Training in Castles and Crusades

 

I don’t think we have training rules in Castles and Crusades. I can’t check either because my internet is down and the only copy of a Castle Keeper’s Guide I have handy is on the Troll Lord Games server. So, yeah. I should probably remedy that. I probably will not. In any respect, I was listening to a podcast the other day. An ex-Delta team member was speaking to his days of training and learning to become a better combatant. I noted a few things.

 

First a little summery of one portion of the commentary. The guy had just graduated from his year of training with the SEALs. He and six others, all in their early 20s were sent for yet another training exercise for hand-to-hand combat. An ‘elder’ SEAL, in his mid-40s faced them off. The goal was a knife fight. The older SEAL member beat each and every one of the younger SEALs in under 1 minute each, taking each to the ground before delivering the killing blow. The older SEAL team member had real life combat experience as well as a lot more training. The real-world experiences are what set him apart.  

The point the SEAL member made afterword was very interesting and played into a theory of mine. Training can only take a person so far. Real life experiences or application of the training are where the most significant advances in one’s skills are made. US Army records in WWII and Vietnam also reveal the same thing. Even though training attempts to replicate real world combat, it can’t. I guess that’s where the rubber meets the road. On the other hand, the SEAL team member said that continual training, refinements, and reapplication of what was learned in real world situations was even better. It is the combination of the two that creates true expertise. 

As was the case during the age when swordcraft was widely practiced. Continual training was par for the course for knights and soldiers. This is especially true of standing armies like those Rome or the Persians employed. Most knights went through six years of training and combat before being knighted. Sir William Marshal is said to have trained well nigh unto his death. At seventy he was still fighting trim and constantly trained. There were even academies of the marshal arts found throughout Europe where those who could afford the training, would pay handsomely.

Training plays no real role in many games. Primarily, I think, because it would be boring and consumptive of in-game time (a constant non-issue for me and me alone apparently). I do think training can be used in the game. A simple solution that could hasten level advancement without effecting much of anything is that a character could train up to ½ the experience needed attain the next level. The caveat being the last ¼ experience need to attain level would have to be while adventuring. Costs and time could vary and would need to be worked out.

The training would open a whole new venue of opportunities for the person running the game to create different adventures, sorta slurp up extra coinage the characters may have laying around, and have the characters meet new non-player characters. Sometimes finding the famous thief, swordmastrer or magician to train under could be an adventure. I think this could be easily incorporated into a game and might be something Castle Keepers should be open to. I used to use it all the time but quit several decades ago for some reason. I think it high time I bring it back.  

 

 

New Players Handbook Art!

 Joining the fray at the last minute is Joel Chaim Holtzman! Some wonderful pieces of his art have been set in the Castles & Crusades Playershandbook, 8th printing. Here is one of the two. This piece captures the heart of a magic user, be they sorcerer, wizard, illusionist or one's mind's eye sees!

How big are wolves - pretty freaking big

So a Canadian timber wolf, snout to butt, can up to seven feet long, stand three feet at the shoulder and weigh around 150 pounds. The largest actually recorded was a 175 pounds. Average sized wolves are more common though. 

To Guard Against Dragons

The dwarves set their homes deep in the mountains, in valleys sheer and steep so no dragon or armed host could come at them easily. And their hid their doors with clever artifices, such that they were all but lost to the world.

Dwarven Warrior

Fighters come from every geographic region and occupy all social strata. They are born with a strength of will and spirit that leads them to seek the field of battle. From the Castles & Crusades Players Handbook, 8th printing. Coming Soon. Art by Peter Bradley.

Astounding Video Game Visuals

 I stumbled on this gem while looking at zombie game play. What caught my eye immediately were the little figures attempting their escape. They just looked haunting. This game has such amazing visuals that it held me for quite awhile. This is a rich vein of inspiration right here! 

I think I'm going to have to play this one...

This second one was just as cool, different setting. Put a whole new spin on Another Brick in the Wall for me... "Hey teachers! Leave those kids alone..."

Trap Trap Trap

" In Mexico, the Red Queen of Palenque was a ruler of the sanguine Maya around 650 AD. The altars in two vast pyramidal temples were protected by false floors and death pits, but these were just teasers - for inside the leader’s sarcophagi her bones - and all of the pearl and jade treasures - had been painted red with cinnabar, a deadly neurotoxin."

 

 

 

Autumn's Meadow A Road to Adventure

 I have come to realize that my two favorite words in the English language are meadow and autumn. For me, meadow captures a still stand of grass and wild flowers bordered by darker, more brooding forests, where the morning dew proliferates, clinging to grass and tattered web. And the sun dapples the whole scene in iridescent colors . . .. Come autumn, the heat has broken and the cool air's not too cold, making it a good time for travel and beginning the road to adventure. 

Maps for Roleplaying Games and why you have it WRONG !

 

We all love us some maps. Maps are ubiquitous to roleplaying games. W have dungeon maps, battle maps, area maps, regional maps, house maps, continent maps, map, maps maps... So many maps.

And so accurate are these maps!

Many are beautiful, nigh unto works of art themselves. 

But, did you know before the advent of modern map making, maps simply conveyed information in a form most of us are not accustomed to. Maps basically conveyed information to those who needed to know specific information. They seem less accurate and in many aspects are less accurate from our perspective but never-the-less conveyed the necessary information to merchants, pilgrims, armies, etc.

They also conveyed (sometimes) epistemological information.  

Try a map like this for the characters. It is something they would not be accustomed to seeing and interpreting. Perhaps!

 

The

Tabula Peutingeriana (Latin for "The Peutinger Map"), also referred to as Peutinger's Tabula^[1] or Peutinger Table, is an illustrated itinerarium (ancient Roman road map) showing the layout of the cursus publicus, the road network of the Roman Empire.

The map is a 13th-century parchment copy of a possible Roman original. It covers Europe (without the Iberian Peninsula and the British Isles), North Africa, and parts of Asia, including the Middle East, Persia, and India. According to one hypothesis, the existing map is based on a document of the 4th or 5th century that contained a copy of the world map originally prepared by Agrippa during the reign of the emperor Augustus (27 BC – AD 14). However, Emily Albu has suggested that the existing map could instead be based on an original from the Carolingian period.^[2]

Named after the 16th-century German antiquarian Konrad Peutinger, the map is now conserved at the Austrian National Library in Vienna.

Go to the wiki site for a close up and scrolling

This may just be fodder for a big blog entry...