Age of Vikings: How To Live Like a Viking

By Pedro Ziviani, author of Age of Vikings

An Age of Vikings campaign is not only comprised of epic sagas but also memorable interactions with NPCs, social trouble, and even situations where your Farming skill could be of critical importance.

In this article we explore how to bring the heroes' day-to-day life to the game table in unique and exciting ways!

The realities of daily life

Influence and power flow through the goðar (chieftains), who serve as your patrons, rivals, and sometimes reflections of your future selves. Timber is scarce, but the sea and bird cliffs provide ample resources. Homes are constructed from turf and driftwood, with resourcefulness being essential for their maintenance. Travel is slow, communities are tightly knit, and legal matters are conducted in public, which means that reputation serves as a form of currency.

The longhouse

The longhouse is the focal point of everyday life. The walls are made of turf on a wooden frame. A central hearth keeps the building interior warm, while the low smoke hangs in the air, with the family sitting on benches around the fire. People sleep, eat, and work in this main hall, which has storage rooms and animal sheds on the sides. Livestock stay inside during the winter. The heat from the central hearth is good for them, and the manure they make is very useful for the crops in the spring.

Gathering materials for the longhouse can serve as a central adventure element, involving encounters with outlaws, negotiations for driftwood rights, or hosting a feast that also acts as a diplomatic event.

Day-to-day work and adventuring

Sheep and cattle are the most common types of livestock. Their milk, wool, and manure are vital to the economy. Also, fishing for cod and haddock, as well as infrequent walrus and seal hunts, provides a considerable contribution. Driftwood is a significant resource on this island, where timber is becoming increasingly scarce.

Securing access to resources and protecting them from rivals can serve as the foundation for many adventures. This can include grazing disputes, night watches to prevent animal theft, or escorting a heavily laden driftwood sledge home through extreme weather.  

When cloth is literally money

Spinning and weaving never really stop. Standardized vaðmál, the woolen cloth measured by length, width, and fineness, functions as currency in law and trade, with quality standards enforced. On a working farm, each sheep’s annual clip yields roughly an ell’s worth; plan on two ells per person for clothing and treat the surplus as profit.

Ambitious households can try to maximize vaðmál output. The allocation of household members' available time between weaving and other chores, as well as farm-building decisions and social favors, may all have an impact on vaðmál production.

Travel to the Assembly Plains

During the summer, householders make the journey to the Alþing (National Assembly), which can take up to two weeks from their farms to the Assembly Plains. In Age of Vikings, travel represents a significant undertaking. The heroes must navigate fords, contend with bandits or rivals, and account for changing weather conditions.

Law, honor, and feuds

Feuds are managed through law and alliances more often than through blood. Heroes can opt to take enemies to court instead of shedding blood and might have to defend themselves in court in turn. Social scenes (gathering witnesses, bargaining for support) are adventures with real consequences, and the success or failure at court can redefine a campaign arc without a sword drawn. See also Hólmgang, a very Viking way of settling scores! 

Fun, sports, and public performance

Play serves as a demonstration of status and courage through various activities such as hnefatafl (a strategic board game), knattleikur (a rough ball game), glíma (wrestling), and horse races, with occasional instances of hestavíg (horse fighting). The feast table is a venue for poetry, as well as flyting (senna), which are ritualized verbal duels designed to humiliate opponents with sharp wit. A range of skills can be utilized to assess the heroes' performance in these endeavors, including Agility skills, Game, and Skaldic Poetry, among others.

Pacing your campaign: Summer vs. winter

Summer (mid-April to mid-October): The First Day of Summer is marked with omens and gifts. It is a time for outward activities, including haymaking, patching roof turf and farm fences, repairing boats, driving sheep, gathering driftwood, and riding out to trade. coastal fishing trips and occasionally embarking on voyages for honor or profit. While some people go on Viking raids abroad, most focus on the survival of their farms. The season's milestones require making meaningful choices about where to allocate time and energy, including attending assemblies, preparing for winter, gathering resources, trading with other farmers and merchants, and hosting feasts or other social events.  

Winter (mid-October to mid-April): Darkness presses in, prompting people to work indoors while animals overwinter in the longhouse. It is a time for introspection and indoor activities: spinning and weaving vaðmál (the cloth used as currency), tool repairs, stall mucking, preserving meat in sour whey, carving wood or bone, keeping animals sheltered, storytelling, planning lawsuits, and matchmaking. Spending so much time inside the longhouse might mean rising tensions, grudges, secrets being revealed, and visits from unexpected guests that can upset the household dynamics. Adventures during this period may also result from a lack of food or desperate outlaws threatening the security of the farms in the region.

Adventure hooks around the household

• Hay Shortfall: An early storm ruins stacks across the region, leading to neighbors stealing from one another.
• Horse Fighting Gone Wrong: Pride, gambling, and a "friendly" match turn ugly. Do you mediate, duel, or allow the dispute to escalate into a full-fledged blood feud between families?
• Seabird-Cliff Tragedy: A fall leaves a family making accusations and seeking compensation. Was a rope cut, or was it bad luck? What details will get brought to court, and what is the truth?
• Sour-Vat Sabotage: Someone spoiled the whey vat before the Jól feast. Could the perpetrator be someone seeking vengeance, a sorcerer, or a reckless youth? Follow the clues to find the culprit before paranoia escalates into violence.
• Road to the Alþing: Rivals try to delay your party with broken bridges, missing ferries, or “lost” witnesses. Make the deadline or lose the case. 
• The Driftwood Dispute: After a storm, driftwood litters the beach. But who owns which logs, and who says otherwise? 

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