How to play

Intro, Entr'acte & Outro

Each chapter of Unhola has a three–part structure: Intro, Entr'acte and Outro. The Intro serves to set the scene that you find yourself in as you step into Unhola. The Intro is followed by the Entr'acte, during which you are free to explore at your own pace. This stage makes up the majority of your experience. To conclude the game, you must complete the Outro, which can only be started after discovering and meeting its requirements. Please note however, that you might not reach the Outro in just one session of the game.

Locations

At the end of the Intro, you are given your starting Location. Each Location has its own page with a description of the area, various Encounters you can play out (explained in the next section), as well as additional activities. Most Locations are adjacent to other Locations, but you must complete at least one Encounter before you may travel to a new Location.

Locations typically have a few landmarks to them, such as buildings or other notable features, that most of the Encounters center around. These Encounters may introduce changes to the Location, such as a prowling monster or an odd change in weather – it is up to you if you want these changes to affect other Locations as well, or be localised to specific landmarks rather than the whole Location.

Encounters

Throughout the game you are presented with various Encounters. They are pre-written scenes in which you engage with the world around you, and often get to choose a course of action, not too unlike in a "choose your own adventure" story. There are three different kinds of actions:

Most Encounters can be completed only once, and depending on their outcome, you may use your own discretion to determine whether or not you can return to them. For example, if you do not have the required card to gain an Item in an Encounter (using cards is explained in a later section), you are allowed to come back to the same scene when you finally have the right card. Or, if you leave an Encounter unfinished because you have to flee a hostile Entity, you can decide how long the Entity would stalk the area, and re–attempt the Encounter again at a later time.

Rather than just reading the Encounter text, speeding through whatever situation it presents and running onto the next Encounter, it is encouraged that you instead take your time within each scene, and make notes about your experience after the fact. The more you give of yourself to the experience, the more you will gain in return.

Passage of time

Time in Unhola is measured by a 12-hour clock. Time only passes by playing Encounters – each Encounter played moves time forward by one step, unless stated otherwise. In total, you have 12 Encounters' worth of time within one in–game day. Dedicate one page in your journal to this clock, and ensure it is large enough so that you can mark the passage of hours/Encounters upon it, as well as make notes when needed.

If you imagine a clock face, the hours between 1–5 are daytime, and 7–11 are night-time. The hours 12 and 6 are "twilight hours", during which it is up to you whether they count as daytime or night-time. Some Encounters can only be played during a specific time of day, and some Entities' behaviour may differ depending on whether it is daytime or night-time. Be aware, that you will need a light source in order to complete Encounters in the dark of the night, unless otherwise specified.

Playing cards

In Unhola, playing cards fulfil the same purpose as dice typically do in other games. They are used to introduce chance to your game, so that no two people will ever experience Unhola the same way.

Within Encounters, you are often called to spend a card to achieve something. For example, an Encounter may read as follows: “You enter an abandoned house, in search of something, anything, of use. You may use a 6 of Hearts or 3 of Clubs here to find Items.” If you have either or both of these cards in your hand, you may look up the cards ➚ page to see which Items they correspond to, and then decide if you want to spend your cards to gain said Items.

Important! Do not draw a new card to your hand after spending one! You may regain cards to your hand only by taking care of your sustenance (explained in a later section regarding survival), as these cards – the number of options you have to work with – represent your ability to focus and make informed decisions.

suits, colours & numbers

Cards in Unhola go from 1 (Ace) to 13 (King). Each card corresponds to an Item, an Entity and a Flora, according to their suit and their number: a Queen of Hearts, therefore, may give you a Bandage, allow you to encounter a Wolf or a forage a plant called Lifeline. It can even act as a card of Hearts, a red card, a court/face card, or number 12, depending on the context.

Sometimes you are called to spend a card of a certain color or suit, in which case there is no correspondence to a specific card. For example, the earlier Encounter could continue as follows: “Suddenly, you hear a sound behind you – you are no longer so sure you're alone in this abandoned house. Spend any card of Clubs to add an Entity.” In a situation like this, you are free to take a look at the cards ➚ page and choose which Entity to bring forth – if you have more than one card of Clubs in your hand, that is, or else you must play the one card you have or search the draw deck for a card of Clubs.

Having a full hand, therefore, offers you an advantage in giving you more options to work with.

using cards from the draw deck

If your hand is out of cards, or you want to save the cards in your hand for later, you may draw the topmost card from the draw deck instead. This card is used and placed into the discard pile instantly – you cannot add cards to your hand this way.

In the example Encounter with the two Items inside the abandoned house, you may draw only one card, and hope that it is either one of the cards the Encounter calls for. If it is, you may gain the corresponding Item as normal, but if not, you place the card into the discard pile and leave empty-handed.

In the second example with the Entity of Clubs, this Entity ambush is effectively forced upon you – you must keep drawing cards until you find a card of Clubs. All cards in-between are placed directly into the discard pile, as is the card that determines which Entity you encounter, once it's spent.

discard pile

All spent cards are placed in a discard pile. Once all cards have been spent from the draw deck or you find yourself unable to find a card you must play, the discard pile is reshuffled to make a new draw deck.

Side Characters

You are not always alone in Unhola, as there are Side Characters who accompany you on your journey, whether to your benefit or to your detriment. When you come across a Side Character, they are distinguished by their name linking to their profile page, which opens up a variety of possible interactions with them.

