It is the Dungeon Era. A period of
untrammelled capitalism and capitalists—tycoons and robber barons—who have in
the past few years brought about a time of competing corporations racing to out
expand each other, outgrow each other, and out exploit each other. In the
Mucklands, this brought about a semblance of order, replacing a long period
where the land was dominated by monsters, fiends, warlords, and wizards that
was brought about by the mysterious Gloom King. He caused the great
civilisations and nations of the past to fracture and break, initiating a sense
of decay that continues to this day. And although the peoples of the Mucklands
no longer have the monsters, fiends, warlords, and wizards to worry about, they
now have to worry about being on time for their shifts in the mines, factories,
and dungeons where they labour daily. Yet there are some who believe in the old
stories and the old ways, who want to go adventuring and be heroic and perhaps
even help the good folk of the Mucklands in the oppressive Dungeon Era. For
such heroes, there are opportunities to delve into dungeons and strike it rich,
even find Magnificent magical items of yesteryore and become filthy rich.
Alternatively, being heroes, the Player Characters could keep such items safe
from those that would exploit them, or indeed, put them to good use and help
the people of the Mucklands from being oppressed by the tycoons and perhaps
save them if the rumours are true about the return of the Gloom King.
This is the setting for Land of Eem, the roleplaying game that won the 2026
Origins Award for Roleplaying Game of the Year. Published by Exalted Funeral,
the roleplaying game is based on the graphic novel series Rickety Stitch and
the Gelatinous Goo, and the book series Dungeoneer Adventures, and probably has
the best elevator pitch of any roleplaying game of the last five years—‘The
Lord of the Rings meets The Muppets’. To be fair, Land of Eem is not that.
Well, not that exactly, primarily for licensing reasons. What it really means
is that Land of Eem is a roleplaying game of epic whimsical fantasy. There is
scope for great adventure, but it is shot through with silliness and absurdity,
as well as a grimness from the setting also being a Post-Apocalyptic one too.
Plus, the use of sputtertech and sparkwork technologies, primarily employed by
the tycoons in machinery to faster mine the land and chop down the trees. This
is not the only contrast in Land of Eem. Its play is intended to be about the
exploration and discovery of Eem’s ancient past, driven by the players and
their characters in a hexcrawl using the Land of Eem: The Mucklands SandboxCampaign Setting.
This gives it an Old School Renaissance feel, as does the fact that it is a
Class and Level roleplaying game, but Land of Eem is not an Old School
Renaissance-style roleplaying game. Instead, it encourages player input into
the world; Experience Points are earned for roleplaying, exploration, and
engaging with the story rather than slaying monsters; and whilst combat is an
aspect of game play, Land of Eem is a talk first and not even a fight second
roleplaying game, and to reflect that, every monster can be talked to. This
combination of contrasts, together with a light and easy rules system and Player
Character options means that Land of Eem is family friendly too. However, it is
not an introductory roleplaying game in terms of learning to play, whereas as a
game to teach to roleplay, its light rules and scope for player input make it a
good choice. For the experienced roleplayer, Land of Eem—at least in the form
of the core rulebook—is very easy to read through and gain a good grasp of how
the roleplaying game is played.
The Land of Eem: Core Rulebook is the starting point. It provides the means to create Player Characters, gives
the rules for adventuring—including travelling, exploration, conflict, and
combat, the means to craft items mundane and magnificent, a short bestiary,
lots and lots of random tables, and a starting adventure.
A Player Character in Land of Eem is defined by Attributes, Skills, his Folk, a
Class, and Homeland. The four Attributes are Vim, Vigour, Knack, and Knowhow.
Of these Vigour and Knowhow are obvious in meaning. Vim covers a Player
Character’s charisma and intuition; Knack is his dexterity and agility. (This terminology
is problematic since Vim and Vigour actually mean the same thing and ideally
the authors should have used another word instead.) An Attribute ranges in
value from ‘-3’ to ‘+3’ and has four associated Skills. Land of Eem offers an
impressive sixteen choices in terms of Folk, the equivalent of Race or Species
in other roleplaying games.
