Sagas of the North is Chaosium’s Community Content program for Age of Vikings TTRPG. You can get further assistance from either;
- The Sagas of the North Creators Circle – link to relevant FB Group, a lively community of fellow authors and artists on Facebook.
- The Sagas of the North channel on the Chaosium Discord.
- Our Community Content Ambassadors are also here to help and frequent both of the groups above.
To help everyone in that process, our community ambassadors have put together this helpful FAQ. It consolidates some answers we’ve previously given to creators, and some messages we wanted to share, into a hopefully digestible format:
A lot of what you might be seeking in this FAQ is already answered in the Sagas of the North Guidelines, which can be found HERE
But if that doesn’t have the answers, read on!
Q: What rights to the contents of my product do I retain and what rights are transferred to Chaosium?
A: You retain the copyright for any original material you create and publish through the Sagas of the North. The only rights transferred to Chaosium are the rights to post and sell your content on the community content program, per the program’s terms of use. If Chaosium wants to do anything else with your content, a new, separate agreement with you is required.
Please note that Chaosium maintains ownership of the IP it provides for your use on the community content program, including trademarks, game rules, settings, characters, concepts, plots, storylines, and so on. Chaosium grants you the use of this material only for works sold on the community content program. You must remove all Chaosium-owned content from your work if you later adapt it for other uses.
Q: In addition to posting on the Sagas of the North, are we free to publish our works elsewhere?
A: No. According to the OBS EULA: “Except for short promotional excerpts used to promote your Work, you may not display, recreate, publish, distribute or sell your Work (or derivatives thereof) outside of the Program administered on OBS websites or through other platforms or channels authorized or offered by Moon Design/Chaosium.”
Q: Do I have to include the Sagas of the North Logo on the cover of my work?
A: Yes. You must include the unmodified Sagas of the North logo on the front cover of your title, displayed clearly. You also need to include the logo in the preview image of your product page in the Sagas of the North on DriveThruRPG.
Q: I want to publish something for Age of Vikings, but I’m not sure what will be best. Should I be aiming to write scenarios, or sourcebooks, or something else?
A: We want more people to write and share scenarios for our tabletop roleplaying games; that’s really why Sagas of the North was set up. All works should feature lots of useful stuff for players and for Game Masters (GM) looking for material to run for their players. Ideally, all community content should be thematically linked to playable content, rather than dry academic tracts or narrative fiction or other non-playable content.
Q: What are the best type of scenarios to create and the best level of detail to offer when creating scenarios?
A: The best type of scenario for you to write is the type of scenario that you enjoy running as a GM or enjoy playing. Avoid clichés. Predictability is the enemy of suspense, so stay away from well-trodden plots, scenes, and tropes. If you’ve run into a scene or conflict before in fantasy games or movies or fiction, other people have, too.
Long, complex scenarios and campaigns can be difficult to write and can call for a team of designers and lots of playtesters. This may be within your reach as a creator or project manager, but, equally, it may not. Work to your strengths and available resources.
When in doubt, look at professional scenarios you have enjoyed running or playing, or just reading, and use them as models for your own work. Playtesting your drafts will help you identify gaps in the information you provide the GM and, more importantly, ways in which the players may stray from the scenario’s expected narrative and scenes.
Q: Can I reference things from Chaosium’s Age of Vikings products in my work?
A: Yes. You can use the names of people, places, species, deities, and so on, along with plotlines or themes, from Chaosium’s published Age of Vikings books in your Sagas of the North work: that’s the point of the community content program!
Any exceptions will be detailed in the Sagas of the North Guidelines.
Check the copyright statement in your Chaosium product to determine ownership and copyright for material included in each book.
Q: OK, so does that mean I can just copy text from a Chaosium product into my work?
A: No. Please do not copy or directly quote text from Chaosium books. That sort of use requires specific permission, so you are better off providing page references to the Chaosium books where the details can be found, rather than copying or quoting text.
Q: Can we use rules or monsters from supplemental Age of Vikings books?
A: Yes. Your work in Sagas of the North can use most rules and setting materials from Age of Vikings books published by, and more importantly owned by, Chaosium. Exceptions are detailed in the Sagas of the North Guidelines. Check the copyright statement in each Chaosium product to determine ownership and copyright.
