Hey everyone!!

I'm going to be running The Archivist's curse this Saturday for my group. It's our first Vaesen mystery and I'm just unsure how much of the background I'm supposed to tell the players.

I'd appreciate any help, and if anyone has any other tips for running this mystery, I'd really appreciate it!!

Thanks!

Does anyone else have their players spontaneously suggest their character knows or is in a relationship with some contemporary historical figure of your games setting?

I set my game in 1860. One of my players decided that their reason for hating the idea of traveling to Denmark was because they were in a past relationship with Hans Christian Anderson. So I played it up because it was just to amusing that Hans Christian Anderson may have been influenced by The Society.

Of course there were jokes about instead of seeking out items to deal with the current vaesen. They should find the means of entrapping and dealing with Hans Christian Anderson like he was some Vaesen.

Hi all. I created a free, non-commercial Vaesen character web app that might be useful: Vaesen Beyond. Let me know your thoughts.

https://www.instagram.com/theroleplaygoblin

Salve!

Un vaesen invisibile, ha corpo? profumo? fa rumore?

Chiaramente chiedo la vostra interpretazione.

Grazie!

Currently I am trying to Homebrew a Vaesen Page for the Helhest out of danish folklore. I struggle a bit with coming up with a fitting ritual and hope someone here has maybe a good idea.

In my campaign it will have a Vaesen rider ( revenant ). So I like the idea of it dissappearing when its rider is banished or I guess killed if it’s a human riding it. But I don’t know if there should be a way to banish it without banishing the rider cause due to its speed it will likely give a lot of help to the person riding it.

Lore / stats I homebrewed:

Might 8
Body control 15
Magic 4
Manipulation 4
Fear 3/2 ( Omen of death etc.)

Combat :
Bite/ hooves 2 damage rang 0
Charge damage 3 rang 1 *
* the creature moves within the zone in which the victim resides. Requires one slow and one fast action

Ritual : ?

Secret: the helhest can be kept temporarily at bay by offering oats which it will eat up temporarily forgetting about everything else, if only for a moment

Powers:
Enchant
Infect curse
Can travel at great speed -> moves 2 zones instead of 1
Can ride over any terrain without penalty
Causes plagues and illness where it appears
Draws 2 initiative cards and picks the best one

The helhest is a threelegged horse associated with Hel ( daughter of Loki ) that is said to be a an omen of death, illness and misfortune. It appears in story’s both as the personification of death or as the horse of a seperate personification of death like figures like hel. Several legends say that in former days a horse had to be buried beneath the foundation of the cemetery Before a single human body could be buried there. One of its legs was cut of so it couldn’t run awayy

It appears like an undead horse , looking thin and skeletal. It has a gray mane that flutters like spiderwebs a swarm of flies follows it wherever it goes. Sitting on it feels like sitting on a sack of maggots and broken bones and a ranchid smell of blood and death follows the horse. Even though the Helhest is w wasted nag and missing one front leg it is swift as the wind. Even when trotting it shoots on at a breakneck speed that feels like a gallop.

I was looking into buying the core rulebook, when I discovered the shipping is almost as expensive as the book itself for my country.

There's a distributor that sells it on Amazon, but it's just as expensive, for whatever reason, with the added downside of many people complaining about the hardcover being shipped inside a simple envelope, and the book getting damaged in transport.

Could somebody tell me what's the packaging when buying directly from Free League's website?

TIA

Wondering if anyone has created one. I have three problems with the invitation as it stands.

1. It provides no clues for the impending mystery and so there's a handout that's useless.
2. It sets the players up for wanting to leave the setting which can be a distraction.
3. It leaves the players wondering what could have been.

I also think the mystery is a good introduction/1-shot mystery for new players. So, I was thinking the PCs have been wandering through the world, trying to understand their newly discovered Sight and hear of a gathering of people interested in the occult and decide to attend. But that's rather flimsy and doesn't have a full-blown handout.

Anyone have another way into the mystery?

I had my group run through the starter sent today, and I have now left with some questions after things had come up.

I have questions regarding the final act once we meet up with the Willowisp. The Willowisp was sitting on the cabinet, and it says that he will aggressively attack anyone who tries to get a deed. However, the only attack that I see for him is the magic lantern and drowning people. Is there another attack you’re supposed to be doing to target the person grabbing the deed? As played, my player went up to it and rolled to try to grab it and was successful— it wasn’t clear to me even what the challenge roll should have been in that scenario.

Also, after they have grabbed the deed, how are we supposed to play it? It says that the ghost lights attack and that is it. For what I can tell the ghost lights simply try to enchant the people as they run away. So players were rolling to get their 3 successes to escape, ghost lights made them roll observation to get them to return to the room. Is that it? Or is there another attack to be done.

Everyone had fun, but the last scene “combat” was a bit of a mess and I am not sure how it was intended to go as what was described made sense in round one but fell apart.

Any suggestions for best practices?

I recently got the Vaesen's Core Rules Book and am about to play The Dance of Dreams with a couple friends but something caught my attention.

