Scriptoria & Scribes

[MedievalMan]

I would say the best idea is to go for the Morgansfort setting, it might be easier than trying to pin down a nebulous generic "medieval" setting.

If that's the case I will go ahead and reread Morgansfort and get back to you on my thoughts.

If you just want to go full generic, then I would assume a late medieval setting. Magic-User schools fit in their better than in an earlier time frame, at least to me.

[Sir Bedivere]

Sorry, I just edited that post and noticed you posted right after me. I also thought we might consider the Glain setting, which has a lot more cities & general civilization, it seems.

[MedievalMan]

Hmm, well I was a little quick on the draw. I haven't read much at all about Glain (I tend to make up my own settings). What can you tell me about the setting?

[Sir Bedivere]

Not much, at the moment. I've just started looking at it myself, but the map has a lot more civilization on it.

I'm entirely open to suggestions at this point, but I'm leaning toward a generic late medieval setting. We can always say something like, "In the heart of the great kingdoms ... but at the frontiers ..."

[MedievalMan]

That might be a good idea. I'm all for a generic setting, makes it easier to fit in stuff.

[LibraryLass]

It's nice to have a world to illustrate your arguments with, but it should still be generic enough to be applicable to other worlds.

[Sir Bedivere]

Okay, let's go with that: Generic late medieval it is.

Here's my basic plan again:
1. Research medieval information creation & dissemination (so, education, scholarship, communication / news, and all the things that are required to make them work like scribes, paper makers, etc.)
2. Consider how the fantasy setting would modify things
3. Write up a simplified set of proposals for how GMs can incorporate aspects of this into their campaigns
4. Write up an adventure

Did I leave anything out? If not ...

1, 2, & 3 are all interconnected. I vote we leave 4 out until we have a draft of 3.

What part would you like to start on?

As for me, I studied the history of the book and the medieval university in a college course some years ago. I'm going to go dig up the books we used and refresh my memory.

[Solomoriah]

Glain is a poor model. It has existed for over 700 years in a state of arrested development due to a single very powerful wizard who doesn't like warfare. He recently (in the current game) went missing, and stuff is starting to happen... kingdoms toppled, ancient secrets revealed, etc. But technology, culture, etc. have not changed much since the fall of the Argossean Empire. A character from that era would not find much surprising in the modern age.

[Sir Bedivere]

Also, just because one of us is researching an area doesn't mean someone else can't as well. If someone else wants to look into books or medieval universities, feel free.

[MedievalMan]

Well I did some quick thinking about the topic of demi-humans and universities and such. I was thinking maybe you should skim Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Its demi-humans are pretty stock and the setting boasts universities like the kind we are talking about. Off the top of my head I remember humans and dwarves were inclined to scholarly learning (leaning more towards engineering in the dwarves case), while elves pretty much stuck to a master/apprentice system (at least amongst the wood elves), and I can't remember how the halflings handled this sort of stuff. Eat food and smoke weed? I guess that's their answer to everything.