Fantastic Medieval Campaigns, Out Now!
Some dedicate the second Monday of October to Italian explorer Christopher Columbus who, in 1492, stumbled upon the Americas and initiated the European colonization of that New World. Others mourn the 56 million native lives, about 90 percent of the indigenous population, slaughtered by the European conquerors in the name of God, gold, and glory.
This, obviously, has nothing to do with the book I am publishing today. FANTASTIC MEDIEVAL CAMPAIGNS is yet another version of the original 1974 ruleset for fantasy wargaming campaigns, about foolhardy adventurers slaying monsters and extracting treasure from their lairs to establish their own city-states in the uncivilized wilderness.
I started working on this project over two years ago, and am relieved to have finally seen it through. The just-about-final version is now available digitally for free on Itch, and in print on Lulu at cost. The latter comes in four varieties: black & white softcover ($11.66), color softcover ($16.21), black & white hardcover ($19.73), and color hardcover ($24.28).
Enjoy! Don’t think about it, or do.
What Is FMC?
In case this is your first time hearing about FMC, check this blurb from the Lulu pages (edited from the Itch page):
FANTASTIC MEDIEVAL CAMPAIGNS is a new version of the original 1974 ruleset for fantasy wargaming campaigns.
The first role-playing game manual is a work whose implications have been drowned out by history. It is vague and often unhelpful, offering not a system but a collection of loose guidelines and ideas which contributed to the proliferation of numerous (and also conflicting or mutually exclusive) play styles and cultures.
The character arcs are unlike any which have followed, even unlike its successors, and they lucidly foreground the game’s fantasy as players lead their characters from looting the underworld below to conquering the wilderness above. Fighters become lords, mages become industrial wizards, and clerics become patriarchs of their church. The organizing principle is not historical accuracy or genre emulation, but the wildest desires of some two typical men from the American Midwest, communicated through a mishmash of wild west power fantasy and pseudo-medieval aesthetic.
The rules themselves have many obscure qualities which resist being understood in light of later texts, or do not align with cleanly with what we expect from “classic”, “traditional”, or even “old-school” play. Certainly it is a manual for a war game, but of a war game that shifts its own goal posts, and whose subjects are not masses of nameless troops but named personas who inhabit a simulated world of the table’s making. We take this idea for granted now, but it is unlike anything that came before it just as well as it is unlike what came after it.
The goal of FMC, rather than to offer a new take on the original role-playing game, is to refresh our memories and problematize our preconceptions of a text (or even of a whole genre) that we have taken for granted. The rules are one-to-one with the original, even where there is confusion or falsehood. There is no benefit of a standard vocabulary. There is no one way of doing anything. There is only unadulterated fantasy.
And a clean, modern layout that’s easier to navigate!
It consists of four chapters and two appendices:
- Chapter I, Mortals & Magic: Explains how to generate fantastic characters, fight terrible monsters, and cast magical spells.
- Chapter II, Monsters & Treasures: Lists different kinds of monsters and the treasures they guard from characters that encounter them.
- Chapter III, Fantasy Adventures: Procedures for a vast campaign that will see adventurers delve into the Underworld and conquer the Wilderness.
- Appendix A, Chain of Command: The default wargaming system for medieval battles on a mass or individual scale.
- Appendix B, Optional Rules: A hodgepodge sourced from official supplements, modern house rules, and my own experiments. Covers unusual ground compared to the big 1974 retroclones.
To summarize, FMC is a one-to-one rewrite of the original fantasy adventure game from 1974 and the medieval miniature wargame for which it was apparently originally written, all in one volume. The text is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA, the digital versions are free to download, and the print versions are available to purchase at cost.
How Does FMC Differ?
Delving Deeper is a very faithful systematization of the 1974 game, meaning that the author has interpreted and rationalized the rules described in the text in order to make them more cohesive (and, perhaps, more agreeable to a modern old-school perspective). FMC, on the other hand, tries to retain as much ambiguity and as many inconsistencies from the original text as possible.
