The Devil Jonah's Leviathan
review by Kaleb
“...Closer to the truth is the Biblical tale of Jonah, for it is said the original name was not Davy Jones, but ‘The Devil Jonah.’”
The Devil Jonah’s Leviathan is a horror role-playing game loosely based on the Biblical story of Jonah, who was swallowed by a whale. In this game instead, Jonah was swallowed by a Leviathan and made a bargain with the devil to bring drowned souls to Hell, rather than letting the flames take him instead.
“A bargain he must keep to this very day…”
You play as drowned folks who have forgotten who they were before. You wake up in the belly of the beast - The Leviathan itself. Here, players attempt to escape their doomed fate by traversing the Leviathan's chambers & defeating Jonah to save their souls.
At the start of the game, each player is given a card that is either one of the Ace cards from the Leviathan deck or a Joker card. Each Ace represents a player’s Vice they were most weak to in life - Ace of Hearts being Lust or Wrath, Ace of Diamonds being Greed or Envy, Ace of Clubs being Sloth or Gluttony, and the Ace of Spades being Pride. These cards are your character’s soul cards. Whoever draws the Joker is soulless. Players keep these cards private, as the Joker card provides a hidden traitor mechanic where that player can steal another player’s soul to benefit only themself. If you do not wish to have a hidden traitor at your table, there are rules to play without the Joker.
The Leviathan deck represents the various chambers players go through during play. The GM uses these cards to build obstacles for the players and provide them with Tests. The Lamp deck represents the limited supply of light in the Leviathan's chambers; failure on your Tests risks permanently losing those cards. Each player starts with their respective soul cards in-hand, and additional cards depending on the number of players. A player’s hand is considered as their Player deck. When going through a Test, players may decide to pull from their Player deck or the Lamp deck.
Tests are the primary way to determine player success or failure. The Devil Jonah’s Leviathan uses a blackjack-style mechanic for this. The closer you are to the GM’s number, the more successful you are. If your number is -5 or lower than the GM’s, it is a failure. Being within -4 is a moderate success, -2 is a full success, 0 is a critical success, and going over at all is a bust and failure.
While players are lost souls in the Leviathan, they still have Character Backgrounds that give insight into who they were before drowning, such as a prisoner or missionary. Each character background has four stats: Strength, Charisma, Wit, and Dexterity. Depending on whether your stats are good or bad for your character, it could add or subtract numbers when doing Tests when the GM calls for certain stats to be used during such Tests.
Within the final chamber, players will confront Jonah in a final test.
A QR Code is provided inside the book to link to character sheets, the GM screen, Leviathan chamber tables, and anything else needed to play the game. Although all materials are included digitally, I do wish the physical book included at least the chamber tables or sample character sheets to help the reader better understand the contents whilst reading the book for the first time.
Overall, The Devil Jonah's Leviathan is an interesting game with a fun concept for determining success or failure using the blackjack-style Tests, which I am excited to try out. I can definitely see how the tension builds in The Devil Jonah's Leviathan, especially with a potential traitor among the players. Some parts of the book were a little bit more complex to get through, requiring a couple of rereads to fully understand, but it is an easy enough game to pitch to others and get players excited about. I definitely can see myself running or playing this game for a horror RPG night.
The Devil Jonah's Leviathan is available now from our webstore.
