Medieval - Tales From Europe
Quickstart and Guide to Esoterism
In June of 793, a raiding party of Danish warriors descended on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne. This brutal attack left few survivors and kicked off what became known as the Viking Age. This is the backdrop for the short introductory adventure for Medieval, Tales From Europe. This new campaign setting from Tales For Gamers builds on the Dungeons & Dragons 5e rules system and brings medieval realism to the world's most popular RPG. Set in medieval Europe, you won't find elves and wizards here. Rather, you will find warring Celts and arcanists who employ suggestion techniques to work miracles. The full game has yet to be released, the Kickstarter for it began on October 1st, 2022. However Tales For Gamers has published two free previews to explain some of the key concepts and provide some short pre-written scenarios for you to try out. We'll be looking at the Quickstart rules along with the Guide to Esoterism in this review. A full review will be added when the completed product is released.
Medieval Realism
As the name implies, Medieval is about gaming in a fictitious version Middle Ages Europe. While many fantasy RPGs are already set in a stylized medieval time period, they often gloss over the fact that the time period was not easy for the average person and life expectancy was low. Whether from warfare, disease, or famine - a person faced many hardships throughout their life. Medieval addresses this by adjusting the 5e rules set to make the player characters more vulnerable and combat deadlier.
There are 11 new character classes in this setting, built around common medieval archetypes (including peasant!) and almost all of them have a d4 Hit Die, meaning lower hit points. The Fighter is the exception and they only get a d6. There are also 13 cultural backgrounds representing the most common cultural roots of the Middle Ages that give benefits to the characters. However, from the three that are part of the pre-generated characters available in the Quickstart rules, it does not appear that they have much bearing on the health of a character.
Combat has also been adjusted. The weapons do much more damage to account for the fact that a stab from a sword (4d8 damage!) will seriously injure if not outright kill most people. There are a couple of new mechanics to mitigate this deadliness besides just hit points - armor layers, parrying.
First, there are layers of armor. The First Layer is simple padding such as a gambeson. The Second Layer is a middle layer of chain mail or other flexible armor that stacks onto the First Layer. The Third Layer is a broader, harder armor like plate mail that stacks onto the first two. Each layer adds to the total AC but requires training to use them. There are also Helmets and Shields. Helmets act as additional layers of armor that also add to the total. Shields can be used to gain advantage on Parrying.
Parrying is a new reaction that all characters can take when an attack beats their AC. The defender makes an attack roll using their Dexterity modifier. If it is greater than the attacker's attack roll, the blow is parried and takes no effect. Only shields can parry projectile weapons. Shields also grant a +1 to AC if an ally within 5 feet has a shield as well, allowing players to create the classic shield wall. These changes make shields, found on every medieval battlefield, a vital piece of gear and not just another AC bonus.
Debilitating Wounds are a way to use Exhaustion to simulate the long-term effects of a wound beyond just hit point damage. At the end of a battle, if a character is below their Danger Threshold (1/3 of Total HP) they must make a Constitution Saving Throw or suffer a Debilitating Wound. If they fail the saving throw, depending on how poorly they rolled, the wound may be superficial or it may be fatal. The exhaustion from debilitating wounds stacks and cannot go away until that wound is treated. Furthermore, if a wound is untreated for more than 24 hours it will become infected and they will gain another level of exhaustion that must be treated separately. Once wounds are treated, exhaustion drops at the rate of one level per Long Rest. However, in Medieval, short rests are 8 hours and long rests are at least 2 days. This represents the fact that it does actually take time to recover from a wound in a world where magic doesn't exist.
Because weapons are so deadly and because not everyone is trained in using them (or allowed to have them), attacks like Unarmed Strikes and Strangling will be used more often to inflict Exhaustion instead of outright killing.
Your Role in Life
As you can see, there are a lot of reasons why you don't want to get into a fight in Medieval. That is actually one of the goals of Medieval to take combat away from the center of D&D. The classes are designed to survive using resources other than their sword-arm. They are not trained in combat and should avoid it if at all possible. Instead, the classes have features that will aid them in interacting with others. Even the Fighter can become better at intimidating someone simply by drawing their weapon, something that all characters can now attempt.
Playing the role of peasants may seem odd or boring, but the Peasant class has some interesting features that make them a viable option. Depending on whether they are on a country peasant or a city peasant, they gain proficiency in different skills and tools. They also gain the ability to make a living whether through hard work or manual skill. Peasants also learn how to take advantage of being ignored allowing them to have advantage on Stealth in certain situations. The other enjoyable feature for peasants detailed in the Quickstart Rules is their Folkloric Trait. Peasants are able to use their body of folklore to either Charm or Frighten a target with either a song, a folk tale, a joke, or a taunt. The Frightened condition in Medieval is stronger than regular D&D. Rather than just a mechanical quality of Disadvantage on rolls, there I a roleplaying element to Frightened now. The character may surrender completely, hand over their valuables, or turn tail and run. Combining this with the Folkloric Trait of the peasant and you can see how Robin Hood's peasant woodsmen might become notorious bandits!
