Barwickian

Those interested in a medieval England campaign set during the reigns of Kings Richard and John might be interested to know I'm working on a setting book for Chivalry & Sorcery entitled Sherwood. As well as C&S rules it will have an inbuilt system based on Colin Speirs' rules-light Essence Core and stats for HârnMaster. We've no plans to include Hero stats in the book, but as an old Hero fan I'd like to do a free PDF appendix with Hero stats (note that 'like' is not the same as 'definitely will'). Either way, setting information will far outweigh rules information.

You can see much of the raw research for the project on my World Anvil site, Fabula Mundi.

The baseline setting is built as far as possible on detailed historical and archaeological research. The setting covers everywhere from York and Skipton to the north and Lichfield and Grantham in the south, including the whole of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, and parts of Lincolnshire (including Lincoln), Staffordshire and Leicestershire. The area is chosen such that the published map will print on A0 paper (c. 33 inches by 48 inches) at a scale of 2 miles to the inch.

The setting is being written with three primary modes in mind:

Historical - the baseline for the setting. As much historical and archaeological detail as I can squeeze in and make interesting. I'm knowingly allowing only three anachronisms, which I'll explain below.
Medieval Fantasy - the historical setting with the prodigies and wonders written about by chroniclers of the day: devils, revenants, sorcerers (low and high magic), saints' miracles, werewolves, and things 'neither of heaven nor of hell' (the fey, but of the medieval variety not the early modern variety).
Romance - modern ideas overlaid on the historical setting, such as the modern versions of Robin Hood, Saxon rebels versus Norman masters, powers of light and darkness, pagan survivals and so on. Think Ivanhoe, any Robin Hood film or book, and Graham Staplehurst's Robin Hood (ICE), or the Robin of Sherwood TV show that inspired it.
 
Within that there's guidance for several themes: the nobles campaign, the urban/merchant campaign, the outlaw campaign, the agent campaign (PCs working as troubleshooters for the crown, church or a great noble), and a little guidance on specialised campaigns (the monastic and the village life campaigns). 

Known anachronisms: The Trip to Jerusalem pub in Nottingham claims to date from 1189 and to have been a meeting place for crusaders heading out on Richard's Crusade. The first recorded pub on the site was in the 17th century, when it was known as The Pilgrim. Nottingham's two other pubs that claim to be medieval, The Bell and the Salutation. are in buildings dendro-dated to the 1440s. The Salutation claims to date from 1240, but its first recorded mention is in 1414, when it was known as The Archangel Gabriel Salutes the Virgin Mary. And that is a pub name I definitely want in the setting. Since I'll be including the Sal, it seems churlish to exclude the Trip and the Bell.

The attached map is a reduced-scale work in progress. It's built in QGIS. I haven't included the villages in this version as they clutter too much at this resolution. I've a lot more information than I can put on to the printed map, so things like feudal holdings, parish boundaries, rural deaneries and peculiars and so on, will likely be done as individual maps in relevant chapters. I plan to release the map alongside the book as a layered PDF, allowing people to turn the various details on and off.

Those interested in a medieval England campaign set during the reigns of Kings Richard and John might be interested to know I'm working on a setting book for Chivalry & Sorcery entitled Sherwood. As well as C&S rules it will have an inbuilt system based on Colin Speirs' rules-light Essence Core and stats for HârnMaster. We've no plans to include Hero stats in the book, but as an old Hero fan I'd like to do a free PDF appendix with Hero stats (note that 'like' is not the same as 'definitely will'). Either way, setting information will far outweigh rules information.

You can see much of the raw research for the project on my World Anvil site, Fabula Mundi.

The baseline setting is built as far as possible on detailed historical and archaeological research. The setting covers everywhere from York and Skipton to the north and Lichfield and Grantham in the south, including the whole of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, and parts of Lincolnshire (including Lincoln), Staffordshire and Leicestershire. The area is chosen such that the published map will print on A0 paper (c. 33 inches by 48 inches) at a scale of 2 miles to the inch.

The setting is being written with three primary modes in mind:

Historical - the baseline for the setting. As much historical and archaeological detail as I can squeeze in and make interesting. I'm knowingly allowing only three anachronisms, which I'll explain below.
Medieval Fantasy - the historical setting with the prodigies and wonders written about by chroniclers of the day: devils, revenants, sorcerers (low and high magic), saints' miracles, werewolves, and things 'neither of heaven nor of hell' (the fey, but of the medieval variety not the early modern variety).
Romance - modern ideas overlaid on the historical setting, such as the modern versions of Robin Hood, Saxon rebels versus Norman masters, powers of light and darkness, pagan survivals and so on. Think Ivanhoe, any Robin Hood film or book, and Graham Staplehurst's Robin Hood (ICE), or the Robin of Sherwood TV show that inspired it.
 
