Trudvang Legends House Rules: Rune Management, Death, Healing, etc.

by Darin LaGarry, rev v1.0 05/12/2023

Trudvang Legends has a great story and some interesting adventure mechanics for the CYOA genre. For me personally,
there was not enough tension in the game: combat feels lifeless, the skill system is a mess, and death has little gravity.
In order for me to enjoy the things I really like about the game and to finish the story, I had to hack the rules a bit.

Any rules that are a change from the base game rules are marked in purple. Other rules will layer on top of the base
game rules without changing them. Some base game rules have a new limitation.

Chronicle Points (CP) are used heavily as a form of currency. They generally represent the party’s available resources.

Whenever a character loses CP, the character can never have CP less than 0. Whenever the party spends CP, this
means that the group pools their CP to meet the stated cost.

The term location identifies a space on the board containing a map-slotted location card, such as a City, Tower, Cave,
Gate etc. A location might also be mentioned in the book but not be map-slotted… these can be considered a
“location” for the purpose of these rules if the definition fits thematically. In that case you might consider placing a
token on the board or slotting a custom card identifying the location.

1. Rune Persistence
In order for characters to progress properly using these rules, there are some changes to the way that runes are
managed:

a) Character rune bags are not reset between chapters. Any runes added to the character bag persist for the
remainder of the game. For this reason, you might want to track the actual number of runes each character has
in their bag in case the bag must be reconstructed by writing them down between chapters.
b) Once per chapter (including side quests), a character may add one ability rune to their bag via a rune-granting
location such as a city by visiting the city and paying the indicated cost. Runes can be granted via rewards or
titles can be granted any number of times per chapter.
c) Runes granted via titles are added once when the title is granted. If the title is revoked, the rune is revoked.
d) Dark runes also persist through the game and any number of them can be added via game effects.

2. Rune Removal
It is possible, through great sacrifice, to remove a rune from a character’s bag. Note that the CP costs below must be
paid by each individual, not the party through pooling.

a) Ability Rune: a character may remove an ability rune from their bag once per chapter. To do this, the character
must visit a location that grants that attribute, then use a “Destroy Rune” action: the character must destroy an
item in their possession (not a starting item) OR spend 10CP.
b) Dark Rune: Likewise dark runes can be removed from your bag once per chapter. You may never have less than
5 dark runes in your bag however as those 5 CP are due to the persistent evil in the land of Trudvang. To
destroy a dark run you must perform a “Cleanse” action it any City: You must be at full health, you must spend
10CP and lose all but 1 health.

3. Character / Party Death

If a character’s health is reduced to 0 or less during combat or otherwise:

a) The character is incapacitated, which means the character cannot take any actions including speak. The
character is considered not in the party for the purpose of game rules, story elements, and combat. After
health is restored by any game mechanic, the character becomes an active party member once again.
b) The character’s CP is reduced by half, rounded down.

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 c) The character receives a wyrd feat card if they do not have one and shuffles it into their feat deck. If the
character already has a wyrd card, the character permanently loses 1 random non-starter item or companion
card and the character’s max health is reduced by two. This effect is cumulative. If reducing the max health in
this way brings the character health to 0 or less, the character is permanently dead. Once the wyrd card is
removed, the character’s max health is restored to normal.

If all characters become incapacitated during an encounter, the campaign ends immediately with failure and your
enemies rejoice in your demise.

After a battle ends, if a Dim Walker is in the party, the party may pay 1CP to immediately revive an incapacitated party
member to exactly 1 Health. This may be repeated for each incapacitated party member.

4. Location is Hostile
A location is considered hostile toward you in these situations:

• There is a hostile personality token in the region and the personality resides in that location. The location will
remain hostile until the personality token is removed or the personality becomes friendly toward your party.
• The location is occupied primarily by enemies / monsters even though a specific hostile personality may not
exist there, or the story explicitly states that the location is hostile. If the enemy threat is eliminated or the
story states that the location is friendly, then the location is no longer hostile.

If a location is hostile, place a hostility token (use the red ‘X’ token) on the location to mark it hostile toward your party.
Additionally, there are these effects:

1. Location actions are less accessible. To access location actions, a character must perform a Charisma 3 test. If
failure, the character must bribe local officials, adding 2CP for any action taken. If success, there is no additional
cost. If there is a Rogue or Bard in the party, no test is required as they are quite familiar with local secret
locations and organizations.
2. Camping in the region will be more likely to attract enemies (see: Camping).

5. World Events Less Frequent

When you must draw an event card, roll a d6:
1-3: draw the event card and follow the instructions on the card
4-6: nothing happens

6. Battle Rewards CP
In addition to the XP reward a character receives for adventure battles, characters that survive any battle (including side
quests) receive +1CP.

