NorsePlay.

A sequel to our favourite boardgame  Yggdrasil has been released as Yggdrasil Chronicles , complete with a 3-D world tree! Boasting a campaign made made of separate sagas, the Gods are now actual moving pieces, and the middle platform of the tree actually revolves! We are soooo buying this! #    #    # Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in  the Norse Lore when he picked up a copy of the d'Aulaires'  Norse Gods and Giants  at age seven. Since t hen he's been fascinated by the truthful potency of Norse Mythology, passionately read & studied, embraced Ásatrú, launched the  Map of Midgard  project, and spearheaded the neologism/brand NorsePlay.   If you have e mployment/ opportunities in  investigative mythology,  field research, or product development to offer,  do contact him .

While we aren't fond of Risk as a boardgame (heresy, we know), we offer up this well-dressed variant Risk: Godstorm where the different pantheons & their followers face off not only in world domination, but on still unsubmerged Atlantis & in the Underworld. The cover art features Zeus being much too preoccupied by his lightning bolt, while Thor seems ready to swing around crush his head in with Mjölnir. One design critique's that all the god pieces aren't actually different for each pantheon. [boardgame by Avalon Hill.] #    #    # Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in  the Norse Lore when he picked up a copy of the d'Aulaires'  Norse Gods and Giants  at age seven. Since t hen he's been fascinated by the truthful potency of Norse Mythology, passionately read & studied, embraced Ásatrú, launched the  Map of Midgard  project, and spearheaded the neologism/brand NorsePlay.   If you have e mpl...

  While reading a collected graphic of The War of the Realms , I couldn't help but notice the well designed runic symbols placed around the title, and found this larger chart to show them off. While the Yggdrasil boardgame uses a regular elder futhark rune to represent each of The Nine Worlds, this takes it a step further, and also sort of fills a shorthand Yggdrasil diagram need, which makes me wonder at why it wasn't thought of before. And sure, this is a Marvel Thor invention, especially given the Hela 's headress and Surtur 's crown gylphs (and the whole cloth creation of lost 10th realm "Heven"), but it's not like someone couldn't run with this idea and make some working bindrunes or other Norse inspired icons to correspond to The Nine Worlds. #    #    # Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in  the Norse Lore when he picked up a copy of the d'Aulaires'  Norse Gods and Giants  at age seven. Since t hen he's been f...

NorsePlay would like to blast our own Gjallarhorn about the praise & applause we received from the attending Southwest Heathen community over our auction donations to support this year's Southwest Frith Moot : [Zoomorphic terminal'd brass neck torc, unattributed Níu Heimar painting, and Járngreipr oath ring gripping necklace (combo collab item with an American Heathen hammer).]  [Because NorsePlay loves books ! Note that sweet library cover vintage hardback of Padraic Colum's The Children Of Odin , a Brit coffeetable 1968 CE edition of H.R. Ellis Davidson's Scandinavian Mythology , and Nancy Marie Brown 's Ivory Vikings !] Southwest Frith Moot is the longstanding annual regional event hosted by Arizona's Wanderer Kindred's Chieftain Vince & Gythia Dani, which is held at a varying campsite, and was up in Pinedale, AZ, a couple weekends ago. [Why yes, that is a NorsePlay logo 'd banner hanging at the center of the main tent.] Featuring two days o...

Raid your way to jarldom in NSKN Games' In the Name Of Odin . Any of you played this? [designed by Krzysztof Zięba, art by Odysseas Stamoglou.] #    #    # Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in  the Norse Lore when he picked up a copy of the d'Aulaires'  Norse Gods and Giants  at age seven. Since t hen he's been fascinated by the truthful potency of Norse Mythology, passionately read & studied, embraced Ásatrú, launched the  Map of Midgard  project, and spearheaded the neologism/brand NorsePlay.   If you have e mployment/ opportunities in  investigative mythology,  field research, or product development to offer,  do contact him .

The boardgame map from CMON's Blood Rage . We find the cold design on fire world Muspelheim curious, but during Ragnarök perhaps things have played out differently, or it made a better mechanical arrangement to put the various giants together. Any of you played this? [Game design by Eric Lang and art by Adrian Smith.] #    #    # Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in  the Norse Lore when he picked up a copy of the d'Aulaires'  Norse Gods and Giants  at age seven. Since t hen he's been fascinated by the truthful potency of Norse Mythology, passionately read & studied, embraced Ásatrú, launched the  Map of Midgard  project, and spearheaded the neologism/brand NorsePlay.   If you have e mployment/ opportunities in  investigative mythology,  field research, or product development to offer,  do contact him .

Back in 1982, TSR put out a series of clamshell paper & chit games, one of which was the gem Viking Gods . A two-player game that enacted Ragnarök where one of you rallied the Æsir and the other controlled the adversaries, with the hex map showing a swirly oil endpaper patterned Bifrost, an icy frost giants area, and a deadly vortex in the middle from which Hela randomly emerges to take final victims from both sides. There were basic introductory rules & then an advanced ruleset where the Gods/adversaries had special powers, but it's pretty even chances in this one. After spotting it in the store as a kid who'd spent his allowance already, one finally fell into my hands last year which the wife & I played, and it was fun-fun. Yes, the Gods do play with wyrd dice, Mr Einstein. [And a closeup of those Fire Giants.] #    #    # Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in  the Norse Lore when he picked up a copy of the d'...

In his annual April Fool's Day video for 2021 CE, Old Norse Philologist Jackson Crawford uses some vintage plastic Vikings figures from the 1983 CE Lakeside Games classic Crossbows & Catapults , which happens to be one of our favourite boardgames : So we left this comment as an open challenge: 5:02 Crossbows & Catapults Viking figures!?! Jackson, we have to holmgang over that boardgame. Yes, I'm calling you out. Caroms & rubberbands at high noon. Let's do this! norseplay.blogspot.com [Commented on The Kittredge Runestone (April Fools Day 2021)  video.] It's been a year since I issued this draw-the-square challenge , but no response (though I did receive a reply regarding a Map Of Midgard mappoint inquiry in the interim, so there was that). This technical default totally makes NorsePlay more drengr. Yep, I said that Jackson! Get in that fancy truck and drive down from your AZ brother's house to Tucson to prove me wrong! Loser buys the mead and can use t...

Grey Fox Games' Champions of Midgard boardgame. "Champions of Midgard is a Viking-era worker placement game with dice-driven combat. Taking on the roles of competing Viking leaders, players hunt trolls , battle draugr, and slay mythical Norse beasts in a quest for glory! " On top of this promising looking core game they've made Valhalla and Dark Mountains  expansions, along with a bunch of piece & promo pack upgrades. Any of you played this? [Designed by Ole Steiness, art by Víctor Pérez Corbella.] #    #    # Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in  the Norse Lore when he picked up a copy of the d'Aulaires'  Norse Gods and Giants  at age seven. Since t hen he's been fascinated by the truthful potency of Norse Mythology, passionately read & studied, embraced Ásatrú, launched the  Map of Midgard  project, and spearheaded the neologism/brand NorsePlay.   If you have e mployment/ opportu...