Kobolds & Konsequences

In Defense of the Modern (Dolmenwood) Witch

Introduction

Recently I came across a blog post by Suarachán discussing their annoyance at how vastly different Dolmenwood is compared to how it presented itself in its early stages of development in the Wormskin zines.  

Created by Gavin Norman, who is one of the primary figures in my own OSR experience, Dolmenwood is a weird and whimsical game with that eerie tease to it that gets your hackles raised. It must be said that I love Dolmenwood. As a player, I feel immediately and entirely immersed in whatever actions I take with fleshed-out civilisations and factions; even when spending my travel points hex crawling, I feel like I’m fully immersed.

I wasn’t a backer on Kickstarter when Dolmenwood was still in production meaning the product backers have access to today is my only lived experience of the game (thanks to my GM for backing it!). The blog post suggested that Dolmenwood has been “Disneyfied” from its origins as a zine called Wormskin. I agree that, from the Wormskin snippets I’ve seen, Dolmenwood does feel different to its origins. However, I believe that “Disneyfied” is hyperbolic as a descriptor for the changes and that some of the changes benefit Dolmenwood as a game, namely: witches.

TW for mentions of sexual assault and infertility in the rest of the blog post.

Pitching for the modern Witch

The blog post runs through the main differences between the Wormskin era of witches and the Dolmenwood era of witches. As Suarachán notes, the main differences are:

Suarachán states in their post that the Wormskin witches’ “whole thing is sexual folk horror” and I’d say that’s a fairly accurate statement, though perhaps not in the same vein they were referring to. Sexual assault and infertility are inherent in the world-building of this faction; there are those witches who willingly offered themselves up to the wood-gods who provided them their power, but there is a really grimy bit of lore that really made my skin crawl:

"A mortal woman who crosses a witch must be brought before her coven and exposed to the presence of a gwyrigon. If the woman survives with her sanity intact, she is accepted into the sisterhood (witches who are initiated in this way are known as grey sisters)."

It is fairly explicit that angering a witch as a woman in the Wormskin setting can lead to gruesome and traumatic circumstances. As an AFAB female-presenting individual who plays female characters in nearly all my TTRPGs, the idea that that may innately put my character into danger feels so gross when that danger is explicitly sexual. I encountered a witch in a recent session, so the idea that the encounter could have led to her sexual assault if she stepped wrong feels far too extreme. 

One of the reasons I play TTRPGs is for the escapism, but I’m not shy about horror games either. However, I have established clear lines and veils with my GMs where necessary to avoid play that alludes to or explicitly shows any sort of sexual assault. If you don’t have any lines or veils to that sort of thing in TTRPGs, good for you! Everyone is comfortable with different degrees of brutal reality in a game setting; there are numerous realistic consequences to a character’s actions that I would never want to play out, and I imagine I’m not alone in that.

Something else that I am glad was changed from the Wormskin zine was the infertility beat. Does anyone else remember when Avengers: Age of Ultron came out in cinemas and Joss Whedon wrote the most dehumanising and unnecessary speech for Black Widow on what made her a monster? Because I do. The connection between infertility and being intrinsically monstrous is such an old and backwards stereotype found in pop culture and society. Considering that Gavin published the Wormskin zine between 2015 and 2018, it feels a little late in the game to be perpetuating this stereotype (not cool Gav!). If you’re interested in a deeper dive into this sort of topic, I recommend ‘The Art of Waiting’ by Belle Boggs for a really humanising look at infertility.

Anywho, infertility is not necessary for building a horrifying or compelling villain. Removing it in Dolmenwood feels like the correct step (yay Gav!) not only for distancing the game from those icky connotations but also for making the game more inclusive. Even though it is stated that one of the things wood-gods feed on was a witch’s “blood”, Suarachán stated “menstrual blood” specifically, which doubles down on the fact that Wormskin players may believe their witches must be biologically female. Removing not only the “heavily pregnant” witch with “a sinister hissing emanates from her belly” from the trait roster, but also pronouns entirely, means that a witch can suddenly be anyone. No longer is becoming a witch limited to AFAB individuals, which I think is pretty neat.

How horrible is good horror?

I stated previously that I am open to playing horror TTRPGs and that is true! I have been both player and warden in many a Mothership game where I have interacted with horror of the cosmic, corporate and body kinds! I think there is so much space for horror in TTRPGs (I’m excited to give the Alien TTRPG a go once adult life allows it), however, I think that horror doesn’t have to be extreme to be good.

To me, there is a stark difference in how I immerse myself in different forms of fiction. When I read a book, I have the privilege of detachment; I have no real stakes in the outcome of a story beyond what the author can make me feel. However, when I’m playing a TTRPG, I’m in it absolutely. There is a little bit of me in every character I play, and I am the one who is controlling them and experiencing directly what they are. From what I have read of the Wormskin zine, there is so much of it that looks absolutely fantastic and I would love to read more fiction in its vein. Having said that, I would not want to live a lot of the fiction within the zine.

When horror becomes unpalatable, it becomes unenjoyable (take I Spit on Your Grave or Raw as two examples of controversial horror). It doesn’t have to be made of intense gore or unexpected sexual assault. In fact, I find it's far more impactful when it creeps in and the dread sets in your players’ stomachs, and Dolmenwood has so much room for dread.

In my latest soiree in Dolmenwood, my amazing GM threw us into the frying pan as we worked undercover at a nobles’ party to prevent a violent plot and save our friend and fellow PC from peril! It was intense, but the plot was not the best bit of the dread and intensity. Lord Malbleat, a sadistic and looming figure, was present in the setting and boy did he make that clear. The way our GM had Malbleat throw his weight around and make his presence known was spectacular. We had no idea how he would react to things in an almost Homelander-esque manner. He was scary. He never threatened sexual violence and he still managed to fill me with dread.

Conclusion

To wrap it up, I think both versions of the witches, even the Wormskin version in parts, have their places in fiction. I would not want to play in a setting with Wormskin witches, however, and I believe a fair amount of tables would find the same sort of issues I have with the topics in their lore. When we fall back on harmful stereotypes for the sake of horror, we lose the chance to be innovative in our exploration of genre, as well as making games less accessible. Gavin Norman has created something spectacular in both Wormskin and Dolmenwood, however, if you think that Dolmenwood lacks eerie content, I’d say you may be missing what makes so much of the setting sinister like your very own Malbleat.

So, no Disneyfying around here! Dolmenwood is safe another day from the Mouse Mafia™.