A Role-Playing Game about Honor, Power and Toxic Masculinity

Blood Feud is a game about toxic masculinity: certain common attitudes and behaviors among men, that cause great harm to them and to others around them. This is a game about people being nasty to each other and about figuring out why.

It’s also a game about vikings of pre-christian Scandinavia; about honor and blood feuds, courage and brutality, corruption and consequences. Above all it is a game about what it means to be a man in such a world—and what consequences that has on the communities they live in.

The goal of the game is to explore and experience toxic masculinity, while at the same time creating a thoughtful drama about relationships, competition and social consequences. With this game we want to make toxic masculinity easier to spot for a wider variety of people in our roleplaying communities—and encourage critical discussions about how men behave, and why.

Playing the Game

The central theme of this game is power—specifically the power of men: How you earn it, what you have to do to keep it, and most importantly what you do with it.

To make power visible, we use a currency called Honor Tokens. Throughout the game these tokens  will get moved around between the players as their main characters interact with each other—depending on how “manly” or “honorable” their actions are.

Since there is no Game Master, all players must pay attention to the seven Moves that cause honor to shift. In this way, every player has to learn to recognize what causes the power structures to change.

The seven moves are:

• Sharing someone’s bed
• Giving someone a gift
• Commenting on a woman’s appearance
• Praising someone
• Insulting someone
• Escalating
• Striking a deadly blow

Apart from moves, the game uses a concept called Narrative Freedom to handle questions of narrative authority. This means that every player has equal say in describing the fictional world and what happens in it—up until a move is triggered. Players may interrupt each others’ narration, but only to do one of two things: making an addendum or adding an obstacle.

• An addendum is an extra detail added to what was just said.
• An obstacle is a roadblock that explains why something that was about to happen, didn’t happen.

Addendums and obstacles allow for playing out scenes in an improv style, instead of using traditional resolution tools such as dice or cards.

There are also mechanics in place that deal specifically with the role of women in the game. The first one: there must always be at least one woman present in every scene. When the last woman in a scene leaves, the scene simply ends. We are only interested in what happens publicly when looking at honor, so what happens when women are not watching doesn’t count..

Secondly, at the end of each scene, the players who played women must decide which of the men in the scene was the least manly. That man loses one honor token. Hence, the men must always compete for the attention of the women and their implicit approval.

Links

FAQ with Amos Persson: https://bit.ly/39tDIly

Miro board template: https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_lP2zgxw=/

Coverage

RTFM Podcast (2023-02-28): RTFM: Blood Feud (English)

Sveriges Radio (2021-03-06): Eftermiddag i P4 Kronoberg (Swedish. Our segment is at 18:20 – 24:00)

LudiPsy (2021-03-01): Blood Feud: un Jeu de rôle sur l’honneur, le pouvoir et la masculinité toxique! (French)

SVT Småland (2021-02-28): Spelet där du kan vara en skitstövel – och samtidigt diskutera könsroller (Swedish)

Plus One Exp (2021-02-27): Blood Feud | Actual Play w/Peter Malmberg (English)

Spelkult (2021-02-26): Blood Feud – ett rollspel om toxisk manlighet (Swedish)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_YzGYOA5Uw

Mindy bräd- och rollspelspodd (2021-02-25): Mindy På Äventyr Blood Feud Del 3 (Swedish)

Pod of Blunders (2021-02-24): Hearthside Chat with Peter Malmberg of Blackfisk Publishing (English)

TTRPG.SE (2021-02-23): Stor intervju med skaparna av Blood Feud: “Det här är ett aktivistspel rakt igenom” (Swedish)

Spelsnackarna (2021-02-22): Avsnitt 85: ALTNYC88 (Swedish. Talk about Blood Feud is at 14:00 – 22:00)

Mindy bräd- och rollspelspodd (2021-02-20): Mindy På Äventyr Blood Feud Del 2 (Swedish)

Dicebreaker (2021-02-19): Blood Feud is an RPG about toxic masculinity’s effects on Viking-era men and communities (English)

GMS Magazine (2020-02-19): Interview Amos Perrson: Blood Feud and Viking masculinity RPG (English)

Mindy bräd- och rollspelspodd (2021-02-17): Mindy På Äventyr Blood Feud Del 1 (Swedish)

Yes Indie’d Pod (2021-02-17): Zinequest 2021 – Alf Peter Malmberg discusses Blood Feud (English)

Games Played Badly (2021-02-16): Session Zero EP 7: Blood Feud interview! (English)

Spelhyllan (2021-02-14): Avsnitt 12 – Amos Persson (Swedish. Talk about Blood Feud starts at 21:00)

Svartviken Rollspelspodd (2021-02-01): Svartviken Rollspelspodd plays Blood Feud (feat Amos Persson) (English)

Mind Your Own Gaming (2020-12-20): Blood Feud – ett rollspel om mansnormer (Swedish)

pnpnews.de (2020-12-06): Blood Feud – Männlichkeit um jeden Preis? (German)

Spelbaronen (2020-12-04): Bläckfisk förlag presenterar: Blood Feud (Swedish)

justnerd.it (2020-12-04): Blood Feud: Il GDR che esplora il tema della mascolinità tossica (Italian)

Geek Native (2020-12-02): Blood Feud RPG designers deny their game is a male fantasy (English)

Geek Native (2020-11-26): Blood Feud is an RPG about Vikings, power, honour and toxic masculinity (English)

QueerCon Online 2020 (2020-07-30): Träffa Skaparna av Blood Feud (Swedish)

Hard Nerd Café (2019-08-14): QueerCon 2019 (Swedish. Our segment is at 16:30 – 26:30)

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