MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES

SLEUTHING IN THE MIDDLE AGES

AN OLD SCHOOL ROLE PLAYING GAME

BY SIMON WASHBOURNE
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES
SLEUTHING IN THE
MIDDLE AGES
OLD SCHOOL RPG
© 2010 by Simon Washbourne

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
GAME DESIGN
Simon Washbourne

ARTWORK
Darrel Miller
Other images: From the public domain

SPECIAL THANKS
Annette Washbourne, Nigel Uzzell, Janine Uzzell, Robert Irwin, Leigh
Wakefield, Paul Simonet, Ian Greenwood, Mike Richards,
Alison Richards, Mark George and Alyson George
 Contents
I WHAT IS A ROLE PLAYING GAME? 1
II CREATING A CHARACTER 4
III CHARACTER CLASSES 9
IV SKILLS 32
V EQUIPMENT 38
VI THE GAME MASTER 43
VII THE GAME RULES 49
VII LIFE IN MEDIEVAL TIMES 65
IX ANIMALS, FOLK & NPCS 88
X MYSTERY: A VIAL MURDER 94
APPENDICES
CHARACTER SHEET
INSPIRATIONAL READING
OGL
 WHAT IS A
ROLE PLAYING
GAME?

A
roleplaying game
(RPG) is, at its
heart, a game of
make-believe. The play-
ers all work to create a
story by talking to one The situations that the the game closer to im-
another, usually when characters become in- promptu theatre or
describing the actions of volved in are usually set storytelling. However,
their character and lis- up by one of the other most RPGs have rules
tening to each other, players who takes the for character creation
usually when the result role of the Game Master and for determining the
of those actions is being (GM). The GM designs course of actions
described. the adventures, details through the use of dice.
the towns and areas The Medieval Mysteries
The players create the where the adventures RPG uses this latter
characters in the game. take place and popu- method.
These characters under- lates it by creating and
take adventures, just speaking the parts of Thus, a RPG is a game
the same as characters the people that the in which the players as-
in a novel or a movie. characters meet during sume the roles of
Only rather than the the course of their ad- characters who have all
scenes and dialogue be- ventures. sorts of adventures, the
ing predetermined, the outcomes of which are
players get to speak for You can play RPGs subject to a degree of
their characters and de- freeform, that is to say chance. In these games
cide what their without rules or with there is no winner like
characters will do and very few rules and with- there is in a board
don’t need to write it out dice or any other game. The only aim of
down – it all happens, method of randomly de- the game is to create
develops and grows as termining the results of your own epic story of
the game is played. actions that characters wonder and excitement
might take. This makes and to have fun doing

1
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES

so. There isn’t even nec- success, called a sided die and d10 repre-
essarily an ending to the critical success. sents the 10-sided die
game because even as
A natural 1 on the and so on. It is also
you complete an adven- die is always a fail- possible to generate
ture, another one might ure. Sometimes this random scores for which
arise in which the same can be a particularly no die exists. The most
cast of characters can bad failure, called a common are d2 and d3
feature. In this way, fumble in combat. respectively, both of
characters can grow which can be made by
with their experiences rolling a d6 and dividing
and develop in skill and
Dice by 2 or 3 and dropping
depth. Several different types of the fraction. To roll a d2
dice are needed to play using a 6-sided die, the
the Medieval Mysteries results 1-3 would be a
The core mechanic RPG. Dice with 4, 6, 8, score of 1 and the re-
Whenever you sults 4-6
attempt an ac- would equal 2.
tion that has
some chance When the rules
of failure, you require it, rolls
roll a twenty- of more than
sided die (d20).
one die will be
To determine if expressed by a
your character number in
succeeds at a front of the ‘d’,
task you do representing
this: the number of
dice to be

Roll a d20. rolled. For ex-

Add any ample in
relevant character crea-
modifiers. tion you need

Compare
10, 12 and 20 sides are to roll three
the result to a target six-sided dice, which
number. used. There are various
notations in the rules would be shown as 3d6.
If the result equals or telling what type and
how many dice should A notation after the type
exceeds the target num- of dice would represent
ber, your character be rolled during play.
These notations may either an addition to, or
succeeds. If the result is a subtraction from, the
lower than the target appear cryptic to first-
time role players, but number generated by
number, you fail. the dice. So, 2d6-2

A natural 20 on the they are easily learned.
would mean you roll two
die is always a suc-
Usually the type of dice six-sided dice and take
cess. Sometimes this
is designated with a‘d’ 2 from the result. 1d4+1
can also be a special would mean that you
followed by a number,
so d4 represents a 4-

2
 WHAT IS A ROLE PLAYING GAME?

roll a four-sided dice be sidekicks, friends,

and add 1 to the result. colleagues, apprentices,
bodyguards, clerks,
squires and assistants.
What is the Medieval How he or she became a
Mysteries RPG? sleuth depends on the
Medieval Mysteries is a game, the player’s
historical role-playing choice of character class
game set roughly in the and other factors. The
early middle-ages. It is character could simply
inspired by many works be personally involved in
the first investigation sheriff. There are other
of fiction, including the
and display such a possibilities and it’s up
Cadfael novels of Ellis
knack for solving mys- to you, the GM and oth-
Peters, the Crowner
teries that he or she is er players to decide
John novels of Bernard
approached by other what suits you.
Knight and the Matthew
Bartholomew novels of parties as and when
they need help. The Medieval Mysteries
Suzanne Gregory. A list-
RPG is a more cerebral
ing of other authors and
The character could be role-playing game than
inspirational works ap-
an appointed agent or many. The characters
pears at the end of this
representative of the are expected to use their
publication.
church or the king, like brains more than their
a spy or an archdea- brawn. That isn’t to say
In this game, generally
con’s summoner. there is no conflict in
speaking one of the
Maybe, the characters this game. The medieval
characters will be the
job is to investigate period was a dangerous
primary investigator and
crimes, like a coroner or time, and anyone poking
the other characters will
around and asking too
many questions is going
to run into trouble every
now and again. But the
game isn’t one where
the characters ‘go on
adventures’. Most of the
action will take place in
and around the city
where the characters
live. So, characters will
get to know the locality
pretty well, developing
friendships, contacts,
maybe even families. In
other words the charac-
ters have a proper
‘home-life’ too.

3
 section.
Once you have your There are three types of
idea, you need to roll attributes: primary, sec-
dice to generate your six ondary and tertiary. Of
CREATING A attributes. These attrib-
utes are important in
the six attributes, the
first primary attribute is
CHARACTER defining your character,
his strengths, weak-
determined by the play-
er’s choice of character
nesses and outlook. class; the player selects

E
ach player in Medi- Once you have generat- his second primary at-
eval Mysteries RPG ed scores, you assign tribute and then
needs to create a the numbers to the at- chooses two as second-
character to use during tributes. Naturally, it ary and two as tertiary.
the game. The GM makes sense to place The distinction is im-
doesn’t need just one, the scores in a manner portant when
he needs several or that reflects your char- determining the out-
more, but we’ll come on acter concept and char- come of many actions in
to that later in these character class. the Medieval Mysteries
rules. To start with, you RPG.
need to think about the
type of character you Attributes When a character uses
want to play. You may Attributes represent a a class ability or a cho-
want to base your char- character’s physical and sen skill, such as a
acter on a favourite mental traits. All char- forester attempting to
character from a movie, acters in Medieval move silently or a mer-
TV series or book, you Mysteries RPG have six chant trying to haggle
may already have a pic- attributes: Strength
the best price for some
ture in your head of the (Str), Dexterity (Dex),
goods, an attribute
type of person you want Constitution (Con), In- check is rolled to deter-
to play, or you may telligence (Int), Wisdom mine if the action is
simply like the look of (Wis) and Charisma successful. Many class
one of the classes from (Cha). Each attribute abilities have an attrib-
the character classes has a numeric score ute check associated
ranging from 3 to 18. with it. If the class abil-
Each attribute also has ity or skill’s associated
a corresponding modi- attribute is one of the
fier, which is a bonus character’s primary at-
or penalty added to or
tributes, the character
subtracted from cer-
has a greater chance of
tain die rolls during successfully completing
the game. The times the task.
these details are used
are set out throughout
the rules.

4

The same principle
holds true for Attribute
checks are explained in
greater detail later. For
now, just remember that
the selection of primary,
secondary and tertiary
attributes significantly
affects the possibility of
success for many ac-
tions in the game. Those
attribute checks associ-
ated with a primary
attribute are more likely
to succeed than those
actions performed with
a secondary attribute
and even more so than
those performed with a
tertiary attribute.
The six attributes
Each ability partially
describes your character
and affects some of his
or her actions.
Strength (Str)
Strength measures your
character’s muscle and
physical power.
Strength also limits the
amount of equipment
your character can car-
ry, your character’s
CREATING A CHARACTER
ability to make powerful bleness are most im-
attacks or lift and move portant.
heavy objects. The You apply your charac-
modifier affects melee ter’s dexterity modifier
combat and damage and to:
all checks for which
Ranged attack
strength is the primary rolls, including
influence. Characters those for attacks
can military press 10x made with bows,
their strength and dead crossbows,
lift 15x their strength. throwing axes,
You apply your charac- and other ranged
ter’s strength modifier weapons.
to:
Armour Class

Melee attack (DC) provided
rolls that the charac-

Damage rolls ter can react to
when using a the attack.
melee weapon or
Saving throws,
a thrown weap- for avoiding rock
on. (Exceptions: falls, traps, and
Off-hand attacks other attacks
receive only one- that you can es-
half the charac- cape by moving
ter’s strength quickly.
bonus, while
two-handed at- Constitution (Con)
tacks receive one Constitution represents
and a half times your character’s health
the strength bo- and stamina, the char-
nus acter’s ability to

Strength checks withstand pain, suffer
(for breaking physical damage, avoid
down doors and fatigue and fight off
the like) sickness or poison.
You apply your charac-
Dexterity (Dex) ter’s constitution
Dexterity measures modifier to:
hand-eye coordination,
Each roll of a Hit
agility, reflexes and bal- Die (though a
ance. It is useful for penalty can nev-
getting out of the way of er drop a result
attacks, for hitting below 1 - that is,
things with bow fire and a character al-
for many other abilities ways gains at
where speed and nim- least 1 hit point
each time he or
5
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES

she advances in represents actual

level). strength of personality,

Saving throws, presence or spirit, not
for resisting poi- merely how one is per-
son and similar ceived by others in a
threats. social setting.
If a character’s constitu- You apply your charac-
tion score changes ter’s charisma modifier
enough to alter his or to:
her constitution modifi-
Checks that rep-
er, the character’s hit resent attempts
points also increase or intelligence has a score to influence oth-
decrease accordingly. of at least 3. ers

Saving throws
Intelligence (Int) against fear or
Intelligence determines Wisdom (Wis) morale effects
how well your character Wisdom describes a
learns and reasons. It character’s willpower, Generating attrib-
represents mental apti- common sense, percep-
tion, and intuition.
ute scores
tude, the character’s Attribute scores are
ability to learn quickly, While Intelligence repre-
generated by rolling
apply that learning ef- sents one’s ability to
3d6. The player adds
fectively and the analyse information,
the totals on all three
capacity of a character wisdom represents be-
dice together to create a
for deductive reasoning. ing in tune with and
total score of between 3
You apply your charac- aware of one’s sur-
and 18. The process is
ter’s Intelligence roundings.
repeated six times. Once
modifier to: You apply your charac-
the six scores are gener-

The number of ter’s wisdom modifier to:
ated, you assign one
languages your
Saving throws
score to each attribute.
character knows where willpower
The scores may be as-
at the start of is important.
signed in any order or to
the game.
Checks made to
whichever attribute you

Intelligence de- spot hidden or
like until all six attrib-
termines distant things
utes have a score.
whether a char-
Checks made to
A second option for the
acter has extra hear distant or
Medieval Mysteries RPG
skills beyond slight sounds
character creation is to
those normally distribute a set of scores
available for his Charisma (Cha)
between the attributes.
or her class at Charisma measures a
This way, every player
the start of the character’s force of per-
starts with the same set
game. sonality,
of scores. The recom-
An animal has an Intel- persuasiveness, person-
mended set of scores for
ligence score of 1 or 2. A al magnetism, ability to
this method of character
creature of humanlike lead, and physical at-
creation is 15, 14, 13,
tractiveness. This ability
12, 10 and 8.

6

In the Medieval Myster-
ies RPG, attribute
scores don’t change very
often. At 4th level and
every four levels thereaf-
ter, one of the
character’s attribute
scores increases by 1.
The player chooses
which attribute goes up.
Sometimes an attribute
might fall, as a result of
disease or injury. If an
attribute changes to a
point where the modifier
also changes, the modi-
fier changes straight
away. Attributes in Me-
dieval Mysteries RPG
rarely exceed 18 and
only do so where a
character is of a high
level.
Primary, second-
ary and tertiary
attributes
There are three types of
attributes in Medieval
Mysteries RPG primary,
secondary and tertiary.
Primary attributes are
those physical or mental
abilities a character is
CREATING A CHARACTER
particularly well
trained, disciplined or
experienced in using.
Secondary attributes
are those where the
character is less ex-
perienced or
disciplined and ter-
tiary ones are those
that a character is
only average at using.
After generating at-
tribute scores, you need
to decide which of your
attributes will be prima-
ry, which will be
secondary and which
are tertiary.
Characters have two
attributes of each type,
primary secondary and
tertiary. Each class pro-
vides one of your
characters primary at-
tributes that cannot be
changed, so a cleric
player character always
has wisdom as one of
his primes, for example.
The cleric would then
have one more prime,
selected by the player.
Then the player chooses
two attributes to be sec-
ondary and the re-
maining two are his
tertiary attributes by
default.
Attribute
checks
The distinction be-
tween attributes is
important. Almost
all non-combat re-
lated actions in The
7
Medieval Mysteries RPG
that have a chance of
failure and for which the
GM deems a roll is nec-
essary to resolve, re-
require an attribute
check to determine the
outcome.
Every check has an as-
sociated attribute.
Whenever one of these
checks is made, the
player rolls a d20. The
attribute (and level)
modifier is added to the
result. If the final result
is equal to or greater
than a number generat-
ed by the GM, called the
challenge class, then the
attribute check is suc-
cessful. The challenge
class is determined by
two factors. The first is
the challenge base. This
depends on whether the
attribute being checked
is primary, secondary or
tertiary. If the attribute
is primary, the chal-
lenge base is 12. If the
attribute is secondary,
the challenge base is 15.
If the attribute is ter-
tiary, the challenge base
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES

is 18.

Modifiers
The GM then adds any
modifiers to the chal-
lenge base that are
appropriate. These mod-
ifiers usually range
between 0 and 10, but
can go higher. The sum
total is the challenge
class and the player
needs to roll higher than
that to succeed his ac-
tion. For example, a
forester is tracking an
outlaw through a forest.
The player rolls a d20
(getting 15), adds the
forester’s level (2) and
the attribute modifier (1)
for a total of 18. The
challenge base is 15 as
wisdom is the forester’s
secondary attribute (in
this example) and there
are no other modifiers,
in this instance, so the
forester is keeping well
on the outlaw’s tail.

Attribute Modifier
1 -5
2-3 -4
4-5 -3
6-7 -2
8-9 -1
10-11 0
12-13 +1
14-15 +2
16-17 +3
18-19 +4
20-21 +5

8

CHARACTER
CLASSES
E
ach of the character
classes represents a
broad archetype of
typical investigators and
sleuths and their asso-
ciates, officers,
colleagues and assis-
tants found in medieval
mystery fiction. Whilst
each class is bound by
certain limitations and
abilities, the classes
should not be viewed as
restrictive. Every rogue
isn’t necessarily going to
be an uneducated peas-
ant. Some will be con
men, wandering ped-
dlers, entertainers and
even down on their luck
gentry, turned to crimi-
nal activities to earn
their crust. Some clerics
will be ex-soldiers, phy- game needs to be con-
sicians, scholars or even structed quite carefully,
nobles. Your choice of with regard to the other
character helps get an characters in the group,
immediate handle on
the characters abilities,
so that everyone knows
what their role is in the
but it is up to you as a
player to breathe some
group and why they all
work together. For ex-
life and personality into ample, it is probably
the numbers and statis- best to have one charac-
tics. ter who is the primary
investigator (although
There are nine character this isn’t strictly neces-
classes in the Medieval sary). The others are
Mysteries RPG as well then his or her assis-
as the option to take a tants, bodyguards,
dual-class or multi- officers, clerks or asso-
class. All of the players ciates. For instance, if
should consult with the primary investigator
each other and with the is a crowner, his specific
GM throughout charac- duties entail that he
ter generation, because looks into cases of un-
the style of game in the expected death, murder,
Medieval Mysteries RPG arson and so on. He is
is very different to the naturally the primary
normal type of fantasy investigator. He needs a
or medieval role-playing clerk to accompany him
game that you might be and record all the de-
used to. Characters do tails of his
not ‘go an adventures’ investigations, the fines
for example and as a imposed and so on, so
rule will stay in or near naturally this falls to
their hometown. For someone who can read
another thing, the and write like a cleric or
characters will have a scholar. If another
jobs and responsibili- player wants a fighter
ties that do not allow character, the crowner
them to just suddenly could employ him to act
drop everything and as an officer and body-
go off on some quest. guard. If a player wants
a rogue character, the
A group of characters crowner could make use
in this roleplaying
9
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES
his ‘street’ skills in his Hit Die (HD)
investigations. This is the type of die
rolled to determine the
Another campaign pos- character’s hit points.
sibility would be to have To the number generat-
characters all of the ed by the die, you add a
same class, like all cler- modifier based on the
ics, for example. They character’s constitution.
could have slightly dif- You stop rolling for ex-
ferent positions within tra hit points after level
the clergy, but it would 4 and simply add the
certainly be a reason number to your charac-
they know each other ter’s constitution
and do their sleuthing modifier for each addi-
as a team. Each cleric tional level. Your
character can be con- character always re-
structed slightly ceives a minimum of 1
differently, so as to give hit point per level,
them their own speciali- whatever his or her con-
ties. For example one stitution modifier.
could be a monk apoth-
ecary, another could be Weapons
a scholar (librarian), These are the weapons
there could be a friar that can be used with-
with some slightly dubi- out penalty by
ous skills and one could characters of that class.
be the team’s strong- If a character uses a
arm, for when things go weapon that is not on
wrong - a proctor or an the list, he uses it with a
ex-soldier perhaps.
–4 penalty to all attack
rolls to hit.
CLASS DESCRIPTION
TERMINOLOGY Abilities
This is a list of abilities
possessed by members
Prime attribute of the character class.
Each character class Some abilities are not
has one primary attrib-
gained until a certain
ute that is most closely level is achieved, some
associated with that
are automatic and some
class. This is the prima- require an attribute
ry attribute. It cannot be
check. The description
changed. in the text tells you all
about this.
10
Skills
Besides class abilities,
each character class has
a choice of skills. Once
chosen, the skills be-
come ‘class abilities’ and
all attribute checks are
made as appropriate for
a class ability. Each
character also gains an
additional skill at levels
3, 6, 9 and 12.
Level
Characters advance in
levels as they complete
their adventures and
gain experience. As they
gain levels, their chance
to hit, hit points and
defence bonus improve.
They may also gain new
abilities or extra uses of
an ability they already
have. The experience
required by each class
to gain levels differs.
Bonus to Hit (BtH)
This is the modifier that
is added to a ‘hit roll’
when making a melee,
ranged or firearm at-
tack.
Experience point
table (EPP)
This is the number of
experience points that
members of that class
use to determine how
many experience points
(XP) they need to go up
to the next level.
 CHARACTER CLASSES

er in the period, at uni- tice the trade but do not

APOTHECARY versity) before taking a operate out of a shop. In
The apothecary is a dis- more secular path. An addition to dispensing
penser of medicines and apothecary character is medicines, they provid-
remedies and most ex- automatically able both ed some surgical,
tend these skills into to read and write. midwifery, dental, and
those of physician and Apothecaries can get a general medical ser-
doctor too. Medicine bad press, because of vices.
wasn’t a very scientific the charlatans and
technique in the middle rogues who travel from Apothecaries as
ages. village to village selling investigators
coloured water and pro- Apothecaries are astute,
Many physicians and posing ridiculous patient and educated
apothecaries still con- treatments as the next and this makes them
sidered that illnesses ‘great cure’ for all ail- very good investigators.
depended on the phases ments. Of course, during the
of the moon, the hu- course of their work,
mours and so on. Most operate apothecary they will often be deal-
Bleeding was a com- shops in cities and ing with patients who
monly practised method towns but others prac- were the victims of
to cure most ailments. various crimes and
this may lead them
This class really rep- into investigation
resents the few, more work too. They are
enlightened of the also very good sup-
apothecaries and doc- porting characters,
tors of the time - being able to read and
those who believe that write and knowing
clean water, a good what they do of ail-
diet and so on are vi- ments, injuries, dead
tal to good health. bodies, and poisons.
They combine sensi-
ble advice with some Skills
of the most effective
Apothecaries can
techniques of the day
choose 3 (+ Int mod)
and, combined with
skills from the follow-
some of the herbal
ing list as class
remedies that actually
abilities; Gossip, heal,
work, make these
knowledge (choose
physicians highly
any), languages
sought after.
(choose any), listen,
notice, search, sense
Apothecaries are intel-
motive.
ligent, educated men,
often having learned Abilities
their arts in the minor Literate (Int): Apothe-
clerical orders (or, lat- caries are educated

11
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES
men and need to be able his save against a dis-
to read & write. Any ease or illness that he
character of this class is has contracted. This
automatically consid- bonus increases to +3 if
ered literate in any the Physician is 4th lev-
language he or she can el, +4 at 8th level and
speak. An attribute +5 at 12th level.
check would normally Sleeping Draught: An
be required to read apothecary can make a
works of a very compli- potion that, when
cated nature, badly drunk, will knock a per-
written work or old and son out for up to 12
faded writing. hours (the apothecary
Medicines & potions can determine the effi-
(Int): Provided an apoth- cacy of the draught, up
ecary has access to the to his own level in
raw materials and hours). If given to a per-
equipment necessary to son against his wishes,
mix the substance, he the recipient gets a con-
can create a number of stitution save to avoid
different types of salve, the full effects of the
potion and remedy for draught, which has a
various ailments and modifier equal to the
injuries. Apothecaries level of the apothecary.
need ceramic containers Even if the recipient
and phials by the hun- does save, he will still
dreds in which to store feel drowsy and less ef-
simple ingredients and fective (-1 on attribute
compounds for sale. The checks, attack rolls and
ingredients that he used armour class).
would include plant, Poisons: An apothecary
animal, chemical and can identify poisons on
mineral materials. He a successful attribute
would break them up check and can make
and mix them with a both poisons and anti-
mortar and pestle. The toxins. The poison’s
medicines and their us- strength is equal to the
es are as follows: level of the apothecary,
Herbals The apothecary plus his Int modifier.
knows how to make lo- This is the challenge
tions and herbal modifier to the recipi-
remedies for any num- ent’s constitution save
ber of minor illnesses of to avoid the full effects
the day that people may of the poison. For an
contract. Any character antitoxin to be effective
given one of the herbals the physician needs to
receives a +2 bonus to make a successful Int
12
attribute check, once he
has identified the poison
that he is trying to ne-
gate.
Pain relief potion: At
2nd level, the apothe-
cary can make potions
that dull the pain from
painful wounds. These
potions, when drunk
negate the effects of
negative modifiers on
attribute checks and
attack rolls from painful
wounds (see the combat
chapter).
Care & attention: If the
apothecary spends at
least an hour a day with
a recovering patient
(changing the bandages,
checking for infection
and cleaning the wound,
making the patient com-
fortable and getting him
to take food and water),
he can add a hit point to
the hit points that the
patient will recover nat-
urally from bed rest. For
example, in the first 7
days a patient will re-
cover 1 hit point per full
day of bed rest. An
apothecary will improve
this recovery rate to 2
points per day, as long
as he spends an hour a
day with the patient. At
4th level, this increases
to 2 hit points, at 8th
level 3 hit points and at
12th level the recovery
rate is increased by 4
hit points. An apothe-
cary will also add to the
recovery check of a
 CHARACTER CLASSES

character who is suffer- Apothecary stats:

ing from infected Prime Attribute: Intelli- CLERIC
wounds (see the Game gence Clerics are men and
Rules section for more Hit Die: D6 women who have taken
details about this). He Starting money: 40-240 holy orders and joined
will add +1 at levels 1 to pennies the church, in one ca-
4, +2 at levels 5 to 8, Armour: Padded, leather pacity or another. The
and +3 at level 9 and jerkin cleric character class
above. Weapons: Club, dagger, represents all non-
Perform minor surgery staff, light crossbow fighting holy men and
(Int): This ability, gained Abilities: Literate, medi- women, including
at 8th level, enables the cines & potions, care & priests, monks, nuns,
apothecary to perform attention, perform mi- friars and even hermits.
minor surgery and re- nor surgery Fighting clerics like
pair small wounds. Knights Templar and so
Large gashes can be Apothecary level on are better represent-
sewn shut, broken ed as nobles or fighters.
bones can be set and progression table:
sprains treated. This Priests held a special
Level HD BtH EPP
sort of work takes some place within the Church
1 D6 +0 0
time to perform (includ- in the middle ages. Only
2 D6 +1 900
ing preparation, a priest could adminis-
3 D6 +1 2700
sterilising tools and ter the sacraments, was
4 D6 +1 5400
equipment, cleaning up 5 +1 +2 9000 subject to special
the wound and so on) 6 +1 +2 13500 Church law and was
and the ability can be 7 +1 +2 18900 generally exempt from
used only once per day. 8 +1 +3 25200 secular law, and gained
At 10th level, the apoth- 9 +1 +3 32400 his special status
ecary is sufficiently 10 +1 +3 40500 through a special cere-
skilled and speedy to 11 +1 +4 49500 mony. All this served to
perform 2 such proce- 12 +1 +4 59400 set priests apart from
dures each day. A society as a whole.
successful check results Within the priesthood
in 2d6 points of damage was a tremendous range
being restored to the of social standing. A vil-
patient after completion. lage priest might be only
If the check is not suc- a local village boy who
cessful, only 1d6 hit was sent off to a mon-
points are recovered. astery to learn his
duties, as poor as his
parishioners. On the
other hand, a bishop
was also a priest, and
he might be the son (of-
ten a second son) of a
nobleman, wealthy and
powerful. A priest might

