At 8:24 he opens up to a map of Greater Poland, the "core of the Kingdom of Poland" and right in the middle is a little town named Kalisz. As a former Twilight 2000 player, I went right into PTSD.
Baptism of fire is pretty good, but the Worldtree of Poland file feels so much like a puzzlepiece that should've been included in the original product, as that one lacks info that you can only find in BoF and vice versa.
I would have liked to have included that in the main book, but by the time I got to it we were already way over size. The problem is that the bigger a book is the more expensive it has to be and we were going beyond the limit that was comfortable for the publisher.
@@RPGPundit Makes sense, I don't recall the exact name, but there was similarly something in the Punditfile that I had to look up in the BoF book, I guess that has a page limit too? It felt a lot more like a mini-expansion to BoF than something to truly take out on it's own.
Most of the Pundit Files issues are meant as a supplement for one of my game books, as extra material. There's issues intended for Lion & Dragon, Sword & Caravan, The Invisible College, Star Adventurer, Baptism of Fire, and World of the Last Sun.
I absolutely love the idea of running a game set in medieval Poland. Being able to run a game set in just one region of the country is very appealing to me leaving the other regions to be more mysterious and potential lands for new campaigns. I like the idea of running it historically but every once in awhile throwing in something that is mythological.
Well, Baptism of Fire is not a 'strictly realistic' game. It is the medieval world the way that Medieval People believed it to be, so miracles, magic, and monsters are all real. But the history and culture elements are also all authentic (or as best as can be done from historical sources). Spread the word, share the video!
The folks living in the hills of Pomerania are. . . "Rustic," huh? Surprising. Ever been to West Virginia? The map in Baptism of Fire really is beautifully done. I love it. I'm glad we got the color hardcover. I do have some questions I'd love for you to address, in fact. Mostly about small villages and how they operated. Not necessarily in regards to Baptism of Fire, but in the same general time period: Tenth to twelfth century. I guess the guilds were already pretty powerful at that time, yes? How did that effect people in small villages? Would there have been guild halls in those small villages? Would the local blacksmith have been a guild member or would he just be the son of the last blacksmith and have learned his trade from his father? What about the baker? I know that in England bakers were, at times, quite hated because people weren't permitted to have their own oven, yes? Did this kind of thing with bakers start later on or was it beginning even as far back as the tenth through twelfth centuries? What about crime and punishment in those small villages? I gather that small villages and particularly manorial estates were pretty self-sufficient and insular. Would the locals be perfectly happy to cheat strangers with a smile and, more to the point, ignore other members of their village cheating someone from, "outside?" Would there have been any kind of punishment if a local were to be accused of cheating a stranger? Would strangers just accept it as normal because they expect it? I suppose some of that might depend on the social class of the stranger and the local. A peasant accusing a noble probably isn't going to get anything like justice and a noble accusing a peasant is probably going to get whatever he wants if the local nobility has reason to defer to him, yes? On the other hand, I suppose people might have been more honest back then? No. I'm joking. I don't think that for a second. Humans have been humans for thousands of years regardless of technology and supposed, "civilization." I expect that the more isolated a village is the more unsafe it would be for a stranger. Anyway, if you could discuss, in as great a depth as you can, what you know about life in small villages I'd love to hear about it. Even if a lot of it is speculative (or totally made up, since we're talking about games rather than historical fact) or just how you like to run your game I think everyone would love to hear about it. It might make for a good Pundit Files, too. It's one we'd certainly buy. Not that there are many we haven't, I think. (My son buys pretty much all of them. I hardly have time to read any of them. I think I've managed to read three, so far. I did really like the one on cities, though.) I'm really interested in your ideas on how ordinary people actually lived their lives and what they did to survive. Did they really spin their own thread and weave their own cloth in every home? That's incredible! The amount of time that must have required is mind boggling!
Thank you for this big comment! To start with, villages as a rule did not have guilds. They had a few particular artisans, though in the 10th/11th centuries a lot of villages didn't even necessarily have a blacksmith, and things that were done by guilds in cities were just done by regular villagers (weaving, fishing, coal-burning, carpentry, baking etc). Some of these crafts were done individually by household, others collectively by the village as a whole. It's extremely unlikely that there would be a guildhall in a small village. Some villages did have a common meeting hall, but not all of them. Small villages were either part of land controlled by a noble (or a monastery) or were independent in territory that was either unclaimed or unattended. In the former cases, criminal issues would be settled (if not by mob justice) by the local ruler or his representatives, though petty cases would be decided by the village headman. Nobles obviously had special privileges compared to commoners, and typically could only be judged by their own (and it had to be someone with superior authority to them). As for strangers, there was a custom of hospitality, which was one of the core values of society. If a stranger was granted hospitality, both parties were honor bound to behave properly with each other. A violation on the part of either party was extremely serious, and could lead to all kinds of consequences.
