HierophantX

Well, Paolo's got it. Iwanted to emulate the CotAC status system but my setting might be too complicated. Factions: Savinac Order/Furness Abbey Cistercian Order Augustinian Order Archbishop of York Archbishop of Nidaros Kingdom of Scotland The Isles (which has a modified status in Scotland, Ireland, Norway) Angevin Kingdom And those are just the baseline. Once, er, I mean if, the characters fail in their scheme, then they're off on Crusade II and they get a whole new setof factions. What's the best way to deal with this? So Simon, you're saying that there's Status-Wealth and that's just generic wealth lvl and should be maintained as a separate skill from Status(culture/faction)? Presumably then wealth lvl should have a basic modifier towards your social status in every context (I don't know who that foreign savage is, but he's wearing good armor and rich garb...)?

It really gets complicated when your setting includes many factions or nationalities where Status is relevent. Here are some setting details to illustrate the problem... Setting AD 1140, Coastal Cumbria. 2 of the characters in the story are exiled Gall-Gaels of good family whose Grandfather was granted Tarbert Castle in Kintyre by Magnus Bare-Leg King of Norway (and the Isles). 10 years ago, Scots raiders out of Knapdale in their contempt for the laws of hospitality, treacherously gained admission to the fort and you know the rest. The family priest, also an uncle, got the boys out and took them to his home Abbey, Furness, where the boys are raised and educated. When the story begins, basically the boys have the following Status-relationships: Furness Abbey/Savinac Order - Where they have spent the past 10 years and an organization that has a plan for them. Gall-Gael(Culture) - Their native culture of the Isles, their standing among "their" people. Norse(Culture) - As Gall-Gaels they are sort of country cousins to their Norwegian kin. Default modified -5 or -10 from Gall-Gael Status Presumably their Status in England (Furness is IN England after all) would be modified by their relationship with the Abbey So when they are blowing 50 points or so on Status in chargen, to where do these status points acrue? It's my game so I can tweak the rules as I like, but I'm trying to understand the intent of the rules as written. Is this Status just meant to represent social class? But in which society? How do they generate the awards necessary to enhance their social class when it seems (as illustrated in CotAC, for ex), that you get the rewards for doing things that advance the interests of the organization. It almost seems like Status could function abstractly like Glory in Pendragon, for instance, but it doesn't really work because of how you have to spend points on it and how difficult it is to advance. If a character gets knighted, on the battlefield, for example, even if he isn't granted land, that could be more than a 20 point bump in Status as it's written. But it isn't clear how a character would get their "generic" status increased to the level where a knighthood would be appropriate, whereas, it's totally clear that a character could increase their status with "England" by having a good reputation word of which would get to the powers that be and eventually a land grant or the right to bid on a royal office might someday matriculate to the character. Before I make official my own interpretation of this system, I just want to understand what the original rule meant.

I'm having some trouble with how Status is supposed to work. It seems that Status specialties are a measure of your status within an organization, but then it's also supposed to be a measure of your financial status in general? That doesn't seem to work, AND it seems to be an onerous burden for player characters who are required to spend points on Status to determine your wealth status, and then what do they have left to spend on standing within their respective organizations? Am I fundamentally misunderstanding something? Is Status broken or is this a matter of presentation?

I have this perverse fantasy where my teenaged son goes a day without trying to tell me something awesome that he did in Skyrim.

ok then so "Bless" is not a skill or a contrivance to show that Priests are Divine Spellcasters but Friars are not. Got it.

ok so to confirm my understanding... What is the process of casting a Divine Magic Spell (Blessing) in Crusaders of the Merrie Stupor? How is this different from congregational blessings? Is it possible to "bless" someone in some way that isn't a named spell? Miracles are a totally different thing but how do they fit into the RQ/BRP Divine Magic millieu? Divine Intervention?

So I find myself kindof confused by the "bless" skill. Priests have it, Monks have it, Friars don't have it. But if you've got the skill Perform (Ritual) and your Piety is decent, what's the point of this other skill? He says, while trying to do up a Priest character...

You could use a variation on the opposed traits system from Pendragon. What you would be creating would be multiple tiers of loyalty. At first everyone has a base loyalty to the collective, a loyalty to their home colony and a loyalty to whatever factions you choose to create. Then create situations where some colonies must act against their interests or discomfit themselves to support the initiatives of the collective, prompting opposed tests. For example, Capitol City levies a tax on materiel from Steelburg to upgrade the port facility at Newport. Steelburg had plans to build a new road and bridge to connect them to Farmington, but that project is indefinitely delayed now, prompting Steelburg AND Farmington to test loyalty probably with a modifier and probably their loyalty to the collective will drop but their loyalty to their bloc or individual colonies will go up. Meanwhile, Newports loyalty to the collective goes up because of the pork project. Thoughts?

Indeed it was. Just reminds me that I never encountered an I.C.E. supplement that I didn't like. The Angus McBride cover art doesn't hurt either.

Whoa, that's still in print?