13

even be illiterate,
though literacy was far
higher in the clergy than
in the general popula-
tion. All player character
clerics are considered
literate.
Monks lived together in
a monastery under the
rule of an abbot. Some
monks copied manu-
scripts in the
monastery’s library, or
taught other young boys
to read and write, or to
do the laundry for the
monastery. Other
monks worked in the
fields like peasants,
planting grain for the
monastery and har-
vesting it, and taking
care of the monas-
tery’s pigs and sheep
and cattle. Monks
were not allowed to
marry or have chil-
dren or own any
property of their own.
Sometimes men joined
monasteries later in
life, either because
they felt drawn to a
religious life, or be-
cause they were so
poor or sick that they
wanted someone to
take care of them. The
main orders in Eng-
land were
Benedictines, Cister-
cians, Cluniacs,
Augustinians, Pre-
monstratians, and the
Carthusians.
MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES
Nuns are similar to the fields, while nuns
monks other than the from wealthier families,
fact that they are fe- whose families had giv-
male. Nuns all lived en money or land to the
together, either in a convent, spent their
dormitory or in their time spinning, weaving,
own little rooms (called or doing embroidery.
cells). Like monks, they Like monks, nuns never
prayed many times a married or had children,
day and went to Mass and they did not own
every day. Nuns were any property of their
not usually as well edu- own. The leader of the
cated as monks either, nuns was called an ab-
though they did some- bess.
times learn to read and
write. Mostly nuns A friar is a member of
spent their days the one of the mendicant
same way other women orders. Friars follow a
did. Poorer nuns worked vow of poverty like a
in the gardens and in monk, but their vow
meant that they could
possess no fixed reve-
nues and therefore
lived upon the volun-
tary offerings of the
faithful; hence their
name of mendicants.
The main denomina-
tions of friar are The
Dominicans (Black
Friars), the Francis-
cans (Grey Friars), the
Carmelites (White fri-
ars) and the Augus-
Augustinians.
Clerics as inves-
tigators
Player character cler-
ics will often have a lot
of time on their hands
and being learned and
educated will be keen
to become involved in
murder investigations
to enliven their other-
wise dull lives. A cleric
14
 CHARACTER CLASSES
character who is loyal to check. They can also
his Bishop could be perform the sacraments
chosen as a church including Mass, Mar-
agent, to lead an inves- riage and Confession.
tigation into mysterious After performing such
deaths, disappearances, sacraments, anyone
thefts or cases of possi- who was present will
ble heresy. Other times receive a +1 morale or
a cleric could be a use- luck bonus to any sav-
ful assistant to the main ing throw they are
investigator, especially required to make during
with his or her writing the next 24 hours.
skills, access to church Monk or Nun only:
records and church gos- Scribing (Int): Monks
sip. Often a cleric can and Nuns can copy text
gain the confidence of exactly. This means that
people otherwise reluc- they can gain a bonus of
tant to talk and gain +4 on any forgery check,
entry to places that oth- whether to spot a fake
er characters cannot or to make one.
enter. Friar only: Worldly: Fri-
ars mix with more
Skills colourful characters
All clerics can choose 4 than other clerics and
(+Int mod) skills from due to the way they live
the following list as and the people they as-
class abilities; Diploma- sociate with, they can
cy, gossip, heal, choose an additional
interrogate, knowledge skill of either stealth,
(choose any from reli- pick lock or pick pocket
gion, local area, law, as a class ability.
nature, wounds & Sanctuary (Cha): In the
corpses), languages middle ages ordinary
(choose any), listen, lit- ‘god-fearing’ people were
eracy, notice, perform, very wary of harming
search, sense motive. priests and monks in
case it brought down
Abilities God’s Wrath upon them.
Priest only: Ordination Whenever a cleric is
(Int): As men of the about to be attacked, he
cloth, priests are uni- can use this ability and
versally respected (and with a successful at-
feared by the truly pi- tribute check, the
ous) and therefore would-be attacker has a
clergymen gain a +2 bo- change of heart and de-
nus to any diplomacy, cides not to attack the
interrogate or gossip cleric after all, maybe
15
turning away or attack-
ing somebody else. Of
course, this only works
if the cleric is not taking
any aggressive action
himself.
Literate (Int): Clerics are
educated men and need
to be able to read &
write. Any character of
this class is automati-
cally considered literate
in any language he or
she can speak. An at-
tribute check would
normally be required to
read works of a very
complicated nature,
badly written work or
old and faded writing.
God’s Wrath (Cha): The
cleric can rant and rave
at his enemies, reading
or reciting suitable fire-
and-brimstone passages
from the bible. Any God-
fearing enemy hearing
this will be upset by this
tirade and suffer a –4 to
all charisma checks. In
addition, affected foes
must save vs. fear at the
–4 penalty or suffer a -1
to attack rolls to hit.
The ability lasts a num-
ber of rounds equal to
the cleric’s level. The
number affected in-
creases as the cleric
gains levels. At 4th level,
up to 25 people are af-
fected. At 8th level, the
number increases to 50,
and at 12th level it in-
creases to 100.
Faith: The cleric can
trust to faith once per
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES

day and re-roll any characters are respected

failed roll, to try to turn CROWNER by many (except the
a failure into a success. The crowner (or more sherrif) and therefore
He or she can use this properly coroner) is have certain priviledges,
ability twice per day at appointed by the king as autonomy and a great
6th level and above. his representative in a degree of authority in
county to meet several their county.
Cleric stats: specific purposes. One
Hit Die: D6 of these is as an Crowners as inves-
Starting money: 20-200 investigator of all tigators
pennies unexpected deaths, Crowners make
Armour: Padded, leather murders, rapes, cases of excellent primary
jerkin arson and finds of investigators and, if
Weapons: Club, dagger, treasure trove. His job there is a crowner in the
staff, light crossbow in these cases is to group it would be hard
Abilities: Ordination, record them, determine to see the character as
scribing or worldly, the cause, try to find the anything other than the
sanctuary, god’s wrath, guilty party (if there is primary investigator, or
faith one) attach any fines or at least one of them.
amercements to They have the abilities
Cleric level pro- individuals or villages and skill selections that
gression table: for not performing their make them more than
obligations under the able to look into
laws of the case and so murders and other
Level HD BtH EPP on. The coroners other mysteries and they are
1 D6 +0 0 duties are to keep an capable fighters and can
2 D6 +1 900 eye on the sherrifs, who therefore look after
3 D6 +1 2700 were notorious for themselves if
4 D6 +1 5400 syphoning off monies
5 +1 +2 9000 confrontation arises.
collected in taxes for the However, they often
6 +1 +2 13500 king and other
7 +1 +2 18900 can’t read & write and
dishonest activities. therefore still need a
8 +1 +3 25200
9 +1 +3 32400 literate clerk to record
The crowner is selected things for the justices
10 +1 +3 40500
for his incorruptability and there are other
11 +1 +4 49500
and his proven loyalty to areas where they might
12 +1 +4 59400
the king. The former need companions or
comes from the fact that associates to help out.
crowners were generally
only chosen from nobles Skills
or respected individuals
Crowners can choose 3
who had sufficient
(+Int mod) skills from
income as to put them
the following list as
above corruption. The
class abilities; Diploma-
crowner also reports
cy, gossip, intimidate,
directly to the king and
interrogate, knowledge
accordingly, crowner

16
 CHARACTER CLASSES

(wounds & corpses, no- knowledge of the ap-

bility & royalty), proximate level of the
languages (any of person, distinguishing
choice), listen, literacy, habits and mannerisms,
notice, search, sense approximate wealth,
motive. whether he seems nerv-
ous or is acting
Abilities suspiciously and other
Crowner’s horse: details that the GM
Crowners are automati- might see fit to provide.
cally able to ride a horse With a –5 penalty, this
and will have at least ability can also be used,
one horse of their own to a more limited de-
of a suitable type for gree, on a dead body.
riding to war. In addi- Hue & Cry: A crowner
tion to their starting is able to raise the hue
money, crowners begin & cry. What this means
play with a fully outfit- is that the crowner can
ted riding horse (saddle, declare anyone as being
blankets, saddlebags, on a 1st level NPC and a murderer, thief, trai-
bit & bridle, harness, thereafter on NPCs of at tor or outlaw call upon
horseshoes & meal). The least 4 levels below that the local population to
mounts are hardier than of the crowner. form a posse to help to
most, having 2d8+6 hit Find Truth (Wisdom): seek the accused and
points. The crowner is very restrain him or her
Brow Beat (Cha): With skilled in distinguishing when caught. Once the
a successful intimidate truth from untruth. This cry goes out, within an
check, any 0-level NPC adds +2 to his sense hour, the crowner will
will be so cowed by the motive, interrogate and have a mob of 3d6 + the
crowner, that he will gossip skill checks, for crowner’s charisma bo-
take time out to assist the purposes of filtering nus (if any) 0-level
the crowner in his im- fact from fiction or to characters, bearing
mediate endeavour even determine whether staffs, pitchforks, cudg-
if it means dropping somebody is lying to els and similar
what he is currently do- him. ‘weapons’. In each of the
ing and at a productive Read suspect (Wis- next three hours 1d6
cost to himself, within dom): Using this ability, further 0-level charac-
reason (The GM will de- the crowner is able to ters will join the posse
cide what is reasonable). find information about a each hour. After 5 hours
This could be simply specific person, by de- from the start of the hue
something like ‘look af- tailed observation, and & cry, if the accused
ter my horse, peasant’ deductive reasoning. A hasn’t been found, the
or ‘give that to me’ or crowner must spend mob will begin to dissi-
‘come with me’ to some- 1d3x10 minutes observ- pate, losing 2d6 of their
thing a bit more ing his suspect before a number per hour until
involved. At 5th level, check is allowed. A suc- they have all returned to
the ability can be used cessful check results in their homes. The Hue &

17
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES

Cry can only be raised local militia or even a

once in a day. FIGHTER bouncer or bodyguard
Hunch: At 6th level, the at the local tavern. If he
crowner is so skilled at wields a weapon for his
his investigations that keep and has no other
he gains an almost psy- means of support, then
chic insight into what he is likely to be a
happened. Once per fighter.
day, the player can ask
the GM for a clue or a Fighters tend to be
lead that will aid his strong enough to use a
investigation in some variety of weapons, and
way, if he is stuck. He trained to move around
can ask two such ques- without difficulty in
tions at 12th level. heavy shields and
armour. Many can ride
Crowner stats: to some degree, even if
Prime Attribute: Wis- they don’t necessarily
dom fight from horseback.
Hit Die: d8 When faced with a
Starting money: 60- problem, generally
360 pennies speaking the true mark
Armour: Any of a fighter is that he
Weapons: Any will draw his sword as
Abilities: Crowner’s soon as look at any
horse, find truth, read other options.
suspect, brow beat, hue
& cry, hunch Fighters come from a Fighters as inves-
range of different tigators
Crowner level pro- backgrounds and they Fighters, by their very
gression table: may specialize in nature as men of action
different styles or are not generally best
aspects of fighting, but suited to the role of the
Level HD BtH EPP they share one thing in primary investigator.
1 D8 +0 0 common; fighters are They do have their uses
2 D8 +1 1100 men (and a few women) as a support to the
3 D8 +2 3300 whose primary skills, teams’ primary
4 D8 +2 6600 abilities and training investigator though - as
5 +2 +3 11000 are in warfare and bodyguards, and
6 +2 +4 16500 combat. A character backup when going into
7 +2 +4 23100 who is a fighter may be a hostile situation, to
8 +2 +5 30800 a poor landless knight, make arrests or even to
9 +2 +6 39600 a Welsh archer, a intimidate witnesses
10 +2 +6 49500 mercenary-for-hire, the and suspected
11 +2 +7 60500 constable in the criminals.
12 +2 +8 72600 sherrif’s castle, the
sergeant-at-arms of the

18
 CHARACTER CLASSES

Skills fighter must direct all Abilities: Weapon spe-

Fighters can choose 2 his attacks in a combat cialization, combat
(+Int mod) skills from round toward opponents dominance, extra attack
the following list as that meet these criteria.
class abilities; climb, The fighter can split Fighter level pro-
craft (choose any one), available attacks among gression table:
gossip, heal, intimidate, opponents as desired.
jump, language (choose This ability improves Level HD BtH EPP
any), notice, ride. as the fighter gains 1 D10 +1 0
levels. The fighter 2 D10 +2 1000
Abilities gains an additional 3 D10 +3 3000
Weapon specialisation: attack for every four 4 D10 +4 6000
At 1st level, a fighter levels gained after 4th 5 +3 +5 10000
can choose one weapon level. So an 8th level 6 +3 +6 15000
in which to specialise. fighter is allowed a 7 +3 +7 21000
Any weapon can be se- total of three attacks 8 +3 +8 28000
lected, including ranged against such oppo- 9 +3 +9 36000
weapons. The weapon nents. In addition the 10 +3 +10 45000
selected is often endem- fighter can use com- 11 +3 +11 55000
ic to the fighter’s culture bat dominance against 12 +3 +12 66000
or society, though opponents of higher
needn’t be. The GM and level as he gains levels.
player should consult to At every four levels, the
see which weapons are minimum level of oppo-
available for specializa- nent goes up a level, so
tion, bearing in mind at 8th level, he can use
culture, social status, multiple attacks on 2nd
location and availability. level opponents and at
Fighters can choose on- 12th level he can use it
ly one weapon in which against 3rd level oppo-
to specialize. Once cho- nents. This ability
sen, the weapon cannot cannot be combined
be changed. For fighters with extra attack.
between 1st and 6th Extra Attack: At 10th
level, this gives a +1 bo- level, the fighter gains
nus to hit and to the one additional attack
damage caused, when each combat round
attacking with that with any weapon.
weapon. At 7th level and
higher, the bonus is +2 Fighter stats:
to hit and to damage. Prime attribute:
Combat dominance: At Strength
4th level, the fighter Hit Die: D10
gains an extra attack Starting money: 30-
with any weapon when 240 pennies
fighting opponents of Armour: Any
1st level or lower. The Weapons: Any

19
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES

woodcraft and outdoor creatures like squirrels

FORESTER living. and crows caught in the
royal forest) carried se-
The forester is an vere penalties.
officer, similar to a
gamekeeper, di- Foresters as inves-
rectly responsible tigators
for enforcing the Foresters are not a nat-
harsh forest laws ural choice as a primary
and taking offend- investigator, though
ers to the forest they are a good choice
courts. Foresters as an associate, espe-
were nominated by cially when
the Forest Warden, investigations take place
but received no outside the city.
salary. Sometimes
they even paid for
the privilege of the
Skills
job, because of the Foresters can choose 3
possibilities for (+Int mod) skills from
extortion. The For- the following list as
esters badge was a class abilities; Climb,
horn. craft, gossip, handle an-
imal, heal, intimidate,
Woodwards, on jump, knowledge (local
the other hand area, law, nature), lan-
were employed by guages (not Latin),
private landowners literacy, listen, notice,
to protect the vert search, stealth, swim,
and venison, but track.
outside the royal
Foresters are those men forests. Although Abilities
that make their living they were servants of Awareness (Wis): For-
out of doors, on the land the landowner, they still esters are particularly
and in the royal forests. had to adhere to the adept at noticing broken
Although the name same oaths and codes twigs or branches, un-
as the foresters. Their natural silence or
forester has very specific
badge was a billhook. alternatively unnatural-
official conertations in
Verderers had a similar ly noisy creatures and
the middle ages, for the
role, but organised the so on. When out of
purposes of the
foresters and reported doors and in their own
Medieval Mysteries RPG
it encompasses all directly to the king. environment, they can
verderers, foresters, Poachers run a severe add +2 to all notice,
woodwards and even risk of being caught, as search, track and listen
poachers, who are offences against the checks.
skilled in the ways of vert, or the king’s deer Traps: A forester is able
and other game (even to detect and build sim-

20
 CHARACTER CLASSES

ple traps in the wilder- They can also fashion a

ness. When passing simple short bow and MERCHANT
within 25’ of a trap, a arrows, quarterstaff or Merchants are traders,
forester is entitled to a cudgel from the natural businessmen, money-
notice check to spot it. materials around them. lenders and possibly
When actively searching even craftsmen. Some
for traps, he receives a Forester stats: will have come to their
+2 bonus to the check. Prime Attribute: Con- business ventures from
He can set simple traps stitution other backgrounds and
in the wilderness, in- Hit Die: D8 professions, and others
cluding snares, pits, log- Starting money: 20- were born into it, per-
falls and similar devices. 120 pennies haps inheriting a family
On a successful attrib- Armour: Padded, leath- business. Some traders
ute check, he er jerkin, leather coat, sell their own goods
successfully builds and ring mail, studded from shops in towns
conceals the trap. leather. and cities; others might
Snares can capture and Weapons: Club, bow travel around buying
hold creatures up to long or short, dagger, goods from here and
medium height and pit broad sword, hand axe, there, selling for a profit
traps can deliver d4 long sword, short sword, in other places. Many of
points of damage falchion, staff, wood the richer merchants
(halved if the creature axe, spear, light cross- will have contacts in
makes a successful dex- bow ports, both in England
terity saving throw). Abilities: Awareness, and overseas and some
They can be made to do traps, conceal, ranged will even own their own
extra damage if lined weapon specialist. ships.
with wooden spikes.
Foresters can easily dis- Forester level pro- Merchants are burgess-
able traps they find (no es, meaning they are
check needed).
gression table:
freemen and some of the
Conceal (Dex): Forest- wealthier ones will hold
ers are especially good Level HD BtH EPP positions of importance
at concealing them- 1 D8 +0 0 in the town. Often they
selves out of doors, 2 D8 +1 1000 hold lands too and can
where there is plenty of 3 D8 +1 3000 be wealthier than the
natural cover. They re- 4 D8 +2 6000 nobility. For this rea-
ceive a bonus of +2 to 5 +2 +3 10000 son, merchants tend to
stealth checks, when 6 +2 +3 15000 be conscious of their
they are hiding in cover 7 +2 +4 21000 status and like to dress
and not moving, whilst 8 +2 +5 28000 as finely as their pock-
in the wilderness. 9 +2 +5 36000 ets and their stations
Ranged weapon spe- 10 +2 +6 45000 allow.
cialist: Foresters tend 11 +2 +7 55000
to be decent marksmen. 12 +2 +7 66000
They can add +1 to their
attack rolls to hit with
any bow or crossbow.

21
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES

Merchants as in- more information and by 8th level they can

vestigators they are useful to identi- bargain the costs down
Merchants probably fy murder weapons and to ½ the listed price of
make very good primary other objects found at goods. Finally at 12th
investigators, but unless crime scenes. level, merchants can get
money is involved they standard goods for a
probably aren’t interest- Skills third of the list price.
ed. They are probably Merchants can choose 4 For other items like rare
best as support charac- (+Int mod) skills from items and religious arti-
ters - they are often the following list as facts and relics, the GM
literate and certainly class abilities; Appraise, will have to make his
good gossips; especially craft (choose any), di- own judgment as to
those that do a lot of plomacy, gossip, handle what would seem rea-
traveling. They might animal, knowledge (any sonable.
even have money of from law, local area, no- Money Wise (Wis): You
their own that they can bility & royalty, trade & cannot fool a canny
throw around to obtain traders, the world), lan- merchant. They can
guages (choose any), spot shaved coins, sepa-
listen, literacy, rate real silver and gold
notice, ride, sense coins from fake metals
motive. and can also tell how
many coins are in a
Abilities purse without needing
Bargain (Cha): to open it and some-
This is the skill of times even just by
negotiation for a looking at it. A notice
price – whether check is needed.
that is by barter Contacts (Cha): Mer-
(exchange of chants conduct their
goods) or simply trade with a large num-
haggling on a ber of people and are
price to lower (or therefore privy to gossip
increase if selling) from very many places.
it. With a suc- Whenever they fail a
cessful diplomacy gossip check, they can
check, at 1st level have another check add-
they can reduce ing +2 to the roll if they
the price of have the opportunity to
standard equip- go off and visit one of
ment and their other contacts
weapons from the ‘who might know a bit
list by 3/4 of the more’.
listed price. At 4th Identify item (Int):
level, they can Merchants can choose a
buy equipment specialist trade item,
for 2/3 of the with which they receive
listed price and a +2 modifier to their

22
 CHARACTER CLASSES

appraise checks. Sug- mary investigators, even

gested choices could be NOBLE if they might require a
jewellery, gems, gold, Nobles still hold great few associates and help-
silver, tin, bronze, power by this time and ers. Other nobles are
weapons, armour, cloth- are still pretty much the occasionally asked by
ing, spices, books, cloth, embodiment of the feu- the king or the church
religious items and so dal system representing to investigate certain
on. a mix of military might, mysteries or to do a bit
wealth, land ownership of spying work. This
Merchant stats: and political ambition. would usually be in cas-
Prime Attribute: Cha- Although there is clearly es where the noble in
risma a shift in thinking, the question is deemed
Hit Die: D6 common man generally competent and loyal
Starting money: 40- still knows his place. enough to carry out
240 pennies such duties.
Armour: Padded, leath- Nobles are skilled in po-
er jerkin, leather coat, litical manoeuvrings, Skills
studded leather. plotting and conniving, Nobles can choose 2
Weapons: Club, dagger, diplomacy and back- (+Int mod) skills from
broadsword, short stabbing. At this time, the following list as
sword, long sword, staff, the nobility is also still class abilities; Diploma-
light crossbow looked upon for military cy, gossip, heal,
Abilities: Bargain, mon- leadership, for the only intimidate, interrogate,
ey wise, contacts, reason that they have knowledge (choose from
identify item the wealth to raise ar- religion, law, nobility &
mies and outfit them royalty, the world), lan-
Merchant level with armour and weap- guages (choose any),
progression table: ons. Lower ranking literacy, perform, sense
nobles, those without motive.
the wealth to do this,
Level HD BtH EPP
are still often better Abilities
1 D6 +0 0
equipped than the aver- Noble’s horse: Nobles
2 D6 +1 900
age soldier and often are automatically able to
3 D6 +1 2700
serve as officers. ride a horse and will
4 D6 +2 5400
5 +1 +2 9000 have at least one horse
Nobles as investigators of their own of a suita-
6 +1 +3 13500
Some nobles are em- ble type for riding to
7 +1 +3 18900
powered to investigate war. In addition to their
8 +1 +4 25200
crimes on their land, starting money, nobles
9 +1 +4 32400
where they are not begin play with a fully
10 +1 +5 40500
murders or arson that a outfitted riding horse
11 +1 +5 49500
crowner is required to (saddle, blankets, sad-
12 +1 +6 59400
investigate. Therefore, dlebags, bit & bridle,
whether they are good harness, horseshoes &
at it or not, characters meal). The mounts are
who are nobles can hardier than most, hav-
make for enjoyable pri- ing 2d8+6 hit points.

23
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES

Landowner: The noble son (The GM will decide

character is automati- what is reasonable).
cally assumed to hold This could be simply
his own land. This land something like ‘look af-
will be a small estate ter my horse, peasant’
(initially) comprising his or ‘give that to me’ or
manor house and a ‘come with me’ to some-
small village, including thing a bit more
a mill, fields and a small involved. At 5th level,
area of woodland for the ability can be used
hunting and so forth. on a 1st level NPC and
The noble is responsible thereafter on NPCs of at
for the serfs and so on least 4 levels below that
who live in the village of the noble.
and work his fields. He Dispense justice: The
will have a few servants, noble is considered a
such as an ostler (for legal representative by
his horse), a cook, a the medieval system
couple of maids and that is only just begin-
maybe a woodward or ning to change. At 4th
two to run his wood- level, the character is
land. He is also likely to authorised to administer
have at least a handful justice, arbitrate dis-
(roll 2d3) of 0-level men- putes and perform legal
at-arms, under a 1st functions within his
level sergeant-at-arms. own manor. The noble’s
A steward will be re- decisions are legally
sponsible for the day-to- binding on all but mem-
day running of his bers of the clergy and
house. After taxes, pay- upon other nobles. De- Noble level pro-
ing his staff and cisions can however, be gression table:
upkeep, the land will overturned by nobles of
produce a small income at least 2 levels higher
of 20-1200 (2d6 x 100) than the character. Level HD BtH EPP
pennies per year. 1 D8 +0 0
Brow Beat (Cha): With Noble stats: 2 D8 +1 1100
a successful intimidate 3 D8 +1 3300
Prime Attribute: Cha-
check, any 0-level NPC 4 D8 +2 6600
risma
will be so cowed by the 5 +2 +3 11000
Hit Die: D8
noble, that he will take 6 +2 +3 16500
Starting money: 50-
time out to assist the 7 +2 +4 23100
300 pennies
noble in his immediate 8 +2 +5 30800
Armour: Any
endeavour even if it Weapons: Any 9 +2 +5 39600
means dropping what 10 +2 +6 49500
Abilities: Noble’s
he is currently doing 11 +2 +7 60500
horse, landowner,
and at a productive cost 12 +2 +7 72600
brow beat, dispense
to himself, within rea- justice

24
 CHARACTER CLASSES

parts of the city that rogate, jump, knowledge

ROGUE most of the other types (choose from local area,
In any city or any town of character cannot gain underworld, wounds &
there are those types access to. Rogues oper- corpses), languages
who like to live their ating on the side of the (choose any except Latin
lives on the other side of law do have to be care- or Norman French), lis-
the law. They might find ful though, not to give ten, notice, perform,
that circumstances lead the game away other- pick lock, pick pocket,
them to a life of crime or wise they could end up search, sense motive,
they might choose such with half the under- stealth, track.
a life, but one way or world after them.
another they end up Abilities
stealing or conning peo- Skills Back attack: A rogue
ple out of their money Rogues can choose 5 (+ can use stealth to sneak
and possessions. Int mod) skills from the up on someone and
following list as class catch him or her una-
Some rogues are high- abilities; Appraise, ware. If a rogue is able
waymen; others are climb, disguise, forgery, to attack an unaware
thugs. Some prefer pick- gossip, intimidate, inter- opponent from the rear,
ing pockets in busy he gains a bonus to
markets and taverns hit and damage with
and others break into small melee weapons,
houses. There are such as knives, clubs
others who travel and saps. He must
from village to town make a successful
peddling shoddy or move silently check
stolen goods. For the to sneak up, or oth-
most part though, erwise be
they are thieves, li- successfully con-
ars, cheats and cealed behind his foe.
swindlers of one sort He then gets a +4
or another. Because bonus to hit. A suc-
of their skills, some cessful hit means he
rogues find them- causes double dam-
selves sought after as age. At 5th level
spies, information damage is trebled
gatherers and even from a back attack
as assassins. and at 9th level the
damage is quadru-
Rogues as investiga- pled.
tors Traps (Int): A rogue
Probably best as may use this ability
supporting charac- to find, disable or set
ters, rogues have a traps. Each use re-
number of extremely quires a separate
useful skills and check and each
have access to the check may be made

25
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES

only once in a given cir- opportunity to fire. A

cumstance. To find a rogue making a sneak SCHOLAR
trap, the rogue must attack gains a +2 bonus Scholars are skilled and
spend time searching an to hit and a +4 bonus to knowledgeable scribes,
area to deduce possible damage. Ranged weap- clerks, archivists or
trap locations. It takes a ons can be used as long teachers. They study the
round to find a trap in a as the target is within nature of the world, the
specific area, such as on 30’. A rogue cannot mysteries of theology
a lock or door handle. shoot with deadly accu- and the nuances of the
To disable a trap, the racy beyond that range. law. They are most at
rogue must first have home among books, or
found the trap. A suc- Rogue stats: disputing with one an-
cessful check means Prime Attribute: Dex- other over obscure
that he has disabled it. terity points of philosophical
Failure means that he Hit Die: D6 interpretation, but their
set it off and could suf- Starting money: 30- knowledge sometimes
fer the effects. To set a 120 pennies has a wider application,
trap he or she needs to Armour: Padded, leath- and they can find them-
make a successful er jerkin, leather coat, selves involved in one
check. If the check fails, studded leather. side or another of a po-
the trap will not trigger Weapons: Dagger, club, litical debate or testing
at the intended moment. short sword, hand the finer points of law in
Resetting a previously axe, broad sword, staff, an awkward criminal
disabled trap gives the sling, short bow, light case.
rogue a +5 to his or her crossbow
check. Abilities: Back attack, While all characters
Sneak attack: At 4th traps, sneak attack can, in theory, study,
level, a rogue has none match the scholar
learned to adapt back Rogue level pro- for depth and breadth of
attack skills to more knowledge. The scholar
general situations.
gression table:
is always learning, and
When an opponent or forgets little of what he
victim is aware of the Level HD BtH EPP
knows. Most scholars
rogue, but unsuspect- 1 D6 +0 0
obtained their educa-
ing of attack, a rogue 2 D6 +1 900
tion in the church
can use the sneak at- 3 D6 +1 2700
which, in the middle
tack ability. For 4 D6 +2 5400
ages was virtually the
example a rogue could 5 +1 +2 9000
only place where there
be having a conversa- 6 +1 +3 13500
are any books to learn
tion with a victim while 7 +1 +3 18900
from. Therefore they
hiding a dagger up his 8 +1 +4 25200
still often have some
sleeve, intending to 9 +1 +4 32400
ties to the church, even
knife him at some 10 +1 +5 40500
if they parted ways on
point. Or he could be 11 +1 +5 49500
differences of opinion
waiting in a tree with a 12 +1 +6 59400
on theological or eco-
loaded crossbow, wait- nomic matters.
ing for the perfect

