Ben F. on Nostr: Wulfwald. I will likely publish a more thorough review of Wulfwald in French on the ...

Wulfwald. I will likely publish a more thorough review of Wulfwald in French on the Hu-Mu blog, but this is a my first impression based solely on having read the game. First let's talk about the form. I'm not usually one to fall for good looking games, but I have to confess that the design and high level pitch of Wulfwald were what got to me. It's an A5-ish format boxed set, with five booklets inside and a cloth map, and it looks stunning. It's not so much the artwork itself (good and does the job) but rather the design and the covers that are striking. It's very easy to read, everything clear and bright, sparse and legible. As it should be. The game's setting is an imaginary England from the Anglo-Saxon era with the supernatural heavily based on people's beliefs at the time. Where the game diverges from most OSR games is in its much narrower (and in my opinion interesting) pitch: the PCs are not adventurers, they are outcasts and criminals who owe their survival to a lord (a thegn) that protects them provided they do his dirty work for him. In that sense, it's more of a mission driven game with campaign development potential as their patron goes up in the world. Rules wise, it's standard-ish OSR a la OSE, the only point of divergence being magic (more on that in a second). Note that the game does not include any rules besides character creation, so you need your own OSR system to play. In terms of balance, there is an interesting (in my opinion) choice of low granularity: there are only three character levels, but each represents a sizable step in terms of power increase. I could see myself running a quick-ish 3x3 session campaign where each burst of three ends with a lapse in the narrative as the characters (and the setting around them) evolves. BTW, are there elves and dwarves? Yes, kind of. But they are treated as different people, not so much as different races. Sure, the Aelfcynn have spirit trees and the Dweorgas live under the mountains, but they only feel like elves and dwarves in passing. The dominant culture are the Men of Earth (Eordwerod, but I don't have the funky d) and there's also a savage Outlander culture (Rédealingas, again without the funky d). There are three classes (Warrior, Skirmisher and Wizard) for each culture for a total of 12 very different character concepts. All are outcasts in one form or another. One of the things that really blew my mind is how cool magic is. First , it's totally different for each culture, second it's potentially super powerful, but inevitably comes at a super high cost and third it's just fricking cool. In a nutshell, the Dweorgas weave runes in a freeform kind of way (each rune affects an aspect of reality) but with significant constraints. Perhaps the least dangerous of the magics, but one that forces you to use it a lot. The Aelfcynn sing spells, can shapeshift, weave woodland based magic and can cast glamours to seduce and manipulate. The Earthmen's Sinnlaeca are reviled even by their own culture, necromancer's of the worst kind. They can call on phantoms to cause fear, allow them to possess their wizardly body to become killing machines and even summon back specific phantoms that go back to be with their loved ones under the control of the necromancer. They can even create shambling dead walkers. All of this at the cost of taint and decrepitude, of course. Finally, the outlander's Wicce are maybe those with the most versatile powers, but again at a terrible cost of constant erosion of one's own abilities (permanent hit points and stat points. Ouch...) What more to say? I really want to run this. The Campaign booklet is really helpful in shaping what a campaign or a bunch of adventures might look for. It gives a high level outlook of the various nations and political factions, because, inevitably, any long term game will become political. I wrote somewhere that Wulfwald does a great job at creating the new with the old. Highly, highly recommended. #rpg #jdr #fantasy #anglosaxon #osr