7. Quick Combat Option

If your party consists of characters that have all Level II feats or higher and you are attacked by a number of “basic”
enemies less than or equal to your party size, you may perform quick combat rather than fighting a full round of
combat. To do this, the party will spend CP to gain bonuses, then perform a d20 roll to determine the outcome.

Note that in most cases, you will gain more CP and health (if you have a Dim Walker or certain items) by actually
fighting instead of performing quick combat.

1. Allocate CP: the more total party CP you allocate per party member, the better your chances of a favorable
outcome.

CP Allocated per Bonus

party member
0 0
1 +1
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 2 +2
3 +4
4 +7

2. Adjust for the monster type and quantity: Some monsters are a bit tougher than others. Modify your bonus by
the value below, noting the number of monsters relative to your party size. If there is a mix, use the monster
with the smallest bonus.

Monster Adjustment, Adjustment,

# = Party Size # < Party Size
Forest Troll +1 +3
Draugr 0 +2
Garm -1 +1
Bull Troll -2 0

3. Roll to determine the Outcome: perform this d20 roll for each character individually, add the bonus, then
consult this table for the outcome. You still gain the standard +1CP / +1XP (for adventure encounters) rewards in
addition to the reward / penalty below. Note that the result could be less than 1 due to the monster penalty
adjustment.

d20 Roll + bonus Outcome

0 or below -4 Health, -3CP,
Exhausted
1-3 -2 Health, -2CP,
Exhausted
4-7 -1 Health, -1 CP
8-12 +1CP
13-16 +2 CP
17-20 +3 CP

6. An Alternate Test Method

For anyone having difficulty with the “bag based” test system, you may try this system that scales with ability and
always has a chance to succeed or fail. The general chances of succeeding are also higher. Here is the test process:

1. Determine your attribute bonus. This is based on the number of runes you have in your bag for the attribute
being tested:

# of Runes Attribute
Bonus
2 0
3 +1
4 +3
5 +5
6+ +8

2. Add to that your wild rune bonus. These runes are difficult to obtain and can significantly impact your luck.

# of Wild Wild Rune

Runes Bonus
1 +1
2 +3
3 +5
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 4+ +8

4. Subtract from that your dark rune penalty. Getting too many of these make everything harder.

# of Dark Dark Rune

Runes Penalty
5 0
6 -1
7 -3
8+ -6

5. Next, determine the difficulty class (DC) of the test:

Test Target DC
2 12
3 14
4 17
5+ 20

6. Finally, roll a d20, add your bonus(es) and subtract your penalty. If the value rolled is equal to or greater than the
DC, you pass! For example, if I have to make a strength test of 4, it will have a DC=17. My strength is 4 and I have
two wild runes so I get a +6 bonus. I have 6 dark runes so I have a penalty of -1 for a total bonus of +5. I roll a
12+5=17 and pass!

Regardless of the actual DC required, a 20 always succeeds and a 1 always fails.

7. Item Trading Possible

Items may be freely traded between characters in the party between adventures / chapters.

8. Camp Action
a. Preparation: During the EXPLORE phase, your party may camp to regain health and/or CP if there are no
enemies on your space. Camping may be done once per EXPLORE phase and only as the last action taken this
phase. You may camp on action-granting location spaces as well (such as a city); however, you may either take
location actions OR camp, but not both in one EXPLORE phase. For each night camped successfully:
a. Each character may choose one: +2 health or +4CP or +1 health/+2CP. Regaining CP means that your
character has spent time meditating / studying / gathering resources.
b. Each character may refresh their character card if exhausted.
c. The party may spend up to (2CP x number of characters in the party) to distribute an additional +1
health per 2CP spent to any character(s). This cost must be paid before camping.
d. If a Dim Walker is in the party, s/he may distribute an additional +4 health freely among party members
without any additional cost after a successful camp.

Success depends on a danger test, which is based on the Danger Level of the current space. This number (1-10)
represents the probability that your camp will be attacked by wandering enemies.

Determine the Danger Level:

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 Danger Level Description
1 A city location space: You camp on the outskirts where its relatively safe. Peaceful travelers
are seen frequently.
2 A lesser location space such as a tower or village. You camp nearby. Travelers come and go
occasionally.
3 A space adjacent to a location. You are about a day distance from civilization. You
occasionally encounter other travelers.
5 A space two or more spaces from a location. You rarely if ever see any other travelers. You
feel like you are being watched at times, because you probably are.

Modifiers: add all modifiers that apply to the space you are on.