26
 CHARACTER CLASSES

Scholars as investiga- (+Int mod) skills from to roll again, for specific
tors the following list as information that he
Scholars can be skilled class abilities, of which missed originally.
primary investigators, at least 3 must be Scribing (Int): Like
with their range of knowledges and/or lan- monks and nuns, schol-
knowledge and ability to guages; Appraise, ars can copy text
read and write. They are diplomacy, forgery, gos- exactly. This means that
also very useful second- sip, heal, interrogate, they can gain a bonus of
ary investigators who knowledge (choose any), +4 on any forgery check,
can ably support a less languages (choose any), whether to spot a fake
studious investigator, as listen, notice, perform, or to make one.
a crowner’s clerk, for search. Trained memory (Int):
example. Some scholars If a scholar takes the
are selected as agents of Abilities time to memorize some-
the church or the crown Literate (Int): Scholars thing, he or she can
in their own right, pro- are educated men and recite it perfectly at any
vided they are loyal. need to be able to read later date with a suc-
& write. Any character cessful check. The time
Skills of this class is automat- taken depends on the
Scholars can choose 6 ically considered literate thing to be memorized,
in any language he or but as a rule of thumb it
she can speak. An at- takes three times as
tribute check would long to memorize a piece
normally be required to of text as it takes to
read works of a very simply look over it.
complicated nature, Clear Explanation
badly written work or (Int): From 4th level a
old and faded writing. scholar can explain
Research (Int): Even if what he knows with
a scholar knows noth- such clarity and enthu-
ing about a subject, as siasm that even the
long as he has access to ignorant can follow it
a library and 1d4 hours and make use of the
to study, he can dredge ability. In game terms,
up some useful infor- the scholar may explain
mation and receives a any of his skills (not just
check. Where he does his Knowledge skills) to
have the knowledge al- someone with whom he
ready (but failed his shares a language, and
initial check), he only that person may use the
needs half an hour to skill as if he had it at
research the topic, after half the level as the
which time he can re- scholar. He may use the
ceive between +2 and +6 skill at any point up to
to his check, depending one round per level of
on the size and quality the scholar, plus his
of the library, and gets own Int modifier after

27
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES

the scholar has finished experience points

explaining how to use
Multi-classing to advance in both
the skill. For example if Overview classes at the
the scholar is 4th level Sometimes a player has same time. For ex-
and the character has an idea for a character ample, a 1st level
an Int bonus of +1, he for which two classes cleric/noble would
can use the skill any seem more appropriate require 2000 expe-
time up to 5 rounds af- than just the one. A no- rience points to
ter he received ble who joins the clergy advance to a 2nd
instruction and does so or a fighting man who level cleric/noble.
as if he were 2nd level. falls on hard times and • The character
Unless he later trains in becomes a rogue are must take the
the skill, he soon forgets just a couple of the pos- prime from both of
how to use it. sibilities. In this his classes. For
instance, the option is example a cler-
Scholar stats: for a GM to allow his ic/noble must
Prime Attribute: Intel- player to have a multi- have both wisdom
ligence class character and charisma as
Hit Die: D6 prime attributes.
Starting money: 30- Characters may
120 pennies still choose their
Armour: Padded, leath- secondary attrib-
er jerkin. utes as they wish.
Weapons: Club, dagger, • The character
staff, light crossbow uses the best bo-
Abilities: Literate, re- nus to hit and
search, scribing, trained bonus to defence
memory, clear explana- charts available to
tion him. A 1st level
cleric/noble would
Scholar level pro- use the noble’s
Multi-class
bonus to hit (there
gression table: A multi-class character
is no difference at
is one that starts off at
earlier levels, but
Level HD BtH EPP 1st level with two clas-
the noble’s BtH is
ses. When a player
1 D6 +0 0 better at higher
wishes to have a true
2 D6 +1 900 levels).
3 D6 +1 2700 multi-class character,
the following rules ap- • The character av-
4 D6 +1 5400 erages his hit
5 +1 +2 9000 ply
points by rolling
6 +1 +2 13500 for both classes,
7 +1 +2 18900 • No more than
adding the results
8 +1 +2 25200 two classes may
together and divid-
9 +1 +3 32400 be taken.
ing the total by
10 +1 +3 40500 • To advance a lev-
two (rounding
11 +1 +3 49500 el the character
fractions up). Any
12 +1 +4 59400 must earn enough
constitution modi-

28
 CHARACTER CLASSES

fier the character • The character

may have is ap- gains all other
plied to the final benefits and pen-
total, with a min- alties of both
imum of 1. For classes such as a
example a cler- cleric’s ordination
ic/noble rolls 1d6 and the noble’s
and gets a result horse and land.
of 4 for his cleric
class. The player Dual-class
also rolls 1d8 for A dual-class character
his noble class from life altering
is one that starts off life events.
and gets a 5. The in one character class
total is 9. Divide • The character us-
and then, later on es the best bonus
this by 2 (rounded switches his class to
up) to get 5. If the to hit chart avail-
another one. able to him. A 2nd
character has a
constitution of 12 level fighter who
• No more than two begins to advance
(+1 modifier) the classes may be
final total would as a apothecary
taken. would continue to
become 6 addi- • The character
tional hit points. use the fighter’s
must advance to +2 bonus to hit
At first level, the at least 2nd level
split class charac- until he became a
in his first class 8th level apothe-
ter automatically before switching to
gets maximum hit cary, at which
his second class. point he would
points, so he gets
• The character’s begin to use the
(6+8)/2 =7 hit second class must
points (plus any apothecary’s +3
be one for which bonus to hit.
con modifier) as a he already has a
1st level cler- • The character may
prime attribute. use any weapons
ic/noble.
• If all of the above available to both
• he character may criteria are met
use any weapons of his classes.
then the character • The character re-
available to both may abandon his
of his classes. tains all the
first class and benefits of his
• The character gets begin to gain expe-
a number of skills original class that
rience points in he had at the
to choose as class his second class.
abilities equal to point where he
He may not, how- switched classes.
the lower number ever, return to his
of the two classes. So a 2nd level
original class at a fighter who
However, he or later date since
she can choose switched to being
such class chang- an apothecary
skills available to es usually stem
either class. would retain
weapon specializa-

29
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES

tion but would not ter as simply a forester, he like to drink, or is he

gain combat dom- doesn’t really paint a a devout churchgoer? Is
inance or extra at- picture of him. Saying he interested in money,
attack. From then that he is a stocky, fame or something else
on he gains apoth- longhaired woodsman entirely? Once you start
ecary abilities as with several days’ stub- to add a few of these
he rises in level as ble on his weather- details, then you begin
an apothecary. beaten face gives a bet- to get a feel for whom he
The character ter picture. Adding to and what he is about.
adds his hit dice this description his Don’t bust a gut over it
from both classes usual style of clothing though. You don’t need
together but may embellishes the picture pages and pages of
still never have further. “He wears a background details, just
more than four to- battered hat, pulled one or two things that
tal hit dice. A 2nd down over his eyes and help to give the GM and
level fighter/2nd a threadbare tunic other players an idea of
level apothecary, that’s seen better days, what your character is
for example, would though that it partly like. Once you start
have 2d10 hit dice hidden by a patched playing, you can add
from his fighter and torn cloak billowing further details actually
class as well as slightly in the breeze”. in character and during
the 2d6 from his Now you can almost see the game itself.
apothecary class. him walking into town
Once the charac- after a few days out on Often it is worth devel-
ter reaches a total the trail. oping one thing that
of five levels (2nd your character wants to
level fighter/3rd The look of the charac- do, especially if you talk
level apothecary) ter creates the initial this through with the
he would begin to impression. However, other players (or the
gain hit points ac- that isn’t all there is to GM, if it is supposed to
cording to his completing the picture. be a secret). This could
current class upon You need to think about be something as simple
attaining the next what he is actually like as a character wants to
level of experience – is he as mean and get even with someone
i.e. +1 hit point tough as he looks? Does who has wronged him in
per level. he have any strange the past, or it could be
habits or foibles? Does that someone for some
reason is hunting
Completing your him? It might be that
character the character is aim-
Persona ing to carve out a
The appearance and reputation for himself,
demeanour of your seeking wealth or
character is entirely up power by lawful or un-
to you and how you pic- lawful means or any
ture him or her. one of a number of
Describing your charac- other goals. These

30
CHARACTER CLASSES

aims will give your details of your charac-

GM some ideas for ter, it is time to equip
scenarios and ad- him or her. Some choic-
ventures in which es of weapon are largely
you have a vested dictated by the charac-
interest and will ter class that you have
therefore make the chosen. However, your
game even more choices need to reflect
exciting. the character. You
might think that a spe-
Name cific weapon does more
A character’s damage than another
name is a highly one, therefore it is better
evocative way to and therefore you want
help conjure up it. However, sometimes
the right image of just deciding that, for
your character. whatever reason, your
Obviously, you character prefers one
need to choose a type over another adds
name that suits to the character and is a
the historical time character-driven deci-
frame and that is sion, rather than one
suitable for the dictated by what is best
style of game that in the rules. He might,
you are playing. If perhaps be biased to-
you are playing a wards one type of
light-hearted sword, because that is
game, or playing the one he was given by
in a ‘Hollywood’ his father before he died
not-quite historical or he might prefer it just
style, then you can because he read some-
probably get away where that it is the
with taking a few fanciest or best made or
more liberties. If in for some other reason.
doubt, ask the Think about some of the
other players or reasons that you buy
the GM. There is a one make of car over
list of example another, even if one
character names costs more or is faster
later on in this or has better mileage
publication. and so on. These are all
decisions that your
Equipping character would make
when buying his own
your character gear.
Once you have fin-
ished all of the

31

SKILLS
E
very character class
gets an initial
choice of between 2
and 6 skills from a class
list, at 1st level. The
skills selected are then
considered class abili-
ties and when used, the
character’s level is add-
ed to the d20 roll to
determine success.
Each character also
gains an additional skill
at levels 3, 6, 9 and 12.
These can come from
their class skills or, if
they are receiving train-
ing or tuition, can be
from the main skill list.
The player needs to
state that he is receiving
training in the new skill
when he reaches the
level prior to the level
that he can receive the
extra skill. So, upon at-
taining 2nd level, a
fighter character might
want to take training in
literacy. He is assumed
to be practising and
learning (from an NPC
scholar or cleric or other
character) for the whole
of the time it takes to
get the 3rd level.
When your character
uses a skill, you make
an attribute check to
Skill list
Appraise (Int)
see how well he or she
Climb (Str or Dex)
does. The higher the
result of the attribute
Craft (Int) (Ar-
mourer, blacksmith,
check, the better.
bowyer, carpenter,
Based on the circum-
goldsmith, leather-
stances, your result
worker, potter, tailor)
must match or beat a
Diplomacy (Cha)
particular number (a
Disguise (Cha)
challenge rating or the
Forgery (Int)
result of an opposed
Gossip (Cha)
attribute check) for the
Handle Animal (Cha)
check to be successful.
Heal (Wis)
The harder the task,
Intimidate (Cha or
Str)
Interrogate (Cha)
Jump (Str or Dex)
Knowledge (Int) (Reli-
gion, local area, law,
nature, nobility &
royalty, trade & trad-
ers, the underworld,
wounds & corpses)
Languages (Int) (Cor-
nish, German, Irish,
the higher the number Latin, Middle Eng-
you need to roll. lish, Norman French,
Welsh)
Circumstances can af- Listen (Wis)
fect your check; a Literacy (Int)
character that is free to Notice (Wis)
work without distrac- Perform (Cha)
tions can make a Pick Lock (Dex)
careful attempt and Pick Pocket (Dex)
avoid simple mistakes. Ride (Dex)
A character who has Search (Wis)
lots of time can try over Sense Motive (Wis)
and over again, thereby Stealth (Dex)
assuring the best out- Swim (Str)
come. If others help, Track (Wis)
the character may suc-
32

ceed where otherwise he
or she would fail.
A skill check takes into
account a character’s
training (level), natural
talent (ability modifier),
and luck (the die roll). It
may also take into ac-
count what armor he or
she is wearing and any
encumbrance. The
chapter headed ‘Game
rules’ explains how
skills are used in greater
detail.
Skill descriptions
Appraise (Int)
This is the skill of
determining the
value and crafts-
manship of
common or well-
known objects. Ap-
praising a rare or
exotic item requires
a successful check
with at least a -5
modifier. If the
check is successful,
you estimate the
value correctly. You can
even determine the
maker, if local or well
known, with a -10 pen-
alty. You might also
want to ascertain other
details about an item,
such as its age, materi-
als used to make it and
so on. All of these may
involve a higher chal-
lenge rating at the GM’s
discretion. If you have a
craft that is relevant to
CHAPTER FOUR TITLE
the item being assessed,
you can add +2 to his
attribute check. It nor-
mally takes at least a
minute to appraise the
approximate worth of an
item and rather longer
for other details.
Climb (Dex or Str)
Climbing requires either
dexterity or strength
(character’s choice). It is
the skill of getting up a
wall, tree or steep
slope/cliff face without
falling. You can climb
10’ per round with a
successful check. A
failed check means you
slipped and fell at some
point, possibly suffering
some damage.
Craft (Int)
Craft is actually a num-
ber of separate skills.
You could have several
33
crafts each purchased
as a separate skill. A
craft skill is specifically
focused on creating,
making or repairing
something. Having a
craft usually denotes
that the character is or
has been a craftsman at
some point in his or her
life. You can practice
your trade and make a
decent living, earning
about 4-40 (4d10) silver
pennies per week of
dedicated work,
plus 1 penny per
level attained. You
know how to use
the tools of your
trade, how to per-
form the craft’s
daily tasks, how to
supervise un-
trained helpers,
and how to handle
common problems.
(Untrained laborers
and assistants earn
about two pennies
per day). The basic
function of the
Craft skill, howev-
er, is to allow you to
make an item of the ap-
propriate type. The CR
depends on the com-
plexity of the item to be
created.
Diplomacy (Cha)
This skill covers the art
of talking, persuasion,
mediation, listening,
reasoning, debate and
even general etiquette.
Make a check whenever
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES
you want to talk some- avoid being detected. A
body out of or into an disguise can include an
alternate course of ac- apparent change of
tion from one already height and weight of no
proposed, persuade more than one-tenth of
somebody to do (or not the original build and
to do) something or to size of the character.
get across a point in a The following penalties
debate. It can be used to are applied to a disguise
make an appeal in check, where appropri-
court, to swing the case ate: sex difference –2,
in a different way. If age difference (per ten
backed up with a bit of years) –2. The GM
hard cash, diplomacy makes the check secret-
can also be used to ly, so the character is
bribe someone, if they uncertain of his or her
are of the type that success.
would succumb to such
tactics. Forgery (Int)
This is the skill of the
Disguise (Cha) character to write (or
You are an expert at copy) documents and
impersonating other in- manuscripts with the
dividuals or intention of passing
characteristics of gen- them off as the real
eral types of people. thing. The character
This effort usually re- may need to get hold of
quires a few props, a some old parchment to
little make-up and duplicate something
1d3x10 minutes of that is old, or use meth-
preparation for a gen- ods of staining and so
eral impersonation, if on, to ’age’ the forgery.
the character is to pass He may also need to get
inspection from reason- hold of coloured inks,
ably close. From a for example, to duplicate
distance, a character illustrated manuscripts
can simply alter his or of the type that monks
her gait, general stance write. The skill also en-
and pull up a hood to compasses the ability to
appear pretty much spot a forgery (using the
someone else, to all in- notice skill, with a bo-
tents and purposes. nus of +2).
Where specific individu-
als are being
Gossip (Cha)
impersonated, at least 1 Just about everyone
month’s preparation
likes to gossip in the
time must occur to
34
middle ages; it is one of
the main ways of pass-
ing on and receiving
news and forms a major
part of the evening’s en-
tertainment for most
people. Gossip happens
everywhere, in the tav-
ern over a pint of ale, at
the marketplace, at the
banquet in a lord’s
manor, out in the fields
and in the cloisters of
the abbey. Sometimes
the information turns
out to be true and other
times it is idle tittle-
tattle. But gossip makes
for a useful source of
information about every-
thing and everybody.
You can make a gossip
check when you want to
know something about a
person, place or thing
that is of the type that
would be passed around
in idle chatter. This rep-
resents information you
just happen to ‘know’. If
you fail the check or the
GM deems that your
character wouldn’t al-
ready know the
information, you can go
to a tavern or wherever
the information might
be found and see if you
can find out, by gossip-
ing. Sometimes this
might require the ex-
penditure of a quarter or
half penny on ale in the
alehouse, to loosen a
few tongues.
 CHAPTER FOUR TITLE

A character can add a whenever dealing with assess the injuries on a

further +2 to the gossip that type of animal. An- dead body.
check if the information imal handling also al-
is about something that allows the character to Intimidate (Str or
might specifically per- spot the good from the Cha)
tain to his or her class. bad (receiving a +2 on By strength of person-
So, if the gossip were notice checks when ality or by sheer
about a clergyman, then buying them). Charac- impressive size and
a cleric character would ters with the handle physique (the player’s
get a +2 bonus. If it animal skill can also choice which), a charac-
were about something gain +2 to their ride ter with this skill can
that occurred in the checks, which would intimidate another.
‘seedy’ area of town, make +4 if they also There are several uses of
then a rogue would gain specialize with horses. this skill. One might
a +2 to his check. simply be to make an-
Heal (Wis) other character back
Handle Animal This is the skill of down, if for example he
(Cha) providing immediate is getting aggressive.
A character with this Another use might be to
skill has an affinity for scare someone into giv-
dealing with animals. ing information that
He knows animals pret- other, more diplomatic
ty well and can calm methods have failed to
them if they are afraid acquire. Another might
or angry, he can train be to force somebody to
certain animals to do a do something that he or
few simple things, and she wasn’t intending to
he knows how to look do. Depending on the
after them, feed them circumstances, this
and give them the best first aid to an injured ability could be used
care. If he also has the person. By cleaning and against more than one
Heal skill, he also has a bandaging a wound, opponent, especially
few veterinary skills. with a successful check, those of significantly
The character might an injured character will lower level or 0-level
simply be a farmer with recover 1 hit point, will folk.
skills of animal hus- stabilize if below 0 hit
bandry, or could have a points and the wound
Interrogate (Cha)
job as an ostler, falcon- will not become infected,
This is a way of ques-
er, master of the hounds as long as the cleaning
tioning people for
and so on. and dressing was ap-
specific pieces of infor-
plied within an hour of
mation. It differs from
A character may choose the character becoming
gossip, because gossip
a type of animal in injured. A character
tends to be stuff that is
which to specialize with the heal skill can
quite well known and
(dogs, birds of prey, add +2 to any
has been ‘doing the
horses, cattle) and re- knowledge (wounds &
rounds’. Interrogation
ceives a bonus of +2 corpses) checks made to

35
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES
Languages (Int)
Slightly different from
the other skills in that
you can choose it mul-
tiple times and each
time adds another lan-
guage to your
repertoire. The com-
mon language in
England in the time
was Middle English. If
tends to be a way of get- they are of Norman her-
ting secrets from itage, they speak
individuals who’d rather Norman French.
not share those secrets.
Sometimes interrogation
is subtle and the victim
Listen (Wis)
The character has an
isn’t aware that he is
acute sense of hearing
giving away the infor-
and may have even
mation and other times
trained him or herself to
it is clear what is hap-
specifically take notice
pening, but the victim is
of certain sounds and
unable to stop himself.
noises. For example, a
musician can tell differ-
Jump (Str or Dex) ent notes and pitches.
A character with this Its main use though is
skill is particularly in detecting sounds like
adept at leaping over the footfall of an intrud-
and across obstacles. er about to commit foul
The player can choose murder, or listening at a
whether to use strength door to conversation be-
or dexterity as the base tween two suspects.
attribute for his or her
jump checks.
Literacy (Int)
In the middle ages, gen-
Knowledge (Int)
erally only the clergy
Each time you choose a
could read and write
knowledge, you can
and not all of those
choose another subject
could do. For game pur-
which you have studied,
poses all apothecary,
learned or just picked
cleric and scholar char-
up and which you know
quite a lot about. This is
acters have the literacy
skill for free at the start.
more in depth than the
Anyone who is literate is
sort of stuff you might
assumed to be able to
pick up when gossiping
read and write all the
in the taverns.
36
languages that he
knows.
Notice (Wis)
This is a general aware-
ness of one’s
surroundings, things
that appear odd or out
of place and so on. It is
a skill that you don’t
‘use’ as such; it is con-
stantly ‘on’. Whenever
there is a chance that
you might have noticed
something unusual, you
can make a check to see
whether you notice it or
not. If specifically look-
ing for something, you
would use search in-
stead.
Perform (Cha)
This is the skill you
need to entertain,
whether that is by play-
ing an instrument,
singing, reciting poetry
or even dancing. You
choose what your style
of performance is. Using
the perform skill suc-
cessfully might earn you
food and lodging for a
night, might earn a few
pennies in the market-
place or might even hold
a crowd’s attention as a
distraction, if needed for
some reason.
Pick Lock (Dex)
You can use this skill to
open any sort of me-
chanical lock that would
normally require a key
 CHAPTER FOUR TITLE

to open. This ability drawers. It is particular- might be higher penal-

usually requires a pin or ly useful for ties, as there would be if
some other narrow tool. investigators when you are carrying some-
Only one attempt is al- searching for clues at a one or something heavy.
lowed – if the check crime scene or on a
fails, the lock has de- dead body. This skill Track (Wis)
feated the character. does not generally ena- You can follow the trails
ble you to find complex and tracks of people and
Pick Pocket (Dex) traps unless you are a animals across all sorts
This is the skill needed rogue. of terrain following the
to remove the contents signs of their passage
of a pocket or a pouch Sense Motive (Wis) (not simply boot marks,
(or the whole pouch, or You can use this skill to but broken twigs, hairs
take something from a tell when someone has caught on brambles and
person, like a ring) an agenda they are hid- so on).
without being noticed. ing from you. It is a
The level of the targeted combination of their
victim affects the chance body language, manner-
Languages and lit-
of success. The skill also isms and speech eracy
allows you to perform patterns that provide All characters are pre-
deft ‘sleight of hand’ tell-tale clues. sumed to speak Middle
tricks, like hiding a English or Norman
coin, performing the pea Stealth (Dex) French, depending on
under the beaker trick You use this skill to be whether they are of
and so on. quiet and unnoticed Norman or Saxon stock
when you don’t want to (players choice, nobles
Ride (Dex) be seen or heard. It is will be Norman). A char-
Just about anyone can the art of sneaking up acter with an
stay on a horse, if it is on someone, of hiding in intelligence bonus can
just trotting along. How- the shadows and of us- also speak another lan-
ever, this is the skill to ing available cover to go guage for every point of
ride a horse properly. It unseen. You receive bonus, so with a +3 in-
enables you to perform positive modifiers in the telligence modifier he
jumps, break-neck darkness or when there can speak an additional
chases and other skills are things to use as cov- three languages. Others
on horseback. This skill er, but it is almost must be chosen as
is needed to be able to impossible on a clear skills.
fight from horseback. day, in the open.
Clergymen, scholars
Search (Wis) Swim (Str) and physicians can au-
You can examine a spe- Using this skill, you are tomatically read and
cific area for clues, able to cross rivers, re- write and are therefore
evidence or other things main above water or literate. Other charac-
like catches on a hidden swim around under wa- ters are literate only if
door or secret compart- ter as needed. In a they choose the Literacy
ments in chests and strong current, there skill as a class ability.

37
 is assumed that they All prices mentioned are
begin with a set of very approximate as
clothing appropriate to they changed much over
their class. the period, as did the
EQUIPMENT forms of money used. It
is important to note that
Class starting
many people still relied
money table

F
irst of all, you need on barter.
to determine how
much money the Class Pennies Fancier versions of the
characters start with. In Apothecary 4d6x10 same items will cost a
the early part of the Cleric 2d10x10 lot more. Of the
period covered by The Crowner 6d6x10 weapons, swords in
Medieval Mysteries RPG, Fighter 3d8x10 particular can be a lot
there were only silver Forester 2d6x10 more expensive in much
pennies used as Merchant 4d6x10 better quality versions -
coinage. The shilling, Noble 5d6x10 up to five times the
mark and pound were Rogue 3d4x10 price. Clothing can be
used only as accounting Scholar 3d4x10 up to three or four times
measures. Later on as much as is listed too,
pounds and shillings for higher quality
were used as actual garments. Hence the
currency, as were half reason most peasants
pennies and farthings . had only one set of
However, for game clothing, which they
purposes, we will stick patched, darned
with pennies. These repaired and even
were often split into two handed down to make
or four for small them last longer. Where
transactions. Sometimes there is no weight for an
they were also shaved or item, it simply means
‘clipped’ by
The equipment ta-
the weight is negligible.
unscrupulous rogues. bles
It’s not possible to list
Part plate & full plate is
An average labourer everything you could
available only later in
could expect to receive 2 need in a game, so the
the period covered by
pennies a day for his price lists are simply to
the Medieval Mysteries
hard work. Therefore, give some examples, so
RPG. Characters would
every character begins that you can work out
not wear heavy armour
the game with a few prices yourself of other
most of the time
pennies with which to items and services you
anyway.
buy some stuff that might want to include in
their character has at your games of the
the start of the game. It Medieval Mysteries RPG.

38
 EQUIPMENT

Weapons; Melee

Cost Wei ght

Weapon (pennies) Damage Range* (l bs) Enc
Axe, woodsman’s 12 1d8 - 7 3
Axe, hand 8 1d6 10’ 4 2
Axe, Two-handed 20 1d12 - 16 3
Club 1/2 1d6 10’ 3 2
Dagger 4 1d4 10’ 1 1
Fist - 1d2 - - -
Flail, Light 12 1d8 - 5 3
Flail, Heavy 18 1d10 - 16 4
Halberd 20 1d10 - 15 5
Hammer, Light 4 1d4 20’ 2 2
Hammer, War 12 1d8 8 4
Mace, Light 10 1d6 - 6 3
Mace, Heavy 24 1d8 - 10 4
Morningstar 16 2d4 - 8 3
Sap 1 1d3 - 1 1
Spear 6 1d6 20’ 4 2
Spear, long 10 1d8 - 9 4
Staff 1 1d6 - 4 4
Sword, bastard 50 1d10 - 10 4
Sword, broad 24 2d4 - 6 3
Sword, falchion 40 2d4 - 7 3
Sword, scimitar 30 1d8 - 4 3
Sword, short 20 1d6 - 3 3
Sword, long 30 1d8 - 4 3
Sword, Two handed 65 2d6 - 15 5

Weapons; Ranged

Weapon Cost Damage Range* Wei ght (l bs) Shots Enc

Arbalest 100 4d4 150’ 12 1/3 5
Arrows (20) 4 as bow as bow 3 - 4
Arrows (12) 3 as bow as bow 2 - 3
Bolts (12) 2 as x-bow as x-bow 1 - 2
Bow, Long 150 1d12 100’ 3 1 4
Bow, Short 60 1d8 60’ 2 1 3
Crossbow, Light 50 1d10 80’ 6 1/2 3
Crossbow, Heavy 75 2d6 120’ 9 1/3 4
Sling 1/2 1d6 50’ - 1 1

39
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES

Armour

Cost Wei ght

Ar mour type (pennies) Ar mour Class (l bs.) Enc
Padded gambeson 20 +1 10 2
Leather jerkin 28 +1 8 1
Leather coat 35 +2 12 2
Leather armour 40 +3 15 2
Studded leather 100 +3 20 2
Scale mail 300 +4 35 4
Mail byrnie (shirt) 600 +4 25 3
Mail hauberk (coat) 1000 +5 40 4
Splint mail 800 +6 45 4
Part plate* 2400 +7 50 4
Full plate* 4000 +8 60 4

Clothes & accessories

Cost Wei ght

Item (pennies) (l bs) Enc
Belt 1 1/2 -
Blanket, heavy 1 3 2
Boots 4 4 -
Cap 1/2 - -
Cassock 4 2 1
Chemise, linen 1 1 -
Cloak 1 3 -
Dress 5 3 -
Gloves 8 - -
Habit 2 3 1
Hat 1 - -
Hose 1 1 -
Leggings 2 2 -
Mantle 5 4 1
Robe 3 4 2
Sack 1/2 1 -
Satchel, leather (for books) 3 2 2
Shirt 1 1 -
Shoes 3 1 -
Surcoat, knights 10 2 -
Skirt 2 2 -
Tunic 2 2 -
Vestments, clerical 10 8 3

40
 EQUIPMENT

Horses, tack & livestock

Cost Cost
Item (pennies) Item (pennies)
Bit/bridle 2 Mule 50
Cow 35 Ox 35
Cart, farmers 30 Pig 25
Donkey 16 Pony 60
Feed/day 1/4 Saddle 40
Harness 3 Saddle blanket 1
Horse, Destrier 800 Saddle bags 8
Horse, Nag 60 Sled 40
Horse, Riding 300 Wagon 70
Horse, Palfrey 150

Goods & services

Cost Wei ght

Item (pennies) (l bs) Enc
Candles (8) 1 1 1
Chair 1 12 3
Chest, with lock 10 25 4
Farmer’s price, bushel of 3 3 2
wheat
Farmer’s price, pound of wool 4 1 2
Ink, 1 vial 16 - -
Loaf of bread 1/4 2 1
Mortar & pestle 1 2 1
Pot, clay 1/2 2 1
Pot, iron for cooking 2 4 2
Parchment, per sheet 1 - -
Rent, field per acre 1/month - -
Rent, two story shop in the 50/month - -
city
Spinning wheel 35 35 8
Tavern, tankard of ale 1/4 1 1
Tavern, food & somewhere to 1 - -
sleep
Tavern, good food & good room 4 - -

41
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES

For many items, this other items, you can

Encumbrance rating is in the equip- simply look at the
There are several ways ment lists. Simply add equipment lists for a
to deal with what a up the enc. value of all similar object and work
character can carry items carried by the it out from there. The
before he or she is character. This is the GM, as always, has the
weighed down with too character’s encum- final word.
much stuff. One is to brance rating. Don’t
ignore set rules count clothes (hat, shirt,
altogether and just leave Effects of Encum-
boots etc.) that the brance
the players and GM
character is wearing, There are penalties to
between them to use but if he is ‘wearing’ a
judgement and common lugging too much stuff
sword, that is counted. around and this comes
sense to determine
when a character is in the form of slower
There are five categories movement rates and a
getting ridiculously of encumbrance; none,
overloaded. reduced armour class.
light, moderate, heavy The penalties are set out
and overburdened. The below
Most players are rea- following table indicates
sonable and if their the amount that can be
character has a sword, Encumbrance
carried and in which category Penalties
bow, dagger, mail hau-
category that level of None No effect
berk and clothing, then encumbrance falls.
they are quite happy. Light Reduce
move by
Anything else they can
Encumbrance 1/4 and -
put in their horse’s sad- 1 to ar-
category Enc
dlebags. Other players mour
None 0 to
may need the GM to in- 1xER class
tervene from time to Light 1xER Moderate Reduce
time, if using this ap- to move by
proach. 2xER 1/2 and –
Moderate 2xER 2 to ar-
The other method is to to mour
3xER class
use the weights and en-
Heavy 3xER Heavy Reduce
cumbrance values in the move by
to
equipment listings. This 3/4 and –
4xER
is how you do it. Overburdened 4xER 4 to ar-
to mour
Determining En- 5xER class
Maximum 5xER Overburdened Move re-
cumbrance duced to
Each character has an 1 foot and
encumbrance rating The Enc value of items –8 to ar-
(ER) of 10 + the charac- is a rough measure of mour
ter’s strength modifier, if the size, weight and how class
any. All items and cumbersome the object
equipment have an en- is. If you need to deter-
cumbrance rating (Enc). mine the rough enc of

42
 ards, servants, consta- know each other, rather
bles and so on. The than just being a dis-
initial set up is quite parate bunch of people
crucial in The Medieval thrown together for the
THE GAME Mysteries RPG, far more
so in many other role-
purposes of the game.

