OSR Review & Commentary of The Red Room's The End of Innocence Rpg By The Red Room Crew

 

'There’s a moment in late summer when the light changes, when the endless days of idleness begin to shorten, and the first yellow leaves appear on maple trees, when childhood stands on the edge of something else, something less magical… This is a game about that moment. About the last great adventures of childhood, the mysteries solved and secrets uncovered before the world becomes too rational. It’s about kids riding their bikes down sun-dappled streets, investigating strange happenings, and discovering that reality has many more layers than adults would have them believe.'

'The End of Innocence draws inspiration from various sources, some widely known, others less familiar. While movies like Stand By Me and The Goonies inform its spirit of adventure and friendship, the game’s soul owes more to Ray Bradbury’s bittersweet tales of childhood in books like Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes. 'The End of Innocence Rpg by The Red Room Crew is definitely a depature from the usual horror and terror of the Wretched and Red rpg systems. This game is all about the childhood adventures and dreams that we're forced to leave behind as we move on to adult hood. This is an rpg about the adventures of childhood and uses a simplified version of the Red Rpg system. The artwork is very well done, the editing is solid, and the layout is certain up to Red Room standards.  Clocking in at over 244 pages of rpg 'The End of Innocence' rpg does not skim on PC set up for your 10-14 year. You get everything here including a stat to show just how tight you are with your circle of friends. The PC creation should take about ten to fifteen minutes of dice rolls and deciding. The system is simple, quick, reliable and highly effective to generate a PC quickly.  The combat rpg system is as I said is a simplified version of the Red Rpg system and PC's can't die per say. That's not to say there are not consquences for your PC's action. "San Cristobal Bay, a Gulf Coast town where summer seems eternal, provides a backdrop for lighter mysteries and sun-soaked adventures. " according to the End of Innocence rpg page. And we also a Ray Bradbury rpg  setting as well;"Oakbrook, inspired by Bradbury’s fictional Green Town, represents autumn’s approach, seasonally and metaphorically" So your getting two campaign settings in one book for your youthful PC's.  What  makes The End of Innocence different is how it pulls off it's rpg system. It allows you as the PC to impact the setting. This rpg should have games set canocially within the 1970's through the 1990's.  But is The End of The Innocence a good game?! In a word yes! This game has the rpg systems pull this off. We get an expanded set of rpg investigative rules, weird meters, and even psi talents that get looked at as 'Childhood Dream' abilities.  You easily pull off a Saturday morning cartoon too a full on Goonies style rpg campaign with The End of Innocence rpg.  Is this a kids on bikes rpg?! Yes and no. Yes it takes it's cues from Seventies through Nineties classic kids & family films, tv shows, and pop culture. End of Innocence takes most of it's cue from literature, film, and even to certain extent the works of Ray Bradbury. There's a sense of a solid rpg here  & it looks like it plays very well.