The first in the series of Vox Umbra gamebooks, "Through A Glass" was published in 2021. In it, you take the role of a private detective attempting to solve a mysterious disappearance. The book has a simple, self-contained ruleset. Before you begin play, you spend points to determine your character's skills in eight areas: Combat, Knowledge, Movement, Observation, Reflexes, Social, Strength, and Willpower. As you investigate the case, your detective can suffer damage to their Physical Health and Mental Health (tracked independently). "Through A Glass" has over one thousand branching entries that span several days of investigation.
"Through A Glass" provides examples of:
- Ammunition Conservation: Averted with your revolver. It always has enough bullets for your (relatively sparing) use. Played straight with the crossbow. There are a total of five crossbow bolts to find, and only one specific bolt can harm the burned man.
- Ax-Crazy: Dr. Schofield is an outright serial killer and Willis Fortner is an abusive, easily-provoked killer. The patients (and an orderly) at Cindergate Asylum can also become this under the influence of Epley's book.
- Backstory Horror: Your detective had some maddening experiences somewhere called Timotheum prior to the story. Just thinking about Timotheum can cause literal damage to your character's mental health.
- Bedlam House: Cindergate Mental Hospital (formerly Cindergate Asylum) outside of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania is a sprawling, "modern" hospital. The Courington Wing, however, is full of difficult prisoners with some rather barbaric treatments, and it gets much, much worse if you bring Franklin Epley's maddening book to his room.
- Bizarrchitecture: The doors in the basement under the Crowshead Lodge take you places that should be impossible, such as the beach in Ocean City.
- Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: It's possible to destroy the monster, only to die of your wounds immediately afterwards. The story treats this as a successful conclusion for the case.
- Broken Bridge: The road between Crowshead and Rifenburg Manor was washed out by the storm. It's fixed just in time for you to visit the manor on the night before you're forced to leave town.
- Brown Note Being: The burned man can drive you mad just by looking at him. He should not be!
- Bully Bulldog: A trio of American Bulldogs attack you and Dorothy during your hike. They were formerly the property of Louis Rifenburg, but managed to escape their kennel after he abandoned them. There have been several other victims of dog attacks near town.
- Burn the Undead: Averted. People tried to cremate Louis Rifenburg's body on the night of the fire, but that only made things worse.
- Creepy Cave: There are two caves to be found around Crowshead: One is a fenced-off local landmark and the other is under Rifenburg Manor. In both locations, you may get yourself killed in an encounter with the burned man.
- Creepy Circus Music: Taking an ill-advised doorway leads to an illusion of the beach at Ocean City. In the background, a calliope plays Stars and Stripes Forever... forever.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: As a horror gamebook, there are several to experience.
- Cruel Twist Ending: There's only one main example, and it takes a very specific chain of events. If you anger the Mayor, get taken to the hospital after escaping the manor, AND fail to destroy the burned man, then Mayor North has you killed, blaming it on your injuries from the night before.
- Cult: The Crowshead Lodge is a powerful organization with a wide reach, strange rituals, and dark motives.
- Dangerous Key Fumble: If you take too long in the cave beneath Rifenburg Manor, you can drop the key to unlock the gate (if you fail a skill check). The burned man kills you.
- Deadly Book: The Ecstasy of Phobos. Franklin wants to read it at Cindergate Hospital, on loan from the Crowshead Library. There is no way it goes well. If you follow a certain course of events, you might even use the book to unleash a plague of hate that destroys Philadelphia.
- Deadly Doctor: Dr. Miles Schofield, the serial killer.
- Doctor's Disgraceful Demotion: Played with. With the help of the Crowshead Lodge, Dr. Schwartz was aquitted of murder. However, he was forced to change his name and moved to Crowshead. He retained his medical license and was subtly allowed to continue his "work."
- Don't Go in the Woods: Averted. While fleeing Rifenburg Manor, it's possible to reach safety by frantically running away through the dark and stormy forest.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: The book opens with your character's portentious dream; it's clearly not the first time this has happened to the detective.
- Dumbwaiter Ride: Averted. The dumbwaiter in the basement of Rifenburg Manor is broken. If you attempt to hide from the burned man in the dumbwaiter, you die.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: It is difficult but possible to learn almost everything there is to know, destroy the monster, and even get a large cash bonus after your investigation. Just surviving the story at all might count as earning your happy ending.
