If there is a bleeding edge of narrative RPGs, Noumenon (Abstract Nova, 2006) is well past it and perched on the rim of the event horizon.

I can not stress enough how relentlessly weird this game is. Again, the focus here is on narrative, but the framework of the game is built around the abstract and the surreal. Players take the role of Sarcophagi, humanoid insects that once were human (though so long ago that their previous existence is meaningless in the context of the game). The players are reborn at the same time, as part of a linked colony – players are meant to work together as a hive mind and get access to reality-warping powers if they do so; going lone wolf will generally end in the death of everyone, as hit points in the game are shared communally.

The point of the game is to explore (and eventually escape) the Silhouette Rouge, a 78-room mansion decorated with riddles and populated by a bizarre collection of entities know as Others. Escape is possible by solving the Nine Enigmas and following the path of the Lost One, the only other being that has managed an exit that doesn’t lead to Nowhere, the blasted, snow-covered darkness populated by carnivorous bats that lurks behind the windows of the mansion.

The book spends most of its time describing the rooms and their inhabitants, but it quickly becomes clear that any meaning the GM and the players will derive from Noumenon is that which they themselves will bring to the game. The game is a Rorschach blot and it manages to be deeply mystical and ambiguous without being the least bit pretentious. Which is an accomplishment.

I love this game and loved reading it, but this is some seriously advanced narrative-focused gaming. I would be surprised if most groups weren’t up for the challenge – I know I certainly am not yet prepared to run it. If you can snag a copy, though, grab it so you can see just how bizarre RPGs can get.

Did I mention that conflict resolution uses dominoes?