Minaturen sind richtig teuer, auch die Pappaufsteller oder Acrlymarker, die man für viele Spiele kaufen kann gehen auch ins Geld. Aufsteller kann man günstig selbst herstellen indem man z.b. dies Vorlage ausdruckt und Plastikfüße kauft. Dieses youtubevideo hat eine schöne Idee wie man Blibs, also munzdicke Marker selbst machen kann:
Man verwendet einfach Schmucksteine im Kuppelschliff und klebt unten bedrucktes Papier daran. Diese Steine bekommt man in Deutschland sowohl unter dem Namen „Cabochons“ (nach dem Cabochon-Schliff) als auch „Glaskuppel Glasstein“ oder „Schmuckstein“. 200 mal 2,5cm(1 inch) Steine Kosten unter 10€ (vgl. Amazon) . Der im Video empfohlene Klebstoff ist in Deutschland recht teuer „Mod Podge 59 ml Dimensional Magic“ um die 8€, alternative ist „Ranger Glossy Accents“ wohl einfacher zu finden der ist aber nicht günstiger . Möchte man die Unterseite nicht versiegeln tut es auch einfacher Vielzweckkleber. Günstig wird das ganze erst, wenn man tatsächlich vor hat um die 50 Marker her zu stellen.
Wer nicht so viele Marker benötigt, kann auch Kuppelförmige Aufkleber einsetzen da gibt es 100 Stück um 8€ (z.b. Amazon) als „Scrapbooking 3D Epoxy Dome Aufkleber“, oder auch kleinere Mengen zu kaufen.
Kosten: < 8 Cent pro Token, plus Druck , evtl zzgl. Stanze
Variante A ist wertiger und führt zu schwereren Tokens die stabiler sind, Variante B ist schneller um zu setzten, man muss nicht mit klebstoff hantieren, aber die Tokens sind dünner und nicht so robust.
Liebe Brettspiel-Begeisterte, ich habe meine Bachelorarbeit zum Thema Gesellschaftsspiele als Lebensstil geschrieben und dabei auch einige empirische Daten verarbeitet. Vor allem das Literaturverzeichnis dürfte das aktuellste und umfassendste sein was es in deutscher Sprache momentan zu dem Thema Gesellschaftsspiele gibt. Ich hoffe einige finden die Arbeit interessant.
Inwiefern lässt sich die wachsende Beschäftigung mit Gesellschaftsspielen in Deutschland durch einen häuslichen Lebensstil, das sogenannten „Cocooning“, erklären?
die Forschungsfrage
Das Spiel im Allgemeinen und das Gesellschaftsspiel im Besonderen ist in der Soziologie ein randständiges Thema. Soziologische Aufmerksamkeit hat das Thema Spiel vor allem im Zusammenhang mit der Sozialisation von Kindern erfahren. Aber auch der soziologische Blick auf den Boom der Gesellschaftsspiele selbst ist lohnenswert. Es ist erklärungsbedürftig, warum Gesellschaftsspiele nicht im gleichen Maße durch Computerspiele verdrängt wurden, wie beispielsweise Theater durch den modernen Film. In der Presse werden verschiedene Erklärungen für diesen scheinbaren Widerspruch diskutiert. Wiederholt ist zu lesen, dass Gesellschaftsspiele Ausdruck eines „Rückzugs ins Private“ sind, eines Abschirmens vor der subjektiv als zunehmend bedrohlich empfundenen Welt. In dieser Arbeit wird diese These kritisch hinterfragt.
Um der Frage auf den Grund zu gehen, wurde eine komplette Kopie der Boardgamegeek Datenbank angelegt.
Darüber hinaus kommen Daten über die Zeitverwendungserhebung (ZVE) zum Einsatz um das tatsächliche Ausmaß des Spielverhaltens in Deutschland zu ermitteln.
The wonderful ocastudios released more than a dozen free games for print and play use under public domain. These are very pretty pdfs that you can print at home with diy instructions to craft your own game set. This is great for us Game Masters because it is very unlikely that there is any culture that doesn’t develop games. So we really should include games into our worldbuilding. But just changing the theme of a game and using traditional chess or other games might break the immersion. But Ocastudios has games from all over the world. This is of course a very nice resource even when you’re not playing tabletop RPG games likes Dungeons and Dragons. There is the traditional chess, poker and backgammon but there’s also games from other cultures that will probably introduce you and your players to something new. I have never before heard of the maori game of Mu Torere, for example.
