Rooster Games
2017
Complexity: 2
The post-apocalyptic wasteland is usually depicted as a barren desert, although sometimes depicted as an overgrown forest or vast ocean. In Fleshscape, it’s made of meat.
If there’s one thing that gets my attention, it’s something I haven't seen before--hence the underrepresentation of traditional fantasy games in these reviews--and adventures in a post-apocalyptic meat word is definitely something I haven't seen before. Of course, now that I have seen it, any future meat world games will seem normal and uninteresting to me.
Setting: 3/3 [+]
Freshscape takes place in The Fleshlands, which as previously stated, is a landscape composed entirely of flesh. Fleshy mountains with giant eyes, skeleton branches, lakes and rivers of various fluids, more or less what you’d expect from a place called “The Fleshlands.” It is implied--though not explicitly stated--that The Fleshlands lay on top of a previous society. No details are given about this, or the origin of The Fleshlands, but such things aren’t really necessary for an understanding of the world.
Oh, also there’s kilometers-long dragons in there too, but they’re dragons so who cares?
Character Creation: 3/5
Players in Fleshscape take on the role of nomadic tribespeople--I guess you couldn’t really have a flesh-based agricultural society. Players first chose a “nature,” an adjective to describe their character’s general approach to things, then are given 9 points to distribute between their three traits--brain, muscle, and guts--with a restriction that no trait can be lower than 2 or higher than 5. Now if you’re kinda okay at math, you may notice that having all traits start at 2 and giving players 3 points achieves the exact same restrictions. They then choose 2 “gifts”--boons such as bonuses to specific types of rolls or other special abilities--and starting equipment--discussed further in “content” section. Finally, they must state a specific bond that their character shares with another. But that’s not all, players must then create their tribe. The players collectively come up with a name, drive, and enemy for the tribe, and populate it with one NPC each. The tribe also gains an “advancement,” which is basically a gift that applies to all tribe members.
Overall character creation isn't very deep, but doesn’t really need to be. And the focus on more roleplay-related and communal aspects of a character is a nice addition.
Mechanics: 3/5
Fleshscape uses a d6 dice pool system with success on high rolls versus a difficulty of 1–6. Where it gets interesting is “resisting,” basically, when something bad happens to a character they roll to resist it. A successful resist may mean reducing damage, spotting a hidden enemy, or basically having some bad thing not affect your character. Additionally, this is a player-only roll system, which of course means that only players roll. Which is an idea that I like overall, as it gives players more sense of agency over the outcome of actions and lightens the GM load just a little. This game takes it even further, with enemies not having turns, but rather retaliating against unsuccessful attacks made against them. There’s also a basic magic system that allows characters to manipulate flesh--which you way recall, everything is made of. The system itself is abstract and basically comes down to “figure out what you want to do and how hard it should be, then roll to see if you do it.” While it is a serviceable system, it does feel a little tacked on, and doesn’t really fit the survival-based tone of the game.
Writing: 1/3 [−]
The rules are mostly well-written... when you can find them--see below--but some things are under-explained, or just not explained at all. For example, an item is listed as having healing properties; however, at no point is it actually explained--or even suggested--what effect the item has on healing. Also, some things are just put in weird places. The dismemberment chart is on the same page as combat, but nestled between resources and item crafting. The actual dismemberment rules however, are only found on the character sheet, along with the descriptions of gifts and advancements, encumbrance rules, and the entirety of the “survival” system. Now I’m all for putting information on the character sheet that the player may need to reference, but all those things should be in the rules too--also, I’m doubtful about how often a player needs to reference some of those materials.
Presentation: 3/5
This game is very neatly laid out, almost to a fault. Okay, actually to a fault. All the content fits very nicely into their pages and columns--like there literally isn’t a single column break in the any section. And while that looks very nice, one cannot help but feel that some of the text was written in a way to best fit into its allotted space rather than to best explain the rules.
