Earth 1066

[mythusmage]

"Tapestry" actually is a bit intriguing, but not descriptive enough.

Then you need a sub-title to go with it. Tapestry: The World of 1066

Or you could use:

A Time of Faith: The World of 1066

Hope Reborn: A Time of Rebirth and Renewal.

A World Reborn

At which point I shall stop, because all the above do not describe the historical Earth of 1066 in its entirety. When most of English cultural descent hear "1066" they think of William the Conqueror and the battle of Hastings. But there were other events that year that did have, or could have had, as great an impact on the world as a small skirmish in an unimportant kingdom.

At the same time, the world of 1066 was a doomed world. Population was growing, Christianity and Islam both were expanding. As was trade and the exchange of knowledge. But, this world had its flaws.

Hygiene was either unknown, or poorly applied. The Christian world alone had little use for sanitation, for this world was only a way stop on the journey to Paradise. The Black Death was still close to two centuries away, but the foundations of the great epidemics were already in place.

Then too, governmental forms were restricted in that they were authoritarian. As long as things remained stable they were adequate to the task. But when crisis threatened they were often at a loss to deal with the upset in a sage and timely fashion.

Adaptability to changing conditions was not a virture in 1066. Nor was listening to those of lower rank. Things are as they were, the lesser followed the greater. That is how things were, and as they were ordained by God; by whatever name you knew Him.

There's tons more to be said of the Earth of 1066. Of how civilization was made up of islands in an ocean of wilderness. Of how lands such as Eire, Rus, and Tibet were home to savages (by the lights of their neighbors), and knowledge was a rare and precious thing. But that would take up megabytes of bandwidth and so is a tad too large for a message board.

I guess the only real choice is, The Rules: A Look at the World of 1066

 

[faustus_von_goethe]

All very interesting suggestions and I truly appreciate them (and FCWesel I appreciate your "gut reaction" as much as anybody else's considered opinion - gut reactions are what we need at this point) but ...

... I think many of you are missing the point in that you are tying the EARTH RULES to the Earth 1066 world. The EARTH RULES are essentially a stand alone product, but a stand alone product that we felt NEEDED TO BE WRITTEN before we could do a quality treatment of a semi-historical fantasy milieu.

The RULES are (in fact) rules for acting and interacting in SOCIETY based roleplaying situations, not necessarily a HISTORICAL society. You'll be able to use them just fine (with NO modification) in virtually any FRPG D20 milieu.

See my summary of the product (above).

I guess my current favorite for title right now would have to be:

EARTH RULES: A Player's Guide to Social Roleplaying
​

Faust
Lead Editor
Earth 1066 Design Team

 

[Scorpio]

I'll throw in "Terra re Vera: Player's Rules of Engagement"
Meaning: The Real Earth....

 

[jmucchiello]

Why can't the main book just be called Earth 1066?

 

[Guillaume]

I guess I'll chime in with my suggestion. I think that if your aiming for a book that defines social interactions to various degrees, the main title should reflect it. Also, since your not tying this product to Earth 1066 per say, but aiming for a more generic feel, I also thought that this should be reflected in the title.

This is what I came up with :

Societal World : A Player's Guide to Social Roleplaying

Hope this helps you in your reflection,

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Dont give up on Earth 1066!

It's tough not to, considering that Earth 1066 was one of the very early d20 sites out there, and in the intervening 3 years+ since, nothing has been produced. Privateer has promised the Iron Kingdoms sourcebook for about as long, but at least they've put out modules, a monster book, a miniatures game, and a character primer for the setting which all have whetted the appetites for the big book. I'd say, as a player and consumer, I'd rather get a taste of your setting via modules and the like before committing to buying a number of big, huge, books that I'm sure will cost at least $30-40 each.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

This is what I came up with :

Societal World : A Player's Guide to Social Roleplaying

Hope this helps you in your reflection,

No offense, but that title wouldn't do much to make me interested in buying the book. In fact, I'd likely pass over such a book, since it would sound more like a textbook than a game book.

Earth Rulez is also not great. Is Earth Rulez a serious title? It doesn't seem in keeping with the setting.

 

[Gilladian]

Personally I like the "Earth Rules: A Guide to Social Roleplay" or some varianth thereof. Maybe Societal Roleplay.

I'd try to stay away from anything more "textbooky" and definitely anything quirky. I've also been waiting for quite a while to hear more about this product, and I'm happy to hear it hasn't vanished.

Gilladian

 

[Bloodstone Press]

I think "Earth Rules: A Guide to Social Roleplay" sounds pretty good too. It does a real good job of explaining the content.

 

[faustus_von_goethe]

Dont give up on Earth 1066!

It's tough not to, considering that Earth 1066 was one of the very early d20 sites out there, and in the intervening 3 years+ since, nothing ... has been produced. Privateer has promised the Iron Kingdoms sourcebook for about as long, but at least they've put out modules, a monster book, a miniatures game, and a character primer for the setting which all have whetted the appetites for the big book. I'd say, as a player and consumer, I'd rather get a taste of your setting via modules and the like before committing to buying a number of big, huge, books that I'm sure will cost at least $30-40 each.

As I said before, we made the conscious decision to do this. Privateer made a different decision. They put out modules, a monster book, a source book, and a miniatures game.

Effort is finite. Each and every day that Privateer spent writing, advertising, laying out, marketing, and shipping those products delayed the release of their core "Iron Kingdoms" books by at least the same amount of time, if not more.

Daniel Burnham, the great Chicago architect who built the first skyscraper and (BEFORE ELECTRICITY!!!) designed and built numerous epic landmark structures around the country, including Union Station in Washington DC, once said the following:

"Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty. Think big."
​

Which really is a long, wordy way of saying that if something is worth doing, it's worth doing right.

D&D 3e took almost four years in the writing and had some twenty autrhors on staff - and a HUGE archive of previously written materiel to draw on.

I'll make no apologies for taking the time and putting in the effort to make this the best possible product that it could be BEFORE it is published. I think if WotC had done that we would not all have had to buy 3E twice (and from what I hear a third time when 4E comes out).

>>It's tough not to, considering that Earth 1066 was one of the very early d20 sites out there, and ...<<

That, actually, I regret, and was not my intention. You see, way back in the very early days of the OGL I wrote a FAQ for the OGL/D20 effort and put it up on the "brochure" page that I was using to show authors about our Earth 1066 project. I never publicized the page, never gave out the URL except to authors, and never intended it for general distribution.

But when Eric Noah first saw the (unofficial) OGL FAQ he also saw our page and he added it to his list of "new" D20 companies ... and I've been responding to threads like this about every six month - usually started by (like this one was) by Alaric or (I think once or twice) by you, Colonel.

Thank you for your persistence. Here is an unqualified promise. You WILL see a product from us before next summer.

Faust
Lead Editor
Earth1066 Design Team