Pyramid Review
Cold, Hard World: The Real World Sourcebook (for Dead Inside)
Published by Atomic Sock Monkey Press
Written by Chad Underkoffler
Interior art by Chris Cooper, Scott Kane, & Chad Underkoffler
74-page PDF (2.6 MB download) from RPGnow
Chad Underkoffler wastes no time in returning to his praiseworthy Dead Inside game, providing extended coverage of the Real World and its role in a game "of loss and redemption." In Dead Inside, the author (rightly) spent the majority of his time developing the Spirit World. Playtesters encouraged the further development of the Real World, with an eye to extended storytelling and even Real-World campaigns. This led to a natural shift in tone for the Real World sourcebook. Underkoffler writes that "If the underlying concept of the core . . . book was 'grow,' the keyword of Cold, Hard World is 'conflict.'" Let's follow that theme through the book and see where it leads.
It's not as though the Spirit World is the only place to find the Dead Inside, Sensitives, Magi, or the other character types in the game. But the Real World is a . . . well, a cold and hard place, a place unwelcoming to spirit forces but not immune. The Real World is also populated by vast numbers of the peculiar and mostly soul-blind Average People. Part one of the book consolidates information on the Real World from the core rulebook, extends this to give the Real World a more fully realized role in the Dead Inside cosmology, and describes Average People and how they perceive . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: October 1, 2004
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