Daniel (@dungeondive) reviews Choir of Flesh from Black Oath Entertainment, positioning it as the ideal “next next step” in solo RPG complexity after Machine Gods. Set in a dark, religious body-horror apocalypse reminiscent of Blasphemous, the game wraps survival mechanics around a settlement-building core. Players manage a home base—gathering exotic food, metals, stone, and water to construct buildings and sustain a population—while venturing into a node-mapped world to find clues that unlock expeditions.
Those expeditions are the centrepiece: 3x3 grid dungeon crawls drawn from a D100 table of 100 unique points of interest (cannibal’s kitchen, castle in the trees, abandoned scriptorium), each with self-contained encounters. Combat plays out on a 5x5 tactical grid where facing matters and meeples suffice for miniatures. Character creation offers six stats, multiple skills, proficiencies, feats, and drawbacks. A dual-power system—drawing abilities from the Choir (divine) or the Flesh (demonic)—creates a tug-of-war on your humanity stat. Daniel praises Alex T’s dynamic target number system, the reusable design patterns carried across Black Oath titles, and the downloadable player aids that ease the crunch. Strong recommendation for horror-loving solo RPG players ready for something meatier.
Does body horror enhance or limit your enjoyment of a solo RPG’s world?