The options are Boggarts, Boggles, Bogrils,
Bugbears, Gelatinous Goos, Gnomes, Goblins, Humans, Imps, Mushrums, Quortles,
Shryms, Skeletons, Welkins, Whalens, and Wugs. Boggarts are the most populous
Folk in the Mucklands and are related to Goblins, but do not have the same
pointy teeth and noses; Boggles are smaller relatives of Goblins with pointy
noses and ears who love mischief; Bogrils are frog people with a love travel
and wandering; and Bugbears are bear-like in outlook and size, and like the simple
things in life, but have an equally big temper. Gelatinous Goos are sentient
jelly-like creatures from Eem’s core who understand Folk Tongue, but cannot
speak it, instead speaking Gelatinous Gooese; Gnomes are magical beings who
protect nature from harm and are very happy in their outlook, and often travel
in the company of a small animal like a squirrel; Goblins are the primary
architects of the Dungeon Era, highly industrious and enterprising, valuing
education and a good job; and Humans are reputed to have been amongst the
greatest heroes of the past, but are rare in the Dungeon Era. The red, winged
Imps have been summoned and hatched by magic, but escaped from the sorcerers
and witches who summoned them, so value freedom and excitement; Mushrums are fungal
folk who can communicate with other fungal folk via telepathy, but are very
literal when dealing with others; the turtle-like Quortles have an affinity for
alchemy and herbalism and after many years of war, value politeness and
hospitality; and Shryms are furry and shrew-like and fascinated with
technology, having invented sputtertech and sparkworks. Skeletons are rare
sentient, talking skeletons who have retained their souls, but lost the
memories of their past lives, and have their own wants and dreams; Welkins are
bird-folk who can fly for short distances if not holding anything; Whalens are
humanoid whales, usually ocean-faring, and known for their rousing singing and
hardiness; and Wugs are bigger, brawnier Boggarts with large hands and feet,
with a reputation for being simple, but are surprisingly perceptive.
Every Folk suggests some names and gives a
Size, Skill adjustments, suggested Homelands, and possible Perks and Quirks. Of
the sixteen, two are notable, but for different reasons. Gnomes can only be
Gnomes, that is, they cannot take any other Class then Gnome and are thus the
only Folk in Land of Eem that can cast magic. Humans are rare and unlike other
fantasy roleplaying games, not the default Folk in the Land of Eem. Think of
them then, a bit like guests stars in The Muppet Show, especially if they choose
the Bard Class, since means that they can sing, dance, and otherwise perform!
In comparison with the lengthy selection of
Folk, Land of Eem offers just six Classes. The Bard supports the other Player
Characters with song to inspire, invigorate, and more; the Dungeoneer is the treasure
hunter and adventurer who comes with his and crew to help him explore as well
as lots of gear; and the Gnome, who can cast magic and are the particular bane
of certain creatures or beings, which differs from Gnome to Gnome. The
Knight-Errant is a travelling knight, heroic and loyal; the Loyal Chum is the
classic ally and travelling companion, providing lots of support and help in
and out of the dungeon; and the Rascal is a rogue, thief, ruffian, and so forth.
Each Class grants some base Perks, some giving multiple options for a player to
choose from, and then two abilities at each Level. What is interesting here is
that once a Player Character gains a new Level, his player has to select one of
the abilities at the previous Level to keep and one to give up. It gives the
player some decisions to make in terms of his character’s progression.
To create a character, a player selects a Class and its Perks, assigns
modifiers to Attributes and tweaks Skills, determines derived stats, and then a
Folk and associated Perks—adding more in return for a Quirk, and selects a
Homeland that adds Proficiencies and equipment. Lastly, the player develops his
character’s backstory, including ideal,
flaw, relationships, personal quests, and more. The process is not difficult,
but it does mean working through a fair number of choices.
Name: Gravy
Folk: Skeleton
Class: Knight-Errant Level: 1
Size: Medium
Homeland: The Underlands
ATTRIBUTES/SKILLS
Vim +1/Charm -1, Inspire +1, Mettle +0, Perception -1
Vigour +2/Athletics -1, Intimidate +1, Might +0, Vitality +0
Knack +0/Nimbleness +1, Search +0, Sneak +0, Trickery +0Knowhow -1/Lore +0,
Realms +0, Tinker +0, Wilderness +0
ABILITIES
Wayfarer
Inspiring Orders
PERKS
Unfinished Business
Bag of Bones
QUIRKS
Feared
PROFICIENCIES
Underlands Lore, Seeing in the Dark
Attack +2
Defence +0
Courage: 16
Dread: 8
Quest Points: 2
Inventory Slots: 20
EQUIPMENT
Mucklands Pony
Magnificent weapon (True +1 Dread)
Canteen, Crowbar, Hard Hat, Normal Rations, Rappelling Harness, 50’ Rope,
Pickaxe
BACKSTORY
“I defended the town from bandits, and took up the sword to protect others.”
Ideal: Rescue someone from danger
Flaw: Refuse to rest even when it’s prudent
Personal Quest: Restore the Mucklands to its former glory; Avenge Sir Oomarine
and prove their sacrifice was not in vain.
