Narrative game books steered my interest into dark fantasy reading and playing. The 1980s phenomenon of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks championed blending RPG elements into the choose-your-own-adventure genre. Although these persist in 2025 (in releases, digital versions, several tabletop games… all susceptible to reviews here soon), the last decade has enabled new forms of narrative, choose-your-own-adventure solo games.

This post highlights DOOM PILGRIM, a narrative-card-game-book by War Claw Games. The company is based in the Czech Republic. Most of their lineup has Print-to-Play options in addition to physical copies (produced by US-based manufacturer, The Game Crafter).

Released in 2022 as a physical and print-and-play game, Doom Pilgrim was awarded “Best Small Game of the Year” from the solo-dungeon-crawler guru Daniel from  Dungeon Dive (see also his his Doom Pilgrim tutorial).  In short, it is a superbly elegant, beautiful game. Doom Pilgrim has several expansions available now, with more on the way. Also, these proven game mechanics have evolved into Aurthorian Legend,  Sci-Fi, and weird horror games.

If you are a fan of gamebooks, then go on a pilgrimage with DOOM PILGRIM. Or die trying!

Beautiful Art

All games by War Claw Games feature original illustrations. The art is integral to the game and the history of the company. War Claw Games is a small independent label established in 2020 by an illustrator working under the label Dr(o)))ned Artworks, mainly working with heavy metal bands. The distinctive style is not only aesthetic, it’s also critical to the gameplay!

Elegant Simplicity

• Simple Mechanics: The game instructions are so simple that they fit on the packaging! (image below)
• Quick Crawls: Playtime 30-45min
• RPG-like without complex statistics: The game avoids stat tracking, focusing instead on tracking things like wounds and diseases to create a more thematic experience. 
• No Dice.  Just grab a pen and a piece of paper.
• Gameplay: Shuffle the 90 tarot-sized cards. Pick the top 3x.
  • Evaluate the art on each with your gut, or by your experience/memories if you played before (that’s not cheating, it’s a reward for reliving the nightmare)
  • Discard the one that freaks you out the most
  • Place one on the bottom of the deck to revisit later
  • Deal with the last card (when complete, place aside to document your journey). Example cards are below.

Goal

Get to the end of the deck without dying! It is rogue-like, so expect to die many times. The fun is in the journey and in replaying.

Example Card Art & Text from the FLAILS & CITADELS Expansion

 

Example Card Art & Text from forthcoming INTO THE PITS

“…the illustration ‘sorority of the needles’ is on one of the hook box wings and this is the text on one of the cards where you meet them (I do not show illutration on the card, which is different, showing blood cathedral)” – from Facebook War Claw Games

Expansions

• • POCKET EDITION: A smaller and cheaper version.
  • BLACK BAG: An expansion with 192 random event mini-cards & a dice system for added randomness.
  • FLAILS & CITADELS: A standalone expansion with 54 new cards. 
  • DOOM DEEPER: The pack includes 3 expansions:
    • FUTILE HAVENS: 18 cards that make the game easier.
    • FATAL ENDS: 18 cards that make the game harder.
    • PAGAN ECHOES: 18 cards that bring the paganism
  • [COMING SOON, JAN-2026] MISERABLES – 36preset character cards and lore!
  • [COMING SOON, JAN-2026] INTO THE PITS, Three 18-card expansions (54 cards):
    • BEYOND THE BORDERS expansion brings meetings from beyond the borders of the known world.
    • PITS OF THE SOUL introduces psychic illnesses and various sorts of spiritual darkness into the gameplay.
    • DARK DUNGEONS  is an expansion bringing adventures in caves, towers, castles and similar areas with floors full of danger

 

More War Claw Games

I’ve already been playing the Aug 2025 release SINS of MORDRED, so expect a review of that soon. It borrows the same basic card mechanics of DOOM PILGRIM, but features the titular Mordred traversing the netherworlds in an Authorian Legend milieu. The game is heavily inspired by the 1981 film Excalibur and the Dark Souls video game series, aiming for a cinematic and immersive experience.

And then this Dec. 2025, War Claw released Elder Space

Metempsychosis: Abyss of Horrors

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S.E. Lindberg is a Managing Editor at Black Gate, regularly reviewing books and interviewing authors on the topic of “Beauty & Art in Weird-Fantasy Fiction.” He has taken lead roles organizing the Gen Con Writers’ Symposium (chairing it in 2023), is the lead moderator of the Goodreads Sword & Sorcery Group, and was an intern for Tales from the Magician’s Skull magazine. As for crafting stories, he has contributed eight entries across Perseid Press’s Heroes in Hell and Heroika series, and has an entry in Weirdbook Annual #3: Zombies. He independently publishes novels under the banner Dyscrasia Fiction; short stories of Dyscrasia Fiction have appeared in Whetstone Amateur S&S Magazine, Swords & Sorcery online magazine, Rogues In the House Podcast’s A Book of Blades Vol I & II, DMR’s Terra Incognita, the 9th issue of Tales From the Magician’s Skull, and Savage Realms Magazine.