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| Chessex polyhedral dice and rune set by Arcturus Publishing |
I've been digging in some old rpg sandpits I used to muck around in and have been getting back into Nordheim, my Norse mythology setting from a decade ago. I've got some friend's kids who really want me to run a game for them, and they're really into D&D and norse gods and greek heroes and basically exactly where I was when I was their age. Anyway, I've always wanted to use futhark runes in Nordheim, and finally managed to find some at a local bookshop (though you can get the online here).
This particular set by Arcturus Publishing aren't what I originally had in mind; I was envisioning something more interesting, hand-carved in stone, but only after I bought them did I realise this particular set of runes aren't too bad as dice, and I picked up some Chessex black polyhedral sets and inked them in with gold pen to match.
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| Map of Nordheim |
So how to use them in game?
First up as character background inspiration. Have the players blindly draw one rune from the bag and place it on the table. If it's rune is face up, all good. Face down, it's in opposition or merkstave (I'm not interested in the historical accuracy of reading runes Just Like They Did In the Old Days as much as I'm interested in using them as a tool for idea generation, and runes being in opposition or merkstave is debatable, but for game purposes I'm cool with it).
The rune they draw informs their character's background. At a later date I might get round to detailing every single rune and some background origins for each, but for now I like it as a loose influence.
Second idea is at the start of each game session, each player draws a rune. During the game, if a dice roll comes up that concerns something connected to the rune, then the player can opt to use the rune in addition to the dice roll.
If the rune lands face up it affects the results of a d20 roll as follows:
Dice Roll Fumbled (nat 1!) => Result improved to just a Fail
Dice Roll Failed => Result improved to a Success
Dice Roll Succeeded => Result improved to a Critical Success
Dice Roll Critical Success (nat 20!) => Result improved to something Monumentally Cool
Once applied the rune can't be used again this session.
If the rune lands face down it doesn't affect the results but the player can hold on to it for later in the session.
As for what each rune means and what areas of the game they influence, I leave that for the players to convince the DM, but there's so many resources available about using them for divination that you just need to refer to one and make the call.