Mechanically, Land of Eem uses a twelve-sided die in a system in a system that
is not unlike Powered by the Apocalypse in its resolution results. It is very much
not Powered by the Apocalypse, but the similarities are there. When a player
wants his character to undertake an action, he rolls a twelve-sided die and
adds a value for the appropriate skill, plus any other modifiers. The total
modifier cannot exceed ‘+3’ or ‘-3’, due to skill or circumstances. Results of
two or less are a ‘Complete Failure’ and indicate that something else has gone
wrong; three to five and the attempt is a ‘Failure with a Plus’, meaning that
there is an unexpected silver lining; six to eight means a ‘Success with a Twist’
which adds a complication; nine to eleven is a ‘Success’ and the Player
Character does what he set out to do; and twelve or more is a ‘Complete
Success’, the Player Character not only succeeding, but gaining an extra
benefit into the bargain. The Game Master will narrate the outcome, but is
encouraged to welcome player input too. The ‘Failure with a Plus’ and ‘Success
with a Twist’ results are going to feed into the narrative driven aspects—as
light as they are—of Land of Eem. Advantage and Disadvantage work as in other
roleplaying games, and Player Characters have Quest Points that can be spent to
add a ‘+1’ bonus after a roll (useful to improve a skill check up a category),
as well as being used to activate certain Abilities and Perks.
Combat in Land of Eem uses the same rules, but with a tweak or two. However,
first, the Player Characters have to get there, because combat is the last act
action that takes place in any Conflict. A Conflict is divided into four
phases. These are ‘Parley’, ‘Improvise’, ‘Run’ and ‘Combat’. One of the things
that Land of Eem emphasises is that most monsters are people too and if the
Player Characters can find the right approach, then the monsters will listen to
them, and a fight will not ensue. However, their patient is not infinite,
mechanically measured by each monster’s Parley rating. If the Player
Characters’ fail too many Parley attempts, they will have to resort to other
methods to resolve the encounter. In the ‘Improvise’ Phase, the Player
Characters can find another way to resolve the situation and if that fails,
they can simply choose to leg it in the ‘Run’ phase. Lastly, there is the
‘Combat’ phase.
In combat, the players and Game Master are not rolling on the standard results
table, but on one each for melee combat and ranged combat. The latter allows
for ‘Miss with a Plus’ and ‘Grazing Shot’ result, but more interestingly,
former allows for a ‘Hit with a Counterattack’ as well as a ‘Miss with a Plus’
result. The ‘Hit with a Counterattack’ means that the defender can immediately
attack back at his attacker and if the result is also ‘Hit with a
Counterattack’, the original attacker can strike back. This sets up a potential
exchange or flurry of blows like a duel and can be get deadly quite quickly.
Damage is called Dread and can take many
forms. It can be poison, fear, exhaustion, and other factors, but it reduces a
Player Character’s Courage. Physical Dread, especially that suffered in combat,
is the only form of Dread that can be blocked by armour and shields. The die
rolled by a player for his character to determine how much Dread he inflicts in
combat is determined by his Class. Dread reduces a Player Character’s Courage
and if it is reduced to zero, he is knocked out temporarily and his player must
make a Vitality Check to Resist Wounds or suffer the Wounded Condition. This
imposes a penalty on all of the Player Character’s subsequent rolls. It is
possible to recover, but if it happens again, the player has to make a Vitality
Check to Defy Death. If failed, the Player Character can make one last heroic
act before dying.
Equipment carried and encumbrance are
handled by an Inventory Slot system which both measures how much a Player
Character can carry and how bulky an item is. Money, rations, arrows, and other
consumables are tracked by rolling a Usage Die for each. When they are used,
the player rolls the Usage Die and if the result is a one or two, then the
Usage Die has to step down to the next smaller die size. Both rules are
imported from modern derivations of Old School Renaissance roleplaying games
and just push Land of Eem a little towards an Old School style of play. Land of Eem includes an extensive list of equipment, and along with tables for finding
and creating Treasure Hoards and Magnificent items, the latter providing a
variety of different effects.
Almost extending out of the equipment rules, Land of Eem provides a pleasingly
set of rules for crafting. Any attempt requires a crafter to have the correct
tools and a roll on the appropriate table and there is one each for crafting
mundane items, magnificent items, alchemical items, cooking, and magical items.
