Let's Read: The Dolmenwood Player's Book

 

“A piece of sharp, rusty metal dipped in ice cream.”

That’s how I came to describe the setting of Dolmenwood after much reading and writing out these readthroughs. While the setting may at first appear to be a fantastical realm of fairies and cute talking animals, in truth, there’s a dark edge to this world that is not always apparent.

It saddens me to recognize that many prospective referees and players will take their first impression at face value and miss out on experiencing perhaps the most detailed, elaborate, and exhaustive settings to date.

Intro

My original plan was to sit and read through these books, cover to cover. These read-throughs help keep me focused. Here we go.

I’m going to go section by section and write my thoughts down as I go.

Player’s Book

Table of Contents

Gavin does a terrific job organizing this. Even with the bookmarked PDFs, I still find myself clicking back to the table of contents in all of these books, due to their usefulness. I really must comment on the exquisite usability of these books. Like a damn surgeon, Gavin has placed every page, paragraph, and letter with precision.

Part 1: Welcome to Dolmenwood

I’m a bit put off that Gavin has used the British spellings for everything. But as an entitled American, I realize the rest of the world has had to suffer our American spellings for 300 years…

The introduction is truly beguiling. Here are just the bullets outlined in this section explaining what players can expect from this game:

Explore the wild places

Unearth treasure hoards

Confront fell beasts

Recover saintly relics

Forage for weird fungi and herbs

Strike against Chaos

Unravel secrets of deep magic

Seek the counsel of witches or the sinister Hag

Meddle in the affairs of nobility

Journey along fairy roads

Return to the homely hearth.

Absolute cinema. Many of these points describe any high-quality D&D campaign, although I’ve never seen them described in this way. Truly, it makes me instantly want to play in this world.

The Inspirational Media provides a remarkable list of inspirations from film, TV, and books. It’s because of this game (and this list) that I read Johnathan Strange & Mr Norrell, which so thoroughly captured my imagination that other fantasy books pale in comparison and scope. There are yet two films on the list that I haven’t seen (Legend and The Wicker Man), but that should be amended by the end of 2025 (Narrator from 2026: It wasn’t).

What’s in this book?

This section provides an overview of the entire book, briefly summarizing each section. This is another underappreciated method of keeping the book organized, and it provides a summary that can be quickly glanced over. Once again, Gavin’s efforts are constantly seen to keep the book clean, usable, and easily referenced

Folk and Factions

Here is an overview of all of the playable races, plus the factions players will encounter in the game. Being that all of these are greatly expanded upon later in the book, this provides another helpful at-a-glance method of imparting this information to players.

I like how the church is presented here, as a diminished power. Its shrines lie in ruin, which gives players the potential goal of locating them and re-sanctifying them.

The Drune make for great misunderstood bad guys who aren’t truly bad. They are bad people with the noble task of keeping the Cold Prince at bay. I have a theory that most players will get along with a villain as long as he’s respectful and polite. Conversely, I suspect they would murder the “good guys” if they’re even a little bit disrespectful and/or mean. Media literacy is dead.

There are seven factions presented in this section, though the Cold Prince may or may not be a main part of a given campaign, given that he’s only present if other factions unleash him. Six factions are a lot to present to players: I think I did a decent job with Dungeons of Drakkenheim’s five factions, but I did a lot of work to try to differentiate them and not make any of them the “bad” faction. Ultimately, though, players will gravitate to the faction or factions they like the most, and in my experience, this happens early on in any given campaign.

I hadn’t noticed before that Ygraine the Sorceress is presented as a major faction unto herself. I’ve read these books in fits and starts, jumping from the Player’s Book to the Campaign book to the Monster Book, and back again. This is the first time I’ve actually sat down and made an effort to simply read the books from start to finish.

Dolmenwood Gazetteer

Here, the regions are outlined. Having never read this closely, I’m now impressed by descriptions that are both terse and detailed.

Part 2: Starting Play

On Roleplaying Games

In case you’re somehow playing this book and don’t know what an RPG is, this would be very helpful.

There is a lovely example of play that would demonstrate to a reader what types of things they can expect to do in this game. It’s well-written and a little funny. It does a good job showing how the tone of the game is both dire and whimsical; in this example, the party meets a goblin in the woods who has a newborn human baby with him. They trade a letter from the king for the baby.

Terminology

This would be a good page to bookmark for someone just starting a Dolmenwood campaign.

Character Statistics

This spread is a nexus of game mechanics, clearly outlining all of the things a player needs to know about their character. Page references (bookmarked in the PDF) make this spread another excellent candidate for a physical bookmark, particularly during character creation.

The note on monster statistics very clearly explains how to read monster stat blocks for players who use summons or pets. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen such instruction, but it’s welcome here. Also, I appreciate how the intelligence of a monster is given as a description rather than a number between 3 and 18 (example, Semi-Intelligent and Genius). Gygax’s actuarial tendencies are finally purged from (this part of) the game.

Creating a Character

Gavin uses a step-by-step format frequently throughout these books, and here is the first time we see it: 13 steps across a spread that tells players precisely how to create a character. This game uses 3d6 down the line for stat generation, which will surely be unpopular among some communities (i.e., my players). It also means that most player characters will be extremely fragile at early levels. Fortunately, skills and saving throws aren’t tied to stats, so they aren’t as impactful as they would be in other games (i.e., 5e).

There is a very helpful summary of classes on page 19, which will hopefully minimize questions from players to DMs asking to explain what each class does.

