Ian Stuart Sharpe and Outland Entertainment are working with Robert Schwalb to bring the Vikingverse to tabletop RPGs. Combining Ian’s setting, books, and comics with Robert’s Shadow of the Demon Lord ruleset
EGG: How much of your prior Vikingverse fiction and comics (All Father Paradox, Loki’s Wager, Old Norse for Modern Times, and Jötunn War comics) will be adapted into this RPG?
IAN: The books tell pockets of alternate history that lead up to the pagan present. For example, in Loki’s Wager, an Arabian ambassador journeys to 9th Century Viking Ireland, an 11th Century Jomsviking Jarl sails to India, and a 13th Century Runesmith defends the Pax Nordica against the Mongol horde.
At the end of the gamebook book, you’ll find a whole new timeline for the resulting events on Midgard. The game is mainly set in the pagan present day, with all this as backdrop. For the world to be worth saving, it has to be credible. That means quantum physics, arboreal consciousness, intelligent design, imperial ambition, magic, and the endless Odinic search for knowledge.
So, do you have to read the books? No, because the game is a dark mirror of our present and encapsulated in the setting. The books do act as a prologue to the game though.
Of course, it is perfectly possible to run campaigns set in the Viking Age, the Time of Travels or whatever epoch captures your imagination – Ragnarök and its many forms looms large over all of them. Characters will be intricately bound to the Norns, those inscrutable spinners of fate – so much so, we have even included a mechanic for a cheating your pre-ordained destiny. Whatever approach the players take, they would do well to remember this: the Norse have learned that to struggle against fate is as foolish as sailing into a strong wind. Perhaps the only thing that truly matters is how you stand to meet the end.
EGG: For those that aren’t familiar with the Vikingverse, what can you share about the magic in the universe? What’s the technology like?
IAN: In the sagas, Norse magical tradition is marked by sacrifice and ritual, etched in secrets, and blooded in war. Spells can shape the future, weave webs of battle or spin charms that harness primal forces. But the path of the Wise is not simply one of mystery, dependent on divine power or the tides of fate. It is a path of discovery and learning. In fact, the most common word for “magical” in the Norse lexicon is fjölkyngi, which means great knowledge.
One of the jokes in the novels was “Any sufficiently advanced galdar is indistinguishable from technology”, the Third law of Arnþórr C. Klakkr (if it isn’t obvious the Vikingverse, being a parallel timeline, “norsifies” a lot of luminaries, Arthur C. Clarke included).
The various classes in the game have different approaches to their spells, but they are all rooted in the sagas. The Urðr are focused on spinning seiðr and the weave of fate. Their rituals date back millennia, (allegedly) taught by the gods themselves. The Verðandi try to fathom the endless, tangled mind of the Worlds Tree, and the transformative power of galdar. The Skuld utilize the spirits of the earth, marshaling matter and forging new suns. They use complex runes and the code of machines to unlock their marvels.
EGG: Will the game have rules for ship to ship combat and the like?
IAN: There weren’t actually many naval battles in the Viking Age. Fleets would lash their ships together on the defensive, turning themselves into a floating fortress. Battles were fought much as they were on land.
That said, we do have rules for vehicles and very large guns. After all, I’d suggest there is nothing so cherished among Norsemen as the ancient tradition of shipbuilding. As readers of the novels will know, Skuld shipwrights turned established craftsmanship into holy discipline, solemnly passed down from master to apprentice. Norse orbital ships are named drakkar, just like the dragon ships of old. They look a little like a tree growing in reverse – a living vessel designed to withstand impacts, solar storms, and the extremes of the Ginnungagap.
That said, the real innovation is Thought/Memory Drive, an integral part of most modern ships. Forget hyperdrive or warp, or a hopeful mishmash of quantum physics. T/M Drive allows the near instantaneous crossing of the Gap using entangled histories. After all, what is history but thought and memory? Plug in a pilot, and they can walk between realities, skipping between the here-and-now and the been-and-gone. It’s the same way the Wise use their consciousness to engage the Worlds Tree, Yggdrasil. I hope it comes across as definitively pagan yet deeply sci-fi.
EGG: Bringing your universe to Robert Schwalb’s Shadow of the Demon Lord ruleset is a daunting task. What’s the breakdown of who is doing what on When the Wolf Comes RPG?
IAN: I worked predominantly with Darren Pearce in the early stages. Darren is an award-winning British fantasy, sci-fi author and game designer who been crafting worlds since the turn of the millennium – to mention a few, Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog, Warhammer 40k and of course, Shadow of the Demon Lord.
Christopher Helton also worked as editor. He works for my publisher, Outland Entertainment, but has written RPGs for everyone from Battlefield Press to Gallant Knight Games.
Of course, Rob and his team reviewed everything when we had pulled it all together and gave feedback to smooth out any edges It’s still his game, just hauled into a parallel timeline.
That sounds like a good fit. For those interested in checking out the game, go to Kickstarter here:
When the Wolf Comes RPG from Ian Stuart Sharpe & Outland Entertainment
“An RPG set in the Doom of Ragnarök, utilizing Robert J. Schwalb’s Shadow of the Demon Lord rules and based in Ian Sharpe’s Vikingverse.”
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