In the name of the pretender Maude and with hatred for God in their hearts they broke the King's peace. They razed manors belonging to his lords, looted God's churches when the priests said they supported the rightful king or refused to take sides, and even, it is rumored, kidnapped women to ransom back to their husbands to fill their meager warchest. In this way the terrorized the Severn Valley and all of its good-hearted people.
And you helped them. Luckily for you, King Stephen is a just and caring monarch, and in his beneficence he has decided to offer you a second chance. He has confiscated your lands and taken your spouses and children hostage, but if, and only if, those three men die they will be returned to you and you will be restored to the community of the realm.
The first of these men - your first target - has fled to Devonshire and has begun fortifying an old ruin there. His name is William fitzWilliam, and he thinks he is safe behind his timber and plaster walls. Show him he is wrong.
News from Devonshire
The King has sent you to the small manor of Sir Bartholomew, a doddering old man who performed some forgotten service for the late King Henry. He and his daughter have accepted you only begrudgingly into their household. However, their manor has recently been plagued by a number of "accidents" and missing cattle, and they would perhaps be grateful if someone were to find the cause of these incidents.
The peasants of the manor claim that at least some of the ruckus has been caused by a strange beast who lives in a nearby cave. They would avoid the place, but near the cave is a clear stream which is one of the few places they can get water and wash.
A holy man known as Neel the Black Monk has gone missing. He is known throughout the shire for his miracle working relics, which he claims to have gotten in far off Jerusalem. Since he has stopped making his rounds, peasants across the whole of Devonshire have petitioned the sheriff to find him, fearing he may have been beset upon by ruffians. He has not, as yet, answered their requests.
The sheriff of Devonshire is looking for men willing to help him rid the area of bandits. It would be good to have someone like the sheriff and his men on your side.
This is an extended pitch for a wargame/pseudo-rpg campaign idea I had the other day. I posted a shortened version of this on G+, but I wanted to work up something that would explain more of how I planned on running it. The battles will be fought using Richard Borg's Battle Cry: 150th Civil War Anniversary Edition while the campaign will be resolved using a hand drawn map and a Matrix game. It is obviously heavily inspired by Dave Wesely's Braunstein campaign.
The idea for the Brownstone Campaign is that it takes place in a valley in the fictional Cumberbatch mountain range. The valley is dominated by the town of Brownstone, which controls a major rail station that runs the length of the valley and connects two parts of the Confederacy; however, Brownstone and the smaller towns in the Northern Cumberbatch are largely supporters of the Union, and Lincoln has ordered one of his generals to seize the valley.
Six players in my home group will take the role of both Union and Confederate generals. Each side will have a major commander with a large force and two minor commanders with smaller forces. These forces will be composed of varying amounts of Battle Cry infantry, artillery, and cavalry units. The commanders themselves will have individual names, sub officers, and command values determined in advance of play.
Each turn for these guys represents one week of time, and they can move 1 point at a time. - unless their argument includes some reason they would be able to move faster. Battles only occur when arguments say they do. The goal is to get the most victory points by holding towns, winning battles, and completing other objectives, after 4 months.
I'm going to draw a map of the valley that will contain c. 20 points or nodes. Each point will have a board setup decided on in advance for use with battles, with the events of the campaign deciding which side enters from where. Before a battle, I will secretly ask each commander involved what there general plan for the battle is, how many men they're willing to commit, and how many units they're willing to lose before giving up the field. I'll use this information to place the units myself, taking into account the properties of different troops, commanders, and terrain in order to decide things like which of the two sides starts closest to the hill they both want to take.
Battles involving more than one general on a side will (until I can acquire another copy of the game) mean that only a small contingent of one commander's forces will appear on the field, and the battle will be controlled by the superior ranking officer (not the officer with the superior command score).
In addition to this, I plan on running a G+ game where players take the roles of one of the following people:
Abraham Lincoln (who is constantly wiring the union commanders with his instructions)
The Mayor of Brownstone
The Confederate "General" in charge of the administration of the Valley Department
an Abolitionist
the Editor of the Local Newspaper
Or others if someone has a better idea
The newspaper editor, the mayor, and any additional figures created by the players will have to roll to see what their loyalties are, since they are not immediately obvious here.
Between sessions of the wargame campaign, I'll contact them (either through hangout or play by post, not sure which yet) and inform them of what happened in the war. They will in turn, give me a number of actions they wish to take - some of which will be in the past in order to catch the G+ timeline up with the wargame one. I'm thinking these will also rely on the matrix formula but will be a great deal more freeform. These players will want to win their own victory points based on their role, so the abolitionist wants to see the valley taken by the Union and to see the slaves held by the smallholders in the southern part of the valley freed, while the mayor simply wants to advance his political career. This will obviously be harder to score.
