Im running a northern, viking themed game, and i was wondering if there were any suggestions on how to set the tone and setting. (terrain, monsters, NPCs)
Download Wayfinder #6 when it comes out (any day now!).
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3.5 Had a hardy race of humans.
- very Nordic (tall, hardy, rugged built)
- they have Cold Resist /5
- no aging penalties (but still gain the positives) to stats.
They gave up 1st. Level feat and only lived 60 years old.
Look at Frozen Breserker PRC from 3.5
- a 5 level class revolved Barbarians and rage producing cold effects.
- maybe convert it to a archetype for a Viking(barbarian) tribe.
I did something similar, with plenty of Inuit mythology shuffled in, for my most recent homebrew world.
If you're shooting for authenticity, this book can be very valuable. Even if you decide not to convert everything into PFRPG, the background info is worthwhile and, JMSO, is worth the investment.
Frog God Games has a line set in the Northlands, might want to look into that as well.
It's available here at Paizo and at www.talesofthefroggod.com . The title is "The Northlands Saga".
Open Design has a cool campaign setting- Midgard: Northlands. As for monsters, Raging Swan has a monster supplement, Bugbears of the Frozen Tears, detailing a tribe of artic bugbears. That last one is a little bit of shameless self promotion as I wrote it :). Both are available for sale here at Paizo.
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Make sure theyt face about 11 bears at some point
Im mainly looking for flavor and encounter suggestions, not products
Random ideas that spring to mind from my memories of historical vikings:
Vikings were famous traders and explorers so you could include some epic voyages by longship.
If memory serves, swords were historically quite rare and valuable, so you could make every sword masterwork but difficult to acquire. They wouldn't be starting equipment unless you were playing a noble. PCs could acquire swords from a powerful defeated foe, or as reward for some great service. If you think your players would accept the idea you could extend the idea to metal armour.
You could also remove coins from the game and make the economy barter based. Jewellery and cattle would be signs of wealth. After the first couple of levels gold pieces are mainly for buying magic items in game mechanical terms anyway.
Hope that helps.
Im running a northern, viking themed game, and i was wondering if there were any suggestions on how to set the tone and setting. (terrain, monsters, NPCs)
I've been planning the same thing myself so I've got a few thoughts on the matter.
The terrain your players are going to be dealing with will be tough, freezing cold and barren in a lot of places. I'd increase the difficulty of survival checks by a small amount to reflect the scarcity of food and the cold temperatures. Frozen waterways will be very common in winter and fall, but flash floods and bogs and swamps will be common in spring and summer.
Your larger fauna will be good examples of native animals: bears, and anything that can really tough out the cold winters. As for monsters, trolls and giants have some built in flavor already. If your using the Pathfinder setting, I recommend reading up on the Land of the Linnorm Kings. It will really help you out.
The architectural styles are generally going to lean towards function over form. Not a lot of extraneous artistic flourishes, but the buildings will be well-crafted and well-looked after. Wooden construction is going to be the most common, stone buildings will be rare. They just don't insulate quite as well as wood I suspect.
Some NPC's would be longboat captains, and raiders. Maybe they're offering spots on the next trip to people who have proven their mettle, and friendly, or not so friendly, contests ae a good way to do that. Axe-throwing, races, wrestling, and hunts are a good example of those sorts of things.
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As someone mentioned, I'd download Wayfinder #6 (out now and FREE).
I'd get the Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Lands of the Linnorm Kings, and probably WotC's OGL/3.5e Frostburn: Mastering the Perils of Ice and Snow.
For fiction, Beowulf is probably the standard, but anything Norse in flavor could add to your game.
Hope that helps.