My group has expressed interest in a mini-campaign this summer as many vacations and family obligations will leave us with minimal opportunity to play. I was watching some History Channel and a little King Arthur and was the Dark Ages might be an interesting time period.
Does anyone have any recommendations for this type of setting? Any cool websites, settings, the like?
If anyone in your group has the old Vampire: Dark Ages book it might be worth a flip through. The supernatural element is all geared towards WoD, but it has plenty of setting info that you might find useful or might inspire some good plot ideas.
Unfortunately, my group has no WOD experience or books. It's all Star Wars, DnD, Cyberpunk 2020, Rifts and GURPS. Thanks, for the suggestion.
Check out Dragon Magazine #257 for setting information. I remember it being really thorough in how it looked at the Dark Ages. Even though it's 2nd edition, it should give you a good foundation to work with.
Thanks for the tips. I think I'll check out some game stores or book stores or something for the Vampire book. I have two ideas I'm trying to research. First idea is a homebrew setting that mirrors the Dark Ages of our world. The second is a world based on our world but with elves, magic and what-not. Anyone done anything similar?
You also might look up some Chivalry and Sorcery Stuff and particularly this campaign setting. Although C&S is specifically medieval rather than Dark Ages, it is ACTUALLY medieval as opposed to the "medieval" that people associate with D&D (which is more of a mid-Renaissance meets the Age of Reason meets ancient mythology meets the contemporary). (Mind, I LIKE D&D's mid-Renaissance meets the Age of Reason meets ancient mythology meets contemporary setting, I just don't go around calling it "medieval").
Therefore while a little "advanced" for your setting, it should still have some valuable stuff.
I also second taking a look at Ars Magica.
A little too late, but I'm filing it away for a future campaign or game. I ran across the Northlanders comic from Vertigo. It's spirit was what I wanted for my game. Ah, well. Good reading.
Relics & Rituals: Excalibur is a probably a good 3.5 sourcebook for this.
Not a game book but if your looking for something that might give you a feel for the period I'll recommend a book.
The Inheritance of Rome: A History of Europe from 400 to 1000 by Chris Wickham.
I've read it and its does a really good job of providing an overview of the period. Its very readable for a layman and thats an important consideration when reading Dark Age material. Truth is we know comparatively little and much of it is stitched together. One of the things that makes the book easy to read is the authour has done a good job of piecing the bric a bric we do know into an understandable narrative.
A kind of best guess on what the situation was like. This is important as I have read several other books on the period that authentically 'just stick to the facts we know' and they are disjointed and you come away realizing that you know now something about say coins found in burial sites in northern France but you never really get a clue about what life might have actually been like. Hence a best guess type history is one that is most useful for a layman reader who does not plan to move on and actually go and study coins or some such but is instead just looking for an overview.