Ken Rolston

While the English speaking world is dominated by King Arthur or robin Hood, there was a large body of Medieval Romance and adventure represented by the court and imagined politics of Charlemagne ( r. 768 - 814), the first Western Emperor since 476CE. He was allotted 12 champions or paladins, and magical and religious enemies. It is as large a body of work as the Arthur cycle and is a fun place for role play. This is a background book for the Game Master containing some real historical show more information, and a brief sketch of the literature. The maps and building plans are a bit too few for a good source book. show less

A really interesting setting for a roleplaying campaign which is handicapped by the AD&D system. This would be great with a party that really like combat as it could be run like Ars Magica. Every summer they could go on campaign with Charlemagne and every winter they could have their own adventure. This book is a good place to start researching the background and there are a few things that I thought were really good, such as the treasure table on page 55.

Some of the jokes (like the one about SPI sector being merged with TSR sector) haven't aged well. Otherwise a fun send-up of old school fantasy gaming in general, and AD&D specifically.