MASTER playing games, where

the player characters
Clerics are
straightforward - you
quite

are simply generic ‘ad- simply need to choose a

T
he GM has a bit of a venturers’. local monastery, abbey,
job on his hands. friary, the cathedral or a
He must prepare the village church, depend-
game session so that the Characters need a ing on the type of cleric.
characters have plenty vocation or job This doesn’t mean that
to do. He might decide This leads into another they cannot have inter-
to start with a simple point. The characters esting past lives though,
murder mystery in a also need to have some that might come back to
small town or village. sort of job, or vocation. haunt them.
This could be a way of This is where the GM For an apothecary or
bringing the characters and players need to merchant, you need to
together and giving work together to come set them in a town or
them a common goal. up with suitable careers city with their own shop
The murdered person or backgrounds. If you and so on. A noble
could even be a friend, all get talking the ideas needs his own lands -
colleague or family start to flow and you you need to determine
member of one or more can get involved in the where these lands are
of the characters. whole group’s charac- and some basic details
ters. This helps give the about them.
Characters should feeling that you already
A fighter could be in the
work together employ of another
This is a great way to character as a ser-
get the characters geant-at-arms, a
working together. merchant’s body-
You could decide that guard, simply a mer-
some or all of the mercenary looking
characters are al- for employment or a
ready a team, having veteran who has now
been employed to settled down with a
perform specific du- wife and children,
ties. If one character but does the odd bit
is a noble, the others of strong-arm work
could be his stew- here and there.

43

Investigations &
campaigns
Once you have dis-
cussed, as a group,
everyone’s characters,
their backgrounds and
so on it does make sce-
nario design far easier.
You know what the
players want from the
game from what they
have written on their
character sheets and
from what they have
talked about.
You can make
plots and mys-
teries that
engage them
and that involve
them. Some-
times you can
use their back-
grounds to make
far more inter-
esting scenarios
than you could
without such
character histo-
ries.
Start small
Once you start the first
scenario, you can begin
to get the players en-
gaged in your version of
medieval England. You
probably want to start
small, in fact this is rec-
ommended. Most of the
literature on which this
game is based is set
mainly in just one coun-
ty or even just in and
around one main city
and this would seem the
MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES
best thing to do with yourself some room for
your own games. You manoeuvre, because
could include one or two inevitably the players
jaunts to far off places will follow a different
once in a while later on, course of investigation
as the characters be- than the one you write
come more familiar with down. They may even
the game, just to spice it jump to some conclu-
up a bit, but don’t over- sions that you hadn’t
do this. Ordinary people thought about, but that
didn’t tend to travel too you prefer to the one
far in the middle-ages. you have written. The
The good thing about difficulty is always how
role-playing in the me- much to pre-prepare
dieval period is that and how much to fill in
the gaps as you
go. This partly
depends on how
comfortable or
experienced you
are as a GM,
how well you
know your play-
ers and what
you would ex-
pect them to do
in a situation,
and how famil-
iar you are with
the genre and
medieval history
generally. It may
there are plenty of his-
take a few gaming ses-
torical sources to fall
sions before you find
back on to give ideas for
your own level.
adventures.
Planning mysteries What is the mys-
Some GM’s like to wing tery?
their adventures com- One of the first steps is
pletely and others like to to decide what the mys-
have everything planned tery is. Most will be
out in the finest detail. murders of some sort or
In The Medieval Myster- another, but you could
ies RPG, it is probably vary the game with a
best to do some pre- few robberies or a case
planning but to leave of arson or even a case
of rape. Some mysteries
44
 THE GAME MASTER

will use several of these murder, for exam-
The crime is discov-
elements. You don’t ple? ered after the event
even need to rely on
What did they do by one of the char-
medieval historical fic- immediately after acters
tion for your scenarios. they committed the
The crime is discov-
There are other sources crime - for example, ered by one of the
you could plunder for did they try to cover characters as it is
good ideas. Some other it up or make it look being committed
historical detective fic- like someone else
The crime is discov-
tion, like Sherlock did it, or did they ered by another
Holmes, Campion and just run away? individual, who re-
Poirot can be tailored to
Did anyone else wit- ports it to the
suit. Modern mystery ness the crime? Are characters
fiction is also a good the witnesses relia-
The lord, patron or
source of material. ble? superior to the pri-
There are plenty of mov-
What is the felon mary investigator
ies and television series doing now? requests that the
that are perfect for ad- characters investi-
aptation to your gaming Some of these questions gate the mystery on
needs. will come easily and his or her behalf
others less so, but you
The crime is discov-
Who did it and why probably need to jot ered as a result of
did it happen? down a few notes as you an investigation into
Once you have deter- go. Try to keep it simple another (lesser) mys-
mined what it is that the too, especially in your tery
characters will be inves- first few games. The
The perpetrator
tigating you need to players will undoubtedly himself reports the
begin to sketch out a complicate things crime, but accuses
few ideas for who com- enough as soon as they someone else
mitted the crime and get going.
why they did it. Some- Looking for clues
times the ‘who’ comes How is the crime Once the crime is out in
before the ‘why’ and discovered? the open, the characters
sometimes it is the other A key element is to de- will have to start digging
way around. You proba- termine how the body is around to find some
bly need to ask yourself found, the robbery spot- clues. This is a vitally
a few questions like: ted or the rape reported. important stage in The

Was it a single indi- It is worth giving serious Medieval Mysteries RPG,
vidual, or was more consideration to this as and really what the
than one person in- you don’t want all of game is all about. Char-
volved? your scenarios to begin acters want to get to use

Why did they do it - in exactly the same way. their abilities, so you
what was the mo- You want to mix things need to let them. They
tive? up a bit, by having dif- want to feel they are get-

How did they do it - ferent approaches to the ting somewhere, so you
what was the weap- discovery of the crime. A need to let them. If they
on used, if it was a few possibilities are: fail a roll, don’t neces-

45
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES
So, if it was
a murder
and you
have decided
the murder
weapon (a
knife) is still
in the body,
you need to
know who
the knife be-
longs to.
Then the
investigators
have a lead
that they
can follow.
Did the knife
belong to the
victim? Did
it belong to
the murder-
er, or did he
sarily just tell them they
just steal it from the
have drawn a blank, but
original owner? How will
don’t give them all the
the original owner react
details that they would
when the characters
have got if their check
start to question him?
was a success.
Was the knife stuck in
the guy to throw the in-
You need to develop
vestigators off the scent,
some interesting NPCs
when in reality the vic-
for the characters to
tim was poisoned or
question, interrogate,
strangled?
threaten, cajole or per-
suade. These NPCs can
As you can see, this is
be friends, family mem-
just a fairly simple idea,
bers, lovers, enemies or
which can go off in all
acquaintances. You
sorts of interesting di-
need to know what clues
rections. If you have
are available at the
thought this stuff out
crime scene, at other
beforehand, it can make
associated crime scenes,
running the whole thing
with the witnesses and
a lot easier when the
with the perpetrator.
characters start sleuth-
ing.
46
Non-player
characters
Non-player characters
(NPCs) are a highly im-
portant feature of The
Medieval Mysteries RPG.
These are the characters
that the players can in-
teract with during the
course of their adven-
tures. Some will go on to
become firm friends and
may even occasionally
help the characters out
in some tricky situa-
tions. Others will drift in
and out of game ses-
sions and some may
appear only once, per-
haps because something
bad happens, like they
get killed.
Most often though,
NPCs are the character’s
enemies. They are dan-
gerous and often of a
higher level than the
player characters.
Sometimes they will
have followers of their
own (generated as folk).
A nobleman or fighter
could be a mercenary
officer with a sergeant
and a few spearmen and
archers, an outlaw
could be a forester with
a gang of thugs, a mer-
chant could be a
weapons trader with a
couple of ‘heavies’ or
swordsmen for protec-
tion.

The GM should try to
give his NPCs as much
attention as the players
give to their own charac-
ters. NPCs shouldn’t be
pushovers either. If
you’ve gone to the trou-
ble of creating them,
you don’t want them
killed the minute they
meet the player charac-
ters! Much better for
them to get away and
become a thorn in the
side of the characters –
someone who the char-
acters can begin to hate
or at least respect.
These NPCs can also go
up in level too. If one
has been around as long
as the characters and
they have gone up lev-
els, it is likely that their
enemies will have had
adventures of their own
in the meantime. The
characters could even
hear about the NPCs
exploits during their ad-
ventures, even if they
don’t meet up in that
particular session. It all
helps to create a believ-
able and evolving, rather
than static environment
and gives the illusion
that the world exists
beyond the character’s
escapades. There are
some sample NPCs that
the GM can use directly
or as inspiration for
ones of his or her own
creation in the ‘Animals,
folk & NPCs section.
THE GAME MASTER
Rewards
As characters complete
their investigations, win
their battles, bring crim-
inals to justice, outwit
their opponents, bring
their information to
their patrons, survive
their adventures, defeat
their enemies and gar-
ner the spoils of war,
they gain experience.
They end the adventures
stronger, wiser and
more capable. To reflect
this, the GM awards ex-
perience points to the
players on an individual
basis or as a group.
Experience points
After characters defeat
the bad (or good) guys,
collect gold and do other
adventurous things they
earn experience points
(XP). The GM can award
these points as he sees
fit, but the following
suggestions are recom-
mended
Foes
The GM adds the value
of all foes overcome dur-
ing the adventure. The important to characters
points for animals, folk for whom making money
and NPCs are set out in is particularly important
the appropriate descrip- – merchants could get
tion later in these rules. experience whenever
they sell goods for a
Money healthy profit, rogues
Although not all GMs get experience for loot
will award experience made from robberies
for making money some and mercenaries from
will. This is especially looting and so on. The
47
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES
amount of the award is To gain a level, the
up to the GM and will character must accu-
depend on how much mulate enough
money he has available experience points to
to his characters, but it meet the number of
should be something points required for the
like an experience point next level. The experi-
per shilling. ence table used is set
out in the character
Story class descriptions. A
The GM should assign character starts off at
an experience point val- 1st level with 0 experi-
ue to each adventure ence points. To reach
and award that total to second level he needs to
each character who amass 900, 1000 or
completed the adven- 1100 experience points.
ture. This may take one ad-
venture or may take
Role-playing several, depending on
The GM can also award the length of the
specific experience point adventure, the overall
bonuses to characters goals and how well the
for good role-playing, in characters do. The GM
a specific situation or should ensure that
over the course of the enough experience is
adventure. 50 to 500 available for characters
points is a good base, to advance in levels after
depending on the char- one to three adventures,
acter’s current level. certainly at lower levels,
just to give the players a
feeling that their char-
Gaining levels acters are advancing
Characters can gain a
and becoming a little
level if they earn enough more reputable.
experience points. This
equates to becoming
Once a character has
better and more experi- the required number of
enced at the character’s
experience points, he
career. With new levels, immediately gains his
the character gains
new level and with it
more abilities and a increased hit points (by
greater chance of suc-
rolling the appropriate
cess at those he already die and adding
has. Hit points increase
constitution modifiers),
as does bonus to hit and and any increase to
bonus to armour class.
BtH. He also gains any
new abilities or skills. At
48
every four levels, he can
also choose an attribute
to increase by one point.
Alternative system
As usual The Medieval
Mysteries RPG is a game
about choices and what
works for the players.
Some players can’t
stand keeping track of
their experience points
and find it a chore that
detracts from their
enjoyment of the game.
If this is the case, or
simply if the GM prefers
to do things this way,
the GM can simply
award a new level gain
whenever he feels it
would be appropriate for
the characters to
advance. This can be
based on a set number
of adventures, say after
every three completed
adventures or, it can be
based on something less
defined. The GM might
want to throw some
higher-level opponents
at the characters or
might have a storyline
that needs the
characters to advance at
a certain rate so that
they can continue to be
effective. This is a much
more story-based
system than the
mechanical system
presented above and will
suit some groups more
than it suits others.
 The attribute check is
made by the player roll-
ing a d20 and adding
the attribute modifier of
THE GAME one of the character’s
six attributes. The at-
RULES tribute used is the one
most appropriate to the
action that is being at-

T
here are many situ- tempted. Sometimes the
ations during the character’s level is add-
course of a game of ed to the die roll too. If
The Medieval Mysteries the total score exceeds
RPG where the charac- the target number, the
ters will want to do character succeeds.
things and there is a
chance that they will Only those actions that
fail. The type of thing have a significant
that we are talking chance of failure need to
about here are things be resolved in this way.
like leafing through a There are plenty of
set of old parchments to things that characters
find some inconsisten- should do automatical-
cies in the writing, a ly, without needing to
break-neck horse-chase resort to an attribute
down a country lane, check. Stopping to look
listening in on a conver- up a rule or modifier
sation on the other side and rolling dice can dis-
of a closed door, leaping rupt the narrative flow
across a wide chasm, of the game and is really
sneaking up behind an to be avoided wherever
enemy to clobber him on practical or possible.
the back of his head, But sometimes, the
trying extract some in- dramatic tension can be
formation from a heightened by judicious
taciturn mercenary and use of the attribute
so on. check and a dice roll is
ideal in these situations.
The system
In these situations, an The base target
attribute check is used number
to see whether the ac- When it is clear that an
tion succeeds or fails. attribute check is need-
ed, the GM must identi-
fy the attribute to be
checked. Sometimes the
player might disagree
and, if they can put a
reasonable argument for
why a different attribute
should be checked, this
is perfectly acceptable.
In the case of class
abilities and skills, the
attribute is listed in the
class description or in
the skill list. In the case
of saving throws, these
are usually self-evident
and are set out in more
detail later.
The target number is
determined first of all by
finding the base num-
ber. The base is always
one of 12, 15 or 18. The
actual number depends
on whether the attribute
being checked is the
character’s primary,
secondary or tertiary
attribute.

49

The challenge level
The next step is to de-
termine the challenge
level. If the action is be-
ing taken against an
opponent, then the chal-
lenge level is simply the
level of the opponent. So
if a character is sneak-
ing up on somebody, the
challenge level would be
the level of the person
being snuck up on. In
other situations where
there is no opponent,
the GM has to use a bit
of judgment as to the
relative difficulty of the
task and apply his own
challenge level. As a rule
of thumb, challenge lev-
els of 0 to 5 is suitable
for easy tasks, 6 to 10
for moderate tasks, and
very difficult tasks are
rated 11 to 15. Truly
awesome tasks bring
about a challenge rating
of over 15 but this
should really be re-
served for only very
spectacular efforts. If in
doubt, it is better to set
the challenge level lower
rather than higher as it
is better for the game to
have player characters
succeed rather than fail.
Saving throws
Saving throws are simi-
lar to attribute checks,
only they occur as a re-
sult not of actions taken
by the character but as
a result of actions
against the character or
MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES
something acting described in these rules,
against the character, for example damage
often passively. So a taken from a fire is
saving throw is an at- halved when the saving
tribute check for the throw succeeds. The GM
character to avoid dam- could say the same
age or some other thing with a rock-fall,
harmful effect, caused after first determining
by specific situations or the level of the rock-fall
effects. in numbers of d6 or
d10, for example.
A player making a sav-
ing throw for his
character rolls a d20
Combat overview
Much of the excitement
and adds the appropri-
in playing The Medieval
ate attribute modifier, in
Mysteries RPG occurs
the usual way. The GM
when some form of
selects the appropriate
combat takes place.
attribute using common
Whether this is a tavern
sense. For example, to
brawl amongst a bunch
avoid a rock-fall, you
of mercenaries just
need to have sharp re-
come into the town, a
flexes and so dexterity
jousting tournament
would be used. To resist
between the local lord
the worst effects of al-
and a foreign knight or
cohol or poison,
a wagon train of ped-
constitution should be
dlers and merchants
checked. If the attribute
protecting themselves
being checked is a pri-
against a violent gang of
mary attribute the
robbers and cutthroats,
challenge base is 12. It
combat is often the cli-
is 15 and 18 for second-
max of very many role-
ary and tertiary
playing sessions. Man-
attributes respectively.
aging combat is often a
To this challenge base
challenging affair as the
the GM adds modifiers
GM must not only know
based on the situation,
the rules but must also
the level of the NPC
know how to apply the
causing the saving
rules fluidly to maintain
throw, the level of the
a sense of excitement
trap or the strength lev-
through description and
el of the poison.
action.
When a saving throw is
The combat rules in The
failed, the character suf-
Medieval Mysteries RPG
fers some or all of the
have been kept deliber-
effects. Some effects are
50
 THE GAME RULES

ately simple. Much room time, with the rest of

for interpretation has
Combat round that time the character
been left to the GM, as One combat round is 10 doing nothing at all. The
seconds long. During
there cannot be rules for action is all happening
this round, all the char-
absolutely everything together, with charac-
acters and non-player
that might happen in a ters moving, talking,
fight. The rules have characters should get a yelling, reaching for
been designed to organ- chance to do something. their weapons, jumping,
ize the action of the Generally only one ac- cursing, dodging, stum-
tion is allowed, such as
combat to a certain de- bling, getting distracted,
firing a bow, punching
gree but to allow the looking out for friends,
someone or mounting a
narrative flow of the listening, and so on. All
horse. The types of ac-
combat from both play- this happens in a
tions are discussed
ers and GM to have an round, in a fluid burst
ahead.
important role. of activity and should be
narrated as such.
It is important to re-
Basic outline of member that each
combat rounds round is an abstract Surprise
Combat is broken down measurement. The ac- Before combat begins,
into segments called tions and activities that the GM determines if
combat rounds. Each occur in a round are not one or the other party is
combatant normally meant to take place dur- surprised. Surprise is a
gets to act once per ing specific segments of situation in which the
round. Each partic- characters happen upon
ipant acts during a their enemies and
round in order es- neither is aware or
tablished by the roll expects the other.
of a d20 (plus or Surprise may also
minus modifiers). occur where one
This is called initia- party is deliberately
tive. The character trying to surprise
with the highest ini- the others – like in
tiative acts first, an ambush, for ex-
and then each ample. Before any
character in turn surprise roll is
performs an action made, The GM de-
until the last char- termines if surprise
acter has acted. is possible. A group
Once all partici- that is aware of an-
pants have acted, other’s presence
the round is over cannot be sur-
and a new round prised. If a party
begins, with the can be surprised, a
character that had wisdom attribute
the highest initiative check is made by
from the last round. the individual in the
group with the best

51

chance of succeeding at
it, or by each member of
the group individually. If
the check is successful,
that party or individual
is not surprised. Failure
indicates surprise.
When a party or indi-
vidual is surprised, their
opponents automatically
gain the initiative for the
first round of combat.
Once every member of
the party that gains the
surprise has had a
chance to act, initiative
is determined for the
second and subsequent
rounds.
Initiative
An initiative roll deter-
mines the order of
action in a combat
round. Every combatant
participating in the fight
rolls a d20 to determine
their initiative at the
start of the combat.
Once this is determined,
the order stays that way
throughout the fight.
Those with the highest
initiative get to do what
they want to do first and
then the next highest
and so on. To the d20
roll, characters add
their dexterity modifier
and their level. This is
because faster charac-
ters act more speedily
and more experienced
characters are able to
weigh up a situation
quicker and act more
MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES
decisively. Sometimes attacks; either armed or
the GM may want to unarmed and ranged
make a group initiative attacks with throwing
roll for non-player char- weapons or already
acters, especially where loaded crossbows.
there are a lot of them,
maybe only making a Opportunity action
separate one for the A character with a high
leader or an important initiative can withhold
NPC. his action to see what
happens around him
before taking his action
at a later point in the
combat round. On his
initiative, he simply
states that he is await-
ing his opportunity and
does nothing else. At
any point from then un-
Combat actions til the end of the round
In a combat round, he can take his action
characters could carry whenever he likes or
out a wide variety of ac- whenever an opportuni-
tions. Every possible ty presents itself. He
thing they could do can cannot alter this at the
be categorized in one of end of the round to re-
six types of action that focus instead. Once he
may be performed in has declared he is
combat that have a awaiting an opportunity,
chance of failure. The he is preparing himself
six possible actions are to react and if an oppor-
attack, opportunity at- tunity doesn’t arise to
tack, move, use an do anything, then he
ability, re-focus or a loses his action for that
non-combat action. round.
Attack Move
A character is allowed If no other action is
one attack each round taken, a character can
unless they possess a move a distance equal to
special ability allowing their full movement
them to exceed the limi- rate. Full movement al-
tation, such as the extra so includes jogging
attack of the fighter (twice normal move rate)
character class when and running (quadruple
they reach 10th level. normal move rate).
Attacks include melee
52
 THE GAME RULES

Use an ability or matter the type of action tempted. Charging al-

skill attempted, it is up to lows for an attack at the
A character may per- the GM to decide how end of the full move, but
form a class ability each long any action takes there are special rules
round. Some abilities and whether it can be for charging too. The
take more than a round completed in a single GM can decide to reduce
to complete. An ability round. movement rates due to
may involve movement terrain, obstacles, inju-
but in most cases Movement in the ries or other
movement will not ex- combat round circumstances. General-
ceed the normal rate. Once initiative or sur- ly, movement rates
Abilities are described prise is determined, should not be reduced
more fully in the charac- each combatant is al- by more than three
ter class section. lowed an action. One of quarters. The GM
the allowed actions is should always allow at
movement. Most charac- least a 5-foot movement
Re-focus in a combat round, un-
As long as the character ters and other people
have a standard move less the character is
does nothing at all dur- restrained or otherwise
ing the round, he may rate of 30 feet. Some
classes can move fur- unable to move.
re-roll his initiative at
the beginning of the ther than this at higher
levels with their class Charging
next round and act ac- Charging is a way of try-
cording to the new abilities. Movement, like
the combat round is an ing to improve the effect
initiative roll if it is of any melee or un-
higher than the original, abstraction. It is a mat-
ter of establishing the armed attack on the
otherwise reverting to target. A successful
the original. distance that can be
moved in a given period charge attack inflicts a
of time. Movement can +2 bonus to the damage
Non-combat action inflicted on a successful
These are things that a be in a straight line, a
curve, around a corner attack. However, it
character might do that opens the character up
could have a bearing on or twists and turns.
Movement can be in- to being hit easier and
the combat but are oth- therefore it also causes
erwise not really combat creased by dashing
(double the movement a –2 penalty on his de-
orientated nor do they fence bonus for all
involve the use of an rate), or running (quad-
ruple the movement attacks in the round.
ability. The action could The charge must be an-
be as simple as re- rate).
nounced prior to the
loading a crossbow, character moving.
standing still, talking, An attacker can move
picking something up, up to half their move-
ment rate and attack. When charging, the
watching and waiting or character is considered
opening a door. Such No attack is allowed if a
character exceeds half to be dashing or run-
actions typically have no ning. The character
chance of failure, but his or her movement
rate. The exception is must minimally move
they do take time. No the full distance of their
when a charge is at-

53
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES

movement rate (normal- vances and so on, that spears. The strength
ly 30 feet) and the sometimes results in bonus to damage is in-
charge must be in a damage to the defender. cluded on all successful
straight line to the tar- The damage from the hits with thrown weap-
get. blow could actually be ons, but not with
seen as a series of nicks firearms.
Melee combat and cuts, bruising or
Melee occurs when two even fatigue. Range increments
or more people engage Ranged weapons have
in hand-to-hand combat Ranged combat range increments and
and are wielding weap- When your character they have a maximum
ons of some kind. The fires a bow, sling or effective distance equal
attacker rolls a d20 and crossbow (or throws an to three times the listed
adds his basic to hit bo- axe or some other weap- range increment, as set
nus (from his class and on) at another, the out in the equipment
level) plus any strength ranged combat rules (weapons) table. The
modifier. If the total is apply. Dexterity is the listed range increment is
greater than or equal to attribute that modifies a considered to be close
the defender’s armour ranged attack to hit roll. range. Weapons fired or
class, the attacker has If the total of the d20 thrown at up to this
hit the defender and in- roll plus the character’s range are used without
flicts damage as basic to hit bonus and a range penalty to the
determined by the type dexterity modifier is “to hit” attack roll. At
of weapon being used. greater than or equal to beyond close range and
Unarmed combat is the defender’s armour up to twice that range,
considered melee com- class, the attacker has is considered medium
bat too, but is detailed successfully hit the de- range and beyond that
below. fender and inflicts and up to three times
damage as determined the close range is
A melee attack, just like by the bow or other counted as long range.
all movement and other weapon used. Medium range attracts a
stuff that goes on in a -2 penalty on to hit at-
combat round is an ab- Thrown weapons tack rolls and long
straction. Though the Thrown weapons in- range attracts a -6 pen-
character usually only clude knives, hand axes, alty.
makes one melee attack light hammers and
in a round, it Unarmed
should not be combat
considered only Brawling is melee
one swing or stab combat where no
of his weapon. A weapons are be-
melee attack con- ing used, i.e. un-
sists of a series of unarmed combat.
thrusts, parries, In most cases, the
attempted at- success of these
tacks, feints, attacks is deter-
backing off, ad- mined as normal