Q: Can I copy things I find on forums/social media into my books and sell them?
A: No. Don’t copy material posted to forums or social media into your community content work, whether that material was shared by the Chaosium creative team or by third parties. When you upload a new Sagas of the North work to DriveThruRPG, you must confirm that it contains your own original work and conforms to the community content program rules. You can’t share or sell other people’s work without their permission. And you need to include accurate copyright notices (with authors’ and artists’ names, not their forum handles or email addresses), plus the required permission statements for any Chaosium-owned or Moon Design Publications-owned text you have received permission to quote in your community content work.
If we become aware of any concerns about content ownership, we’ll let you know what’s wrong, remove the work from sale until the problems are resolved, and take other actions necessary to protect the Sagas of the North program. If you want to avoid problems, create your own content and have clear, written permission to use any content you do not personally create.
Q: How do I find public domain images to use in my work?
A: First, make certain you understand what “public domain” means. You can begin your research here: https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/public-domain/
You can also find royalty-free images at Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/.
Always make sure you check that the images you are using are not covered by copyright. If you are uncertain of the copyright status for something, don’t use it.
Q: For Chaosium materials available to us for use, can we modify content to fit better into our scenarios?
A: Rather than modify Chaosium creations, you should create your own monster or character or location that’s tailor made for your scenario.
Q: I don’t like some of your game’s rules so I’ve created replacements. Can I publish those house rules on the Sagas of the North?
A: The Sagas of the North is not the right place for drop-in replacements for any Age of Vikings rules, such as an “improved” combat or magic system. Please write for our existing rules; don’t replace them wholesale.
Q: OK. Replacement rules are out. What’s the best way to present new or expanded rules in a Sagas of the North work?
A: The Sagas of the North is not meant for new rules systems and subsystems that aren’t thematically linked to playable content. You can include expanded rules or rules for something not covered by the current edition of Age of Vikings in a scenario or campaign if the rules can be used in playing the scenario or campaign.
Q: Can I adapt rules from other games so they work with Age of Vikings and sell them on Sagas of the North?
A: No. Do not copy or adapt rules from other games—including other Chaosium games, into your Sagas of the North work. Again, this is a matter of copyright and permission. When you upload new content to DriveThruRPG, you must confirm that it contains your own original work (so no rules you did not create) and conforms to the community content program rules. If we become aware of any concerns about content ownership, we’ll let you know what’s wrong, remove the work from sale until the problems are resolved, and take other actions necessary to protect the Sagas of the North program.
Q: Can I publish a big book of miscellaneous Age of Vikings lore?
A: Sagas of the North works should include playable content. An article about Viking era traders could include price lists for different markets, valuable goods, or fashion trends—content that is directly useful in games, rather than dry, exclusively academic overviews.
Q: The rules say fiction is banned in Sagas of the North works. That’s a bit harsh! Isn’t there any kind of fiction I can include in my works?
A: You can include short fictional text that’s used to set the tone for a scene or a scenario (i.e. “color text”), provided it is thematically linked to playable content. Full short stories are not acceptable content. Don’t post short story collections, novellas, novels, or literary journals. The Sagas of the North is not the right place for that content.
Q: The rules say comic strips are out, too.
A: As with fiction, it’s okay to use short sections of comic strip or comic book art that set the tone for a scene or a scenario, so long as they are thematically linked to playable content. Entire stories told in comic strip or comic book form are not acceptable content.
Do not create comic strips or comic book pages that include material from Chaosium products, as that could clash with our licensing agreements. If you stick to your own creations and want to make something that looks like a comic book page to introduce your scenario or give a character’s backstory, that sounds wonderful! Keep things tight, though, and don’t try to publish multi-page or serialised sequential narratives.
Q: I’m an artist, not a writer. Can I sell maps, plans, artwork, tokens, or other art content without writing a scenario or setting book?
A: We are delighted when artists and cartographers create content, including redrawn versions of published Chaosium maps, and post them on the Sagas of the North. Remember, art and map materials offered in community content titles should be designed as playable content or to be used in support of playable content.
