Post by djacknh on Mar 6, 2008 22:18:03 GMT -5
I'm in the middle of the book "Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu" by Laurence Bergreen.
I think this is a case of a real-life adventure being great inspiration for a fantasy campaign.
Bergreen uses a mix of Marco Polo's actual accounts and his own historical analysis. The cool thing about Polo's writings is that he often wrote in the fantastical, to create a magical story for a medieval audience.
Late Medieval Venetian life is described richly and could give a GM some ideas on how to make elaborations on a Mediterannean Medieval seaport.
Polo describes marauders in the Middle East who can cause the area they are about to plunder to go dark.
On The Silk Road there were often semi-fortified encampments to protect merchants and travellers from brigands at night.
Polo also decribes spirits in the Asian deserts that call out to individuals in a caravan, and lure them away from the group to their death. Bergreen claims that modern researchers have determined that wind blowing on the dunes can cause sounds that resemble chanting or singing, and that might disorient a traveller.
I haven't even reached the part where Polo arrives at Xanadu, but I have some ideas I might never have thought of before for a campaign.
A good read and a good diversion from fantasy fiction.
~DJ
I think this is a case of a real-life adventure being great inspiration for a fantasy campaign.
Bergreen uses a mix of Marco Polo's actual accounts and his own historical analysis. The cool thing about Polo's writings is that he often wrote in the fantastical, to create a magical story for a medieval audience.
Late Medieval Venetian life is described richly and could give a GM some ideas on how to make elaborations on a Mediterannean Medieval seaport.
Polo describes marauders in the Middle East who can cause the area they are about to plunder to go dark.
On The Silk Road there were often semi-fortified encampments to protect merchants and travellers from brigands at night.
Polo also decribes spirits in the Asian deserts that call out to individuals in a caravan, and lure them away from the group to their death. Bergreen claims that modern researchers have determined that wind blowing on the dunes can cause sounds that resemble chanting or singing, and that might disorient a traveller.
I haven't even reached the part where Polo arrives at Xanadu, but I have some ideas I might never have thought of before for a campaign.
A good read and a good diversion from fantasy fiction.
~DJ
Or is that just really, really fast delivery?!?