Medieval Player's Manual

[Messageboard Golem]

The Medieval Player's Manual gives you everything you need to have exciting adventures in the age of Christianity and crusade. This is not Hollywood medievalism, but the real thing. The Medieval Player's Manual has been exhaustively researched to provide rules that reflect the actual beliefs of the period. Ars Magica line developer David Chart has written a book that is both authentic and playable. Take your d20 game back to the Middle Ages with the Medieval Player's Manual. The book includes:

* Three new magic core classes (cunning man, natural magician, and theurge) and two support prestige classes (necromancer and theophanist).
* New systems for medieval magic like folk charms, alchemy, astrology, astral charms, and theurgy.
* Three new religious core classes (priest, canonist, and saint) and five supporting prestige classes (crusader, templar, prelate, hermit, and mystic).
* The introduction of Charisms, new feats representing gifts of miraculous power granted by God.
* Rules for holding academic disputations, creating theories, and writing books.
* Non-combat core classes like scholar and artist.
* Overviews of the Christian Church, the political history of the time, philosophy and the arts, and medieval laws and beliefs.
* Suggestions for alternate campaigns, like the Abbey Campaign and the Court Campaign, and intriguing historical "What ifs?".
* Backgrounds and stats for important people of the day, like Empress Matilda, Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury, and natural magician Adelard of Bath.

The book also presents Kin of the Conqueror, a campaign setting detailing the anarchic period after the death of King William the Conqueror. From 1087 to 1154 the British Isles and northern France were convulsed by wars over his legacy. Plunge into adventure with Kin of the Conqueror, or use the rules to explore other parts of the medieval world. Either way, the Medieval Player's Manual is your starting point for a new d20 experience.

 

[Turanil]

MEDIEVAL PLAYER MANUAL REVIEW

The Medieval Player Manual is a d20 supplement by Green Ronin Publishing (Mythic Vista line). It is a soft-cover book of 126 pages, entirely black and white except for cover, and with nice layout and illustrations. The text is well written, so it's really pleasant to read. The backcover states: "The Medieval Player's Manual gives you everything you need to have exciting adventures in the age of Christianity and crusade. This is not Hollywood medievalism, but the real thing. The Medieval Player's Manual has been exhaustively researched to provide rules that reflect the actual beliefs of the period."

I long wanted to run a D&D campaign that would have a strong European medieval feel. So, when I learned about this gaming supplement, I was especially pleased. The Medieval Player's Manual was primarily designed to play D&D in a near historical setting of 12th century England. However, my opinion (and my intent as far as I am concerned) is that you may use it in any setting that you want to get a truly medieval ambiance, not just common fantasy. After all, all of this heroic fantasy stuff about knights, paladins, dragons, clerics, etc., descends from European medieval legends and history. Nevertheless, if you believe in reading this, that "historical setting" means a low or no magic world (and that you may forget about this product altogether), be reassured that priests and magicians still cast spells in this game. The book mainly deals with the three following aspects of the Middle Ages: Christian religion, arcane magic, and the 12th century England's culture and society.

1) Religion: I will begin with this part, since it is the one I like the most. As I said earlier, I prefer a fantasy game that clearly evokes the Middle Ages. With that in mind, a cleric of a mish-mash pantheon's deity (like found in most commercial or homebrew settings), who goes to the church in full-plate armor, simply cannot satisfy me. Although I tend to be an atheist in real life, I want a monotheistic religion with a Christian feel in a medieval game. As such, the Medieval Player's Manual does a great job of bringing the Christian religion to life in a d20 gaming context. To begin with, the religion and its dogma, and the Church and its organization, are presented in a clear and simple way that is more than enough to portray it in a role-playing game. Then, there is excellent rules to simulate theological and philosophical disputations (i.e.: contests) between scholars, priests, etc. With them, you can add a new dimension to your adventures, so clerics for example, may have something else to do than just bash monsters, turn undead, and cure wounds. This rule could be easily extended to any type of intellectuals, so in a "normal fantasy" game, wizards could also use it in discussions about arcane subjects.
Lastly, the classes and feats. There is 3 new core classes: the Priest (a non-combatant type of cleric), the Canonist (a non-spellcasting churchman), and the Saint (also a non-spellcaster but who gets many miraculous powers called "Charisms"). Then, there is 5 religious prestige classes: the Crusader, Templar, Hermit, Mystic, and Prelate. Note that all these classes aren't intended to replace the cleric and paladin, but complement them. As such, the cleric becomes a crusading war-priest, while parish priests should rather be of the new classes. On the overall these classes look good, although to be really interesting, the GM must see to have a game with church intrigue, religious problems, etc. In a straight classical dungeon bashing, there is very little use for them. Otherwise, the book presents more than 30 new divine feats called "Charisms". These feats are in spirit similar to Exalted Feats, but tend to be more powerful, and of course relate to the Christian faith. Hence my opinion is that if you always wanted to portray a Christian-like religion in your campaign setting, this book is the right answer.

