Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying by Nils Hintze, Rickard Antroia and Nils Karlén is a role playing game supplement published by Free League Publishing. This is the core book for the Vaesen system.
The supplement is available as a 240-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $24.99. It is also available in printed form from sites such as Amazon. The PDF is the version reviewed although it was purchased at a reduced price during a sale. It has 240 pages with two being the front and rear covers, two the inside covers, two the front matter, one the Contents, one the Index and two a list of Kickstarter backers.
The Preface is a word from the creator of the concept and their love of monster books.
Chapter 1. Introduction starts with a bit of fiction, as do the other chapters, followed by some player reaction to it in-game. It explains then that the people of Scandinavia have lived side by side with the supernatural vaesen for centuries, but industrialisation, war and revolution in the 19th century has changed the world. In some parts of Scandinavia, the supernatural seems to have grown stronger and is acting more erratically. Some people have the Sight, which allows them to see vaesen even when they are trying to stay invisible. The characters are one of these, and have gathered in Upsala in central Sweden and learned there used to be an organisation called the Society, whose mission was to study and combat the vaesen, but the last members either left or went missing and their headquarters has been left to decay. The characters have been given the key to this castle, and have their own reasons for wanting to track down vaesen and protect people from them.
An overview is then given as to what the book contains, and a sidebar recommends Johan Egerkrans’ Vaesen: Spirits and Monsters of Scandinavian Folklore, though this isn’t needed. The next section looks at what role playing games are; this is fairly standard and anyone already familiar with them will not encounter anything new. Following this is a brief overview of the game and things to keep in mind, including the mythic north, vaesen, the Sight, what the characters are doing, the balance between horror, mystery and adventure, how conflicts are resolved in-game, rolling dice – Vaesen uses special dice, though they are not required – and the six principles of the game.
Chapter 2. Your Player Character starts with an overview of the character creation process. The first part is the character’s personality, which is to choose an archetype – in some ways, the character’s class – age, which has an effect on attribute and skill points, name, motivation, trauma and dark secret.
Characteristics starts with attributes, of which there are four; Physique, Precision, Logic and Empathy. Each has a value between 2 and 5 which determines how many dice are rolled when attempting something that uses that attribute. Physique is how big and strong the character is, precision is coordination and motor skills, logic is intellectual capacity and empathy is the ability to understand, persuade, charm or trick other people. Characters also have 12 skills, described in Chapter 3. Each skill has a value between 0 and 5, which determines the number of dice the skill adds to an attribute when attempting something difficult or dangerous. When starting the game, only the main skill of the chosen attribute can have a value greater than 2, and that only of 3.
Miscellaneous are other things the character has. These are relationships with the other player characters, resources, which are how much capital they have, detailed further on a table valued from 1 to 8 with explanations as to what each value means, what equipment they have, a d66 table of mementos which are part of their character and a description of the character. Conditions are things a character can suffer from, and there are three physical and three mental. If a Condition is acquired, the character gets a -1 modifier to skill tests for that type of action. If a character gains all three Conditions of either type, they become Broken, which means they are past their limits and may even be dying. On the way to a mystery, characters can gain an Advantage which will help them and at the end of a session they gain Experience Points, which can be used to buy an Advance.
There are ten archetypes, one of which is chosen as a base for a character. The archetypes have a brief description, a list of choices to make to create the character and their game benefits. The archetypes are academic, doctor, hunter, occultist, officer, priest, private detective, servant, vagabond and writer.
Chapter 3. Skills starts by looking at skill tests. There are twelve skills, each linked to an attribute. The skill value and attribute are added together to determine how many d6s are rolled for the test. Rollin a six is a success, and it’s rare that more than one of these is needed. A skill can be used even if its value is zero; the attribute just determines the dice used in this case. Modifiers can affect the roll, adding – or subtracting – more d6s to the pool, and these stack. The player explains what they are trying to do before rolling, so the GM can determine if it’s possible. If a test is failed, something detrimental happens. A failed roll can be pushed to try it again, which results in a Condition. All dice save the sixes are rerolled. It is possible to become Broken from pushing a roll.
