Wulfwald (2023) is an ambitious roleplaying box set designed by Lee Reynoldson and published by Lost Pages, a publisher I am increasingly impressed by. Katie Wakelin did the booklet cover, Stefano Accordi provides the interior illustrations and the gorgeous world map was done by the late, great Russ Nicholson.

The game is set in a world that evokes the early medieval Anglo-Saxons. Players take the roll of wolfsheads, outcasts who exist outside the law and, in groups called wolfpacks, are handy tools for kings and chiefs. This arrangement (and moral precarity) reminds me quite a bit of Dogs in the Vineyard and, to a lesser extent, Jackals. The system is a light, recognizable OSR, arranged around quick, brutal combat and four magic systems (dwarven rune magic, elven spellsongs, witchcraft, foul necromancy — all of which are distinct and share some traits with other Lost Pages magic systems). The players find employment with a lord, doing his dirty work while looking for a path back into a society that despises them, hopefully before they outlive their usefulness. There are monsters in the game, but I think it’s people who are probably the prime antagonists, and the most dangerous.

There are five booklets in the box, one for character creation, one dedicated to magic, a third to world materials and campaign making. The fourth is a bestiary and the fifth a book devoted to the various cultural groups, which is a different sort of bestiary. All of this is presented in stark design, grimy art and a sort of delightfully world-weary prose. There is a deep sense of Doom in Wulfwald, but also the kind of glee that comes with having run out of options. The Saxon flavor is grim, and there is an admirable commitment to old English spellings which adds a lot of flavor.

And that map, damn. I miss Russ.