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Merrie England Questions


soltakss

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Good news, Merrie England is on the shelves at my local gaming shop. (Compleat Strategist, Falls Church VA).

As Merrie England BRP (Age of Chivalry) is now out, I will gladly answer any questions, clarify any obtuse rules and explain any dodgy decisions.

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here

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Good to see the Christian 'Magic' from Amber Coast has found its way into this publication, this is great for consistency.

My copy is on its way as we speak, I'm looking really looking forward to this release

" Sure it's fun, but it is also well known that a D20 roll and an AC is no match against a hefty swing of a D100% and a D20 Hit Location Table!"

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I apologize for this, but I've lost track of what's different between this edition and the previous one. Opportunity for shameless plug: Why should we buy this if we have the previous one?

Because this is for BRP and is in print?

Expanded rules for Judaism and Islam.

Extensive Gazetteer of Christendom.

Seven scenarios in a mini-campaign.

Extensive rules on demons with demonic powers and demonic nobility.

New Bestiary.

Descriptions of Military Orders.

New backgrounds (Hiberno Norse, can't remember the others).

Sample ships.

Descriptions of the major Trading Leagues.

Magical Science (Although Paolo insisted that these be Knowledge skills not Science skills - I so wanted the Science (Astrology) skill to be included).

Expanded Medieval Christianity rules (although I forgot to include reliquaries).

That might be it, though.

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here

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1. How long to wait for a PDF version on RPGNow (or wherever)?

2. How compatable is it with Crusaders of the Amber Coast, Stupor Mundi, et al? Is there scope for more books in the same period in other geographical areas?

3. How dominant is the magic in it? Is it subtle or flashy?

4. Can you play Robin Hood with it? What other campaigns would work?

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Merrie England is a general setting book, based in the Angevin Lands of England, Scotland, Ireland and Western France. It provides the background that Deus Vult, for example, lacks. It was designed to be very playable but with a great deal of background and period information.

1. How long to wait for a PDF version on RPGNow (or wherever)?

Paolo should be able to answer this one.

2. How compatable is it with Crusaders of the Amber Coast, Stupor Mundi, et al? Is there scope for more books in the same period in other geographical areas?

Completely compatible.

Stupor Mundi was written for MRQI and the original Merrie England was written for MRQ1/2, so they share many of the basic principles.

Backgrounds are different, because of the different geographical settings, but any background could be used in any of the games. The professions are largely compatible, but I have added new professions and tweaked old ones.

You should be able to take a PC generated for any of these supplements and use it in any other of them without a problem.

As for scope for more books, I am planning at least two follow-ups. Age of Crusade covers the Crusades in the Holy Land and the Reconquista in Spain/Portugal/El Andalus, with Martial Orders, expanded backgrounds and descriptions of those lands. Age of Adventure will be purely a scenario pack covering some of the campign types in Merrie England. Other from that, I am open to suggestions.

3. How dominant is the magic in it? Is it subtle or flashy?

Magic isn't dominant at all.

Anyone can use magic, but it is rare and unusual. Different groups of people have access to minor spells because of their traditions. So, Morris Dancers, Masons, Girdle-Measurers and so on have some magic, at the GM's discretion.

Sorcerers are rare but can be played. They use Sorcery.

Demonologists are rare, but can be played. They make Pacts with demons and can gain spells/skills/abilities and can summon minor demons.

Most of the magic is through worship. Characters gain access to spells (Prayers) by virtue of their rank in the Church, by going on Pilgrimages, through study of Holy Texts, through privation/mortification or by Insight. Each method gives them a certain number of spells that they can use. I would expect an extremely pious churchman who has been on several Pilgrimages to have access to maybe 5 or 6 spells. The spells available are not overpowering and can be used or ignored at will.

4. Can you play Robin Hood with it? What other campaigns would work?

Yes, you can. When Stupor Mundi came out, I thought "I could do that" and asked Paolo if he had any plans for a Ribin Hood compatible game. He didn't, for various reasons, so I wrote the original Merrie England specifically to be able to run a Robin Hood game.