On step 8 (Roll Equipment), I love how characters all get a small selection of general items automatically, along with class items, and then get to roll or choose some adventuring items from a list. This might be the best possible method for rapidly getting players into the game while making minimal decisions. Of course, you can always have advanced players generate some gold and go shopping for exactly what they want, which is also an option presented here.

Alignment is an official part of this game. I haven’t read much about it, and I can’t wait to find out more.

Example of Creating a Character

Here we have an extended example of every step from the previous page. This is an excellent help for new players. It’s amazing how Gavin managed to fit exactly 13 steps on this spread. I can imagine it was a painstaking process.

Ability Scores

Having never read every page in detail, I’m rather enjoying myself. Gavin has really thought of everything, and a cursory skim of these rules did not make that apparent. I find that often, I tend to skip sections when I assume I’m already familiar: Namely, any section in an RPG that describes what an RPG is, or how to roll dice. I’m finding that within these sections, although I’m not finding anything exactly new or useful, I am realizing how useful it would be for a new player who is unfamiliar with this type of game.

The art pieces on pages 22-23 are lovely.

Alignment

Here we go.

It seems pretty simple. The gist of this is that, depending on the alignment you choose, you (the player) must continue acting in such a way, or else that alignment must change. This only has a mechanical impact on certain spells (they use the example of Mantle of Protection). I would certainly make one’s Alignment affect how they are perceived by different factions and sub-factions. This almost reminds me of how your alignment worked in the Mass Effect games.

I might make a list of the kinds of things a Lawful, or Neutral, or Chaotic person might be expected to do to maintain their alignment.

Advancement

Here are some extremely clear rules for how XP is awarded and divided. I wish I had access to such examples when I was bumbling my way through the original ACKS rules.

In the example of leveling up, I notice that PCs roll an additional Hit Dice and add the result to their original value. This differs from how our group did this in ACKS, when the entire pool was rerolled upon level up.

There is an optional rule for training listed on page 25 that I plan on not using.

Languages

I have never found languages useful, usable, or fun in a D&D game. I wonder if Gavin has found a way to do better.

There are five languages PCs can start with, depending on their kindred. There are also some languages that are either extremely difficult or impossible to learn. Namely, the Immortal Tongue of Fairy, which is described as being almost impossible to hear and literally impossible to speak for non-fairies.

Overall, however, I’m still not sure how to utilize this in the game.

Part 3: Kindreds

Mortals, Fairies, and Demi-Fey

Here, we learn the differences between mortals, fairies, and demi-fey. There is also an explanation about how fey and demi-fey react to Cold Iron and Silver.

Breggle

Breggles are the first race presented in this chapter. These are goat-men whose social status is based on the length of their horns. As PCs level up, their horns grow to match their level (more or less) in inches. They also have the power to charm humans or shorthorns once per day.

Each kindred is presented across two spreads (four pages). The first spread is all of the statistical and power information, and the second is are lists of backgrounds, trinkets, and visual descriptions.

The backgrounds are flavorful and fun, and help players understand what kind of lifestyles and jobs Breggles might have. The trinkets are also extremely flavorful, providing more hooks into the world and providing a jumping-off point for players wanting to root their character in the fiction of the world.

Elf

Each of these spreads provides a dice notation to randomly determine how old these characters might be. Breggles are 2d10+15 years old at level 1; Elves are d100x10, meaning elves can be between 10 and 1000 years old. This should help indicate to players that we’re dealing with essentially an alien race.

Elves have nicknames or epithets that hint at their true fairy names. These are offered on two lists, Rustic and Courtly, and they’re all strange and imaginative. Names like Prick-of-the-Nail (I suppose they’d want to go by Nail for short rather than Prick), or Begets-Only-Dreams. I might initially restrict elves as player characters, since players tend to play elves how they think they ought to be played, and that can be deeply incongruent with the desire of designer. I suspect this is one of the many reasons Drune are not a playable kindred.

I have a silly idea of gating racial availability by requiring players to consume certain media, particularly those found on the inspirational media list. This means that players with no real buy-in only have Humans available to them, whereas the more well-read players have greater access to the game’s races. As I said, this is silly, and I’d probably not do it. Maybe.

Grimalkin

Grimalkin are the Puss In Boots, or Cheshire Cat player race. They also start as d100x10 (10 to 1000 years old), and they come in three forms: Estray (Puss in Boots form), Fat Moggy (Chester) form (resembling a normal cat), and the Fey Predator form, which is something like a panther or other large predatory cat.

They can always turn into their fat domestic cat form, but there’s also what seems like a berserker mode, known as Wilder. This gives a burst of healing, invisibility, improved AC and attack bonus, plus more attacks per round. However, you can only enter this form when you’re below half health. In a game with such low HP values, that seems easier said than done. Furthermore, in this form, you cannot distinguish friend from foe, making yourself a danger to the party. You can’t willingly turn this off, either: It wears off automatically after 2d4 rounds. I feel like the best duration of this ability would be 2 or 3 rounds, so you could beat up the bad guys and revert before it causes your group any trouble. I also would not let the players know exactly how long the rage lasts.

Overall, this kindred is very flavorful and unique, but its terrifying Wilder form mixes the whimsy with dread, as is typical for Dolmenwood in general.

Human

Humans win initiative ties, have more loyal retainers, and gain an automatic 10% boost to XP gain (in addition to their prime ability bonus, if they have one). Overall, humans are remarkably simple, but a powerful choice for players who don’t want to specialize in anything.

