First Impressions Of Wretched Darkness Rpg By Miguel Ribeiro, Sílvia Clemente, & Joe Coombs From The Red Room For The Wretchedverse

“You were not there for the beginning. You will not be there for the end. Your knowledge of what is going on can only be superficial and relative”
― William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch

Wretched Darknesss is a horror rpg & specifically an OSR horror game by the folks of the Red Room. And you play a former victim, a monster, or something far worse who has knowledge of what might be coming at 'The End'. Hence why we have the William S. Burroughs qoute. 


The Red Room has been producing & creating incredible games for the last three years now. And now Wretched Darkness rpg has hit under the tree. This is brand new OSR horror game that hits the high notes & clocks in at two hundred & seventy two pages. 

Wretched darkness hits several different notes then other OSR horror titles; 

"Welcome to the nightmarish realms of the Wretchedverse, where horrors lurk around every corner, and the darkness hides untold terrors. Wretched Darkness is a mature horror role-playing game where you take on the role of an anti-hero character who must face the unknown and confront the supernatural head-on. This game can be played as dark fantasy or make it an actual horror experience. Players can choose from several factions for their characters, some already featured in previous Wretched games, such as The Knights of Cydonnia, BurroughsTech, the Araknyd Brotherhood and the Daughters of Ksenia and some new ones, like the Warden Foundation and the Children of the Night."

"By default, the game is set in modern times, in urban environments, where danger lurks at every turn and death is never far away. However, you can use it to play horror games at any other time. Combine it with Wretched Époque or Wretched Country for the 19th-century terrifying experience, pair it up with Wretched New Flesh for a near-future surrealistic horror campaign, jump into the far future by using Wretched Space, or set it in any other timeline."

Hoping that everyone is havig a fantastic holiday & Wretched Darkness rpg has the potential to be both rpg & Wretchverse setting book as well. If Nightshift Veterans of the Supernatural Wars has the potential to be an OSR World of Darkness style rpg campaign then the Wretched Darkness rpg has the vibes of a Kult style OSR game.  The Wretched Darkness rpg has the potential to really take in the 90's style Golden Age horror movie like campaign in spades. The Wretched Darkness rpg has a real dependance on it's factions, NPC's, monsters  & has a more personal style of horror then most other Wretched Rpg's. And even Joe Combs has spoken about this on Facebook; "'The Wretched Darkness  got alot of options to it.Takes the idea of magic being a living breathing force to be reckoned as opposed to it being in the hands of a select few casters.

'"Though those who are willing to put the time and effort into

How magic works may well find themselves doing some pretty incredible things.

Especially if they are working together, to make magic work.

This makes cults much more of a force to be reckoned with."

I suppose could be a Wretched Sorcerers Handbook.

Already had plot hooks forming for it. "

And the idea of magick being a living thing & a force to be reckoned plugs into the Wretched 'Epoque rpg background & systems. Wretched 'Epoque rpg contains a lot of background on the Red Room's take on the Beyond. The Beyond is the horror dimension that worms it's way through many of the Wretchedverse titles. And it impacts many of the Red Room's titles & it's minions can easily affect a campaign. 

The Wretched 'Epoque rpg is perfect to couple with Wretched Darkness for making a complete turn of the century horror rpg. The 'Wretched Darkness rpg has the feel of a far more complete rpg system in my humble opinion then other horror rpg's on the market.

Why because of the fact that in addition to other Wretched rpg PC classes we get several new classes and playable races, such as Incubus/ Succubus, Loup-garou, and the Wampyr.

“Nobody owns life, but anyone who can pick up a frying pan owns death.”
― William S. Burroughs
 The PC's own death & things far worse in Wretched Darkness. Wretched Darkness is very well done. And the PC's are going to be focus for violence, change, and worse. The worse plugs right into the works of suchMaestros  as Clive Barker, David Cronenberg, David Lynch, John Carpenter, Wes Craven, Lucio Fulci, and Mario Bava, but expect sources of inspiration as varied as William Burroughs, Charles Bukowski, William Gibson, Paul Auster, exploitation movies and Leonard Cohen’s poetry. And while we've seen this before in Wretchploitation & other Red Room Rpg's. In Wretched Darkness it just hits differently. And Wretched Darkness feels like a 90's horror movie trailer that just came up on the VHS tape from the local video store.