Category: Sagas of the Icelanders

In case anyone is interested, or wanted something readymade, here is the prep I did for the game I ran for Brand Robins this weekend.

PC: Olaf Grimmson, Grandson of Thor (Playbook: The Man) Coming to Iceland after years of being a-viking, contesting the rule of Swedish kings. To send for his wife (Solveig) and son as soon as he has enough set up to support them.

PC’s Family:

-Raghild: Matriarch (wise, tricky, true) Grandmother of PC. Raghild is as old as the land. While she wields considerable social power in the house, she is careful, deliberate and uses is sparingly. Thor was her favorite son, and she sees a lot of him in Olaf, she seems to favour him. Dramatic purpose: add pressure to the relationship between Hegg and Olaf, allowing new ways for both of them to negotiate and build social pressure. She may favour Olaf in her heart, but she lives with Hegg. Also, add dramatic tension and gender unbalance in Heggs household: Dalla should be the head of the household, but Raghild, Oddny and the girls split the power base a bit, allowing Hegg to be more powerful than he should in house matters.

 

-Dalla: Seidkona (observant, controlling, sadistic), second (much younger) wife to Hegg. Dramatic Purpose: Dalla represents women’s power in its veiled unnerving form (in superstitious Icelandic society). She should be both very magnetic and unnerving, and could become a possible powerful adversary or powerful ally to Olaf depending on the way the relationship develops. May also generate some sexual tension before Solveig arrives in Iceland, or jealousy afterwards.

 

-Hegg Thorsson: Godi (ambitious, opportunistic, self-serving) , uncle to PC. Hegg is truly opportunistic, last seen by Olaf when a-vikin and he left Olaf and others abandoned in Frankish lands as he sailed off with the gifts of plunder. Hegg’s family, both his and Matilde’s children and all of his grandchildren are girls. Dramatic purpose: Me against my brother, my brother and I against the world.

-Oddny: Shieldmaiden (focused, dutiful, lonely), sister to Matilde – Hegg’s deceased first wife. Dramatic purpose: Be the physical reminder of Matilde in the household, help split the power balance, act as both “free agent” and leaned in resource from both Hegg and Olaf’s households.

– Fastvi: Hegg’s eldest daughter by Matilde (insecure care-giving, close-minded). Dramatic purpose: Mother of all, adds weight and community support to Hegg and Varmod in opposition to Olaf’s potential claim on Hegg’s land, and to prop up hs honour, even when he does not deserve it.

– Varmod: Fastvi’s husband and father to her six daughters (abstract, hostile, insecure). Varmod has been working hard on Hegg’s land, and he remains on the farmstead as the husband of the eldest daughter. They have long expected to be the primary inheritors, but Olaf’s presence threatens that. Dramatic purpose: challenge Olaf, be unreasonable, represent the contrast between Icelandic concepts of masculinity and modern machismo.

-Drifa: Hegg’s middle daughter by Matilde (Competitive, opportunistic, Clever). Drifa is set up to like and be liked by Olaf. She has her father’s opportunistic streak, but she’s more strategic, more subtle, and playing longer term than Hegg has ever been capable of being. What she wants is to be determined contextually in play – it should be quasi but not fully orthogonal to Olaf’s own goals.

-Wary: Drifa’s husband and father of their three daughters (soft, compassionate, kind). Dramatic purpose: to contrast variations of masculinity and challeng ideas about honour. Wary has clean chi and a bi bright heart, but he doesn’t do status well, and doesn’t live up to the Icelandic ideals of manhood. Drifa is in clearly in control of this relationship, and Wary clearly loves her.

– Bolla: Hegg’s youngest daughter by Matilde (Curious, impetuous, adventure loving). Dramatic purpose: Bolla softens scenes and draws information out of Olaf. She asks questions that allow Olaf to tell his history, and make status plays with other members of the family.

-Toki the Giant: Huscarl (Loyal, organized, direct), warrior, foreman to a handful of farmhands.

-Morag: Thrall (ripe, sweet, creative, obedient) part of Dalla’s bride price Dramatic purpose: to be used as Dalla’s pawn to see what happens in Olaf’s house, and aid her in controlling/influencing his actions.

-Haim: Thrall (sneaky, hidden, powerful) possible magic user

 

Accused’s family:

 

-Bjarni Ormson: Accused of moving land markers to claim more of the most valuable property at the expense of his neighbours (Hegg and Njall, Hegg initiated this, but the spirits made the situation explode). Dramatic purpose: Remind Olaf enough of himself that he can see being in the situation, reveal the extent of Hegg’s ambition, raise the stakes to really provide a difficult opportunity for Olaf’s character to be revealed. Hold on, hold on.

