How do I make a Norse mythology inspired setting, with out making it a LotR or Skyrim ripoff?
How do I make a Norse mythology inspired setting, with out making it a LotR or Skyrim ripoff?
Jeremiah Ward
Luke Flores
Make it a viking story.
With hords of warriors who conquer, pillage and burn, before returning to their homeland.
Center it around some "norse looking" magic : talking to and taming wolves and bears, use rituals to conjure snow, hail and storms.
Create monsters and threats that linger in the cold, dangerous environment which they try to tame.
Also make women as important as men : no SJW talking here, it's just historic facts. Archeologists discovered not too long ago that the vikings skeletons they studied for years are not all male, there were a lot of female aournd battles too (corpses found with axes and armor).
Which also means that there is no such thing as 'better' treatment for women there. They are warriors, as capable as men, the only difference being when they are pregnant, the only time when they need protection and special treatment to protect the heritage of the clan. All other time, they are just like men.
Gabriel Fisher
Read the Sagas and various secondary sources on the culture and history of the people.
Also, be aware that you're looking for more than just the Norse most likely.
en.wikipedia.org
Anglo-Saxons, Celts, and others are going to be in there.
Christian Hernandez
>How do I make a Norse mythology inspired setting, with out making it a Skyrim ripoff?
Put some effort into it.
Jaxson Lee
tattuinardoelasaga.wordpress.com
>Now this must be told. When Duku Jothason was young, he was a good smith, and before he went out a-viking one summer, he made a sword. And when he took it from the forge, it seemed to his assistants that green flames burned from the edges. He now bade his father Jothi to hold the sword, and said that he did not know how to make a sword, if this one should fail. Jothi swung at the anvil and cut it down to the base, and the sword neither broke nor chipped. He praised the sword very much and went to the river with a tuft of wool. And when he cast the wool into the river, and put the blade downstream from it, the sword cut it in half. Jothi went home happily.
> But Duku followed his father home and said, “Father, why did you take the sword from me? I am going out a-viking, and I have need of a good sword.”
> Jothi said: “Your father likes this sword, which I name Lightsaber the Green, and you can make another sword as good as this one, if you are indeed such a good smith as men say.”
> Duku was angered, but he made another sword. This sword was sharper than Lightsaber the Green, and from it shone a red flame; it was named Lightsaber the Red. And he hid this sword from his father.
Jace Garcia
By researching Norse mythology instead of just reading LotR and playing Skyrim.
Wyatt Martin
READ THE FUCKING EDDA
IT'S OUT IN THE OPEN IN THE NETS AND ISN'T THAT BIG
Sebastian Ross
Don't just make it your standard fantasy in viking decorations, make it a fantasy about vikings.
Don't be half-viking or part-time viking, go full viking.
Go crazy with rune magic, valkyries and shit.
Also what this fine gentlemens said, real mythology are fun.
Dominic Davis
Play Myfarog.
Joseph Smith
Dwarfs
Jaxon Reed
>pick up mongoose runequest vikings
>pick up brp mythic iceland
>pick up pathfinder midgard northlands
>pick up pathfinder lands of the linnorm kings
those should give you all you could need to run a fantasy vikings campaign
Andrew Butler
Pretty sure that's not actually good at all.
Ian Garcia
Not even real Norse mythology, just some neo-pagan racist weirdo's mythological headcanon.
Nicholas Williams
Read actual Norse mythology and base it on actual Norse society and law?
Isaiah Foster
Those "Viking skeletons" were colonists and wives of Vikings buried with swords ( unused ones) to show their high status.
But people nowadays don't understand the duality of Norse society. Just because there were clear and strict gender roles there dont mean that women were cattle.
Thomas Anderson
First educate yourself, then kill yourself.
LotR has basically nothing to do with Norse mythology, and neither does Skyrim.
Lastly, read this, and enjoy the best interpretation of Norse mythology ever made.
Oliver Collins
Min kjære nye landsmann!
There is also an animated movie of one of those comics, but it's really old...
I recommend reading the comics first.
Would you know where to get them in english?
Carson Flores
These are pretty great. My uncle actually did the coloring for most of them.
De er nu danske tegneserier, ikke norske...
Samuel Baker
Toff skjitt.
Jose Sullivan
simple, by not making it a LotR or Skyrim ripoff. Just make your own setting, don't worry about whether someone else already used some of the elements. If you're not actively trying to make it like something else, and instead genuinely build it up from the ground up, it will become unique enough on its own.
Brayden Price
Varg, pls go.
Tyler Nelson
This.
