I have been toying around with an idea for a campaign I call "the 40 families."  I originally had it set in 9th century Wales, with Irish, Britannic, Pict, and Viking families, each with allegiances and vendettas, various plots of land, and various levels of influence over a sort of central court or king.

It was too complicated to write up and draw a proper map the way I wanted it.

But then one day I was browsing on DeviantArt and I came upon the most beautiful political map of Europe in 1648- the end of the Thirty Years' War. The way the. Holy Roman Empire was constituted (take a minute and look) was exactly what I wanted in a 40 Families game. Just perfect!

So I busted out the Outdoor Suvival map and tried to figure out where I would go. Bohemia, or maybe western Poland... Or looking south, there was the modern day Balkans...

So I looked into wikipedia's take on the Thirty Years' War (yeah yeah, I know, never trust wiki- but it's not like I'm trying to learn real history here).  Article led to article led to article and eventually I found myself in 16th century Transylvania.

Which just blew my mind. It was a cosmopolitan place, made up of several ethnicities, with a strange mix of tribalism and democracy... And it was constantly at war with the Ottomans, to which it was technically a vassal state. Furthermore, four different kinds of Christianity were recognized and tolerated. Not bad for 1593.

It also warred with its sister principalities, Wallachia and Moldavia. These three were briefly united by a warlord in 1600. They would court the favor of the Habsburgs, who of course hated the Turks.

This was the kind of setting rich with adventure! Rich land, a rich people, lots of fighting, strange and dark history, multiple religions, and an evil horde just over the river to the South.

The venerable Outdoor Survival map fits very well with the real world terrain in southeastern Transylvania, on the border of Moldavia and Wallachia c. 1593, in what is now Romania. This time period gives access to guns, but marital prowess of the medieval kind is still critically important. The forests are thick; the mountains are inhabited by cunning hill folk; there are swamps and badlands to be challenged.

Even better, the land is ruled by a Chaotic prince who won his crown through diplomacy with the Turks as well as great martial prowess. There are warlords and cardinals and aristocratic families and political intrigue and wars of conquest and the existential threat of the southern horde.

And the outdoor survival map.

It's coming together now.

Trans-Carpathia is interesting historically. Here are the wiki pages of some people from there:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sz%C3%A9kelys

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transylvanian_Saxons

Here's some stuff I did while Red & Pleasant Land was in early stages--it's all set in a fake Hungary. That book took a turn away from the historical and toward the surreal, but I bet there's a few useful details there:

http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2011/09/this-is-bat-country.html

This might give you some ideas. It's a really fascinating region for gaming.

http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=20764&highlight=ottoman

I've also got an article in the articles section which discusses the military conquests of the early Ottoman empire.

Quote from: Scott Anderson;783578But then one day I was browsing on DeviantArt and I came upon the most beautiful political map of Europe in 1648- the end of the Thirty Years' War. The way the. Holy Roman Empire was constituted (take a minute and look) was exactly what I wanted in a 40 Families game. Just perfect!

Link please?

Quote from: Scott Anderson;783578The venerable Outdoor Survival map fits very well with the real world terrain in southeastern Transylvania, on the border of Moldavia and Wallachia c. 1593, in what is now Romania. This time period gives access to guns, but marital prowess of the medieval kind is still critically important. The forests are thick; the mountains are inhabited by cunning hill folk; there are swamps and badlands to be challenged.

Methinks, perchance thou has been viewing too many episodes of The Tudors and The White Queen.

Here's the map that inspires me:

http://www.deviantart.com/art/Holy-Roman-Empire-156783662

I have to say, I don't recall ever watching those shows.

Quote from: Scott Anderson;783873Here's the map that inspires me:

http://www.deviantart.com/art/Holy-Roman-Empire-156783662

I have to say, I don't recall ever watching those shows.

Thanks for the link! I can use the 1648 and 1618 maps for my Honor+Intrigue game which is set in 1623.

They are made for cable TV shows. Tudors showed on Showtime and the White Queen on Starz. Both are semi-historical dramas with obligatory sex, nudity, and profanity. Tudors was pretty popular and I suspect it helped pave the way for Game of Thrones.

The fellow who makes them, it doesn't say whether he is otherwise a professional or not. He does have some copy attached to the maps that indicates that it is some sort of academic exercise. They are damn fine maps, every last one of them.

I wonder if he would do commissioned cartography.

1st level Fighters and Thieves are much more common than 1st-level Wizards in my mind's eye. Clerics fall somewhere in-between. Specifically, the ratio is 2351:1701:1053:657.  This per 180,000 (don't ask) but the ratio holds over any population.

For reference, paladins 261: assassins 189: druids 105: monks 26.

These are all first-level numbers.  

There are like 12,300 who would be considered normal men, 0 level, and no class abilities, and about 6800 classed and leveled characters.

The total population of these three principalities is about 1.8 million, so for simplicity's sake, you get ten times as many characters of each class.  Attrition over levels being what it is, there are only about 180 name-level characters not of the Thief, Assassin, Druid orMonk class. That sounds about right for the number of castles that existed.