Swords of Saint John
Campaign Prospectus
Swords of Saint John will be a Chivalry & Sorcery campaign centred on a group of characters attached to the Order of the Hospital of St John the Baptist. Action will commence on St John the Baptist’s Day (23 June) 1291. This is a time of turmoil for the Order, a mere month after the catastrophic fall of Acre, last Christian stronghold in the Holy Land. Losses in the fall of Acre were ruinous: the Master and the Marshal of the Hospital were killed, along with most of the brethren of fighting age. The Templars, the Knights of St Lazarus, and the Knights of St Thomas were similarly devastated, and the Teutonic knights were annihilated but for the Hochmeister. The orders are reeling, confused and disorganised: refugees from Acre and belated reinforcements from the West have met at Limmasol in the Kingdom of Cyprus.
The Order of the Hospital of St John the Baptist
The Order of Hospitallers is a great Church corporation. It remains wealthy despite the loss of its estates in Syria. This wealth is devoted to supporting a military effort against the forces of Islam, and also to the provision of food and shelter to pilgrims and care to the sick at local commanderies and in a chain of hospitals along the major pilgrim routes. The Hospitallers are an order of canons regular (not, technically, monks) following a modified Augustinian rule. Established by a Papal bull, the Order is immune from episcopal control and interdict, and by unique privilege it is permitted to hold public services in any interdicted church for one day in any year.
The best-known Hospitallers are the knights-brethren. But the Order also includes serjeants, serving brothers, chaplains, nursing sisters, postulants under age for ordination, and confratres—knights serving under temporary vows. And besides the members there are employees of the Order, such as mercenary turcopoles, who might also be suitable PCs.
The basic Hospitaller establishment is the commandery, with its knight-commander and its chaplain. In frontier areas a commandery will have a garrison of knights, serjeants, and turcopoles, with a complement of serving brothers etc. But in the homelands the commander and chaplain will be elderly, and the only garrison will be an elderly serjeant and perhaps a number of postulants in training. The garrison of a commandery in the homelands are responsible for recruitment and training: they also administer a group of estates of the Order, forward surplus revenue, and do charitable works on a local scale.
Commanderies in the East are responsible directly to the Master, but in Europe commanderies are grouped into priories (the prior being the knight-commander of a substantial hospital), and priories into provinces each ruled by a preceptor. The head of the Order is the Master, elected for life by the Grand Chapter. He is assisted by the Grand Commander (the Master’s lieutenant), the Treasurer, the Marshal (chief military officer), the Drapier (quartermaster-general), the Hospitaller (surgeon-general), and the Turcopolier, all of whom are elected by the Grand Chapter. (Each commandery, priory, and province has its own chapter.)
The Order admits postulants as young as sixteen, usually for training in a safe commandery. At the age of twenty the knights are knighted, the chaplains ordained as deacons, and knights, serjeants, and chaplains sent to the East for a tour of duty. Only after stipulated service against the Mahometans are they eligible for a commandery. Serving brothers and nursing sisters serve first in the East and then return to a hospital in Europe.
Daily life in the convent
The way of life in the Order of St John is monastic. The members bunk in dormitories (when available) and eat in refectories. In a large hospital there are separate dormitories for knights, serjeants, serving brothers, and nursing sisters. Chaplains and surgeons eat with the knights, but have private cells. Members of the Order receive the Sacraments frequently, saying Office in chapter every day, when possible. (Knights serving alone say 150 pater nosters instead.)
Hospitallers of all ranks spent some hours each day nursing ‘our lords the sick’ (if available). They take this service as of great spiritual importance. The sick in the Order’s hospitals eat off silver plates and drink from silver goblets: their food is much better than that eaten by [healthy] knights-brethren.
In convent Hospitallers wear black mantles with a white cross formée on the breast and shoulder. At war they wear red surcoats with white crosses.
Other Orders
Templars
The “Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon” are the other main fighting order. Unlike the Hospitallers they are technically monks. The Templars do not do charitable works as the Hospitallers do. This, and their banking revenues, makes the Templars very rich. They also tend to be proud and masterful. So they are envied and disliked. The Templars are to some extent rivals of the Hospitallers. But on the other hand they are comrades-in-arms, the best and bravest troops in Christendom. They also have an excellent network of spies in Muslim lands: and suffer from the spymaster’s usual mania for secrecy.
Templars wear white with a red cross.
