Wolden

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.

This game’s themes include rituals, blood, body horror, spirits, and devil worship. Use appropriate safety tools.

This is the art-light version of the lavishly illustrated softcover zine Wolden—Issue 1, which can be purchased from us directly, and other great shops.

Overview

In Wolden, you play characters who are members of one of several cults. These cults congregate in the titular Wolden, the heart of the forest, in an uneasy truce. It is said that all forests eventually lead to Wolden, if you go deep enough, and if you know where to look. From Wolden, the cults stage expeditions into other lands, to bring back riches, knowledge, and wonders.

Wolden

You might imagine the heart of the forest as a large encampment, where several cryptic cults have established demesnes in their own, idiosyncratic ways. Functionally it is akin to a city, even if it consists of wildly different dwellings clustered around a forest nexus.

The heart itself is a mystery, and the subject of many rumors among all but the very few high ranking cultists who might know the truth. Yet, everyone agrees that it must be protected at all costs.

Resolution Mechanic

Wolden's resolution mechanic aims to be simple and fast, abstracting potentially several actions into one roll.

When the outcome is uncertain, take 1d12. If you have a gift that would reasonably aid you in your current task, add an additional d12. Circumstance might allow you to add another d12. Another character might help you with their gift, in which case you add a d12 for their participation, but beware, in aiding you they also share any negative outcomes. The maximum number of dice you can accumulate is 4d12.

Roll the dice, and take the highest number. Add your relevant ability score to that number. If that total is 6 or less, it's a failure. If it's between 7 and 12, it's a partial success. If it's a 13 or higher, it's a success.

If you rolled any doubles, it's a critical success or failure. There are no critical partial successes.

Roll Categories

There are 4 categories of rolls, and the same mechanic is used for all of them:

1. Challenges, including combat,
2. Extended Challenges, including social endeavors,
3. Travel Montages, for exciting, condensed journeys,
4. Downtime, including healing and advancement.

For more information, see Playing the Game.

Characters

Anatomy of a Character

Wolden characters assume a humanoid appearance. Minor aesthetic details like pointedness of ears, or quantity, location, and quality of hair are left up to the player. Larger deviations from that template are the purview of power gifts.

Characters are defined by ability scores, each generally ranging from 1 (poor) to 4 (human best), and gifts. The latter is a mixture of traits, powers, equipment, but also possibly wounds.

Ability Scores

• Brawn. Your physical strength, resilience, and toughness.
• Agility. Your speed, finesse, and fitness.
• Graces. Your social graces, charm, and deduction.
• Mind. Your mental faculty, memory, and force of will.

You add the value of a given ability score to your rolls. Additionally, damage accrues against your scores, and when it exceeds a given score's value, you take wounds in your gift slots.

Gifts

• Traits. Appearance, convictions, desires, and flaws.
• Powers. Extraordinary or supernatural abilities.
• Equipment. Exceptional items with impactful applications.
• Wounds. Consequences of physical or mental harm.

You start with 16 gift slots. Some gifts take up 2 or more slots, and might require a particular slots shape. In time, your character gains further slots.

Character Creation

1. Choose your cult. This book presents two of them; further publications will detail more of them.
2. Roll or choose a name and title from the cult, or make up your own.
3. Roll or choose your traits, powers, and equipment from your chosen cult's lists. These are your gifts, and you can have up to 16 slots’ worth at creation. Wounds will temporarily render them unavailable.
4. Assign 10 points between your ability scores. At this point, no score may be lower than 1 or higher than 4. Powers, equipment, spells, and advancement can make the score go beyond 4.

Money and the Mundane

Wolden characters need not concern themselves with tracking money. Everyone is assumed to have enough money on them for food and lodging, and sundry expenses.

Similarly, common, small mundane items, like a comb or a snack, are expected to be on one's person or easily discoverable. Only items of note, because of their power or use, take up gift slots. These are either assigned at character creation, found during adventure, bartered against other items or services, or acquired during the Go Shopping downtime activity.

Cults

Playing the Game

If your character is reasonably competent at an action they attempt, then no roll is needed, the action simply succeeds. However, if the outcome of an action is uncertain, or the action itself is dangerous or risky, you make a roll to determine the result.

