The Viking Roll

As a descendant of vikings, I can tell you they didn't row, they rolled.

Like so:

As you can see, due to tension the water would roll with the boat.

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"The Viking Roll" recreates the rolling days of vikings in a family friendly racing game for 3 or more people.

What you'll need

• Wooden blocks or something to mark the race course (we used a Kubb set)
• 8 socks rolled into a ball - think of them as eco-friendly water balloons
• Large bowl of water
• A yard/ someplace to roll
• A destination map (attached PDF)
• 3 people or more
• A stop watch

Setup

1. Place the destination map on the ground. 
2. Pick up a blade of grass, this blade represents your destiny. As we say in Swedish "Det är dags att klippa gräsmattan."
3. Drop the piece of grass onto the map, where the grass lands is the racetrack you will need to set up.
4. You can also choose whichever track you'd like.
5. Place the wooden block or track markers out. Make sure they are wide enough for people to roll through, 8 feet is good.
6. After the track is set, put the rolled-up socks into the water to let them soak.

How to play

In The Viking Roll, players take turns racing through the race track by rolling along the ground. 

There are 3 roles:

1. The Viking Ship - The racer rolling through the course - "The Roller"
2. Thor - Throwing lightning boost (socks)
3. Loki - Keeping track of time

Loki calls down the count from 3, and the Roller begins rolling as fast as they can through the course.

The Roller can ask for a lightning "boost" while rolling by shouting "boost." Thor must then throw a lightning boost. If the lightning boost hits the Roller, Loki pauses the stop watch for 3 seconds.

When the Roller crosses the finish line, stop the stopwatch. Switch roles. The person with the fastest score is the best at rolling, and surely will find their place in Valhalla.

Jam theme

This lawn racing game uses a mechanic of a 'harmful resource' - the lightning boost socks aid the racer by reducing their time, at the same time it's like asking to be hit with water balloons, except they are socks. This is a very traditional viking game.

Tips on how to roll safely