The Antilla Campaign
Background
The year is 1223 and Count Marco Vasari, a veteran of the Fourth Crusade and Venetian advisor to Robert, Latin Emperor of Constantinople, has brought together an august group of scholars, warriors, cartographers and ecclesiastics from all corners of Christendom.
You have traveled under considerable secrecy to the estate in Gascony at which the count has been feting you for the past four days. But he has remained tight-lipped about precisely what business he intends discussing with you.
But at last, he announces that the time has come to reveal what urgent matter it is that the Latin Emperor has asked him to take up with you. He begins,
As you know, Al-Nasir continues to govern the Holy Land and its shrines, as he has done for nigh two generations. Four crusades have come to naught and now we must spend our time defending our flank against the ignorant Greeks who cannot accept the passage of lordship to the West.
Again and again, we have sent men and arms into the East. Again and again, the infidel has driven us back. And yet, all this time, the wise have known what is required to win back Jerusalem and drive the infidel from its gates forever. We need the aid of Prester John, the Christian King of the Indies and we require the Grail.
I guess what many of you are thinking: that these are not new words, that these things have been sought before and never found. But those seekers had not read the secret records in Constantinople that I have read; those seekers never had the benefits of this man's knowledge…
It is at this time that Vasari gestures at a poorly dressed and recently arrived man who somehow has the knack of looking both fat and gaunt at once. He clears his throat and continues:
May I present his Grace Bishop Helgi of Greenland…
Game System
The Antilla campaign will use a customized game system specifically suited to playing pseudo-historical medieval characters. I use the term "pseudo-historical" first of all to indicate that slavish adherence to the precise minutia of medieval history is not what I am interested in. Second, I wish to indicate that the world in which the characters exist will be more similar (but hardly identical) to the world that medievals believed themselves to inhabit than to the world that historians understood them to inhabit. In this world, magic is real, the sun revolves around the earth, etc.
The core of the system will be an amalgam of D20 (the core of Dungeons & Dragons) and BRP (the core of Runequest and Call of Cthulu) with additional material I have developed myself specifically for the unique campaign world into which the characters will be entering.
Players
I am looking to convene a group of 5-7 players to meet twice a month for 3-5 hour gaming sessions at my home or some other mutually agreeable location in downtown or midtown Toronto. I hope that this is an intellectually vibrant, mature group that comes close to gender balance.
I hope to start the game in early or mid January and plan to spend the next 7-8 weeks meeting potential players and hammering out character concepts.
About Me
I am 32 years old and I have been GMing role-playing games for far too long. From 1987 until this July, I have always been running at least one role-playing game but now I have relocated to Toronto and have to start a new gaming group from scratch.
I run plot-driven games oriented towards puzzle-solving and NPC interaction, typically using the D&D or Runequest systems in either fantasy or modern settings. I am currently completing an MA in religious history at York University.
Background
The year is 1223 and Count Marco Vasari, a veteran of the Fourth Crusade and Venetian advisor to Robert, Latin Emperor of Constantinople, has brought together an august group of scholars, warriors, cartographers and ecclesiastics from all corners of Christendom.
You have traveled under considerable secrecy to the estate in Gascony at which the count has been feting you for the past four days. But he has remained tight-lipped about precisely what business he intends discussing with you.
But at last, he announces that the time has come to reveal what urgent matter it is that the Latin Emperor has asked him to take up with you. He begins,
As you know, Al-Nasir continues to govern the Holy Land and its shrines, as he has done for nigh two generations. Four crusades have come to naught and now we must spend our time defending our flank against the ignorant Greeks who cannot accept the passage of lordship to the West.
Again and again, we have sent men and arms into the East. Again and again, the infidel has driven us back. And yet, all this time, the wise have known what is required to win back Jerusalem and drive the infidel from its gates forever. We need the aid of Prester John, the Christian King of the Indies and we require the Grail.
I guess what many of you are thinking: that these are not new words, that these things have been sought before and never found. But those seekers had not read the secret records in Constantinople that I have read; those seekers never had the benefits of this man's knowledge…
It is at this time that Vasari gestures at a poorly dressed and recently arrived man who somehow has the knack of looking both fat and gaunt at once. He clears his throat and continues:
May I present his Grace Bishop Helgi of Greenland…
Game System
The Antilla campaign will use a customized game system specifically suited to playing pseudo-historical medieval characters. I use the term "pseudo-historical" first of all to indicate that slavish adherence to the precise minutia of medieval history is not what I am interested in. Second, I wish to indicate that the world in which the characters exist will be more similar (but hardly identical) to the world that medievals believed themselves to inhabit than to the world that historians understood them to inhabit. In this world, magic is real, the sun revolves around the earth, etc.
The core of the system will be an amalgam of D20 (the core of Dungeons & Dragons) and BRP (the core of Runequest and Call of Cthulu) with additional material I have developed myself specifically for the unique campaign world into which the characters will be entering.
Players
I am looking to convene a group of 5-7 players to meet twice a month for 3-5 hour gaming sessions at my home or some other mutually agreeable location in downtown or midtown Toronto. I hope that this is an intellectually vibrant, mature group that comes close to gender balance.
I hope to start the game in early or mid January and plan to spend the next 7-8 weeks meeting potential players and hammering out character concepts.
About Me
I am 32 years old and I have been GMing role-playing games for far too long. From 1987 until this July, I have always been running at least one role-playing game but now I have relocated to Toronto and have to start a new gaming group from scratch.
I run plot-driven games oriented towards puzzle-solving and NPC interaction, typically using the D&D or Runequest systems in either fantasy or modern settings. I am currently completing an MA in religious history at York University.
