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Fleshscape

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"Like a Caveman RPG if it was written by Cronenberg during his body horror phase." - Griffin P.

"In less than 8 pages I found a complete rpg, with solid, modern and ergonomic mechanics strictly bound to a weird, tribal and wild setting." - Eugenio M. Lauro

"Just reading it is a treat. I highly recommend picking this up." - Ben Scerri

Miles-long carcasses fuse with the sinewy soil. Towering hills follow you with their glowing, restless eyes. Cavernous, toothed orifices hide all manners of twisted creatures. A vast, grotesque expanse of bone, skin, cartilage and meat, sometimes interrupted by rivers and lakes of bile, blood, and other noxious humours.

The Fleshlands.

Legends tell of an ancient time, when the world was different. Some say that if one were to dig deep enough, underneath all the flesh and bone and sinew, they would find enigmatic remains of what was before.

But how, and why did things change? No one knows. Some say it was the will of a God; others believe it was the work of the ageless titans known as Dragons. Despite this, it is unclear which one came first: the fleshlands or the dragons themselves. They are without doubt the most powerful beings known, embodying the alien intelligence of the world itself. 

A world which is very much alive and tends to behave as a creature, driven by unfathomable logic. The fleshscape is always shifting, following the labyrinthine vision of an alien conscience.

A bizarre, unforgiving ecosystem.

A land of monsters... and a land of humans.

In Fleshscape, you play the role of leading members of a small, primitive nomadic tribe. You journey through the fleshlands seeking knowledge, resources, or simply looking for a relatively safe place to settle in.

Everything you use, wear, or wield comes from the corpse of another creature: you will need to hunt, kill and scavenge in order to survive!

Questions about the game? Visit the Rooster Games Community on Facebook!

The files now contain editable pdf sheets by Damián Fraustro Castillo!

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Reviews (6)
Discussions (19)
Customer avatar
Dakota D January 19, 2023 5:47 am UTC
PURCHASER
This game looks like the RPG-in-a-box Kingdom Death: Monster, but with more RPG and less box
Customer avatar
David W J January 27, 2021 1:21 am UTC
PURCHASER
I'm left wanting more and with your permission I could take time to create more details of the world. You are the only person to make a meatworld and if you made a larger book on the lore and other details I think people would love it. It would be a setting to go right along with the other unique settings like Veins of the Earth.
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Customer avatar
Alejo T October 19, 2023 9:15 am UTC
PURCHASER
You should check "The Chaos Gods come to Meatlandia", if you want more fleshed-themed RPG settings, it's pretty cool!
Customer avatar
David W J January 25, 2021 12:09 am UTC
PURCHASER
Please make a character sheet for roll20.
Customer avatar
Pete D March 29, 2020 6:56 pm UTC
PURCHASER
My god. If Death Metal/Grindcore was a sentient being capable of writing an RPG, this is what it would make. I love this setting. I love the rules (reminds me a lot of Blades in the Dark, which is another game I love... a fleshy, nightmare version of a Blades hack... sorta. There are things about these rules I like better. And man, that setting is OUT there. I have been gaming since 1984 or so and I have never seen anything like this except maybe on a Cannibal Corpse album cover. Love it!
Customer avatar
Steve A January 19, 2019 2:05 am UTC
PURCHASER
Would it be okay to make a podcast of Fleshscape???
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Customer avatar
Emanuele G January 28, 2019 12:20 am UTC
PUBLISHER
It would be more than okay! If you plan on doing so, please drop me an email at gallettoemanuele@gmail.com
Customer avatar
Cameron D October 12, 2018 7:11 pm UTC
PURCHASER
A strange and morbid game rolled up into a concise 8 pages that is an interesting and odd addition to a somewhat stale RPG market. Check out my full talk on Facebook at Comics, Clerics, & Controllers. https://www.facebook.com/northernmountainnerd/videos/175817696680991/
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Customer avatar
Emanuele G October 24, 2018 9:31 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Thank you for your review and video!
Customer avatar
Andrea "Harbrus" O September 08, 2018 3:50 pm UTC
PURCHASER
It is a beautiful small gem. Keep up the good work! :D
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Customer avatar
Emanuele G September 12, 2018 9:07 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Thank you!
Customer avatar
Stephan S April 03, 2018 7:29 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Awesome work! I am currently writing at an expansion! Really like the setting, you have a great imagination and a great taste for the weird and horrific!
Rules wise it also works really well, and could be easily adapted into a classic caveman or modern scavenger simulator - or someting cute like sapient mice!
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Customer avatar
Emanuele G April 09, 2018 6:38 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Thank you Stephan!
Customer avatar
Austin B February 25, 2018 4:15 am UTC
PURCHASER
Are you the same gentleman who did the Nightmare Below game? I've been trying to find more info on that particular game but have been coming up dry.
Reply
Customer avatar
Emanuele G March 03, 2018 3:42 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Indeed I am! You can find the latest news about it within this G+ group (the name changed to Far Below): https://plus.google.com/communities/103699189638074169459

