Gary (GeeMan) is right when he says alliances were common in the medieval
era. They were largely formed as part of marriges. Those founded on some
other basis were often sealed by marriages. Given the role bloodlines play,
I would think marriage alliances would play a key role in BR. The
impression I get from the materials is that people don't get married. Or
perhaps they marry for personal reasons, rather than state reasons. Its
just not an issue, in BR. I suspect its because marriage leads to babies,
which raises the specter of inheritance.

Vassalage is a big issue, and that strikes me as odd. Comming from history,
vassalage was a relationship between two clearly unequal people. The
overlord, who had many vassals, and the lord who had several knights, for
example. The count of Bellam is a vassal of Baron Roesone. I would not
expect the Baron Roesone to be anyone's vassal looking at the at-start map.

Considering realism (and I mean that in the genre sense as well), I prefer
it to fanstasy. Some gamers come to RPG's from the fanstasy genre, and want
to put themselves in the role of Conan the Barbarian, or King Arthur, or
Luke Skywalker, or what have you. Other players, myself included, read
non-fiction and would prefer to play RPG's to undertake the persona of the
Black Prince, or Alexander the Great, or one of their common soldiers. Its
not enough to have his name and stats, you want to face the same kinds of
problems you read about in the biographies and the histories. These kinds
of players want realism.

Kenneth Gauck
c558382@earthlink.net

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