Reavers and Rovers (GURPS Vikings One-Shot Game)

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by combatmedic

You can always use Shubb-Niggurath.

Vikings versus the Mythos, now with 100% more SAN loss.

I am not averse to this as an idea, but I'd really, really love to have fancy local terms for all the Mythos stuff.

The best would be to introduce some local Rus in their village, a mixed Norse-Slavic folk, enough of whom speak the PCs' language that they can be traded with. Then, perhaps after a minor squabble with the crew of another byrding about docking space, they could learn about Pecheneg 'barbarians' who have been raiding the villagers.

Then, perhaps after a decent skirmish with a band of Pechenegs trying to attack the village, assuming the PCs immediately go out to maximise their chances of having violence perpetuated upon them, excrement gets veritable. Turns out that [insert terrible things from early Slavic mythology] is preying on everyone but the locals. That's what's behind the desperate attempts by the Pechenegs to seize [someone in the village who is behind stuff]. And, of course, the only hope for the PCs is to band together with everyone, the other Varangian crew, the Pechenegs and hopefully convince enough of the villagers that [chtonic excrement that is off the hook] is no longer kosher, so to speak.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Nosforontu

Apparently their is a lot of shrines with God's with multiple faces that strongly hints in a mythic game to either a an abomination that literally has multiple heads (think human centipede monster perhaps), a "Legion" style villain who is everything that it kills, or a shape shifter, perhaps a morph who needs to skin or eat what it shifts into? Give it a vulnerability to silver and a wolf form getting the party to think were wolf initially (you could also have it eat a viking early making think that they brought the were wolf with them).

If I can find authentic Early East Slavic mythology with names for a shapeshifting/corpse eating monster, I'll be a happy man. Sounds great.

Wolves are, of course, scary on their own. Lean, mean predatory death-by-night shapes in the firelight. Add human intelligence and ferocity, well, it's just not a pretty picture.

But, naturally, the only thing scarier than a werewolf is a werebear. Godless killing machines. Embodying Nature red in tooth and claw.

And once you think you've outwitted the creature, it takes the form of a man to grab a weapon. Love it.

[Nosforontu]

Their is always Baba Yaga, specifically I am thinking this Polish Variation on the legend from Wikipedia "In some legends Baba Yaga is also awarded the title Костяная Нога ("The Bone Leg") and considered a guardian between the real world and the land of the dead. This title later became an idiom, often used as taunt.[citation needed]".

Quick question what would happen to the world if the guardian between our world and the world of the Dead happened to die or become imprisoned. I have been in a few games that have featured Baba Yaga over the years but I have never had to rescue her to save the world before :)

Perhaps link it to this other story from Wikipedia
" the folk tale "Vasilissa the Beautiful", recorded by Alexander Afanasyev (Narodnye russkie skazki, vol 4, 1862), the titular young girl is given three impossible tasks that she solves using a magic doll given to her by her mother. In the Christianised version of the story, Vasilissa is sent to visit Baba Yaga on an errand and is enslaved by her, but the hag's servants — a cat, a dog, a gate, and a tree — help Vasilissa to escape because she is kind to them. In the end, Baba Yaga is turned into a crow."

This would explain what happened to her and perhaps hint at a solution revolving around either Vasilissa herself or her doll. Toss in some creepy crows perhaps that follow the party around.

[Nosforontu]

Originally Posted by Icelander

If I can find authentic Early East Slavic mythology with names for a shapeshifting/corpse eating monster, I'll be a happy man. Sounds great.

Well the Vulcari are apparently the slavic term for werewolves and the idea of putting on a wolfskin belt to transform does appear in the literature for werewolves in general. It would not be inconceivable that a werewolf that learns that he can take on a wolfs form by wearing a belt made of its skin might get the idea of expanding on that idea.

Apparently " Serbian vulkodlaks (werewolves) traditionally had the habit of congregating annually in the winter months, when they would strip off their wolf skins and hang them from trees. They would then get a hold of another vulkodlaks skin and burn it, releasing from its curse the vulkodlak from whom the skin came." No clarification of what happens when the curse is released but the party could certainly find out.

[Icelander]

I've made two PCs, one according to spec and one in the hopes that he will catch a player's fancy sufficiently to warrant fielding a modified version.

Come out two 400 points each. One is Ævar sænski, a professional hólmgöngumaðr (duellist) and violent psychopath from Uppsala in Sweden. The other is Áki fljóti, a runner, gambler, adventurer and world-traveller. He was born in Borgarfjörður, Iceland, but has in his time been a couturier in London, a court jester among the Godwins, a soldier in at least two Norse armies and one Saxon one, a sailor, a slave trader and a dry goods merchant.

Neither one has any exotic abilities and their skills range from 8-18, with Áki having noticably higher combat skills than Ævar (18 rather than 16 in his primary). This is because Ævar has ST 20 and DX 12, whereas Áki has ST 11 and DX 15.

