Just the basic core classes named after the six ability score, they come in a modern sail boat equipped with a backup diesel engine. There are four Modern characters, one is a Strong Hero, one is a Fast Hero, one is a Smart Hero, and the fourth just take your pick. They sailed off into the Bermuda Triangle and dissapeared never to be seen again, they appeared in the Lion & Dragon setting, they know how to sail and operate their boat, it has four cabins, a galley, a head, and it uses reverse osmosis to desalinated seawater into fresh water, it includes an outboard motor boat with a set of oarlocks and oars as a backup, they have a weeks supply of food when they arrive, they have a ship to shore radio and a set of walkie talkies that allow them to communicate with it, they have a GPS which receives no signal, and their are two pistols onboard each with five clips holding ten bullets each.

What happens when this boat pulls into a medeaval port? What advice would you give these characters on how to conduct themselves? If some are women, how should they behave? What are the advantages and disadvantages this group of four would have?

First, you better hope one of the PCs is an expert in medieval languages because until the 16-17th Centuries (Shakespeare and the King James Bible) the spoken and written languages would be barely comprehensible to your time travelers speaking modern English.

Second, a few weeks after the Modern PCs arrive, an unstoppable plague begins as all those harmless viruses the modern people have adapted to and that came along with them and their boat get introduced into the Medieval world at some shipping hub or another (meaning it'll be spread from port to port). Viruses that have evolved over a thousand years past those of the Medieval period in an arms race with the human immune system are now entering a population with zero native immunity. Though Medieval Europeans had stronger immune systems than the Native Americans due to living in closer proximity to animals and each other for extended periods we're still looking at something that looks like the Black Death on steroids sweeping the land in close proximity to the Modern PCs arrival.

Between their strange language, strange clothing and modern knowledge (even basic first aid) coupled with the arrival of a plague probably sees them hunted down as witches. Unless you've literally got an engineer who can maintain things like the RO water filter or synthesize gasoline, they'd be best served selling everything they can as a novelty to some merchant or lord ASAP and using the funds to acquire contemporary gear that can be repaired and replaced. The most valuable thing on the boat is probably any spring steel used in its construction as your average modern steel is on par with what the finest smiths in Europe could produce at the time. The food, survival knives and other emergency tools are probably the only things not worth selling immediately.

If they can survive it though and get a handle on the language issue, their best bet for long term survival is for the smart hero to find some way to turn their knowledge into something they offer to a patron in exchange for support for the smart hero and their family (i.e. the other PCs). Medicine is a strong contender as even the stuff everyone learns about basic first aid via osmosis (much less actual courses in it) would be marketable. Similarly, any knowledge of modern agriculture (crop rotation and fertilizers) would be quite marketable so long as you kept the secrets of your fertilizer formula to yourself. If they actually know metallurgy or applied chemistry they might also be able to put together some marketable skills (heck, the knowledge of Concrete was lost in the medieval period... you could be a master builder if you just knew the formula for that).

Since they don't come from a recognized noble family there's not going to be much market for the Strong or Fast hero's combat skills... peasants don't get to wear armor and wield military weapons. Their best bet is to play the part of the Smart hero's hired laborers or perhaps mercenary bodyguards (if they decide to become merchants of some type). Their supporting skills may be more important to their class abilities really.

For best odds of survival, your fourth hero should probably be another Smart hero just so you've got a better pool of knowledge to pull from in trying to make money off patronage. The ideal would be to essentially try to kick start the Renaissance early and ride the wave.

Any sort of "we're going to take over a section of the world using our advanced scientific knowledge" is going to fall flat under the "no one person alive today can actually make a pencil from scratch" principle. Way too much of modern technology is dependent upon systems that require way too much expertise for one person to know (i.e. do you know how to mine the graphite and aluminum, where all the dyes that go into the pencil's paint come from, not to mention the chemical formulas of the eraser and paint, plus how to refine the aluminum and stamp it into the shape of the eraser holder, and how to carve the wood shaft so the graphite fits into it... not to mention how to make all the tools you'd need to perform these tasks... all of which we take for granted).

