A Wicked Secret (2020) is a book of scenarios for Vaesen. They all build on the central idea that human civilization and the creatures of the supernatural are inherently, disastrously incompatible. All these scenarios involve people (some bad, some foolish) attempting to harness the supernatural for a variety of reasons. In all cases, the creatures act according to their nature — trolls keep their ancient rules of bargaining, a church grim guards its churches, a mermaid beguiles fishermen. The uses people put these creatures to have webs of unintended side effects, though. In every one of these scenarios, there is no truly good ending. Removing the supernatural, leaving the creature be, something in between: all roads lead to disaster. Its a matter of choosing your preferred tragedy.

This is pretty great! No other horror RPG is like this. And I quite like that solving the mystery is only half the problem — once all is revealed, players have to make decisions that impact everyone involved, and more. They don’t get to just call the cops and leave someone else to clean up the mess. In this way, Vaesen feels very much of its place, tapping the vibe of Nordic Noir stories, which often involve the unearthing of deep secrets and end with everyone worse off and sadder than they were at the start.