rust

It depends a lot on the stability of a realm and the loyalty of a ruler's subjects. For Henry IV the excommunication proved to be a desaster, it ripped apart his realm in revolt and forced him to go to Canossa and beg on his knees for the Pope's mercy - probably the most humiliating situa- tion any of the emperors ever suffered. For a Grand Master of a knightly order an excommunication could damage the religious base of his position and authority, and with a newly founded colony inhabited by people of different cul- tures the stability of his realm and the loyalty of his subjects are somewhat uncertain. Of course, he could take the risk, but I think he would prefer to avoid any additional trouble with an organization as powerful as the church while the colony is still in its early years, and would therefore take the other path and declare himself a princely ruler.

It would be an option, although a dangerous one, because the Grand Master is not even a priest, and at this time in history the Popes had already begun their conflict with the world- ly powers to gain the sole right to invest bishops. A layman declaring himself bishop could be a way to make the Pope and all of his followers very, very angry and to become excommunicated very quickly, and the subjects of an excom- municated ruler do no longer have to obey him, even deposing and killing him outright would be considered a very minor sin by the Pope's church. With this background, I think declaring himself a Prince would be less dangerous, especially if he then tries to become a vassal of some far away king, for example that of Norway, who would be pleased to have some more subjects and get a little tribute each year, but who does not have the means to meddle in the affairs of the colony.

Thank you for a good idea. This could indeed help to make hunting an "off" or background task whenever it is not a part of an adventure. And with different n values for different terrain, regions and seasons and some added colour ("No, no valuable walrus tusks from hunting in the hills ...") the players would still get some basic options to make decisions for their characters, if they want.

I assume that the supplement will include at least some of the personalities of the Age of Ar- thur from history or legend. Here is an incomplete list of "Arthurian Personalities" mentioned in the early sources: Amr (Historia Brittonum) Arthur (Y Gododdin) Aurelius Ambrosius (Gildas) Bedivere (Culhwch and Olwen) Cerdic of Wessex (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle) Constantine (historical) Culhwch (Culhwch and Olwen) Cynric of Wessex (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle) Eliwlod (Welsh Triads) Gawain (Culhwch and Olwen) Guinevak (Culhwch and Olwen) Guinevere (Culhwch and Olwen) Hengest (Beda) Hoel (The Dream of Rhonabwy) Horsa (Beda) Kay (Culhwch and Olwen) Mabon ap Modron ((Culhwch and Olwen) Mark of Cornwall (various) Myrddin / Merlin (various) Mordred (Annales Cambriae) Olwen (Culhwch and Olwen) Owain / Ywain (historical, Owain map Urien) Taliesin (historical) Urien (historical) Uther Pendragon (Welsh Triads) Vortigern (Beda) Vortimer (Historia Brittonum) I highlighted those which I think we will need as a minimum for the explanation of the background of the setting.

Well, if it was good enough for the real world, it is certainly good enough for my setting ...

This is just a list of the legendary creatures (= "monsters") of the Celtic traditions from Wikipe- dia. It does not include many of the more mythological creatures (elfs, giants, etc.), and many of the creatures are mentioned more than once under different names and with slightly diffe- rent descriptions. The list also does not include creatures of the Anglo-Saxon and the Roman tradition. Should you know any of those, please add them. I posted the list because I thought that it could give us something to start with. We can then de- cide which ones, or which version of one, to use, and which to delete, for example because they appeared long after the Age of Arthur or because they would not be interesting for a role- playing game. Basic descriptions of all the creatures of the list can be found on Wikipedia. Celtic: Bauchan Fachen Fuath Joint-eater Kelpie Merrow Morgen Breton: Bugul-Noz Iannic-an-od Korrigan Yan-gant-y-tan Cornish: Pixie Spriggan Irish: Abcan Abhartach Airitech Alp-luachra Ais-si Banshee Caoranach Cat Sith Changeling Clurichaun Dabilla Daoine maite Donn Cuailnge Dullahan Ellen Trechend Far darrig Fear gorta Finnbhennach Gancanagh Jasconius Leanashe Leprechaun Liath Mache / Dub Sainglend Merrow Oillipheist Puca Salmon of Wisdom Selkie Sluagh Manx: Arkan Sonney Buggane Fenodyree Glashtyn Jimmy Squarefoot Moddey Dhoo Mooinjer veggey Scottish: Bodach Boobrie Brownie Coo Sith Caoineag Ceasg Changeling Cu Sith Each uisge Ghillie Dhu Gigelorum Glaistig Loch Ness Monster Monster of Glamis Pech Selkie Shellycoat Wirry-cow Wulver Welsh: Adar Llwch Gwin Afanc Ceffyl Dwr Coblynau Cwn Annwn Cyhyraeth Gwyllion Water leaper

I think it is time for a general "Thank You" to the admin and users of BRP Central. Without your advice and help my previous BRP/CoC settings as well as my current Thule set- ting would have included at lot more blunders and would have become much less interesting and playable. So, thank you very much for your help, and for a great forum with a nice atmosphere.

