11th Century Europe D&D Campaign

[Derren]

A rapier would be out of place, but most other things would be okay. Historically a polearm was really any random bit of iron the local blacksmith thought looked good on the end of a stick, it's really modern museam curators who insist on classifying everything to death. Only items which were used in tourneys (like pole axes) were anything like standardized.

Polearms were easy to make, but they were much more sophisticated than just "put some pointy metal on a stick". Both the halberd and the glaive for example would not exist in the 11th century (being invented in the 14th and 16th century). And they had a very specific form and were not just "junk on wood".
And most heavy weapons were invented to counter heavy armour, but exactly this armour did not exist at that time frame, ergo the weapons would also be missing.

For example maces and war hammers wouldn't be really wide spread at that point (war hammers maybe not even invented) as there was no real reason to use them. And no greatswords, too.

 

[Thunderfoot]

I haven't really decided on that one yet... My first "hunch" would be to redo the equipment list, but I'm not 100% on that.

Okay, now I see the first "focus" in your vision.

The one problem I have with 4e is the suddenly "affordable" equipment: at first level. Its almost like the 40gp plate of Basic D&D of the late 70's-early 80s...

The first thing to grasp is that the common coin was copper in ANY society and most of them were still based on barter. This flies in the face of nearly all gaming systems. Might I suggest that you institute backgrounds and starting packages to allow for starting equipment. This is going to increase the average age of your adventurers by about 4 years (remember the age of majority at the time was around 14 yrs old.)

Instead of a pile of coins as treasure, I suggest upgrading equipment as payment for their heroic deeds. Also, you might want to slow down the xp advancement in order to keep a handle on your economy. Your players are going to expect greater rewards for greater risk, but most communities are going to be able to afford their expenses. Also, if the group is accepting a job from a community, the community would take care of their day to day needs - food, clothing, equipment repairs, etc. so that they really don't need a lot of extra pocket change. (one reason for adventuring is the rewards of being taken care of above your station by balancing that with the risks of adventuring.)

I'm sure this never really entered your mind and hopefully this is useful to you. Also, make sure you do a little history research. It's the little things that will make the difference in your campaign not the big things. I've ran "gritty" campaign for about 15 years now and my players consistently comment on the feel of the campaign. They may remember that one epic battle, but more often than not the remember the camaraderie and the NPC's they interacted with. Good luck, it's going to be a lot of work, but I think the end result will be worth it.