I wanted to add political intrigue to my RPG experience. Towards this end, I purchased Mercenaries, Spies, and Private Eyes[0][1] as a PDF. Just got back from Staples having it printed and 3-hole punched. I want to design a world complete with governance, yet I have something of an ice age setting in mind. So, the governance will take the form of a tribal council, the politics could either be intra-tribal with differing factions or an ongoing distrust between two or more tribes. I chose MS&PE because it is very related to Tunnels & Trolls[2]. Why choose a game with a modern setting? Because it still has a lot of good content of the type I want to consider.
After creation of the world, I will need to decide on solo style -to be essentially GM and play 2-3 characters in this world, or to leave more to chance within the framework and play a single character that I pour a lot of effort into. Either way, I will lean on tables in the Mythic Game Master Emulator[3] to decide fate. My physical copy is on a slow boat (USPS media mail) but I do have the PDF and a tablet. I want to spend some time on world creation using ice-age Europe, circa 32,000 years before present as the temporal setting. Lower sea-levels and competition with the Neanderthal. Cold, and a huge animal population (number and size). I have a scholarly thesis coming on the period to flesh out some research I have already completed. This thesis was written on Eastern Europe whereas I wanted to concentrate on the lands eventually known as Gaul. Enough information on the time period will be gleaned to make it useful. I will also be looking at sociological treatises on European tribalism and basic civics. This along with a dash of Conan, a sprinkling of Land of the Lost, and a smattering of Tolkien.
The oral tradition of Europe is theorized to encompass information dating to before this period. Even more research will be needed into studies of this. I look forward to seeing what this turns into. It has been on my mind for a few months already, perculating.
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http://www.flyingbuffalo.com/mercen.htm
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http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/211831/Mercenaries-Spies-and-Private-Eyes
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http://www.flyingbuffalo.com/tandt.htm
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https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/20798/Mythic-Game-Master-Emulator
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