Thank you for the long reply,@@RPGPundit! That was something I wondered about, too. I had guessed that not every tiny village would have a blacksmith. Most of them would likely not have had enough work to keep one busy I'd guess. So what would they do? Order what they need from the nearest small town that did have a smith? How would that work, exactly? One guy who is really good at negotiating prices goes down the road to order for the whole village? Everyone who needs something just saves up as best they can and goes when they can? I need details, man! LOL How far apart would two blacksmiths be? Ten miles, twenty, forty? I think you could do a video _and_ a Pundit Files on the life of a small village. It doesn't even have to be perfectly true to history. I'd love to know how you do these things in your own games. (It seems unlikely that I'd ever get to play in one. LOL) I think this is the kind of thing that would add real flavor to a campaign. Maybe a livestream? I can't possibly be the only person with these kinds of questions. Maybe nobody else asks? I can't imagine why. You're probably the single most responsive person on this whole platform.
Fascinating stuff, looks like a great source of inspiration to draw upon for world building. I've already mentioned this in previous videos, but I'd love to have a video for us non-historians on how to research cultures or periods to create our own believable world. Would sure give you something to ramble on about :)
It's hard for an historian to give a recommendation of how to research for non-historians. That said, wikipedia is actually usually pretty good in its historical articles (and the further back you go in time the less likely it is to be politicized in any way).
I can tell you that BoF is great! I could read that whole thing over and over. It really is a great resource for world building. It's honestly not exactly my setting (I'm going with rather more magic and quite a different system of magic) but it's still got the right 'smell' to it. Wikipedia really does have quite a lot of information that is usable. I've read a lot of their articles and have to go back and read them a few more times, honestly. I could listen to RPGPundit lecture for as long as he could speak on history, religion, esoterica, or just about anything else, really.
Thank you for your attention in making the dubbing available in Brazilian Portuguese, my English is intermediate, my fluency is only in reading and writing, when I hear or speak something in English I have to pay 100% focused attention. Hail to Thac0!
Don't know if you would prefer to avoid talking about it, but I'd love to hear more details of the D&D 5e rules you contributed to. And, with hindsight, what you would change now.
8:10 Hex to left of Poznań is the hex where I was born and I still live in. Don't loot this place guys lol Love this game. I now need to order hardcover, it looks so good.
With regard to roleplaying game topics I'd like to hear about how you handle languages in your games, in general and Baptism of Fire in particular. I see a lot of games that only deal with language on a cursory level. If a character knows a language, they are 100% fluent in that language, and literate as well. Often, each race has one and only one language.
I thought I'd answered this already, but it seems to have been lost. In my games there's definitely various languages, that's covered in the rules, but it's important to make a balance between verisimilitude and playability. I also have a skill called "Languages" that some classes can access, which allows people to speak a very basic level of various languages. In my games, most characters are not literate, unless it specifically states they are. Generally only erudite classes are literate, in which case they'll likely be literate in most languages they know.
Oo! How to run a Conan style campaign? How to run a Primal style campaign? Praying the cat distribution system shall grace your house with a new friend.
I need to get around to ordering this. Been toying with a setting idea like this but of a world of anthropomorphic animals and a great pull from Game of Thrones.
Well, it's one of my older games, OSR but not in the same style as my newer OSR games, it's a lot closer to standard AD&D. But set in the epic India of the Mahabharata.
Have you done any content on Powered by the apocalypse games? I own 4 of them and I'll be honestly I still don't know if I'm running these games right. The outcomes always seem so wishy washy and my players hate the "well yes you succeed but with consequences" of the mid rolls.
I use Thac0, I might be a clown but at least I’m not an idiot that can’t subtract.
Spread the word, share the video!
Just grabbed a hardcover version and the PDFs. Can't wait to take a look!
That's great, thank you very much! I'm sure you'll enjoy it.
At 8:24 he opens up to a map of Greater Poland, the "core of the Kingdom of Poland" and right in the middle is a little town named Kalisz. As a former Twilight 2000 player, I went right into PTSD.
LOL. Spread the word, share the video!
"Good luck, you're on your own." [Chills]
Baptism of fire is pretty good, but the Worldtree of Poland file feels so much like a puzzlepiece that should've been included in the original product, as that one lacks info that you can only find in BoF and vice versa.
I would have liked to have included that in the main book, but by the time I got to it we were already way over size. The problem is that the bigger a book is the more expensive it has to be and we were going beyond the limit that was comfortable for the publisher.
@@RPGPundit Makes sense, I don't recall the exact name, but there was similarly something in the Punditfile that I had to look up in the BoF book, I guess that has a page limit too?
It felt a lot more like a mini-expansion to BoF than something to truly take out on it's own.
