B/X/C Vikings: Games and Sports

This will either be the last or second to last of my Viking related posts for a while. I seem to have gotten over the crazy. Just so we're clear, though, this section is almost wholly adapted from Vikings and Valkyries.

First read:
Introduction
Character Classes
Equipment and Combat

VIKING GAMES AND SPORTS

Arm Wrestling – Add 1d3 to each contestant’s strength score. The higher total wins. Ties go to the character with the higher constitution.

Braid Cutting – grab a saucy tavern wench with braided hair and hold her up against a wall. The goal is to cut off each braid with a thrown axe. Fun for showing off talent as a solution to minor disputes. Each time the axe is thrown, make an attack roll. if the total is 20 or more, the axe cuts one of the braids. If the roll is less than 10, the axe misses altogether. If the roll is greater than 10, but less than 20, it’s time for a damage roll, the mood is blown, and the tavern is messy.

Shield Running – This game involves two or more contestants running across the tops of shields held overtop of an indefinite mass of assemble warriors. Contestants must run as quickly and nimbly as possible without losing their balance. Roll a d20 and combat the result to the character’s dexterity score. If the result is higher, the character’s dexterity, the character falls. The contestant with the highest total that does not fall aground is the victory. Falling from the shield-roof inflicts 1d6 points of damage and much taunting and embracement.

Drinking – Characters have a drinking limit of 3 + their construction adjustment, after which, a save vs. poison must be made for each additional drink. On a failed, the character suffers a cumulative -2 penalty to all saving throws, missile to hit rolls, armor class, and anything else that seems appropriate. If the roll fails to exceed half the score necessary to save, the character passes out for 2d6 hours. On a successful save, the character rolls an addition die of damage in melee (using the single highest result). The victory of a drinking contest usually goes to the last man standing or the winner of a resulting brawl.

B/X/C Vikings: Equipment and Combat

First read:
Introduction
Character Classes


EQUIPMENT

Standard coinage is silver rather than gold. All prices are in silver rather than gold pieces and characters begin player with 3d6x100 silver coins.

No plate mail, yet. To make up for this, shields instead provide a +2 rather than a +1 bonus to AC. A helmet provides a +1 to AC. A horn helmet can be used to deal 1d3 points of damage when charging with a successful attack.

Weapons are generally limited to battle axe, hand axe, sax, spear, sword, bow, sling. All weapons deal 1d6 points of damage. Two-handed weapons roll two dice and take the higher result.

Battle Axe – two-handed weapon and can break hafts and shields
Hand Axe – can be thrown and can break hafts and shields
Sax – can be used in even the tightest spaces and even when grappling
Spear – can be thrown or used in one or two hands
Sword – can’t be broken can break hafts
Bow – much farther range than sling
Sling – ammunition can be found just about anywhere

COMBAT

Going Berserk – Fighters engaged in melee combat can work themselves into a savage, uncontrollable rage. Similarly, half-giants must succeed a save vs. spell after each round of combat to avoid going berserk. While in this state of battle madness, a berserker will always act first in the initiative and roll an additional die for damage and take the highest result, but are unable to disengage from melee combat. So long as there is a single opponent standing, the character will continue to fight to the death, regardless of the risks.

Shield Bashing – Fighters can alternatively use a shield to grant them a +2 bonus to hit on a single attack in exchange for the bonus to AC.

Breaking Hafts and Shields – An attacker may choose to attack an opponent’s weapon haft or shield instead of attacking the opponent himself. It can only be attempted with an axe or sword, and only axes can break shields. The to-hit roll ignores the opponent’s worn armor, but not dexterity bonus to AC. If the attack succeeds, roll damage as normal. 3 or higher and a haft is broken, 5 or higher to break a shield.

Maiming Opponents – On a roll of a natural 20, a character may choose either to deal maximum damage or permanently maim his opponent (and roll damage normally). Hands can be severed by sword and axes; eyes pierced saxes, spears, swords, and missiles; disfigured by any except spears and missiles.

Bar Room Brawling and Wresting – This includes punches, kicks, head buts, eye-gouging, and any other crude forms of unarmed combat. An attack is made vs. a character’s unarmored AC (dexterity and shields are still taken into account). If the attack is successful, the two characters are considered to be brawling (and damage is dealt). Attacks continue to ignore armor, and weapons longer than a sax are of no use. Fighting unarmed deals only 1d3 (+ Strength adjustment) points of [possibly nonlethal] damage, but a roll of an 18, 19, or 20 indicates a knockout for 2d6 rounds. Disengaging from an unfinished brawl requires a successful attack, but does not deal damage.

