Vileborn: How Would I Run It?
Rob Wieland looks at a nobledark fantasy game that’s a cross between Umbrella Academy and The Witcher
Teenage Wasteland
Being a teenage human is hard enough. Now imagine also being a monster - Image by Horrible Games
There were two franchises that influenced me a lot as a middle schooler and teenager. I fell hard for X-Men during the white hot Jim Lee era. Even though it has moved away from the teen drama where it began, its presentation of extraordinary people with strange powers struggling to do what’s right stick with me to this day. The other influence, World of Darkness appealed for many of the same reasons. Yes they were monsters but they still had to interact with regular people on a regular basis.
When I saw ads for the Vileborn Kickstarter, I immediately felt it call out to me because of how it played to these formational games and comics. Horrible Press calls it nobledark fantasy that’s inspired by a lot of YA novels full of teenagers given powerful gifts and trying to understand themselves while also learning to control their powers. Vileborn plays out the drama in a dark fantasy world where the titular characters are half-human, half-monsters that are forced to live under a brutal compromise.
The monsters came to the setting a few years before the beginning of the game. A peaceful kingdom now lives in fear and a world of shadow. Many of the children have been infected by the darkness. They are not full monsters but have access to some monstrous abilities. The queen of the land conscripts these kids into a military school. They will learn to fight, to control their powers and to give their lives to protect the regular people of the world. The ones who look upon them in fear. The ones who call them Vileborn.
Tonight, We Are Young
Currently on Kickstarter, Vileborn has a lovely quickstart available full of art, a sampling of the rules and an adventure that teaches you to play. The rules are pretty straight forward allowing players to roll a single die on an action and multiple dice if they have training or personality traits that might apply. Each mission is structured in the same way. The characters start at school dealing with their training, then they are called into the field to investigate a monster and then they must confront the monster to save the day.
Dark powers are handled in two ways. Players get a certain amount of uses of classic monster abilities. The Ghostwalker, for example, sees dead people. They can ask a ghost a question that the ghost must answer truthfully. They can manifest a ghost that poltergeist away and throw people and things in a location.
Beyond that, they have a broader “ghost powers” mandate which includes whatever the player and the GM (called The Darkness here) can agree on. Does the player want to perform a seance? Reach through the veil between the living and the dead to pull something back across? They can do it, but the Darkness rolls a die to see if it causes a complication. That might include being stuck with a ghost inside their head or ripping a hole in the veil that they can’t close back up. Everytime they use this power, the chances of a complication grow much larger.
How do the Vileborn regain control of their powers? They satisfy their monstrous urge. The vampire drinks human blood, the werewolf must hunt a human target and so on. Our ghostwalker must do the bidding of a spirit and chances are those spirits aren;t going to ask the character to do some grocery shopping. This cycle reminds me of another great RPG about teenage heroes called Masks: A New Generation. In that game, players have to mash rash, poorly thought out decisions to wipe out conditions that hamper their characters. (If you’re a fan of teenage superheroes and don’t already own a copy, run, do not walk and get a copy of Masks.)
How Would I Run Vileborn?
One of the keys to this game is setting up a dynamic with the adults of the Order of Dusk that train and care for the players. There needs to be a mix of people that like the kids, people who feel sorry for them, people afraid of them and people who hate them. These don’t have to all be built in advance, but it’s good to start with three; a teacher who likes the kids, one who dislikes them and one that could go either way depending on how the story plays out.
In addition to these NPCs, I would make sure to represent any of the types of Vileborn not created as a player character. The quickstart has four pre-made characters with gorgeous art. If none of the players took one of these types, they become their classmates at the school. They could be played by visiting players joining for a session or two. They also can be the focus of a scene at the school and give the players some sympathetic characters there. There should be a nice web of allies, enemies, lovers and rivals at the school with the students serving in different roles depending on which player character’s perspective you’re coming from.
These characters should also serve as complications for the monster hunts that happen each week. What if the vampire tormenting a town is the father of the Bloodsinger that a PC has a crush on? What if the Ghostwalker comes in contact with a spirit who wants their beloved teacher dead? What if the Clawshrouder hunted a PC’s last remaining human relative and doesn’t remember if they lived or died? This drama will make these tense long before the beast comes out of the shadows with teeth out and claws dripping.
Vileborn is on Kickstarter until November 25, 2024. It is anticipated for a Q4 2025 release
Rob Wieland is an author, game designer and professional nerd. You can find him on Bluesky @robowieland and on YouTube as the host of Theatre Of The Mind Players, the Actual Play show that plays everything besides Dungeons & Dragons!
