Quote from: Mishihari on April 13, 2022, 06:49:09 PM
Y'all go me curious.  What should be in a viking RPG that isn't going to already be in the more general games?

Obviously, it differs for different campaigns. What I looked for was:

(1) Handling overlapping roles. I expect most PCs will all be fighters to some degree.
(2) Detailed combat that works well for axe and shield or similar styles, with a gritty feel to it.
(3) A way to handle mass combat, so that raids with a ship full of warriors can be a part of the game.
(4) Magic and/or miracles that are appropriate to the sagas.
(5) A monetary system that can handle varied status and loot rather than standardized coinage.

For my viking game, I ended up homebrewing most of that - using RuneQuest for #1 and #2, mostly.

I did mine HR1 Vikings (AD&D2) for ideas, but most of the magic system was homebrew.

Quote from: aztecman on April 13, 2022, 04:36:57 PM
@Thondor -

Concerning Fate of the Norns, we had considered this, but it seems confusing as a system. How well does it play? Does each player need to have a set of the runes (could be expensive) or can you just get one set and the group can use them together?

Takes a bit to wrap your head around things, but it plays very smoothly. The play mat helps. (Easily printable from any of the book's PDF.) There's a fair bit of depth to the engine, so I haven't really explored it fully.
As for needing the runes; I just checked Fafnir's Treasure and some of the 5 example characters/pregens do have overlapping runes, but some don't - GM would need their own set too. However, every game book does have printable runes that you could print on cardstock for the first few games until folks want to buy their own wood or even metal runes.
(Metal runes are only available in Odin's Path which has an extra game in it too - I just got this in and it isn't actually listed yet.)

Quote from: Trond on April 13, 2022, 08:08:59 PM

Quote from: Mishihari on April 13, 2022, 06:49:09 PM
Y'all go me curious.  What should be in a viking RPG that isn't going to already be in the more general games?

Most of these are just a system, with viking info thrown in and made to fit. Having said that, a specialized rules set including oaths, blood feuds, and maybe some inbaked mythology could be cool. Maybe it's out there?

Yep, Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok and it's family of games are heavily rooted in the mythology and use drawing actual runes out of a bag for task resolution. I'd say it's very baked in.

Children of Eiru is the latest game and focuses less on Viking and more on celtic and irish mythology.

VIKINGS & VALKYRIES
http://mazesandminotaurs.free.fr/VIK.pdf

It's a FREE game based on Mazes & Minotaurs.
It's an OSR-ish system

It plays very well if you want a minimal system with 12 unique classes that are very flavorful for the players to get into their roles quickly. As its mostly OSR from the player side, your players already know 90% of the system.

Did I mention it's FREE?

Plenty of good ideas here (now i'm curious about the Viking supplement for GURPS)

But i've been trying to go down the HarnWorld - Ivinia road to get my norse-themed fix.

Quote from: aztecman on April 12, 2022, 02:37:30 AM
Can anyone recommend a good Norse themed RPG?

A lot of people here say that Mongoose Publishing's Shield Maidens is good. RPG NET loves it.

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll on April 15, 2022, 09:57:01 AM

Quote from: aztecman on April 12, 2022, 02:37:30 AM
Can anyone recommend a good Norse themed RPG?

A lot of people here say that Mongoose Publishing's Shield Maidens is good. RPG NET loves it.

Haw haw haw... 

I have an onrunning campaign set in the 11th century. Some of the players are Norwegians. The Pendragon rules were pretty easy to adapt and it has been a blast. Indeed there is actually a Beowulf/Land of Giants supplement that I was able to adapt.

It also has the advantage that you can easily introduce Saxons, Normans, Welsh etc

That said it does lean towards a more mythical/300 vibe and so probably depends on how grounded you want your game to be. Not to mention it is very lethal. We've had three player deaths and two very near misses over ten or twelve sessions 3 hour sessions.

Did anyone mention Wyrd Sails?

Basically, Vikings vs Lovecraftian monsters based on the BoL engine. Needless to say, your characters are tough hombres.

Weird!

No one has mentioned the obvious choice of Mythras. Pick up the Legends Viking book or Mythic Iceland and you are set.

Quote from: Leon_ap_Hywel on April 16, 2022, 09:48:04 AM
Weird!

No one has mentioned the obvious choice of Mythras. Pick up the Legends Viking book or Mythic Iceland and you are set.

Well, Mythras is a version of Runequest, (they did Runequest 6e, and when they lost the license continued publishing as Mythras), so people have talked about it in that regard. Glad you pointed out these specific supplements. I imagine they'd be handy resources for anyone using BRP /d% games?

Plus The Design Mechanism folks are good peeps. I got a preview of their upcoming supers game "Destined" earlier this month

I always like to think of a comparison between RQ and Mythras like comparing the painting of a pre-schooler to the works of Michaelangelo.

You can enjoy both but one is definitely better than the other 

I'm hoping TDM return to our Viking friends in a Mythic book in the future.

Yggdrasil
Castles and Crusade Codex Norsica

I'm always exited about Mythras but then look at the monster blocks and combat and it looks too crunchy for ME to manage. I know you can use Mythras Imperative but as soon as you add stuff to that you end up with Mythras. Also managing monster block hit locations is too much for me.

As far as Mythras goes, I won't give money to communists.

Shield Maidens