Wormwood

“For the sun gave forth its light without brightness, like the moon, during the whole year.” So wrote Byzantine historian Procopius of the year 536 A.D., the year the first of three catastrophic volcanic eruptions in Iceland would drop global summer temperatures by 1.5 to 2.5 degrees Celsius and herald the beginning of the coldest decade on record in 2,000 years. Migrations of Germanic, Hunnic, and Slavic tribes have swept aside and now pick over the remains of the Western Roman Empire, sacking Rome itself and establishing a network of “barbarian kingdoms” across the west. Crop failure, famine, and the Justinian Plague will devastate a fractured Europe for the next hundred years. Of all the time periods called the “Dark Ages,” this is surely – both literally and figuratively – the darkest.

This historical context is interwoven with both “authentic” medieval folklore and the classic elements of 19th- and 20th-century fantasy fiction found in your typical Appendix N. This ‘Dark Year’ and all of its tumultuous events provides players and Judges a compelling backdrop upon which to project historical fantasy adventures.

While based upon historical context, these are works of fiction: liberties have been taken where doing so would be entertaining. Weave fiction and fantasy as you please, and above all: Fight On!

This book contains 82 pages of rules for: expanded character creation, cultures, languages, soubriquets, occupations, mass combat, naval warfare, social status dice, equipment, estates & strongholds, trade goods & services, magical treasure, dungeon delving, wilderness exploration, crime, punishment & trials, medicines, poisons, retainers, and a hexmap of Western Europe – everything Judges and players could want to set their Dungeon Crawl Classics campaigns within a 6th century Europe historical fantasy setting.