Wolves Preparation Report

Realizing--with the collapse of my Black Sword Hack campaign in March, and the end of the high school year for the D&D Club--that I would be GMing nothing during the summer, I sent a query out to my gaming acquaintances about what they might want to play from a shortlist. Luckily, Luke Gearing's Wolves upon the Coast won the election. The opening session was delayed by squirrels chewing on the internet cables, but we've managed two sessions since. What follows is a GM's perspective of Wolves system and content. Some of the structure is informed by Idle Cartulary's list of referee's questions for a session report. A report on play from the GM's chair will follow.

Players

Four players ultimately joined. One has been playing RPGs (starting with me) since 1986, two more have participated in at least a hundred online sessions with me over the past few years, and the fourth was entirely new to table-top gaming, a high school friend of my wife who was curious about "D&D." I requested that they roll their silver and shop prior to the first session, so that we could begin immediately with the erstwhile thralls standing over their dead master, per Gearing's poetic start. I also ask that they formulate a sentence or two to describe their characters and roll specified dice for a starting rumor known. Everyone complied and even rolled up their whole character (not that much more work in WutC), so we were ready to hit the ground running. 

Player-Side Lead Up

I provided the old hands a précis of WutC's rule idiosyncrasies, and a longer prose description of such, noting not just mechanics, but vaguely how monsters and magic worked in the Wolves world. I wrote up a very short explanation of what a hex crawl is, the system's advancement method (boasting), and a suggestion for the range of player options of what kind of campaign it might be. In the meta-game realm, I revealed that the adventure's keys were fairly bare-bones (one of the players GMs Stonehell). I asked if the players would prefer to do some of the in-world dice-rolling, for weather, random encounters, and such, but with one exception they demurred. (My purpose here is not reduce GM workload, but rather to absolve me of the responsibility of generating bad things with my dice, and shift that blame to the players' dice.) The characters' boat was set up as an in-world explanation of the campaign's open table and lost PC replacement system. Finally, some setting information was furnished: a prosaic rendering of Gearing's starting poetry; a slight rewrite of "Upon the Land" (p. 14) that included naming Ruislip and Albann; and an in-world history of the islands in a Beowulf pastiche, something the PCs might have heard from a scop or skald, the chronology a little muddled. This was to preclude some of the "What does my character know about this?" queries. 

Players' starting view of the world map in the VTT

House Rules (It's not that many changes, I swear)

I regard Wolves' mechanics as a big improvement on OD&D. The armor interactions with other subsystems is elegant, the differentiation of weapons is a little clunky, but nice in a system where all PCs are fighters, and the magic system is an unending delight (in theory, so far). The quantum language rules, the HD re-rolls on leveling, and the diminishment of ability scores' impact on combat rolls are fantastic. The multi-attacker to hit bonus helps solve the whiffing problem. That said, I rewrote a couple of the weaker weapon advantages (spear and longbow), reduced the cost of literacy to a half-slot, required bandages for ≤0 hp "treatment," disallowed lamp oil as a weapon (since Greek fire is in game), changed monsters' to hit modifier to equal their hit dice, and added shield-equipping rules to dissuade sundering power-gaming.

I also made some procedural additions. Rules as written, Wolves' combat is less deadly than D&D 5E's, provided no poisons or drownings are involved. I made 0 hp an unconscious condition, and added a d20 (subtract hp under 0) death and dismemberment table, with subtables for damage location or limb lost, and such. I composed a very streamlined table for the use of allied NPCs in combat (calculate straight damage by number vs. AC and roll each NPC's chance of death, usually a 1 on a given die), because rolls in hireling-supported parties are rather cumbersome if done each round of combat. Despite having a lot of hex entries that include things like “340 [Humanoids] claim this place as home” and “90 footman, 30 armoured footmen, 60 skirmishers, 12 horsemen" at the end of a settlement description, there are no mass combat rules in the Wolves system. While it might be fun in a face-to-face game to get out a sand table with terrain to resolve a warfare issue with a mini-(or whole additional-)game--and at least two Chainmail-type systems that have been written for Wolves are up on itch.io--I decided I'd rather have quick resolutions at the virtual table. So now there's a very general 2d6 sum vs. 2d6 sum procedure for that. The Reavers zine offered a somewhat complex system for foraging (one that could lead to standard combat while hunting or fishing), but I decided to abstract any sort of damage suffered, and reduce the effort (so that foraging merely to keep up food requirements wouldn't completely consume playing days), and wrote my own. In fitting with Wolves' jankiness and brevity, the subsystem comprises one paragraph and three tables.