Within that there's guidance for several themes: the nobles campaign, the urban/merchant campaign, the outlaw campaign, the agent campaign (PCs working as troubleshooters for the crown, church or a great noble), and a little guidance on specialised campaigns (the monastic and the village life campaigns). 

Known anachronisms: The Trip to Jerusalem pub in Nottingham claims to date from 1189 and to have been a meeting place for crusaders heading out on Richard's Crusade. The first recorded pub on the site was in the 17th century, when it was known as The Pilgrim. Nottingham's two other pubs that claim to be medieval, The Bell and the Salutation. are in buildings dendro-dated to the 1440s. The Salutation claims to date from 1240, but its first recorded mention is in 1414, when it was known as The Archangel Gabriel Salutes the Virgin Mary. And that is a pub name I definitely want in the setting. Since I'll be including the Sal, it seems churlish to exclude the Trip and the Bell.

The attached map is a reduced-scale work in progress. It's built in QGIS. I haven't included the villages in this version as they clutter too much at this resolution. I've a lot more information than I can put on to the printed map, so things like feudal holdings, parish boundaries, rural deaneries and peculiars and so on, will likely be done as individual maps in relevant chapters. I plan to release the map alongside the book as a layered PDF, allowing people to turn the various details on and off.

Those interested in a medieval England campaign set during the reigns of Kings Richard and John might be interested to know I'm working on a setting book for Chivalry & Sorcery entitled Sherwood. As well as C&S rules it will have an inbuilt system based on Colin Speirs' rules-light Essence Core and stats for HârnMaster. We've no plans to include Hero stats in the book, but as an old Hero fan I'd like to do a free PDF appendix with Hero stats (note that 'like' is not the same as 'definitely will'). Either way, setting information will far outweigh rules information.

You can see much of the raw research for the project on my World Anvil site, Fabula Mundi.

The baseline setting is built as far as possible on detailed historical and archaeological research. The setting covers everywhere from York and Skipton to the north and Lichfield and Grantham in the south, including the whole of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, and parts of Lincolnshire (including Lincoln), Staffordshire and Leicestershire. The area is chosen such that the published map will print on A0 paper (c. 33 inches by 48 inches) at a scale of 2 miles to the inch.

The setting is being written with three primary modes in mind:

Historical - the baseline for the setting. As much historical and archaeological detail as I can squeeze in and make interesting. I'm knowingly allowing only three anachronisms, which I'll explain below.
Medieval Fantasy - the historical setting with the prodigies and wonders written about by chroniclers of the day: devils, revenants, sorcerers (low and high magic), saints' miracles, werewolves, and things 'neither of heaven nor of hell' (the fey, but of the medieval variety not the early modern variety).
Romance - modern ideas overlaid on the historical setting, such as the modern versions of Robin Hood, Saxon rebels versus Norman masters, powers of light and darkness, pagan survivals and so on. Think Ivanhoe, any Robin Hood film or book, and Graham Staplehurst's Robin Hood (ICE), or the Robin of Sherwood TV show that inspired it.
 
Within that there's guidance for several themes: the nobles campaign, the urban/merchant campaign, the outlaw campaign, the agent campaign (PCs working as troubleshooters for the crown, church or a great noble), and a little guidance on specialised campaigns (the monastic and the village life campaigns). 

Known anachronisms: The Trip to Jerusalem pub in Nottingham claims to date from 1189 and to have been a meeting place for crusaders heading out on Richard's Crusade. The first recorded pub on the site was in the 17th century, when it was known as The Pilgrim. Nottingham's two other pubs that claim to be medieval, The Bell and the Salutation. are in buildings dendro-dated to the 1440s. The Salutation claims to date from 1240, but its first recorded mention is in 1414, when it was known as The Archangel Gabriel Salutes the Virgin Mary. And that is a pub name I definitely want in the setting. Since I'll be including the Sal, it seems churlish to exclude the Trip and the Bell.

The attached map is a reduced-scale work in progress. It's built in QGIS. I haven't included the villages in this version as they clutter too much at this resolution. I've a lot more information than I can put on to the printed map, so things like feudal holdings, parish boundaries, rural deaneries and peculiars and so on, will likely be done as individual maps in relevant chapters. I plan to release the map alongside the book as a layered PDF, allowing people to turn the various details on and off.

Those interested in a medieval England campaign set during the reigns of Kings Richard and John might be interested to know I'm working on a setting book for Chivalry & Sorcery entitled Sherwood. As well as C&S rules it will have an inbuilt system based on Colin Speirs' rules-light Essence Core and stats for HârnMaster. We've no plans to include Hero stats in the book, but as an old Hero fan I'd like to do a free PDF appendix with Hero stats (note that 'like' is not the same as 'definitely will'). Either way, setting information will far outweigh rules information.

You can see much of the raw research for the project on my World Anvil site, Fabula Mundi.