The Roll Mechanic

There are generally 4 categories of situations where you might be expected to roll (combat, extended challenge, travel montage, downtime), but the roll mechanic itself is always the same:

1. Assemble your dice pool (maximum 4d12).
   1. Take 1d12 to begin with.
   2. If you have a relevant gift that can help you in the situation, add 1d12. You generally only gain 1 die from gifts, even if multiple would apply.
   3. If you have a situational advantage, natural or engineered, add 1d12.
   4. If someone helps you, add 1d12 for each person who does so, but beware: each helper will suffer the consequences of failure or partial failure just like you.
2. Roll your dice pool. Note the highest number rolled, and keep an eye out for doubles—if you rolled any doubles, it might be a critical result.
3. Add your relevant ability score to the highest number rolled. The GM will tell you in advance of the roll which one, though it should generally be obvious.
4. Compare your total:
   1. 1–6: Failure. You did not succeed. Describe how and why. It’s important you do this, so that this particular failure does not undermine the concept of your character. For example, if you play a crack-shot archer, you might say that you missed because the enemy is reminiscent of a friend and it gave you pause. Now you’re deepening the story. Rolling a total of 6 or below in a combat means the enemy hit or affected you.
   2. 7–12: Partial Success. Either you did not succeed fully, or you did but the enemy, obstacle, or challenge, affected you at the same time. In combat, for example, it means you hit the enemy, but they also hit or affected you.
   3. 13+: Success. You fully succeeded at your action and whatever challenge or enemy was resisting you failed to do so this round.
   4. Doubles: If you roll the same number on any two dice you have a critical. If your total is 6 or less, you have a critical failure. In combat this means the enemy deals maximum damage against you. In other situations it’s just really a bad time. As with failure, it’s up to you to describe it, and if everyone—GM included—agrees, that’s what happened. If the highest total is 13 or more, it’s a critical success. Again, either maximum damage, or something highly beneficial. There are no critical partial successes.

Challenges & Combat

A regular challenge is the most common roll. The GM describes the danger or risk, you describe what your player wants to do about it, you roll and check the result.

Combat in Wolden is quick and dangerous. Since your ability scores are unlikely to be much above 4, if that, even a monster's basic 1d4+1* damage has a very good chance of exceeding your score and dealing wounds, which are much harder to heal. Use every advantage.

The GM describes what it looks like the enemy is about to do, and then all players describe their actions. The characters can always move a reasonable distance as part of this action, and it is taken as granted that they’re at the same time trying to avoid any attacks on them.

The order of actions is up to the players, and once each player has had a turn the combat round is over, and all combatants must weigh up whether they want to risk another round, if the enemy has not already been vanquished.

Why +1? All but the weakest of enemies add their number to the damage. So if you fight one bandit, they'll do 1d4+1 damage (or even 1d8+1, if they have a wicked weapon or strength), but if you fight three of them, they'll do 1d4+3 damage. You fight enemies in groups, not individually, so this increase in damage represents the additional danger of greater numbers of enemies.

Extended Challenges

An extended challenge is a means to abstract a broader goal into a series of situations, and to succeed at enough of them to complete the whole task. It has a difficulty rating that the outcome of your rolls changes each time. During the extended challenge, players have a chance to describe how their character tackles one or more aspects of the task. These can be performed in parallel or in sequence, and as few or as many character as desired can participate. Once the rating has reached 0, your characters have succeeded.

See the table below for how a roll result decreases or increases the difficulty rating.

Roll Result	Change to the Difficulty Rating
Critical Failure	+4
Failure	+2
Partial Success	-1
Success	-2
Critical Success	-4

As well as modifying the challenge’s rating, the usual consequences of rolls apply, so characters risk damage, wounds, and of course narrative consequences.

Example Extended Challenge: Convince the Governor to accept the mercantile treaty (Difficulty Rating 8)

The characters require either 4 full successes, or 2 critical successes, or any other combination that reduces the rating to 0. The GM asks the players through what actions their characters plan to achieve that. Here are some ideas they might come up with:

• Get access to the city archives to look at historical trades, to see if there is a pattern, or a produce the governor favors.
  • This might be a Mind roll if access is easy but making sense of the information is tricky, or a Graces roll if the character tries to seduce their way in, or an Agility roll if they sneak or climb in.
• Find out who is close to the governor, perhaps by looking out for who accompanies him, whom he surrounds himself with. This could lead into the next step:
• Seduce, bribe, convince someone close to him into believing strongly into this treaty.
• Trail the governor for a day and a night. Perhaps you can discover some leverage on him.
• Pay some brutes to rough the governor up, intimidating him into accepting the treaty or else.
• Hold a grand celebration in his honor.
• Sneak into his mansion and plant something incriminating, or place forged letters speaking highly of you.
• Kidnap someone and impersonate them.
• Take one of their advisors into an alley and rough them up.
• Promise them a musical performance unlike any other.

