Review of Voidling Bound

 

Voidling Bound is a 3D shooter action game that is a wonderful excuse for collecting alien animals, evolving them to unlock traits, and breeding them for the best stats. It is a lot of fun and has a surprising amount of depth. This is an excellent game with some minor caveats. 

The shooting combat is good and feels satisfying. The levels change up their objectives so their layouts don't feel too repetitive, but there is repetition as to the mission objectives and some of the level design.  For example, in one case you will be fighting off waves of enemies to survive in a time limit, and the next side mission will require you to occupy three independent spaces in any order you choose while fighting off more waves of goons.

Voidling Bound is really pretty

At endgame you can sink a lot more time into the roguelike final dungeon, breed your Voidlings (there are NINE species) to achieve genetic apotheosis (there are SIXTEEN unique variants per species), make gene-spliced mega-monsters to break the game over your knee, unlock all the combat traits (Enhancements) of a particular species, and explore for gold eggs/collectables that you missed in previous levels. And there is one more endgame collecting thing I'm not going to go into detail about.

Complete Glick Evolution Tree, one of Nine different species

This is one of those games I want and will buy additional DLC for. Also, the music is good and matches level themes quite well. 

A buddy and I have been playing Voidling Bound independently and here is how we have played the game.  

My buddy found a Golden Kwipeck (Think a Battle-Chicken) from a Gold Egg that had a trait that allows him to get new egg drops from any enemy death at a rate of 3%. He spliced that trait into a New Improved Golden Chicken (Kwipeck) with additional traits so that he could farm resources like mutagens necessary to evolve more Voidlings. Also, he made the spliced Golden Chicken inflict Burn on enemies, and then spliced another trait onto it to heal itself anytime an enemy takes burn damage.

These traits were found from different Voidling evolutionary trees and combined with the Splicing machine.

A Spliced Kwipeck

I followed a different route. I spliced together a Kwipeck that was a circle-strafing dodge tank. I combined the traits that allows a Voidling to move at their max speed while shooting, along with features that gave the Kwipeck the ability to spew out Lightning so that I could cut down robots, who are weak to lightning, at speed. Also, I added a Triple Jump effect to my Lightning Kwipeck and a Glick (think Lizard-Dogs) Trait that gave my Lightning Chicken armor when he landed on the ground.

You can also: have a lighting cat that shoot out homing missiles, a necromancer Gizmo-looking guy that has a damaging ring of bones, a crocodile-dog throw no-shit black holes, a turtle-gorilla that sprays down a carpet of fungus to poison enemies, and a hovering metroid-like Voidling send enemies floating into the air to then punish them with gravity. The list goes on.

A Spliced Glick

Now some critiques.  I’ve mentioned there is some repetition in mission design in the combat arenas with waves of enemies.  Also, the main quest is relatively short (about 15 hours), but it ends on a satisfying note and that unlocks the roguelike endgame dungeon to conquer.  

The Voidling management system could use some quality-of-life features though. For example, being able to lock a Voidling to prevent accidently releasing them into the wild would be very useful.  Also, you should be able to favorite a Voidling and name each Sanctuary box you have for organizational purposes when you start heavily breeding your pets. 

A Spliced cryo focused Glick built for survival

I'm pretty happy with Voidling Bound and I want to see DLC. 

Voidling Bound is $25 and is available on Steam. 

Choir of Flesh, Useful Tables 3

 

By the incredible Penny Melgarejo

In the supernaturally tainted millennium of 1000 AD of the game Choir of Flesh, players desperately seek resources to build up a base to survive the religious post-Apocalypse for just one more day.  Seeking out Incursions, a high-risk/high-reward area of resources, is one such action that can be undertaken.  Incursions are unlocked and found when 10 Rumors are gathered. 

Now, what are Rumors?  Rumors are a metacurrency in the main game loop that allows the Unbroken (player character) to find an Incursion during The Endless Travail exploration phase, once 10 Rumors are accrued. Rumors are defined on page 110 of the Choir of Flesh book. In the core book Rumors are abstracted and not detailed. My objective is to describe 30 Rumors in a way that are congruent with the CoF world.   

