Abyss of Hallucinations (2021) is, like most of Max Moon’s work, a fusion of occult themes and solid RPG design. In this case, a heremetic setting for MÖRK BORG that draws heavily on the work of Aleister Crowley, particularly The Book of Lies (which Max reprinted as a zine in the same trade dress, as an accompaniment).

The mixture is a little less than 50/50 here, I think, with RPG elements (60ish percent?) necessarily overwhelming the magickal elements (while Max does get it to more of a 50/50 mix in other projects, this volume at least perhaps illustrates how the precision of RPG writing is at odds with the obscurity of the occult).

There is a sort of phantasmagorical wilderness, populated by features derived from The Book of Lies, but only tersely described. This gives way to three character classes that each reflect some core aspect of Crowley’s personality (Seeker of the Left Hand Path, Offspring of Pan and, humorously, Mountaineer). Following that are several entities one might encounter, including Baphomet, Babalon and mystical Dinosaurs.

The centerpiece is a dungeon called the Unicursal Heptagram that functions as a sort of cursed puzzle as well as an initiation into the greater mysteries of the Abyss. It adheres to the difficult Thelemic logic of The Book of Lies (which, mapped to a dungeon, reminds me a little of the tortured thinking behind many point-and-click adventure games of the ’90s). The effect is disorienting and serves to erode a lot of player assumptions about just what everyone is doing here. Playing MÖRK BORG? Or something more?