54

with a d20 roll and by
adding the characters to
hit bonus and strength
modifiers. If the total is
equal to or higher than
the defender’s armour
class, the attacker has
successfully hit the de-
fender and inflicts
damage as determined
by the class ability.
There are also special
unarmed attacks of an
entirely different nature
and effect, such as
grappling, pummelling,
and overbearing. Each
type follows the same
basic principle but with
different modifications
to the “to hit” roll and to
the damage inflicted.
For example, characters
that wish to punch or
kick and are not trained
are in effect attempting
a pummelling attack.
Grappling
This type of attack in-
volves grabbing and
holding a defender, like
wrestling or in a ‘bear-
hug’. Grappling is di-
rected at holding an
opponent and subduing
them. The attacker rolls
a d20 as normal, and
adds strength and basic
to hit bonus modifiers.
The opponent’s armour
class is increased (or
reduced) for grappling
attacks by his strength
modifier (if he has one).
If the resulting armour
THE GAME RULES
class of the opponent
is equalled or beaten
by the total roll plus
modifiers of the at-
tacker, then he has
successfully grappled
his opponent. The de-
fender is held and
cannot act except to
attempt to break free.
The defender can
break free by making
his own grappling at-
tack.
Pummelling
This involves the use of
fists, feet, knees and
elbows to inflict damage
on an opponent, with
the intention of knock-
ing them out or
otherwise incapacitating
them. As usual the at-
tacker rolls d20 to hit
adding strength and
basic to hit modifiers. If
the total exceeds the
defender’s armour class,
the pummelling inflicts
d2 hit points of subdual
damage. Damage is
modified by strength.
Overbearing
This type of attack is
used to knock an oppo-
nent down. This tactic is
used in wrestling and
other types of hand-to-
hand combat as well as
when an animal charges
into somebody. As usu-
al, the attacker rolls d20
and adds appropriate
modifiers. If a hit is suc-
cessful, the defender
55
gets to make a strength
saving throw to remain
on his feet. If not suc-
cessful, he is knocked
prone for the remainder
of the round. In addi-
tion, the defender takes
d2 points of subdual
damage. An attacker
making an overbearing
attack is at –2 to his
armour class for the
combat round as he is
more exposed than usu-
al.
Situational modifiers
Situational modifiers are
nebulous and, for the
most part, those that
the GM deems appro-
priate. There are often
situations that crop up
where it is impossible to
set a rule or the rules
would be unwieldy. In
these circumstances,
the GM must use rea-
son, common sense or
narrative development
to determine what modi-
fier should be applied
the “to hit” roll. It is
even possible to ask the
players what modifier
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES

decisions about other

unusual situations.
Concealment includes
those circumstances
where nothing physical-
ly blocks the attack but
there is something that
interferes with the at-
tacker’s view and/or
accuracy. The modifiers
are cumulative. In all
instances, the attacker
must know of the de-
fender’s presence, even
if the exact location is
not known. The GM
should add to the list as
new situations
they think might be ap- crop up, to
propriate in the maintain con-
circumstances and to sistency in the
explain their reasoning game.
for it. It depends on
your group though, how
often you use this ap-
Situational
proach.
modifier table
In general, combat to hit
modifiers can be broken Situation Modifier
down into three catego- Defender prone or blind +5
ries: easy, difficult and Defender prone & defenceless +10
heroic. For tasks that Defender at lower elevation +1
are easy, up to a +/-5 Defender stunned or cowering +2
modifier could be ap- Defender invisible/attacker blind -10
plied. Difficult tasks Melee attack from mount or unstable -2
would range from +/-6 platform
to 10 and heroic would Ranged attack from mount or unstable -4
range from +/- 11 and platform
higher. Defender 1/4 concealed* (light fog or -2
smoke)
Some situational modi- Defender 1/2 concealed* (dense fog or -4
fiers can be applied with smoke)
regularity as they can Defender 3/4 concealed* (near darkness) -6
occur quite frequently. Defender completely concealed (total -10
These are listed below darkness)
and can be used as a
guide to help in making

56

Armour class
Armour class is repre-
sentative of the type of
armour the defender is
wearing as well as his
ability to avoid being hit
in combat. It results
from a combination of
agile avoidance of in-
coming attacks or even
an ability to absorb the
shock of a damaging
blow, or to ‘roll with it’.
Armour class begins at
10 for all characters. A
person with an average
dexterity and wearing
no armour is automati-
cally armour class 10.
Armour class can in-
crease through a high
dexterity and through
buying better armour.
Armour class modifiers
are detailed below.
Shields
Each type of shield adds
+1 to armour class
whilst being used. The
shield size determines
how many opponents
the +1 modifier applies
against. Small shields
are useful only against
one opponent. Medium
shields against two and
large shields are useful
against up to three op-
ponents. Shields are no
use against attacks from
behind.
Dexterity
Dexterity modifies a
character’s armour class
THE GAME RULES
if that character can Although cover is used
physically react to the primarily against ranged
attack. Characters lose weapons and firearms,
their dexterity modifier it can occasionally be
when they are sur- used in melee combat.
prised, unaware of an In some cases, the GM
attacker or when they may rule that the char-
are restrained or other- acter seeking cover may
wise rendered immobile. not attack.
Dexterity does not apply
when attacked from the Situation and circum-
rear, unless the charac- stance: There may be
ter knows the attacker occasions when the GM
is there and about to feels that an armour
attack him. class adjustment is ap-
propriate. When
applying additional
Armour
Metal armour provides modifiers, common
sense and fairness must
better protection than
lighter armour, such as be exercised. If in doubt,
err in favour of the play-
leather or padded cloth.
The better the armour er characters.
protection, the higher
the armour class modi- Combat manoeuvres
fier. Plate armour Characters can attempt
provides the best protec- all sorts of additional
tion, but this isn’t actions in combat other
available until later in
than just shooting their
the period and is only missile weapons or at-
likely, even then, to be tacking and so on.
worn in battle or at There cannot be rules
tournaments.
for everything that a
character will do, but a
Cover GM can make judge-
Cover confers an ar- ments based on some of
mour class bonus as the manoeuvres set out
follows: below and what seems
reasonable in the cir-
Armour cumstances.
Type of class
cover bonus Dodge
1/4 cover +2 The character sacrifices
1/2 cover +4 his normal action to use
3/4 cover +6 his best means to dodge
full cover +10 up to three attacks in
that combat round. It
57
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES

can be used against on- armour class of 18 plus hind the defender. This
ly those attackers that the level of the defender confers a bonus of +1 to
the character is facing to successfully disarm hit, as it is harder to
and aware of. The char- them. For example, a defend against.
acter gains +2 to his fighter would need to hit
armour class while an armour class equiva- Rear attack
dodging. A dodge can be lent of 23 to disarm a Attacks from behind
declared at any time in 5th level character. The gives the attacker a +2
the combat round as defender can add his bonus to hit, either with
long as the character dexterity bonus (if any) melee weapons or bows.
hasn’t taken any other to his effective armour
action. class. Two-Weapon
fighting
Disengage Characters can at-
Disengaging is an tempt to fight with
attempt to get out two weapons, such
of a hand-to-hand as a sword in one
combat situation. hand and a dagger
This is dangerous in another. This is
as it exposes the not a common
character to at- fighting style at this
tacks. If time, but it is an
disengaging a char- option. This is very
acter can take no difficult. When us-
other action. He ing two weapons,
may move as far as the character must
possible away from state which is his
his enemy, but suf- primary hand,
fers a –2 to his meaning that the
armour class and other is referred to
the opponent gets a as his ‘off-hand’.
free attack as the The character is
character tries to able to use or fire
get away. The ar- both weapons in a
mour class round, but the at-
adjustment applies to tack with the primary
all attempts against the Evade
This is a desperate at- hand is at -3 to hit and
character in the round, the attack with the off-
ranged or melee. tempt to get out of the
way of an attack. This hand is at -6 to hit. The
allows a one-off defence character’s dexterity
Disarm modifier affects these
A fighter, crowner, no- bonus against one op-
ponent of +4. attacks, but strength
ble, forester or rogue will only be used to de-
can attempt to disarm termine damage (for
an opponent in melee Flank attack melee attacks). This can
combat. The attacker This is a side attack be used with the fight-
must successfully hit an that is not directly be-

58

er’s combat dominance
and extra attacks.
Hit points
Hit points represent the
amount of damage,
physical and mental,
that a character or non-
player character can
take before passing out
or dying. A character’s
hit points are a mere
abstraction. It is gener-
ally a representation of
the overall health of the
individual. The higher
the hit points, the
healthier the character
is.
Hit points are deter-
mined by the character’s
hit die and level. The
character class tells you
the type of die to use to
determine how many hit
points a character has.
At each level, the hit die
type is rolled and added
to the previous total.
The constitution modifi-
er is added to or
subtracted from the die
roll. At 1st level, charac-
ters automatically begin
with the maximum hit
points for their class. At
5th level, all classes
simply acquire hit
points at a specified rate
without a die roll. Con-
stitution modifiers are
applied to this. In all
cases, characters gain
at least 1 hit point at
each level.
THE GAME RULES
Hit points can be re-
duced by weapons,
exhaustion, poisons, fire
and other things. These
are covered in greater
detail in the following
section. Once damage
has been taken, healing
is needed for hit points
to be restored. Hit
points can never exceed
the level they were at
before taking the dam-
age.
Healing
In general, hit points
heal at a rate of one
point per day as long as
the character is resting,
well fed, kept warm and
comfortable and the
wounds have been
cleaned and tended to.
After seven days, the
rate of healing speeds
up to include the char-
acter’s constitution
bonus, if any (but not
penalty). After 14 days
the rate of healing dou-
bles and after thirty
days, it triples. Rates of
healing can be improved
by medicines, diet, and
level of care or other fac-
tors that the GM deems
applicable.
Falling to 0 hit
points
In general, when 0 hit
points is reached, the
character passes out.
The character is not
dead, but incapable of
59
acting due to blood loss
and damage. The char-
acter will recover
consciousness after d6
hours after which, they
can move at half their
normal move rate but
cannot participate in
combat or take any oth-
er strenuous action.
Falling below 0 hit
points
When a character falls
below 0 hit points, the
character is severely
wounded and loses 1 hit
point per combat round
from blood loss after the
round in which he or
she was damaged. The
character requires im-
mediate medical
attention and provided
aid is administered be-
fore the damage reaches
–10, the character is
stabilized. Once stabi-
lized, the character
stops losing hit points
but then requires 24
hours of bed rest and
the attention of a doctor
before the actual healing
process can begin. With
appropriate rest and
medical attention, the
character will recover
back to 0 hit points af-
ter 24 hours. Then he
begins to recover in ac-
cordance with the rules
for falling to 0 hit
points, above.
Dying

A character that reaches
-10 hit points is dead
through trauma and
blood loss. The charac-
ter is then buried at the
local graveyard, at his
family crypt or in a bur-
ial pit. It is then time for
the player to create an-
other character.
Hopefully this won’t
happen too often.
Damage
When characters suc-
cessfully hit their
opponents they cause
them damage, which
comes directly from the
foes hit points. When
characters are them-
selves struck in combat,
the damage caused to
them comes of their own
hit points. The damage
caused depends upon
the type of weapon used
and this is detailed in
the equipment section of
these rules. The damage
is applied immediately.
For some characters,
the damage from a
weapon will be enough
to kill straight away but
for others the same
amount of damage
might leave them with
plenty of hit points re-
maining, especially
where one character is
of a higher level than
another.
Weapon damage
MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES
The amount of damage used. In this case, the
inflicted is determined damage is rolled for
by the weapon being normally but applied as
used and can be seen of subdual damage rather
the equipment (weap- than normal damage.
ons) table. Damage from For every 5 points of
melee weapons is ad- subdual damage caused
justed by the strength though, 1 point is al-
modifier of the character ways regular damage.
using the weapon. Some
animals use their claws, Subdual damage heals
hooves and teeth to faster than normal
cause damage. The damage, as it is not
amount of damage is normally fatal. It heals
listed in the Animals, at a rate of 1 hit point
folks & NPCs section. per 10 minutes. At a
GM’s discretion, a char-
Subdual damage acter who takes enough
Subdual damage is not subdual damage to
usually fatal. It repre- reach –10 hit points has
sents the bludgeoning taken so much punish-
damage that a person ment to cause damage
might receive when to their internal organs,
struck in a fistfight or a resulting in death. If
brawl, rather than the not, they still require 24
type of damage knives, hours of bed rest and do
swords and arrows not begin healing until
might cause. It probably they regain conscious-
hurts and may knock a ness.
person out but only
sometimes draws blood Falling damage
and usually heals quite When a character falls
quickly. from a height of 5 feet or
more, he suffers falling
Fists, feet and some of damage (or more specif-
the improvised weapons ically hitting the ground
cause subdual damage. hard damage). Falling
from heights can be par-
An attacker can use ticularly deadly.
weapons (apart from
bows and crossbows) to If a character falls from
deliver subdual damage a height of 6 to 10 feet,
rather than regular he needs to make a dex-
damage. This would be terity check. If the check
where the blunt end of is successful, the char-
the spear, a club or a acter lands safely. If the
quarterstaff is being check fails, the charac-
60
 THE GAME RULES

ter suffers 1d6 points of infection. Make a consti-
damage. From heights of tution saving roll, with a
greater than 10 feet, challenge rating based
damage is 1d6 extra per on the amount of dam-
10 feet fallen. The dam- age received less 6. So,
age for each 10 feet with the dagger, the
fallen is cumulative. For modifier will be -4 (as-
example, if a character suming no damage
falls 18 feet, he takes bonus from a high
1d6 for the first 10 feet strength) +6, = +2.
and 2d6 for the second
10 feet, for a total dam- If infection sets in, the
age of 3d6. If a day following receiving
character falls from a the wound, the charac-
height of 45 feet, he ter immediately gets a
takes 1d6 for the first fever and loses 3 from
10 feet, 2d6 for the next, all attributes. He needs
3d6 for the next and warmth, bed rest, plenty
4d6 for the last 10 feet, of liquids, clean band-
for a total damage of ages and constant
10d6. attention. Without these
things he or she is likely
Drowning damage to die. At the end of
When a character is in each day, make a fur-
water and fails a swim ther constitution saving
check, he can hold his throw (based on the re-
breath for a number of duced score). For each
rounds equal to his con- one of the above re-
stitution. After that quirements he or she is
time, if he fails another receiving, he gets a posi-
swim check to get his tive modifier to the
head above water, he check. So, for example if
starts to drown. Damage he is being well cared
is d6 hit points per for with every possible
round under the water convenience, he gets +5
and is considered sub- to his roll. The presence
dual damage. If the of an apothecary, espe-
character reaches -10 cially one of high level,
then he has drowned. will add to his or her
chances of surviving the
Infection infection.
Every wound a charac-
ter receives that is the For a success, he has
maximum for that type thrown off the fever. Im-
of weapon, (e.g. a natu- prove all attributes by 1.
ral 4 received from a Thereafter, his attrib-
dagger) has a chance of utes will increase by 1
each day until the fever
is gone. Then the wound
will begin to heal, in ac-
cordance with the
healing rules.
For a failure, attributes
fall by 1 and the fever is
worsening. The next
day, he can get another
attribute check and so
on. If a physical attrib-
ute (strength,
constitution, dexterity)
falls to 0, the character
will die. If a mental at-
tribute falls to 0,
(Intelligence, Wisdom or
Charisma) the character
will go mad.
Stunning
A character will suffer a
potential stun if a hit
exceeds his constitution
attribute. First of all,
make a constitution
saving throw (add level)
to avoid being stunned.
Failure means the char-
acter is knocked over
and stunned for d6
rounds.
Fumbles
These occur in combat
when a natural 1 is
rolled on the d20. If this
happens, you automati-
cally miss the target and
need to roll the dice
again. To avoid a mis-
hap, you need to roll an
8 or higher. Add your
dexterity modifier and
level to the roll. Another
1 is always a fumble. If

61
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES

the result is a fumble,

consult the table below:

D20 Effect of fum-

Roll ble
1-4 You drop your
weapon. It is
near enough to
retrieve.
5-7 Your weapon
breaks. It is no
longer useable.
8-12 You stumble
and are at -1 to
your armour
class until your
next initiative
round.
13-14 You slide and
are at –2 to
your armour
class until your
next initiative
round.
15-16 You slip and fall
over.
17-18 Your weapon Critical hits maximum for the weap-
flies out of your A critical hit is a hit on.
hand, landing
that strikes a vital area
20’ away. Critical hits result in the
19 If you are with- of the target’s body.
This results in addi- damage caused being
in 5’ of a
colleague, you tional damage over the maximum for the
knock into him and above that of the weapon and the critical
or her, putting normal dice roll made hit will also cause an
them off their for damage. Critical extra effect, which is
next attack. If hits potentially occur determined from a fur-
not, you stum- on a natural roll of 20. ther d20 roll on the
ble. Refer to the Critical Hit table, below.
That is to say, when
result for 8-12 Note that because dam-
above. rolling to hit, the dice
itself comes up with a age from critical hits is
20 If you are with-
in 5’ of a 20 on its face. If this automatically the max-
colleague, you happens the player imum for the weapon,
could actually rolls the dice again. If the wound is also poten-
hit him or her. the result of the se- tially infected too.
Roll to hit and cond roll is a hit, then
damage as a critical hit results. If
normal. Other-
the second die roll re-
wise drop
weapon as in 1- sults in a miss, then
4 above. damage is simply the

62
 THE GAME RULES

Critical hit table

D20
Roll Effect of critical hit
1 Hand hit, finger broken. Drop anything in hand. Cannot use for 2 weeks.
2 Hand hit. D4 fingers sliced off. Dexterity reduced by 1 per finger lost.
3 Arm hit, and broken. Drop anything in that hand. Cannot use for 4 weeks.
4 Arm hit, artery severed. Drop anything in that hand. Lose 1 hit point per
round until staunched, with a heal check.
5 Leg hit and broken. Drop to the ground and can’t for 4 weeks. Reduce
move rate by 5’ permanently.
6 Leg hit and artery severed. Drop to floor and unable to move until
staunched with a heal check.
7 Body hit, ribs broken and knocked out. - 4 attack penalty, reducing to -3
the next week and so on until recovered. Any armour worn is damaged
and needs repairing at 25% of the full cost of the armour.
8 Body hit, bleeding internally, -1 hit point per round until tended to, with a
heal check. Any armour is damaged and will cost 25% of the full cost of
the armour to repair.
9 Body hit, serious internal injuries. -2 hit points per round until staunched
with a heal check at -2. Constitution reduced by 1 permanently. Any ar-
mour worn is destroyed.
10 Spine damaged, knocked to the ground. Cannot walk until healed (4
weeks). - 1 strength, permanently. Armour is damaged costing 25% of full
cost to repair.
11 Groin hit. The pain is such that you can do nothing for an hour. You won’t
be having (more) children.
12 Internal organs ruptured and blood pouring out of stomach wound.
Knocked to ground and cannot do anything. Suffer 3 points of damage per
round until attended to. Armour suffers severe damage and is beyond re-
pair.
13 Head hit. Will result in a nasty scar. -1 charisma, permanently.
14 Head hit. Addled your brain a bit. -1 intelligence, permanently.
15 Head hit. Lose sight in one eye. -2 on any future notice or search checks.
16 Head hit. Lose hearing in one ear. -2 on any future listen checks.
17 Head hit. Knocked completely senseless. It will take a full day to come
around. -1 intelligence permanently and suffer forgetfulness. -1 wisdom,
permanently.
18 Head hit. Skull cracked and knocked to the ground. Bleeding badly. Lose
1 hit point per round until attended to.
19 Head hit. Loosens quite a few teeth. -1 to any persuasion related checks,
permanently.
20 Killed outright in a completely nasty way -heart pierced, neck severed,
guts sliced open, brain bashed in, etc.

63
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES

should also share in description of what

Narrative of combat this responsibility. The happens, if this doesn’t
It helps greatly if all of rules are not there to get overstep the success or
the players know how in the way of a good sto- otherwise of their die
combat works, but it is ry and so the GM must rolls, especially if you
not strictly necessary for engage the players and know one of the players
them to. The GM does the players (through is very good at describ-
need to have a clear un- their characters) should ing this sort of action. If
derstanding of the rules likewise maintain a the players start de-
though and a good sense of drama and try scribing things, then it
judgement for those oc-
not to get too bogged means they are involved
casions (and there will down in the nitty-gritty. in what is going on. If
be lots of them) where the players are describ-
the rules don’t cover a There are several ways ing parts of the action
specific point. that relate to their
own characters, that
Combat is something means less work for
that occurs in the the GM and more
Medieval Mysteries time to consider
RPG, although it what happens next
isn’t as frequent as it as a result. If a play-
might be in most
er describes his
other role playing intended action with
games. You would a sense of style,
feel short-changed if drama and within
you watched a west- the tone of the game
ern movie and there you are playing, the
wasn’t a single gun- GM could even con-
fight or saloon brawl sider giving a bonus
in it, or a space to the dice roll for
opera movie without whatever action the
a spaceship battle. character is attempt-
You might have sev-
ing.
eral game sessions to engage the players
where combat doesn’t and keep up the sense Running a combat in a
occur and that can be of drama and excite- narrative fashion can be
fun, but occasionally ment. Vivid descriptions tricky at times but it is
you want to have dan- can capture a group of fun. Engaging the play-
gerous confrontations even the most lacklustre ers and keeping their
that might result in in- of players. You can use attention is one of the
jury or even death. ideas gleaned from mov- most rewarding experi-
ies, fiction and even ences a GM can have.
Whilst it is incumbent historical records to give But to be able to do so,
upon the GM to set the combat a sense of the GM does need un-
things up so that the danger and action. You derstand the rules and
players can have fun, can allow the players to when to bend them.
the players themselves take over some of the

64
 able to attain. There covers, the vast majority
were some, of course of English men and
but not many. For the women were peasants
purposes of this game, who were the property of
LIFE IN female characters have
the same options and
their lords. There is
comparatively little rec-
MEDIEVAL chances as the male
characters. They may
orded about these
people, simply because
TIMES not always get the same
reactions from some of
the clergy and nobility
had little to say about
the NPCs though and them and they were the

T
he Medieval Myster- society in general re- ones who kept written
ies RPG is first and mains male dominated. records. When the peas-
foremost a game, antry was mentioned, it
not a history lesson. It was usually in relation
is not completely histor-
The Three Orders of to the obligations they
ically accurate, it is not Society owed their superiors.
intended to be and, it “…some pray, others
would be impossible to fight, still others work” Throughout the long
make it so. The fiction history of medieval serf-
that inspired this game “...from the beginning, dom, the serf was
is accurate only to a mankind has been di- required to perform la-
point - that point is vided into three parts, bour services for his
where, for the sake of among men of prayer, lord. This was generally
the story; the historical- farmers, and men of in the form of farming
ly accurate has to fall by war...” the lord’s fields and
the wayside. looking after his live-
These are two passages stock amongst other
As a GM or a player, you that were written at the duties. Although the
have to enjoy the game beginning of the 11th number of days devoted
you are playing. If histo- century, the first was by to working the lord’s
ry takes away from this Bishop Adalbero of Laon land varied from place
and becomes a chore, and the second by to place, it was usually
then you are welcome to Gerard of Cambrai. The three days a week. At
drop the history in fa- image of a tripartite so- harvest time, the lord
vour of your story. A ciety divided by function would demand even
case in point is the role has become a hallmark more of his serfs’ time.
of women in history. of medieval English (and Furthermore, the serf
Generally speaking, European) history. was tied to the land. In
women were second- other words the serfs
class citizens and were Those who work were unable to leave.
unable to aspire to the In the early part of the
heights that men were period that this game

65
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES

into two in the forest and mead-

parts: the ow. In England, they
demesne was had to take extra care
the lord’s not to take or damage
land worked anything in the Royal
by the peas- Forest.
ants. The
other part Life on the medieval
was held by manor was quite simple
the peas- and uncomplicated. But
ants. Their by the same token it
plot was was probably also dull
usually and uninspiring. Most
much larger serfs were unable to
based on the travel outside of their
condition home manor, without
that they their lords’ permission.
cultivate the Not that many would
With the rise of towns,
lord’s demesne before have a reason to do so
the increased productiv-
their own. The land it- as their family would all
ity of the land, long-
self was divided into live in close proximity,
distance trade and the
long strips and it was since the children were
development of a money
entirely possible that expected to work for
economy, more and
one serf would have to their lord from the age
more serfs managed to
work a number of differ- of 12. Nearly every day
break free of this virtual
ent strips spread out of the medieval peas-
slavery. What this really
across the manor. ant’s existence was
meant was that the
The medieval estate re- dedicated to farming
peasants could now rent
quired cooperation arable land and so there
his land from the lord
among all serfs since was little time left over
for a certain period of
there were very few for things of an intellec-
time. Equally important-
horses and ploughs. tual or cultural nature.
ly, with the passage of
Medieval manors also
time many serfs no
had tracts of forest as Of all the characteristics
longer owed their lords a
well as open meadow for of medieval peasant so-
labour obligation. In-
the grazing of cattle and ciety, none was perhaps
stead they were taxed
sheep. Serfs and villeins more important than
direct and indirectly on
could subsidize their the Christian religion as
almost every task on the
meagre diet, which con- practiced by ordinary
medieval manor.
sisted largely of barley men and women. Chris-
(made into either bread, tianity was a matrix of
The medieval manor
porridge or soup - sup- ideas and modes of be-
varied greatly in size
plemented by a few haviour that was the
and could include one
onions, carrots or cab- medieval community.
village, a few villages, or
bages) by gathering Nearly all of the im-
none at all. The land of
firewood or thatch and portant events in the
the manor was divided
go fishing and hunting short life of medieval

66

men and women took
place within the con-
fines of the church or
churchyard. A person
was usually baptized
within hours of birth.
Men and women con-
fessed their sins to the
priest and received the
sacraments of Eucharist
on Holy Days. There
were also feasts that
accompanied baptisms
and weddings that were
held in the churchyard.
The village priest also
read messages from
secular and church au-
thorities. Popular
medieval religion was
shot through with ritu-
als and symbolism. For
instance, before slicing
bread a woman would
tap the sign of the cross
on it with her knife. The
entire calendar was cre-
ated with reference to
many Holy Days. Every-
one participated in
village processions and
religious days.
For the most part the
peasants accepted what
their family, custom,
and the village priest
had told them. Although
the mass was in Latin,
the priest delivered ser-
mons, usually on the
Gospel, in the vernacu-
lar. Peasants had a
strong sense of the ex-
istence of God, believing
that God was directly
involved in human af-
LIFE IN MEDIEVAL TIMES
fairs and could reward
the virtuous. Of course,
they believed that God
punished men and
women for their sins
with disease, plague,
poor harvest, and war.
But life in the village
community did entail
cooperation and the
values of a simple life.
Those who fight
The nobility influenced
all aspects of medieval
politics, economics, reli-
gion, and culture. As
the second Estate, the
medieval nobility had
special legal status. A
man who was a member
of the nobility was free
in his person and in his
possessions. The only
limitation of the nobility
concerned their military
obligation to their own
lord. As members of the
nobility, they had cer-
tain rights and
responsibilities: they
could raise troops and
command them in the weak and the poor. They
field, they held their accomplished this with
own courts of justice a horse and a sword,
and they could even the two visible signs of
coin their own money. their standing. They
The nobleman was the were also encouraged to
lord of all those people display the virtues of
who settled on his land. chivalry; a code of con-
The medieval nobility duct created by the
was, of course, was an clergy to curb the bru-
Estate of warriors, - tality of this order of
those who fight. knights.
The nobility had a social When a young member
function to protect the of the nobility finally
67
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES

came into possession of sistency. He was also

his property, he ac- important to absolve
quired authority over men and women of their
land and people. The sins for the act of con-
nobility rarely lived up fession. His role, then,
to the standard re- in the medieval village
quired. The reasons for was extraordinary. Of
this may be that the no- course, not all village
bility wanted immediate priests were as dedicat-
gratification. The prob- ed to the holiness of
lem was there were their flock as they
many times when the should have been. How-
nobility were not in- ever, it was the village
volved in warfare either priest with whom medi-
with foreign enemies or eval men and women
rival lords. In other identified the Church,
words, in times of peace its teachings, and au-
the nobility needed an thority.
outlet for their warlike
aggression. This came Apart from the manor,
with their participation the church was the
in the medieval tourna- main focus of communi-
ment. ty life. Church parishes
were usually the manor
The medieval nobility villages. The parish
lived without working. priest was appointed by
They also ate far better the lord of the manor
than the people under and was given a house.
them. Their bread was He was obliged to carry
made of wheat, rather money for alms with
than barley. They ate far him, keep up the
more meat than the church, and provide
serfs as they could hunt hospitality to travellers.
boar and deer on their The priest was usually a
own lands. They import- commoner by birth,
ed spices from exotic Those who pray though serfs were tied to
places to flavour their At the top of medieval the land and were not
food. Even salt was an society was the first Es- allowed to become
expensive commodity tate, the clergy, those priests. The priest offici-
that only the rich could who pray. It was the vil- ated at his living from
afford. Wine was a far lage priest who was to the income for parish
more common drink oversee the spiritual life lands, fees for services,
amongst the nobility of his flock on the medi- and tithe money.
than the ale that the eval manor. His duties
poorer folk had to drink. were to administer the Tithing was a system
necessary sacraments whereby each person
with regularity and con- was expected to give

