- madprofessor
- Warrior
Offline 
- Registered: 12/09/2014
- Posts: 29
Re: Migration Era BoL - Barbarians of the Dark Ages
Narmer wrote:
How did I miss all of this?!?
Agreed! I just don't stop in often enough, and I just discovered this. As a medieval historian who loves BoL - oh man is this cool!
Peter, I am sorry to cast necromancy but this is really awesome stuff. The whole idea of the meadhall, and gaining glory and praise from the lord of the hall as the central focus is brilliant. I remember trying to run a "Land of Giants" campaign for Pendragon that was very much like what you trying to accomplish here. But I only had moderate success adjusting the extremely Malory focused rules of Pendragon into the Beowulf type setting. This is a much better approach. Are you still working on this? Have you tried it in play? If so, how did it work out? Are there any points that still need work?
- Peter
- Warrior
Offline
- From: Austrasia
- Registered: 11/12/2016
- Posts: 41
Re: Migration Era BoL - Barbarians of the Dark Ages
How did I miss all of this?!?
Peter, I am sorry to cast necromancy but this is really awesome stuff. The whole idea of the meadhall, and gaining glory and praise from the lord of the hall as the central focus is brilliant. I remember trying to run a "Land of Giants" campaign for Pendragon that was very much like what you trying to accomplish here. But I only had moderate success adjusting the extremely Malory focused rules of Pendragon into the Beowulf type setting. This is a much better approach. Are you still working on this? Have you tried it in play? If so, how did it work out? Are there any points that still need work?
Really pleased it interests you 
The aspects you point to is excactly what I am trying to get right.
Im maybe not so much working on it as tweaking and finalising it. I am expecting some further comments, and then I hope to do a final run through and finalise.
The system could definitely do with more playtesting - ideally by different groups. If anyone has the opportunity to run it in its current state (and I believe it is fully playable as is) then I would be really grateful for any feedback.
P.s. I know it's a slightly different mythological focus, but since you mentioned Pendragon - have you checked out Age of Arthur from Wordpress games? To my money the best attempt at the arthurian myths in a 'historic' subroman context.
Last edited by Peter (7/10/2017 11:04 pm)
- •
Thread Starter- madprofessor
- Warrior
Offline
- Registered: 12/09/2014
- Posts: 29
Re: Migration Era BoL - Barbarians of the Dark Ages
I did own Age of Arthur, but I sold it. I am not really a fan of the Fate system. For Dark Age goodness I was much more impressed with Mythic Britain from the Design Mechanism. RQ6 (Mythras) is a great game (a bit crunchy), and Pete and Loz are two of the best writers in the Biz. Both games are based or heavily influenced by B. Cornwell's novels of Arthur - which are fantastic. The setting material, sans system, is pretty strong in Age of Arthur, a notch above most games, I'm not knocking it, but IMO Loz's work with Mythic Britain is on another level.
However as much as I admire Mythras, it rarely comes out to the table because its just a heavier game than I like to run, and the older I get the more a gravitate towards simpler rules. With an entire room full of RPGs, BoL (which I tinker with endlessly) gets more play than any of them and remains my goto system - so I was pretty excited to find your "hack."
Anyway, I would be happy to playtest your dark age hack. I have groups that have come to expect me to run historical and myth style games (when I'm not running swords and sorcery) so I won't have a problem getting a group together. However, I am in the middle of two games at the moment so it may be a while before I get to it. I'll give your rules a thorough read, put some thought into a game, and let you know what I come up with.
...oh and have you seen a little game called 43 AD? There might be some good ideas in there.
- Peter
- Warrior
Offline
- From: Austrasia
- Registered: 11/12/2016
- Posts: 41
Re: Migration Era BoL - Barbarians of the Dark Ages
Anyway, I would be happy to playtest your dark age hack. I have groups that have come to expect me to run historical and myth style games (when I'm not running swords and sorcery) so I won't have a problem getting a group together. However, I am in the middle of two games at the moment so it may be a while before I get to it. I'll give your rules a thorough read, put some thought into a game, and let you know what I come up with.
Thank you. I would really appreciate it - and any feedback on the rules - whenever you may have an opportunity. In particular interested how it works for different groups to use the meadhall and the quest for honour as a motivator and to drive scenarios.
...oh and have you seen a little game called 43 AD? There might be some good ideas in there.
Big fan of 43 AD (and Warbands - which has been an inspriation on a conceptual level if not for actual mechanics) - as I am for most things Paul Elliott/Mithras. My favourite is probably Zenobia - and Warlords of Alexander.
Last edited by Peter (7/11/2017 10:49 am)
- •
Thread Starter