Greyharp’s Single Volume Edition is basically what it says on the tin, the original text of the 1974 game refactored into a single volume (having originally been published in three). However, the SVE reorganizes and formats the text’s content to reflect the graphical and structural conventions of modern role-playing game manuals. FMC generally retains the structure of the original text, while also rewriting the text from the ground up.
Swords & Wizardry is a modernized version of the 1974 game, with quality-of-life changes that streamline the rules and make them more appealing for players new or old. Except for the appendix of optional rules, which is quarantined from the body text, FMC does not attempt to modify the ruleset to any end.
Also, none of the above books include a complete clone of the wargaming ruleset for medieval miniatures for which the 1974 game was (advertised as, although not necessarily or actually) written. Clones of this rulebook exist a la carte, such as Grognard, though they do not tend to come with a complete clone of the more famous fantasy adventure game.
None of this is really a criticism of the above books, or a reason for why FMC should be considered better than them (it’s not). Each one brings their own lens and purpose to the 1974 game, filling their own niche. By extension, however, I think that FMC fills a unique niche not represented by the other books.
See this post for a list of differences between FMC and its source material. Also check this kind review by my friend Nova at Playful Void!
Book Interior
Nine artists graciously contributed to this project (in alphabetical order): Ben Overmyer, Emanoel Melo, Emiel Boven, Gus L., Hodag RPG, Kalin Kadiev, MorrieB, Nick LS Whelan, and Skullboy. Many of their featured pieces are offered under CC licenses for others to use; see the copyright page inside the book for more details.
If you want to see more, the digital versions of the book are free on Itch! Nothing stopping you.
Acknowledgements
I'd like to thank my partner for encouraging me to work on this and accompanying me for all the big changes in my life, contemporary with this book. I'd also like to thank my friends on the BOA and MAMR chatrooms for all their help and encouragement.
Finally, I kept a big list of individual people to thank, and here they are: Alex Chalk, Alison Candiloro, Ava Islam, Bee, Ben Laurence, BlindAudelay, Brendan S., Comrade Pollux, CountingWizard, Daniel Collins, Derek B., DymeNovelti, Emmy Verte, Ènziramire, Idle Cartulary, Ian McDougall, John B., Joshua McCroo, Kordell Stewart, LtPinback, Luke Gearing, Magnolienne, Milton, Miranda Elkins, Peter C., qpop, Ramanan Sivaranjan, Ruby Lavin, SageDaMage, Sandro A.D., SebastianDM, Ty Pitre, Vodka Gobalsky, Walton Wood, Warren D., Wayspell, W.F. Smith, Yochai Gal, Zedeck Siew, and Zenopus Archives.
It is wonderful to see it finally available in physical format. I can attest that the full color hardcover from Lulu looks great!
ReplyDeletethank you jenx!! really glad you like it :)
Deletewas this page supposed to be left blank?
ReplyDeletei don't know what you're talking about, it looks blank to me!
DeleteD&D as colonialist, inarguably. D&D as fascist seems a much greater stretch, not least because D&D is many things but keen on nation-states it isn't. Might making right, violent extraction of resources, and participation in those being rewarded with political as well as (perceived) supernatural power is a pretty accurate summary of most of recorded history - was everything before the mid-twentieth century fascism?
ReplyDeleteOrwell's comment re fascism just meaning 'bad' seems rather apposite here. Also if it's actually fascist distributing it, let alone monetizing it, seems like an iffy moral choice.
It's free.
Deletehi there! the aesthetic content of OD&D, like you say, is certainly colonialist. however, when calling OD&D a fascist work, i am referring not to its aesthetic content but to its significance at the time of its composition. a great analogy is actually the western genre of literature and film, which depicts (an idealized vision of) the american west but in service of midcentury american society and politics. john wayne was an ardent white supremacist! comparing the aims of american society in this time period to that of nazi germany, especially with the extent to which the latter was inspired by the former, makes me quite comfortable in describing it as fascist, and the works produced during that time as reflective of those political dynamics. i see many of these same tendencies in OD&D.