The baseline setting is built as far as possible on detailed historical and archaeological research. The setting covers everywhere from York and Skipton to the north and Lichfield and Grantham in the south, including the whole of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, and parts of Lincolnshire (including Lincoln), Staffordshire and Leicestershire. The area is chosen such that the published map will print on A0 paper (c. 33 inches by 48 inches) at a scale of 2 miles to the inch.

The setting is being written with three primary modes in mind:

Historical - the baseline for the setting. As much historical and archaeological detail as I can squeeze in and make interesting. I'm knowingly allowing only three anachronisms, which I'll explain below.
Medieval Fantasy - the historical setting with the prodigies and wonders written about by chroniclers of the day: devils, revenants, sorcerers (low and high magic), saints' miracles, werewolves, and things 'neither of heaven nor of hell' (the fey, but of the medieval variety not the early modern variety).
Romance - modern ideas overlaid on the historical setting, such as the modern versions of Robin Hood, Saxon rebels versus Norman masters, powers of light and darkness, pagan survivals and so on. Think Ivanhoe, any Robin Hood film or book, and Graham Staplehurst's Robin Hood (ICE), or the Robin of Sherwood TV show that inspired it.
 
Within that there's guidance for several themes: the nobles campaign, the urban/merchant campaign, the outlaw campaign, the agent campaign (PCs working as troubleshooters for the crown, church or a great noble), and a little guidance on specialised campaigns (the monastic and the village life campaigns). 

Known anachronisms: The Trip to Jerusalem pub in Nottingham claims to date from 1189 and to have been a meeting place for crusaders heading out on Richard's Crusade. The first recorded pub on the site was in the 17th century, when it was known as The Pilgrim. Nottingham's two other pubs that claim to be medieval, The Bell and the Salutation. are in buildings dendro-dated to the 1440s. The Salutation claims to date from 1240, but its first recorded mention is in 1414, when it was known as The Archangel Gabriel Salutes the Virgin Mary. And that is a pub name I definitely want in the setting. Since I'll be including the Sal, it seems churlish to exclude the Trip and the Bell.

The attached map is a reduced-scale work in progress. It's built in QGIS. I haven't included the villages in this version as they clutter too much at this resolution. I've a lot more information than I can put on to the printed map, so things like feudal holdings, parish boundaries, rural deaneries and peculiars and so on, will likely be done as individual maps in relevant chapters. I plan to release the map alongside the book as a layered PDF, allowing people to turn the various details on and off.

Those interested in a medieval England campaign set during the reigns of Kings Richard and John might be interested to know I'm working on a setting book for Chivalry & Sorcery entitled Sherwood. As well as C&S rules it will have an inbuilt system based on Colin Speirs' rules-light Essence Core and stats for HârnMaster. We've no plans to include Hero stats in the book, but as an old Hero fan I'd like to do a free PDF appendix with Hero stats (note that 'like' is not the same as 'definitely will'). Either way, setting information will far outweigh rules information.

You can see much of the raw research for the project on my World Anvil site, Fabula Mundi.

The baseline setting is built as far as possible on detailed historical and archaeological research. The setting covers everywhere from York and Skipton to the north and Lichfield and Grantham in the south, including the whole of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, and parts of Lincolnshire (including Lincoln), Staffordshire and Leicestershire. The area is chosen such that the published map will print on A0 paper (c. 33 inches by 48 inches) at a scale of 2 miles to the inch.

The setting is being written with three primary modes in mind:

Historical - the baseline for the setting. As much historical and archaeological detail as I can squeeze in and make interesting. I'm knowingly allowing only three anachronisms, which I'll explain below.
Medieval Fantasy - the historical setting with the prodigies and wonders written about by chroniclers of the day: devils, revenants, sorcerers (low and high magic), saints' miracles, werewolves, and things 'neither of heaven nor of hell' (the fey, but of the medieval variety not the early modern variety).
Romance - modern ideas overlaid on the historical setting, such as the modern versions of Robin Hood, Saxon rebels versus Norman masters, powers of light and darkness, pagan survivals and so on. Think Ivanhoe, any Robin Hood film or book, and Graham Staplehurst's Robin Hood (ICE), or the Robin of Sherwood TV show that inspired it.
 
Within that there's guidance for several themes: the nobles campaign, the urban/merchant campaign, the outlaw campaign, the agent campaign (PCs working as troubleshooters for the crown, church or a great noble), and a little guidance on specialised campaigns (the monastic and the village life campaigns). 

Known anachronisms: The Trip to Jerusalem pub in Nottingham claims to date from 1189 and to have been a meeting place for crusaders heading out on Richard's Crusade. The first recorded pub on the site was in the 17th century, when it was known as The Pilgrim. Nottingham's two other pubs that claim to be medieval, The Bell and the Salutation. are in buildings dendro-dated to the 1440s. The Salutation claims to date from 1240, but its first recorded mention is in 1414, when it was known as The Archangel Gabriel Salutes the Virgin Mary. And that is a pub name I definitely want in the setting. Since I'll be including the Sal, it seems churlish to exclude the Trip and the Bell.

