Sagas of the North is Chaosium’s Community Content program for Age of Vikings at DriveThruRPG. It is a place to upload and sell your original material.
We would love you to join the program. These guidelines will help you prepare for publication. You will learn what kinds of work can be published, what is not allowed, how royalties are handled, what copyright notices you need to include, and other matters.
What kind of products can I publish?
You can publish material intended for use during Age of Vikings game sessions: scenarios, solo scenarios, settings, spells, monsters, hero options, character sheets, maps, VTT materials, and more. To date, approximately 80% of Chaosium community content publications are scenarios.
You may publish Age of Vikings material covering an appropriate time period; we suggest the years 900 to 1000, which corresponds to the Commonwealth period. Age of Vikings is set within the Icelandic sagas and specifically in the year 977 AD, but we encourage content creators and adventurers to raid and trade across the wider world. Choose a time and setting that you are passionate about.
You may also create your own versions of handouts or maps from published Age of Vikings scenarios. You must properly credit Chaosium: see below.
What royalties will I earn?
You set the retail price, and earn half of that as your royalty. All sales are split as follows:
- 50% is transferred to the creator, i.e. you
- 30% goes to OneBookShelf (DriveThruRPG)
- 20% goes to Chaosium
This is the same revenue split used for the DM’s Guild and other community content programs.
How much should I charge?
We can’t answer that. You alone know how much effort goes into your work, as well as any expenses you might incur for cover, art, maps, editing or more.
That said, buyers generally consider $0.15 to $0.20 per page to be a fair price. That might vary for highly illustrated works (which might be priced higher), for very long works (which might be priced lower), and so on.
If you wish, you can make your product free ($0) or PWYW (Pay What You Want). We don’t recommend either, but it’s your choice.
Note:
- PWYW also usually means free, as given the option, the overwhelming majority of people choose not to pay.
- Free products (and most PWYW sales) do not earn best-seller medals, and these products won’t feature on the “Hottest Products” list, decreasing their visibility.
Which rules should I use for Sagas of the North?
The Sagas of the North community content program is solely for Age of Vikings material.
Your work can refer to rules and setting materials from the Age of Vikings book published by Chaosium.
You may refer to setting materials from books for Age of Vikings, but you may not reprint rules from those books.
What types of content are prohibited?
- Any artwork or text generated by AI.
- Anything written for the Mythic Iceland (2012) or RuneQuest Vikings (1985 & 2010) rules.
- Conversions of content from other roleplaying games.
- Content which has been previously crowd-funded.
- Anything that infringes on the intellectual property of others.
- Summaries of Chaosium’s Age of Vikings rules, including digest versions of our rulebook(s), Gamesmaster screens, play aids, flow charts, and so on. You may, however, create your own versions of the Age of Vikings character sheet.
- Non-RPG material, e.g. fiction, comics, music. However, if these form part of your own original Age of Vikings scenario (accompanying audio track, diary excerpts), that is fine.
- Boardgames or card games.
- Software or apps.
In addition:
- Your work cannot contain material that a reasonable person would consider libellous, defamatory, racist, homophobic, transphobic, or discriminatory; that the general public would classify as extreme adult content, such as pornography or extreme violence; or that violates the law.
So I can’t use AI art or AI text?
At Chaosium, we celebrate the human imagination.
- AI generated art (e.g. Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, Dall-E, et al) is not permitted in Chaosium community content titles.
- AI generated text (e.g. Chat GPT, Gemini, Copilot, et al) is not permitted.
If we suspect a publication contains AI generated art or text, we reserve the right to temporarily remove it from sale and request evidence of artistic process to prove that art or text is human-made, including but not limited to early sketches, layered art files, examples of other portfolio work, and so on.
Be vigilant when licensing artwork from art libraries. Check for the label “AI generated”. If you cannot verify and credit the original artist, we recommend you find something else.
Can I copy information from Age of Vikings rulebooks into my product?
You may reproduce stat blocks from Chaosium’s Age of Vikings products.
You can reference other information from Age of Vikings products, but please refrain from copying text directly whenever possible. Instead, cite page numbers from the Chaosium book and leave the reader to look it up.
Who owns the material in Sagas of the North?
You retain the copyright of any original IP you create for Sagas of the North.
Chaosium owns the IP it provides for use, including rules, settings, characters, concepts, plots, storylines, etc.
How do I prepare the PDF of my title for sale?
