This setting is perfect for the Dungeon Master who likes to slip in historical fact into his fantasy. For everyone else, who doesn't love Vikings? Check out my full review: Lands of the Linnorm Kings.

Nice book with a great viking style flavor, with some detail on cultures, varius towns, dangerous locations, special payment for death and maiming, and much more. There some fun mosters in here such as Fafneir, the Huldra, Fey animal template and Mountain trolls to name my favorites. If you like viking style settings then this is a book you will want to add to your collection.

The ‘Northern Thing’ has been around for a long, long time in fantasy and fantasy fiction, and Lands of the Linnorm Kings is Paizo’s stab at it. Like the rest of the Pathfinder Campaign Setting books, it is 64 full color pages long, with magnificent cover and inside back cover art, as well as a well done map inside the front cover that shows the location of every place mentioned in the book as well as a few more.
The first and biggest chapter, the Linnorm Kingdoms, is a brief yet information-packed guide to the nation proper. After a three page timeline, you get the various kingdoms. There are five of them, each with its own individual character like Hagreach’s border war with Irrisen and its witchery, trolls, and monsters, or the Ironbound Isles and their desire to reach out to the larger world. The kingdoms all get four pages of coverage, going into their rulers, local culture, and settlements. You also get sections covering the fey and monster-haunted Grungir Forest, complete with a city of talking beasts, and Icemark, home to reindeer-herding nomads.
Next is the Proving Grounds chapter, covering several adventurous locales and adventure ideas for the setting, ranging from the classic “Slay a Linnorm (Norse dragon) and become king” to exploring local dungeons and haunted areas like the rusalka-haunted Black Tarn and Kalva and its savage cannibals. Be warned, a few of the monsters are found in Pathfinder Bestiary 3, so you may want to get that to use this, though it’s not completely necessary.
Third is a chapter on how adventuring in the Linnorm Lands differs from other locales in the larger setting, and it is easily far and away the most unique part of the book. There are well-done rules covering the gaining and losing of reputation, something more valuable than gold among these people. There is a section covering effigies, basically a kind of ritual involving somewhat brutal sacrifices and preparation in exchange for putting very potent curses upon enemies. This is everything from the nithing-pole to the blood eagle to the wicker man. Next comes a section on weregild and ransom, and lastly are some well-chosen unique treasures for your players. The whole book is wonderful, a great source of ideas, but this is the best section from the ‘make it different but keep it simple to use’ viewpoint. I’ve used and read several Viking-based RPG sourcebooks over the years but few have used such basic yet utterly Norse-feeling ideas as this.
Lastly we get an extensive bestiary that includes both monstrous and human foes. You get the classic raider, cannibal berserkers, and monsters such as fey animals, the Scandinavian huldra, the truly horrid mindslaver mold, and Fafnheir. The latter especially is one of THE nastiest monsters ever to show up in a Pathfinder book.
In conclusion, this is far and away one of the best “Viking” books ever done in RPG form. The setting and feel of it is very Norse and it’s done in a way that’s easy to use. If you want something different in feel from the typical European fantasy setting that’s still somewhat familiar, or just want to see how to handle things like PCs developing reputations, get this book. It’s more than worth the money.

I agree with the other reviewers. This is an excellent product. If you're interested in Vikings or in a campaign in Northern Golarion then his book is for you. It has little rules content so its usable for systems other than Pathfinder.

Yet another excellent book from Paizo. In it you have everything you could ever need to run a Viking (or ESV:Skyrim) themed game.

Inside cover has a close up picture, and unlike other Pathfinder setting books everything on the map is covered in the book.

Chapter 1: The Linnorm Kingdoms
Detail history of the Linnorm Kingdoms, followed by four page(Very familiar to those who have the Inner Sea World Guide) write ups of each of the regions. They are all very different despite their Norse influences. I particularly love the Fey of Grungir Forest the Varki human ethnicity the closet thing we get to a Half-Orc homeland in Averaka.

