Sagas of Midgard is a new, cinematic, tabletop RPG that prioritizes storytelling over numbers, with a deadly combat and raiding system.
A world of raids and bloodshed. A world of mead-halls and celebration. A world of funeral-pyres and mourning. A world where the Gods simultaneously give you power and test that power, undermining your strength and cunning. A world of great heroes chasing death and glory in the face of unbeatable odds.
Above all, a world of stories.
View attachment 93714
At present, the 180+ page Sagas of Midgard Corebook contains:
· Over 100 unique skills to customize your characters
· Original acrylic and watercolor paintings by Leah Porter, with additional digital art by James Cornell
· A Unique "Raiding" system whereby your Viking Warband can gain wealth, glory, and Favor in the eyes of the Gods
· Player settlements with over 20 Settlement Upgrades available to help improve your Heroes and their Warbands
· 24 "Runes of Power" with 3 effects each to be found throughout the world, allowing for hundreds of different combinations
· Over 20 "Artifacts", powerful items that change not only your character's stats but also their personality
· Over 15 pages describing how to run Sagas of Midgard (and TRPGs in general) pulled from over 30 combined years of tabletop gaming experience
· A fully realized, original, mythological Norse world (The Drengrlands) with scores of plot hooks
· A cultural guide to the Drengrlands, in which we pull from the Sagas and Eddas to help players understand the Drengrlands as a living, breathing place that differs from standard fantasy worlds
· Over 30 monsters pulled from Norse Mythology and our imaginations
· Over a dozen NPC allies pulled from playtesting, with unique motivations and personalities
· Three fully formed, fleshed out Adventures, meant to help ease players into the system and then push them to their limits
· A fully fillable PDF character sheet
View attachment 93718
To become a Hero, one must endure great hardships, and while creating a Hero in Sagas of Midgard is simple, it has to be because combat has been built to be brutal and often deadly. This decision was made for two reasons:
1. Combat is more exciting when it doesn't drag on and on and on and...
2. The most exciting and memorable battles we've had at our table involved Player Characters either at death's door or sacrificing themselves nobly to save their party.
As a result, EVERY Hero begins their Saga with the following ability (whose name was pulled from the Dying Ode of Ragnar Lodbrok):
With Joy I Cease: In your darkest hour, you call upon the Gods to give you strength for one final act of glory. Advancing toward your enemy, you strike him with a death-blow; with his dying breath he strikes you down as well. Any healing, magical effects, rune effects, or damage reduction effects are ended upon you. Your hit-points are then immediately brought to zero and you die. Any other Heroes within bow range gain 5 Favor. This ability must be used on your turn.
Thankfully, our Skill Point based Character Creation system is simple and intuitive and consists of five steps:
· Pick Prophecies (Surname/Title): Each character chooses a Surname and Title, either pulled from or inspired by Norse mythology, that grants them certain bonuses and abilities.
· Spend starting Skill Points: Skills are divided into five "Domains", each corresponding to a Norse god. Within those Domains are "Subdomains", that contain unique and powerful abilities that help you feel like a Hero from the very beginning.
· Roll for Random Runes: See "Runes" below.
· Choose Starting Weapons/Armor: Each character can be further customized with an arsenal of various weapons and armor.
· Develop Character’s Personality and Temperament: While character development happens organically throughout a campaign, we wanted to ensure every character entering a Saga has personality and motivation, and we've provided tools to help players develop them!
View attachment 93715
For all of their fame and renown as merchants, traders, and explorers, the Vikings are remembered primarily as warriors. Unconventional, unyielding, and ferocious, the centuries in which the Norse raided the coasts of Northern Europe has left them with a legacy that persists to this day. We knew when we were creating the Sagas of Midgard system that Raiding would have to feature, and feature prominently.
Raiding as a game mechanic arose from our experiences with previous game systems, where we encountered the problem of traveling. Not how to travel, per se, but how to make travel interesting. How do you make getting to wherever your adventure will be worth the trip (and perhaps an adventure in itself), rather than merely “cut-scening” through the journey (“Okay, it took a month but you got there!”) or having it broken down into a series of relatively meaningless encounters (“Now there’s a bugbear. For… reasons”)?
