Gheedon

Verderer, you can assume that the County seats hold regular markets - Rocmort, Clève and Hauterre, same for Sainsprit as it lies in the heart of the farmlands, and also the town around the abbey of Eonach.

I just added the supplement Man-Eaters to the Download section. It includes a new version of the map which now shows the places mentioned by Verderer in the posting above.

A larger version of the map can be downloaded here.

Verderer sent me an email asking me to respond to the questions he raised in his entry above, so here it goes:

- the location of Val-du-Loup: Verderer, you are actually spot-on with your extrapolation. I envisioned it close to the Hautes-Fagnes region where the highest peak of the Ardennes is situated.

- Clève is not based on the historic Clèves. I based it loosely on the Counties of Clerveaux and of Vianden, both in what is today Luxembourg.

- Epeedor is a lot further upstream from St. John's. St. John's is where the battle between Rocmort and Hauterre takes place in the scenario Prelude to War, and Epeedor is far enough out of the way not to get involved in this conflict.

- Cracfer is off the map, east of Montfort.

- Loufort was used in the scenario Sign of the Goat, from the first BRP Adventures monograph. It lies to the Northeast of Sainsprit.

I'm finishing up a small supplement for which I'll need to update the map of VdL. I'll be sure to include the missing towns. I'll post a link here when I'm done, probably sometime later this week.

I hope you have fun with the campaign!

I was going to play Conan using Stormbringer rules a few years ago. I bought the Conan D20 book as a reference to Hyboria, but then found that pretty much all the information was available in one form or another on the web.

I didn't think I needed to tweak the Stormbringer rules a lot, but getting the background into the rules was the biggest effort: setting up professions by nation, creature stats, NPC stats, deities.... .

Well, Warhammer Fantasy shouldn't be too hard to adapt. The setting, that is; I'm not sure I would want to convert the rules, especially the career paths. But just making up the professions in BRP should be fun. Same for the creatures. Especially since BRP has got mutations already covered.

Chaosium today announced that the print version will be out on August 17. That's great.

Very impressive line-up. There's only one which wouldn't make my shopping list. Looking forward to them.

I bought the pdf version two days ago and had a quick read-through. Basically, I find it very good. What I especially like:

- the fact that the book is aimed at epic, world-spanning campaigns, with descriptions of many locales and associated story seeds.

- how the super-powered aether-men are integrated into the social fabric of Victorian life.

- stats for all major icons of Victorian literature, including H.G. Wells' Martians.

As the author himself says, the book is a bit thin on details about London or the Victorian world in general (although the basics are given), but I guess enough literature is available (personally, I quite like London source book for Imperial Age).

I haven't read through the adventure, so I can't comment on it. In general I give the book an A+.

Now it is the time to go for new targets. We have a couple more fantasy books due out this year, one is Stupor Mundi 2 (The Baltic Crusades)”

The Baltic Crusades book sounds good - I was thinking about setting a campaign in the Order State centered around the Teutonic Knights, so that book would come in handy. Any idea when it may be out?

I'm also quite keen on this book. Norse myths are incredibly rich and I can see the fun in playing a Dark Age campaign around or with them. So count me in for the book.

Sounds really good.

I liked what I saw when the material was on your website.

btw, the website itself looked good.

It has gone on to my wish list.

Thanks Mechashef... I hope to put on more support material on the web site soon.

Chaosium isn't giving much details to the contents of the monograph, so here is a summary:

Val-du-Loup is a setting for medieval adventures using the BRP

roleplaying system. It details a backwards, danger-fraught region of

the Ardennes forests, and is intended to serve for either an Early or a

High Middle Ages setting.

The monograph contains the following chapters:

Introduction

The Player Section:

The Middle Ages: a primer on life in the Middle Ages - medieval

society, knighthood (the evolution of knighthood, the chivalric code,

knights in battles, equipment etc.), castles, military orders (Knights

Templar and others), medieval cities, universities and religion. Also

included are regional timelines for the 10th and for the turn of the

13th century.

Val-du-Loup: this chapter provides detailed information about the

setting itself, i.e. the region of Val-du-Loup: the ruling families,

assorted personalities (nobles, clergy and commoners) and a lengthy

gazetteer of important and interesting locations.

