Celestial Guidance: Medieval Astrology in your OSR Game

please note: this post originally appeared in Under The Dice #7  

Celestial Guidance: Medieval Astrology in your OSR* Game

The Astronomer, engraved by M. Wolgemuth 1492

The desire to include fantastic medieval concepts into wargaming is the kernel that led to the development of Chainmail's Fantasy Supplement by Gary Gygax and then The Blackmoor Campaign by Dave Arneson which directly led to the development of the first roleplaying game. However, the middle ages are far weirder and alien than the creators of tabletop roleplaying games could understand. 

Much of the material I write is to reintegrate medieval ideas into the OSR-sphere of games to help aid playing within a “medieval mindset” and embrace the weird vibes of the middle ages. An easy way to include that is to apply medieval astrology to character creation! All walks of medieval life believed the stars above influenced both major and mundane aspects of their daily lives, making them choose specific activities on specific days to have the best possible outcomes. This also wasn’t considered heretical by the church since this apparently was well within the practiced canon of medieval christianity since the heavens is the domain of God the Father.

The following is a flavor and mechanic overview of both Zodiac Signs (months of the year) and Planetary Signs (Days of the week) and their application in your Old School Revival campaign.

• The Celestial Sign: The influence of the stars on your birth by the month you were born, which directly alters attributes

• The Astral Influence: The influence of Planets on your day-to-day life, including the day of the week you were born on. This provides a re-roll to a specific attribute skill or ability once per day or twice per day if on the day of your birth.

How it Works: Use your preferred OSR game’s character generation to roll attributes. Then determine the following:

• Celestial Sign Roll: Roll a D12 on the Celestial Sign table to determine which sign you were born under. This will determine any final Attribute changes. This will also inform seasonal influence on your upbringing. 

• Astral Influence Roll: Roll a D8 to determine which Planet you were born under. This can further be used to provide roleplaying inspiration if desired.

Once you're done, continue with your game’s character creation process.

Celestial Sign: Use the following table to determine your character’s birth sign.

• Celestial Sign: This is the zodiac sign that influences your life broadly

• Seasonal Activities: This represents the common activities or tasks the commoners do during this time. I included it to help inform the everyday activity that someone might be focused on based on the seasonal changes.

• Attribute Increase: Increase the listed attribute by +1 due to celestial influence on your birth

• Attribute Decrease: To balance out the celestial gift, the heavens will need to hinder your growth in a minor way. Roll a D3 on the associated Physical or Mental sub-tables to determine which attribute decreases.

*Attribute Decrease: Roll a D3 on the associated listing to randomly determine which attribute decreases by -1:

• Physical: 1) Strength 2) Dexterity 3) Constitution

• Mental: 1) Intelligence 2) Wisdom 3) Charisma

The Astral Influence: After finalizing your character’s attributes, determine the day your character was born on by rolling a D8 to find out what planet was in the sky on the day of birth. This will provide an advantage to using certain attribute abilities and skills. If desired, your astral influence can also be used to determine your character’s personality and interests to aid with roleplaying.

• Day of Birth: Determine the day of the week you were born under to determine who you are. Roll a D8: 1) Sunday, 2) Monday, 3) Tuesday, 4) Wednesday, 5) Thursday, 6) Friday, 7) Saturday, 8) Choose any one day

Your Day’s influence: The following are traits gained by being born on any day of the week. This will help determine what your personality will be like, what interests you are inclined to, and your mechanical advantage.

• Sign Mechanics: Based on the day you were born, you will gain the ability to reroll any single roll that is modified by that specific attribute and select the best result once per day. However, any day of the week you were born on allows you to make two rerolls on that day.

• Example: Hans was born on Tuesday, the Day of Mars. Any day of the week, he can reroll a single roll that is modified by their Strength such as attacking with a sword. However, on Tuesdays they can do this twice.

Sunday: The Sun, No attribute

• Character Personality: Just and Wise but indifferent

• Mechanics: Reroll any single roll of choice per day. On Sunday you can make two rerolls.

• Personal Interests: Law and Politics 

• Personification: The Emperor

Monday: The Moon; Constitution

• Character Personality: Honest and Insightful but fickle.

• Mechanics: Reroll any single Constitution roll per day

• Personal Interests: Socializing and Travel

• Personification: The Lady

Tuesday: Mars; Strength

• Character Personality: Bold and Strong, but Stubborn 

• Mechanics: Reroll any single Strength roll per day

• Personal Interests: Fencing, Wrestling, Sports, War

• Personification: The Knight

Wednesday: Mercury; Dexterity

• Character Personality: Clever and Quick, but Deceitful and sneaky; 

• Mechanics: Reroll any single Dexterity roll per day

• Personal Interests: Economics, Medicine, Acrobatics

• Personification: The Doctor

Thursday: Jupiter, Wisdom

• Character Personality: Courageous, Merry, and Elegant but Haughty and out -of touch

• Mechanics: Reroll any Wisdom roll per day

• Personal Interests: Philosophy and Religion 

• Personification: The Bishop

Friday: Venus, Charisma

• Character Personality: Love, Kinship, Passion, but self-centered

• Mechanics: Reroll any Charisma roll per day

• Personal Interests: Art, Music, Romance

• Personification: The Lover

Saturday: Saturn, Intelligence

• Character Personality: Smart and Confident, but shy and aloof

• Mechanics: reroll any single Intelligence roll per day

• Personal Interests: Magic, Science, Nature

• Personification: The Elder

I hope this helps with getting into the headspace of not only your character but also the past in some way, since the heavens had a direct influence on every life within the medieval mind.

- Bryan

Inspired Reading for your OSR game

One of the most enjoyable aspects of developing Demesnes & Domination was researching the late medieval era which is described as 1300-1500 or so. This was important to move the expectations of the game away from the wild-west feel of how Gygax made AD&D feel. Why? Well, if you're going to include a castle in your game it should have purpose and a castle only has purpose as a symbol of power in setting that has some structure of the power dynamics of middle ages otherwise it has no other roll in a game besides saying "I have a stronghold!" The following list is composed of  two sections: one is resources written for an rpg enthusiast audience and the other is non-hobbyist books but are interesting and engaging reads about the late middle ages for the general reader. 

Part 1: Medieval RPG Resources

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.