Below are five places and periods which I think would work for a Feudal Anarchy (or another similarly hardcore medievalist) campaign. The astute observer will note a slight bias towards earlier periods - due to the fact that they allow for future campaigns to be set within the Feudal Anarchy time period of 1050 - 1250 - and towards Southern Europe - which is just because I like the Mediterranean. Note that many of the areas will retain similar features in time periods other than those suggested.
Iberia
Suggested Time Periods: The life of El Cid
Unlike Averoigne, this setting allows for characters from a wide number of backgrounds - including Muslims and Jews. In addition, the political situation seems ideal for player characters as swords for hire for either a Christian or Muslim lord since warfare, both religious and secular, is incredibly common in the region. There are also a number of interesting historical personages that the PCs can interact with, and that's always cool.
Normandy
Suggested Time Periods: Before September 1066; The Reign of Robert Curthose
It would be difficult for me to think of a setting that more matches the assumptions of Feudal Anarchy than Normandy - or broadly Northern France in general during the same period. It is home to the sorts of small scale warfare that is easy to get PCs involved in, and there's no shortage of famous people to butt heads with, including not only William the Bastard but also his father Robert the Magnificent, William's three sons, and Walter Tyrell. Later periods show a marked reduction in the small scale warfare mentioned above, so it's best to stick to earlier time frames. A similar setting, though one I will not bother to separate into its own category, would be the Ile-de-France in the same period, where one can help Louis the Fat against the nefarious Thomas de Marle.
Occitania
Suggested time Periods: The Second Crusade; The Albigensian Crusade
Like Iberia, Occitania allows for characters from a wide variety of backgrounds, and the political situation is not unlike that of Normandy,* with feuding lords and small scale warfare. You also get the Peace of God movement and a few heresies, which may make for interesting things for the PCs to become involved with/oppose. It also lacks the direct contact with Muslims, which removes some of the darker aspect of religious warfare in the period. For those wishing to add that back in, Occitanian nobles participated in the conquest of Lisbon in the Second Crusade and the Albigensian Crusade is about as dark as it gets.
Sicily/Southern Italy
Suggested Time Periods: the life of Robert Guiscard, the creation of the Kingdom of Sicily
I have always preferred this region to the other Norman conquest, but that's partly because of my interest in the crusaders that it would produce. Again, like Iberia and Occitania it allows for a wide range of characters, but with the addition in this case of Byzantines. In addition to internecine warfare, one could also get involved with the Crusades, the struggles between the Pope and the German Emperor, or Byzantine succession crises. I am also reminded that Columbia Games planned on doing a sequel to Lionheart called Tancred, which would've covered this area. Shame that didn't pan out.
The Welsh Marches
Suggested Time Periods: The Anarchy
Merrie England is probably what most people are thinking of when they think of a hardcore medievalist game, and I think this is probably the best setting for such a game. While obviously different from the Southern European settings, it allows for a fairly wide breadth of character types - English, Norman, Welsh, and possibly those from other areas - as well as a great deal of raiding across the border. The Anarchy is the quintessential Feudal Anarchy period (duh), and in addition to the real world historical figures one can interact with there are also fictional ones such as Brother Cadfael (or those guys from Pillars of the Earth I guess). There's also already some gaming products that cater to this area, such as the Robin Hood book by Ice, and its very easy to find sources for this in English. This will likely be the setting for my next playtest.
This list is, obviously, not exhaustive. Noisms correctly observed in a comment to yesterday's post that the Crusader States would make an excellent setting. They share many characteristics with those above; however, I am normally wary of using them because - as someone who claims to be a historian of the First Crusade - I find the violence and horror of the period more readily immediate than that in the above settings.
*That is a gross simplification that I am embarrassed to even write, but it will serve for gaming purposes.
I've written and rewritten this post several times since January(!), Part of the reason for my finding this post difficult is that I'm discovering that I have not quite yet mastered the art of making this type of setting for my own game, and as I continue to work on Feudal Anarchy I'm figuring out new things that work and don't work (mostly don't work). This is an attempt to distill all of that information in a way that is useful to others.
