Adventuring in the time of the Crusades

[sulldawga]

I'm thinking about starting a campaign based in Jerusalem just after the First Crusade. I've been gathering background info on what life was like back then but I'm always interested in finding more.

I have hit the low-hanging fruit already (like the AD&D 2nd edition Crusades Campaign Sourcebook) but I'm wondering if anyone has seen anything else, in any rules system, that might be of use.

Any sort of historical description of what like was like in the Levant in the 11th or 12th century, even if unrelated to gaming, would be interesting to me as well. I have a book that draws from some contemporary histories but it's a bit obtuse.

[snorri]

If you read french, try Miles Christi. www.legrog.org/jeux/miles-christi

Most of the book is the background you need.

[owlorbs]

You can probably lift some material from the free "Nights of the Crusades" which is sort of an alternate history crusades/arabian game.

rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/103825/Nights-of-the-Crusades

[jakdethe]

I found this a week ago and thought it was pretty awesome.

admc.pbworks.com/f/admc_large_32x28h.png

Granted its about 50 to 100 years after the first crusade, it's still a great resource none the less. Simply having a hex outline of Europe is great I'd imagine.

[owlorbs]

Nice! Have an exalt for that hex map. Very cool.

[jakdethe]

Feb 7, 2013 9:35:11 GMT -6 owlorbs said:

Nice! Have an exalt for that hex map. Very cool.

Awesome, thank you! My first exalt!

[sulldawga]

Agreed on the hex map! Nice find and thanks for sharing. Exalt!

[sulldawga]

Feb 6, 2013 13:23:23 GMT -6 snorri said:

If you read french, try Miles Christi. www.legrog.org/jeux/miles-christi

Most of the book is the background you need.

Too bad I can't read French... Looks like it would be fun to read.

[sulldawga]

Feb 6, 2013 13:59:19 GMT -6 owlorbs said:

You can probably lift some material from the free "Nights of the Crusades" which is sort of an alternate history crusades/arabian game.

rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/103825/Nights-of-the-Crusades

Looks good, and the price is right! Thanks.

[DungeonDevil]

[random nitpick]The illo in the 2E Crusades book is inaccurate: muslim chess players did NOT use anthropomorphic chessmen.[/random nitpick]

[aher]

אלה אזכרה These I recall and my soul overflows with sorrow, for
evil men have speedily devoured us.
--Machzor for Yom Kippur, p.266

One thing to keep in mind about this era, is that the crusades, while ostensibly about reconquering the Holy Land from the Muslims, quickly became an excuse for Roman Christians to slaughter Jews all over Europe and the Holy Land.

Religious bigotry is certainly a factor, but economics may be an even greater factor. Many crusaders went deep into debt to arm themselves. Armor, weapons, horses, rations, etc. are all very expensive. In 1096, the Roman Church still forbade Christians from lending money to other Christians at any amount of interest or making a profit from them:

Do not take interest or any profit from them, but fear your God, so that they may continue to live among you (Leviticus 25:36).

But Jews were permitted to lend money to Christians and profit from them. This no doubt angered the Christians, who became heavily indebted to Jews, and this anger exploded. The Wikipedia article on the Pogroms of 1096 (during the First Crusade) notes:

• "At least 800 Jews were massacred in Worms when they refused Christian baptism."
  
• "Mainz was the site of the greatest violence, with at least 1,100 Jews and (possibly more) being killed by troops under Clarambaud and Thomas."
  
• Etc., etc.

