Sagas of the Icelanders

Oh, I totally missed the "I have ideas bit". Do tell!

By Odin's Ravens this is good stuff!

I only just last night got to read through the whole rules, even though I've been meaning to since you posted this on praxis. I think you've done some really exciting stuff to make the game your own while still using the AW rules (like the either/or stats, the gender based moves and so forth). Awesome stuff.

Also, thanks much for the kind mention of Ragonarok in the Ludography, your research and detail really puts mine to shame.

I love and heartily endorse this hack.  More!  More! 

That is all for now.

Thoughts about Matrons:
Why Matrons? Why not Grandmothers? You have a maiden, and the basic Woman character is explicitly very possibly a mother, so that leaves only the older woman aspect available.  The magic-weaver has many of the qualities I'd generally consider the realm of the grandmothers, but I can see keeping them separate in order to have young women magicians. Personally, I kind of like the push of "you can be a magic-weaver, but only if you've lived long enough".

If by Matron you mean a woman grown, no longer a maiden:
Beer-giver - about hospitality and social status: Versed move
Hearth-keeper - about protecting what's yours:  Fierce move
Counselor - about supporting your interests, a flip on the 'goad a man' move, roll on Versed

If by Matron you mean a woman of age:
Memory-holder - you were around back then, and you know the true history: Wyrd move
Mother of many - you have many descendants who will support you: Bond +1
Hearty - you've long since outlived all the local diseases: Hard move

Jeff, I have to thank you, too. Seeing your hack on John's blog made me jumpstart this project which had been in the "so, it would be cool to write a serious viking game" phase for a long time. That and AW made it finally happen.

Meg, the distinctions between the seidkona (in before Jason Morningstar kicks my ass for not using the proper spelling - I'm on my sister's mac and it's a pain in the ass finding the right buttons yet alone special characters), the young woman and the matron are pretty arbitrary really. I think I divided them up that way just go enforce some flavour. I might get rid of them all together and just leave a list of moves to choose from...I dunno yet.

And yeah, the Matron was supposed to be an older woman in charge of the household (in the case men died, left or found unable to rule) - as opposed to the Young Woman which is supposed to be more of a traditional wife and/or maiden role (kidnapped in Ireland). Grandmother is a great name, better than matron by far. Consider it stolen. The moves are sweet, too. I'll probably do a mix and match of those.

Right now, I'm itching to make the Godi (Morningstar alert!) a kit on its own, which I think it deserves. However, that would mean the women get one kit less and I can't think of an additional one. Except maybe if I made the Wanderer a gender-agnostic role but I'm not sure it fits.

Oh, and before I forget: expect an update by Sunday or Monday. Then the game will be almost complete.

Glad to help :) On hearing more about your concept, I think you could use any combination of the six moves I suggested. I'm looking forward to seeing the next bit!

Here we go:
https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AXWhY8dTQpdEZGN3NnI4ZjRfMTAwZnI3bW5nZGs&hl=en

I think it's now at a point where I can't really add anything without it seeing some serious play first.

I should also play more straight AW, there's still a lot about Afflictions and Fronts which I'm missing and should eventually port to this hack. As it is, it's completely lacking Fronts. (But I guess any competent GM with some AW experience should know what to do.) Vincent said something about handling disease as a front in regards to the new Angel kit. I need to see the rewrite for that before I start writing up rules for how to handle Cold, Sickness, Famine and other types of Afflictions I'm thinking about.

If you do play, I'd be extremely happy to hear about your experience. I'd be also glad if someone came up with a fourth female kit or suggested another way to balance the gender moves.

As it is, the document also lacks and serious guidelines for how to handle Bonds. I think it should evolve in play, you know prescriptive and descriptive.

What else...uhm...no, I think that's that. Have fun!

I'm pushing to see this get some play in our group, but at the moment our schedule is almost completely filled with other games already in progress.

In the meantime, I would be very happy if at least a few of you could take your time and tell me:
-which moves you're the most excited about?
-which moves leave you going "meh"?
-do you think anything is missing?
-do you think anything goes against the spirit of the source material? (icelandic sagas, the prose edda, viking mythology, real viking history)

First off, I'm really excited about this game overall, and I hope I get a chance to play it in the nearish future!

Moves-wise, I think I'm most excited about goad a man/insult a man and the interaction with defend your good name. That stuff is hot.

Also, the gender division in the rules is really compelling and genre-building. Very cool.

There aren't really any moves that, on reading, leave me 'meh'. I'm not sure about in play, of course. The closest I can point out, by way of trying to be helpful, is that the preach move for a Christian seems like an important move to have, but the options seem a little flat. I dunno. Like I said, I'm not even meh about that, just less enthusiastic :)

I think this captures the source material (as I know it) really well. Should there be rules for getting drunk/drinking contests? That's about the only thing 'missing' I can come up with right now.

I'm sorry to not provide more constructive criticism (and I *might* be using an older version of the PDF, my downloading has been screwy recently) but this really does look like a swell game.

Just read through the updated version (hooray for non-peak hours on my crappy wireless connection), and I'm even more excited about it! I think the Wanderer is the coolest role (mostly because I *really* like the role of wyrd as presented), but all of them look playable and interesting. Good stuff!

It seems like the missing female role is the outsider, kind of like the Wanderer. Possible ways to approach that - Valkyrie, Widow, Queen, Artisan - each of which would have it's own complications. Personally, I like the idea of a Valkyrie type that's good at fighting, good with animals, and can reach a situation. She's not so good with relationships, though.

It seems like the missing female role is the outsider, kind of like the Wanderer.

"Shieldmaiden", maybe?

It seems like the missing female role is the outsider, kind of like the Wanderer. Possible ways to approach that - Valkyrie, Widow, Queen, Artisan - each of which would have it's own complications. Personally, I like the idea of a Valkyrie type that's good at fighting, good with animals, and can reach a situation. She's not so good with relationships, though.

Yes!

Quote from: Margolotte on July 19, 2010, 03:07:52 PM

It seems like the missing female role is the outsider, kind of like the Wanderer.

"Shieldmaiden", maybe?

Double yes!

*high fives Neon Fox*

*high fives back*

I love this hack.  I'm not liable to be able to sell my group on it, but I love it anyway. :)