Character Creation: hints on creating player characters suitable for the

setting, a complete list of professions (including new ones like

knights or wolf leaders), new skills and skill specialties; suggestions

on how to involve player characters in adventures set in Val-du-

Loup; and a character sheet designed for a medieval setting.

The Gamemaster Section:

The Bestiary: animals, creatures of legend, unique creatures, foreign

creatures, Nephilim, and pagan gods. Also includes random

encounter tables.

The Mythos Bestiary: for gamemasters wishing to use the setting for

a medieval Call of Cthulhu campaign. Features a list of Mythos

creatures to use and suggestions on how to use them. Also includes

tomes and personalities which can be included in such a campaign.

Secrets: more background information on those personalities who

serve as villains in the setting; as well as a list of secret and not so

secret organisations.

Statistics: game statistics for all major characters and some stock

characters.

Adventures

This section includes two complete adventures, A Black Heart and

Prelude to War; two adventure synopses; and finally a list of story

seeds.

Appendices

Acknowledgements

Val-du-Loup map

Character Sheet

That was indeed quick. And I found out about from this forum.... thanks for the posting.

Yes, Ms. Hatzigeorgiou is a real treasure trove....

I just wanted to let you guys know that I delivered the monograph to Chaosium a couple of days ago. I have no word on when it will be published, but apparently they have a bit of a backlog with their publications.

The submission runs to 158 pages. It includes historic background for the early and high medieval time periods (knights, castles, cities, military orders...), the setting with descriptions of rival families, main personalities and a gazetteer, character creation, bestiary, villains, secret organisations, two fleshed out adventures, two adventure synopses and story seeds.

I'll keep you posted when I know more.

In which way has the Magic monograph been updated then? I have the b/w print version, is it worth getting the new version?

Any chance of getting some extra support material on the website?

Sorry for the late reply, but I was out of town.

Yes, once I've done the book and submitted it, I will be using the site to add support material, especially more scenarios.

Thanks for the encouragement guys, it's great to hear there is interest out there!

I have some maps of 13th century europe (what a coincidence ). PM me for references, but the reply could be delayed because I am ultra-busy this weekend.

In any case, googling a bit will give you several usable results. But be prepared to re-draw the map, I do not think there is any free historical map of Europe available.

I found a bunch of Medieval maps on the net but they are all copyright protected. I'll better get me crayons out then I guess

Thanks for the offer, 'though.

Just wanted to let you guys know that I'm planning to submit the medieval Ardennes setting from my Val-du-Loup site to Chaosium for publication as a monograph. I removed most of the stuff from the site, except for a few tidbits of already finished chapters.

I've so far put together all the material from the site. I'm fleshing out a few more sections and adding a bit of extra stuff like character sheets and illustrations. I hope to get the stuff out to Chaosium after the Easter holidays.

Speaking of illustrations: those of you who already submitted monographs, did you guys provide the picture for the cover? Chaosium say that they will do so, but I wanted to know what you guys did. I've found a bunch of public domain illustrations for the interior, but none yet that I would use as a cover.

Also, does anyone know a link for open source maps of Europe (preferably of the Middle Ages, but it doesn't have to be)?

Cheers!

Just had a quick read through this monograph and came across something I hope is a typo in The Sign of the Black Goat.

>FEMALE CHARACTERS

>If trying to remain close the restricted role of women in

>Medieval times, laying a female character may prove to be

>challenging.

Charlie Krank really needs to have at least a quick read through these things.

Ooops, says he with a red face. Yes, that's a typo, but obviously feel free to interpret the sentence anyway you like.

Oh, and I'm very happy my scenario is in the monograph. Typos and all.

Problem with that is its only relevant at the start of play; the BRP advancement system washes it out pretty quickly, because the lower skill just advances more frequently because of probability. You'd have to essentially apply a bonus as a modifier (which then wouldn't effect advancement) to matter.

Yeah, I thought about doing it that way as an alternative; also, the bonus would apply to parry only, not to attack with a shield. But I guess, the overall question doesn't go away: why bother spend points on shield when you might as well just spend them on a weapon? (Apart from the protection against missiles, that is...)

My take on shields is that they are easier to use than weapons, so I increase the base chance by 10 or 15%.