My Gwelf fan tabletop RPG

There are two Gwelf books, beautifully illustrated, that are crying out for a tabletop RPG. So I thought I’d make one as a fan.

The world of Gwelf

Gwelf initially presents itself as a bucolic world of anthropomorphic characters within the safe walls of civilization (the cozy City of Gwelf, the prosperous Farmlands, and the wilder Scrublands), where the Sparrows study white magic and direct the other denizens in safeguarding themselves from the dark forces of the Ravens in the distant Hinterlands. In contrast, trips out to study Raven-kind have a hard survival edge; many of those who venture into the Hinterlands and beyond never return.

The following is a fan-made tabletop RPG of Gwelf with no intent for profit.

Create your character

1. Choose your Discipline:
   1. Guard: Trained in combat and defending other creatures
   2. Exorcist: Expert at driving away Ravenkind
   3. Medic: Trained in healing wounds
   4. Scout: Skilled in exploration and survival
2. Choose your Species:
   1. Badger: strong and resolute
   2. Fox: clever and creative
   3. Mouse: flexible and dependable
   4. Otter: curious and cunning
   5. Rabbit: peaceful and diplomatic
   6. Raccoon: industrious and opportunistic
   7. Sparrow: leader and researcher
3. Choose your Attributes:
   1. Distribute 5 points between Mind and Body
4. You start with 0 Fatigue, 0 Wounds, and 10 inventory slots.

Go on your adventure

Your characters are called together by the Sparrows to investigate recent sightings of Raven-kind in a previously quiet area of the Hinterlands. (For the sample adventure below, Raven-kind have been seen hauling strangely-shaped objects in sacks out of a certain area.) The Sparrows want to find out what the Ravens are looking for. However, you’ll need to wait a few days in the City of Gwelf before setting out; the Sparrows need to send letters to the border forts letting them know you’ll be arriving, and they’re arranging for a scout to learn more about the Raven-kind sightings, who will meet you at the border with an update.

Start in the city of Gwelf, exploring shops and gathering supplies. No pressure. You can buy up to 10 inventory slots’ worth of goods.

Supplies available:

1. Particle candles of restoration and healing
2. Sleep inducing candles
3. Candles of warding
4. Defense amulet
5. Directional talisman
6. Climbing gloves
7. Sparrow quill
8. Pot of enchanted ink
9. Hammer and chisel
10. Scissors
11. Sling
12. Enchanted dagger (Witch Market)
13. Short sword
14. Bow and arrow
15. Crossbow and bolts
16. Stonk grenades
17. Shield
18. Flask of Pine Liquor
19. Satchel of tea
20. Satchel of coffee
21. Quiver of incense
22. Mortar and pestle
23. Embroidered handkerchief
24. Flute
25. Pan flute
26. Mandolin
27. Tambourine
28. Quill, ink, and parchment
29. Paint, brushes, and parchment
30. Book of poetry

From there, move out into the Farmlands, where you’ll stop at 2 locations. Choose or roll randomly:

1. The Pine Cone Inn
2. The Sparrow Feather Pub
3. Mrs. Tuffet’s B&B
4. The Tinker’s Meadow
5. The Ploughman
6. The Sparrow Feather Pub
7. The Mossy Kettle Pub
8. The Witch and Weaver
9. The Fox and Fiddle Tea Shop
10. The Floating Bridge at Albion Falls
11. Cherry Hill Gate and the Roadside Market
12. A Tinker Band

At one of these locations, you can spend an inventory item to learn a rumor about what’s going on in the Hinterlands:

1. The Ravens have found a place of great magic power.
2. The Ravens have unearthed an artifact and are studying it.
3. The Ravens are building a large fortification.
4. The Ravens are massing for war.

When you transition to the Scrublands, you can only carry 5 inventory slots’ worth of goods (the rest is made up of sufficient rations for the trip). If you have more than 5 inventory slots worth of goods, you must discard down to 5 now.

Here in the Scrublands, you will have 3 encounters (see below for rules on overcoming challenges). Roll randomly:

1. Dundurn Village (no challenges)
2. Rats (challenge)
3. Ragteeth (challenge)
4. Mange-creatures (challenge)

Then, you reach the border fort. Learn more from the scout, then venture into the Hinterlands. Here, you will encounter powerful Ravenkind.

Overcome challenges

When faced with a challenge, you may sacrifice one piece of appropriate equipment to automatically succeed. For example, a short sword can be sacrificed to defeat a Mange-creature, but a satchel of tea cannot.