Most RPGs, and Feudal Anarchy is no exception, are action-adventure affairs. This means that PCs tend to be violent people doing violent things, though campaign events, tone, genre, and player agency is ultimately the determiner of whether these actions are those of noble heroes or venal murderers. In either event, it is best to make sure that the place you set your medieval campaign is one that will provide this kind of adventure.* Periods within the Middle Ages that are characterized by the consolidation of centralized power and improvements in administration - while not to be totally avoided - are less suited to this sort of game than those characterized by petty struggles. For example, the Anarchy will provide more room for adventure than the reign of Henry II. Other examples of places/periods that will produce this sort of environment are France under Louis the Fat, the Albigensian Crusade, and Iberia during the Reconquista. It should be noted that more peaceful periods, such as the aforementioned reign of Henry II, may also be used as "peace" in medieval terms is considerably more violent than one would expect.
In addition to providing excitement systemic violence has another benefit: it creates a chaotic situation whose outcome is more easily affected by PC action. The turmoil that politically characterized much of the 11th and 12th centuries means that a few people with sharp minds and sharp swords can do quite well for themselves. One might think of the likes of Bohemond of Antioch, William Marshal, or Eustace the Monk to see what I'm talking about.
Feudal Anarchy is currently focused on representing fairly small sandboxes - typically no bigger than a county. When designing one for your game, it is important to keep this scale in mind, and there are several advantages to keeping it small. The most readily apparent to me while running the game has been that the players get to know their lieges, vassals, and other NPCs very well and that the interaction between them can easily be used to generate adventures with very little effort on the part of the GM. The small scale allows these relationships to be manageable without the world feeling strangely sparse.
However, be careful not to make it too small, or to make the obstacles that exist in the setting to easy for the PCs to topple. This was the problem I ran into with my Cocanha campaign. For this type of campaign to really work, the aforementioned relationships with NPCs need to provide adventures for a long time. If the villains are too easily disposed of, you start to run out of options very quickly. Another thing to avoid is setting it on a small island. What I found very quickly was that it was difficult for me to introduce new threats because I'd have to explain how they got on this tiny little island without anyone noticing.
This brings me to another point: you want the small sandbox to feel like it's part of a larger world. Partly, this is to allow an influx of new adventure seeds once the campaign is already going, but an even larger part has to do with the genre. If you're playing a "hardcore medievalist" RPG, you want to rub shoulders with the likes of Richard the Lionheart, Thomas de Marle, or Ermengarde of Narbonne. That's part of the appeal. If your setting is too small and isolated, it's difficult to explain why those kinds of historical celebrities to show up.
Border areas, while not the only type of place that works for this sort of thing, strike me as ideal. They are almost always in turmoil, with at least a sort of light warfare in the form of raiding going on on both sides of the border. They are typically politically important enough that famous people, particularly kings or magnates, will visit them, sometimes bringing war with them. Most importantly of all, they provide a kind of porous gateway between cultures that can explain some rather strange party makeups, and allow for new adventures to be easily introduced.
I hope to do more posts in this series covering specific topics, like specific periods that would make good games or matching party themes with different regions, but that will have to come once I've gotten my head more fully around the issues involved.
*One could, of course, run an entire RPG without this sort of action-adventure nonsense, but that is not the intended goal of Feudal Anarchy.
Tyre is old. It was already old when the well-greaved Achaeans butchered the sons of Troy. Its purple has died the the robes of kings since the bald rulers of Uruk battled the bearded men of Akkad. Some even say that before men dwelled on the Earth, that gods made their home where its walls now stand. It is here, the sorcerers of the East say, that man first took fire from those divine giants.
Though it is old, it is not invincible. Though the purple men of Tyre have long given their children to their horrid fire god, their city has been sacked times beyond counting. The Pharaohs of Egypt and their rivals the Hittites destroyed it numerous times, as did the kings of Assyria and Babylon. Alexander utterly ruined the city, and his successors squabble over it to this day.
The current city is a bizarre mixture of Greek and Eastern architecture, a perverse reflection of its Seleucid overlords. A Greek now resides in the palace of the King-Priests of Moloch. They call him a Satrap, a term that is as foreign to the people of Tyre as it is to the Greeks who rule it. Its markets are filled with goods from the Pillars of Hercules to the Indus. A hundred tongues are spoken within its walls, koine being primarily used to facilitate trade between the conquered and their conquerors.
The city has much to offer adventurers, rogues, and mercenaries. The satrap is always looking for men to help quell the brigands that constantly maraud further inland. Many wealthy sorcerers make their homes in the shadow of the Purple City’s temples, and of course the ruins said to lie below their city are rumored to be beyond the imagining of mortals.