Chapter 2: The Proving Grounds
A variety of story seeds and location of interest to adventurers. The Lair of Fafnheir would make a great high level location while I love the icy fortress of Zar Kragnaral and it's beautiful Frost Giant ruler "The Deathless Jarl".

Chapter 3: Adventuring in the Linnorm Kingdoms
Four things here: Reputation, a system that is interesting. Effigies, which strike terror and curse to those who come near. Really cool, I could see a lot of Big Bads using them around their lairs, especially the Tree of Souls. Wiergild and Ransom, detailing the practice of raiding for captives and them selling them back. We finish off with a couple of magical artifacts.

Chapter 4: Linnorm Kingdoms Bestiary
I really like that they gave use NPCs like "Blackraven Scout" or "Longship Captain". Those will be really helpful to GMs. The real treat here is CR 24 Fafnheir, King of the Linnorms!

So I wanted to be sceptical about this product. Living in the region of this world from whence the vikings set sail to raid the world, my childhood was filled with lore of that glorious people. So when I learned that Paizo was doing a book on the Linnorm Kingdoms, I was excited. I wanted to be sceptical but that just didn't happen. It was Paizo so it had to be good. Even when the book arrived in my mail box and I started reading the thing, I tried so damn hard to be sceptical. But it didn't happen.

See, like every regional sourcebook Paizo has released for the Pathfinder Campaign Setting, this one does not describe every minute detail of viking society. It doesn't reveal the inner workings of Gorum's clergy in the region nor does it give a page-long account of the average farmer's day (yes people, there are indeed farmers in the Lands of the Linnorm Kings). What the book, like every other regional sourcebook to date, does do is provide an unbelievable amount of locations, personalities, and conflicts for us GMs to take to the gaming table and give our players a good time. And it does that damn well.

The book starts out with a gazetteer of the seven kingdoms and a timeline spanning from -624AR to the present date. Each entry discusses the social mindset of the kingdom and then proceeds to describe some of the most interesting locations in the kingdom. These entries are well written and filled to bursting point with adventure material. While each kingdom is a part of the Linnorm Kingdoms, they are all very different and some kingdoms aren't really kingdoms at all but rather wild regions claimed by no Linnorm King. Each kingdom presents its own set of possibilities. If you want to focus on the political tension between the Lands of the Linnorm Kings and Irrisen, then Hagreach is just the kingdom for you. If you find the struggle between tradition and progress to be fascinaing, the Ironbound Isles should keep you busy for a while. If you want to really explore the viking raiders aspect of this viking culture, look no farther than the Broken Bay. And so on and so forth.

The next chapter features specific events and adventure sites that can serve as fodder for the creative GM's mind. These sites and events can all set the stage for entire campaigns set in the Linnorm Kingdoms and, in the case of sea raids, beyond. Each entry includes a stat block containing information about where the site/event is located, its master, and any notable inhabitants as well at least half a page of fluff about the entry.

The third chapter in the book introduces three new mechanics to the game - reputation, effigies, and weregild. Reputation is just that. The mechanic is a representation of your character's reputation based on the adventures he's been on and the experiences he'd had during those adventures. It allows the character bo "buy" certain advantages, such as a favor, a gift or loan, or weregild payment. Effigies are used to strike fear into the hearts of enemies. Sample effigies are the standard effigy (such as heads mounted on spikes), blood eagle, the nithing pole, the tree of souls, and the wicker man. Finally the weregild mechanic represents an aspect of viking law that allows a person to pay with money for any crime he may have committed. The chapter wraps up with a description of three magic items - the banner of the ancient kings, the harp of storms, and the greatsword Rixbrand.

The last chapter in the book is the bestiary. It features three monsters (the huldra, the mindslaver mold, and the mountain troll), one template (the fey animal template), four generic NPCs (the berserker cannibal, the Blackraven scout, the longboat captain, and the ulfen raider), and one very unique NPC - Fafnheir, the Father of All Linnorms.

