[ALG001] Stupor Mundi.pdf

Stupor Mundi

oleplaying in the world of

Frederick II Hohenstaufen

Author

Paolo Guccione

Proofreading

Simon Phipp

Special Thanks

Greg Stafford, Charlie Krank,

Steve Perrin and all the Chaosium

and Issaries crews for creating

RuneQuest.

Editing and Layout

Dario Corallo, Paolo Guccione

Playtesting

Francesca Affatigato, Daniela

Albano, Alessandro Alessandra,

Roberto Cerfogli, Dario Corallo,

Salvatore Giordano, Raffaele

Guarrasi, Aldo Mirabella,

Massimo Vella, Manuele Verduci.

Cover art

Richard Yang

Matthew Sprange and all the

Mongoose crew for reviving it.

Antonio Bellingreri for teaching

me that the Middle Ages were not

boring.

Interior art

Dario Corallo

“RuneQuest (TM) ” and the RuneQuest logo are Trademarks owned by Issaries, Inc. and are used according to the terms of the RuneQuest

logo Licence version 1.0. A copy of this licence can be obtained from Mongoose Publishing. The mention or reference to any company

or product in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark or

“Mythic Russia” is a Trademark of Firebird Productions.

“Stupor Mundi – Rolepleying in the world of Frederick II” is a

Trademark of Paolo Guccione.

The contents of this book are not Open Game Content, with the

exception of parts that are directly taken from the RuneQuest,

RuneQuest Companion and RuneQuest Monsters System Reference Documents. This work is protected by the International Copyright

Laws. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission. A copy of the Open Game License is included

at the end of the book.

Table of Contents

Introducing Stupor Mundi..................................................3

Why Stupor Mundi.......................................................3

Player Characters............................................................... 4

Choosing your homeland............................................. 4

Choosing your religion.................................................5

Equipping your hero............................................... 6

Religion..............................................................................7

Roleplaying real religions............................................ 7

The Roman Catholic Church........................................8

Corruption and fundamentalism............................. 8

Catholic Monks.......................................................9

Sample Catholic Saints...........................................9

Nuns......................................................................10

Benedictines..........................................................10

Dominicans...........................................................10

Franciscans........................................................... 11

Knightly Orders..........................................................11

Creating a Knight Templar character................... 12

Teutonic Knights.................................................. 13

The Byzantine Church................................................13

Byzantine monks.................................................. 14

Creating a Byzantine character.............................14

Islam........................................................................... 15

Creating a Muslim character.................................16

Sorcery....................................................................... 16

Creating a Sorcerer character............................... 16

Paganism.................................................................... 17

Creating a pagan character................................... 17

The Age of Stupor Mundi................................................ 18

Castles, towns and abbeys..........................................18

Guelphs and Ghibellines............................................ 19

The Holy Roman Empire........................................... 20

Germany..................................................................... 20

The Italian communes................................................ 20

Venice.........................................................................20

Rome.......................................................................... 21

The Kingdom of Sicily...............................................21

France......................................................................... 22

The Iberian Peninsula.................................................22

The British Isles......................................................... 22

Scandinavia................................................................ 22

The Baltic area........................................................... 23

The Eastern Roman Empire....................................... 23

Russia......................................................................... 23

Famous Characters...........................................................24

Frederick II Hohenstaufen..........................................24

Sultan Malik al-Kamil................................................25

Hermann von Salza.................................................... 26

Michael Scot...............................................................27

Ezzelino Da Romano..................................................27

Adventurer Life................................................................28

Languages...................................................................29

Related languages................................................. 29

New Skills.................................................................. 30

Literacy (Alphabet) (INT).................................... 30

Falconry (POW+CHA).........................................30

Astrology (INT)....................................................31

Optional Rules............................................................32

Advanced combat sequence..................................32

Dodging................................................................ 32

Weapon length...................................................... 32

Reactions.............................................................. 32

Advanced Critical hits.......................................... 33

Precise Attacks..................................................... 33

Unavailable weapons............................................ 33

Unavailable armour.............................................. 33

Armour ...................................................................... 33

Armour sizes.........................................................34

Armour penalty.....................................................34

Description of Armour pieces...............................35

Standard armour suits........................................... 36

Creatures.....................................................................36

Angel.................................................................... 37

Devil..................................................................... 37

Djinni.................................................................... 38

Dwarf.................................................................... 38

Faerie.................................................................... 38

Ghul...................................................................... 38

Incubus..................................................................38

Ogre...................................................................... 39

Troll...................................................................... 39

Event synopsis................................................................. 40