Three things you can’t do:
- Sell Chaosium’s original maps or art. They have to be your own versions, recognizably your own work. (For maps, change the style, the font, the labels, add new details: don’t mechanically reproduce something that already exists);
- Sell unpublished Chaosium maps or art under contract to Chaosium (e.g. draft or preview versions), unless you obtain permission from their creators and the copyright holders first, which is unlikely to be forthcoming;
- Sell apps or software (including Roll20 plugins) via Sagas of the North.
Q: So I can’t develop Age of Vikings content directly for virtual tabletops?
A: At the moment, due to the deep and complex spread of intellectual property rights, the answer is no.
Q: Can I publish non-RPG game content on the Sagas of the North?
A: Sagas of the North is not the right place for standalone games (e.g. board games, card games, miniature games, war games). You would need to discuss a separate Age of Vikings license to publish one of those, and it is quite possible such a license will not be available due to other existing licensing agreements. The Sagas of the North is intended to host playable content for Chaosium’s own Age of Vikings roleplaying game.
Q: How about other media, like music or a video series?
A: If you want to create and sell your awesome new Age of Vikings video game, board game, card game, software app, symphony, novel, comic, or just about anything else that isn’t clearly a scenario, sourcebook, art resource, or map designed to aid in playing our tabletop games, Sagas of the North is not the place to do that. If you have a licensed project to propose that falls outside the scope of the community content program, email Chaosium at licensing@Chaosium.com. Keep in mind that Chaosium has many existing licensing agreements in place, and some of them may mean we cannot consider your proposal at this time.
Q: Can you clarify what you mean by “thematically linked to playable content”?
A: Essentially, we want people to be able to run Age of Vikings tabletop roleplaying games using your community content and our rulebooks. Everything in your work should serve that goal. If you are wondering if something should be included in your community content work, ask yourself if it is necessary for the scenario you want people to play or makes it easier for someone to run that scenario. If the content is not targeted for use in play in some way, it is straying from the intent of the Sagas of the North program.
Q: The guides say we need to avoid “extreme adult content.” What does that mean?
A: A scenario that provides rules mechanics for graphically butchering player characters in combat would violate the Sagas of the North rules against works containing “material that the general public would classify as extreme adult content, such as pornography or extreme violence.” Child abuse, rape, genocide, and similar content falls outside the scope of what is appropriate for the Sagas of the North program. Avoid it. If we discover such objectionable content, the work will be removed from sale and we will take other actions necessary to protect the program.
Q: What does “a reasonable person” or “the general public” mean, when the guide sets those as ways to judge if community content is appropriate?
A: These are technical terms capable of being interpreted by the courts. You can research them at online legal sites such as Nolo.com (https://www.nolo.com/dictionary) or, if you are concerned about the site language or terms, you can consult with a lawyer before posting your content on the Sagas of the North.
The bottom line is that Chaosium has final say over material offered on the Sagas of the North community content program. We will work with you to correct problems, but if we decide that material posted on the site is objectionable because of content that violates intellectual property rights or other laws, or is libellous, defamatory, violent, racist, sexist, bigoted, or in any way inappropriate, we have the final say on its continuing availability.
Q: How does Print on Demand work? How many copies do I have to sell to request POD?
A: A title must reach Electrum Seller status (250+ copies) before it is eligible for Print on Demand. This restriction is necessary because OneBookShelf has limited capacity to add POD titles to their site. The Repository is fortunate that POD is still an option at all; POD was stopped altogether for some similar programs on OBS.
Please note that Chaosium may, from time to time, approve a Sagas of the North title for POD *before* it reaches 250+ sales. We may even approve a title for POD on initial release. This is at our discretion and will be done in cooperation with OneBookShelf. We will get in touch with you if this option becomes available for your work. Please do not contact us to request an early waiver.
Q: I didn’t find the answer to my specific question. Who do I contact?
A: In the first instance, you might ask in the Sagas of the North Creators Circle group on Facebook. You are also welcome to contact Don Ford our Sagas of the North Community Ambassador. Don will either be able to answer your query or direct you to the appropriate person at Chaosium if required.
Sagas of the North FAQ – version 1.0, 18 December 2025
Based on the Jonstown Compendium FAQ written by Nick Brooke.