Otherwise, determine the challenge’s Difficulty, as a die size, typically d8 to d12 (higher is harder).

Next, determine your Capability. This represents how much energy you can bring to this challenge. Start your as your most relevant attribute (Body or Mind). Add 1 to your Capability if you’re acting within your Discipline. If you have any points of Wounds (see below), subtract 1 from Capability. So, a Medic with 3 Body and 1 Wound attempting to skewer a Mange-creature would have a Capability of 2 (Body 3 – 1 for the Wound), while a fully-rested Guard with 4 Body would have a Capability of 5 (Body 4 + 1 for Discipline).

Capability effect	Modifier
Begin with…	Body or Mind
Discipline applies?	+1
Wounded?	-1

You and the GM each roll a Difficulty die (so, for an easy challenge, you each roll a d8). If the difference between the rolls is less than or equal to your Capability, you succeed; otherwise, you suffer a setback and take Strain.

Take Strain

Failure takes a lot out of you. The first time you fail at a challenge, you take 1 Fatigue. If you fail again, you take 1 more Fatigue. If you fail and have 2 Fatigue, you take 1 Wound. You can have at most 2 Fatigue and 2 Wounds.

If you have any points of Wounds, you take -1 on all challenges.

If you fail on a challenge and have 2 Wounds, you face a choice:

1. Retreat: You must remove yourself from the situation; you cannot take on any further challenges related to the current encounter. You may still be physically present.
2. Rage: You continue the encounter as usual, but after it is over, you will not be able to continue this adventure, and you gain a permanent scar.

Recover Strain

After an encounter, if you take a moment to acknowledge your victory or count the cost, reduce your Fatigue to 0.

At the start of the day, a Medic can remove 1 Wound on up to 3 creatures.

The Adventure in the Hinterlands

The following is a sample adventure for Gwelf.

Upon entering the Hinterlands, the party must first complete 1 to 3 survival challenges, representing hazards that they encounter during travel. The Hinterlands take a lot out of any who explore them.

Hinterland survival challenges:

1. A cold window buffets the party for hours.
2. The party must navigate a swamp.
3. The party cannot find a safe place to sleep and must camp in the open.
4. The party encounters a scouting party of rats.
5. The party encounters wandering Ragteeth.
6. The party sights a flying Raven and must hide.

For each survival challenge, each PC must succeed on a Body challenge. The first challenge has a Difficulty of 8, the next 10, and the final 12.

Then, the party comes across a weird landscape: many small hillocks suggesting underground tunnels, withered trees, and an unexplained chill in the air. At the center, trees surround an excavation that goes deep into the earth. Each tree surrounding the crater has a piece of paper nailed to it, and each paper contains strange jagged runes in some arcane Raven language.

The PCs can attempt to descend into the excavation, to a vertical shaft that has a ladder propped up against it, or they can search the area where they’ll find a side access tunnel. The vertical shaft will drop them right into a chamber, while the side tunnel will lead them to the same place but give them the element of surprise.

Below the shaft lies a huge chamber, much of which is taken up by a massive sleeping serpent. Its pale green scales glitter in the light of a wan lantern that’s been set down next to several rats that are silently pilfering items from a huge hoard of objects:

1. Smooth stones with strange symbols carved in them
2. Clay tablets with strange symbols carved in them
3. Oddly-colored crystals, some of which glow faintly.
4. The skulls of various burrowing creatures like moles and ground squirrels, some of them marked with strange patterns
5. Fossils of strange underwater creatures
6. Tree roots curved into fantastical shapes

The rats are prioritizing the stones and clay tablets. It’s now up to the PCs to figure out what to do. If they leave now and just report back, the rats might be able to clear out the entire hoard before any good creatures of Gwelf make it back here. But the rats will no doubt fight tooth and claw, and doing so might awaken the serpent.

If the PCs decide to leave quietly, have a patrol of rats discover them outside the chamber. Now they have to get past the patrol before reinforcements from the chamber arrive.

Design notes

I realize that acquiring items and sacrificing them to succeed in challenges feels a little wonky and too open to abuse during a session, especially with players more interested in winning the scenario than story logic or atmosphere. But the tone feels right, so I’m leaving it in.

A character’s Species currently has no mechanical benefit. If Species granted you another +1, that would be powerful enough to reward character optimization and “meta” in a game that’s not really about that. I haven’t figured out a better solution yet.

Suggestions welcome in the comments below! I do read them.