2) Arcane Magic: The Medieval Player's Manual presents three types of arcane magic, and three new character classes to play medieval types of wizards. That is, there is mages (Natural Magicians) who rely on alchemy, astrology, etc.; others (Cunning Men) who know tricks and folks charms of all sorts; and lastly, those (Theurges) who summon spirits to do their bindings. All of this is excellent to bring medieval flavor to the game, which was probably the initial intent (rather than trying to invent a better or different system of magic). Yet, the Natural Magician seems really weak (at least compared to a wizard) if one intends to use it as a PC. At first sight it could appear that a Natural Magician may prepare hundreds of spells in advance. However, if you respect the Frequency of Charm Crafting table, he will go adventuring with hardly more than two dozens of spells at his disposal. At low levels this could be seen as an advantage, but after the 3rd it will quickly be in his disfavor. The Cunning Man and the Theurge appear much more playable. Then, the Alchemy and Astrology feats are really interesting, and I also much like the Folks Charms (which are in fact lesser magical item creation feats). One may argue that they could unbalance the game, since they cost no money, just XP; but in my opinion loosing XP is a much dire cost than spending money in the game.

3) 12th Century England's Culture and Society: The book gives some historical account of the 12th century England's society and history, as well as stats of a few archetypal characters of this age. If you intend to run a campaign in such a historical setting however, you will probably need to make your own researches and design. This reminds me of the Dragon Magazine issue 274: it presented a nice Legends of Sherwood mini-campaign setting extraordinarily appropriate for play with the Medieval Player's Manual. If you can get it, you really have everything needed to get started without delay. By the way, download the Netbook of Witches - Liber Mysterium on the Internet (since the witches it deals with were heavily inspired by medieval witches), and you would have a great game before you. But I digress. The last thing I want to point about this part of the Medieval Player's Manual, is that it also present rules about books and literacy which are really innovative, plus two other new classes: the Scholar and the Artist. They fit very well in a medieval ambiance, but you will have to go for a more intellectual type of campaign if you intend to use them as PCs. Even in this case, I would propose a special class: the Savant, consisting of a Scholar who gets the Natural Magician’s magic, so it becomes playable. But well, I digress again, so lets jump to the conclusion.

My conclusion: If you plan to run a high powered, high fantasy setting like FR or Ebberon, this book is probably useless (except for a couple of rules). However, if you intend to run a European Medieval historical campaign, this book is a MUST. Really. Then, if you plan to add more European Medieval flavor to a heroic fantasy game (as I do), this book is worth the money and a good useful addition.

 

[Psion]

Medieval Player's Manual

The Medieval Player's Manual is a resource for applying d20 System rules to playing in a somewhat mythic version of medieval Europe (primarily Britain and NW France.) The book is written by frequent Ars Magica contributor David Chart and published as part of Green Ronin's Mythic Vistas line of products detailing alternate campaign settings and campaign models.

A First Look

Medieval Player's Manual is a 128-page perfect bound softcover book available for $22.95.

The cover of the book is illustrated by David Leri, and illustrates an armored warrior fighting a dragon amidst a burning fort.

The interior is black and white and features artwork by Richard Becker, Lisa Wood, Kevin Crossley, Mike Vilardi, and Caleb Cleveland. Some pieces also appear to be period-appropriate woodcut prints.

A Deeper Look

Generally speaking, the approach of Medieval Player's Manual is not that unlike some other Mythic Vistas books, like Testament. Much like the way that book approaches ancient Israel as a rather fantastical version as is related in various tales and scripture, Medieval Player's Manual depicts England as if many of the beliefs that existed in Medieval Europe were true and had tangible effects.

The book is divided into six chapters plus an appendix and index.

The first chapter is a basic introductory chapter that lays down the approach of the book. The book strives to be faithful to history but does not sweat the differences that effects of magic as it is presented in this book might cause. The Catholic Church is viewed as having real divine merit, but as a temporal body is fallible, but other religions are also treated as having real power and merit as well.

