It's been a while - like twenty years - since I read the saga, but didn't Freydis Eriksdottir - Lief's sister - lead an expedition to Vinland? I remember her baring her breast and slapping it with a sword, which scared off one bunch of skraelings. She also killed her partners and the 25 or so men who came with them, and took their stuff too, IIRC. That was one seriously scary woman.  

-mice

Quote from: BalbinusInterestingly, last night this actually came up.  We had a new player join without warning and she asked to play a female character in our vikings game.  I said yes, as there hadn't really been much opportunity to discuss it in advance (I didn't know she was coming until shortly before the game) and I didn't want to veto a potential new player's fun, but it does now leave me with a deeply ahistorical character.

Given more time, I would simply have chosen another setting.  In this one, I shall throw in some references to her unusual status but I don't plan to dwell on the point as I get the impression doing so would cause more damage than the anachronism.

Hm.  I ran a long alternate-history vikings game which had several women PCs, the Vinland Campaign.  You can browse the campaign information there, which lists the PCs and has session summaries.  

As clash noted, there are a number of strong women characters in the sagas: the Vinland sagas (Freydis and Gudrid) and the Laxdaela saga in particular.  Under Icelandic law of the sagas, women can own property and divorce their husbands.  They have no direct voice within politics, they need men to represent them at the Allthing -- though that usually isn't central.  It is frowned upon but not illegal for anyone to cross-dress.  It is considered grounds for divorce.  In the Laxdaela saga, a wife plotted to divorce her husband by getting him to wear a low-cut (i.e. low neckline) shirt.  However, women in the sagas engaged in violence without undue censure (i.e. any more than men doing the same).  

It was not uncommon for women like Freydis to join with the men for particular acts of violence.  However, it would be unusual for one to continuously go with them -- at least, there are no examples in the sagas.  I had one PC who did so at first by cross-dressing.  Thorgerd's parents and younger brother had died in exile, and she returned disguised as her brother Thorfinn to righteously avenge her parents and restore their name.  She stayed in disguise for over a year, and had already established herself as a respected soldier when her secret came out.  

Thorgerd was still respected since her motives had been unimpeachable.  She married a warrior whom she fought with, but continued to go out with the men to battle.  (The pattern is not ahistorical, I would say.  For example, Nadezhda Durova joined the military as a man but having made a name for herself retained her position as a woman.  

When I started the campaign, my suggestion had been that female PCs should probably be either married (to an agreeable man) or widowed since that gave them the most freedom.  However, in practice all the female characters started unmarried but instead had other reasons for freedom.

Thanks John,

the difficulty was really simply that the lack of warning (which I understand was unavoidable) meant no time to discuss in advance, hence no time to come up with a decent concept.  If she is back next week (one never knows with new players) I might chat to her about it and suggest some of these ideas.

Quote from: BalbinusThanks John,

the difficulty was really simply that the lack of warning (which I understand was unavoidable) meant no time to discuss in advance, hence no time to come up with a decent concept.  If she is back next week (one never knows with new players) I might chat to her about it and suggest some of these ideas.

Well, on the lack of warning -- I think it's a good idea at the start of a campaign to put a little thought into how to integrate PCs including female ones. Then again, I suppose it's natural for me to consider because my current main gaming group is mostly female (four women, two men).  Was your gaming group all male prior to the new female player?  

If her PC has already been established as a warrior alongside the others, you might add in a backstory like Thorgerd's as a cross-dressing warrior who already made a name for herself.  The backstory could possibly include a now-dead past husband, too, if she'd go for that.  As a widow, she'd be more independent of her parents, and would have less pressure to marry.  (Then again, I'm not sure how much you're sticking with the Icelandic clan traditions.  Are the unmarried male PCs being married off?  If not, then perhaps better to ignore marital status for the female PC as well.)

Quote from: jhkimWell, on the lack of warning -- I think it's a good idea at the start of a campaign to put a little thought into how to integrate PCs including female ones. Then again, I suppose it's natural for me to consider because my current main gaming group is mostly female (four women, two men).  Was your gaming group all male prior to the new female player?  

If her PC has already been established as a warrior alongside the others, you might add in a backstory like Thorgerd's as a cross-dressing warrior who already made a name for herself.  The backstory could possibly include a now-dead past husband, too, if she'd go for that.  As a widow, she'd be more independent of her parents, and would have less pressure to marry.  (Then again, I'm not sure how much you're sticking with the Icelandic clan traditions.  Are the unmarried male PCs being married off?  If not, then perhaps better to ignore marital status for the female PC as well.)

The group was all male, though we've had female players before so your advice is good I think all the same.

Unmarried male PCs will be married off, a widow is not a bad idea.  Thanks for the help.