New Appendices for Outremer

I've inserted a couple more appendices I thought would be useful into Outremer - Appendix C: Cuisine and Appendix D: Muslim Titles. Appendix C was written by Sally and Rachel Abramavel, and covers typically available ingredients for Outremer, both in time and in place. Since it has been only 68 years since Columbus discovered the New World at the time Outremer begins, only those New World foods with fast and widespread acceptance were included, such as turkey, peanuts, and maize. Potatoes and tomatoes took a long time to win acceptance in the Old World, so these were left out. It discusses typical means of preparation, and finishes with various selections for different courses, a sample menu as it were.

The second new appendix, Appendix D: Muslim Titles, lists Arabic and Turkish titles that would have been used in Outremer, such as Sharif, Bey, Alim, Haji, Ghazi, Caliph, and Sultan. It also includes titles which were known in Outremer, but were not used often, such as Khan and Shah. In some cases, modern usages of terms such as Sayyid have changed since the times in the game - Sayyid originally meant one was descended from Huseyn son of Ali, and therefore noble, but now in many countries is the equivalent of saying "Mister". The scholarly titles were particularly tricky, as one must judge the particular degree of learning and respect - calling a Mujtahid a Mullah would be fairly insulting, though both are Alim, or Islamic scholars.

I thought both of these would be really helpful if one were to run a game in Outremer - the kind of thing a GM wouldn't think of, but might get totally stuck on when a player says "What's in this feast?" or "How should I address this fellow?". Knowing a Faris ranks above a Ghazi, and a Emir above a Bey might be very important in certain circumstances!

-clash