Pyramid Review
Ragnarok! Tales of the Norse Gods (for d20)
Published by Avalanche Press LTD
Written by William Sariego
Illustrated by Lorenzo Sperlonga & Peggy Gordon
48 pages; $12.95
The Vikings or the Norsemen have proved a rich vein from which to tap as a source for various RPGs and supplements. These include sourcebooks for systems as diverse as GURPS, AD&D, RoleMaster and third edition RuneQuest, plus games such Atlas Games' recent "smash-tastic" Rune RPG. The all-new, all-modern d20 phenomenon has not ignored the Vikings either, with them being the subject for Avalanche Press' second release, Greenland Saga - The Lost Norse Colony. This, like their first release, The Last Days of Constantinople, was a historically based adventure, but while they return to the subject of Vikings for their third book, Avalanche Press have written something a little different.
Ragnarok! Tales of the Norse Gods is not just historically based, but rather a campaign sourcebook upon the historical myths of the Vikings. What it offers is not a game in which our players take on the roles of Viking warriors -- though they can -- but instead provides a framework in which the players become Norse gods themselves.
The first thing that strikes you about Ragnarok! is its cover. Indeed, this cover recently won a "Buzzie," or a 2001 RPGnet Award for the most gratuitous cover. Take another look; that cover is gratuitous . . . there were hopes that the days of the chainmail bikini and cheesecake had died with 1st . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: January 11, 2002
Copyright © 2002 by Steve Jackson Games. All rights reserved. Pyramid subscribers are permitted to read this article online, or download it and print out a single hardcopy for personal use. Copying this text to any other online system or BBS, or making more than one hardcopy, is strictly prohibited. So please don't. And if you encounter copies of this article elsewhere on the web, please report it to webmaster@sjgames.com.