Raiding works as a cinematic experience in which your Game Master will walk you through a series of events, stopping to ask for rolls that correlate to your character's Domain skills. The success or failure of these checks will determine your overall success in the raid and, thereby, how much loot you receive. It also helps to emphasize that although the Player Characters are the Heroes of the story, no Hero fights alone.
After Raiding (and whatever other adventures your Skald has planned for you), in between sessions you will return home to your player settlement. With over 20 unique upgrades available that improve your raiding and fighting ability, and mechanics in place to help ensure a vibrant, unique populace of non-player characters, the Settlement should help the Heroes feel as though they truly have a home worth fighting for.
View attachment 93717
Runes
"Runes" within Sagas of Midgard function as single-use magic items. Pulled from Elder Futhark and with effects inspired by the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem, every Rune has three different “positions”, each of which creates a different effect. With 24 Runes in the Elder Futhark and up to three different effects for each, there is a great deal of customization and variation available in the Runecasting system. Every character begins with the ability to cast Runes in the “First Position.” By buying skills in the Rune Magic subdomain of Odin, they may unlock the second and third positions, allowing them to chain up to three effects together at once with one action!
Every character starts with two random runes, with certain Titles and Surnames granting the ability to start with more and find Runes more easily. The runes are one of the ways that players can “stay afloat” in what is meant to be a brutal system; the right rune in the right situation has saved several lives in our playtesting.
Since the Rune effects can be a lot to write on a character sheet (especially given their one-use utility), we've created a Rune-Deck to help you easily select random runes and use them at the table. Each Rune Card features custom calligraphy by Jennifer Baugh, with the effects of each card under the Elder Futhark calligraphy. This was requested specifically by our playtesters (and prototyped by a Runecaster character before our plans became more concrete), and it's been a great addition to the game!
Artifacts
Every culture that has a Hero myth also gives its Heroes weapons, armor and tools of equal magnitude to help them accomplish their tasks. Heroes and Gods need weapons worthy of their stature. The Norse were no exception, and the Eddas devote many tales to the forging and creation of various items.
Our focus within Sagas of Midgard was to make these Artifacts feel significant: we’ve played in a lot of systems where magic items were so commonplace and, in all honesty, dull. Where runes are more prevalent and transitory, Artifacts should feel rare and important.
To that end, we suggest in our Corebook to make Artifacts much harder to find or make (recommending one or two per character throughout the entirety of the Saga), but that’s not all. Each Artifact can be attuned only to one person at a time (allowing the bonus only to them), and each Artifact has:
Personality: An artifact, if not outright sentient, is blessed with the powers and shortcomings of the Gods. Artifacts should change the person that wields it and change with them; a “personality” that does not have to be strictly followed but that helps the Hero become closer to the original recipient of the Artifact.
Boon: Oh yes. This is what you’re here for. The boon of an artifact is the bonus it grants you for your trouble.
Bane: Nothing is without its price, especially where it comes to power. Every artifact has a bane, typically commensurate in power to the boon.
View attachment 93716
There is much more to this existence than we can perceive; beings of immense power, monsters prowling through the dark reaches of the earth, and entire worlds whose mysteries even the Gods have not fully uncovered.
Norse cosmology (and, as such, Sagas of Midgard) is made up of Nine Worlds, and we've done our best to breathe life into them and create ways in which your players can interact with them. Although we give information about all Nine Worlds, we've saved the bulk of our work for where you'll be spending most of your time: Midgard.
Our version of Midgard is a mythologized version of Scandinavia, with new geography and many new challenges to overcome. The homes of the Vikings (the Drengrlands) are the most fleshed out, with four Kingdoms, dozens of towns, and pages of locations, organizations, and intrigue that you can throw into your Sagas at will. We've also mythologized the rest of Northern and Central Europe, giving you potential allies and enemies with whom to trade, settle lands, or simply do what Vikings do best: raid!
Sagas of Midgard: A Cinematic Norse Tabletop RPG by Nick Porter and Dominic De Duonni is live on Kickstarter until Thursday 1st March 2018.
