Tuesday, December 5, 2023

Spotlight On: Wyrdwarden...

Some of you might have heard about the Mydwandr Supplement License allowing you, the community, to publish your own content for the game, with great leeway to fill in its various (and by design) gray areas. But what you might not know is that it's already bearing delicious fruit with Wyrdwarden, a Solo Campaign Exemplar by newcomer Tim Fox.

Now as the name suggests, it's primarily designed for solo play. Create your heroes, roll to decide exactly where in the world they begin, and proceed through a series of adventures well in keeping with the spirit of the setting. Spanning enemy fortresses and remote villages in need of able assitance, it's more than just a module. It's an entire campaign that clearly understands the soul of Mydwandr. If you pine for solo play, this is a great start...

But here's the fun part. While ostensibly meant for solo play, it's useful for traditional referees as well, and with little to no additional effort. From a gazatteer's reckoning of the seasons (something not covered in the core rulebook) to random tables for everything from wilderness features to place (and character) names, among others in keeping with Mydwandr's unique linguistics, it's a ready made campaign reference in the style of the old days.

The adventures are speedily converted to traditional tabletop, with the aforementioned random tables filling in many a blank. Referees willing to put their own spin on things will find lots of space to do so, aided by the product's strong foundation. Setting the above aside, there's an abundance of original content in the form of new monsters (hazards), which might be worth the price. Insectoid Antwyrd? Check. Fungal Mycanoids? They're all here...


And in great detail. More than for our own monsters actually, with more details about the creatures from the core rulebook. What do Urku look like? There's a table for that. The roving Woodwandr are a mystery no longer. This is a master class in making the game your own, rendered in glorious manual type. What it lacks in interior illustrations it more than makes up for in its 214 pages. Imagine finding a campaign notebook from 1974. This it it.

Now all of this is held together with a series of creative exercises to set the mood, a concept underutilized across the gaming hobby and most welcome here. Wyrdwandr comes in a digital version (a bargain at $4.99) or a spiral-bound printing in the style of old and easier to use in the heat of play. Mydwandr fans should definitely consider giving this a look...