A Game of Norse Fantasy - Interest Check

[Cold Heritage]

Hello fellow Elliquiyans. Thank you for taking the time to peruse my humble thread. At the moment it is only intended to take measure of interest rather than official recruitment.

The game I propose is one set in Scandinavia during an unspecified year in the early Viking age. In this game, the setting would include fantastic elements of myth and legend as real elements of the setting. For example, the Norse gods would be real entities who affect the world; the seas would host fantastic creatures like krakens and sea serpents; humans could learn to use runes to perform magic and master arts like seidr and galdr. Sailing to far-flung lands would yield encounters with strange beings and ancient mounds could place host to draugr. The blots to honour the gods would be very important events. Many characters could claim descent of Aesir, Vanir, Alfar, or Jotun.

This next part is probably phrased awkwardly, and I apologize for that in advance. There would be some anachronism in the sense that I want this game to be open and welcoming to all writers and have a place for all kinds of characters and thus social elements that would make certain character types - such as male homosexuals - face stigma or negative treatment would be omitted. Characters of any gender and sexual orientation would be welcome and able to fulfill any reasonable role their writers wished: a gay transwoman thegn would be okay as a concept but a gay transwoman ninja samurai pope would not be because of the ninja samurai pope part only.

This would be a freeform game, and probably semi-sandbox. Writers would be encouraged to develop their own plots with each other and free to develop links and relations to other characters but I would also like to try and have an overarching plot happening in the game. So in terms of setting I would likely ask that the characters belong to a common settlement and have a common allegiance to a ruler, though the degree of loyalty and commitment would be an area where the writer would have somewhat broad leeway to establish. Characters who mouthed the words to an oath of loyalty without meaning it in their hearts and who did only the most token actions to fulfill that unmeant oath could exist alongside those who swore the oath in their hearts before they said the words and whose actions prove on a continuing basis their fidelity.

I realize that this is all rather vague, but I do not want to commit to too much without having a sense as to whether there are other Elliquiyans out there who yearn to write about such things cooperatively. Thank you again for your time.

[Dhi]

Yes, I do. Norse myth is ever a great inspiration for me. I am reluctant to invest myself in another story-centric sandbox right now, without knowing who else I might be sharing it with.

[Juggtacular]

I will definitely be keeping an eye on this and dropping interest once I see more.

[silentwalrus227]

Just dropping by to say I’m interested but waiting to see how this idea develops.

[Piercescion]

As long as The mysticism didn’t get out of hand I would love to develop a Viking char for this.

[HairyHeretic]

I'd like to hear a bit more about what you have in mind for the setting as well.

[Kuroneko]

What Hairy said :-)

[bubby]

What everyone has said.  :D

[HairyHeretic]

It sounds to me that you might be aiming something along the lines of the Yggdrasil RPG, which was a game set in Mythic Viking times, in the same vein as Qin being set in Mythic China. It looks like Cubicle 7 no longer have it though, so I can't toss up any easy links to show what's in it.

I guess the main thing I'm curious about is the degree of mythic elements, of magic and monsters, and how 'common' those will be.

[Cold Heritage]

Indeed, Hairy. The Yggdrasil RPG is one of the main impetuses for me wanting to see this kind of game on Elliquiy. I am also inspired by the televisions series Vikings and The Last Kingdom, though both are a far from having the level of supernatural elements that I want.

It is difficult to put a finger on how 'common' the mythic elements, magic, and monsters will be. In the game setting I imagine, the gods are real, and praying to them can have tangible effects, but making an offering to the gods for a bountiful harvest in terms of what the characters do and experience is not likely to include a personal appearance from the gods themselves in recognizable physical form. If the characters have made a good offering, and have not made too many demands of the gods, the godi could interpret a favourable omen in the splatter of blood during the blot and if some characters are especially in tune with the gods they might have a certain ephemeral and ineffable sense of the gods' pleasure at the sacrifice and interpret the good reception as a sign of bounty to come next fall.