The first chapter also lays out the most basic changes, such as new knowledge skills, and classes that should be excluded in this setting (Rangers, Druids and Monks.)

The second through fourth chapters have new character creation options (classes and feats) and new subsystems, collected by concept. The second chapter deals with magic and the third with religion. The fourth chapter deals with classes and mechanics related to nonmagical skills, mainly politics, philosophy, and art.

The Medieval Magic chapter introduces rules for methods of magic that were believed by some to exist: alchemy, astrology, astral magic (charms) and folk charms, and theurgy. All of these except for theurgy involve a feat system, and alchemy and astrology further require skills.

Knowledge (Alchemy) and Knowledge (Astrology) for the basis of these two systems of magic, but each require feats to access their more important features. Alchemy feats allow a character to create select alchemical substances such as aqua vitae (which has limited healing properties) and aqua regia (which dissolves metal) as well as purifying metals, which allows converting metals to gold (in a limited fashion) and adding minor enhancement bonuses to metal items.

Knowledge (astrology) and the proper charts allow a character to predict natural events or choose a day for important events. Feats allow the divination of more facts, such as details about a character, political mood in an area, and choices that a certain character is likely to make.

Astral charms and folk charms are similar in that they both require only feats, though many are required for more potent charms. Folk charms mostly provides numerical bonuses to saves, attack rolls, AC, and so forth, where astral charms emulate spells. Astral charms each require a unique feat for each spell, and you must learn feats for easier spells first. Astral charms require a character craft them at certain astrologically significant times; as such, it seems inconsistent that they don't require knowledge (astrology) checks or as a prerequisite.

Theurgy requires use of the knowledge (theurgy) skill and requires a character to study rituals which, when performed, allow the character to importune spirits to do their bidding. Unlike the previous magic subsystems, no feats are required, but rituals require expensive components. In addition to this cost, theurgy is considered a sin, which prevents a character from taking advantage of certain powers derived from religion (see below.)

All of these methodologies are available to any character who has the appropriate feats or skills. Cunning men are common folk who gain free folk charm feats as well as a number of class abilities stemming from their knowledge, such as ability to predict the weather, and eventual immunities and timeless body. The natural magician specializes in astral charms and astrology. Finally, the theurge specializes in theurgy, and has easier (and cheaper) access to rituals.

Two prestige classes are also featured, both of which are appropriate to theurgists. The necromancer replaces expensive components with human sacrifice, and theophanists seek to use theurgy to see God. This latter class seems a bit odd to me in that at its lower levels, it primarily acts as a weak theurge, but at its highest level it gains the resurrection body charism, which is a gamebreakingly potent defensive ability that basically makes the character immune to harm.

The magic chapter finally introduces some items and places of power as well as discussing how core arcane classes and spells fit. Wizards are replaced by the new classes pictured here, but sorcerers might be possible as demon-blooded beings in the tradition of Merlin.

The third chapter, The Power of God provides a very brief overview of the Catholic church as it existed, and introduces new classes and magic system. The central new magic system is the Charism system, which operates through Charism feats that provide boons to the character that are stripped if the character ever sins.

As for classes, clerics and paladins are said to be appropriate as more militant orders that came into existence during the time. New classes are also introduced to round out the feel of other characters in the setting. Priests are non-militant divine caster that can cause geas/quest like effects on confessed sinners and provide boons when they say Mass. The saint core class is not a divine caster, but gain bonus charism feats at every level. As with the theophanist, these feats eventually give the character access to the potent Ressurection Body charism.

New prestige classes in the chapter include the crusader, templar, hermit, and mystic. Crusader is primarily a combative class, gaining bonus fighter or charism feats as well as combat related special abilities; this class may be taken by Christians or Muslims representing those wishing to expel the other from the Holy Land. The Templar represents a fantastical take on the historical order of that name, and gains spellcasting both as a divine (priest or cleric) caster and a paladin, as well as a defender class ability that aids in protecting others. Unfortunately, the author makes the dubious decision of not only keeping the paladin's thematically inappropriate "magical mount summoning" ability, he allows the templar to gain and/or continue developing this ability.

The hermit and mystic are less militant. The hermit is a commoner who serves god outside the bounds of the Church, gaining access to Charisms and folk charms. The mystic is also a Charism-based class that, in addition to bonus Charisms, has ability to gain and relate visions that can relate important information.

The chapter also covers the nature of angels and demons in Medieval times, and Relics. Relics are items of power that are usually obtained from the bodies of saints and martyrs. Parts of their bodies embody the Charisms they had in life; bodies of martyrs also gain additional powers when they are slain.

