My first encounter with Into the Odd was on a bookmark — the entirety of the rules system was crammed onto one included with my copy of Silent Titans. I’ve still yet to find a copy of the original 2014 edition from Lost Pages.

This is the revised edition from 2022, featuring gorgeous illustrative collage work by Johan Nohr throughout. I appreciate the use of orange on the cover (an under-appreciated color) and the book feels unusually good in the hand, like a book from an earlier era. The rules take up a bit more than a bookmark’s worth of space here, but not by much, honestly. I’ve no proof that the “Odd” of the title is a sly reference to Original D&D, but I’ve also got no proof to the contrary, and it seems appropriate: the system is recognizably D&D, but stripped utterly to the bone. Three attributes instead of six, doubling as saves. D20. Damage depletes hit points, then Strength, then death becomes a real risk. That’s basically it. This minimal framework is the basis for a whole sub-genre of light weight, short run D&D-ish engines, like Knave and Cairn.

Odd has its peculiarities. It is designed for a specific setting (that doubles as a meta commentary on settings, wildernesses, cities and dungeons) in which adventurers explore the underground in search of Arcana, which are powerful, largely uncontrollable magic items (there are no spellcaster classes, so Arcanum are the only option for magic). So, in some ways, it seems like there is only one way to play the game. On the other hand, Chris McDowall has hacked his own system to make Electric Bastionland, which uses the same basic framework without the magic and plays…completely differently. So maybe it really is all in the dressing…