Let’s look at the adaptation of a public domain property for tabletop RPG, Robin Hood. While Robin has been made into RPGs a number of times, this article focuses on Wolf’s Head, A World of Adventure for Fate Core, a version of Robin Hood’s Merry Men powered by Fate. For this review, I’m going to discuss the books (Wolf’s Head and Fate Core) as I share the setup to my group’s actual play of that setting.
Wolf’s Head, A World of Adventure for Fate Core, written by Paul Mitchener and published by Evil Hat Productions, the company behind Fate as well as Fate of Cthulhu (you can read my interview with Evil Hat about FoC here on d20 Radio), is a sourcebook that brings a version of the famous English folk hero to your gaming group. Set forty years after William of Normandy’s invasion of the English isle, this is a limited campaign with small amounts of magic and a bloody endgame built in.
There are a few elements of this world that you’ll need to buy into before you pick up your Fate dice. First, you will steal from the rich who are, mostly, the Church and the government. That is to say, you will not fix the system; you will try to break it. Second, repeat this maxim as you play: The house always wins.
Robin Hood?
Yep, the English folk hero with a zillion movies (I counted) that robbed from the rich and gave to the poor, had a band of Merry Men, and loved a noblewoman. For this game, the only points you need are: It’s Norman England and you’re in a band of criminals that robs the country.
What’s Fate?
A tabletop RPG engine that is one of the go-to options for its flexibility. System light and easy to speak into existence, Fate works for everything from galactic space opera to demigods to paranormal romance. In Fate, your character will have Aspects, which serve two purposes. First, they explain your character’s backstory/personality and, second, they give you skills to work with. As an example, in Wolf’s Head, “I’m a Soldier, Not a Knight,” means that a character with that Background can justify doing any action a soldier would, yet you can see that he’d give the middle finger to authority.
Specific to Wolf’s Head, there are a few special options that may not be in every version of a Robin Hood RPG. There’s some degree of magic that helps to give this world a bit more of a Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves feel. There’s Treasure, a sort of representative version of counted gold, and Support which is what you get in return when you ‘give to the poor’. Another option, the piece that makes this a limited campaign, are Threat Points. These points are accrued by the GM based on the party’s actions. Specific actions cause that needle to move. Oppose a noble’s plan? That’s one Threat Point. Opposed the king’s? That’s two. These points can be spent by the GM as Fate Points or accumulated to trigger certain plot points. Once enough points have accrued, you’ll see plot points like, “The king fills the vacant office of sheriff in the area”. There are several levels along the Threat Point meter until you hit twelve and the climax of the campaign. You’re crooks and once you’ve reached the twelfth point, the king decides you have to go and unleashes all of the forces at their disposal to bring about your demise. At that point, your hope and existence come to an end.
An Actual Play Prologue
Wolf’s Head includes an introductory adventure that we played through. For this review, I’ll detail our experiences with the setup and opening scene but leave the bulk of it for you to play.
Our GM for this one-shot was novelist, John McGuire. We each took a pregen:
- Rebecca played as Rosamund Le Tellier
- Wolf (who co-authored a few articles with me) played Bernard Ashe, the male version of the female character, Beatrice Ashe. Oh, and I got a kick out of imagining Wolf’s reaction when he got an email entitled “Wolf’s Head – You In?”
- Leland (John and my co-author on our upcoming project, Love’s Labour’s Liberated) as Simon Grave
- Myself as Thomas Willoughby
Do you ever read a line and have an instant vision for the character you’ll play? One of Thomas Willoughby’s Aspects was “Background: I’m a Soldier, Not a Knight”. I read that and knew I was going to play this guy as Deforest Kelly’s Bones, “Dammit, Simon, I’m a soldier, not a knight!” I knew that was the character.
Then I opened my mouth and… Bones did not come out. At all. Ever. Not even once. What issued forth was one of my least consistent characters as I couldn’t even pick an accent for him. It was bad like Seth Meyers’ Boston Accent Movie trailer. As you’re reading this, know that every character action I decided on felt like it was pulled from a hat of random motivations and origins. (I apologize to my fellow players and to Wolf’s Head author, Paul Mitchener, he deserved a better player.) My only saving grace was, because of the magic, tonally, we decided that this was a flavor of Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. I couldn’t pick an accent, so it felt canon to that movie.
Our party, or band, had a few Aspects to it including Shared Enemies and Shared Ideals. Being robbers, or “wolf’s heads,” as crooks were dubbed, we started in the New Forest where we’d gotten a tip that a cargo of wine would roll from one noble to another via a turn through our forest. Then, like typical PCs, we spent 45 minutes or an hour planning an ambush. In hindsight, there was no reason for that, but at the time it was great fun. We settled on getting a local to loan us a wagon to breakdown on the road (Simon rolls Empathy +8 or Legendary level on The Ladder). This ambush gives the scene an Aspect to call upon (You Going My Way?) in order to deceive anyone that might come up.
The best laid plans and all that, and in this case, this one failed because the situation evolved. We’re looking for a wagon of wine, instead we get a boy clutching a mystical sword as he’s chased by six thug-knights of our nemesis, Sir Geoffrey d’Ytane. The boy, Nicholas Martell, runs off the road and toward the hiding spot of Bernard and Thomas (Simon and Rosamund were planted by the wagon to act as decoys). The thug-knights split up with some following the boy into the woods. As the boy passes our hiding bush, Bernard snakes out to snatch him (spends a Fate Point to reach a +6 on his Stealth, a Fantastic result on The Ladder, so the action is not witnessed).
With the boy disappeared, Simon and Rosamund are able to persuade the leader to press on, that the boy must have rounded the bend in the road. The knights gone, we interrogate the boy to learn what our actual quest is.
Oh, and the wagon of wine, it finally rolls through and we hijack it like real heroes!
That’s the opening of the adventure, “The Bishop’s Treasure.”
Should You Play Wolf’s Hood?
Yes. Just, yes. The cost for the Fate Core rulebook in PDF is Pay What You Want (Suggested Price: $5.00) and the cost for Wolf’s Head is, again, Pay What You Want (Suggested Price: $4.00) at DriveThruRPG. It’s a try before you buy (you can always come back later and pay once you’ve seen the value). The short campaign where you’re Robin Hood leads to compressed action and drama that will give this story a cinematic quality. You’re not going to win; you’re losing gracefully as you inspire the good people of England with your selfless deeds.
If you’re enjoying the articles on d20 Radio, consider supporting their Patreon here. Egg Embry participates in the OneBookShelf Affiliate Program and Amazon Associates. These programs provide advertising fees by linking to DriveThruRPG.
Latest posts by Egg Embry (see all)
- New Gamemaster Month 2023 - January 20, 2023