The total Jewish body count during the first crusade was about 5,000 just in Europe...I haven't gotten to the Holy Land yet. These casualties weren't soldiers. We're talking about women, children, the aged and infirm. A couple more survey articles here and here. In addition to these encyclopedia articles, there are a few firsthand accounts of the massacres of Jews during the first crusade:

• Mainz Anonymous
  
• Solomon bar Simson Chronicle
  
• the Eliezer bar Nathan Chronicle

Another primary source is the liturgy for Yom Kippur. One part of that liturgy is the "Martyrology" or "Account of the 10 Martyrs", which begins with the words "These I recall..." or Eleh ezkerah (אלה אזכרה) in Hebrew. This section was composed right after the first crusade in 1096. The plain meaning (pashat) is about 10 Rabbis killed during the Hadrianic oppression in the second century. Their torture and deaths are depicted very graphically. It's upsetting to listen to. But the story is also figurative (drash) for the first crusades. It continues:

The children of Edom crushed us and made us desolate;
they persecuted us more than any other kingdom on earth;
they slaughtered many of us, and also murdered...
(Yom Kippur Machzor, p. 269)

During the Mishnaic period, "Edom" was sobriquet for "Rome." When the pagan Roman empire became the Christian empire, the name stuck. So, in Medieval Jewish literature, when you see a reference to "Edom" its actually talking about "Christianity."

In addition to the plain meaning and the figurative meaning, Eleh Ezkerah also contains hidden knowledge (sod). For example, the "anonymous" author actually signs his name in acrostic.

I can tell you from personal experience that the martyrology usually continues with other highly emotional elegies of the massacres during the crusades. One account is that of Rabbi Elozor ben Yehuda. During the third crusade, crusaders burst into his home. They murdered his wife. They decapitated his two daughters (13 years old and 6 years old) and killed his son. They also stabbed him and left him for dead. He survived and went on to compose many important works.

After the crusaders took Jerusalem on July 15, 1099, they set the synagogues on fire, along with the Jews who took refuge there. The crusaders massacred most of the Jews in the city. Those who weren't massacred were sold as slaves or ransomed to Jewish communities in Italy. The Jewish community in Jerusalem ended abruptly (and horrifyingly) that summer in 1099 and wouldn't reconstitute for years.

[Finarvyn]

This is a cool thread, but I must confess that I don't spend so much time worrying about historical accuracy. If I was to run a Crusades campaign, I'd just define some knight and paladin character classes, find a map of the region and let the players go fight some infidels. I like the concept of historical accuracy, but don't have the energy to make it all happen.

That map of Europe is pretty sweet, by the way!

[jakdethe]

Feb 8, 2013 6:43:12 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

This is a cool thread, but I must confess that I don't spend so much time worrying about historical accuracy. If I was to run a Crusades campaign, I'd just define some knight and paladin character classes, find a map of the region and let the players go fight some infidels. I like the concept of historical accuracy, but don't have the energy to make it all happen.

That map of Europe is pretty sweet, by the way!

I have to agree with this. I've found players don't appreciate the depth of history I do, so giving them the feel of the crusades is the best option (at least in my case). Focus on the heroics of the crusades (no-one wants to be the villain, at least not in this case): escorting merchants, redemption, freeing captured towns, etc...

Unless of course you're players are also history nuts (in which case I'd be very envious).

[aher]

sulldawga, I applaud your desire to create an historically accurate campaign. I think RPGs are a great teaching tool, whether you are teaching your players reading, writing, mathematics, economics or history. RPGs make it possible to learn new things and still have fun. And I exalt your efforts to create an accurate crusader campaign on that basis! I only wish there were more DMs like you!!! OK, now let's talk Templars...

During the crusades, pilgrims journeying back and forth to the Holy Land were routinely massacred by bandits. The Knights Templar were formed around 1119 as a monastic order for the protection of pilgrims.

Anyone wanting to become a Templar took vows of poverty and donated their wealth to the order. Additionally, the Templars became the favourite charity throughout Christendom, receiving money, land, and businesses, from nobles eager to help with the fight in the Holy Land. The Templars therefore accumulated a lot of capital in a short amount of time.

In 1139, Pope Innocent II exempted the Templars from all local laws and taxes. So now we've got a group with

• Lots of capital
  
• A widely dispersed network of outposts, all over Christendom
  
• No accountability to the laws, including the laws against usury and profit-making

With all that going for them, they were soon making loans at interest to Christian nobles, to finance the perpetual crusader wars. The Templars were the first transcontinental banking monopoly.