The attached map is a reduced-scale work in progress. It's built in QGIS. I haven't included the villages in this version as they clutter too much at this resolution. I've a lot more information than I can put on to the printed map, so things like feudal holdings, parish boundaries, rural deaneries and peculiars and so on, will likely be done as individual maps in relevant chapters. I plan to release the map alongside the book as a layered PDF, allowing people to turn the various details on and off.

Those interested in a medieval England campaign set during the reigns of Kings Richard and John might be interested to know I'm working on a setting book for Chivalry & Sorcery entitled Sherwood. As well as C&S rules it will have an inbuilt system based on Colin Speirs' rules-light Essence Core and stats for HârnMaster. We've no plans to include Hero stats in the book, but as an old Hero fan I'd like to do a free PDF appendix with Hero stats (note that 'like' is not the same as 'definitely will'). Either way, setting information will far outweigh rules information.

You can see much of the raw research for the project on my World Anvil site, Fabula Mundi.

The baseline setting is built as far as possible on detailed historical and archaeological research. The setting covers everywhere from York and Skipton to the north and Lichfield and Grantham in the south, including the whole of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, and parts of Lincolnshire (including Lincoln), Staffordshire and Leicestershire. The area is chosen such that the published map will print on A0 paper (c. 33 inches by 48 inches) at a scale of 2 miles to the inch.

The setting is being written with three primary modes in mind:

Historical - the baseline for the setting. As much historical and archaeological detail as I can squeeze in and make interesting. I'm knowingly allowing only three anachronisms, which I'll explain below.
Medieval Fantasy - the historical setting with the prodigies and wonders written about by chroniclers of the day: devils, revenants, sorcerers (low and high magic), saints' miracles, werewolves, and things 'neither of heaven nor of hell' (the fey, but of the medieval variety not the early modern variety).
Romance - modern ideas overlaid on the historical setting, such as the modern versions of Robin Hood, Saxon rebels versus Norman masters, powers of light and darkness, pagan survivals and so on. Think Ivanhoe, any Robin Hood film or book, and Graham Staplehurst's Robin Hood (ICE), or the Robin of Sherwood TV show that inspired it.
 
Within that there's guidance for several themes: the nobles campaign, the urban/merchant campaign, the outlaw campaign, the agent campaign (PCs working as troubleshooters for the crown, church or a great noble), and a little guidance on specialised campaigns (the monastic and the village life campaigns). 

Known anachronisms: The Trip to Jerusalem pub in Nottingham claims to date from 1189 and to have been a meeting place for crusaders heading out on Richard's Crusade. The first recorded pub on the site was in the 17th century, when it was known as The Pilgrim. Nottingham's two other pubs that claim to be medieval, The Bell and the Salutation. are in buildings dendro-dated to the 1440s. The Salutation claims to date from 1240, but its first recorded mention is in 1414, when it was known as The Archangel Gabriel Salutes the Virgin Mary. And that is a pub name I definitely want in the setting. Since I'll be including the Sal, it seems churlish to exclude the Trip and the Bell.

The attached map is a reduced-scale work in progress. It's built in QGIS. I haven't included the villages in this version as they clutter too much at this resolution. I've a lot more information than I can put on to the printed map, so things like feudal holdings, parish boundaries, rural deaneries and peculiars and so on, will likely be done as individual maps in relevant chapters. I plan to release the map alongside the book as a layered PDF, allowing people to turn the various details on and off.

A lot of the grunt work you could delegate out on the boards.  Am sure you would find plenty of folk happy to generate stat blocks or proof text etc.  All for the kudos of being involved.  🙂

I don't post very often, but when I do people may have noticed over the years that I favour low fantasy and historical fantasy over the grandeur of high fantasy.
 
So let me tell you about Barwick-in-Elmet, the Yorkshire village where I grew up. This will explain my username, and probably my low-fantasy preferences.
 
Before I plough into it, I'll just note that this kind of history isn't unusual to most of us Europeans. Most of our villages date back about thousand years. Fantasy villages written by American designers seem more inspired by the Old West frontier settlements - Hommlet is a classic example. It doesn't look right, it doesn't feel right. It has no history in its design or landscape.
 
So here's some archaeology, a little history, and an unusual folk custom. I realise this thread is mostly inspirational pictures, but sometimes pictures want context.

The oldest obvious human 'building' in Barwick is a single-vallum, figure-8 shaped Iron Age hillfort known as Wendel Hill. It's never been dated, but the nearby Becca Banks earthworks have been dated to the 1st century AD, probably thrown up to stop the Roman general Agricola and his legion as they marched north (if so, it failed). I suspect the hillfort is up to a century older.