Also, a great choice for players who didn’t do the homework.

Mossling

Originally called Moss Dwarves, this race cracks me up as I learn more about it. This is something like a hobbit crossed with an Ent. These creatures become more plant-like as they age and worship their own strange gods. Like the Elves in this game, Mosslings seem quite alien compared to normal D&D fantasy races. They also speak their own grumbly language called Mulch, which is delightful.

This kindred is commonly fighters and hunters. They are too small for normal armor and typically make their own suits of armor from hardened bark and pinecones (adorable). Bark armor is equivalent to chainmail, and pinecone armor is equivalent to plate. What kinds of pinecones are these?

Mosslings gain access to a quasi-magical unique craft called Knacks, which are determined randomly. All of their saving throws are improved by 2, and poison by 4.

Overall, this is a very strange but funny and cute race, almost like something from Adventure Time, depending on the tone of the game the DM cultivates.

Woodgrue

Another very unique race for this game, woodgrues are child-sized bat-faced goblins. Their description solidifies them as embodying all of the things we think about goblins, except for the murdering and theft. In other words, all of the fairy tale things goblins might be known for.

There is a seasonal meeting a few times every year where around 200 woodgrue get together to share news, party, dance, etc. I think this would be a fun thing to build into the game’s calendar. It would be a great opportunity to share updates from the larger Dolmenwood world, and also provide quest hooks.

They feature a trait called Compulsive Jubilation that compels them to attend any party they pass by. Also, they cannot use large weapons, and don’t fit standard armors.

Mad Revelry is a bard-like feature that allows them to blast a 30-foot circle with one of 7 effects of dubious usefulness. In the hands of a crafty player, this could be quite useful, I’m sure.

They are one of the few races to get darkvision (here called Moon Sight).

Overall, this could be an extremely fun race in the hands of the right players or extremely annoying in the hands of the wrong ones. Likely a mixture of both.

Part 4: Classes

I am now about 1/3rd through this book. We’re moving on to classes. Our first was known as the Minstrel in Wormskin, but has been renamed to the more familiar…

Bard

This class is really three things: An information gatherer, a thief, and a counter-spell caster. Out of combat, they also can “fascinate” a handful of creatures within 30’, which seems like a great distraction, but at the end of the fascination, the bard can make the creatures regard them as a friend or issue them a command.

This class does not have a magic spell list.

As I evaluate these classes, I’m asking myself, “How would my (admittedly very knowledgeable players) use this class?” When it comes to the Bard, I reckon my players would be unlikely to choose it.

Cleric

Early on in a blog, Gavin Norman (the writer of Dolmenwood), explained that all of the core D&D classes (Cleric, Fighter, Thief, and Wizard) would be present, in addition to the new ones he created. However, all of the “classic” classes would have some flavorful twists. For our cleric, it’s the ability to detect holy magic items by simply touching the item for 1 minute, which is very handy. I’ve found that magic item identification can be very annoying in old-school games.

The other twist is that Clerics get to choose one of three holy orders during character creation: The order of St Faxis (anti-Arcane magic). The Order of St Sedge (gain access to Lay on Hands, which heals 1 Hit Point per cleric level). In a game with such limited magic, this ability could be extremely valuable. The final Order of St Signis are undead killers, getting bonuses against them.

I’ll have some more insights into Clerics once I take a look at their spells. For now, it seems that Clerics in Dolmenwood bear some striking similarities to any other OSR Cleric class, which is great, because Clerics are great.

My players would almost certainly play a Cleric.

Enchanter

Not to be confused with the Wizard, the Enchanter does not have access to a spell list. Instead, they can detect magic (the chance increases with each level) and have access to Fairy Runes and Glamours. I’ll have more to say about these as I progress through the book, and I’ll amend this section accordingly.

Enchanters can use items exclusive to arcane spell casters, and have a 30% (2 in 6 chance) of allied holy spells failing when cast on them (oof)! It turns out that the gods don’t like using their blessings on those who use heathen fairy magic.

To unlock this class, I would require players to understand fairy runes and glamours.

Fighter

Perhaps the most common class in the entirety of D&D. The twist here is that the Dolmenwood fighter gets access to special combat talents (up to 4 by the time they reach max level), chosen at levels 2, 6, 10, and 14. There are eight options available, including things like going berserk, cleaving, protecting others, getting special weapon bonuses, etc.

Overall, it’s simple and effective.

My players are extremely likely to play a fighter.

Fighter would be unlocked by default.

Friar

Here is another class that I suspect my players would avoid. This is a light-armor version of the Cleric, but with access to spells from first level. He’s got some talent at herbalism, but must also adhere to some rather strict tenets. I suspect the real dealbreaker for my players would be the vow of poverty friars must take, which means they must carry all of their worldly possessions with them. While it seems harsh on paper, I find that players tend to hoard their belongings anyway, so this might not be a deal-breaker to clever players.

Weight tracking is required to make this a drawback.

Being able to pray at shrines for additional spells would greatly help magnify this class’s usefulness.

This is what my players would call an “NPC” class, but they would never play one.

To unlock, I would make players learn about the various cooking rules, and herbs and fungi in the region. I would also make them read about the various types of pipe leaf and alcohol present in this setting.