68
 LIFE IN MEDIEVAL TIMES

1/10 of their earnings to were often held in the abbey church. These
support the church. The churchyard, though this services took place every
tithe income was divided practice was officially three hours, day and
up evenly between the banned in 1285. A spe- night. When the services
parish priest, the cial hut, or tollbooth, were over, monks would
church maintenance housed a court that be occupied with all the
fund, the poor, and the regulated the affairs of tasks associated with
bishop. the market. In time the maintaining a self-
tollbooth became a per- sustaining community.
The chancel (where the manent fixture of the Abbeys grew their own
altar is) belonged to the Town Hall. food, did all their own
lord. The nave and the building, and in some
tower belonged to the Monasteries were the cases, grew quite pros-
people of the parish. other main form of perous doing so.
Manor courts were often church presence. They Fountains Abbey and
held in the nave, and were self-contained en- Rievaulx, both in York-
tenants came there to claves where monks or shire, grew to be
pay their rent. A free nuns chose to live a enormously wealthy,
meal was given to those simple life of prayer and largely from raising
who paid their rent. The work. At least that was sheep and selling the
church tower occasion- the theory. In practice wool.
ally served double duty monks at least were of-
as the priest’s residence ten criticized for their Throughout the medie-
and often was built to laxity and concern with val period the
be defended in times of worldly matters. monasteries were prac-
trouble. School was held tically the only
in the church porch or Although the details of repository of scholarship
in a room over it. The daily life differed from and learning. The
church’s role went far one order to the next, monks were by far the
beyond religion; it was monastic life was gener- best educated members
the centre of village ally one of hard physical of society - often they
community life. work, scholarship and were the only educated
prayer. Some orders en- members of society.
Originally, people stood couraged the presence Monasteries acted as
in the nave to hear the of ‘lay brothers’, monks libraries for ancient
church service. Pews who did most of the manuscripts, and many
were not introduced un- physical labour in the monks were occupied
til the 15th century. fields and workshops of with laboriously copying
Because few could read, the monastery so that sacred texts (generally
Biblical stories were of- the full-fledged monks in a room called the
ten acted out for the could concentrate on scriptorium). In the are-
congregation in the form prayer and learning. as where Celtic
of miracle plays. The influence was strongest,
plays were performed in The day of a monk or for example in North-
the churchyard or nun, in theory at least, umbria, the monks
porch. In the 12th and was regulated by regular created "illuminated"
13th centuries markets prayer services in the manuscripts; beautifully

69
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES

illustrated Bibles and similar religious arte-

prayer books with fact. The tomb of a
Medieval medicine
painstakingly created particularly saintly per- Western medicine ad-
vanced very little in
images on most pages. son could also become a
target for pilgrimages. Europe during the Mid-
dle Ages. Scholarship
The abbey was under Pilgrims could generally
the authority of an ab- be induced to buy an fell into the religious
bot or abbess. The abbot insignia to prove they sphere, and clerics were
could be a landless no- had visited a particular more interested in cur-
ing the soul than the
ble, who used the shrine. Some popular
body. Many theologians
church as a means of pilgrimage centres built
considered disease and
social advancement. hotels to lodge pilgrims.
injury to be the result of
Under the abbot was the The George Inn in Glas-
supernatural interven-
prior/prioress, who ran tonbury is one such
tion and insisted that
the monastery in the hotel, built to take the
cures were only possible
absence of the abbot, large number of pilgrims
through prayer. No new
who might have to travel flocking to Glastonbury
medical research was
on church business. Abbey.
conducted, and no new
There could also be a
practices were created.
sub-prior. Other officers Monasteries were most
Physicians simply per-
included the cellarer (in numerous in Britain
petuated the church-
charge of food storage during the early 14th
approved classical tech-
and preparation), and century, when there
niques that were
specialists in the care of were as many as 500
preserved in ornately
the sick, building, farm- different houses. The
decorated, hand-copied
ing, masonry, and Black Death of 1348
texts produced by
education. dealt the monasteries a
major blow, decimating monks. Christian con-
cern for the ill and
One of the main sources the number of monks
injured, as well as con-
of revenue for monaster- and nuns and most
tact with the Arab world
ies throughout the never fully recovered.
during the crusades,
medieval period was pil-
did, however,
grims. Pilgrims
lead to the crea-
could be induced
tion of many
to come to a mo-
large hospitals
nastic house by
built and run by
a number of
monastic orders.
means, the most
Although little
common being a
was done to cure
religious relic
the patients, they
owned by the
were usually well
abbey. Such a
fed and comfort-
relic might be a
ed by a religious
saint’s bone, the
nursing staff.
blood of Christ, a
fragment of the
Although medi-
cross, or other

70

cine and surgery were
related, medieval practi-
tioners drew a distinct
line between them. Gen-
erally, physicians
treated problems inside
the body, and surgeons
dealt with wounds, frac-
tures, dislocations,
urinary problems, am-
putations, skin
diseases, and syphilis.
They also bled patients
when directed by physi-
cians. Many of today’s
surgeons can trace the
origins of their special-
ties to the teeth-pullers,
bone-setters, oculists,
and midwives of the
middle ages.
During this period, med-
icine began to be
recognized as a profes-
sion based upon formal
education, standardized
curriculum, and legal
regulation. In some re-
gions, physicians were
required to pass exami-
nations before beginning
practice. Untrained
physicians were subject
to prosecution and
fines, and state licens-
ing became common.
Still, not all healers
were priests or scholars.
Women practitioners
commonly treated fe-
male patients, and
although scorned by the
educated physicians,
uneducated surgeons
and self-taught lay doc-
tors, or ‘leeches’, were
LIFE IN MEDIEVAL TIMES
permitted to work on curacy. The majority of
both men and livestock. these treatises were
based on writings from
the ancient world, as
Crime & punishment was a great deal of me-
Poisoning dieval medicine and
A remarkable amount scholarship in general.
was known about the It is unlikely that these
effects, uses and treat- academic documents
ments of poisoning, would have been availa-
even in the relatively ble, or even
unscientific world of comprehensible to the
medieval Europe. The public.
purveyors of medieval
potions and poisons However, there was also
were apothecaries. They a great deal of lay poi-
produced and sold son-lore. The high
preparations for a multi- profile of poisons and
tude of uses, and it was poisoners, the fact that
well known that many of they worked unseen and
these could be put to their association with
less beneficial purposes witchcraft resulted in a
than those for which level of paranoia in
they were intended. some sections of the
population. This may in
Poisoning was a popular fact have been justified,
subject of fiction, but as, with poisons readily
there were also academ- available and no science
ic texts published on the of forensics or toxicology
subject. These were of- to provide convicting
ten written by monks. evidence, poisoning
Many types of poison seems to have been rela-
were described in these tively widespread.
treatises, which were Methods of defence
often a reasonably com- against poisons became
prehensive account of very popular, and while
the poisons known at some writings on anti-
the time, their effects dotes, treatments and
and the best ways that methods of avoiding
they could be treated. poisons were quite reli-
They were often referred able, there were also a
to by several different great many creative, and
names, or as the plant entirely inaccurate, sug-
from which they have gestions.
more recently been puri-
fied, but were usually Drinking vessels made
described with great ac- from "unicorn’s horn",
71
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES

figure of fear and hate holds. Those household-

in the xenophobic ers in turn were
Christian populations supposed to go out in
of medieval Europe. search of the murderer -
whether there was an
Fines actual killer or not, or
If peasants already no matter how long the
had it tough being body had lain where it
taxed for virtually was found. Next, the
everything in their Bailiff of the Hundred
day-to-day lives, fines had to be notified and
or ‘amercements’ im- he, in turn was to
rhino horn, or various summon the coroner.
gemstones were alleged posed as a result of
crime could be devastat- The locals were respon-
to neutralise any poison sible for guarding the
contained in them. The- ing. There was a rigid
procedure enforced at body and not moving it
se materials, already until the coroner ar-
valuable, became even every unexpected death,
any deviation from the rived, which could be
more sought after, and several days later. There
could raise a huge price. rules being heavily
fined. The rules were so were fines for not follow-
No doubt many charla- ing these laws or indeed
tans would have taken complex that probably
most cases showed for not following them
advantage of this, and properly. Sometimes a
helped their cause by some slip-up, with con-
sequent financial village would bury the
persuading wealthy cus- body before the coroner
tomers that poisoners penalty to someone.
arrived. This was the
were everywhere, and cause of some very
that the only way they First finder
The first finder was heavy fines for the
could save themselves whole village.
was to buy the gem- supposedly the first per-
stone, potion or son to come across the
whatever other charm dead body. In practise Inquest
he was probably actual- The coroner normally
the salesman was offer-
ly the unfortunate who held the inquest imme-
ing. Some religious
actually reported it. He diately after viewing the
artefacts, such as amu-
was supposed to raise a body. Originally the in-
lets and talismans, were
search for the murderer quest was a massive
also thought to be pro-
by knocking on the affair, as the jury had to
tective against
doors of the four nearest consist of all the males
poisoning. These were
households. There were over twelve years from
largely introduced by
fines for not doing this. the four nearest villages.
Jews, a race with a
It is doubtful whether
mixed reputation with
Hue & Cry this was always followed
respect to poisoning.
The first finder raised to the letter and by
Despite their association
the hue & cry by knock- 1259 it had changed, so
with protective charms,
ing on the doors of the that only ‘sufficient’
the scheming Jewish
nearest four house- people need be present.
poisoner was a popular

72

Murdrum fine
The murdrum fine was
imposed on the whole
village, where a sus-
pected murder had
taken place and the vil-
lagers couldn’t confirm
to the coroner’s satisfac-
tion that the dead
person was of English
origin (called the ’Pre-
sentment of Englishry’).
In other words, it was
assumed he was a Nor-
man, unless proven
otherwise. The mur-
drum fine dated back to
the period just after the
Norman Conquest,
when a large number of
the Norman conquerors
were murdered up and
down the country by
aggrieved Englishmen.
Although the imposition
of this fine became
harder and harder to
justify, it remained in
law until 1340, because
it proved such a good
means of income for the
Crown.
The Deodand
This was the object that
was the cause of the
sudden death, whether
it was a murder or an
accident. The Coroner’s
jury had to make a val-
uation of the deodand
and the Coroner would
then commit it to the
care of the Constable
until the Eyre, when the
Judges would decide if it
was forfeit to the Crown.
LIFE IN MEDIEVAL TIMES
However, sometimes
it was granted to the
family of the victim,
as compensation for
their loss. All sorts of
things could be de-
clared deodand, such
as dogs, horses, trees
and so on. If a horse
and cart ran over a
man, the whole lot
could be confiscated.
and leave the country
never to return. Many
Capital offence simply went to Wales or
A capital offence includ- Scotland, and even re-
ed any homicide or the turned a few weeks or
theft of an article worth months later to go on
at least twelve pence. living somewhere else in
The perpetrator was the country.
called a felon and the
coroner had complete
jurisdiction over all fel- The General Eyre
ons. The Royal Courts of
Law, called the General
Eyre, was a system of
Sanctuary justice that circulated
If a criminal, fugitive or
slowly around the king-
outlaw could reach a dom hearing cases that
church or even just the
fell within the county
church grounds, he coroner’s (crowner) ju-
could claim sanctuary.
risdiction. This body
He had to come un- took so long to return to
armed and must have each county that, unless
committed no sacrilege. careful records were
He then had 40 days kept, many cases never
breathing space from came to trial and much
the law and he had to potential revenue was
be fed and guarded by lost to the Crown. The
the locals. At the end of Eyre took an average of
that time (or earlier) he seven years - and often
had to confess his sins far longer - to complete
to the coroner and then a circuit. Its arrival
the coroner had to ar- within a community was
range for his ‘abjuration’ one of the greatest af-
from the realm. That is fairs in medieval
he had to give up all his England, as the Eyre
possessions and go, on examined every detail of
foot, to the nearest port
73

life since its last visit, as
well as actual crimes.
Unless good records
were kept and some
means found to enforce
the appearance of wit-
nesses and parties at
trial, the King would
lose much potential rev-
enue. The grossly
extortionate system of
amercements could not
be employed to the best
advantage if old cases
had been forgotten. At
the London Eyre of
1321, for instance, a
ward jury was expected
to recall all the crimes
that had been commit-
ted during the past 44
years since the court
had last visited!
Forest Law
A forest is an area of
unenclosed countryside,
consisting of a highly
variable mixture of
woodland, heath land,
scrub, and agricultural
land. Its purpose is to
raise deer, which need a
variety of land, i.e.
woodland to rest and
hide in during the day,
and more open land in
which to feed at night. It
does not necessarily de-
note a wooded area, as
such. Just as there were
many laws surrounding
deaths, murders and so
on, there were many
laws surrounding the
Royal Forest and these
were another source of
MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES
great revenue for the
Crown.
Legalities
In common with other
large areas within the
country, Forest Law im-
poses a kingdom within
a kingdom, where the
inhabitants are subject-
ed to draconian laws to
preserve, increase and
protect game of all spe-
cies and in this context
a Forest, is land subject hunt the large game
to special laws designed and, very often weren’t
to protect deer and oth- allowed to hunt the
er animals of the hunt small game, such as
which the king reserves hares. The felling of
for his own right to hunt timber was prohibited
for himself and those he and it could even be
authorised. forbidden to gather
acorns in some parts.
Within afforested areas,
Forest Law is applied in Foresters
addition to Common Policing of the forests
Law. Forest Law was a demanded a large
distinct legal system network of forest
with its own courts and officials who formed
officers. The sole aim of what was virtually a
forest law was to pre- private army of the king.
serve the venison and These were the
vert (green undergrowth foresters. A Forester is
for feeding the venison) an officer of a forest who
for the King’s pleasure. works for the King
The Royal edicts were through the Bailiff and
administered by Crown Sheriff. He is sworn to
officials, with no appeal preserve the vert and
or redress. venison of the forest.
His job entailed
Effect on the people attending upon the wild
The restrictions of For- beasts within his
est Law were very Bailiwick and to
harsh. The residents of attacking any offenders
the forest were unable and poachers, to bring
to cultivate the forest- them to the justice of
land, not allowed to the forest courts.
74
 LIFE IN MEDIEVAL TIMES

Assart: A piece of land Baldric: A diagonal

Glossary of medieval cleared of trees and
terms bushes, and fitted for
cultivation to increase
Abjurer: A criminal who the holdings of a village.
sought sanctuary in a Approver: An accused
church and elected to person who attempted
‘abjure’ by confessing to obtain mercy by im-
his sins to a coroner plicating his
and then leave England accomplices. He had to
forever, to avoid being confess to the coroner,
hanged. and then challenge his
Ale: A brewed alcoholic accomplice to trial by
beverage, before the ad- battle. If he won, he was
vent of hops for freed.
preserving. Attachment: An order
Alehouse: Most families made by a law officer,
brewed their own ale in including a coroner, to
the middle ages as water ensure that a person
was not always clean appeared at a court
enough to drink. Occa- hearing. If he failed to
sionally, one of the appear he forfeit goods
families who brewed the or money.
best ale in the village Bailey: The outer enclo-
would start to sell their sure of an early Norman
ale to their neighbours, castle. Here would be
who would stop by to the huts for living quar-
gossip. This would inevi- ters, the kitchens and
tably become the village so on.
alehouse - not quite a Bailiff: Overseer of a
tavern. manor or estate who
Amerce: To impose a directs the farming or
fine on a person or vil- other outdoor labour.
lage. The coroner would Also an official who as-
not collect it himself, sists a sheriff and who
but his clerk would rec- has the power to exe-
ord the amercement in cute writs, processes,
his rolls to present to and arrests.
the King’s justices when Bailiwick: A bailiwick is
they visited; they would the area of jurisdiction
either cancel or claim of a bailiff. The term was
the money. also applied to a territo-
Apothecary: A dis- ry in which the sheriff's
penser of medicines, functions were exercised
who was often also a by a privately appointed
physician. bailiff under a Crown
grant.
strap over the right
shoulder of a Norman
warrior to suspend a
sword scabbard on the
left hip.
Baron: Any major land-
owner, especially those
powerful enough to have
political influence. Often
at loggerheads with the
king, many barons, es-
pecially those along the
Welsh border, ran al-
most independent
kingdoms.
Barton: A faming set-
tlement.
Bowyer: A craftsman
who made bows.
Burgage: A tenure a
town, under which
property of the king or a
lord in a town was held
in return for a yearly
rent or the rendering of
a service. Occupied by a
burgess.
Burgess: A freeman or
citizen of an English
borough. Usually a per-
son of substance, like a
merchant or craftsman.
A group of burgesses
ran the town admin-
istration and elected the
portreeves (later the
mayor).
Byrnie: A Saxon word
for a hauberk or mail
shirt.
Capucin: Medieval
headgear, consisting of
a long length of cloth
wound around the head
rather like a turban, the

75
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES
free end dangling over deaths (particularly
one shoulder. among the Normans,
Chapman: A peddler, who as the ruling class
who carried his wares wanted to be sure that
on his back. their deaths were not
Cog: A small merchant taken lightly). At one
ship with one mast and time in England all
a sail. criminal proceedings
Constable: Has several were included in the
uses, including; A peace coroner's responsibili-
officer with less authori- ties.
ty and smaller Cottar: A low-grade vil-
jurisdiction than a sher- lein in the feudal
iff, empowered to serve system.
writs and warrants and Croft: A small area of
make arrests, an officer land around a village
of high rank, usually house, for growing vege-
serving as military tables or rearing a few
commander in the ab- animals. The occupier
sence of a monarch or was either a bondsman
the governor of a royal (a villein or a serf).
castle. Curfew: The prohibition
Coroner: Coroner comes of open fires in town af-
from Anglo-Norman ter dark. During the
corouner, a word derived curfew, the city gates
from coroune, ‘crown’. were closed, from dusk
Corouner was the term till dawn. It could be a
used for the royal judi- hanging offence for a
cial officer who was gate-keeper to open the
called in Latin custos gates to anybody out-
placitorum coronae, or side of these times.
‘guardian of the crown’s Destrier: A knight’s war
pleas’. The person hold- horse.
ing the office of coroner, Deodand: A personal
a position dating from chattel which had
the 12th century, was caused the death of a
charged with keeping person and for that rea-
local records of legal son was given to God,
proceedings in which that is, forfeited to the
the crown had jurisdic- crown, to be applied to
tion. He helped raise pious uses, and distrib-
money for the crown by uted in alms by the high
funnelling the property almoner. Thus, if a cart
of executed criminals ran over a man and
into the king’s treasury. killed him, it was forfeit-
The coroner also inves- ed as a deodand. It was
tigated any suspicious the coroner’s job to de-
76
termine what was deo-
dand and what was not.
Donjon: The central for-
tified tower in an early
Norman castle; later
called the Keep. Early
ones would have been
constructed of wood.
Eyre: A circuit court
held by itinerant royal
justices in medieval
England. They moved
from county to county
on a circuit that could
take up to seven years
to complete.
Farm: In the medieval
sense, the total tax re-
quired by the King for
the county. The ‘farm’
was collected by the
sheriff and delivered to
Winchester or London
twice a year. It was a
fixed sum per county
and if the sheriff could
collect more he could
pocket the difference.
First Finder: The first
person to discover a
corpse or witness a
crime. He or she was
supposed to rouse the
four nearest households
and give chase. Failure
to do so would result in
a fine.
Fletcher: A maker of
arrows.
Forest: Strictly, a wild
area with or without
trees. The Royal Forests
were areas sequestered
by the king, whether he
owned the actual land
or not, where only he
could hunt and take the

profit from various ac-
tivities, such as
wood=felling, forges,
brewing and so on.
Forester: An officer,
similar to a gamekeeper,
directly responsible for
enforcing the harsh for-
est laws and taking of-
offenders to the forest
courts. Foresters were
nominated by the Forest
Warden, but received no
salary. Sometimes they
even paid for the privi-
lege of the job, because
of the possibilities for
extortion. The Foresters
badge was a horn.
Gambeson: A padded,
quilted coat worn under
mail to diffuse the force
of blows. Some poorer
soldiers might wear one
as their main armour.
Gleeman: A medieval
itinerant singer; a min-
strel
Hauberk: Also called a
byrnie, this was a long-
sleeved mail coat.
Hide: An old English
measure of land, usual-
ly the amount held
adequate for one free
family and its depend-
ents.
Hue & Cry: The term
used when the first
finder raised the nearest
households to give
chase when a crime had
been committed.
Honour: A holding of
land from the King,
Baron or Church. It
LIFE IN MEDIEVAL TIMES
could be a large manor Mark: A sum of money,
or a single estate. though not an actual
Hundred: A sub- coin. Early in the Middle
division of a county for Ages only the silver
administrative purpos- penny existed, but later
es. on other denominations
Jongleur: Itinerant en- came out.
tertainers like minstrels Manor Reeve: The
who sing, dance and foreman appointed in
juggle. each village by the lord
Jury: The medieval jury of a manor to oversee
were witnesses, local daily routine.
people who were obliged Midden: A dunghill or
to gather and tell what refuse heap.
they knew of a crime or Motte: The mound on
a dispute. The coroner’s which he donjon was
jury were supposed to built in a Norman cas-
be men over twelve tle.
years of age from the Murdrum fine: A fine or
four nearest villages, amercement levied on a
though this was often a village by the coroner
practical impossibility. when a person is found
Justiciar: The chief slain and the locals
minister - a high rank- cannot confirm that he
ing noble or churchman is of English stock (in
appointed by the king. other words he is as-
In the reign of Richard I, sumed to be a Norman).
there were several justi- Ordeal: method of trial
ciars, the most effective in which the accused
being Hubert Walter. He was subjected to physi-
was Chief Justiciar and cally painful or
also the Archbishop of dangerous tests, the re-
Canterbury. sult being regarded as a
Kirtle: A woman’s dress divine judgment of guilt
or skirt, which reached or innocence. It was
to the ankles. abolished by the Vatican
Knarr: Early merchant in 1215.
ship, like a Viking long- Ostler: A servant in a
ship but broader in the stable or inn who took
beam. It was partly charge of the horses.
decked and had a single Outlaw: Literally, any-
hold, mast and sail. one outside of the law,
Mantle: A loose sleeve- usually an escaped
less coat worn over criminal or a fugitive.
outer garments; a cloak. They often lurked in for-
It would sometimes have ests and any person was
a hood for travelling. entitled to kill them on
77
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES
sight to collect a bounty, Sackbut: A musical in-
as they were ‘wolfs strument similar to a
heads’. trombone.
Outremer: The four Sanctuary: An ancient
Christian kingdoms in and religious offer of
the Levant at the time of mercy. A fugitive or
the crusades, including gaol-breaker could claim
the Kingdom of Jerusa- forty days immunity
lem. from the law if he
Palfrey: A small, docile reached a church.
horse suitable for use by Seneschal: An official in
a woman. a noble household in
Portreeve: One of the charge of domestic ar-
major officials in a town, rangements and the
of which there were administration of serv-
normally two. Later the- ants; a steward or
se posts were major-domo.
superseded by a mayor. Sergeant (also spelt ser-
Posse: A group of armed jeant): It had several
men, called out by the meanings. A sergeant
sheriff or a coroner in was a senior man-at-
order to hunt outlaws or arms or a law officer,
defend the realm. below a town bailiff. It
Presentment of Eng- was also the term for a
lishry: Following the squire of a Templar
Norman Conquest of Knight.
1066, there were many Shalmes: A stringed
Normans killed by ag- instrument.
grieved locals, so the Sheriff: The king’s of-
law decreed that anyone ficer of a county or an
found murdered was administrative region
Norman, unless they who was charged mainly
could prove otherwise. with judicial duties and
This involved a fine on tax collection. Often
the nearest village if the quite corrupt, hence the
deceased was deter- later appointment of
mined to be Norman or coroners to fulfil some of
even if it was unknown. their duties. The word is
This presentment of derived from ‘shire-
Englishry became a reeve’.
good source of income Squire: The servant of a
for the king and it con- knight, often aspiring to
tinued for hundreds of knighthood himself.
years, despite becoming Sumpter: A pack horse
largely meaningless. or mule.
Reeve: See Manor Surcoat: A loose outer
Reeve. coat or gown, often worn
78
by a knight over his ar-
mour.
Tabard: A short, heavy
cape of coarse cloth
formerly worn outdoors.
Or a tunic or cape like
garment worn by a
knight over his armour
and emblazoned with
his coat of arms. A simi-
lar garment worn by a
herald and bearing his
lord’s coat of arms.
Trial-by-battle: An an-
cient right to settle a
dispute by fighting to
the death. Women and
unfit persons could em-
ploy a champion to fight
for them.
Tunic: The main men’s
garment of the middle
ages. A linen shirt
would sometimes be
worn underneath.
Undercroft: The ground
floor of a fortified build-
ing or a church.
Verderer: A man serv-
ing as an official in
charge of the royal for-
ests. He was responsible
to the sovereign, not the
Warden. There were
usually four in each
royal forest. The verder-
er’s badge was an axe.
Vert: The vegetation of
the forest - trees, bush-
es and pasture, the use
of which was subject to
forest law.
Villein: A villein is, in
the feudal system, a
member of the class of
serfs tied to the land,
distinguished from
 LIFE IN MEDIEVAL TIMES

those in actual slavery,

but restricted by law
from exercising the
rights of a free man.
Warden of the Forest:
The senior forest ad-
ministrator, appointed
by the king, who was
responsible for organis-
ing the Forest Eyre.
The Warden had to
nominate the foresters,
but not the verderers,
who were individually
responsible to the king.
Wattle & Daub: A
common building tech-
nique in the Middle
Ages. Clay or plaster is
applied aver a woven
framework of hazel
withies (branches).
Wimple: A headdress
of linen or silk; worn by
women over the head
and around the neck
and ears.
Woodmote: An alterna-
tive name for the lowest
level of forest courts.
Only offences against
the vert, amounting to
less than four pence
Woodwards: Employed
by private landowners to
protect the vert and ven-
ison, but outside the
royal forests. Although
they were servants of
the landowner, they still
had to adhere to the
same oaths and codes
as the foresters. Their
badge was a billhook.