Example of Pareidolia. “Face on Mars” by NASA’s Viking 1 orbiter, 1976 (left) and Mars Global Surveyor, 2001 (right).

In a number of entries, I invoke the idea of pareidolia, or seeing patterns in random images, as a driver for the player to write in what landmark for an Incursion they have found.  Alternatively, one could use the Descriptive Rumors Table as a list of spooky and supernaturally tainted environments for other mediaeval horror games. Special thanks to Splizwarf and Spookum on the Night at the Opera discord for discussion on the Acquiring Rumors Table.

Using the Descriptive Rumors Table

The entries on the Descriptive Rumors Table all describe an event or situation that directs the Unbroken towards the Incursion.  I suggest rolling once after gathering 10 Rumors to find what event leads your character towards the Incursion. Alternatively, one could roll twice upon accruing 10 Rumors and synthesizing both Descriptive Rumors entries into one roleplaying experience. 

For example, I rolled entries number 11 and 14 on the table.  I’ve decided to use the entries sequentially. My Unbroken, Malik the survivor who was once a healer, scans the skies upon hearing a grotesque croaking.  He sees a flock of birds, remade by the Flesh with bony exoskeletons, flying in a “v” over a nearby hill (entry 14). I rule that a small pot carried in one of the Flesh bird’s claws falls to the ground, shattering into a thousand shards.  The pointed shards of shattered pottery glow with a fierce red phosphorescence even in the daylight, creating a directional path (entry 11) that lead to the Incursion.     

Using the Acquiring Rumors Table with the Descriptive Rumors Table

Alternatively, you may want to have the information from the Rumor conveyed to your character in a method other than direct experience.  This is where the Acquiring Rumors Table comes in. Say Malik the once healer rolls a 1 on the Acquiring Rumors Table.  This prompts a roll a 04 on the Survivor table.  Malik encounters The Story Trader, and in a conversation, they convey to Malik the story of the Flesh-birds dropping a pot that created phosphorescent shards that lead to a supernatural Incursion. Using the Acquiring Rumors Table is an optional step as it adds complication. 

Acquiring Rumors Table [Optional] 1d6

1) You find the Rumor through conversation with a Survivor.  Roll on the Survivor table in the core book on page 106 to determine whom you are chatting with.

2) You directly encounter the Rumor.

3) You had a vison of the Rumor. This may be a holy vision, a hallucination after a bout of drinking, a waking dream while travelling, or something else.

4) You hear a description of the Rumor in a song.

5) You hear the description of the Rumor from an animal speaking to you directly or by overhearing two animals in conversation. 

6) You read a description of the Rumor in a book, on a scrap of parchment or graffiti on a wall. 

By the incredible Penny Melgarejo

Descriptive Rumors Table 1d30

1) A crude map has been scratched on the side of a wall in blood. Images of treasure and danger are salient.

2) Tens of mandrake-shaped flesh-roots stand outside their holes, like soldiers standing at attention, flanking a path that leads off to somewhere deviating from the main road. 

3) A bone harp with tendon strings growing from the ribcage of a violated knight vibrate musically as you move in the direction of the Incursion. 

4) Bloodstained pages from a Purifier’s journal depict a center of Divine corruption. 

5) Steaming blood from fresh corpses flows upstream and climbs walls in crimson rivulets in the direction of warping supernatural influences.

6) Etheric paeans of joy in cherubic voices rise in volume and clarity as you move in the direction of the Choir’s influence. 

7) Shattered steel and jagged shards of armor form the unmistakable outline of a finger pointing into the wilderness. 

8) Corpses bloated from eating infested grain have been entangled into one another, forming a line to another part of the corrupted land. 

9) Bulbous black flies gather in a buzzing cloud here, lazily leading you to a direction stinking of raw meat. 

10) A faceless mound of flesh shudders and moans, becoming increasingly red and inflamed as you move in the direction of further corruption. 

11) Hundreds of pointed shards of shattered pottery glow with a fierce red phosphorescence even in the daylight, creating a directional path. 

12) A white bandage flaps in the wind, caught on a fence. The dried blood inside has coagulated into the shape of a nearby landmark. 

