By Fraser Ronald

Edited by Chris Groff

Graphic Design and Logo by Rob Wakefield

Art by Kieron O’Gorman and Giovanni Lanza

Special Thanks to Graeme Comyn for kicking the rules in the teeth

Based on the RPG game Sword Noir: Hardboiled Sword & Sorcery by Fraser Ronald and edited by Chris Groff

Kiss My Axe inspired by the movie the 13th Warrior, the novel the Long Ships by Frans Gunnar Bengtsson, the comic Northlanders by Brian Wood, the lecture series

the Vikings by Dr. Kenneth W. Harl, and the sagas of the Norse.

Sword Edge System inspired by: The RPG systems PDQ, the Shadow of Yesterday, Fate 3.0 and Lady BlackbirdSample

file

Sample

file

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Thirteen Warriors & An Angel of Death . . . . .2 Ethos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2You Know What I Mean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3The Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Qualities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Ranks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Heroic Character Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 Prowess . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Traits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 Other Qualities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 Weakness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 Fame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 Reputation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Pivots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Luck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 Advancement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 Critical Failures and Successes . . . . . . . . . . .18 Critical Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 Critical Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 Levels of Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 Initiative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19Combat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 Initiative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 Seizing the Initiative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 Combat Turn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Critical Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Multiple Opponents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23Damage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 Healing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26Runic Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 Magic and Vikings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 Magic and Kiss My Axe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 The Runes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 Arcane Qualities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 A Gift Onto Myself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 Using an Arcane Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31 Turns Required . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 The Arcane Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32Heroes, Regulars and Minions . . . . . . . . . . .35 Monster Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 The Jotun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36

The Alfar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37 Berserker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39 The Scandinavian Bronze Age . . . . . . . . . . .39 The Time of the Celts and the Romans . . . . .41 The Age of Migrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43 England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45 Ireland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45 Scotland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 Mainland Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47 Russia/Ukraine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47 Byzantium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48 Serkland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49 Muslim Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49 The New World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49The Norse Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51The Play’s the Thing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55 Being Awesome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55 Cinematic Action and Kennings . . . . . . . . .56 Don’t Ask Me, Tell Me . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57 Metagaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58 Considering Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59 Magic in the Narrative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60 Viking Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60 Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61Appendix: Character Examples . . . . . . . . . . .62Appendix: Some Viking Pivots . . . . . . . . . . .64

Sample

file

Sample

file

1

What is it about the Vikings that so inspires? For a fantasy role-playing game, they are the archetypical warrior, or perhaps barbarian. They have the reputation of the ultimate fighting force of the Dark Ages. No one could withstand them . . . well, most opponents could not withstand them. They had the kind of warrior culture that tends to fascinate, even though we must ignore the aspects that would horrify—much like the Spartans and the Samurai.

That’s the thing. The Viking is a great archetype if we ignore the less savoury aspects of their culture. A warrior society for sure, but when they met someone they couldn’t beat up, they were willing to trade. If you were strong, the Vikings came as friends. If you were weak, well, the Vikings still came as friends—the first time. The next time they came as vicious raiders, killing, raping, burning and looting. And let’s not forget the Blood Eagle,

The Blood Eagle was an execution, though most would consider it a torture. Staked out face flat on the ground. An axe was taken to the point where your ribs attach to your spine. Then once split, your ribs were pulled apart and spread to look like wings. Next your your lungs were pulled out. Then finally salt was added to the wounds to make the pain as excruciating as possible. The sagas speak of many great enemies and ecclesiastical leaders honoured in receiving this noble death in the name of Odin.

This game is about the sanitized, heroic Viking. That’s not to say your game won’t have killings, looting and burning. It’s not to say your characters won’t inflict the Blood Eagle. It’s just that’s not what I was trying to emulate with these rules. This is how I come at it: we are 21st Century people playing 10th Century ones. Indiscriminate killing, rape, and the razing of the homes and businesses of innocents is not something that should really appeal to 21st Century people. And it’s not something to which I actually want to appeal or glorify in a game

Think of Star Trek, the Original Series. More so than the rest of the Star Trek franchise, it is easy to see that the main characters are 20th Century characters in a 23rd Century setting. The ideas, social mores, and individual morality espoused are from the 20th Century. Would it be as interesting to see an individual of the 23rd Century, one who eschewed violence, who actually honoured the Prime Directive, who didn’t realize that sometimes, just sometimes, you’ve got to roll up your sleeves and crack some heads, or just get involved and help people? No, to me, that would hold no interest.

And so, this game is about 21st Century players playing circa 10th Century Vikings, sanitized, heroic, and basically good in the 21st Century North American version of “good.”

The game can certainly do more, it can do what you make it do, but now you know what I wanted it to do.

Now that you know where I’m coming from, go break it. Make it your own. Hack the crap out of it—Blood Eagle it if you wish—just as I hacked the crap out of Sword Noir and the games on which it was based.

Sword Noir: A Role-Playing Game of Hardboiled Sword & Sorcery is also published by Sword’s Edge Publishing. It attempts to emulate a mixture of hardboiled fiction and

Sample

file

2

sword & sorcery. The inspiration for that system came, most directly, from Tim Gray’s Jaws of the Six Serpents published by Silver Branch Games. It is an excellent sword & sorcery RPG. It is based on the PDQ system designed by Chad Underkoffler over at Atomic Sock Monkey Press. Further inspiration was provided by The Shadow of Yesterday by Clinton R. Nixon—another foray into S&S—Fate 3 .0 by Robert Donoghue, Fred Hicks, and Leonard Balsera—which provides a more generic game that can be easily focused to represent almost any genre—and Lady Blackbird by John Harper from One.Seven Design—which is a kind of pulp/steampunk adventure and system all in one.

The gathering of the warriors scene from the movie the 13th Warrior is a great RPG opening. I stole it for the opening of my own Viking campaign. Basically, an Angel of Death—while one might expect this to be a Valkyrie, it’s a type of prophetess in the movie, one who casts the bones to make a reading—indicates that 13 warriors are required for a great task. In the movie, the 13th warrior can be no Northman, and so Ahmed ibn Fahdlan is drawn into the story.

In my campaign, the Angel of Death delivers a prophecy and marks each of the player characters with a rune, linking their fates. Yeah, it was kind of railroading, but I had cleared it with the players—not the specifics, but the basic idea.

I still think this is an awesome way to start a campaign, or even a one-shot. The characters are thrown together by a prophecy that predicts dire consequences should the characters break faith with each other.

The Vikings were a superstitious lot, and I think this fits with the sagas and stories quite well.

Feel free to steal that idea just as I stole it.

EthosAll Vikings in Kiss My Axe follow a common ethos. If one examines historical actors, you will see that much of this stated ethos was observed more in the breach than otherwise, but our Vikings are those from the sagas, and from the literature and mass media spawned by those sagas. In Kiss My Axe, Ethos is the heart of our Viking culture.

Glory is the goal of all. Fame and reputation are intrinsically desirable.

One must have Loyalty toward friends, family, and bound comrades. Loyalty is reciprocal and it is not due to one who scorns it.

A leader shows Generosity to his followers. Only a miser hoards wealth, not a hero.

The laws of Hospitality are sacred. One protects and provides for guests, even though they be sworn enemies.

A Viking is Fearless in the face of Death. Fear of Death is for one who believes he can cheat Fate. Death comes for all, so live your life fully, and face its end with dignity.

Cunning shows not only intelligence, but superiority. Victory does not go to the strongest, but to the best.

This is the ethos of a Viking.

Sample

file