There are no particular rules for being an outlaw, except for the background elements (Corrupt Sherriffs, impoverished serfs etc). This does include the Charter of the Forest, which is a set of laws dealing with living in or near Forests, but they are "Thou Shalt Nots" rather than a guide for outlaw living.

I have stats for Robin Hood, but not for the Merry Men. They should be easy to knock up if you want to run that setting.

There are suggestions for other types of campaign included in the book. Because of space limitations, I couldn't include too many scenarios, but they can wait for another supplement. Basically, anything that happened in Medieval Europe could be used as a setting/scenario in Merrie England.

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here

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As for scope for more books, I am planning at least two follow-ups. Age of Crusade covers the Crusades in the Holy Land and the Reconquista in Spain/Portugal/El Andalus, with Martial Orders, expanded backgrounds and descriptions of those lands. Age of Adventure will be purely a scenario pack covering some of the campign types in Merrie England. Other from that, I am open to suggestions.

Excellent news! These sound like great books to wait for

" Sure it's fun, but it is also well known that a D20 roll and an AC is no match against a hefty swing of a D100% and a D20 Hit Location Table!"

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As for scope for more books, I am planning at least two follow-ups. Age of Crusade covers the Crusades in the Holy Land and the Reconquista in Spain/Portugal/El Andalus, with Martial Orders, expanded backgrounds and descriptions of those lands. Age of Adventure will be purely a scenario pack covering some of the campign types in Merrie England. Other from that, I am open to suggestions.

THen don't forget the Crusade in Albigeois angainst the Cathars, and even may be the 2 centuries before the crusade, during this kind of "first Renaissance" in southern France. Cathars, troubadours, religious and political conflict, intense and new cultural life, jealousy of Northerners and of the Church and at least destruction: everything is there for and exciting game. Eleanor, Richard Lionheart... they, too, raised in this culture. Gianni made a small RPG there: http://giannieanna.chez-alice.fr/tdt/ It is written in Occitan (Provencal as the English say), if you know a romanic language it is understandable.

I'm pretty sure he would be interested in helping.

Wind on the Steppes, role playing among the steppe Nomads. The  running campaign and the blog

 

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THen don't forget the Crusade in Albigeois angainst the Cathars, and even may be the 2 centuries before the crusade, during this kind of "first Renaissance" in southern France. Cathars, troubadours, religious and political conflict, intense and new cultural life, jealousy of Northerners and of the Church and at least destruction: everything is there for and exciting game. Eleanor, Richard Lionheart... they, too, raised in this culture. Gianni made a small RPG there: http://giannieanna.chez-alice.fr/tdt/ It is written in Occitan (Provencal as the English say), if you know a romanic language it is understandable.

Yes, the Albigensian Crusade is covered with a bit of detail in Merrie England - you should be able to work out which side I would have been on :). The main heresies of the period are also covered, including the Cathar Heresy.

Queen Eleanor and her children were all from Occitania and spoke various Occitan dialects. She and her daughters were at the forefront of the Troubadour Courts and there was a lot of Cathar influence in the southern ones. I guess that they would have had some sympathy for the Cathar cause. But, politics is politics and when the Pope, the King of France and land0hungry nobles are on one side, it is evry difficult to be on the other side.

I'm pretty sure he would be interested in helping.

I have spoken to Gianni about this in the past. His website is very interesting and is understandable if you speak French and Spanish (or in my case, if you can read a bit of both) - I certainly could read the whole site and understand most of it immediately.

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here

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My question: does this one have a Table of Contents?

My Word Document did and they are normally carried across. The front has a Chapter list and the back has a Table of Contents. I don't do indexes as I prefer a simple ToC, personally.

I haven't seen a copy of Merrie England yet, so I am still in the dark at the actual contents.

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here

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I haven't seen a copy of Merrie England yet, so I am still in the dark at the actual contents.

Actually, you have, as you have the print PDF.

It does have a Toc, albeit not a very deep one. We are in the process of adding bookmarks to the PDF version, and these will have a deeper structure. In fact, this is one of the reasons why the PDF is not yet available.

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The old edition is 80 pages. The new edition is 210 pages. 10 of these are the Alephtar medieval christianity magic system, which you already have if you own Crusaders of the Amber Coast. The rest is new. I'll leave the maths to you.
Because this is for BRP and is in print?

