Play to Find Out

What makes this an exceptional game?
When we say that we play to find out, what do we mean? Find out what?
How many levels we can advance?
How much treasure and power we can accumulate for our imaginary heroes?
What lies at the bottom of the dungeon?
How our character will die?
It is perhaps this last question which Eric Bloat has on his mind while designing The Blackest of Deaths.

For me, The Blackest of Deaths title is a warning statement, not a goal of play. This is not a game about heroic player characters who show off their wondrous abilities while smashing their opponents in a manner suggestive of the Batman TV series of the 1960s. The Blackest of Deaths isn't Conan the Barbarian either. The Blackest of Deaths means this is a dangerous (in the sense of character death) game, so don't worry if your precious paper hero runs out of hit points.
The default setting of The Blackest of Deaths is populated with changeling, half-medusa, kobold, goblin, and serpent-men characters as well as the more common, dwarf, elf and human folk. Character classes include some familiar tropes, barbarian, warlock/witch and assassin, some less often seen such as beast master, gladiator and necromancer and a few original takes on the subject such as fortune hunter, monster slayer and street rat. There are no levels in The Blackest of Deaths - your character doesn't advance along a path to greater power. And that is the simple beauty (and greatest appeal) of The Blackest of Deaths.
So why play this game about "you do this thing and discover that thing, and eventually you will end up with a dead character"? We play to find out! - about all the stories that come about through play, that's why.
Without chasing the next level, we players are left to engage with the setting, explore what lies over the next ridge and investigate that mystery we herd about in the last village. We play to survive and to tell the tale of our adventures. With a new goal in mind, we experience the game in a new way.
There are a lot of new games being published these days. Few seem as revolutionary or have excited me as much as The Blackest of Deaths.