The fourth chapter deals with nonmagical classes and methods. A major part of the chapter is related to discussing church politics and ecclesiastical law, as well as presenting rules for philosophical arguments and the creation of works of art ith d20 System rules. The philosophical argument system is somewhat interesting, though somehow I feel if you do not have the right group of players and GM, it wouldn't end up as interesting as the example the author provides.

Much as with the earlier chapters, this chapter provides classes supporting the material within. The canonist is a core class representing members of the Church who are skilled at politics and manipulation instead of divine power; this is an interesting alternate to the divine spellcasting clergy and opens the way to clerical villains such as exemplified in The Three Musketeers (and combined with the theurgy rules, you could recreate the villain in the movie Ladyhawk.) The prelate prestige class represents highly placed figures in the Church. The artist and schoalar core classes have functions that should be apparent.

As most of this chapter is related to non-magical, non-combat interplay, some space is devoted to campaign considerations in a less combative, more roleplaying intensive campaign. Ideas for campaign models presented include campaigns based in an abbey or int a court of a powerful noble.

The fifth chapter, King, Dukes, and Princes has less of a rules focus than earlier chapters. It is basically a histrocial overview of the era of the Norman conquest, for 1086 to 1154, with thumbnails (and in some cases, stat blocks) for significant figures. In addition to the straight facts about the era, the chapter has a number of shaded "what if" blocks that describe campaign ideas if significant events of the era were to vary.

The sixth chapter, Medieval Culture, covers some basics of medieval life to serve as a primers for would-be roleplayers of characters living in the era, or GMs hoping to successfully run it. This covers details such as the life of the peasantry and nobility, the structure of towns, and law. Also included are a few sample characters derived from historical characters using these rules.

A short appendix summarizes feats from the book.

Conclusions

It should perhaps not be surprising that someone with as much experience turning history into gaming products as Chart managed to bring together a lot of history in a succinct manner and express many concepts of the era successfully in game terms. The book is rigorous and should be a boon to any campaign set in the era in a manner that emulates the history and lore of the era more accurately than the core d20 System material does.

Even those who aren't interested in adopting convention in this book wholesale could derive some material from this book. Some material from the magic chapter could be extracted and used in a typical fantasy campaign and used as a sort of "hedge magic". I think the astrology rules seem especially ripe for the picking in this manner.

Overall Grade: B

-Alan D. Kohler

 

[GameWyrd]

The Medieval Player's Manual has 128 pages but it reads like a larger book. There are two reasons why that phenomenon can occur. The first possible reason is a bad one; lead page syndrome, when the book's so bad and your stamina for it so depleted that pages might as well be made of lead for the effort it takes to turn the page. The second reason is a good one; the book is so enthralling and the author has managed squeeze line after line of killer material in that you end up combing through every word.

The Medieval Player's Manual is a great book. I found myself pawing through each paragraph looking for more.

There's a catch. As so often happens when I find a great RPG I also find myself picking at the imperfections. Take the Bard class for example. Fighters and Rogues are classes which survive the transition from core rules to Medieval, Wizards are out and Sorcerers might scrape through if the GM allows and although Bards are mentioned in a section title they're not mentioned explicitly in the text. Okay. It seems fairly clear that they're not acceptable (through a non-magical troubadour certainly seems fine).

Let's stick with the classes for a minute. I don't mourn the loss of the majority of them - I agree entirely that they're not suitable for a medieval based campaign; even one with fantasy magic and mythical creatures in it. We don't have a list of character classes at the start of the book. We don't have a whack of world information at the start and the mechanics relegated to the end either. The Medieval Player's Guide is a hybrid of the traditional (and opposing) presentation decisions. As the Medieval Player's Guide addresses each issue; Medieval Magic, The Power of God, Prelates, Painters and Philosophers it puts new core and prestige classes right in the thick of things. I think this is a logical structure for the book to take and it's not too hard to find the class or prestige class you want (check the index if needs be). It also makes the book easier to read as you have intermissions that give you a break (crunch breaks world info, world info breaks crunch).

From the magic section we have the Cunning Man Core Class, The Natural Magician Core Class, The Theurge Core Class, The Necromancer Prestige Class and The Theophanist Prestige Class. The classes from The Power of God are the Priest Core Class, The Crusader Prestige Class, The Templar Prestige Class, The Saint Core Class, The Hermit Prestige Class and the Mystic Prestige Class. There's also The Artist Core Class, The Canonist Core Class, the Prelate Prestige Class and the Scholar Core Class. As you can see; there's no shortage of new classes in there!

