High Medieval?

[Guardsmith]

Hi all,

Does anyone out there in EN World-land know anything about the High Medieval setting that's supposed to be out this month from Morrigan Press? I've been to their site, and even written them an e-mail, but I haven't heard anything more ...

Dan

 

[Ant]

No but I'm suddenly very interested!

If you find something out please let us know.

 

[BeanSlave]

Hi Dan,

Just thought I'd give you a heads-up on the latest developments for High Medieval. As you've been to our site (www.MorriganRPG.com), I won't bore you with the same details that we have there, I'll just skip to the new/good bits.

The core rulebook is nearing completion and should be finalized this week. We have a very aggressive schedule set up for expansions/supplements as well for the coming year. This line from Morrigan Press Inc. will be released under the Open Gaming License (OGL) from WotC and will not be "Plug-n-PLay" with the d20 system. There will be some overlap of course but for the most part we have gone with a much more streamlined rule set to give players more freedom with their characters. If you are familiar with the Talislanta rule system, you will be very happy with what we have done.

First and foremost, High Medieval is about the setting. We are striving to maintain as much real history as possible within the material while still incorporating some fantasy elements to make the game more enjoyable. While the world unfolds much as ours really did in history, the beliefs and fears of the people of the time are in actuality true. There are dragons in the mountains. There are several near human races that co-exist or conflict with humans to varying degrees. There really are goblins, and worse in the dark woods, just waiting to steal children left unattended by their parents. Worse of all is the actual existence of magic. People sell their souls for power and the Church tries to quell the heretics with fire and prayer. Some churchmen can even call upon the power of God himself to help them in their struggles.

Topping all of this off, we have several other books currently in production. There will be regional sourcebooks detailing different areas. These will all include new beasts, local organizations, history and new advanced classes for players to enjoy. We also have books that will detail other important factors of High Medieval, like religion, magic and power groups.

If there is anything else you'd like to know, just drop me a line (jim@MorriganRPG.com) and I'd be more than happy to help. Keep in mind I can't tell you everything of course, because then I'd have to kill you...or hire you. ;-)

Jim.

--------------------------
Jim Andrews
VP Dev, Morrigan Press Inc.
www.MorriganRPG.com
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[fusangite]

I've been doing much the same project in a non-professional capacity for a game I'm running right now. It sounds like you share my premise of trying to design the world that medievals believed themselves to inhabit, as opposed to the world we now know them to have inhabited.

I've done a lot of work on medieval theories of Christian magic so I am especially eager to see how that ends up looking in your setting. Are you trying to do all of Europe or just the Latin West?

 

[BeanSlave]

Thanks for the interest in High Medieval. Europe in the middle ages is a subject that has a lot of merit as a setting for an RPG. There really is nothing, in fiction, that can compare to the detail available in the real world. Appologies to Prof. T, but it's true.

The initial core rulebook will be decidely Western European. We have plans to expand our setting to include all of the major players (and lots of the minor guys too) with future expansions. If things go as well as we expect them to, you may even see some more expansion of the regionals, maybe the far east (China, Japan, India, etc.) and more of Africa. This goes for the religions as well. Initially the Church of Rome and follow-ups will detail Islam, the Orthodox church and Judaism. The Church will be the major player when it comes to magic, both in its use adn its suppression and we have a very interesting take on that.

Jim.

--------------------------
Jim Andrews
VP Dev, Morrigan Press Inc.
www.MorriganRPG.com
--------------------------

 

[Von Ether]

Sounds like a fun "Ars Magica/Pendragon" redeux. Please take that as a high compliment.

 

[BeanSlave]

Sounds like a fun "Ars Magica/Pendragon" redeux. Please take that as a high compliment.

Yeah, we were a bit worried about this type of comparison. Those are both wonderful games and have received high praise from gamers and reviewers alike. It is our intention to make High Medieval more broad in scope than either of these and therein lies the real value of our game. Players can be nearly anything they wish, from a base outlaw to a greater noble, from a priest to knight to a demon summoning sorcerer, there is practicaly no limit to what you can do within the scope of the game. Paired with a rules-light system and an in-depth character creation section, we think you'll love the Morrigan take on historic Europe.

Wow, I gotta get out more and stay away from those marketing types. I'm starting to sound like a radio anouncer... :\

Jim.

--------------------------
Jim Andrews
VP Dev, Morrigan Press Inc.
www.MorriganRPG.com
--------------------------

 

[fusangite]

I'm not very familiar with Pendragon but actually, my big criticism of Ars Magica is that it mapped 16th century ideas of magic back onto the Middle Ages. Which is, frankly, a pretty weird thing to do.

 

[Guardsmith]

Thanks for the info BeanSlave!

Any chance we'll get to see some PDF previews of it before the book hits stores? Needless to say, I'm VERY interested this project.

Thanks again,

Dan