13) A blackened body, stiff with rigor mortis hangs from a crude gibbet.  Wind whistles, but the body does not turn from pointing a rotting arm firmly in one direction. 

14) A flock of birds, remade by the Flesh with bony exoskeletons and making wet gurgling noises, fly in a “v” pointing the way over a nearby hill. 

15) Crimson moss on rocks and walls grow in images of the Cross, the shaft of each pointing further down the road. 

16) A smeared trail of old black blood, as if left by a dying Titan, crosses hill and dale, leading to parts unknown.

17) A path of human teeth colored white, grey, or yellow extends as if scattered deliberately towards some hidden meeting place. 

18) A field of bones stand in the muddy ground: femurs, curving ribs and multiple humeri. Each is tilted in the same direction as if brushed by a giant’s hand. 

19) Broken wagons and once useful furniture have been maniacally chopped to pieces but there is a noticeable image in the pattern of the wreckage, that of a local landmark. 

20) Smoke floats gaily towards a nearby forest from an immolated forge with stones that will not stop burning. 

21) A pile of corpses is covered with black, fuzzy toadstools. The fungus continues to grow in a line in the Earth, describing a meandering path that winds out of sight. 

22) A cloud of parchment scraps, each inked with a musical note, billows over the road; the chill wind clearly directing it to a final destination. 

23) A red haze fills the air, emanating from a nearby exploded tannery. It grows dense and cloying as if herding wanderers like a sheepdog towards a desired place. 

24) A swarm of locusts, bleached white against the ground, hum with the sound of a Holy hymn. They hop in unison, deliberately migrating towards an unnatural location.

25) Crumbling stonework of a castle forms unsettling symbols on the ground. Nonetheless, the image of a nearby landmark is strikingly clear in the decaying stone. 

26) Swamp reeds rustle and whisper incoherent snatches of conversation. The chatter of voices begins to articulate secret sins of loved ones as an unholy destination is approached. 

27) The carcass of a hound lies silently in the road, having reached its final rest. An ossified skeletal arm juts from the dog’s mouth, pointing forlornly but nonetheless with purpose.

28) Disembodied maniac laughter and moans are heard on the wind.  They rise to a terrible crescendo, then drop into an eerie expectant silence when travelling a particular direction.

29) The rays of the sun turn black as pitch and illuminate a monochrome outline of the land, when wanderers step towards a destined lair. 

30) Blood seeps from thornbushes wrapped around trees.  The density of blood speckled thornbushes begins to grow in every direction, save one. 

Choir of Flesh, Useful Tables 2

 

By the incredible Penny Melgarejo 

History is a wonderful sandbox to play in and examine for games.  In Choir of Flesh, the Twin Apocalypses affect everyone worldwide in the Year of Our Lord 1000.  On page 24 there is a d10 table to determine your Unbroken’s former occupation before the supernatural incursion occurred. This former occupation table includes a description of your previous profession, list of skills available, and series of troubles that the character could be afflicted with.  

I wanted to expand this table with 20 entries from cultures surrounding the Mediterranean that could all feasibly have arrived in France in the year 1001 AD.  I have only included a description of these character’s backgrounds; their skills and troubles are left as an exercise for the player of Choir of Flesh to determine.  

In addition, these 20 character backgrounds could also describe interesting NPCs an Unbroken could find as a Notable Citizen as described on page 37 in the core book.  Some work to determine each character’s Settlement Benefit and Potential Problem is required however.  I heavily relied on the magazine Strategy and Tactics Quarterly Issue 33 Armies of the Dark Ages for historical inspiration for these character backgrounds; and I read a scattering of internet sources including Wikipedia when further development was required. 

1d20 Table for Character Backgrounds

1) Norman Holy Land Pilgrim turned Mercenary – In 999 AD, Norman pilgrims returning from the Holy Land stayed in Salerno, Italy and were attacked by and then repulsed Muslim raiders. You are one of the survivors of that encounter, and came to France to sell their sword to the highest bidder. Your faith is forefront in your mind.

2) Lombard Revolutionary Firebrand – The Lombard Revolt against the Byzantine governor in Italy took place from 1009 to 1018. In 1000 you are a fierce patriot of your people and have come to France to rally support and find resources and men for the coming conflict.

