(http://i.imgur.com/WFiIWIC.jpg?1)
Share your memories and opinions of the TSR Historical Reference series for D&D if you have any.
I've never had the opportunity to run historical D&D, but I find these books very inspiring to peruse.
Personally I was most impressed by the Celtics one. It felt thorough, approachable, well organized and well illustrated for the time. I especially like that they provided a "year in the life" example of a young man's life in Celtic society - that sort of guidance goes a long way toward envisioning what "normality" is for a campaign set in such a difficult period for modern audiences.
A Mighty Fortress (Elizabethan period) is not as good by comparison. For some reason all the art in the book is stock public domain, fitting but lazy (nice Rembrandt sketches for daily life). The organization is more haphazard, and the advice less thorough. This is a shame as this book concerns some of my favorite periods in history, the ones I'm most likely to actually play in. It also includes a class kit with an XP mechanic that really gave me pause and made me start this interesting thread a while back:
http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?33686-Check-out-this-eyebrow-raising-method-of-gaining-XP-Would-you-allow-such-a-thing&highlight=Picaro
To me, the most interesting thing about Charlemagne's Paladins was the way it highlights just how inaccurate a lot of fantasy inspired by that period really is.
Here's the rest of them if anyone needs a memory jog:
HR1: Vikings
HR2: Charlemagne's Paladins
HR3: Celts
HR4: A Mighty Fortress
HR5: The Glory of Rome
HR6: Age of Heroes (Ancient Greece I think)
HR7: The Crusades
In the pre internet/wikipedia age these books were fantastic resources.
I had A Mighty Fortress, The Vikings, the Charlemagne book and The Glory of Rome. It has been ages since I read them. I recall the Rome book having stuff for divination that I found striking at the time. I'd be interested if I read them again how well the historical accuracy holds up. But to be honest the big value at the time for me was they got me thinking more about other historical periods. Also this was before the days of google so research for game books always seemed pretty hit or miss (one bad source could really send things in a wonky direction). I think a lot of my interest in Rome probably started with that book. So the green series definitely had an influence. A Mighty Fortress was a mistake on my part. I bought it thinking it was some kind of castle guide. For me it kind of opened my eyes to the potential for gaming in later historical periods.
well they are before my time iv never even seen one irl but they all ways seemed interesting
They were basically like GURPs sourcebooks - the quality really depended on the given author. The Roman one was quite good. So was the Celt one. The Greek one was pretty awful.
However, as books they were ugly. They featured the "desperate" look of most books from that era - wide margins, big fonts, not a lot of art. (Though as I've gotten older, I appreciate the bigger fonts)
Quote from: JeremyR;898632big fonts, not a lot of art. (Though as I've gotten older, I appreciate the bigger fonts)
Exactly. I just spent last week getting a designer to NOT use a font scale that when printed out 2mm or less. Which made it un-readable.
As for the books. They are interesting and as others have noted, kinda hit and miss.
One thing I did not realize till recent was that the books were set up in pairs sometimes. Romans and Celts, etc.
I ran a short campaign based on the Roman one and another based on the Greek one. Both were great.
The ancient Greece campaign was set during the great war between Athens and Sparta, that the the Spartans historically won, so the players got to play the Athenian leadership. Characters included the High Priest of Athena (with Pegasus), a 1/2god son of Poseidon, a high level bard/politician/playwright/actor and the general of the army of Athens.
The Roman campaign was heavily influenced by the following film.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabiria
The child/trophy bride of a prominent senator is kidnapped by those evil Moloch worshipping Carthagenians. So he sends out his son to rescue her, because his son is a hero (TM), ofcourse the son is not a hero, he is a up and coming politician. So Maciste, Rome's mightiest gladiator (who in our adventure always referred to himself in the 3rd person) also goes on the rescue mission. They also send The mightiest wizard in the world (actually a con artist without any supernatural powers) along for special support. The senator's son's bride also stows away on the trip, because she is a powerful witch, with real magic power. She also looked like a young Sophia Loren. I made sure that it got mentioned on her character sheet.
I was rather fond of them. I was bummed out when years later I read they were supposedly working on an Anglo-Saxon Briain book. I originally got the Mighty Fortress for the firearms, but the one I liked the best was Charlemange's Paladins. Was a big fan of Dark Ages Europe, so I got a lot of mileage out of that book.
Quote from: igor;899323The Roman campaign was heavily influenced by the following film.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabiria
What a great recommendation!
As said upthread they're a lot less useful now that it's easy to look stuff up but I always liked the Viking runecaster class a lot since it was basically Egil Skallagrimson: the class and you can't not love that.
Basically works like a paladin or ranger: a fighter who pays a bit more XP but gets some minor magic in return. Like being able to have some tricks without multiclassing or giving up being able to fight. Beautiful for a low magic campaign.
Would be fun to do a campaign with a bunch of fighter subclasses.
I remember being very impressed with an article in Dragon that discussed how to use the Historical Reference books as being part of the history of Gothic Earth in the Masque of the Red Death setting.
EDIT: "Seeds of Evil" in Dragon #249.
Quote from: igor;899323The Roman campaign was heavily influenced by the following film.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabiria
ooh? Maciste? I picked that up for a friend last year. Really amazing production and quite a epic sweep.
Way back at Gencon one year a game artist who was a history buff had me go secure for him a copy of The Bruce, a 1996 historical movie. There used to be a video dealer at GenCon who stocked all sorts of historical themed films and documentaries.
A Mighty Fortress and the Rome sourcebook were both very good. But not as good as GURPS Swashbucklers and GURPS Rome.
I loved Charlemagne's, used the hell out of my copy.