Vanagard - Viking Folklore RPG in a box by Pendelhaven Publishing

JoshuaKitz

Got a copy of Vanagard for Christmas. Played a quick test game with the family. Only did 2 chapters, but it gave me a chance to see if I was reading the rules correctly, and then to read things over and sort out things I didn't grok on the first read.

The art on the chapter cards is awesome.

I'll be sharing more thoughts soon.

It is available along with the rest of Pendelhaven's game here on the marketplace https://composedreamgames.com/marketplace/pendelhaven/vanagard

jKitz

The game comes with a rune set like this:

Characters are pretty straight forward; they come with a some base skills (three if only 2 players, just one if 5 or more) that they always have, and then a set of 6 skill cards with runes on them that they draw from randomly to resolve challenges in the story.
They also start with 1 spell or 1 treasure.

A challenge might be to build a lodge after a dwelling was destroyed by some disaster. The "norn" (gm) decides this is a work challenge. A player might decide to overcome it with something else, and explain how: "I will use lead to convince the dwarf to carry out the repairs."
In the first case a single wooden rune is drawn, in the second 2. The color of the runes drawn determines the difficulty.

The player then draws two skill cards, and see's if they can match or exceed the difficulty. Treasure or spells can be used/expended, and there is a limited number of support tokens that players can use to face a challenge together.

Here's a one "preset" character and one my sister-in-law made for a Christmas game:

There are story cards in the box set with great art, that are meant to be used to inspire each "chapter" of the story, and there's challenge cards you can use as examples or directly in the game.

Characters do advance after any session, likely gaining at least one of essence (number of skill cards), destiny - number drawn, or treasure/spells.

It's neat, and my recent quick play(s) have me itching to give it another go.

Here's a snap of the full box set:

I would class this on the story-game side of things mechanically. It suggest a maximum of 6 chapters in a game, with each player facing one challenge per chapter. Each chapter gets it's own rune. These are used to potentially make challenges more difficult, or provide bonuses to the players, and also used for advancement at the end of the session.

It also suggests the option of using a "wandering norn" or rotating the gm role between each chapter, which is intriguing.

It all flows together well at the table and the feel of the thing is very compelling.