You'd honestly be better served bringing a bunch of people who build Colonial-era firearms by hand and know the formula for black powder than any sort of modern firearm. You'd be better served with someone who restores 19th century steam tractors than who designs modern internal combustion engines. There's just not going to be anything in the medieval period that can pull off the precision metalworking needed for modern arms or engines, but the requirements for early steam engines and black powder rifles aren't nearly as advanced. Being the guy who arms the's king's men with muskets only you know the secrets of manufacturing (at least for the next few decades) will get you a LOT of wealth and prestige and as comfortable a life as you could reasonable expect.

... if you don't mind living in a mostly depopulated continent because, again, massive plague (but hey, at least you'll be immune to it).

NOTE: All of the above presumes a Medieval Authentic setting with no-to-minimal overt magic. Once you're in "comprehend language" and "remove disease" territory along with the ability to create magical fire and electricity you've got a LOT more options for how you'd be able to make your way; including using magic to create replacements for various parts (ex. polymorphing objects into extra bullets).

I think the modern sailboat could be copied by contemporary boatwright, at least the parts that don't involve modern technology, they would duplicate the hull, the deck, the masts, the sails and the rigging, and you could tell them about the two undiscovered continents across the ocean and inform them about them ship's compass and how to construct an astrolabe, so they could navigate across the ocean, then you can point to some charts you have on the boats pilot house, that stuff would be valuable beyond imagining. The boatwright could then try to scale up the design of the modern sailboat so it could transport a larger crew complement, and perhaps some marines and colonists as well.

The PCs skills would also be very valuable because they could teach the crews how to operate the sailboat, how to navigate across the oceans, and maybe some idea on how to construct a magnetic compass, and of course some lenscrafters to make a telescope, why? Because if you can see the positions of the moons of Jupiter, you know what time it is, if you know when the Sun is supposed to rise and you know the time, then by the number of minutes it rises early will tell you how far East you have traveled, if the sun rises late, then you know how far west, by measuring the angle of Polaris, you know how far north you are and then you can derive latitude and longitude.

There is an easy way to get to North America, you can proceed to Iceland, then to Greenland, then to North America and sail south till you find a climate that its suitable for agriculture. The Hudson Valley would be a good place to settle, has a deep tidal river, and lots of trees for building ships with. A city could be built on Manhattan island for trade with the natives. Since this is the Lions & Dragons setting, the natives will likely have some magic of their own, and they will be pagans.

Ran this as a campaign twenty years ago online... went something like this...

Prologue

Michael Tyner

Personal Statistics:
Age 22,  
Height 5'11"
Weight 161 lbs,
Black Hair,
Brown Eyes
Social Security Number **classified**

Formal Education:
Santa Ana High School-Santa Ana, California, Class of 1995,
University of California Long Beach 1996-1997 2 yrs. Major: Sports Medicine.
Marine Corp Boot Camp-1999, Camp Pendleton, California,
Advanced Infantry Training-1999-2000, Camp Pendleton,
Designation: Emergency Medical Technician / Combat Medic.
Assigned to Company D, 1st Battalion, 3rd Amphibious Assault Brigade in January 2000 A.D.
for a 3-year tour of duty with the United States Marine Corp as a combat medic.

While on a live fire exercise one night in May of the year 2000 A.D. at Twenty-Nine Palms Marine Corp Base Michael was separated from his unit, Company D, 1st Battalion, 3rd Amphibious Assault Brigade, during an intense firefight where two other soldiers in his company were actually wounded from live fire that wasn't supposed to be targeted at the area his company was in.

The next morning, alone, he wandered south towards the town of Joshua, looking for his unit, for anybody really, that could give him directions. He came upon a small ruined Spanish style house with a strange oriental style arch in the yard the arch that faced east/west. After checking inside the house for occupants, maps, and or directions, Michael went back out, and, because the arch was so odd looking, he walked over to get a closer look at the arch. Because really weird stuff had been happening to him for the last twelve hours or so he decided that stepping through the arch was not a good idea. It was at that time that the arch moved. It moved so fast that all he had time to do was to open his mouth and say "Ohhhhh..."

