Firebird01

Good news! One of my players has decided to take an Imperial Musketeer as a PC (the player has given me the picture below as a visualisation of his character), joining a Shaman, an Islander Hunter, a drunken Albionic Sawbones and an Albionic noble member of the Royal Society doing science stuff. Tomorrow is character generation and handout of props an plot hooks (of course there are fragments of a treasure map included, how could there not be!) and then they get on with trying to find out just what exactly their grandparents had got up to forty five years ago and why they all suddenly disappeared at the same time. Also, what is the truth behind the myths of a great and terrifying dragon of the Spirit realm and is it really looking for them? Will keep you updated on how the Suebian character plays out. I have chosen not to plan and standard Pirates v. Dragons campaign but rather something using the setting as a background to the players quest (of course if they do too well then a Pirate raid and a marooning could well be on the cards). Yours in Comradeship, Adventure, Gold and Blood

Hours of endless fun for a bored GM.

I Might be going the route of hybrid rules as I like the simplicity of P&D Combat but wanted something more in depth regarding ship type, manoeuvres and wind direction etc. We have a sailor in the family so have learnt a bit about effect of wind on various dinghies and how close to the wind they can effectively sail and I would like to get a flavour of these considerations into my game so that characters have to put a bit of thought into what the vessel can and can't do.

I will be starting a Pirates and Dragons campaign soon(ish) and have looked at the ships combat rules, they are fairly basic and designed for quick and cinematic resolution of ship to ship or ship to monster combat. I have also been looking at the BRP supplement Blood Tide which seems to have a more comprehensive rules set for sea battles. So whilst I cannot recommend one over the other yet, I will be trialling both to see which may players think is more in keeping with the spirit of the campaign as it evolves.

At the very least I will use it for a major NPC who has dubious plans for the characters.

No problem, if you upload your revised musketeer stats I will use that if anybody chooses the class. Happy Pirating

Looks good, only one minor point, you have Swashbuckling as a choice in advanced skills when it is in fact a common skill. As I will be starting a Pirates and Dragons campaign soon I will include the Suebians as one of the culture options and give it a play test if anyone chooses it.

I agree, Renaissance is nice and flexible and also allows for a more narrative based adventure with the rules being there for when you really need them such as fighting giant insects on floating islands in space halfway between the moon and earth. Lots of BRP stuff can just be lifted straight in with only a minor tweak or two, great for finding new spells for the main antagonist of the party and strange weapons etc.

I use the zeal and righteousness only when one of my players tries to have his character react too far outside his beliefs as I see them (note the 'I', my decision on this as players can always find spurious ways to justify the characters actions), this the gives them plenty of opportunity to role-play some interesting intra-party conflicts!

That's easy - show them the treasure and they'll find their beliefs are more sort of guidelines actually.

I can see my players are not going to enjoy themselves much this season - cackle!

I Don't see why this approach could not be used, after all a lot of witchcraft spells have specific triggers associated with them so it's just a variation on that really. I have used something similar, a clockwork bomb mechanism designed to work on alchemical principles - basically loaded with philosophers stones and planted in the army laboratories and designed to start a 'critical mass' of philosophers stones instigating a chain reaction for every stone nearby - if it wasn't for those pesky characters it would have worked too!.

Just in case it comes in useful, here is a spell that was researched by our Scottish alchemist during the campaign. For to Listen To The Whispering Breezes Duration 10, Magnitude 1, Ranged (10 x POW m), Resisted special (Persistence) Element: Air This spell enables the caster to hear anything that is being said within the given range as if it were being spoken directly to them. The conversation must in most cases be taking place within line of sight of the alchemist. It may, however, even be possible to listen to the conversation of people out of sight e.g. in a room with an open window that can be observed (GM discretion as to the effectiveness of this) but not in an adjoining room to that with the open window. The spell relies on an observed target. The spell cuts out all extraneous noise and relays even the quietest of whispered words clearly. A persistence roll will only apply if the target is making a concerted effort to conceal what they are saying, for example, ladies talking behind their fans.

Hope you enjoy it, and also hope your players respond just as mine have - by going totally off script and running around on needless but entertaining side quests (requiring a lot of ad-lib storytelling). Make sure the exploding badgers cause mayhem.

