Grimwild

Posted 13 Jun 2025 to Fantasy

A narrative focused D&D game.

 
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XP Card

Sessions GM'd: 0
Sessions as Player: 6

I Used

We used the Grimwild book only. Our GM created their own evocative homebrew setting, about a city-state that had been invaded by a magically superior civilization. Our crew was a resistance cell. My character was a mind sorcerer who could read and implant thoughts. Our other characters were a vigilante acrobat archer and a sensible policeman with a short temper. Our campaign played well until the group dissolved. We ran using only Discord and a shared screen. I used a Google spreadsheet as my character sheet.

Overview

Grimwild is a descendent of Blades in the Dark and D&D. The classes in the game are the archetypical D&D classes, and the game mechanics remind me of Blades. It is fast to play and flexible; allowing the GM to easily invent scenes on the fly.
 
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The Good

  • Concise book. The whole book is 178 pages, which includes all player information, a collection of monsters, and a collection of templates for a GM who needs to improvise an adventure. They can save space because spells do not need to be individually documented.
  • Core game is free. The free version is almost complete (140 pages). I love it when the publishers use this model.
  • Magic is free form. My sorcerer character knew a few Touchstones. These are the flavours of magic, e.g. cryomancy) and also the types of spells you can use (e.g. Attack, Detect, Move). This works well. I chose to be a specialist of mental magic. I enjoy magic systems that encourage specialisation, because it makes the game system more replayable and heightens the roleplay parts of being a mage.
  • Great hyperlinks in the PDF. Every page of the PDF has a set of icons that can be clicked on to jump to any other chapter. It is discrete, but very handy.
  • Defined campaign length. Grimwild characters start at level 1 and the maximum level is 7. The books says that this progression will take 6 months, if you play weekly. This seems perfect to me. (It is possible to slow progression by giving out XP less frequently). I like it when the game has a lower cap on power.
  • Encourages creativity in your players. Some groups of players have drama majors, who are naturally vivacious with big personalities. Our group of soft spoken introverts is not like that. But even *our* creativity was quickly ignited and we were freed from traditional RPG initiative-based rounds and we began feeding off each other and building creative solutions together.
  • Simple core system. The core dice mechanic is to roll a small pool of d6, based on one of your 4 stats. Your character usually has abilities that add dice in circumstances that match your strengths. If the task is extra difficult, then you also roll one or more d8s. A simple mechanic is easy to improvise with. A GM can easily give rulings to handle a situation, so the game keeps moving and it is a lighter load on the GM.
  • Trackers are used for everything. Diminishing Pools are a pool of dice that track progress, by counting down. They are like hit points for a scene or situation. The players describe their actions to overcome the situation, and roll dice, with their successes depleting the tracker pool. The GM can also roll the dice of the tracker to reduce the threat if players succeed in a dramatic action.
  • Bonds with other PCs. Each character has a described Bond with each other PC. These are descriptors like, "Lowkey Doubt" or "Growing Respect". As these change during play, the PCs take temporary mechanical benefits. So the game encourages players to think about and gradually change their relationships with one another. It works!

    • The Not-So-Good

  • GM Adventure Templates are too vague. 15 story kits are provided, 1 page each. They outline one adventure premise, e.g. "A plague of goblins". They provide a number of ideas that could be used to kickoff a GM's brainstorming, but I don't see how they could be usable for me.
  • A number of randomised tools are provided, but I will never use them. For example, one page is dedicated to generating random seasons for the climate of your homebrew world. It is a 2d6 table of descriptive words. I wouldn't ever use this. Far more useful would have been tables to assist GM improvisation, like the Ironsworn oracles.
  • Session based XP and progression. According to the rules, you gain +1 XP at the end of each session. You advance a level after a predictable counter of sessions. This feels too formulaic and predictable for me. The events of the session don't seem to matter, neither the achievements of the PCs. The game assumes everyone is working hard and playing with moxie. Unfortunately this means that progression is just about attending sessions.
  • Narrative focused, not simulationist. Your characters have Story points, which can be spent to modify the scene. For example, you can spend a Story point to declare that one of the NPCs in the scene is someone from your character's past. You could even use a point to declare that the room has a secret door. This tool is not for me. I prefer a more simulationist approach, so we didn't use these very much.
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    Verdict

    Grimwild has a lot of potential. I would like to return to it and see how it plays from a GM's perspective. It gives players several tools for roleplay and is flexible and easy to apply to a variety of settings. I think a Grimwild campaign set in Eberron would be a lot of fun. Or even to run a big book D&D campaign like Curse of Strahd.

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