Medieval Player's Manual vs. Legends of the Dark Ages - How do they compare?

[Crothian]

Chuck is pretty accurate in the comparisons. Some of the classes over lap and the magic systems are different, those are really the biggest problems I see when compineing the two. The nobility system I thing will be really easy to adapt to MPM, the spell point system is also easy to use though it might be nice to just have two different kinds of magic systems in the game just to make the different types feel different. Sure its more complicated but it's something I'd be tempted to do. Dark Ages has more specific historic information, where MPM I feel the information is a bit more general. But MPM has NPCs and seems to have a bit more of adventure ideas in it, the biggest thing I felt was missing from Dark Ages.

 

[Committed Hero]

Is it fair to compare two books that deal with different periods?

 

[Turanil]

Is it fair to compare two books that deal with different periods?

I think that the books can complement each others for playing a fantasy game set in a pseudo-medieval Europe of Charlemagne that also throws Arthurian knights in. MPM is mainly about middle-ages Europe's magic and the Christian faith in a d20 game. I believe that Legends of the Dark Ages will put much less emphasis on the Christian faith, and more on other subjects. As such, for a fantasy Europe of Charlemagne that doesn't care about historical accuracy using both could make for interesting stuff.

 

[Crothian]

Is it fair to compare two books that deal with different periods?

Of course it is. Its fair to compare anything......

 

[Vigilance]

Is it fair to compare two books that deal with different periods?

Well, when asking how two books compare, the differences are as valid to talk about as the comparison. I didnt read the original poster as saying "which one is good and which one sucks", I think he just wanted to get a feel for what each product is and is not.

Chuck

 

[HalWhitewyrm]

Yep, that's what I wanted to know.

 

[Turanil]

Yep, that's what I wanted to know.

IMO, the Medieval Player's Manual primarily emphasizes on the Christian religion, as it pervaded all people's life in the medieval age. That, and a magic system reflecting how people believed magic worked.

I don't know yet about Legends of the Dark Ages, but I think its emphasize will be elsewhere, probably more on adventuring in troubled times of Barbarian invasions than adventuring in a Christian medieval world.

 

[HalWhitewyrm]

IMO, the Medieval Player's Manual primarily emphasizes on the Christian religion, as it pervaded all people's life in the medieval age.

You know, that's one of the things that I liked most about MPM, as it really did a good job of capturing the pervasive presence of the Church in medieval life. It is very atmospheric in that sense, and gives the right context in which to play era adventures.

Now I just need to tweak that system to account for Judaism in the same time period, yet another on my long list of projects to do.

 

[Turanil]

Now I just need to tweak that system to account for Judaism in the same time period.

I don't know anything about Judaism (and Christian faith neither), but I don't see where it would need the MPM be tweaked. The book clearly tells that whatever the Church believes, Muslims and women could be faithful and get spells from God all the same. Maybe you would like to use a different spellcasting system for Judaism, but I don't think it needs to tweak anything to the MPM system.

I remember having had email exchanges with people of the Jewish religion, to determine the magic of Jews in a medieval Europe fantasy setting. I believed they would be master wizards due to their knowing of the Cabal, stories about golems, and what not. However, to be accurate, the reverse was suggested: Jews would have no magic (at least no arcane magic), and the faithful would be in fact immune to it (Spell Resistance).

 

[HalWhitewyrm]

Mechanically, I guess I could leave it the same. But there are enough philosophical differences, not to mention the way we understand "magic" vis-a-vis the Christian understanding during the period, that while in general many things would remain the same, many others would need to be shifted, changed, added or dropped to account for it all. I have a pretty good idea of what needs to be done, I just need to find time one day to do it.