Orlog

Orlog is a dice game popular among the Norse and Anglo-Saxons in which the contestants attempt to reduce their opponent's "health", as represented by a set of 15 stones, to zero through various dice rolls and bonus effects.
==Gameplay==
A game of orlog consists of a number of rounds between two players. Before the game begins, players flip a coin to determine who moves first. Each round has three phases: Roll, God Favor, and Resolution. In the Roll phase, the two players take turns rolling their individual sets of dice. After each roll, players chooses which dice to keep, if any, and which to reroll. A player may reroll some or all of the dice up to two times on this phase. In the God Favor phase, each player can choose to cast a blessing from a figure in Norse mythology, or may skip it entirely. Players can pick blessings from up to a total of three figures, and can increase the variety of blessings available to them by successfully beating select challengers across Norway and England.Assassin's Creed: Valhalla
The blessing costs vary in their amount of favor, which is represented by the symbol "⌘" and is accumulated across multiple rounds. The blessings take affect during the Resolution phase, with some blessings having priority in the sequence over others. In the Resolution phase, each players' set of dice faces are compared with damage blocked or dealt, and favor gained or stolen. The game is over when a player's health reaches zero.
==Dice faces==
	Deal 1 damage. 		Block 1 .
	Deal 1 damage. 		Block 1 .
	Steal 1 ⌘from the opponent.		Earn 1 ⌘
==Pieces==
Piece	Name 	Effect 	Cost 	Location
 	Thor's Strike 	Deal damage to the opponent after the Resolution phase. 	4⌘: Deal 2 damage8⌘: Deal 5 damage12⌘: Deal 8 damage 	Starting piece
 	Iðunn's Rejuvenation 	Heal Health after Resolution phase. 	4⌘: Heal 2 Health7⌘: Heal 4 Health10⌘: Heal 6 Health 	Rygjafylke
 	Víðarr's Might 	Remove from the opponent. 	2⌘: –2 4⌘: –4 6⌘: –6 	Rygjafylke
 	Ullr's Aim 	Your ignore the opponent's . 	2⌘: 2 ignore 3⌘: 3 ignore 4⌘: 6 ignore 	Ravensthorpe
 	Heimdall's Watch 	Heal Health for each attack you block. 	4⌘: +1 Health per block7⌘: +2 Health per block10⌘: +3 Health per block 	Grantebridgescire
 	Baldr's Invulnerability	Add for each die that rolled .Add for each die that rolled . 	3⌘: +1 per die6⌘: +2 per die9⌘: +3 per die 	Ledecestreshire
 	Brunhild's Fury 	Multiply , rounded up. 	6⌘: x1.5 10⌘: x2 18⌘: x3 	East Anglia
 	Freyr's Gift 	Add to the total of whichever die face is in majority. 	4⌘: +26⌘: +38⌘: +4 	Lunden
 	Hel's Grip 	Each damage dealt to the opponent heals you. 	6⌘: +1 Health per damage12⌘: +2 Health per damage18⌘: +3 Health per damage 	Oxenfordscire
 	Skaði's Hunt 	Add to each die that rolled . 	6⌘: +1 per die10⌘: +2 per die14⌘: +3 per die 	Sciropescire
 	Skuld's Claim 	Destroy opponent's ⌘ for each die that rolled . 	4⌘: –2⌘ per die6⌘: –3⌘ per die8⌘: –4⌘ per die 	Essexe
 	Frigg's Sight 	Reroll any of your or your opponent's dice. 	2⌘: Reroll 2 dice.3⌘: Reroll 3 dice.4⌘: Reroll 4 dice 	Cent
 	Loki's Trick 	Ban opponent's dice for the round. 	3⌘: Ban 1 dice<6⌘: Ban 2 dice9⌘: Ban 3 dice 	Jorvik
 	Freyja's Plenty 	Roll additional dice this round. 	2⌘: +1 die4⌘: +2 dice6⌘: +3 dice 	Eurviscire
 	Mímir's Wisdom 	Gain ⌘ for each damage dealt to you this round. 	3⌘: +1⌘ per damage5⌘: +2⌘ per damage7⌘: +3⌘ per damage 	Eurviscire
 	Bragi's Verve 	Gain ⌘ for each die that rolled . 	4⌘: Gain 2⌘ per die8⌘: Gain 3⌘ per die12⌘: Gain 4⌘ per die 	Lincolnshire
 	Odin's Sacrifice 	After the Resolution phase, sacrifice any number of your health tokens. Gain ⌘ per health token sacrificed.	6⌘: Gain 3⌘ per health token8⌘: Gain 4⌘ per health token10⌘: Gain 5⌘ per health token	Suthsexe
 	Vár's Bond 	Each ⌘ spent by your opponent heals you. 	10⌘: +1 Health per ⌘14⌘: +2 Health per ⌘18⌘: +3 Health per ⌘ 	Wincestre
 	Thrymr's Theft 	Reduce the effect of a God Favor invoked by the opponent this round. 	3⌘: –1 level6⌘: –2 levels9⌘: –3 levels 	Glowecestrescire
 	Tyr's Pledge 	Sacrifice any number of your Health tokens. Destroy opponent's ⌘ per Health sacrificed. 	4⌘: –2 Health per token6⌘: –3 Health per token8⌘: –4 Health per token 	Hamtunscire
==Trivia==
*Although the second phase is called "God Favor", neither Brunhild or Thrymr are gods, as they are a Valkyrie and a jötunn, respectively.
