Preface
My usual Sunday night game didn’t go ahead, so I did something I’d been wanting to do for a while - finally use Vyrmhack for something. For those unfamiliar, Vyrmhack is a 20-page system zine put out by Charlie Ferguson-Avery a couple of years ago. It bills itself as a fantasy skirmish wargame that can also be used for more straightforward RPG fare. I’d picked it up on release, thought it looked really cool, but I didn’t have any means to play it with anybody, so slipped it onto my bookshelf and forgot about it. In some kind of twist of fate, it fell back out around the same time as I was playing around with a fantasy hack of the rules I’d been writing for Decree.
Reading back through it, I was pleased to discover it was pulling from a lot of the same influences and pushing in a really similar direction that I’d been going with Decree, and did a bunch of stuff in more fun and interesting ways than what I’d come up with. Similarly it also scratched my itch for more crunchy combat-heavy Scandi RPGs like Drakar och Demoner, Forbidden Lands, Ruin Masters etc, no mean feat in such a small booklet.
Vyrmhack uses Traveller + Chainmail style 2d6 + mod vs a target of 12 for resolving checks (this was later changed to 3d6, but I view this as an over-correction). Modifiers are your three stats - STR, DEX and WIS, plus your level if the task aligns with the character background. The create-your-own-weapon system, complete with Wolves Upon the Coast-style specials, as well as a second set of specials that trigger on criticals, is great. Really fun, very flavourful, did a great job at spicing up moment-to-moment fighting. Combat is opposed roll with easy to grok deflection / countering and you can burn stamina to push rolls or take additional actions per turn. All in all, very fun, very simple, very usable for some solo dungeon crawls.
Houserules
Note that for my solo game, I made a few changes to the rules as I felt things out. Notably:
I ported in the character ancestries I wrote for Antrin. If I can put drow and urisks in my elfgames, I will.
I used the original 2D6 resolution rules. It felt almost impossible to fail a check on 3D6 + mod as described in the updated SRD, and it robbed those actions of any stakes. 2D6 + mod vs a target of 12 carried tangible chance of failure, but not as mean as it sounds, as modifiers are generally in the 3-4 range even at lvl1.
I used Violence’s Downed rules for characters with 0HP - death is no longer instant, but characters will bleed out after an encounter unless given immediate attention.
I changed Advantage to be 4d6, taking the highest two results.
The Party, Setup
I rolled up three characters for my solo dungeon crawl: Senn, Melancholy Sellsword, Sidhe. (Lv 1, HP 3, STR 3, DEX 5, WIS 2) Boon: Noble Duelist, Scar: Vertigo. Equipped with a khopesh (parry, disarm)
Rakk, Furtive Pursecutter, Crowfolk. (Lv 1, HP 2, STR 3, DEX 4, WIS 4) Boon: Mute Assassin, Scar: Frail Constitution. Equipped with a dagger (pierce, hew)
Jarathor, Stargazing Nomad, High Elf. (Lv 1, HP 3, STR 3, DEX 2, WIS 6) Boon: Decrepit Magus, Scar: Maimed Hand. Equipped with a grimoire (Ensorcel with Thorns, Burning Visage, Fireball, Mend Wounds, Malediction)
As I was short on time, I randomised a dungeon using Watabou’s online dungeon generator, which I then dropped into Krita, and added a fog of war layer to reveal the dungeon as the party travelled through. What follows is an entirely unedited stream of consciousness of bullet points as I logged the dungeon crawl.
Game Begins
The party step into a ruined cathedral far into the wilderness. It is dark, dusty and impossibly old.
All is quiet.
Door immediately to left, locked. Senn attempts to kick down the door. The wood cracks and the rusted latch breaks off altogether.
A corridor reaches up to northwest, with two branches on the left. The first leads to a set of stairs heading down into the darkness.
All is still ominously quiet.
Down the stairs and to the right, another corridor leading north again. Through an open door, the path splits left or right.
Taking right, leads into a huge dining call, mostly ransacked. Rakk elects to search for treasure, and finds a roll of 6 lockpicks hidden in a small cache. He then speaks up that the wall back down the fist corridor looked newer than the surrounding masonry.
Heading back, Rakk deduces the wall could well be unstable.
Commanding them to back off, Jarathor casts Fireball and blows the wall wide open!