Do we want only the "original" fairies from the Age of Arthur or also the ones from later and often better known sources ? There seems to be a major difference between the fairies and other fantastic creatures of the original legends and what became of them in later centuries, especially during the time of the Romantic movement. I would prefer to stay as close as possible to the "old" versions, but I am aware that many peo- ple know and expect only the "modern" ones and might have problems with a different descrip- tion of the fairies and other fantastic beings. Another, minor problem would be to choose a specific name and description from the various local or regional variations of a creature. As an example the "Kelpie family" from Wikipedia:

Thank you very much for the informations. It seems I have to re-evaluate musk oxen. From the descriptions in Wikipedia and elsewhere I had got the impression that they are just "double-sized heavy sheep", smaller than a reindeer (120 cm high, 150 cm long), but with mo- re body mass (280 kg), and therefore I thought that they would be not much more difficult game then reindeer. Thank you for this rule. The fact that the wounded animal will flee is no serious problem in this setting, since the tundra does not offer many places to get out of sight of the hunter. Un- less the animal flees into the water, the hunter can follow and find it.

Thank you very much for these ideas. This is why I decided to use the Harnmaster rules for this, the Pilot's Almanac has all those da- ta, down to the provisions of the crew. The system is a bit more complex than I would like, but for the purpose of this campaign I only have to calculate the average voyage costs of one cog and one carrack, and can then use these standard values for all of the voyages. According to the generic "Grain to Gold" supplement the price of a commodity in a "distant city" should be about 600 % of the price in the local market, and from my calculations so far I get very similar figures. If the colonists sell their goods on Iceland for local market prices and buy their imports at 600 % of their prices in Norway, the situation comes very close to what I am aiming for - enough trade income to get by and slowly expand and improve the colony, but luxuries require special adventures. It seems that the Hanseatic League had a kind of economic stranglehold on the Norwegian sea trade from Bergen at the time, this is sometimes cited as a reason why the Norwegian economy was comparatively weak during this period, and I will try to figure the "monopoly problem" into my campaign's economy - perhaps including some adventurous "state sponsored smuggling" by the colony.

Thank you, soltakss and kaddawang. Yes, I was only thinking of slightly smaller prey, like reindeer and up to musk oxen. A polar bear or a walrus would indeed require a well prepared team of hunters, they are big, dan- gerous and (like seals) likely to flee into the water when they are wounded. Ah, the Major Wound rules - I completely forgot about them, and the Call of Cthulhu rules I use as the base system for this campaign do not have them.

Yep, I will modify the prices accordingly. In the end the colony will earn just enough through trade to pay for the vital imports, for exam- ple things like charcoal and iron. Everything beyond this will require some kind of adventure. An example could be the find of a huge iron meteorite on a far away glacier and the task to mo- ve it to the settlement before (or, if I am in a nasty mood, after) the natives decide that the sto- ne that fell from heaven is something holy and protect and defend it. The "monopoly problem" will surely become a part of the campaign, because whoever controls the sea route from Thule via Iceland to Bergen in Norway also dictates the prices. This could be a good opportunity for a diplomatic adventure to create an alternative trade rou- te, for example the one from Thule to the Gaelic Lordship of the Isles - potentially with some unexpected consequences, like a maritime trade war.

Thank you very much for the links. Unfortunately I have a problem to understand this sentence, neither my dictionary nor Wiki- pedia gives me any useful hint what "Bran" could mean ? Edit.: Ah, now I got it - silly me.

Another one of those minor problems of my Thule setting ... According to the rules I am using for this campaign, the ones from the German Call of Cthulhu supplement "Mittelalter" ("Medieval Age"), a crossbow does a damage of 2D6, which becomes a maximum of 24 for the best possible critical hit. Looking at the creatures I have designed so far, this is not enough to kill some of the bigger ones among them, from reindeer through musk oxen to the bigger species of seals, because these often have more than 24 hit points. However, I do not want to make a normal hunt a major affair in this campaign, and a hunter should be able to down a reindeer or a musk oxen with a single, aimed, well placed crossbow bolt. I seem to have missed any rule that could help with this, so I am tempted to make my own one: Any hit that causes more damage than 50 % of an animal's hit points will kill the animal after a short while (bleeding, etc.), the hunter only has to follow his fleeing wounded prey until it falls and can then give it a coup de grace. Does this work, or did I miss something important ? Thank you.

Indeed, and I would be most interested in this.