A Typical Group of Adventurers in Tyre
Player characters are assumed to come from outside of the city. They are likely Greeks, or perhaps Romans. Such characters may either be Fighters or Magicians. These work as per their description in the Swords & Wizardry White Box, though Magicians must learn new spells either from scrolls or from a tutor of some sort. Additionally, a number of character types are described below that are also available if the character meets the appropriate requirements.
Barbarian
Requirements: Str 15+, Dex 13+, Neutral or Chaotic Alignment
Benefits: When wearing light or no armor and either alone or in a group of other barbarians, a barbarian surprises opponents on a 1-3 on a 1d6. They may also follow tracks and spot traps in the wilderness on a roll of 1-2 on a 1d6. This increases to 1-3 if in a forest and 1-4 if in either Gaul or Germania, depending on the homeland of the Barbarian.
Character Advancement: Barbarians may reach any level as a Fighter or up to level 4 as a Magician. They may advance higher if their Wisdom is 16 or greater.
Immortal
Requirements: Int, Wis, and Dex 13+; Lawful Alignment
Character Advancement: Immortals advance as both fighters and magic users, splitting experience between each class. They must decide which class they will be at the beginning of an adventure and will remain that class for the remainder of the adventure. They may only learn spells from their strange cult of fire and water - which is distinct from the fire god of the Phoenecians.
Spartan
Requirements: Str and Dex 13+, Con 16+, Lawful or Neutral Alignment
Benefits: Spartans with an ally at either their left or right flank gain a +1 bonus to AC. In addition, anything that would allow an adjacent ally to gain a free strike at a target, such as the opponent fleeing in terror, grants the Spartan a similar attack - but only if he is using a spear. Spartans cannot use this ability if their ally gains the attack through using Follow Through.
Character Advancement: Spartans may only advance as Fighters.
Most adventurers spend their early careers in Tyre’s undercity, though many of these careers are cut short by the horrors that lurk within. While the undercity is a great, sprawling labyrinth it is ultimately divisible into a number of distinct areas. Some of the most well known to adventurers - either because they are comparatively well trafficked or because of the numerous legends that surround them - are described below.
Catacombs of Mot
The people of Tyre worship many strange gods that horrify the Greeks and the Romans. Mot is one of them, and his worship was outlawed after Antigonus reconquered the city. The catacombs are his most sacred shrine, but their location remains undiscovered by authorities. Unlike normal catacombs, whose purpose is to preserve the dead, these were meant to provide food for Mot’s slavering ghoul-priests. It is said that much of the wealth of the cult was stored within as well.
The Thieves’ Tunnels
This network of tunnels was built by the people of the city over a long period in order to offer a retreat during the sieges that so characterize Tyre’s history. They network is now so complicated that even those who regularly use them only know but a small portion of the twisting tunnels. During times of peace, it is primarily utilized by the various criminal gangs that plague the city - though even Seleucid authorities have figured out this trick and sometimes send patrols into the depths. It is rumored that a long tunnel connects the island portion of the city to the mainland, but no explanation is offered as to why Alexander did not find this and make use of it instead of building his causeway.
The Tomb of the Black Pharaoh
While the ultimate fate of Nephren-Ka, the infamous Black Pharaoh, a demon who ruled among men, is unknown, some sources believe that he died during a battle in what is now the mainland portion of the city. These sources state that the people of Egypt feared interring their king in their homeland, for they thought that his presence would taint the Nile and cause the water to thicken and become a foul toxin. Instead, they made for him a tomb on the spot where he died, and buried his war loot with him in hopes that his ghost would not follow them back to Egypt.
The Vault of the King-Priests
This is believed to be the holy of holies for the Phoenician god Moloch - a baleful god of fire and hate. It is said that the King-Priests that ruled in the days before Alexander took all of the wealth from their conquered enemies and smelt it into huge statues depicting their god as a fiery bull. Thus there is supposedly one of these statues for each people the Phoenicians defeated in battle, of varying size based on the amount of wealth those people carried with them.
The Treasure-House of the Gods
It is believed that in the deepest parts of the undercity, there lies a great cache of treasure and weapons created by the gods during their wars with the Titans. However, few have made it to the depths where the Treasure-House can allegedly be found, and fewer still have any idea what sorts of things are contained within.
Many strange cults exist within Tyre, and these are often a source of new spells for magicians. A magician may only be a member of one cult at a time, and therefore may not learn spells belonging to another cult. The list below should not be considered exhaustive, since
Artemis
Goddess of the hunt, the Moon, and fertility, Artemis has taken on a number of strange aspects since the Greeks made contact with the peoples of the East. She is typically depicted as a woman with many rows of breasts, and some of her statues are known to lactate during cultic rites.
