OSR Review & Commentary ' Something Wretched This Way Comes' By Miguel Ribeiro, & Joe Coombs From The Red Room

 "As the title so obviously implies, this scenario is heavily inspired by Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked this Way Comes. Just like in Bradbury's dark fantasy novel, there's a mysterious travelling troupe arriving in a small town and granting people's wishes. As in the source material, making the townsfolk's desires come true is just a ruse for evil beings to feed upon their life force (and maybe a little more than that)."


" Of course, the events will not be the same, the carnival is replaced by a European circus troupe, and this adventure allows the players to take the roles not only of children but also of the adults being tricked into submission or even the evil circus people. Naturally, this being a Red Room release, the adventure couldn't be as innocent as Bradbury's tale. That's why we crossed it over with the horrific and exploitative imagery of sexy fumetti, Italian adult comics of the 1970s/ 1980s."

'Something Wretched This Way Comes' By Miguel Ribeiro, &  Joe Coombs From The Red Room is about as close as we've come to a modern Wretchploitation rpg adventure written by a combination of Clive Barker & Ray Bradbury. If both writers were on acid, really nasty acid. Let me explain. ' Something Wretched This Way Comes takes the trope of the supernatural circus & adds in the European twist of Fumetti. These are post World War II Italian comic books aka little puffs of smoke in Italian. So named because of the shape of the word balloons. Fumetti became full on lurid Pulp magazine style affairs by the 70's & 80's with some really sleaze ball twists in them. Often these were almost to the point of gonzo. ' Something Wretched This Way Comes' By Miguel Ribeiro, &  Joe Coombs taps right into this over the top lurid horror & sleaze vibe. 
' Something Wretched This Way Comes'  does this by having the European circuis troupe be a harbor for an occult faction of dangerous, deranged, and  horrors waiting to be unleashed on small town America or Europe. Though 'Something Wretched This Way Comes' feels like a combination of  'Stranger Things' meets the  Ray Bradbury's classic. This adventure in fact points up it's Wretchploitation rpg origins; "The group is quickly splitting up, and the arrival of the Cirque Diabolique in their town will be the last chance to get together. You can set it in the fall, like Bradbury's novel, or in the holidays before high school, the last summer of their childhood."

Because you can play as a kid going to the Cirque Diabolique, or a Wretchploitation rpg PC or even as a member of the cirque there's lots of possibilities for cross over adventuring. There a substantial flow of PC interaction with the horror elements  & NPC's of the cirque itself.  There are several areas that work together for this to work within 'The Something Wretched This Way Comes'. The cirque itself, the cast of NPC's surrounding the cirque, the acts of the cirque, and whole package of the Cirque Diabolique. 

'Something Wretched This Way Comes' takes full advantage of itself by having the PC's embroiled in the adventure itself. This is a cirque with secrets & lots of them starting with the ticket sellers all the way to the owners. ' Something Wretched This Way Comes' excels at internal and external secrets. 

' Something Wretched This Way Comes' is a great little adventure not just for the Wretchploitation rpg but any OSR game that uses younger adventurers. And yes 'The Something Wretched This Way Comes' is an adventure that perfectly exploits it's player's PC's on the front & the back end.

I can easily see running  ' Something Wretched This Way Comes' By Miguel Ribeiro, &  Joe Coombs with Dark Places & Demigorgons as an adult campaign. 

For the Wretchploitation rpg ' Something Wretched This Way Comes'  is perfect to set during the Fall of 1979 right before we switch over to the Eighties. The last gasp of Seventies is taken out by the horrors of the on coming Eighties. 

' Something Wretched This Way Comes' By Miguel Ribeiro, &  Joe Coombs From The Red Room Is Available Right Here