I now have about 28-30 hours until the start of gaming. In that time, I need names for some leading villagers of a small Kievan Rus village, preferably on the Dniper river, not too far from Kænugarður (Kiev). I'd also welcome a Varangian merchant captain and a few of his crew, including at least one rambunctious brute who labours under the impression that he is well hard. And then a Pecheneg chief and a few of his champions.

Suggestions for a Dark Secret, villagers involved with it and any mythology relevant to such would be received with joyful ecstacy and immense gratitude.

[Icelander]

A fortuitous coincidence leads to a party tonight and thus a postponement of one day for the one-shot game.

This is good.

I have decided that two NPCs of note in the small village* will be clerics. First, there is Afansii, the Orthodox priest, an old man of local origin who was educated in an East Roman monastery before returning to his home town to serve as their priest. Father Afansii speaks the local dialect of Old East Slavic and presumably some Greek, but is not given to spending much time with foreign traders passing through.

Second, there is the travelling staret Sebastean Vahavuni, who despite his evident piety is unpopular among the locals for his open criticism of the Orthodox Church in general and their own priest in particular. Sebastean's lay following of four penitents, however, are not only remarkably stout-looking fellows for religious folk, but also carry spears, axes, knives and the remains of military armour and thus tend to discourage any open expressions of wrathful religious dischord.

Sebastean is an Armenian, a citizen of the Roman Empire, and a very learned and holy man. In addition to Armenian, he speaks fluent Greek, Latin and several dialects of Old Slavic. He also speaks halting Old Norse, oddly enough with a distinct West Norse slant. Much like the four men who follow him, Sebastean appears to be a hard man, whose bearing recalls the pride of the warrior rather more than the humility of faith. Nevertheless, he claims to be a pacifist and refuses to even consume meat. His claims of pacifism are backed up by the fact that unlike his men, he does not go armed and only carries a simple walking stick.

The starosta of the village and commander of the militia will be Rulav Voinov, a huge dark-bearded man with bright blue eyes and a long axe. He speaks fairly good Old East Norse and Greek in addition to his local dialect of Old East Slavonic. Rulav is a seasoned warrior, having earned his position in the constant warfare with Pechenegs, Cumans, Romans and the occasional hot-tempered crew of Varangians.

Rulav commands a militia of some twenty men, half of whom are armoured warriors of Rus ancenstry and half of whom are local men fighting as skirmishers. Five of his men are tolerable archers. In an emergency, forty more men can fight in defence of the village, but while such emergencies have occured several times in the last decade, less than half of these supplemental militiamen are capable with their weapons.

Now I need to flesh these out and I need names for a chief of the Pechenegs and a few of his champions. I'll also need a group of Varangian traders, about a dozen men, of whom I'll have to detail at least three.

*Which I'm tentatively placing southeast of Kænugarðr (Kiev), on the Dniepr river, near what today is Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine.

[B9anders]

Icelander - pick up Gurps Russia. Besides being a fitting supplement for the case here, it is also one of the best books ever written for GURPS and a sheer delight to read through.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by B9anders

Icelander - pick up Gurps Russia. Besides being a fitting supplement for the case here, it is also one of the best books ever written for GURPS and a sheer delight to read through.

Good point. I think I have it somewhere, though I haven't read it through.

[Icelander]

So, okay, my gaming group decided to delay the one-shot for a week, to wait for a player about to move back to town. Which means that I have until next Saturday to finish the details up, which is great.

I'm going to need some backstopping to see if things sound legit, not so anthropologically/historically wrong as to cause violent disassociative reactions around the gaming table and, most of all, not too cliched.

First of all, would anybody be phased to see a party of skomorokhi with a dancing bear in an East Slavic village in the 11th century, just above the rapids of the Dnieper river in what is now Ukraine? Despite the earliest evidence of dancing bears being at least three centuries later?

Second, how much ethnic, cultural and religious diversity are people prepared to accept among a warband of Pechenegs? Would it bother people to see a Khazar descendant who still retained Judaism? Or a Magyar?

[Sutibu]

I'm playing this campain where a buddy of mine is GMming, first session we woke up on a ship with a broken mast and all the crew dead except the party.

The sky was grey and to the north we could see long white towers, and to the south a big heap of mist. We ended up encountering these fish people full of scales, and the idea of the story was that we were inside a really big world-devouring fish. (Moby dick)

Might work for a one shot as you can easily railroad (the boat without mast can be paddled a bit, but strong tides will shift it towards a direction of your pleasing). My friend had us take crewmanship, cannoneer for crewmen and one of us took seamanship and navigation (IIRC), and we had to navigate through debris by rolling against our crewman roll and paddling like mad. It was heaps of fun.