PZiviani

It's time for a progress update! I have finished writing the book. The complete manuscript is now in Chaosium's hands. I have not heard from them yet about a publication date, but I will post news with regards to that when I can. The final page count should be around 200 pages. Mythic Iceland presents a setting that blends the Sagas with fairytales of Iceland, focused on the Pagan Commonwealth Period from 930 to 1050, and is written so that both purely historical and fairy-tale inspired campaigns are supported. This is the list of chapters (this may change as Chaosium prepares the book for publication): - History of Mythic Iceland - Character Creation - Life in Saga Age Iceland - Law and Government - Norse and Christian Religion - Magic in Mythic Iceland - Traveller's Guide to Mythic Iceland - The Hidden People - Álfheimur, The World of the Elves - The Lands to the West - Greenland and Wineland - The Known World - Going Viking - Running a game of Mythic Iceland - Creatures of Icelandic Sagas and Fairy Tales - A complete adventure for Mythic Iceland set in pre-conversion times - Appendix: Cthulhu Dark Ages Iceland - A complete Cthulhu Dark Ages scenario

In Mythic Iceland, a BRP scenario book I am writing, Berserker Rage is one of the benefits a character earns by having a high Allegiance score towards the god Odin. The effects are: Hit points are doubled, all successful attacks do maximum weapon damage, one extra attack per round, also the character ignores the CONx5 check for going unconscious due to massive damage. The character can no longer choose which body area he wants to attack and must roll for that, and there is a risk of attacking friendly companions near him. For each round of combat during berserker rage, the character loses one Power Point, and he will eventually collapse once all the Power Points are used up. If the character wants to snap out of berserker state earlier, he may attempt a WILLx3 roll. The rules above are an attempt to get as close as possible to the descriptions of berserk warriors in the Icelandic Sagas, specially in Egils Saga.

Mythic Iceland - Viking Age adventures in the Land of Fire and Ice Most chapters are on finished form. I have actually found it difficult to know when to stop adding stuff to the book! I am working at the moment on finishing the sample adventures, the Creatures chapter, Lands to the West chapter, as well as the Cthulhu Dark Ages material to be included in the book. Here is the list of chapters: 1 - Introduction 2 - History of Mythic Iceland - Covering Nordic myth of creation and Mythic Iceland's place within it; historical info from the settlement age up to end of Commonwealth period 3 - Character Creation - New skills, rule changes from BRP core, new wealth system, Icelandic names with translations, etc 4 - Life in Saga Age Iceland - Lots of information about life in Viking Age Iceland 5 - Law and Government - Assemblies, laws, and a new rule system for resolving legal disputes 6 - Religion - Norse gods tied to BRP allegiance system, rituals, temples, conversion to christianity 7 - Magic - New free-form magic system based on Nordic futhark runes 8 - Traveller's Guide - Description of thirty-three locations in Iceland and the myths connected to them, along with adventure seeds for each of those locations 9 - Elves, The Hidden People - How to use the hidden people in your game 10 - The Lands to the West - Greenland and Vinland colonies 11 - The Wider World - Expanding the game to the rest of the Viking World and wider Europe 12 - Mythic Creatures of Iceland - Twenty new creatures from Icelandic legend, with BRP stats 13 - Adventures - Two medium-length adventures 14 - Cthulhu Dark Ages Iceland - Iceland setting for Cthulhu Dark Ages, focusing on the old Icelandic tales of witchery, the undead, demons and evil monsters. Two short adventures included. I am hoping to be able to submit the finished manuscript sometime around October.

The Mythic Iceland setting is a mix of the the Iceland of the Sagas, with the magic and the fantastic creatures of old Icelandic folktales. A lot of research has gone into being as faithful to those sources as possible. I have been playtesting the setting with Icelandic gamers, and listening to all their comments and advice on what fits and what does not fit with what they know of the Sagas and the Commonwealth period. That playtesting advice from people that have grown up studying all the main Sagas has been invaluable. With regards to the setting, the only material in the book that goes beyond what can be learned from the medieval sources is where the magical creatures are concerned. Trolls, giants, and specially the elves are mentioned on the Sagas and other texts but never in much detail. This lack of detail about mythic creatures can be frustrating when writing about them, but in a way this is also a blessing as it allows me to fill in the blanks with my own ideas while still making sure that those ideas fit with the Sagas and the folktales. Still, I am including a section at the end of every chapter detailing how the information presented there can be stripped of all fantasy elements, for the folks who want to play a strictly historical game in viking age Iceland. Regarding the Cthulhu Dark Ages material in the book, that material will not be integral to the setting in any way. Mythic Iceland will be a BRP setting book, not a CoC book. The idea is to include a short chapter in the end of the book about how to use Iceland as a setting for Cthulhu Dark Ages. That chapter will concentrate on the darker tales of Icelandic folklore that fit the atmosphere of a CoC game, and will also discuss important events that occurred in the year 1000 in Iceland and how the GM can use those on his CDA campaign. Some classic Mythos creatures will figure in this chapter as well, of course, but not heavily.

