Good norse campaign setting? Old or New?

[kengar]

GAZ7: The Northern Reaches. You can get the pdf download at RPGNOW.com

 

[Mystaros]

GAZ7: The Northern Reaches. You can get the pdf download at RPGNOW.com

One of the best all-around Norse campaign supplements you are going to find. The 2E Historic resource is probably, well, more historical, but GAZ7 totally captures the flavor of the Norse cultures, and gives you a variety to choose from.

Ostland is a traditional Norse kingdom, with thralls, and vikings, and plots, and godar all vying for power and control. It's set on some misty islands in the middle of a cold sea, with access to just about anywhere else in the Known World for raid, pillage, and plunder...

Vestland is a more advanced, open, merchantile Norse country. It is on the mainland, bordering Rockhome (the kingdom of the dwarves), Ethengar (the steppes of the "Mongol" peoples of the Known World), and Soderfjord (the third major Norse realm). There is actually a very primitive school of arcane magic. Most of the northern region is dominated by trolls, most of the mountains by dark sorcerous dwarves or giants, and dark elves live in the earthn (not drow, mind you, dark elves...) I think of Vestland as rather like the Skarpsey land of Elizabeth Boyer's Norse-style novels.

Then there are the Soderfjord Jarldoms, which are a united realm on paper only. This realm is kind of like the Danelaw of England minus a king, with savage jarls ruling over their tiny domains, clan wars everywhere, and in between, giants, gnolls, trolls, and other monsters causing trouble. When they aren't fighting each other the Soderfjord folk take to Viking like the Ostlanders.

The Gazetteer has a complete history, geography cultural notes, runes, and tons of additional rules for use with BECMD&D, though some of it can be ported over to ver3.5 D&D.

Oh, and if you like further Norse options, the *really* barbaric types are the three tribes of Norwold, who are more like the Aesir, Vanir, and Hyperboreans of Howard's Hyborian age... no detail on these tribes is presented in the GAZ though. Same goes for the Icelandic peoples of Heldann, who are dominated by the Heldannic Knights, a militant order along the lines of the Teutonic Knights of history. That Gazetteer never got published, though much of Bruce Heard's work on it can be found in the Vaults of Pandius, the official Mystara Web site.

Hmmm... and then there are the Norse colonies on the Isle of dawn, which are essentially undeveloped and open territories to do with as you please. The only detailed map of those, however, can only be found on the Known World Trail Maps (Eastern Countries), and there is no real country detail to speak of.

Other than that, I'd say the next best would be Ivinia from Harnworld. Good, solid setting, but it, like the Historical Resource Vikings book, is more solidly grounded rather than just plain old Wahoo Norse Viking fun...

 

[Krieg]

BTW does anyone know if there are any signifigant differences between GURPS Vikings 1st & 2nd Editions?

 

[loki44]

Viking Age by Avalanche Press - its D20. Ignore their shorter supplements though cuz they are mostly crappy.
Razuur

What are the names of some of the shorter supplements? I just won a lot of 8 Avalanche d20 books on ebay, sight unseen other than the covers (hey, they're trashy but why not?). They all cover historical times and places, including "Ragnarok! Tales of the Norse Gods". I've never purchased an Avalanche product (ok, I was attracted by the covers and how could I pass up 8 glossy d20 books for under $30?). The Norse book is the one that drew my attention initially. Is it one of the crappy ones to which you refer?

 

[S'mon]

GAZ7: The Northern Reaches. You can get the pdf download at RPGNOW.com

That'd be my recommendation - I really liked it and it gave many moons of fun gameplay back in the day. Plus cardboard viking halls!

 

[S'mon]

I thought Avalanche's Ragnarok was pretty worthless, it's for playing Norse gods but has almost nothing in it IMO.

 

[Jolly Giant]

I've been using norse mythology + homebrew, and not too long ago played in a game that was norse mythology homebrew. Is there a written campaign that anyone can recommend? Old or new, doesn't matter.

Thanks.

Shameless plug: My first RPG book, Vikings D20: Midgard will be released as a PDF in a month or two. The crunchy bits are in the final stages of playtesting, and I'm making good progress on the fluffy bits.

The setting is basically earth in the viking era, if the world was as the vikings believed it to be. It will be a low-magic setting, with six new viking-flavoured base classes and 18 new PrC's. It also has the new monsters, feats, spells etc you would expect. The new spellcasting classes uses a spellpoints/mana system rather than spell slots, and the new system rules for runic spellcasting, of course.

I'm also making notes for a follow-up: Vikings D20: Beyond Midgard. It's a manual of the planes for the world of vikings. There were 3 upper planes, 3 lower and 3 intermediate planes in the viking cosmology, and they will all be described in this book. This will be intended for use in mid- to high-level play.

 

[SWBaxter]

I've been using norse mythology + homebrew, and not too long ago played in a game that was norse mythology homebrew. Is there a written campaign that anyone can recommend? Old or new, doesn't matter.

I'll third the Ivinia recommendation. Two other Harn products - Shorkyne and the main Harn module - also have good Viking-like cultures detailed.

One I have no experience with, but which looks interesting, is Rune by Atlas Games. Apparently it's a licensed RPG based on the computer game of the same name, supposed to be a very good fantasy viking game.

 

[Voadam]

IMO Ragnarok has a fun cover while Doom of Odin is Aalanche's worst. I really like the doom of Odin adventure though, it takes you to Nidavellir, Jotunheim, and mortal viking lands and does riddles right (success at the riddles makes progress easier but you can suck up damage or dodge magical traps if you can't figure them out and keep going). A pretty good mix of combat, politics, puzzles, and genre appropriate dungeon delving and hacking.

I didn't really care much for the gods treatment in Ragnarok, way too underpowered for D&D use, although the runes would make an OK hedge magic for a feat investment.

 

[Krieg]

BTW I do have an extra copy of Ivinia if anyone needs it.

One I have no experience with, but which looks interesting, is Rune by Atlas Games. Apparently it's a licensed RPG based on the computer game of the same name, supposed to be a very good fantasy viking game.

Rune is a lot fun but it is firmly (and unashamedly) lodged in a cartoon representation of Vikings as axe wielding maniacs with horned helmets. If you are looking for a more in-depth and/or balanced image for a pseudo-scandinavian setting Rune is probably not the best choice.

A preview can be found HERE.