rust

As far as I remember, Moon Design's "Cult Compendium" had a chapter about

the step-by-step design of Runequest cults that could perhaps be useful:

http://www.warehouse23.com/item.html?id=ISS1609

From there: "A guideline chapter shows how to design your own new cults."

I really hope Chaosium moves somewhat faster than usual, good rules for

ships and naval combat are exactly what my Malita setting would need in

the near future.

In other words: Chaosium, here is a customer waiting for service ...

The campaign doesn't have to go to the New World, the New World could come to it.

But of course - and I did not even think of this ... :shocked:

Thank you very much for that idea, I really overlooked it completely. :thumb:

Some of the Portuguese or Spanish members of the order may well have been

to the New World before they joined the order, especially with the life as a

conquistador or a member of a knightly order as two of the very few "career

opportunities" of a younger son of a noble family.

And they may also have brought something with them, from a native servant

through some artefact up to strange and potentially heretical ideas (an ex-

treme example could even include the belief in human sacrifice ...).

Yes, there are lots of ways to use this to add some interesting colour to the

setting and campaign.

As for the more local "natives", I intend to "establish" some strange cult on

Malita (my fictional Malta's name), connected to the ancient stone age tem-

ples that really exist on Malta.

Since the Christian god "proved unable" to protect the island population from

the pirates, they have turned to almost forgotten (or newly invented) rituals

at those ancient temple ruins.

When the knights find out about this, they have a serious problem: On the

one hand, they cannot tolerate such pagan heresies, but on the other hand

they cannot risk to alienate the population by prohibiting them - someone

has to keep the hotheads of the order away from the problem while imple-

menting a "soft" strategy to win the islanders' trust and "re-convert" them.

But this is just a rough idea for some "sideline adventure", I am not yet sure

what to make of it.

Thank you very much.

I am not yet sure if and when the campaign could move away from the Medi-

terranean (so much to do and suffer there ... >:->), but it is indeed a very

fascinating idea to send the knights on some (for example "papal") mission to

the New World.

Well, one of the obvious cool people to include would be Janissaries. It seems like these warriors would make a characterful addition to the campaign. You could even tweak them a little and make them more interesting for your fantasy adaptation.

Thank you for this idea.

Indeed, they would be a nice addition, although there are two minor prob-

lems with the Janissaries: They were rarely deployed at sea (the Battle of

Lepanto was one of those rare cases), and I do not yet know how to make

them obviously special - they should have higher military skills, but arms and

weapons normally would be the same as those of other units.

It seems the Janissaries are a very good addition for the "fluff" side of the

setting and campaign, in a way a "military counterpart" to the other "elite

unit" of the knights' opponents, the assassins - perhaps I could even turn

the assassins into a "special forces unit" of the Janissaries ...

Yep, thank you, this makes some nice twists possible.

As for the Barbary Pirates, a first attempt looks like this:

Barbary Pirate

Climb

Dodge

Firearm (Musket)

Grapple

Melee Weapon (Scimitar)

Pilot (Boat)

Swim

plus three of:

- Artillery (Cannon), Command,

Language (other), Listen, Spot

... which is basically the BRP Sailor profession with minimal changes.

Arms

Curved Sword (Kilic/Scimitar)

Composite Bow

Musket

Armour

Lamellar Armour (but at sea ?)

Conical Helmet

Since I could not find any mention of different skills or equipment for the Ot-

tomans, Arabs and Berbers, I currently assume that they were more or less

identical - but this can change with more information on the subject.

The differences between the cultures will probably be more visible in the

"fluff" part of the setting than in the rules, I think.

A major problem are the ships used by both sides. While the historical ones

would be various types of galleys, I just do not like them and have almost

no idea how they were handled and used in combat. Therefore I decided to

"go unhistorical" by most of a century and give the knights galeasses (almost

early frigates) and the pirates chebecs - both sailing ships with auxiliary oars

instead of predominantly rowed ships. This enables me to draw on my little

knowledge of naval warfare in the Age of Sail and to describe and "referee"

any naval operations in a somewhat more plausible way.

