Trudvang's Wildheart

In 2017, I supported the KickStarter (KS) for The Trudvang Chronicles, a Swedish RPG based on Nordic and Celtic sagas and myths. What drew me to the game was the amazing art.

I was finally able to run Wildheart, a 65 page campaign that came with the KS. The game took about 4 sessions (4 hrs each) to finish, but the game could have gone longer, but my players were getting tired of the system and game.

One minor issue was bad copyediting and awkward translation from Swedish to English. I ran into several issues in the core books and in Wildheart also.

The campaign requires experienced PCs and none were provided with the campaign, but I found pre-gens in the back of the Game Master's Guide, otherwise character generation would be a session in itself. Riotminds provided online tools for character generation if you supported the KS.

The system requires you to take into account armor and weapons which affect your initiative. The number of times you can attack are based on your weapon speed. How many Combat Points you want to spend on each attack is also kept track of. Basically, this was too crunchy (and record keeping) for my group of players. A lot of prep work is need to be ready for combat. Basically, it helps if PCs have a menu of combat options pre-calculated before a battle. Otherwise, there's a lot of number crunching and decision making during combat. For instance, if you plan on parrying, you need to hold back some Combat Points during your attacks.

I just found the combat system a bit too cumbersome for my tastes.

What I really liked was the take on religion and magic and of course, the illustrations.

Below are spoilers for Wildheart and ideas on how to improve the campaign, so don't read further if you plan on playing it.

=== SPOILERS BELOW ===

The whole premise behind Wildheart is that it's an enchanted forest where creatures get trapped in it and the only way to escape is to find the questions and answers to at least 4 secrets. There are mock secrets which are questions and answers which do not count towards the 4 needed to escape the forest.

The history behind Wildheart is that it's a magical forest, but at one point the dragon Elmtongue was slain there and his blood corrupted the forest. If any intelligent life (things with souls vs animals for food) is slain in the forest, its blood feeds the taint in the soil. If enough blood is shed, Dark Dwellers emerge and will slaughter those responsible. So, the old inhabitants of Wildheart know this and shy away from bloodshed, but some are not against asking any ignorant newbies to do their dirty work for them, asking new arrivals to do away with their old enemies in the forest.

I liked the individual encounters and each one had some very interesting take on fantasy tropes, but on the whole, it fell apart. The main issue is that the secrets don't hold the game together. I think the GM needs to tie the secrets into a solution for ridding the Wildheart of the darkness, not just collect 4 unrelated Q&A secrets and get out of jail. Also the secrets were just questions about Wildheart and not riddles per se which I would have preferred.

How would I change it?

Maybe have the secrets reveal the origin of Wildheart and by understanding its origin, figure out how to tame it.

For instance, have the PCs learn about how the sword Alpdeed slew Elmtongue and that it still has power over the dragon blood seeped into Wildheart. Alpdeed is obtained from the Braskelwurm either by theft, conquest, or trickery. The Braskelwurm offers the sword (not naming it), if the PCs kill the Lundwurm and return with its eyes as proof. In my game, the PCs encountered the Lindwurm after meeting the Braskelwurm and decided they couldn't survive combat with the Lindwurm and left, but they noted how the Lindwurm's eyes looked and hunted large game and used an Elk's eyes to trick the Braskelwurm.

If the PCs befriend the dwarves looking for Timil, have them forge weapons in Runvid's Smithy (or get Herlaug the Blacksmith to do it) as payment for helping them escape Wildheart. Those weapons would be effective against the Dark Dwellers.

Obtain the Demon-Killing axe from the Bleeding Giant Tree.

Then go to Oltur's Den and have a diseased tree growing out of Elmtongue's ribcage. Have a tell-tale heart beat slowly thudding in the cavern. Inside the tree is the still beating heart of Elmtongue. The Demon-Killing axe is needed to cut open the tree bark and blood wells up from the cut tree, Dim Dwellers rise from the ground and attack, protecting the tree. Once through the bark, Elmtongue's exposed heart must be killed a second time with either Alpdeed or Brenag's Dragon Knight sword. Then the darkness and curse would start to fade away.

So, if this is the solution to Wildheart, then I'd change the Q&A to reflect this such as:

Q: If a tree bleeds, what's are its seeds?
A: Dark Dwellers in earthen cellars.

Q: Wildheart, blackheart, depart?
A: Once slain, it grows, twice slain, the gallows.

