State of the Ginnungagap

So, how’s this shaping up at the moment?

 

I started using Homebrewery to pull all the rules I wanted to use together and make them look pretty. I have races set out how I want them, and some work is done on them, but then I got carried away and copy/pasted a lot of stuff together from Unearthed Arcana articles and stuff, and then it became a chore to edit and it all sort of fell down.

So my challenge to myself now is to actually finish off the races, work on the classes properly and make sure I get the setting flavour sorted. I was too focussed on pulling all the disparate rules together that I kind of lost sight of the project, so I’m trying to claw my way back in.

It didn’t help that a bunch of sci-fi D&D settings all showed up in 2017 and made me envy them instead of compare and contrast.

 

So what have I got done and what makes me stand out a bit there?

I took out the D&D alignment system and replaced it with the freeform honour system from d20SRD. I liked the feeling of it a bit more for the system and for how I wanted the game to behave.

I took the Kenku rules as written in Volo’s Guide to Monsters and I’ve been playing with them a bit. Decided that the Hrafnr (as I’m calling them) should have as much choice as some of the other races, and tweaked around a bit accordingly. I now have two subraces – Huginnr and Muninnr – one focused on thought/Wisdom attribute and one focused on memory/Intelligence attribute.

I’ve looked back at the way elves are described in Norse myths and looked at how they are generally portrayed in D&D and decided to change attribute modifiers around a bit. I’m still deciding whether or not the Dvergr/dwarves should be a thing separate from the Svartaelfr/dark elves, since the Norse myths have the groups as interchangeable. But I think it wouldn’t be D&D without both.

I’ve looked at trying to create a Dvergblod/half-dwarf racial option similar to the Aelfblod/half-elf. I’m looking at Trollblod and deciding whether they’ll be half-orcs or not and if so what Trollr will be – Firbolg or Goliaths maybe.

I also have Niflingr as a page title currently, but what to make these small folk I haven’t decided. Not sure I want halflings running around, and might look to the rules for goblins or kobolds. I’m also debating making them at least semi-aquatic.

And then there’s the doozy – the Thrall option. A subrace available to every race that fills the role of serf/slave in the Norse social hierarchy. In the same way that Infrared citizens in Paranoia have little to no sentience and are used for whatever it is Infrared citizens are used for, the Thralls are vat-grown clone batches used as basic labour. I wasn’t sure about using them, but I have a couple of feasible arguments for their inclusion, and they aren’t a completely abusable resource as I have them written. Plus, having a background as a freed thrall works.

 

With classes, I have been mostly focussing on more magical elements so far – sorcerer bloodlines, wizard schools, warlock pacts – but so far not really written in a cohesive way. I need to look at spells and stuff too.

Most of the martial and sneak classes are done and I’m happy with them.

 

I had a major rethink of the cosmology recently. The Norse idea of the Nine Worlds was something I’d pulled together into Nine Systems, but now I’m thinking I should have made it three systems, with nine core worlds spread across them.

With one root of the World Tree in each system, I could easily plug stuff together and be quite happy. I had originally thought that the Asgard system might be impossible to find, but I think now it might be better if Asgard is entirely easy to find, but the seats of the gods in Asaheim and Vanaheim are either empty or missing entirely.

 

Lastly, I’m still lacking a good starting point for a campaign. I want the characters to be stuck in Fimbulwinter, the point before Ragnarok begins, and I know how I’d end that conflict in setting in a fun way. But that first step is still a bit of a pain, and I don’t want to start off in the middle of adventures without having worked out some of the kinks in the rules.

I’m sure I’ll get there.