Deletei am strictly not monetizing FMC, and will not see a penny from it---that's the entire point. OD&D also already exists in numerous forms. i included the paragraph because i didn't just want to distribute another OD&D, but an argument about OD&D. i think it's important for people to read the text critically without taking for granted their memory of it or what gaps they have filled with cultural revisionism. that has always been the point of FMC as a project.
I had misunderstood re the monetization - sorry about that bit.
DeleteThe idea that the prevailing ideas of American society in the 1970s were fascist seems thin at best. There are many critiques I have seen of Jimmy Carter - fascist isn't one of them, and I think that is with good reason. Racism does not make a society fascist - significantly more is required. Nor does describing American society (even white American society) as a monolith seem accurate in the 1970s (or any era, really, but especially then).
Also, John Wayne's last film was in 1976. It features him playing a dying man looking to be killed, who tries to teach violence to a younger man whose reaction to it could be described as rejecting it or as complicated but certainly not as embracing it. I feel this metaphor may be relevant to judging the moods of the era, and I do not think it would be fair to describe it as perpetuating fascism.
I sometimes wonder how much history you have read - I recall your commentary on the Communist Manifesto, which had some notable gaps in understanding the 19th century mindset. You do read accounts of history other than Marxist ones, right?
i'm pretty comfortable describing the US as fascist, a comparison that even mussolini made between FDR's government and his own: the integration of (white) unions into the federal government, enabling a state-mediated working relationship between capitalists and (a privileged stratum of) workers; the repression of racial and ethnic minorities via political disenfranchisement, mass incarceration/internment, involuntary sterilization, and organized violence by police and the military; and, one of the most consistent traits of fascism, is these things being justified by an anti-communist stance (in that the threat of communism, sometimes identified with the threat posed by racial/ethnic minorities, was the boogeyman driving policy). the specific techniques or ideology might differ, but i'm less interested in that than in the recurrent patterns.
Deletei'm 23 years young, my dad was a non-marxist history enthusiast, and my mom is puerto rican. it's her experience and that of her family, of colonization and violent repression by the US, that left her and all of us quite bitter about it. you could read about it in a history book, but that pales in comparison to the memories of living people who remember how they have been treated and are not ignorant with regards to why. there's a reason that the second thing a puerto rican tells someone is that they are an american citizen (the first thing is that they are puerto rican): their treatment is constantly justified by them being dehumanized or marked as a foreigner. when the US bombed civilians or sterilized women, i have to wonder if the americans whose fingers pulled the trigger had the same thought as john chivington did when he ordered the slaughter of american indian women and children, apparently the same thought in gygax's head playing D&D: "nits make lice."
i feel like i have to keep responding to you to avoid being rude, but you come across as a very condescending and presumptuous person. i don't claim to be an intellectual, i don't think i know more than other people do, and i'm not here to argue with people. i seek out knowledge and analysis to make sense of my own experiences, and share them with others who are in similar situations and are also looking for answers. there will always be gaps in my understanding, things that i didn't learn from school (texas offering, of course, a very marxist education) or from books or from my own experience. however, i am not an ignorant person just because you disagree with me or because there are things i haven't learned yet. no one wants to be treated that way.
