Out of the Odd (11/14/2025)

GM: Sean Nittner
Players: Morgan Hua, Steven Kaye, Max Beckman-Harned
System: Into the Odd

On Discord, I was talking about my issues with the colonial nature of dungeon delving: the killing, the looting, and the exploration of other people’s sacred sites for fun and opportunity. I’ve been framing my dungeon crawlers as prison camp escapees looking for refuge and a chance to arm themselves against their captors on the ruins of the colonizers, which has worked, but Ogre Whiteside gave me another idea…what if the dungeon is the place they are escaping from instead of going to?

I love it. We still get dungeon crawling, but it’s for a purpose: freedom. You might pick up treasures along the way, but especially in a one shot adventure “can we get out” is phenomenal goal for the game, and it’s very easy to pitch and for players to understand. So, my Into the Odd pitch went from the standard boilerplate:

Bastion is the only city that matters. In its industrial age, it sits as the smoke-shrouded hub of mankind, surrounded by a world of lurking horrors and cosmic interference. The Underground spreads beneath our feet and the stars loom above. You are an Explorer, braving places too far for maps and too old for records. Your expeditions touch the bizarre, wondrous, and horrific. You search for riches, but also Arcana, mysterious devices with unnatural powers.

To this:

Bastion, the Industrial City. The underground sprawls below like arteries of the earth filled with Astral Clans and Aracana, strange devices with unknown powers. You all remember the feel of the stone hand on your shoulder, and being taken deep below. You served in the prison camp of Ramlatt, working to excavate their dead god. The prison had no walls, as those who escaped were devoured by the darkness. You seized a chance opportunity to escape just the same. The Voice of Ramlatt was left unguarded [I held up a skull]. Which of you stole it? Guided by the skull, you’ve escaped the prison but you are now alone in the dark, hunted by the leader of the cult Torin the Living Earth and his army of bone crawlers.

I like it. The characters would be randomly generated, and I started the game in The Butchery, on level 3 of the Iron Coral (the adventure from inside the book). I had no expectation that would make it out, but by perseverance and luck they breathed fresh air once again!

Here’s how I started the session:

• Welcome. Thanking everyone for coming to play with me and trying out Into the Odd. Letting them know this was my first time running and that I was excited to learn more about it.
• One Weird Thing. Asking everyone for a weird experience they remember. We got stories of impromptu caravans forming in the fog, nigh sentient popup advertisements, a curve in the road that led to utter darkness, and the feeling of otherworldliness inside the fog. Lots of fog and darkness, with a bit of alien malice. I could work with that!
• Safety Talk. This probably isn’t 100% what I said, but I want to record it here to see how I might change it over time: “Thanks for playing Into the Odd with me. For the next few hours can we all agree to treat each other with love and respect? [Wait for agreement]. Great, our enjoyment of the game is more important than anything that happens in the game. so if anything comes up in the game that makes it unfun or uncomfortable for you, let us know and we’ll change it. There are plenty of safety tools you can use, (X-card, Lines and Veils, etc) but they’re all optional. If I introduce phase spiders and you don’t like spiders, they can be phase slugs. Similarly, if this game leans on real world issues you don’t want to play with, let us know and we’ll back off from those.” Again, not verbatim, but I think that’s about what I said.
• Expectations. I told everyone I excited us to spend around 3.5 hours trying to escape the dungeon but wasn’t sure if we’d make it. I’d be excited to see what they get up to regardles.
• Player Roles. I asked everyone to take on a player role. Since we only had three players, I excepted Caller, as it’s usually not needed.
  • Cartographer: draws dungeon maps to any level of detail you desire. (Morgan)
  • Notetaker: Records events of the adventure at any level of detail you desire. (Max)
  • Photographer: Takes pictures of the game and sends them to me afterwards. (Steve)
• Pitch. Then I gave the pitch from above. Morgan said he stole the scull so I handed it to him.
• Character Creation. We rolled up characters. 3d6 down the line, 1d6 for HP, starting gear based on highest stats and starting HP. Worse off characters start with better gear. I think it’s pretty brilliant.

The play is the thing

Thank you to Max for taking these notes of the game. I’ll fill in missing details that I remember [in brackets].

Intro: Ramlatt – picking away at a dead god. Skull of Ramlatt -> Stolen! Hunted by Torin, cult leader.

THEY DESERVED TO LOSE IT.

WE CHUTE TO

Room 1. Butchery – piles of meat + human remains.