A wave of dizziness came over him. He thought of Sting, and that new song, Desert Rose. He thought, how odd? Ofra Haza is dead, and now Sting is singing her songs. The dizziness got worse.... It became vertigo... he saw nothing.... He felt nauseous...

When he regained consciousness he was aware of two things at once... first, he was aware that he had been unconscious, but only for a few seconds... second, that he was looking up at a blue sky from a prone position on the ground. The M-16 was still slung over his left shoulder, and he saw he still had all of his equipment, and was wearing his desert camo battle dress uniform with blackened rank insignia. He sat up and looked around and was not surprised to see the arch about where it was before he fell down.

He thought to himself; "Maybe I had some kind of seizure?" At just about the same time he realized everything but the arch was different. Instead of the Mojave desert scrub, the sand, the cactus, and the Joshua trees, he was looking at small grass covered hills near beach sand dunes. The beach itself was 30 or so yards away to the north??? The Sun itself was smaller. The sun was in the wrong place, and the color was more yellow than he remembered. By the time he sat up he was also aware there was a really excited, ugly, old, man in a black robe about 4 or 5 yards from him, pointing at him, and stammering in some 3rd world language he never even
imagined hearing.

A moment later he felt another wave of dizziness and his vision blurred. When his sight cleared he saw the old man in black waving his hands around some more. He saw trails of fire and light following the old mans' hands, he saw the old man point at him and watched incredulously as the flames and the light snaked together, and apart, and in a most fascinating pattern, wander carelessly right up to him.

An explosion of pain brought out his combat reflexes. He rolled away from the source of the pain, and looked down while he was rolling to see his Battle Dress uniform burning, in some places it was completely gone. He saw a ragged hole in his skin smoking, and charred. He saw at least two of his own right ribs, lower ones, covered with patches of sooty black, and already the blood was starting to flow...

By the time he finished his roll he had rotated his automatic rifle and was pointing it at the old man. The old man was continuing in a new series of motions and words, and light started dancing around the old man hands once again. He toggled off the safety, switched to full automatic and aimed for a point on the ground and to the left of the old man. As the fire and light began its' lazy dance towards him once again, he pulled the trigger and gently arced his rifle up and slowly to the right. He never let go of the trigger.

He felt sick. "What now?" he thought. Dizziness and vertigo once again dragged Michael into the darkness of unconsciousness.

Kishara was out for a morning walk down the beach that day. The sun was approaching mid-day when she observed two figures lying on weed dunes near the beach. As she approached,  both, she saw were males, "a territory fight." She thought. She immediately recognized the member of the mages guild as Thantrase. He was a wizard of great renown in the Gem Isles, but the pools of blood that already leeched into the sand told her he was dead. The other man was a mystery. He wore clothes that were lighter than her own, the colors of the desert, so, she thought, a man from the desert. She had never met a man who lived in the desert. He was bleeding, burnt, but alive, barely...

She bound his wounds, and prayed to Freeia, goddess of healing, so that Freeia would intervene and spare his life. She already knew that he had defied the great wizard Thantrese and was still breathing. She knew that no one living had opposed any wizard of the guild one-on-one in the Gem archipelago and lived, until now.

This caught her interest. She rigged a stretcher, laying Mikal on a cloth that she went home to get. He was breathing, but the wizard had thrown a spell on him. Fireball she thought, She figured this by what she saw, and by what she smelled. She saw him, his ragged breath coming in waves... He had strange equipment on him.... nothing from the seas or the islands belonged to him, or was from him, she thought.

It was four days before he opened his eyes, and even though he spoke a language she never heard, she knew he was hungry the moment he woke up. In the weeks that he spent in healing she learned quite a few things. He did not even speak the common tongue. She learned that he knew of no place where women ruled She learned he was not from the Gem Isles. She learned he was a healer. She learned that although he could not speak any known language to her, he had a good heart, and was kind. She learned he was from a place so far away that she never even heard of it. Kali-forna was where he was from. It felt strange to even say it. She learned that his name was Mikal Tyner.

