Running Vermis; or "oracular meta-fiction as roleplaying setting"

How's that for an enticing pretentious theory/tip post?

Vermis & Vermis 2 are sensational, aesthetically rich and inspiring game books. They are, if you're unfamiliar, "game guides for games that don't exist"- written as picture and lore-heavy strategy guides for old pixelated dungeon-crawlers like Stonekeep and Eye of the Beholder. They take a lot of inspiration visually and tonally from Dark Souls and the bleak, gothic action rpg genre popular since the 2010s. If you're curious, I have reviews of both Vermis 1: Lost Dungeons and Forbidden Woods and Vermis 2: Mist & Mirrors which should give a pretty clear picture. How, though, are you supposed to actually use these as gamebooks? There are a few challenges:

  1. They are systemless, using only vague stats with no explanation 
  2. They are vague, hinting at the world and its denizens rather than instructing you
  3. They are disorganized, functioning as a puzzle for the reader to piece together while flipping through, with no page numbers or index or uniform section structure

With that, here is a short overview of the primary adventure sites in the book, sorted into Dungeon and Wilderness categories. I have read, re-read, re-re-read, and taken notes to decipher the meta-fiction into functional RPG information (which was super fun to do!), so here is how you could approach using the locations. The number shown is the order they appear in the book and the linear progression of the "game". I've left a few out (Pestilent Mines, A Dream, A House Without Windows, A Room Without Shadows) because they are not clear enough where they are or what is going on in them to flesh out a full "area". They're more like flavor or mini-encounters. I offer suggestions for both how to pluck locations out as one-shots or maintain the implied linearity of the guide book, and have another post describing sessions in which I ran Pauper's Catacombs, Silver Swamp and Flutewood Forest and comparing different systems for each.

Dungeons

Graveyard (1): Presented very out of sequence, this one is hard to parse. Its map comes at the end, and it's kind of hard to figure out whether there are sub-areas like the crypt, high burial ground, etc, or if it is all meant to be one area, but it does have a strong "video game level" feel. It is the first area presented in the book, so in a "linear" presentation in the style of a video game, it would logically come first.

 Pauper's Catacombs (2): A solid dungeon map, good pictures to show for reference. A mysterious magic statue that seems kind of like a Resident Evil puzzle, and some more statues that stalk you through the dungeon. Short and sweet, easy to use. It's what I would recommend as a first foray into Vermis, unless you want to run it linearly, but it is still the second area presented, so a combo of Graveyard & Catacombs could work well.

Green Sun Ruins (5): A clear isometric, multi-level map with labeled encounters. It's goblin-focused, which out of the context of Vermis could be lame, but the Vermis goblin lore is pretty good. The tone is kind of Zelda-ish, but with kind of a dusty, mysterious Shadow of the Colossus vibe. It has a substantial amount of information about the various encounters and a good closure in the form of the Goblin Princess's tomb chamber. It is by a significant margin the most cohesive and developed adventure area. It leads efficiently to The Highlands, and can even provide a nice hook to make the journey feel cohesive moving forward.

Shade Sanctum (7): Contains The Labyrinth, a large maze which is hinted to be a multi-level (possibly bottomless) megadungeon. It is depicted as kind of echo-ey and empty, with more strange statues, but it has a substantial amount of higher-difficulty, unique monsters shown in its section of the book. The first level is mapped and laid over a second, larger level which can't be clearly read. The rooms are not numbered on the map and the numbers which appear in the book are out of sequence. It could make a great template for a megadungeon of your own, if you're up for stocking one. If you want low prep, you could use encounter tables and some kind of random layout generator for anything below the first level. It ultimately leads to the Drowned Labyrinth location, implied to be the lowest level and that is where the narrative ends.

Wilderness


 The Silver Swamp (3):This area would work as a point crawl. It has some great features and one of the easiest "random encounter" bestiaries in the book. A few are even solid NPC-style encounters, giving the opportunity to build a living world. It could do with a bit of prep, but it's got a lot of haunting and surreal aspects in it. The Aspect of Dream and Emerging Visage are my favorites. It is unclear how it is connected to The Pestilent Mines or A Dream. I chose to use the Mines as a single location in my point-crawl and the Dream as a part of the whole Swamp description. As it is a larger area, it could be harder to segue to the next area if you are taking the linear approach.

