Light should be something you have to keep

In Tainted Ground, the dark is what kills you. Stay outside too long at night, or in any dark place, even inside the cabin, and your vision fills with something like roots. Then it takes you.

That makes light the most important thing you have. And if light is that important, it can’t be free.

The generator

The cabin’s light comes from a generator in the basement, and it asks three things of you:

• Fuel. The generator needs it, and you find it around the map. No fuel, no light.
• Load. It can only power so many lights at once. Switch on too many and the fuses blow.
• Bulbs. They burst. So you can end up in the dark even with the generator running.

Why make it hard

Because it gives the group something to talk about every single night. Which rooms do we light? Who goes down to the basement when the fuses blow? Who goes out for fuel while it’s still light? None of these are puzzles with one answer, they’re decisions, and they change depending on where everyone is.

You can try a small version of it on our home page: switch on the rooms and watch what the panel does.