The Campaign Builder's Guild

As some of you may remember, I'm using a semi-historical basis for my campaign setting. My system (little of it as I've posted here) is getting ready for playtest and I want to be ready with a small portion of the setting fully detailed by this summer. Specifically, I want my England/Japan portion of the setting ready.

I need a crash course in the following...

Tokugawan Japan.
Victorian England.
England under regent George IV
Elizabethan England
Religious conflict between protestants and catholics in England.
Religious conflict between Christianity and paganism in England and Ireland.
Mystery cults of late Rome.
Gnosticism.
Chinese religions (Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Legalism, and anything and everything else)
Shinto.
Early socialist movements.
Histories of organized crime.
The French revolution.

Any recommendations for reading material would be greatly appreciated.

Try this for starters
This works too sometimes (its iffy)

I got 404s on both links, but I know where they were meant to go. I been through wikipedia. My usual strategy is to pick up the books they list at the end... problem is time mostly... I can only afford to read one book on any one subject if that and I need to know one good book instead of four that may or may not be useful.

Reason I don't use wikipedia articles themselves is because they tend to be pretty vague.

I can't recommend books, but I can offer my services as a consultant on matters of

Quote from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_mists_of_avalonThe Mists of Avalon[/url], but it's excessively long.  For information on Tokugawa japan, talk to the user Gamer Printshop or read Shogun.  It's not always accurate, but it gives you enough insight to fake it well.

Anyway, good luck.

Quote from: beejazzVictorian England.

You could try Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power by Niall Ferguson. It isn't expressly about Victorian era culture, more a book about British Imperialism during the 19th century.

Quote from: beejazzChinese religions (Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Legalism, and anything and everything else)
Shinto.

Hmm, well you could try The Handy Religion Answer Book by John Renard. It answers most questions you may have about the major world religions, including Shinto, Daoism, Confusism and Buddhism.

You may also want to try Buddhism: The Illustrated Guide. Don't let the name fool you, this isn't a picture book (though it does have a lot of color pictures :) ). It's a book that discusses Buddhism and many of its important practices, beliefs, rituals and traditions. It's very good and pretty cheap :)

Since you're looking not for accurate dates or personages but for a feel/tone/general shape (I think?), I'd recommend watching films more than anything else.  They're not always accurate historically 100% but they can really communicate what the eras generally felt like...

A few good places to start:

Victorian England: From Hell, any Sherlock Holmes adaptation (the mini-series "Murder Rooms" is particularly excellent if you can find it)

Elizabethan England: Elizabeth I and II, The Other Boleyn Girl, Shakespeare in Love

French Revolution: Quills, Dangerous Liasons, Brotherhood of the Wolf

Thanks for all the recommendations guys.

@Rose: Hmm.. Mists of Avalon is too long you say? Are there chapters especially worth reading or skipping that might speed things up?

@Elf: Empire could be greatly useful for the wider setting, if not for immediate play. I'll definitely have to read it. Religion answer guide could also be particularly useful.

@Steerpike: Actually, I'm looking more for content than flavor in a manner of speaking. How things really worked in militias, churches, criminal organizations, riots, noble families, guilds, regencies, early parliamentary government, and anything else that may apply. I'm trying to take an inspiration for content while cutting out the styles and specifically Japanese / specifically British naming conventions and such.

All that said, these films look pretty damn good, and will take a lot less time to get through than the books. So they could be useful.

The Elizabeth movies, if you haven't seen them, are particularly worth a look if you want to get a quick & dirty grasp of Elizabethan politics.

On Japanese stuff:

Shinto is a really beautiful religion that revolves around four main principles:

Living in Harmony
Respect of Nature
Personal Hygiene
Honoring the Kami

Everything in the natural world has a kami, or god, and even people may become kami when they die (this is the foundation of ancestor worship in Shinto).  Oddly, Shinto does not concern itself too heavily with what happens after you die, and in modern Japan, funerals are held with the Buddhist tradition.

Harmony among people is believed to be best maintained by enforcing and following strong traditions as passed on through a tight family unit.

Respect of nature does not mean refusing to use nature.  For example, it is not permissible to kill except in order to survive, thus eating meat is perfectly acceptable, so long as you demonstrate proper respect for the dead kami by thanking it for dying so you might live (Ittedakimasu).  This is one of the ways of avoiding impurity.

Hygiene is requires that one bathes daily and at least symbolically bathes before entering a shrine or temple.  This symbolic cleansing typcially involves the washign of one's hands and rinsing out of the mouth.  In older times, one was expected to bathe completely, and most shrines were located near rivers for this.

I would personally note that for the typical western christian, shinto is a little odd.  It is animistic and so peaceful in its teaching that it makes Jesus look like a warmonger--not that this ever inhibited the Japanese war machines.  I suppose the aspect that struck me hardest was the strong sense of harmony with the surrounding world; humans don't seem to be held above any other aspect of nature and it is very evident that we are suppose to be part of nature.  I could be totally wrong, but that has been my feeling from what I've researched on it.  I plan on trackign down some books on it properly at some point, time permitting.

I'll post more eventually, but I need sleep atm.

Mists of Avalon is a trainwreck of a book.  I had to read it for class this semester.  It's horrendously long for minimum return, but if you actually finish it you internalize a ton of information.  I really suggest you follow Steerpike's advice and use films to learn the most as quickly as possible.