Vikings Unleashed: Diving into Icelandic Myth and Reality

In this issue, I talk to the designers behind a new TTRPG focused on Iceland and Vikings about bringing the region's real history to the table.

Chaosium’s Age of Vikings is a new TTRPG designed by Pedro Ziviani and developed in partnership with the team behind Runeterra, the publisher’s sword and sorcery-themed campaign setting. The book is built around Chaosium’s Basic Roleplaying Engine, the setting-neutral system used by nearly all of the publisher’s games. If you’ve played Call of Cthulhu, it will feel very similar.

Vikings are nothing new to TTRPGs. A number of D&D settings try to capture the unique mythology and story of Norse culture and make it a viable setting. 5e-focused games like Raiders of the Serpent Sea and Svilland draw on the vibes of Vikings, but they fixate on the mythos more than the faction’s history.

Ziviani claims that Age of Vikings strives to capture historical life as an Icelandic Viking in an entirely different way.

“I think there's an appetite for something that is a more low magic, more low fantasy, more grounded in history,” Ziviani told TTRPG Insider. And he tries to capture that by focusing on the specific details of Icelandic culture that define everyday life.

The book is packed with historical frameworks, rules, and details that players can incorporate into their campaigns that might might appeal to the more historically minded player.

For example, Iceland is considered one of the oldest parliamentary democracies. It’s maintained a parliament longer than countries like the United Kingdom. The region was divided into 36 sections, each led by an elected official. Perhaps the players want to explore what it’s like to work with their local representative. Maybe they wish to worship the Icelandic gods of the time. Or perhaps they want to explore what it’s like to be a merchant and make a family in the 10th century. Age of Vikings goes into quite a lot of detail about these rules in hopes of providing players with the resources they need to bring ancient Iceland to life.

“I think that it is very appealing for people who want something that feels relatable to their world,” Jason Durall, creative director for Basic Roleplaying (BRP), told TTRPG Insider. While standard fantasy games often draw upon a general sense of Western European culture, Durall argues, they’re also “abstracted” in that they’re only about themselves. Each fantasy RPG draws on the same ideas involving dwarves, elves, orcs, etc. Games like Age of Vikings, in contrast, create an interpretation of Iceland that is both historic but also embraces the myths and legends of the region in ways that standard fantasy cannot.

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That’s not to say no magical or supernatural elements in the game. The book is an updated version of Mythic Iceland, a book Ziviani wrote in 2012 using the BRP system. It’s a world where Norse gods like Odin and Loki are real and trolls can be as much of a problem for locals as raiders or bandits.

Two forms of magic are available to the players. The first is rune magic, a very open system where runes are combined to create specific effects in an instant. The other is seiður, a form of shamanism that draws on more ritualistic mechanics. According to Ziviani, the systems are different on a flavor level, but players claimed that they mixed really well during the playtests.

The book provides options for both. Its mixture of natural and supernatural storytelling assets allows storytellers to explore whichever elements of the world appeal to them most. For example, if storytellers want to focus more on the region's politics, they can! Or they can toss a troll into the mix and create problems. It’s whatever they want it to be!

Age of Vikings is an interesting addition to Chaosium’s portfolio because it reinforces the unique, historically oriented role the publisher seems to have built itself around. Games like Call of Cthulhu, Pendragon, and RuneQuest all tell different stories, but they also draw upon this historically-focused core of world-building. While most people likely would not go to D&D’s core campaigns seeking a historically-informed experience, the books that Chaosium presents embrace these ideas in its priorities. And I believe that comes through in Age of Vikings.

Chaosium claims that the game is selling relatively well in Europe and that Icelandic game stores have seen a remarkable turnout to support these books. Durall claims that even Icelandic historical re-enactors have begun to use the text.

Ziliani is already planning expansions of his Viking game, although a lot of that will depend on how well the books sell. In the meantime, he hopes fans will enjoy his deep dive into Iceland’s history.

Thanks to Chaosium for setting up this interview! Age of Vikings can be purchased on Chaosium’s website.