Modifier Value Situation:

+1 Add for every space you are adjacent to that contains enemies or a hostile location.
+1 Add if there is a POI token on your space
+2 Add if there is an unresolved enemy token (!) on your space
+2 Add if there is a camped token on your space
+3 Add if there is at least one hostile personality or hostile location token on your space. If
there is a Rogue in the party this is reduced to +1.
-2 Add if you have a Ranger in the party. Rangers can help with party concealment.
-2 Add if there is at least one friendly personality token on your space
-1 Add for every 2CP you spend as a party to prepare and fortify your camp, spent before
camping.
-1 Add for every character that will remain on guard throughout the night. This modifier is -2
for a Warrior character as their fearsome appearance is more of a deterrent. Each
character on guard receives no camping benefit regardless of success or failure. Also note
that a guarded camp, when attacked, will be attacked by more enemies than usual.

The Danger Level can never be less than 1.

b. Determine Success: Roll a d10. If the result is <= Danger Level, then your party is attacked and healed / gains CP
only half of the target, rounded down. Characters also do not refresh. You must defend against the attackers.
Spawn enemies in your space appropriate for your adventure (observing the base game spawn rules for over 2
characters in the party) by rolling a d6 (base game enemies in this example):

1-2: 2x Draugr (3x if a character was on guard)

3-4: 2x Wood Trolls (3x if a character was on guard)
5-6: 1x Garm (2x if a character was on guard)

You will generally be attacked by larger groups of enemies if you are perceived as more of a threat. If a Warrior
was guarding, level up one of the monsters with a boss token. That enemy has 2x health and deals 2x damage.

If incapacitated characters were resting when the attack occurs, they will join the battle with the amount of
partial health / CP gained.

This attack is considered part of the EXPLORE phase. You receive no XP for this encounter. However, each
character that survives will gain 1CP.

c. Camp cleanup: After camping, successful or not, the party must spend (1CP x number of characters in the party,
double if attacked) to cover their tracks and conceal the campsite. If there is a Ranger present in the party, s/he
reduces the required CP by 4. If the party is unable to do this, you must leave a camped token on the space. If
this token is present, you have left evidence of your presence and enemies will be more likely to detect you on
future visits. This token must not be removed for the remainder of the game.
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9. Location Rest Action
If you are on a non-hostile Location with no enemies, the party may pool CPs to take a Rest action once per EXPLORE
phase, without the risk of being attacked. This action replaces the “Refresh” action if present on the location card. Like
Refresh, this action may be taken in addition to other available Location actions. The type of service(s) available
depends on the Location type:
Service Cost Location Description / Effect
Level Types
SL1 0CP All You stay overnight in filthy, damp accommodations in exchange for manual labor. Roll a d6:
1-2: you were very uncomfortable and stink like horse manure: +1 health, not Refreshed.
3-4: You feel somewhat rested: +1 health, +Refresh
5-6: You feel invigorated by roughing it: +2 health, +1CP, +Refresh

SL3 2CP City, You rent a dusty but comfortable room in a local Inn, Tavern or similar: heal +4, +Refresh
Village,
Tower, etc.
SL5 4CP City You rent a spacious private room and obtain the services of a healer: +Fully healed, +Refresh
A Dim Walker taking this option can apply the same effect to one other party member without
additional cost.

Each character may choose the service they will use (or do nothing), which is based on the CP cost to be paid by the
party.

If the location is home to a friendly personality token, then the entire party will be granted up to SL5 for free depending
on what services are available at that location.

Setup: when a new location is added to the board and that location can have more than one available service, roll a d6.
You may re-roll if the service level is not available for the location type.

1-2: No inn / tavern / private room available. You must choose only the SL1 option for this Location.
3-4: Inn / tavern is available here. You may choose SL1 or SL3 options.
5-6: Private room(s) are available here. You may choose all rest options.

Add a token to the Location to indicate what services are available. A 6-sided die for example, set to 1/3/5.

When setting up a new chapter, re-roll for all Locations to represent changes, good and bad, to the adventure world.

10. Recommended Accessories

When playing this game, I recommend that you use appropriately themed battle maps for combat. Although there
really are no tactical combat rules, battle maps improve the immersion considerably and provide more space for status
tokens etc. I might suggest in a future Kickstarter that they be offered as an add-on.

Similarly, adding minis or standees in place of the generic opponent token adds a lot to immersion.

Generic clear glass tokens are useful for exhausting feats and indicating the current max health of a character.

The game includes several “red X” tokens which are perfect for marking a location as hostile.

A six-sided die works very well as an indicator for available city resting services, preferably a die with actual numbers
and not pips.

You will need a generic “camped token”. If I were to design one it would be a campfire symbol with an “X” through it
printed on a small circular token.

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