Vaesen: Mythic Britain & Ireland

Free League Publishing has announced an upcoming Vaesen: Mythic Britain & Ireland expansion to their Vaesen: Nordic Horror Roleplaying game. Vaesen uses their Year Zero Engine (e.g., Mutant: Year Zero, Aliens, Forbidden Lands, Coriolis, Tales from the Loop).

It will apparently be coming to Kickstarter soon, but I'm looking forward to this quite a bit. The art for Vaesen is top notch. This seems like an easier sort of mythic backdrop for English speakers to sink their teeth into than Nordic horror. I also hope that means, espsecially if this sells well, that we can get Vaesen expansions set in other areas of Europe or the world (e.g., Central Europe, etc.).

 

[Aldarc]

omg....Vaesen set in colonial America? Combine creatures that stowed away on colonists' ships with native American equivalents? Don't the animal spirits of native American myths have a kind of parallel to vaesen?

These games are generally set in the 19th century. Even if it was colonial America or 19th century America, I'm not entirely sure if I would exactly feel all that comfortable with playing this setting in the Americas either given the not so fun issues of slavery, native Americans, etc. that were still rampant. (I seem to recall that there may be some mention of the American Civil War in Vaesen.) But I wouldn't touch Vaesen: Mythic America with a two meter pole.

 

[Tonguez]

It's basically a vaguely 19th century "mythic Scandinavia"* setting focused on a supernatural/paranormal investigative society whose members have the special sight to see the otherwise invisible vaesen (i.e., mythic creatures). There are plenty of television shows with similar premises set in the modern day, such as Grimm or Supernatural. So it will generally have a certain monster-of-the-week feel to it, with investigations generally focused on "solving" how to deal with a particular vaesen. Downtime. Then move on to the next vaesen mystery.

There is a lot of guidance for running adventures, mysteries, or whatever. Similar to Stonetop, there is a certain focus on upgrading your base of operations as part of the game.

I'll admit that I am not familiar enough with 19th century Scandinavian history to feel comfortable leaning or subverting the setting, even if it doesn't matter for its ahistorical setting. I suspect that this is one reason why this Mythic Britain expansion will be more popular in the English-speaking roleplaying spheres, as "vaguely Victorian settings" are fairly common in the TTRPG space.

It's also one reason why I would personally enjoy a more Austrian-Hungarian Empire themed setting. I would love to set adventures here in (19th century) Vienna; however, as an American, I don't have the same sort of familiarity with Central European monsters and folklore as someone who grew up on these stories. So having a set of culturally-appropriate vaesen or even archetypes would be quite handy for my purposes.

the scenarios tend to be along the lines of "supernatural weirdness in isolated village - investigate the stock weird people to discover whats going on and confront/banish the beastie" I dont know aything about Scandanavia but to me the adventures felt like they could easily be transferred to the British moors or the Hebrides/Shetland etc (which of course is practically Scandanavian anyway )

The end of the Vaesen beastiary section also gives suggestions for creating Vaesen from other cultures giving the example of Black Shuck of East England, Rübezahl a Bohemia/Polish mountain spirit and a Visayan Aswang.

Doing something like the Headless Horseman in Sleepy Hollow would be perfect as a Vaesen scenario

 

[Tonguez]

These games are generally set in the 19th century. Even if it was colonial America or 19th century America, I'm not entirely sure if I would exactly feel all that comfortable with playing this setting in the Americas either given the not so fun issues of slavery, native Americans, etc. that were still rampant. (I seem to recall that there may be some mention of the American Civil War in Vaesen.) But I wouldn't touch Vaesen: Mythic America with a two meter pole.

Slavery existed in Britain until 1833 too, it may not have been at the scale of the US trade, but it was Britains who were major impetus for the whole business. So why does Mythic Britain get a pass but not Mythic America?

 

[mcmillan]

Slavery existed in Britain until 1833 too, it may not have been at the scale of the US trade, but it was Britains who were major impetus for the whole business. So why does Mythic Britain get a pass but not Mythic America?

I think it's less directly Britain's association with the slave trade, and more the difference in how "Mythic X" would be represented. Both the original Vaesen setting in Sweden and what this expansion looks to doing is the create conflict between the traditional folklore from that region and the onset of modern society. I think an equivalent conflict in "Mythic America" would involve looking at how native culture and imported culture of people arriving by choice and by force interact. If this were done well I think it could make for a really interesting setting - but I'd also agree that there's a lot of potential for such a setting to go very wrong as well.

 

[Aldarc]

Slavery existed in Britain until 1833 too, it may not have been at the scale of the US trade, but it was Britains who were major impetus for the whole business. So why does Mythic Britain get a pass but not Mythic America?

Because the depiction of 19th Century Britain tends to be Victorian (1837-1901) and focused on the isles. One of its most problematic issues is the Irish Potato Famine and general treatment of Ireland. However, there is a much larger chunk of United States history that you can't conveniently ignore or gloss over IMHO when it comes slavery and native Americans.

 

[schneeland]

It's also one reason why I would personally enjoy a more Austrian-Hungarian Empire themed setting. I would love to set adventures here in (19th century) Vienna; however, as an American, I don't have the same sort of familiarity with Central European monsters and folklore as someone who grew up on these stories. So having a set of culturally-appropriate vaesen or even archetypes would be quite handy for my purposes.

Even as a German native, I would very much enjoy that (I have passing knowledge about folklore, but it's mostly from the region where I grew up and a bit from where my grandparents used to live until the end of the war). I really hope Free League gets to this in a future book - I would buy it without hesitation and it would also greatly increase the chance to actually play the game.

 

[Haiku Elvis]

Slavery existed in Britain until 1833 too, it may not have been at the scale of the US trade, but it was Britains who were major impetus for the whole business. So why does Mythic Britain get a pass but not Mythic America?

Actually slavery was always illegal in Britain part of our sneaky perfidious Albion ways. Owning slaves was legal in the British Empire until 1833 but not in Britain itself. Its much easier to enjoy the benefits of slavery when its all happening "over there". It doesn't invalidate your main point about Britain getting a pass it probably doesn't deserve it just means you're less likely to come face to face with with the badness in Britain itself.
Having said that once Britain banned slavery most of the country became militantly anti-slavery. For example see Manchester and the cotton famine during the US civil war.

 

[Bill Zebub]

So...I ponied up for the Vaesen core rules (PDF). It's really good. Gorgeous, too.

How's the print quality? I kind of want to own the whole thing in physical form now.

 

[Ulfgeir]

So...I ponied up for the Vaesen core rules (PDF). It's really good. Gorgeous, too.

How's the print quality? I kind of want to own the whole thing in physical form now.

I think the quality is very good. It is a bit thicker paper (slightly textured, and matte) as far as I could tell, than for example the D&D 5e PHB. It does come with a bookmark-ribbon. It has a sturdy hard cover. Doesn't feel as dense as the PHB. Can take a closer look when I get home from work tonight.