DRAMATIST PERSONAE (never mind?) [The voice, stared off very bombastic, but once it noticed they were no longer in the presence of Torin or the cult, he simmered to that of a polite gentleman]

Skull: Wants its body! Missing rods! Once a knight. “The Gallows Knight” (Now called Skully). [Benedict Jongler asked if the skull would use it’s bombastic voice if the presence of cultists to scare them off or get them to obey him. The undead voice of the Gallows Knight responded he would try, and that the effect should work on the human members of the cult.]

[Cast of Characters]

• Benedict Jongler “The Axe”
• Benedict O “The Sneaky”
• Gizzard Wicherspin, and his faitiful mutt Rags.

WE ARE IN: The Halls of GLASS and GOLD

“FIND ME THE VOICE” – oddly quiet once we leave leave the room.

Room 2. Steel Boxes Room (ARSENAL)

OW! THAT HURTS. NO EXIT? JUST CAVITIES

Ben O lights a his torch. 3 [Boxes] HAVEN’T BEEN BROKEN INTO. REAL LOUD TO WHACK, WE OPEN IT:

BACKPACK CANON: CORROSION CANNON

Box 2: Purple + Red Coral, sharp. CORALINE BOMB.

WHAT’S TO THE WEST? THUMPS

Box: 3: <HATCHET STUCK>

Two lights with flappy feed – metallic rodent. Rags poops on it and it make a disapointed noise. “Rags, get awa!”. It scoops up the poop!

Hatchet broken 🙁 Box Open 🙂

A spear with hooked prongs and corroded metal. CAPTAIN’S SHREADDING SPEAR. They will respect this.

Room 3. THREE DOORS, THREE CHAIRS

Creepy clean leather chairs. Metal rodent sad when we closed the door. We crack it open. Scary shimmering! [Coming through the door] tinkling follows, shimmering on the coral ceiling.

SER SKULLY DOESN’T LIKE HIS NAME.

SHIMMERING APPRACHES! CORROSION CANNON DOESN’T ACTIVATE [Correction: The first step towards firing the Corrosion Cannon was taken. An unknown number of steps remain]

OW! GLASS. Benedict O and Gizzard take take damage [I don’t remember how Benedict was hurt, but Gizzard was run through by the Glass Mantis. He saved from Critical Damage but was still impaled by it]. EIGHT POINTS. OH NO! STRENGTH DAMAGE! Blood seeps into the glass.

BEHIND THE CHAIRS! [They ran for cover]

Room 4. METAL DEVICE ROOM (Nah!)

Coraline Bomb Time!! (Rex Run Away!)
GOODBY GLASS MANTIS
HELLO CORAL WRECKAGE
HELLOW VENT
HELPTER BEAST LOVES TO CLEAN

UP THE VENT!!! (SER KNIGHT) [Benedict Jonglar successfully threw up a rope with a grappling hook to the top of the vent to clime up it]

[For what it’s worth. I never thought in a 1000 years that they would discover this vent. There are no clues towards it. No reason to cut away the coral (it’s dangerous!) but when they set off a bomb and the Glass Mantis exploded, it seemed utterly unreasonable to do anything other than reveal it]

ROOM 5 [On level 1] HUMID ROOM. FAINTLY GLOWING PORTRAIT/FIGURE? DRAFTY

The figure beckons Gizzard to go down. [He ignores it, after struggling very hard to climb up in the first place]

[As Benedict O climbed up the vent after Gizzard] A warm metal hand [grabs me] and pulls me [trying to get Benedict into the metal cavities inside the chute]. I shake away but lost all sense and fall back down (to cracks in Ser Gallows)

Rags unhappy 🙁 [Because he’s separated from Gizzard who is at the top of the chute]

FLAT FIGURE APPROACHES, GIZZARD BACKS UP

THREE BONE SPIDERS APPROACH

BENEDICT O TRIES “CATAIN’S SHREDDING SPEAR” IT’S….CREEPY AS IT STICKS INTO THE SPIDER AND HOOKS IN.

THE OTHER TWO ATTACK.
ONE TRIES TO ENTER[Benedict Jongler is pinned down as the Crawler dislocates its joints and
enters his mouth. Then it entered Jongler’s body, the original husk falling down dead]
ONE SPIKES BENDICT O’S HANDS

CORROSION CANNON FIRES

WE WIN! [The third skuttled back to Torin]

…SO MANY GOLDEN ARMS

“THIS SUX” (BENEDICT CLIMBING PARTY) [Both Benedicts chimneying up the chute together with rags and all their gear hanging from a rope]

Room 5. SHELL MAN CAVE

IT GRUNTS! IT APPROACHES!

