Review Time: Accursed

Good Day once again.

So last time we took a look at a game that was still in its funding stages. Today we're gonna pay attention to a very wonderful game that is.

I first became aware of Accursed through the fine fellows of Role Playing Public Radio, and once I sunk my proverbial fangs into the project I was hooked.  Sadly, I missed the Kickstarter for this project, but I have been keeping up with each and every release to date. All of which can be found HERE.

So, what is Accursed? And why in the hell should we care... at all?

I'm glad you asked.

Accursed is a setting for the wonderful Savage Worlds role playing rules system, which you should totally check out if you haven't already. I mean come on, you used playing cards for initiative... how awesome is that! Now, on to the fluff and excitement!

Players take the role of the Accursed or Witchmarked, denizens of the Lands of Morden that have been turned into monstrous being through some means or another, but generally the Witches did it.  These Witchmarked stand as the primary opposition to the Witches of the Grand Coven and their armies of monsters as well as some assholes that are just prejudice against the Accursed.

Here is the "Cliffsnotes" version of the setting history:

• 50 years prior to the current time line The Grand Coven invaded the lands of Morden, bringing with them the hoards of mercenaries and monsters that comprised their respective armies.
• The denizens of the various kingdoms/countries of Morden put aside most of the prejudice and quarrels they might have had in order to combat the Witches and their armies. This became know as the Grand coven War, and the alliance was known as the Army of Light.
• The Witches began turning the citizenry of Morden into monstrous Shock Troops to assist in their eventual conquer of the Lands. These are the Witchmarked.
• It wasn't a typo or grammatical error, it really was eventual.
• Despite their best efforts, the Army of Light was crushed. But they put up a good fight.... just not good enough.
• During and after the Grand Coven War those Witchmarked that retained a Will of their own decided that (in my words) "this bitch made me a monster, fuck that shit and fuck her and her stupid face." These Witchmarked are the titular Accursed that players portray.

Each of the Witchbreeds parallels on of the traditional "monsters" that we have come to know and love over the years. Lets get a gander.

The Dhampir: These are you Vampire types, and the type to most easily pass for a "normal" human. They're charming and fast... oh yeah and they crave blood, but that's to be expected.

The Golem: Here we have the Frankenstein's Monster type. Composite creatures of flesh, bone, wood, etc and brought back to life through arcane formula. Physically these guys are slow, but rather powerful. And they're extremely flammable. One of my favorites.

The Mongrels: To make it simple, they're people with animal parts grafted on. Their abilities are the most physically varied, as the grafted parts can grant a number of different benefits from Gorilla arms granting tremendous strength to Owl's eyes for seeing at night.They also live in a constant state of pain due to their non-standard replacement parts.

The Mummies: They're Mummies, I don't know what else you really need to know as far a a type is concerned. Mummies require rest "in" their sarcophagi daily; to get around that they mad their sarcophagi into armor capable of incredible offense and deference. they're also pretty good at Alchemy.

The Ophidians: Snake People!! They're poisonous and slippery, perfect for assassins.  Too bad they're being eaten from inside by their own venom.

The Revenants: ZOMBIES! They feel no pain, and all their obsession is the deaths of the Witches.  I thought it was interesting that the creators took the Black Cauldron approach in the genesis of the Revenants.

The Shades:  These are Ghost people.  They're half in and half out. They can pass through wall but damn are they creepy. And they can't pass salt lines. As they're rather "spirited" Shades are naturals with Witchcraft.

The Vargr: Lastly we have the Werewolf-ish sorts. A pretty standard package including a bestial form, enhanced senses and natural weapons. Their downside being the amount of food they must eat to keep up their strength.

The book itself gives a much more effective run-down of the eight breeds, but I will say that the Ophidians and The Shades feel a little tacked on. But that's to be expected as I believe they were the last two breed to be created and put into the game. They're still cool, though.


Aside from the variety of "creature" that can be played, my favorite aspect of the game is the Acceptance / Rejection mechanic.  Player can either accept their monstrous nature or reject it.  This mechanic is actually out of the hands of the players as far a any stat change is concerned, leaving it up to the GM to pay attention to their players and their actions and motivations.


The world itself is rather interesting. The Lands/Countries that make up Morden are mostly parallels of real world countries where the original tales came from, you just have to read into things a bit.  The write ups for each country don't always feel like they're giving you every detail, thus leaving players and GMs to fill in the blanks.  Seriously, the map only has a handful of cities and the capital cities of each country. In the two sessions that I've run so far, every location (town or otherwise) has been original to my version of Morden.  To be honest I really like that.


For those familiar with Savage World already, the skill listing has been cut down but combining some skills into one i.e. Climbing and Swimming are now Athletics. I can't think of any issue this would cause, it's just less skills to remember.

Again, other than a change here and there the system runs pretty standard to the stock Savage Worlds rules.
I will throw in this little tidbit: although the setting book says you need the SW Horror Companion, you don't really need it. There are four total hinderances and edges from the Horror Companion that are included i. Accursed lists as well as spell, but that's about it.


To be frank and very honest, the one aspect I love about Accursed is that it feels almost like Castlevania the Role Playing Game. I don't even care if that causes you to loose any interest interest.  Accursed is an awesome Dark Fantasy setting.

So far the Cupcake or Death Krewe have played two sessions. So I can't speak much on the long game at present.


So here's the score:
If you like Dark Fantasy, the traditional Universal monster + a few more, and the feel of the Castlevaia franchise then you'll probably dig Accursed from Melior Via.

That's all I got for yo fine folks for now.

As always,
Stay Frosty