Nice to see the continuing interest in this thread for a fantasy Iceland setting! I have been hard at work writing Mythic Iceland for the past two years, and if everything goes according to plan the manuscript should be ready to hand to Chaosium around next summer if not earlier. I will keep posting updates on this thread. Playtesting has started, and that has been a lot of fun. For so many years I have been thinking about building a campaign in Saga-Age Iceland, with a blend of icelandic folktales and the Iceland of the Sagas, so it is very exciting to see that setting really coming to life now with so much detail and flavor. It's even more exciting to think that the book will make it possible for other people to enjoy this fantastic setting in their own games as well. I have finished writing most of the setting material, covering the Settlement and Commowealth periods, and a lot of information about the hidden-folk, the icelandic elves, who play an important role in Mythic Iceland. I am working right now on finishing the mythic creatures chapter, making sure the book brings useful and colorful descriptions of many beasts from old Icelandic legends and from the medieval written sources. This chapter in particular is taking a lot of research time and many visits of the national library here in Reykjavík. I'm including as many fantastic creatures as possible, all with full BRP game stats, while trying to keep as faithful as possible to the descriptions in the original written sources and fairy tales. Mythic Iceland will also have a chapter with Mythos information, so that the book can also be used as a setting for Cthulhu Dark Ages. Thanks to everyone for the interest in Mythic Iceland!

It's still early to discuss the contents of the book, as much may still change. What I can tell for now is that the book details Icelandic society in the Viking period, the workings of the unique Icelandic system of self government via the Althing and the rule of law, the Icelandic myths and fairy-tales with special attention to the hidden-folk, lots of maps with detailed discussion of places of interest in Iceland, a runic magic system which tries to be as close as possible to how people of the time believed magic to work, and there is also a detailed description of the colonies of Greenland and Vinland along with the native Skrælings. I met with the Chaosium guys last week and they are happy with the book proposal. I can't really give any sort of estimate on when the book may be published, but I will keep you guys updated on that whenever I'm able to say more. I have plans to include one adventure in the book, maybe two. Perhaps one adventure focusing on the mythical aspect of Iceland, and a second one with a more historical tone. I also plan to include plenty of adventure seeds throughout the book. The RQ Vikings box from Avalon Hill is very good, and it should be a useful source for anyone planing Mythic Iceland adventures that go beyond Iceland and take characters the rest of the Viking world. Most aspects of the Viking culture discussed in RQ Vikings are also in Mythic Iceland but with a tight focus on Icelandic society, which was distinct from other Nordic countries at the time in many ways. There are no other plans, that I know of, for other "Mythic" sourcebooks.

It's great to see the interest in this forum for a Saga Age Iceland setting for BRP! For a long time I wished someone would write a fantasy setting based in Iceland of the Viking period, and I'm very excited to be now writing that setting myself. I have been working on the project for several months now, spending a lot of time in the National Library of Iceland, here in Reykjavik, researching the history and myths of the period, and the writing of the book is coming along nicely. The main idea is to use the historical sources, such as the Icelandic Sagas and the Eddas, and to blend those with the rich tradition of fairy-tales of Iceland. The setting will be based on Iceland between the years of 930 and 1220, from the establishing of the Alþing and the Icelandic Commonwealth to the beginning of the Age of the Sturlungs which leads to the civil war. The Nordic settlements in Greenland and Vinland will also be part of the setting and will be detailed in the book. The main aspects of the mythical side of the setting are the Elves (The Hidden Folk) and their Hidden Kingdom. In Icelandic legends the elves look very similar to humans, but are invisible to humans unless they want themselves to be seen, and they live in a kingdom somewhere in the Highlands. There are also trolls, giants, sea-monsters, magical beasts (Icelandic tales have many intelligent animals), land spirits, and more. Different mythical creatures exist in Greenland and Vinland, and those will be discussed in the book as well. And there is runic magic, which uses a new system which expands on the magic system from the BRP core rulebook. Mythic Iceland will be primarily a fantasy setting but will also contain advice in every chapter about how to adapt the information presented in the book to use in a purely historical game. There is no release date for Mythic Iceland yet, as it's still being written, and the name of the book may change as well.