The game is not necessarily medieval. It really depends on the campaign world the GM is using. Bruno ninja'd me on the research idea if you are running your own world.
Good suggestions, but really many settings are not mediavel. If you want a book that goes through what it was really like in alot of ways, 'Farm, Forge and Steam: A Nuts and Bolts Guise to Civilisation' is a really great well-written book.
If you'll be playing in Golarion, the anthrolical overview in the back helps, but its really, really not a medieval world.
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Good choice is "a day in a medieval life" it goes through almost everything you asked for. But if you want to do roman then the easiest thing would be buy the collectors set of "rome" watch it then watch all the historical specials that come with the discs.
Roman era is not medieval era
Heck it goes
Roman age
Dark age
Heroic age
Age of conquest
Medieval age
Renaissance
Industrial
At least how I have been taught
If you want a medieval rome read about byzantine stuff. Search for things like levantia.
Good display of medieval is "pillars of earth" the book or movie it should lead you to a variety of searches
If you're looking for books, I found these pretty interesting reads:
"Life in a Medieval City" and "Life in a Medieval Castle", both by Joeseph and Frances Gies. These are classics and get down to the gritty, day-to-day aspects of daily medieval life.
I also really enjoyed the quirky "Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England" by Ian Mortimer. It's a bit tongue-and-cheek, but very well done.
All of them are available on Amazon.
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The mythic Vistas line from Green Ronin might be what you are looking for. With the two links below the most helpful.
Mythic Vistas: Medieval Player's Handbook
Mythic Vistas: Eternal Rome
Heck it goes
Roman age
Dark age
Heroic age
Age of conquest
Medieval age
Renaissance
IndustrialAt least how I have been taught
Wait, heroic age and age of conquest before the medieval era? I thought the Dark age pretty much goes into the early medieval period.
Right, I am creating my own world but there are parts of it that are very medieval. There's kind of a cosmopolitan coast, with a big empire modeled after Rome/Greece and then further inland it becomes very rugged and that's where the fun stuff is.
I've discovered that, in a setting that is unfamiliar to my own I have to know a good deal on how things work. A while back I did a western game. I ended up doing research on how a territory became a state and who was involved and what were the issues and what did becoming a state mean. While my plot didn't really touch on the politics. But I liked the touches that I can use having in the back ground or to build the setting to create a more authentic and engrossing experience.
Which is where I'm at now in fantasy. My plot involves a very simple premise; an adventurer is hired by a noble lord to recover a doohickey from a dungeon. But when I try to visualize what happens when he enters the noble's castle, whose there, what would he see, what are the customs, where would the meeting take place, etc.
There's no like "fantasy gamers compendium" or something online with fan created castles and lords and various maps floating around out there is there?
I think the best bet is to take a look at how different authors have done it. The 'fantasy' part can often change how the society works. Medieval society revolved around land holding nobles who had soldiers to protect their lands and owed allegiance and support to a monarch. Would those knights still be important if there were 20th level wizards running around? It is an interesting question.
Some rather detailed worlds I can think of that it might help to take a look are
The song of ice and fire by George R R martin. This world is very down to earth low magic, and runs very much in line with history (the plot of the series strongly resembles the war of the roses for instance).
Dragaera from the taltos series by Steven Brust. This one is the complete opposite direction. It is crazy high magic, high powered, and explores some of the repercussions of all sorts of crazy spells being available to people in the world.
The belgariad is somewhere in between, sure there is a fair amount of magic in the world but most things still operate as they would in a 'normal' world.
+1 to Charlie Bell - those products had some very good stuff.
Also, I've used this page to get some background info. I haven't looked at all the stuff, but I think there's some usefull info there as well.
I got most of my medieval info from Western Civ courses in college.
As a lifelong history buff, however, I can tell you that knowledge of "real" medieval history doesn't really give you much of an edge in DnD/PF gaming. The settings are such a mishmash of different eras and societies that what you know about the way things "really" ought to have gone aren't very relevant. Conan lives in a quasi-bronze age world (with steel and sailing ships, mind you), and yet a Conan-type barbarian character can interact with Tolkienish elves, steampunk gnome/alchemists, and decidedly Arthurian Paladins and nobody really blinks an eye.
If you're not playing with people that really soak up historical minutiae, I wouldn't bother over-researching to make it "authentic"; it's likely to bore your players. And if your players are fiends for historical flavor, chances are that you won't wow them, since they're likely to be more knowledgeable on medievalism than you.
For a taste of the cultural divide between gentry/church and "regular" folk, I recommend The Name of the Rose (a movie w/ Christian Slater and Sean Connery).
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I don't know how cities were laid out. Like were there city planners or surveyors?What about the peasants who lived outside of the city, what was their life like and in what structure did they leave.
Then aside from the real-world functions I'm interested in how that has changed in the various fantasy interpretations.
So with all that said, I'm really hoping you guys could point me toward some good internet resources that might answer some of those questions or some ones that will give me the knowledge enough to begin to pursue my own research. Graphical sites would be the best. I'd love to find some diagrams of castles or buildings.
Thanks!
Hiya,
Several good answers above, but still trying to help.
Like were there city planners or surveyors?
NO : city planning was anarchic. people would own a small piece of land, usually very small, and then would build up. With no plan for their bulding. It was common to have streets where only one person (maybe two if squeezed) could walk, and a "roof" of some kind, because the walls were not quite vertical in the above stories in an effort to win space over the street. Several buildings could thus support each other. Woe if one of them ever caught fire, as they were mostly wood ...
