[Free RPG Day 2023] Loup Garou Free Preview

Now in its sixteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2023 took place on Saturday, June 24th. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Thanks to the generosity of David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3, Fil Baldowski at All Rolled Up, and others, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day, both in the USA and elsewhere.

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If the releases for Dragon Shield Roleplaying have been one of the two oddest releases for Free RPG Day 2023, the other is the Loup Garou Free Preview. This is a preview for Loup Garou, part of the ‘Graphic Novel Adventures’ from Van Ryder Games, best known for its board games like Final Girl and Hostage Negotiator. Funded via Kickstarter, these ‘Graphic Novel Adventures’ are solo or ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ adventure books. The publisher has released several series of these and what sets them about from other solo adventures is that they are presented in graphic form rather than text format. So essentially, what the reader is reading and playing in is a graphic novel. Such things are not new, of course, in the nineteen eighties, Diceman was a five-issue series from Fleetway which published stories involving characters from its sister publication, 2000 AD, including Judge Dredd, Nemesis the Warlock, Sláine, Rogue Trooper, Torquemada, and ABC Warriors. Diceman also ventured into political satire with the comic strip ‘You are Ronald Reagan in: Twilight’s Last Gleaming’ and Fleetway would continue this theme with the separate solo adventure book, You are Maggie Thatcher: a dole-playing game in nineteen eighty-seven. However, times have moved on, and in comparison, to both titles, Loup Garou, as well as other titles in the ‘Graphic Novel Adventures’ series are done in full colour.

The story of Loup Garou is this. The protagonist is Eoras, an apprentice to the mage, Thedocred. One night, Thedocred sends him out into the forest to collect a vital ingredient for a potion, but whilst out on the errand, a foul beast—a loup garou—attacks him. Although a hunter comes to his rescue and slays the monster, Eoras discovers that he has been scratched and is thus condemned to transform into a loup garou himself! As a mere mage’s apprentice, Eoras knows just the single spell, but as a loup garou, he has tremendous physical strength and endurance, but can he use it wisely? Will he find a cure or will he tracked down by the hunter who slew the beast that scratched him? Above all, can Eoras survive? This, ultimately, this is the aim for the reader with Loup Garou.

The Loup Garou Free Preview is a heavily truncated version of Loup Garou. It takes some thirty-one panels and a two-page spread explanation to get to the start and ‘Panel #1’. The actual adventure consists of just twenty-nine panels drawn from the full version of Loup Garou, which contains at least two-hundred-and-eighty-nine panels, this being the highest number in the Loup Garou Free Preview. Eoras begins play with ten Hit Points and ten Magic Points and a rating of four in his Strength and one in Defence, these last being his attributes. In loup garou form, five is added to both. He also has a skill point which the reader can assign. At the back of the Loup Garou Free Preview is a Skill Tree, each of which consists of eight boxes, each containing three improvements a player can choose. Eoras is an Apprentice, so would select that box and tick off its first entry, ‘Spell: Shock’. The others are ‘Ice Armour’ and ‘Spell: Fireball’. From the Apprentice box, Eoras could improve via the Sorcerer, Mage, or Lycanthrope boxes. Other starting options include Healer, Soldier, and Survivor. For every ten Experience Points gained, either through defeating an enemy or solving a riddle, Eoras gains one Magic Point and one Hit Point, and the reader can gain one improvement.

Mechanically, Loup Garou is quite simple. Combat requires a roll of a six-sided die each round to determine how many Hit Points an opponent loses. The combatant’s Strength is added to this in mêlée to get the total result or the base damage of the spell being cast if magic is being used. It costs one Magic Point to cast a spell. The other major mechanic involves riddles. Solve these and the reader and Eoras is awarded with a good number of Experience Points. A minor mechanic involves picking up items to use later. These are included in the comic panels and the reader is free to decide whether Eoras picks up one or another.

In terms of play, Loup Garou Free Preview is limited. Which is fine because it is a preview. Consequently, there is just the one incidence of combat and one of solving riddles, whilst there are several items to spot and pack in Eoras’ bag, although no reason to use them in the preview. What the Loup Garou Free Preview does show off is the excellent artwork, though in places, the number indicating the next panel to turn to or choose from is a bit small to read with any ease. The visual means also exacerbates the aspect of any solo adventure book with illustrations. Even one with a few illustrations will have the reader intrigued by them and wondering how he can guide the protagonist of the adventure to that paragraph and thus that location to discover what is actually going on there. In the Loup Garou Free Preview and thus Loup Garou, with all of paragraphs being graphic novel panels, that is an even bigger feature. Even to the point of being a distraction!

Physically, Loup Garou Free Preview is very well presented. The artwork is excellent throughout and nicely captures Eoras’ desperation and worry throughout its few pages.

As a preview, Loup Garou Free Preview is surprisingly playable given its scant number of panels and plotlines. It should really only take the reader a single effort or two to play through the whole thing and even then, only fifteen minutes or so. Yet there remains the much longer and deeper story in Loup Garou, which Loup Garou Free Preview does leave you wondering about and whether or not Eoras survives or even discovers a cure to his malady. Loup Garou Free Preview is a solid introduction to Loup Garou and by the end of it, the reader will know if he wants to find out more. Reviews from R’lyeh definitely did.