Good day, and I'm a first time poster...be gentle with me!

I have an idea for a mechanic for a purely homebrew mythic Norse game I'm planning, and wondered if anyone here had tried anything similar, or knew of any comparative commercial games which used it.

Task resolution will use runes. You know the ones, you've probably seen them in bookshops, the rune sets used for telling fortunes. It occurred to me that therein might be the germ of an atmospheric task resolution system: the player draws a rune from the bag, the meaning is consulted from the accompanying literature (though I'd probably type them up onto quick-reference index cards) and the player gets to decide the outcome of the task based upon the qualities of the rune.

To give an example:

Ivar the Tiny is in combat with three Frankish peasants during a raid. The Franks have snatched up makeshift weapons. Ivar is an inexperienced lad, but is armed for war. The Franks, however, outnumber him and he is seperated from his shipmates. Ivar's player (let's call him Rob) announces that he'll stab at the eyes of the Frank to the left, and when he backs away swing his sword across to slash at the one next to him. Rob draws a rune from the bag. It is Issa, which means, "cessation of energy, freezing an issue where it stands, cooling relationships, separation, division." Rob thinks for a moment, and says that the feint works a little too well. Not only did the first Frank jerk backwards to avoid the stab, but so did his fellows, clearly spooked by the attack they all backed off and levelled their long-hafted weapons, making it not only difficult to close for another attack, but they thoroughly block Ivar's escape route to his fellows. The GM approves of the interpretation, but the scene is left hanging. Rob announces that he will exploit the peasant's obvious fear by letting out a mighty bellow, swing his sword before him and try to scare them into running. This time, the rune drawn is Mannaz, meaning, "co-operation, teamwork, collaboration, help and aid from others, beginning new projects, especially with others." Rob states that his shout attracted the attention of his cousin, Kveld-Ulf, and his foster-brother Snorri who were not as far away as he believed. They come running and the peasants are no match for the three warriors. The Franks are quickly killed.

It hasn't yet been playtested, but I like the theory. It does give a great deal of narrative control to the players, which is something I want.

Opinions please?

Steve

Welcome to the Forge.

I am not 100% proficient in the Runes, though I have a friend who is very good with the Runes (she does them often) and I have been witness to this as she does.

I have had some similar ideas with Tarot Decks, but there are a couple problems associated with these.

1) Potential for insult: Certian people will be offended that your using pagan magic items and others could be insulted you are using something very sacred to them for a game. The Majority will not care I believe but just a heads up on that.

2) The Vague-ness of the Definitions. Your second example I thought went the other way from what I was reading. I would have interpretted it that the Franks banded together and attacked me harder. I think even in a Narrative game, A still must = A so that definitions are deep instead of broad. What I mean by this:

Rune X means Escape. YOu escape the current situation. Now you can narrate any number of avenues of escape but you cannot for instance narrarate a sudden Deity intervention. Or You stab with your sword. Ok you stab with the sword, narrarate it but I do not want to see a fireball coming down from the sky.

Clearly those are extreme examples, but if you narrow the field of each Rune it might make things a little easier.

Now, why is the player the only one drawing Runes? When do the Franks draw Runes? or do they? With Tarot you have the possibility of Reverse and reverse meanings but with the Runes, that is not necassarily the case.
(I do not think...hmmmm)

Otherwise I think its a good and novel idea.

Sean
ADGBoss

The is Wyrd which is a Norse epic game. I had often thought of adding rune stones to the mechanic.

Yeah, I've often said that I think that Futhark or, if you don't want ot offend anyone, some fantasy set of symbols (I wonder if the Glorantha people would let you use their nifty set) could be used to make Wyrd a more colorful game. As it stands there are only black and white stones in that game.

Another game that you ought to look at is Everway. That game uses a sort of "tarot-like" deck for resolution much in the way you describe above. It also uses another deck of "vision" cards for inspiration in things like character generation.

Mike

Welcome to the Forge.

1) Potential for insult: Certian people will be offended that your using pagan magic items and others could be insulted you are using something very sacred to them for a game. The Majority will not care I believe but just a heads up on that.

2) The Vague-ness of the Definitions. Your second example I thought went the other way from what I was reading. I would have interpretted it that the Franks banded together and attacked me harder. I think even in a Narrative game, A still must = A so that definitions are deep instead of broad. What I mean by this:

Rune X means Escape. YOu escape the current situation. Now you can narrate any number of avenues of escape but you cannot for instance narrarate a sudden Deity intervention. Or You stab with your sword. Ok you stab with the sword, narrarate it but I do not want to see a fireball coming down from the sky.

Clearly those are extreme examples, but if you narrow the field of each Rune it might make things a little easier.

Now, why is the player the only one drawing Runes? When do the Franks draw Runes? or do they? With Tarot you have the possibility of Reverse and reverse meanings but with the Runes, that is not necassarily the case.
(I do not think...hmmmm)

Otherwise I think its a good and novel idea.

Jack Spencer Jr wrote: The is Wyrd which is a Norse epic game. I had often thought of adding rune stones to the mechanic.

Mike Holmes wrote: Yeah, I've often said that I think that Futhark or, if you don't want ot offend anyone, some fantasy set of symbols (I wonder if the Glorantha people would let you use their nifty set) could be used to make Wyrd a more colorful game. As it stands there are only black and white stones in that game.

Another game that you ought to look at is Everway. That game uses a sort of "tarot-like" deck for resolution much in the way you describe above. It also uses another deck of "vision" cards for inspiration in things like character generation.

Mike

True, but I think making the definitions pretty vague allows them to be applied to any situation, from violence to social interaction to whether the character's wife conceives this season. I will concede, however, that greater leeway allows for greater potential for abuse.