YORKTON - When you are part of a group that loves role playing games but often have issues as adults with careers to gather a group together to delve into a dungeon regularly you’re always looking for board game options which sort of scratch the RPG itch.
Library of Jakkarth fits the bill rather nicely.
The game “is a magical dungeon crawler labyrinth adventure for two to five players. You take on the role of spell casters who venture into the dark halls of the library and search the numerous rooms for rare spells and mysterious items. Your goal: find five magic keys of the same kind and be the first to use them to open the gate and win the game,” details the game’s Kickstarter page.
So you aren’t exploring a dungeon as a group as you likely would playing say Dungeons & Dragons, but you are still skulking around battling baddies, casting spells, and finding treasure – albeit in a race with other players – and it works.
That you lay out dungeon tiles as you go changes things game-to-game, and you are never sure what spells might be at hand when you need one, or when you might bump into an opponent and get teleported away, or have to battle a critter, so there is a feeling of mystery as you wander in search of the keys.
The game version was a prototype, so no comment of component quality, but in terms of game play, as a D&D player this one is solid.
It was interesting to touch base via email with Nils Lange who co-designed Jakkarth along with Endre Banlaki.
Lange is from a small village in Zürich, Switzerland, while Banlaki is from Bern, but both live together in Zürich now.
“We both studied Game Design together in Zürich at the ZHdK,” said Lange. “I am now in my first year of working professionally as a concept artist for a 3D character outsourcing company. Endre is working as a professional 3D character artist.”
Interestingly Lange’s interests today are not specifically board games.
“I used to play more board games when I was a kid, but I mainly play digital games nowadays,” he admitted. “Those board games I remember playing a lot are Labyrinth, Monopoly, The Game of Life, Trivial Pursuit and Ticket to Ride.
“When it comes to digital games, more recent titles I really liked are Elden Ring, but I think during the time of creating Library of Jakkarth my favourite game was still Skyrim. I unfortunately cannot play it anymore, because I played it way too much. But it still holds some of the best memories.”
So how did Library of Jakkarth come to be?
“Me and Endre both had similar ideas at the beginning,” offered Lange. “In Endre’s case, I think he was inspired by an anime called Made in Abyss, to make a game that is about retrieving treasure from ever greater depths. The deeper one would go, the more deadly the environment. There would have been actual combat against monsters.
“The idea I had was already pretty similar to what Library of Jakkarth is about today. It was supposed to be a stealth based infiltration game, where you would have to recover knowledge and not get spotted by the sentries of the library, while also making sure the other players wouldn’t manage to beat the game before you.
“Skyrim and Dark Souls 3 had a big influence on the vibe of this game. The DLC for Skyrim, Dragonborn, has lots of environments dedicated to the dreaded prince Hermaeus Mora, who is depicted as this knowledge-seeking eldritch mass of tentacles and eyes. The environments are a separate realm which is built like an otherworldly library full of twisting towers of books and knowledge.
“Dark Souls 3 had the Grand Archives section, which is a massive, multi-storied library full of mad scholars and sorcerers.
“Endre also added the library in "Avatar: The Last Airbender" as a big inspiration, being this mythical hidden library that became a mythos -- where within you are allowed to gather all the knowledge you can and wander the halls, but if you try to steal any of it, or have ill intent with that knowledge you will set of the wrath of it's protector and guardian.
“The stealth part was scrapped during the initial prototype though, because we ran into a lot of difficulty with making it work with the medium. I still think it would be interesting to pursue it, but that would be another game at this point.”
Lange said they really wanted a game that I would suggest is reflective of a D&D dungeon crawl.
“With this game we wanted to achieve creating an initial feeling of wonder within the player that would eventually turn into distrust and fear of other players and the environment,” he said.
“For the players it’s gonna be a lot of fun chaos trying to be the one to achieve the goal while either cooperating with other players against the Guardians or hindering the other players in fun, mean ways.
“Ever since the guys from Rulefactory swapped from having a fixed map to a procedural map with tiles and thus creating a lot of different dynamics, the game feels always fresh every time you play it.”
Having the game competitive, in terms of player versus player versus the environment stands out for Lange.
“It leads to such fun dynamics akin to scenes in Indiana Jones movies,” he said.
“Opposing parties having to work together while also figuring out a way to back stab the other at an opportune time, but then also the ancient tombs wanting to expunge or trap both these parties for daring to intrude upon it.”
“It’s a fun chaotic game, where being mean to each other is a big part, but being too mean and acting out of self-interest all the time is risky because you could get punished by the guardians.
“If you're in the library/labyrinth for to long, guardians appear. Guardians will focus on you and start following you, which in the beginning is not that bad, because they only move with one die. But for each new guardian, they gain an additional die. So with four guardians active, they move with four dice, which makes them incredibly dangerous! Also, if they kill all players in the same turn, the game wins.”
Make sure to check this one out at rulefactory.ch