The Flutewood Forest (4): An open environment, with the text suggesting that it is open and mysterious, though haunted by a full 12 types of denizens. It gives slight Aokigahara Forest vibes, and has hints of dark druidism and the god Murgo. It also leads to the House Without Windows, one of the most iconic Vermis locations. I found it somewhat hard to flesh out a forest, so I stuck to "paths" that players could follow (I guess a point-crawl) with the option to stray between them at a higher risk. Like the Swamp, it will be difficult to naturally filter things toward the next planned location.

The Highlands (6): A linear progression including 2 rich encounters, in the form of a "False Witch" and a giant, imposing knight who defends a perilous bridge. Both encounters have scripted outcomes in the guidebook, as it's emulating a game, but they have awesome potential. This probably shouldn't be run on its own, but it leads into The Shade Sanctum.

What to do with all this stuff?

So it's all a little more laid-out for you now. Hopefully this has reduced the necessity to read this book 1-2 times through, though you still should! Spend time with these books and let it inspire you. Now you have an overview of the "levels" of the game, what type of adventure format they're suited to, how they connect together and which to use if you don't care about the linearity and want one-shots or locations for another type of game. There are still no stats- you'll have to figure out what to do with the character classes, the items, the monsters, any traps or mechanics, all of that is still left out and in need of Referee creativity. There's no clear, explicit story- from what I can tell it's largely about the Goblin Princess and the effect her influence and death had on the world, and the cycle of death, rebirth, and loss of identity the main character struggles with. Vermis II shares more, if you're interested. However, it remains a primarily tone- and aesthetic-based game product, and you will have to make more of it from that.

My goal here was to make the world more accessible for adventure, so that you and your group can create stories, history, success and tragedy on your own. Hopefully I've been of some service

For those of you interested in an in-depth examination of Vermis lore, especially the gods and their various cults, I suggest Mauthe Doog's excellent video The Lore of Vermis.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Vermis: Lost Dungeons and Forbidden Woods RPG artbook review (w/ bonus Goblin Knight stats!)

Image
Your console boots up. You switch the input to TV03. Color bars flash, static fizzles. The CRT scanlines reveal the words Vermis: Lost Dungeons and Forbidden Woods . MIDI synth music issues forth, soft and sinister --what we would call Dungeon Synth today, but what was mysterious and unnamed in childhood-- fades in, filling the dark room lit only by the glow of the screen and the power button of your console. A jarring flash occurs, with the words Which flesh is your flesh? appearing, briefly, before you are given the prompt Press Start to Enter the Darkness . Vermis (volume 1, with more to come?) is a guide to a game that never existed. It’s a lo-fi dark fantasy action RPG, with Dark Souls being an easy point of comparison, but of the era of Eye of the Beholder grid-based movement and sprite-based Doom engine graphics but with an off-putting layer of grime. In those days, a guide book would sometimes contain a world unto itself, with the world lore, character options, and select
Read more

Vermis 2: Mist & Mirrors Review (w/ bonus Scooby Doo Hallway portals!)

Image
The dim light of a single bulb illuminates the messy stacks of dusty boxes in your attic. Treasures await. You hone in on what you seek. The lid of the foot locker creaks open on its damaged hinges. A rag of stray webbing clings to the interior, and the spider lays dead atop the messy stack of comics and roleplaying modules. Peeking out is the video game guide you seek, Vermis II: Mist & Mirrors . The rediscovery of Vermis ignited your curiosity, and you thought of the sequel you bought but never remember playing. You can't find the game disc in the foot locker. Good enough for now, you think, I can dig through the guide and pick up a copy later. You sit down on a cardboard box, flipping the cover open.   The knells of the bell echo along the endless corridors. The mist engulfs everything. Those glassy eyes that chase you wherever you go are none but your own. You eagerly devour the age-faded pages, losing track of time in the quiet attic, finding yourself in the world of th
Read more

The LotFP d6 Skill System

Image
My chief design philosophy, and the way I play at the table can be summed up as "Memorable, Minimal, Metal." I don't like to juggle a lot of rules. The main elements of OSR games are combat and skill rolls. Combat rolls are pretty straightforward, so we're going to take a look the d6 skill system works, problems that may arise from it and how to solve those problems. As someone who grew up with 2nd edition AD&D I was used to skills being incredibly granular and using a lot of different methods of resolution. It seemed natural to me, having first encountered that approach, that complexity and verisimilitude were the best rules philosophy. Moving on to 3e, it was better (blasphemy!), but there was still a skill for everything and they tended to discourage creativity through their strict codification of what was possible with or without a given skill. By comparison, the d6 skill system is much more general, open-ended and quick at the table. Description and gam
Read more