Asclepius
Son of Apollo and god of the healing arts, Asclepius possesses a small temple in Tyre. His cult is surprisingly popular despite the modest size of the aforementioned temple, and many a cockerel has its throat cut in his honor.
Dagon
Dagon is a strange sea-god venerated by the Phoenicians. Unlike Melqart (see below), the Greeks do not conflate Dagon with their god Poseidon. Dagon is a god of fish, darkness, and decay and his spells and cultists reflect this.
Melqart
Melqart is the god of the city of Tyre, though the Greeks assert that he is none other than Heracles, who made his way to the Levant during one of his labors. The spells normally associated with him are protective, but he does have some of a more savage nature.
Moloch
Baleful god of fire and human sacrifice, Moloch is the chief god of the Phoenicians. These people give up their children to his horrid fires, a practice which horrifies other peoples - though it is especially sickening to the Romans.
In addition to these cults, a number of sorcerers exist who may also provide spells; however, they rarely do so without a price. The most famous two in the city are, of course, Ningauble and Sheelba; however, the Scarlet One, He of the Thousand Mouths, Ajaxos the Mad and a hundred others make their homes within the city.
This is a topic I've been thinking about a lot recently, since I'm working on Feudal Anarchy. I've run a surprisingly high number of sessions in my fictionalized version of the Languedoc and its accompanying island of Cocanha, and I think I've started to get a handle on what works and what doesn't. For the purposes of this post, I'm going to focus on what Chris calls a local sandbox, since that's the kind of game that I've been running and the one I'm most likely to run with this system.
One thing that I think is very important is making sure that the group has a sort of "party concept." This needs to be something that can tie the player characters together and that allows them to either move within feudal society or sets them outside of it. Examples include a group of closely allied nobles, a company of mercenaries, a family of nobles and the mesnie, a group of roving outlaws, or even the inhabitants of a particular village.
The party in the Cocanha game is primarily composed of a group of knights and mercenaries who operate a keep and a number of small manors in the eastern part of the island. I've found this to be a remarkably broad concept, since characters that don't otherwise seem to fit are usually explained as members of the mesnie of one of the knightly characters. I could see other group concepts being similarly broad. Even something as apparently narrow as the inhabitants of a Cistercian abbey might be broadened by including characters who did any number of things before becoming tonsured, characters who are wards of the abbey, or even inhabitants of a nearby village or manor belonging to the abbot.
The reason that party concept is important - more important than it is in other types of adventure games - is that the medieval world is a great deal more rigid than most fantasy settings. While there was probably a larger degree of social mobility than one might expect, there was a far stricter sense of hierarchy, and if the players and referee want to maintain a "hardcore medievalist" tone, it is useful to explain why their characters are associating with each other.
More importantly, the party concept can help motivate the PCs to seek adventure and make it easier for the referee to construct scenarios. For example, knights and nobles are likely to want to improve their station and win more territory, and this may motivate the group to be more belligerent and the referee can then focus on either presenting opportunities to gain land or status or on presenting threats to the PCs' holdings. Outlaws will, obviously, be interested in precious lucre, and so the group will constantly be looking for tax collectors to rob and other such sources of coin, and the referee knows those are the sorts of thing he or she should be presenting to the players.
In the next installments of this series, I hope to talk more about constructing the campaign region, creating and running the political struggles of that region, and the other sorts of adventures one can have in a heavily medieval setting.
A few of the participants in my Feudal Anarchy (née Medieval Hack) playtest campaign have commented that it is a bit difficult to get one's legs because of the number of NPCs and factions running around, so I've decided to do a recap of events so far in the mini-campaign. Between my home group and the G+ game I've run nine games set in my fictionalized version of the Languedoc, but this will only cover the exploits of the G+ group.
I'll start with the adventure of the Onachus since the first session was more or less a series of combats in order to test out our wound mechanics. The Onachus was a terrible monster that laired in a swamp north of Narbona. Many believed this immense, fire-breathing bull was none other than the creature that sired the infamous Tarrasque. The party* took it upon themselves to slay this monster, but when they road off with a mere two men-at-arms following they found that they bit off more than they could chew. The creature was almost 30 feet in length, and managed to slay both the men at arms and all of their horses.
Beaten and badly bloodied, they returned to Narbona and waited out the winter of 1192 healing, purchasing new horses, studying about various saints, and hiring men to operate a ballista. In the early spring of 1193 they set off to fight the creature once again, this time with the blessing of Archishop Ramon Berengar and with men given to them by Ermengarde herself. They decided to lure the monster to castle of Gruissan, where they quickly surrounded and defeated it. For their valor, they were granted a keep on the island of Cocanha.
