Creating a full viking world, need an outside oppinion

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Here's a note for consideration.

A "viking world" has a significant problem, in that the culture you're talking about (late-Norse) had as one of its centerpieces the act of going on expeditions. The name, "Viking", comes from the word víking, or expedition.

If your vikings don't have other people to go out and raid, they aren't vikings. And entire world of people who go out and making pirate raids on each other doesn't seem particularly sustainable. Your Vikings need, in some sense, the equivalent of a relatively wealthy mainland Europe to plunder.

Now, you can step back a bit to have your Vikings be somewhat earlier Norse, but those folks were a bit less battle-oriented.

That was what immediately leapt to my mind. A planet with a single unified culture is pretty weird, and gets into Futurama "Cowboy world" territory quickly.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PlanetOfHats

Why not just run it in a fantasy earth? You have your mythology and culture already laid out. The maps are already done. Watch an episode of Vikings and you got a horde of NPC's.

I'd also agree with Tony Vargas that 4E really is the best D&D to run this type of game in, with the epic feats capable by martial heroes and playing to narrative tropes. 5E has a massive amount of baked in magic, and gutting it out might be more effort than its worth.

 

[ErikTheRed]

First of all, thanks for all the answers, guys. I'll try to adress everything you said. I think I have a much better formed Idea of what I want now.

1) I'll stick to D&D. The system draws heavilly on Tolkien, who in turn draws heavilly from norse mythology.

2) I see most people liked the first option! that's nice because I am much more confortable with it. I think that's the path I will follow. I had already on my mind to use the low level monster stats to build my trolls, but it is very good to see some getting to the same conclusion.

3) The problem of the raids is a real one. My world is a fantasy form of scandinavia, and thus it is surrounded by other lands, such as russian plains, an empire of franks and a rich island where they could find arthurian kings, knights and monsters. Also, it is not a "complete" world. It is full of unknown regions where your vikings can find pretty much everything, including mages.

4) Yes! my bards are called Skalds an my Druids are called Gothi. But they are essentially the same as in PH. I am adding rules to allow the druid to sacrifice his shapeshifting abilities and instead chose to cast healing and domain spells. I will have to test this of course, but i think it is pretty balanced. The magic ingredients disapear, and a rune kit will be the magic focus for casters. That said, I am convinced now that I did the right thing getting rid of mages but keeping druids. I don't think having casters is a problem. People in the Sagas know some spells. I have don't even have a problem with Call Lighting. What I feel would be bad for the setting is a Fireball, a Magic Missile and Chain Lightning.

5) I liked the "trollborn" idea. It would make the half-orc a better character, even if it means a more human-like being. Tey could be the result of seduction by a Huldra. Also, I think my giant leaders will have illusion spells. The Dwarves and elves will have a diferent solution, though. They have "colonies" in midgard. Elfs in the woods, dwarves underground. The ones who are born in midgard are normal PC characters, but their living ancestors, with long lifespans, are outsiders and can be banished. This would make these races live apart from each other, for fear that their ancestors being killed or banished, thus ending their civilizations.

I have a much clearer Idea of what I want to do now.

 

[fuindordm]

Sounds like a really fun game. Good luck!

A thought about the gothi: norse stories involving magic were more about learning magic than having it innately; therefore the wizard method of learning and preparing spells might be a better fit. There were a lot of secret codes going on too, such as the "tree runes" that signified a letter in the futhark by referencing its number. So it could be fun to have the gothi protecting their trade secrets (spells) from each other, and researching new spells, and so on. Linguisitics would be a good class skill for them to read each other's coded spells and messages.

In fact, the more I think about it the more I'm inclined to just create a single spell list for skalds and gothi by cherry-picking spells from all the PH classes. Then gothi are the versatile casters, skalds are nearly as powerful but more limited in spell knowledge, and anyone else has to dabble through feats or half-classes.

 

[Lazorne]

Hello OP!

If you want a world that is already done check out the Swedish Rollplaying game:
Drakar och Demoner - Trudvang

The world of Trudvang is based on Scandinavian mythology. Even if you want to create your own world, be inspired by it

https://i.warosu.org/data/tg/img/0307/52/1394495708094.jpg
https://i.warosu.org/data/tg/img/0307/52/1394495461307.jpg

 

[Psychman]

I appreciate this is the D&D 5th Edition forum, but have you seen this? http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/103948/Yggdrasill-Core-Rulebook

Their sales pitch is:
"Yggdrasill is a game of exciting adventure in a detailed and fascinating setting from the team behind Qin: The Warring States RPG. Become a hero in the Scandia of
legend – intrigue, combat, quests, magic and mythic creatures await...!

As heroes in search of adventure, glory and immortality, you will take part in great battles which will lead you from the snowy plains of Jutland to the halls of kings. Perhaps your characters will become heroes recognised by Odin the Formidable himself in his feasting-hall in Valhalla, as he awaits the time of Ragnarök, the final
battle against the giants and their kin, which marks the end of the time of legends and of the Gods themselves.

Mercenary or hirdmen, berserkr or noble, prophetess or sorcerer, Fate will guide you through frozen fjords, deep seas, and monster-haunted forests. Skalds will sing of your exploits for centuries to come!

Men of the North!

The legend starts here!"