If you’re like me, then you have nightmares about board game nights. They always mean sitting around a bunch of family members you don’t particularly like or care about, listening to backwards-ass political opinions that were obviously cultivated on a Missouri dairy farm in the ’60s, and then being shamed every time you open your mouth to call someone on it. But maybe none of that would’ve ever happened if I got to play Faith No More’s tabletop RPG, called The Real Thing.
The game’s Kickstarter page offered the following description:
“The Real Thing is a self-contained, story-driven, pen-and-paper [TTRPG] inspired by the music of Faith No More. Specifically, we have drawn significant story elements and inspiration from Faith No More’s album from 1989 entitled The Real Thing. It was groundbreaking at the time and remains one of the best albums ever created, in our humble opinions. More to the point, however, is the fact that many of the songs revolve around similar themes and ideas, making it a perfect album around which to craft a concept RPG.
“As fans of Faith No More and their music, we have poured our whole hearts into this project. We have received official backing from the band to use their material and to present our interpretations of their content and themes in this first-ever Faith No More role-playing game. We couldn’t be more excited!
“While the concept for the story is grounded in the music and words from the album of the same name, it also pulls in themes and other elements from other Faith No More titles. Song titles and lyrics from every Faith No More album are included judiciously as a gesture of fandom and respect for one of our favorite artists.
“Our plan is for this to be the first of a five-part series. The subsequent releases will follow the themes from Angeldust, King for a Day Fool for a Lifetime, Album of the Year, and Sol Invictus, in that order. We anticipate, each of these zines expanding on the stories and characters presented in The Real Thing.”
You can check out the game itself and preorder it via the game’s Kickstarter.