I enjoy puzzles and riddles quite a lot. That is why I when I why run a game as a Dungeon Master or game master, I also include puzzles. One puzzle I came up with for one of my adventures was information hidden in a maze. I prepared this little video tutorial for you to also try it basically works like this the maze has a lot of dead ends and if you fill the paths that can be reached form the outside with color it will spell out or reveal information. I also provide a handy template to be used along with the Free Software Inkscape if you’re interested.
It is one of my favorite adventures that I have run for the dark I so far. -It’s a little bit Gangs of New York and Wolf of Wall Street at the same time. It is set in a city called Grangor inspired by the Hanse Mercantile Empire , it reminds you of Hamburg or Amsterdam. But there is also Venice in Grangor with all the channels. There is a murder mystery and stock speculation and bad investments. A really great detective adventure I wholeheartedly recommend it.
you can download my supplement in the scriptorium aventuris. it contains not only a timeline of the complicated events of this great detective adventure but also a list of all Suspects and other non-player characters dad appear in the adventure I also made quite a few handouts that will hopefully make for a better experience for your players. For example 1 newspaper with information about the city. And even tickets for the Opera. I also decided to put it on for free because there is so little content on the English version of scriptorium.
Bei Recherchen bin ich über Wehrkirchen gestolpert. Das sind Gotteshäuser die im Notfall auch als Verteidigungs dienen können. Diese erinnern mich stark an Tempel der Kriegsgöttin Rondra.
Bild unter CC-BY-SA von Michael SanderScreenshot mit Rondratempel aus dem Browsergame Herokon Online, dass inzwischen offline ist.
This article is for game masters of tabletop games like Dungeons and Dragons. I want to give you an idea of how a village in the post-Roman Manorialism looked on a map,so you can draw and describe such settlements in a way that makes sense. If your world does not know serfdom and feudalism as western Europe had it, this information will probably not apply to your game.
This article focuses on the late Middle Ages.
Layouts
The Middle Ages cover a very long period, ranging from about 500 AD to 1500 AD, depending on who you ask. Over that timespan, progress was made in the realm of farming and housing during the medieval times, albeit slowly. Thus the location and layout of towns may vary based on the time period and location.
In western Europe, the dominant feature of the medieval hamlet and village were the fields surrounding it. The farmland was divided into rectangular patches because turning the plow was cumbersome. This also led fields to feature a „ridge and furrow“ pattern- small dams building up to the left and right of the plow.
How much land a farmer had varied greatly. Most farms and houses had a small garden and a small plot of land for the livestock to dwell. Often there was a shared meadow or „common land“ that the villager’s animal could use for grazing- thus the name “commoner”. The farmland was worked in an open field system with 3 field crop rotation. The village’s fields were divided into 3 blocks: Fallow land that is left unused so it can replenish nutrients; spring planting; and autumn planting. Each farmer owned part of the land in each block. (See image Plan of a Medieval Manor) If your World has a different number or order of seasons, I recommend you invent your own crop rotation, or otherwise decide how much and how often one could yield crops from the ground until it needs to be left fallow. The open field system is thought to have been quite inefficient. It forced everyone to farm in the same way at the same time in what was called „flurzwang“ (lit. translation „field constraint“), which hindered innovation. Under an open field system, each farmer owns land dividing it into small non-adjacent patches that shrink each time the land is divided up between the sons (assuming such a system of inheritance). If your village has private ownership of land, the fields will probably be consolidated into blocks, like today.
image 2: a medieval manor with a row or street village and the surrounding lands , public domain from wikimedia commons
Estate- „Einzelhof“
Just an single estate the German word „einzel“ means single. To support a person, at least 18 acres of field is needed. These acres are divided among the 3-field system, so only 6 acres need to be tended to at any given time. This can go up to 12 or more acres depending on the climate and fertility of the soil. (see history.stackexchange.com)
a map of a estate with fields around it
„Einzelhof“-settlements as their field are usually in blocks, and not strips, as the other types of villages. An „Einzelhof“ or Gutshof, consits of the Lords Villa and a few farmers (2-5) houses to support the estate.
hamlet – „Weiler“
A Weiler consists of 3-20 farms, most commonly in random shapes. They occur as planned as well as random settlements. They were more common in western Germany. They sometimes grows into a „heap-village“, or in German „haufendorf“.
Heap – „Haufendorf“
image 1: Wiese = Maddow, Acker= farmland, Garten= garden – source: own work
The most common layout of a village is the „heap village“. The settlement has not been planned or ordered by a lord. Typically the shape is uneven and the placement of houses is random. Heap villages mostly occur when a Weiler or Einzelhof grows larger.
Row – „Reihendorf“
Wiese = Maddow, Acker= farmland, Garten= garden – source: own work linear settlement map of the German town Trebnitz
Linear settlements are orderly, like beads on a chain. The houses are lined up along a geographical marker, like a road, dam or river. These villages often were built by order of a landowner- the church, a lord, etc.. This mostly happened between the 12th and 18th centuries in Germany.
