Wilderfeast - Monster Hunter + Delicious in Dungeon

[AttentionHorse]

It's kinda weird that there's not a single thread or post about Wilderfeast so I'm starting one now.

Wilderfeast is a TTRPG that's a mix between Monster Hunter and Delicious in Dungeon (Dungeon Meshi). It's about fighting single huge monsters, cooking them, eating them and absorbing their body parts for new abilities. Every character chooses his class (a "wilder"), which mainly means which cooking utensil he's going to use as a weapon - a huge cleaver, quick and long fork, a big pan etc. You then go out on a journey in a chosen region randomly generating areas, dangers and communities, tracking the monster, gathering knowledge about his weaknesses and weapons, and then finally you fight the beast. After you defeat it (or not) you can add previously gathered ingredients to your meal that give you some bonuses and abilities. Then you mutate, change your body and steal the monsters' powers (AFAIK that's the only way you can advance your wilder).

As you see the game has a precise structure, which might be a turnoff for some people - lately my tastes are changing and I actually want a specific gameplay structure in my games, so I like it. This is how the game works in broad strokes:

The Trail - this is the journey phase, in which you start in random Area within a chosen Region. Each Region has described Areas, each one can have different monsters, ingredients to gather and dangers to face. GM also can secretly move the Monster on the map so that the PCs can track it. There are Events that can happen during travel from Area to Area, although they're not very fleshed out.

The Hunt - main course of the game. The combat system is designed for fighting single big enemies. Each monster (there's about 50 of of them in the book) has specific powers attached to specific parts, and wilders attack those parts to cripple the monster and eventually defeat it. It's not very crunchy - distances are abstract, combat takes place in zones, math is simple and quick, so are the rolls. You have various attacks with each utensil and you get new ones when you steal abilities from eaten monsters.

The Feast - an event that's usually not important at all in other ttrpgs, here it's a crucial part of the experience that sometimes can take few days of game time. You have to decide how to cook the monster, which ingredients to add, is this meal connected to your past, what new memories are you creating when eating this meal. In return you can gain information about monsters' abilities and traits.

------------------------------------------------

I've ordered it recently and I'll get the physical book and cards and GM screen in a few days, but I'm curious if anyone here played it or read it and what are your opinions of it.

 

[AttentionHorse]

Wow, seriously no one? I'm still very surprised that this game flew under the radar of most TTRPG communities.

Got the books and cards two days ago, currently in the process of reading it all. It seems to be low-to-mid crunch level, 90% of systems concern the monster combat, every monster seems to be very well designed and has tips for the GM about their behaviour during combat. I was also pleasantly surprised that this is a post-post-apocalyptic science fantasy game with stone age/medieval technology but also with levitating bullet trains. Worldbuilding seems interesting, a lot of space for GM input. It's clear to me that procedures and combat are the main stars of this game, and that's fine - I'm currently running Sundered Isles and UVG, which are a lot lighter in combat than most systems so I'm itching to run something more tactical and structured combat-wise.

PS. Game has a lot of Conditions, Traits and Techniques, each with unique rules, so I can't imagine playing this without the addon cards. It's obvious that this TTRPG was designed by board game creators (not a bad thing).

 

[Autumnal]

Sounds fascinating. Probably not something I’d want to play myself, but fruitful inspiration even so.

 

[Xamnam]

They do have a free quick-start , for anyone curious about checking it out.

 

[jian]

That does look really interesting. We quite enjoyed Tiny Taverns, which is in a similar vein (but about running a cosy fantasy inn). I’ll have a look at the Quickstart.

 

[AttentionHorse]

Currently reading through all the rules. It has interesting mechanics:

• There are 4 Styles that each player and monster has - Mighty, Swift, Precise, Tricky.
• There are 12 Skills - Assurance, Call, Craft, Cure, Display, Grab, Hoard, Search, Shot, Strike, Study, Traversal.

A test normally looks like this:

• GM and player decide what Style and Skill fit the situation. For example when you quickly try to absorb important information about an incoming monster you use Swift Study, if you want to taunt an enemy you use Mighty Call etc.
• Then you take as many d6s as you have in this Style
• Then you choose which Action die to take - you either take one d8 (if you're using your human side) or one d20 AND remove one d6 (if you're using a trait from your wild side)
• Then you roll all the dice. Every result on a d6 that is 5 or higher is a success. If you have a success you check the Action die to see what's the degree of the success - 1-4 is partial success, 5-7 full success, 8+ is a crit.
• After the roll you can modify the results by freely distributing your Skill points between all the dice (even the Action Die). So if you roll 4,5,2 and a 7 on Action Die and your skill Call is a 2, then you can spend one point to get another success (4->5) and spend another to change a full success into a critical success (7->8).
• Every additional Success can be spent on using your techniques or traits.
• In some situations you can get Advantage or Disadvantage on your tests. Advantage means that the results for a success on a d6 are 4-6, Disadvantage means that the result for a success is 6.

The decision to roll d8 or d20 is important - each time you fail while using a d20 (giving in to your wild side) means that the Harmony of your whole pack decreases. Harmony is an important attribute, it describes how in touch you are with nature and animal kingdom and with your packmates. When your Harmony drops to zero you get Disadvantage on all tests until you increase it.

I'll write a bit later about the rules for Travel ("The Trail"), cause they seem kinda weird!

 

[mekhawretch]

My partner got really into the Delicious in Dungeon anime, and so I've had to figure out the edibility and effects of all the monsters she kills in our game. I didn't know this game existed till now so I may have to pick it up and crib from it, thanks for recommending!

 

[AttentionHorse]

So now let's move on to The Trail!

