Thoughts on Dolmenwood

Recently, a couple of readers took note of the fact that, under the header "What I'm Refereeing" on the lefthand column of this blog, I've included Dolmenwood, published by Necrotic Gnome. However, unlike my House of Worms Empire of the Petal Throne and Barrett's Raiders Twilight: 2000 campaigns, I've never posted about this. This is absolutely true, though the omission was not intentional – far from it, in fact, as I have nothing but praise to offer about Dolmenwood, both as a fantasy setting and as a game. Indeed, I'm really enjoying Dolmenwood and consider it one of the best "new" fantasy roleplaying games I've played in some time.

I put "new" in quotation marks, because, rules-wise, Dolmenwood's not really new. It's a very close descendant of Old School Essentials, which is itself a very close restatement of the 1981 Moldvay/Cook version of Dungeons & Dragons (or B/X, as many people call it). How does it differ from B/X, I'm sure some of you will ask? Most obviously, it has its own classes and races, some of them unique to the setting. Likewise, it uses the dreaded ascending armor class and has its own saving throw categories. There are few other small differences, mostly in terms of presentation, but, for the most part, the rules of Dolmenwood are so close to B/X (or OSE) that I don't think anyone already familiar with those – or, for that matter, almost any version of old school D&D – will have much trouble picking it up.

Where Dolmenwood shines, though, is its setting, the titular Dolmenwood, a large, tangled forest at the edge of civilization that's filled with intrigued, secrets, magic, and lots of fungi. If I were to sum up the setting in a simple phrase, it would be "fairytale fantasy," even if that doesn't quite do Dolmenwood justice. It's like a weird cross between Jack Vance's Lyonesse, Machen's The White People, and Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter, with touches from Twin Peaks and The Wicker Man, among many other influences. As a place, Dolmenwood is weird and eccentric, filled equally with whimsy and terror.

A big part of what makes Dolmenwood such a dichotomous place is the lurking presence of Fairy, which is to say, the otherworldly realm of the elves and other supernatural beings, the most powerful of which were long ago cut off from the mortal world by a coalition consisting of the Duchy of Brackenwold (who rules the wood), the Pluritine Church (who serves the One True God), and the secretive people known as the Drune (who have their own agenda). Elves and fairies are no longer as common as they were in the past, but their machinations can still be felt. In particular, the Cold Prince, the lord of winter eternal, seeks ways to regain his dominion over Dolmenwood.

Of course, there are lots of contending factions within Dolmenwood – the Duchy, the Church, the fairies and their nobles, witches, the Drune, and the wicked Nag-Lord, a trickster figure who serves as a literal agent of Chaos, corrupting the land and its peoples. These factions all play roles, large and small, in ensuring that Dolmenwood is never a dull place. One of the things I've found in refereeing this campaign is that I'm never at a loss for adventure ideas, because there's so much going on in the setting. Once the characters started doing what characters do, they soon found themselves enmeshed in all sorts of plots and schemes, gaining allies and enemies in equal measure. 

Speaking of characters, there are presently four in the campaign:

• Squire (soon to be Sir) Clement of Middleditch: The big-hearted but small-brained of a minor noble sent out into the world to make something of himself (or die trying). He's presently attempting to be knighted by a fairy princess, an idea that appeals to his romantic soul, even if doing so brings with it more than a little risk.
• Alvie Sapping: A teenaged thief with a quick mind and quicker tongue. He's attached himself to Clement's retinue as a way to travel and, he hopes, make money. Alvie has an intense dislike of bards and other musicians, on account of his no-good father's having been one, which has occasionally been a source of trouble for him (and amusement for everyone else).
• Waldra Dogoode: A hunter and woodswoman, who's more comfortable in the wild spaces of Dolmenwood than in its more settled ones. She's an expert tracker and an amateur student of the many mushrooms and other fungi in the region. Her ambition is to one day produce a complete and accurate map of the entire Wood.
• Falin Cronkshaw: A breggle (goat-man) cleric, who was exiled to a small parish because of her insistence that there were in fact breggle saints whom the Church has suppressed. She now travels with her companions hoping to find evidence vindicating her theories. 

The characters are an interesting bunch and their interactions with one another and the people they meet have been among the highlights of the campaign. Thus far, they've helped a ghost reunite with his love, explored a weird series of caverns, traveled to a remote village overrun with fungus, helped an exiled elf reclaim his home, and journeyed into Fairy as part of Clement's quest for a liege. Along the way, they've seen strange sights and met many unusual people, some of whom would later become important to the unfolding events of the campaign.

Unfortunately, Dolmenwood is not yet available for sale, though it should be soon. Having supported Necrotic Gnome's crowdfunding of the game, I have access to advance copies of its three rulebooks (Player's Book, Campaign Book, and Monster Book) and several adventures. They're all very well done, beautifully laid out and illustrated, filled with ideas to spark your imagination. The Campaign Book is especially nice. In addition to discussing at length the various factions I've already mentioned, it also includes a hex-by-hex gazetteer of Dolmenwood. This makes refereeing the game quite easy, as all you need to do is find the hex where the characters currently reside (or through which they're traveling) and read the entry, which usually contains multiple places of interest, major NPCs, and adventure seeds. Truly, this book alone has made refereeing the campaign quite easy. It's a model for what a campaign book should be in my opinion.

There you have it: my brief thoughts on Dolmenwood the RPG and Dolmenwood the setting. If you have any more specific questions, ask me in the comments and I'll do my best to answer them.