Beware! This review contains major spoilers.
This is not a playtest review.
Price: $12.95
Page Count: 48
Price Per Page: About 27 cents per page
Front Cover: Your appreciation of the front cover will depend on your attitude to portraits of large-breasted, scantily-clad women on covers of RPG products. That aside, the quality of the art is good and in the faces of the gods opposing each other above the central portrait reflects the theme of the sourcebook well.
Additional Page Use: The back cover has an average piece of art depicting a waterfall and a short overview of the sourcebook. Both inside covers are blank. The first three pages and the last two pages contain credits, contents, the OGL and an advert.
Internal Art: There is very little internal art - what there is is very basic, in keeping with Norse style of art. There is a basic map of Midgard at the end of the book.
Text Density: Text density varies from poor to average. There is a large margin at the top of each page, but the side and bottom margins are very narrow. Much of the information is in thickly bordered text boxes but the amount of white space is pretty good.
Text Style: The style of writing is a generally stilted and swings from frivolous to formal and from repetitive to obtuse, with moments of coherence somewhere in the middle. There are also some typos.
Whats Inside: Ragnarok! Tales of the Norse Gods has two facets at the heart of its premise. Firstly, players take on minor Norse deities as PCs who swear allegiance to the major Norse deities (which are actually characters of less than 20th level in the game). Secondly, the gods know that Ragnarok (the end of the world) is coming and the PCs must, by their brave actions, seek to delay or change the fate of the gods and the Nine Worlds of Norse myth from this bloody end.
The module begins with Odin's vision of Ragnarok, the rules background as detailed above, the designation of the GM as 'High Skald' (the Norse equivalent of the ultimate storyteller), and a reflection on the importance of Law and Chaos rather than Good and Evil in the setting.
In Part 1: The Race Of Lesser Gods (5 pages), rules for designing a Divine Portfolio are given - the player can choose a major Norse deity from Part 3, design a Lesser God (a less powerful god(dess) based on the chosen major deity), and possibly a mortal minion (a human or a Trollborn (more or less a Half Orc) are the only available races). However, the main PC will be the Lesser God. In this section a new class feature (Hurl Axe for barbarians), two new skills (Charioteering and Runecraft), and two new feats (Weapon-catching (on the rim of a shield) and Weapon Expertise: Throwing Spear) are introduced along with some basic guidelines for outfitting a Lesser God with starting equipment equal to his level (including a sidebar covering prohibited equipment in the setting). There are very specific rules for creating a Lesser God PC, which seem rather convoluted and restrictive.
Part 2: The Campaign (28 pages), begins with a discussion on the differences between Norse myth and reality, before going on to discuss weapons and warfare, Norse naval capabilities, women, berserkers, religion, and the coming of Christianity. It then takes a mytho-geographical turn, defining the worlds of Yggdrasil (the great Tree), Alfheim and Svartalfheim (land of the light and dark elves), Nidavellir (land of the dwarves), Jotunheim and Muspelheim (land of the Frost and Fire Giants), Nifelheim (land of the dead), and Asgard and Vanaheim (the land of the gods). It then goes on to look at Midgard, the relam of mortals and the main setting for a Ragnarok campaign - more detail is given on the Northern Kingdoms (essentially Scandinavia), the Western Kingdom (essentially France), The Middle Kingdom (essentially Germany), the Eastern Kingdom (essentially Russia), The Southern Kingdom (essentially Italy), and The Islands (essentially Scotland and Ireland). Various sidebars accompany the text, including stats for NPC races (dwarves, elves and giants), new monsters (sea giant, Garm the Hound of Hel), various NPCs and a central section covering Runic Magic. The section on Runic Magic covers a general overview of the workings of runic magic. A Lesser God can cast only 2 runes a day, mortals none at all. Each of the runes is covered, with a beneficial and baneful effect, a saving throw required, and the duration of the effect. Some advice is then given for matching challenges against a group of Lesser God PCs. We are then introduced to the idea of Fate Points (a countdown to Ragnarok as the points are lost or gained due to certain in-game results - e.g each Lesser God begins with 3 Fate Points; the failure of a Lesser God mission leads to a loss of 3 Fate POints; when all Fate POints are lost the campaign ends and Ragnarok begins) and Divinity Points (1 Divinity Point is gained for every 5 Fate Points gained and can be spent to re-roll failed die rolls). Advice is then given on designing adventures (quests rather than dungeon crawls are the order of the day and magic items are rare), and a brief note is given on monsters to inform the GM that Norse myth has sparse information about monsters in the setting and they should make up their own to suit their campaign. Four adventure ideas are given. Some rule-orientated sidebars are given throughout the text including an optional rule for expanding the use of mortals in the setting (via benefits of patronage to the gods and the benefits of prayer to the gods.
In part 3: The Gods (7 pages), the deities of the Norse mythos are discussed, with very basic statistical outlines (Level/Class, Favored Ability, Domains and Special abilities). Also covered in sidebars, are some of the other powerful beings of Norse mythology such as the Fenris Wolf, and the Midgard Serpent. There is also a discussio of the Gods and Magic, and how non-magic wielding gods can bestow divine spells on their clerics.
The High Points: The idea of running a campaign using gods is particularly relevant for the Norse deities, whose heroic behaviour is the stuff that fantasy is based on, including Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (you'll find mention of the original Gandalf and Mirkwood within). From this point of view, with the idea of quests rather than dungeon crawls,and the concept of runic magic rather than standard D&D magic, the ideas that lie behind this sourcebook are thematically exciting and true to the setting. The setting itself is an interesting one to base a campaign in, even if it is one for mortals rather than gods, and there is plenty of useful information here to integrate into your own campaign regarding the elements of Norse mythology.
The Low Points: The style of writing is my first major complaint. It is both repetitive and confusing, and detracts from the understanding of what could have been some very interesting concepts. In addition, the rules in the book are often badly explained and there are major inconsistencies between one sentence and another, with rules in one disagreeing with a statement in another. There are major discrepancies in the information required for running the game as set out in the book, and also convoluted and restrictive rules that cramp the options for the players. Several of the rules reflect a lack of understanding and forethought regarding the basic d20 rules.
Conclusion: A book that has tons of potential with a very good basic premise, let down badly by the rules and the style of writing. I would personally prefer to pick up a decent textbook on Norse mythology and history, and make my own conversions than heed this book. However, if you do want an brief overview of Norse mythology and history, there are some fresh perspectives that can be extracted to enhance a Norse-orientated culture in your own campaign. I already have a reasonable knowledge of Norse mythology, and for me the module was not worth the rather high asking price.