Within the hillfort lies the motte of a late-Norman motte and bailey castle, which we call Hall Tower Hill. The castle - its licence was granted by King Stephen, c. 1150AD, has long since vanished. The castle's bailey was the smaller part of the figure-8 of the hillfort; the larger part became part of peasant tofts (gardens).

Hillfort plan


 
Aerial view - the line of hedges marks the hillfort vallum (bank and ditch).
 

 
After the Romans left and the Saxons invaded, Barwick was part of the Cambric kingdom of Elmet, part of Hen Ogledd, the Old North (Hen Ogledd's most prominent king was Hen Cwl - Old King Cole of the English nursery rhyme). Along with Rheged, Elmet was one of the last surviving ancient British kingdoms. It finally fell to the Saxon Northumbrian king Edwin in 616. Barwick is sometimes erroneously considered the capital of Elmet, but in truth, no one knows where Elmet's capital was.
 
After the Saxons, the Vikings came. Barwick lies about 15 miles west of York, a prominent Viking trade town in the 9th and 10th centuries, and the centre of Erik Bloodaxe's 10th-century Kingdom of York. A pair of Viking carvings were incorporated into the 12th century foundations of the village church, All Saints' Church, probably dating from the 10th century. This is one of them.

 
Barwick is listed in Domesday Book as an outlying settlement of nearby Kippax. Its name, originally bere-wick, means 'beer village', and it's thought it was an outlying hamlet where barley was grown. By the mid-12th century its importance increased, and the de Lacy family of Pontefract moved the northern caput (head-place) of their barony there, and built the motte and bailey castle c. 1150.

All Saints has an unusual bell tower, constructed in two phases in the 15th century. The lower part is constructed of local magnesian limestone, a sought-after building material. The upper is finished in cheaper stone.The clock face is red because Barwick belonged to the Duchy of Lancaster (the current Duke is Queen Elizabeth II). While Yorkshire folk who still keep the rivalry with Lancashire like to commemorate the 1462 Yorkist victory at the Battle of Towton - about 6 miles from Barwick, the bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil - it's likely that any Barwick folk there fought on the losing side. The Houseof Lancaster's lands were mostly in the North. The Yorkist lands were predominantly in the south.
 


The local lords in the later middle ages were the Gascoigne family. Sir William Gascoigne (1350-1405) was Chief Justice of England under King Henry IV. A probably apocryphal story has it that he is the judge who had Prince Hal (the future Henry V) imprisoned - read your Shakespeare and note young Hal's crimes with Falstaff.

A later Gascoigne, Sir Thomas Gascoigne, had a triumphal arch celebrating the American victory in the War of Independence built at his estate in Parlington, two miles south of Barwick. It's the only such monument in Britain celebrating the American victory. The inscription reads "Liberty in N. America MDCLXXXIII".
 

 
The Gascoignes have long since died out, but one of Barwick's four pubs is The Gascoigne Arms.

The Maypole
Barwick's prominence dwindled over the centuries. Its inhabitants farmed, and made caustic lime in limekilns around the village. Its claim to fame these days is the maypole in the middle of the village. 
 
Its uncertain when Barwick first erected its maypole. Some say it's an ancient tradition going back to pagan times, but it's far more likely its more recent - perhaps the 17th or 18th century. At 90 feet (26 metres), it's the tallest village maypole in England.
 

 
The maypole is made of two lengths of Norwegian pine, spliced together and mound with iron. It needs upkeep. Every three years, on Easter Monday, the maypole is taken down for repainting. When I was a kid, we took it down the old-fashioned way - a village man, the Maypole Climber, shinned up to the iron bands above the garlands and lowered a guy rope, which which he pulled up four heavier roles and attached them to the pole. One rope came towards Hall Tower Hill (towards the viewpoint in the image above), another down Main Street (to the right of the image), a third down towards the church, and the last one over the rooftops to the left to the courtyard behind the Black Swan pub.
 
As the whole village turned out to hold the ropes under the guidance of the village Pole Master, the ground at the base of the maypole was loosened and dug out with pickaxes and shovels, then, slowly, at the Pole Master's instructions, lowered onto waiting ladders, then onto the shoulders of scores of man,, then carried to Hall Tower Field for repainting.

These days, since The Day The Maypole Fell, it's done with a crane.


 
As well as repainting, the garlands were replaced. The garlands are made little ribbons with bells on - an old garland bell is a good luck charm, and I carried one as a key fob for many years. During the three weeks between Easter Monday and Whitsun, the new garlands are carried to every house in the village and touched for luck.
 