79

Glossary of the
medieval church
Abbess: female head of
a nunnery of the Bene-
dictine or related orders
Abbey: large religious
house belonging either
to one of the orders of
the Benedictine family
or to certain orders of
the Canons Regular
(Augustinian Canons)
Abbot: the head of a
monastic house of the
Benedictine or related
orders, and of certain
orders of Augustinian
canons
Absolution: the formal
act of a priest or bishop
pronouncing the for-
giveness of sins by
Christ to those who are
qualified by penitence to
receive it
Acolyte: the highest of
the minor orders of the
ministry; they had par-
ticular responsibility for
candles and assisted in
preparations for mass
Aisle: part of a church,
parallel to and divided
by piers or columns
from the nave, choir or
transept
Albigensian: a heretical
movement found in
Germany, Italy and
France in the 11th to
13th centuries; also
known as Cathars
Alms: money collected
for the relief of the poor
MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES
Altar: a table or slab century; also known in
consecrated for celebra- England as the Austin
tion for celebration of Friars
the sacrament of the Aumbry: a stone cup-
Eucharist, or Holy board usually set in the
Communion; in a medi- north wall of the chan-
eval church, in addition cel, for mass vessels,
to the high altar or prin- books and other sacred
cipal altar, other altars objects
dedicated to particular Austin: term used in
saints were located in England for the Augus-
chapels around the tinian friars
church Baptism: the rite admit-
Archbishop: a bishop ting an individual to the
with authority over a Christian church
group of territorially Baptistery: a separate
contiguous dioceses and building or separate ar-
their bishops; also ea in a church which
known as a metropoli- contains the font and
tan where the rite of bap-
Archdeacon: a cleric tism is carried out
having a defined admin- Belfry: the upper storey
istrative authority of a tower where bells
delegated to him by the are hung, or a special
bishop in the whole or purpose building for the
part of the diocese hanging of bells
Archdeaconry: a sub- Benedictine: order of
division of a diocese monks or nuns
administered by an Benefice: the means of
archdeacon, whose au- generating an income to
thority was delegated to support a priest
him by the bishop Bishop: the highest or-
Archpriest: a minister der of minister in the
assisting a bishop in the church, with the power
administration of a rural to confer particular dio-
deanery, or subdivision cese
of an archdeaconry; also Book of Hours: a book
known as a rural dean for the laity containing
Augustinian: 1) order of Psalms and prayers to
regular canons following be read at the times of
the Rule of St Augus- the daily office
tine; established from Caldarium: in a monas-
pre-existing orders in tery, a small room
Italy and France in the containing a fire where
12th century: 2) order of inmates can go in to
mendicant friars found- warm themselves
ed in Italy in the 13th
80

Canon: 1) member of
the secular clergy be-
longing to a cathedral or
collegiate church; 2) a
member of the Augus-
tinian or regular canons
who lived under semi-
monastic rule; the term
‘secular canon’ distin-
guishes the former
Canoness: nun belong-
ing to an Augustinian or
related order
Canon law: the law of
the church, imposed by
authority in matters of
faith, morals and disci-
pline
Cardinal: the clergy of
Rome who became the
immediate advisors of
the pope
Carmelite: order of
mendicant friars origi-
nally founded in
Palestine in the 12th
century, then reformed
in Europe in the 13th
century after the failure
of the Crusades; also
known as the White Fri-
ars
Cassock: the ordinary
garment of a priest; a
simple close fitting tunic
with sleeves
Cathedra: the throne of
a bishop
Cathedral: the church
which contains the
throne, or official seat,
of the bishop of the dio-
cese and therefore the
"mother church" of the
diocese
Cell: an individual room
in a monastic estab-
LIFE IN MEDIEVAL TIMES
lishment where one per- Chapter: 1) the mem-
son lived in seclusion bers of a religious house
Cellarium: the store- in their corporate capac-
house for provisions ity; 2) the members of
Chalice: the cup for any corporate body re-
holding the wine at the sponsible for an
ritual of the Eucharist ecclesiastical institu-
Chancel: the eastern tion; 3) a meeting of the
end of the church con- members of a religious
taining the high altar, institution
where the mass is cele- Chapter house: a place
brated, reserved for the of assembly for the
priest, other clergy and members of a monas-
choir: may also include tery, cathedral or
an extension of the nave collegiate church, for
east of the crossing the discussion of busi-
Chantry priest: a priest ness
whose function is to say Chasuble: item of mass
or sing masses for the vestments; simple loose
soul of a dead person in sleeveless garment with
a chantry chapel an opening for the head
Chapel: 1) a part of a Choir: the part of the
church with a separate church containing the
altar, which may be seats for the clergy;
dedicated differently to usually in the western
the church as a whole; part of the chancel, but
2) a self-contained occasionally in the east-
building dedicated to ern part of the nave
worship, the saying of Choir stalls: the seating
prayers or the celebra- for the clergy in the
tion of masses for the choir of a church
dead, but which does Cistercian: monastic
not serve the functions order derived from the
of a parish church; 3) a Benedictine founded in
church which serves the 12th century
parochial needs, but Clergy: any member of
which is dependent up- Holy Orders, or of a mo-
on another church nastic order
within the parish, some- Cloister: a quadrangle
times called a chapel of surrounded by roofed or
ease vaulted passages con-
Chaplain: a priest who necting a major church
was paid an annual to domestic or ancillary
wage to serve in a par- buildings
ish church or dependent Close: the enclosed pre-
chapel cinct of a cathedral or
collegiate church
81

Cluniac: reformed Ben-
edictine order, founded
in the 10th century in
France
Collegiate church: a
church served by a body
of canons or prebendar-
ies; not housing the
throne of a bishop and
therefore not a cathe-
dral; served by secular
canons rather than
monks
Commandery: monastic
house of the military
order of Hospitallers
Compline: the last of
the day services of di-
vine office, recited before
retiring
Confession: the rite of
confession of sins to a
priest in order to obtain
absolution; obtaining
absolution through con-
fession and penance
was considered a sac-
rament
Confirmation: the sac-
rament which follows
baptism in the Christian
life cycle, requiring the
recipient to affirm their
faith in the presence of
a bishop
Consecration: to make
sacred, the separation of
a thing or person for
divine service; 1) of the
Eucharist, the act
whereby the bread and
wine become the body
and blood of Christ; 2)
of bishops, the confer-
ring of the character of
the office by bishops to
another; 3) of altars and
MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES
churches and sacred Crusade: series of mili-
vessels, the setting tary campaigns waged
apart of these things by Christian countries
exclusively for the ser- in the Holy Land from
vice of God. the 11th to the 13th
Consistory courts: The century to recover the
ecclesiastical courts, area from Islam; used
which had the right to more generally for any
try clerics, rather than military campaign on
the secular courts. Any- behalf of the church
one who could read and Crutched Friars: also
write could claim to be known as the Brethren
tried by this court, as of the Holy Cross; not
literacy was virtually actually considered to
confined to the clergy. be a mendicant group
Convent: an enclosed and were much involved
and regulated monastic with running hospitals
institution Crypt: a chamber or
Cope: item of proces- vault beneath the main
sional vestments; semi- floor of the church
circular outer cloak Deacon: the rank in the
Corporal Acts of Mer- ministry below the
cy: a series of charitable priest, with a major role
acts which aided the in the collection and
giver to salvation; feed- distribution of alms
ing the hungry, Dean: the dean of a ca-
providing drink for the thedral controlled its
thirsty, clothing the na- services and with the
ked, visiting the sick, chapter, supervised its
visiting prisoners, tak- fabric and property; a
ing in the traveller and rural dean assisted the
burying the dead bishop in administering
Council: a formal meet- a sub-division of an
ing of bishops and archdeaconry
representatives of Deanery: a group of
churches convened for parishes forming a sub-
the purpose of regulat- division of an
ing doctrine or archdeaconry; also re-
discipline ferred to as a rural
Cowl: a loose gown with deanery
hanging sleeves and a Diocese: the territorial
hood, worn by Benedic- unit of administration in
tine and other monks the church, governed by
Crozier: pastoral staff; a a bishop; also known as
processional staff with a see
the head in the form of a
shepherd's crook
82

Divine office: the daily
cycle of choir services
performed by clergy
Dominican: order of
mendicant friars found-
ed in the early 13th
century
Doorkeeper: the fourth
rank of minor orders of
the ministry; their func-
tions were similar to
those of a modern ver-
ger, heading processions
and undertaking general
care of the church fabric
Dormitory: the com-
munal sleeping area of a
monastery; also known
as the dorter
Ecclesiastical: pertain-
ing to the church
Episcopal: in relation to
the authority of a bishop
Eremetical: relating to
the life of a hermit
Eucharist: one of the
seven sacraments and
the principal ritual of
the church, in which
bread and wine are
transformed into the
body and blood of
Christ; the ritual must
be administered by a
priest
Excommunication: a lived in regular fashion
censure imposed by
church authority which
excludes those subject-
ed to it from Holy
Communion and impos-
es on them other
deprivations and disa-
bilities; in the heavier
form of this censure, the
transgressor was for-
bidden any intercourse
LIFE IN MEDIEVAL TIMES
with fellow Christians
and deprived of all
rights and privileges in
the church
Exorcist: the second of
the minor orders of the
ministry; the power of
exorcising evil spirits
was never confined to
this order although they
assisted in this process,
as well as with the pour-
ing out of water at the
mass a crucifix with fo-
liate or floral ornament
Font: receptacle for
baptismal water, usually
made of stone but some-
times of metal
Franciscan: order of
friars founded by St
Francis of Assisi in the
early 13th century in
Italy; also known as the
Friars Minor or the Grey
Friars
Frater: the communal
refectory of a monastic
establishment
Friars: members of one
of the mendicant orders,
the four main orders
being the Franciscans,
Dominicans, Carmelites
and Austin friars; they
but were extensively in-
volved with the outside
community; the term
literally means "brother"
Friars of the Sack: also
called the Friars of the
Penance of Jesus
Christ; the largest of the
lesser groups of friars in
England, all of their
houses were abandoned
83
by 1314 and the mem-
bers obliged to join one
of the major mendicant
orders
Friary: a community of
friars
Gargoyle: a water spout
carved in the form of a
grotesque human or an-
imal
Gilbertine: a monastic
order founded in Eng-
land in the 12th
century; a double order
comprising male and
female members under
the spiritual guidance of
the Augustinian canons
Grand Master: title of
the heads of the military
orders of Templars and
Hospitallers
Guardian: term for the
head of a Franciscan
friary
Habit: the distinctive
clothing worn by mem-
bers of monastic orders
Heresy: the formal de-
nial or doubt of any
defined doctrine of the
church
Heretic: person who
has expressed formal
denial or doubt of any
defined doctrine of the
church
Holy Communion: the
sacrament of the Eu-
charist
Holy Orders: the higher
grades of the Christian
ministry; those of bish-
op, priest and deacon
Holy water stoup: a
small stone basin con-
taining holy water

Hospitallers: military
order first recognised in
1113, founded to assist
in the Crusades; their
full name was Knights
of the Order of the Hos-
pital of St John of
Jerusalem
Hospitium: a monastic
guesthouse
Hours: the times speci-
fied for the recitation of
divine office; Matins,
Lauds, Prime, Terce,
Sext, Nones, Vespers
and Compline
Inquisition: the official
persecution of heresy by
special ecclesiastical
courts; formally consti-
tuted by the papacy in
the 13th century
Interdict: an ecclesias-
tical punishment
excluding the faithful
from participation in
spiritual things; it could
be applied to individu-
als, to local areas such
as parishes, or to whole
populations
Lady Chapel: a chapel
dedicated to the Virgin
Mary
Laity: persons who are
not members of the
clergy
Lauds: the early morn-
ing service of divine
office
Lavatorium: a series of
basins outside a monas-
tic refectory for the
washing of hands
Lay: with reference to
the laity, or persons who
MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES
are not members of the Manual: a book contain-
clergy ing special services for
Lay brother: member of occasional use, such as
a religious order who is baptisms, marriages
not bound to the recita- and visiting the sick
tion of the divine office Manuscript: a written
and is occupied in work transcribed by
manual work, generally hand
adult converts Marriage: the ceremony
Lay sister: female of union of man and
member of a religious wife was a sacrament of
order who is not bound the church
to the recitation of the Mass: the principal rit-
divine office and is oc- ual of the church, the
cupied in manual work, service at which the
generally adult converts sacrament of the Eu-
Lectionary: a book con- charist, or Holy
taining a series of Communion, is per-
biblical extracts to be formed
read at the mass Mass vestments: cere-
Lector: the third rank of monial clothing worn by
minor orders of the min- a priest for the celebra-
istry; also known as tion of the mass
reader Master-general: the
Litany: a form of prayer head of the Dominican
consisting of a series of order
petitions sung by a dea- Matins: the night office;
con, a priest or cantors, the service recited at 2
to which the people am in the divine office
made fixed responses Mendicant orders: term
Little Hours: Prime, for the friars; the term
Terce, Sext and None; refers to begging be-
the less elaborate of the cause of their
services of divine office dependence on alms for
Liturgy: all the pre- their support
scribed rituals of the Metropolitan: a bishop
church, including the with authority over a
mass and divine office group of territorially
Maison dieu: alms- contiguous dioceses and
house, or residence for their bishops; also
the poor known as an archbishop
Major orders: the high- Minister General: term
er ranks of the Christian for the head of the
ministry, comprising the Franciscan order
orders of bishop, priest, Ministers provincial:
deacon and sub-deacon term for the heads of
84

provinces within the
Franciscan order
Minor orders: the lower
ranks of the Christian
ministry, comprising the
orders of acolyte, exor-
cist, reader and
doorkeeper
Minster: a church
served by a body of can-
ons or prebendaries; the
same as a collegiate
church; in the north of
England the term was
also used for a cathedral
Missal: book containing
the forms of service for
the mass
Mitre: the pointed
headdress worn by
archbishops, bishops
and some abbots on
ceremonial occasions
Monastery: a communi-
ty of monks
Monastic: refers to the
life or community of
monks
Monk: a male member
of a religious community
living under vows of
poverty, chastity and
obedience; strictly it is
confined to members of
those bodies which live
a communal life
Mystery plays: religious
drama performed at ma-
jor festivals, commonly
performed out of doors
Nave: the western arm
of a church, and more
specifically the central
axial section of that
arm, used by the con-
gregation and for
sermons
LIFE IN MEDIEVAL TIMES
Night office: Matins;
the choir service of the
daily round of divine
office performed during
the night
None: the fourth of the
Little Hours of the di-
vine office, recited at the
ninth hour
Nun: a female living in a
regular order under
vows of poverty, chastity
and obedience
Nunnery: an establish-
ment of nuns
Orders: a) with respect
to the monastic or regu-
lar life, groups of
communities following
the same rule or under
a common administra-
tive and spiritual
structure b) with respect
to the Christian minis-
try, the various grades
consisting of the major
orders - bishop, priest,
deacon, sub-deacon -
and the minor orders -
acolyte, exorcist, reader,
doorkeeper
Orders of clergy: the
various grades consist-
ing of the major orders -
bishop, priest, deacon,
sub-deacon - and the
minor orders - acolyte,
exorcist, reader, door-
keeper
Ordinal: book contain-
ing instructions for
conducting the pre-
scribed rituals of the
church
Ordination: the rite of
admission into the min-
istry of the church; only
85
admission to the major
orders of the ministry
was considered to be a
sacrament
Papal: with reference to
the office of the pope
Papal bull: legal docu-
ment issued under the
authority of the pope
Papal curia: the central
government of the West-
ern church
Papal legate: a personal
representative of the
pope who has been en-
trusted with his
authority
Parish: an area under
the pastoral care of a
priest, himself under the
jurisdiction of a bishop;
the parish church was
the centre of worship for
the parish
Parlour: in a monastery,
an area where speaking
was allowed for legiti-
mate purposes
Paten: the plate for
holding the bread or
communion wafers
Penance: a form of pun-
ishment whereby one
who has confessed his
sins to a priest can ob-
tain absolution
Pilgrimage: a journey to
a holy place from mo-
tives of devotion, to
obtain supernatural
help, or as a form of
penance
Piscina: a stone basin
with a drain, used for
washing the mass ves-
sels
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES
Pix: container for the office, recited at the first
storage of consecrated hour
wafers for the mass Prior: the deputy of an
Poor Clares: the female abbot in a major Bene-
branch of the Francis- dictine institution; or
can order, maintaining the head of a lesser
an enclosed monastic Benedictine house; or
life rather than one the head of any house in
equivalent to that of the some orders
friars Prior provincial: the
Pope: head and spiritu- head of a province in the
al leader of the church Dominican order
in Western Europe Prioress: the head of a
Prebend: a cathedral nunnery; in some orders
benefice; normally con- of a lesser house de-
sisting of the revenue pendent upon an abbey
from one manor of the Priory: a monastery; in
cathedral estates which the Benedictine orders a
furnished a living for house dependent upon
one cathedral canon, or an abbey; in certain or-
prebendary ders such as the
Prebendary: a cathedral Augustinians or the
canon supported by a mendicant orders, any
prebend, normally the religious house
income from one manor Processional: book con-
of the cathedral estates taining prayers, hymns
Preceptory: monastic and litany
house of the order of Province: 1) unit of ec-
Templars clesiastical
Premonstratensian: administration compris-
order of canons derived ing a group of
from the Augustinians, territorially contiguous
founded in 1121 dioceses: 2) in relation
Priest: a minister of the to later developments of
church empowered to monastic orders, geo-
administer the sacra- graphic units of
ments, most particularly administration within
that of the Eucharist or the order
Holy Communion, as Pulpit: a stone or wood-
well as those of confes- en stand from which
sion and extreme sermons or readings
unction were given
Primate: the chief bish- Reader: the third rank
op of a single state or of minor orders of the
people ministry
Prime: the first of the Rector: a parish priest,
Little Hours of divine or corporate body such
86
as a monastery or ca-
thedral, that receives
the benifice of a parish
Relic: the mortal re-
mains, or any
components thereof, of a
saint; believed to em-
body the miraculous
powers of the saint
Reliquary: a container
for the relics of a saint;
many were expensively
gilded and jewelled
Rosary: a series of
prayers; to assist the
memory, the prayers are
counted off on a string
of beads
Rural dean: a minister
assisting a bishop to
administer a subdivision
of an archdeaconry;
known on the Continent
as an archpriest
Rural deanery: a group
of parishes forming a
subdivision of an arch-
deaconry
Sacrament: a visible
sign of a sacred thing; in
the late medieval church
there were deemed to be
seven sacraments, rep-
resenting life cycle
rituals; baptism, con-
firmation, Eucharist,
ordination, marriage,
confession and extreme
unction
Sacristy: a room for the
storage of sacred ves-
sels, liturgical books
and priestly vestments;
and where the clergy
don their ceremonial
attire; also known as a
vestry

Sanctuary: The part of
the church containing
the high altar
Scriptorium: a room
where manuscripts were
transcribed
Secular: 1) in relation to
clergy, priests living in
the world, not under a
rule, who are bound by
no vows and may pos-
sess property, working
under the authority of a
bishop: 2) more general-
ly, refers to people who
are not clergy
See: properly, the offi-
cial 'seat' of a bishop.
Commonly used for the
territorial unit of admin-
istration in the church,
governed by a bishop;
also known as a diocese
Sext: the third of the
Little Hours of divine
office, recited at the
sixth hour
Shrine: a reliquary, a
sacred image of special
importance or a holy
place, especially one
connected with pilgrim-
age
Spirituals: members of
the Franciscan order
devoted to maintaining
the ideals of the founder
with respect to money
and property
Sub-deacon: a member
of the order of the min-
istry below that of
deacon; considered to be
the lowest of the major
orders
Summoner: An officer
who works for the arch-
LIFE IN MEDIEVAL TIMES
deacon to bring sinners Vespers: the evening
to the consistory courts, service of divine office,
to try them as a way of recited before dark
levying fines for the Vestments: the cere-
church monial clothing of the
Synod: a formal meeting clergy
of representatives of var- Vestry: a room for the
ious units of the church storage of sacred ves-
Templars: order of mili- sels, liturgical books
tary monks founded in and priestly vestments;
1119 to assist in the and where the clergy
Crusades; also known don their ceremonial
as the Knights Templar attire; also known as a
or the Poor Knights of sacristy
Christ Vicar: a priest employed
Terce: the second of the as a substitute for a
Little Hours of divine parish rector of for a
office, recited at the member of a religious
third hour house, monastic, cathe-
Teutonic Order: mili- dral or collegiate, which
tary order founded in had appropriated the
the Holy land after the revenue for the position
Third Crusade Vicarage: the endow-
Tithe: the tenth part of ment for a vicar
produce from the land Visitation: the periodic
and of other income, inspection by a bishop
collected to support a of the temporal and
parish priest and main- spiritual affairs of a dio-
tain his services cese which are under
Troper: a book contain- his control, or by an ab-
ing tropes for the use of bot or monastic official
the choir at mass or di- of houses within his ju-
vine office; after around risdiction
the 12th century, a Vulgate: the Latin ver-
book containing se- sion of the Bible; it
quences became the standard
True Cross: supposedly version for the Western
the actual cross on Church
which Christ was cruci- Warden: head of a cus-
fied; there were tody, or subsection of a
fragments of it pre- province, within the
served as relics across Francisan order
Christendom White canons: the Pre-
Undercroft: a vaulted monstratensians, an
room, sometimes un- order derived from the
derground, below an Augustinians and
upper room founded in 1121
87
 character class and may
be of a level that is even
higher than that of the
player characters. They
ANIMALS, will probably have some
major importance in the
FOLK & NPCS game and are likely to
re-appear many times
throughout a campaign.
T
he following chapter They should never turn
focuses on some out to be more im-
stats for riding ani- portant than the
mals, common people characters in terms of
and then some non- the overall story though
player characters that – the characters are the
you can use in your own focus of the game not
games. the NPCs.
Folk are generally the Experience points for
ordinary NPCs that defeating foes
characters might meet The Medieval Mysteries
along the way. They are RPG isn’t really about
not intended to be tough combat and fighting, so
opposition – in a movie there is less opportunity
they would be the extras to earn experience from
that are either on screen killing things than there
only very briefly or are is in, say Castles & Cru-
killed early on, before sades. However, there is
the characters get to the experience available for
end of their adventure. those times when com-
Folk are classed as 0- bat is inevitable. When
level. Sometimes, folk animals, folk and NPCs
take on greater im- are defeated, outwitted
portance in the game or killed, characters
than the GM originally gain experience points
envisaged. In this case, (XP). The number of
they might be elevated points gained depends
to NPC status. on how tough the foe is
to kill or defeat. For eve-
NPCs are special GM ry hit die the foe has,
characters. These char- there is a base XP
acters must be worked award, set out in the
out as if they are player table below. For every
characters. They have a
88
hit point the foe has,
extra XP are awarded.
Work this out by multi-
plying the hit die of the
foe by the number of hit
points. So a boar with
12 hit points would
work out as 2 (hit die) x
12 = 24 points added to
its base of 200. For eve-
ry special ability the foe
has, add the number in
the special ability col-
umn. Special abilities
would be any class abili-
ties of NPCs, or any
animal abilities, like
having more than one
attack in a round. If the
GM feels the special
ability is particularly
dangerous or not at all
dangerous or useful,
add or subtract another
50% for that ability. Or-
dinary folk count as
1HD. Certain creatures
really do not provide
experience, and so will
not have any points
listed.
 ANIMALS, FOLK & NPCS

XP Table XP: - Horse, Nag

Cats can move silently Size: Large
(+2) and hide (+2) like a HD: 1d8+3 (8)
HD Base Special
rogue. Move: 30’
1 100 50
2 200 100 AC: 11
3 300 150 Donkey Attacks: none
4 400 200 Size: Medium Int: Average
5 500 250 HD: 2d8 (9) XP: -
6 600 300 Move: 40’ This is a very poor
7 700 350 AC: 12 horse, pressed into ser-
8 800 400 Attacks: 2 hooves (1d4 vice either to pull carts
9 900 450 each) or wagons or perhaps
10 1000 500 Special: for an extremely poor
11 1100 550 Int: Average squire, as a stop-gap
12 1200 600 XP: - until he can afford
No self-respecting something better.
knight would be seen
Animals dead riding one of these. Horse, Riding
Boar Occasionally used for Size: Large
Size: Medium travel by people who HD: 2d8+4 (13)
HD: 2d8+3 (12) can’t ride, or by women, Move: 60’
Move: 40’ monks or peasants. AC: 13
AC: 14 Their main use is the Attacks: 2 hooves
Attacks: Gore (1d8+3) transport of small loads (1d4+1 each)
Special: see text of goods or pulling small Int: Average
Int: Animal carts. Donkeys tend to XP: -
XP: 224 be steady on their feet. This is a good, high
Wild boars were hunted spirited riding horse,
a lot in the middle ages. Horse, Destrier bred for speed and dis-
They can be extremely Size: Large tance. Used for hunting
vicious when cornered HD: 4d10+12 (34) or travel.
and it can take a lot to Move: 50’
put one down. They AC: 14 Palfrey
continue fighting until Attacks: 2 hooves Size: Large
they reach –7 hit points. (1d6+3 each), bite HD: 2d8+2 (12)
(1d4+2) Move: 40’
Cat Int: Average AC: 13
Size: Medium XP: 536 Attacks: 2 hooves (1d4
HD: 1d4 (2) Large, solid horses. This each)
Move: 30’ is the archetypical Int: Average
AC: 14 knight’s warhorse. XP: -
Attacks: Claw (1) or bite When the knight was no A good, steady horse,
(1) longer king on the bat- more docile than the
Special: Hide, move si- tlefield, they became riding horse and bred
lently plough horses. for its steadiness. Used
Int: Animal

89
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES

by ladies, often side- front of them. Some are Clerk

saddle. genuine ex-soldiers, Size: Medium
with missing limbs and HD: 1d4 (3)
Mule so on and others are Move: 30’
Size: Large rogues and scoundrels. AC: 10
HD: 3d8+4 (19) They usually have a bit Attacks: by weapon
Move: 40’ of gossip to impart, for a Special: Literacy
AC: 13 coin or two. Normally Prime: Intelligence
Attacks: 2 hooves unarmed and un- Int: High
(1d4+1 each) armoured. XP: 103
Int: Average These are scribes, ac-
XP: - Burgess countants and lawyers.
Bred for steadiness and Size: Medium Rarely combatants and
carrying ability. HD: 1d4 (3) if armed at all, will tend
Move: 30’ only to have a dagger.
Wolf AC: 10
Size: Medium Attacks: by weapon Cutpurse
HD: 2d8 (9) Special: a trade or craft Size: Medium
Move: 50’ Prime: None HD: 1d4 (3)
AC: 13 Int: Average Move: 30’
Attacks: Bite (1d4+1) XP: 103 AC: 11
Special: Track These are wealthy Attacks: by weapon
Int: Average townsmen, merchants Special: Pick pocket
XP: 218 and craftsmen. Always Prime: Dexterity
Wolves still existed in looking for ways to Int: Average
the wild in England in make more money or to XP: 103
the middle ages. They better themselves. Usu- Unsavoury characters
hunt in packs and have ally armed only with a adept at removing your
a superior sense of dagger. money from you in a
smell, enabling them to crowded marketplace or
track their prey. Clergyman smoky tavern. Often
Size: Medium armed with a club or a
HD: 1d4 (3) dagger.
Folk Move: 30’
Beggar AC: 10 Jongleur
Size: Medium Attacks: by weapon Size: Medium
HD: 1d4 (3) Special: Sanctuary HD: 1d6 (4)
Move: 30’ Prime: None Move: 30’
AC: 10 Int: Average AC: 11
Attacks: by weapon XP: 103 Attacks: by weapon
Special: Gossip These are clerics, monks Special: Gossip, per-
Prime: None and friars. Usually un- form
Int: Average armed and unarmoured, Prime: Charisma
XP: 103 but some will carry a Int: Average
Every city has its share staff or a dagger. XP: 104
of these individuals with
their begging bowls in

90
 ANIMALS, FOLK & NPCS

Wandering entertainers, seeking employment, Thug

they always have some the mercenary is likely Size: Medium
news and gossip from to be well armoured and HD: 1d6 (4)
the road. Often armed well-armed with a Move: 30’
with a staff, club or sword, mace and/or AC: 12
dagger. longbow. Attacks: by weapon
Special: Intimidate
Man-at-Arms Strumpet Prime: Strength
Size: Medium Size: Medium Int: Average
HD: 1d8 (5) HD: 1d4 (3) XP: 129
Move: 30’ Move: 30’ Thugs are usually bul-
AC: 13 AC: 10 lies who go around in
Attacks: by weapon Attacks: by weapon pairs at the very least,
Special: None Special: Gossip or more likely in gangs.
Prime: Strength Prime: None They are often armed
Int: Average Int: Average with an assortment of
XP: 155 XP: 103 weapons but if pushed
A soldier at the local Other names would be a will just as likely back
lord’s castle or a gate woman of easy virtue, a down as fight.
guard in the city, the lady of the night, a slat-
man-at-arms is often tern, a tavern wench or Yeoman
armoured in studded a common whore. Un- Size: Medium
leather and may have a likely to be armed or she HD: 1d6 (4)
sword, spear or a hal- might have a hidden Move: 30’
berd. dagger. AC: 10
Attacks: by
Mercenary weapon
Size: Medium Special: Gossip,
HD: 1d8 (5) animal handling
Move: 30’ Prime: Constitu-
AC: 15 tion
Attacks: by Int: Average
weapon XP: 104
Special: Weapon A yeoman is a
specialization (+1 stout country-
to attack & dam- man or farmer.
age) Unarmoured,
Prime: Strength but is likely to
Int: Average have a staff, dag-
XP: 155 ger or a hand
A poor knight axe within easy
back from the reach.
crusades return-
ing to his home
town, a Welsh
archer or a for-
eign soldier