This is the part of the game that focuses on picking a destination and traveling there while tracking a monster. This is how it works:

1. Signs - party picks a "Sign", which is a rumor, quest, task, a danger, to pursue. The GM may for example create 3-4 Signs that something's wrong in a specific region and players pick one quest.

2. Regions and Areas - Party enters a Region in which there is a Sign to pursue. Regions are made of 10 Areas that are connected to each other. Every Region and every Area has different descriptions, different monsters to encounter, different weather and ingredients to gather. There are 4 Main Regions, so there's 40 Areas Total - a lot of locations to explore

3. Tracking - this is the part where you track the monsters that's causing trouble or IS in trouble (Wilders also help monsters). This is pretty simple, GM secretly moves the monster around the map and leaves tracks behind it for the players to track it.

4. Travel Rounds - this is where it gets... kinda weird. During travel you can do 4 things:

• Navigate - free play, explore the area, talk to people, just a normal session without specific rules. "Navigate" is specifically for gathering knowledge about local ingredients and safe ways to travel in this Area.
• Forage - gather Ingredients if you know how.
• Camp - restore hp, remove conditions, cook food
• Move on - travel to other connected Area if you know how.

Sounds simple right? Well, a lot of people (including me) have some problems with the Travel Rounds. Even the creators made literally 3 different systems for travel before book was printed. Travel is weirdly focused on gathering information about local ingredients and ways to forage and gathering knowledge about safe ways to move in the area. It's a weird focus. There are examples, but they don't help much:

You don't have to forage, but you probably should because your food will be a lot more powerful. To Forage a plant you have to find out how to do it in some way. Each Area has unique ingredients granting different boons, so you have to gather information in every Area to know a specific style required to forage it. As a GM, this sounds like a nightmare - improvising or preparing a way for the players to get new info about 3-5 ingredients in EVERY AREA sounds like a ton of work. And then also making it interesting every single time? Not happening.

Then there's the "find out how to travel safely in this Area" thing, which again - is weird. You don't have to do it, but you probably should because if you fail the "Move On" roll then there are big penalties. And again - how many times is it possible for the GM to make the same thing interesting? This is such a specific action to include in the travelling procedure that I'm struggling to imagine how to even do it during the session and make it fun.

Unfortunately, the book doesn't help in this regard. There's no random plot tables, random location tables, random ideas for ingredient/area info. The only thing that you have is the short description and a table:

It seems to me that this game is unfortunately prep heavy if you want to make The Trail interesting. You can of course just make a travel montage, do some rolls and skip the "Navigate" part. I think this is how I'll do it, and I'll focus more on the monster fights and Den management. It's just easier to accept that this game isn't about exploration and random adventures or encounters, it's strictly about monster fighting.

Speaking of monster fighting... The Hunt is next!

 

[AttentionHorse]

It's time for The Hunt.

This is the meat of the game, the main course. The game is very focused on combat, you can clearly see it in the various abilities (techniques, traits, conditions), since most of them are about fighting a monster. So how does it work exactly?

There are 40 monsters in the game, each has a big description and a lot of stats and traits - the bestiary is honestly pretty huge and crazy, it takes up 1/4 of the book. You can fight everything - birds that spew fire, ice spiders, huge hyenas, armored moles...

Without going into lore too much, Wilders mostly hunt monsters that are infected with a disease called Frenzy which makes them aggresive and dangerous to everything around them. You're pretty much playing a woodsman or gamekeeper, not a vicious hunter that kills for sport or fun.

Each monster has a bunch of stats, traits etc.:

Traits are special abilities that can be activated by using some action points (more on that later) or by using extra successes during tests. Each monster also has Parts, and each part has its own durability and abilities. When you destroy a part the ability changes or is deactivated. Book also describes behavior of each monster so that the GM knows how to use it during combat. The "AI" of monsters is so specific in its rules that they take actions almost automatically without GM input - I like that, it makes it so that Wilders can really get to know specific patterns of attacks and abilities during combat and use them to their advantage.

Distance in combat is abstract, it is always measured relative to the monster. You can either get closer to it, farther, or change levels up and down (underwater, climbing trees etc.). When the monster gets closer to someone, their token instead gets closer to the monster on the map. Very simple.

Combat options during The Hunt are numerous. Each Wilder gets 3 action points every turn and can attack in various ways, brace for impact, improvise, eat snacks, repair their weapon, taunt, use traits. The list is long, and cheat sheet is required. Monsters take their turns between players turns. They can take short turns (1 action) and one time in round they can take a long turn (3 actions).

One interesting thing is that the damage is extremely swingy. Each Wilder has 3 hp bars, each one has 20 points. Every time a bar gets depleted Wilder gets a wound. The result of the Action die is damage dealt, so since monsters are always rolling a d20 as an action die, that means that you can get slightly grazed or instantly lose whole hp bar. There are even combat actions that allow Wilders and Monsters to double or triple their damage. Since I haven't played the game yet I don't know how it works at the table, but it looks like the game rewards careful observation of the monsters, their tells, their intended attacks and bracing before taking damage. It's very Monster Hunter (duh) and kinda soulslike.

I have to mention the excellent addons for the game that really make it easier for the GM to run it. There's a GM screen, cards with every condition and technique, area cards and monster cards. Here's the awesome thing - you can slot the cards in a pocket at the top of the GM screen so that the players see the area they're in or the monster they're fighting, and at the same time GM sees all the important information on the other side of the card. Very helpful and looks cool.

I won't get into the specifics of every action, weapon, technique, traits etc. but it looks like the combat can be very intense and rewarding, with a lot of moving parts and various tactics. Each monster presents a different challenge and requires player cooperation. From what I've heard one of the main inspirations for the game was Lancer and DnD 4E, which definitely shows, although Wilderfeast isn't nearly as crunchy as those games.

Next - The Feast!