Conditions are acquired by pushing a roll or possibly from failing a test. They are divided into Physical and Mental, and characters get one fewer die when suffering from a Condition linked to that attribute category. If four Conditions of the same type are acquired, the character becomes Broken, which means out of action, and they also suffer a serious injury.
Some things may take more than one success to succeed at, and other characters can sometimes help, though not if they are doing something else at the same time. Opposed rolls are when a character or NPC tries to stop someone from succeeding. Advantage can be used to increase the chance of success, and some equipment can also increase the chance of passing a skill test. Rolling more successes than needed means the character is extra successful; sometimes these generate certain effects and may even heal a Condition. The GM decides just what extra successes can be used for. Finally, the different skills are described.
Chapter 4. Talents covers these. There are two types of talents. The first is archetype talents, and each archetype has three of these, which are described. A new character starts with one talent from these. During the game, Experience Points can be used to buy new talents, including those from other archetypes. The second type is general talents which aren’t linked to a specific archetype.
Chapter 5. Conflicts and Injuries explains that the subject of the chapter is conflict, where situations escalate beyond words and a simple skill test is not enough. It starts by looking at combat. Combat is divided into rounds and during each round the participants take turns performing actions. Initiative is determined by drawing a card from ten playing cards from 1 to 10, with the lowest initiative going first, and so down the initiative order. Players may choose to swap initiative cards during combat at the start of a round.
Combat takes place in zones, divided into close for melee, one zone away for throwing weapons and pistols and two zones for rifles. Zones can vary depending on terrain. Certain situations may make combat more difficult and skill tests may be harder to pass. When fighting vaesen, the objective isn’t to kill them in combat, for that rarely works, but to hold them off for long enough that a ritual can be performed or escape achieved.
There are a number of actions that can be performed in combat, divided into slow actions, such as an attack with a melee weapon or persuasion, and fast actions, such as drawing a weapon and closing a door. Fast actions can also be used to position a character anywhere in their zone. Melee and ranged combat, as well as dodging and parrying, are covered, along with other related combat options.
When a character takes damage, they suffer Conditions, and when all physical or mental Conditions are checked off and another of the same type is suffered, the character becomes Broken. They are incapacitated and have suffered a critical injury which threatens to kill the, or been traumatised so badly they may never recover. Being Broken by both types of injury is covered, and there are d66 tables of physical and mental critical injuries; a serious injury is not something that can be slept away. There are various special effects that can be suffered; fear, explosions, poison, falling damage and hungry, tired or thirsty. Following this are rules on healing and how healing services might be purchased.
Equipment looks at preparatory equipment, shopping during the mystery, armour and cover and equipment and weapons, with tables of equipment that can be bought or otherwise obtained.
Chapter 6. The Society and the Headquarters starts with a history of the Society, which the characters can find out. It covers the founding of it, under a different name, some early important figures, how it split, a massacre and the its dwindling away. The Society is then reborn; the history of this isn’t given, as it’s the players’ characters are doing the rebirth. Details are given on Linnea Elfeklint, a former member who left and who can tell the characters the history. The Society’s creed, structure and titles are covered, along with some details on the headquarters, Castle Gyllencreutz, which the characters will occupy.
Campaign Rules looks at how the characters can improve their headquarters when mysteries are solved. There are also threats that may threaten it. Defects and Insights may also be easier to heal with upgrades to the castle. Various upgrades and facilities are detailed with what they do and what they cost, followed by other facilities that can be discovered already there but have been lost or fallen into disrepair, useful contacts and personnel who can be hired to help at the castle, with what they do, as well as a number of famous or infamous texts that can be used to improve knowledge of vaesen.
Chapter 7. The Mythic North and Upsala explains that this looks at some of the influences and conflicts of mythic Scandinavia. It explains that the game takes place in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark, though in a setting that is its own. There’s a map of the region, plus details on the conflicts, from technology, religion and war. It looks at life in the city and important cities in the region, life in the country and the changes technology is making, titles, names and travel. It then gives an overview of Upsala, its location and various places of interest in the city, along with a map and how the characters might interact with the various places and organisations.
