Mythic Iceland

[Trifletraxor]

A fantasy earth Vikings setting is on its way for Basic Roleplaying. It will be based on the Icelandic Sagas, the Eddas, and the fairy tales of Iceland. The magical and mythical aspects from the Eddas and the Sagas will be incorporated into the setting, and much attention will be given to the elves, using the legends of the huldufólk.

The author is Pedro Ziviani, a historian living on Iceland, who have worked on the project for many months now. The first partial draft of the book is to be delivered to Chaosium this month (October).

I'm really looking forward to this one! :-)

[RosenMcStern]

What is the time setting? A Viking supplement was needed, indeed! The last one is very, very out of print!

[Enpeze]

sounds very interesting. Hopefully there will be some premade adventures for it too.

[Enpeze]

Originally Posted by Trifletraxor

As one Viking Age Iceland setting for BRP will probably be enough, my planned Islandia setting announced earlier, have now been cancelled. Triff.

Before cancelling this promising project I would wait and see how good the new Iceland setting really is and if it is published. At which stage was your islandia setting? Early stage or already fleshed out? I would love to learn more about it.

[Trifletraxor]

Originally Posted by Enpeze

Before cancelling this promising project I would wait and see how good the new Iceland setting really is and if it is published. At which stage was your islandia setting? Early stage or already fleshed out? I would love to learn more about it.

My Islandia project was in the very early start of planning. I had gotten hold of all the background research I needed and had some clear plans of where to take it, but had done little actual writing. Pedro has been working on the Mythic Iceland setting for several months now, and have gotten pretty far with it. It at least sound very good. So, I'll just let him do the work, and then enjoy the setting when it's published. That way I can concentrate more on improving BRP Central (a gallery is next I think).

SGL.

[soltakss]

Why not hold off and see what Pedro does, then add flavour/background to areas where it is missing?

Or were you thinking of doing something and charging for it?

I wonder how far the setting could be stretched.

Could you use it, for instance, for Anglo-Saxon-style rules, in which case could you use it at the end of the Roman period, thus linking in with Pax Romana?

Or, perhaps, stretch it the other way and use it with Stupor Mundi?

[Trifletraxor]

Originally Posted by soltakss

Why not hold off and see what Pedro does, then add flavour/background to areas where it is missing?

Or were you thinking of doing something and charging for it?

No, I was planning to release it free on this site. It's at least on a hold for now, maybe I'll use some of the ideas for another setting later, or some stuff that can be put in the fanzine.

I wonder how far the setting could be stretched.

Could you use it, for instance, for Anglo-Saxon-style rules, in which case could you use it at the end of the Roman period, thus linking in with Pax Romana?

Or, perhaps, stretch it the other way and use it with Stupor Mundi?

I just e-mailed the author, hopefully we can get him over here to answer some questions himself.

SGL.

[Joseph Paul]

Trifletraxor-
If Mr. Ziviani's work only covers Iceland there may be quite a bit of room for Norwegian/Swedish/Danish settings and adventures.

There was a product put out by Columbia Games, Lionheart, on England in the time of Richard the Lionheart. Very detailed wtih a chronology, essays on what life was like and the political situations. All in all a great primer for a campaign in that time period.

I think that people would be interested in seeing such for BRP. My thoughts on this:
Include stats for major and minor historical characters.
Includes things from the legends and folktales.
Discuss how magic is thought to work in a particular time period.
Maps!
Chronologies/lineages.
Essays on the culture and daily living.

With this the GM can set up what he wants to do with the setting. Go very historical, low magic, high magic, or trick it out as a fantasy option. For instance a nitty gritty Roman setting, an option with limited magic (and no one is sure that it actually works!), an option with major magicians aiding or countering the Pax Romana, or one in which it was the Elves that ambushed the legions in the Teutoburgerwald.

Give adventures, maybe a half dozen large multi session ones, some smaller one shots, and lots of adventure hooks. The idea being that I would certainly want to get a lot of value out of a particular setting.

Crossing over into other settings could be interesting also. This could be done with just adventure hooks that require PCs to travel to distant lands- Beowulf anyone? Another thought is to produce campaign packs for historical cultures and produce supplements to cover what happens when those cultures clash. For instance an Anglo-Saxon setting and a Viking setting are interesting by themselves but a supplement that covers the Viking invasions and the Danelaw would be really neat also.

Just a thought.

Joseph Paul

[Simlasa]

I'm looking forward to seeing this if it goes back to the original source material and gets away from the re-warmed-over-twice-distilled Tolkien-via-D&D that pollutes the fantasy game (and literature) market.

[badcat]

I don't know. I can see some here are interested, but I have delved into the Icelandic sagas and histories, and from what I can remember it seems it would be a little bland. What sort of adventures would you have, other than raiding and feuding and fighting the occasional troll?