Most of the Pundit Files issues are meant as a supplement for one of my game books, as extra material. There's issues intended for Lion & Dragon, Sword & Caravan, The Invisible College, Star Adventurer, Baptism of Fire, and World of the Last Sun.
You had me at Beaver Master.
Spread the Beaver Mastery, share the Video!
Hearing you say "they were eating the beavers" ... priceless. Good video !
Spread the word, share the video!
I absolutely love the idea of running a game set in medieval Poland.
Being able to run a game set in just one region of the country is very appealing to me leaving the other regions to be more mysterious and potential lands for new campaigns.
I like the idea of running it historically but every once in awhile throwing in something that is mythological.
Well, Baptism of Fire is not a 'strictly realistic' game. It is the medieval world the way that Medieval People believed it to be, so miracles, magic, and monsters are all real. But the history and culture elements are also all authentic (or as best as can be done from historical sources).
Spread the word, share the video!
I will buy the book and you will get a new cat, deal? :)
Everybody is missing Meatball... 😢
Pray that the cat distribution system graces his house with a new fur buddy.
I will definitely be getting a new cat relatively soon. Except when I was traveling, I've always had a cat.
I am very happy to hear that, @@RPGPundit. Cats are excellent companions and not terribly demanding.
Yay! Viking stuff! I can not wait.
Thanks. Spread the word, share the video!
I super excited for the next two physical books
Great. Spread the word, share the video!
The folks living in the hills of Pomerania are. . . "Rustic," huh? Surprising. Ever been to West Virginia?
The map in Baptism of Fire really is beautifully done. I love it. I'm glad we got the color hardcover.
I do have some questions I'd love for you to address, in fact. Mostly about small villages and how they operated. Not necessarily in regards to Baptism of Fire, but in the same general time period: Tenth to twelfth century.
I guess the guilds were already pretty powerful at that time, yes? How did that effect people in small villages? Would there have been guild halls in those small villages? Would the local blacksmith have been a guild member or would he just be the son of the last blacksmith and have learned his trade from his father? What about the baker? I know that in England bakers were, at times, quite hated because people weren't permitted to have their own oven, yes? Did this kind of thing with bakers start later on or was it beginning even as far back as the tenth through twelfth centuries?
What about crime and punishment in those small villages? I gather that small villages and particularly manorial estates were pretty self-sufficient and insular. Would the locals be perfectly happy to cheat strangers with a smile and, more to the point, ignore other members of their village cheating someone from, "outside?" Would there have been any kind of punishment if a local were to be accused of cheating a stranger? Would strangers just accept it as normal because they expect it? I suppose some of that might depend on the social class of the stranger and the local. A peasant accusing a noble probably isn't going to get anything like justice and a noble accusing a peasant is probably going to get whatever he wants if the local nobility has reason to defer to him, yes?
On the other hand, I suppose people might have been more honest back then? No. I'm joking. I don't think that for a second. Humans have been humans for thousands of years regardless of technology and supposed, "civilization." I expect that the more isolated a village is the more unsafe it would be for a stranger.
Anyway, if you could discuss, in as great a depth as you can, what you know about life in small villages I'd love to hear about it. Even if a lot of it is speculative (or totally made up, since we're talking about games rather than historical fact) or just how you like to run your game I think everyone would love to hear about it. It might make for a good Pundit Files, too. It's one we'd certainly buy. Not that there are many we haven't, I think. (My son buys pretty much all of them. I hardly have time to read any of them. I think I've managed to read three, so far. I did really like the one on cities, though.) I'm really interested in your ideas on how ordinary people actually lived their lives and what they did to survive. Did they really spin their own thread and weave their own cloth in every home? That's incredible! The amount of time that must have required is mind boggling!
Just checking to see if my comment got deleted...
Thank you for this big comment! To start with, villages as a rule did not have guilds. They had a few particular artisans, though in the 10th/11th centuries a lot of villages didn't even necessarily have a blacksmith, and things that were done by guilds in cities were just done by regular villagers (weaving, fishing, coal-burning, carpentry, baking etc). Some of these crafts were done individually by household, others collectively by the village as a whole.
It's extremely unlikely that there would be a guildhall in a small village. Some villages did have a common meeting hall, but not all of them.
Small villages were either part of land controlled by a noble (or a monastery) or were independent in territory that was either unclaimed or unattended. In the former cases, criminal issues would be settled (if not by mob justice) by the local ruler or his representatives, though petty cases would be decided by the village headman. Nobles obviously had special privileges compared to commoners, and typically could only be judged by their own (and it had to be someone with superior authority to them). As for strangers, there was a custom of hospitality, which was one of the core values of society. If a stranger was granted hospitality, both parties were honor bound to behave properly with each other. A violation on the part of either party was extremely serious, and could lead to all kinds of consequences.
