Tales of the Valiant: Northlands WorldBook & Northlands Sagas
It’s been a slow couple months on oldgamehermit.com. Between the site redesign and a bunch of personal projects, I’ve really lagged behind when it comes to making posts. I hope to reverse that trend today with a new TTRPG review.
A while back I funded an interesting Kickstarter from Kobold Press. The project was called Northlands: Norse Adventures for D&D and Tales of the Valiant. It consisted of two books, a rulebook called Northlands Worldbook, and a collection of Norse-themed adventures titled Northlands Sagas. The project was being produced for both D&D 5.5 and Tales of the Valiant (a 5E compatible system). Since I run my personal games using the original 5E system, I decided to back the Tales of the Valiant version to maintain compatibility. Naturally, the ToV version of these books were the last to leave the printing press. But, my books have finally arrived and I’ve spent the last week examining them in detail. That being said, I’m ready to share my thoughts.
Before I get into the review of the books themselves. I want to mention that my Kickstarter pledge also included two additional products. The first is a pouch of rune stones, (yes, they’re real stone), and a deck of rune cards. It’s important to note that these products are not included with the retail version of the books. They are sold separately. They are completely optional, but they really do tie-in nicely with the content found in the Northlands Sagas book. If you plan to include these books in your game, at the very least you may want to consider making your own visual representations of these stones/cards.
The first book I want to discuss is the Northlands Worldbook. I want to reiterate that my copy of this book is the printing that is designed to be compatible with ToV/5E. Therefore, if you have the D&D 5.5 version, there’s bound to be some differences. The quality of the book is superb. The cover is sturdy and sleek, the binding is tight, and the pages colorful and well-formatted. I’ve had some quality issues with Kobold Press products in the past. But lately, everything I’ve received from them has been very well put together. These books are no exception.
The Worldbook serves as a campaign setting focused on a Norse-themed world. It introduces the Northlands as a playable campaign. Everything from the geography, cultures, and various races are covered here.
The first chapter provides a detailed overview of the setting. Everything from weather to the daily life of the Northlands people is heavily detailed. This chapter should provide both the GM and that player with a strong understanding of what to expect from a Northlands campaign. Several new races are introduced here, Bearfolk, Trollkin, Ravenfolk, etc. A number of these are detailed further in a later chapter.
The second chapter of the book provides details on the various regions and nations that occupy the Northlands. Aside from giving a detailed overview on each, this section also provides sample adventure hooks for each region, giving the GM a number of ideas on just what types of adventure might be found in each individual area. When I say this chapter is extensive, I mean it. There’s more information here than you’ll probably ever need if you decide to host a campaign in this area. The details provided here also pair very nicely with the third chapter of the book.
The third section presents a rundown on a number of factions that can be found in the various regions detailed above. This information is great for both player backgrounds and world building. It’s similar to faction sections from other campaign guides, but of course all of the factions here have a Norse-spin on them and they integrate perfectly into the world of the Northlands.
The fourth section introduces new player options. As you would expect, all of the material presented here has a Norse or viking vibe to it. The chapter starts out with a number of new subclass options. I found these to be very well done and balanced. Even if you’re not playing a campaign that’s set in the Northlands, it would be very easy to port these over to a standard fantasy campaign that features PCs from the northern regions.
The chapter continues with the introduction of new race/lineage options. These includes the Bearkfolk and Trollkin I mentioned above. But also includes options for Giantkin, Werekin, and a number of racial variants. I feel like these options would all work perfectly well in a Northlands campaign. But they may feel somewhat out of place in a standard campaign setting. The chapter continues by providing new character backgrounds and talents.
The fifth chapter focuses on the introduction of new magic, items, magic items, and a slew of mundane equipment. Everything from skis to longships are covered here. There’s plenty of useful info packed into this chapter and I found many of the new magic items to be fun and exciting. The new spells are very much Norse/Viking appropriate. Just reading through the description of the spells conjured up images of Thor and Loki, and really put me in that “Valhalla” mindset.
The content of the fifth chapter perfectly sets up for the next section of the book, the Northlands’ Pantheon. This entire section is a deep-dive into actual Norse mythology. It details legendary characters such as Freyja, Loki, and Wotan. This chapter contains everything a cleric in the Northlands would need to know about the various deities. As always, Kobold Press proves themselves to be masters of legends and lore.
Chapter seven provides the GM with more details on successfully running a Northlands campaign. There’s really too much in this chapter for me to break it down piece by piece. But the information included here is designed to help the GM make their Northlands‘ campaign stand out and feel unique. It includes rules for flying mounts and ship-at-sea combat. It even includes information on pillaging and land raids. Honestly, it’s probably more than most people are going to need. But it’s all here, nonetheless.
Chapter eight features a bestiary. There’s some really cool monsters here, including a number of new and unique giants. Sometimes the monster section of these campaign sourcebooks seem really thrown together and the beasts end up feeling cheap and worthless. That’s not the case with this book. Each one of these new monsters truly feels like they have a reason for existing.
The book closes with a number of encounter tables that add even more color and options for a GM who might be looking to spice up their campaign.
On the whole, I found the Northlands Worldbook to be an excellent resource for someone who wants to run a Norse-themed campaign or who wants a starting point for worldbuilding a region with a similar culture in their own homebrew campaign. There’s more information here on the subject than you’re likely to find in any other TTRPG product. However, unless you’re dedicated to playing in this type of realm, there’s not much here that would be of value in a standard fantasy campagn.
The second book, Northlands Sagas, is a collection of several adventures set in the Northlands. This book alone could serve as an entire campaign arc if you wanted to use it in that way. There’s a total of eleven adventures included in the book and they take full advantage of everything that’s found in the Worldbook.
This book is also where the concept of rune stones really takes shape. If you plan to use this book as a campaign path, each player would randomly select a rune stone (cards or actual stones). The runes grant the players various boons and benefits that they can take advantage on a fixed schedule. These runes are a key part of the various adventures found in the book and I think they make for a fun inclusion.
Naturally, I have not run any of the adventures included in this book at my table. But I was impressed with the format and detail that seems to be provided here. The adventure layouts are easy to read and understand and the contents really fit perfectly with the overall theme of a Northlands campaign. What I mean by that is, it doesn’t feel like this book consists of a bunch of previously drafted adventures that were converted for use in this product. It’s quite obvious that these adventures were authored with this campaign setting in mind. These are high quality adventures.
The Northlands Saga book seems to match the Worldbook in terms of quality and I feel that it is just as essential to anyone wishing to run a campaign in this setting.
What this all boils down to is that these products are nothing short of invaluable for someone who really wants to explore a Norse-themed campaign. Even if you don’t use the material included in this book exactly as it is presented. There’s more than enough detail here to fuel your own imagination. On the same token, if you’re a GM that’s not focused on Norse-themed material, these books are probably overkill. Sure, you’re likely to find some good information here. But I can’t say that these books are worth obtaining if all you want to do is harvest some new monsters or equipment. This is an entire campaign setting and there’s more detail and lore here than you’re ever going to need.
