In our previous profile on Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying game, we discovered a rich folklore to explore in an alternate nineteenth-century Scandinavia known as the Mythic North. After finding the edges of the Vaesen Starter Set adventure we were ready to jump deeper into this world and find three new books to lead our journey with the Society.
Vaesen Has Grown Beyond Scandinavia
The original Vaesen rulebook introduced players to the forests, lakes, villages, and folklore of nineteenth-century Scandinavia. Over the past several years, the game line has expanded into something larger.
The revised core rulebook refines the foundation. New sourcebooks explore different corners of Europe. Together they show how folklore changes from region to region while preserving the themes that make Vaesen distinctive.
For players ready to move beyond the Starter Set, three books stand out: Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying Revised Core Rulebook, City of My Nightmares, and Mythic Carpathia.
Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying Revised Core Rulebook
The revised edition remains the centerpiece of the Vaesen experience. The Core Rulebook contains everything required for long-term campaigns. Players create investigators using archetypes and life-path options. Game masters receive a detailed guide to the Mythic North, the city of Upsala, Castle Gyllencreutz, and a collection of vaesen drawn from Scandinavian folklore. The revised edition also incorporates corrections and updates gathered since the original release.
What makes the book memorable, however, is not the rules. It is the atmosphere. Every chapter reinforces the feeling that industrial progress and ancient traditions occupy the same landscape, often uneasily. For many RPGs, monsters exist to create encounters. In Vaesen, folklore creatures create stories.
City of My Nightmares
If the core rulebook focuses on rural folklore, City of My Nightmares shifts attention to the city. The book explores Stockholm during the nineteenth century, transforming the growing capital into a setting filled with supernatural intrigue. Factories, crowded neighborhoods, wealthy districts, hidden societies, and forgotten corners all become fertile ground for mysteries.
The change in location alters the tone of play. Investigators navigate politics, social class, urban development, and crowded streets. Folklore adapts to the locale. For groups who enjoy investigative campaigns, City of My Nightmares offers one of the richest settings in the Vaesen line. The city becomes a character in its own right, full of secrets, tensions, and opportunities for long-running stories.
Mythic Carpathia
Mythic Carpathia may be the most ambitious Vaesen expansion yet. Rather than adding another corner of Scandinavia, it transports the game into Central and Eastern Europe. The book introduces Prague as a major setting, along with folklore drawn from Ukraine, Transylvania, Poland, and the broader Carpathian region. Players encounter legends such as Baba Yaga, rusalkas, vampires, and other regional horrors.
The expansion includes:
- A new Society branch
- A detailed guide to Prague
- New vaesen and folklore creatures
- Three complete mysteries
- Extensive regional background material
The artwork remains excellent, but the real achievement lies in how the book preserves the identity of Vaesen while exploring entirely different traditions. The themes remain familiar: folklore colliding with modernity, old beliefs surviving in changing times, and investigators caught between worlds.
Three Books, One Vision
Taken together, these books reveal why Vaesen continues to attract attention years after its debut. The revised core rulebook provides the foundation. City of My Nightmares expands the game into urban horror. Mythic Carpathia demonstrates that the formula works far beyond Scandinavia.
What connects them is a commitment to folklore as something alive. The Vaesen books present myths as active forces that shape communities, traditions, and personal fears. That approach has become Vaesen’s defining strength. Whether the story unfolds in a Swedish village, the streets of Stockholm, or the shadows of Prague, the game remains focused on the strange relationship between people and the stories they refuse to forget.