 
Several times, while it was down for repainting, lads from the neighbouring village of Aberford or the town of Garforth, stole the maypole in the middle of the night. Must have been a few of them - it takes a few score of people to carry the maypole. The most recent attempt was in 1966, when Aberford lads successfuly stole the top half 3 days before the maypole raising ceremony. Barwick had to quickly get a new top half and repaint it. The orginal was found the day before the ceremony - so for a few years, the village had a spare.
 
Maypole raising is done on Whitsunday, amid great celebrations at Hall Tower Hill, where crowds sit and watch the events. It's become something of a tourist attraction. Children from the village infant school dance around a smaller maypole (we practised for weeks when I did it). Older children from the junior school perform country dances (we practised for weeks when I did it). A village girl is chosen as May Queen and other children chosen as attendants (I was crown-bearer once). There's a fair. There is a lot of beer drunk. A lot of beer. There are marching bands, brass bands.

The maypole is raised in pretty much the reverse of how it's taken down. There's is one important difference - once the maypole is set in place, and the Maypole Climber ascends to remove the ropes, he must continue climbing to the very top of the maypole to spin the fox weathervane and bring luck to the village...
 

 
For many years, the maypole climber was my neighbour, Arthur Nicholls, who built a smaller maypole by his farmhouse to practice. I think that's him in the picture above.

The Day the Maypole Fell
 
Easter Monday, 1981, the maypole fell down Main Street while it was being lowered. I, aged 12, was on the Main Street rope with my sisters. I didn't quite realise what was happening at first - the rope went slack, the maypole seemed to be getting shorter, and then people started running. Fortunately, it landed in the street and everyone got clear. The tip hit the curb, and the top two feet broke off. A lad grabbed it (and the bent weathervane) and tried to make off with it, but one of my neighbours saw and brought him down in a rugby tackle a couple of hundred yards away.

These days, with much regret, the village uses a crane to raise and lower the maypole.

The next maypole raising will be at Whitsuntide, 2020, if you'd like to visit.

 

You've convinced me. No colossus can replace that east-meets-west vibe.

It's worthwhile noting that the TA resources go much further than the TA setting book, Fantasy hero Battlegrounds and Nobles, Knights and Necromancers.
 
Fantasy Hero Grimoire and Fantasy Hero Grimoire II are specifically noted as being the grimoires for Turakian Age - in their spell descriptions (and even names) you'll find snippets of background lore on wizards and the occasional historical events. These were removed (and spells renamed) when the two volumes were combined for the 6th edition Grimoire. Personally, I rather like the fanciful names of the 5th edition grimoires.
 
Enchanted Items, by Jason Walters, also draws on TA for items' backgrounds. Monsters, Minions and Marauders provides stats for many of the species in the core setting book.
 
Some published elements of the setting go back further. The Ulronai Warrior-Mage and the College of Warrior-Magery were first detailed in Fantasy Hero Companion II (for 4th edition) back in 1992. Steve is listed as a contributor to that volume.
 
I must admit, I very much enjoy the Turakian Age. I've set campaigns in Aarn and the Westerlands, and in Mitharia. I've even set the classic Keep on the Borderlands (converted to Hero 6) in the borders between Kirkhovy and Vestria. Like others, I find it has a Greyhawk-ish flavour, though with more plot ideas secreted in its background.

The PDF edition of the new edition of Chivalry & Sorcery is now available on drivethruRPG.
 
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/293870
 
There is a detailed review of the game here:
https://www.savevsplayeragency.net/2019/12/23/review-chivalry-sorcery-5th-edition-pdf/

I use Tasha's Ultimate Sheet, which exports to HTML, then print it to PDF.
 
It's worth noting that Chrome doesn't recognise page breaks, which leads to messy PDFs. Instead, open the HTML file with Firefox and print to PDF from there. Each page is nicely preserved.

One magic system I've used for divine magic is to have effects powered only by an END Reserve that will only recharge while the character is performing religious acts, such as prayer. I did this specifically to emulate HarnMaster's ritual and piety point system, and to give divine magic a very different flavour to arcane magic.
 
You coud vary is somewhat - recovering END only while on ground consecrated to the character's deity, for example (though one might then allow a specific temporary Consecrate ritual which costs no END but requires significant extra time so you can set up a temporary shrine where you stop to camp, but can't recharge your reserve in combat).

Re: attacking individuals. Under "attacking individuals" the rules note that the ban on attacking individuals is for ease of play.
 
Most actions for prominent individuals are not attack options, but leadership. inspiration and intimidation. However, the rules note that if a prominent individual chooses to attack a unit, it is treated as a unit of one person (ie, the unit it is attacking can attack it back).

Determinging damage from individual attacks - yes, the rules note that under most circumstances the Unit Modifer should not be less that 0, in order that a smaller unit may damage a larger one. However, it goes on to note that the GM may allow Unit Modifiers of less than 0 in order to keep smaller units from having too great an impact. In the case of an individual, no matter how prominent, attacking a large unit, that would seem appropriate.