This feels not dissimilar to a video game or MMORPG and it is backed up with a
guide to finding components, tables of component locations, and tables of
hundreds of component descriptions and recipes. There is a wealth of detail
here that the Game Master can mine for flavour and verisimilitude in her
campaign and for any Player Character who wants to focus on crafting, there is
plenty of scope here. Most crafting attempts will take place when a Player
Character is not actually adventuring and this is expanded upon with tables for
other activities during Downtime, including gambling, gathering information,
partying, performing, researching, and even working!
As written, Land of Eem is intended to be played as a hexcrawl across the Land
of Eem: The Mucklands Sandbox Campaign Setting. Travel across the Land of Eem
is kept simple and is played out over six-mile-wide hexes. Each day is divided
into four six-hour turns and the Player Characters will typically spend the day
turns travelling—one or two hexes per turn—or exploring a single hex. Each turn
spent travelling requires a Travel Check, which can result in a perilous or
dangerous encounter, a bump in the road (a minor setback), an uneventful journey,
or a discovery, and there are tables for all of that. Similarly, a roll can be
made to see if something dangerous or interesting happens if the Player
Characters decide to explore a hex. During the Night turns, the Player
Characters are encouraged to ‘Make Camp’ and rest, but they can also heal and
they can also engage in ‘Story Time’. This encourages some roleplaying between
the Player Characters and is one way for them to earn Experience Points.
If there is an aspect of the Land of Eem: Core Rulebook is the relative
shortness of the bestiary or ‘Adversaries’ chapter. From Bandits, Blinking
Cave-Inchers, and Cairn Stingers to Snagbunnies, Weorgs, and Witches, there are
only twenty-six entries. To be fair, it is enough in the short term and there
is also the Land of Eem: Bestiary Vol. 1,
which also details a whole lot more. On the plus side, every entry is
illustrated and there is room to breathe for all of its details which include
its stats, abilities, how social it is, how it acts in combat, and its
behaviour in both victory and defeat, both of which are a really nice extra and
extra useful detail. Many also indicate what could be crafted from them. Adversaries
are categorised by Type and Class. Types are either Creatures, which are
sentient and can talk; Critters, animals and beasts which may be able to speak
a little; and Creepers that are pests, bugs, and vermin more environmental
threats. The Classes are Goons, Bruisers, and Champions. There is a guide to
making adversaries on the fly, but it is basic.
The advice for the Game Master on running Land of Eem is solid and useful and
includes a guide to vehicle and mass combat and tables for creating random
dungeons and mazes. They are brief and could have done with much greater
development. That said, they are followed by an extensive set of tables for
just everything else, including NPCs, location aspects, encounters perilous and
dangerous, discoveries, random dungeon elements, magic items, relics, books,
boons, curses, and spells. There is so much information in these tables that
the Game Master can use to add detail and flavour to her game with the content
of these tables. This is a great set of tables and certainly one of the best
sets of resources in the Land of Eem: Core Rulebook.
The Land of Eem: Core Rulebook is rounded out with an adventure, ‘Wally’s
Waffles and Rats!’. It is a short, one or two session affair in which Wally
Dunkwhiffle has lost the property deed to his waffle house and hires the Player
Characters look for it in the basement. Unfortunately, the rats that Wally was husbanding
as a source of meat escaped, ate an entire Bogril Glowing Cheese wheel, gained
intelligence, dug into the dungeon next door to the basement of Wally’s Waffles
and Weorgs, taking the property deed with them, and declared their own kingdom.
It is a suitably silly dungeon affair, but plenty of scope for roleplaying.
Especially at the start when interacting with the patrons of Wally’s Waffles
and Weorgs, which feels like an odder and more fantastical version of Cheers! It
provides a great mix of roleplaying and dungeoneering and just enjoyable
whimsy.
Physically, Land of Eem: Core Rulebook is a genuinely great looking book. The
artwork is a delight and captures the quirkiness of the setting, cartoonish on
the one hand, deadly and dangerous on the other. The book is also very well written
and accessible.
What is so impressive about the Land of Eem: Core Rulebook is that for all of
the information in its pages, the rules are very easy to pick up and understand,
and further they are easy to teach. Which includes younger players who will
appreciate the whimsical tone of the setting and gameplay. These rules also
nicely balance an Old School sensibility with the hexcrawl play and potentially
dangerous combat with the storytelling possibilities of the resolution
mechanic. There is more complexity in the roleplaying game when it comes to the
wealth of detail in the setting support in the Land of Eem: Core Rulebook, but
that detail is really designed for long term play rather than overwhelming any
players right now.
The Land of Eem: Core Rulebook is brilliantly accessible and entertaining, a
great introduction to the land of Eem and Land of Eem. Not only is a joy to
read, but successfully imparts the joy, drollery, and danger of the setting.