A map of their keep
There was just one problem - it was currently controlled by the bastard son of Ramon de Calanha. If the party was going to claim its prize, it would first have to wrest it from this robber knight and his band of Yaon mercenaries. The sailed for the island and arrived at the port city of Alcazar. There they met the Bishop of Alcazar, and two of the party members swore a public oath to join his Brotherhood of God in order to fight heresy on the island. Before proceeding on to their new keep, they decided to stay with a young knight who owned a market in town.
He, it turns out, was Folquet the Younger, son of the lord of the manor of Sangriu. He was an aspiring troubadour whose clearly autobiographical songs left much to be desired. Later they would come to believe that he once had an affair with the wife of Baron Bernatz, but I'm getting ahead of myself. He gave them a good deal, but through their conversation they soon learned that he had some dealings with the Yaones. After this he grew cold and retired to his chambers.
The next morning they made their way to the Castle d'Ezorre, home of Baron Bernatz the Wolf - their new liege lord. They were greeted by the baron's wormy chaplain and steward, Father Perrin. This clearly paranoid clergyman led them to Baron Bernatz who fed them a good meal at the expense of one of his peasants, whom Bernatz asserted was the best cook out of all the ones that he owned. The baron agreed to lend them a number of men to capture the keep and allowed them to stay at his castle and make ready.
That night, they were approached by the baron's wife who desired that they should kill the Bastard of Calanha because he had kidnapped her daughter. She specifically desired for his head to be brought to her. The party reluctantly agreed and set out in the morning to take the keep. They planned to have their archers and ballista fire on the keep while the cavalry would dismount and go with the infantry down a secret escape tunnel known to several of the men-at-arms.
This plan seemed to be going well, with several of the Yaones manning the walls dying under a hail of arrows and ballista bolts; however, once the party arrived at the end of the secret passage they found only a pot of boiling oil waiting for them. They fought their way into the court yard of the keep only to be hit by a stray ballista bolt, taking them out of the fight and killing one of them. Luckily, the rest of their men were able to take the keep from the Yaones and to capture the Bastard of Calanha. They found that all of the Yaones they had killed bore a strange, stylized tattoo of a snake on their left arm.
The siege of the Keep of Ervesa by Peter Robbins
Now the party had a problem before them: should the kill the bastard or ransom him back to his father? Eventually it was decided that they would send him to Bernatz in hopes of gaining a reward. Unfortunately, this turned out to be the worst course of action because it allowed Bernatz to gain all the money from the ransom and it served to make the Lady d'Ezorre furious with the party.
While several of the knights who captured the keep were nursing the wounds, a few of the healthier knights and a few mercenaries went to slay the legendary giant Boamundus. This involved a lot of skulking around as they needed to enter Baron Ramon's land but were afraid at how he might react to the capture of his son. While passing through some of the hills on the southern part of the island they were ambushed by a party of Yaones that they quickly routed. The few men they were able to kill bore the same snake tattoo as the men from the keep.
Eventually they were able to find the hut in which the giant lived, but he was away from his home. They left a number of javelins burried in his straw bedding and when he returned he impaled himself upon them. Angered and bloody, he arose to try and find them only to be peppered with more javelins and arrows and stampeded by cows. In this manor the party gained 25 head of cattle and a debate about the size of giants started on G+ that has lasted until the time of this writing.
The party sent the giant's head to Baron Ramon, and both of his hands to Bishop Uc and Baron Bernatz. Shortly thereafter, they received an invitation from Baron Ramon to join him at a feast in Castel d'Ezorre. The party was wary of a plot against them and declined, but offered to host the baron themselves in a fortnight. They then decided it would be good if they "left town for a while" and went off in search of the infamous outlaw Xabier the snake.
This lead them to the land of Folquet the Elder, lord of Sangriu. In the forest due south of his holdings they found a recently abandoned Yaon village. They believed that the villagers had fled south into the mountains at the site of their party - which included the PCs and an additional 20 serjeants, footmen, and archers. In the village they found a wicker hut containing a strange idol in the shape of a snake. One of the party members who was a Hospitaller and a member of the Brotherhood of God destroyed this idol with a mallet normally reserved for driving tent pegs. From the idol came a vaporous, curdled luminescence that flew up into the sky and eventually merged with the Sun. After seeing this, the party burned down the village.
The idol
They turned back north to meet with Folquet the Elder, but were greeted by his steward, whom they quickly surmised was an asshole. He informed them that the lord was ill and quarted them in one of the nicer peasant houses. He also played music of his own composition for him, and they quickly learned that he was of the same abysmal school as Folquet the Younger. Finally, the steward retired and the party went to sleep...