On their profile, you can find out more information about them, view their Affinity towards you, play Encounters involving them and even have brief discussions about a variety of topics. If you are lucky, you may even earn yourself a companion, giving you safety in numbers. The way you treat Side Characters determines how they'll regard you, which is why you must mind their Affinity score.

affinity

There are five different stages of Affinity a Side Character can have towards you: Friendly, Favorable, Neutral, Unfavorable and Hateful. Each Side Character has their own preferences and personal interests as well as actions they loathe, therefore your choices will affect how they'll feel about you.

Survival

You have not arrived to Unhola to die, and so you must ensure proper sustenance and rest, each and every day of your journey, in the face of all the hurt and illness you will suffer along the way.

sleep

As much as there is for you to do in a day, you must mind your rest. 4 Encounter's time spent sleeping is enough to keep you going, provided you can find shelter as to avoid being ambushed. For a place to be considered "shelter" and fit for resting, it must be in a safe indoor space, or else your rest is disrupted by a random Entity played from the draw deck, and you cannot gain proper rest.

If you go on 12 ”hours” without resting, you will become Exhausted, which is an Affliction and will be explained later.

thirst & hunger

As mentioned in an earlier section, the only way to regain cards into your hand is through eating and drinking, as Thirst and Hunger diminish your ability to focus and think. So for each food and/or drink consumed, you regain one card to your hand – but can never hold more than the size of your hand allows, which is 5 in the beginning of the game.

Consuming unprepared food and drink – that is, water that has not been not boiled and raw food that has not been cooked – always results in you suffering Illness. Likewise, going an entire day without food and drink causes you to become Languished. These and the other Afflictions are explained next.

afflictions

Afflictions are persistent ills which significantly worsen your wellbeing. Most of them wear off over time, but others require special care to overcome. You need not study them now, for you will become well-acquainted with them in due time.

Wounds & Pain

In Unhola, it is important to mind the Wounds and the Pain you accumulate. They build up over time, leading to your death if left untreated.

wounds

Wounds diminish your physical ability – actions that require strength and stamina steadily become impossible, as your body breaks down. Treating Wounds requires both medical supplies and time. There is no limit to the number of Wounds you can suffer, so long as your Physique does not fall to 0.

pain

Pain is usually the result of suffering a Wound, but there are innumerable other ways to be hurt in this world. It is a fleeting guest, whose departure you can hasten by either medicating or numbing it.
Pain does not accumulate the way Wounds do – instead, any Pain you may suffer can only be replaced by even greater Pain.

Immersion

While your experiences in Unhola are largely guided by Encounters, you are still free and even expected to engage with your surroundings outside of them. This means that anything mentioned within the text of an Encounter is available to you, as you have seen and noted it, and that you can use your own imagination and discretion to decide what else is out there for you in the world.

Let's take an example scenario such as this: you are in a wooded Location without any obvious shelter, and night is falling in an Encounter or two's time. You feel like making a campfire would be a wise decision, and because you are in the woods, it is fully reasonable for you to find firewood here, even if dead branches lying around have not been explicitly mentioned. You do not need to spend anything to find these branches, except perhaps time, if you feel like it'll result in a more interesting experience.

You can explore this "freedom of interaction" to make the game easier or harder for yourself. For example, were you to come across an animal carcass, could you take flesh from it? Would it be edible? If so, would it make sense for you to risk Illness (Afflictions are explained in the section about survival) in partaking in it? The deeper you delve into your own imagination, the more ways you will find to use the rules and content of the game to make it more engaging for yourself.

Fighting

Fighting in Unhola is a last resort — the final struggle in an utterly hopeless situation. It is dangerous, punishing and often unfair, which is why you should avoid it whenever you can.

But when a fight begins, you have a few options. The simplest of them is to try to inflict enough Wounds to decrease your assailant's Physique to 0, killing them. This is very risky, however, because if you cannot kill your opponent right away, they will get to assault you as well. For example:

“You encounter two hostile Hollow — they are empty husks of people, incapable of thought. They are weak, as their Physique score is only 1, but not harmless, as their attacks inflict a Moderate wound. You hold an Axe, and one Major wound by its hefty blade easily deals with one. However, because there are two of them, you cannot kill one without leaving yourself open to the other – you will suffer a Moderate wound from the other Hollow. Wounds are difficult to heal, and Pain makes survival harder: you may have made it now, but your chances of survival are worsened going forward.”

The best way to deal with combat is to avoid it altogether. Use your wits: be aware of your surroundings, of the cards in your hand, and attempt to play both of these to your advantage. Luck is a fickle mistress, and encountering hostile Entities is inevitable. All Entities can be dealt with in a non-violent manner. Read the Entity's description with care and consider your options. For example:

“The two Hollow approach you fast. However, they are not intelligent: you can toss your coat at them, and they will attempt to kill your coat instead of you, giving you time to get away safely. Their Physique score is 1, so anyone with a score higher than this can outrun them.”

the End

To end a game of Unhola successfully, you must complete the chapter's Outro. For now the Outro is yet to be added, and the game ends at a different point – you will find it in due time.

The only way to lose in Unhola is by dying. This happens only when your Physique drops to 0. Your other Attributes being at 0 does not kill you.

In the future, the death mechanic will be expanded greatly.