Luke Gearing’s Wolves Upon the Coast recently got a massive discount as part of the Bundle of Holding. I picked it up and have been diving into this grand campaign setting and its accompanying ruleset over the last few days. I seen so many great player stories, sketches, and more come out of this game, and I’ve been looking for another game-as-writing exercise (similar to the The Isle play-by-blog I ran on Tumblr a while back) so Wolves was the perfect reason to get back into a bit of regular solo play and writing up the play reports here.

For my purposes, I’ll be rolling up a single character representing the leader of the band of newly-liberated rowers. This character, Thorn - The Seventh Son, will make ready use of his crew of rowers. If he were to fall in combat (or worse), I will “upgrade” one of the rowers - all of which I’ve already named - to full character status and have them continue the Tale of the Free Thirteen.

Additionally, I’ll be sketching as I play - something that’s pretty new to me - but I feel like it fits this style of game so well and I’ve never seen any play sketches like this that I’ve thought were too bad to be additive. Hopefully, you agree!

With all that said, here is Thorn’s character sheet:

THORN - THE SEVENTH SON

CHARACTERISTICS

Strength: 13
Agility: 10
Constitution: 11

SAVES

Dodging: 15+
Physique: 13+
Warding: 17+

OTHER

HD: 1
HP: 3
Attack Bonus: +2
Languages: ½ (enough to conduct trade)

EQUIPMENT

Maille (Medium Armour)
Shield
Battle Axe (Medium)

After damage is rolled, reduce the result by 3 and roll a second attack. If successful, a weapon or shield is ripped from the grip of the opponent.

Javelins (2, Medium)
Net

KARVIE

Rowers (12):

Alsvinn Yuricson
Holkvir Tallpine
Mykrida Boarsuckle
Hallbera Meadwash
Hjáalpreck Pykecastle
Olvir Svinholf
Shitmouth Alsvinn
Magni Pissflame
Longknife Vengarl
Renna Branchblade
Hánaar Wolfheart
Braggard Gudrún

Enough food and water for all to survive for 4 days
2 days travel away from the home of our captor

Thorn is really not all that great at anything. Strength is his strongest characteristic but only slightly so. He only knows 1/2 of a language, just enough for basic communication and to conduct trade. He came upon his leadership of the group simply by being the only rower stupid enough (or brave enough) to take a chance and attack their captor. Against the odds, he won out - and now the rowers have his back. But will he be able to survive what comes next?

Wolves doesn’t give you a discrete starting point, though you can find a few recommendations from Gearing and other players online. I opted to use a random number generator to decide the group’s starting hex, rerolling until I landed on an ocean tile. Thorn’s starting location: 27.08!

This puts the group right in the middle of the Mid-Isles, specifically between Abhaus and Argadnel. The nearby stele on Abhaus’s highest hill is the most striking point of interest they can see from here - although it’s clear they have isles on either side of them. No matter where they go, they’ll almost certainly make landfall before the first day is done.

That’s all for the campaign setup! Next time, we’ll see how Thorn and the crew make out as they choose where to make landfall and what they discover there. No matter their choices, time is of the essence as they need more supplies and as many arms and armor as they can get their hands on if they hope to build themselves into a proper raiding group.

Continue the adventure:

WOLVES UPON THE COAST - SOLO #1: THE FLESH AND THE FRUIT