An adept from the wizards' guild of Emerald showed up in less than half of a moon. He came by boat, and he already knew that Thantrase had been slain. He said that Thantrase was on a great quest to solve the riddle of Asush. He offered two great boats to whoever could identify, or locate, the murderer of Thantrase. He said that Thantrase had been stalked for his knowledge of the Amazon parts of the Gem Isles, and that the Killer had killed Thantrase because he would not reveal the location of the Amazon shrines to Freeia. One look at Mikal, and Kishara knew the adept was either lying, or was grossly misinformed.

It was at the time shortly after Mikal learned that he should be subservient to the Women of Topaz, and just after she herself had claimed slave-owner rights over Mikal, when the assassin came. One night, she was sleeping peacefully, and he in her own personal slave quarters, unchained even..., and grateful, when her Mothers favorite ward woke her from her sleep. At that moment she grabbed her favorite diamond spear "Ashanka" and with a cat-like agility slipped out into the courtyard of her own estate.

After a few moments she was aware that someone strange was in her place. She felt the magic energies swirling in the air around her. In fact her flesh crawled with all the energy in the air around her. She saw him easily... the magic of Freeia enveloping him in a dark blue, darker than lightning, but lighter than the night. That bastard was walking slowly towards the slave quarters. She moved in behind him, on his right rear quarter, mimicking his movements, pausing when he paused, stopping when he stopped.

Yes... It was a strange man who invaded her home, The magic of Freeia told her even as her rage grew, of who would dare come into the personal quarters of an Amazon without an invitation, even more her mothers' magic told of a male whom showed no offer of service to Freeia whatsoever.

It was as slap into the face of all Amazons! How could the wizards presume their spells superior...arrogant bastards. She slipped to a point only steps from the male intruder and noted that he appeared to be a thief. Light armor, made of leather she saw. Small blades, easily concealed, and rapidly deployed. No magic at all except for an ring of protection that glowed red even through the stupid mans' body.

Why did the mages of the Gem guilds send this man to intrude on her estate? This thought was lost as she watched him move towards her slave quarters, towards the door closest to her own where Mikal slept. She stepped onto her own stone porch then, and declared herself.

In the common tongue she spoke aloud "Man! Why are you in my home uninvited?"

In response the man whirled and flung two daggers at her that she easily dodged. Her response to that... she closed the short distance between them, and she jabbed with Ashanka

It was a good strike... The mans' left shoulder hung limp, she knew right away she had cut into his shoulder muscle.

Again she declared herself. " I am Kishara, Daughter of Kisha the Seer, Why are you in my home? Declare your Intentions!"

The strange man spoke. "I am named Dare, sent to avenge the death of Thantrese."

"Without my invitation, or request? The punishment for an insubordinate male is death in Topaz!"

He spoke carefully, moving even more carefully to avoid the spear tip... "If you can make that happen, bitch..."

With that he drew a long sword and advanced upon her. Kishara did not hesitate with her spear, and she had plenty of practice on insubordinate and rebellious slaves.

The next day, at her home Kisha and Telandra, the village priestess, were present examining the body and weapons of the man who called himself Dare. "He smells of both death and wizardry" Telandra remarked during the examination. A short counsel between the three of them decided matters quickly. The fact that Kishas' ward on the front gate of Kishandra's home was burnt completely away helped.

After telling Mikal that his life was in danger, and by offering proof, with the body of Dare, Kishandra convinced Mikal he was in peril. That very night after speaking at length with her mother Kisha, Kishandra and Mikal slipped away in the night on a small light boat stolen from a nearby village and made for Midland.


On Kishara...

Kishara, Female, Amazon Priestess, Age 24, long blonde hair, green eyes 5'2" tall, 105 lbs. from the easternmost island of the Gem Island archipelago, Topaz. Kishara was born the daughter of Kisha, village priestess in the village of Tiana-mara some 24 summers ago. Raised with the amazons from birth, Kishara,  until recently, knew little of the rest of the Gorland, and only vague rumors from captured men, from sailors, explorers, miners, and other soldiers of Midland that visited her island from time to time.