Ideas and comments would still be most welcome.

Thank you very much, Seneschal and USAFguy.

Indeed, not a simple, one dimensional evil empire.

They are NOT Arab, they are Turkish.

This is one of the reasons why it is both very interesting and rather challen-

ging to design this part of the setting.

Even when ignoring the various minorities (Balkans, Greece ...), there are at

least three major and quite different cultures to deal with, the Ottomans /

Turks, the Arabs of the eastern Maghreb and the Berbers / Moors of the wes-

tern Maghreb, all of them "major players" in the wars of the Ottoman Empire

and the Barbary Pirates against the Maltese Knights.

Moreover, the political situation made strange bedfellows during this period.

For example, the Ottoman Empire was often allied with France, and the Ot-

toman navy (plus the pirates) helped France to conquer Nice from Spain -

and France and Spain were among the most important supporters of the Mal-

tese Knights ...

So, the setting will have to deal with a very "non-monolithic" situation, and

I think I will take care that the players understand that their knights have

to be able to deal and compromise with more than a few enemies in order to

achieve anything, and that winning allies and friends in the "other camp" is

almost a necessity for survival, or at least for success.

Thank you very much, some very interesting books there, about the Ottoman

Empire as well as about the Knights Hospitaller, the "role model" for my set-

ting's player characters.

Edit.:

And some of those books are even available on Ebay.

Now that my fictitional 16th century Maltese Order setting has got some

shape, someone told me that he would love to see the "opposition", the

Barbary Pirates and the Ottoman Empire forces.

Well, so would I ...

The problem is, it seems to be a lot more difficult to get useful material

on these cultures of that period, and while I intend to picture them in a

more "oriental-fantastic" style than "realistic" (to make the "discovery" of

their world a little more colourful and interesting for the players), some

real world sources - preferably roleplaying material - to base the fiction

upon would be most helpful.

GURPS Swashbucklers has a few short notes, but they do not help much,

and it is the same with the Flashing Blades RPG and my other sources.

But perhaps there is something more detailed somewhere out there ...

So, if someone has an idea where I could start a search for such material,

please let me know - Thank you.

And here the Seven Tongues of the order, their areas of responsibility and

their two cultural skills (bonus + 10 % each):

Tongues and Grand Priories

on Malita each Tongue is commanded by a Knight Bailli

Danish Tongue

Grand Priories Denmark and Sweden

Responsibility: Finances and Trade of the Order

Cultural Skills: Appraise, Bargain

English Tongue

Grand Priories England, Scotland and Ireland

Responsibility: Fleet of the Order

Cultural Skills: Artillery (Cannon), Navigate

French Tongue

Grand Priories Bourganeuf, France, Saint-Gilles und Toulouse

Responsibility: Infantry of the Order

Cultural Skills: Etiquette, Firearm (Musket)

German Tongue

Grand Priories Bohemia, Upper and Lower Germany

Responsibility: Administrators and Planners of the Order

Cultural Skills: Command, Knowledge (Law)

Italian Tongue

Grand Priories Messina, Barletta, Capua, Rom, Pisa, Lombardei und Venedig

Responsibility: Diplomats and Theologists of the Order

Cultural Skills: Knowledge (Religion / True Faith), Persuade

Polish Tongue

Grand Priories Poland and Hungary

Responsibility: Cavalry of the Order

Cultural Skills: Missile Weapon (Bow), Ride

Spanish Tongue

Grand Priories Aragon, Catalonia, Castile and León, Navarra and Portugal

Responsibility: Artillery of the Order

Cultural Skills: Artillery (Cannon), Melee Weapon (Rapier)

The Tongues are almost the historical ones, I only "united" the various Tongues from France, because

the players probably would not have known where to put countries like Armagnac or Auvergne, and I

gave the Polish and Hungarian knights their own tongue instead of treating them as a part of the German

Tongue.