Also try Tacitus' Germania, gives a good incite into the Germanic legal system, concepts of honor, pass times, beliefs and customs. Albiet from a perhaps biased Roman perspective, seeing them as barbarians but also in admiration of their honor and purity.
Isaiah Campbell
Center it on rivaling families, blood feudes, and politics. Social stuff was by far the most interesting part of the norsemen.
Cooper Sanchez
Check out hurstwic.com
These guys know their stuff, and have comprehensive articles on a lot of different Viking-Age stuff that's easy to read, even if you know nothing about the era.
Levi Kelly
Beowulf.
the main encounters are a swimming competition, an ogre attacking, a stronger monster attacking, a period of warring, and a dragon.
it's progression is so dead on you could start with lvl 1 and end with lvl 20 easily. mix in a few random encounters keep humans first and foremost and don't go overboard on the fantasy elements.
Nathan Harris
Look up the Varangians. They were the first Vikings to go through western Russia via the rivers, and ended up in the Black Sea to trade with Constantinople. That route eventually opened the way to the Caspian Sea.
This can open up a setting away from western Europe and into more Middle Eastern areas, if you so desire. The Varangians eventually settled along the rivers in Russia, became traders, and became the Varangian Guard for the Byzantine emperors.
I'd love to run a game of Varangian Vikings running the river system like a medieval trading mob, while also traveling between the Norse homeland, Russia, and the Black and Caspian Sea areas.
Daniel Brown
By giving a damn about what you're about and learning something about Norse mythology. Now get out of here you argr nīðing, before you get holmganged to death.
Parker Turner
darkshire.net
Interesting link about norse-inspired magic
Lincoln Gutierrez
>LotR has basically nothing to do with Norse mythology
hahahahahahah AHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA
Liam Hughes
Ragnarok Fate of the Norns.
Leo Cook
It's out there.
Chase Smith
...
Lucas Scott
Shit, if a tiny dude deflected my sword with his shield like that, I would ve pressed to stop the fight.
"Halt! Who is this man, who seems to be as great as me? Name yourself!"
Brandon Parker
Get hammered and make a campaign about The Hangover tier cross dressing wedding adventures.
That's norse mythology for you.
Colton Jones
Nah, that's the post battle talk. Then you have mead and marry your daughters.
Easton Howard
Banner Saga is the best fantasy setting I've ever seen.
Lincoln Perez
Rohan is based on the Anglo-Saxons.
Anglo-Saxons are early Medieval, not Norse.
not him by the way, but feel free to lash out anyway.
Brody Powell
Make it a banner saga ripoff
Christopher Johnson
/thread
Robert Thomas
world is ending, giant wolves have swallowed the sun and the moon and all the undead warriors (check mythological draugr for this) giants and 8000 kinds of trolls are on the loose
also there is a massive ship made of human nails, hair, teeth and bone flying on the sky
Isaiah Sullivan
Disciples II was a great game
Aaron Gomez
Read up on viking society. People always focus on the actual viking part (understandably so), but there's so much more to them than that.
>Women's relatively strong position in society (no, not shieldmaidens)
>relative democracy in the form of Things
>electing kings
>geats vs swedes shenanigans
>raising runestones in honour of your own sexual prowess
We're still figuring their stuff out. Birka, which we used to think was a large commerce hub near modern day Stockholm, turned out to be a necropolis where norsemen came from all over Scandinavia to be buried. Pretty much the whole island is covered in graves that were built and maintained by a cramped colony of slaves. Metal as fuck.
Liam Cruz
Well, I'm not the guy you're responding to but Tolkien straight up plucked a bunch of characters from the eddas. Gandalf, Thorin, etc are all names of elves and dwarves in old norse mythology. Shit, Smaug is basically just Fafnir. A LOT of modern day fantasy tropes had their beginnings in Tolkien's work which in turn borrowed from old norse tales. Stereotypes like dwarves being small, greedy smiths who lived under the mountain. Dragons jealously guarding their treasure hoards (again, Fafnir who was a dwarf that was cursed to become a serpent that then jealously guarded his dead father's treasures)
Middle-Earth remains my absolute favourite fantasy setting as it is, for obvious reasons.
Logan Walker
>historic facts
Nathaniel Barnes
On an unrelated note, is there a word for art in that style? I don't know exactly how to describe what makes it distinct to me but it is fantasy art featuring landscapes with vibrant colors. Something about it makes it seem older, though I cannot quite put my finger on what it is.
It probably doesn't have any specific type of name but I figure it's worth asking around. I think the style is nice and I would like to find more of it is all.
Noah Butler
Base it off the actual fucking Danes instead of some meme bullshit.