The options are endless, and fully in the players’ hands. They can continue until the difficulty rating has reached zero, though once every player has had one go, the extended challenge enters a new round, and the situation might have changed, perhaps affecting certain approaches. If they do very poorly and instead double the initial rating, the GM might rule that they have well and truly failed and nothing short of a miracle can change it.

The extended challenge is an abstraction designed to quickly involve all characters in ways they likely excel at (because they can determine them). There is nothing stopping you from playing out the whole extended challenge in a regular, sequential fashion, without the difficulty rating mechanic; the abstraction simply condenses it. Use this technique when it feels right: when the pace needs picking up, or when some players have been involved considerably less than others, and suggest ideas that play to their character’s strengths, if they struggle to come up with their own.

Travel Montage

The travel montage is a variant of the extended challenge, where the GM prescribes the situations that are to be overcome. This creates exciting journeys that once again allow characters of all types to potentially shine. At the same time it maintains the sense of danger because every failed roll can bring consequences like wounds, compromising of equipment, or other, narrative consequences.

Like regular extended challenges, travel montages have a difficulty rating. Once it has reached 0, the characters have reached their destination; until then interesting situations that require handling, arise. And like extended challenges, abstracting them into travel montages is optional: in some cases it might make more sense to play them out fully, in others—perhaps a get-away, a chase, or simply retreading a journey—the montage is the right choice.

Downtime, Healing, & Advancement

Characters advance in power, knowledge, or possessions, as well as recuperate, during downtime. Once per session or between sessions, at most, when the characters have a chance to spend a day or night in a reasonably sized village or city, or back in Wolden, they can choose one of Focused Training, Going Shopping, Pure Rest, or Carousing, and reap potential rewards. And sundry consequences.

Additionally, each downtime, always:

• heals all ability score damage and 4 wounds,
• and adds 4 new gift slots, ready to receive further gifts. Or, you know, wounds.

Focused Training

Under the tutelage of a mentor, auto-didactic study, persistent practice, or enlightening self-discovery, you master further powers of your cult. Roll on the Powers table of your cult, or, with your GM’s approval, choose one.

Go Shopping

Wolden doesn’t concern itself with small, mundane items, but items of import or potency that haven’t been uncovered or traded during the adventure, can perhaps be had here, on a good old-fashioned shopping trip.

Either choose an item from your cult’s Equipment list, or, with the GM’s approval, design an item of similar power that you acquire. No better way to get the witch's hat of your dreams.

Pure Rest

Sometimes you just need to put your feet up, and take it easy for a while. Perhaps a day in a spa, or in a sunny, mossy glade, near a clear pond, with beautiful servants feeding you grapes. I digress.

With this downtime activity you heal an additional 2d4 wounds.

Carouse

Each cult has their own way of letting off steam. Refer to the cult entries to roll on their individual carousing table. It’s a bit of a gamble, but it will certainly take the story in interesting directions. And there is a chance for an ability score increase.

Some results will give you a 1-slot gift, but since you’re automatically gaining 4 new slots each downtime, you'll always have enough space for it.

Healing & Downtime in the Wilds

The characters might find themselves in a safe enough location to spend the night, but which isn't big enough to accommodate full downtime activities. In this case the outcome is more limited:

• heal all ability score damage,
• heal 1d4 wounds.

