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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ace" data-source="post: 2552996" data-attributes="member: 944">Disclaimer: I received a review copy I must confess that I am not as much of a detail freak as I used to be. I don't really enjoy long tables of mining tallies and manorial detail. That stuff while fascinating never seems to come up in the games I play.  Still I have been very curious about Expeditious Retreat Press's A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe (now MMSWE for short) and when I got a chance to review it I was delighted Appearance:The book comes as 2 PDF's, 1 for print and 1 for onscreen viewing. Both are book marked thoroughly and well. The chief difference between them is the on screen version is gorgeously illustrated with authentic woodcut art and very pretty borders. Both are very well laid out as well. Great design work all aroundContents This PDF is 134 amazingly detailed pages on how to make you campaign world more resemble Western Europe in the Middle Ages. It is mainly for the default assumptions of most D&D settings but the book has enough detail to use with any game. The first chapter discuses the manorial system, bureaucracy, peasants, the village and most interestingly the effects of magic on this kind of system. I find it a very useful chapterThe next chapter is a manor generating system . This system is very detailed and would be a wonderful adjunct for a Birthright game or to allow a DM to take  the game to a new level of play. The next two chapters are  all about cities and are essentially a design system for magic medieval cities. With them and a few demographics tables for PC classes you can generate the major cities of your medieval like world in awesome detail. It covers trade, design, law, people magic and more, pretty much everything  The only thing really lacking is information on how to flavor cities and make them interesting . Chapter 5 is a complex economic simulator. This system allows  a DM to easily adjust D&D prices based on trade and condition. My only dislike of this chapter is the fact it is keyed to the D&D price system. I would have preferred a more rational system but given the limits of space this chapter is very good and useable.  Chapter six discusses churches and religion in some detail. Happily it does not stint on "D&D" isms and includes discussion of pantheism, clerics of philosophy and more in plenty of detail. With this chapter it is possible to integrate almost any D&D cleric into an authentic feeling medieval society. Wonderful stuff.Chapter 7 is on nobles and covers most of the facets of being a D&D noble. I find this an amazingly good source of information for any campaign in any system with kings and castles. This chapter displays a very solid understanding of mystic kingship. I also like the fact that this chapter also has a handy chart detailing the order of precedence for various noble titles.  Chapter 8 is the Kingdom and Aristocracy generator. If you like randomly rolling up countries or need to fill in details for lands in you game (but don't know how) this chapter will be very helpful to you. It also look pretty fun to play with Following the chapters are 5 Appendices Demographics, Generating Magical Resources, A Magical Medieval King Template, a Building system (for structures) that I think might be better than the one on the Stronghold Builder Guide and lastly A Magical Medieval Miscellany, bits and notes to add to your gameThe book closes withal detailed Glossary, a Bibliography, an Exam (no I don't know why either) and of course the legal notes.I highly recommend this book if you have any interest in a standard feudal style setting for D&D or a manorial system for you game. It is one of the finest most detailed and thorough supplements I have every seen for D20 Even if you play other systems, give it a look, The historical tid bits and systems are quite easy to convert.Highly Recommended</blockquote>

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