Expanded rules for Judaism and Islam.

Extensive Gazetteer of Christendom.

Seven scenarios in a mini-campaign.

Extensive rules on demons with demonic powers and demonic nobility.

New Bestiary.

Descriptions of Military Orders.

New backgrounds (Hiberno Norse, can't remember the others).

Sample ships.

Descriptions of the major Trading Leagues.

Magical Science (Although Paolo insisted that these be Knowledge skills not Science skills - I so wanted the Science (Astrology) skill to be included).

Expanded Medieval Christianity rules (although I forgot to include reliquaries).

That might be it, though.

Great, thanks! It's now on my post-holidays purchase list.

Steve

Bathalians, the newest UberVillians!

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What if anything, will be available in the way of free downloads and play aids for this game?

You want more stuff? For free???

I might produce a character sheet, but it will be in my own style and people might not like it.

The Morris Miners might be posted as a free scenario, if I change it a bit following a playtest.

Apart from that, I don't have any specific plans for support aids.

Were you thinking of anything in particular? If I like the sound of it and it isn't too difficult then I might be persuaded to put some free stuff on the website.

It's a fine Campaign book. Though you've got a few editing and format issues.

Editing and formatting are out of my hands, I am pleased to say!

I was pleased to see the inclusion of Bishop Wimund!

Bishop Wimund is quite a character - thanks for pointing him out. He is one of those characters that if I'd made him up people would have said he's unrealistic. Fortunately, the raping, pillaging, pirate-bishop actually existed.

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here

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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.

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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.

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Sigh. Please post these considerations (i.e. complaints) on the Alephtar forums, too. One of these points has already been addressed with an errata, and we will add to the correction list if new issues are found. Since the issues are many, it is better if the list is kept in one place.

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I posted over at the Alephtar forums first, but figured it would do everyone better if I posted here as well since there is a lot more traffic here than there.

If anyone is turned off by the editing errors and is on the fence about this book, let me state that I got it yesterday, have read a couple hours out of it and it is excellent. The editing errors are annoying, but not a deal breaker. Very glad that A) I put this book at the top of my book suggestion list for Christmas, and B) my wife actually bought something gaming related for once.

Great job, Simon. Also, thanks to Alephtar for putting out these historical products I love to read. Please improve the editorial process in the future, though.

121/420

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I posted over at the Alephtar forums first, but figured it would do everyone better if I posted here as well since there is a lot more traffic here than there.

If anyone is turned off by the editing errors and is on the fence about this book, let me state that I got it yesterday, have read a couple hours out of it and it is excellent. The editing errors are annoying, but not a deal breaker. Very glad that A) I put this book at the top of my book suggestion list for Christmas, and B) my wife actually bought something gaming related for once.

Great job, Simon. Also, thanks to Alephtar for putting out these historical products I love to read. Please improve the editorial process in the future, though.

I have to agree with this statement. Annoying, but I'm much happier to have the information it provides.

Now... just an FYI for Alephtar. Some of the errors look electronic in nature. A program "helpfully" prognosticating what you are going to type, ala iOS or Android tablets.

SDLeary

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I have to agree with this statement. Annoying, but I'm much happier to have the information it provides.

Now... just an FYI for Alephtar. Some of the errors look electronic in nature. A program "helpfully" prognosticating what you are going to type, ala iOS or Android tablets.

SDLeary

Well...I have to agree with this statement. HA!

It looks like most of the formatting errors are in the first two sections of the book, and they definitely look like autocorrect errors to me. There is no way that a human made the mistakes in the wealth entry for each profession. I made it through about page 40 last night, and when I picked it up today, I skipped to the Creatures and Demons/Angels sections and didn't notice the errors occurring with nearly the same frequency.

121/420

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An official errata is now online. Get it here. It will be kept up to date if more errors are spotted.

Thanks to all who helped spot mistakes and ambiguities. I am glad that they seem to be limited to the first two chapters. This excessive amount of typos plagued also the Italian version of Nameless Streets, produced at the same time as Merrie England. The reason for this has been determined, and steps have been taken to ensure that such a mess cannot happen again.

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