3) Administrator of the Emirate of Sicily – The Emirate of Sicily (831–1091) was an Islamic state based in Palermo (Sicily). A hardworking Muslim member of the state overseeing the jizya tax system and other bureaucratic endeavors, you were forced to land in France in 1000 due to a naval travel accident.

4) Vatican Assassin – Secretly sanctioned by a Cardinal, you are the epitome of a religious zealot; a killer who has been forgiven a priori for the deeds you must undertake to protect Mother Church. This idea is just straight fiction from the movies Elizabeth (1998) and Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001).

5) Danish Raider – A raider of Anglo-Saxon England prior to the turn of the century (1000 AD), you’ve seen war and taken from it while on your longship. You’ve stopped to lick your wounds and count your plunder in France.

6) Norse Ulfheonar – A berserker assault warrior who draws strength from the wolf skin he wears, you harbor no religious fear for the Songs of the Choir, nor the creeping mutation of the Flesh. No, these are the end time prophesized by your people, and you are here for them. By Odin and the Wolves, it is better to die in battle and go to Valhalla than to live sniveling in the dirt behind wooden walls!

The battle of Wadi al-Khazandar, 1299. depicting Mongol archers and Mamluk cavalry; 14th-century illustration from a manuscript of the History of the Tatars. Unknown Author

7) Berber Fighter – Across the strait of Gibraltar, you were raised as a proud Berber tribesman, comfortable in the saddle as well as on foot in harsh desert environments.  Seeking a better opportunity for your clan and family you joined the Fatimid Caliphate as a soldier, one of many in the core of their army. Hearing monstrous and unholy tales about post-apocalyptic France, you were part of a regiment to push back the horrors, until your unit was shattered by supernatural forces.  Now you are alone, and will carve your way to survival through the skill of your spear-arm.

8) Christian Mercenary of the Fatimid Caliphate – Hailing from the Levant, you stand with one foot firmly in two worlds.  Of a mixed heritage, you were raised devoutly Christian and have seen those places of pilgrimage.  Puissant at arms, you have sold your sword to the Fatimid Caliphate, and they have paid you well.  On a mission to the Iberian Peninsula, you have found yourself in France in the midst of the apocalypses, much to your regret.

9) Mamluk Logistics Officer – Literate and intelligent, you occupied an honored position in the Fatimid Caliphate yet still had the status of a slave.  When the armies marched, you joined them, serving in the background as a quartermaster of supplies and weapons. What the Franks were up to that spawned Twin Apocalypses, you will never understand. But what you do know is how to survive, and make a settlement thrive, even under deprived conditions.

10) Egyptian Coptic Christian Accountant – A Coptic Christian, born as an Egyptian into the Fatimid Caliphate, you have worked hand and glove with the Muslim government to see that your merchant patron’s taxes are paid appropriately and on time.  Travel to the strange land of the Franks for trading opportunities landed you alone and adrift into the existential madness that is the Twin Apocalypses of the Choir and the Flesh.

11) Byzantine Veteran Under Emperor Basil II – You were lucky some say. Other say you are blessed; as you have survived and fought in the civil wars of Byzantium, in the war against Bulgaria and as a campaigner against the Fatimids.  Blood, mud, and the screams of the dying are your food and drink as you have cut a merciless swath through men and horses alike. Now however, you question your lack of faith in man and gods as a crack razed the sky, and the Song of the Choir radiated from the East. You are here now, in France, seeking the source of the madness, or perhaps resolution and redemption for your own dead soul.

12) Anglo-Saxon Silver Miner and Thief – Silver. It goes to the Danegeld to entice the Vikings to leave England.  But they always want more.  Angered that your back-breaking sweat in the mines only goes to enrich someone else, you organized a theft and escaped with some of your fellows from England and made it to the coast of France with silver ingots.  Then the Twin Apocalypses hit, scattering everyone. Was that a sign from the divine about your crimes? That question squirms in your gut late at night when you cannot find a cleric or mug of ale to assuage your guilt. 

