First Impressions - Helvéczia - picaresque fantasy roleplaying game - part 1 'unboxing'

The Helvéczia boxed set

Beyond Fomalhaut is one of the blogs that I follow, and I noticed the reasonably low key announcements about the forthcoming Helvéczia roleplaying game with interest. This was described as a 'picaresque' roleplaying game, set in an analogue to 17th century Switzerland. Although the author, Gabor Lux, has written plenty of material for the OSR using other people's games, Helvéczia uses an engine of his own design. It is very OSR in feel, but draws upon mechanics from later editions for inspiration. More on that in the next post on this.

The box arrived from Hungary earlier than I expected, well packaged and notably without any additional postal fees for customs now the UK is out of the EU. The box is almost overfull due to the presence of a pack of Hungarian cards (34 card deck) used in the game. It's sturdy and reminds me of the kind of thing you'd get in games in the late 70s and early 80s. It's around 40mm (just over 1.5") deep.

Back of the box, showing what it's all about.

Inside I found the following:

• Hardcover rules (A4 format rather than US)
• A supplement covering two of the cantons in depth
• A set of playing cards
• Lots of maps
• Handouts, crib sheets and a single sheet of errata (correcting a table).

The packing note has a message from the author.

The packing sheet had a message from the author, which hints at what the game is about as you could "find a roadside sanctum inhabited by an outcast, telling a story about a mountain village nobody has visited in a hundred years...'

A very full box indeed.

The material is all printed in black and white, with woodcut-style illustrations.

A glimpse at the style of the book

Although Gabor is Hungarian, the book is written pretty much flawlessly in British English. The text uses a style in line with the period, both in the typefaces selected and the phrasing.

The cards

The cards are decent quality, in a deck form I haven't seen before. In the game, if you draw upon them, you could have the devil to pay.

The supplement detailing two cantons

The Ammertal and the Oberammsbund supplement is softcover, but otherwise in a similar style.

The back of the core book gives a good description of what the game is all about:

"Adventure into a rugged land of stamp-sized, steadfastly independent petty states, populated with robber bands, pious clergymen, wig-wearing philistines, adventurous countesses, and wily cheats: the cantons of Helvéczia, a territory of forbidding mountain ranges and endless forests between rival empires.

Here we find the whole cavalcade of the age: foreign agents planning conquest, secret societies agitating for liberty and equality, and Heaven and Hell involved in a struggle over the souls of men! Join the Devil at his table in a roadsitde inn, dodge giant owls nesting in ruined towers, hold your own against hardened mercenaries and proud farmers in games o wit and steel, and explore hidden valleys and obscure monasteries where only the brave tread. It is just like in real life ~ only even more so."

The game includes the German Legends (rather than the much more popular fairy tales) of the Brother's Grimm as an inspiration.

I certainly found my initial dive into this box inspiring; I ended up putting aside the copy of Godbound which I was reading at the time and diving into this. 

Next part - the Helvéczia core book.

10 July 2021