What’s Winds of the North?
Winds of the North returns! It’s been quite a while. Why the long hiatus? Simply, I was still hopeful about finding a publisher. There’s still some hope, even if not exactly what I was looking for, but it also took weeks to rebuild the PDF from scratch. It had become quite the mess (for various reasons), and I wanted to add images and other bits to spruce it up some for what I hope will be the final round of playtests (as well as add more space to the formatting). The new PDF should give you a better idea of what the final game might look like (though it’s just a draft, of course).
Other than a full-color, fancy PDF, there is also a printer-friendly version without the page backgrounds, as well as a black-and-white PDF (also without backgrounds), so everyone can download/print whichever version is best suited for them (or just use the PDF on the computer or tablet).
What’s Changed?
Nothing too huge has changed, but there have been some adjustments and a couple of new things. In terms of actual change to existing material:
- Names have expanded. There are now twice as many names to roll up!
- New play modes. The previous way to play the game is now called Sandbox Mode, where you have as much time as you want to earn Fame. Campaign Mode has been added that puts you on a 4-year timer. At the end of your 4th year, if you haven’t achieved one of the Legacy endings, you get a different ending depending on how much Fame you were able to earn.
- Late Winter Sickness. The previous change to LWS made Sickness a lot more punishing to Happiness. A new rule adjusts the loss of Happiness, giving you a buffer based on your Population.
- The Thing. Simply corrected the Old Norse spelling to Þing (that’s a þ, not a p!).
- Fishing. Late Summer Fishing has been merged into Fishing, there are just two tables under one Activity. There wasn’t really a reason for them to be separate.
What’s New?
There are a few new (though minor) features.
- New look! Images, graphics, and more bells and whistles.
- Historical Notes. These finally make an official appearance. Some of the Activities were more or less written as a historical note; these have been rewritten to be more immersive. And now there is a sprinkling of proper historical notes.
- Hirð Training. At the end of each year, you have an opportunity to train your Hirðmenn to improve their HP at the small cost of Food and Silver.
- Viking Funerals. You can have a funeral for the recently departed to try and earn back a bit of lost Happiness and possibly a Fortune or Ancestral Spirit. “But what if I’m the one who died?” I hear you ask.
- Heir Apparent. This is an optional rule for when your character dies that allows you to continue the game as a Family member or one of your Hirðmenn. All of your gear is still lost (you will be buried with it, of course), but the show must go on!
If you’re new to Winds of the North, I just want to highlight a couple of things here in addition to what you’ll find on the game’s page.
- It’s a sandbox game where much of what you do is in your hands! This includes, to some degree, the difficulty. If you go out exploring early on with low Combat, you take a bigger risk. If you don’t explore for a while until you and your Hirð are ready for a fight, some of the weakest enemies might be pretty easy. The pacing is mostly up to you.
- Included in the playtest materials is a Weekly Log. This is optional, but it’s there if you want to record what things you’ve done, what sorts of Events you might have had, and other bits you want to record in addition to what you can record in your Notes section.
- Thanks for checking out my game, and have fun!
Lastly, I had mentioned before that like Umbra, Winds of the North will go into open playtesting this time. That means no signups! And while many have signed up to playtest (and they’ll get everything too), and I’m glad to see so many people interested, I need to cast as wide a net as possible to get the necessary feedback to smooth all the remaining rough edges. I really think the end is in sight for WotN, I just need more help getting there! Any amount of spreading the word you can do will help and is greatly appreciated!
Thank you to everyone for checking it out, and I look forward to hearing from you!
Thomas P. King, author and game designer 