Fate of the Norns

I'd like to run the Saga from the Core Rulebook for a Con aimed at introducing people to new RPGs. Having never GM'd FotN, I'd like to reach out for advice on the Saga.

Currently, I'd like to open up with a fight with a polar bear; at the end, the players can have the option of healing or finishing off the bear. The goal is to start at Crunch 0 and slowly introduce them to the Runic Game System. The game could then proceed as per the rulebook.

I'm aiming to have the game last about 3 hours. Any suggestions on what to add, cut out, or focus on, would be helpful.

I'd like to introduce the variant regarding the Queen being the mastermind behind the murder. If you've done the same and would like to share your experience, I'd appreciate it.

I plan to offer the Lvl 8 pre-made characters found on the FotN website as well as the Lvl 10 characters from Fafnir's Treasure. I'm unsure if I should set them all to Lvl 8 characters or Lvl 10. Lvl 10 would be easier as I could just add 1 Destiny to the Lvl 8 guys, but Lvl 8 means fewer things for newbies to learn.

Any printables not provided in the book that you've made for the saga and would like to share would be welcome.

If you're limiting your Egil's Saga to 3 hours, I would make a couple of recommendations:
1) Start the game with a few collective skill checks (Perception, Omens/Portents, etc)
2) Keep to the main plot line, don't invest too much time with the secondary characters
3) Polar bear, depending on level, could be a hard first fight. You could have them crash on a more secluded part of the island and then on the way to the town are beset by a bunch of level 3 or 6 ne'er-do-wells (2 times the number of players). A lot of targets allows everyone to shine and to test out their abilities. In addition you don't need to pull your punches as you would using a level 15 bear (higher level because it's 1 enemy).
4) Yup the queen being the nemesis is a popular take on this story. *SPOILERS* One of my story arcs is that she wants the town to face a villain so they turn to her husband for protection. Her original plan is to secretly offend the vaettir during the ceremny, so she and her husband's army can "save" the town from its wrath, indebting them to the future king. When Egil shows up, she decides to use him instead/as-well. I've had the town overrun with the dead, summoned by the vaettir, and the queen unable to handle them because of the players and Egil thwarting her. Then I've had the end go any number of ways depending on what the players know & do. *END SPOILERS*
5) From our testing over the years, level 8 pregens are a better choice for people starting out. That's why the DotN and LotA pregens are all level 8 following the same general 2-page layout. I'd suggest you download the DotN batch from our website.

Good luck!

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