She never knew her father, as he was a male slave that was executed shortly after her conception for the crime of insulting a female. On the Island where she was born Topaz men are in general unwelcome, and always subordinate to women. Gems and crystal are found in plentiful quantities, and the Amazon women generally make a living by keeping most of the male slaves in the fields at work, in trading gems on the mainland, and in their raiding forays on fast light sailing skiffs that they use to raid Midland, and the other islands in the Gem
Archipelago.

Kishara wears a white cotton robe that comes down to just above her knees, her robe is tied with a leather girdle, and above that she wears a leather breastplate that she took from that pig Khozar, before he died. Her soft Midland Dwarven crafted boots are the only item she wears that was imported, and she purchased them at the age of 17 in exchange for the best male slave she owned at the time. She carries three diamond-tipped spears she crafted herself. Two spears are in a special spear sling on her back.

Three moons ago, she found Mikal Tyner, nearly dead, on a beach near her home. A dead wizard lay just a few feet from him. She came to find out he was an outsider, with a price on his head from the mages guild. She wanted to keep him and claimed her tribes' equivalent of salvage rights on Mikal, as he would have been dead but for her efforts. The Amazon Eldar in the village accepted claim of salvage, but the wizards' guild did not and sent at least one assassin and numerous spies in an effort to locate Mikal. To save the honor, and the secrecy of the Amazon Aldar custom, and further, to prevent a serious disagreement between the wizards guild and her Amazon tribe, Kishara secretly took Mikal and fled from the Gem archipelago and went to Midland to earn a living as a warrior/healer.

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Interesting, so she is a Medeaval "Wonder Woman" and he is a "Steve Trevor". There are differences of course, but one of the protagonists is an Amazon, the other a soldier of the modern military. The wizard did attack first of course, and his motivation for doing so remains unclear. Usually it's the simplest ideas that no one thought about which would have the greatest effect. That soldier has an advantage with his rifle until he runs out of bullets, and then he is no better than the next man with a sword. In my example the group's greatest asset is their modern sailboat, it can sail upwind and is more maneuverable and seaworthy than medeaval sailboats, and it has better navigation equipment, the diesel motor is just an extra used to pulling up to the dock, without that, you need a rowboat with oars to pull it in. The modern sailboat can be copied by medeaval boat builders, that and the sea chart will give people access to two previously undiscovered continents, that has to be worth a lot, the Spanish Empire was build on that!

Quote from: Tom Kalbfus;1135107Just the basic core classes named after the six ability score, they come in a modern sail boat equipped with a backup diesel engine. There are four Modern characters, one is a Strong Hero, one is a Fast Hero, one is a Smart Hero, and the fourth just take your pick. They sailed off into the Bermuda Triangle and dissapeared never to be seen again, they appeared in the Lion & Dragon setting, they know how to sail and operate their boat, it has four cabins, a galley, a head, and it uses reverse osmosis to desalinated seawater into fresh water, it includes an outboard motor boat with a set of oarlocks and oars as a backup, they have a weeks supply of food when they arrive, they have a ship to shore radio and a set of walkie talkies that allow them to communicate with it, they have a GPS which receives no signal, and their are two pistols onboard each with five clips holding ten bullets each.

What happens when this boat pulls into a medeaval port? What advice would you give these characters on how to conduct themselves? If some are women, how should they behave? What are the advantages and disadvantages this group of four would have?

It's a pretty fantastic setup for an interesting campaign.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1136645It's a pretty fantastic setup for an interesting campaign.

The most interesting thing is the modern sailboat would end up giving the Europeans early access to the New World, the parts that aren't the high tech 21st century stuff, the shape of the boat, the sail, the rigging and the backup navigational equipment could be copied by medeaval boat builders, the diesel engine no, but that is only a backup anyway. The modern sail Boat would be made out of either fiberglass, steel, or aluminum, the medeaval boat builders could copy its shape out of wood. The modern shape of the design would allow the boat to tack upwind and make the boat more maneuverable and more seaworthy than similar sized medeaval boats.