| Nordic Roleplaying for RuneQuest | |
|---|---|
 Box cover illustration by Steve Purcell. | |
| Designers | |
| Publishers | Avalon Hill |
| Publication | 1985 |
| Genres | Fantasy |
| Systems | Basic Role-Playing |
Vikings, Nordic Roleplaying for RuneQuest [1] is a boxed tabletop role playing game supplement, written by Greg Stafford and Sandy Petersen, with a cover by Steve Purcell. Published under license by Avalon Hill in 1985 for Chaosium's fantasy role-playing game RuneQuest .
Vikings provides a campaign setting called "Scania" that draws on historical and legendary sources for the Viking period. [2] The boxed set contains:
Information includes daily life in a Viking village, the justice system, character creation, new magic spells, religion, and new monsters. [4]
In 1984, Chaosium, the creators of RuneQuest, partnered with Avalon Hill to create a third edition of the role-playing game, hoping to take advantage of the larger company's marketing and publication power. For the most part, Chaosium refused to allow Avalon Hill to produce any material for Runequest's original setting, Glorantha. Instead, Avalon Hill's material was set in a generic feudal setting known as Fantasy Earth. Vikings, the first of the Fantasy Earth supplements, was written by Greg Stafford and Sandy Petersen, with illustrations by Charlie Krank, and cover art by Steve Purcell, and was published by Avalon Hill in 1985.
In the 2014 book Designers & Dragons: The '80s, game historian Shannon Appelcline commented that after Chaosium partnered with Avalon Hill in 1984, "Over the next five years, Chaosium acted as creators of RuneQuest material. Glorantha was largely ignored, other than the singular Gods of Glorantha (1985), but Chaosium did create interesting supplements for the new Fantasy Earth background, including Vikings (1985) and Land of Ninja (1987)." [5] : 222
Oliver Dickinson reviewed Vikings for White Dwarf #74, giving it an overall rating of 8 out of 10, and stated that "This pack need not interest Viking-lovers only. The society described can provide many analogies for other RQ 'barbarian' societies, the special means for acquiring magic might interest many players, and the scenarios are easily adaptable. Overall, this is a promising start, offering reasonable value for money." [2]
In the May 1992 edition of Dragon (Issue #181), Rick Swan thought that, although Vikings at that time was seven years old, it was "still the one to beat — a thoroughly entertaining treatment of Viking culture, light on the historical clutter that makes so many campaign guides a drag to read." Swan admired both the packaging and the elegant writing. Although he thought the chapter on fantasy and magic was "disappointingly skimpy," he called the new monsters "a treat — an imaginative GM will still find a lot to work with." Swan also thought the campaign book was the high point of the boxed set, calling its contents "intelligent suggestions for staging Viking adventures." He concluded by giving Vikings an above average rating of 4 out of 5, saying, "This offers pure, engaging fun and, despite the rather superficial magic section, is a first-rate fantasy campaign set. [4]
Basic Role-Playing (BRP) is a tabletop role-playing game which originated in the RuneQuest fantasy role-playing game. Chaosium released the BRP standalone booklet in 1980 in the boxed set release of the second edition of RuneQuest. Greg Stafford and Lynn Willis are credited as the authors. Chaosium used the percentile skill-based system as the basis for most of their games, including Call of Cthulhu, Stormbringer, and Elfquest.
Chaosium Inc. is a publisher of tabletop role-playing games established by Greg Stafford in 1975. Chaosium's major titles include Call of Cthulhu, based on the horror fiction stories of H. P. Lovecraft, RuneQuest Glorantha, Pendragon, based on Thomas Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur, and 7th Sea, "swashbuckling and sorcery" set in a fantasy 17th century Europe.
Glorantha is a fantasy world created by Greg Stafford. It was first introduced in the board game White Bear and Red Moon (1975) by Chaosium and then in a number of other board, roleplaying and computer games, including RuneQuest and HeroQuest, as well as several works of fiction and the computer strategy game King of Dragon Pass. The Gloranthan world is characterised by its complex use of mythology, heavily influenced by the universalist approaches of Joseph Campbell and Mircea Eliade, its sword and sorcery ethos, its long and distinctive history as a setting for role-playing games, its community development and expansion, and its relative lack of Tolkienesque influence, which is uncommon among early American fantasy role-playing games.
RuneQuest is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game originally designed by Steve Perrin, Ray Turney, Steve Henderson, and Warren James, and set in Greg Stafford's mythical world of Glorantha. It was first published in 1978 by The Chaosium. Beginning in 1984, publication passed between a number of companies, including Avalon Hill, Mongoose Publishing, and The Design Mechanism, before finally returning to Chaosium in 2016. RuneQuest is notable for its system, designed around percentile dice and an early implementation of skill rules, which became the basis for numerous other games. There have been several editions of the game.
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Pavis: Threshold to Danger is a boxed tabletop role-playing game supplement for RuneQuest, originally published by Chaosium in 1983. This boxed set detailed the fictional city of New Pavis for use in role-playing adventures. It received positive reviews in game periodicals including White Dwarf, Dragon, Different Worlds, and Fantasy Gamer. The set was republished in 1999 by Moon Design Publications in a single volume with Big Rubble: The Deadly City as Gloranthan Classics Volume I – Pavis & Big Rubble. The 1983 edition was republished in 2019 in PDF format as part of Chaosium's RuneQuest: Classic Edition Kickstarter.
RuneQuest Companion is a tabletop role-playing game supplement for RuneQuest. Originally published by Chaosium in 1983, it consisted of reprints of Wyrm's Footnotes magazine articles as well as new material to expand the game rules and setting. It received positive reviews in game periodicals including Dragon, White Dwarf, Fantasy Gamer, and Different Worlds. It was republished in 2019 in PDF format as part of Chaosium's RuneQuest: Classic Edition Kickstarter.
Eldarad: The Lost City is a campaign setting published under license by Avalon Hill in 1990 for Chaosium's fantasy role-playing game RuneQuest.
Into the Troll Realms, subtitled "Troll Adventures and Encounters for RuneQuest" is a supplement that includes adventures and material that involve interactions with trolls, published under license by Avalon Hill in 1988 for Chaosium's fantasy role-playing game RuneQuest
Land of Ninja is a supplement published under license by Avalon Hill in 1987 for Chaosium's fantasy role-playing game RuneQuest.
Snakepipe Hollow is an adventure published by Chaosium in 1979 for the fantasy role-playing game RuneQuest, then revised and republished in various editions.
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