It's really just a small rpg, meant to be played by people who find themselves at some christmas gathering and want to play a game rather than sit around and do nothing or make meaningless small talk with people with who they have nothing in common (except maybe, y'know, blood, or last name).
Yule Lads
In Yule Lads, you take on the role of one of the Icelandic Yuletime creatures, the Yule Lads, mischievous mountain trolls who run around creating chaos during the yuletide and giving gifts--or rotten potatoes. Of course, as supernatural gift-givers, the Yule Lads must not be seen, and therein lies the challenge. Can your characters pull their pranks and give gifts to the children of the village without being spotted?
Task Resolution
Roll 2d6+mods, compare to a Target Number
This game is designed with the likelihood of people playing it at a holiday gathering in mind, which means that it’s not assuming you have a big bag full of dice with you at all times. But you can probably grab a couple dice from a board game.
Making Your Yule Lad
A Yule Lad is one of the impish children (occasionally brothers) of Gryla the troll, who eats disobedient children. They come from Icelandic folklore, and there are 13 canonical Yule Lads, recognized in Hallberg Hallmundsson's translation of the Poem of Gryla, but as folkloric beings, there are many versions of the Yule Lads, and there’s no particular reason to stick to those 13. The Yule Lads visit villages during the 13 days of the yuletide, one appearing each day until Christmas, at which point they begin to depart one at a time. During their time, they harass and prank people and leave children small items in shoes left on windowsills. If they child has been good during the preceding day, they receive candies and little gifts, but if they’ve been disobedient, they receive a rotten potato.
In general, a Yule Lad is roughly the size of a short man (they can ride sheep, but they are gangly), and look roughly like the popular image of gnome, with medieval peasant clothing, beards, and the like.
Abilities
Yule lads have four abilities, Scare, Scrabble, Skulk and Skill. At character creation, each ability begins at a rating of 1, and can be rated as high as 5. Distribute 10 points between the four scores.
Kens
Yule lads have particular proficiencies and knowledges, rated from 0 to 4. At character creation, each Ken starts at 0, and you have 16 points to distribute between them.
Quirks
Quirks are the distinguishing characteristics of your Yule Lad, such as having a beard that reaches the floor, particularly long legs, or cloven hooves. Each quirk provides a bonus or a penalty to a particular kind of roll. You must choose at least one positive and one negative quirk, but can choose as many of each as you like so long as you have an equal number of Positive and Negative quirks. Quirks which give a bonus or penalty to the same roll (such as Long Ears and Hairy Ears) are mutually exclusive, and cannot be taken together (though nothing is saying you cannot choose to have a Yule Lad who has long, hairy ears. You just cannot use both quirks for the mechanical effects).
Items
There are a variety of things you might have on you as a Yule Lad, but you’re basically a weird little mountain man, so it’s not likely you’re carrying a lot. Pick one item from the list for your Yule Lad.
The Sack
All Yule Lads have a sack. It contains small gifts and rotten potatoes for rewarding and punishing children, and is often used to hold the various things your Yule Lad steals.
Pranks
Every Yule Lad has a characteristic prank they commit, that they are compelled to commit, even. Create on one particular prank for your Yule Lad. They will have to roll to resist the urge to commit this prank when the opportunity presents itself.
Delight
Delight is the joy and glee that Yule Lads derive from pulling their pranks. At the start of a game, your Delight is 0. As you successfully pull pranks and properly reward children, you earn Delight.
Abilities
All Yule Lads have the following stats, rated 1 to 5
Scare- The ability to frighten or shock
Scrabble- The ability to move quickly, clear obstacles, dig, or exert force. Determines the character’s Hit Points
Skulk- The ability to evade detection or assault. Rolled to avoid attacks.
Skill- The ability to discern or understand. Rolled to resist non-physical assaults (such being frightened)
Kens
The following are specific things your Yule Lad has some proficiency or knowledge in, rated from 0 to 4
Catch- Detect or perceive, or physically catch things.
Cobble- Making things, such as small trinkets or a climbable pile
Deceive- Lying, bluffing, and misleading others
Dwell- Understanding human habits and living
Herd- Handling and working with animals
Hide- Avoiding detection.
