City of my Nightmares
City of my Nightmares is an adventure for the Nordic Mythology Horror role-playing game Vaesen, written by Kiku Pukk Härenstam and Tomas Härenstam and published by Free League Publishing.
By Aaron T. Huss
Learn more about City of my Nightmares here
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City of Nightmares is an episodic adventure in four parts that can be played straight through or with other scenarios in between. It is connected across an overarching storyline that comes to fruition in the last episode but is hinted at throughout. Additionally, it takes the game out of its rural roots and into the bustling city of Stockholm.
City of Nightmares follows the same illustrative look as the rest of Vaesen – that creepy, Victorian, kind-of-steampunkish look, but that’s not what really makes this supplement stand out. This adventure accomplishes two excellent additions to the RPG – the format for creating an episodic adventure while maintaining cohesiveness and what it looks like to move the game’s theme into a bustling city where you would think it would be much easier to hide these sorts of things. It’s difficult to describe without spoilers, but let’s just say the horror-side of Vaesen is subtle but could easily become widespread without making it apocalyptic. It’s much more localized than, say, a Cthulhu insurrection and yet, no less intriguing. Additionally, there’s a mix of conflicts and conflict resolutions to keep the players engaged and excited. It’s truly a format I appreciate in horror-influenced games because the horror is no in your face but rather it’s just on the horizon and then a countdown to something bad begins. Don’t let the cover fool you; that’s jus meant to draw you in.
This adventure book does have a bit of a setting supplement in it as well as Stockholm is presented with other possible locales for exciting scenes and a foldout map to support that theme. Even if you don’t play the including adventure, you get a collection of important places and people for other escapades (or filler between the episodes of the adventure). If you want to expand the excitement of Vaesen, this is a great pick-up!
