Tag: Horror

Mirage Hills Chronicles now available at the Red Room store, Big Geek Emporium and Giant Slayer Games (it will be released at Lulu.com later). Under the California sun lies the city of Mirage Hills, a glittering chimera promising fame and fortune. Its skyline gleams like a beacon for dreamers and visionaries, its iconic sign a siren’s call. Beyond the glamorous veneer of movie stars and mansions, however, Mirage Hills harbours plenty of dark secrets.

We had Josh Peters from Stellagama Publishing today for a chat at the Red Room. We talked about their latest releases and Josh’s plans for next year, among other subjects. Check it out!

Have you heard about Wretched games but have no idea where to start? Did you pick up something from our store but never got around to playing it? Well, this week’s free Wretched Verse: Guide to the Wretchedverse may be useful for you. It includes a summary of the rules and descriptions of all of our Wretched settings to ease your way into the Wretchedverse. Get it at the Red Room store at Giant Slayer Games or Big Geek Emporium.

Black Friday Lulu.com: use TWINKLE30 code until the 28th for a 30% discount on print on demand books. Take a look at our store there:

https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/miguelribeiro

A note about historical settings

Yesterday we released Wretched Interbellum, the latest game in our Wretched series set in the tumultuous Interwar period. As developers of historical games, we want to provide some background on our pseudo-historical settings. While not professional historians, we aim to present the basic historical facts and events, adding some fictional elements and pulpish flair to make things more interesting.

Our games take place in stylized versions of the past, such as Wretched Époque’s supernatural version of the Belle Époque era and Wretched Country’s weird Americana setting. Wretched Interbellum follows suit with a fictional take on the unstable Interwar period, incorporating speculative and Lovecraftian elements into the historical backdrop. We blend history and imagination, so while these games are inspired by actual events and times, they are heavily fictionalized worlds with their own lore and factions.

Our goal is an immersive historical-flavoured experience, not textbook accuracy. So expect the spirit of the age, but seen through a pulpy, wretched lens. Definitely not historical, but  heavily fictionalized.  Nevertheless, what you will NOT find is a bastardisation of real world themes to make it palatable to “modern audiences”.

Sexism, racism, classism and other “isms” were really a thing in the 19^th and early 20^th century and so you will find they do exist in the Wretchedverse. Now, can you play a woman, an homossexual, or a non-white character in Country, or a Jewish character in Paris of the Belle Époque? Sure you can, that will give you added complications and that is – we believe – a good think in a role-playing game. Now, if we are admitting we did fictionalise history, why are we so worried about correctly portraying social and traditional norms of the time? Have you read Conan Doyle, Poe, Stoker, Mary Shelley, Lovecraft, Agatha Christie? Well, that’s why… It’s fictional, but it still takes place in the past. No weird pronouns and no current day inserts; no bulshit. No, it’s not accurate, but when we fail is out of lack of knowledge or to insert otherworldly elements into an historical setting, not because there’s an absurd agenda being shoved down everyone’s throats.

Darker

The darkest corners of Hammettville hide a menace that threatens the very fabric of reality. A malevolent entity from the Beyond know as the Devourer has been slowly spreading its influence over the city, feeding on the taint and corruption of the inhabitants’ souls. In this scenario, the players take the roles of common wretched folk that see themselves entangled in a twisted web of secrets and lies. Carrying the burden of uncovering the truth to save their lives and sanity, the characters will journey beyond the veil, facing their own fears and worst nightmares, cunning conspirators and the Devourer’s insidious presence. Will they survive walking the narrow line between sanity and madness?

Good Guys Never Win

Join the super villain Tag on a coast to coast crime spree across the USA of Wretched Vigilantes. Encounter dozens of new wretched villains, heroes and super spies. Discover new powers and drawbacks for the Wretchedverse. Find out how super humans are treated in New York, Nevada, Tennessee and other parts of the US. Lean why it is that Good Guys Never Win.

The shadows of the Great War still loom large in this uneasy interwar period, coloured by the lingering trauma of unprecedented violence that swept the world from 1914 to 1918. Unsettled borders, crumbling empires, and new regimes leave the political landscape fraught with tension. Strange occult forces stirred by wartime bloodshed now threaten the fabric of reality. You take on the role of adventurers in this uncertain era, navigating landscapes scarred by trench warfare’s horrors. Like the roguish sailor Corto Maltese or Steinbeck’s wandering souls, you may have no allegiances beyond your own code of honour. Alliances are prerequisites for survival, yet trust is scarce among scheming factions vying for power in the ashes of war. Moral compasses waver like ships in a storm, the lines between heroes and villains obscured in swirling fog.

Inspired by the mythic storytelling of Hugo Pratt, the cynical realism of Hemingway and Hammett, and the occult mysticism of weird fiction, Wretched Interbellum melds harsh historical truths with otherworldly fantasy. The choices you make shall shape the fate of a fragile world teetering between hope and utter damnation. Vestiges of lost empires and old regimes grasp for lost glory with tyrannical fervour. Strange pacts and mystical forces promise power, but at a dire cost to body and soul. Will you aid the brave resistance struggling for freedom? Seek lost fortunes and arcane knowledge? Or simply survive as moral relativity reigns? The future remains unwritten in this land where ghosts of the Great War still walk.