And as it is my wont to be nitpicky, bonuses and penalties are expressed with a number of plus/minus symbol in red circles--as opposed to like +2--and survival is represented with a little lightning bolt--and remember that the rules never actually mention survival beyond “You start play with 1 ⚡,” and explaining that current ⚡ is transferred to a player’s new character upon death. Honestly what’s the point of this? Does making up little symbols that you have to explain--or not explain--to the player make designers feel extra professional? Am I going off on a tangent about something that is more or less inconsequential? These are questions that I’m fairly sure have no satisfying answers. The art is overall well done, and helps to illustrate the game’s unique landscape and inhabitants. I would have liked to have seen more--especially monster illustrations--but there isn’t really any room for it in the super tight layout.
Content: 2/3 [•]
Fleshscape uses an abstract equipment system. All items have a point value representing bonuses or other properties, and are defined mechanically only by these values. So a nice pointy stick, and a good smashing rock--or tooth or whatever--could both be abstractly “a thing that gives +1 to attack rolls” despite narrative being different items. This is a thing that I like. A lot of games have massive equipment lists, but loads of items end up being mechanically-identical to other items and just end up looking like an excuse to show off how many different types of sword you can name. But this pretty much gives you the tools to create more-or-less any equipment a character could reasonably access. There’s also some information on basic resources since players are likely not familiar with the logistics of making everything out of flesh and bone--and if they are you might want to alert the authorities--and an item crafting system which works very nicely with the abstract equipment system--as any item just needs a point value and a general idea of required resources. There’s also a small section of “example creatures.” Personally, I’d rather have seen the magic section dropped in favor of a few more monsters, especially since while there are examples, there are no guidelines for creating your own. Overall, it’s a seven-page game, and has as much content as you should expect from such.
Final Remarks
Fleshscape is an interesting game, it has an interesting setting and interesting mechanics. The rules are simple enough to learn, so once you get past the initial issues with the layout, it should be smooth sailing from there. I would have liked to see the setting fleshed out a bit more--har har, I’m so funny--because as it is, I don’t really see there being all that much to do there other than try not to die.
Base Points: 9
Character Creation: 3/5, Mechanics: 3/5, Presentation: 3/5
Adjustments: +0
Setting: +1, Writing: −1, Content: +0
Overall Score: 60% (9/15 Points)
Hey baby, wanna explore the Fleshlands?
Freshscape takes place in The Fleshlands, which as previously stated, is a landscape composed entirely of flesh. Fleshy mountains with giant eyes, skeleton branches, lakes and rivers of various fluids, more or less what you’d expect from a place called “The Fleshlands.” It is implied--though not explicitly stated--that The Fleshlands lay on top of a previous society. No details are given about this, or the origin of The Fleshlands, but such things aren’t really necessary for an understanding of the world.
Oh, also there’s kilometers-long dragons in there too, but they’re dragons so who cares?
Character Creation: 3/5
Players in Fleshscape take on the role of nomadic tribespeople--I guess you couldn’t really have a flesh-based agricultural society. Players first chose a “nature,” an adjective to describe their character’s general approach to things, then are given 9 points to distribute between their three traits--brain, muscle, and guts--with a restriction that no trait can be lower than 2 or higher than 5. Now if you’re kinda okay at math, you may notice that having all traits start at 2 and giving players 3 points achieves the exact same restrictions. They then choose 2 “gifts”--boons such as bonuses to specific types of rolls or other special abilities--and starting equipment--discussed further in “content” section. Finally, they must state a specific bond that their character shares with another. But that’s not all, players must then create their tribe. The players collectively come up with a name, drive, and enemy for the tribe, and populate it with one NPC each. The tribe also gains an “advancement,” which is basically a gift that applies to all tribe members.
Overall character creation isn't very deep, but doesn’t really need to be. And the focus on more roleplay-related and communal aspects of a character is a nice addition.
