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Rackham Vale: Paintbox Edition from Crowbar Creative reversed the typical game-creation method for table-top role-playing games to create something that’s altogether familiar while also completely unique. Most RPGs have a game in mind first, either an established world or a system, and then developing the story, with the art coming as flavor on top. Rackham Vale, on the other hand, began with its artist, Arthur Rackham.
Rackham (1869-1939) lived in London creating many recognizable illustrations for fantastical books ranging from Mother Goose and Brothers Grimm fairytales to Peter Pan and A Christmas Carol. His style is cute, with charming characters with adorable faces, yet it is also haunting, even terrifying, with watercolors that seem to trail into another dimension. That vibe is perfect for a fantasy RPG setting.
Zine Gaming
The resulting Rackham Vale book, which describes itself as a “zine” rather than a manual or campaign guide, presents a humble alpine valley. It is seemingly idyllic on the surface with a wide river, quiet hamlets, bustling markets, and tall forests. However, everything in the vale carries its secret. Players will need to navigate the landscape and not be taken in by its charms—there is no shortage of creatures that can place someone under a spell for all time.
Most of Rackham Vale’s pages are dedicated to the land’s many locales and occupants. Each is packed with secrets written in underlined text, making the zine a textbook for the game-master but something to avoid for players who do not want their surprises spoiled.
While adventuring and trying to find out secrets the fun way, players will run across recognizable antagonists like giants or the famed Questing Beast. Others are new creations inspired by Rackham’s art, like the Toad Prince, desperately seeking a curse to turn him back into a toad and escape the weight of courtly life, or Pygum the Snooger, who will punish those it deems not hospitable.
The book even specifically leaves some things out, like descriptions of Queen Mab and Oberon and Thripsey, the Faerie City, so players can fill in some of the gaps. These tiptoed half-explanations only increase the tantalizing atmosphere of Rackham Vale.
Fairytale Gameplay
Rackham Vale is built in the Old School Essential system, but the stats can easily be translated into the players’ preferred TTRPG. In fact, with so many of the creatures and characters in the public domain, most RPGs will likely already have entries for some of them. What makes Rackham Vale different is seeing so many faeries and mythic creatures so close together.
Magic is around every corner, but also carries far-reaching consequences, such rudeness to an innkeeper resulting in a ghostly storyteller keeping them up all hours of the night for the rest of their days. Players need to be mindful of Selkies and Kelpies in the water, Brownies in disguise, and Redcaps skulking through shadowy places.
Much of the gameplay is not about combat but about appeasing or tricking fae, who always keep their word, or so they tell us. Of course, their deals are often vague, ironic, or flat-out twisted, such as the Duppycaps mushrooms granting immortality but not eternal youth, leading to legions of aged zombie-like Duppyhusks wandering aimlessly. Secrets are currency, and emotions more important than the physical. Partaking in in the nighttime revelry of the Nimberlangles can even imbue the nearby trees with sentience.
An Open Sandbox
Fantasy characters can be dropped into Rackham Vale with specific plot hooks, or simply stumble upon it as they travel remote mountains. They may find the cobblestone High Road, or sail up the Golden River. With the game’s classic fantasy map, players can wander and explore the world’s mundane surface—and the endless hidden world beneath.
