Wretchploitation rpg - In Wrectched Depravity One Shot - Session Report

 "While previous Wretched games are meant to play anti-heroes, Wretchploitation goes a bit further allowing you to take the role of obvious villains, such as Dominatrix Nazi officers with a taste for blood, sadistic wardens, psycho-killers, deranged cult leaders and other distasteful personalities. Wretchploitation expands the Wretched line into exploitation movie territory, already rife with seedy anti-heroes. Whether you like violent action, in the way of blaxploitation, 70s cop movies, Hong-Kong flicks and Eurocrime, or if you would, instead, emulate the horror and gore of cannibal, zombie, Giallo and splatter films, or even if you prefer the sleaziness of sexploitation and nunsploitation, this set of rules has got you covered!"

In tonight's one shot I ran through an after 'the horror movie is over' scenario using In  Wretched Depravity adventure  & the Wretchploitation rpg.  The PC's were a Blackguard investigative team called in to find out what has happened to operative & their family. Needless to say that it's wasn't a pretty scene at all. 

The PC's blundered into a scence straight out of a horror film where the slaughter was waiting behind the green door of the Almond home. The PC's got in through the door & the animated remains of one of the family members attacked! The players weren't expecting things to go south so soon! 
As soon as the gun fire subsided the players grew quite tense! The crawling sound of something upstairs cut right through the silence at the table. And I got glared at by the players. 

This game of Wretchedploitation examined the late 70's & early 80's horror. The players knew that something had happened with the disciplines of pain  but what wasn't known is circumstances. The team was ordered by the Corporation to recover any occult artifacts & relics that were in the house. 

The team recovered one survivor in the living room.She was quite mad & gibbering to herself. Our memismist Doc.Oz played by Steve gets her out of the house ASAP. And he began to apply some hynosis to her to figure out what had happened. He was only able to get that things had gone completely South around dinner time. 

The player's two assassin leads recovered steaming human remains that were bagged & tagged. They were removed from the house as well. 

But it was the team's psychic who really sent the team into a panic. He sensed the Beyond was still crossed over into the threshold of the local time space continuum! 

The party moved into one of the house's bedrooms & found more human remains there holding a copy of a deadly book of magick. The party brought forth their necromancer to get the book from the hands out of the victim whose skin had been removed. When the corpse animated freaked the player out! He emptied an entire clip into the corpse. And it did absolutely nothing! The skull of the corpse glowed with eldritch fire & the necromancer closed the bedroom door. Then the scratching at the door began! The gunslinger Billy Ace let loose with machine gun fire through the door cutting the corpse in half. 

So the party then began to form a plan to attack the second floor of the house. That's when the front door slammed shut! Again this freaked the players out! 

The players were then freaked out when the animated bits & pieces of cops, family members, and worse came crawling over the ceiling above their heads towards them!  And they decided to leave the house with the book of magick! And leave the supernatural goings on to an Alpha Team! 

You know that this going to comeback to bite the players down the road in the ass Hellraiser II style! That's right the house & it's demonic entities are going to dog the player's PC's & show up when they begin to relax! 

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 

OSR Review & Session Report On The Sisters of the Seven Sins (Wretched Version) By Miguel Ribeiro, Sílvia Clemente, & Joe Coombs For The Wretchexploitation & The Wretched Époque rpg

 "This horror scenario takes place in a Portuguese convent with a dark history of demonic possession, black magic, and Devil worships that, in the mid-1970s, is occupied by a recently founded unusual religious congregation made up of disgraced women who wish to atone for their past, the Reprobate Sisters of the Seven Sins. Players can take the role of nuns, Vatican authorities sent to investigate reports of demoniacal manifestations, reporters interested in exploring the story behind this atypical catholic sisterhood or even criminals working on a devious plan to restore a sinister painting to the convent where it originally belonged."

It's about 2:24 in the afternoon on a Sunday we're just getting back from running over at DM Steve's place. So once again, I've wandered into an ongoing OSR horror game as a dungeon master. And we  made things go in a completely different direction in early 19th century Portugal.  And it's been an interesting game session to say the least because of the fact that The Red Room sent me a copy of  The Sisters of the Seven Sins (Wretched Version) By Miguel Ribeiro, Sílvia Clemente, & Joe Coombs.The Seven Sisters is a straight forward & well put together source book with details on the history of the convent, it's place within Portugal's history, full background, very detailed timeline and more all of course inspired by  Giallo films, Pulp horror stories, and general horrific depravity. Now the PC's in this game were already in a established in a horror investigative campaign with the Wretched Époque rpg having been used since back in June now.  The adventure hook here is the fact that the Vatican has called the PC's to find out what supernatual & demonic  happening are going on at the convent. There's been a series of murders of victims around the convent and the locals are very disturbed. 

The party was made up of 

DM Steve playing Major Tesla retired soldier now man of action  

Judith DM Steve's wife playing Elizabeth Gumtree shaman & bohemian occult expert

Paul playing El Jaffa a thug & assassin with an interest in sorting out the murders at the convent

Tessa playing the fighting nun Sister Elsa an agent of the Vatican whose blood relative at the convent is a murder victim

Sam Tessa's boyfriend playing  Merklin Akins an occultist from America visiting his ancestral home because of a family connection with the Knights Templar at the convent. 