A world of raids and bloodshed. A world of mead-halls and celebration. A world of funeral-pyres and mourning. A world where the Gods simultaneously give you power and test that power, undermining your strength and cunning. A world of great heroes chasing death and glory in the face of unbeatable odds.
Above all, a world of stories.
View attachment 93714
At present, the 180+ page Sagas of Midgard Corebook contains:
· Over 100 unique skills to customize your characters
· Original acrylic and watercolor paintings by Leah Porter, with additional digital art by James Cornell
· A Unique "Raiding" system whereby your Viking Warband can gain wealth, glory, and Favor in the eyes of the Gods
· Player settlements with over 20 Settlement Upgrades available to help improve your Heroes and their Warbands
· 24 "Runes of Power" with 3 effects each to be found throughout the world, allowing for hundreds of different combinations
· Over 20 "Artifacts", powerful items that change not only your character's stats but also their personality
· Over 15 pages describing how to run Sagas of Midgard (and TRPGs in general) pulled from over 30 combined years of tabletop gaming experience
· A fully realized, original, mythological Norse world (The Drengrlands) with scores of plot hooks
· A cultural guide to the Drengrlands, in which we pull from the Sagas and Eddas to help players understand the Drengrlands as a living, breathing place that differs from standard fantasy worlds
· Over 30 monsters pulled from Norse Mythology and our imaginations
· Over a dozen NPC allies pulled from playtesting, with unique motivations and personalities
· Three fully formed, fleshed out Adventures, meant to help ease players into the system and then push them to their limits
· A fully fillable PDF character sheet
View attachment 93718
To become a Hero, one must endure great hardships, and while creating a Hero in Sagas of Midgard is simple, it has to be because combat has been built to be brutal and often deadly. This decision was made for two reasons:
1. Combat is more exciting when it doesn't drag on and on and on and...
2. The most exciting and memorable battles we've had at our table involved Player Characters either at death's door or sacrificing themselves nobly to save their party.
As a result, EVERY Hero begins their Saga with the following ability (whose name was pulled from the Dying Ode of Ragnar Lodbrok):
With Joy I Cease: In your darkest hour, you call upon the Gods to give you strength for one final act of glory. Advancing toward your enemy, you strike him with a death-blow; with his dying breath he strikes you down as well. Any healing, magical effects, rune effects, or damage reduction effects are ended upon you. Your hit-points are then immediately brought to zero and you die. Any other Heroes within bow range gain 5 Favor. This ability must be used on your turn.
Thankfully, our Skill Point based Character Creation system is simple and intuitive and consists of five steps:
· Pick Prophecies (Surname/Title): Each character chooses a Surname and Title, either pulled from or inspired by Norse mythology, that grants them certain bonuses and abilities.
· Spend starting Skill Points: Skills are divided into five "Domains", each corresponding to a Norse god. Within those Domains are "Subdomains", that contain unique and powerful abilities that help you feel like a Hero from the very beginning.
· Roll for Random Runes: See "Runes" below.
· Choose Starting Weapons/Armor: Each character can be further customized with an arsenal of various weapons and armor.
· Develop Character’s Personality and Temperament: While character development happens organically throughout a campaign, we wanted to ensure every character entering a Saga has personality and motivation, and we've provided tools to help players develop them!
View attachment 93715
For all of their fame and renown as merchants, traders, and explorers, the Vikings are remembered primarily as warriors. Unconventional, unyielding, and ferocious, the centuries in which the Norse raided the coasts of Northern Europe has left them with a legacy that persists to this day. We knew when we were creating the Sagas of Midgard system that Raiding would have to feature, and feature prominently.
Raiding as a game mechanic arose from our experiences with previous game systems, where we encountered the problem of traveling. Not how to travel, per se, but how to make travel interesting. How do you make getting to wherever your adventure will be worth the trip (and perhaps an adventure in itself), rather than merely “cut-scening” through the journey (“Okay, it took a month but you got there!”) or having it broken down into a series of relatively meaningless encounters (“Now there’s a bugbear. For… reasons”)?
