After Shipwrights, Explorers and Raiders, the North Sea trilogy expands with a Viking RPG

The North Sea trilogy is setting sail for new shores with an official roleplaying game.

Shem Phillips’ series of games began with 2014’s Shipwrights of the North Sea, a fleet-building card-drafter set during the early years of the Viking Age.

The following year it was joined by the trilogy’s best-known instalment, worker-placement Raiders of the North Sea, which advanced the timeline to the central period of the Viking era and focused on hiring crews to gather resources and treasure from fortresses. The game was nominated for last year’s Kennerspiel des Jahres (‘Expert Game of the Year’).

In 2016, Phillips capped off his Norse tale with Explorers of the North Sea, an action-driven delivery game set on a modular board of sea and island tiles as the ship captains of the late Viking years searched for new settlements.

The series was continued with various expansions, including The North Sea: Runesaga, a campaign that united all three games in a single playthrough.

Phillips has since announced a follow-up trilogy set in the West Kingdom; despite taking place during the same historical period and in the same world as the North Sea series, Architects of the West Kingdom focuses instead on nobles constructing buildings with the aid of hired apprentices.

It seems that Phillips isn’t done with the North Sea just yet, though, as he has now teased a brand new chapter in the Viking saga.

Despite its shared universe with the board games, The North Sea: Epilogues will be a world apart from its predecessors, as it’ll be a roleplaying game.

It also looks like Phillips won’t be helming the project himself, as a cover image tweeted by the designer shows Tim Devine and Kristin Devine credited.

The pair are the team behind Dice Up Games, an indie roleplaying label with two published games: Truth and Daring and Wits & Chivalry, both of which were built on sci-fi RPG Lasers & Feelings by John Harper.

Further details are yet to be revealed, with Phillips simply teasing: “Just when you thought we were done with the North Sea saga…