Vaesen Starter Kit play review

 

This review is for the Vaesen Starter kit from Free League Publishing. Vaesen is a Nordic horror roleplaying game based off of the artwork of Swedish illustrator and author Johan Egerkrans. It uses the Year Zero Engine that powers many of the Free League products. 

You can pick up the physical starter kit at your friendly local game shop (like the one I work at) and if they participate in the Bits n Mortar program you get the pdf for free.

If not you can pick up the physical copy over on Amazon while the pdf is available for purchase over on DrivethruRPG in the regular version or optimized for Roll 20 VTT . 

This review is based on actual play where I ran the starter set for a game group at my local shop. I was not gifted the kit for review but was actually purchased by myself.

Straight out of the production quality is top of the line. The box is very durable and strong, all the material inside is printed on quality stock. You get a set of ten dice, initiative cards, maps (of the mythic norse, the city and castle) and everything else you really need. Including rules summary hand outs that come in very handy at the table for the players. You get a condensed version of the rules in one booklet that is easy to navigate and the adventure itself in another. To go through this episode you have five pregenerated characters. 

The adventure itself is pretty straightforward. You little group of 'Thursdays Children' (those who can see the Vaesen) are approached to investigate a castle formerly occupied by a group called the society. It has since fallen into massive disrepair and other Thursdays Children have been lured there and gone missing. Given the tools you need in the form of a booklet with information on many of the Vaesen types and a map they set off. 

I will say the pregenerated characters all seem to fit really well. None of them fall into the fifth wheel problem I've seen with other starter kits. Each one has a purpose and comes in very handy at various times. Now a couple of them reference a few things that aren't discussed in this kit but nothing major that would ruin any sense of the game. Just had us flipping pages for a bit. 

With the group I played with they figured out what the encounter was beforehand by using the booklet of Vaesen and grasping a few clues. But they also snagged onto a red herring that could have also been in there. So it's not one of those discover everything at the end kind of stories. The ended is open ended and can lead you straight into regular games using the full corebook.

The mechanics are easy as most Year Zero Engine games are. Roll a number of six sided dice, sixes count as successes. Most checks require only one or two successes. Various rules for pushing the rolls are there to help get you success at a cost. There are no hit points but a more narrative condition system which helps set the tone of the game even more.

Not to mention that the artwork is also immaculate. Every Vaesen product I have looked at has been beautiful and this one is no different. 

In the end I give this starter set two thumbs up and highly recommend it to others.

Getting ready to run Vaesen.

 

Well I've wrapped up my short four session stint back into my Cyberpunk 2020 campaign. Putting the Church of the Righteous Hand in a position to really alter the future of Night City if they choose to do so. But it will be a while before we get back to that. Most likely it's going to be a campaign I bring back a couple times a year for a few sessions. 

So the next game I will be running is going to be Vaesen from Free League Publishing. Ever since I saw it on the shelves at my FLGS it had my interest. But it wasn't until I got to play in a game at DieCon last year that I finally decided to take the plunge and buy the game. But there's a lot to take in and I couldn't quite figure out where to start. 

So finally they came out with a Starter Set and I picked that up.

Told my group I will be running the starter using the pregenerated characters. That way they get a feel for the system and setting a little bit before making their own characters. Then after that I'll be running the published adventures straight out of the various campaign books. 

I'm excited to run it. My group is excited to play it. So it's going to be fun. If I can just finish wrapping my head around the starter kit by next Sunday. 

Changes and getting to the new normal.

 

Well it's been a bit since my last blog post. But there have been some changes in my life that occurred and I've been rather busy with that. So let's get into a few details here.

I work for a FLGS (Friendly Local Game Shop) and have done so for almost four years. The name of the place is Aesop's Treasury Books and Games. It's a job I took because I could no longer do factory work due to how badly Covid affected my lungs. The owner had been my friend long before he owned the store, he even officiated my wedding, so when I needed work he helped me out. In turn I found a job that really worked for me. 

Well eventually his store had outgrown the space it was in. So last October he found a new location but it needed a lot of work. I began doing some more hours at the shop so he could be over there getting it done. When I had time I also dropped by the new space and helped move debris, give my opinion on things and help set up fixtures. 

January we closed the old shop and moved everything in six days. I never want to do that again. It was a nonstop run to get it all moved over, reset, adjusted and ready to go by opening. Even then we had things that hadn't got done. Also a new part time employee was hired to help out. We opened the doors on January 21st. 

We were hopeful for a good boost in business. We exceeded expectations. Our new employee got a trial by fire on a grand opening day that was extremely busy. It's been going very well ever since.

So now we were dealing with ordering and checking in a LOT more product than usual while dealing with a LOT more customers coming through the door. It's been quite a task that's for sure. Which meant extra hours and more mental exhaustion than I had been previously used to. 

With GAMA coming up the owner thought about skipping it this year because of how busy we were. I advised him not to as did several others. Every year he finds some great new stuff at the show and brings it into the store. So he went and we all worked a lot extra that week. But he came back with some great stuff, a lot of new things on order and some new, much needed, connections for our supply chain.

So I was offered a promotion. Given the title of 'General Manager' and, unlike most other places I worked for, I got good pay raise with that title. Also I'll be working full time now, have the ability to make orders, and we'll be getting another part time person or two coming in over the next month or so. This job is the first one I ever that I actually, honestly, enjoyed. I'm happy to see it has grown this much and the owner has taken me along with it. 

With all this going on I was just pretty mentally and physically taxed. Which is why I stopped blogging for a bit. But now that things are a bit more settled down, or at least I'm more used to the level they are at, I should be doing more once again. Starting with doing some more content for this blog and working on the next release for Truly Rural. 

90% of D&D discourse is BS

This is some top shelf Jaded Gamer worthy stuff right here. Two thumbs up. 

Be A Better Player Updated

 

I updated 'Be A Better Player' just a bit. Added in some new pics and improved the layout a little. Put the 100% Human logo on the front as well as the copper medal the book has earned. It's over on DrivethruRPG and if you bought the original you can just download this version for free as I just added it to the original listing. 

I should have a few more blog posts starting to roll out in this next week as we're finally done moving the FLGS that I work at. Along with some amazingly busy first days there. The move has been nothing but an improvement for Aesop's Treasury that's for sure. 

Slow down in posts

 

I'll be slowing down on posts here for a week or two. Mainly due to my job. I work at a very well stocked FLGS that also does used books. I love my job. The owner has decided to pick up and move the store to a much MUCH better location. I'm all on board with this. Now when I say very well stocked, I'm not exaggerating. This has turned out to be a monumental effort and we still have a lot to do by reopening day this coming Wednesday.

Also judging by the number of folks who've been coming up to the door asking if we're open and just to see what was going in... yeah we're going to be really busy the first few weeks. 

Most of my posts for the last week I had done already. Now I have several half done ideas and I'm to wore out to finish them. So I won't be getting many up for a bit. The owner has hired another person but they still need to be trained. 

Just also really happy to see the store grow and get better. I've been there for three years. I've known the owner for decades. He officiated my wedding. Seeing the business he started eight years ago growing and getting better is awesome. 

I'll probably do a post of pics of the shop when it's done and I get the chance as well.

Cyberpunk Sunday 1/18/26

 

Hacktivist deletes white supremacist websites live onstage during hacker conference 

https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/05/hacktivist-deletes-white-supremacist-websites-live-on-stage-during-hacker-conference/