Hey everyone, I am running a Viking themed campaign and I'm having "writer's block" on coming up with a solo Rogue adventure with a Viking theme to it. Can anyone give me some ideas to get the creative juices going???
The campaign is viking based
low magic
human centric
Currently in a fringe wilderness village township
Thanks ahead of time
mother fricking loki, son. he was the original prankster.
also these are actual vikings right? like, the ones who had explorers, thieves, poets? many of those could be rogues.
mother fricking loki, son. he was the original prankster.
also these are actual vikings right? like, the ones who had explorers, thieves, poets? many of those could be rogues.
Yes the same. LOL! Just trying to get ideas for a solo rogue in a viking world......
You could use a slayer instead of rogue, since its close to one, yet might better fit a viking theme. If using a low magic, dark age theme, locks and traps are fairly primitive and perhaps rarely used. At least from my perspective many of the rogue abilities are too civilized for viking theme. A slayer, being a hybrid between rogue and ranger have Sneak Attack, but tracking, quarry, slayer talents, studied target is kind of like favored enemy in the bonuses it provides - all condusive to a stealthy viking game.
A solo game could be a reprisal for a raid on your viking village by an enemy clan. You are trying to recover your sister taken as prisoner, or recover a weapon/item important to your clan stolen in the raid. Perhaps the menfolk were killed and only you remain alive to pursue the captors - you were doing some activity away from the village when the raid occurred, and just missed their escape. You're now tracking them using your slayer abilities to achieve vengeance.
At least from my perspective many of the rogue abilities are too civilized for viking theme..
>implying that some other culture of that period would be considered "civilized"
>implying vikings did not have cities
Are you asking for a skill based Challenge?
If. Not just make a solo adventure and make sure it is possible to do it with the power level available to the rogue player. It dosent need to have ROGUE written all over.
Pehaps let him break in to a tomb, and abvoid the traps, to steal the broken cup of Hymir or somthing like that.
At least from my perspective many of the rogue abilities are too civilized for viking theme..>implying that some other culture of that period would be considered "civilized"
>implying vikings did not have cities
I really wasn't meaning civilized as in cities, rather as in technology. The Arabs were pretty advanced having access to Greek mathematics and science in the same time period. China had gunpowder. Northern Europe, especially 2 or 3 centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire was sparse in comparitive technology. The longboat and clinker-built hull design was the viking technological achievement, plus possible navigational aid advances.
I guess I think of the more earlier Viking Period when I imagine it for my games, rather than the height of the same period.
It depends on what this rogue can do. Is he sneaky? Perhaps a raiding party has enslaved his village and he must escape capture. Or maybe he's a shifty trader that's made an enemy of a prominent Jarl. Could it be that he has found a key that unlocks a frost giant's forgotten keep, and must now rally an adventuring party, evading thieves and authorities? As long as you give the player a few obstacles that can be overcome with tact as opposed to just fists you'll be in the right direction.
Well, having a rogue that has to deal with a large band of warriors (mixed fighters and some barbarians) in order to escape/save someone/get an item? could be interesting.
Basically, make a game with elements from the stealth genre of videogames- it is somewhat possible to win a straight fight, but it hurts, and there are too many enemies to actually do it often. Just looking at videos of that online should give you some design elements and objectives
You might want to throw out the normal fighting and sneaking for stealth kills (at least when things go right). Obviously there should be exceptions (people wearing particular protective armor).
OF course, that doesn't necessarily mean you can't have room for social elements as well. Just remember- LIE, CHEAT, STEAL. You have a goal, and no one will stand in your way, but fighting fair is for chumps that want to get a spear in the gut.
WOW Thanks guys for all of the ideas and thoughts. You are really helping as I read these. Very much appreciated
Vikings, and Northmen in general, were infamous for sacking monasteries and making off with the religious paraphernalia as booty. Seems like that would be a very rogue-like endeavor, and could involve some dungeon-esque crawls through the monastery's corridors and catacombs.
2 raiding boats enter each side of an island. Something horrible and bloody happens to one of the groups.
A young untested warrior must survive with only his wits and luck, and make it over to the other side of the island.
what killed the others?
Are there other survivors?
Has the other group fared better?
Are there anybody else living on this island?
Move swift and silent, and stay alive.
2-3 centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire? You know that's about 300 years before the age of Vikings right?
I would say the formative years of the Viking Period prior to actually reaching England, Ireland, Scotland, Normandy, when raids were only between other Scandinavian clans and jarldoms, around the North and Baltic Seas began around 800 AD (which is 3.5 centuries after the fall of Rome, so I was a little off). Also about the same time the Swedes began moving east towards Russia and Constantinople, though they didn't reach those lands for a century or so. I'd say the entirety of the Viking Era was between 800 AD and 1066, when Harald Hadrada failed to retake England at Stamford Bridge. After which the vikings in England were absorbed into the English culture and the Swedes into Russian culture.