When Fantasy meets Medieval Europe

[UngainlyTitan]

Common sense has nothing to do with, I thought it would be a fun idea because it was how it was believed at the time and the because was God willed it so. It is, however, your game and I will say no more.

 

[Hussar]

This is just way too cool.

As an option, and I know I've brought up Primeval Thule before, but, they use the other planets as the home of demons and any other extra-planar goodies. Instead of demons and devils being from other planes, they're just aliens from another planet. Also works for aberrations too. Just to borrow from a very Lovecraftian approach to critters.

 

[Thomas Bowman]

This is just way too cool.

As an option, and I know I've brought up Primeval Thule before, but, they use the other planets as the home of demons and any other extra-planar goodies. Instead of demons and devils being from other planes, they're just aliens from another planet. Also works for aberrations too. Just to borrow from a very Lovecraftian approach to critters.

To give you an idea, science works in this universe just as it does in our own, the same laws apply, but magic also works. In the future Earth side of the gate, magic doesn't work except for gods. Venus's avatar can fly through the gate and teleport herself to "Future Earth" where technology works but magic does not work for mortals. She brings her own magic with her, in fact Venus created the gate in the first place. Now what would be her motivation for doing so? I got one, a god's powers are directly proportional to the number of worshippers he or she has. Venus has managed to stay active because she has a planet with a bunch of worshippers on it, but those worshippers number a few million only, it is a very primitive world. Mars on the other hand is more technologically advanced, and despite its smaller size, this technology has allowed Mars to have a higher population than Venus, and thus the God Mars is growing more powerful in relation to Venus.

Now on fantasy Earth, the God of the Christians, Jews, and Muslims is supplanting the worship of pagan deities like herself, but Venus has discovered another Earth through her extra-planar travels, this one is populated by 8 billion humans, magic does not work for them, and they are not so religious as the people on fantasy Earth, and much more importantly Technological Earth has a much higher population that the Medieval fantasy Earth, if she can bring some over to her planet, and get some of them to worship her, she would grow more powerful too, but first she would have to lure some of those other Earth humans over to her planet, perhaps she could give them some sort of mystery to investigate, and atmospheric anomaly, yes, that will work! Unsuspecting humans from Earth get sucked through the gate to her planet, and they discover a habitable planet with natives capable of using magic, and more importantly they can use it themselves if they care to learn it! They would also bring their technology, and that could be helpful too! As for the native cultures on her planet, she reasons that they'll adapt. Earth humans will come in at only a trickle at first, as interplanetary travel is still expensive, but costs will come down over time.

 

[Angus MacDonald]

When I first ran Ars Magica at UC Santa Barbara ... most of my gamers were in the PhD program in Medieval History. So, yeah, this is home turf for me. I love the 11th & 12th century and can muck around with it like crazy. I have run in straight and I have run it variant. Just depends on who I am dealing with and how immersed they want to get in this history/philosophy/music/literature.

 

[Thomas Bowman]

When I first ran Ars Magica at UC Santa Barbara ... most of my gamers were in the PhD program in Medieval History. So, yeah, this is home turf for me. I love the 11th & 12th century and can muck around with it like crazy. I have run in straight and I have run it variant. Just depends on who I am dealing with and how immersed they want to get in this history/philosophy/music/literature.

I am working on a map of Europe in the year 1100 AD, at a certain point, I'm going to put cities on it, and for the purposes of Dungeons and Dragons, I would like to know who the rulers are of the various cities at that time. What is the best place to look them up at, any suggestions? I kind of want to put together a Gazateer, and will want to include the major cities, and what I don't know, I'll just make up.

 

[Thomas Bowman]

Here is my map of Europe with more clearly numbered hexes than the original that I started out with:
https://orig00.deviantart.net/91fc/...mbered_hex_map_by_thomasbowman255-dc6fqoe.png

Now all that remains is to put the cities and labels back on the map for a brand new clearer image.

 

[Thomas Bowman]

Here is the maps showing the largest cities in Europe at around 1100, these cities have populations of 25,000 or more and are called Metropolises according to the standard 3.5 rules.
https://orig00.deviantart.net/e0dd/...mbered_hex_map_by_thomasbowman255-dc6gpdq.png

 

[Legatus Legionis]

I think this is great.

The Forgotten Realms is a great source for how kingdoms and such would work in a continent, so having a map of Europe would work.

Also, since Conan's Hyberian Age was based off of Europe/Northern Africa map, using those "kingdoms" works well here as well.

 

[Thomas Bowman]

Here are the populations of the metropolises:
Hex Name Population
00 58 Marrakech 325,000
05 54 Fez 33,000
08 48 Cordoba 31,000
25 30 Paris 28,000
28 29 Gent 40,000
32 40 Genoa 390,000
33 38 Milano 40,000
35 41 Firenze 35,000
37 39 Venezia 160,000
38 53 Palermo 103,000
63 46 Konstantinopolis 718,000
70 68 Cairo 673,000
93 56 Baghdad 613,000
93 47 Tabriz 169,000
108 48 Nishapur 592,000

I rolled them up randomly, they are not based on actual census records from 1100 AD. I did make sure Konstantinopolis has a large population, I switched it with a number I rolled for another city, it is supposed to be the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire after all!

 

[Hussar]

Neat. How did you get such pretty hex numbering? Plug in for Photoshop or Gimp? I would love that one.