A few years ago, I introduced you to The Magical Land of Yeld and also wrote a game report. Now a second edition is almost complete and I was asked to report on it. Since I really liked the first edition, I am happy to comply with the request and also explain the changes to the previous version.
CAVE: I was given a PDF version for this introduction.
The world:
The Magical Land of Yeld was written by the authors of the webcomic Modest Medusa. Here, a Medusa from Yeld gets lost in our world. In the role-playing game, you take on the role of children from our world who find a door to the magical Yeld and experience adventures there. After their first adventures, the children discover that the door back to their world is locked and they have to find seven keys to get back to their homeland. The world of Yeld is magical and full of wondrous things and creatures. It is ruled by the vampire prince Dragul and his seven Hunters of Yeld keep the keys they are looking for. Time is running out, because as soon as a child reaches their thirteenth birthday, they become a monster and can no longer leave the world of Yeld.
The game:
In The Magical Land of Yeld, the player characters are called friends and they are children. What you know as attributes from other games are called core dice here and there are four of them, namely Strong, Brave, Tough and Smart. There are also special dice, which are a mixture of skills, feats, talents, etc. Depending on the special dice, they are added to the appropriate tests, for example, you can use “Fight Dirty” to influence the type of damage in combat, “Run” to move further in combat, or “I know about xy” helps you remember knowledge about the subject area xy. The special dice are one of my absolute favorite mechanics in the game, because you can easily add new skills with them or even integrate new mechanics without fundamentally changing anything in the game system. Equipment items also have core dice and special dice, and you can borrow dice from these items, i.e. include them in your roll. The chapter on equipment is very extensive.
When making a test, the player rolls the appropriate number of core dice and, if available, special dice. The total must exceed the game master’s roll. The number of dice the game master rolls depends on the difficulty of the adventure. The players can decide this before the adventure, more on that later.
At the beginning, the friends simply start as children, with different types, such as the big sister (or big brother), the princess, the liar or the dog (yes, you can play as a dog). Each type gets an adjustment of the core dice and you get a special dice. You then have the option to customize your friend a little. Over the course of the game, the friends get their job, a kind of class, of which there are eight, such as the Soul Thief, the Shepherd or the White Mage. You get additional core dice, special dice and a job ability through the job. There is also a list of special dice that only the corresponding job can learn. It is possible to change jobs during the game; to do this, you must visit a job trainer. There are also advanced jobs such as vampire hunter or tax collector, which can only be achieved after a certain amount of progress in the story. When a friend reaches his 13th birthday, he becomes a monster; these are also represented by jobs. These children can no longer leave Yeld, but can remain in the group.
In Yeld, battles take place on a so-called action board, for which you can use a chessboard. Unlike other games where you roll the dice for initiative, in Yeld the person who calls out the fastest goes first. Everyone has one movement action and one normal action. You can save actions and use them in a later turn. After you’re done, you choose who is next. If your own action was successful and a friend follows, they receive a bonus. This bonus increases for each subsequent successful action by a friend in a row, this is the so-called action chain. Monsters can also form an action chain, but you can also try to sneak in and interrupt the chain if you haven’t acted yet. Attacks usually reduce an opponent’s tough dice. If these drop to 0, they are defeated. Friends become ghosts and gain new skills. They can later be resurrected and slip back into their bodies. Certain special dice also make it possible to reduce other core dice.
You receive loot for defeated opponents or successful adventures. Before an adventure, the group can choose the difficulty. Yeld is a bit special here, because the group should take turns acting as the GM. At the end of an adventure, the group comes up with ideas about what the title of the next adventure should be and what topics will be covered. Here they also choose whether it will be an easy, normal or difficult adventure. The more difficult, the more loot there is. The GM dice pool also becomes larger and he has more options to customize his monsters. For the loot mentioned, the players roll dice on different tables and can thus also obtain exotic items or take equipment from defeated opponents.
There is no fixed map of Yeld, instead there is a kind of chessboard with the portal in the middle. The book provides a variety of wonders that can be discovered on the journey. The days you are on the road are actually important in Yeld, it even provides a calendar that is full of festivities and important events.
The game leader gets a wealth of material and for the Hunters of Yeld there are ready-made adventures that are very different and have interesting variations. The selection of equipment is immense.
The book:
The Magical Land of Yeld 2nd Edition has 402 pages and is full color. The book is structured significantly differently than other systems. It follows the logic that is needed for the game and the campaign. For example, the jobs and advanced jobs are much further back in the book and not in the character generation, and the guide for the story and the world description are inserted in between.
Differences from the first edition:
The new edition of Yeld doesn’t reinvent the wheel and not only are the mechanics the same, the majority of the texts and content have also remained the same. However, there are significantly more descriptions, explanations of mechanics and the world seems more fleshed out. As a result, the number of pages has increased from 266 in the first edition to 402 pages.
The layout has also been changed, things like special dice are highlighted more, which makes reading much easier. Unfortunately, the tables are still not that easy to read due to the color choice. The new monster profiles are the highlight for me. They are clear and much easier to use than in the first edition, a lot of work has definitely gone into this.
With the Red Mage and the Warrant Mage, there are two new advanced jobs in the second edition and the Magic Eater, the Black Casket and the Root Warden have been added to the monster jobs.
The second edition also includes elements from the job guides (additional material), especially for the special dice, and there are now subtypes of magic, new spells and mastery spells.
The arrangement of the chapters has changed in the new edition and I find it much more logical now. Overall, I like the new edition better, especially with the additions it feels much more rounded.
Who is The Magical Land of Yeld 2nd Edition for:
- For players and game masters who want to discover a magical world full of curiosities
- For people who like easy rules but don’t want to miss out on options
- For players who want to slip into the role of children
Who is The Magical Land of Yeld 2nd Edition not for:
- For players and game masters who want absolutely classic fantasy
- For people who want classic character generation and development
- For players who don’t want to occasionally be the GM
Conclusion:
I really like The Magical Land of Yeld, it has very easy and elegant rules that can be easily expanded and offers a lot of options in terms of character building and character development. There are tons of equipment options and I love the style of the game. The world of Yeld is very unique with its many different creatures, but that’s what makes it so charming for me.
Dice Adventurer 