OTOH : Great setting for a thieves'guild ambush
Heck, just try to google for a tourist map of Medieval Paris or London, and you should get the idea pretty quickly.
ALSO : No sanitation. No Sewers. People took care of crap ... in the street.
Add plenty of street vendors and smell ... lots of friendly little diseases that have disappeared due to modern hygiene ... and soap.
How about reading "Notre dame de Paris" from Victor Hugo ?
Peasants : really depended on how arable was your land, and how kind was the lord of the castle. Also was different if serf or free.
Could be quiet comfy country life, or servitude hell.
Hope it helps.
I'm unsure of things like architecture and the culture, specifically of Medieval Europe. I don't really understand the function of a castle. Like I know that it was the military center and was a home for the nobility or monarchy...but I know there has to be more to it. To that point, what other military structures were there?
I don't know how cities were laid out. Like were there city planners or surveyors?
Well first, like joeyfixit said above, DnD/PF is a mishmash and so the "medieval" description shouldn't be taken very literally.
Ignoring that, however...
To get a feel for the layout and appearance of a medieval european (german) city, try to get a hold of the computer roleplaying game "Drakensang: The River of Time" -- the town of Nadoret is a very believable/authentic place, with narrow, winding streets lined with fachwerk-houses. (The game is pretty good btw, shame the translation (to english from german) isn't very good, and the only good source of info is the german Drakensang: Am Fluss der Zeit wiki, so for full enjoyment you should be able to read german).
As for what castles were for... I am currently reading "Medieval Warfare -- A History", ed. Maurice Keen, Oxford University Press, 1999. A serious if broad-brush history book, covers a long period of time and diverse subjects, ranging from the Vikings to the appearance of gunpowder. ~300 pages. I got it cheap through Amazon Marketplace. (In the earliest periods covered by the book, Europe wasn't covered in castles. It describes the process of and reasons for Europe getting covered in them)
Also currently sitting on my desk is "Knight: The Medieval Warrior's (Unofficial) Manual" by Michael Prestwich, Thames and Hudson 2010. Have only browsed it so far, but it looks very very good: informative, full of anecdotes and illustrations, veridical. I think this would be a very good read, even for someone not particularly interested in history.
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Why Stone Castles?
1. Because the Technology of Stone masonry recovered from the Dark Ages. The few castles before then were called defensive Mounds. As the tech developed, Castles evolved from rubble filled core to precision fitted stone fortresses.
2. As Secure Storehouses and centres of Management, they provide an opportunity to wage a more secure war and greater Social and Political Authority. Do you think Rome would have had any authority if it had been nothing more than a bunch of defensive mounds. Its about the Shock and Awe.
3. Toilets and a warm water bath. We are all one toilet roll shortage from killing each other.
"Hes got a box full of scented threeply and a heated Bath."
"That Bastard! Lets Burn his Castle!"
It bears repeating that D&D is not really medieval. Except for the castles most D&D tropes fit better into Antiquity or the Early Modern Period.
Which is where I'm at now in fantasy. My plot involves a very simple premise; an adventurer is hired by a noble lord to recover a doohickey from a dungeon. But when I try to visualize what happens when he enters the noble's castle, whose there, what would he see, what are the customs, where would the meeting take place, etc.
For that kind of thing specifically, the Gies' Life in a Medieval Castle is very readable and would give you a good idea what the nobles did with their time. I haven't read it in some time, but as I recall it goes right down to explaining how a typical hunt worked, where people slept, and everything. Life in a Medieval Villages does much the same for the peasantry, though necessarily in a more general manner due to the nature of the sources. I've read it and The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England both recently. Each has their points, but for the common people I think I slightly prefer the latter on aesthetic grounds. The Gies are very academic and formal, with a somewhat subdued sense of humor. Mortimer is rather more playful and modern. They address different periods (the Gies are pre-Plague, Mortimer post-plague) if that's an issue to you.
Personally I think post-plague is a better fit for people of common birth wandering rather freely around the countryside, and that's what most stereotypical D&D adventurers are, but it's not unfair to say that the decline of serfdom and the like feels less medieval than the same things in their heyday. It's a taste thing.
A few pieces in my homebrew thread depend very heavily on Gies.
I would echo pretty much everything already noted, especially Samnell's suggestion of "Life in A Medieval..." etc. books--simple, but useful.
From a game perspective, you might want to look at the World of Alquennas. It's designed for the very medieval-based game of Chivalry and Sorcery.
On the fun side, Terry Jones' Medieval Lives is a lovely documentary and book that can give you some great insights.
And finally--I'd read some primary sources of medieval literature. Pick up a copy of Canterbury Tales and Piers Plowman. Or for something longer, if you enjoy the rantings of a harmless, hilarious religious zealot, the Book of Margery Kempe (it's basically the ghost written autobiography of a woman who heard angels, but it's not exactly what you expect. It a very interesting read, though. On the historical end, it's a great first-hand look at religious debates; also there's a lengthy section describing her pilgrimages and you get a good sense of what travel was like in the medieval era, IIRC). If you can manage, try to get Middle English versions with annotations, but if that's too much of a slog, there are a lot of great translations into Modern English out there.
If I were to make a medieval setting, it would probably be one that emphasizes the power of a single church over the populace. I would make it a fairly low magic setting -- probably the purview of high level church officials and hermit Hermetic-types -- as the existence of magic by itself has the potential to up the standard of living and pushes society advancing toward a less war-and-church-driven economy. But that's just me.