So, I've been thinking about a few things recently. And by that I mean I'm working on a playable troll race that is inspired by Scandinavian lore and going back to watch series, old and new, in Fantasy settings to see if I can find ways to put a new spin on things, or at least better direct a few people to go and check out the series to get some ideas.
I noticed that the Troll in D&D, and the Fantasy genre in general, doesn't have a whole lot of variety; they're all just huge lumbering brutes with little intelligence that have Regenative properties in addition to an increased weakness to Fire and Acid. But the trolls from Scandinavian lore are different, and served as the inspiration for the trolls that the trolls we see now are theoretically derived from. In Scandinavian lore, quite a few kinds of trolls, even the intellectually challenged ones, have the innate ability to use magic and come in a much greater variety than what the typical Fantasy setting, and current D&D source materials, provides. There are even some kinds of trolls that have the ability to hide among humans. Some accounts even say they are almost indistinguishable from humans. Swedish lore even speaks of children with troll ancestry; the rough translation of what they are to English is the "Trollblood"s. Now, that kind of sounds like a magical origin for Sorcerer, to me. But personally, at the moment, I'm working on making a troll variant that can be used as a playable race. I'm still wrestling as what to call this troll because it is generally lacking the physical capabilities of the general trolls you see in D&D with a bit more emphasis on their mental capabilities, which includes their ability to hide in plain sight and deny the truth to anyone who is close to discovering the truth.
Now, on the other side of things, I've been going back and watching an old anime series called Chaika-the Coffin Princess (also known as Coffin Princess: Chaika and The Coffin Princess- Chaika), the series is a sort of Dark Fantasy setting with its own unique take on how magic works. You see, for humans (the only race we really see for the majority of the series run) to cast spells, they need special tools referred to as "Gaunders" to cast magic, but those tools come with the price of requiring the energy stored memories to cast spells, most gaunders we see in the series are some kind of firearm (one of the main characters uses a gaunder that is basically a sniper rifle), which means without special ammunition casting a spell can literally cause memory loss (the more powerful the spell, the greater the memory loss). However, the more mystical creatures, referred to by the blanket terms "faerie creatures" and/or "fey creatures," can use magic freely without the restrictions and issues that ordinary humans have to deal with. The series puts a unique spin on a lot of things in the fantasy setting we all likely take for granted. The series actually puts a few potential new archetypes on display as well. Gaunder User could be a potential Wizard subclass, might be interesting to see get implemented, and we also see a potential Rogue subclass called the Sabetour feature quite prominently throughout most of the series run; we're also teased about a potential Fighter or Paladin subclass called the Dragoon Cavalier, that doesn't actually get any display until the last few episodes of the series, but we do get hints about what it entails throughout a good portion of the series run. Not to mention all the other stuff on display in the series, I wouldn't be surprised to see someone say they binged the series a few times and decided to basically make a campaign out of the whole series. That all said, the OVA is likely somewhere between the 2 seasons; the second season has the subtitle Avenging Battle.
I admit I am not at all familiar with the source material/anime you are referencing. However Troll in the context to which you are referring can mean many different things. It could be a reference to a beast like mountain dweller, a boar possessed of magical properties, a hag like Forrest witch, a Jotunn, one of King Hjorleifr’s “well defilers,” a crazy big Fox (Prose Edda Kenning,), or even just an abnormally strong/large or ugly person. (See also the works of Armann Jakobson.)
If you want to run a campaign based upon the version you are sharing then by all means have at it! There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. However the actual folklore about trolls is so vast and diverse that personally I could see any number of creatures in the various books filling the roles as described by folklore. Hags, Hill Giants, Formorians, Grimlocks, Ogre & Ogre Magi, even Quaggoth, just to name a few of the humanoidish types that might fit the folklore bill.
if historical Norse type settings is something you are looking to explore, you might consider checking out the 2nd edition Norse Campaign Supplement which has a good section discussing Trolls and Trows and how they differ from the typical D&D variety of regenerating monsters.
That said, there is no reason to be limited by the historical or the MM versions if what you want is a home brewed campaign based upon ‘Chaka.” I would just personally encourage considering if one can ‘reskin’ existing critters simply as a way of saving yourself a lot of work and design time.
I admit the term troll has a bit of a wide swath to it in Scandinavian lore, much like the term faerie/fey has a wide swath to its definition in mainland Europe, Great Britain, and Ireland. The kind I am working on is more of a humanoid that lives at the fringes of mundane and supernatural.
As for Coffin Princess Chaika, I recommend giving it a look. You can probably only find maybe a portion of the first season on YouTube. Although, sites like Watch Cartoon Online do seem to have the full series. You can probably also find it on Crunchyroll, but chances are that Crunchyroll doesn't have any episodes for the series, they are missing entire episodes of some of the older series. Regardless, a google search, maybe some searches on a few video sites will get you the full series, assuming you don't want to try buying the full series from a distributor, because chances are the series will be a bit pricy when you go to try and buy it online due to it now being a more limited commodity than when it was originally on sale.