3 Vermis Session Reports In Brief, with notes on running in different systems

Image
Finding the right system: Systemless adventures are nothing new, many statless bestiaries and one-page dungeons exist. They are generally assumed to use some dialect of the OSR Rosetta Stone or simple NuSR game. There are definitely things to take into account, however: you will want a low-powered or dangerous system, with a magic and skill system that is either generic or highly flavored toward Vermis's tone. Having run it several times, here are some suggestions: Session 1: Lamentations of the Flame Princess, heavily houseruled Location: Pauper's Catacombs                         Party: 4 level 6 characters I ran the Pauper's Catacombs as a "side-shot" in my campaign (when too many players are absent for a "real" session), using our regular characters with the rule that characters won't die, but suffer consequences as a result of these semi-canon adventures (i.e. missing limbs instead of death).   Pauper's Catacombs was my choice be
Read more

LotFP Specialist vs. B/X Thief

Image
I'm a true believer in the d6 skill system LotFP uses. So much so that I wrote a whole thingy about it. So much so that I converted saving throws into d6 and house ruled they could be improved like skills. One of the things I like so much about it is that it does a good job of approximating d20 and d100 skills- not as granular, but when arguing over increments of 1-5%, there is not much meaningful difference. For comparison, here are a few different ways that skills are arbitrated in traditional rpgs: B/X "Sometimes Percentage, Sometimes d6" method. Thieves suck at almost everything they're supposed to be good at and, depending on the ruleset,  only  Thieves can even do that stuff. 2E "Holy Shit, Look At All These Ridiculous Proficiencies With Different Methods Of Resolution" method. Literal volumes of skills- so many that everyone forgets they're  optional . 3E "Holy Shit, Look At All These Ridiculous Proficiencies With The Same Method Of
Read more

Mork Borg Session: Rotblack Sludge

Image
The Accursed Den (but upside down) Rotblack Sludge is the introductory adventure included in the Mork Borg core book. It's well-suited to a one-shot, as are the ones created by Mork Borg's DNGNGN . I ran it for 3 players, using 2 characters each in case of a high body count. This report will include spoilers, obviously.  The players: Kelly Quinn Dylan Our heroes:   Quaker Mary the Dark Traveler. Occult Herbmaster, cowardly and prone to substance abuse. (Kelly) Doctor Dizzy the escaped cultist. Esoteric Hermit, alcoholic and extremely loud with a phlegm problem. (Kelly) Dun Kirk the Zweihander-wielding Gutterborn Scum. Wasteful, ruthless, and stutters when he lies (constantly). (Quinn) Roman the repugnant. Esoteric Hermit, vindictive and lazy. (Quinn) Chastity Goodfellow the Rotten Nihilist. Occult Herbmaster, former slave of a witch, shrewd and giggly. Has 4 monkey companions named Caligula, Nero, Ivan, and Mary, Queen of Scots. (Dylan) *Scream of a dying man* (the actual sound
Read more

Saving Throws as d6 Skills

Image
D6 skills are fucking awesome. They're simple, calculable, probably the easiest die to read across the table, and easy to fill in on a character sheet. If you make sure to follow a few rules, you can avoid any common problems you might have, too. I made a post about that  here . So I've been thinking, why the hell not use it for Saving Throws? D20 isn't bad, by any means. It's a calculable die and definitely the best substitute for percentile probability if you're ok with rounding a bit in the name of expediency. The only issue with Saving Throws is that they're descending when a lot of other things are ascending. D20 fixed this by with modifiers that went up every level and reduced it to three save types, but we do things differently here (unless you're playing DCC). But if we're condensing die types down to as few as possible while still trying to keep as close to the original, divinely-inspired Saving Throw values, we can do it pretty easily becau
Read more

The Craft Skill

Image
Some Refs and players enjoy including downtime activities, such as spell research, carousing, domain management, and other stuff. Crafting and selling is one such type of downtime activity, and so why not make up a skill for players looking to earn silver, make items for enchantment, repair gear or whatever else? The Craft skill is a specialty skill. Characters do not possess a 1 in 6 chance by default: it is the class ability of  Dwarfs, for whom it replaces the Architecture skill and progresses at the same rate. Others may only gain the skill by allotting Specialist skill points or training in the skill.  Characters with the Craft skill are trained in making one type of good, such as different types of food, clothing, or art, armor, guns, or weapons. The Craft skill may be taken multiple times in different professions, which must be increased separately from one another. In order to craft, appropriate Specialist's tools and facilities are required. The amount of time i
Read more