#vermis

[vintagerpg]

Vermis I (2023) is a narrative art book by @Plastiboo. It’s a gorgeous and darkly layered homage to a variety of influences, new and old — Souls games, old videogames like Shadowgate, more recent ones like Shadow of the Colossus, perhaps Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, perhaps Warhammer. There are many possibilities. And yet it also stands as very much its own thing, a world unto itself. The book’s central question “Which flesh is your flesh?” goes a long way in establishing the sorts of horrors we’ll find on our journey.

There are two things that really make Vermis come to a diseased sort of life. The first is the decision to arrange the book as if it were a strategy guide for a videogame that doesn’t exist. This allows for the introduction of little icons and hints at mechanical systems without committing to building them, which is an enticement to brains like mine to figure out how they MIGHT work. And by providing level maps and strats for boss fights and profiles of magic items, I wind up playing the game on a meta level, reflexively, through the act of reading. This sensation is strange and unique and made for one of the most memorable book-experiences I’ve had in a long time.

The other thing is the texture of the art, the way everything is buried under pixelation, cathode grain, moire ripples and other distortions. It unifies all the book’s visuals in a sort of murkiness that add an almost painful sense of mystery and danger and inscrutability to the narrative.

Vermis is a dark masterpiece of creeping dread, and anyone who tells you it isn’t a game to be played isn’t to be trusted.

[c0simo9]

Retro RPG style dark fantasy armor

[moonlightfaust]

Great mail day: Plastiboo's VERMIS II: MIST & MIRRORS via Hollow Press. Incredible art and worldbuilding as always.

[haveyouplayedthisttrpg]

Have you played VERMIS ?

By Plastiboo

"A corpse kneels beside a well. Mesmerised by the reflection of its living flesh: it wonders what could have been done and could have been. And for as long as the moon shines, the feeble illusion will prevail."

"A light sparks in the dark. Which flesh is your flesh?"

'Vermis I' is the first of an artbook series by the artist Plastiboo. A pure act of world-building inspired by old dungeon crawler games. It could be considered an official guide of a game that doesn't exist, since it's not a game at all!

Does it count as a TTRPG? Is the act of reading play? What is a game guide if there is no game? Vermis is a project in conversation with these questions, and its answers are delightfully obtuse and characterful.

"A feeble illusion shatters in silence. The void swaddles you gently, welcoming you back; a life has been lived and the Dream is no longer."

"The old bones now slumber, waiting for the moon to shine again."

[oooocleo]

my copy of vermis arrived!! immediately shot to the top of coolest things i own list..

[beastinthecave]

Tried drawing the dung eater in a retro inspired artstyle

[fght-ff-yr-dmns]

Vermis I - Lost Dungeons and Forbidden Woods by Plastiboo

I've finally ordered my copy. There's something so eerily inviting about this image.

[lauferisms]

The Bizarre World of Fake Video Games

[jojotier]

become rat man.

[aaronsrpgs]

A new episode of RTFM! @maxwellander and I talk Vermis, which is not an RPG, is it? Is it an art book? What does it mean to descend from your influences? And more more more.

This episode is brought to you by The Lost Bay RPG, now on Kickstarter!

[agentgrange]

I had a pretty rad experience adapting Plastiboo's Vermis into a TTRPG but using a modified version of Chorogaiden's ruleset. My players were absolutely smitten, completely in love with the environment and world building. It was more than enough to carry the game and inspire my players to stay engaged. Adapting characters like the Frog Knight into NPCs was extremely easy and telling the story was as fun for me as it was for my players to interact with.

I got about halfway through the first book, just past the Silver Swamps. They're already haunted by what they've experienced, so I'm m pretty eager to finish it and see how the players handle it. Then I'd love to find some way to adapt Vermis 2: Mists and Mirrors with some greater artistic liberties.

If you haven't, I really really recommend checking out the Hollow Press page for each book. Even if you never adapt them they're easily the most beautiful and some of the best written visual novels I've ever owned.

[snertlet]

Spent the morning messing around with Earthbound's soundfont to make a creepy crypt sort of bit of music inspired by @plastiboo's Vermis

[iona-shield-of-emeria]

My Copy of Vermis II Came!!!

[chimneysweepghost]

my copy of Vermis II by @plastiboo arrived, plus a print, and it is STUNNING

[strixludica]

I recently finished reading the Vermis manual.

A lot of people who read it seem mostly concerned with he implied mechanics of the fictional videogame, which is a cool and interesting discussion, bit I think the themes are an even deeper well to explore.

I think it's quite curious how Good and Evil are treated as both opposed metaphysical forces of light and dark AND emergent human behaviours.

I mean, the flavour text for the Good Flesh talks about striving to keep hope going in the face of opposition and disappointment, while the flavour text for the Evil Flesh isn't some villain monologue, just a sort of resigned justification about how Darkness is invincible and we're all doomed anyway, so You might as well be evil.

Even with the character classes, there are some scary, messed up people in there, but the only one that is completely 100% evil isn't the dark sorcerer that literally weaves nightmares out of shadow, it's the little gremlin who consistently does not give a crap about other people.

And don't even get me started about the fact that the Moon is both the force that allows your living corpse to dream of alternate pasts and makes it confront the Fog Spirit in the swamp. Is the Moon a trickster? A mercurial force of both good and evil whose only consistent trait is dealing with illusions? Or is it maybe a guide for the lost and the dead that uses visions and dreams to shepherd them through the Darkness?

And if so, why is it showing the dreaming corpse alternate pasts? Is it mere passing generosity, or is there a grander purpose behind these visions? Something it must figure out? Something that might get be done to heal this world sickened by greed and neglect?

[stringlessworms]

Hammerhead worm/Velvet worm inspired dragon