"Fief - A Look at Medieval Society from its Lower Rungs" is one of those deep-cut recommendations you only get way down the message boards or after scrolling past lots of the same-old recommendations. Presented as 'ancient lore' propagated by hand in the early days - I did have a giggle when I realised that meant the mid 90s. Sure, ancient now but still contemporaneous with myself. Happily these days you can get it POD off Lulu and with the usual massive discount for Black Friday I grabbed it.
This is not specifically a game supplement per se but the author, Lisa J. Steele, has pulled all this together to make a hundred page primer that touches on all the topics that typically come up at the game table. What Fief talks to is the baseline - a quick run through of things as they were that a given DM or player can ground in before weaving through the fantastic. This is essentially a pure fluff book, but useful fluff that is probably going to be handy at any medieval or near-medieval table.
This feels like an old d20 supplement, oddly - which perhaps is an artefact of when the files got cleaned up into the format they are in now. On the one hand, it could be argued that all of the content within is accessible on the web now, with some googling and time you could run down the primary sources in contrast to when this was first published. On the other hand, this is that running around already done and compiled for you. I do not think this is going to be cited in anyones historical thesis but as a mid-weight reference for those who would like their portrayal of medieval times to have more heft at their game tables, this is a very good start.
Chapters within this book are:
I Fundamentals - 6 pages - introduces the three orders - those who pray, those who labour and those who fight
II Architecture - 5 pages
III Agriculture - 5 pages
IV Forests and Waste Lands - 3 pages - what lies beyond the manor
V Governance - 8 pages - how the three orders interact
VI Husbandry - 2 pages - on the caring of animals
VII Monopolies - 2 pages - brewing, milling and baking
VIII Population - 15 pages - on the daily lives of the populace
IX Society - 11 pages - on birth, death and traditions
X Taxes, Tithes and Tolls - 4 pages
XI Trade - 8 pages
XII Warfare - 9 pages
XIII Decline of the Manor - 1 page
Appendix - 2 pages - on sharecropping
Timeline - 3 pages - 395AD - 1525AD
Sources - 2 pages
Index - 8 pages - alphabetical
So what is in here chunk by chunk?
Fundamentals - introduces the three orders - those who pray, those who labour and those who fight - and talks through the concept of feudalism; the holding of land in return for the obligation of military service. The core concept of a manor being 'what it takes to support one knight' is explained and the flexibility implied there - good land can be smaller, poor land will need to be bigger. We get explanation of terms and discussion of the interplay of the secular authorities and the church. Lots of adventure seeds in here - including things like monasteries having villages cleared for disturbing their peace.
Architecture discusses the homes of the great and good - while castles get a lot of attention, it is useful to get that look at the peasants cottage because those are what are most of the population live in and getting that right is going to add versimilitude to your games. We get a handy table of construction costs - building or repairing of mills and castle walls and the demolition of a ruin - to help put those in perspective.
Agriculture brought back my own secondary school history classes - good to have an understanding of so you can more reasonably portray what peasants are likely to be up to when adventurers come upon them.
Forests and Waste Lands elaborate upon the leisure activities of nobles - hunting, falconry and other pastimes - and thus how peasants get fined for interfering with the woodlands and what odd support staff are likely to be about a castle. This is good insight into how people lived with and interacted with non-cultivated land, the kind of things that will bring your game to life - both as encounters in the forests and by the nature of people found in castles. What does your NPC lord do for a past time? What does he need to support that? Who helps him with it? All those things ought to be found in the castle, filling out rooms and providing encounters there.
Governance covers the law and its enforcement including fines and penances, giving a nice perspective into what was discouraged and how. Also the many fees involved in the turning wheels of justice.
Husbandry describes the management of animals, both for food and for work. Working animals were valuable, not easy to replace and needed tending and feeding. Comparative costs of animals are provided along with examples of duties to maintain horse stocks against the need for them during conflicts.
Monopolies talks about how brewing, milling and baking were held in common - a communal mill, brewery or oven that charged for use, along with the dislike that stemmed from that for the miller or the dishonest baker.
Population discusses the general population of a manor, the serfs and peasants, the church folk and perhaps travellers. The influences of Crown, Bishop and Liege are laid out. This whole chapter is basically those who stick their noses into the lives of the poor bloody peasants and serfs.
Society covers children, clothing, diet, inheritance, marriage, travel and most of all tournaments - about half the chapter is on tournaments including a large table of tournament and war expenses at the back. The through lines of land and who owns it links children, marriage and inheritance with the many wrinkles and geographical variants that emerge. Altogether, plenty of good fodder for adventure hooks or background colour.
Taxes, Tithes and Tolls - a table of taxes of which there were fewer then and description of the tithes to churches paid. There is an interesting question to be explored about how this ought to vary between the distinctly mono-faith medieval Europe and the pantheistic society typical of a D&D setting, but stories of all the many practices that existed even under what was nominally the one faith are inspirational for a DM.
Trade describes fairs where were a mainstay of medieval buying and selling - that there would not be permanent shops but one would gather at a fair most often and these would have fees for merchants to attend. We get a big table of prices over four pages to give a sense of what goods were available and how much they might cost - great for setting out treasures in your campaign. Debt is discussed which is also a good drivefor adventures.
Warfare lays out the obligations of landholders and peasants, discusses armies and mercenaries, foraging and sieges. A page and a half of military wages gives a nice reference.
Decline of the Manor attributes the end of this system to the decline of its military necessity, the impact of the Plague, more commonly available coinage, and increasing power of the Church.
Appendix describes sharecropping, an alternative system peasants found themselves in.
Timeline lists events of note from 395AD - 1525AD any of which might be a good inspiration for an adventure or campaign.
Sources and Index show where all the above came from and provide means to navigate this book.
This book in its whole is a good primer on medieval life, highlighting some of the aspects that are distinctly different between then and now which can help you make your campaign feel of the time. There is far more detail in here than you will need in the whole but for whatever aspect of life your players get tangled up in, there are interesting things here to be drawn on - running a fair? A tournament? A trial? Lots of neat little details in here to support your potrayal of events.
Much like A Practical Guide to Medieval Warfare: Exploring History through Wargaming, this is not a book you read for adventures, this is a book you read to get the world right. What this has to recommend it over going direct to historical sources is that it is not overly concerned with getting the specific detail of any given moment in time and place correct but to paint a picture of the general situation which persisted throughout that time period. That base allows you to then apply whatever 'twists' your world demands - is it teeming with dragons, are there dwarves with monopolies on all crafts, etc.
If you are already well started on your journey of historical reading, this book will probably not tell you anything you do not know, but if you are looking for a place to start this could be a good one. For me, I found most of the contents familiar but even for me the tables of comparative costs and the nature of activities that peasants and serfs got up to were interesting new details that made me glad I read it.
Other reviews can be found on of Pedantry, Swords & Dorkery or RPGnet.
Other similar supplements have been the Magical Medieval Society series from Expeditious Retreat Press and the various blog series from A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry.
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