=== Misc Notes ===

Before running the game, I pre-rolled the weather and encounters for 30 days of travel. As each day elapsed, I checked off each encounter and day of weather. Also after the PCs got into the rhythm of hunting, I removed that aspect of the game and just told them, you know the drill, we'll just assume you continue doing that, but it's off screen.

p.25 Dead Forest Trolls. It is not clear from the description, but I inferred that the trolls died of hypothermia. The Forest Trolls are 1/2 human size.

p.26 Dead Hunter. After careful reading, you'll have to infer what happened since it's not spelled out explicitly. The hunter shot his arrow into the air hoping that the arrow would leave the forest. Attached to the arrow is a note warning others away from it and to burn down the forest. Well, after wandering through Wildheart, he finds his arrow which was still in Wildheart and dies there in despair as even his best efforts amounted to nothing.

p.27 Entourage of Dwarves. These are Timil's relatives looking for him. My players had run into Timil earlier and offered to take them to Timil. These wound up as allies.

p.40 Kvaler and the Raven. I decided that Kvaler had made a mistake and was tricked by the Raven. Kvaler had almost gotten all 4 Q&A and was only missing the answer to #1. So why would he have agreed to a game of Kroke's squares with the Raven? I think he assumed it would have been a quick game and a quick exit from Wildheart, and also he wasn't sure if he had some mock secrets, so he agreed to the Raven's terms and got trapped in a hundred year game. I had the PCs note that the grass was visibly growing as time was sped up. The PCs tried to sabotage the game by overturning the board. I let them do it, but since no one would agree to the last position of the board, the NPCs wanted to cheat, the game had to be started all over again. When the PCs left and rejoined the Entourage of Dwarves at Runvid's Cairn, the Dwarves noted that the PCs were gone for a long time. If the campaign is modified, Kvaler can become some sort of ally that returns later as I assume Kvaler had other epic things to do once freed. Kvaler may also help them rid Wildheart of the taint, but he must leave in order to return with greater magics to tame Wildheart.

p.47 Chamber of the Dragon. As per my earlier musings, I'd put a Giant Bleeding Tree growing right out of the ribcage of the dragon skeleton. And a faint drum beat can be heard throughout the chamber.

p.50-51 Runvid's Cairn. 2. Trap. These traps a bit repetitive and stupid. At the bottom of every stair is a pit trap. After a while, the PCs tripped every pit trap seeing if there was anything more to them. The windy intestinal corridors that lead to nowhere were also tiresome. I'd recommend removing the windy corridors and make the map more straight forward.

p.52 Smithy. I put a smorgasbord of runes on the anvil. I decided the Entourage of Dwarves were not only interested in finding Timil, but were interested in tidying up Runvid's Cairn, resetting the traps, and using the Smithy to forge some magical weapons which they were going sell to offset the cost of their travels. I decided Thuul dwarves with Thuul Forging were immune to the cursed aspect of the anvil.

p.52 Sacrificial Place in the Marshlands. The slipperiness of the stepping stones became an odd issue. As the PCs retried multiple times, they eventually were able to reach the small islet, so I wondered why even have them make these skill rolls. Then it came to me. It's preparation for when they have to flee. When the dead reanimated, the PCs couldn't defeat them, so they ran. This is when you should have them make skill rolls. Maybe when they approach the islet, have them roll once, just to demonstrate how slippery it is and those who failed would just slip off and fall into the water, but they all make it to the islet. I also didn't activate the Draugr until they touched the altar. The PCs also dug around the marsh as I put some rotted ropes and chains on the surrounding trees, they eventually found some human remains which reanimated as the Draugr.

p.57 Sarcophagus. Why are there urns of ashes if there's a sarcophagus? So, I removed all the urns and left the bodies in the sarcophagi. And I engraved the name of the occupants and death notes on the sarcophagi.

p.58 Timil's Elk. The picture on p.59 is Timil's Elk, but no girl is riding him. I assume the girl is Goldglitter from p.61. So, if you show the picture, tell the players there's no girl riding the Elk.

p.57 Brenag's Sarcophagus. "An ornamental Dragon Knight sword of iron (masterful quality)" This is way incorrect. An ornamental sword is for show only and is not functional and used for dress events. This really confused my players. It should really be A Dragon Knight sword of iron (masterful quality) with adornaments.