Vaesen Heads to Stockholm With “City of My Nightmares” Campaign

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Free League Publishing is about to venture into the dark depths of 19th century Stockholm via City of My Nightmares, a brand-new, full-length campaign for the Vaesen horror RPG. The book, which was originally funded as part of a 2024 Kickstarter, involves players investigating a series of brutal murders in the Swedish capital only to encounter strange supernatural forces that are part of a larger conspiracy.

The campaign will be coming out in early April, but you can pre-order the physical book now from Free League and the PDF from DriveThruRPG. Below, we take a closer look what to expect in this return to the Mythic North.

What is the Vaesen RPG?

Vaesen: Nordic Horror Roleplaying is a tabletop RPG from Free League Publishing set in a dark version of 19th-century Scandinavia, where supernatural creatures inspired by real-world Nordic folklore lurk in lonely forests, remote villages and snow capped mountains.

Players take on the role of “Investigators,” who primarily serve a secret organization known as “The Society” which is headquartered in Uppsala, Sweden and dedicated to researching and protecting humans from vaesen (the Swedish work for “creature” or “entity”). Rather than focusing on dungeon crawls or tactical combat, however, the game is built around unraveling supernatural Mysteries (the game’s name for adventures). In many cases, the goal is not simply to kill a monster, but to understand it, survive it and find a way to put things right. Most Mysteries also lean heavily into the conflict between the old natural world and the new technological world of the late 1800s.

Mechanically, Vaesen uses Free League’s Year Zero Engine, making it a fairly rules-light game that emphasizes storytelling, social interactions and investigation. Characters are defined by attributes, skills and talents, with players drawing on a pool of six-sided dice to handle combat and skill checks. A 6 indicates a success and the number of dice a player can roll is based based on their skill and attribute levels. Characters can also tap into unique push mechanics, allowing for re-rolls at the expense of stress or damage that can have negative consequences during play.

The game has often been compared to Chaosium’s popular Call of Cthulhu, but while that RPG leans more into cosmic horror and facing down terrifying god-like entities, the monsters in Vaesen are taken from folk horror and are much more tragic and connected to humanity. In Call of Cthulhu your character is likely to die of insanity at the sight of an eldritch creature. In Vaesen, you’re more likely to negotiate and find common group with the terrifying entities you encounter.

Notably, Vaesen was originally released in 2020 and is based on the artwork and creature designs of Swedish illustrator Johan Egerkrans. Since then, it’s spawned a number of supplements and has won multiple ENNIE Awards. A revised second edition of the game was also launched in late 2025, which remains compatible with the first edition, while featuring a number of rules updates.

What is “Vaesen: City of My Nightmares” about?

City of My Nightmares is 120-page campaign book for Vaesen second edition written by husband and wife design team Tomas and Kiku Pukk Härenstam (notably Tomas co-founded Free League and is the creator of the Year Zero Engine). The first chapter of City of My Nightmares was originally released as a bonus to backers of the Mythic Britain & Ireland Kickstarter in 2022, with the team deciding to expand it into a full-length campaign. It was then added as part of a successful Kickstarter from 2024 that also included the supplement Mythic Carpathia.

City of My Nightmares consists of four interconnected Mysteries taking place in late 19th century Stockholm. It’s a period of political and social turmoil due to the industrial revolution driving a large number of rural inhabitants into the city. The gleaming metropolitan lights have also attracted a number of vaesen and players soon find themselves investigating a series of grizzly murders while also being pulled into a wider conspiracy involving the Society.

While the campaign is focused largely on Stockholm (including key locations such as the opera house and a sprawling library), it can be adapted to other European cities of the era, such as Prague or London. As with other Vaesen books, it also includes a variety of maps, NPCs, stat blocks and original art, including work from Johan Egerkrans.

How much is “Vaesen: City of My Nightmares”?

The hardcover copy of the book retails for $45 USD (not including shipping and handling). Notably, if you pre-order directly from the Free League website you also immediately receive a PDF copy via DriveThruRPG (although the price of a standalone PDF has not yet been confirmed).

When will “Vaesen: City of My Nightmares” be released?

The physical release date for City of My Nightmares is April 7th, 2026, at which point it should be available at most local game stores and on DriveThruRPG.

Why we’re excited about “Vaesen: City of My Nightmares”?

• Urban folk horror: The majority of previous Vaesen mysteries have been set in remote, rural areas, with vaesen pushing back against the forces of modernity. This new campaign flips the script, with supernatural beings instead being drawn from the countryside into the growing city.
• Deep Society lore: The campaign promises to further explore the origins of the Society, fleshing out some of the narrative threads that have been established in other supplements.
• Creepy as hell art: Let’s face it, a big draw of Vaesen is the incredible illustrations. City of My Nightmares looks to continue this trend, with more stunning artwork from Johan Egerkrans.
• A complete campaign: We haven’t had too many complete campaigns for Vaesen, so this supplement offers a great way to go beyond standalone Mysteries and one shots. It’s also great to see Free Leeague confirm that the content is flexible enough to be run in other locations, offering even more utility.

Final thoughts

Taking Vaesen into a new urban environment feels like a major next step for the game, and something we haven’t really seen before. For longtime fans, it also sounds like the book will explore even more of the game’s lore, particularly in terms of the history of the Society.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on this book in the days ahead and will offer a complete review closer to launch. In the meantime, you can pre-order the book now from your local game store, Free League and DriveThruRPG.