THIS MACHINE HAS MEAT IN IT
A downloadable TTRPG
A game for those of us who really hate our jobs
You're sitting alone in your cubicle. You've just finished ten straight hours of data entry. Your only plans for the evening are to go home to your shoebox apartment, struggle to eat a meal, and collapse into bed to do it all again tomorrow.
But as you pack your notepad into your bag, you can't help but see the stalking thing that hovers behind the plastic Ficus at the corner by the regional sales manager's office.
You can't help but hear as its chittering mandibles clatter together in an pale and animalistic imitation of joy. Its beady, narrow eyes are fixated on Jeff, hunched over at his desk.
You can't help but smell the foetid reek of its saliva as it slips past its open lips and lingers momentarily, suspended in the air like a rotten snowflake, before spilling to the floor and soaking into the threadbare carpet.
Just a hallucination, I guess? Just a trick of the light. Maybe been working to hard, yeah? Maybe... Maybe.
* * *
Two parts cosmic horror, one part black comedy, all wrapped up in a 19XXs style employee brochure.
Join together with a team of other awakened employees, and plumb the depths of the nightmare prison that is your workplace, in search of the beating hellish heart of the beast that eats your time. Fight colleagues, bosses, and otherworldly horrors on your journey up the corporate ladder in search of much better work/life balance.
Seek out clues, piece together secrets, and fight your way to, eventually, killing your job.
* * *
"This Machine Has Meat In It by @TheMythBastard feels like a cross between classic Paranoia and The Silt Verses. The layout brilliantly adds to the dark comedy cosmic horror corporate dystopian feel of the game." - @RuffleJax
Status | Released |
Category | Physical game |
Rating | Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars (3 total ratings) |
Author | Bastard Crew |
Genre | Role Playing |
Tags | Comedy, cosmic, Dice, Horror, paranoia, silt, Tabletop, verses |
Average session | A few hours |
Languages | English |
Multiplayer | Local multiplayer |
Purchase
In order to download this TTRPG you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $8.70 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
- The Awards 2023Nov 18, 2023
- Some Recent ThoughtsOct 16, 2023
- State of PlayApr 15, 2023
- Another UpdateApr 07, 2023
- Back At It AgainMar 30, 2023
- Behold, an adventure!Mar 29, 2023
- Version 2 LaunchMay 08, 2022
Comments
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Hi.
I have several doubts with the rules, would it be possible for you to answer them, please?
They seem pbtaesque in their nature, does the Manager ever roll? If so, how is it done? which are the rules/mechaniques covering the rolling for targets and enemies? in several places it is stated the some of the rolls made by targets/enemies are modified with bonuses or penalties (+1 if they know some bits of employees ID and -1 if employees happen to discover one of target's secret) but no more details are provided. I guess moves are only intended for employees and since some of them cover the back and forth of the interaction between PCs and NPCs, what are the NPCs' KPIs for? Are there other overlying mechanics besides moves? In the text some advice is given when something a PCs wants to do doesn't fall under the scope of moves: try to fit in to one of the moves or roll. Should that roll follow the scheme of critical/success/partial/failure or proceed according some other aproach? Moreover, in one of the pages it is stated that basic mechanics is 2d6+kpi vs a difficulty set by the Manager. Is that still valid? it seems to contradict the moves.
I know I have too many questions, it would be great if you could at least take a look at them and provide some insight (still below 5, no worries).
Hi Davrivas,
Thank you for your questions -- the project was developed in bits and pieces over a long period of time, so there's still a bunch of old stuff in there that doesn't mesh with the final version of the rules (which I've somehow managed to miss).
To answer your questions:Again, thanks for the questions (they help a lot to address inconsistencies and stuff I've not picked up on). If you have any more, let me know.
All the best,
Dave
Thanks a lot for your quick response Dave.
My personal take on it is that NPCs' KPIs should be removed, since they could mislead readers, but I see your point. If I wanted to keep some value as an indicator of their abilities I would go for a unique value, no need of symmetry, something like ORI (occupational risk index, pun intended) with just one number to reflect the danger of the threat and the severity of consequences when dealing with them . Everything else included in the description is ok and enough. Maybe highlighting some specific reactions Manager can access to when Employees deal with those specific members of the staff could flesh them out and make them unique. But, all of this could go far from your core mechanics.
Thanks for your thoughtful response!
I think that the “Occupational Risk Index”, and other changes, would fit much better. I’ll try and fold something similar into future updates.
Thanks again, and I hope you otherwise enjoyed the game!
All the best,
Dave
Yep, I am going to test the game in the following weeks, I will tell you how it went!
Oh lord, corporate design used for RPGs. Is the font Helvetica? (This is great btw)
It is! Great catch — it’s Helvetica Neue. Thanks for letting us know you enjoyed!
To be fair, if you showed me a clean humanist sans serif on a pure colour background with simple graphics I'd go for Helvetica basically 100% of the time xD