Longship: A Vessel RPG is a role playing game supplement written and published by Samuel E G Yeagar. This is a minimalist RPG.
The supplement is available from itch for $5 although it was purchased at a greatly reduced price as part of a special bundle. The supplement comes as a PDF or an epub. The PDF has 11 pages with one page being the front cover.
Chapter 1: Raising the Sails gives the basic mechanics of the game. Each member of the crew has a dice pool and the characters’ stats determine how many times they can call upon the power of a stat during an encounter. The GM will ask a player to describe their character’s action, then they will roll a d6. A result of 4 or more is success. Enough successes are needed to overcome a foe.
Chapter 2: The World Spits You Out explains that a minimum of three people, one of whom is the GM, and a maximum of five are needed to play. Each player should have around eight six-sided dice. Characters have four stats – Strength, Speed, Endurance and Cunning – which are determined by rolling 6d6, rerolling any ones and then removing the highest and lowest numbers. These four numbers are then assigned to each of the four stats as the plater sees fit.
There are other numbers to track as well. These are Wounds, which are twice Endurance, and represent health. Shame will result in a character being shunned from the crew when it equals twice Cunning. Favour can be used to increase the chances of success. Bond can be used to give successful results to another crew. Glory can be increased by hoarding victories. Next are several Destinies to choose from and a number of Artefacts.
Chapter 3: Gods and Their Whims lists several Norse gods who you can pledge to. Each can be used to gain blessing, improving dice rolls.
Chapter 4: Cast Down and Cast Out is what happens when a character gets too much shame.
Appendix has details on advancing Bond and Glory and thanks to Patreons.
Longship: A Vessel RPG in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and, though not essential given the length, would have been useful. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a single column format and appeared to be free of error, though layout could have been better as there are chapter titles at the bottom of pages. There are no illustrations. Presentation is poor.
This is a complete minimalist RPG as it stands, but it’s rather unclear in some areas. Why is it considered to be a Vessel RPG? The players appear to be the crew of a Viking longship, but the longship gives the impression of being largely irrelevant. There seems to be little to tie the crew to it. At full price, this RPG is very definitely overpriced, given its short length, minimal content and poor presentation. Longship: A Vessel RPG is a bit of a confusing idea for a game and it can be found on itch.
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