Running the Game

Combat in Detail

1. Determine groups. A lot of the time the enemy, or enemies, form a single group. The characters attack or try to affect them as one, and they in turn fight as one (dealing damage depending on their numbers, see “Multiple enemies deal more damage”). Sometimes, however, the characters might face off multiple groups. Perhaps there are 2 powerful, named enemies, each with their own minions. Perhaps the enemy groups fight from vastly different vantage points, or maybe one group arrives mid-fight to flank the characters.
2. Describe enemy intent. Explain what the enemy is about to do. They might get ready to pounce, turn to run away, wave their hands in esoteric patterns to rain down lightning, or as a group come charging, swinging their weapons.
3. Ask how the characters try and vanquish the enemy. During a character’s go it is implied that they try and defend against or avoid the enemy attack, and at the same time try to launch their attack or perform their action. On a success they succeed in their action and avoid the enemy’s, on a failure it’s the other way around, and on a partial success, both their and the enemy’s actions or attacks succeed.
   1. A player cannot avoid the roll to avoid the failure; at the very least they defend, unless they are too far away to be reasonably affected. Doing nothing but defending grants no special advantage, unless it would make sense in the situation.
   2. Moving a short distance is always a free part on a character’s action, as are trivial things like opening an unlocked door, picking something up, or yelling a sentence or two.
4. Each character gets 1 action. In any order that the players choose, go around the table and have each player roll against the enemy.
   1. If there are multiple enemy groups, the characters have to defend against each (in whatever order makes sense for the narrative). However, after the first one they were targeted by, they presumably have used their 1 action already, so the roll is only to defend; they cannot perform a second action, like also attacking the second group.
5. End of the round. Once each character has gone, and in the case of multiple groups, defended against each group, the round is finished. A lot of the time, this is also the end of the combat, if it has not already been resolved earlier. Determine if there will be a next round:
   1. Remind the characters that while ability score damage is relatively easy to heal, wounds—which take up precious gift slots—are not. Are they willing to risk more damage?
   2. The enemy is no fool either: decide whether they might want to flee, surrender, or bargain.
   3. If bloodlust prevails, go back to point 2 above.

Dealing Damage

A character’s equipment gift will say which ability score it adds on the attack roll, and how much damage it will do. Most melee weapons will do 1d4 + Brawn damage, ranged ones 1d4 + Agility. Poor or otherwise less effective items might do 1d4 without adding the ability score. Large or very dangerous weapons might do 1d8 + ability score, and some exotic weapons might even add Graces or Mind to the die.

When dealing damage to the enemy, because you are fighting a whole group, and the fight is abstracted, it carries over from one creature to the next. For example, if you’re fighting three enemy creatures with 4 hp each, and you deal 9 damage, you will kill two of them, and deal 1 damage to the third.

Monster, Enemy, & Other Character Stat Blocks

Stat blocks for GM-run creatures are simplified versions of player character sheets. They consist of level, hit points (generally level times 4, more if armored or otherwise tough), basic attack types and damage, and special abilities. A creature dies, or is otherwise taken out, when it reaches 0 hit points.

Multiple Enemies Deal More Damage

Damage dealt is usually the creature’s damage die plus the number of enemies attacking. This is marked in the Attack section with a die type followed by a plus (+) sign, which signifies adding on the number of enemies. Certain weaker enemies, even in numbers, for example a flock of birds, do not add to their damage.

For example, a single piglin deals 1d4+1 damage, 3 of them (or two piglin plus a bandit) deal 1d4+3 damage. When a group’s damage dice differ between enemies, use the highest one. For example, a piglin (1d4+) and a wyrm (1d8+) attacking together, would deal 1d8 +2 damage.

Enemy Special Abilities

If an enemy consists of a powerful named character, and several minions, that group’s intent is likely to affect the characters with a special ability (the named character’s action) plus regular clobbering damage (the minions). This is handled in the usual way if the special ability deals damage, and, if not, both the effects of the ability take effect on a player character’s failed roll or partial success, as well as the minion’s damage.

Enemy Spellcasters

The Purgis Pact use grimoire magic, but that’s one of many possible magics. As such, the GM need not devise full grimoires for each magic wielding enemy they want to introduce (though they certainly can—grimoires make for exciting treasures, and a grimoire’s ritual can be an interesting plot device). Instead, an enemy might know 1 or 2 innate spells, which you note as any other special ability.

You will find that players react very differently to an enemy you describe as wielding a grimoire, than someone who simply looks like a mage. They will have their eye trained on said grimoire.

Adjusting Difficulty

While at first glance it seems that difficulty is static, since players roll against their own abilities, which are not influenced by the enemy, that is in fact not quite so, and there are several ways to tweak a combat’s difficulty.

1. Number of enemies. While this doesn’t influence the roll, it does very much determine the damage in most cases, and thus the risk in the long run.
2. Enemy groups. As soon as you have more than one enemy group, the danger goes up; it doubles for each additional group in fact.
3. Attrition. Enemies with many hit points will likely drag out fights, increasing the chances of inflicting more wounds. However, use this sparingly, since the system is designed to be fast.
4. Direct difficulty adjustment. In some cases—and this is true for rolls out of combat too—you might decide that the players have to take 1 or 2 dice away from their pool before they roll, and they can only attempt the roll (otherwise failing automatically) if they have at least 1 die. Reserve this adjustment for massive enemies, and for planned player actions with questionable odds of success. On creature stat blocks or ability effects this is noted as [diff 1] or [diff 2].