One of the biggest scams the Templars soon innovated was fractional-reserve banking. Here's how it worked: When a pilgrim was about to start his journey to the Holy Land, he deposited all of his gold, silver and possessions with the Templars for safekeeping. In return, the Templars gave the pilgrim wooden chits he could redeem for gold at any Templar outpost. The pilgrims didn't have to lug around heavy precious metals and the bandits weren't interested in stealing the wooden chits, because the bandits could only redeem the chits from the Templars who were trying to kill them. But the Templars soon realized that only a tiny fraction of the total gold was ever redeemed at any given time. So they started lending this gold out to the nobles who wanted more money to fight their expensive wars. This had a multiplier effect. The nobles used the borrowed gold to pay blacksmiths and tent-makers and soldiers. Some of this gold would be exchanged for chits and there were soon way more chits in circulation than there was gold backing it up. Hence inflation was born. This despite the fact that it was a "gold-backed" currency rather than a modern "fiat currency." Banking by necessity creates the inflationary-deflationary cycles in the economy, even with a "gold standard." (No love here for Austrian or Neo-Classical economic theory, which says these cycles are caused by exogenous factors and that banking is just like any other industry--farming or fishing. Ugh.)

Along with the inflation, the Templars wound up monopolizing most of the gold in Christendom. That while the poor wound up with worthless wooden chits, and higher prices and lower real wages from all the inflation. And the nobles wound up with ever increasing loads of debt.

The breaking point came during the ninth (and last) crusade. King Philip IV of France came to the Templars looking for a new loan. He already owed them big time, and they were worried about default risk. They said "no." King Philip responded on Friday, 13 October 1307 by rounding up the Templar leaders (on trumped-up charges of homosexuality and satan-worship) and torturing and killing them. The other nobles and the Pope quickly got on board with the program--they too owed the Templars more than they could ever hope to repay. They were having difficulty simply paying the interest on the loans they already had. On November 22, 1307, Pope Clement issued a papal bull instructing all Christian monarchs in Europe to arrest all Templars and seize their assets.

Earlier in this thread I discussed violence against the Jews starting with the First Crusade, and I linked that violence to usury. Now I've discussed the massacre of the Templars during the Ninth and last Crusade, and linked it to usury too. The lessons from the crusades are pretty clear:

• Debt enables war
  
• War debt robs the poor through inflation
  
• Perpetual war runs up the debts of the belligerent factions, until they can no longer afford to service their debts
  
• Inability to service debt ultimately results in a violent, deadly backlash against the money lenders

Hence the wisdom of Lev 25:36 in outlawing usury.

In this post I focused on Templars as bankers, because I think it is an interesting and neglected aspect of the group. There's certainly many other aspects one might focus on. Two that I find important and would probably work well in a game set during the crusades:

• The Templar's connection to Holy relics like the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant.
  
• The Templar's connection to freemasonry and the masonic lodge system, its ranks, rituals and secrets.

How will you use Templars in your campaign?

[sulldawga]

Thanks for the new batch of replies, guys. Still digging my house out from under 18 inches of snow, and no Internet at home, so I'll respond more later. But lots of interesting stuff here to consider.

[sulldawga]

I don't think I'm aiming for 100% fidelity with this campaign. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I worry that aiming for a high level of accuracy will end up paralyzing me with indecision about how much to include.

I do need to figure out how to deal with the standard Crusader worldview at the time, which was "wholesale slaughter of Muslims and Jews is ok by God". I'd like the PCs to have the option of visiting Baghdad or Alexandria without doing so at the head of an army of 10,000 knights.

In any event, the vast majority of campaigns I've been in, the problem has been 12th century PCs with 21st century morals so I don't expect the game to deteriorate into an uncomfortable bloodbath. Heck, there are several real-world examples of Arab Leader A recruiting the Crusaders to help with a fight against Arab Leader B so they obviously didn't hold grudges... And everyone agreed that keeping the trade flowing from Asia to Europe was of paramount importance.

So unless the PCs go nuts on some innocent folks, and their reputation suffers from it, I won't really get into it too much.