If you've eagle eyes you might spot, amongst the classes, somewhat interesting names there. Saints as a Core Class for example? What the hell is a Theophanist? The Theophanist is a specialised version of the Theurge. The Theurge is someone who summons spirits. The Church sees this is as a sin - and they're right. If you have any abilities which require you to be free of sin then they won't work if you're guilty of theurgy. The Theophanist is a Theurge who is trying to summon God. No kidding. Some Theophanists might be devout and in search of perfect piety but it's a false trail. The Saints, on the other hand, are truly pious and free of sin. Combine the respect common people have for Saints and the powerful effects a Saint can petition God for and you have someone who can cause a world of trouble for the Church, especially corrupt areas. Saints can be excommunicated and this will not effect their powers - except, as any Saint will tell you, they have no powers. Pride is the worse sin, Lucifer's sin, and a proud Saint will discover their charisms have no effect.

I like the way charisms work. Charisms are those powers only those free of sin can wield. They're effectively feats. You don't need to be a Saint to have a Charism, you just have to meet the prerequisites and spend the feat slot. The class specials for the Saint looks a bit dull - bonus feat, bonus feat, bonus feat. These feats, however, must be Charisms. In effect what the Medieval Player's Manual has done is gracefully slotted in a whole new sub-system into the game without writing a new sub-set of rules. David Chart hasn't just done this once but he's repeated it many times - Alchemy, Philosophy and Charms.

Killing is a sin. If your Fighter has a Charism and he kills someone - a thief, bandit or murderer - then he'll need to confess and repent before his Charism works again. I think this is great.

You can be a female Priest and still have your powers. Being a female Priest isn't a sin. God does not care. The Church does, though, and so to be a female Priest you'll be pretending to be male and will be risking death if you're caught. Priest is, of course, a Core Class.

You don't need to know anything about Medieval Christianity to use the Medieval Player's Manual. There are enthralling and succinct summaries of the Christian belief throughout the book. There's always enough to interest and never enough to bore. There's a disclaimer at the start of the book; this isn't a religious text, the Medieval Player's Manual makes snap decisions and offers summaries on points people have fought and died for.

I think the Medieval Player's Manual makes other wise calls in its introduction. Change history. This is an accurate book, in the back we've notes on what's going on and who's doing it, but there is myth and magic so this is not an historical RPG as such. What happens if the players want to assassinate a king? Let them! What happens if the players successfully defend a castle which historically fell? Let them! The Medieval Player's Manual focuses on England and Normandy in the time (and after) of William the Conqueror. This is a time in European history which oozes with What Ifs. In fact the RPG supplement tempts us with What Ifs asides of its own. For example; "what if" William the Conqueror lost?

As with the medieval religious issues you don't need any knowledge of medieval history from this part of the world either. The Medieval Player's Manual gives you the over view and the RPG significant facts. You have enough to inform and interest but never too much.

Although this d20 RPG is a blend of history and fantasy (as it's a blend of core rules and supplement) there are some incompatibilities. We've seen this already with classes - some classes just don't fit. We have magic but some of the D&D spells just don't work. There are no Planes and so planar magic is out and that includes summon monster spells. I really wish the Medieval Player's Manual had seized the chance to banish detect alignment spells too. Actually, I wish the Medieval Player's Manual had excommunicated D&D's default alignment system in its entirety. Some of the monsters from the standard D&D d20 set up will not work either. There are no orcs, elves and dwarves as such. There are no myths of Tolkien-esq demi-humans in European history from this period. There are rules for "Beings of Unknown Form" which can be used to convert elves, dwarves and orcs into a concept and rule set which will work. Beings of Unknown Form were angels who stood aside when Lucifer rebelled. They're not demons because they didn't fight against Heaven. They're not angels because they didn't defend Heaven either. Many of the D&D monsters don't suit the setting either - these tend to be the weird and wacky and often planar or aberration creatures. Monsters with an historical bent work well in the setting though.

The Medieval Player's Manual is one of those RPG supplements where I could write, at length, about every paragraph in the book. I've not even looked at alchemy or how theurgy's magic is in the ritual not the person performing the rite - your rogue could learn some theurgy. Instead I think I'll say that the Medieval Player's Manual is a book that just had to be written by Green Ronin. If you're a fan of both Ars Magica and d20 then you'll get this. In fact, Ars Magica sourcebooks are quoted as sources and future reading in the Medieval Player's Manual. David Chart, author of this supplement, wrote many of the Ars Magica ones (and other key figures in Green Ronin are significant figures in Ars Magica's history).

