Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok
System Introduction
Deep in the throes of Fimbulwinter, Viking heroes rise to the challenge to stem the dark tide that has engulfed Midgard. The sun and the moon have been devoured and the worlds on the cosmic tree Yggdrasil have been cloaked in a penumbral shroud. The gods are reinforcing Asgard for the coming fury of the giants. The war cry has echoed throughout every corner of the world: will you heed the call?
Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok is an all-inclusive game that will allow you to create customized characters who will embark on an epic saga. You will partake in a visceral and tactical combat system that rewards team-play and good strategy. The System uses the Runic Game System. The 24 Elder Futhark runes are used to represent the players and their abilities as well as to manage action resolution.
The characters gain a last rune that marks them as heroes - the Void rune. They can never lose this, and it marks their fate.
From the author:
Characters can range from level 1 to level 72 (possibly higher if they have previous characters in Valhalla). Commoners, children, small animals are usually between level 1 to 7, heroic personas begin at level 8-12 and work their way up. Einherjar and Sons of Muspel are in the 40's, Dvergar and Alfar in the 50's and Gods and Jotuns in the 60's (but these ranges can vary). You're assigned a level by your Norn (GM) and then you spend the levels between Essence and Destiny (1 level for an Essence and 2 levels for a Destiny). Essence are the runes in your bag which represent your lifeforce (HP) and your experience (skills and powers). Destiny is the number of runes you draw from your personalized bag every time you need to interact with the world or start a new round of combat. Character creation has also been designed to allow for divergence of builds as you grow. Each archetype has 3 specializations (including specs, probably 30 archetypes in all after this book is done) and the powers and skills are designed on a chess board. You start in the middle and move outwards unlocking your abilities. This allows players to play same archetypes yet play very different. The board was carefully crafted to ensure that you cannot create a bad character. You can create a functional one if you blast through creation, or if you look for combos and maximize play styles and rune bindings to powers and skills you may get a +25% to +35% efficiency benefit. So min-maxers don't steal the show, but they definitely feel rewarded.
Oh and to come back to the whole Valhalla thing mentioned at the beginning, there are two levels in the game, character level and player level. Viking society was all about performing epic deeds (you wanna be in all of those Skald songs!), and epicness begets eventual death. Rather than treat it like a punishment, or forcing players to just roleplay the positive aspects, we have core mechanics that reward someone for all of their epic deeds. When you die (not "if" because it's a dangerous world) there is a chance that the gods took notice and sent the Valkyries to get you. The Norn draws a rune from a full bag. Then you draw a rune from your bag since you died in combat (right? No old age business here!). You draw another if your friends give you a proper burial. You get another pull if someone leaves their most prized possession in your pyre (you're bringing everything into the afterlife with you). Then all players take turns recounting your epic deeds. For every truly epic deed, you get another pull. If any of those runes match the rune the Norn pulled, then you hear the valkyrie song and you level up as a player. Now more options unlock in the game, and they are party friendly options. This way there's no jealousy and everyone truly wants you to make it into the heavens. Heck everyone cheers when you die!
We really wanted every aspect of the system to be tightly integrated into the setting, from resolution mechanics to the overall feel.
We have a boatload of mythological spirits in the game. Disir (family spirits), Vaettir (land spirits), Haugbui and Draugar (curse and lost spirits), Fylgias (personal spirits), Valkyries (death spirits), the list goes on... Even Alfar are revered by some. There is an action that anyone can do, and it's called "invoke a higher power". Beseeching a spirit is easier than a god or jotun. But they're both fickle so you better be in real need and be ready to price any cost that may result. Now the Godi is a triple archetype, leadership and/or spiritual leader and one more specialization yet to be designed. So the 3-specialization allow us to reflect different cultural aspects in one archetype.
Here are the adventures