Escape the Living Library
You love reading books and enjoy spending time at your local library. But who would have guessed it could transform into a nightmare after midnight?Â
As the darkest hours unfold, navigate the eerie halls of the haunted library by relying on your knowledge, dwindling stamina, and defense (thick books) to make it through the night!
Now, can you?
After playing and reviewing tons of PNP games, it brings me immense joy to type this – Escape the Living Library is a solo game designed by Tasliman of PnP Time… hey, that’s me!
After designing a wide range of games commercially, as well as for grassroots initiatives, I finally stepped into the arena of creating print-and-play games. And after 6 months of drafting, designing, playtesting, writing the manual (it tested my patience the most) and developing the tutorial video – I am delighted to have the game prepared for you guys!
So what’s the game like? Is it luck-driven, or tactical? Is it a part of a series?! Time to find out.
All you need to play the game
Starting with the good news – you don’t need much to play this game. In short – a page to print the board, and 7 D6 dice. That’s it!
Printable Board
The printable board features a detailed cross-sectional illustration of the haunted library, showcasing its six floors/sections: History, Art, Fiction, Literature, Science, and Horror. Alongside the library, there are sections for vitals, a dice chart, intervals, etc. The printable board is quite detailed, so I highly encourage you to print it in larger size; A3, Legal, or even print it across two A4 or Letter sheets and paste them together to create a larger board. I have provided the game in multiple formats.
In addition to the colored version, a black-and-white edition is also available, making it a fantastic coloring project! After my incredible experience with Lantern, I wanted all of you to have the same experience with Escape the Living Library.
7 D6 Dice
To be specific – 3 dice to track your vitals, 2 for the Dice Chart, 1 die for the re-roll mechanism and 1 for yourself as the player. The value on your player die represents your HP. The 1 die for re-roll mechanism can also be substituted by 1 or 2 tokens, but that’s up to you.Â
And that’s about it! Lastly, you need to watch the tutorial video that I provided at the end of the review. It’s a breezy one that will help get to know about the game in less than 13 minutes.
Being the creator of this game, it only felt right to let the playtesters write the next segment of this article. So here are a few lines from the 40 playtesters who experienced Escape the Living Library.
What I liked about the game
Strategic on every move
“Every round of the game made me think, and I loved it!”
“There’s a lot happening at the same time, and I enjoyed it. Trying to balance my vitals, while dodging traps and escaping levels ASAP- oh boy! In this game, you can’t be too slow and face penalties, or too fast and end up falling in traps. It’s fun!”
“I loved the ‘gain or lose section’ part. The angle of opportunity cost came into the equation, and that for me was the match winner.”
A good balance of luck and tactics
“I won’t deny that luck plays a role in the game, but it’s well-balanced by the strategy you can deploy.”
“Out of the 7 dice, only 2 are rolled, the rest are all tracking stuff. Each round begins with an element of luck (rolling two dice), but from there onwards, it’s all on you, as you analyze the outcome and strategize the best possible moves.”
Solo, but played as a group
“Since each round involves making multiple decisions, I played it with my siblings. We shared our opinions, voted, and then made our moves together. It was quite an experience!”
“It’s definitely not an easy game. My friends and I sat together, explored multiple strategies to escape the library, and eventually we made it!”
Expansions, please!
“I can already picture rethemes or new versions of the game – like Escape the Living Mansion!”Â
“The 2D side-scrolling theme opens up the game to a possibility of a series. Just do it!”
Try the black-and-white version!
“If you are a fan of coloring, then print it in black-and-white! Large size. I spent hours coloring it, and had a great time.”
“The board is well-detailed, so I printed it out in A3 and colored it. Then played on it! Don’t color it on smaller prints (A4/letter), your eyes will hurt.”
Will there be a series?!
I just released the game a couple of days ago, so a lot depends on your feedback. But I can’t deny – I’d love to turn this into a series! I hope you enjoy the experience I’ve crafted for you all.
Where to find the game?
Escape the Living Library is currently available at Itch.Io. I’ve already submitted the game to PNP Arcade, and I’m hoping it gets approved soon. Fingers crossed!
My request to you
If you decide to purchase the game, I truly hope you enjoy it! A lot of time and effort went into creating it, so it would mean the world to me if you could share your playing moments (images/videos) with me. And if you have any feedback, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at our email (hello@pnptime.com).
And I dare you to Escape the Living Library!
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Tasliman is a board game developer based in Bangladesh, with the dream of exploring the world of games and introducing it to anyone new to it. He is the founder of Kraftz, a brand that develops board games commercially, as well as with reputed entities like BRAC and The Gates Foundation.