The Medieval Player's Manual achieves what it sets out to do - d20 for medieval England and Normandy. The Medieval Player's Manual scores significant success after significant success as it achieves its goals. Really, if you're at all interested in a fantasy rich medieval game then buy this book.

* This Medieval Player's Manual review was first published at GameWyrd.

 

[Crothian]

Medieval Players Manual

[imager]http://www.greenronin.com/images/product/grr1403_200.jpg[/imager]

Historical gaming is always an interesting subject. It can be too accurate or too fantastic. It can get bogged down in the details of the time period or it can be just a basic shell of a time period with lots of things rewritten. Medieval is always a good place for historical gaming since many fantasy games are kind of based on this type of time period. I have always been a fan of the historical gaming genre so this is right up my alley.

Medieval Plaers Manual is a book in the Mystic Vistas line of books by Green Ronin. Green Ronin is of course the great publishers who have brought us such hits as Blue Rose, Mutants and Masterminds, and the highly praised and much beloved Thieves World. This book is written by David Chart and is only one hundred and twenty six pages long. It could have really been longer to go into the medieval times a little bit more. The softbound book is done in black and white and has the usual good lay out Green Ronin is known for. The art is very fitting for the feel and subject matter in the book. The book could have used a few more maps though.

The book starts on a good note discussion what the book does, how to deal with historical accuracy and other topics that may cause problems in this type of game. This is great to see since it tell me the writer is not just writing a book but also thinking of how the book will be used and how it can be handled. It also has a nice list of further reading for people that really want to do more with this type of setting and game.

The book then gets into magic. It starts with some good alchemy rules and making the ability really more powerful and useful. It covers a bit on astrology presenting some good feats that allow characters to handle different types of astrology. It covers folk charms which really has a good amount of feats allowing for different types of charms to actually be used and made. There are good summoning and commanding rules under Theurgy and this is the most complex section with lots of good information on it. These types of magic are done a bit differently then the standard d20 fair which gives it a nice feel and look to make the magic’s different.

The book does have new classes in it. The first is the Cunning Man, a wise person who lives with the peasants. It is a base class that gets free folk charms, interesting abilities like predicting weather and lots of immunities. It is not the strongest class but has a lot of unique abilities and can make a very interesting NPC or PC for role players. There is the Natural Magician who looks a bit more like the usual wizard though different use of charms as they get astral charms. There are a few other classes and prestige classes. But the real fun comes with the talk of what spells should not be used and classes that just do not fit into the setting.

A nice section of magical monsters follows. It does not list monsters or have monsters in it but makes mention oif what type of things and the feel of the creatures should be. It is a nice section if a little on the short side. The same is done for magical items and the nature of them and magical places like the giants ring and Isle of Avalon.

Possible the best chapter in the book deals with the Power of God. Religion is very important in this type setting and the book gives it adequate due. There is great information on the church, its beliefs, and then of course a priest base class. Priests have magic and powers. There are also Crusaders and Templars and a whole nice section on the divine magic. It also has the saint core class, hermit prestige class, mystic prestige class, and great information on relics. This chapter alone makes the book worth picking up.

There is a lot of information in this book. I made the comment that the book could have been longer and that holds true, but the book does read like a bigger book. The amount of information that is fitted in this book is surprising. The book alone I do not think is quite enough to run a game in this time period, but serves as a good starting place. A good DM and creative players should be able to sup[ply the extra missing elements and have a great campaign based on this book.

 

[elforcelf]

HMPH! It should be called playing a Christian Medieval Manual. The writer thinks that there is no pagans in Europe at this time;he must got a F in history. It is Christian and Christian that . I feel it is a waste of money.

 

[Crothian]

Well, as I said the book is shorter then it should be and many things like Pagans could have been covered better. But the absence of pagans does not make the book a waste of money. Sure, they are n't there but why does that make the book so bad in and of itself?

 

[elforcelf]

No,it is the bit about Christian stuff makes up 80% of the book does.

 

[Crothian]

And that's a strength of the book, that it does choose to cover one religion that at the time was very importnat so completely.

I'm just trying to figure out why you think this is so bad?

 

[elforcelf]

As a Medieval Scholar I personly know that a lot more should been told about life in the Middle Ages. As a pagan I dislike reading so much about Christians. As someone who does not have much cash and buys from the internet and relys on the reviews to make up my mind about some books;I say it is a waste of my money.