De Profundis Handbook

De Profundis was born out of fascination with the prose of H. P. Lovecraft, its specific atmosphere of horror and madness. Players in De Profundis refer to it, creating incredible stories straight from the tales of the master from Providence. They do this - unlike classic RPGs - not in sessions, but through letters, prepared materials, through correspondence.

De Profundis draws players into a journey through the realms of imagination, making them look at reality from a different, strange, incredible point of view. It is primarily a game for mature, active players who find pleasure in preparing subsequent fragments of correspondence so that it is as inspiring as possible for fellow players, so that it breathes authenticity and horror.

Such is the manual itself. Written in the form of letters from the author to the reader, it does not fit within the framework of a standard game rules guide. Its task is rather to inspire, to infect with the atmosphere of the game, to encourage reaching for the pen. It seems to say - "Look, this is more than a game" - and it does so convincingly. After all, De Profundis captivates the most precisely when, reading another letter, the player forgets that it is only fiction, a story of another player about imaginary events from an imaginary world. This is where the charm of the game lies.

Especially for the new edition, Michał Oracz prepared an expansion whose idea is to adapt De Profundis to a new medium - electronic mail. The previous edition consistently condemned it as modern and not fitting the spirit of the game. Over time, it turned out that emails not only do not contradict it but can develop it, offering new possibilities unavailable to traditional letter writing. The conversion to emails resulted in a batch of juicy material, this time in the form of printed emails.

But that is not the end. The edition also includes materials from Cadrach, an experienced De Profundis player. The book contains a package of his texts dedicated on one hand to improving gameplay, and on the other - to using De Profundis for games other than those set in the horror atmosphere of H.P. Lovecraft. Cadrach tries to capture the essence of RPG playing through letters, thus opening the way to games in any convention or fictional world.