tl:dr; these zines are the pieces to either run the setting or pull out selected cool sub-pieces to enhance your own home-brew or tailore the flavour of other settings. If you want to inject a little fae forest into your game - whether whimsical or fierce, the Wormskin zines are both tool-kit and toybox.
So what is Dolmenwood? According to the site: "Necrotic Gnome's weird fairy tale campaign setting. Dolmenwood is a creepy forest on the edges of civilisation, steeped in occult energies, riddled with fungus, and haunted by fairies both wicked and kind." This is another of the awesome settings floating about that were touch-stones of the OSR. I believe they are written for B/X - but they caught my attention because I saw them frequently referenced in the 'heres how to do it' frame by others talking about the craft of making such zines. I cannot recall where I picked them up - perhaps in a sale on DriveThruRPG at some point or the recent Bundle of Holding.
But what is in the zines and why are they so highly spoken of?
Each zine is a beautiful piece; the writing and design teams have done sterling work - the content is great throughout. I have to say my personal preference is for those illustrations that cleave most closely to complex black and white like Lord Malbleat on pp21 of issue 2 or the great 'Shubs Nana' on pp42 of issue 7. I think what really sets the tone for me are the page 1 front plates.
This evokes the Art Nouveau style of Arthur Rackham, James Herbert MacNair, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Frances Macdonald and Cayley Robinson that I hold as the one true way for fairy stories to the drawn. As soon as I see this, folk memory activates, click, this is about to be a tale of the fae realms.
Ok, fine - but what is in them?
Issue 1 contains Map of Dolmenwood, The Moss Dwarf + Moss Dwarf NPCs, Fungi of Dolmenwood, The Grimalkin. Between the Moss Dwarf and the Grimalkin, you have a pair of highly-flavourful forest dwellers that immediately set the tone of what were are doing here. Combined with the Fungi piece with a selection and a way to build more we get a sense of the forest, and its more strange, dreamlike and less-immediately-lethal tone.
The fungi table is also the first of recurring d30 tables which can be one roll and take the line or roll for each column and recombine. I like this modularity and its reuseability a lot. Similarly each issue contains any mentioned monsters in a 'Monsters of...' final section.
Issue 2 contains Common Tavern Fare, Psychedelic Compounds, The High Wold, Lankshorn and Surrounds, People and Places of Lankshorn. We get nice d30 tables for Tavern Fare, Psychadelics which I can see myself using in both house campaigns. The detail on Lankshorn gives a good base for adventurers operating about the Dolmenwood. I like density and punchiness of this gazetteer section; usually two paragraphs, strewn with flavor and/or hooks.
Issue 3 contains Of Men, Goats, and Fairies in Dolmenwood, Languages of Dolmenwood, The Summer Stones and the Witching Ring, The Woods East of Lake Longmere, The Ruined Abbey of St Clewd, Level One: Surface Ruins. This issue delves into the history and culture of the Dolmenwood, expanding also on the ley lines and the great enchantment cast over part of the woods. The inhabitants of the various hexes are wonderful, badger-mages, old stones of power and encounters with fey creatures like the Mogglewomp, like more dangerous version of The Tiger Who Came To Tea, which fit perfectly with the fairy-tale aspect of the woods. The ruined Abbey provides a large site to explore with a great table of rumours true, false and partially each to lure parties there.
Issue 4 contains The Atacorn’s Retreat, The Fickleness of Fairy Magic, Lesser Stones of Dolmenwood, The Ruined Abbey of St Clewd, Level Two: The Crypts. Particular favourites are the Fickleness article giving a selection of options where your fae-forged magical item will cease to operate and another great d30 table for generating stones of power throughout the woods. Here we find the depths of St. Clewds contain eldritch horrors for those who wish to venture that far.
Issue 5 contains The Watchers of the Wood, Hex-Crawling in Dolmenwood, Hag’s Addle, The Hag of the Marsh. The Watchers are effectively a culture described - a faction within the woods who can serve as allies or more probably foes. The hex-crawl rules are good - pages 14 and 15 together give everything needed and could be repurposed to any hex crawl (with the supporting tables re-tailored to your setting). More hexes and a potential driver of activities (the Hag) rounds out this issue.
Issue 6 contains The Fairy Lords of Dolmenwood, The Brackenwold Calendar, Prigwort and Surrounds, The Baker’s Dozen, The Gingerbread Grimoire, People and Places of Prigwort, Spirituous Beverages, Monsters of the Wood. The calendar helps bring flavour to the campaign - 7 day weeks to not get too unfamiliar but an evocative reskin helps. The unseasons and high days offer interesting random encounters too. The centrepiece of this issue is the magical bakery found in the woods which has great potential for adapting all sorts of 'gingerbread house' deep forest tales. We also get a neat d20 table for spirits (alcoholic) and the town of Prigwort to serve as a more wealthy centre of operations after Lankshorn of Issue 2.
Issue 7 contains Common Names in Dolmenwood, Henchmen of Dolmenwood, Drigbolton and Surrounds, East of Prigwort, From Lankshorn to Dreg. Between the d30 table of names and the d30 table of henchmen including weapons, armour, spells, misc. gear, motivations and ambitions this is a great general NPC generator useful both in Dolmenwood or anywhere. The rest of this issue details out three regions of hexes with more cool ideas and one of my favourite pieces of art (as noted above).
Issue 8 contains The Sisters of the Chalice and the Moon, Camping in Dolmenwood, Strange Waters. The Sisters form another faction similar to the Watchers who could be allies or foes to adventurers. I find the camping rules a little detailed for the game I am running but I could see they may be fun for another; I would use the d30 campsites table though, it adds some nice flavour. Finally we have a d30 'strage waters' table which also rich inspiration for any campaign.
I hope this gives you a sense of what you would find within them. While there are multiple 'this is not a full setting' disclaimers splashed across the Necrotic Gnome site there is tons of quality content in here to be applied for your game. I particularly like the many d30 tables, the hex-crawling rules and everything around the standing stones - the modular nature of all of these makes them very easy to add into your game. Similarly, the Watchers or the Sisters are great ready-to-roll factions that could find a home in many different games.
I stop here in the interests of pushing this out the door. For another perspective see Beyond Fomalhaut where for "the first time in the history of this blog, [they] hereby award Wormskin a rating of five stars with the Prestigious Monocled Bird of Excellence." The ancient roots of the project can be seen at The City Of Iron for those who like web-archaeology. There is a preview 'Welcome to Dolmenwood' pdf on the Necrotic Gnome site where you can also find links through to their Patreon if you wish to support the project.
There are some nice compilations and tools online - like a list of Hex descriptions and the wormskin hashtag on twitter is a good place to keep up with whats going on.
I for one am looking forward to the next stage of the project.
No comments:
Post a Comment