Only to be awoken a few hours later when by a commotion outside. Several of their men-at-arms had discovered strange, albino vipers in their bedrolls. These they hacked apart with various bladed instruments. The members of the party still within the peasants' hut soon found that a number of the serpents had burst up from the ashes of the cook fire in the center of the hut. They immediately fled and burned the house down - much to the dismay of the peasants.
The party decided this must be the work of a warlock angry at them for the destruction of the village. They immediately suspected Folquet's steward, but decided they should also check in with the parish priest in order to make sure he wasn't saying prayers to Simon Magus or anything weird like that. He saw one of their badges marking them as members of the Brotherhood of God and asked that they come see him during the night.
He revealed to them that many of the peasants whisper dark things about Folquet the Younger and believe him to have dealings with both the Yaones and the Devil himself. They asked him if he suspected the steward of anything, but he did not. He did inform them that the steward was a former clerk - a group well known for producing necromancers - and that Folquet the Elder took ill around the same time the steward arrived.
They contrived to have the steward attend a mass given by the priest and hoped that he would be unable to eat the body of Christ, thus revealing himself to be a warlock. In what must have been one of the tensest masses in history, the party appeared with five of their armed men and met the steward with five of his armed men in the church. They all took communion, much to the shock of the local peasants who had assembled themselves in the church. Unfortunately for the party, the steward seemed capable of eating the Eucharist and now it's back to the drawing board for them.
It is currently the middle of the summer of 1193.
*I should note that the party composition has varied over these sessions, but there are a few core members. The occasional influx of new people is why I wrote this post.
I've obviously stolen the format from Chris Kutalik, but here are the notes for the setting I'll be using for my playtests of our medievalist game.
This map is a rough draft.
Cocanha This campaign is centered around the Cocanha, a fictional island in the Mediterranean off the coast of France. Much of the island is covered in a mix of farm and scrubland, though its southern portion is home to both a mountain range and a dense forest. Cocanha is strongly tied to both Occitania and Catalonia, though it also possesses a Muslim past and a small tribe of Basque-like people known as the Yaones. The people of Cocanha speak a dialect of Occitan known as Cocanhat. PCs are likely to be members of the same knightly household. Local Names Medieval Nicknames
News Bishop Uc has formed a militia known as the Brotherhood of God with the express purpose of enforcing the Peace of God and eliminating heresy. He has asked both of the barons to join him, but neither seems interested in stopping their petty squabbles or rooting out Cathars.
Sangriu has been the site of a number of raids by Xabier the Snake in recent weeks. Folquet is looking for mercenaries to help reinforce his own forces and for stout men willing to find Xabier’s camp. The knight believes that the infamous bandit is testing the border for weaknesses.
A man claiming to be the bastard son of Baron Ramon has captured the village of Ervesa with the aid of a band of Yaon mercenaries. It seems they have slaughtered the manor’s holder and captured the maiden Anor, daughter of Baron Bernatz. The Wolf has offered a large purse and a small manor to anyone able to rescue his daughter.
Father Perrin, chaplin to Baron Bernatz, seeks pious men to investigate the death of his brother. Many claim that the man was slain by God on High - or one of His saints - but the priest is convinced that his death is the work of the Devil.
Boamundus, a legendary giant said to live in the mountains on the southern side of the island, has been sighted again for the first time in one hundred years. He has reportedly been stealing cattle from the villages closest to Castel de Calanha. Several of the manor lords seek champions to win the cattle back.
NPCs Baron Bernatz The Wolf is the lord of Ezorre. It is well known that he has ambitions on the continent, and he has left the island at several points to fight on behalf of his liege lord, the count of Toulouse.
Baron Ramon is the lord of Calanha. He is the scion of a cadet branch of the Trencavel family, and like the Trencavels of the continent he is an ally of the King of Aragon. Ramon fancies himself a troubadour of some skill.
Bishop Uc d’Alcazar is the head of the diocese of Cochana. He is officious, petty, and fiercely anti-Cathar.
Xabier the Snake is the leader of a small group of Yaones that act as bandits operating out of the forests and mountains in the southern part of the island.
Sir Folquet of Sangriu is a banneret to Baron Bernatz and the man usually tasked with leading any of the baron’s forces left on the island while the Wolf is fighting his wars on the continent.
Father Perrin is Baron Bernatz’s chaplin and also serves as secular ruler of the barony while his lord is away.