But if nobody's a volva or knows galdr or anything like that and never goes to see the shaman for anything then it's going to be uncommon.

But personally, I want the game to take place in a magical world where there is still much that is unknown and dangerous. I want there to be sea serpents and krakens and ships sailing being accosted by them during a sudden storm and all hands have to take up arms as lightning crashes overhead. I want there to be giants in the furthest reaches of Norway and people who go deep into the forest are would run into weird stuff.

I do not want it to be something akin to Discworld or some less generous portrayals of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting. Nobody is going to spend an afternoon sharing a hookah with Steve the vegan Mind Flayer, Dankius Memeus the demi-god of Memes, and Bob the half-vampire half-angel half-demon half-devil half-dragon 3/16th pegacorn before making a jaunt down to Crazy Monty Haul's Discount Magic Item Emporium, where prices are so low you would have to be wearing a cursed ring of madness not to buy! buy!! BUY!!!

I expect that the mythic elements, magic, and monsters to seem common because I would expect that the characters that others bring to the game would be the sorts of exceptional people who encounter those things a lot and have those qualities about them. I want this game to be about characters whose names and fame will survive them long after death in poems, sages, and rune stones raised in their memory. But I also expect that the writers involved would treat these elements with the wonder that they are due. If a character faced off against someone who had a sword made by a dwarf then that is cause for a certain degree of awe and worry, because a dwarven weapon is a great boon to its wielder (though also a great bane).

Does that help at all?

[Shjade]

Well, this sounds intriguing.

Not sure what kind of character I'd come up with to fit into this setting, and my track record with group games of late has been...less than stellar, so maybe take it with a grain of salt. But I'm interested.

[SlipperySue]

Definitely interested.

Either as a shield maiden, völva or spákona.

[Primarch]

I would like to express interest in this one too!

[blue bunny sparkle]

Putting up a vote for interest as well.

[Heartsink]

Definitely interested :-) Would it be fine to build characters off sagas or will they have to be completely original?

[HairyHeretic]

I have a few ideas. One was for a ship captain, if we're likely to be doing much traveling / raiding / trading, the other a skald with a bit of rune magic.

[Kuroneko]

I'd be interested in a völva as well, or one in training.

[Cold Heritage]

I am glad to see interest in character archetypes like the völva.

Definitely interested :-) Would it be fine to build characters off sagas or will they have to be completely original?

My preference is for writers to lean their characters towards the original end of the spectrum, but it is not a flat, non-negotiable 'no' if writers were to want to integrate elements from sagas into their characters. Integrating a specific element that you like from a saga character into yours as a general thing is probably okay, depending on a specific element. Something like Sigurd bathing in dragon's blood and being immune to all injury except on a spot on his back where a leaf covered his skin is something that would be too much.

I have a few ideas. One was for a ship captain, if we're likely to be doing much traveling / raiding / trading, the other a skald with a bit of rune magic.

I'm well open to supporting characters traveling / raiding / trading. If it ends up that some of it does not happen onscreen then we could still work with the majority of it happening off-screen and bringing consequences and new plot elements onto the stage.

[TheHangedOne]

I'm actually considering someone who is... elf-blessed, or perhaps even half 'light elf', if not a full one straight from Alfheimr (possibly taking a sight-seeing tour of Midgard).  Depending on how mystical you are comfortable with a PC being.

[Cold Heritage]

An alf is more mystical than in mind. Someone elf-blessed, or someone with an elf a few generations back would be more in line with what I have in mind. The character could be an atavistic individual, expressing strongly the alf traits in their bloodline more than more recent generations.

I think with the interest expressed that there's a strong enough basis to develop a recruitment thread. Thanks to everyone who weighed in, no matter how it goes.

[WaitingCynicism]

Is this still happening? I'm interested

[VonDoom]

The thread is almost five months old. At this point, sad to say, but it seems unlikely.