Hunter

Outside of spellcasters, this might be the most complex class in the game. They get an animal companion and four different special skills that get better as the hunter levels up. Two of their skills interact with the surprise system. The first is called Alertness, which gives hunters a chance to act normally even when the party is surprised. The next is Stalking, which allows the hunter to avoid being detected even when the party is surprised. Now, perhaps my brain has become addled by age and stress, but these seem extremely similar. Although I recognize there is a difference, I worry that new players might misunderstand the usefulness of these skills.

My favorite hunter skill is called Trophies, which gives the hunter bonuses to creatures he has hunted down and mounted in his trophy hall at home (or carries on his person). Great flavor, and great at motivating players to behave like big game hunters.

I think my players would very likely play a Hunter.

In order to unlock, players would need to fully grasp the combat, surprise and stealth systems, as well as how to use the Hunting and Foraging action for travel. Also, they would need some passing familiarity with the herbs and fungi from the book.

Knight

I’ve seen many a Knight class in many an old-school RPG, and they don’t usually strike my fancy. The Dolmenwood Knight has a strict code of chivalry (as one might expect), plus some restrictions that may chafe players. At levels 1 and 2, the Knight is actually a squire and doesn’t have much in the way of social authority. However, at level 3, they are knighted by their noble house and gain access to Hospitality, which means they will receive aid from nobles and other knights of the same alignment. Also, they get a horse.

Overall, this is a very flavorful class, though I expect my players would rather play a fighter to gain access to the combat talents. That would be a shame, because I think the Knight gives the players certain access to parts of the world that would otherwise be forbidden.

Also note, there are 8 lower houses of Dolmenwood that a Knight gets to select at character creation. This would be a very easy and flavorful way to get PCs involved with the world.

In order to unlock, the players would need to read the parts of the book pertaining to the houses of Dolmenwood.

Magician

At last, the wizard class! The biggest changes I see are an in-built chance of detecting magic every turn and how initial spell selection works. I love what Gavin did here. Instead of handing a prospective Magician player the rulebook and saying to choose their spells, this game has 6 spell books, each of which contains a flavorful combination of three spells. Players must roll or choose one. This is very fast and efficient, and doesn’t require players to do a bunch of reading before the game even starts.

I did a complete write-up of the Arcane spells in the game, and assigned them each a grade from S to F. It’s over 3200 words, so I omitted it from this post.

In short, it seems that much like in other D&D-like games, this spellcaster starts with a very limited pool of spells, and most of them are of dubious quality. However, at some point before level 5, the class begins to exponentially increase in both utility and damage capabilities. It seems to me that Gavin tried to carefully balance spellcasters in this game compared to OSE, but I can’t accurately assess that notion until I play a full campaign. As it is, the class seems very good, but requires patient play, actual rules knowledge, and careful planning to maximize efficiency.

Thief

One of the reasons I’m doing this readthrough is to force myself to read things I would normally skim. For the Thief, my first thought was, “I know what a thief can do. Let’s move on.”

Overall, the changes made to the thief are largely to do with the names of abilities and their phrasing in the rules. For example, Back-Stab requires the thief to be behind an unaware target (typically achieved by successfully rolling a Stealth check). This gives them +4 to attack and inflicts 3d4 damage on success. Interestingly, Gavin isn’t stacking the dice from a thief’s weapon (for example, you cannot back-stab to get 3d6 damage), or adding any bonuses (though magical weapons do add their bonus); rather, here is a standard dice notation that will not change as a thief increases in level. Comparing this version of backstab to the one found in Old School Essentials, which states: “When attacking an unaware opponent from behind, a thief receives a +4 bonus to hit and doubles any damage dealt.” I have seen some insane critical hits from backstabs over my Dungeon Mastering career, so perhaps it’s better to simply allow 3d4, which is 7 or 8 damage on average.

I think this game design decision is to enforce the fact that the thief is more of a skill monkey (or a Swiss Army Knife if you prefer); skills like climbing walls (and making it easier for your party to do so), Decipher Document, Disarm Mechanism, Legerdemain (sleight of hand), Pick Lock, and of course, Stealth. The thief appears to focus on utility rather than stealth and damage.

My players are unlikely to play a thief, if history is any indicator.

Part 5: Magic

Arcane Magic

Instead of spell levels, spells are given in ranks. I like this change, as there are too many things referred to by level in D&D (dungeon level, player level, spell level).

Up to three spells fit into each spellbook. This means that as casters get into the higher levels, they will be carrying more books. According to the equipment section on page. 116, a spell book weighs 50 coins, as much as a shovel, crowbar, or a stringed musical instrument. If using slots, I think that’s one slot. This is very different from OSE, which has all spells fitting nicely into one spellbook. Eventually, a caster’s entire inventory will be nothing but spellbooks.

It’s possible to consult with a mentor who is at least 3 levels higher than the PC to learn new spells. This would be a great prompt during character creation: “Who is your mentor, and what are they like?” Then we could roll up a kindred with physical descriptions and make that a major NPC in the world.

Learning a spell from another person’s spellbook takes 1 week of study per rank of spell, followed by a successful Intelligence check. If you fail, you have to level up before you can try again. Just brutal. I’ve always felt like casters are punished too much: Their hit dice are d4, their XP requirements are always high, and then this mechanism means casters won’t really have a chance to do anything with their downtime other than study. It’s like going to college as a law major.

Researching a spell takes 2 weeks and 1000g per rank of the spell, and has a minimum 1 in 6 chance of failure. Oof. It says that players must write a spell description when proposing new spells, but I would really just use the rules for spell creation from ACKS, since they’re mathematically sound.

