls. These "Dead Inside" strive to regain or rebuild their souls. The game provides a variety of means by which souls may be lost, stolen, traded, regained or rebuilt.
The game is considered unusual for its attempt to reverse the typical "Kill monsters and take their stuff" path to power found in most RPGs and replace it with the "Heal people and give them stuff" concept. Essentially, selfless and noble actions by the characters are rewarded with Soul Points, the measure of a character's soul integrity. These Soul Points can be used to fuel metaphysical powers or to improve a character's abilities, much as experience points are used in other RPGs.
Dead Inside won the People's Choice Award in the 2004 Indie RPG Awards.
Dead Inside is chiefly divided into two realms – the stable, modern-day "Real World" and the dreamlike, mercurial "Spirit World".
The "Real World" is familiar and mostly devoid of the supernatural, at least on the surface (all supernatural powers and abilities in the game are weak and very difficult to use there). Its main denizens are "Average People" – those who own their original soul, who are incapable of visiting the Spirit World or perceiving the supernatural.
The "Spirit World" is an ever shifting dreamscape. Its geography is hard to pin down, but consists of five chief areas: the Wood in the East, the Waste in the South, the Mists in the North, the Sea to the West, and in the center, The City.
Across the Sea (although direction has little real meaning in the Spirit World) lies the Source; the centre of the cosmos from which all souls are born and to which they return after death.
Outside of this whole lies the Void, a limitless expanse of utter nothingness, into which any soul is lost forever. It is said that the Real World protects the Spirit World and Source from the Void much as the shell of an egg protects the yolk.
The Real and Spirit Worlds may be travelled between by the supernaturally aware via "Gates": shimmering portals between the realms that can be opened by those who know how. It is impossible to travel to the Source short of death; or at least, no-one who has ever attempted the trip has returned.
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Wikipedia