Wolden

Wolden is an RPG that is rules-light and flavor-heavy. A single, unified mechanic does all the heavy lifting, paving the way for thrilling forest and powerful folk-magic stories.

A Forest RPG of Wayward Cults

Warning: Contains kick-ass witches and warlocks who care not for your dogma, bigotry, or patriarchy, and primordial creatures of the forest, just as likely to give you ecstatic dreams as bone-shattering nightmares. And that's just the player characters.

Wolden is a new roleplaying game from the makers of Hypertellurians. This zine details the rules of the game, and the first two of many cults that call Wolden, the heart of the forest, home, in an uneasy alliance.

• Fast, yet strategic resolution mechanic for combat, extended challenges, travel and exploration, and downtime.
• Two cults with their own names, titles, traits, powers, equipment, and carousing tables.
• The witches, warlocks, and wizards of the Purgis Pact, with their grimoire magic, and four complete grimoires.
• The faun, fey, and other forest creatures of the Cenacle of Woodwose and Inflorescants, who spill flowers, not blood.
• All the information a GM needs to run Wolden.
• Fully illustrated with hand-drawn art.

Wolden Actual Play

With Anna Katarina Molla (Hypertellurians), Evilgaz (What Would the Smart Party Do?), Eric Nieudan (The Merry Mushmen), Kara Payne (Mottokrosh Machinations), and Tina Reuther (Mottokrosh Machinations).

For more Actual Play goodness, watch this livestream of Wolden that Frank run for ArchoniaFest 2025.

Adventures

Just as with System Crashers, we will present you with a whole (and to be honest, it's grown quite big) free adventure to go with the rulesystem. It's still being playtested, but it's pretty close in terms on writing. Maps and art are still outstanding, however.

Converting existing fantasy adventures is pretty straightfoward, and should be doable on the fly:

• Let go of any railroading—the players will find a way.
• Showdowns and set pieces can be epic, if the players make them so: encourage them, give them the tools.
• Convert critters by HD or level, bearing in mind that in Wolden a level 6 is stonkingly hard, and that number of enemies plays a greater role than level in most cases.
• Convert special powers into even more powerful, dangerous, and—importantly—unpredictable versions.
• Don't sweat the numbers. Use the following guideline: standard weapon - 1d4+, very dangerous weapon - 1d8+, stupidly dangerous, probably instantly lethal - 1d12+ damage. The "+" stands for number of enemies. And for the die, use the highest of the enemy group. So a big, dangerous critter (1d8+) with 4 regular critters (1d4+), do 1d8+5 damage to all enemies.
• Remember that ability score damage is easy to heal, but wounds both block gifts and are much harder to recover from.

Resources

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