Vigour and Grip through Experience, gain +1 Grip and

Your character has two measures of sur- Vigour.

vival: Vigour and Grip.
Vigour is like other games’ hit points, and
represents their health and fighting spirit.
To determine your character's starting Vi-
gour, take their Brawn and add 6.
Grip combines stamina, mana and sanity. It
is spent on re-rolls and used on character
Advancements, and is depleted when fac-
ing psychologically damaging monsters or
environments. To determine your charac-
ter's starting Grip, take their Will and add
4.
Throughout play, characters gain new Ad-
vancements. For each Advancement gained
Vigour can never exceed 5 + Brawn +
Number of Advancements. Grip has no cap.
Archetypes
Characters begin with an Archetype repre-
senting who they are and what they did be-
fore becoming a Cryptdigger.
The Cryptdigger’s Guide to Survival contains
13 Archetypes: Believer, Cabalist, Cut-
throat, Dastard, Everyman, Farlander,
Freeblade, Outcast, Physiker, Protagonist,
Scholar and Veteran—detailed in the
Archetypes Zini (Zini 2).
The character also starts with an Advance-
ment (Zini 3).
Zini 1: Character Creation
Published by SoulMuppet Publishing (www.soulmuppet.co.uk)
Written by Zachary Cox and Nicholas Spence | Art by Ben Brown | Layout by Lone Archivist
Editing by Vi Huntsman (MRC), Fiona Geist (MRC), and James M Hewitt
Stats
Best Left Buried has three Stats:
Brawn, Wit and Will.
Brawn represents the character’s physical
strength, endurance and vital force.
Wit represents a character’s physical,
mental and social agility.
Will represents a character’s intellect and
the power of their mind.
Best Left Buried characters start with:
+2 to one stat, +1 to another,+0 to the last
If a Stat is positive, add it to any Stat
Checks using it; conversely subtract a neg-
ative Stat from Stat Checks using it.