Depending on the density of the settlement and whether or not houses occur on both sides of the line, the terms Reihendorf, Zeilendorf, Straßendorf („street village“),Waldhufendorf (for timbering), or Marschhufendorf (next to a channel) may be used. They all are linear settlements with very similar layouts.
Circular – „Rundling“
a Rundling also called a circular village
The Rundling also belongs to the category of planned settlements. They can be found at the border of Slavic and Germanic culture. A common theory is that this setup was chosen because the structure can be defended more easily.
Angerdorf
The Angerdorf is a planned settlement as well that is built around an oval center. This central area usually has a water source for the livestock to drink. The lake also could be used to extinguish fires quickly. Sometimes a church is seen at the village center. This style of village was built by Germanic Tribes colonizing the eastern part of Germany and beyond according to a article on zeit.de.(includes a Map of were what type of village has been found)
Buildings
Farm houses
In Europe most farms were in the shape of the longhouse- a single room divided into several functional areas. In the later middle ages, richer farmers, often owning their land, could afford to erect several buildings and started to use foundations set in stone. The walls were typically timber-framed. „Wattle and daub“ construction was also common. Both constructions have the advantage of using less timber than other styles. They construct a frame which is then filled with straw, mud and clay. The roof was mostly thatched because tiles were very expensive. Only in the late middle ages did tile come back into popular use, mostly in cities to prevent fires.
Blueprint or floor plan of a farm house, a Hall b Kitchen with stove and oven c Living chamber with d oven and e niche for light f Sleeping chamber g Maiden chamber. Below, a cellar h Chamber i Hall to stall l Horse stall k Hayloft where farmhand sleeps, below feed box m Cow stall n Stall for temporary workers and feed storagee
All buildings were surrounded by a fence to keep the livestock close and wildlife out, and to protect the garden from the stock.
A woven wattle gate keeps animals out of the 15th century cabbage patch – public domain image from wikipeda
Sources
Even though focused on the farming and settlements of the turn of the 20th century, the images from the 1895 Book series by Meitzen has a lot of valuable illustrations, that are still helpful as inspiration if you don’t speak German. I recommend and link Volume 3, which contains most illustrations. There are a lot of farms and agricultural buildings with floorplans and blueprints. I uploaded a selection of the illustrations to flickr. They are all public domain.
August Meitzen: Siedelung und Agrarwesen der Westgermanen und Ostgermanen, der Kelten, Römer, Finnen und Slawen, Vol 1-3 available public domain at archive.org
August Meitzen: Siedelung und Agrarwesen der Westgermanen und Ostgermanen, der Kelten, Römer, Finnen und Slawen, Vol 1-3 available public domain at archive.org
Many will assume that „middle ages“-village or medieval town is a reasonable concept. It is not. The middle ages stretch roughly from 500-1500 AD. Also the planet is big. I will only talk about Germany, because that is what I researched.
if you’d rather stop being a eurocentric fool, like I still very much am, maybe start by watching this greatly entertaining introduction to the middle ages (at least including Arabic world too)
It was not until 1100AD before the development of Three-field system allowed for permanent farming settlements to become widespread: before that people often lived in a town for a few years until the ground was depleted and abandoned their town to move on. These „modern“ techniques let the ground be repopulated with nutrients, thus making permanent farming possible.
2. you couldn’t leave
feudalism ment serfdom and that ment being bound to the land your parents have been appointed to by the landlord. While there were free people, most people in medieval Germany lived as farmers in serfdom.
3. no one did leave
small late medieval farm
most townsfolk never left their town. And farmers made up 90% of the population.
4. life was hard a different way
A peasant worked less then a modern man . (or so a monk complaint about lazy pasents) There were long stretches of piece and if you survived childhood you lived well into your 40s. Food was good (fresh,all organic and local). There was a stretch of very mild climate in the middle ages , leading to good harvests. But also one misharvest and you might starve. Store you food wrong and you will starve in winter. Especially surviving in winter was not easy for the common volk.
5 being a women was a different kind of shitty
Men and women both had to work out of necessity. Modern day (or 1950s) gender roles where not around. Opression of women still was very real, but different from modern days.
closing words
This article aims to be useful in the context of tabletop rpg. Realism is a futile endevour, we lost a lot of knowledge about the middle ages. Also truth might not be fun to play. Heroes want to go on adventures, not be bound to land.
thanks to all the kind folks over at reddit who pointed out mistakes, that I will continue to fix.
Glumbosch's Schmiede 
