Trying to find a "Vikings vs. Indians" campaign setting

[Yora]

I remember once seeing a campaign setting, which I am pretty sure was for d20, that was basically a fantasy version of vikings comming to america. However, I completely forgot the name and I can't find it with google either.

Does anyone know what it's called?

[LibraryOgre]

I believe it was the Greenland Saga, put out by Ridiculous Cheesecake Games (not their actual name, but the one they earned through their covers).

[Brother Oni]

Looking up the the title for *cough* research purposes, I see what you mean...

http://dc588.4shared.com/doc/gpQ27gPS/preview001.png

[Yora]

No, I don't think this is the one. It was fairly recent, if I am correct.

[LibraryOgre]

Looking up the the title for *cough* research purposes, I see what you mean...

http://dc588.4shared.com/doc/gpQ27gPS/preview001.png

Oh, and Greenland Saga was one of Ridiculous Cheesecake Games tamer pieces...

[Yora]

Ha, finally found it. It's Totems of the Dead for Savage Worlds.

http://www.gunmetalgames.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Totems-new-title-web.jpg

Even if you got the name, it's almost impossible to find any information on it. I think I saw it once in a store or on a friends shelf.

[Another_Poet]

I don't think the Vikings ever made it to India :smalltongue:

(Someone had to say it.)

Totems of the Dead definitely has the better cover.

[OverdrivePrime]

Thanks for posting those books (or actually the second book - Avalanche Press' covers are just too embarrassingly 80's revivalist to bring home)!

I love the idea of campaign setting like this - I've always been toying around with the idea of "what if Vinland outpost was successful and lasted for a couple generations?"

Would Eurasian diseases have run through the Americas as they did in the 1500s? Probably, though not to the same extent, given the lower exposure.
If so, would the native peoples have developed resistance to Eurasian diseases? Probably.
Would the native population bounce back to what we now think of as 'pre-Columbian' levels? Almost definitely, given the vast space and resources available.

Would the native people have traded for metal weapons, armor and tools from the Vinland Viking outpost? Absolutely.

Would there be Viking-American children? Given what we know of Viking behavior, most definitely.

Would the native people have learned skills like surface-mining and metal working? Possibly. There is plenty of iron and copper ore near the surface in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. If the Vikings discovered the deposits, the would likely have taken steps to exploit the resources and make the Vinland outpost more self-sustaining. This one relies a lot on luck.

And given all that, what would native civilizations in the Americas be like by the time Europeans arrived in force in the 1500s?

I think we'd be living in a very, very different world today.

[LibraryOgre]

If you've read the Vinland Sagas, especially, IIRC, the Erik's Saga, there's an interesting bit where the skraelings show up and are shown hospitality... they have fun, the Northmen enjoy watching them get drunk, and it's a great time. The skraelings really enjoy the milk, which makes for big strong Viking bones.

The next day, the skraelings come back angry. Seems that many of them fell sick in the night with a terrible pain in their bowels. After that, it's nothing but conflict between the skraelings and the Northmen, which ultimately caused the colony to fail.

So what kept the Northmen from settling in Vinland? Hangovers and lactose intolerance.

[GolemsVoice]

I could have bet the setting would have been

:smallcool:

Pathfinder.


YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH

[AgentPaper]

So what kept the Northmen from settling in Vinland? Hangovers and lactose intolerance.

Damned intolerant savages! :smallfurious:

:smalltongue:

[Admiral Squish]

[begin shameless plug]
Well, if you're interested in viking/indian relations, maybe you'd like to come check out my worldbuilding project, Crossroads: the New World (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=269334). Very cool setting with alternate history and a lot of magic making north america a very, very interesting place.

At this very moment we're actually discussing aspects of Vinland. The idea being the vikings settled in greenland and instead of abandoning the colony, stayed behind and interbred with the natives until they formed a new culture, a mixture of native and viking. We call this area Vinland, after the original colony. Dragon-prowed war canoes, iron spears and axes, and the like.
[/end shameless plug]

[MtlGuy]

I remember once seeing a campaign setting, which I am pretty sure was for d20, that was basically a fantasy version of vikings comming to america. However, I completely forgot the name and I can't find it with google either.

Does anyone know what it's called?

I don't know that one, but TSR published a Viking Campaign source book in 1991, (ISBN 1-580761288). It's got a mini-history lesson, rules for runic magic, viking monsters, treasure, authentic building and long ship plans.

[Ravens_cry]

I don't think the Vikings ever made it to India :smalltongue:

(Someone had to say it.)

Totems of the Dead definitely has the better cover.
I know they got at least as far as Constantinople and in fact became the Byzantine Emperor's personal guard.

[scurv]

I don't think the Vikings ever made it to India :smalltongue:

(Someone had to say it.)

Totems of the Dead definitely has the better cover.

They kinda did in a way, many Russians are decedent from vikings. And Russians in India is not unheard of, Russian and England once upon a time had a little spat over that.

[Another_Poet]

I know they got at least as far as Constantinople and in fact became the Byzantine Emperor's personal guard.


They kinda did in a way, many Russians are decedent from vikings. And Russians in India is not unheard of...

I was pointing out that calling North American natives "Indians" is in poor taste.

[Ravens_cry]

I was pointing out that calling North American natives "Indians" is in poor taste.
Well, even 'natives' is in poor taste to some. Plus, it's not really accurate if you go back far enough.
In the end, we're all African.

[LibraryOgre]

The Mod Wonder: We will not be discussing the terminology prefered for various ethnic groups. It is a fraught and politically charged topic. No one has crossed a line yet. Do not go hunting for the line.

[Ravens_cry]

My apologies, shall I delete/edit that comment?

[Vizzerdrix]

If you've read the Vinland Sagas, especially, IIRC, the Erik's Saga, there's an interesting bit where the skraelings show up and are shown hospitality... they have fun, the Northmen enjoy watching them get drunk, and it's a great time. The skraelings really enjoy the milk, which makes for big strong Viking bones.

The next day, the skraelings come back angry. Seems that many of them fell sick in the night with a terrible pain in their bowels. After that, it's nothing but conflict between the skraelings and the Northmen, which ultimately caused the colony to fail.

So what kept the Northmen from settling in Vinland? Hangovers and lactose intolerance.

Too true. Supposedly this is where the Blond haired blue eyed Indians spring from that are rare in north western tribes. A shame things didn't work out. I wonder how the history books would have read if things had.

[LibraryOgre]

Too true. Supposedly this is where the Blond haired blue eyed Indians spring from that are rare in north western tribes. A shame things didn't work out. I wonder how the history books would have read if things had.

There's a book called "King of the Wood" that went into it, though it also assumed that the Mongols would successfully conquer all of Europe.

[Yora]

Starting from the late 18th century, there have been several confirmed cases of Japanese ships being taken out into the pacific and eventually shipwrecking in America. This probably had happened several time long before that point, and there are some theories that some of those surviving sailors might have been adopted into local communities. There is some speculation that buddhist ended up with the Zuni tribe, which has a quite different religion than the other local cultures, though that is still a quite remarkable distance from the sea.

But then, the interpreter of the Plymouth colony was taken as a slave as a child by the Spanish and after his release made his way to England from where he managed to get a ship to Canada.
A Japanese man getting washed ashore in Oregon and ending up settling in New Mexico would be only half as strange. :smallamused:

[Wardog]

I don't think the Vikings ever made it to India :smalltongue:

(Someone had to say it.)


Only as far as Persia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingvar_the_Far-Travelled