B/X/C Vikings: Classes

First See:
B/X/C Viking: Introduction

CHARACTER CLASSES
Characters can be Dwarves, Fighters, Half-Giants, Mages, Thieves, Skalds, and Wizards. Characters may not advance past 14th level.

Dwarves – No infravision. After reaching 9th level, dwarves may forge magical arms and armor as a magic-user.

Fighters – There are several special combat maneuvers that can only be used by fighters, such as going berserk and shield bashing.

Mages and Wizards – There are two types of magic-users: wizened old Wizards, knowledgeable but weakened with age and powerful, arrogant Mages. The first is represented by the magic-user class. The second by the “elf” class, only without infravision, additional languages, immunity to the paralyzing touch of ghouls, and have the normal chance to find secret doors.

Skalds – Skalds are warrior-poets and collectors of Nordic lore. Sitting around the firesides, Skalds inspire their comrades with tales of honor in battle, the glories of victory, and the hardships of loss. (This class is based on the Bard is JB’s B/X Companion.)

• Prime Requisite: Charisma
• HD: d6
• Experience Progression: As Clerics
• To Hit, & Save Progression: as Elves
• Weapons and Armor: Any
• A Skald’s poetry can inspire those around him or even create magical effects. Skalds learn to produce the following spell-like powers at different levels of experience.
• A skald learns one additional language for every level after first (in addition to Nodic and any languages from high intelligence).
  A bard has a chance base on level to know useful legends or lore regarding geographical regions, heroic personages, and legendary magic items. This chance is the same as a thief’s chance to pick pockets.

Skald Spell-Like Powers By Level
1st level: Bless (requires 1 turn to take affect)
2nd level: Remove Fear (requires 1 round to take affect)
3rd level: Instill Fear* (requires 1 minute to take affect)
4th level: Charm Person (requires 1 turn to take affect)
5th level: Dispel Magic (requires 1 turn to take affect)
6th level: Remove Curse (requires 1 turn to take affect)
7th level: Phantasmal Force (requires 1 turn to take affect)
8th level: Cause Fear (requires 1 minuet to take effect)
9th level: Ant-Magic Shell (requires 1 turn to take affect)
* Forces one humanoid creature per level of the Skald within earshot to make a moral roll or flee/surrender.

Thieves – Just as likely to be spies, scouts, woodsmen, and men of cunning than tomb robber or adventurous burglars. Thieves can Track as they would find/remove traps.

Half-Giants – Half-Giants stand head and shoulders above most mortals and are viewed with superstitious awe by humans. While monstrously strong, half-giants are not especially agile or clever and tend to be rude or unkempt.

• Requirements: 13 or greater strength and constitution; 12 or less dexterity; 9 or less intelligence, and charisma
• Prime Requisite: Strength
• HD: d10
• XP, To Hit, & Save Progression: as Halfling (max 8th level)
• Weapons and Armor: Any, although armor must be refit to a half-giant and costs twice the normal amount.
• Half-Giants must make a saving throw vs. spell after each around of combat to avoid going berserk.

B/X/C Vikings: Introduction

A couple of days ago, I did a brief post on Viking and Valkyries supplement to Mazes and Minotaurs. Long have I been enamored with the idea of a Viking themed campaign, but never has this dream been realized. Well, once again, I can't keep Viking D&D out of my head, so I decided to have a little fun and began to create a series Nordic-themed posts. in lieu of Zak's "give us the setting in the form of rules", I've gone ahead and written them to suite B/X/C Dungeons and Dragons (the "C" standing for JB's B/X Companion).

I'd appreciate some feedback on this set of posts, because once I'm done, I'm going to roll them all together and format it into a PDF for you all to enjoy and hopefully use. The more feedback, the the final product will be.

On a final note, I'm not really trying to stick to Norse mythology. I'm taking it into consideration, but often only using it for inspiration. For this mini-project I'm going for a more gonzo approach rather than a mythological or historical one.

Monsters in Midgaurd

A couple of days ago, Blue Maru asked whether there would be monsters and magic in my viking campaign

Yes, there will be both magic and monsters the viking age, but neither will be as prevalent as in a normal D&D campaign. One of the reason I chose to work with Chainmail as the bases for my combat system is to de-D&Dize the mechanics and, hopefully, some of the underlying assumptions of the game. But Anyway, Blue Maru, you asked about monsters and maqgic. Well, I'll cover monsters today and magic in a day or two.

I have plans for a number of monsters appearing in the campaign. The most prominent of those are elves, dwarves, giants, ghosts, faeries, and, of course, dragons. Note that I have added my own additions and subtraction to these creatures, and these representations are not mythologically accurate accounts of Norse mythology.