If wizards lose their spellbook, they must spend 1 week and 1000g per rank of the spell to be rewritten. Fortunately, this has no chance of failure. This seems overly punishing to me. Then again, it might also be the impetus for having players have a stable of characters to rotate through, week to week.

My god, this is only the first page. On to the next one.

Memorizing spells daily works just as you think. Unfortunately, it uses the very old-school rule of multiple memorizations. That is, if you want to cast Magic Missile twice in a day, you need to memorize it twice. I find this has the effect of limiting what a caster will bring in a day, meaning that some spells will never be prepared or cast, unless they have strong intel about what they might be doing that day. Utility spells in particular are often neglected, since their niche capabilities are typically less useful than a general selection of everyday spells.

If you cast a spell in combat, you must declare it before initiative is rolled, and you cannot make a move action that turn. If you take damage or fail a saving throw, you lose it. I’m telling you, casters get absolutely punished for existing. As you’ll see in my spell analysis, the early spells aren’t even that good.

In general, though, if a player can stick with their spellcaster over the long term, they become gods.

Fairy Magic

This section describes Dolmenwood’s unique magic systems, Glamours, and Runes. Glamours are a collection of 20 level-less spells (basically 5e Cantrips) that don’t obey the normal rules of casting (i.e., declared in combat before initiative). They seem mostly good for flavor and drama, and some have very limited usefulness in combat.

Runes, meanwhile, come in three levels of power: Lesser, Greater, and Mighty. There are 6 in each category. The Lesser runes are comparable to level 1 spells. They include things like charming others, creating a cloud of thick vapor that obscures vision, and becoming invisible (whoa).

The Greater runes are something more like 3rd-level spells in power, and include things like summoning a very fast fairy steed for a day, dispelling magic, creating a maelstrom of sleet and hail in a large area, and greater invisibility and charm.

Mighty runes are the highest level of spells, and include things like resurrection, wish, and making someone sleep until a condition is met ala Sleeping Beauty. This is serious fairytale stuff. You can even summon the wild hunt!

Holy Spells

Holy spells work as one might expect in an Old-School game. The existence of holy shrines in the world provides an opportunity for holy casters to gain the ability to cast different spells, which I enjoy. A crafty party might carefully plan a few stops at shrines on their way to a significant encounter to increase the number of spells their healer may cast. This is a great way to increase the usefulness of holy casters at every level (especially early on).

This is exactly the kind of little tweaks that greatly please me in this game.

There are 8 holy spells at ranks 1 and 2, and 6 spells for ranks 3, 4, and 5. There are no level 6 holy spells. Each spell is associated with an in-world saint, and each spell has an alternative name that matches that saint. For example, Detect Evil can also be called St Whittery’s Vision. Each spell comes with a piece of micro-fiction that describes why these spells are named after these saints, and the specific context for the miracle they created. These stories range from silly to grim, and everything in between. This keeps with the overall vibe of Dolmenwood: A piece of sharp, rusty metal dipped in ice cream.

Overall, the holy spells section is one of my favorite parts of the player’s guide, simply due to how well it integrates and builds out the lore of the world. I think my players (or anyone, really) would enjoy it.

Mossling Knacks

Our final section in this chapter is the specific magics utilized by the Mossling kindred. The book describes them as semi-magical, because they tend to blur the line between magic and (sometimes) simply being in tune with nature, rather like Snow White. There are only six knacks in total, so I will comment on each of them here.

Bird Friend: Mosslings can speak to birds and gain a bird companion. As the mossling increases in levels, the usefulness of the bird companion increases.

Lock Singer: Gives a small chance of opening a lock. As the Mossling increases in levels, it increases in power and usefulness.

Root Friend: The Mossling gains the ability to ask questions of nearby roots. Later, they can convert them to a certain number of rations per day. Ultimately, they can summon a sentient living root vegetable to fight for them. This is my favorite knack.

Thread Whistling: The Mossling gains command of string and can unravel garments with a whistle. At the highest level, they can command rope to attack and entangle foes.

Wood Kenning: Gain knowledge by touching a wooden object, including its history or the name of the last person who touched it. Later usable to see through doors, or even learn a tree’s true name (??). In the hands of creative players, this might be useful, but I’m not sure how.

Yeast Master: The Mossling can convert any sweet liquid into an alcoholic brew that most others find inedible. At the highest level, it can conjure a great yeast feast, equivalent to 1d6 rations.

Overall, I like the Mossling knacks. They’re randomly determined at character creation, so their usefulness is highly suspect, and would likely exist mostly as flavor rather than utility in the lower levels.

Part 6: Equipment, Services, and Animals

Adventuring Gear

This game’s gear section is a thing of beauty. At first glance, it may appear to be a standard list of tables with gear, followed by alphabetical item descriptions later in the chapter, and that’s because it is. Careful readers will notice this game’s inclusion of special weapon materials: cold iron and silver weapons. These have special uses, in that any fey or demi-fey creature takes 1 additional damage from cold iron. Silver is needed to damage certain foes at all. Silver exists in other D&D-like games as well, so no surprises here.

Horses and Vehicles

There are six kinds of horses here: A warhorse, two types of draft horses, two types of riding horses, and a mule. They’re all useful under different circumstances. I only wish their slot encumbrances were listed in addition to their coin weight. For now, Referees must convert coin weight to slots.

Edit from 2026: After more time with these game rules, I find that coin weight is generally easier and cleaner. Since I exclusively play online, it’s easy for a computer to track this stuff anyway.