The cultural skills are mostly the result of a thread on my German "home forum" Fundus Ludi, where I as-

ked for proposals for "typical" national cultural skills.

A very interesting comment came from a German-Polish historian, who informed me about the Polish no-

ble cavalry of the period, armed with composite bows and sabres - some nice colour for the setting.

There is some more material for this setting now, but unfortunately all of it is in German ...

Only the very long Equipment List is still in English, because I borrowed it from the 7th Sea RPG and mo-

dified it only slightly for this setting, for example by changing the currency into Scudi and Centavos.

Ah, now I get it - sometimes I am a bit slow when it comes to comprehending

English.

Yep, you are of course right, and this is one of the reasons why I want to

use the Personality Traits: They do not enforce a specific behaviour onto

the player characters, but they give a good guideline which behaviour the

order expects from its members, and needs to operate smoothly. The cha-

racters can still behave otherwise, but the order will not like this, and in ex-

treme cases will even punish it.

I guess rust has returned...en guarde!

Yep.

Thank you very much for this comment.

However, neither of these should determine how a character behaves or what a character does.

Apart from their "guideline" function, I intend to use the traits mainly to de-

termine whether a knight is considered eligible for a prestigious mission or

a promotion within the order.

For example, someone with a high Arbitrary trait is unlikely to be chosen as

the leader of a unit of knights, and someone with a high Cruel trait will pro-

bably not be chosen for a relief mission into an area that has been hit by the

Plague.

So, the player always decides how his character will act, unhindered by the

personality traits - but other knights and especially the leadership of the or-

der will watch the knight, and their opinion of his behaviour's compliance with

the order's rules and expectations will determine how they treat him.

If he is caught spending the night with the serving wench despite his vow of

chastity, he may well find himself on the walls of a remote watchtower for a

couple of months ... >:->

The "basic knight" of this setting will have this profession:

Knight of the Order

Command

Etiquette (Noble)

Firearm (Rifle / Musket)

First Aid

Knowledge (Religion / True Faith)

Melee Weapon (Rapier)

Parry

Ride

Status

plus one other skill (e.g. Navigate, Strategy, etc.)

Potential alternatives are the professions of Noble, Priest ("Knight Chaplain"),

Scholar, Sailor and Soldier (all slightly modified to fit the setting).

As for the Personality Traits, I think they will start more or less like this:

Chaste [50] / Lustful [50]

Energetic [50] / Lazy [50]

Forgiving [50] / Vengeful [50]

Generous [50] / Selfish [50]

Honest [60] / Deceitful [40]

Just [60] / Arbitrary [40]

Merciful [50] / Cruel [50]

Modest [60] / Proud [40]

Pious [60] / Worldly [40]

Prudent [50] / Reckless [50]

Temperate [60] / Indulgent [40]

Trusting [50] / Suspicious [50]

Valorous [70] / Cowardly [30]

The players will probably be allowed to "switch" up to 25 points during cha-

racter creation.

The traits the order expects from its members will probably be Honest, Just,

Modest, Pious and Temperate, and knights need a somewhat above average

value in these traits to be accepted into the order.

And, of course, all knights have to be far more Valorous than Cowardly to en-

ter a fighting order.

During the game the traits will determine whether a knight has a chance to be

chosen for a task of high prestige or a promotion within the order.

To be eligible, he will probably need a total of 500 in the five traits expected

by the order and Valorous, and none of the unwanted traits (all on the right

side above) should be above 60.

By the way, the ranks within the order will be Serjeant (non-knighted, e.g. a

squire), Serving Knight, Knight Officer, Knight Commander and Knight Bailli (the

latter commands one of the seven "Tongues" / national sections of the order).

The more exalted leadership positions (e.g. the Grand Master) will not be open

for player character knights - at least not at the beginning of the campaign.

Use both. ...