In a moment of weakness I agreed that my player (who loves all things of a Japanese martial nature) could take on the role of a visiting Samurai noble who, under instruction from the newly founded Imperial college of alchemy in his home country would journey to the shores of England to study at the invisible college and bring back the techniques to his master. Unfortunately in the time it has taken him to get to Europe, find a sponsor (the father of the Scottish alchemist in the party) Japan, now being in the Edo period and ruled by the Shogunate, has closed it's borders to all non-Japanese and declared him a "ghost" and no longer considered to be of Nippon. This has upset him a bit, but as he has managed to combine 'For to sharpen a blade' with his katana to devastating effect, also he has suit of lacquered armour that spends most of the time around his neck in the form of an amulet to be summoned into fullness by means of a successful alchemy skill roll. He is a bit overpowered to be honest, but a few witchcraft spells or miasmas soon put him at a disadvantage and even it up a bit.

So far just war-torn Britain and interplanetary space via Scotland following the adventures of a Highwaywoman, an extravagant Cavalier spy (a sort of undercover fop really), a dour Scottish Alchemist with feuding issues and last a Samurai Alchemist of no fixed abode - some or none of the mentioned may also have skills in the field clockwork or even witchcraft but that would be telling. Seems enough for me to be going on with at the moment. A good place to look for inspiration on a global scale fitting the Renaissance time frame are the books of the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson - spanning the world of 1620 to 1720 ish with momentous events such as English Civil War, War all over Europe as well, Louis XIV and the founding of Versaille, New colonies in the Americas, Spanish treasure fleets in the Pacific, Barbary Pirates in North Africa, Armenian coffee merchants, the King of the Vagabonds, Sinister French nobles eating rotten fish, The founding of the Royal Society, Isaac Newton vs. Leibniz, Hooke, Boyle, Huygens and Christopher Wren, Kings (and Queens) coming and going at the drop of a crown. Must be something in that lot to make a good campaign or ten!

Time to deploy the Victorian clockwork fly swatter then (yes it's a genuine thing!)

One idea I am toying with is having clockwork 'batteries', essentially a pre wound clockwork spring in a canister which plugs into your clockwork weapon (e.g. rotating halberd etc.). In principle the same as power packs for power tools that you charge and then plug into the tool. Will need a bit of careful design as we don't want characters to have to much extra power to use do we.

Todays creepy becomes tomorrows normal for your players and just because they are paranoid doesn't mean that the whole world isn't out to get them. Now to introduce them to chameleon wolves and attack squirrels.

First you have to catch the sinner - wherever she and her devilish creations may be!

When I get round to editing all my notes from my C & C campaign (loosely following the Kingdom and Commonwealth scenarios) I probably will have the odd thing, contraption or totally weird idea to share. In the meantime check out andrewchase.com for some inspiration from his absolutely brilliant sculptures (I am using these as basis for Lady Silver combining clockwork, alchemy and witchcraft by putting living brains into mechanical bodies and I was in need of some nice high powered and difficult to skill stuff to go up against some characters who had grown somewhat in stature since the campaign started). Yeti

Peter, Just sent it off. Yeti

have got a draft excel one but not permitted to post unfortunately - just tried Yeti

Hi all, Just about to launch into our second round of Clockwork - Thou shalt not suffer and a couple or so of things came up at the end of The Alchemists Wife. 1.) A couple of spells of the Alchemical variety e.g. For to disrupt the body say that the victim 'may receive a Major Wound at a random hit location'. Is this an extra effect of the spell, if so what kicks it into play, or just an effect of normal damage rules and if so why bother to mention it? 2.) Two weapon use - does this really mean that any person with two weapons in hand can have two attacks per round even if they haven't got a skill of over 100%. Also dual weapon use seems a bit redundant if their skill level less their penalty is still greater than the dual weapon skill, they might as well not bother with it or use an all out attack if they want to hit twice. I am sure the players were asking about a few other things but I've had a break whilst someone else ran a world of darkness campaign. I try to be a bit cinematic and less rule bound than others in running these things and will often make up a quick ruling on the hoof but some players do like things just so. The Alchemists wife seemed to go down really well and some interesting, hugely entertaining sessions were had. Unfortunately thanks to fire breathing wolves, exploding badgers, devil's chickens and a few four legged additions of my own the party do now have a tendency to eliminate wildlife at the drop of a hat - still working on attack squirrels though. Finally a spell devised during play which I quite liked and goes thusly (as attached) Cheers Yeti For to Listen Unto The Whispering Breezes.docx