Each horse is given a stat block and a brief description. You can also purchase accessories for your horse here, including saddles, food, and tack.

I like how each horse is given a specific regional name, like the shaggy-furred dapple-doff, the slender yellow-flank, and the fast Prigwort prancer. I don’t often see this level of differentiation in RPGs. In other games I’ve played, they typically only include one or two variant horses: normal and war.

Land vehicles include carts and wagons, while water vehicles include rafts, canoes, barges, etc. Rules for water travel are given here, which is helpful. Water travel rules are consulted just as rarely as the water vehicles page, so it makes sense to put them together in the book.

Hounds

Here’s another unique Dolmenwood feature: hounds. In classic D&D, usually there is simply a dog and a war dog, with one being more expensive than the other. Here we have eight different hounds with different stats and uses. Depending on your need, you might bring any or all of these dogs. I can’t tell if players need special training to fully utilize these fine creatures, but from what I can tell, anyone can purchase a trained hound.

Lodgings and Food

Every establishment in Dolmenwood is one of three classifications: Poor, Common, and Fancy. This affects the price of staying over, and the price and quality of the food on offer. Each tier comes with 8 different main dishes and four side dishes. Fancy also includes 4 desserts. This ensures the Referee can simply roll to determine what dishes are available at any given location.

While I love the flavor here, with the amount of information that must be tracked when running this game, this particular table would easily get lost.

Beverages

Another section unique to Dolmenwood, Common, Uncommon, and Rare beverages are available depending on the quality of lodging. There’s also a list of spirits, teas, and wines for players to peruse. Each of these drinks provides some effect in the game; not a mechanical benefit, but a kind of roleplaying prompt to keep things interesting during a night of in-game drinking.

There are optional rules for inebriation, providing reduced hit chance in exchange for a small boost to hit points.

Pipeleaf

This section offers four styles of smoking pipes and 20 types of pipeleaf, all with game effects that can be used for roleplay. Some of them might even be useful in the hands of crafty players.

There are optional rules here for smoking to gain an intelligence check to think of a solution to a problem. I think it’s fun, and I would use this rule.

Common Herbs and Fungi

Here we have 20 herbs and fungi that can be used for myriad reasons. It gives players a reason to explore hexes and look for these ingredients.

It also includes rules for foraging.

Specialist Services

When players need to hire someone in town for specific tasks, they look for a specialist. There are many details here, including pack handlers, sages, sailors, and mercenaries. It helpfully provides guidance on how much each specialist needs to be paid per project, or per day (depending on the specialist).

Retainers

Here are the rules for locating and hiring retainers, also known as classed NPCs, who will fight for you. The procedures here seem extremely similar to those in Old School Essentials, which means they can be tedious. I’m wondering if these sorts of activities should be handled away from the table? Perhaps during downtime?

Part 7: Adventuring

Now we’re finally getting into the more mechanical and procedural parts of this game. We’re going to dive in as deeply as I can tolerate. Believe it or not, this isn’t actually my first time reading through this book: I’ve read various sections many times, but never in order. I find these rules hew closely to what has been established in Old School Essentials and any of the numerous other OSR titles lining my shelves (both physical and digital).

Basic Game Procedure

Gavin Norman has written an extremely clear description of the fundamental cycle of gameplay at any RPG table. In other words, he describes the five-step procedure of how players interact with the DM to gain information on, and impact, the imagined world. Overall, this is an extremely clear, terse, and helpful explanation. I wish I’d had this when I was starting my D&D career in 2010.

Example of play

What may first seem like a very skippable, or at least skimmable, example of play is, in fact, quite brilliant. Over these four pages, Gavin provides some good insight into how the players make decisions and what is happening behind the DM’s screen. It’s also well-written and shines a light on certain mechanics unique to traveling and camping in the wilderness. The best part is that it continues the story set out in the earlier example of play.

Preparing for an Adventure

This advice is aimed at players. It tells them what kind of game Dolmenwood is, and how to best prepare for any given adventure. It’s like a mini session zero unto itself! Here are the things mentioned and explained in some detail across these four pages:

• Have everyone play a different class to cover the greatest variety of scenarios
• Reasons you should and should not split the party
• The role of the Caller, Chronicler, Mapper, and Quartermaster
• How to plan for expeditions, i.e., collecting food, water, retainers, spells, equipment, etc.
• Marching order
• Dividing treasure
• Working as a team
• Thinking outside the box to solve problems
• Using party time wisely
• Avoiding unnecessary combat
• Knowing when to run from danger

Overall, it’s great to see this player-facing information.

Core Rules

Here, not only are core mechanics explained, but also when and why to use them. On this page, you’ll find explanations for how to apply modifiers to skill rolls, and the difference between d6 rolls and d20 rolls, along with a flat d6 check with odds determined by the DM. While I still find these mechanisms a bit of a creaky holdover from the old D&D days, I appreciate the care Gavin has taken to explain these systems.

Saving Throws and Attack Rolls are explained on the following spread, along with how to make item saving throws.

Time and Movement

Ah, yes, time. Perhaps the most important, but also the most boring resource in all of gaming. Gavin explains how to use time in rounds and turns (in exploration and combat), along with standard units of measurement used in the game (inches, feet, yards, and miles).

There are rules for how to calculate the party’s various move speeds, including encounter, exploration, running, and overland travel speeds. This game calculates movement speed into an amount of travel points each day, but I’m not yet convinced that travel points are any easier than simply calculating miles per day.