Our own version of The Sisters of the Seven Sins (Wretched Version)  takes place smack in the middle of the Belle Époque period. And the sourcebook is well thoughtout with it's occult & supernatural material well laid out, and a font that is easy on the eyes. The investigators began with the murder scenes and progressed quickly with the PC's falling into the middle of a hallucination created by the demonic activity at the convent. This hallucination happened to El Jaffa & Major Tesla. And while it didn't harm the PC's it rattled them quite nicely. Sister Elsa had a quiet and quite dangerous interview with one of the priests and here's where   The Sisters of the Seven Sins  shines because the NPC's are so nicely laid out. We get a sense that there's been a lot of care taken with each of the write ups and profiles. 

Elizabeth Gumtree wandered into one of the convent courtyards & had a ghostly encounter with one of the victims who nearly took off her head. It was only the timely save by Merklin Akins banished the ghost back to Hell. Merklin & Elizabeth headed into the convent's record room to do some research. They met up with the convent's keeper of records. The party regrouped in the record room & backed off of the investigation for the evening. The party regrouped in town for the moment & we ended the session here. 

The Sisters of the Seven Sins (Wretched Version) By Miguel Ribeiro, Sílvia Clemente, & Joe Coombs is  a one hundred & thirty six page adventure & resource book that details a very dangerous & horrid convent. The whole supplement could be used with any OSR investigative horror rpg easily. And on the whole feels like an extensive campaign & I do mean extensive! The The Sisters of the Seven Sins  feels like partially a giallo fim adventure with elements of Hellraiser, Argento, and more with touches of other classic Pulp works.  The Sisters of the Seven Sins (Wretched Version)  is wall to wall adult themes, fictional hersies, weird supernatural horror, and other icky details so this one is not for the kiddies. But is  The Sisters of the Seven Sins (Wretched Version) By Miguel Ribeiro, Sílvia Clemente, & Joe Coombs  well done?! Oh very much so! 

The Sisters of the Seven Sins (Wretched Version) By Miguel Ribeiro, Sílvia Clemente, & Joe Coombs For The Wretchexploitation & The Wretched Époque rpg  Is Available Right Here 

OSR Session Report & Review On Double Feature (The Old House, A Sweet Serenade) By Joe Coombs, & Miguel Ribeiro From The Red Room For The Wretchploitation Rpg

 "This Double Features includes two horror adventures easily used without any preparation if you mean to run them in Wretchploitation or any other contemporary horror game. With some adaptation you can run them in Wretched Époque or other games set in the not-so-distant past."

"The first scenario, The Old House, is a loose collection of ideas and random tables for supernatural encounters in a haunted place. The second adventure, A Sweet Serenade, is a more structured scenario about a group of characters (that may be vampires, humans or half-breeds, depending on the Game Master’s and players’ preferences), who find themselves waking at dawn, in a strange place, after a night of partying. They may have broken the annual truce among vampire clans by murdering a woman, and now must find out what really happened the night before." 

Double Feature (The Old House, A Sweet Serenade) By Joe Coombs, & Miguel Ribeiro OSR adventure  came my way. So tonight we all got together for a horror one shot. Double Feature (The Old House, A Sweet Serenade) features two adventures in one and it was vampire PC time at the table top. Double Feature clocks in at thirty three pages & 'The Old House' is a solid part random haunted house tool box & part adventure. All of the aspects of 'The Old House' are determined by random rolls on the Double Feature tables. 

 And in tonight's game the recent death of a vampire elder whose haunted house lair now stands 'abandoned' calls to the PC . So within 'The Old House' is a powerful magick item an annotated edition of the King in Yellow with a necromancer's marginal notes that have spells up to the 7th level or better. After about ten minutes or so the players had their characters rolled up using the 

Wretchploitation Quickstart & the vampire rules within Double Feature. 

'The Old House' proved more challenging then the players were expecting. The house was more like a malevolent force of the supernatural then an old haunted house. The haunted house had a very nasty personality as it played marry havoc with the vampiric PC's. Manifestions of oozes, ghostly guardians, and traps took out two of the vampires while the half breed hunters in tonight's game survived. The rooms bleed acid and manifested two horrid phantoms that tear apart another PC. 

Double Feature (The Old House, A Sweet Serenade) reads & plays like an old Fifties EC comic book come to life. 

The PC's were finally able to locate the copy of the King in Yellow & escape the clutches of the 'Old House'. There are couple of observations about 'The Old House' because of the nature of the tool kit & OSR adventure. 'The Old House' could effectively be randominly created each & every time the PC's go into it. This allows the DM to get the maximum about of OSR ulitity out of the adventure & makes 'The Old House' an almost living entity within it's own right. 

'A Sweet Serenade' is really interesting because it's almost but not quite a self contained supplement as well as an OSR adventure. It contains all of the rules that a DM needs to run a modern or edge of Victorian Wretchploitation themed campaign or mini campaign. The player's PC's had to watch their step tonight as they were in the presence of other modern vampires of various levels. 

'A Sweet Serenade' is part EC comic book & Twilight Zone nightmare mixed together with vampiric elements. The adventure quickly escalates into power struggles & combat if not played correctly. And gamers never go correctly because 'Sweet Serenade' went into vampiric combat. There was one PC death  in tonight's game. 

Double Feature (The Old House, A Sweet Serenade) By Joe Coombs, & Miguel Ribeiro is very well done. The cartography is sharp and the layout is good. The fonts are easily readable and there's more then enough adventure found within to make it worth while to have. Double Feature (The Old House, A Sweet Serenade) are excellent tool kits as well as adventure unto themselves. They have enough material within to make a full on mini campaign for a Wretchploitation themed campaign a reality.

Double Feature (The Old House, A Sweet Serenade) By Joe Coombs, & Miguel Ribeiro From The Red Room For The Wretchploitation  Rpg Is Available Here