"Teleri the Well-Prepared" is the SCA name I tend to use online. My daddy raised me paranoid, so I tend to not throw my actual name and location about on the 'Net.
I discovered RPGs and Ren Faires both during the summer before my senior year in high school. I was GMing pretty soon afterwards, and joined the SCA as soon as I got to college. I double majored in Mechanical Engineering and Medieval Studies at the state university and kept my hand in with the RPGs, running a continuous campaign off and on for three years. (When one of your players is a premed, a lot of games get cancelled.)
Til this point, I was an AD&D 2e girl. I'd played a Toon game at a convention and been in a few Call of Cthulu sessions, but it was AD&D that I bought the books for and developed my own game world in. Then I got to grad school, at yet another state university. (I'm pursuing an MS and PhD in Aerospace Engineering, not the Medieval Studies, more's the shame). And there I was introduced to whole hordes of new systems. I still mostly run in AD&D, since it's been my workhorse for... oh... nine or ten years now.
Along the way, I discovered Yahoo! Clubs. In particular, I have to commend The Dungeon Master's Guild. It's an online forum for gamemasters to compare notes and swap ideas. The folks there are great; check them out. But one day, the conversation hovered around Arthuriana and medieval religion and I found myself biting my tongue. No, no, no! my medieval studies major bits cried out. That's not right! Those are common myths about the period, but they're just not true!
Would folks be interested in real history bits? I asked. Especially if they were tailored for easy use in role-playing? I know a lot of GMs like to do everything their own way in their own worlds, historical precedents be damned. Would anyone reference such a page?
You can probably guess their answer if you're reading this now. I hope it's been useful to you. Did I miss something you'd like to see written up? Do you have a source that entirely conflicts with something I have up here? Please let me know! Go ahead and use the obligatory email link to contact me.
Yours in service,
Teleri
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