Vaesen - Nordic Horror RPG Corebook

A perfect RPG from the Swedish publisher Free League, who have already released a number of interesting games. They are all based on their mechanics, known as the Year Zero Engine. The core of the system uses d6 dice pools. Each character has a range of attributes and skills, and their sum equals the number of d6s the player rolls. You look for sixes among the rolled dice; these are what matter, while other numbers do not. For the vast majority of actions, rolling one six is enough, but sometimes the goal requires two or three—it depends on the difficulty of the action.

Besides dice and numerical skills, characters have plenty of characteristics that serve as roleplaying prompts. There are several fields defining relationships between characters and various motivations, as well as various injury consequences, which are more general descriptions of how a character should behave until they recover. By the way, the health mechanic is also quite interesting; a hero can withstand up to three physical and three mental injuries. Upon the fourth injury, they collapse and essentially cannot function until they heal.

A huge part of the rules is built on roleplaying rather than rolling dice. You could say that you roll dice only rarely, and great emphasis is placed on atmosphere, interaction, and collaborative storytelling, where both sides—the GM and the players—play an equally important role.

Beyond the rules and mechanics, it is important to mention that the story takes place a few centuries ago, in 18th-century Scandinavia. It is easily adaptable to any setting, including the Czech Republic. The core idea is the struggle between tradition and progress, with mythical creatures (sv. Väsen, where the book's title comes from) on the side of tradition. The game is genre-defined as horror; the players are normal people (mostly) without any special abilities, except for the ability to see invisible creatures. This genre also emphasizes atmosphere, and with a good GM, Vaesen can become a perfect experience and a pleasant change from classic D&D and similar games.

Perfektni rpg od svedskeho vydavatelstvi Free League, ktere uz ma za sebou radu zajimavych her. Vse jsou zalozene na jejich mechanice, ktera se jmenuje Year Zero Engine. V zaklade mechaniky jsou dice pooly z d6. Kazda postava ma radu atributu a schopnosti, a jejich suma se rovna poctu d6, ktere hrac ma hodit. Mezi hozenymi kostkami se pak hledaji setky, ty maji vyznam, ostatni cisla ne. Pro drtivou vetsinu akci staci vyhodit jednu sestku, ale obcas jsou cilem dve nebo tri — zalezi na obtiznosti akce.

Krome kostek a ciselnych schopnosti maji postavy dost charakteristik, ktere jsou jen popisy s pokynem ke hrani. Je nekolik poli, definujicich vztahy mezi postavami a ruzne motivace, a taky ruzne nasledky zraneni, ktere jsou jen obecnejsim popisem toho, jak se ma hrina chovat, nez se uzdravi. Mimochodem, mechanika zdravi je taky docela zajimava, hrdina muze vydrzet do tri fyzickych + tri psychickych zraneni, pri ctvrtem zraneni se rekne, ze se zhroutil a nemuze v podstate fungovat do te doby, nez se uzdravi.

Obrovska cast pravidel je postavena spis na hrani roli, nez na hazeni kostek, da se rict, ze kostkami se haze jen malo a velky duraz je kladen na atmosferu a interakce, spolecny storytelling, cili tvoreni pribehu, kde obe strany — jak pj, tak hraci, hrajou stejne velkou roli.

Mimo pravidla a mechaniky je dulezite zminit, ze dej se odehrava par stoleti zpatky, ve Skandinavii 18. stoleti. Snadno se prenasi do libovolneho prostredi, mezi jine se da prenest i do Ceska. Zakldani myslenkou je boj tradice a progresu se zapojenim mytickych bytosti (sv. Väsen, odsud pochazi nazev knihy) prave na strane tradice. Zanrove se hra definuje jako horror, hraci jsou normalni lidi (skoro) bez jakychkoliv zvlastnich schopnosti, az na schopnost videt neviditelne bytosti. I tento zanr zduraznuje atmosferu a s dobrym pj se muze Vaesen stat perfektnim zazitkem a prijemnou zmenou oproti klasickemu d&d apod.

I stumbled upon this module completely by accident. An image of it popped up on the web, caught my eye, and I was already reading what it was all about. Imagine a group similar to the one in Hellboy. But a bit more Nordic, a bit more 19th-century, and a bit more calm and mysterious. That’s Vaesen.
As a group, you solve various cases revolving around Vaesen, aka supernatural creatures taken from Nordic mythology. The book itself is gorgeous. It reminds me more of a collector's item than a manual. Beautiful illustrations, very clear descriptions. I can't wait to run it for my players.

Na tento modul jsem narazil zcela náhodou. Na netu na mě vyskočila stěna od tohoto modulu, zaujal mě obrázek a už jsem četl, o co se vlastně jedná. Představte si podobnou skupinu, jako v Hellboyi. Ale trochu víc severský, trochu víc kolem 19.století a trochu víc klidnější a mysteriózní. To je Vaesen.
Jako skupina řešíte různé případy, co se točí kolem Vaesen aka různá nadpřirozená stvoření přejatá ze severské mytologie. Kniha samá o sobě je nádherná. Připomíná mi to víc nějaký sběratelský kousek, než-li manuál. Nádherné ilustrace, dost srozumitelné popisy. Už se těším, až to budu vést pro své hráče.