FMC Version Beta Coming Soon!

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Fantastic Medieval Campaigns, Version Beta is on the horizon! My hope is to publish it on February 22 (2/22). There's quite a few additions, changes, and corrections not only to bring FMC more in line with its source material, but to also give it more of its own unique character. The PDF will be free to download as before, and I will also try to make a print version available to purchase at-cost on Lulu (though maybe you'd want to wait to see if I make any post-publication edits). Let me tell you about all that has changed, and then share some spreads with you!

  • Appendix A: Chain of Command is feature-complete! Originally meant to be abridged, it seems like the people who use these rules are actually very passionate about what was missing: namely, unit formations and fatigue. These have been implemented so that, now, Appendix A is an accurate representation of the original ruleset!
  • The Balor is here! The Balrog from The Lord of the Rings was removed from later prints of the original volumes because of a cease-and-desist from Tolkien's estate. Why not put him back in there with a different name, surely not to arouse the spirit of a certain deceased professor of philology?
  • Hit dice have been reformatted! Now the first value in a hit dice formula, representing the number of dice to roll, has been appended with a 'd'. This means that a monster previously defined as having 4+1 hit dice is now said to have 4d+1.
  • Ascending armor class is an option! I list attack bonuses versus ascending armor class on the page describing the alternate combat system, and also have a few pages in the Indices appendix explaining how to use ascending armor class. Monsters have their ascending armor class given in brackets next to their original armor class.
  • Weapon-versus-armor bonuses! I incorporated a new version of my d20 weapon-versus-armor tables into an appendix of the book, in two forms: one as a matrix of dice scores, and one as a matrix of bonuses versus ascending armor class (similar to the one found in Supplement I, but corrected). Please refer to my original post!
  • Character record sheets (and more)! Printable on digest or A5 paper, based on a character record from the mid-seventies, this sheet emphasizes the week-by-week history and development of a player's character. Although it's only one interpretation of the game, I think it is one that is historically fascinating while also being novel with respect to our own tendencies. Expect a blog post about this soon!
  • New art and new artists! Now featuring artists Emanoel Melo (Website, Twitter) and Ben Overmyer (Website)! I am so thankful for their gracious contributions.

And below are the aforementioned screenshots. Please let me know what you think!

 







Comments

  1. HudsonFebruary 5, 2023 at 5:23 AM

    That is so cool! I love FMC alpha. Look forward to the beta. The simple design of the character sheet looks great as well.

    I have one small suggestion for the new version, regarding the dervish man-type:

    The "dervish" in OD&D doesn't seem to have anything in common with the word's real meaning. In reality, a dervish not a fighter, but a religious mendicant, "a Sufi who chose or accepted material poverty".

    In OD&D "dervishes" are of course "fanatically religious nomads who fight as Berserkers" (I believe this description was influenced by how, in the late 19th century, the British applied the word "dervish" to the fighting Mahdist rebels they eventually defeated in Sudan - and written accounts of that war's battles, of interest to a wargamer such as Gygax, would have kept this use of the word).

    My suggestion is to change the "Dervish" in FMC to "Fanatic" or something. I think it better expresses the idea of a "fanatically religious berserker" anyways. And just like the Balrog can be a Balor, would a rose by any other name... you get what I mean, heheh!

    Thanks a lot for FMC, Marcia! : )

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Marcia B.February 5, 2023 at 5:52 PM

      hi hudson! thank you so much for your kind words :) i'd totally be happy to make that change! i may call them 'zealots', so long as i reword a certain passage in the front where i refer to clerics' free troops as zealots. thank you for your suggestion!

      Delete
    2. HudsonFebruary 6, 2023 at 12:34 PM

      Cool! Thank you! Zealot sounds awesome

      Delete
  2. IainFebruary 6, 2023 at 6:34 AM

    This is such a great project, Marcia.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Justin HamiltonFebruary 14, 2023 at 8:33 AM

    Looking forward to it!

    ReplyDelete

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