However, I do have to tell you that the game is currently in full stop as I am working on something similar but with a setting and mood closer to IPs like Ico, Shadow of the Colossus and Made in Abyss. It’s called Grave of the Gods and will likely rely on the Blades in the Dark core engine, but I can’t really tell when it will be out!
Customer avatar
Chad B November 14, 2017 9:52 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Love this game! As a fan of Blades in the Dark and Apocalypse World, I love the simplified, efficient, player-facing system. I'm wondering though about the starting die pools, seems quite large for successes on a 4+.
I'm tempted to start pc's w 6 dots to distribute instead of 9. And take one off of all the Difficulties/Threat ratings so that 1 success is standard instead of easy.
Can I get a comment from the publisher on this topic? —How it might effect the game or what you experienced in playtesting? (I haven't been able to find any playtest reviews).
Reply
Customer avatar
Emanuele G November 16, 2017 3:37 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Hi Chad! As you have probably noticed already, an average difficulty of 2 means that, to have a 50/50 shot, you need to roll 4 dice. That's why you get 9 points: if you are balanced (3/3/3) you risk failing on average tasks. The game assumes you will hit all Survival triggers during each session, obtain gifts that increase your stats, seek help from tribespeople and craft equipment. The math is stacked against you if you don't burn resources, but once you do it becomes relatively easy. The Fleshlands require you to constantly give up something if you want to achieve your goals!

A change I've also been toying with during these months is to remove the "Spend 1 Survival to add 1 die" option in favor of "Spend 1 Survival to make all 6s you rolled explode (add an extra die for each 6 you rolled)". This makes it possible, with a bit of luck, to overcome situations that would have been impossible with the existing ruleset.