AOEs are mentioned in Megascale and Battle Scale in the Magic in Mass Combat section. It suggests the way to build a spell to affect an entire unit is to use Megascale.

No mass combat system I'm aware of segues nicely between personal scale and unit scale. There's always some clunkiness and edge cases.

Hero System mass combat offers several options - treating prominent individuals as one-person units, using noteworthy events for individuals, and having personal scale combat in a mass combat environment. None of these is without issues - but those issues are much easier to resolve if one remembers that the player characters are the protagonists: it's their story that matters.

While Aarn has the reputation for being the largest city in Ambrethel, for big-city adventure I find the Free City of Tavrosel, in Mhorecia, to hold more interesting potential. Tavrosel is described as "an enormous city, second in size only to Aarn." (The Turakian Age p. 85)  Its government is a semi-democracy with an elected ruling Triumvirate, so there's lots of potential for political intrigue. Tavrosel's excellent port position on the Sea of Mhorec linking most of Mhorecia, and proximity to the Great Pass between Mhorecia and Khoria, make it a major meeting place for the cultures of West and East, giving it a diverse, cosmopolitan populace. It also lies in an area of overlapping interest for several larger powers: Besruhan, Velkara, the Sirrenic Empire, and the Hargeshite Empire of Vashkhor. Tavrosel's diplomats spend much time and energy to deflect those states' acquisitive intentions.

This was sent to me by a player who then had the audacity to ask "we're not that bad, are we?" 
 

 
https://i.redd.it/35w2wbpo57v21.png
 
Didn't want to do a hot link on someone else's bandwidth, so you'll have to go check it out. 

One magic system I've used for divine magic is to have effects powered only by an END Reserve that will only recharge while the character is performing religious acts, such as prayer. I did this specifically to emulate HarnMaster's ritual and piety point system, and to give divine magic a very different flavour to arcane magic.
 
You coud vary is somewhat - recovering END only while on ground consecrated to the character's deity, for example (though one might then allow a specific temporary Consecrate ritual which costs no END but requires significant extra time so you can set up a temporary shrine where you stop to camp, but can't recharge your reserve in combat).

During the discussion on the thread, The Turakian Age is Seriously Underrated, it was brought to my attention that not only were many folks unfamiliar with that fantasy setting published by Hero Games, but the degree to which other books in the Fantasy Hero line were directly connected to it, providing supporting elaboration for various facets of its world. It occurred to me that Hero's signature sci-fi setting might also suffer from a similar misconception. Just as with the Turakian Age, most of Hero's science-fiction books use the Terran Empire as their default reference, in some cases even more than their fantasy books do for TA.
 
The centerpiece of the line is, or course, the Terran Empire source book. While the majority of the book details this future era when Humanity has forged a major interstellar empire from a human perspective, it also spends considerable time surveying the history, culture, and technology of other races of the galaxy, major and minor, including character templates. Not everyone has noticed that Steve Long co-wrote TE with sci-fi author and game designer, James Cambias, who brings his rich imagination and narrative style to the project.
 
Scourges Of The Galaxy, written by Jason Walters, provides extensive backgrounds and full games stats for a host of NPCs, solo or part of organizations, drawn directly from the galaxy of the TE era. In many cases they're elaborations of people or groups mentioned in Terran Empire. Another book, Worlds Of Empire, surveys nearly two dozen alien planets both within and outside the Empire. Quite a few of those are notably exotic compared to Earth. The environment and geography of each planet is laid out, including planetary Mercator projection maps. In a number of cases the planets have native inhabitants, whose history and culture are spelled out in even richer detail than in the core book. Spacers Toolkit provides descriptions, stats and, often, illustrations for even more weapons, equipment, and vehicles used during the Terran Empire era, both by humans and aliens.
 
Other Hero books, while not set in the TE era, build on precedents established for the Hero Universe's future. Alien Wars by Allen Thomas rolls the timeline back a few centuries, to the human race's protracted war for survival versus the horrific Xenovores. Besides providing a less "imperial" human society, the book adds even more alien races to the galaxy's population.
 
Shifting out of the Star Hero line, Champions Beyond elaborates the "space/cosmic" side of the company's present-day, superhero-dominated Earth, by infusing most of the aliens from their sci-fi books (adjusted for this earlier period in their history), and adding even more. Nearly eighty species are mentioned in that book, with details ranging from a couple of paragraphs up to multi-page chapters which include home world description comparable to what's in Worlds Of Empire, history, culture, technology, and representative individuals. CB also introduces such classic comic-book sci-fi features as super-advanced aliens, planet-eaters, and "cosmic entities."
 
For a "Legion of Superheroes" - type campaign, Galactic Champions moves the time line forward past the Terran Empire period, to when Mankind and other interstellar civilizations have formed a vast Galactic Federation. Various "superheroes" and "supervillains" are provided, again based on the history and races established throughout Hero's space books.
 