13) French Low-Born Maniac – Once the low-born soldier of one of the grasping French castellans (lord of a castle) in the south of France, you prosecuted violence against church property, clerics and the poor at the behest of your lord. And you loved it.  The Council of Charroux in 989 and the Pax Dei (Peace of God) movement was established in reaction to your vicious predations but you laughed, certain that the Apocalypse would come at the turn of millennia and wipe all morality clean and establish a new social order.  Yours.  To an extent, you were right. 

14) Apocalyptic Tongued Cleric – Struck down, robbed and left for dead while traveling unarmed by a local constabulary; your life changed to one preaching fire and brimstone and revenge for social plights.  Now an eager amateur at wielding any piece of metal you can get your hands on, you preached about the overthrow of the nobles, the castellans and the social order in a wave of divine vengeance to anyone who would hear.  Much to your surprise, you were right. But you have the grit and the vision to make this new world a better one. 

15) Procurer of Ancient Manuscripts – One part ruins explorer, one part linguist, and one part thief; you filled the desire of the court of Theophanu Skleraina in the emerging German Empire for tomes in Latin and Greek on engineering, law and medicine.  It paid well, exercised your many talents, and took you across Italy and France in exciting adventures for moldering old folios and transcriptions.  Then the Twin Apocalypses hit and you wonder if some of the more curious manuscripts you have trafficked hold the key to survival for you and the people you have thrown in your lot with. 

16) Scottish Border Raider of England – Purely for profit or to solidify royal Scottish power, you are a Celtic raider with much blood-soaked experience in the English Northumbria and Galloway lands.  Used to planning ambushes, rallying peasant men to fight in your warband, absconding with useful livestock, and immolating recalcitrant villages; you are none the less a devout man, seeing no contradiction between your actions and your faith. That is why when you received instruction from the Scottish Church to make a journey far south to France to investigate a holy vision, you obeyed without hesitation.  You arrived on the mainland of Europe just in time for the Twin Apocalypses to erupt. 

17) Grasping Burgundian Noble– Duke Henry I of Burgandy is weak and dying and you will reap the spoils of your ambition. Distantly related to the Carolingian Dynasty, you are filled with pride over your heritage and honed your sword arm fighting off enemies as diverse as the Duke of Francia and Saracen raiders.  Your plans for placing the ducal coronet upon your brow have been turned to ash with the coming of the Choir and the Flesh; but it is a bright shining ambition you cling to with a death-grip. You must. 

Varangian Runestone U 153. Picture by I, Berig, CC BY 2.5 

18) Varangian Guard- A member of the Byzantine military elite, you are a Rus mercenary who fights for the Basileus (Emperor) with a mighty Scandinavian two-handed battle axe and sword as a sidearm. Campaigning against pirates from the Aegean to the Tyrrhenian Sea, you excelled at naval warfare until an unlucky engagement landed you a slave of your opponents.  Your recent conversion as an Orthodox Christian kept your spirits up as you suffered in the galley of a ship.  That was until the shipwreck that left you off the southern coast of France in a new world twisted by the Choir and the Flesh. 

19) Magyar Merchant and Nomad- A middle aged man now, you spent your youth as a nomadic horse archer and sometimes hit and run raider.  Capitalizing on the goods you captured by your military endeavors, you turned to safer mercantile activities as you grew wiser; interacting with Jewish, Italian and Byzantine traders to exchange silks and wool. Indifferent to religion, you viewed your fellow Magyars adopting Christianity in the Kingdom of Hungary with some concern. Concern that appears to be validated as the sky ruptured at the new millennium, heralding the advent of the Choir and the Flesh. 

20) Arabic Mathematician and Numerologist- A fierce zealot of the adoption of the Hindu-Arabic positional numeral system (numbers 0-9), you fled the Levant due to your obstinate nature and borderline heretical ideas. Finding a place in the Frankish court of Theophanu and Otto II, you taught decimals, mathematics and astrology.  You began seeing strange signs in the numbers of the conjunction of the spheres prior to the millennium, and following your intuition, you quietly packed your bags and traveled to France, where the Twin Apocalypses awaited you with welcoming arms. 

Additional Thoughts

Alex T, author of Choir of Flesh, has a created a playlist of music inspirational for the game.