Combat Example

Three characters have pursued a lich and her 5 minions up a giant, gnarled mangrove tree, while one watches from the bottom. Almost at the top, the old tree buckles under the weight, and characters, lich, and minions all start tumbling down. But the lich isn’t going gently into the good night, nor are 2 of her minions; the other 3 are too dumb and confused and just fall.

GM: “Even while falling, you can see the lich draw upon eldritch forces, as black lightning starts to crackle around her arms—lightning, she is about to unleash upon you three. Additionally two minions have the wherewithal to also attack, getting ready to toss spears and swords and whatever else sharp they have, at you. The other three minions are bouncing off branches as they fall, further damaging their already partly decomposed bodies. What do you do?”

Player 1: “From my Gown of Ravenna I sprout liquid obsidian tentacles, which I use both to put flying debris between me and the lich’s black lightning, and to slash at her.”

GM: “Sounds good. Since this is all about deft and dextrous maneuvering, it’ll be an Agility roll.”

Player 1: “Ok, I get 1d12 as a base. Hopefully for my Danger [Appearance] trait, I get a second.”

Player 4: “While I can’t reach anyone while they’re falling, perhaps I can help by distracting the lich with my Trickery [Desire] trait?”

GM: “That would be fine, but that would be your action, and by helping another you share in their consequences. Are you ok with that?”

Player 4: “Yes. I shout something clever that briefly draws the lich’s gaze.”

Player 1: “Ok, with that help, I’m now at 3d12 for this roll. Oh, not a great roll. I get a 3, 4, and a 7. Taking the highest, and with my Agility of 3 that’s a total of 10—a partial success.”

GM: “Ok, that means both your action happens and the enemies’ actions affect you. But before we resolve them, let’s hear from the others.”

Player 2: “Can I use my Into Harm’s Way power to take the damage for [Player 1]?”

GM: “Absolutely, but don’t forget you’re also falling and being attacked, so if you fail your roll, you’ll take both lots of damages.”

Player 2: “Gulp, good point. Still, I’m protective of my coven sister like that.”

GM: “Alright, so I’d like also an Agility test from you, to avoid the black lightning and sharp things being thrown at you, while throwing yourself in front of your friend. All while falling.”

Player 2: “Alright, that’s 1d12 base, plus 1 for the power, and I don’t think I can claim any environmental advantage in this case... That’s a double 11, plus my mediocre Agility of 2, that’s 13 and it’s a critical success because of the doubles!”

GM: “Fantastic! Like a sky diver before opening their parachute, you steer yourself between your fellow cultist and the enemies just as they’re unleashing hell. And since you got a critical success, I’ll say you can halve all damage—perhaps because of the falling branches?”

Player 2: “Yeah, it looks like I’m almost running over the branch and then at the right moment, kicking it towards the lich!”

GM: “Alright, shall we resolve these now, or do you want to do something at the same time, [Player 3]?”

Player 3: “No, I’m more interested in not falling to my death here, being fried by the lich, or kebabbed by her minions. I’m desperately grappling with my Mephistopheles’ Instant Gratifications grimoire to perform the Shapeshifting spell, and turn into a sparrow. Well, hopefully.”

GM: “Fair enough, in that case we’ll get to your extreme spellcasting in just a second. So, the lich’s black lightning shoots towards the three of you currently falling. It’s marked as 1d8+ damage, whereas the minions’ is 1d4+, so we’re taking the highest, the d8, and the “+” is 3, since it’s three creatures attacking. So regardless of the result, this is already going to hurt. … It’s a 4 on the die, so that’s 7 points of damage. And because it’s lightning and sharp weapons, it’s regular Brawn damage. Had it just been the black lightning, I might have called it Agility damage.”

GM: “[Player 1], you take no damage, since [Player 2] has magnificently thrown themselves into your harm’s way. [Player 2], you would usually take both the 7 damage aimed at you and the one aimed at [Player 1], but because of your critical success it’s just the 7 damage. That still smarts but saves [Player 1].”

