RPGPundit and myself are soon releasing the Dark Albion campaign setting (the book is 99% complete). It will get its own webpage of course, and on this webpage I intend to put a few things for free download. But I need to know what... So here are my two questions:
1. Suppose you are using Google to find RPG stuff related to medieval England. What are you asking Google? (I mean for examples: a map of Sherwood Forest?, the OSR stats of a typical knight and his retinue? )
2. There are plenty of free (and commercial) adventures already available on the Internet. However, they might not be a good fit for medieval England... So, if you wanted an adventure specifically adapted to medieval England, what do you want it to feature? (i.e., what YOU want, not what seems reasonable for that kind of setting.)
I troll Wikipedia first and foremost.
If the Dark Albion website was also a great historical RPG resource, you would probably get additional attention for the game long term.
Those are big and broad questions :)
1. I mostly search for:
A. maps to use illustrating key localities, both country, area and building layouts. Especially floor planes and building interiors are often hard to come by, and get very important when the players have tavern brawls, set the building on fire, attack a castle etc. Any maps to depict what a medieval house, farm or castle would look like on the inside are much wanted.
B. historical details of things I'm not sure of. I can picture how a knight + his men would look, or a band of merry outlaws. But if there is something I can not picture or guess, what would the common peasant look like, what did heraldry mean for medieval knights etc. I look it up.
2. What would I want?
I want to be able to recreate Robin Hood, Game of Thrones etc. I want a mix of intrigue roleplaying and combat. I want an adventure with meaningful goals that go beyond monetary rewards for the players. And I want adventures where there is no good or bad choices (relatively speaking), only choices that characters can make which will affect the game in different directions.
1. Typically I am looking for bizarre historical events or bits of folklore that I can draw inspiration/steal from.
2. I'm not really sure on this one. I would be looking for something that showcased the politics and dangers particular to that place and time.
1) I've literally read 100s of historical mysteries set in Medieval England (there are a lot of them) so it would be pretty cool seeing a "Giants of the Earth" type deal, only with famous fictional medieval characters
2) Time Travel, UFOs, or aliens.
For instance, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, or the movie it inspired, Unidentified Flying Oddball. And numerous episodes of Doctor Who.
2. *something, something* rescue Maid Marion, looking pretty in costume dress, and dancing at a noble feast. Chivalric romance needs its space, because someone has to look good being a hero, and a distressed damsel/dude for witty table banter.
Perhaps a competitive mini-game made out of The Game of Graces. Or other contemporary games, like Maypole, or Ring Around the Rosy, or whatever. Something besides drinking games, arm wrestling, dice, and darts.
Pilgrimages — and other excuses to leave your village as a peon. Where to go, what to look like and say, what to eat, and what you can reasonably get away with. Basically slap on some Chaucer fun.
Everyday Superstitions/Hauntings, how to deal with them, and how to turn them into town adventures. Perhaps the hearth gremlins are real and tend to burn down houses that don't keep them clean of soot...
Quote from: Turanil;8343011. Suppose you are using Google to find RPG stuff related to medieval England. What are you asking Google? (I mean for examples: a map of Sherwood Forest?, the OSR stats of a typical knight and his retinue? )
I tend to use Wikipedia and browse through anything medieval, checking interesting links.
What I generally look for are:
Organisations
Famous People
Strange Professions
Timelines
Strange medieval creatures
Folklore
Quote from: Turanil;8343012. There are plenty of free (and commercial) adventures already available on the Internet. However, they might not be a good fit for medieval England... So, if you wanted an adventure specifically adapted to medieval England, what do you want it to feature? (i.e., what YOU want, not what seems reasonable for that kind of setting.)
Local politics (Guilds, Knights, Church)
Inter-faction conflict (Religious Orders stepping on each others toes, Guild conflicts, Knights raiding other knights)
Damsels in Distress
Dragons/Giants raiding lands
Anything resembling Robin Hood
I often use Folk Songs as the basis of medieval scenarios, as they are usually full of action, romance, sex and black magic.
Contemporary maps.
Population and force levels.
Market prices.
Anecdotes of actual adventures (e.g. what people were actually up to - tends to include various social/criminal maneuvers, escapes from forced marriages, justice/revenge attempts, mayhem, etc)
Hm, when I used Google for this I was looking for a map of a village with castle or manor house. It didn't end up being much use for the scenario I had planned but I did learn something about the economic structure as well as what "cruck house" was.
If I had more time to research, I suppose a bibliography would be useful, bearing in mind what would be accessible to a typical gamer that isn't readily available on the net. Although links for high quality websites that aren't likely to go dead quickly are also good.
I don't know how to use Google to obtain OSR NPC stats but those could be extremely useful--both "typical" people of various types and special/unique NPCs with their entourages if any.
I think that whatever adventure gets made for Albion needs to fit the setting, and that will usually mean having a suitable 'twist'.
A lot of people said Robin Hood, and that's cool, but if you look at what 'robin hood' means in the Albion setting, you realize that it will actually be more like the name of that band of robbers in the woods in Game of Thrones. The Albion book explicitly points out that, 250 years after the original Robin Hood, the "merry men" still control Sherwood, but the franchise itself has hopelessly soured as each "robin hood" proved to be less about the poor and more about himself than the last. Now all kinds of desperate refugees and deserters from the Rose War are swelling the Merry Men's ranks again...