Content Adjustments

As many people have noted, Wolves is actually a pleasure to read, more than most modules. "Evocative" and "actionable," overused praise words in the world of OSR reviewing, actually apply. This world was something I could "live" in for a long while. There wasn't much to change. Like the ruleset, what was most needed were a few additives to supplement gaps in the material, at least in areas where I didn't feel confident with improvisation. 

I gathered Celtic, Old English (even if not entirely "accurate" for the setting), pseudo-Pictish, Latinate, Old Norse, and Germanic name lists for NPCs. There are many instances of prose like "he [named character] would use it to kill the father [unnamed] of his beloved [unnamed]." The players, of course, will ask for names, and I want to seem to be prepared. One of the reasons the text is so readable is that it doesn't bother with a tedious timeline to inform the GM of what happened every year prior to the adventure starting; however, the cultures depicted often reiterated oral histories of heroes and rulers that were the grounds for the right to rule, so I read some primary and secondary histories, and collected those types of stories to thicken the culture, to put in the mouths of NPCs. As many of these stories are (were in real life) conflicting, the accuracy doesn't matter a whole lot. This is also practice for riffing on a historical query by the players, providing a set of rudiments that NPCs might use to frame their claims. I researched terms typical of "dark ages" governance and social class, even if my players don't really care about that sort of "authenticity." This vocabulary will be sprinkled lightly through the sessions, so as to not make the game a drudgerous learning exercise. I also referenced Wolves of God and Wulfwald for more game-able culture "sparks," though not procedure.

Wolves is occasionally frustrating in that it doesn't always state what's in a hex in the entry itself, such as the treasure in 02.05 which is only described in 06.10. Cross references between connected hexes also tend to go wanting. I did some of the legwork to mark these. Gearing argues that

Rumours are generally the best way to seed information about modules, dungeons, whatever, into your game world - but you’ll need to think about what the people of your world will talk about in relation to each specific place.

Wolves does not come with any rumor tables. It does, however, offer dozens of rumors in the hex entries. I compiled them in various geographies and themes, and each player will start with a few.

One error that Gearing made, I think, was keeping the names of the OD&D monsters he rewrote. Many of these recreations are vastly different from the originals, but in using the familiar names, players are going to see in their mind's eye the old familiar elves, orcs, kobolds, &c., instead of the (usually) much fresher re-imaginings. As GM Moose wrote in Whale Roads, the other published campaign zine,

... the Bones of the Earth - or Children of Stone, as the campaign came to know them - had a sense of wonder and mystery and menace about them that the pop-cultural preconceptions around the word "kobold" would have obliterated.

The referees of Reavers felt the same, using "orcneas" instead of "orc." My players will learn of the Dyndur (Oremen), the Tesch-Tesch, Taran, Dweorgas, and Alfar. For a similar reason I will only be referring to raiders, reavers, and maybe even sea robbers, but not pirates. I kept Ogre.

Changing the map

The rivers of Albann are a geographic abomination, worse than Middle-Earth's, so I redrew them to not split going downstream. Besides, vikings were good at ship portage, were they not? That's a nice bit of OSR-style problem solving. In an empty ocean hex, I also placed The Isle, Gearing's module that is more-or-less set in the same milieu. I may plop down a couple more adventures I already own that are properly flavored, although the map is fairly dense already. We will see what grabs the players' fancy.