Player 2: “Yeah, that’s 3 damage on my Brawn for the score of 3 I have there, and the remaining 4 become wounds that I need to put into my precious gift slots. Oh wait, but I have the Material Protection Hex, which reduces incoming Brawn and Agility damage by 1, so it’s 3 wounds. You know what, I'm putting them on my Witch's Broom. I'm too shocked from this fall to fly for a while!”

GM: “And let us not forget that [Player 4] helped in [Player 1]’s actions, and therefore suffers its consequences too, which in this case are that 7 Brawn damage. [Player 4], since you’re on the ground, how are you being damaged?”

Player 4: “Well, my help was to trick the lich into the distraction, which worked, but I guess at the same time it made me into a target for the black lightning, which can easily reach me.”

GM: “Makes sense, plus the minions were throwing things, which can also affect you on the ground, so the 7 damage stands.”

Player 4: “I’ll take it on the chin. In the sense that that’s all of my 2 Brawn damaged, and 5 wounds covering up lovely gifts that I’m now too weak or injured to wield or cast.”

GM: “Alright, but [Player 1]’s action of whipping the lich with the tentacles succeeds too. The item doesn’t have a specific damage listed for attacking with the tentacles; for improvised weapons I’d usually say d4, but in this particular situation it should actually be an excellent weapon, so I’ll say d12, plus Agility.”

Player 1: “1d12+3, nice. I rolled a 9, so 12 damage!”

GM: “Ouch, the tentacle smacks her broadly across the front, and sends her flying through the falling tree debris. Most folks would be instantly dead from this, but a lich is tough as nails. But she was already injured, so that’s given her a lot to think about, as evidenced by her frustrated shrieking and flailing.”

GM: “But, before we can conclude this round, let’s see if [Player 3] managed to cast their spell and fly off, or whether they too got caught in the enemy’s assaults. Roll me a Mind check to keep it together to successfully cast under these conditions. And yes, that’s on top of your regular miscast chance, but you’re falling, defending/avoiding, and casting at the same time.”

Player 3: “Yeah, that’s totally fair. Hard to read when the pages flap about in near terminal velocity, and spears and lightning are coming your way. So, 1d12 to start, do I get one for the grimoire itself or the grimoire magic power as well?”

GM: “Yes, but you can only get 1 extra die from gifts.”

Player 3: “Alright, rolling 2d12 plus my Mind of 4, that’s 5 and 10! Not a critical but at 14, a straight success.”

GM: “Impressive, your swathes of confidence were not misplaced. Of course, now for the spell miscast. Since you successfully performed your grimoire’s ritual this morning, it’s 14% instead of 28%.”

Player 3: “Oh dear, I rolled a 07. That’s not good.”

GM: “Well, miscasts can go in different, interesting ways. Consider it emergent storytelling.”

Player 3: “Quite. … That’s a 4 on the d4 miscast roll. That means The spells effects are doubled, or affect a much bigger area than planned, or are otherwise exaggerated. Hm, does that mean instead of just morphing myself into a sparrow, I could include all allies, thus saving them from a presently terminal thudding or splashing impact?”

GM: “Well, what do you know, I think it very well could. Having fought fiercely with the lich and her minions as you tumble through the air, falling a great height from this massive, crumbling tree, a kind of magic overcomes you all—also you on the ground, [Player 4]—and you poof into sparrows, pulling up into the air at the last moment, the very same time the lich and her cronies hit the ground or water respectively.”

GM: “As you fly off to safety or to regroup, you make out a wet, broken lich, limping away, with but one remaining minion, the others smashed beyond even unlife on impact. While the war against this villain isn’t over, this round very much went to you.”

Sample Creatures

Piglin

A crude humanoid with features of both boar and man. With cloven hooves, sparse but thick hairs, and a gamey odor.

Level 1; hp 4; Attack Strong teeth, improvised club, or hoof kick (1d4+).

• Bravery in Numbers. Loud and vicious when they outnumber the enemy, otherwise squealy and cowardly.

Trained Mercenary

Garbed in looted armor and adorned with a patchwork of trophies that show they survived, while their enemy did not.

Level 2; hp 12 (armor); Attack Trained strike with a weapon of choice (1d4+).

• Study Tactics. From the second round on, the mercenary deals 1d8+ damage instead.
• Surprise Talent. No two mercenaries are alike. This one: 1) sings like an angel, 2) is stupidly agile [diff 1], 3) impersonates someone you know, 4) carries a valuable item.