Like Peasants, Fighters get to determine what sort of fighter they are by their Attitude of War. This is similar to a 5e fighter where they can choose archer, infantryman, defensive, etc. However, similar to the Peasant's Folkloric Trait, they may take the Arrogant attitude which gives them advantage on Intimidation checks to impose the frightened condition on a target or allows them to target two individuals at the same time. This is effectively that fighter who never needs to swing his sword because his enemies know his reputation and run away - think the Dread Pirate Roberts! Likewise, fighters become immune to frightened when they and their opponent both wield weapons. They also learn unarmed wrestling and mounted combat. At 3rd level, they choose their archetype. The two archetypes defined in the Quickstart rules are the Elite Soldier and the Barbarian Knight. The Elite Soldier gains a Military Rank which earns them a Weekly Pay, however they are a subordinate and may have orders they will need to carry out. The Barbarian Knight is not the raging war machine of regular D&D. Rather, they are skilled nomads who strike quickly and brutally. They also gain the ability to frighten an opponent with but a look or maybe a war cry - no weapon is even needed.
The third class presented in the Quickstart, the Votary, along with the Arcanist from the Guide to Esoterism rely on the power of Suggestion. As this is a more realistic depiction of a medieval setting, magic does not really exist. Rather, those who claim to have esoteric powers, whether divine or arcane, do so through the power of suggestion, defined here as "the psychological phenomenon where a person is convinced that they are seeing something that does not exist due to another person's direct or indirect action." In other words, if the spellcaster is very convincing that they are doing something then the viewer or target will have a greater chance to believe that it is actually happening. This could be the spellcaster themselves - believing they truly do work wonders and cast hexes! The key thing here is that any effects created through Suggestion should be plausible but not too flashy. An arcanist might not be able to hurl fireballs, but their spell may seem to make a strong wind flare a fire causing it to light nearby dry grass causing a wildfire.
The two classes defined here are separated by their believed source of power. The Votary is a holy person such as a priest or cleric, though it is not limited to Christian titles it could be a rabbi or imam as well since both Judaism and Islam are present at the time as well. They are able to ask for Divine Signs which manifest as an unexplained benevolent event. This is not a "cleric spell" but rather simple effects like a person's fever breaks or a lost child is found. Votaries are also able to use scripture to evoke certain effects in others and may earn a living through preaching and hearing confession. At 3rd level, they choose a Divine Mission as their subclass. The two listed here are the Acolyte Preacher and the Ascetic. The Acolyte Preacher is charismatic and their features are tied to their interaction with others. The ascetic is more introspective, gaining advantages through study, practice, and self-denial including self-flagellation which increases their Wisdom bonus temporarily after inflicting damage on themselves.
The Arcanist leans more towards the pagan or non-religious esoterism. They could be shamans, spiritualists, or cultists. They are able to craft wonders and perform rituals causing the impossible to seemingly happen. These can range from the simple to the outlandish, but the more outrageous the wonder the more difficult it is to succeed. They can simply speak the words of power necessary for the wonder or they can perform a ritual which takes longer and requires their complete attention. This will make the wonder easier to complete. At 3rd level, they choose an Esoteric Domain which is the source of their power. The three choices in the Guide to Esoterism are Primal, Angelic, or Shadow sorcery. Primal sorcerers draw power from the world around them through animals, plants, and minerals. Angelic sorcery might be considered white magic - working with benevolent spirits to do good and help others. Shadow sorcery would then be black magic - invoking malevolent forces for one's own benefit.
Worldbuilding Wrap-Up
As with all reviews here on DMing the World, we end with a wrap-up about how you can use this product in your own game, specifically your own campaign world. Since these are preview materials, it is hard to write extensively about the subject in this case. However, the ideas presented here are unique enough that you can begin to formulate how you might use them. The Quickstart does provide a small section where it discusses what sorts of adventures you might expect to play with this setting. It lists four which I expect will be expounded on in the final book: historical reality, alternative history, literature, and fiction. For our purposes we will be looking at those last two - literature and fiction.
This rules presented here are excellent for bringing realism to your D&D world. You might want to play a grounded, fantasy campaign where the risks and stakes are greater. Looking back at the early origins of D&D to Gary Gygax's influences of Fritz Leiber and Robert E. Howard, this setting does allow for that type of gameplay. This would also work well with more modern grounded fantasy like Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastards. The Quickstart also suggests the works of Umberto Eco, Ken Follett, and Bernard Cornwall. Playing in the world of any of these works would be quite entertaining and would give you a great "toybox" to play with.
You could take it a step further though and use this to help build your own world. It does not have to be European but it may have elements of it. You might rework the fantasy races of your world into cultural backgrounds instead or you kit-bash the higher levels of combat danger into your D&D game to make it grittier. A traditional D&D world where magic uses Suggestion rather than true powers would be vastly different from the "superpowered" magic of 5e. How would that affect the monsters? Suddenly, an owlbear seems deadly and a dragon would truly terrorize the land.
Overall, I am very impressed with the work of Tales for Gamers, so far. I can't wait to see the final product and while I may not use it often as a straight setting on its own, I will definitely be using it to build onto the worlds I build.
The Kickstarter for Medieval, Tales from Europe ends on November 5th, 2022 and has nearly doubled its initial goal. Grab your free copies of The Quickstart and Guide to Esoterism and back the full project at Medieval, Tales from Europe.
