terraleon
Explorer
With gorgeous cover art by Aaron Miller and 114 pages of frosty goodness, The Northlands is Open Design's response to a fan call for a Sunken Empires sequel. Written by Dan Voyce (Tales of Zobeck, Halls of the Mountain King, Tales of the Old Margreve) and the project patrons, this is a book for slinging dice in the bleak frozen wastes. The focus is heavily Viking, with aspects of Clark Ashton Smith's Hyperborea and good dose of Norse Jotunheim. The art reflects the grim mood, with lots line art drawing on the woodcut themes of the Viking age, but Rick Hershey's monster illustrations are as richly detailed as any greedy dwarven treasure vault and Jonathan Roberts' maps are a pair of bright gems in an otherwise black and white book.
This is everything you need to run a game in the icy tundra and the map for good measure—if you don't mind borrowing Midgard's. Traditional Viking concepts of honor, feasting, government, storytelling, drinking games of chance and even wergild, or blood-price, are all discussed. This last one is great because it offers a way to pursue vendettas or demand revenge without necessarily resorting to further bloodshed. There are excuses, I mean story-seeds, for launching raids, and a full pantheon of grim deities certain to ignore the infrequent prayers of your reavers—detailed with domains, chosen weapons, and a very useful section on "What (Deity) Demands," which is a great way for keeping in the mood. And that's just Chapter One.
Chapter Two details the setting of Midgard, reviewing the geography, the factions and racial relations, a bit of history, and the notable locations. There are quite a few of these, each offered up with a suggested story seed. The area here is big, and the details are enough to inspire adventures without constraining a GM to the locations. This section left me thirsting for more. After fifteen pages covering the region, I wanted in-depth and focused treatments of places like "the Bleak Expanse," or "Amaroth, the Sleeping Kingdom," and I call that a good thing.
Chapter Three is for the players, giving fantastic race options for some human tribes, Hyperboreans, reaver Dwarves, and Trollkin. These last three come with traits for specializing the characters a little further, with names invoking the region's reputation like "Fey Vendetta," "Fireheart," or "Rune Mastery." Classes get an environmental spin, as well, with alternate variants for nine of the core and expanded options from the APG. Bards get a lot of love here, and sorcerers get two new bloodlines—giant and hyperborean (which I particularly liked). While Northlands also has the usual bevy of combat feats, it offers up an interesting option of "Acclaim Feats," based on a character's renown in the community. The "Huginn's Horde" feat is particularly cool for casters, giving them a murder of crows. The options for alternate barter/currency are great, too, because you can see adventurers and players really getting into the setting when their hordes include picture shields, bundles of otterskins, and a pair of adamantine torcs forged by reaver dwarves, not to mention just a few of the wondrous items or spells. This is a setting with personality, and it's as bright and entertaining as the Northern Lights.
The text is just as dense as its Sunken cousin, with chase options, hazards, hero point variants, environmental rules and haunts. The bestiary is loaded with foes—while there are valkyries to collect the slain, there are jotuns and nightgarms, really a whole host of bad guys you can throw at your players for any level. Northlands continues the tradition set by Sunken Empires and Tales of the Old Margreve; this book is going to leave you itching to use the material, no matter what campaign world you use. There's something on nearly every page that inspires a story or suggests an adventure. You're going to hope your characters have got plenty of thread left on the skein of the Norns once you dig into this, because there's just too much glorious fun to be had. Definitely worth the gold rings to pick up, I give it 5 stars!
This is everything you need to run a game in the icy tundra and the map for good measure—if you don't mind borrowing Midgard's. Traditional Viking concepts of honor, feasting, government, storytelling, drinking games of chance and even wergild, or blood-price, are all discussed. This last one is great because it offers a way to pursue vendettas or demand revenge without necessarily resorting to further bloodshed. There are excuses, I mean story-seeds, for launching raids, and a full pantheon of grim deities certain to ignore the infrequent prayers of your reavers—detailed with domains, chosen weapons, and a very useful section on "What (Deity) Demands," which is a great way for keeping in the mood. And that's just Chapter One.
Chapter Two details the setting of Midgard, reviewing the geography, the factions and racial relations, a bit of history, and the notable locations. There are quite a few of these, each offered up with a suggested story seed. The area here is big, and the details are enough to inspire adventures without constraining a GM to the locations. This section left me thirsting for more. After fifteen pages covering the region, I wanted in-depth and focused treatments of places like "the Bleak Expanse," or "Amaroth, the Sleeping Kingdom," and I call that a good thing.
Chapter Three is for the players, giving fantastic race options for some human tribes, Hyperboreans, reaver Dwarves, and Trollkin. These last three come with traits for specializing the characters a little further, with names invoking the region's reputation like "Fey Vendetta," "Fireheart," or "Rune Mastery." Classes get an environmental spin, as well, with alternate variants for nine of the core and expanded options from the APG. Bards get a lot of love here, and sorcerers get two new bloodlines—giant and hyperborean (which I particularly liked). While Northlands also has the usual bevy of combat feats, it offers up an interesting option of "Acclaim Feats," based on a character's renown in the community. The "Huginn's Horde" feat is particularly cool for casters, giving them a murder of crows. The options for alternate barter/currency are great, too, because you can see adventurers and players really getting into the setting when their hordes include picture shields, bundles of otterskins, and a pair of adamantine torcs forged by reaver dwarves, not to mention just a few of the wondrous items or spells. This is a setting with personality, and it's as bright and entertaining as the Northern Lights.
The text is just as dense as its Sunken cousin, with chase options, hazards, hero point variants, environmental rules and haunts. The bestiary is loaded with foes—while there are valkyries to collect the slain, there are jotuns and nightgarms, really a whole host of bad guys you can throw at your players for any level. Northlands continues the tradition set by Sunken Empires and Tales of the Old Margreve; this book is going to leave you itching to use the material, no matter what campaign world you use. There's something on nearly every page that inspires a story or suggests an adventure. You're going to hope your characters have got plenty of thread left on the skein of the Norns once you dig into this, because there's just too much glorious fun to be had. Definitely worth the gold rings to pick up, I give it 5 stars!