The Hero Games website used to host several free supplements to its Star Hero line, which can still be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Several forms for help creating and recording info about alien species, planets, and star sectors are linked to here. You can also download a simple application to randomly generate sectors of your own galaxy, based on the tables from the Star Hero genre book, from here. Finally, on this webpage you'll find links to free color "astropolitical" maps of the Milky Way galaxy at the time of the Terran Empire, in several sizes/resolutions.

Looking over the thread, images I posted years ago of Gordale Scar and Malham Cove in Yorkshire never showed up. Gordale Scar is reputedly Tolkien's inspiration for Rivendell. The two locations are within walking distance of each other.
 
Gordale Scar

 
Malham Cove

 
To these I might add Troller's Gill, near Appletreewick in Yorkshire, home on local folklore to a Black Dog known as the Barghest (yes, that's the one that gives the name to the fantasy monster).

 
Also near Appletreewick, The Strid is a narrow, low gorge where the River Wharfe narrows to a point where it's possible to jump across - but people have died trying. The river here is some 30 feet deep, undercuts the rocks, moves with the speed of an express train, and the rocks around are slippy. Fall and you die. Strid Woods are a site of special scientific interest - an untouched upland oak forest. Half an hour's walk downstream of The Strid are the ruins of Bolton Abbey. From the far side of the Wharfe to the abbey, a path leads up to the Valley of Desolation, which is actually quite lovely - it's retained the name since a sotrm a couple of hundred years ago blew the trees down. They grew back.

The Strid

 
Strid Woods - looking downstream from The Strid.

 
Bolton Abbey. I've ancestors buried in that graveyard.

 
Posforth Gill, Valley of Desolation

 
Keep heading up the Valley of Desolation, and you'll climb Barden Fell to the natural viewpoint of Simon's Seat, with views over Upper Wharfedale.

I must admit to a personal dislike of theeing and thouing as a faux medieval thing. Mostly because I come from a part of England that still uses thee and thou - and it is the familiar form of the second person singular. You use it with friends and family. As we say, tha thees them as thees thee (you use 'thee' with people who use 'thee' with you, in standard English).
 
But because it's in the KJV, people think it's polite and quaint.
 
There has been a lot of streamlining of rules over the years; our mantra with this edition is "rules elegance" - no unnecessary complexity - while increasing the medieval flavour.

Woooooow that’s a blast from the past. We had First and second edition. That was a while ago. I may chip in a few bucks. I’ll have to check. 

Now that is a blast from the past.  I'll need to keep an eye on it, and I might just do it.
 
Of course I didn't have a great experience with it back in the 70's. 
 
Of course in hindsight I realize it was the dweebs running it. They were treating it as a theatrical production rather than an RPG and not just expected, but demanded everyone "thee and thou" all the time.  I had a horrible time.
 
But the adult me is very interested, especially in a modern treatment. 

The kickstarter for a new edition of the legendary Chivalry & Sorcery is now live.
 
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cns5/chivalry-and-sorcery-the-medieval-role-playing-game
 
This edition builds and refines the rules presented on the 4th edition, published 19 years ago. Sections on medieval society are greatly expanded, taking advantage of two more decades of historical research.
 
Judaism and Islam join Christianity in the core rules for the first time, with sections written by members of those faiths who have studied medieval beliefs and practices. Guidelines for creating fantasy religions and pantheons are included.
 
Alongside fantastical magick, an optional system presents magick from the medieval worldview.
 
Disclosure: I am involved in designing this edition.

The kickstarter for a new edition of the legendary Chivalry & Sorcery is now live.
 
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cns5/chivalry-and-sorcery-the-medieval-role-playing-game
 
This edition builds and refines the rules presented on the 4th edition, published 19 years ago. Sections on medieval society are greatly expanded, taking advantage of two more decades of historical research.
 
Judaism and Islam join Christianity in the core rules for the first time, with sections written by members of those faiths who have studied medieval beliefs and practices. Guidelines for creating fantasy religions and pantheons are included.
 
Alongside fantastical magick, an optional system presents magick from the medieval worldview.
 
Disclosure: I am involved in designing this edition.

The kickstarter for a new edition of the legendary Chivalry & Sorcery is now live.
 
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cns5/chivalry-and-sorcery-the-medieval-role-playing-game
 
This edition builds and refines the rules presented on the 4th edition, published 19 years ago. Sections on medieval society are greatly expanded, taking advantage of two more decades of historical research.
 
Judaism and Islam join Christianity in the core rules for the first time, with sections written by members of those faiths who have studied medieval beliefs and practices. Guidelines for creating fantasy religions and pantheons are included.
 
Alongside fantastical magick, an optional system presents magick from the medieval worldview.
 
Disclosure: I am involved in designing this edition.