Elves: The spirits men who have made exceptionally great or terrible achievements in life may rematerialize as elves after their death and endowed magical powers, which they use both for the benefit and the injury of men. There are two types of elves, light elves, who where heroes of men and live in Álfheim, and dark elves, who were the bane of men and reside in the cavernous realm of Svartalfheim, deep under the earth--fearful of the sun's rays. Elves retain their past personalities and skills as they pass

Dwarves: Dwarves are skilled craftsmen, and most of their magic involves labour, craftsmanship, and metallurgy. In their underground mountain hall, Nidavellir, dwarves make the treasures of the gods (such as Thor's hammer) and hold a repository of secret wisdom. They live under the earth, away from light, because sunlight causes them to turn to stone. As a people, dwarves are stubborn and easily offended.

Giants: Giants are characterized by their hideous size, superhuman strength, and are often act in opposition to the gods. Although most gaints appear as oversized men, some giants sport claws, fangs, and deformed features, such as having two heads. Unlike the average D&D giant, some are extremely wise and knowledgeable; others are dumber than rocks.

Ghosts: Ghosts of dead people. Some dead people, not content to lie in their grave mounds, live on after death. Usually, these are people who committed an evil deed during their life. The ghosts return to harass the living, causing illness, insanity, and death. The only way to force a ghost to move on to the afterlife, is to fulfill the dreams and desires that they had in life or to strike them with a magical sword.

Faeries: Spirits of nature, faeries reside outside the realm of good and evil; they are tricksters of the purist sort, playing games with mortals that pass into their dominion. Faeries are sometimes attached to particular families or natural landmarks and will use their menacing games to harass the families enemies or intruders of the land.

Dragons: These great, winged lizards make their homes in cavernous lairs where they amass knowledge and treasure stolen from men, elves, dwarves, and giants. It is said that the dragon's fiery breath can slay the mightiest of giants and melt the strongest metals.

Armor of the Viking World

There were three main types, pieces rather, of armor during the viking age: the shield, the helm, and mail (chainmail). Of those three pieces, only shields were cheep enough to be of any widespread use. Helms and mail where extremely expensive and offered little protection compared to shields. If you could afford a helm or shirt of mail, you would have one, but only chieftains and war leaders were likely to such funds.

Shields: Shields where circular and nearly a meter in diameter. They were made of wooden boards and had a central hole for an iron hand-grip, which was riveted to the back of the boards. The fronts of shields where reinforced with leather and pained with family and village crests. In addition, to their defensive uses, shields could be employed aggressively to knock an opponent or his weapon off balance, making to easier to strike a telling blow. Axe blows had devastating effects on shields.

Mail: Mail was a protective iron fabric made up of thousands of interlocking iron rings. During the Viking age, mail usually was worn in the form of a mail shirt that went down, past the elbows and hung past the thigh. Padded garments, such as many layers of thin linen or randier hide, where always worn underneath a mail shirt to absorb the shock of a blow, since the mail itself only really prevented against slashing. Once again, I'd like to repeat that mail was exceptionally and limitingly expensive. Anyone who could have afforded one would certainly have wanted one, but probably few people could afford one.

Helms: Helms where expensive to buy, difficult to craft, and provided protection only to the head. For that reason, helms where even more rare than shields or mail. However, very few broken or damaged helms have ever been discovered, meaning that the helmets worn during the viking age did a great job protecting the bearer's head.

As I mentioned before, I will be using a pseudo Chainmail based combat system for this campaign. All characters are assigned an attack class (unarmed, light, medium, or heavy) and an armor class (unarmed, light, medium, or heavy) based on what arms and armor the character uses. For each piece of defensive equipment (helm, mail, or shield) a character employs, increase the character's armor class by one step. Therefore, a character wearing a helm and using a shield would have medium armor.

The matrix below lists the number (rolled on a d6) necessary to hit an opponent with a certain armor class with a certain attack class. A character wielding an axe in two hands would need to roll a 4 or higher to hit an opponent wearing mail and using a shield.

Weaponry of the Viking World (Part 2)

In just about any edition of D&D, there is a plethora of weapons to choose from. In the viking age, not so much. In this campaign, I'm planning on their being five standard weapons: spears, axes, swords, saxes (singe edged daggers), and bows. With that few choices, there is the opportunity to make each weapon unique.