Hurl- Smacking things with a thrown object
Prank- Pulling off tricks and antics
Telling- Recalling whether children were good or bad during the day
Wallop- Smacking things with a handheld object or fist
Quirks
Every Yule Lad has their own quirks, weird things that they have or do that make them better or worse at their actions.
Positive Quirks
Bandy Legs- Your legs are long and thin, enabling you to leap better. +2 when jumping
Beady Eyes- Your eyes are large with needle hole pupils, enabling you to take in your surroundings better. +2 to seeing
Claws- You have sharp, strong claws. Damage rating is -2 if used to attack, and they allow you to climb soft materials like wood with ease (no roll is needed if your claws can pierce an object)
Hoof-Footed- You have hooves, which hurt when you kick someone. Damage rating is -2. They also make your footsteps sound like a goat, cow, or some other hoofed animal’s, which means you’re less likely to draw attention, giving you +2 to sneak around. But if you’re in a house, someone’s going to come see what the goat is getting up to...
Horny- You have one or more pointy... horns, and can use them as an attack. Damage rating is -2, you also have +1 to frighten people who can see you
Large Ears- Your ears are large and pointed, catching the faintest sounds. +2 to hearing
Long Fingers- Your fingers are long and thin, allowing you to better grab things. +2 to anything requiring manual dexterity.
Long Nose- Your nose is long with huge nostrils, no smell escapes it. +2 to smelling
Rail Thin- Your body is long and lean, if you stick out your tongue, you look like a sign post. +2 to hiding
Too Much Tongue- Your tongue is overly long, maybe even as long as your body. +2 to scare people who can see you when sticking out your tongue
Negative Quirks
Bushy Eyebrows- Your eyebrows are thick and frequently obscure your eyes. -2 to seeing
Dwarfen- Your legs and torso are short and squat. -2 to climbing
Flat Footed- Your feet are flat and floppy, making you clumsy and loud. -1 to move unheard, and -1 to run
Floor-length Beard- Your beard runs down to the ground and frequently gets underfoot. -2 to running
Hairy Ears- Thick tufts of hair protrude from your ears, muffling sound. -2 to hearing
Peglegs- Your legs are stiff and wooden, making a distinctive sound as you move. -2 to move unheard
Rotund- Your body is big and round. -2 to hiding
Stubby-fingered- Your fingers are short and thick, giving you a clumsy grip. -2 to anything requiring manual dexterity
Wilting Breathed- Your breath is ripe, probably from a heavy diet of turnips, lutefisk, or other particularly pungent foods. -2 to any roll made to conceal your presence, but you can use your breath to knock others out (roll 1d6+1 against their Scrabble)
Items
Cudgel- A small club, more useful for exerting blunt trauma to knock someone out than for really striking limbs. Damage Rating -2, and roll 1d6+1 against the target’s Scrabble to knock them out.
Hammer- A useful tool when you need to drive nails, make noise, or break stuff. Damage rating -1 if used to attack.
Knife- A small blade, more tool than weapon, but can be used for bodily harm. Damage rating -2 if used to attack.
Meat Hook- A long metal hook, technically used for turning meat, but just as useful for grabbing meat to steal, or any other thing roughly that pokable. Damage rating -2 if used to attack.
Prybar- A short metal bar with thin prongs on either end that allow you to pry floorboards and doors. +2 to open things.
Spyglass- Finely crafted lenses allow you to see better. +2 to see things at a distance.
Pranks
When given the opportunity, your Yule Lad can either indulge in their prank, or roll Skill to resist the urge to perform their prank. The basic target number to resist a prank is 9, then it is modified by circumstance. See below for example circumstance modifiers.
- The prank seems easy to get away with (ie, there are no apparent witnesses): +3
- There are people who might catch you nearby: -3
- You will almost certainly be caught (ie, there is someone directly watching the object of your prank): -4
- You know that no one will witness you: +4
- The prank will be huge (ie, there are many sausages to swipe, or a large bucket of milk to steal): +4
- The prank will have little payoff (ie, only one meager sausage is sitting in the open, or there’s only a small saucer of milk): -4
- The prank will cause a panic (ie, stealing someone’s pots right before they have to cook a meal): +2
- The prank will cause complete chaos (such as slamming a door to a sleeping child’s room and running off on hoofed feet laughing): +5
*Keep in mind, Yule Lads often subsist on crusts of bread and licking food from spoons. Their sense of rewards is quite different from our own.
