Campaign Setting Question

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

Has anyone had significant experience with using a setting similar to late medieval / renaissance Germany? There was a chap going on about it on the radio last night - actually in the context of the thirty years war - what with microstates down to the lands of a single abbey and up to things resembling a proper country all at least nominally under the rule of a (somewhat distant) Emperor.

It occured to me that it would make a pretty good setting for a low fantasy RPG - plenty of scope for limited warfare, intrigue and the like. Possibly some German RPG company has already worked this out...

Warhammer Fantasy, baby!

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by Jürgen Hubert

I think at one point there were more than 200 distinct states within German territory.

There was also a computer RPG set in that time period - Darklands.

Y'all were more fun then, Jurgen.

Now I imagine Jurgen in his poofy pants, mit der slashes to show off the good fabric undeneath.

:)

[Jürgen Hubert]

Originally Posted by smurf

Now someone must have forget to tell Luther about the modern science of the printing press. A Gutenberg's printing press set to work printing the 95 Thesis and in 2 weeks it was all over Germany, in 2 months it was across Europe. Such speed of information dispersal must have came as shock to sum.

He probably was aware of the printing press, but he probably didn't anticipate how politicized this would get, and how far this would spread. (I once heard a speech by the leader of the work group that invented the MP3 coding scheme, who said something similar...)

Religion should play a huge role in this era, since after the Reformation each ruler choose whether to stay Catholic or become Protestant - and this was often more a matter of political alliances than faith. And then his subjects usually had to join the same denomination by default.

If you look at a map of the distributions of Protestants and Catholics in Germany today, it will still map fairly closely to those old territorial boundaries, especially in rural areas...

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by Jürgen Hubert

He probably was aware of the printing press, but he probably didn't anticipate how politicized this would get, and how far this would spread. (I once heard a speech by the leader of the work group that invented the MP3 coding scheme, who said something similar...)

Religion should play a huge role in this era, since after the Reformation each ruler choose whether to stay Catholic or become Protestant - and this was often more a matter of political alliances than faith. And then his subjects usually had to join the same denomination by default.

If you look at a map of the distributions of Protestants and Catholics in Germany today, it will still map fairly closely to those old territorial boundaries, especially in rural areas...

Poofy pants!

Those are also important.