Thank you very much, I will do that.

@ Dredj & Trippy Hippy:

Star signs are an important part of the character generation of the Harnmas-

ter RPG system, and there they work rather well.

For me they would probably be somewhat less useful, because the intention

of their use is to make characters more different, and I am looking for a way

to make them more similar in a small area of personality and behaviour (what

"defines" a knight of the order).

To do that with star signs, a majority of the characters (and other knights of

the order) would have to have the same star sign, and this would make this a

bit implausible for me.

Meaning they wouldn't be inclined to roleplay their characters that way on their own?

No, just meaning that they might find it difficult to play such characters, and

that rules that outline and reward the "expected" (not enforced) behaviour of

their characters might make it somewhat easier for them.

While working on the setting described in the Age of Musketeers thread, I ran

into a more general problem:

If I want to encourage the players of characters that are members of a

knightly order to play those characters accordingly in a "knightly fashion",

should I use the Allegiance option or the Personality Traits option ?

At first I intended to use the personality traits, because they worked rather

well in my Pendragon games. But then I did read the allegiance option in the

BRP rules, and it (minus the Apotheosis part) also looks very well, even a

bit more to the point I want and more flexible.

To use both systems would most probably become a "bookkeeping overkill",

and I am not sure whether they would really be compatible.

So I have to decide for one of the options, but I lack any experience with

the allegiance rules.

Good advice would be most welcome - Thank you.

Some more ideas for the setting itself ...

There will be three classes of members of the order, True Knights (the histori-

cal militant noble monks with their vow of chastity), Lesser Knights (more like

the Pendragon knights, able to marry and have families) and Lay Brethren (all

the non-noble or non-knighted members, like men-at-arms, squires, etc.).

The leaders of the order (Grand Master, etc.) have to be True Knights, the

Lesser Knights (including all player characters, I think) can only be elected in-

to the minor offices (like commander of a unit, leader of a Tongue, etc.).

At the start of the campaign there will be no associated female branch of the

order, because I want the creation of such a Sisterhood as an interesting

challenge for one of the player characters - a female character that travels

with the knights, serves as a "role model" for other women (beginning with a

female squire for her), and is asked by the Grand Master to form a female

order of Lesser Knights because every sword is needed in the defence of the

island.

This could lead to some nice sub-adventures, including a diplomatic mission

to bribe some cardinals and the pope (quite possible in this period ...) to al-

low such a sisterhood against the opposition of the more traditional parts of

the church (including the Dominicans and the Inquisition ...).

As for the time period, the important historical events took place between

1530 (the knights take over Malta) and 1565 (the famous siege).

This is a bit too early for my taste, I very much prefer the technology of the

time around 1600, for example sailing ships instead of rowed galleys, and so

I will change the technology of the setting accordingly.

The structure of the campaign will again be borrowed from Pendragon, with

one or two main adventures and a "winter phase" for each year of game time.

The "winter phase" will give the characters an opportunity to care for their

families, indulge in the order's internal politics and intrigues, carry out their

duties from any offices they were elected into, and do routine service on the

fortification walls or ships - and so on.

After a look at rleduc's most useful game template (thank you again for that

tool), I think the setting's system would probably look like this:

Game Options Used

Power Level: Normal

Choosing Characteristic Values (page 16)

- the players should get the characters they want to play

Education/Knowledge Roll (pages 24, 27, 28)

- there are many useful fields of knowledge in this setting, and there may

well be some "renaissance men" among the characters

Cultural Modifiers (page 38)

- the knights from different "Tongues" (nationalities) should have somewhat

different cultures and "specialties" (e.g. the Dutch of this period were not

known for their fencing skills, like the French or Italians, but they often were

excellent sailors or siege engineers)

Aging and Inaction (page 183)

- I am not sure about Inaction, but Aging definitely should happen to older

knights

Complimentary Skills (page 50)

- for all those "skill crossover" situations that happen quite often in my cam-

paigns

Skill Ratings Over 100% (page 175)

- well, the players will probably like that ...

