Heraldry for Role Playing Games

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The rules of blazon exist to create easy to identify and unique arms and following these simple rules you can make your whole fantasy or feudal sci-fi game gush with atmosphere and verisimilitude.

While there are many rules in the creation of arms, there are two rules that one should never be broken, as to do so violates the very purpose of those coats of arms.

  • The Coat of Arms must be simple enough to be legible and identifiable from a distance. Overly fancy or complicated arms just won’t work, you need to know if you are about to unleash your archers on Sir Archibald of Flanders or Sir Flanders of Archibald.
  • The Coat of Arms must be unique. Now for our purposes, it’s unique to whatever world or setting your are concerned with, but going around with the Royal Arms of England on your knight in Warhammer Fantasy is also going to be unnecessarily confusing for everyone involved.