Fool's Errand: Where They Cremate The Roadkill
Surreal RPG from the creator of Middens
It might sound like the name of that forgotten Godspeed You Black Emperor track you could have sworn they played when you saw them in The Unkempt Spoon that one time, but Where They Cremate The Roadkill is actually the next game from the creator of Middens and Gingiva. If you haven't played either of those, I stand by the words that fell out of my mouth when I gawped at Middens for the first time - "It’s like Harlan Ellison driving a Yellow Submarine into a dying sun." Packed with weird and esoteric elements, from Enochian sigils to parasitic parole officers, the new game is an RPG set in a world in which actions have consequences, and the devil has lost his day job.
The video suggests a weirder and more disturbing take on the kind of delightful journeys that Amanita Design are known for, but Where They Cremate The Roadkill is something entirely different. That's an RPG you're looking at, with over 300 unique NPCs, weather patterns that influence behaviour, real-time combat and a police force that will respond to violence by blockading save points and raiding player characters' homes.
There's magic as well:
Conjure schools of fish out of solid ground. Summon cats into the house of a person with allergies to defeat them. Turn bovines into burger meat with a flick of the wrist. Bring to life an army of inanimate objects. Create havoc by casting love spells on train commuters and turn someone's pet dog inside out.
Like Gingiva (aka Moments of Silence) before it, Roadkill is seeking funds on Kickstarter and the target is similarly low. $3,600 in all, to pay artists' commissions, and for the production and shipping of rewards. The previous Kickstarter had a $2,400 target and the game was delivered as promised and on time, so I'm happy to believe that the bulk of the necessary funding and work is already covered.
The plot is about an unemployed devil and the fool who sets out to find him.
With an arrest warrant for the Devil a fool ventures into the world. He finds the poor imp living out of a box. It appears the infernal creature has fallen out of work.
"People are so evil these days there's no room for me to help"
Thirty days to fund, release should be around September.