A Yule Lad’s characteristic “prank” could be virtually anything, limited by the setting of the game (small medieval era icelandic villages). Some examples are-
- Harassing a particular kind of farm animal
- Stealing a particular kind of food
- Stealing cookware or dishes
- Slamming doors
- Stealing tallow candles or other household items
- Peeping in windows (often to look for things to steal)
Rewarding Children
The actual job of Yule Lads is to distribute small gifts and rotten potatoes to village children according to their behavior. To do this, the Yule Lads hide and watch the children during the day to know how to divvy up their stock of candies and potatoes that night. The watching part is not played out, and the Yule Lads’ ability to recall behavior of children during the day is represented by the Telling ken. Roll 2d6+Skill+Telling against the 4 plus the child’s Deceive. A properly rewarded child gives the Yule Lad a point of Delight, while an improperly rewarded child gives the Yule Lad the ire of Gryla, which can be used by the GM to interfere with the Yule Lad in the future.
Combat
Generally speaking, Yule Lads is not a game about combat. That said, gamers are horrible little goblins and combat will happen.
Hit Points
Characters have a number of hit points equal to their Scrabble score. Adult humans and large animals often have 6 or more hit points.
Turn Order
At the beginning of a conflict, each person involved rolls their Skulk or Skill. The highest roll goes first, then each other person in descending order of rolls.
Attacking
When attacking, roll 2d6 and add the relevant Ability (Scrabble for melee, Skulk for ranged) and Ken against 4 plus the target’s Skulk and Catch. If your roll equals or exceeds this number, your attack hits and deals damage.
Damage
When rolling damage, roll 1d6, modified the specified amount (by item or quirk, minimum 1) and add half your Scrabble (rounded down).
| Attack | Damage Rating |
| Fist or Foot | -3 |
| Cudgel | -2 |
| Hammer | -1 |
| Knife | -2 |
| Meathook | -4 |
| Small Stone | -3 |
| Fist Sized Rock | -2 |
| Brick | -1 |
Evading
You may elect to focus on evading attacks for your turn. If you do, roll 2d6+Skulk+Catch, this is the number attackers must meet to hit you.
Running Out of Hit Points
When reduced to 0 hit points, a character is knocked out. While Gryla and the Yule Cat canonically eat disobedient children and people who haven’t received new clothes for Christmas, Yule Lads is a game about pranks and troublemaking, not killing random peasants. The person who has been reduced to 0 hp is probably going to hurt in the morning, but they are not dead.
Note- Your group can decide to make the consequences of 0 hp more serious, if that’s the kind of game they want to play.
Playing the Game
As a Yule Lad, your role is to reward good children with presents, punish naughty children with rotten potatoes, and have as much fun as you can. When you sit down to play, you will be part of a band of Yule Lads with your fellow players, and tasked to run through a village, doling out the appropriate wages of behaviour to the children while remaining unseen. The game master will have a map of the village and control the adults, children, and animals in that village.
Delight
Delight is the joy and glee that Yule Lads derive from pulling their pranks and doing their job. When a Yule Lad successfully pulls a prank or properly rewards a child, they gain Delight points. You may spend a point of Delight at any time for one of the following benefits-
- Reroll
- Add 2 to your roll
- Inflict a small hinderance on another character (such as declaring there’s a stool in the path of a human who is walking toward you that they stumble over
When Yule Lads do their jobs wrong, they earn the Ire of Gryla. Gryla is always watching her children (or siblings, if you decide to go with that lore), and will bring her wrath down on Yule Lads who do not do their jobs or are caught by humans. The GM may spend a point of Gryla’s Ire for the following-
- Impose a -2 on a Yule Lad’s roll
- Reroll an NPC’s action
- Inflict a small hinderance on a Yule Lad (such as a human who cannot sleep who comes out to the cooking fire for some tea while the Yule Lad is trying to steal something)
