08-20-2018, 06:58 AM | #11 |
Join Date: Jul 2007
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Re: Looking for resources for a game set in Early Middle Ages Europe
Fiction references, with all the hazards that implies, but as far as I know an author pretty good at research:
"Better In The Dark" by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro is set in 10th Century Saxony, with her good guy vampire doing his usual bit. Another in the series "Night Blooming" is set at Charlemange's court in the 7th century.
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08-20-2018, 07:18 AM | #12 | |
Join Date: Jul 2007
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Re: Looking for resources for a game set in Early Middle Ages Europe
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08-20-2018, 07:27 AM | #13 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ronkonkoma, NY
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Re: Looking for resources for a game set in Early Middle Ages Europe
Try looking in the young adult section of your local library. I've found that history books in the YA section tend to be better organized for RPG purposes, including lots of pictures and diagrams that convey a lot of information without words. You'll often get costumes, food, building and land layouts, and maps, as well as the boiled-down essence of the period and useful factoids.
Your particular time and place is not the most popular in history books, so you may have to go hunting. |
08-20-2018, 09:05 AM | #14 |
Join Date: Dec 2012
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Re: Looking for resources for a game set in Early Middle Ages Europe
Would someone who has the 3rd edition Vikings please answer a few questions:
1) how much of Europe does the map of the Viking world cover? How detailed is it? 2) does it talk about the Viking raids of northern Europe other than Normandy/Northern France and England in any detail (I feel like most sources focus on these almost exclusively)? 3) is there much detail about the societies other than the Vikings since my characters won't be Vikings but will probably have to fight them and interact with them some? Thank you! |
08-20-2018, 09:42 AM | #15 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: Looking for resources for a game set in Early Middle Ages Europe
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"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison |
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08-20-2018, 10:03 AM | #16 |
Join Date: Dec 2012
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Re: Looking for resources for a game set in Early Middle Ages Europe
That was part of why I picked this period, because I felt like it would not change the people's understanding of the world and the world was unpopulated enough to allow for monsters to actually be in the wild without suspending disbelief too much. :-)
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08-20-2018, 10:08 AM | #17 | ||||
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ronkonkoma, NY
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Re: Looking for resources for a game set in Early Middle Ages Europe
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It has another full-page map of "The Western Voyages," which extends from Scandinavia in the east to Labrador in the west. Settlements are labeled, mostly in Greenland and Norway, and sea routes are marked. The maps otherwise just show land masses and basic place names ("England," "Ireland," and so on). Quote:
But the chapter starts by saying it's just an outline, and to look at the bibliography. Basically, the book isn't trying to be a primary source of history. Quote:
But if your group isn't going to be mostly Vikings, you might be better off getting books about your intended character types. Anglo-Saxons are best detailed in GURPS Middle Ages I, and so on. |
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08-20-2018, 10:29 AM | #18 |
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Denver, CO
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Re: Looking for resources for a game set in Early Middle Ages Europe
Another possibility, and one I leaned heavily on in my historical campaign was Wikipedia.
I started with the approximate year or decade where I was planning to set the game and moved around from there. I found the contemporary monarchs to be good jumping off points as well. Clicking on things that I found interesting gave me a pretty good insight into the era (30 years war for me). |
08-20-2018, 03:12 PM | #19 |
Join Date: Jun 2016
Location: Pisa, Tuscany, Italy
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Re: Looking for resources for a game set in Early Middle Ages Europe
For the military part, I suggest you:
"Armies of the Dark Ages 600-1066" by Ian Heath "The Age of Charlemagne" by David Nicolle "The Conquest of Saxony AD 782-785" by David Nicolle "Carolingian Cavalryman AD 768-967" by David Nicolle About the 9th century Frankish and Saxon military equipment, we know for sure that the majority of soldiers were unarmored. The typical equipment for a 9th century Status 0 Frankish warrior consisted in: - Spear ($40, 4 lbs) or Winged Spear ($40, 4 lbs; see Partisan, Low-Tech p. 60). Longer spears (GURPS Long Spear: $60, 5 lbs) were also in use. - Light Medium Buckler ($45, 7 lbs) or Heavy Medium Buckler ($60, 14 lbs) - The Sax, a blade of various length, usually without a hilt or with a hilt too narrow to effectively protect the hand, ranging in size from a Hiltless Large Knife ($30, 0.75 lbs) to a Hiltless Shortsword ($300, 1.75 lbs) but being more often a Hiltless Long Knife ($90, 1.25 lbs). See Removing a Hilt, Low-Tech Companion 2, p. 15. Some warriors were archers. They used preferably yew self-bows up to 2 meter in length. Treat them as Regular Bow or Longbow, depending on size (or even better, treat them as Cole's "Deadly Spring" Yew Longbow and Yew Regular Bow). They used to carry a quiver with at least twelve arrows. Javelins were also employed, but apparently not very often. Clothing consisted in Status 0 Ordinary Clothing woolen sleeved tunic (Locations: torso, arms || DR 0* || Don 23 || $72; 2.4 lbs), Status 0 Ordinary Clothing woolen trousers (Locations: groin, legs || DR 0* || Don 16 || $50.4; 1.68 lbs) and leather shoes (Locations: feet || DR 1 || Don 6 || $40; 2 lbs). The weapons of Status 2+ warriors were the same with the adding of the Thrusting Broadsword ($600, 3 lbs). Status 2+ warriors wore also body armor. Warriors of lower classes were occasionally equipped with helmets and armours provided by their lords or by local monasteries. Helmets can be: 1) A simple Pot Helm, common among Saxons (20% of torso armor || Locations: skull). 2) A Pot Helm with Cheek Guards (22% of torso armor || Locations: skull, cheeks [face 4-5 on 1d]), which can include a Mail Aventail (10% of torso armor || Locations: back of the face, ears [face 3 on 1d] and neck). Quite often, the aventail didn't protect the neck from the front (8% of torso armor). 3) The "Frankish Helmet", a Pot Helm with Nape Guard and Brim (27% of torso armor || Locations: skull, back of the face, eyes [face 6 on 1d; face 2-6 on 1d against threats from above]). Helmets are of Spangenhelm construction and they are DR4 Plate to DR6 Plate plus padding, giving DR 5 to DR 7. Aventails can be made of Light Mail, Fine Mail, Heavy Mail or Light Scale. Body armour consisted in almost all cases in a Mail Hauberk (likely to be made of Fine Mail or Heavy Mail) or, less often, a Scale Hauberk (likely to be made of Medium Scale). Padded Cloth worn under the hauberk is possible* (*as coeval Eastern Roman cataphracts did) but it isn't certain. There is little to no evidence about the use of textile or leather armor among Franks and Saxons, although Franks and Saxons in Roman service could have adopted textile elements of Eastern Roman armor like the pteruges. Mail Hauberk usually covered torso, shoulders and upper arms [arms 5-6 on 1d] and thighs [legs 5-6 on 1d], but it can extend the arm protection up to the wrists and the leg protection above the knees [legs 4-6 on 1d]. Apparently, mail gauntlets and iron greaves were known among the Franks; maybe they were worn by some of the wealthiest warriors, but this isn't sure. Last edited by Rasna; 08-21-2018 at 08:34 AM. |
08-20-2018, 09:08 PM | #20 |
Join Date: Dec 2012
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Re: Looking for resources for a game set in Early Middle Ages Europe
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