Age of Vikings: Discovering Age of Vikings - a new GM shares his experiences

Christopher Dean was looking for a new roleplaying game to play where setting and lore matters. After discovering the Age of Vikings RPG and deciding that fit what he was looking for, he took part in this year's New Gamemaster Month, before taking a group of his friends into the world of the Northmen. Christopher recounts his experience learning the new game:

My journey to discovering Age of Vikings began with a conversation at GenCon. A group of players, for whom my wife GM'ed, asked me, “What do you look for in a game system?” They wished to try something new and expand beyond D&D, and I, too, wanted a change. At the time, I avoided a perfunctory answer and responded that I wanted to play a game where the setting and lore mattered to me. A game I could engage with and understand the world. While my conversation went no further at that moment, I did not forget that moment of clarity.

Fast forward four months, and I found myself searching for recommendations for TTRPG systems. Many forum posts and articles opined about various systems and what they offered, but one post caught my attention. The poster mentioned a new game from Chaosium, called Age of Vikings, citing that they felt it would easily become a top ten game. I read that post several times and the responses it garnered, and decided to visit Chaosium’s website to see what I could learn about the game.

From the description, the game looked interesting, and since the website offered a free adventure with pre-generated characters, I downloaded it to look it over. The adventure The Cursed Farm looked like a tightly-scripted, fun adventure. With the Black Friday sale ongoing, I took the plunge and ordered the core book. After reading it several times, I knew I would love this game as it scratched the itch for what I wanted in a game. The D100 skill system is easy to understand, but robust enough to allow for ample roleplaying opportunities. The combat system had complexity without being too crunchy, and provided a deadliness and high stakes in combat that were lacking in other games I played. Battles felt consequential. The magic system is amazing, providing flexibility and rewarding creativity without feeling like a basic iteration of most magical fantasy systems.

I felt I needed to observe, or better yet, play some games to see how the system worked in action prior to personally running the game. I found one online YouTube video, but little else addressing the apprehension on how to oversee the mechanics of the game as a GM. During this search for articles, videos, or tips for DMing this game, I discovered the New Gamemaster Month website and associated Discord server. It was exactly what I needed. I spent the month of January reading articles and having the occasional question answered on the Chaosium Discord server as I prepared The Cursed Farm for its debut. As the end of the month drew near, I felt myself as ready as I would ever be to take the plunge and lead some friends into the world of the Northmen...

READ ON at ageofvikingsrpg.com

Adventure Awaits - Get your copy of the Age of Vikings core rules today, available in these formats:

• Hardcover (price inc PDF): $59.99
• Special leatherette (price inc PDF): $99.99
• PDF from Chaosium: $29.99
• PDF from DriveThruRPG: $29.99
• Quest Portal VTT: $29.99
• Foundry VTT: $29.99

The Cursed Farm demo scenario:

• Download free PDF from our Age of Vikings Resources page, along with Map of Iceland, Pregenrated Characters, and Blank Character Sheets. Also available as free download at Itch.io, and at Foundry VTT.
• Softcover - Chaosium (US, UK, EU): $4.99 (price inc PDF)
• Softcover - DriveThruRPG version (worldwide): $4.99 (price inc PDF)