Chapter 8. Vaesen starts by explaining why vaesen exist and their relationship to humans, how Scandinavian vaesen are clearly linked to nature and the different types. Examples are given of places where vaesen might be found, followed by their magical powers, divided into Enchantments and Trollcraft, with examples of these, and curses. Specific rules for vaesen are given, along with details on how banishing them works and that each vaesen has a secret for banishing that is missing from popular lore. Some vaesen also have specific powers. There are some examples of some specific items of power and magic items.
A number of vaesen are then described. Each has some introductory fluff, a description, their stats and abilities, how to defeat them and some examples of conflicts. Following this are rules on non-player characters, with some examples, and some brief details on animals.
Finally, there are some details on how to go about creating your own vaesen, with some example creatures from different cultures.
Chapter 9. The Mystery looks at how the GM can create and run mysteries – adventures – in the game. It starts by looking at the components of a mystery, with the first thing to decide is what kind of vaesen is involved. It looks at naming them, gives a couple of examples – these are followed up with in the other examples – and explains that game balance basically doesn’t matter. Next, it looks at conflicts, which are what has gone wrong. There are primary and secondary conflicts, with examples given. The misdeed is what has caused the primary conflict, with examples. The location is where the adventure happens and there are examples of flavour text and atmosphere to evoke this. The characters can find clues, which are central and peripheral; central are more important. Finally, there is the countdown to catastrophe, which is a timeline of events until things go wrong.
The structure of the mystery is looked at next. There is the prologue, which can be scenes from the characters’ everyday lives, the invitation to get them involved, the preparations they undertake, journeying to the adventure location, their arrival, the places to investigate there, confrontation with the vaesen and the aftermath. These are gone into in more detail, with GM advice and examples of what could be relevant for each stage. Following this are mystery tables which can be rolled on to help generate mysteries. Notes are given on making a campaign and on various GM techniques for running everything from puzzles and riddles to NPCs, using dark secrets, maps and dreams, as well as using props.
Chapter 10. The Dance of Dreams is an introductory mystery – adventure – set out in the way that was described in the previous chapter. It includes handouts for players.
Chapter 11: Background Tables has an alternative method for creating characters by rolling on the accompanying tables. There’s a cheat sheet for rolling a character, a d66 table for rolling the class, then d6 tables for each class for rolling upbringing, which creates attributes and skills, a d66 table for rolling profession, which depends on class and affects resources and finally a series of d6 tables for rolling life events, which cover different professions, and which affect skills and equipment.
The final two pages of content are character sheet and headquarters sheet.
Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying in Review
The PDF is bookmarked, though not as deeply as it could be. The Contents isn’t as thorough and is hyperlinked. The Index is more thorough. Navigation is adequate. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be free of error. There are a variety of illustrations, at least some of which appear to be custom and most of which are sepia-coloured sketches, though there are also some full-page colour illustrations. Presentation is decent.
Vaesen is based on Free League’s Year Zero Engine, which means it will be at least somewhat familiar in general concepts to anyone who has played other games using that system. YZE isn’t a terribly complex system, but it does have differences that will need understanding first. It’s also easier to play with Year Zero dice; they aren’t absolutely needed, but they do make gameplay easier.
Like other Year Zero games, it isn’t as lethal as it could be, though character death is still possible. One notable feature is how vaesen themselves are defeated; brute force is never the answer to win, and certainly increases the chance of dying. Having a headquarters that can be improved is something that also carries over from other YZE games, which means the characters have a base that they can then improve, with improvements, and this includes NPCs, giving them more benefits.
The setting, being primarily a historical one, albeit with fantastical elements, is not described in great detail; historical information is comparatively easy to get hold of, so this is not a huge flaw and does mean you aren’t paying for material that can be found elsewhere. Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying is a different kind of game with a system that should still be familiar to those who have played other Year Zero games and it can be found by clicking here.
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