Cultural weapons:
All swords
Knives and daggers
All axes (including a two-handed axe with the same stats as a halberd, but no bonus when set to receive a charge)
Hammers
Bows (but not crossbows)
Spear (long and short) and javelins - Long spear has damage rating of 1-10/2-12, may not be thrown, must be wielded two handed
Clubs and staffs (but these are the last resort of those too poor for proper weapons)
The following group picks may be taken as two weapon proficiencies:
- Dagger/knife, sword (short and broad)
- Sword (long, bastard and two-handed)
- Axes
- Spears
The following group pick may be taken as three weapon proficiencies:
- All knives, daggers and swords
Classes:
Fighter - The basic Viking man at arms, able to use all weapons (restricted to cultural weapons when first created) and armour (restricted to chain or lighter when first created). May specialise in a single weapon (costing one extra proficiency) for +1 to hit/+2 damage.
Berserker - Rare and dreaded warriors who wear no armour, are renowned for fearlessness and their terrifying aspect, and are rumoured to develop mystic powers. The same weapon skills as Fighters.
Rune-priest - Clerics who revere all the Aesir (as do all Vikings) but typically devote themselves to the service of one. The mysteries of each sect are not common knowledge to the layman. As Vikings first and foremost, they are still expected to use cultural weapons, and each sect has its favourite; for instance, Thor’s priests are famed for their prowess with the hammer.
Wizard - Rare and regarded with awe mixed with deep suspicion, the Viking wizard is still expected to know the use of at least one cultural weapon, and so has less time for magical study than his civilised brother. (Choose one weapon to wield using the cleric’s To Hit table, but give up one of the following: all Abjurations, all Alterations, all Conjurations, all Enchantments, all Evocations, all Illusions, or all Necromancy.)
Skald - This Viking bard is a popular entertainer and keeper of lore. He is reputed to have magical talents quite distinct from the rune-priest’s or the wizard’s. The class is based on the 2nd Edition bard, but with Charisma-based spellcasting based on 3rd Edition.
Thief - Since thievery is not a paying profession in the isolated settlements, but a skilled infiltrator and treasure-finder is still useful to have along on a raid, thieves are handled differently in the campaign. They advance on the fighter’s experience table instead of the thief’s, and cannot Read Languages, but they roll d8s for hit points, attack on the cleric’s To Hit table, and may use any cultural weapon, beginning with three proficiencies. As in 2nd edition AD&D, thieves can choose which skills to favour.
Literacy: Most Vikings are illiterate. Reading and writing is a class skill for skalds, rune-priests and wizards.
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*It is a time of feasting, when men eat and drink in the smoky firelight of the mead-hall. Voices are raised in story and song, jest and laughter, and pledges of good fellowship are drunk. But when angry words are exchanged and a man may not back down and keep his good name, then the words are paid for with blows and a space is cleared among the feasters, who cheer for one or the other of the quarrelers as pleases their fancy.
Until steel is drawn and rings and sparkles in the firelight, sword on sword, and it is a good-natured settling of differences no more… and a man with the hot blood on him strikes harder than was meant, and his fellow lies gasping out his last amid the rushes strewn on the beaten earth.
Old Sverre Grey-hair looks dourly on the victor, and his tone is hushed and solemn. “This will not end well,” he says, sober as all men suddenly are beneath the death-haunted roof, “for though 'twas an even match and your foe drew his blade first and full willingly, it will not please the Jarl Hrothgar to believe that his own brother was slain in fair fight. Would that the power of my good name and the timbers of my walls were shield enough against the Jarl’s wrath, but it were folly to believe so. Therefore, my friend Bjarni, though I hold you blameless and have many witnesses to my backing, I urge that you get you gone without delay to your own place, and consider well whether you will await the Jarl’s wrath or rather forestall it.”
In no good heart, but with no ill-will for the honest Sverre Grey-hair, Bjarni and those of his household make haste to return to his holding where he will ponder his next move; and the thought crosses his mind that it is perhaps well that his well-found snekkja, Black Snake herself, be freshly tarred and ready for sea, wanting for naught save provisions and crew.*
"
