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 your character finds themselves in as they step into Unhola, after which you are free to explore at your own pace during the Entr'acte – this stage makes up the majority of your experience. To conclude the game, you must complete the Outro, which can only be started after meeting its requirements.

Locations, and the Encounters therein

At the end of the Intro, you are given your starting Location, within which you are presented with various Encounters you can play out. The first Encounter listed is the recommended one to start with.

Encounters are pre–written scenes and moments, in which you may learn something new about the world of Unhola, investigate something of note, or even end up in danger. An Encounter may present you with an opportunity to spend a card to gain an Item or harvest Flora, or perhaps even pit you against an Entity (using cards will be explained in the next section). Sometimes, an Encounter may just be a welcome moment of silence.

Each Encounter can be completed only once, and depending on its outcome, you may use your own discretion to determine whether or not you can return to it. For example, if you do not have the required card to gain an Item in an Encounter, you are allowed to come back to the same scene when you finally have the right card. Or, if you run away from an Encounter because of a hostile Entity, you can decide whether the Entity would still be there by the time you return, and re–attempt the Encounter again.

After you have completed at least one Encounter in this first Location, you are free to keep exploring further on, see about the Location's other activities (found under its Encounter list), or move onto a new Location entirely (listed on under the Location's description) with all-new Encounters and activities. Some Locations may have unique conditions related to them, so it is important that you read the Location’s description with care!

Instead of simply reading the Encounter text, completing whatever task there is and moving onto the next, it is encouraged that you take your time within each scene, to whatever level of detail you find appealing. The descriptions are brief to give room to your own interpretation, not to constrain your imagination!

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. Overall, you have 12 Encounters' worth of time within one in–game day.

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 day– 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 day- or night-time.

Using cards from your hand

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

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 Table of cards ➚ –page and see which Items they correspond to, and then decide if you want to spend your cards to gain said Items.

Sometimes you are called to spend a card of a certain color or suit instead, 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 Table of cards ➚ –page and choose which Entity to encounter – if you have more than one card of Clubs in your hand, that is, otherwise you must instead 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.

important! You do not draw a new card to replace the one you spent from your hand! You may regain cards to your hand by eating and/or drinking (explained in a later section), as these cards – the number of options you have to work with – represent your ability to focus and make decisions.

Using cards from the deck

If your hand runs out or you do not wish to spend cards from it, you may draw the topmost card from the draw deck instead. This card is spent instantly, and then placed into the discard pile – 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 straight into the discard pile and may not try your luck this way again.

In the example of the Entity of Clubs, this Entity encounter is effectively forced upon you, and 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 determined which Entity you will 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.

Interacting with your surroundings

While Unhola is mostly a rather guided experience, you are still given freedom to interact with your surroundings, and are often even expected to. Cards in this game are only meant represent chance encounters and deliberately seeking something out that is not immediately visible to you – this means that everything mentioned within the text of an Encounter is freely available to you, as you has seen and noted it.

Let's take an example scenario such as this: “You are lost in the woods, and night is falling soon." You feel like you would want to make a campfire in a situation like this, and because you are in the woods, it is fully reasonable for you to find branches here, even if twigs have not been mentioned outright in the Encounter's description. 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.

Here is another example situation: “Ahead, you spot a carcass of some animal. It seems to have laid there for a while.” You can take meat from any dead corpse – if the kill is your own or you saw it happen, it's fresh, and if the corpse has festered for a while, it's not. You may still consume its flesh if you want, but perhaps a drawback of some kind feels appropriate, you may even pick an Affliction if you so choose. You may get as detailed with your interactions as you wish, such as by collecting bones or fur from this carcass, if you feel like it could be useful later.

Survival in Unhola

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 or drink Item 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.

The main way for your hand size diminishes over the course of the game is through Pain. Pain seldom comes alone – it is usually the result of suffering a Wound, which can diminish your Physique, killing you if you have accumulated too many. Wounds and pain ➚ have their own page, and I encourage you to pay it a quick visit.

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 – the Afflictions –page takes you to the full list of various Afflictions in the game. Some foods and drinks consumed raw may have additional effects, which are described in-game as they come up.

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.”

Ending the game

To end a game of Unhola successfully, you must complete the chapter's Outro. For now, completing the Outro ends the game, but as more chapters are added, you may move onto the next chapter's Intro instead.

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.