Naga

Thick, fat worm, which, when curled up, is the size of an obese horse. All purples, blues, and greens, alternating fragile looking flesh casing with impenetrable, black scales.

Level 4; hp 20 (scales); Attack Tunnel of sharp teeth or crushing under its weight (1d4+).

• Mimicry. Has a human-like skull, which, when pressed into its flesh, makes for a reasonably convincing human head in bad light, or a nightmarish apparition in daylight.
• Swallow All the Way. Critical fails against its teeth attack lands the victim in its gullet, which is also all teeth, and writhing.
• Pretty Things. Loves to adorn and dress itself in pretty things. Together with the skull pressed into its face this sometimes makes it look actually human. It also means it generally has expensive loot.

Lich Countess

Hair and skin white and glowing as alabaster, clad in a rich crimson gown, gliding about, with the sadness and weight of aeons.

Level 6; hp 32 (undead); Attack Claws (1d4+) or ranged spell, like lightning, or opening a crack in the ground (1d8+).

• Undead. Unliving, unaging, unfeeling, with a body artificially repaired and preserved, requiring constant maintenance. Sustenance through the secrets and further region experiences of others.
• Lifetimes. Knowledge, cognition, philosophy, and experience beyond reason.
• Affect Environment. Knows cosmic, superposition-tipping spells, and reality truths, which can alter the current situation in drastic and dramatic ways.
• Ennui. Longs for a greater meaning, or, perhaps, a momentary distraction.
• Farcical. Laughs but at the same time envies the human condition.

Devil’s Bargains

When a player character’s roll result is just below a success (or partial success), you might offer them a devil’s bargain. It pushes them into the success (or partial success) category, but at a cost. The cost should be something that makes them ponder and weigh the advantages and disadvantages. Importantly, you clearly state this cost, and let the player decide if they want to pay it.

Examples

• In a sticky combat, the player has rolled a 12—a partial success—but taking any more damage would mean a lot of wounds. You offer to push it to a success if they break their weapon doing so.
• The tied up character is being slowly lowered into a vat of acid. The player decides they want their character to swing and try and land on the platform, but they roll a 6—a failure. If they fall into the acid they will die, but with a partial success they would at least escape with just some wounds. You offer them the extra 1 point for a partial success, if they hook on with their feet to the friendly NPC, who falls into the acid instead.

Committing to Wounds

Hot on the heels of the devil’s bargain, is committing. You can offer this to wounded characters, to replace some or all of their wounds by permanent conditions taking up half the number of gifts slots of the wounds committed. The permanent conditions might be things like missing digits, a missing eye, general forgetfulness, a need to sit down after moderate exercise, or anything else that you feel appropriate to the number of wounds being exchanged.

For example, Tanith Morningstar has suffered 8 wounds; that’s half of her starting 16 gift slots already. And the party is in the middle of the wilds, with no town in sight where they might have downtime and proper healing. You could offer that Tanith commit those 8 wounds to a 4 slot permanent condition: the loss of one arm.

This would free up 4 slots, and possibly introduce an interesting character arc. Importantly, it’s the player’s choice.

Equally important is that taking permanent conditions need not be the final word on that. So what, you’re missing an arm, in a fantasy world? That’s just the beginning of a new adventure, to seek out that fabled pure healer, or the mad stitching professor.

Adventures

For a free Wolden adventure, see https://mottokrosh.com/mm0013.

Miscellaneous Notes

• Most of the time an enemy threatens all the characters in a party, unless they have been clever about preventing that (in which case, reward that), and therefore everyone has to roll to defend and/or attack. But that doesn’t have to mean that each enemy has a ranged attack as well as a melee one. Farther away characters can be affected in other ways: the enemy bashes against the cave wall and stalactites tumble down, they activate one of their lair’s traps, or otherwise manipulate the field of battle. Or perhaps they intimidate, shock, or frighten.
• To activate a power with a cost like “take x damage to…”, you have to actually take that damage. If you prevent it via any source, it didn’t happen. Some gifts reduce damage before you mark it, but this is the one time that doesn’t apply. The payment has to be made for the power to activate.
• When something says “gain x trait”, it can exceed your maximum gift slots. But unless it’s permanent, it vanishes again when the power or effect expires.
• Above all, be a fan of the characters, rejoice when they do awesome stuff, and let them wreak havoc with the world. It’s not your world, it’s the world of you and all the players.