Burning Lifepaths

So, I want to play BW in a published, norse saga fantasy setting that I and my friends really enjoy.

Since this setting already exists, and the norse saga style is slitly different from the Tolkienish implied setting of BW, I thought I’d make some new lifepaths which are setting-specific and full of that viking saga flavour. Mmmm, delicious norse fantasy…

Anywho, I have BWG and all the Revised books, so I have the material I need. But since the lifepaths have recieved a spit shine in Gold, I’m wondering if maybe the advice in the MonBu is a bit dated. So, what should I consider when burning up lifepaths in Gold as opposed to Revised?

BWR and BWG have very similar lifepaths. As far as I can recall, the main difference with Gold is that the Sorcery skill generally gets pushed to the second sorcererous lifepath, while the first just gives you cheaper access to the Gifted trait (and is a prereq for getting into the other stuff).

My first impression is that you can get away with not changing much at all for a viking-themed game, as long as you are careful about interpreting the LPs (e.g. Professional Soldier: Sailor and Footman are probably a good fit for folks who go raiding; some of the sorcerer LPs might fight pagan priests). I’m playing a quasi-historical Norse game going right now, though we just have one protagonist, and she fit pretty well into the classic Hunter/Strider model, so we didn’t have to create or modify any lifepaths.

I remember reading somewhere here on the forums that a lifepath should contain atleast one Wise. Is that something I need to take into account?

As for keeping them the way they are, yeah I considered that. And to be honest, thats probably what I will end up doing. I will, however, rename a few of them to inject that specific feel I’m going for, and I think I might need to add a few new ones here and there to reinforce the setting and intoduce some specifics to the world. The elven lifepaths, for example, might need to be reworked a little, since elves in this setting are somewhat different from Tolkiens elves. Grief is spot on for them though, so no hassle there.

If anyones interested btw, do a Google image search for Trudvang to see some of the amazing illustraions of this setting.

No. Plenty of lifepaths contain no wises.

Renaming lifepaths is a great way to fix things. I’d start with that, then consider doing small changes in traits and maybe swapping a few skills in existing lifepaths. Brewing up entirely new LPs is a last resort, because then you have to think about how it interacts with everything else. What is likely to lead into it? What will people do after it? And why does it exist? All those tricky questions.

There’s also some stuff that might fit on the wiki, Barbarians of the North lifepaths maybe.