Scop's Chronicle

HEY, NOW HEAR What befell the Races of Men In Ages past: Once the Sea claimed all the Land, But It rose up, And was peopled by Cain’s Descendants, An evil Brood, Outcasts: Alfar & Ents & Giants, Who waged War on God & won themselves Their Reward. They made Bog and Moor, And the Giants mantled the Hills With their cunning Work, While Mountains and Wood grew with Dark Beasts that ached in Shadow. Islands escaped their Moorings, The Deep spawning Leviathan. Tribe upon Tribe arrived over the Sea’s Swells. Strong-hearted Kings with Iron & Blood, Strong-willed Druids with Leaves & Soil, Overthrew Cain’s Children, their Treasures scattered. It is said that Dragons & Mare-Men aided in this Insurrection. The greedy Sea reclaimed some Lands in Vengeance. The Armies of Not-Men and Men then came with their War-Carts, And stole the Gods; Some of the Legionaries still walk, Although the Men have gone, their Treasures scattered. Strong-hearted Kings with Iron & Blood, Strong-willed Druids with Leaves & Soil, Overthrew the Empires’ Children. It is said that Demons & Dyndur aided in this Insurrection. Architecture of Bronze & Stone remains & walks in Vengeance. The Reavers of the Northmen then came on their Boats And laid them with Goods and Men; The Heathen, as was their Custom, Inflicted Injury upon the Christians, their Treasures scattered. Weak-hearted Kings of Wood & Water, Weak-willed Druids of Ash & Saplings, Fell to fighting one another And but the Headmen and petty Priests are left, The Land’s Breast unmastered spawning Dark Beasts that ache in Shadow.

Foraging Procedure

Livestock may forage “for free” on land, except warhorses. Warhorses require 3 rations per day. Mules/donkeys and pigs require 2 rations per day at sea. Chickens require ⅓ rations per day at sea. A killed chicken provides 1 fresh ration; a killed sheep or goat provides 10 fresh rations; pig, horse, or mule/donkey 20; a cow/ox/steer 30. Fresh rations expire at the end of the day; trail rations 50-50 expire each day following the first. 1 person can spend 1 day converting 10 fresh/trail rations to 5 trail/dry rations. PCs (and companions) can spend a half day on land foraging (in non-desert [-4], non-mountain [-2] hexes) to earn (2d6): 2-3: 0 trail rations 4: 0.5 trail rations per forager 5-7: 1 trail ration per forager 8-10: 2 trail rations per forager 11: 3 trail rations per forager 12: 2 trail rations per forager + 2d10 sp worth saleable prizes PCs (and companions) can spend a half day hunting (non-desert) to roll (d6, +1 if party has multiple bows): 1-3: No game 4: 2d6 trail rations recovered + 50/50 PC takes d6 damage 5: 2d6 +1 per hunter trail rations recovered 6: 3d6 +1 per hunter trail rations recovered + 2d20 sp worth of pelts/horns/claws 7: 3d6 +2 per hunter trail rations recovered PCs (and companions) with nets and rods on a river, coast, or sea hex, may spend half a day fishing [boats may move at half-speed, rounded down during] to roll (d6) 1: No catch 2: 0.5 trail rations per fisher 3: 1 trail ration per fisher 4: 2 trail rations per fisher & predators attracted [which may produce more rations] 5: 2 trail rations per fisher 6: 3d6+1 trail ration per fisher

Screams and Silence (WutC Session Two)

The adventurers, down a man, return for more.

Spoilers for Wolves upon the Coast follow, of course. 800 words.

HEY, NOW HEAR 

What the sword and bow and rockpick of the
Saviors of Culemwardern,

The Whalekilers

Did in days gone by,

What deeds made their power.

DUGSON, the butcher of the Tesch-Tesch;

PICTIDOTTIR, silenced novice sorceress;

BILL NINE-TOES, head-struck, druid-slayer,

SCOURED the windswept lands 

To put down an 

Ancient Druid and

CHALLENGED

The Tesch-Tesch 

At its roost.

But before:

Forgall’s mother

Crept from the palisade

Told of Wards.

Heather Beer (courage) and Hawthorne Berries (the Unliving) they knew, 

And the Yellow Flower Elecampane of Albann (the nose).

She told of Yew shields’ advantage

Promised a spell

If Cioran were deposed.

A fog 

A thick flowing broken cloud

Across the Sea & Land

A fog

Made open waters a treachery.

East

To Cloyne 

A silent people, fish-catchers, swine-herders

Painted blue 

Stared

“We are protected,” declared their speaker

“You were not meant to know how.”

“Tihe druids!” said Dugson.

East
To desolation

Where the Land’s bones 

Burst in furrows from the earth

They beached Sundrgammr.

