Hello folks — Chris Allen here, the designer of the game mechanics that underpin Solemn Vale! I’m going to talk a little bit about the Wyrd Abacus system, and provide a brief overview of how it works.
Our intention with Solemn Vale is to provide a light rules framework to support the flow of the fiction that unfolds in each game. The Wyrd Abacus uses attribute pools, dice, and a simple bidding mechanic to address what happens when the characters face Solemn Vale’s challenges. Events are complicated by the Wyrd, which characters can draw upon to twist fate in their favour but which risks binding them more tightly to the Vale’s horror.
Player characters have three abilities — Body, Mind, and Soul. Each provides a pool of points that can be spent to add to a single die roll to overcome a challenge, a specific obstacle or danger the characters may face in Solemn Vale. Each challenge has a value in one or more traits that match to particular abilities, such as Pursuit (which characters would normally spend Body points to try and escape from) or Invocation (requiring characters to spend Soul points on dice rolls to control an occult force).
Players bid points from their relevant pools then one player rolls a single d6 and adds the total number of points bid; if this matches or exceeds the challenge’s value, it is overcome. Otherwise, the characters face the consequences of their failure, potentially suffering damage, “scratched out” abilities, or more narrative problems that may arise.
Solemn Vale is a “fiction first” kind of game, where what’s going on in the current moment of the narrative determines which traits a challenge brings to bear and what the consequences of failure are likely to be. It’s also intended as “challenge resolution” rather than “action resolution”; struggling with a murderous cultist in a dark basement doesn’t involve round-by-round attack rolls, but rather a single roll that indicates the outcome of the entire confrontation.
The way a scene unfolds is also influenced by stage rules — scene-wide or even story-wide mechanics that can affect outcomes or trigger in certain circumstances — and the Wyrd. Players can draw from a limited Wyrd pool that refreshes each scene to help them address challenges with alternate abilities, invoke specific powers, or twist the narrative to draw in allies or aid. They can also take Wyrd points to increase the outcome of a challenge die roll after it is rolled. The catch is that drawing on the Wyrd permanently adds to the character’s own Wyrd pool. As this builds through the story, it increases the chances of the character becoming entangled in occult events, and has a role in the story’s finale to determine the character’s ultimate fate. However, having a high Wyrd isn’t necessarily bad; while it might draw the attention of an otherworldly terror haunting Solemn Vale, it might also lead the character to places of supernatural importance as well.
The Wyrd Abacus system is about judgement, risk and entanglement. Players might choose to bid so many points against a challenge that success is assured — but, with ability point recovery being limited during a story, they can’t be sure that they’ll have what they need for future scenes. Taking the chance on a die roll with an uncertain outcome can save ability points for the group, but opens up the possibility of failure — or the temptation to call on the Wyrd when the die comes up short. As a story progresses, characters with a high Wyrd may lead the rest deeper into the Vale’s mysteries, while those who retain a low Wyrd serve as the anchor to normalcy that might just save some of them from a grisly fate — but then again, either could also end up as antagonists to the others’ tale.
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Stay Wyrd!
The DV Team
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