OSR Review & Commentary On Wretched Époque Rpg By Miguel Ribeiro, Sílvia Clemente, Joe Coombs from The Red Room For Your French OSR Campaign Games

 "Wretched Époque takes place in the period known as the Belle Époque. This is the time and the fictional place where Umberto Eco's Simone Simonini crosses paths with Jacques Tardi's Adèle Blanc-Sec, Edgar Allan Poe's Chevalier Auguste Dupin and Maurice Leblanc's Arsène Lupin, amidst anarchist bombings, the echoes of the Dreyfus affair, the catastrophic side effects of secret societies conspiring in the shadows and the mysterious results of experiences conducted by mad geniuses. Not yet pulp, not quite historical, it is neither the right time nor the right mood for Steampunk or Dieselpunk. Welcome to the wretched times of Nouveaupunk!"

"Wretched Époque includes:

- OSR rules for playing fin-de-siécle anti-heroes (expanded Wretched rules for sanity and mesmerism)
- Information about fictional and real-world secret societies, cults and conspiracies
- Plenty of villains, among them criminal masterminds, mad scientists, mythical beasts and Lovecraftian abominations
- The Apache Underworld and Parisian law enforcement of the late 19th century, as foes or allies to the characters
- The Beyond, origin of all supernatural menaces in the Wretched universe
- Timeline and guide to the Arrondissements of Paris in the Belle Époque""

Wretched Époque rpg By Miguel Ribeiro, Sílvia Clemente, Joe Coombs from The Red Room. Covers a very specific period of French almost but not quite Pulp literature pre WWI according to its own introduction;"Wretched Époque takes place in the period known as the Belle Époque, which is dated between 1871 and 1914, ending when World War I started." Wretched Époque rpg covers both PC heroes & anti hero of these French pieces of literature that takes the Wretched Bastards rpg system & then mates it to a modern OSR undercarriage. The Wretched Époque rpg is fun & very well thought out in two hundred seventeen pages. Wretched Époque rpg plays up it's criminal elements of gangs, the underworld, the political climate, and more with a twist of mad science. 



There's a good balance within the Wretched Époque rpg from the Pulp elements into the fast paced weirdness & violence of the Wretched rpg system. Your PC's could be the villains finding themselves among them criminal masterminds, mad scientists, mythical beasts and Lovecraftian abominations. And its this combination of a party of players finding themselves at the throats of Pulp criminal masterminds one day, fighting the French underworld, and then moving toward the Lovecraftian horrors at the center of Paris. The layout of the Wretched Époque rpg is well done, the equipment list is extremely well done, details on the world of the Wretched Époque rpg is really solid. Gotta say that I've been really surprised reading through  the Wretched Époque rpg and how good the quality of it really is. At $10.50 for two hundred and fifteen pages the Wretched Époque rpg is actually really well done. And given the fact that the Wretched Époque rpg is OSR compatible means that this rpg system could theoritcally be used with a DM's other OSR systems. 

The overall feel of the Wretched Époque rpg is a step beyond the rest of the Wretched catalog that the Red Room has done. The Pulp elements of the Wretched Époque rpg capture its literature, source material, & feel of the time period where the blend of heroes & anti heroes blurs unto themselves. While the line between good & evil is here, it's one that get's moved completely around as the Wretched Époque rpg sees fit. And that's one of the strengths of  the Wretched Époque rpg in spades taking a point of the French literature and films unto itself. This captures the wild abandoned, absolute Hell, and yet civilized order that this time period evokes within the game's history. The Wretched Époque rpg does take its subject matter seriously and yet it game play seems to be very well done indeed! 

You can grab the Wretched Époque rpg right over here