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So, I've been thinking about a few things recently. And by that I mean I'm working on a playable troll race that is inspired by Scandinavian lore and going back to watch series, old and new, in Fantasy settings to see if I can find ways to put a new spin on things, or at least better direct a few people to go and check out the series to get some ideas.
I noticed that the Troll in D&D, and the Fantasy genre in general, doesn't have a whole lot of variety; they're all just huge lumbering brutes with little intelligence that have Regenative properties in addition to an increased weakness to Fire and Acid. But the trolls from Scandinavian lore are different, and served as the inspiration for the trolls that the trolls we see now are theoretically derived from. In Scandinavian lore, quite a few kinds of trolls, even the intellectually challenged ones, have the innate ability to use magic and come in a much greater variety than what the typical Fantasy setting, and current D&D source materials, provides. There are even some kinds of trolls that have the ability to hide among humans. Some accounts even say they are almost indistinguishable from humans. Swedish lore even speaks of children with troll ancestry; the rough translation of what they are to English is the "Trollblood"s. Now, that kind of sounds like a magical origin for Sorcerer, to me. But personally, at the moment, I'm working on making a troll variant that can be used as a playable race. I'm still wrestling as what to call this troll because it is generally lacking the physical capabilities of the general trolls you see in D&D with a bit more emphasis on their mental capabilities, which includes their ability to hide in plain sight and deny the truth to anyone who is close to discovering the truth.
Now, on the other side of things, I've been going back and watching an old anime series called Chaika-the Coffin Princess (also known as Coffin Princess: Chaika and The Coffin Princess- Chaika), the series is a sort of Dark Fantasy setting with its own unique take on how magic works. You see, for humans (the only race we really see for the majority of the series run) to cast spells, they need special tools referred to as "Gaunders" to cast magic, but those tools come with the price of requiring the energy stored memories to cast spells, most gaunders we see in the series are some kind of firearm (one of the main characters uses a gaunder that is basically a sniper rifle), which means without special ammunition casting a spell can literally cause memory loss (the more powerful the spell, the greater the memory loss). However, the more mystical creatures, referred to by the blanket terms "faerie creatures" and/or "fey creatures," can use magic freely without the restrictions and issues that ordinary humans have to deal with. The series puts a unique spin on a lot of things in the fantasy setting we all likely take for granted. The series actually puts a few potential new archetypes on display as well. Gaunder User could be a potential Wizard subclass, might be interesting to see get implemented, and we also see a potential Rogue subclass called the Sabetour feature quite prominently throughout most of the series run; we're also teased about a potential Fighter or Paladin subclass called the Dragoon Cavalier, that doesn't actually get any display until the last few episodes of the series, but we do get hints about what it entails throughout a good portion of the series run. Not to mention all the other stuff on display in the series, I wouldn't be surprised to see someone say they binged the series a few times and decided to basically make a campaign out of the whole series. That all said, the OVA is likely somewhere between the 2 seasons; the second season has the subtitle Avenging Battle.
I admit I am not at all familiar with the source material/anime you are referencing. However Troll in the context to which you are referring can mean many different things. It could be a reference to a beast like mountain dweller, a boar possessed of magical properties, a hag like Forrest witch, a Jotunn, one of King Hjorleifr’s “well defilers,” a crazy big Fox (Prose Edda Kenning,), or even just an abnormally strong/large or ugly person. (See also the works of Armann Jakobson.)
If you want to run a campaign based upon the version you are sharing then by all means have at it! There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. However the actual folklore about trolls is so vast and diverse that personally I could see any number of creatures in the various books filling the roles as described by folklore. Hags, Hill Giants, Formorians, Grimlocks, Ogre & Ogre Magi, even Quaggoth, just to name a few of the humanoidish types that might fit the folklore bill.
if historical Norse type settings is something you are looking to explore, you might consider checking out the 2nd edition Norse Campaign Supplement which has a good section discussing Trolls and Trows and how they differ from the typical D&D variety of regenerating monsters.
That said, there is no reason to be limited by the historical or the MM versions if what you want is a home brewed campaign based upon ‘Chaka.” I would just personally encourage considering if one can ‘reskin’ existing critters simply as a way of saving yourself a lot of work and design time.
I admit the term troll has a bit of a wide swath to it in Scandinavian lore, much like the term faerie/fey has a wide swath to its definition in mainland Europe, Great Britain, and Ireland. The kind I am working on is more of a humanoid that lives at the fringes of mundane and supernatural.
As for Coffin Princess Chaika, I recommend giving it a look. You can probably only find maybe a portion of the first season on YouTube. Although, sites like Watch Cartoon Online do seem to have the full series. You can probably also find it on Crunchyroll, but chances are that Crunchyroll doesn't have any episodes for the series, they are missing entire episodes of some of the older series. Regardless, a google search, maybe some searches on a few video sites will get you the full series, assuming you don't want to try buying the full series from a distributor, because chances are the series will be a bit pricy when you go to try and buy it online due to it now being a more limited commodity than when it was originally on sale.