I have a new book out

When I moved to Durham in the early 2000s to do my MA, I was already pretty into the early middle ages, and I already had a little bit of a collection of early medieval miniatures, but that collection grew while I was there. I began to write down notes for a gaming project: a skirmish game that would simulate some of the intrigue and drama of the Sagas of the Icelanders, a collection of medieval literature that I was already very into, although I wasn’t as immersed in them then as I would later be.

Planning to use the bones of the GW skirmish game Mordheim for the game, I called my project Mordlanda Saga. But I never really finished it, and my collection of vikings grew without any real purpose. Which isn’t a bad thing, necessarily … but I never completely forgot the idea.

One party of Icelanders prepares to spring an ambush on another.

So when Gianluca Raccagni of the History and Games Lab at the University of Edinburgh said that he wanted to work on a project about the Icelandic sagas, I remembered that old project of mine — and we combined it with our “home” system, Lion Rampant, to create something that I think plays quite differently from standard LR but still has its simplicity and flexibility. It’s called Viking Blood Feud and you can get it at North Star. I’m especially pleased with some of the little bits of the campaign system, which I think produce the feel, if not exactly the precise incidents, of the sagas.

One of the coolest things about the project was getting the imprimatur of Snorrastofa, the research centre devoted to medieval Icelandic literary powerhouse Snorri Sturluson. We’d been hoping to do something together for years, ever since the launch of Lion Rampant: A Viking in the Sun, and it was a great privilege to visit last year and host a gaming event for them.

Sometimes you work on something for such a long time that it feels like it can never come out, and then it does. I felt that way about this project at times, and to be honest it’s so … odd … that I do wonder how the community will receive it. But I think I did my best on it, and I personally am satisfied with it. And hopefully you’ll enjoy it too.

Defiant to the end, an Icelandic farmer makes a last stand at his own front door.