Vaesen is a game about investigating the living folklore in Northern Europe. It’s a horror game, but also a mystery game with a…conservationist’s bent? Not only do trolls and faeries and such exist, but they are a necessary part of the topography (physical and emotional, really), and the increasing encroachment of humans into the wild places during the industrial era causes concerns for all creatures, mundane and fantastic. Puzzling out a new borderland for coexistence is often the theme of the game.

I feel like there are two other places where there exist similar tensions between the mythical landscape and the mundane one. This is a sourcebook for one of them: Mythic Britain & Ireland (2022). And it’s written by Graeme Davis, who was instrumental in early Warhammer fantasy and writer of one of my favorite Fighting Fantasy books, Midnight Rogue. In his introduction, he writes how he had always wanted to pen a book like this that married British folklore and gaming; his reverence for his subject matter shines through.

Britain, littered with neolithic site and haunted by fae folk, is such a good fit for this treatment. The first 40 pages is a general sourcebook, listing real world places and pairing them with their most interesting folkloric elements, always with an eye toward the tension between the conqueror (the English) and the (sort of) conquered (the Scots, Welsh and Irish). Elegant and thought-provoking, I could read another 200 page of this. Davis then presents us with the Society, which is dedicated to investigating supernatural manifestations in the UK. Following this is a long section of new monsters (Black dogs! The Nuckelavee! Knockers! Pooka!). 

The book wraps up with three scenarios. The first is a delicious bit of folk horror that sees the obvious awakening of an unnatural force (a powerful hag) that becomes more dangerous because the people who could stop it initially muck about trying to find reasonable explanations for what’s going on. The second is a reverse, where a local vicar causes problems by trying to purge the mine of its knockers. The final scenario brings the action to the extremely mundane city of London and an artist’s colony with an extraordinary leader.

It’s a fantastic expansion for the game and ripe with possibility.   

Now do Malaysia.