1) Medieval Demographics Made easy by S. John Ross is a fantastic (and free!) pdf about understanding settlements in the middle ages. city Adventures are oftentimes the most difficult to plan and set up, but this document really helped me understand what to actually expect in a settlement and how to make it feel alive for my players. There is also a website where the content of this pdf was turned into a generator!
2) Fief and Town by Lisa J. Steel are two pdfs I purchased and have used as a primary source of information within the mode of thinking of a referee. Town is a fantastic elaboration on the concepts introduced in Medieval Demographics made Easy and gives plenty of context with famous cities in Western Europe in the middle ages. Fief is extremely good as well, elaborating on the feudal system and the role of a landowner (and their stronghold) within a Western European society. seriously, these books are incredible resources as a general starting place for any hobbyist looking to understand the middle ages but don't know where to start!
3) Codex Guide to the Medieval Baltic: Volume 1 by Codex Integrum is a fantastic source book of North Central Europe around 1450. Its illuminating in how it breaks down cultural, economic, religious, martial, and the mundane within the context of the cultural melting pot of the time. I've purchased this twice, so i can have it on my self and on my phone and I don't regret it. This book is meant to provide support for the publisher's own Codex Integrum game system which look likes a d20 variant with far too much complexity built into this combat to emulate historical fencing using feats and such. While I'm not impressed by their game system per say, the writers know what they are talking about when it comes to the context of the late medieval world around the Baltic region. There is a Volume 2 that really gets into religion and the occult that is also very interesting but isn't available in print so i haven't spent as much time with it as i wish.
Part 2: Medieval Resources for the General Reader
1) The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer is a fun and easy read that really gets into the weeds of the humdrum of 14th century England and does a good job at explaining the mindset of the medieval commoner. There is endlessly good bits of information that I have found invaluable to running my own campaigns. This writer has a fun whimsy that feels very British, not just for his topic but also the terminology and focus on Chaucer and his world. if you ever wanted to understand the impact of the black death or the western schism but without the burden of heavy reading, this book is a good starting point.
2) A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara W Tuchman is a good companion to The Time traveler's guide to medieval England. This book is a large volume that focuses on France during the 14th century and i feel is more cleverly written. This book is very dense but entirely entertaining. In my opinion, this book is best enjoyed as a audio book with the narration by Wanda McCaddon who adds a lot of personality, humor, and charm to an already enjoyable (if dense) work.
3) The Medieval Underworld by Andrew McCall is a great starting place to learn about such charming topics as Bandits, Crime, lepers, darker side of the Church and Nobility, Sin, and more. Fantastic fodder for any role playing game! Each topic is broken down into its own chapter with examples from history to help ground the perspective of these topics. Good Stuff
4) Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages by David Nirenberg is if anything, an important book that anyone should read about the vicious circle of punishment, hate and oppression. This book focuses on communities of Jews, Muslims, and any who didn't neatly fit within the Western European Catholic-oriented society.This book illuminates the context of these communities and how they were oppressed in minor and major ways and the laws of society that allowed it to continue. if anything, the prevalent bigotry of the western world that still looms today has roots in the topics covered in this book. So why mention this bleak academic book? Because 1) It's important to combat bigotry in society and ourselves so to understand that, we need to look at the society that allows it to perpetuate so we do our best to do better 2) Oppression is dynamic and multifaceted so to create societal obstacles for players to overcome in a game, it should be given context and its best to learn that context from history to prevent us from falling into tired and uninformed tropes.
5) The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World by Patrick Wyman is an interest look into western Europe at the end of the 1400s on the cusp of the early modern era. The topics here cover the rise of exploration and its terrible legacy, the rise of capitalism, and the centralization of the modern state from the decentralized medieval society. This book feels like an extension of the author's podcast of which i am a huge fan of.
Part 3: Other Resources
1) Martial Culture in Medieval Towns blog is an academic blog following the research into the culture of central Europe during the 1400s, with a main focus on Switzerland and the grander region that encompass the Holy Roman Empire. Some of the authors on this research blog have a book coming out this autumn which i am very much looking forward to.
2) Tides of History podcast by Patrick Wyman as I mentioned earlier. this podcast has focused on different eras of history, which the earlier portion focusing on the late medieval world. Each episode is about an hour long and focuses on interesting topics such as The Italian Wars, the Hussite wars, Mercenaries, and fun episodes written from the prospective in the Day-and-the-life of a medieval individual. It is a fantastic starting point for anyone who wanted a bite-sized understanding of major late medieval topics like The War of the Roses or the hundred Years War.
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