Encumbrance

Next to time tracking, here’s the rules system that gets the most neglect. I’m of the mind that without encumbrance rules, inventory management is irrelevant.

There are two ways of tracking weight in this game: Coin weight and slots. The default assumption is coin weight, which is very granular and straightforward. A single gold coin is the smallest unit of weight, and all items are measured according to it. There are 10 coins to a pound. Under this system, all items are assigned a coin weight and count against a character’s maximum capacity of 1600 coins.

The optional rule is for slot-based encumbrance. If you had asked me a few years ago which system I preferred, I would have said this one. However, as my D&D life has entirely moved online to Foundry VTT, it would be inconsequential to have the system track the coin weight of every object in the game. However, if we were playing in person, I would use slots.

Regardless of the system in use, the more objects carried means a slower move speed, which impacts everything a character does in and out of combat. While I enjoy the theoretical logistical challenges of this type of game, in all my years of gaming, I’ve never once found it to be something players (or I) enjoyed. Add in the fussiness of using horses and carts to track things, and you’ll soon see players cracking open spreadsheets to manage this stuff (or ignoring the rules entirely).

Hazards and Challenges

This section covers the numerous situations a typical group of adventurers is likely to encounter. In the order listed here, we find rules for dealing with the following:

• Climbing
• Cold
• Darkness
• Doors: secret, locked, stuck, and listening at them
• Exhaustion
• Falling
• Finding food in the wild: fishing, foraging, hunting
• Locating hidden features
• Hunger and thirst
• Jumping
• Losing direction, both outdoors and in dungeons
• Stealth: sneaking, hiding, and ambushes
• Suffocation
• Swimming, particularly in heavy armor
• Traps
• Wandering monsters

The book also explains why our heroes can do what they can do: They have the Adventuring proficiency! Or something much like it. This is pure ACKS, baby.

Travel

This section begins with clearly outlined procedures for daily travel, in six easy steps. I would print this out and tape it to my DM screen, because this game is heavy on procedure. Personally, I am interested in developing a board game-like control panel that I can place tokens on to track these things.

We learn how to travel via road, tracks, or unmapped wilderness, and how to fill in a Dolmenwood hex map. Here is a more detailed explanation of how to calculate daily travel points based on the slowest party member. There is a breakdown of the different terrain types and how they impact travel points, random encounter chance, and whether or not mounts and vehicles can be used.

After reading these rules a handful of times now, I am no more confident that I could run this game smoothly at the table (or online). Between tracking the calendar, weather, world events, party motivations, remembering which NPC speaks like Christopher Walken, and handling different procedures for travel, camping (in six easy steps), hunting, random encounters, surprise, spell effects, etc., I feel like my brain might simply explode. Or more realistically, the game would slow to a crawl while I flip pages and/or click through 30 open tabs across two monitors.

Unless the Foundry module is pure magic, I’m going to need a brilliant coder to put everything onto a single Perchance generator, so I can run the game with a few clicks in one or two browser windows.

Play by post might be perfect for this game.

Depending on travel conditions, it’s possible to make sleeping impossible. That’s right: Characters might fail to sleep. There’s even a matrix to back it up. Good grief.

Settlements

There’s a 6-step procedure for settlements. Part of me wonders if it’s even possible to run this game exactly as written. I feel that a computer program is better suited to following these repetitive procedures than a human, but if I could run this game perfectly, I would. I’m a big fan of emergent sandbox play, and Dolmenwood makes a great effort to position the DM as a neutral arbiter rather than a storyteller. I ran my (apparently) legendary Dwimmermount game this way, and it was the greatest old-school gaming experience of my life.

In this section, players must decide their actions for the entire day. There is a chance of a random encounter happening in a settlement, though they often take the form of uncanny or unsettling encounters with some of Dolmenwood’s more disturbing humanoid creatures. It would provide plenty of opportunity for roleplay and worldbuilding, and probably even a lair dungeon to explore. This is why OSR stuff is so difficult to pull off when playing digitally; if I don’t have a map prepared for you, then I cannot have a random lair encounter there, no matter how mad the Pied Piper made the party.

Dungeons

It wouldn’t be a proper OSR game without proper rules for dungeon crawling. There is a four-step procedure here:

1. Decide actions
2. Wandering monster roll
3. Describe what happens
4. End of turn

We have some philosophy explaining to players that the deeper the dungeon, the greater the risks and rewards.

An optional rule for established safe paths would be useful for speeding up play through areas that are already explored. I have always found rules like this useful, since I am generally an impatient person.

There are also rules for escaping a dungeon, typically used in West Marches-style games, where PCs aren’t allowed to end the session at an adventure site. I don’t see myself using these rules for my normal group, but I’m glad they’re here. Here, it’s a d10 table, with a 30% chance of death, and a 10% chance of betraying someone in the party to survive. What is this, an extraction shooter?

Resting in the dungeon is, as one might expect, extremely risky and not recommended.

Encounters

A six-step procedure is written here for DMs. It’s actually very useful, particularly for me, who often forgets when to roll for surprise. The monster and NPC reaction table is included here, which is the same table we’ve seen in every OSR game since 2005.

Combat

There are 5 steps in the combat procedure. I think it’s worth writing them out here:

1. Declaration of casting a spell, using a fairy rune, or retreating.
2. Initiative is rolled on 1d6 per side.
3. Winning side acts in this order:
   1. Movement
   2. Missile attacks
   3. Magic
   4. Melee attacks
4. Other side acts
5. Morale is rolled, if needed

Although I initially balked at this phase-based initiative, after suffering through ACKS combat for many years, I’m interested in trying combat in this format. It runs more like a wargame, and I like the tidiness. I suspect my players won’t like it, but then again, they might.