Mechanics: 3/5
Fleshscape uses a d6 dice pool system with success on high rolls versus a difficulty of 1–6. Where it gets interesting is “resisting,” basically, when something bad happens to a character they roll to resist it. A successful resist may mean reducing damage, spotting a hidden enemy, or basically having some bad thing not affect your character. Additionally, this is a player-only roll system, which of course means that only players roll. Which is an idea that I like overall, as it gives players more sense of agency over the outcome of actions and lightens the GM load just a little. This game takes it even further, with enemies not having turns, but rather retaliating against unsuccessful attacks made against them. There’s also a basic magic system that allows characters to manipulate flesh--which you way recall, everything is made of. The system itself is abstract and basically comes down to “figure out what you want to do and how hard it should be, then roll to see if you do it.” While it is a serviceable system, it does feel a little tacked on, and doesn’t really fit the survival-based tone of the game.
Writing: 1/3 [−]
The rules are mostly well-written... when you can find them--see below--but some things are under-explained, or just not explained at all. For example, an item is listed as having healing properties; however, at no point is it actually explained--or even suggested--what effect the item has on healing. Also, some things are just put in weird places. The dismemberment chart is on the same page as combat, but nestled between resources and item crafting. The actual dismemberment rules however, are only found on the character sheet, along with the descriptions of gifts and advancements, encumbrance rules, and the entirety of the “survival” system. Now I’m all for putting information on the character sheet that the player may need to reference, but all those things should be in the rules too--also, I’m doubtful about how often a player needs to reference some of those materials.
Presentation: 3/5
This game is very neatly laid out, almost to a fault. Okay, actually to a fault. All the content fits very nicely into their pages and columns--like there literally isn’t a single column break in the any section. And while that looks very nice, one cannot help but feel that some of the text was written in a way to best fit into its allotted space rather than to best explain the rules.
And as it is my wont to be nitpicky, bonuses and penalties are expressed with a number of plus/minus symbol in red circles--as opposed to like +2--and survival is represented with a little lightning bolt--and remember that the rules never actually mention survival beyond “You start play with 1 ⚡,” and explaining that current ⚡ is transferred to a player’s new character upon death. Honestly what’s the point of this? Does making up little symbols that you have to explain--or not explain--to the player make designers feel extra professional? Am I going off on a tangent about something that is more or less inconsequential? These are questions that I’m fairly sure have no satisfying answers. The art is overall well done, and helps to illustrate the game’s unique landscape and inhabitants. I would have liked to have seen more--especially monster illustrations--but there isn’t really any room for it in the super tight layout.
Content: 2/3 [•]
Fleshscape uses an abstract equipment system. All items have a point value representing bonuses or other properties, and are defined mechanically only by these values. So a nice pointy stick, and a good smashing rock--or tooth or whatever--could both be abstractly “a thing that gives +1 to attack rolls” despite narrative being different items. This is a thing that I like. A lot of games have massive equipment lists, but loads of items end up being mechanically-identical to other items and just end up looking like an excuse to show off how many different types of sword you can name. But this pretty much gives you the tools to create more-or-less any equipment a character could reasonably access. There’s also some information on basic resources since players are likely not familiar with the logistics of making everything out of flesh and bone--and if they are you might want to alert the authorities--and an item crafting system which works very nicely with the abstract equipment system--as any item just needs a point value and a general idea of required resources. There’s also a small section of “example creatures.” Personally, I’d rather have seen the magic section dropped in favor of a few more monsters, especially since while there are examples, there are no guidelines for creating your own. Overall, it’s a seven-page game, and has as much content as you should expect from such.
Final Remarks
Fleshscape is an interesting game, it has an interesting setting and interesting mechanics. The rules are simple enough to learn, so once you get past the initial issues with the layout, it should be smooth sailing from there. I would have liked to see the setting fleshed out a bit more--har har, I’m so funny--because as it is, I don’t really see there being all that much to do there other than try not to die.
Base Points: 9
Character Creation: 3/5, Mechanics: 3/5, Presentation: 3/5
Adjustments: +0
Setting: +1, Writing: −1, Content: +0
Overall Score: 60% (9/15 Points)
Hey baby, wanna explore the Fleshlands?
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