Vaesen RPG – Strange, Unexplained, and the Mysterious.

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When starting this post, I had a dilemma — how exactly do I present a Vaesen RPG unboxing in a blog post? Huh. That is a good question.

When I first thought about doing this post, I didn’t think that I was going to put together something in this category. But then it dawned on me it could be pretty simple to do an unboxing in this way. So, here is my first attempt at a blogging unboxing with the Vaesen RPG, the Nordic horror/supernatural role-playing game. Now, if you want to see these things a little more clearly, you can go down to the video at the bottom of this post.

The first thing I think about when writing these posts is the benefit it will be to the reader. Unboxings are presentations. For maximum benefit, they should be coupled with gameplay sessions in order for the reader to get a strong, informed idea of whether they want to invest in the game. It’s as I’ve said before, the tabletop RPG hobby is not cheap. The economy being as volatile as it is, people are being extra careful with whatever abundance of income they get.

I’ve had some great dealings with the public relations for Free League Publishing. When it comes to this particular unboxing, one thing they did was under-promise and over-deliver. I had done another unboxing before this one but mentioned I couldn’t play the game because I didn’t have the Vaesen RPG core book. They took care of that, even though I never asked them to. That just makes me happy to do more content for companies who are willing to do that and see me as an asset, which is what I want to be.

The difference in performing an unboxing like this is it will focus on describing the game rather than showing it because you don’t want to have too many pictures in these posts. It just makes it convenient for you for the page to load faster.

Pictures will be from the actual product I received, but there won’t be as many as if you were watching the video (can you tell I want you to watch the video?). However, if you’re strapped for time and don’t feel like watching a 20+ minute video worth of an unboxing, this is the place where you can learn enough about the game. Let’s get to it.

The Vaesen RPG GM Screen is a very heavy, sturdy cardboard with a glossy finish. It has all the requisite tables you need on the inside. On the outside, it has an illustration of what appears to be one of the vaesen called The Neck (if you’re not familiar with what the word “vaesen”, it means a supernatural being or creature). It’s a trifold landscape GM screen. High quality and convenient.

The interior of the core book is a nice stock paper of a page/yellowish color. The font is a serif font, which may be just Times Roman or possibly some other that’s close to that like Baskerville or Palatino. I’m not a font expert. I’m just guessing here.

The outside is hardcover with a matte finish. It also has a thin, light green, cloth bookmark attached to it which can be convenient if you have certain places that you want to refer to regularly in your sessions.

What really does it for me is the artwork, drawn by Johan Egerkrans. It fits the tone and mood of the genre so perfectly, especially when you consider the time. This is supposed to be from the late 18th to 19th century. The locale for the player characters is in Scandinavia.

It is becoming standard fare for game companies to supply players with the option of using custom dice for their particular game. The Vaesen RPG is no different.

The dice have rather simple art in line with the theme of the game. It looks like the circles have actually been drawn on there and it’s not perfectly cylindrical. All the numbers are dots with in a circle except for one. A special vaesen symbol represents the number six. This is in line with the game because a success is determined simply by whether you roll a six. With this special symbol, all you really need to do is look for the symbol to show up, which could make it easier. It’s not something that’s necessary, but it is convenient.

When you first start the Vaesen RPG, you’re gifted headquarters (a castle for crying out loud) in the town of Upsala, which they provide a map of. On the other side, is a more detailed map of all the Mythic North. It’s made of a nice, almost card stock material able to withstand a lot of openings and closings in the creases. Now, if you just want to keep it in good condition, don’t use that map in a live session, but make a digital copy of it to show your players to keep this one pristine, as we know the accidents that can happen at the table with everyone’s snacks and drinks. You know what I’m talkin ’bout.

The Vaesen RPG card deck comprises two types of cards.

The first is are initiative cards which you use in battle situations. They number the cards 1 through 10. You randomly shuffle and distribute one card to all who are involved in a battle. Then the lowest initiative goes first, and this goes on for the rest of the battle in that order unless player characters decide to swap initiative cards.

These cards are unnecessary because you can use any card deck, using numbers 1 through 10 of any suit. It’s something that’s a little extra if you want to have it for your game.

The other type of cards in the deck are vaesen cards. These have an illustration of the particular vaesen on the top with a description on the bottom. Gamemasters can “play” these cards when a particular vaesen shows up to give the player characters information that is known. Or they can to show the picture only and have the player characters discover the information on a first encounter. That’s something else altogether.

This supplement is one they sent me with all the rest of this material and is a book of mysteries/missions/adventures you can run for your group. It is of the same quality as the core book button, but not as many pages, of course. Inside, there are four full mysteries. In the back of the book are different handouts to use for the different mysteries. There are many standalone mysteries in PDF format you can find on Drive-Thru RPG.

At the writing of this post, I have not recorded a video getting into the nuts and bolts of the Vaesen RPG. That’s coming soon, God willing. In the interim, you can take a look at the Gamma World or Top Secret 1e posts I’ve done to hold you over. Or you can just head over to the RPG Elite YouTube channel where I have more content there than on this site at the moment (we’re obviously working to change that).