THE BONES

• 2 – 5 players (more with additional decks)
• Create and modify your character using 6 suits of body parts (eyes, torsos, hands, limbs, legs, masks)
• Interpret card text and images to define PCs and their capabilities
• Simple, streamlined d6-pool mechanics
• Designed for one-shots and campaign play
• Created by Strega van den Berg with system design by Michael Mars and additional writing by Tessa Winters; edited by Ashley Kronebusch, Ian Long, and Walton Wood; published by Bogfolk

THE BUZZ

Beautiful!!!!!!
Xiu Xiu

What if Silent Hill grew into a sprawling metropolis and its denizens were stuck in thankless jobs until they choose to join weird revolutionary factions? ... A rabbit hole dive into a tarot reading goney wrong.
Evlyn Moreau

THE MEAT

Lichoma is an explicitly political RPG in a dystopian setting defined by ecological collapse, social strife, and body-based economics and technology. PCs carry out missions for and against the various factions and controlling Companies. They’re rewarded with new body parts that players can use to modify their characters.

Although based on their cards, characepts and abilities are otherwise freeform and interpretive, not bound hard and fast by classes or mechanics. In a world where flesh is endlessly mutable, characters can be and do whatever the cards and background inspire in the player.

This creative aspect is complemented by an intuitive, streamlined system. The core rules fit on a single card and include fast procedures for non-combat Challenges and violent Conflicts that can move seamlessly from one-on-one matchups to massive brawls. Additional, optional rules allow groups to add more depth and nuance to fit their table’s preferred play style.

Resources

• Meatsack Spawner: a character generator

Actual Plays & Interviews

• Watch Walt and Ashley play Lichoma on Plus One Exp
• Listen to Walt run the cast of The Rolled Standard through Pieces of Eden.
  1. The Meat Sweats
  2. The Good Word
  3. A Casual Meating
  4. Substance Abuse
  5. From Pimp to Prophet
  6. Gunfire in Elysium
• Listen to Strega and Michael talk to the cast of Geek's Cant about Lichoma.

Third Party License

You may publish and distribute content for Lichoma—for free or for profit—and indicate compatibility on the product and at points of sale provided you adhere to the following terms:

1. Licensed content may not victimize, encourage hatred or violence against, discriminate against, or in any other way disparage or attack any individual or social group on the basis of descent, sex, gender, orientation, faith, or disability.

   Note: Lichoma is grimdark meatpunk. Characters are not heroes. None of the factions are the good guys. This is a game about survival in dire circumstances, making choices based on scarce resources, and suffering through the consequences. It’s a tool for critiquing and safely engaging with difficult realities; the Wen’s fascism is not a model to valorize or emulate.

2. You may not reproduce or translate text or images from any official Lichoma products or from other creators’ third-party licensed products without explicit permission to do so. You may freely paraphrase the rules text and make reference to setting elements like the Wen, faction names and locations, and other fictional entities.
3. You may not use the Lichoma or Bogfolk official logos, and you may not, in any other way, indicate that your product is affiliated with Bogfolk or Strega Wolf van den Berg.
4. Somewhere in your product and on any digital platform used for sale or distribution, you must include the following text:

   “[Product name] is an independent production by [your name] and is not affiliated with Bogfolk. It is published under the Lichoma third-party license. Lichoma is ©2023 Strega Wolf van den Berg. All authors retain rights to reproduce, distribute, and revise their own works.”

5. If we find that any third-party Lichoma content violates any of the above conditions, we reserve the right to have that content removed from storefronts, social media, and any other platform on which it’s hosted or distributed.
6. You may freely use the "Compatible with Lichoma” logo:
   • As a PNG
     

     

     
   • As an SVG
     

     

     
7. Neither Bogfolk nor Strega Wolf van den Berg take any responsibility for legal claims brought against you or your product by outside parties.
8. Legal claims, actions and other disputes relating to this license will be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of the Netherlands and will be settled in the Dutch legal system.

Style Sheet

Style sheets are traditionally internal guides used by editors and publishers to ensure consistency within a body of work. The Bogfolk have decided to release the expanded Lichoma style sheet as a reference for designers who are making content under the third-party license. This is not a binding document; for the convenience of players and GMs, we encourage you to follow the official content’s textual conventions, but your work does not have to use the same graphic style. Make it weird, make it meatpunk, and make it your own if that’s what you’re inspired to do.