Free GM Resource: Medievalists.net

 

Today's Free GM Resource is kind of a twofer, but the second resource is a bit cerebral/nerdy and maybe waaaaaaaaaay too much for most GMs, but I liked it, so I'm pointing it out.

The main resource today is this cool website called Medievalists.net designed "to be the first place people go to when they want to learn about the Middle Ages. Our aim is to offer readers news, articles, videos and more about the medieval world and how that history is presented today."

A lofty goal for certain, but there is a LOT of articles for you to pour through, gobs even.......since I'm guessing that the majority of Fantasy RPG players/GMs have games that are "Medieval-ish" and being able to do a bit of research and introduce medieval elements can/might/should.....I know not how you & yours roll at the table....add a little something-something to the game.

Of course, YMMV, as with anything I put up as a resource.

Speaking of varying mileage, the twofer I want to highlight is a specific research paper from Medievalists.net that highlights one minor aspect that you might be able to have some fun with: Medieval Microcredit. From the abstract:

"How do credit markets function in societies where legal contract enforcement is weak? This paper uses a theoretical model to examine how the institution of personal pledging aided the development of credit markets in medieval England. It demonstrates how the practice of pledging improved repayment rates by lowering enforcement costs and mitigating the problems associated with adverse selection. By combining the model with historical evidence, it can be shown that pledging helped to enable illiterate peasants to gain access to capital markets."

Now I'm going to say that there is some interesting math that I'm not going to read into, much less do, 'cause it's not my thing, not at all. What I did get out of this paper though is not just how these microcredit transactions occurred, but how maybe the concept can be used to inspire an adventure or motivate a NPC. Maybe one of the players, or better yet a henchman or beloved NPC is asked to provide a pledge backing a microtransaction, or to lend money in the first place.....

Anyway, if this kind of thing piques your interest, check out the Medieval Microcredit article on Medievalists.net (previous links went to the homepage and direct to the paper).