As for the roleplaying system, there is not much to do for this setting, the existing rules seem to work well enough. I think I will only introduce two new skills, Seamanship (the skill to operate a sailing ship like the order's cog) and Stewardship (the combination of household skills of a typical housewife of the period), plus the Knowledge (Thule) skill mentioned in a previous post. Knowledge (Thule) will cover the knowledge about the colony and its people, the land and the basic survival techniques necessary in the cold North. This skill will start at 01 %, and then go up both through simply living on Thule (+ 19 % after the first year there, + 10 % after each of the following years, until 60 % are reached) and through experience during adventures. Once the 60 % are reached, only experience can further improve the skill. Later in the campaign there will be a few more new skills, for example the Languages of the va- rious native tribes and the new technologies the colonists can learn through their contact with these natives, for example Drive (Dog Sled) or the weapon skill Harpoon. The professions of this campaign will be Knight of the Order, Noble Woman, Franciscan Monk, Scholar, Peasant, Fisherman and Sailor; Tribesman will only be used for the native NPCs. During the campaign there may well be added some additional professions, but at the beginning this will be the entire "cast". The only major rules system I will add to the standard rules are the seafaring rules from Harn- master, although not in all of their detail. A minor addition will be some of the ideas from the hun- ting, fishing, sealing and whaling rules of Harnmaster to give these activities a little more depth and colour. Oh, and of course the "deniable magic" (I like that term) rules mentioned in the other thread. With the system mostly out of the way, I am currently trying to define and describe the cultures of the colony, the special mix of German culture, Baltic culture, knightly order and monastic or- der - everything from life stations (birth, childhood, marriage, burial customs ...) to common technologies (architecture, crafts, transportation ...) and hobbies. I do not want to go into a lot of detail with this, just to note what I need to describe the every- day life in the Thule colony to the players.

Thank you very much, a good idea.

And there is also this one: http://runequestwilderlands.blogspot.com/2010/04/new-creature-figure-of-earth.html

I am not sure about the allegiance rules, I will have to take another look at them. However, I think I could - at least occasionally and before especially important combats - give a character additional hit points or additional strength if he truly believes in the setting's warrior god and was the target of a ritual which he considered as successful. This would not reflect a real physical change of the character, only a psychological effect, and would lead to massive exhaustion after the combat (somewhat like a kind of berserker rage, perhaps). Thank you for a nice idea, I have to think about it.

Looking at my notes, it seems that my Thule colony could well become a socialist realm. Both the knights of the Pruthenic Order and the Franciscans have a vow of poverty, allowing them to have as private property only what personal equipment they need, but keeping land and other assets and resources as common property of their entire community. And it seems that the Baltic settlers could well have had a somewhat similar concept, with the village com- munity as the owner of at least some of the land, assets and resources.

Thank you very much, I had not yet discovered it, because The Green is a little further down my list - I intended to take a closer look at it when I come to the design of the cultures of the nati- ves of my setting's Thule and the Forest Coast.

Thank you very much, I will try to take a look at them.

Yep, I very much agree. However, to make this work as intended, I think that I need at least the "facade" of a magic sy- stem: Magic Skills with impressive names for the players to put skill points into and for the cha- racters to gain experience in, examples of specific named rituals and "magic items" which are considered to improve the chance of a successful ritual, and so on. Whether and how much this really influences the campaign events - this can indeed just as well be handwaved in this setting, without any real magic system, because far more important will be that the players / characters believe that it will do so, and interpret the helpful events accor- dingly, either feeling ensured that their magic works or losing trust in the deities and their po- wers.

Many of our medieval realms were quite dispersed and "all over the map", with the original fief that gave the name in one region and many other, usually smaller parts (gained through inhe- ritance, as dowries, etc.) belonging to it in other regions. Parts of the County of Cleve could be almost anywhere in the Holy Roman Empire, and even beyond. So, while I do not know what the author of Val du Loup intended, it would in any way be quite plausible to find a part of the County of Cleve far from Cleve itself.

Thank you very much for these ideas. If I would connect this to my setting's deities, taken from Crusaders of the Amber Coast, the result could probably look like this: Daiwas: Skill "Voice of Daiwas", rituals concerning Authority, Influence, Persuasion Potrimpos: Skill "Blessing of Potrimpos", rituals dealing with Fertiliy, Growth, Healing Perkunis: Skill "Might of Perkunis", rituals affecting Combat, Strength, Willpower Patollos: Skill "Touch of Patollos", rituals related to Burial, Death, Otherworld A character with one of these skills could have a basic chance to "cause" a helpful event or de- velopment that falls within the skill's general domain. This chance could be slightly improved by the knowledge of a somewhat more specific ritual (e.g. "Blessing of Potrimpos - Heal Illness"), by some magic charm owned by the character, and of course by the willingness of the "target" to believe in the magic.