This book is a must-have for GMs running games set in Golarion. Even for games not specifically set in the Linnorm Kingdoms, there's a lot of cool information to get from this book. The new mechanics are decent enough and I could see effigies and reputation being used in non-Linnorm Kingdoms games. The bestiary is just phenomenal. I really enjoyed the generic NPCs and I hope it's something Paizo will continue doing. If you're running a game set in the Linnorm Kingdoms, those generic NPCs will come in very handy.

The Lands of the Linnorm Kings is one of the most robust Pathfinder Campaign setting books I have read. Paizo has really stepped up their quality, as this book contains detailed and well written regional information, campaign integration guidelines (including a reputation rules-set), and a nice bestiary (with some generic NPCs). This book was written by a dream team of Paizo authors, Matthew Goodall, Jonathan Keith, Colin McComb, and Rob McCreary and contained everything I expected from a campaign supplement with an attention to detail that took it above and beyond.

The regional information section includes a timeline and details on the areas of Broken Bay, Grungir Forest, Hagreach (Which includes the city of Trollheim), Icemark, the Ironbound Islands, Southmoor, and the Thanelands. Each area contains background information, a gazetteer, information on the rulers, and a map of the capital (or significant landmark). This section was really interesting to me as it gave much more detailed information on areas I have played and run in PFS. I particularly liked the area on Hagreach as I have always been curious about Trollheim, the Blackravens, and Freyr Darkwine.
The following chapter, the Proving Grounds, is a list of adventure sites and events. When I first skimmed this chapter I dismissed it as adventure hooks and MacGuffins. When I took the time to read through it, I realized that they are more like adventure seeds. Each section includes a short stat block with a location, master, and notable inhabitants. It then has detailed information for building adventures around a location and an event. It gives a GM everything they need in order to build a rich adventure without leading them by the nose through a prebuilt scenario. Awesome job Paizo!

Chapter 3 has tools useful for GMs running campaigns in the Linnorm Kingdoms or any Viking setting including rules for reputation, effigies, weregild and ransom, and stats on three powerful magical items. As I read through this chapter I imagined myself either playing or running a game with Viking raids, adventuring to dark caves and fighting linnorms, massive Viking combat, and delving deep into the Ulfen culture. This chapter seemed very specialized in its use and will be widely ignored by players and GMs who focus on PFS and those not interested in creating their own Viking campaign setting.

The Bestiary goes a little beyond what I expect from a campaign book. We are given the usual encounter tables (all bestiary 1, 2, and this book) and a collection of creatures. We have the usual monsters of the region (5 new creatures!), plus four detailed generic NPC! This was my second favorite section since it gifted me with unique monstery goodness plus some nice statblocks to aid me with Ulfen encounters and character concept inspiration.
Who should buy this book?

• Anyone interested in running a Viking game. It has plenty of details to run a game in the intended region or the location details, adventure seeds, and rulesets can be easily ported to any campaign setting .
  
• Readers who want to deepen their understanding of another awesome region of Golarion.
  
• GMs and Players looking to deepend their Ulfen Characters’ backgrounds.
  
• PFS Judges who want to run richer locations and encounters in scenarios based in this region.
  

I really enjoyed this book. It really brought the Lands of the Linnorm Kings into sharper clarity for me. Previously i did not have much interest in this country, but now I am very interested in it.

There are only two negatives i can say about this one. One is the same problem I had with Rule of Fear, the book about Ustalav. As in that book this one also has chapters for the individual areas, but then certain sites within the area are detailed in another chapter. This was annoying in Rule of Fear and still annoying in this book. It just makes for more flipping back and forth then should really be necessary. It would be so much better in both books just to have that information in the same chapter section.

The only other negative i would say associated with this book, is that there was not a whole AP devoted to this area. Just a really brief stopover during the current(and to me, boring) AP.

All in all, this book is well worth the price, and i hope that Paizo eventually sets an entire AP in this area.