Inside, an antechamber, where a chest sits, locked. Rakk attempts to pick the lock (Dex + background) - SUCCESS! Inside, an ancient, ornate halberd (+1, std, brace, repel). Before anybody else can claim it, Jarathor swoops in and grabs it - “Clearly mine, I destroyed the wall, back off!”.
Senn and Rakk give each-other a knowing glance before moving on.
Back up the corridor and to the left, they stumble upon the lair of the Hobgoblin King (Lv2, 7HP, 3 instinct, std weapon) and his three minions(Lv1, 2HP, 3 instinct, light weapon)!
Luckily, the party are in a chokepoint so only one can attack. No ambush, so straight rolls, party roll 6 and hobs roll 4. Jarathor and Rakk retreat to larger room behind them, Senn prepares to fight the first hob. She just succeeds (8+3STR+1 background)! She cleaves him in twain in one swipe.
The other two hobs are in charging range so the second charges, however both sides fail, the hobb’s spear clashes harmlessly off Senn’s khopesh!
As the battle is happening at the chokepoint, the other hob and the King are unable to get any purchase on senn.
Realising carrying the fight herself could prove risky, Senn prepares to retreat. She attacks the second hob - invoking her Noble Duelist boon, she scores a critical hit - however the hob scores a critical defence! Their weapons clashing off each-other again! Senn turns to run (burning 1 stamina) - the hob swings for her, but goes wide (8+3)!
Jarathor steps in as Senn rushes past, and prepares to brace against the charging hob. Rakk moves to a corner and prepares to strike from the shadows.
The 2nd hob charges at Jarathor - however they both fail (8 vs 8+1), and yet again, weapons clash off each-other harmlessly!
At this point, Rakk leaps from the shadows to ambush the hob, driving his dagger into his back (8+3+1) - the hob recoils in pain and looks wounded but isn’t down yet!
The third hob and the king both advance, but are out of reach to charge.
Senn lunges for the third hob, and hits (12 vs 10), chopping his head clean off!
Rakk leaps for the second hob again, but the hob parries his dagger (13 vs 12)! However, when the hob burns stamina to counterattack, he realises too late that he overexerted himself, and falls unconscious!
Only the hobgoblin king remains, roaring in fury that his subjects were bested.
Jarathor attacks the King with his halberd, however he fails to land a hit (8 vs 11). The king readies a counterattack, burning a point of stamina. He scores a crtitical hit with his giant cleaver! Jarathor is knocked to the ground, blood gushing from a wound in his torso.
It is then the King’s turn, who turns his eyes towards Senn. He lunges for her, but she deftly deflects the attack (12 vs 12)!
Senn then follows up with a counterattack, however this is deflected in turn (13 vs 12).
Senn then gets a chance to attack again, and lands a clean hit (15 vs 8), scoring 3 damage!
Rakk uses the distraction to his advantage, sneaks behind the king and lands a hit (13), dealing two damage!
The king, enraged, once more lunges for Senn, but swings wide! (8 vs 13!). Senn then follows up with a counter, and scores a brutal hit (Critical vs 8), hooking her khopesh to gouge the king’s arm before driving it into his sternum, and raking up - a fountain of blood and offal gushing out of the bisected corpse of the Hobgoblin King.
Rowk immediately sets to work finding some old rags in order to staunch Jarathor’s bleeding. Jarathor is unconscious but stable.
Closing Thoughts
I was really pleased by how well the game went for a solo session with almost no forward planning. There are definitely some things I would like to implement for next time though, more thoughts follow:
The current treasure and monster list for Vyrmhack is very skimpy. I may end up porting in some things from other books I own in order to have some more varied offerings.
Some kind of port of Forbidden Lands’ d6 monster behaviour charts for combat to make things more fun and less predictable.
For the first session proper, I want to prep a quick setting, lay out points of interest, and come up with some kind of motivation for the party, but keep things very freeform and sandboxy.
I want to experiment some more with the target number. It is possible that I was rolling particularly well in this session, so I may exoeriment with reducing it to 11 or 10.
I’m not 100% fond of the 1 level per session experience gain in the base rules, and may try and implement something a little more involved - either an experience chart or a simple leveling rubric.
Maybe try exploding damage dice? Critical hits are already brutal given the low HP numbers, but I’ve yet to see how this plays out at higher levels.
I’ll hopefully have more to blog about with regards to this in the coming weeks.