Knights of St Lazarus
Hospitallers, templars, and teutonic knights who catch leprosy are required to switch to the Order of St Lazarus, which runs leper-hospitals as well as fighting. The leper knights were almost wiped out in the fall of Acre, but doubtless the Green Cross will be seen again.
The Lazarus knights wear black with a green cross.
Teutonic Knights
The ‘Teutonic Knights of St Mary’s Hospital of Jerusalem’ had rules similar to the Templars’, but making provision for hospital work, which, however, the Teutonic knights do not pursue as diligently as the Hospitallers. The Order is involved in a bloody crusade against pagans in the Baltic, where it has built a sovereign ‘Ordernstaat’. The Teutonic knights lost their last possessions in the Mediterranean with the fall of Acre, and also lost many brethren. The Hochmeister, only survivor of the Teutonic knights in Acre, is on his way back to Germany, from where it is unlikely that the Teutonic knights will return.
The Teutonic knights wear white with a black cross.
Knights of St Thomas Acon
Created by and for Englishmen, this order is neither chartered by the Pope nor immune from episcopal authority. Never large, it has been almost annihilated in the fall of Acre.
Iberian orders
Five military orders apart from the Templars and Hospitallers are involved in the Réconquista on the borders of Léon, Castile, and Portugal: the Knights of Calatreva, the Orders of St James of the Sword (Santiago, São Thiago), the Order of Alcántara, the Knights of Aviz, and the Mercedarians.
Generating characters
I expect that most characters in this campaign will be youngsters (of the usual heroic calibre) thrust to the fore by the elimination of most of the fighting-age knights. But I have also provided for clapped-out retreads to drag themselves out of semi-retirement with attributes eroded by age but more skills.
Attributes
Attributes for PCs in this campaign will be generated by rolling 3d10 and discarding the lowest roll. Do this ten times and discard the lowest result. Assign the nine results remaining as you please. Then add up the PC costs of the resulting attributes. If the result is under 150, you may spend the difference normally. If the result is 150 or over you may not spend PC points on attributes, and you will have to scrounge any points you do need elsewhere.
The retread option: If you wish to play an older character dragged out of semi-retirement for the duration of the crisis, you may instead spend 125 PC points entirely as you choose. Your character will be older and have more experience points. He will also have one extra mastery slot, to a maximum of five as usual.
Aspect
Aspect replaces both ‘the omens’ and horoscope. Aspect will be determined by drawing a card from a tarot deck. For 5 PC points, you may draw from among the court cards and major trumps, for 10 PC points from among the major trumps.
Social class
You may roll on the table twice and keep the roll that you prefer, and then if you wish increase social class by paying the appropriate difference between the PC costs of classes. To be a brother-knight you must be the son of a knight at least. The son of a serf would only be admitted to the order as a serving brother.
Sibling rank
Roll sibling rank normally. Note that a bastard cannot be ordained as a priest without a Papal dispensation or the aid of a corrupt bishop. Either will cost 5 PC points. Note also that the eldest son of a banneret or higher ranked lord will have other obligations, and only be able to join the Order as a confratre.
Father’s occupation
You may roll twice and keep the result you prefer.
Status in one’s family
Use any of the optional methods.
Special talents & abilities
Use the optional method (choose & pay.)
Deficiencies & defects
Use the optional method (choose & pay).
Size
Use the historical (and fantasy) ranges, but build is d10 for human males. Instead of rolling 2d10, roll 310 and discard any die you choose. Instead of rolling d10, roll 2d10 and keep the die you choose. You may pay PC points to alter height and build as described on p. 12 of the rules.
Age
You may let your character’s age default to 20 (40 if using the retread option). Or you may roll 2d10, keep the one you prefer, and add 15 (35 if using the retread option). Further, you may buy extra (but not sell off) years of age at 2 PC points per year.
By the rules of the Order knights and serjeants do not take permanent vows and are not sent to the East until they are twenty. By canon law a person may not be ordained a deacon under twenty nor a priest under twenty-four. But this is an emergency, and a character can get away with putting his age up by as much as two years.
Experience points
A character generated using the standard option receives 4,000 experience points plus 500 per year of age over sixteen. A character generated using the re-tread option receives 16,500 experience points plus 500 per year of age over 36.
Vocations
Brother knight
This is the vocation of a brother knight trained by the Order, either as a postulant or since joining as a knight. A knight more recently joined and with more worldly experience may be generated using the standard ‘Knight’ vocation. A character following this vocation but not yet twenty will be a postulant.
