Italy in the Middle Ages

[ArtD]

Hello! I have been reading for a while and enjoy many of the discussions here. Since some of you have experience with games inspired by historical settings, I would like advice on how to apply D&D rules to fantasy midieval Italy.

Any adventure ideas would be very much appreciated. I definitely will be using the real map of Italy. I definitely will NOT be setting the campaign in the Renaissance - I want it to feel like the high middle ages.

[Judging__Eagle]

You might want to remove almost every class except Rogue, Expert and Aristocrat as PC classes. Commoner is an NPC class and anyone could take levels in warrior if they choose.

[Username17]

Well, Italy during the middle ages doesn't really feel like "Italy" to most people. So you might be better off setting it a bit North in more Germanic areas where tiny kingdoms of beer drinking layabouts enact Grimm's Fairytales on a daily basis. Hell, the Italian Language is a product of the 14th century. Before that, people just spoke Latin "badly".

But sure. Here's the 1000 AD Italian Peninsula:


Now you need to determine how much Dungeons and Dragons you want in your history. We can go as far as the Emirate of Sicily being under the thumb of the Dao Emir, with the people there being mostly dwarves and slaves of the Dao. Or you can go the other way and make all the player characters into modified Rogues and have the occassional fantastic element stand out as a jarring reminder that magic is at work.

-Username17

[ArtD]

Thanks for the replies and the map!

1196781247[/unixtime]]You might want to remove almost every class except Rogue, Expert and Aristocrat as PC classes. Commoner is an NPC class and anyone could take levels in warrior if they choose.

Sorry, I would never do this - that just sounds like no fun at all.

We can go as far as the Emirate of Sicily being under the thumb of the Dao Emir, with the people there being mostly dwarves and slaves of the Dao.

I do like this idea!

Italy during the middle ages doesn't really feel like "Italy" to most people.

Midieval Italy is distinctive in ways that are really interesting. The more history I read the more I think it has potential.

Of course the Holy Roman Emporer is also going to be meddling with the affairs of the Italian states, so if the heroes want to go to Germany instead they'll be able to find reasons to do that.

[Judging__Eagle]

Oh, wait. You said fantasy medieval Europe.

Uhm, if you don't the Papal states to be ruled by a bunch of clerics with a highest lvl cleric in charge (or weakest, since the Cardinals vote in the Pope) either remove all full-casters or else have every head of state a full caster of some sort or backed by full casters.

If not there will be no suspension of disbelief.

On the other hand, if you have the Holy Roman Emperor's personal war party made up of of RoW Knights, Fighters and some sort of decent Paladin class; then having spell casters past level 11 is possible.

I'd keep all characters at lvl 5-6 at most. Especially NPC spell casters, if not the world won't make any sense if the spell casters aren't completely in charge.