Gudrid: Bjarni’s wife (formidable, brave, devoted). Dramatic purpose: Gudrid and her daughters are formidable in protection of Bjarni and the household. They will stand together in their protection.

– Hakon: Bjarni and Gudrid’s eldest son – 22 (proud, patient, protective)

– Runa: Bjarni and Gudrid’s eldest daughter – 17 (cautious, timid)

– Thora: Bjarni and Gudrid’s younger daughter – 14 (rebellious, protective)

-Isleif: Bjarni and Gudrid’s younger son – 10 (avenging, hotheaded, naive) Dramatic purpose: Perhaps be representative of Olaf’s own son, be a bullet of escalation or a pawn for negotiation, find out how Olaf views children and if he ill exempt them from violence.

-Einar: Bjarni’s brother (rash, vengeful, impatient) Dramatic purpose: be unreasonable, hidden and escalate, escalate, escalate.

– Gianna: Thrall

– Vali: Thrall

 

Njall’s Family: Not fleshed out that much.

Njall himself is a patriarch with many sons who personally liked Bjarni. His critical response to the boundary markers being moved wasn’t about the theft as much as the dishonour Bjarni did him: it was insulting to him that Bjarni would think he did not intimately know his land and would not notice, or would not contest the transgression.

 

Backstory:

 

To increase access to a rich iron bog that lay between their properties, Hegg commanded Toki to move the property markers. With Odin and Freya as fronts, and stone giants as spirit threats (roused by their own ages-old feud of territorial rights), Toki overreached and took the whole bog. Bjarni hesitated to openly accuse the Godi, and tried to move the markers back, but had less muscle power to move them so it took several days of work. In between days the stones were shattered (by the stone giants). Both Bjarni and Hegg/Toki interpreted this as an act of the other, and for fear of losing sanding, Hegg sent Toki to move the markers on Njall’s land to increase the appearance of Bjarni’s guilt. When Olaf arrives on the homestead, the judgement has already been passed, and Bjarni’s family will be forced off their lands, but have not yet left in defiance of the judgement – hoping to hold out until the Thing.

 

When Olaf appears on the scene, Hegg angles to offer him the lands, securing his newly drawn borders, increasing his blood’s power and presence, taking care of Bjarni’s defiance and (only in last place, but still on the list) because Olaf is blood.

 

Go.

 

Potential Scenes:

– Meeting the family

– Gift giving

– Offering land: Uncle Hegg making up for the past?

– Plenty of relational play of family on Olaf to establish blood ties and relationships

– Revealing the marker depressions and the shattered stone and the treachery

 

Stakes:

– Will Olaf secure the homestead he needs for his family?

– Will he murder an innocent family to get it?

– Will blood over-ride personal ethics?

– Will they be able to find a resolution before wide-scale destruction?

– Will he reveal Hegg’s trechery?

 

Fronts, Threats and Focus:

 

Odin & Freya: (focus on: ambition, secrets, great gifts, subverted gender roles)

 

– Hegg himself: Outlaws and Outcasts (act in seret, move in, steal, act without honour, bring misfortune). Countdown: Get Olaf to do the dirty work. Rally the community behind Olaf. Incite a violent mob. Throw Olaf under the bus.

– Bjarni’s family: Neighbours and Family (Act as one, dwindle and leave behind, contest ownership, seek vengeance, bring to court) Countdown: Yesterday: Lock down. Tomorrow: Hold the fort. When breached: Resort to vengeance and violent. If possible: bring it to the Thing and depose Hegg.

– Stone Giants: Land & Sea (Get in the way, throw up something, refuse to yield) Countdown: Feed and be fed by those that contest the land. Destroy the icons of land ownership. Destroy cultivation. Quake the earth.

– Dalla: Fates and Spirits (dreams and portents, haunt, employ tricks, make mischief, offer bargains, transgress)  Countdown: Entice Olaf’s support. Plant spies and magic in Olaf’s house. Distract Olaf from his core goals. Seduce him.

I also had also intended Oddny to be a front, and Haim too. But got sick of prepping, so never fleshed them out.

__

He did get the land, he did take it by force even though he believed Bjarni to be innocent, he did not murder the whole family, only those that left him no choice. He did not reveal Hegg’s treachery, and he was seduced by Dalla. 🙂 Whee!

Just kicking off my first SotI game. Any advice from those with experience?

I’m MCing for only one player, and we will adapt a bit of troupe style play to open the character base and play experience. Anyone have experience with that?