Raiding works as a cinematic experience in which your Game Master will walk you through a series of events, stopping to ask for rolls that correlate to your character's Domain skills. The success or failure of these checks will determine your overall success in the raid and, thereby, how much loot you receive. It also helps to emphasize that although the Player Characters are the Heroes of the story, no Hero fights alone.
After Raiding (and whatever other adventures your Skald has planned for you), in between sessions you will return home to your player settlement. With over 20 unique upgrades available that improve your raiding and fighting ability, and mechanics in place to help ensure a vibrant, unique populace of non-player characters, the Settlement should help the Heroes feel as though they truly have a home worth fighting for.
View attachment 93717
Runes
"Runes" within Sagas of Midgard function as single-use magic items. Pulled from Elder Futhark and with effects inspired by the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem, every Rune has three different “positions”, each of which creates a different effect. With 24 Runes in the Elder Futhark and up to three different effects for each, there is a great deal of customization and variation available in the Runecasting system. Every character begins with the ability to cast Runes in the “First Position.” By buying skills in the Rune Magic subdomain of Odin, they may unlock the second and third positions, allowing them to chain up to three effects together at once with one action!
Every character starts with two random runes, with certain Titles and Surnames granting the ability to start with more and find Runes more easily. The runes are one of the ways that players can “stay afloat” in what is meant to be a brutal system; the right rune in the right situation has saved several lives in our playtesting.
Since the Rune effects can be a lot to write on a character sheet (especially given their one-use utility), we've created a Rune-Deck to help you easily select random runes and use them at the table. Each Rune Card features custom calligraphy by Jennifer Baugh, with the effects of each card under the Elder Futhark calligraphy. This was requested specifically by our playtesters (and prototyped by a Runecaster character before our plans became more concrete), and it's been a great addition to the game!
Artifacts
Every culture that has a Hero myth also gives its Heroes weapons, armor and tools of equal magnitude to help them accomplish their tasks. Heroes and Gods need weapons worthy of their stature. The Norse were no exception, and the Eddas devote many tales to the forging and creation of various items.
Our focus within Sagas of Midgard was to make these Artifacts feel significant: we’ve played in a lot of systems where magic items were so commonplace and, in all honesty, dull. Where runes are more prevalent and transitory, Artifacts should feel rare and important.
To that end, we suggest in our Corebook to make Artifacts much harder to find or make (recommending one or two per character throughout the entirety of the Saga), but that’s not all. Each Artifact can be attuned only to one person at a time (allowing the bonus only to them), and each Artifact has:
Personality: An artifact, if not outright sentient, is blessed with the powers and shortcomings of the Gods. Artifacts should change the person that wields it and change with them; a “personality” that does not have to be strictly followed but that helps the Hero become closer to the original recipient of the Artifact.
Boon: Oh yes. This is what you’re here for. The boon of an artifact is the bonus it grants you for your trouble.
Bane: Nothing is without its price, especially where it comes to power. Every artifact has a bane, typically commensurate in power to the boon.
View attachment 93716
There is much more to this existence than we can perceive; beings of immense power, monsters prowling through the dark reaches of the earth, and entire worlds whose mysteries even the Gods have not fully uncovered.
Norse cosmology (and, as such, Sagas of Midgard) is made up of Nine Worlds, and we've done our best to breathe life into them and create ways in which your players can interact with them. Although we give information about all Nine Worlds, we've saved the bulk of our work for where you'll be spending most of your time: Midgard.
Our version of Midgard is a mythologized version of Scandinavia, with new geography and many new challenges to overcome. The homes of the Vikings (the Drengrlands) are the most fleshed out, with four Kingdoms, dozens of towns, and pages of locations, organizations, and intrigue that you can throw into your Sagas at will. We've also mythologized the rest of Northern and Central Europe, giving you potential allies and enemies with whom to trade, settle lands, or simply do what Vikings do best: raid!
Sagas of Midgard: A Cinematic Norse Tabletop RPG by Nick Porter and Dominic De Duonni is live on Kickstarter until Thursday 1st March 2018.