Hopefully this helped!
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Customer avatar
Chad B November 16, 2017 7:46 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Thank you for the insight! Funny I was wanting to lower the standard difficulty to one success so smaller dice pools were used... something closer to Blood Red Blossoms... then I found out you were the author of that game too! Very much looking forward to what you come out with next, I love both of these games!
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Customer avatar
Emanuele G November 18, 2017 9:46 am UTC
PUBLISHER
The world of RPGs is indeed quite small sometimes! :D
Reply
Customer avatar
Paolo P May 10, 2019 12:14 am UTC
PURCHASER
If you were to apply the exploding dice rule, could you end up rolling more than 10 dice or would you be limited to 10?
What if the die exploded into another 6? Would that 6 explode again?
Customer avatar
Griffin P November 09, 2017 7:38 pm UTC
PURCHASER
This is really excellent. It's like a caveman RPG if it was written by Cronenberg during his body horror phase. One question though: how do you calculate encumbrance?
Reply
Customer avatar
Emanuele G November 13, 2017 6:09 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
It is basically "gut feeling" based. That's why there are those four artworks: seeing what equipment you are carrying, you check which one resembles your current situation the most. GM has final say, but if you as a PC really want to carry those twelve carcasses to the camp... by all means, spend 2 survival and do so.
Also, "caveman RPG as if written by Cronenberg during his body horror phase" sounds killer and I'm gonna use it to describe the game from now on!
Customer avatar
Doga E September 27, 2017 10:22 am UTC
PURCHASER
This is such an evocative game that I had to pay actual money for it (even if it was only one lousy dollar), making this the first PWYW product I actually paid for. Good luck with your future endeavors, Mr. Galletto.
Reply
Customer avatar
Emanuele G October 01, 2017 10:57 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Thank you! Any support, big or small, is appreciated. Glad I managed to leave a good impression! Hopefully the game won’t disappoint at the table!
Customer avatar
Paolo P July 06, 2017 5:32 pm UTC
PURCHASER
One of my players wants to craft a weapon with the Poisoned quality, how would it work in combat? Would it damage enemies over time (much like a Flame weapon) or would it affect them in different ways?
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Customer avatar
Emanuele G July 07, 2017 11:22 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Well, the whole thing revolves around player and GM agreement, so what the quality does is up to the two of you. Some ideas: the quality might make it so that on a critical hit, the target's Armor is ignored. Or you could rule that it is always ignored (this one would be quite strong, maybe in exchange for some really rare material that must be found to craft it). Damage over time, as you suggested, is also feasible (but requires a bit of bookkeeping).
Hope it helps!
Customer avatar
April 26, 2017 8:42 pm UTC
PURCHASER
how can we tell which pdf is the updated one?
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Customer avatar
Emanuele G April 29, 2017 1:03 am UTC
PUBLISHER
There should only be one pdf. I'm gonna check it. In any case, the most recent one is the one where the equipment section specifies that weapons granting ++ or +++ must be wielded with two hands unless having the right property.
Customer avatar
Brandon P March 08, 2017 7:00 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I don't know why Hand, Head, Heart, Hobgoblin isn't on the bar of similar products...I want to hack it to use Fleshcape's rules.
Reply
Customer avatar
Emanuele G March 10, 2017 9:22 am UTC
PUBLISHER
I didn't know Hand-Head-Heart: Hobgoblin. It looks interesting.
Reply
Customer avatar
Brandon P March 10, 2017 4:21 pm UTC
PURCHASER
It has a similar design space, but is basically a D&D-a-like. I would love to see a version that ran closer to your system.
Reply
Customer avatar
Emanuele G March 12, 2017 10:43 am UTC
PUBLISHER
I see. In case you decide to hack it, feel free to use some of Fleshscape's mechanic: the only thing I ask in that case is to mention this product as inspiration within the document :)
Customer avatar
Brian K March 01, 2017 5:30 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Two questions and I may have more at a later time:

1. Do enemies actually roll dice at all? Or do they just instantly succeed or instantly do the listed force damage?

2. What about statistics for opposing humans? Do they work the same as monsters? Or do they have rules more akin to PC's

Sorry for being late, I recently found this.
Reply
Customer avatar
Emanuele G March 01, 2017 8:51 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Hi!
1. No. Only the player characters roll. The GM might still roll to determine uncertain outcomes that are independent from the PCs' actions. In a combat, the monster attacking is a consequence of the PC's failure; the monster does the fixed injury equal to Force, but the PC can roll to resist with their Muscle, thus reducing incoming injury.

2. Humans work exactly as monsters. On average, I'd say a human would have threat 2 or 3, force 3 or 4, health 10, and armor 0. Clearly, humans with better equipment will have higher values.

I hope this was helpful!
Reply
Customer avatar
Brian K March 01, 2017 11:43 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I see!
So when a PC fails to roll equal to or higher than the target's threat, the target hits them with the force damage and they must resist?
Reply
Customer avatar
Emanuele G March 02, 2017 12:57 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Precisely. Or the monster might do other stuff, like pushing them off a cliff, grabbing them, or disengaging to move towards an advantageous position. In general, when the PC fails the opponent "gains the upper hand" in a way determined by the GM. Of course, PCs can roll to resist these negative outcomes. The difficulty is generally equal to the monster's Threat level (unless you are resisting injury, in which case you are rolling against its Force and each success prevents 1 point of injury).
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Product Information
Silver seller
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8
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FS01
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File Last Updated:
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This title was added to our catalog on February 21, 2017.