91

Sample NPCs
Non-player characters
are the important char-
acters created by the
GM to provide people for
the player characters to
interact with. As im-
portant characters, they
have attributes and a
character class, just like
the player characters.
Here are a few sample
NPCs that you can use
in your campaign.
***************************
Bartholomew
Matthews
Class: Apothecary
Level: 8 HP: 28
Str: 10 (0 - S)
Int: 16 (+3 - P)
Wis: 14 (+2 - P)
Dex: 9 (-1 - T)
Con: 13 (+1 - T)
Cha: 12 (+1 - S)
AC: 10
BtH ranged: +2
BtH melee: +3
Abilities: Literate, gos-
sip, heal, knowledge
(wounds & corps-
es), knowledge
(law), sense mo-
tive, search,
medicines & po-
tions, care & cently returned to
attention, minor
surgery.
Languages: Eng-
lish, Latin, French
XP: 1,224
Belongings: Good
clothing, leather
jerkin, medical bag
containing several
MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES
vials of medicines, a some of his concoctions
small knife, birthing for- on his customers. He
ceps and bandages), may start again very
staff (+3 to hit, d6 dam- soon.
age), dagger (+3 to hit,
d4 damage). ***************************
Background: Bartholo- Gareth Bowman
mew has recently moved Class: Fighter
into a small rented shop Level: 4 HP: 33
in the town. He left his Str: 14 (+2 - P)
previous establishment Int: 10 (0 - T)
in Gloucester amidst Wis: 13 (+1 - S)
rumours that his medi- Dex: 16 (+3 - P)
cines had poisoned a Con: 12 (+1 - T)
few of his patients. Cha: 8 (-1 - S)
Whilst these rumours AC: 16
remained unfounded, it BtH ranged: +7
was considered best by BtH melee: +6
the Apothecaries Guild Abilities: Climb, gossip,
in Gloucester that he intimidate, notice,
move elsewhere as there weapon specialization
had already been at- (longbow), combat dom-
tempts on his life as a inance
result. He has recently Languages & literacy:
taken on an apprentice, English
Arnold Blakey. XP: 732
Secret: Bartholomew is Belongings: Good,
an evil psychopath. though well-worn cloth-
Whilst he was living in ing, studded leather,
Gloucester, he became longbow (+8 to hit,
fascinated with poisons d12+1 damage) broad-
and decided to try out sword (+6 to hit, 2d4+2
damage), dagger
(+6 to hit, d4+2
damage).
Background: A
Welsh archer re-
England after
fighting on the
continent. He is
now kicking
around town, look-
ing for gainful
employment, pref-
erably in his
specialist area of
92

mercenary or fighting
man, but otherwise any-
thing goes, as he is pret-
pretty low on funds at
the moment.
Secret: An old merce-
nary friend of Gareth’s,
Sagard D’Arcy stole his
hard-earned money and
fled back to England.
Gareth Bowman has
tracked him down and
is now planning to kill
him, after he has found
out what he has done
with his money.
***************************
Hugo Farrond
Class: Forester
Level: 2 HP: 17
Str: 15 (+2 - T)
Int: 10 (0 - S)
Wis: 12 (+1 - P)
Dex: 13 (+1 - S)
Con: 14 (+2 - P)
Cha: 8 (-1 - T)
AC: 14
BtH ranged: +2
BtH melee: +3
Abilities: Knowledge
(local area), track,
awareness, traps, con-
ceal, ranged weapon
specialist
Languages: English,
French
XP: 334
Belongings: Average
clothing, cloak, studded
leather, staff (+3 to hit,
d6+1 damage), hand axe
(+3 to hit, d6+1 dam-
age), light crossbow (+3
to hit, d10 damage).
Background: Hugo is
the nephew of the noble,
ANIMALS, FOLK & NPCS
Lord Henry Farrond,
who used his position to
help the otherwise lazy
and useless Hugo a po-
sition as a forester.
Hugo is completely and
utterly corrupt and con-
temptible. There is
nothing that he won’t
turn a blind eye to, if
bribed sufficiently.
Secret: Hugo is an evil
sex monster. He uses
his position to force the
local girls to sleep with
him. One girl, Helwisa
went missing recently
from the area and de-
spite a search, hasn’t
been found. That is be-
cause Hugo raped her
when she wouldn’t let
him lie with her and
then he killed her and
hid her body. It remains
an unsolved mystery.
***************************
Sister Agnes
Class: Cleric
Level: 3
HP: 13
Str: 8 (-1 - T)
Int: 13 (+1 - S)
Wis: 15 (+2 - P)
Dex: 12 (+1 - S)
Con: 10 (0 - T)
Cha: 14 (+2 - P)
AC: 10
BtH ranged: +2
BtH melee: 0
Abilities: Diplomacy,
gossip, knowledge (reli-
gion), listen, notice,
sense motive, literate,
scribing, sanctuary,
God’s wrath, faith.
93
Languages: English,
Latin
XP: 414
Belongings: Nun’s hab-
it, satchel with ink,
parchment and goose
feather quills, staff (+0
to hit, d6-1 damage),
dagger (+0 to hit, d4-1
damage).
Background: Sister Ag-
nes is a sleuthing nun
and she has been look-
ing into the case of the
missing girl, Helewisa.
She is suspicious of Hu-
go Farrond, but hasn’t
yet got any evidence to
support her suspicions.
Secret: Sister Agnes is
Lord Henry Farrond’s
secret lover. She sneaks
out of the abbey when-
ever she has the
opportunity and meets
him in one of several
places that they have
arranged over the years
for their trysts. Lord
Henry’s faithful man
servant Ulric is the only
other person who knows
about this affair alt-
hough another nun,
Sister Angelica suspects
something is going on.
 Brace, aged about 50 character could be a
falls dead from his friend of the family or
horse, whilst talking to an apothecary could
a local outside the inn easily be drafted in to
MYSTERY: A that he had stayed at for
the previous night.
see if he can determine
what was in the empty
VIAL MURDER Brace had been con-
ducting a little business
vial.

at the port a day or so If nothing else, you can

T
his scenario is left ride out of his
deliberately open so hometown and was re-
that you can pretty turning home. He had to
much use it whatever stop at the inn as it was
location or period you getting late and he was
decide to set your own fearful of not making it
Medieval Murder Mys- back to town before
tery RPG campaign in. I nightfall.
would suggest that you
read it through to the The mystery is what
end (it isn’t that long) killed him. He was talk-
and decide which of the ing one moment to the
endings you prefer. You local carter Peter and
can then tailor the lines the next moment, ac-
of questioning, the re- cording to Peter he
sponses from the stopped talking, “looked
various NPCs and so on like the Devil had pos-
to the ending you have sessed his soul” and
selected. keeled over, falling from
his horse “like a sack of
The alternative is to get cabbages”.
the gist of the scenario
and not necessarily Involving the
have the conclusion pre-
determined, allowing
characters
If the primary investiga-
your players to come up
tor is a crowner, then he
with the solution them-
is required to investigate
selves. This may be a bit
anyway. If one of the
more difficult though
characters is a noble,
and is recommended for
more experienced GM’s. you could have the
death occur on his
manor and therefore he
What is the mystery?
A wealthy local wool might feel obliged to in-
merchant, Nicholas vestigate. A merchant
have character request-
ed by the sheriff or some
other person in authori-
ty to look into the death
‘because he was a re-
spected burgess in the
town and we must be
seen to do the right
thing’. The family lawyer
could even draft in some
investigators, because
there is a technicality in
the will, that ‘requires
that we discover if he
was murdered or died of
natural cause’ before it
can be settled.
Investigations
The clues
To all intents and pur-
poses, it looks like death
by natural causes, per-
haps a heart attack. The
only odd thing that a
search of the body and
his possessions will re-
veal is an empty potion
vial in his belt pouch.
Otherwise the body is
whole (maybe with a
bruise or scrape where
he fell from his horse).

94

There is actually a small
drop of the potion left in
the vial and an apothe-
cary character (or NPC)
could figure out that
this is a slow-acting poi-
son with time, access to
his shop and a success-
ful check.
Witnesses
The only witness to the
actual event was Peter
who, being a god-fearing
soul is apt to let his im-
agination run away with
him. He will be adamant
that Nicholas Brace had
been possessed by the
Devil, if pressed (be-
sides, it’s more gossip-
worthy that way and
might get him a few
rounds in the tavern
later).
None of the other locals
know very much about
the death. The innkeep-
er will say that Brace
came in late in the af-
ternoon, ordered a huge
meal and plenty of ale a
retired early. He seemed
fine, if a little ‘red in the
face’ and ‘short of
breath’. Earlier in the
evening, he may have
been sat with somebody,
who he seemed to know
(see other possibilities: A
rival merchant).
Friends & family
Brace was a well-known
burgess around town.
He was married to Hil-
A VIAL MURDER
da, pretty and a lot a bad word said against
younger than him. They his wife. Secretly, Mar-
have no children (a sore tha says that she thinks
point with Hilda). Hilda that Hilda had been poi-
will explain that Nicho- soning her husband.
las was in ill-health and She is certain that Hilda
had been seeing an had visited another
apothecary in the town, apothecary and ob-
where he obtained his tained a poison for
medicine. She did try to vermin, which she was
tell her husband not to exchanging for Nicho-
eat so much rich food or las’s medication. But
to drink so much, but Martha has no proof of
he wouldn’t listen. One this.
thing the characters
might notice is that she If the characters ap-
doesn’t seem as dis- proach Walter Stanshill,
traught as perhaps she they will see that his
might be, in the circum- shop is a little messy
stances. If the vial is and that he does seem a
produced, Hilda will little old to still be dis-
acknowledge that it was pensing medicines.
his and she will tell However, he was Brace’s
them the name of the friend and there doesn’t
apothecary, if asked. seem to be any reason
The apothecary is Wal- that he should want to
ter Stanshill, respected, see him dead. He too
if a little ancient, but told Nicholas to lay off
also a family friend. the spicy food and the
wine and to get a bit of
Other merchants knew air now and again. He
Nicholas well, being a had prescribed him a
pillar of the community, remedy for his pain (if a
but have little to add to character is an apothe-
what Hilda has said. cary or they seek
However, one person, confirmation, it will be
Brace’s sister Martha, found that what was
says that she was al- prescribed was normal
ways suspicious of for this type of com-
Hilda, who she says is a plaint).
money-grabbing strum-
pet. She says that she The gossip
told Nicholas that Hilda Around town the gossip
was always up to no is that there is an
good with one of his ap- apothecary in town who
prentices, Aylwin, but is a specialist on poi-
Nicholas wouldn’t have sons. Other gossip
95
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES

suggests that he fled his Brace’s medication be- practising, accidentally

previous town of fore he left for his port mixed up some of the
Gloucester, because he warehouse. He did it for ingredients and ended
had been accused of love. up putting poison into
poisoning his custom- the vial that was intend-
ers. His name is Hilda did it ed for his friends
Bartholomew Matthews Hilda didn’t love her medication.
(see sample NPCs). husband. He couldn’t
give her children and he A rival merchant did it
Other gossip (from at was old, ugly and fat. One of Nicholas’s rivals
least two fairly reliable She stands to inherit his killed him. He did it be-
sources) though, might business, his wealth cause Nicholas was a
help to confirm what and clears the way to hard businessman and
Martha says about Hil- had slowly putting him
da, in that she has been out of business. He ar-
seen with Aylwin on ranged to meet him in
more than one occa- the inn and when rea-
sion, in a situation that soning didn’t work, he
‘wasn’t appropriate for a slipped poison into his
married woman’. wine in desperation.

Who did it, how Martha did it

and why? Martha hated her
I present a couple of brother. Many years
possibilities that you ago, when she was mar-
can consider. That way, ried, Nicholas drove her
you can develop the in- husband out of busi-
vestigations in the way ness and drove him to
you want them to go, or an early grave. She nev-
you can feed off your er forgave him for this
players to give a con- but was hoping to in-
clusion that they find herit his business when
satisfactory. You might he died, which she fig-
even surprise them. ured wouldn’t be too
have children before she long because of his ill-
is old and grey. She got health. Then the old fool
Aylwin did it
the poison from Walter went and married a
He loves Hilda and
Stanshill, on the pretext young slattern and that
couldn’t wait to marry
that the family home has driven Martha to
her (at which point, in-
had been infested by take drastic action,
cidentally he would also
rats that she was trying whilst trying to pin the
be closer to taking over
to kill with the poison. murder on Hilda.
the family business as
Hilda has no interest in
It was an accident
running it). He obtained
Brace’s doddery old
poison from Bartholo-
friend Walter Stanshill,
mew Matthews and
who should no longer be
secretly exchanged it for

96
 MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES
CHARACTER SHEET

PLAYER NAME________________________________
CHARACTER NAME____________________________ CHARACTER SKETCH/NOTES
Class__________________________________________
Level__________________ Gender__________________
Age__________ Height___________Weight___________
Features________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________

[ATTRIBUTE CHECK = D20 + ATTRIBUTE MOD + LEVEL]

ATTRIBUTES SAVING THROWS
P/S/T MOD TN
[ ] STR ______ ____ ____
[ ] INT ______ ____ ____
[ ] WIS ______ ____ ____
[ ] DEX ______ ____ ____
[ ] CON ______ ____ ____
[ ] CHA ______ ____ ____

DEFENCE CLASS HIT POINTS HIT DIE TYPE

MONEY EXPERIENCE

CLASS ABILITIES & SKILLS EQUIPMENT

____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________

ENC______PENALTY_____MOVE______

WEAPON BONUS TO HIT DAMAGE SPECIAL

__________________ __________ _________ ____________________________________
__________________ __________ _________ ____________________________________
__________________ __________ _________ ____________________________________
__________________ __________ _________ ____________________________________
__________________ __________ _________ ____________________________________
__________________ __________ _________ ____________________________________
Inspiration & recommended reading:
The Medieval Players Manual
Author: David Chart
Published by: Green Ronin
This is an excellent resource for (slightly fantasized) medieval roleplaying.

The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England

Author: Ian Mortimer
Not fiction, but written by a novelist, this book is a jaunty journey through the 14th Century,
one that wriggles with the stuff of everyday life. This is a great primer for the period.

The Crowner John Mysteries

Author: Bernard Knight
Characters: Sir John de Wolfe, Gwyn of Polruan and Thomas De Payne
Sir John de Wolfe, sometime companion in arms to Richard I and recently returned from cru-
sade in 1194, is appointed a coroner in Devon. He is tasked, with his clerk Thomas De Payne
(an unfrocked priest) and his retainer Gwyn of Polruan, with the investigation of sudden
deaths, murders, arson, rape and finds of treasure trove - largely as a way of raising taxes for
the release of the king who has been captured in Austria. In the process he upsets the sheriff,
Sir Richard de Revelle, but that is the least of his problems, not least because he soon finds
himself the sole coroner in one of the largest counties in England - only one other knight was
prepared to accept the office and he has died as the result of a fall from a horse.
The series titles:
The Sanctuary Seeker The Grim Reaper The Noble Outlaw
The Poisoned Chalice Fear in the Forest The Manor of Death
Crowners Quest The Witch Hunter Crowner Royal
The Awful Secret Figure of Hate A Plague of Heretics
The Tinner’s Corpse

The Matthew Bartholomew Chronicles

Author: Susanna Gregory
Characters: Matthew Bartholomew and Brother Michael
The series follows Matthew Bartholomew, a physician in a Cambridge ravaged by plague in the
mid 1300’s. Together with his friend and Brother Michael, Proctor of the fledgling university,
he investigates murders and other suspicious goings on amongst the scholars, students,
monks and friars who seem to have their own agendas.
The series titles:
A Plague on Both Your Houses An Order for Death The Tarnished Chalice
An Unholy Alliance A Summer of Discontent To Kill or Cure
A Bone of Contention A Killer in Winter The Devil’s Disciples
A Deadly Brew The Hand of Justice A Vein of Deceit
A Wicked Deed The Mark of a Murderer The Killer of Pilgrims
A Masterly Murder

Geoffrey Mappestone Mysteries

Author: Simon Beaufort (aka Beau Riffenburgh & Susanna Gregory)
Characters: Sir Geoffrey Mappestone, Knight, Great Britain, 1100s
The series titles:
Murder in the Holy City The Bishop’s Brood The Coiner’s Quarrel
A Head for Poisoning The King’s Spies
The Owen Archer Mysteries
Author: Candace Robb
Character: Owen Archer
The Owen Archer mysteries are a chronicle of England in the late 14th century. Owen Archer
is a former captain of archers for the Duke of Lancaster and, having been blinded in one eye,
is now a spy in the service of John Thoresby, the Archbishop of York. The events he investi-
gates involve the community or the realm. Owen is frequently reluctant to take up an
investigation, as he is happily married and is a man who has begun life again after a career as
a soldier.
The series titles:
The Apothecary Rose The Riddle of St Leonard’s The Cross-Legged Knight
The Lady Chapel A Gift of Sanctuary The Guilt of Innocents
The Nun’s Tale A Spy for the Redeemer A Vigil of Spies
The King’s Bishop

The Margaret Kerr Mysteries

Author: Candace Robb
Character: Dame Margaret Kerr
Set in 13th Century Edinburgh
The series titles:
A Trust Betrayed The Fire in the Flint A Cruel Courtship

Medieval West Country Mysteries

Author: Michael Jecks
Characters: Sir Baldwin Furnshill and Bailiff Simon Puttock
Sir Baldwin Furnshill, Keeper of the King’s Peace, investigates murders and other crimes in
Devon and the West Country, during the mid-14th-century with his friend, Simon Puttock,
Bailiff of Lydford Castle.
The series titles:
The Last Templar The Tournament of Blood
The Merchant’s Partner The Sticklepath Strangler
A Moorland Hanging The Devil’s Acolyte
The Crediton Killings The Traitor of St Giles
The Abbot’s Gibbet The Templar’s Penance
The Leper’s Return The Outlaws of Ennor
Squire Throwleigh’s Heir The Tolls of Death
Belladonna at Belstone The Chapel of Bones
The Boy-Bishop’s Glovemaker The Prophecy of Death
The Death Ship of Dartmouth Dispensation of Death
The Malice of Unnatural Death The Butcher of St Peters
The Templar, The Queen and Her Lover A Friar’s Bloodfeud
The Mad Monk of Gidleigh The King of Thieves
No Law in the Land The Bishop Must die

The Domesday Mysteries

Author: Edward Marston
Characters: Lord Ralph Delchard & Gervase Bret
Ralph Delchard and Gervase Bret are commissioners, appointed by William the Conqueror, to
look into the serious irregularities that come to light during the compilation of Domesday
Book, the great survey of England. Delchard is a Norman soldier who fought at the Battle of
Hastings, and who does not suffer fools gladly. Bret, a talented lawyer, comes from mixed
Saxon and Breton parentage. They make a highly effective crime-fighting team in a violent and
unstable period of history. Each of the books in the series takes them to a different English
county.
The series titles:
The Wolves of Savernake The Hawks of Delamere
The Ravens of Blackwater The Wildcats of Exeter
The Dragons of Archenfield The Foxes of Warwick
The Lions of the North The Owls of Gloucester
The Serpents of Harbledown The Elephants of Norwich
The Stallions of Woodstock

The Falconer Series

Author: Ian Morson
Character: William Falconer
A series set in 13th-century Oxford. The main character is an Oxford don (teacher) named
William Falconer, who solves mysteries by the ‘new’ application of scientific method (like a
modern detective, in other words). Famous historical characters include Roger Bacon.
The series titles:
Falconer and the Great Beast Falconer’s Judgement
Falconer and the Face of God Falconer’s Crusade
Falconer and the Moving Sands A Psalm for Falconer
Falconer and the Ritual of Death Falconer’s Trial

The Sir Hugh Corbett Mysteries

Author: P C Doherty
Characters: Sir Hugh Corbett, Ranulf-atte-Newgate and Maltote
Hugh Corbett, clerk and later chief clerk and keeper of the Secret Seal in the household of
King Edward I, is assigned by Edward to investigate political crimes and to counter the spies
of Edward’s rival, Philip of France. In this he is ably assisted by Ranulf-atte-Newgate, a felon
whom Hugh redeemed from Newgate Gaol, and the slightly comical Maltote, the clumsiest
archer in the English army but a master horseman. The Corbett novels are extremely enjoya-
ble historical mysteries in the classic mode, with complex and devious plotting, matching
Corbett’s razor-like mind against the cunning of French spies and agents or against danger-
ous murderers.
The series titles:
Satan in St. Mary’s The Song of A Dark Angel
Crown in Darkness Satan’s Fire
Spy in the Chancery The Devil’s Hunt
The Angel of Death The Demon Archer
The Prince of Darkness The Treason of the Ghosts
Murder Wears A Cowl The Magician’s Death
Corpse Candle Nightshade
The Waxman Murders The Mysterium
The Assassin In The Greenwood

The Chronicles of Brother Cadfael

Author: Ellis Peters
Characters: Brother Cadfael and Hugh Beringar
The crime mystery and investigation series featuring the Benedictine monk, Brother Cadfael,
and the Shrewsbury Sheriff Hugh Beringar, set in the mid-12th century, during the upheavals
of the English civil war between Empress Maud and King Steven. It was also filed by Central
Television as a TV Drama series starring Derek Jacobi.
The series titles:
A Rare Benedictine An Excellent Mystery
A Morbid Taste for Bones The Raven in the Foregate
One Corpse Too Many The Rose Rent
Monk’s Hood The Hermit of Eyton Forest
St. Peter’s Fair The Confession of Brother Haluin
The Leper of Saint Giles The Heretic’s Apprentice
The Virgin in the Ice The Potter’s Field
The Sanctuary Sparrow The Summer of the Danes
The Devil’s Novice The Holy Thief
The Pilgrim of Hate Brother Cadfael’s Penance

The Dame Frevisse Mysteries

Author: Margaret Frazer
Character: Sister Frevisse
Sister Frevisse is the niece of Geoffrey Chaucer. She resides at the Benedictine nunnery of St.
Frideswide’s in Cornwall during the reign of Henry VI, but this does not mean that she is
shielded from the troubles and dangers of the outside world. Despite her great devotion to her
calling and her lack of contact with the outside world, Sister Frevisse proves herself an astute
observer of human behaviour and amateur detective when the need arises.
The series titles:
The Novice’s Tale The Maiden’s Tale The Hunter’s Tale
The Servant’s Tale The Reeve’s Tale The Widow’s Tale
The Boy’s Tale The Squire’s Tale The Sempster’s Tale
The Outlaw’s Tale The Clerk’s Tale The Traitor’s Tale
The Murderer’s Tale The Bastard’s Tale The Apostate’s Tale
The Prioress’s Tale

The Player Joliffe Mysteries

Author: Margaret Frazer
Character: Joliffe the Player
Frazer's second set of mysteries, also set in 15th-century England, feature "Joliffe the Player."
Joliffe is a spin-off character from the Dame Frevisse series. The Joliffe series is set in the
mid-1430s. The Joliffe novels present the life of an acting troupe traveling through the English
countryside.
The series titles:
A Play of Isaac A Play of Knaves A Play of Treachery
A Play of Dux Moraud A Play of Lords

The Burren Mysteries

Author: Cora Harrison
Character: Mara the Brehon
Set in 16th Century Ireland, with a female detective as the central character.
The series titles:
My Lady Judge Writ in Stone Eye of the Law
Michaelmas Tribute Sting of Justice

The Medieval Murderers

Authors: Bernard Knight, Ian Morson, Michael Jecks, Karen Maitland, Susanna Gregory, Phil-
ip Gooden and CJ Sansom
Character: A varied cast of the author’s characters
These are a series of novels with a central theme that features each of the author’s characters.
The series titles:
The Tainted Relic House of Shadows King Arthur's Bones
Sword of Shame The Lost Prophecies

The Chapman Mysteries

Author: Kate Sedley
Character: Roger the Chapman
Set in the 15th Century; features Roger the Chapman, who has given up a monk's cell for the
freedom of peddling his wares on the road.
The series tiles:
Death and the Chapman The Lammas Feast
The Plymouth Cloak Nine Men Dancing
The Hanged Man The Midsummer Rose
The Holy Innocents The Burgundian's Tale
The Eve of Saint Hyacinth The Prodigal Son
The Wicked Winter The Three Kings of Cologne
The Brothers of Glastonbury The Green Man
The Weaver's Inheritance The Dance of Death
The Saint John's Fern Wheel of Fate
The Goldsmith's Daughter

The Hawkenley Mysteries

Author: Alys Clare
Character: Helewise & Sir Josse d'Acquin
Helewise is the fourth Abbess of the recently-completed Hawkenlye Abbey near Tonbridge in
Kent. She had been appointed by Queen Eleanor in 1184 at the age of 32. The stories feature
her companion Sir Josse d’Acquin, who carries out much of the legwork for the detective nun.
The series titles:
Fortune Like the Moon (1999) Whiter Than the Lily (2004)
Ashes of the Elements (2000) Girl in a Red Tunic (2005)
The Tavern in the Morning (2000) Heart of Ice (2006)
The Chatter of the Maidens (2001) The Enchanter's Forest (2007)
The Faithful Dead (2002) The Paths of the Air (2008)
A Dark Night Hidden (2003) The Joys of My Life (2009)

The Sister Fidelma Mysteries

Author: Peter Tremayne
Character: Sister Fidelma
The Sister Fidelma mysteries are set mainly in Ireland during the mid-seventh century AD.
The Series titles:
Absolution By Murder (1994)
Shroud for the Archbishop (1995)
Suffer Little Children (1995)
The Subtle Serpent (1996)
The Spider's Web (1997)
Valley of the Shadow (1998)
The Monk Who Vanished (1999)
Act of Mercy (1999)
Our Lady of Darkness (2000)
Hemlock At Vespers (short stories) (2000)
Smoke in the Wind (2001)
The Haunted Abbot (2002)
Badger's Moon (2003)
Whispers of the Dead (short stories) (2004)
The Leper's Bell (2004)
Master of Souls (2005)
A Prayer for the Damned (2006)
Dancing with Demons (2007)
Council of the Cursed (2008)
The Dove of Death (2009)
The Chalice of Blood (2010)

The Templar Knight Mysteries

Author: Maureen Ash
Character: Sir Bascot De Marins
An ex-monk, knight, then Templar, he lost his eye whilst in captivity as a Crusader in the Ho-
ly Land in 1191. On his return home, he finds his family had died during a pestilence. He
joins the household of Lady Nicolaa at the royal castle of Lincoln, where his education is put
to good use.
The series titles:
The Alehouse Murders (2007) A Plague of Poison (2009) Shroud of Dishonour (2010)
Death of a Squire (2008) Murders for Christ’s Mass (2009)
Catherine LeVendeur Mysteries
Author: Sharan Newman
Character: Catherine LeVendeur, 12th Century Novice, France
The series titles:
Death Comes as Epiphany (1993) Cursed in the Blood (1998) Heresy (2002)
The Devil’s Door (1994) The Difficult Saint (1999) Outcast Dove (2003)
The Wandering Arm (1995) To Wear the White Cloak (2000) The Witch in the Well (2004)
Strong as Death (1996)

The Name of the Rose

Author: Umberto Eco
Characters: William of Baskerville and Adso of Melk
It is the year 1327 when William of Baskerville and his young scribe Adso of Melk (who nar-
rates the story many years later) arrive at the unnamed northern Italian monastery, which
contains the greatest library in Christendom. The abbot and his henchmen carefully control
access to the collection; only the librarian and his assistant are allowed into the labyrinthine
stacks. The ostensible reason is that there are thousands of books by pagan, Jewish, and Ar-
ab authors, as well as the records of many heresies. While true Christians must understand
error in order to combat it, only the strongest and most mature minds should be exposed to it.
Naturally the scribes and scholars, who have come from all across Europe to use the library,
long to view its hidden treasures. Strange intrigues develop among the monks, and suddenly
turn to murder. A gifted young illuminator is killed; the next morning a second monk is found
dead, plunged headfirst into a barrel of pigs’ blood. It is William, the Franciscan friar and fol-
lower of Roger Bacon’s methods, who sets to investigating the murders and web of
conspiracies surrounding the monastery. (Also made into a film starring Sean Connery &
Christian Slater).
THIS LICENSE IS APPROVED FOR GENERAL USE. PERMISSION TO DISTRIBUTE THIS
LICENSE IS MADE BY WIZARDS OF THE COAST!

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System Reference Document Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast Inc; Authors Jonathon
Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, based on original material by Gary E Gygax and Dave
Arneson.
Legends of Excalibur, Copyright 2003, RPGObjects; Author Charles Rice
Medieval Players Manual, Copyright 2004, Green Ronin; Author David Chart
Castles & Crusades: Players Handbook, copyright 2004, Troll Lord Games; Authors Davis
Chenault & Mac Golden
Castles & Crusades: Monster & Treasure free pdf ‘A guide and rules system for fantasy role
playing’ copyright 2004 Troll Lord Games; Authors Christian Harris, Mac Golden, Davis
Chenault, Mark Sandy and Todd Gray.
Divided by The Sword RPG, Copyright 2005 by Beyond Belief Games; Author Simon Wash-
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Go Fer Yer Gun! RPG, Copyright 2005 by Beyond Belief Games; Author Simon Washbourne
The Medieval Mysteries RPG, Copyright 2005 by Beyond Belief Games; Author Simon Wash-
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PRODUCT IDENTITY
Medieval Mysteries RPG
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