Saints of Cocanha St. Cecilia St. Foy St. Martha St. Sergius Paulus St. Sebastian
Places The Barony of Ezorre Castel d’Ezorre The seat of Baron Bernatz and the center of government for the entire barony, Castel d’Ezorre is a stone castle of modest sized on the northernmost tip of the island. Ezorre was originally a timber castle built in the ruins of an old Roman fort, Bernatz’s father had it rebuilt and incorporate much of the Roman architecture into the new structure.
Banneret Manors Sangriu Andaro Ervesa
The Barony of Calanha Castel de Calanha This keep acts as the center of the Barony of Calanha. It is of fairly recent construction, having been built to protect against raids by Mediterranean pirates.
Banneret Manors Fabero Nabiras
The Bishopric of Cocanha
Alcazar
Alcazar was the center of government on the island during its occupation by the Moors. It still acts as both the commercial and religious center, and is the easiest place to find passage to the continent or to the island monastery of Lampisors.
I've been trying to write this post ever since I first came up with a Fistful of Denars. You see, I have a problem. I often desire to run a historical campaign, but I worry over issues of accuracy so much that I never get one off the ground. This is partially a function of the very thing that makes me want to run the setting in the first place: history is what I have my degree in and, God willing, what I will soon have an advanced degree in. This gives me a crippling desire to get things right, because I'm "supposed to know that stuff."
So I need something to make me think of the setting in a different way - something like Jeff's Wessex. He distanced his setting from real world England by using a fictitious map with the names changed. I kept trying to figure out how to do the same, but the only headway I ever made was by changing the Auvergne to Averoigne, but that comes with certain tonal implications and also the added baggage of trying to represent one of CAS's settings faithfully.
I hit a brick wall, but last night I remembered this:
click to embiggen
That is a map of what would have been the Known World to the Greeks and Romans. Note that Asia is at the top and Jerusalem is roughly in the center as in a Mappa Mundi. This map contains the parts of the world I'm likely to run a campaign in (Western Europe and the Mediterranean) but is still fantastic enough that I can distance myself from worries about accuracy.
Here is a list of historical games I could see myself running at some point:
Rome c. 150 - 100 BCE
PCs are ex-soldiers or otherwise homeless people who seek to make their fortune in the Eternal City.
Rome c. 400 CE
PCs are a comitatus of Germanic raiders, Roman mercenaries, or whatever else they want to be trampling the Roman Empire under their sandaled feet.
Britain c. 450
PCs are the leaders in a Briton community facing an invasion by some slightly inhuman Anglo-Saxons, weird forest gods, and other British groups.
Ireland c. 850
PCs as Viking settlers in Ireland. I actually ran this one session or two in college, but the group ended up not being able to meet due to schedule stuff.
Southern France c. 1050
This is a Cthulhu Dark Ages idea I've been kicking around. PCs work for the bishop of a cathedral town investigating reports of miracles, monsters, and banditry.
Byzantium c. 1050
PCs as mercenaries - Latin, Viking, or otherwise - in Constantinople or a fictitious Byzantine city. Become emperor or get blinded trying!
Southern France c. 1221
See the above link to the Fistful of Denars Post.
England c. 1215
Can you say "Robin Hood?" This one is a bit more half-formed than some of the others, but it'd be pretty awesome to run a game about medieval outlaws.
The Holy Roman Empire c. 1390
Robbers, cut-throats, and adventurers in post-plague Germany. Think Darklands but with maybe a tinsy-winsy bit more fantasy elements.
Looking at that list, I see that I'll need to clean up Northern Europe a bit to make room for Scandinavia so that those vikings can come from somewhere. The general rule will be that if you're in Western or Northern Europe or the Mediterranean it'd look more or less the same but with monsters and magicians. The further afield you go, the more it gets like something John Mandeville would write about.
I'd set up each of these campaigns in the following way:
1) History before the start date of the campaign went more or less as it did in the real world - excluding those areas that are cut off on the map.
2) The PCs' actions will constitute the basis of a new, alternate history.
3) Later campaigns set after the events of one that's already been played will make references to events in that campaign. So if you make your guy Roman Emperor, he'll show up on a list of emperors you find in the HRE game and you'll probably find coins with his face on him.
4) All of them will have way more monsters and dungeons on them than historical Europe did (i.e. they will have some). This one probably goes without saying, but my wife was quite worried there would be no dungeons when I pitched this to her. She loves dungeons.
One final note: I'm not getting rid of the Dark Country or anything. This was more of mental exercise to see how I would run a setting where Romans were Romans and Vikings were Vikings without being filled with crippling doubt.
