Doom of Odin is a sourcebook expansion and adventure for the Norse Mythology setting of Avalanche Press' Ragnarok! Tales of the Norse Gods.
The setting is designed for primarily playing lesser unknown warrior servitor gods of Norse Mythology, such as the Warriors Three from Marvel Comics' The Mighty Thor.
The sourcebook section adds expanded information for playing Norse gods as well as adding a playable Valkyrie racial entry as well as a berserker prestige class and an NPC dwarven artificer prc. Vanir and Aesir gods are done out as full PC races with ability modifiers instead of the limited ability ranges presented in Ragnarok. Their limited immortality until the foretold war of the gods is changed so that they merely do not die when they reach -10 hit points but must heal where they fall instead of waking up in their planar homes. The only information not provided is details on divinity points, the patron god and corresponding class limitation system, and complete information on Norse divine runes, although the specific runes and rune effects are reprinted from Ragnarok! Information is provided for both lesser and greater gods with corresponding +5 and +6 level adjustments. Valkyries add a +3 level adjustment.
Valkyries, Odin's warrior women servants who guide dead heroes to Valhalla, do not hold the limited immortality of the gods and have lesser DR, ability score bonuses, SR, and Norse divine rune use, but they do gain the ability to charm person three times a day and offer a mortal warrior a divine martial death rage that kills them when it ends but ensures them a place among the honored dead of Valhalla.
The berserker class is easy to qualify for (only requires +5 BAB) and gives appropriate rage and intimidation powers. The artificer is adapted from the Twilight of Atlantis setting sourcebook with Norse dwarven cursing powers replacing some of the bonus craft feats. The class does a good job of supporting the Norse view of dwarves as bitter magical craftsmen who can lay potent curses.
The sourcebook section also provides information on two of the settings' nine worlds: Jotunheim, home of the frost giants, and Nidavellir, home of the dwarves. In addition it provides some more guidelines for the Ragnarok setting in general, suggesting the DM restrict the number of monster humanoids in the game world to two and the number of types of dragons to two as well, one good and one evil one, (the good one turning neutral in the Norse worlds). Ogres are used but renamed trolls for the setting, the standard regenerating D&D ones are not present though. Two new types of elementals are introduced, ice and magma, the first is simply a water elemental gaining the Cold ability of a frost worm, and magma elementals combine the powers of a fire and earth elemental.
In Jotunheim everything is bigger, from the mountains and giant homes, to the animals with gargantuan dire owls and eagles plying the skies and similarly huge flora and fauna everywhere. The bitter cold weather of Jotunheim is a major component of the world and there are plenty of tables of nasty random weather to match the tables of typical oversized predators that are presented. There is also a discussion of the frost giant culture and attitude (usually malicious and hostile to men, gods, and each other). A few plot hooks present some options for using Jotunheim in a campaign.
Nidavellir is an interesting place, the entire world is one giant mountain that can only be entered from an entrance on the outside. Smoke from forges inside escape through vents to make the sky a polluted and perpetually overcast sight. Inside the mountain is riddled with magical gates that operate based on multiple arcane conditions. Each dwarf has their own little place and most have figured out special conditions for navigating the archway gates and have left coded riddles that make sense only to themselves at many archways as guides for navigating through the gates. Dwarves (mostly high level expert craftsmen, wizards, and artificers) and underground creatures make up the denizens of this essentially giant dungeon. Being a high magic underground realm in a low magic world, Nidavellir is a good place to fit in a couple of dungeon crawl adventures into the setting.
Dwarven culture and attitudes are explored with their essentially loner lifestyle and high opinion of their own abilities. They are not friendly but flattery about their craftsmanship can play on their ego and gain entry to bargaining for magical information or wares despite the bitter introverted manners of most dwarves. Again a few plot hooks are presented for using Nidavellir.
The last half of the book is taken up with the adventure, which sends a group of 7th to 9th level gods throughout the worlds of giants, dwarves, and men with plenty of options for different styles of attacking the quest problems. There is a lot of negotiating, combat, roleplay opportunities, politics, and problem solving. There are riddles and conundrums but they are presented well, solving them makes things easier, but does not shut down the adventure if the PCs are stumped. Challenge ratings are assigned for both combat situations and challenging roleplay and problem solving situations. Intelligence checks and DCs for a new solve riddle skill are presented, but the adventure will work fine without such cheap outs, the PCs will just need to do a bit more work or soak up some trap damage if they cannot figure things out on their own. All monsters and NPCs are given full stat blocks, most taking up half a page. While this takes up a lot of space, it means the adventure can be run without the monster manual.
Mostly the adventure is designed for the tough warrior gods without lots of magic that are presumed by the setting. A few of the challenges will be easy to bypass by a high level, typical magic party with plenty of utility and protection magics, and will need some adjusting if they are to retain their challenge.
So Doom of Odin does its job well as a supplement for the Ragnarok mini-campaign setting book, presenting more information for playing the gods, expanded information on the worlds of the setting, and presenting a quality adventure that matches the themes and utilizes the good points of the setting.