Using this initiative system, both sides reroll their d6 each round after declarations are made. There is a chance of a tie, in which case, the sides go simultaneously. I don’t like simultaneous turns, but I would play it as written before changing it, in case I’m missing some genius realization that’s not apparent in the writing.

All in all, these combat rules seem to mirror those in OSE. It’s a simple system.

Other Combat Matters

Here are all of the optional/expanded rules, which include many of the edge cases that often pop up in tabletop RPGs. I am particularly happy with the softening of firing a missile into melee, which only provides a -1 to the attack roll, and natural ones indicating the arrow hits a random target nearby.

Example of Combat

A continuation of the two examples of play we’ve read prior, this one focuses on combat.

Part 8: Appendices

Dolmenwood Calendar

This chapter is surprisingly extensive, with all kinds of information about the world that wouldn’t fit in the other chapters. This first page is concerned with timekeeping, detailing the number of days in a year, holidays, and moon signs.

Like some other D&D-type games, Gavin has created novel names for the days of the week. Personally, I would keep referring to them by the modern names, because it makes it easier on players (and me).

Dolmenwood also has strange additional days that sometimes pop up, called Wysendays. These exist outside of normal calendar time and only have a chance of appearing each month. It’s very fairy.

Four feast days, also known as holidays, are described here. I would take a page from a YouTuber I enjoy (RedmageDM) and create a feast day for all of the saints of the Pluritine church, sprinkling them throughout the calendar year.

There are 36 moon signs each year, which gives characters a special ability. I would definitely be using moon signs, both because it ties characters into the world (and gives them a birthday), while differentiating one character from another.

Noble Houses of Dolmenwood

Nine noble families rule over Dolmenwood. This spread provides their emblem and a summary for each one. Although the presentation is clear, I can’t help but think it’s just too much for any one dungeon master to keep in their brain. Yes, the book is highly organized, succinct, indexed, referenced, etc., but there’s such a wealth of information that even with those positive factors, the game might be impossible to run.

Even with digital tools with one-click access to information, random tables, etc., this game will be an absolute bear to run.

Religion in Dolmenwood

THE PLURITINE CHURCH: A section I have never laid eyes on! Religion in this game plays an important role. The first page talks about the Pluritine Church in some detail, including the five prophets who founded the belief system, before being taken up into heaven after 17 years of preaching. It explains religious practices and hierarchical church rankings.

While an older, more dogmatic version of me would be offended by a church that is clearly based on medieval Christianity, or more specifically, Catholicism, I find there are enough differences here to avoid any meaningful theological friction. If anything, this fantastical caricature of Christianity is simple and somewhat cartoonish, and provides enough structure to hang a bunch of saints and bishops on.

GWYRAE: A mostly dead druid-like religion that worships mysterious and vague aspects of nature (as far as the players are concerned). Being that this is the player’s book, it’s generally vague.

AUD FRENGD HLERR: This is a system of ancestor worship. Families may worship people from their own family history, or some hero far down their family line. One semi-mythical ancestor is called Hraigl, the mother of all the longhorn noble houses.

NAG-LORD CULTS: A sidebar on this page mentions the rumor that new cults are popping up in the wild places of Dolmenwood. Various goatfolk, monsters, and even corrupt humans have gathered to worship this evil being.

MOGBA “Holy Decay”: The belief system of the mosslings. It’s very esoteric and strange. Perfect for mosslings!

Optional Kindred-Classes

One odd thing about this game is that DMs can give players the option of separating class and race, or having them be one and the same for demi-human classes. This next section provides the kindred classes for the Breggle, Elf, Grimalkin, Mossling, and Woodgrue. Personally, I’m not sure why I would ever want to give the player fewer options, but some folk might appreciate it.

From a cursory glance, it seems these kindred classes might be slightly more powerful than the corresponding ancestry. My guess is this makes up for the lack of flexibility. Perhaps I will write up a comparison one day.

Thanks

Gavin thanks his wife, daughter, Exalted Funeral, and all of the Kickstarter backers, of whom I am one.

Credits

Credits.

My Final Thoughts

I didn’t expect this journey to be just over 9,300 words, but here we are. Doing this readthrough/writethrough has been very eye-opening for me, and now I can say I have officially read through this entire book.

While I started optimistically about running the game, the more I learn, the more out of reach that notion feels. This game is truly the most massive and detailed game I own. From what I have read of this book and the DM’s guide, a single hex contains enough gameplay for a single night, if not more. In fact, a single rolled encounter might provide the same, given the level of detail and variation available for any single monster in the DMB.

I feel that it would be nearly impossible for even an expert referee to fully present the setting to players. I expect I would need to pick a single plot thread or a very small selection of factions to put in front of the player characters.

I’m shocked to say that this book might very well be too vast, too detailed, and too incomprehensibly interconnected for anyone to run accurately at a live table.

Perhaps with the aid of well-crafted digital tools, it would be more possible, but those don’t exist yet, beyond a few perchance generators.

Strangely, this game is, itself, like a fairy story: piles of gold and treasure, inaccessible for one reason or another. It’s a journey I crave to share with others, but they don’t believe such a place is even possible.

Well done, Gavin Norman.