Vampires never fall out of fashion. Since Heinrich August Ossenfelder put pen to paper in 1748 and wrote The Vampire, the bloodsucking creatures have stayed firmly in the media spotlight, being the focus of everything from novels to video games. The TTRPG space is no different. Over the years, hundreds of games have focused on the Count and similar fanged terrors. However, Beneath the Altar by Cryptidgalaxy stands out from other vampire-based TTRPG games by putting the monster in a unique setting that plays to both the creature’s and the medium’s strengths.
Beneath the Altar is a solo TTRPG set in 1865. The player steps into the shoes of a vampire who has recently clawed out of their grave. At first, you’re confused and disoriented from your sudden trip under the Earth, but after a few days of stumbling around the desert, you come across the small town of Fort Silver. Unfortunately for you, the locals spot you and presume that you’re the new priest they’ve been expecting and quickly usher you to the church to start taking confessions.
A Vampire Takes Confession
While this wouldn’t be a terrible fate in and of itself, your newly developed vampiric instincts are filling you with an overwhelming hunger and thirst for blood while whispering dark temptations in your ear, leaving you with a hard choice. Do you turn this small town into an all-you-can-eat buffet, or do you try to help the town’s lost souls find peace?
Games of Beneath the Altar play out over 20 in-game weeks. Each week, three different community members will come into your confessional box and confess their sins to you, all while you try to navigate your desire for blood.
At the start of each confession, you roll a D6 to find out who will be stepping into the box to bare their soul to you, from the local sheriff to a bartender from a nearby saloon. After this, you draw a card and check the prompt table to find the general theme of that person’s confession.
However, even while taking confession, the desire for blood is never far away, and several situations can force your character to confront their new vampiric urges. Firstly, if you draw a heart, you are forced to roll to resist your hunger. Fail the roll, and you instantly stop the confession and head out to find someone to feast on.
Even worse, if you draw the Joker, you don’t even bother going out to hunt. Instead, you become overwhelmed with hunger and jump the person in the confession box. But don’t think your hunger vanishes once confession ends. After seeing three parishioners, you again have to roll to resist your urges.
Whenever you go out to hunt for prey, you roll the D6 twice. The first roll tells you who you end up eating, while the second roll tells you the victim’s fate, from just losing blood to ending up inflicted with the same vampire curse that is currently consuming you.
Rules That Keep The True Horror In Focus
Beneath the Altar is a memorable game for many reasons. One thing that sets it apart from other vampire TTRPGs is its setting and central theme. While many other vampire games have tried to emulate the gothic feel of the original Dracula novel, and others have brought vampires into modern cities, this is one of only a handful of Wild West-themed Vampire TTRPGs.
Plus, having your vampire masquerade as a priest is a genius idea that dramatically elevates the game by bringing the struggle between the character’s human and vampire sides into sharp focus. Unlike many other Vampire-themed TTRPG games that treat feeding as an abstract act used to gather resources, Beneath the Altar works hard to make feeding feel like a big deal. The game constantly reminds players that they’re draining blood from living beings who have their own lives outside of their interactions with the player character. It also reminds the player that feeding is an inherently violent act that can cause long-lasting damage to the victim.
Because of this, every confession scene in Beneath the Altar has a tense and heavy atmosphere, as you are always aware that you’re one unlucky draw away from giving in to your urges and going on a rampage. Plus, due to the random nature of vampiric-feeding frenzies, you can’t be sure that you won’t end up accidentally harming a character you care about or one who has done nothing wrong, making each feeding session a harrowing experience.
A Hidden Mystery Makes The Town Feel Alive
Another fascinating element of Beneath the Altar is its prompts. In the game’s introduction, it is noted that Silver Fort may be hiding a dark secret, and later, the rules note that one possible ending for the game is your vampire solving this mystery.
However, the game never directly gives the player options for what this mystery could be. Instead, the various prompts feature several hooks that suggest something isn’t right in the town of Silver Fort, mentioning things like mysterious illnesses, sudden disappearances, and supernatural events. While the prompts clearly nudge the player towards creating a mystery, they are open enough that the player isn’t forced in a single direction.
This is the most memorable and impressive element of Beneath the Altar, as mystery games that create the central mystery as you play don’t click with me as I find it hard to immerse myself in the mystery when I know that it lacks a real solution. However, in all of my Beneath the Altar playthroughs, I’ve become utterly engrossed by the mystery and have spent ages finding ways to connect the various clues I’ve received during the playthrough.
Even more impressively, the mystery-related prompts are written so the pieces can always snap together without feeling contradictory, no matter how many you draw during the game, meaning a player’s experience will always feel cohesive.
Beneath the Altar is a fascinating solo-journaling TTRPG that puts a new spin on classic vampire tropes. Through carefully written prompts and well-designed dice mechanics, the game perfectly balances its worldbuilding with personal drama, leading to each element enhancing the other. Because of this, Beneath the Altar is a game that will stick with you long after you finish playing and one that solo TTRPG and vampire fans will return to again and again.
