Fief: A Look at Medieval Society from its Lower Rungs

Enjoy a trip to a world where powerful priests can charge sinners with the death penalty, and where knights gather for illegal combat sports ... where thieves can thumb their nose at the authorities from within the walls of a church, and where a foraging band of the king's own soldiers is more dangerous than a pack of brigand outlaws. In the midst of all this, ordinary people survived to work the land, weave the cloth, and pray for safety from famine and plague. The real Middle Ages were as brutish and wild as any fantasy world.

Fief: A Look at Medieval Society from its Lower Rungs is a sourcebook that examines the Middle Ages from the viewpoint of the ordinary farmer, priest, and landholder - the inhabitants of a feudal manor. It's a friendly primer on the basics of medieval life, and a treasury of hard-to-find details for the Game Master or enthusiast, from prices and wages to laws and penalties, from superstitions and beliefs to the rigors of ordinary life.