Description

Ragnaroll is a game of glory, death and dice. A great winter has descended upon the land, the sun has disappeared, the sea has frozen over, there's no more crops or cattle and all you have left is a few winter stores and, of course, your fluid Viking sense of ownership.

In Ragnaroll, you control a band of Viking warriors, each represented by a custom die, struggling to survive. Your band consists of a unique hero, 2 soldiers, 1 shieldmaiden and a loyal, but slightly unreliable, dog. You'll need to fight to protect your precious food stores, as well as raid your opponents for glory and more food. It's a harsh winter wasteland, and the last Viking alive wins, unless of course Ragnaroll happens first.

A round of Ragnaroll starts by revealing an event card, which will provide some incentives and rewards for your Vikings to leave their comfy halls. Next, players secretly separate their warriors into their defenders and their raiders. Players reveal their selection simultaneously and the boldest and bravest player, the one with the smallest raiding party, seizes the Initiative, gaining control of raid order for the round. If there's any ties, you'll need to literally seize the initiative by grabbing the initiative token from the centre of the table.

In the order of the Initiative holders choice, each player conducts a little bit of Norse business, pitting your raiders against your opponents defenders and using your defenders to protect your stores from your enemy’s raiders. Battle is resolved through rolling dice and using special battle abilities fuelled by glory. Each hero has a unique set of powers that will enable them to turn luck into fate. Each player, starting with the raider, will use a battle ability, and then the winner will be determined. Whoever has the most axes win, but you'll be able to block axes with shields and appeal to Odin to reroll results. The winner of the battle will get to steal stores or slay his opponent's warriors, but each player will also gain glory. In addition to glory provided through the event for the round, every hero has a different path to glory, some will delight in crushing their enemies, while others will be satisfied with survival and some may even gain glory through defeat.

After all players have raided, they will return to their falls and feed their warriors, but with stores running low, not all mouths are worth feeding. You can send any of your Vikings out into the snow for a long walk, saving precious resources, and if you get really desperate, you can even eat the dog. After you’ve fed, you’ll draw a new event card and start all over again. The game will end in one of 3 ways, each of which show the gods that one band of warriors is fit to fight alongside them in Ragnaroll. When there’s only one player with Vikings left, that player wins, demonstrating they have the strength and cunning to fight with the gods, but if all players run out of stores at the same time, you will all conduct one last glorious battle and the player with the most axes will emerge victorious. However, if any player is able to demonstrate they are truly worthy of the god’s favour by gaining 15 glory, they will immediately win and take their rightful place in Valhalla.

Ragnarol is a game where your choices matter. You’ll need to balance risk and rewards, and manage your precious, dwindling resources, making hard decisions for the survival of your clan. The dice-based combat doesn’t simply mean that your fate into the hands of the gods, as you’ll be able to influence the outcome of the battle using your glory-fueled powers, but you’ll need to choose the battles that are worth the cost.