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| Griff's Vale - be sure to pack for bad weather. |
The gaming presses at Fire Ruby Designs have rolled out another book for Warlock! which must make it one of the best-supported lines out there at the moment in terms of rate and quality of production. Griff's Vale is a seventy-six page hardback book, available through DriveThruRPG's print-on-demand service. This is a setting book, like the excellent Kingdom book. Production quality, layout and trade-dress match the previous release.
TLDR: Griff's Vale is well presented and continues the Warlock! approach of leaving spaces for the players and GM to explore. It doesn't excite me as much as the Kingdom book did, but that's because I'm a sucker for a city setting. If you like the idea of a frontier adventure, remote from civilisation, where the character's actions can cause significant effects, then this may well be a great setting for you. As an aside, because this is very light on system details you could easily lift it as inspiration for other fantasy roleplaying games.
Written by Eric Brimstein and Greg Saunders, the book provides a sandbox setting, with a linked adventure hook to draw the characters in. Griff's Vale is a region of hills and forests on the western slopes of the Black Spine mountains. The closest town is Rebeck (which suffered in the war with the Traitor), but you have to skirt the northern edge of Lake Gossenham to get there. It's wet and windy, with fogs common. The cover does a great job of capturing this feeling.
The area has a shrine sacred to the Thrice-Blessed where the hero Temple Knight Griff drove off hordes of Goblins who had been ravaging the area under the banner of the Dragon Wrath. At the end of a ferocious battle, Griff struck down the Statue of the Dragon at the shrine that Goblins worshipped before dying himself. Having broken the goblin horde and seized control of the area for humanity, Griff was declared a martyr by the church, and a shrine founded that has become a key destination for the pilgrims.
The history is presented ambiguously, and it's not clear if the goblins were actually there first and Griff destroyed their kingdom. Griff's exact burial site has been lost in time.
The town of Griff's Bluff is ruled by Marcher Lord, Baron Edrick of Hillsbrow, a veteran of the war with the Traitor, a situation which greatly displeases Countess Yestre of Rebeck who believes that this should be her domain. The Church of the Thrice Blessed controls Broken Dragon Shrine through Sister Greta of Pomperburg, from her Church in Griff's Bluff. Goblin bands still menace the area.
The book presents key locations with a variety of maps and floorplans, including the Keep, The Lone Watchman inn, and the Church. Random tables are given in the usual Warlock! style to give ideas for encounters and background. The areas through the vale are all fleshed out in a similar manner, and there are descriptions of the main goblin band and some of their rivals. As usual, this is gaming gold, with enough ambiguity and space to make it your own setting.
The second part of the book is a campaign outline called 'Past Best Forgotten', where the characters are engaged by Ruabin the Lesser, a descendant of Griff who has been sent by factions within the Church of the Thrice Blessed to find artefacts or the mortal remains of Griff. They seek his canonisation as a saint, as he is a potent symbol of the strength of the Church. By default, this adventure is set in autumn as the weather draws in. The actions of the characters will likely upset the power balance of the region, and give them plenty of reasons to travel in the area and meet people. Stats are presented for the key NPCs and creatures. This is very much an outline for a set of adventures; how they work out will very much depend upon the actions of the players as they trudge through the mud and rain on their quest.
I like this book; Griff's Vale is well presented and continues the Warlock! approach of leaving spaces for the players and GM to explore. It doesn't excite me as much as the Kingdom book did, but that's because I'm a sucker for a city setting. If you like the idea of a frontier adventure, remote from civilisation, where the character's actions can cause significant effects, then this may well be a great setting for you. As an aside, because this is very light on system details you could easily lift it as inspiration for other fantasy roleplaying games.
My other Warlock reviews are here:
Reflections on running Warlock!
Bonus: Warlock! VTT sheets for Role
23 November 2020
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