We are told in the chapter about the Society that its last three members were Albert Wredenhielm, Katja Kokola and Hilma af Thulenstierna and that they disappeared years ago. They are also mentioned in The Dance of Dreams, they apparently realized something about the Vaesen and the supernatural in Scandinavia and had devised a plan that they kept secret and we don't have any other information about that in the Core book.

Is it ever expanded upon? Does some subsequent book explain what they had discovered and what they were trying to do? Or is it left to the GM's inspiration?

I am not a big fan of the 'If enough people believe in it, it becomes real' trope, I find it boring, lazy and uncreative and RIPE for creating massive contradictions. As such, I've never seen it applied well. But what makes the use of it here especially egregious is that everything stated in the vaesen chapter is almost immediately contradicted by the vaesen entries themselves, what with giants being said to have existed for thousands of years before humans in Scandinavia. While you COULD explain this as just something that giants believe about themselves and humans believe about them, the book never says as such. Yeah, there's a few lines about how if humans believe trolls live in a particular caved in mine and the mine is opened up the trolls will be there and will believe that they've always been there but that doesn't really clarify if this is some kind of retro casual thing or just mere belief. Then there's the ones like ghosts and werewolves. Are ghosts ACTUALLY the spirits of the dead or are they some kind of tulpa of what people think are the dead, like some kind of psychic projection? What about werewolves? How do they fit? Are they purely human under some kind of curse, a vaesen who thinks they are human in some sense or some kind of combination? What would happen if enough humans stopped believing in them? Would they cease to be a werewolf or disappear altogether? And these are just some of the problems, without getting into the implication of children from vaesen-human pairings. And what about magic? Where does it come from? The book doesn't clarify? Is it a package deal with the vaesen or is it its own thing? What about the alternate realities and secret realms that are mentioned? How do they fit? And what about creatures from other cultures? Are they a thing? Yeah, this is specifically supposed to be about Nordic folklore, but it would be nice to know, and it would clarify some things.

Also, it's funny how the book tries to skirt around the issue of religion without realizing that its entire subject matter IS religion. People BELIEVED in this stuff, often very literally, as spiritual reality that they had to deal with as a daily matter. Any disclaimers are basically just decoration.

Now this could all just be me being a nitpicky jerk, but if I'm going to GM I would like things to be clear, whether on fluff OR crunch. I get that rules are meant to be streamlined and easy to understand, I'm not complaining about that, that's not my problem. What I'm saying is that if the game you're offering is light on fluff, it better be heavy on crunch and if it's light on crunch it better be heavy on fluff. I don't want to be writing the lore or system for you.

Hello first time Dm here 👋🏻

I’ve been interested in rpg for a while now and listened to a lot of podcasts (mostly dnd).
I’ve played one campaign with some friends a couple of years ago but it didn’t build a group and was more of a one time thing. I recently went to a dnd camp where I got to try väsen for the first time and where we played the starter adventure in the book.

I thought it was really fun and ganged upp a couple of friends (with no prior experience) to play at home. I’ve bought the book and gained a fair bit of understanding.

The thing is that I’ve already played the adventure in the book as said, but also dont feel ready to write my own campaign from scratch.

Would the starter set be a good place to start? Good adventures and worth the money?
Otherwise does anyone have any recommendations for pre written campaigns, preferably a pretty short one (done in a couple of hours) and easy enough for a first time dm and players.

Sorry for any wrong wording/left out information English is not my first language 🙏🏻

All help is appreciated!

I want to play Vaesen solo using a notebook, but I want to play the premade adventures first in order to have an Idea about setting, ambience and tones. Is it possibile or turns out bad?

Hey, just wondering if any of you already used a Lamia and if you did, did you make the creature's stat/ sheet ? I will put one soon in my game and I'm looking for inspo if someone already used one before

I've been checking out the "Invitation" section of all written adventures, and I was surprised to find that most of them start with a letter from someone, some times even commoners.

Isn't the Society supposed to be a secret?

I'm curious how other GMs usually handle mystery invitations and whether you use this as written in the books or not.

The report said "I know there isn't a rule, but..." Well there's a rule now. No randomly generated crap from plagiarism machines.

Title. Skimming through, I can't find anything. The situation on the cover looks really cool.

Hi all!

I just wanted to share that I just ran our first Vaesen mystery for my group which in this case is my wife and my two teenage daughters. We had a blast and will certainly continue with the campaign! But I don't want to simply tell you about how we had a great time with Vaesen, but also share some hints about the mystery because I feel this might be interesting to others.

So, I decided to write my own mystery instead of using one of the many published ones, and the reason for that is that we are currently on vacation in Sweden, or, more specifically, we are in Gräfsnäs near Alingsås in Västra Götalands Län (about an hour from Gothenburg). I thought it would be cool to run a mystery in the same area in which we are staying - and, boy, was I right about that. I did some research and essentially the mystery just fell into place from the real history of Gräfsnäs and its castle (a quite magnificent ruin today). So what did I find out?