(Robust Knut, voice lost, could not boast, stayed aboat,

The mule, too.)

Wind-whipped trees, bent,

Spiky shrubs, Hawthorne, collected.

The gusts screamed here.

In the Land’s bones 

Wards etched in

Bone, dirt, blood, twigs, feathers

In threes.

Claimed by the Whalekillers,

Filthed feathers in Bill’s hat.

East

To Land’s Edge

A roped climb to the shore

A boulder tumbled

Striking Bill’s pate

The Whalekiller inert in the sea’s lather

Atop the cliff

Nothing.

Nothing 

Pushed another,

But Dugson’s quickness

The rock into the water’s froth,

The seabirds startled.

“I will find the rock thrower and kill them!”

Pictidottir shrieked

The words taken by the wind.

Footprints in the sand to

A cave
Marked of blood in threes,

A home,

Feathers and eggshells and wind scouring inside.

A pile of

Dung, decades in the making.

“Shove your sword in the shit.”

“How hard were you hit in the head?”
“There is a reason for this mound.”

“We are stalked by an animal!”

“Beasts don’t shit where they sleep.”

And then

Appeared

From Nothing

A man, but barely:

Eyes mad

Blood-smeared and feathered, naked

But for a necklace, a wooden claw,

Struck at Drystan.

Bill’s arrow through his throat,

His bowels 

Leaving one last mark in the cave,

Dugson depositing this offering atop the mound.

“I must dig,” Bill said, taking the claw.

“My boast was lost,” Pictidottir admitted,

“May I have his necklace?”

Three shriveled eyes

Linked by a strip of bloody hide:
“It is all yours.”

Bill dug for hours

With wood and stone,

Pictidottir watched the tides.

The prospecting struck coin of gold, etched,

A sacrificial knife of stone,

A bird’s hood,

From beneath the waste.

Bill smirked.

The druid had tossed the grapnel 

Into the sea,

But they made the boat

On Ruislip’s north shore.

Pictidottir dreamed:

Grasping the necklace

Birds watched her move through the Land’s bones,

But the blue-painted people reacted not.

She awoke for her watch,

The fog lifted and

Figures approaching along the beach

Toward Cloyne,

Blue painted, the lead in a cloak of fern.

“To the sea! To the sea!”

Sundrgammr was afloat.

The coast hugged,

Tacking against the North wind,

The spire like stone spears thrust from the sea

Beneath overcast skies.

Ashore,

The horse-bird’s outraged cry

The Tesch-Tesch swooped.

Archers and slingmen loosed

Four shots struck as it arrived:

Eyes mad, talons reaching, mouth screaming.

A claw knocked Bill

Again senseless on the sand,

Barely alive. 

A beak crushed Pictidottir’s throat,

Now gurgling on the rocks,

Barely alive.

Dugson brought his blade down

A wing’s bones snapped.

The monster crashed into the surf,

A boast realized,

Two Whalekillers near dead

At the base of the wave-lapped outcrop.

White chunks, the horse-bird’s dung

Striped the rocks:

Hair and fish-bones, half-digested.

Screams now,

Smaller, nearer

A nest atop the crag.

“I shall climb this spiky hellspire

And loot the bird’s nest.”

Without grapnel, the Druid’s revenge from beyond death,

Dugson fell.

Dugson fell again.

Battered.

Riding the wind back to Culemwardern.

Bill awake.

Pictidottir silenced.

Greeted as heroes

(Forgall and his mother excepted),

Feted and fed fish,

Plentiful fish.

Mead was drunk in joy

(Save Forgall in his cups),

Cioran toasted:

“More than Whalekillers

They have slain Sea & Land & Sky!”

Other blubber-mongers arrived,

With the sea’s honeycomb,

Stinking sweetly.

(Forgall and his mother seethed.)

Pictidottir remembered her letters,

She would boast in script.

Worked on hand signals,

Learned the eyed necklace hung around her crushed neck.

Pictidottir the Vanished.

Pictidottir the Silent. 

Bill threaded gold through shells,

Attached the feathers of the 

Tesch-Tesch:

A heroic claim for all to witness.

Dugson’s gold 

Bought an iron claw:

They would return to the hellspire

In a week’s time,

The second Thonarsday of Thrimilch,

His failures to be reconciled.