They possess many magical talents, but their gifts always have a price.

As spirits of drowned women, the rusałka remember only fragments of the life they once lived.

What memories will the pleas of mortals bring back to the surface? What fate awaits them all?

Rusałka is a tragic fairy tale roleplaying game about wishes gone wrong. Each player picks a deck of cards to become one of the rusałka, with its enthralling artwork as well as prompts that will summon her memories and unleash her magical talents. You will also take turns portraying the mortals who are desperate enough to seek out the secret pool and request help from the water spirits. Will it be a lost, injured vagabond, or a witch seeking a new thrall? What memories of the rusałka's old lives will the mortals' wishes bring to light?

This small gem of unconventional ttrpg design was first cut by tireless US-based author Nick Wedig in 2019. It has now been set in an all-new edition by NessunDove, the Italian rpg lab(yrinth) behind Crescendo Giocoso Ritornello, the winner of the 2021 Indie Groundbreaker Award for Game of the Year. Our previous work includes updated editions of The Magus and Our Queen Crumbles.

The new edition of Rusałka is based on NessunDove's work for the Italian edition It includes:

—Jason Morningstar, Bully Pulpit Games

"Nick Wedig’s melancholy card-based storytelling game is one of my favorites for pickup play at conventions. [...] It’s an elegantly designed horror game."
—Tasha Robinson, Dicebreaker

Nick's design for Rusałka brings together disparate elements into an organic whole.

At the heart of it is emergent storytelling. Rusałka will have you and your fellow players improvising to piece together the past of the Rusałka, and to discover the fate of the mortals desperate enough to bring their wish to the secret pool.

But this is also a card game, easy to pick up without pouring over a whole book. Each player has a hand of cards. Most are spells the Rusałka can weave, but one is made up of prompts for Mortals: by passing it around the table, you rotate who will step out of their role as a water spirit to voice a human supplicant's desires. All so the others may grant it. Or twist it beyond recognition.

Add a dash of mapmaking, with a turn-based structure dictating the passage of time so that the secret pool itself becomes a protagonist in your story. You begin by sketching out its edges and describing what threats and hidden treasures lie beneath its waters, what offerings mortals have left on the shores and what stories people whisper about its inhabitants. Then you watch it change as the story evolves, for the Rusałka's tragic after-lives may span a few days or countless years.

Holding together these many souls are simple but focused rules. Each Mortal card implies a story, one made of hopes and ambitions: what does the petitioner desire? How do they beseech the spirits of the dead? The Rusałka's cards hold possible Answers to the Mortal's wish, from acquiescence and understanding to spiteful rejection, or even unexpected gifts that may change their life forever. But before that, they hold prompts for Recollections: the wish brings long-lost memories to the surface, and what transpired in the past dictates the Rusałka's present reaction. There are no dice rolls or ability check: the entire game is woven out of broken lives and unfinished business, and the tapestry grows more intricate with each card, casting deeper shadows over the waters of the secret pool.

Rusałka is a roleplaying game of its own kind, simple and elusive, dark and charged with magic. It's a story you can tell alone, or with up to 6 players. The only thing you need is the bravery to glance at your reflection in its haunted depths.

One of our main challenges was finding a visual identity that would not betray Rusałka's roots, and we could not ask for a better partner in this than Letty Wilson. Not just because of the talent that won her multiple awards, nor for the extraordinary work she's done on games such as Wanderhome, Dolmenwood or Carved in Stone. But because her interest in depicting the monstrous and the biological gave her the perfect set of tools to depict 8 diverse Rusałka, each uniquely alluring and eerie.

Working from Nick's original themes and prompts, Letty did with pencils what players do with words: create memorable, haunting characters. All while staying true to the dark, fairytale mood of Rusałka. And showing off the visceral aspects of folklore. And avoiding the dreaded "Little Mermaid effect"...

As we loved her Rusałka to despair, we want to offer the chance for you to get a fine art print of your favorite spirit of the damned (or collect all eight, to avoid the wrath of those you scorn). We have a trusted printer in Italy for this sort of high-quality work, and the pieces come to you in A5 size, ready to be framed.

If you'd rather wear the mark of the Rusalka, on the other hand, Maria Guarneri (the graphic soul of NessunDove) has prepared an enamel pin to represent your offering. But why choose, when you can have all the treasures waiting in the secret pool?

Our plan is to deliver the game by December 2026-- in time for Christmas, for those who fill in the survey in a timely fashion. The Italian edition is already public, we've received English advance copies from the printer and are all set to get the rest out to you.

For worldwide deliveries, with the exception of the USA, NessunDove will handle shipping through the Italian postal service. We use untracked international mail to keep costs affordable, which means the delivery estimate will range from 8 to 25 business days depending on where you are in the world. For the United States, the good folks of Indie Press Revolution will handle fulfillment.

If you're a retailer or distributor, no matter where you are in the world, we're happy to get in touch: we've created a pledge for the campaign that will get you 5 copies at a wholesale price. If you'd like a different quantity, we are happy to get in touch.

Nick Wedig lives in Pittsburgh, drinks copious amounts of tea. He spends most of his time thinking about and making unconventional little tabletop roleplaying games and live action roleplaying games. Every time he has a new idea for a game, he writes it up and puts it up on his Itch page for everyone to see.

Oscar Biffi (editor), Maria Guarneri (art director) and Chiara Locatelli (translator) are the people behind NessunDove, an Italian game design and localization lab(yrinth). Aside from producing our own games, we like to put our skills in service of authors from all over the world with bespoke editions of games like The Magus & The Oracle and Our Queen Crumbles, as well as original titles like Barbabianca and The Roots of Soledad.

Letty Wilson aka Toadlett is a comics artist, writer and illustrator originally from the Highlands of Scotland, now living in Glasgow. She's interested in depicting the monstrous and the biological, and how we use cycles of nature and animal imagery to talk about ourselves. Her work has won both national and international awards, such as the 2022 silver ENnie for best interior art on acclaimed ttrpg Wanderhome.