Wednesday, January 1, 2025

Deeper OSR Commentary & Review On The New Flesh Rpg By The Red Room

 "Enter the dystopian world of New Flesh, a future-noir roleplaying game where cyberpunk meets biological horror in the neon-drenched streets of Interzone. Set in then near future, when corporate power runs unchecked, this game draws inspiration from the works of William S. Burroughs, David Cronenberg, and other masters of transgressive fiction." 

New Flesh Rpg is a very different animal from it's early incarnation aka Wretched New Flesh rpg. New Flesh strips back the occult and supernatural elements of the rpg while upping the biopunk & corporation elements. New Flesh might as well be a brand new rpg. In someways a better game. 
New Flesh lines far more up with the Darker rpg then it does with the original Wretched New Flesh including the fact that it has a wholly newly fleshed out campaign setting.. 
There are other differents between New Flesh & Wretched New Flesh according to the Red Room website; "Rules

New Flesh uses the Red System instead of the Wretched System. Unlike Wretched New Flesh Second Edition, which was primarily a setting, New Flesh is a standalone, fully-fledged game."

"Not Wretched
The Wretched factions are gone, as well as the the whole concept of Wretched characters."

"Tone and Focus
New Flesh places greater emphasis on Cronenbergian biopunk and body horror than the previous versions."

"Interzone, not Avalidad
The City is now officially named Interzone, marking a change from previous versions where Interzone was merely an outdated term. However, the name Avalidad persists as the term used by native Moroccans."

"Supernatural
New Flesh removes overt supernatural influences; for instance, Hideo Kobayashi is no longer depicted as a demonic entity. Instead, the game emphasizes themes of corporate greed and biotechnological ethical decay. Some alien entities, such as the Machinatores, are retained, maintaining a subtle otherworldly presence. Ritual Magic is no longer available, but it was replaced by Chaos Magic, which makes more sense in the Burroughsian atmosphere of the game."

"Setting Scope
This iteration expands on the world beyond Interzone, providing more detailed descriptions of other countries."

"New Art
The game features updated visuals, including: Cover and back cover art by Ibai Canables, an introductory comic by Kris Villarosa, illustrations of weapons, vehicles, and armour by Rob Necronomicon. It also includes a cool new logo, a page border and new character sheet by Terra Hitzing. Finally, the style of AI illustrations is completely different from the previous book to make it coherent with the human-made art."

"Other changes
New Flesh introduces more plot hooks and an adventure generator, the Psionic rules were revised and the AI in the game setting was updated to keep up with real world changers, among other minor things." "
These changes only scatch the surface of this Bio Noir rpg adventure game. There's more here within the New Flesh Rpg. New Flesh  includes society, technology, culture, monsters, and more. This means that while these adventure elements are familiar to Wretched New Flesh players there's a brand new game within New Flesh.  New Flesh is compariable to the Darker rpg by the Red Room. 

This rpg  has many elements within the Darker rpg. New Flesh includes a wholly streamlined combat rpg system, a new magic system within the Chaos magic system, and much more. The Interzone campaign setting is even more fleshed out campaign setting. But is the New Flesh rpg worth the 15.00 dollar price point?!
In a word, yes! The whole price includes all six hundred pages of a solid rpg with a whole Bio Noir rpg campaign. The New Flesh rpg has everything that the players & DM will need to run a campaign lasting many years. 
The DM could affectly never need another book and run a comple New Flesh rpg campaign for years to come! The Bio Noir campaign has many elements that hit all of the high adventure notes of a Noir campaign but with high bio mechanic technological element. 

Adding in the Darker rpg's underworld and demons  or its supernatural forces a DM could have a whole cloth campaign with many layers of supernatural horror. The New Flesh rpg adds another bio terror layer to such a campaign. The New Flesh rpg is a pleasure to both read and I can't wait to run it!  

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.