==Behind the scenes==
Orlog is an word relating to the concepts of fate, natural law, and primal essence.
Despite the name and the gameplay featuring figures from Norse mythology, orlog did not actually exist in history. In an interview with the tabletop news site Dicebreaker, Assassin's Creed: Valhallas co-development game director Benoit Richer revealed that the goal behind orlog was to create a game that would feel credible to the time period rather than being historically accurate, as their research could not find clear rules for contemporary Norse games. Furthermore, what few games that are known to have existed, such as , often used irregularly-shaped cylindrical pieces or uneven hand-carved dice, both of which proved too difficult for Valhallas physics engine to manipulate. Seeking a compromise, developers went for the feel of historical games while embellishing as needed with modern elements like standardized pieces.
The first draft of orlog played more like a , where players had to collect special dice across the world. The idea to have the Norse gods influence the game was kept from the concept stage, and in this version, it was done by rolling a deity's face. However, playtesting teams from and found it too cumbersome, and so simplified it into the dice-matching feature and replaced the god dice with favor tokens. The working concept dice and rules scribbled on sticky notes resolved with repeated playtests, but it was not until late 2020 that a mock orlog was digitized using the program , allowing the teams to finish the final version to implement into Valhalla.
A mere week after Valhallas mid-November 2020 release, Ubisoft's statistics showed that players had won over 3.5 million games of orlog. With its unexpected popularity, Ubisoft announced that they would enter into a partnership with gaming collectibles producer PureArts to create a physical set that would be available for sale sometime in 2021.
Four months later, on 1 April 2021, the official French Assassin's Creed Twitter account posted a short teaser video showing the finished product being used in trial sessions. There would be no further updates until April 27, when PureArts' Twitter account posted a promotional image and announced that the physical orlog set would be available for pre-order beginning May 13, adding that fans hoping to get one could enter a giveaway in the meantime. The giveaway website, which included an embedded widget from the marketing platform Gleam, prompted visitors to sign in with their email, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube accounts to earn up to 5 entries for the upcoming draw that would be held on November 15.
On May 13, PureArts released a product trailer and announced that their online store was open for pre-ordering the orlog set, and in celebration, designer Antoine Henry from Ubisoft Singapore posted a picture from orlog's initial stages with the colored dice and sticky notes as described in Dicebreaker. In PureArts' store, the orlog sets were listed as containing 1 carved wooden case, 2 wooden dice bowls, 32 polished stones for health counters, 2 linen pouches, 50 metal Favor tokens, 2 sets of 20 wooden God tokens, 2 sets of 6 acrylic dice, 1 metal game coin, and 1 linen game mat measuring 18” x 26” (45 cm x 66 cm). The sets were limited to 500 units exclusive to North and South America, selling for $200 USD each, and were expected to be delivered to customers any time between October to December 2021. Within a day of opening the site, PureArts reported that nearly all of the pre-order units had sold; the final set was bought four days later on May 17, though PureArts assured fans that they could sign up to join a waitlist if a set became available in the future.
On 12 August, a retail version of the game was released.
==Gallery==
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Assassin's Creed Valhalla Orlog Dice Game Set Deluxe Edition from PureArts is HERE!
How to Play the Assassin's Creed Valhalla Orlog Dice Game!
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==Appearance==
*Assassin's Creed: Valhalla
*Discovery Tour: Viking Age
==References==
Category:Culture and society
Category:Entertainment
fr:Orlog
de:Örlög