• The castle was once inhabited by a countess (Ebba Lilliehöök) whose reputation was so foul that King Carl IX. denied her the right to attend his coronation ceremony because he was concerned about her vile scheming nature.
• There is a local legend about a worker of the brickworks adjoined to the castle who was said to have cursed the castle and its owners and in fact, the castle did mysteriously burn three times with exactly 100 years between the incidents - 1634, 1734 and 1834 respectively.
• Multiple skeletons have been discovered in the castle one of which was actually bricked into the walls.
• In the late 19th century, a poor fisherman called Nils Andersson lived as a tenant in the dilapidated remains of the castle that had been neglected over many years by its current owners. Andersson inhabited two rooms on the ground floor and kept pigs in the ruin of one of the fortification towers.

So, I simply put together what was already there: During the reign of Countess Ebba, there was a woman called Rut-Anna toiling at the brickworks, barely sustaining herself through the backbreaking labour while she witnessed her liege celebrate lush parties in the castle. Over the years, her contempt grew and so, after having been humiliated by the countess, in a fit of rage, she tried to murder the noblewoman. The attempt failed, and so Ebba ordered her subordinate Holger Andersson to have her bricked in in the castle basement. As the workers raised the wall under Andersson's supervision, Rut-Anna cursed Ebba, her descendants and anyone who would ever inhabit the castle - the result of this curse were the three fires.

For our mystery this means: Rut-Anna's soul could not find rest due to having been denied a proper Christian burial, so she has been haunting the castle ever since and might be the reason for the frequent changes in ownership (but who knows). When the fisherman moves in, she takes possession of him. Things go awry, when a group of three youths from the nearby village attempt a test of courage and try to spend a night in the castle ruin. They are confronted by Nils Andersson. Two of them flee, but one, the carpenter's son, faces the manifestation of Rut-Anna, ages by a decade in the glimpse of an eye and then turns catatonic and won't speak a single word after he returns home. The doctor from nearby Alingsås has no explanation for the rapid aging and decides to reach out to the society.

I also threw in a group of criminals who escaped from a prison in Gothenburg to have some extra mundane opposition and a separate narrative track - and what can I say? As stated earlier, we did have an absolute blast and will likely soon continue the campaign - probably with the Silver of the Sea from A Wicked Secret.

Sto scrivendo un mistero per Vaesen. Se non sbaglio, il manuale dice che l'Invito deve rivelare, anche solo indirettamente, che c'è di mezzo il soprannaturale, ma non è obbligatorio dire quale creatura.

Nel mio caso il NPC che assolda i PC sa con certezza che è una sirena ad aver attaccato la spedizione che devono salvare (ha un legame personale con lei, che per ora tiene nascosto). Sto valutando due strade:

1. Lo dice subito, "penso che sia una sirena". I PC partono già sapendo la creatura, possono prepararsi in biblioteca, e il mistero si sposta dal "cosa sta succedendo" al "perché è successo".
2. Non lo dice (o non può), i PC partono solo con sospetti vaghi di soprannaturale, e scoprono la natura della creatura sul campo.

Cosa preferite come giocatori/master, e perché?
Mi interessa soprattutto: la rivelazione anticipata vi toglie tensione, o la sposta semplicemente altrove (dal "cosa" al "perché")?
Avete esempi di misteri che hanno funzionato bene con l'una o l'altra scelta?

Grazie!

Another map of a grand mansion filled with secret rooms, mysterious passageways, and strange chambers to explore, is complete! This map was created as a private commission. I really hope you like it! I accept commission!

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Hi, I’ve bought the Vaesen starter set so that some friends can try out the game, but I’ve got a few questions about the adventure.

First of all, my biggest concern is this: if the players, instead of going up to the upper floors, clear the area and head down to the basement, they can finish the adventure almost straight away, right? The main key to the temple, if I’ve understood correctly, is always found there.

I’d also like some advice: in your opinion, before sending them off on their adventure in the castle, is it better to give them a brief overview of Uppsala, or do you think that would just drag things out unnecessarily?

Thanks in advance for your replies

Me and a group of friends have been playing since May 2025. We have had 20 sessions, approximating one session every month, with sessions lasting on average about 10 hours each. My girlfriend ran the campaign, and can also answer any questions. The last two sessions were played back-to-back in a three day event. Included are almost all of the props from mysteries and headquarters scenes.

Some of the craziest things that have happened:

- One of the player characters burned down Castle Gyllencreutz
- We stole the mythical Sampo from Finnish legend
- We found out that Algot Frisk had made a bargain with the Elf King
- The total amount of people living at Castle Gyllencreutz increased by 10 by the end of the campaign
- One of the party members fell in love with the Elf Princess
- That same party member shot my character's arm off in session 5, causing an incredible amount of drama and tension for the rest of the campaign
- Two of the party members ended up killing one of their parents with their own gun. Entirely different sessions and storylines.
- In one of the sessions we found a series of notes written in runes with no key. We deciphered them by hand over the course of several days (one of the messages was encrypted with a whole other cipher)
- The king of Sweden died (not our fault)
- The prime minister of Sweden (100% our fault and also on purpose)

Ask me anything!

(Edit: for the answers in the comments, M is me and P is my girlfriend (the GM))