Gizzard lights a torch! Shakes head at Shell Man who wants you to go down.

Room 6. FOAM PIPE ROOM

Grate in ceiling. Incomprehensible language.

Glass rod from spider in SER KNIGHT. His name is SER MYGAL. [With another glass rod entered, some of his memories are restored and he shares that]

• Room 4 is the REPAIR SHOP
• We did not go to the FUEL CHAMBER
• Room 3 was “THE HUB”
• WE ARE IN “THE IRON CORAL” ZONE [Level 1, they started on Level 3. That chute was a huge deal!]
• It knows the burbling is saying “Abandon Structure. Crash Imminent” [On repeat].
• His duty in life was to protect the realm, honor the seers, and seek out the myths.

Room 7. FOAM FILLED ROOM

We walk through. Rags not happy.

Room 8. HEAR WEAVE CAVE. Alcove! Chute! Passage. Red coral alcove with a meaty pile (clothes).

We head for the waves!

Room 9. SLUG CRATE. A crate on a base (a slug foot)

We ask the box to stop. Bean delivers [Formerly an giant gloating red stone that looked like a kidney bean shimmered into Benedict O and them materialized inside him, causing discomfort but no damage. Now it phased out again and delivered the message to the slug.]

We get a guilder of polished bones! Not Mygals.

[The bean was sent back] “Thank you for relieving my burden. I will make another voyage”

We walk upwards! Smell the sea! NATURAL LIGHT! SEAGULLS! LIGHTHOUSE (FAR AWAY). ROWBOAT.

We decide to trying using the spear to do surgery on Benedict Jongler [Ser Mygal had told them that the bone creature would gestate and hatch within him in a day, killing him in the process]

Ask beanie to send message. It goes into the spear and shatters. A tiny gold ring clatters to the ground [worth one guilder]. Benedict O puts it on.

Spear does not have a nice mode! [But they miraculously dug out the larval bone spider and saved Benedict Jongler, thought with a gaping chest wound that would kill him if they don’t get medical attention soon!]

We made it out of bone coral island!

Pictures courtesy of our photographer Steve. Map by Morgan!

Thoughts on the Game

Into the Odd deserves its name. I really liked the weirdness of it all. Was it a crashed spaceship slowing turning the coral? Sure, but also, maybe not. The elements were so alien (A corrosion cannon next to a living spear, a glass mantis, golden arms) that they defied simple classification.

I wasn’t always sure if It was being faithful to the system in terms of calling for rolls. Most of the time I just told them what happens (i.e. hitting the metal lockers with a hatchet is loud as hell and doesn’t work very well but if you keep at it you’ll eventually bend the metal enough that it will pry open, though you might get cut by sharp edges in the process if you don’t cover your hands).

The threats were so uncertain (for me too!). The Glass Mantis was hungry and the Bone Crawlers wanted to implant them as hosts, or failing that, report their location. I probably should have given them a simpler (single) drive. Those were both violent encounters almost by nature (though if they had a way to understand the glass mantis, they could have led it to the butchery). But the Messenger (red bean shaped stone), the Helper Beast (machine rodent), the Gold Arms, the Shell Man, and the Slug Crate were just doing their jobs. In a few cases (like the Glass Mantis) I wanted a better way of telegraphing its desire. I was also annoyed with myself for including two spider like threats. Either one was cool, using both wasn’t the best choice.

I wanted to make climbing up the chute agonizing for the characters (they didn’t have enough time, skill, or resources so they just had to make due) but I think I may have just dragged it out for the players. It’s hard to play out long arduous challenges (like journeys) in a satisfying way in RPGs.

Some things about the system that I love:

• Players go first, in any order they want.
• No attack rolls. Everything always hits
• Hit points are flimsy things that tear away like carboard. Critical damage is terrifying.
• Rests are easy but need rations (which are finite)
• Using gear was incredibly important. It was flexible but prone to be lost, used up, or destroyed.
• Each creature having a drive was great. Made it easy to play them all.

My players were great. Everyone was finding creative solutions for things and they embraced the creepy vibes of the place and the desperate nature of their situation, while still having a good time, cracking wise and getting to know each other.