- Escape Sequence: The longest such sequence involves you fleeing from Rifenburg Manor; you can go in many different directions with many different outcomes.
- Gun Porn: Arthur Betheland's Purdey hunting shotgun has a loving description when it's introduced.
- Hardboiled Detective: With a high skill in Combat, a revolver, and the right choices, the player character can be as hardboiled as they come. This may prove wrong genre savvy; some things can't be killed by bullets.
- Haunted Castle: The burned-out ruins of stately Rifenburg Manor give this impression, aided by the fact that you visit in the middle of a terrible storm in the dead of night. And by the fact that it is, in fact, haunted.
- Haunted House Historian: Sarah Eisenhart probably knows the most of anyone about what's going on with Rifenburg Manor. Unfortunately, while she figures out that she needs a crossbow, she doesn't quite figure out the rest before she becomes The World's Expert on Getting Killed.
- Have a Nice Death: You can die in many ways throughout the book, almost always after depleting either your Physical or Mental Health. Most of the deaths have a few fairly unique paragraphs explaining what happens before the inevitable THE END.
- Invincible Boogeymen: The utterly implacable monster ticks every box. Only by investigation and detective work can you figure out how destroy him.
- Jump Scare: Probably your first introduction to the burned man has you realize he's standing on just the other side of a thin chain-link fence.
- The Load: Largely averted. Most companions that join you during your investigation can handle themselves; in some cases, you're the load.
- Multiple Endings: It wouldn't be much of a gamebook without them. Beyond the many deaths of you, you can complete the investigation with varying degrees of success, even choosing to leave Crowshead early and stop the investigation for a number of reasons.
- Nothing Is Scarier: What happened to the party guests after the incident? What is the purpose of the Crowshead Lodge? What happened at Timotheum?
- Occult Detective: You, the detective. The player character is noted to be the go-to expert in Philadelphia for "this sort of thing" after a largely unexplained previous investigation receive media coverage.
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Paranoia Fuel: In Mayor North's office, if you snoop around while he's gone, you may notice you're being watched through a wall vent. There are hints that you're being watched much of the time while you're in Crowshead. - Paranormal Investigation: The detective is hired to investigate what exactly happened in a deadly fire at an isolated manor. While the case seems mundane at first, it soon becomes clear that whatever happened on the night of the fire was supernatural in origin. You can also carry a small mystical charm to help you on the job.
- Private Detective: This is the player character's job.
- Psycho Knife Nut: Dr. Schofield demonstrates a preference for scalpels as his weapon of choice. As a surgeon, he has flawless, precise control.
- Run or Die: Most encounters with the burned man go this way.
- Second-Person Narration: The entire book is written in this manner, putting you in the place of the detective.
- Supernatural Light: The area around the burned man glows with the light of crackling flames, but he himself is a charred silhouette of a man.
- Surreal Horror: While most of the book has horror with some manner of explanation, the events down in the basement of the Crowshead Lodge span time and space in a mind-bending, frantic rush to escape.
- Tagalong Kid: Your young taxi driver in Crowshead, Georgie Akin, gives color commentary on events, but rarely participates directly in the plot.
- The Adjectival Man: While the text describes him by many names, most of the references to The Burned Man follow this pattern. His real name was once Louis Rifenburg, but whether it's still him is debatable.
- The Bad Guy Wins: In many outcomes, Mayor North gets exactly what he wants from you, regardless of whether you solve the case or die.
- The Patriarch: Old Man Cochran is a mean old goat who sold out his granddaughter as a scapegoat to the Crowshead Lodge.
- Town with a Dark Secret: Crowshead clearly has several dark secrets, one of which is the subject of your investigation.
- Trauma-Induced Amnesia: The detective's mind works very hard to forget what happened at Timotheum.
- Violence is Disturbing: There are several instances where violence (especially death that you deal out) can cause your detective some mental health damage.
- Was Once a Man: Whatever the burned man is now, he was once Louis Rifenburg.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Dorothy Sarkis escapes from a dangerous situation by casting what could only be considered a teleportation spell. She's successful, but takes a while to recover her wits. It's possible for you to repeat her spell later, and the mental strain can kill you.
- You Can't Kill What's Already Dead: Fists, bullets, and knives have no effect on the burned man. Only the item that should have killed him in the first place can put him down for good.