Thank you for the long reply,@@RPGPundit!
That was something I wondered about, too. I had guessed that not every tiny village would have a blacksmith. Most of them would likely not have had enough work to keep one busy I'd guess. So what would they do? Order what they need from the nearest small town that did have a smith? How would that work, exactly? One guy who is really good at negotiating prices goes down the road to order for the whole village? Everyone who needs something just saves up as best they can and goes when they can? I need details, man! LOL
How far apart would two blacksmiths be? Ten miles, twenty, forty?
I think you could do a video _and_ a Pundit Files on the life of a small village. It doesn't even have to be perfectly true to history. I'd love to know how you do these things in your own games. (It seems unlikely that I'd ever get to play in one. LOL) I think this is the kind of thing that would add real flavor to a campaign. Maybe a livestream? I can't possibly be the only person with these kinds of questions. Maybe nobody else asks? I can't imagine why. You're probably the single most responsive person on this whole platform.
Fascinating stuff, looks like a great source of inspiration to draw upon for world building.
I've already mentioned this in previous videos, but I'd love to have a video for us non-historians on how to research cultures or periods to create our own believable world. Would sure give you something to ramble on about :)
It's hard for an historian to give a recommendation of how to research for non-historians. That said, wikipedia is actually usually pretty good in its historical articles (and the further back you go in time the less likely it is to be politicized in any way).
I can tell you that BoF is great! I could read that whole thing over and over. It really is a great resource for world building. It's honestly not exactly my setting (I'm going with rather more magic and quite a different system of magic) but it's still got the right 'smell' to it.
Wikipedia really does have quite a lot of information that is usable. I've read a lot of their articles and have to go back and read them a few more times, honestly.
I could listen to RPGPundit lecture for as long as he could speak on history, religion, esoterica, or just about anything else, really.
Thank you for your attention in making the dubbing available in Brazilian Portuguese, my English is intermediate, my fluency is only in reading and writing, when I hear or speak something in English I have to pay 100% focused attention. Hail to Thac0!
Hope it's accurate!
@@RPGPundit Very accurate, but without your powerful voice! 🙂
Don't know if you would prefer to avoid talking about it, but I'd love to hear more details of the D&D 5e rules you contributed to. And, with hindsight, what you would change now.
I don't mind talking about it, but I have talked a lot about it already, in videos and livestreams.
8:10
Hex to left of Poznań is the hex where I was born and I still live in. Don't loot this place guys lol
Love this game. I now need to order hardcover, it looks so good.
Thank you so much! I really appreciate it, especially when I hear native born Poles like it!
With regard to roleplaying game topics I'd like to hear about how you handle languages in your games, in general and Baptism of Fire in particular. I see a lot of games that only deal with language on a cursory level. If a character knows a language, they are 100% fluent in that language, and literate as well. Often, each race has one and only one language.
I thought I'd answered this already, but it seems to have been lost. In my games there's definitely various languages, that's covered in the rules, but it's important to make a balance between verisimilitude and playability. I also have a skill called "Languages" that some classes can access, which allows people to speak a very basic level of various languages. In my games, most characters are not literate, unless it specifically states they are. Generally only erudite classes are literate, in which case they'll likely be literate in most languages they know.
Oo! How to run a Conan style campaign? How to run a Primal style campaign?
Praying the cat distribution system shall grace your house with a new friend.
"Primal style"? Not sure what you mean by that one. I do know Conan, though I'm not the biggest expert on Conan specifics.
There is a Polish comic book from the 80s called Doman, basically Conan in the Piast era. Look it up.
I need to get around to ordering this. Been toying with a setting idea like this but of a world of anthropomorphic animals and a great pull from Game of Thrones.
Well, I hope you get it ordered. I don't think you'll be disappointed!
I’d be interested in learning more about your Arrows of Indra game.
Well, it's one of my older games, OSR but not in the same style as my newer OSR games, it's a lot closer to standard AD&D. But set in the epic India of the Mahabharata.
What possible connection is their to bohemia and the bohemian grove / club ?
None, other than that the word "bohemian" later (in the 19th century) became a term for eccentrics.
Hopping over.
Have you done any content on Powered by the apocalypse games?
I own 4 of them and I'll be honestly I still don't know if I'm running these games right.
The outcomes always seem so wishy washy and my players hate the "well yes you succeed but with consequences" of the mid rolls.
I think pbta games are pretty bad. I really don't care for them, as they derive from storygaming.
A video of your views about the D&D Rules Cyclopedia
Good idea!
Baptism of Fire is such a thic book.
One could make 100 videos on it and still not cover most of it.
In theory, yes, but in practice I think I have a few more videos to go before I get to the end.
+1
Thanks. Spread the word, share the video!