One can still find a book called Lionheart put out by Columbia Games that has a great foldout map of the same period which is of Harnic quality. It's a bit of a generic sourcebook for no system in particular. Some prose descriptiony bits and a large glossary/gazetteer that talks up every place listed on the map. Ireland, Scotland and Wales are amply covered on the map. A non-gaming book that I have enjoyed nerding on the subject with is the Historical Atlas of Knights and Castles by Dr. Ian Barnes. It has lots of great maps that show things of minor import like the locations of castles and bishop's seats, though you may well have to cross-ref with other maps to isolate some locs. The Norman conquest of Wales and Ireland and the rise and fall of Anglo-Angevin fortunes in France are extensively covered.

I know how that goes... I've been trying to find a good reason (job) to move to Milwaukee for years.

Hey, now it says Sonthofen... did you move from Augsburg?

I see that the pdf is available. Is there any word on the hard copy release?

I think you are fine using CoC DA. In fact, if you're using variant CoC rules then you are in an even better position to make use of Beyond the Mountains of Madness which I understand has some special rules for a polar environment.

So now that I've had some time to really get into the book and try to make some characters, etc, I'd like to bring up a couple things. Nowhere that I can see does it say what a characters starting equipment should be. Val-du-Loup or CoC Dark Ages, for example, a Knight starts with a horse, mail, sword etc. But according to Merrie England chargen rules you get your background money + profession money. And, this leaves a serious possibility that a knight could be without enough money to buy a sword, let alone armour or a horse. In fact, the only character class that starts out with enough money to buy standard equipment is a Jewish Cleric! If the starting cash is supposed to be pocket money or for supplemental purchases and special gear, then it needs to be spelled out. Typos. Practically every page has typos so much so that I can't be sure (since there doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason) if a character's starting cash is supposed to be in pence or shillings. One of the tables of costs has a list of items but none of the costs are included. This looks like the printer printed a draft instead of the final. There are some inconsistencies between paragraphs in the religion section. Waldensians being described as dualists and then non-dualistic a couple paragraphs later, that's bad editing but things like that happen. But in the age of spell-check, the number of typos is unforgivable. I'm astonished by all of this because of previous books I have purchased that have gone through Simon, Paolo and Pete's hands. I just don't understand what happened.

Of course I want more stuff for free! Actually, I was specifically referring to things like character sheets, maps of towns (or Ye Olde Generick Cathedral Towne), links to Cadfael fan sites, posted scenarios, etc. I know I'm not the only Harniac on this forum, so there are probably a ton of supplemental medieval materials that could be linked to in the downloads section.

Hey Simon, It finally arrived . What if anything, will be available in the way of free downloads and play aids for this game? It's a fine Campaign book. Though you've got a few editing and format issues. I was pleased to see the inclusion of Bishop Wimund! Chris

Good news, Merrie England is on the shelves at my local gaming shop. (Compleat Strategist, Falls Church VA). But seriously I'm a little irate that I pre-ordered back in Frakking September! And the store still got it before I did, but so it goes.

Well I pre-ordered so should I just randomly expect a smiley box on my porch?

Well, from context reading the series I gather that "mastery" in terms of earning one's chain link is the equivalent of advancing from journeyman to master rather than being connected to the BRP rating of "mastery." Especially when you consider that a sworn maester will have enough links to form a collar with links at least in healing, accounting and ravenry (plus at least 2 others). In realistic terms a BRP character could start play with multiple skills at 50 or thereabouts, while having multiple skills at 90 or above seems like a lifetime achievement.

Hey guys, I'm doing some BRP conversions for A Song of Ice and Fire and I'm thinking about Maesters. BRP standard has 50%+ as "professional" level of expertise. I'm wondering what people's opinions are regarding Maester's demonstrating mastery of an individual topic. Is 50% adequate to forge one's chain? How should testing be handled? Opposed check vs. an Archmaester? Resistance table? Some modified version of an experience check? Also, it appears that maesters continue their research and continue to increase their knowledge once they leave the Citadel at Oldtown. How are they doing this? How would the Maester's Distance Learning Modules be handled? The way that makes the most sense to me would be that maesters are more or less continuously writing what amounts to articles or treatises and sending them back by raven to the Citadel where they are read and essentially peer-reviewed. If they produce enough on a topic then they are considered proficient and notified that they may add the appropriate link to their chain. Anyway, I welcome comments.

Simon, Does this "Mounted Archery" skill then replace the "Bow" or "Javelin" skills for combat purposes? Does that mean I'm only a good archer when I'm on a horse but crap when afoot? Otherwise what's the point of the skill? It's not a D20 Feat, how do you envision the mechanic working?

What about throwing javelins while mounted? Much of that was done in the ancient world without stirrups. Perhaps rather than disallowing "parthian shots" a penalty, either 20% or perhaps a skill ceiling for mounted archery/javelin without stirrups. I think I would favor the ceiling myself.

I just got a notification from Amazon about a revised ship date on Merrie England. Good news! It's sooner than previously released. Too bad Mythic Iceland is still a Myth...