Here are a couple of neat things I found that you can use in your D&D game. Enjoy!
First, here’s a thieves cant dictionary. Now your Guildmaster at the Thieve’s Guild doesn’t have to sound like he came out of 2010. Let’s Kimbaw the Cull.
Second, here’s a bunch of art from old books. Use these for handouts, in-game prints or whatever else you think of.
Here is a list of medieval monsters, and monsters from ancient cultures. This in combination with the monster maker could be fun. Lots of familiar D&D monsters here.
Here’s an even better medieval bestiary.
How about medieval castle floor plans?
Here’s a map of a medieval monastery.
Here’s a glossary of town related medieval words. I’m going to try and apply a murage to my site.
Medieval jobs. Because not everyone works in a tavern, you know.
A little bit on medieval swords and other weapons. Because you still have to kill things and take their stuff in between roleplaying.
Gluckhous, a dice gambling game that you can play as a minigame at your D&D table.
Here’s a list of medieval names. If you can’t find a name here, stop trying 🙂
Raven
February 22, 2010
This is awesome, thanks.
xerosided
February 22, 2010
I love finds like this! Thanks!
Jon
February 22, 2010
Fantastic links, thanks!
Take care with the medieval weapons though! The D&D system is far removed from the naming conventions of real swords. For instance a Longsword is a 2-handed ldae in reality, and a Bastard sword takes no special training to use. Also the fuller (Groove down the blade) has nothing to do with blood! It is to adjust the weight of the blade, which is what makes a sword more effective than a sharp stick.
Best stick to the game system which is sevicable and sounds good enough for non-swordnerds to enjoy. If you do want info on medieval fighting technigues, I can reccomend these sites:
http://www.thearma.org/manuals.htm
http://www.Historicalfencing.co.uk
http://www.fioredeiliberi.org/topics/
LooneyDM
February 22, 2010
I find the castle floor plans highly agreeable. Not quite direct to battlemap usefulness but a good start on an epic fight none the less.
beardsleygames
February 23, 2010
Wow, great finds! Definitely going to be coming back to this article often 🙂
mikemonaco
February 23, 2010
Amazing post, man. I used to have a copy of the “Dictionary of the vulgar tongue” which also had a fair amount of cant.
spindlethin
February 27, 2010
Here’s an article on Medieval demographics, for people building cities/kingdoms and want to get the scale of things right.
http://www.io.com/~sjohn/demog.htm
kingworks
March 6, 2010
I’m seriously considering making an easy-to-print board (complete w/directions, if possible) for Gluckhous. Only tricky part will be figuring out what scenes to use – probably something related to a specific monster with numerical significance (Cerberus, Hydra, etc.).