We have dared a trip into the world of Yeld and in our little adventure we took a closer look at the mechanics and possibilities. My preparation was pleasantly short and then we could concentrate fully on the story and have fun.
GM:
KyoshiroKami
Players:
- Carnickl as Max, Soul Thief
- boeseMuh as Karl Gustav, White Mage
- KyoshiroKami as Erik, Freelancer
We were just a small group, so I added another character. The introduction went very quickly, with the presentation of the setting and the possibilities taking up most of the time. Then we jumped right into action and got to know the mechanics of the samples with a few simple tasks. I really like that the players tell how the action is resolved.
Before the adventure, I gave my group the choice of how difficult the challenge should be and immediately chose a dangerous adventure. This allowed me to roll more dice against them and I had more monsters available (or more monster dice). The first fight was very exciting and, above all, everyone was very quick with their turn. Nevertheless, we were a little busy with the monsters and especially at the beginning the characters are relatively weak and can quickly go down. All players made good use of their options and played with different actions, which was exciting.
Afterwards we had a short break and tried out the recovery mechanics. My own character screwed up his test and was still pretty battered, the rest had recovered and we could go on. The group forged a plan to defeat the boss, but one part of it went wrong and we had to fight. Everyone did their best and the fairy had little chance to achieve anything. The White Mage in particular has a wide range of possibilities with its many spells. In contrast to many other role-playing games, wizards in Yeld have access to all their spells immediately, but some are very difficult to cast. Nevertheless, the magician was able to summon a flock of sheep and trample the opponents in a stampede.
After the successful boss fight, it was time for the rewards and everyone was allowed to roll the dice on the corresponding reward table. There can be very different results here. We had a very strong weapon which none of our players could use. We turned it into money and filled the group’s purse.
While playing a few questions came up which I later could resolve. Overall, we were very satisfied. Yeld offers many possibilities and I miss the kits for building equipment and monsters in a lot of role-playing games. The book includes everything you need for a campaign and you don’t have to look for things from any additional volumes.
When I first read Yeld, I had the impression that you could use it to play games in the style of video role-playing games like Dragon Quest, Tales of Symphonia or Atelier Iris. After the test, I firmly believe that this would work wonderfully and would be the best option in my opinion now. I had the idea to hack Yeld a little anyway. A few things could be expanded a bit, such as food. There are four food items in the game that can be used for bonuses, one type for each Core Die (e.g. Berry Pie to increase Brave). Here you could bring in a little more variety and also increase Special Dice or give the players, a similar mechanism already exists in the Black Mage, which can be adapted quickly.
I’m very happy with Yeld, I definitely want to play it again and keep testing it. Yeld has (almost) everything I like in roleplaying games. The resemblance to Shadow of the Demon Lord also remains. Both games are fundamentally different in their setting, style and themes, but both have similarly simple basic mechanics with increasing complexity and there is a certain order in the campaign, only Yeld is not limited to eleven adventures.
Dice Adventurer 