I've been writing up my thoughts on Dolmenwood. The Kickstarter PDF is finalised except for minor changes, so I decided I'd get some notes in place ready for a review after it's actually released.

Most of my criticism revolved around one topic:

Where the fuck has Wormskin gone?

Wormskin was the e-zine from which Dolmenwood originated which was written by Gavin Norman and Greg Gorgonmilk. Due to the nature of the zine, the setting was very fill in the blanks, with a lot of the elements being presumptive rather than being explicitly laid out.

But it caught on, because Wormskin was brilliant.

The Dolmenwood in Wormskin was beautifully dark and fairytale, wondrous and cruel in equal measure. The setting was reflective rather than derivative and one of the few settings that I have seen that would actually support a dark fantasy campaign.

It was Brothers Grimm meets Lord Dunsany and William Morris thrown into a fantasy setting. Like putting lemon juice into milk, it had a lovely sour tang.

After Wormskin, there were a few years of a Dolmenwood Patreon, where the Wormskin hexes and setting material was intended to be expanded into a fully fledged book. It was always intended that after this, there was a plan for a Dolmenwood Kickstarter to get the books finalised, art commissioned and a print run done.

Shortly after the announcement of the Dolmenwood Kickstarter, the Wormskin zine was removed from sale (see "The End of Wormskin"). The removal post included this message:

QuoteThe full campaign setting books include almost everything from Wormskin (in a revised and updated format) plus much, much more material besides, all logically structured and formatted for ease of reference and use at the table.

Then the Dolmenwood Kickstarter happened, getting nearly $1.4mil in pledges. This was, in all likelihood, too much money to fail. It also brought the usual crowd of moaners out of the woodworks. Changes had to be made to appease these people. Edges needed to be ground off, names had to be changed, fundamental setting elements were torn out to satisfy the complainers.

It had to be made more palatable, into a better product.

Thus they made Disneywood.

Rest of the article and example changes on my Substack.

Sorry about this being my first post here, but I've been directed here after getting absolute fucking vitriol in other places.

I think it's a real shame what's happened to Dolmenwood.

Welcome to the boards.  Interesting read.  I've a feeling you're going to fit right in here

Damn...I really liked where Dolmenwood was going and thought it was extremely evocative from the stuff I've seen so far. I did not back the KS, though, for various reasons (mostly due to having way too many open KS and waiting for them to finish up).

This is really...pathetic, honestly. You have a company named EXALTED FUNERAL with all sorts of fucked up 80s death metal band imagery selling this and they start sanitizing all the parts that turn it from a weird fantasy setting to Something Else. Why? What's the actual point here? I would think anyone interested in Dolmenwood would WANT all the chaotic weirdness and unsettling components, I know I do. That's the entire point.

Whatever, I can just stick with the couple Wormskin zines I have if I ever want to run the setting. But this still sucks.

They purposefully neutered their game world. What's the point then?

To take away the parts that make Dolmenwood truly unique makes it generic and boring.

Well...go woke, go broke.

Just reading this make me want to go and support Venger Satanis' next Kickstarter.

At least he's got integrity.

Quote from: Suarachán on August 23, 2024, 04:42:40 AMSorry about this being my first post here, but I've been directed here after getting absolute fucking vitriol in other places.

I think it's a real shame what's happened to Dolmenwood.

Curious, what places are those?

I heard good things about it but it looked very cartoony. Not at all "dark fairytale" like it was pitched but way more Disney Robin Hood type whimsy with talking animals and shit. unless I missed something.

Which is fine if that's what you want but weird if not.

Interesting read, thanks! As a fan of dark fantasy, I think this bowdlerization is sad.

Quote from: blackstone on August 23, 2024, 08:07:11 AMJust reading this make me want to go and support Venger Satanis' next Kickstarter.

At least he's got integrity.

Tangent: Venger just quit making RPG products because he blames the "Shadowdarking" of the OSR ( EyeRoll.png) .  His blog goes over more. 

As for Dolemwood being watered down to make it appear as boring as Forgotten Realms? Twas very sad they did that, I had high hopes for mining it for inspiration. Ever since EF went down the censorship path I won't give them another dime. Yes I own all the OSE books and now they will sit there on the shelf after I've stripped them for anything useful.

Quote from: THE_Leopold on August 23, 2024, 11:26:02 AMTangent: Venger just quit making RPG products because he blames the "Shadowdarking" of the OSR ( EyeRoll.png) .  His blog goes over more. 

TBF, he blamed a severe and consistent drop in profit and what you say is merely a reason for that he reached for.

Edit: More on topic, I'd actually heard of Dolmenwood on 4ch's tg of all places when looking into folk horror RPG stuff. Wormskin, which is what no doubt prompted the recommendation, was already gone but the recommender and I were interested in the product when the Kickstarter was done. Now I know it was ruined and I'm better off trying to find an archive of the zines; what a disaster...

Shadowdark is also pretty overrated and seems to not be nearly as good as people seem to hype it up... I didn't really see anything that jumped out as being good, just typical "someone's idea of D&D in the 70s" with a lame videogame-esque torch mechanic tacked on.

I would love to get a hold of all the Wormskin issues with the Dolmenwood stuff in it.

too bad...

Btw, how many issues of Wormskin were there?

Quote from: blackstone on August 23, 2024, 08:08:22 AMCurious, what places are those?

Reddit mostly!

Quote from: WERDNA on August 23, 2024, 02:54:40 PMBtw, how many issues of Wormskin were there?

8 total.

Quote from: Suarachán on August 23, 2024, 03:45:58 PM8 total.

Well I guess the good news is they are still all floating around then.

They are quite good; it really is a shame.