Verrotwood

What is Verrotwood

Verrotwood is a folk horror skirmish game by Mike Crutchett, released in 2023. The official site calls it “a grimdark fantasy miniatures agnostic skirmish game.” It’s self-published as a digital rulebook on Wargame Vault.

The setting is a world covered by an ancient forest. From the official site: “The skies over the Verrotwood have turned a sickly grey. The hopes of men have withered as fast as the crops.” Desperate people turn to the old things sleeping deep in the woods, and pagan cults fight each other to wake their gods.

Crutchett told OnTableTop the game is about “conversions, kitbashing and Cults.” There are no official miniatures. You build your cult out of whatever fits.

A new hardback edition, Verrotwood: A Folk Horror Skirmish Game, is listed by book retailers for 13 April 2027: 128 pages, illustrated by Gabriel Pissondes, and pitched for head-to-head or solo play.

How it plays

Four cultists a side. Each cult fields exactly four models. You can recruit new cultists for free, but never more than four.
You make up the god. Building a cult starts with the deity it serves, and that guides everything else about it.
d10 dice pools. Stats and conditions add or remove d10s, and you use the highest result. Attacks are opposed rolls: Strength against Defense in melee, Dexterity against Defense for shooting.
Random activation. Models activate in a random order. Each gets up to two actions: move, attack, pray, or perform a Ritual.
Rituals are the magic. There are dozens to pick from, and your cult takes four. Anyone in the cult can use them, paid for with Ritual Points generated before each fight. Praying on your turn gets some back. Crutchett calls the Ritual system “the meat of Verrotwood.”
Favor is the currency. You spend it to level up cultists and buy equipment, and earn more by how well you do in each encounter.
Built for campaigns. After a game each side sends a cultist into the woods, and a card from a standard poker deck decides what they find. Some come back with gear or Favor. Some don’t come back.

You’ll need several d10s per player, a tape measure in inches, and a poker deck for campaign play.

How to start

Get the rules. The rulebook is on Wargame Vault. In 2023 it was digital only and under €10, per Ana Polanšćak’s write-up (linked below).
Build four cultists. Any miniatures work. The game leans hard on conversions, so this is a good excuse to kitbash a cult. Gardens of Hecate’s Ana Polanšćak built her two cults from conversions of her Folk Horrors (cast by Meridian Miniatures) and her Corpulent Horrors.
Find a monster or two. The bestiary has ghosts, giant spiders, animals, undead and forest spirits. A wolf model covers the Forest Beast.
Cover a 3’ × 3’ table in trees. As much forest as you can muster, plus rocks, buildings and fences.
Play the two encounters in the book. Relic Hunt and Place of Power are in the core rulebook, and there are free official supplements with more.

More on the site: the Gardens of Hecate Kickstarter from Meridian Miniatures in Final Mail Day for a While, and building those minis in Building Sunrot, Miscast, and Gardens of Hecate Minis.