Visit the Community Content Programs knowledge base on DriveThruRPG for general information about preparing, uploading and publishing your PDF.
How do I lay out my PDF?
You can use any layout package you are familiar with to prepare your PDF for sale.
To help you, we have created two templates:
- Sagas of the North Word Template – link to relevant file
- Sagas of the North InDesign Template – link to relevant file
You are not required to use these templates, but you may find them useful.
Do I need to put a Sagas of the North logo on the cover?
Your cover must include the Sagas of the North logo – link to relevant file
It should be of reasonable size, no less than 20% of the cover width, and it must be clearly legible. You may not resize or recolour the logo. You should not change the aspect ratio or the angle of the logo. The logo must be reproduced exactly as it is.
The logo must be included as part of any preview you make available on DriveThruRPG.
You may not use the standalone Age of Vikings logo or the Chaosium logo on your cover.
What copyright notices do I need to include?
You must include the following exact text on the Credits Page of your work. Please remove the quote marks; they are only used here for clarity:
“Age of Vikings is a Trademark of Chaosium Inc. and is used with their permission via the OBS Community Content program.
For more information, please visit Chaosium’s website: www.chaosium.com
The Sagas of the North Logo is used under license.”
You should also include a copyright notice of your own:
“[title of work] [©year] [name of author(s)]”
If your publication repurposes handout text or maps from a Chaosium publication, you must cite that work and its copyright notice, and credit the authors or cartographer.
You may include the Sagas of the North logo again on your credit page, but it is not a requirement.
You may include the Chaosium logo on your credit page if you wish. If you do so, you must include this text:
“The Chaosium logo is used under license.”
If you use art from a Sagas of the North Art Pack, follow the crediting guidelines in that pack.
If you use art from elsewhere, ensure that you have clear permission to do so and credit the artist or source.
How “Big” a product should I create?
Product length is entirely up to you. For example, single scenarios are often about 16-32 pages long. If you are new to our community content program, start with shorter, easier-to-complete projects, and then as you grow in experience, you will know what page count works best for what you want to do.
Can I release my PDF publication as Print-on-Demand?
Your Sagas of the North title will be eligible to be considered for a print-on-demand (POD) release once your PDF is an Electrum Best Seller (over 250 copies sold, not including free downloads). You may contact us to request a POD release when you reach this milestone.
Note that POD publications are 20-page minimum, so it is not suitable for short works.
Sometimes, Chaosium may invite an author to release their work for POD before it reaches 250+ sales. This is at our discretion. Please do not contact us to request it.
Where can I find art?
You are responsible for sourcing art, photographs or maps for your publication, and ensuring that you have clear rights for usage. You cannot use AI art. You can make your own artwork, license it, commission it, use artwork in the public domain, or use art from our Sagas of the North Art Packs.
What are the Sagas of the North Art Packs?
Chaosium has created the following Sagas of the North Art Packs for your use:
- Setting Art Pack
- Map Art Pack
- Logo Art Pack
- Bestiary Art Pack
- Runes Art Pack
Art in these packs is licensed for use within the Sagas of the North community content program. You may use it free of charge, but you must credit the artists for any pieces that you use. You may not use the art for works published outside the program.
You may not use other art from Age of Vikings books, only what is found in the Art Packs.
Can I publish Sagas of the North products for virtual tabletop (VTT)?
Yes. Titles using the Roll20 VTT Connection should display the Roll20 Virtual Tabletop badge. Below you will find a Light and Dark PNG of the badge. To learn how to sell Roll20 VTT content on DriveThruRPG, click here.
What languages can I publish in?
Products in Sagas of the North may be in English or any other language.
For non-English publications, if an in-print Age of Vikings is available in that language, you must use the rules of that licensed translated edition.
For languages where a current, in-print edition does not exist, use the English Age of Vikings rules.
How do I promote my work?
You are responsible for promoting your own work on social media. We would love to hear about it! Tag us to let us know when you release something.
Do you have general advice about writing scenarios?
Yes, we do! We’ve put our thoughts into an article, How to write a great Age of Vikings scenario for Sagas of the North.– link to relevant page
How can I get further assistance?
The Sagas of the North Creators Circle – link to relevant FB Group, is a lively community of fellow authors and artists on Facebook. There is also a 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.
I have another question.
For even more information, please see Chaosium’s Age of Vikings FAQ for community creators.