Attributes: (1) STR, (2) CON
Vocational skills: All combat skills marked (K), Riding, First Aid, Leadership, Stamina
Secondary skills: Any Materia medica, Faith, Conditioning, Endurance, Latin, any Noble skills, any background skills
Brother serjeant
This is the vocation of a brother serjeant trained by the Order, either as a postulant or since joining. A serjeant more recently joined and with more worldly experience may be generated using the standard ‘Fighter’ vocation. A character following this vocation but not yet twenty will be a postulant.
Attributes: (1) STR, (2) CON
Vocational skills: All combat skills except those marked ‘K only’, Riding, Stamina, First Aid
Secondary skills: Combat skills marked ‘K only’, Faith, Conditioning, Endurance, Weaponsmithing, any Materia medica, any background skills
Confrater
A confrater is a knight serving with the Hospitallers on temporary vows. This is the only status open to the eldest legitimate sons of titled nobles. Generate confratres as ordinary knights.
Chaplain
This is the vocation of a priest trained by the Order. A character following this vocation but not yet 20 will be a postulant. A character following this vocation and over twenty but under 24 will be a deacon.
Attributes: (1) INT, (2) PTY
Vocational skills: Faith, Theology, any Languages, any 1 Charismatic skill, Any 3 Lore Historical skills, Calligraphy & Illumination, First Aid, Riding
Secondary skills: any Materia medica, any 1 perception skill, any Combat skill marked ‘K’, any background skills
Surgeon
The Hospitallers commanded the best of both Greek and Arabic medicine of their day. This vocation might suit a character from the yeomanry or towns.
Attributes: (1) AGI, (2) INT
Primary skill: First Aid or Healing Arts I (Chirurgery) [-3 DF, costs 1 mastery]
Vocational skills: Any Materia medica
Secondary skills: Faith, Vetinary Arts I, Riding, any background skills
Physician
The Hospitallers commanded the best of both Greek and Arabic medicine of their day. This vocation might suit a character from the yeomanry or towns, or even a scholarly noble.
Attributes: (1) INT, (2) WIS
Primary skill: Healing Arts II (Physick) or Herbalism [-3 DF, costs 1 mastery]
Vocational skills: Any Materia medica
Secondary skills: Faith, Vetinary Arts II, any 1 language, any background skills
Nursing sister
Treat a nursing sister as either a surgeon or a physician. This is a suitable vocation for a character who has taken the ‘scholarly option’.
Serving brother
Any free man might join the Hospitallers as a serving brother. A serving brother could be a fighter, a forester, a seaman, an adventurer, or even a thief or assassin. This vocation is for a serving brother trained by the Hospitallers.
Attributes: (1) STR, (2) CON
Vocational skills: any combat skills marked ‘K’, 1 language (spoken), Endurance, any 1 Agricultural, Animal husbandry, Animal Training, Vetinary, or Craft & Trade skill, or Cooking.
Secondary skills: Faith, any Vetinary skills, any Materia medica, any Agricultural, Animal husbandry, Animal Training, Vetinary, or Craft & Trade skills, any background skills.
Turcopole
Generate turcopoles in the employ of the Hospitallers as common fighters. Turcopoles were often mounted archers.
Common Languages
The official language of the late crusader states was French, but most of the inhabitants spoke Arabic. Greek is the common language of Cyprus, and Latin is the official language of the Church and the Order of the Hospital. A simple créole of koine Greek, French, and Arabic called ‘Lingua Franca’ is spoken by traders and travellers in the Levant.
Player characters begin with a native language, basic knowledge in one other language, and basic knowledge of the common tongue Lingua Franca.
Ordination
Member of Order
The only qualification for ordination as member of a holy fighting order is basic knowledge of Latin, and even that is often deferred.
Ordination of an Hospitaller is an Act of Faith that can be performed only by a commander, chaplain priest, or bailiff of the Order.
Deacon
To be ordained a deacon, a man must be twenty years old, have basic knowledge of Latin, and be able to read Latin script. In point of law he must be neither a bastard nor the son of a priest, but this point is often waived, dispensed, or overlooked.
Ordination of a deacon is an Act of Faith that can be performed only by a bishop.
Priest
To be ordained a priest, a man must be 24, have basic knowledge of Theology, have basic knowledge of Latin, and be able to read Latin script. In point of law he must be neither a bastard nor the son of a priest, but this point is often waived, dispensed, or overlooked.
Ordination of a priest is an Act of Faith that can be performed only by a bishop.