Equipment Table
D6 1 2 3 4 5 6

1 Chain Manacles Caltrops Dose of Poison Chalk Book of Magic

2 Shovel Whetstone Lockpicks Flask of Acid Compass Book of Alchemy

3 Grease 10 Foot Pole Silk Rope Hooded Lantern Antitoxin Book of History

4 Crowbar Grappling Hook Lock and Key Alchemist’s Fire Writing Kit Book of Religion

5 Mirror on a Book of
Pickaxe Bullseye Lantern Set of Files Holy Water
Handle Mythology

6 Hammer and Musical Dose of Book of

Bear Trap Bag of Marbles
Chisel Instrument Medicine Languages
Equipment
Characters start play with a toolkit of useful
Items and Weapons. They always have the
following:
50’ Rope, 3 Torches, A Backpack, A
Bedroll, 1 week’s worth of Rations and
Basic Armour
If you feel brave, refer to Equipment (back
page) for random generation with multi-
ples of D6.
Every character gets two weapons:
Equipment is a key tool in the Cryptdig-
gers’ arsenal. While Archetypes provide
skills, and Advancements grant raw power,
Equipment leverages their skills to solve
problems. Very few problems can’t be
solved with time and the right equipment.
Inventory
Pieces of Equipment are physical objects
that must be stored somewhere. Assume
most Cryptdiggers are laden with belts,
pouches and backpacks to store their
equipment. While adventuring, a character
can carry:
• An item in each hand OR a large item in
both hands.
• Two easily accessible items on a belt or
scabbard
• Whatever equipment fits within a back-
pack or similar container.
Wherever they are, items fill Inventory
Slots according to the number of hands it
takes to comfortably hold them. The
Doomsayer’s word is final. For example:
• A Sword fills 1 Slot.
• A Greatsword fills 2 Slots.
• A pouch of coins fills 1 Slot.
• Basic Armour fills 2 Slots.
• Heavy Armour fills 4 Slots.
In total, characters cannot comfortably
carry more Inventory Slots than 12 + (Will
or Wit) (whichever is higher) + double their
Brawn.
Characters who carry more Slots than this
are Against the Odds on all Brawn Checks
and any Stat Checks requiring quick move-
ment.
Importantly, Treasure also occupies In-
ventory Slots.
Using Equipment
At the Doomsayer’s discretion, equipment
might grant the Upper Hand on Stat
Checks, make Impossible Stat Checks pos-
sible or make possible Stat Checks Trivial.
Some Equipment listed in bold has a spe-
cific effect, listed below:
Medicine: Each character can take a minute
outside of combat to use a dose of Medicine
once daily restoring 1 Vigour. Medicine
might be bandages, tonics, salves or herbal
painkillers.
Venom: Applying this simple poison to a
weapon, adds D3 damage to its next suc-
cessful attack. It can be mixed with food or
drink to deal the imbiber D3 damage.
Alchemist’s Fire: A sealed clay jar of oil
that combusts in naked air, often used by
Crytpdiggers to set objects aflame. Can be
thrown with a Wit Check or poured out.
Books: Over an hour, a character can study
the book that contains relevant informa-
tion. At the end of this time, the Doom-
sayer will provide whatever useful infor-
mation can be gathered from the book. A
Wit Check may be required to find specific
relevant information, or to study particu-
larly complex or confusing books. The in-
formation in the book will not always be
perfectly accurate.
Weapons
Weapon types have specific mechanical
effects. When choosing a weapon, decide its
type. Unless otherwise described, weapons
deal normal damage, have no Initiative
modifier, can be wielded in one hand and
attack at melee range. See Weapons (back
page).
Hand Weapons are for Cryptdiggers who
prize flexibility. They include broadswords,
hand axes and maces. They can be wielded
one-handed for normal damage, freeing
the off hand for a shield or similar item, or
two-handed to inflict an additional point of
damage.
Heavy Weapons are large and powerful
weapons. They include greatswords, bat-
tleaxes and warhammers. Wielding them
requires two hands. They inflict an addi-
tional point of damage, but reduce Initia-
tive by 1. They also do serious damage to
monsters, if the dice used to calculate
damage is a 5 or 6, the target suffers an In-
jury (Zini 5), instead of 6 as normal.
Light Weapons are smaller and less lethal,
relying on Wit’s finesse and flourish rather
than Brawn’s brute strength. They include
daggers, rapiers and scimitars. They can be
wielded one- handed for normal damage,
freeing the off hand for a shield or similar
item, or two-handed to increase Initiative
by 1.
Long Weapons are large shafted weapons
ideal for weaker Cryptdiggers who want to
maintain distance from dangerous foes.
They include spears, halberds or other
pole-arms. They can be wielded one-
handed for normal damage, freeing the off
hand for a shield or similar item, or two-
handed to inflict an additional point of
damage. Either way, they can attack ene-
mies at short and melee range, but are
cumbersome and reduce Initiative by 1.
Throwing Weapons are projectile weapons.
They include daggers, throwing axes and
javelins. They can attack enemies at short
range for normal damage, or in melee
range for one less point of damage. The Stat
used is determined by the weapon’s fla-
vour: axes or javelins use Brawn while
darts or daggers use Wit. Throwing
Weapons taken at character creation come
in groups of three.
Ranged Weapons attack enemies from afar.
They include crossbows, shortbows and
longbows. Wielding them requires two
hands. They can attack enemies at short or
long range, but attacks against enemies in
the same Zone are Against The Odds.
Without ammunition, characters cannot
attack with a Ranged Weapon.
Improvised Weapons: Sometimes Crypt-
diggers don’t have a proper weapon and
have to improvise. When attacking with an
Improvised Weapon or their fists, charac-
ters attack with Brawn, always attack
Against The Odds and deal half the normal
damage, rounding up. If it makes sense,
because of the target, situation or weapon,
for an attack to deal more damage than
normal for an Improvised Weapon, count
it as a weapon of a different type.
Shields and Armour
All Best Left Buried creatures have an Ar-
mour score determined by their equipment.
An unarmoured character has 7 Armour.
Basic Armour: Standard armour for Crypt-
diggers is made of heavy boiled leather and
chainmail, and a protective helmet, pro-
viding 8 Armour.
Plate Armour: Solid interlocking plates or
scales of metal, worn over heavy boiled
leather and chainmail, which provides 9
Armour. However, it is heavy and cumber-
some, granting -1 Initiative. Furthermore,
if the character does not have at least 2
Brawn, all Stat Checks are Against The
Odds, they cannot Escape and always have
Initiative 0.
Shield: Boards of wood or metal worn on
the wielder’s off hand to deflect enemy at-
tacks, increasing their Armour by 1.