For this game I will be using a pseudo Chainmail based combat system. All characters are given attack class (unarmed, light, medium, or heavy) and a armor class (unarmed, light, medium, or heavy) based on what arms and armor the character uses. For each piece of defensive equipment (helm, mail, or shield) a character employs, increase the character's armor class by one step. Therefore, a character wearing a helm and using a shield would have medium armor.

All weapons deal 1d6 points of damage per hit. The attack class of a weapon, depends on its size, speed, and ability to penetrate armor.

Axe: Medium. +1 damage when wielded in two hands.

Bows: Light. 240ft range. May make one additional attack per round.

Sax: Light. Can be used even in extremely constricted location. Strikes last in the initial round of combat, but strikes first from then on.

Spear: Medium. Requires two hands. Strikes first in the initial round of combat, but strikes last from then on. 30ft range when thrown.

Sword: Heavy. Elegant and exceptionally expensive.

The matrix below lists the number (rolled on a d6) necessary to hit an opponent with a certain armor class with a certain attack class. A character wielding an axe in two hands would need to roll a 4 or higher to hit an opponent wearing mail and using a shield.

Weaponry of the Viking World (Part 1)

Laws of the late Viking period show that all free men were expected to own weapons, and magnates were expected to provide them for their men. The main offensive weapons were the spear, sword and battle-axe, although bows and arrows and other missiles were also used. Weapons were carried not just for battle, but also as symbols of their owners' status and wealth. They were therefore often finely decorated with inlays, twisted wire and other adornments in silver, copper and bronze.

Spears: The spear was most common weapon. Spears consisted of an iron blade on a wooden shaft, often of ash and 2 to 3m in length, used for both thrusting and throwing. The blades varied in shape from broad leaf shapes to long spikes. Skilled spearsmen are said to have been able to throw two spears at once using both hands, or even to catch a spear in flight and hurl it back with deadly effect. Compared to swords and axes, spears where most effective at piercing mail.

Axes: Scandinavian raiders did not wield gigantic, double-headed axes. No, viking axes were light, fast, and well balanced weapons with a cutting edge no larger than 6 inches (3-4 inches was most common). Depending on the length of the haft, axes where wielded either with a shield or with both hands, each style providing both offensive and defensive advantages. Compared to both swords and spears, axes were extremely effective at destroying enemy shields.

Swords: Swords were very costly to make, and a sign of high status. a typical sword was worth the price of 16 cows. The blades were usually double-edged and up to 90cm in length. They were worn in leather-bound wooden scabbards. Early blades were pattern-welded, a technique in which strips of wrought iron and mild steel were twisted and forged together, with the addition of a hardened edge. Thanks to their fully metal bodies, swords were stable, tough to damage, and easily reparable. It is for this fact that swords where often employed to cut through the hafts of spear and axes.

Most imformatino take directly from: BBC: Viking Weapons and Warfare

Bloody Battles of Northern Barbarians Clashing Swords and Axes with Pious Mainlanders

Over the last six month, my thought of running a viking age campaign have been growing. Stuck in the back of my skull, festering and awaiting the day to be let out and fully realized. That day has not come, but hopefully it is on its way. With the summer coming and a couple members of our group flying off for the holiday, I have been becoming more and more hopeful that an opportunity will present itself. My imagination yearns for raging tempests, bloody battles of northern barbarians clashing swords and axes with pious mainlanders, smoke from feasts after the return of a successful raid.

In my free moments over the last couple days, I've been researching choice bits of information regarding the viking age. Thus far, I've come across two key sources that are both expansive enough to provide enough data to base my endeavor on and are concise enough not to be overwhelming: BBC: The Ancient History of Vikings and Hurstwic, a loosely affiliated group based in New England with an interest in the societies and peoples who lived in Northern Europe during the Viking age.

This doesn't mean I'm going to try and make every detail historically accurate, just that I want to have some idea about what the 8th to 12th century Scandinavian world was like. This is a game not a History Channel special feature.

I've decided to start the campaign in a mid-size viking village ruled over by a young and fervorous king (I reserve the right to make up words on my own blog). The King is demanding taxes to fun a military campaign against the mainlanders with the intention to raid, conquer, and ultimately colonize. The village that the player character live in, however, does not have the funds to pay what the king demands. The village must figure out how to raise the demanded fund (raiding the mainland, making a deal with the dwarves to work their mines), face the wrath and might of the King (fortify the town and hope for the best), or make their way to the mainland and establish a village outside of the King's domain. The decision will ultimately be in the hands of the player characters with a few choice NPCs thrown in to play devil's advocate.

The situation above will only the beginning and will, hopefully, creating a starting point for exploration of a Midguardian sandbox adventure. What do you all think?