GOZR: The Wacky, Wild, Weird, and W’excellent TTRPG You’ve Been Sleeping On
Angry sky bleeds upon a fallen world.
Sky Wyrms hunt meat.
Fallen towers radiate fading spells.
Pretty ones rot in the dirt. Lost.
The Gooz rise.
S’up dawgs. Today’s post is about GOZR. If you follow me on Bluesky, you’ve probably seen me post about it a few times already, including some of my fan art. If you love the OSR, gonzo post-apocalyptic settings, or still have that subscription to Heavy Metal magazine, you’ll love GOZR.
GOZR (presumably a portmanteau of Gooz & OSR) was released in 2022 after a successful Kickstarter, so you might be forgiven for asking why the hell I’m dredging it up now in 2025? Well, because it’s my blog and I like GOZR, and I feel like it’s massively been ignored by the world and that’s a damned shame. If little old me can make a smidgen of a difference and highlight the worthwhile work of an artist, and maybe persuade a couple of you good folks to part with a few pennies of your hard earned pocket money, then all’s the better I say.
I ain’t getting paid or any cutback for this though, I should add. This is all genuine affection on my part, and not financially motivated.
What in the name of sweet baby medusa is GOZR?
It’s a bold, handwritten (as in, no fonts) TTRPG by JV West, of Black Pudding infamy, set in a totally wacky post apocalyptic world. Tongues are firmly in cheeks with this setting and it’s inhabitants, which makes for a nice lighthearted game at the table. As of right now, there’s only the rulebook, and a fill-in-the-blanks one page adventure that have been released officially, the rulebook is both available as a physical book and as a PDF, and the adventure is a free download from JV’s website.
The general style of the game is OSR (which means rules-lite, fast, creative, and clever play), which is nice because it frees up player imagination and means that the GM doesn’t have to carry a small library’s worth of books around with them. Some people might prefer a much chonkier game that has explicit bespoke mechanics designed for various scenarios that barely arise, and a number of video-game like character abilities baked into a class system, but GOZR ain’t that, and that’s A-OK with me.
More than anything though, GOZR is a work of art, dude. It’s heavy on vibes, heavy on inspirational GM content (like tables), and very very heavy on illustrations.
Like seriously, if I had to guess, I’d say it was weighted at about 70% tables & improvisation cues, 20% art, and 10% rules!
You goad me wizard, I would have you speak of the setting, plain and true!
Much of the official cannon of the setting is left to the GMs imagination, but piecing together the snippets of text and other clues, this is what I like to think:
In the near future, humanity manages to create an extinction event for itself via screwing around directly with the Sun. This triggers erratic behavior in Sol, unleashing freakish meteorological events that scar the world.
Years later, in the wake of Humanity’s passing, a new humanoid species comes to dominate the planet. The Gooz: at first glance, an unworthy race—slightly diminutive, superstitious, Sol-worshipping, ingenious yet adventurous. They have the cunning of goblins and the foolhardy curiosity of a feline. Yet somehow, the Gooz have built a flourishing civilization. Many brave souls tread beyond the boundaries of GOZR City, seeking treasure, answers, or both among the ruins of strange 'magical' towers left behind by 'the pretty ones'.
This world is a dangerous place, not least because of the ever changing whims of Sol, but all the Robots, Sky Wyrms, M’rons, Ickmucks and more have spread unchecked, and would make a tasty treat of a hapless Gooz.
Does it play as well as Slash on a skateboard, casually rolling down the road outside a bar & grill?
The game engine is based on a familiar d20 roll over AC system, but unlike D&D, there are only 3 stats and all rolls are player facing. This is nice because the players get to roll more, and everyone loves rolling bones!
Additionally, the core engine also has a system built into it which codifies degrees of success, and failing forwards. This means that flat “no” is a rare occurrence, and instead we’re much more likely to see “No, but…”, “Yes, but…”, and “Yes and…” which are integral components of modern improvisation techniques, and more games would benefit from the same emphasis.
Gameplay is simultaneously very deadly and very forgiving. Damage dice explode and HP is low, but this is actually my favourite rule: When a Gooz “dies” (at zero HP) the player can make a choice between “Death or Debasement”. The latter means your Gooz survives, but at a cost to their stats or abilities. The former means that your Gooz did indeed die, but you get a bonus to the stats of your next Gooz!
Plus, rolling up a Gooz is such a joy, following JV’s step by step guide you end up creating this wonderfully weird little Jim Henson meets Heavy Metal crossover!
A flawed gem
It’s only fair for me to point out the two flaws I see with GOZR (albeit ones with solutions) - it’s not all love and sunshine. Firstly, while it’s a joy to behold as a work of art, the book isn’t the easiest to use as a rules reference. There’s just so much going on all over the place that you could spend a long time simply enjoying a single page without finding the rule you were looking for.
Luckily, your old buddy Jimmi has you covered, I’ve created a free comprehensive cheat sheet for you to print out at home. I’m too good to you all, I really am.
The other niggle I have with the game is that it lacks examples of play, or an included introductory adventure.
This is a shame in my view, as such things can be really valuable as tools to manage a GMs expectations and set them up running straight away. JV did write an adventure which is published on his website, but for me, it leans too strongly on the idea that GM’s can make adventures their own, and I’d have preferred it, as a starter adventure, to have had more specifics to save me some brain juice. For example, a more structured adventure might include a specific room layout, or pre-written NPCs.
This is not a show stopper by any means though, as there are many adventures out there on the internet that can be adapted quite easily to suit the game or you might even enjoy making up your own using the game’s innumerable world generation tables.
Conclusion
Go buy GOZR right now.
It ticks all the boxes - It’s made with indie love, packed with art, not expensive, easy to learn, fun to play, and a joy to read. Honestly I’d love to see more people playing this game, giving it the love it deserves.
Hey, thanks for reading - you’re good people. If you’ve enjoyed reading this, it’d be great if you could share it on your socials, and maybe think about subscribing to the Mailer of Many Things! Either way, catch you later.
