You wake up in the light of a small, guttering fire. Separated from your caving group, you are lost, deep underground. Your pack is empty. Your supplies are low. You are alone.

Things look grim. But it’s up to you to try, or these caves will become your tomb – you must ascend…or perish.

The Ascent is a journaling game about the being lost and alone in a claustrophobic situation. It is a game about fear, isolation, and the tantalizing possibility of hope at the end of it all.

Using the Wretched & Alone system, you play as someone lost deep in unexplored caverns. You must struggle against the elements, hunger, thirst, and worst of all, your own mind.

You can barely trust your own senses, your thoughts betray you, and around every dark twist and turn of the seemingly endless caves there could be anything lurking and scuttling, always just out of view. Will you ever see the sun again? Track your faltering progress, and see if you can make the ascent…

The game requires a standard deck of playing cards, a six-sided die, 10 tokens, a tumbling block tower (optional), and a way to record your entries.

- 26 pages

Contains themes of isolation, horror, claustrophobia, and possible harm.