Death Robot Jungle (2020), created by Games Omnivorous and published by our friends at Exalted Funeral, is an intriguing experiment: an RPG campaign setting in LP form. Easily the oddest RPG product I’ve picked up in recent memory.

The record sleeve is at once a record sleeve, but also a game screen, the interior of which has a lovely map of the island by Mockman Press, complete with volcano, robot factories, sea monsters and other strangeness. This is accompanied by an area key, with brief but evocative descriptions of each region’s features and general character. There are also three encounter tables, one for flora (walking coconut trees!), fauna (flying stingrays!) and special events (acid rain that burns foreigners!). It may not sound like much, but as a series of prompts for putting together a campaign, I defy you to not be full of ideas after reading it.

The record is obviously the centerpiece: ten tracks of instrumental music by Andre Novoa and Manuel Pinheiro (you can take a listen on Spotify). The idea is let the music do the heavy lifting  in setting the stage for the setting, inspiring players and GM alike to imagine the sights and sounds of the island. The tracks are awesomely weird, combining strains of metal, jazz, salsa and digital bleeps and boops into something that really does sound like a death robot jungle. There’s saxophone. I dig it.