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Normally with my reviews, I’ll follow a list of points to cover (age range, setting, character, mechanics, etc) to breakdown the game. However, since this is a revisit and I’ve already done this breakdown for Yeld! 1e here, I’m going to instead focus on a few of the many big changes that stood out the most to me with this latest edition of the game. Please check out the Yeld! 1e review for core game details and check out below for what I thought about the update!

Jump to:

• Ghosts and restless dead level
• Lore drops
• NPC details
• Mobility accessibility
• LOTS of new stuff (gear, creatures, jobs, and more)
• Overall thoughts
• Find a copy

Ghosts and restless dead levels in Yeld! 2e

Ghosts were included as part of Yeld! 1e as a way for players who were downed in combat to still participate with a special moveset through the rest of the fight (which is a fantastic way to keep all players engaged. In Yeld! 2e, ghosts are still around, but they’ve had a major overhaul in a great way.

First, the rules for ghosts have been fleshed out (budum-ching) more so they’re clear and have a more specific ruleset to work with. Second, it emphasizes that creatures killed in battle can ALSO come back as ghosts (so it might not be great to kill a creature in battle instead of finding another way to solve things).

In addition, a new feature, the Restless Dead Level, has been added to give a further impact to killing opponents.

The Restless Dead Level is a meter that increases as players kill creatures that they encounter instead of trying to talk to them, letting them run away, or using some other means to end the conflict. As this metric increases, it means that players will start to incurr debuffs or other consequences as the ghosts of their fallen opponents are now haunting them! It’s a great way to create impact for player actions and reign in a potential murderhobo party.

Massive lore drops from Yeld! 1e to 2e

Yeld! 1e had some great lore, and I remember when I was reading it, I was thinking that I wanted more. Well… Yeld! 2e delivered on that.

It gets into the history of the land and its peoples, has an awesome timeline of events showing how the main antagonist siezed power with some epic stories of one particularly amazing legendary hero, and provides plenty of leads for creating new adventures or letting the party uncover these historical easter eggs. I REALLY enjoyed getting to read through the new material.

New NPCs and NPC details in Yeld! 2e

In the vein of lore drops... Yeld! 2e adds quite a few NPCs with full character explinations/lore ranging from Mentors (helpful teachers to the players) to the vampire prince’s team of baddies (The Hunters of Yeld).

The new characters give more ways for players to interact with the world and it’s NPCs, and the descriptions help to give more background for story leaders to work with without.

Mentors (Hoobert Hiss as my favorite) give players extra bonuses… and are also a great way for story leaders to fluidly give the party information about the world’s lore and set the team on quests since the players should be interacting with them on a regular basis.

On the other side of the coin, the Hunters each have a full backstory that can be used for RP leading up to, during, and after your encounters with them AND it gives a pretty good story about what each NPC is doing while the party is out adventuring.

Mobility access tools added in Yeld! 2e

Yeld! 2e also adds a section on using wheelchairs and other accessibility tools for your NPC! There’s a great explination about how to include them and why they work similarly to any other item (i.e. giving a bonus to a roll like you’d get a bonus from any other item that you’re using). I was glad to see a specific note about accessibility in the game, and it was a great explination to make sure players could see that this option was welcomed at the game table.

LOTS of other new stuff has been added to Yeld! 2e

In addition to what’s above, there’s plenty more that’s been added. There’s new jobs, adjustments to existing jobs to give balance at higher levels, more festivals throughout the year, new creatures (I really like the Broccoli Lobster, personally), and a ton of new items.

The game includes more quests too, both in the jobs section (particularly monster jobs) and through a wonders table with 50 different quests to check out, which, considering the game’s ticking calendar to try to get home before your characters turn 13… it means that you may start having to weigh the time cost versus the benefit of choosing your adventure paths a bit more, which I really like.

There’s a lot more to explore, more ways to vary your characters, and different methods for piecing abilities and bonuses together.

Overall thoughts on Yeld! 2e

This is a GREAT upgrade on a game that was awesome to begin with. I love how they’ve kept elements, like the comic book panel mechanics explinations, and made changes only where necessary so it wouldn’t make things too complex (which is something I’ve seen with a few expansions). I liked getting more of the story of the world and its characters, and I really enjoyed getting to see new art in Yeld‘s iconic style. Overall, this is a very cool re-release, and I hope you get a chance to check it out!

Find a copy of Yeld! 2e

You can find a copy of Yeld! 2e on DriveThruRPG!

You can also find my review of Yeld! 1e here!

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