Hopping into a week’s old conversation to sling around politics might be rude but I feel like the argument for DND being fascist is very strong(and also, this isn’t political! It's literally just literary analysis!!!!). I’m a 5e kid, but look at the vibes of the major cities of the Swords Coast. Baldurs Gate, Waterdeep, Neverwinter, these are City-States with an immense sense of personal pride and, if we consider City-States as proto-nations or even full blown nations, nationalism! This is important because the basic google definition of fascism is “a mass political movement that emphasizes extreme nationalism, militarism, and the supremacy of both nation and the single, powerful leader over the individual citizen.” Waterdeep doesn’t seem like a fascist state and I don’t really know about Baldur’s Gate, but Neverwinter under the control of Dagult Neverember is textbook fascism. Lots of spoilers in his history for various different DND media, but his story is one of political movements to support his personal power and brutal, violent oppression of political opponents who threaten to destabilize his dictatorial control of Neverwinter. His personal rise to power is emblematic of many of the major plots within dnd that have unfolded throughout his history. Waterdeep Dragon Heist is |||SPOILERS||| a series of prospective Neverembers who seek to control Waterdeep in the same way that Neverember controls Neverwinter, and would likely form it into a fascist state to support their designs of control. Looking at the underlying systems of DND, it’s obvious to see how the adventure ends up like this. As a ttrpg, centering big characters who can make huge changes in the world makes sense. That allows the DM to make their limited resources bear trees worth of fruit, centers the narrative in person to person contact while expanding said narrative over a great expanse of humanity, and keeps sessions at a reasonable length without tons of rolling for simulation or thousands upon thousands of random characters to simulate a full city and all the variables that could push and pull the action out of the hands of the select few in power. In addition, the very core of DND is the power fantasy of becoming a one person army, of becoming a singular force who can shape the world. As the author states, the original design represented in FMC has the specific end goal of POLITICAL POWER Falling into the hands of the PCs at the penumbra of their power-development. Like a max level character is a dictator. They rule over a great assembly of people, with the power to shape nations, and do it ON THEIR OWN because of course as a player character the natural thing to do is rule what sits within your grasp without the democratic belligerence of NPCS, people who aren’t real, interrupting the player’s grand schemes.
DeleteLooking in FTC, when clerics become patriarchs, they attract zealous religious followers who follow the beck and call of the cleric PC, and this influence extends from the cathedral of the player into the countryside as the player receives taxes from those under their power. And so, the end goal of the original PCs is to become dictators in a nation state, where the will of one powerful individual lords over the simulated people beneath them. It is of military nature because the player character rose to power through violence, so the very seat of power is built with bone. What is missing here is the political movement. But if we look at the actual cities of current fifth edition Faerun, we see fascist states with actual political movements within them. The Harpers Guild, the Lords Alliance, these seek equality and goodness but also the stability of these fascist states ruled by the rich, the powerful, and those violent enough to rise through the ranks of adventurers to become powerful in the world stage. And so while the individual systems might not fully encompass fascism in its textbook definitions, the world view represented and crafted by those systems, that necessarily expands from playing a game of world simulation with these systems, leads to the establishment of fascist states, or at the very least states that are the perfect breeding ground for fascism to be born with one or two regime changes. So, addressing Simulated Knave here, I don’t see any real criticism of the claim that DND is fascist. Nothing convinces me or even seems to argue that DND isn’t fascist. Racism is simply a tool of fascism, and anecdotes about historical figures don't fulfill my hunger for actual analysis to back up your point.
DeleteCongratulations Marcia. I am happy for you that you followed through and finished it. Now I am looking forward to see it in print!
ReplyDeletethank you sebastian!! :D hope you enjoy it!
DeleteNice, comrade. I have been following your articles here and sharing them on Telegram and Facebook. Personally, as I was vaccinated with GURPS, I don't like D&D. Despite this, I played the 3rd edition a lot, as a DM and player. Here in Brazil, we have many high quality retroclones, such as OldDragon, Caves&Hexes, Arcana Primária, Espadas&Punhais... Even so, I downloaded the FMC to read, despite my poor understanding of the language. Congratulations on the launch.
ReplyDeletethank you, xikowisk!! let me know if you would like any help :) you're very fortunate to have been inoculated against D&D haha!
DeleteCongratulations!
ReplyDeletethank you!!! :)
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