The Pack

On the first day of every hundredth year...

Magic, The Pack, and The Snarl return to the realm of mortals. “We are The Pack,” says an authority that speaks to every living creature. “If your Heart is ready you can enter The Snarl. If your Will is strong you can reach its end. If you are First, we will reward you with your greatest desire. Come find us.” On the first day of the next year, all of that disappears for another 99 years.

Once you have entered The Snarl there is no leaving unless you reach the end. Even if you are not First, you can still return home with the experiences you gained inside. If you die or do not make it out before year’s end, you will disappear along with The Pack and The Snarl, destined to be forgotten.

The Pack is a GMless Forged In The Dark game about exploring a shifting labyrinth where you must rely on your Will and your gear.

The player characters have two resources their Will (equivalent to Stress) and gear (a combination of Harm and Load). They use gear in place of actions to decide how many dice are rolled, while Position and Effect are decided by the group. Chosen use these resources to overcome Obstacles in the Snarl, and once they've overcome enough of them they reach the next Area. As they need to recover spent resources they can Rest (downtime equivalent) whenever they want, but that advances the Rival clock. Getting through all the Areas intact gets you to the end of the Snarl giving you the "good end," but only if you beat the Rival clock to get there.

If you want inspiration for what you might bring on this journey check out Odd Jobs by Abe Mendes.