[sulldawga]

I plan on using the Orders like the Templars and Hospitallers but I don't think the money lending angle will come up much, if at all. The campaign would be set just after the First Crusade ended, when there was relative peace between the Arabs and Franks, and the Orders were just becoming established. They won't yet be the force that they grew into over the years.

I envision having a number of factions available for interaction with the PCs, kind of like the Elder Scrolls video games (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizations_of_The_Elder_Scrolls for details), and it'll be just one more option for PCs to consider. The advantage of PbP campaigns is that if you want one PC to go down a solo path, you can easily do so without making the rest of the party sit around and wait.

[sulldawga]

FYI: Found a lot of free reading on the Crusades by using Google Books. Full text and everything!

[Falconer]

Feb 12, 2013 11:05:32 GMT -6 sulldawga said:

wholesale slaughter of Muslims and Jews

…and Orthodox Christians.

[aher]

You can find maps, maps and more maps of Jerusalem, throughout history, including the crusades, here at

Jerusalem in Old Maps and Views

Unfortunately, some of the maps from the 6th - 13th century don't seem to be working. But some do. Definitely worth a couple minutes of your time.

Also, this web page at U. Michigan may be of some interest:

The Cultural Crusades: War and Cultural Exchange Between The Christian and Islamic Worlds

Topics covered there include:

• Art (painting, scultptures, ...)
  
• Music (madrigals, instruments, ...)
  
• Women
  
• Weapons and armor
  
• Islam
  
• Chivalry
  

There's also a timeline, maps, and a long bibliography with links to other web resources.

[derv]

I don't think I'm aiming for 100% fidelity with this campaign. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I worry that aiming for a high level of accuracy will end up paralyzing me with indecision about how much to include.

I do need to figure out how to deal with the standard Crusader worldview at the time, which was "wholesale slaughter of Muslims and Jews is ok by God". I'd like the PCs to have the option of visiting Baghdad or Alexandria without doing so at the head of an army of 10,000 knights

.

Interesting subject. I've always found it difficult to mix this subject with gaming because it has alot of religious hot buttons. Many of the abuses during this time period will later lead to The Reformation- actually starting well before Luther. But the reason and world view you are looking for that justified the Crusaders actions is called Amillenialism. Basically, they were trying to physically establish the Kingdom of God on Earth to usher in Christs return.

Religion, politics, and power were pretty well intermeshed during this time period.

Fuedalism is another topic, worth looking into, that shaped the Medieval mindset.

[sulldawga]

Feb 12, 2013 19:56:08 GMT -6 derv said:

Interesting subject. I've always found it difficult to mix this subject with gaming because it has alot of religious hot buttons.

Yeah, the trick will be to find some mature adults who can play a campaign like this without it devolving into a quagmire of religious BS. That's not the game I'd like to run.

[jakdethe]

What you might want to do to prevent the band of murder hobos is finding a way of encouraging chivalry. Essentially emphasize that the characters are knights, they are powerful, and have a duty to protect the weak. After the fall of Rome, the church basically made knight's swear to protect the weak as it was Christ's law, and doing such would gain them entrance to heaven.

While the Crusades encouraged the killing of "infidels" the original (at least propagated) reason was to save christians in the middle east who were being slaughtered. If you can find a way of expressing the idea that the holy-land has been retaken, and it's the player's responsibilities of protecting it, and upholding Christ's ideals of peace. This isn't necessarily easy, or the only way of going about it, but it's a way that would historically make sense on a philosophical level, even if it's not what was actually happening.

You could have the various orders, or factions you want, garner various benefits for the way player's handle things. Use alignments in conjunction with your orders, almost treating the orders like deities. In fact you could play up the idea of Saints and Angels, granting miracles, much in the fashion clerics gain their spells, but allow small bonuses or abilities.

For example (keep in mind this is in no way historical, I'm just tossing out some fun ideas):

Knights Templars: Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, King Solomon was a king known for his wisdom, as such any member of a Templar order is protected against any charm, mind control, or sleep type attacks.

