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6/25/2025, 7:41:20 AM
>>95947690
I've played a game that's pretty much this so I can confirm that it does work.
The key areas you've outlined are important, especially the first two. It really hinges on how well the GM prepares the game however. There has to be pretty detailed family trees and relationships and the actual structure of the village has to be ironed out before play.
I'd also like to add that the GM probably should pre-gen some characters for the players to choose from to make sure the characters are heavily integrated into the village life. The characters family, clan and village (and possibly church) is their world and safety net. It doesn't work if the players don't care.
Completely agree with the second point. We played using harnmaster 1e which has a pretty cool combat system where one bad hit will kill your character outright, and this caused the players to be very careful with picking fights. Characters might not also be trained to fight. This also obviously means that the GM has to allow for a wide selection of skills to be used so as to not make a character useless.
I don't see a need to be super restrictive with mundane equipment. Maintaining a militia was often legally required historically and there are most likely at least one knight (the fief holder) with retinue somewhat close by. Don't forget that the PCs can be tied to the knight's household or militia members too. Don't restrict yourself to thinking that the characters has to be serfs. In our game we had the daughter of a travelling merchant, religious acolyte and up and coming militiaman
I'd also like to add that the GM needs to have some sort of plot in mind for this to actually prod the players into role playing. Impending starvation, monster sightings, intrigues and conflicts between interest groups in the village, marauding soldiers in the area, rising unrest, etc. Probably best to have a few different plots happening, but not to the point where it gets farcical with everything happening at once.
I've played a game that's pretty much this so I can confirm that it does work.
The key areas you've outlined are important, especially the first two. It really hinges on how well the GM prepares the game however. There has to be pretty detailed family trees and relationships and the actual structure of the village has to be ironed out before play.
I'd also like to add that the GM probably should pre-gen some characters for the players to choose from to make sure the characters are heavily integrated into the village life. The characters family, clan and village (and possibly church) is their world and safety net. It doesn't work if the players don't care.
Completely agree with the second point. We played using harnmaster 1e which has a pretty cool combat system where one bad hit will kill your character outright, and this caused the players to be very careful with picking fights. Characters might not also be trained to fight. This also obviously means that the GM has to allow for a wide selection of skills to be used so as to not make a character useless.
I don't see a need to be super restrictive with mundane equipment. Maintaining a militia was often legally required historically and there are most likely at least one knight (the fief holder) with retinue somewhat close by. Don't forget that the PCs can be tied to the knight's household or militia members too. Don't restrict yourself to thinking that the characters has to be serfs. In our game we had the daughter of a travelling merchant, religious acolyte and up and coming militiaman
I'd also like to add that the GM needs to have some sort of plot in mind for this to actually prod the players into role playing. Impending starvation, monster sightings, intrigues and conflicts between interest groups in the village, marauding soldiers in the area, rising unrest, etc. Probably best to have a few different plots happening, but not to the point where it gets farcical with everything happening at once.
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