Adventures....................................................................... 40

Kidnapping in Al-Halisa.................................................. 41

The Plot...................................................................... 41

Searching the district............................................ 42

About Arabian architecture.................................. 42

Buildings.................................................................... 42

District Map..........................................................43

Events......................................................................... 45

Special places and events........................................... 48

Abdullah and the Basilisk.....................................48

Ali and the magic carpet.......................................49

House of the Djinni...............................................50

Assault on the slavers........................................... 51

Epilogue................................................................51

The Lord of the

Golden Eagle....................................................................57

Introducing your characters........................................57

The sea journey.......................................................... 57

Checkpoint................................................................. 58

In the deep forest........................................................ 58

Night robberies...........................................................58

Ambush in the woods.................................................60

Towards Padua........................................................... 61

Worshippers of Satan ................................................ 61

Placeola...................................................................... 62

The Ordeal..................................................................62

The Duel.....................................................................63

Epilogue..................................................................... 63

Cavalcante Della Faggiola......................................... 70

Sample Player Characters................................................ 70

Ugo Pezzin................................................................. 71

Sir Wolfgang von Tiesbeck........................................72

Father Gaius Aulenti.................................................. 73

Marina Salimpietra.....................................................74

Berengario Volpati..................................................... 75

Kareem bin Youssef................................................... 76

Muhammar al-Kerbal................................................. 77

OPEN GAME LICENSE

Version 1.0a..................................................................... 78

Introducing Stupor Mundi

De Stupore Mundi

sons, but his heritage did not

survive long after his death,

because the other rulers were

afraid of all that he

represented and managed to

dismantle the kingdoms he

passed on to his offspring.

his book is

intended to allow

you to run a

roleplaying campaign set in

Europe during the first half

of the thirteenth century. By

playing and enjoying Stupor

Mundi games you will

certainly learn something

about European history,

whilst in the meantime

experiencing plenty of magic

wonders and encountering

weird creatures. Our hope is

that by re-enacting the

adventures of House

Hohenstaufen across all of

Europe and the Middle East you

will see the Middle Ages in a new

and unexpected light. Here, in the

fascinating ethnic and cultural crucible of

the Mediterranean Sea, the Muslims will

often be your best allies against treacherous

Christian princes, and the first seeds of modern

democracy will start to show up in the battle for

independence of small city-states. In the world of Stupor

Mundi cultures and religions clash, yet they must find a

way to live together if Europe is to have a future.

But these apparent

contradictions are also the

main reason why we have

chosen the age of the Stupor

Mundi among all other

settings in real history that

allow an enjoyable gaming

experience. People among our

readers who prefer roleplaying

over combat simulation should

already know that the most difficult

part of a culturally aware campaign is

that of finding out a reasonable way to

allow adventurers from different, and often

enemy, cultures to wander and fight side by

side. Groups that practice good roleplaying, in the

end, tend to have characters of the same race and culture

in order to avoid this difficulty. This does not happen in

the Frederick's world: the Emperor and his retainers like

Hermann von Salza interacted, by force of arms and by

diplomatic means, with a great variety of cultures. Popes,

Viking conquerors, Italian city-states, Arab Sultans,

Byzantine Emperors, Russian Princes and Baltic pagans

were all enemies or allies, and often both of them at

different times, of the Swabian rulers. In the court of the

Stupor Mundi it is perfectly normal to have Teutonic

Knights fight together with Vikings, Saracens and Italian

mercenaries. This had not happened in Europe since the

time of the Roman Empire, and it will not happen again in

real history.

So enjoy this one-time opportunity: choose the homeland

and religion you like the best, add the black eagle of the

Holy Roman Emperor to your coat of arms and join the

first and last Crusade in real history where you can choose

whether the Sultan is your friend or your enemy!

Why Stupor Mundi

Frederick the Second, of the House Hohenstaufen, Holy

Roman Emperor and King of Naples and Sicily, is one of

the most controversial and interesting figures in medieval

history. Historians and biographers of his age called him

the Stupor Mundi, Wonder of the World, and in fact he

always succeeded in upsetting both his friends and his

opponents. Son of a German Emperor and a Norman

Princess, raised in a city that was more Arabian than

Christian, Defender of the Faith and excommunicated,

Crusader and friend of the Muslims, more Italian than

German and yet enemy of the Italian cities' freedom. He

razed cities and founded universities. He had plenty of

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