Knight Hospitallers: Knights of St. John are known to provide care for the sick and poor, as such members of this order my heal a certain amount of hit points (possibly determined by level) per day.

Saint Michael: The leader of God's armies, those who pray to Michael the Archangel and call him patron receive a bonus to damage once a day (possibly determined by level).

These are just a couple examples I could think up. Hopefully it gives you some ideas.

[Otto Harkaman]

Feb 12, 2013 12:32:50 GMT -6 sulldawga said:

FYI: Found a lot of free reading on the Crusades by using Google Books. Full text and everything!

The Crusades; the story of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem ([c1894])

archive.org/details/crusadesstoryofl00archrich

lots of great old books digitized on archive.org

[sulldawga]

Feb 12, 2013 22:26:59 GMT -6 jakdethe said:

For example (keep in mind this is in no way historical, I'm just tossing out some fun ideas):

Knights Templars: Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, King Solomon was a king known for his wisdom, as such any member of a Templar order is protected against any charm, mind control, or sleep type attacks.

Knight Hospitallers: Knights of St. John are known to provide care for the sick and poor, as such members of this order my heal a certain amount of hit points (possibly determined by level) per day.

Saint Michael: The leader of God's armies, those who pray to Michael the Archangel and call him patron receive a bonus to damage once a day (possibly determined by level).

These are just a couple examples I could think up. Hopefully it gives you some ideas.

Awesome ideas! Thanks for sharing, and an exalt for your trouble.

[sulldawga]

Feb 13, 2013 5:25:22 GMT -6 Otto Harkaman said:

The Crusades; the story of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem ([c1894])

archive.org/details/crusadesstoryofl00archrich

lots of great old books digitized on archive.org

Man, this is a treasure trove of info! Thanks for drawing it to my attention.

[Otto Harkaman]

Feb 13, 2013 19:53:58 GMT -6 sulldawga said:

Feb 13, 2013 5:25:22 GMT -6 Otto Harkaman said:

The Crusades; the story of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem ([c1894])

archive.org/details/crusadesstoryofl00archrich

lots of great old books digitized on archive.org

Man, this is a treasure trove of info! Thanks for drawing it to my attention.

The "Story of Nations" series was very popular in its day, late 19th century. An author I enjoy reading did several of them, Charles Oman. Here is one of his books that you might also find interesting.

"A history of the war, the middle ages from the fourth to the fourteenth century" (1898)

archive.org/details/historyartofwar00omanuoft

[jakdethe]

Feb 13, 2013 19:50:38 GMT -6 sulldawga said:

Feb 12, 2013 22:26:59 GMT -6 jakdethe said:

For example (keep in mind this is in no way historical, I'm just tossing out some fun ideas):

Knights Templars: Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, King Solomon was a king known for his wisdom, as such any member of a Templar order is protected against any charm, mind control, or sleep type attacks.

Knight Hospitallers: Knights of St. John are known to provide care for the sick and poor, as such members of this order my heal a certain amount of hit points (possibly determined by level) per day.

Saint Michael: The leader of God's armies, those who pray to Michael the Archangel and call him patron receive a bonus to damage once a day (possibly determined by level).

These are just a couple examples I could think up. Hopefully it gives you some ideas.

Awesome ideas! Thanks for sharing, and an exalt for your trouble.

No trouble at all, I love making up stuff like that. I just hope you can use it and have fun with it!

[Otto Harkaman]

The Cecil B. DeMille 1935 movie about the 3rd Crusade is classic



en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crusades_(film)

youtube video
youtu.be/oGE3xzrxSIc

[sulldawga]

Trying to figure out how demihumans and nonhumans fit in this context, if at all.

Any thoughts anyone would care to share would be warmly received.

Ideas I'm already bouncing around include:

• Everyone is human but folks from different geographical areas have demihuman characteristics. (e.g. "Elves" are actually humans from Scandanavia, "Dwarves" are from the Alps, etc...)
  
  
• Avoid the whole moral issue of Christianity vs. Islam by making Saracens goblins.
  
  
• Humans only. No other races at all. Monsters are very rare and in out of the way places.