Personality Traits (page 294)

- because I want the characters to act in a "knightly fashion", and I like this

system in the Pendragon RPG

Skills Bonuses: Neither

- like hit locations, this is more detail than I like

System and Combat

Initiative Rolls (page 188)

Attacks and Parries over 100% (page198)

Powers: None

- at least for the player characters, but there may well be the occasional

evil wizard on the other side

Allegiance (page 315)

- the order and the order's religion, of course, although I am not yet sure

whether this would work well with the Personality Traits system - perhaps

I should only use one of the two, not both ?

Cultures

- as mentioned, the cultures of the various Tongues of the order

Professions

- traditionally, the members of a knightly order could be Noble, Priest, Sailor,

Scholar or Soldier, but I will probably change this into a small number of dif-

ferent Knight professions and add a Squire profession ?

Well, this is what I currently think about the setting's game system.

Comments and ideas are, as always, most welcome - Thank you.

I started with a map and an outline of the real world Malta, both from the In-

ternet, and then used Paint.NET to mark the various terrains into the outline,

colour them and write the few words of text - all in all less than an hour, and

much of that time was spent searching for an outline of Malta on the Inter-

net.

Paint.NET is a free expanded version of Paint, very easy to work with for any-

one who knows Paint, and with just enough functions for something like that

little map. I once tried GIMP, but I did not have the patience necessary to

learn to handle it properly, and Paint.NET does all I need.

Well, if I would work on this setting, I would as always start with a first map.

For an Alternate History setting, I would take the map of the real world loca-

tion and change it slightly, with a usually simplified topography (more details

could be added later, during the campaign) and with mostly fictional names

- the map should remind the players of the "real thing", but still be different

enough to avoid any confusion with the real world.

In the case of the "Fictional Malta" setting, a first draft of that map could

look like this one:

Thank you, this looks good indeed - I will download it soon.

Edit:

Yes, it really looks good - thank you again.

Together with GURPS Swashbucklers and some other stuff I seem to have now

almost all of the material necessary to start designing the setting and the ope-

ning scenes of a campaign in this setting - I obviously have to do it, although

I am not yet sure when I will have enough time for it ...

There wouldn't be a great siege involved at some point would there ?

You can count on that.

Once the order has managed to build some decent fortifications, I would use

the first lull in the campaign to let the besieging heathen forces arrive on the

island ... :cool:

Thank you very much for the new version. :thumb:

I am currently a bit away from science fiction (see the "Age of Musketeers"

thread ...), but I will doubtless return to it in the not so far future, and I am

looking forward to using your material then.

Yep. The first task of the knights probably would be to "get their act toge-

ther" and to prove to the suspicious locals that the order is able to beat the

pirates and to defend the island - and not just to make the pirates more an-

gry.

This would require both local preparations for the defence of the island and

missions to aquire equipment (arms, gunpowder, ammunition ...) and perhaps

to hire some mercenaries for the time until more knights have arrived on the

island.

And then, of course, a first epic battle against the invading pirates ... >:->

Afterwards the knights would have to make plans for the development of the

island, depending on the available money (not much, at least in the beginning)

and manpower: Rebuild the town and its fortifications, establish a market and

trade, build or buy some ships to protect the fishermen from the pirates, in-

vite suitable settlers without alienating the locals, and so on and on.

However, these would mostly be background events for the characters, for

them I would need some more adventurous missions to keep the players hap-

py.

Examples could be a "counter offensive" to take the war to the pirates and

their supporters (and to gain money by raiding the pirate bases ...), missions

to find and free the islanders that have been enslaved by the pirates and to

return them to the island (winning the gratitude of the locals ...), plus the

diplomacy, church politics and other ideas mentioned in the first post.

Since I prefer a "sandbox" style of roleplaying, much would depend on the in-

tentions of the players. I would expect them to go for the combat oriented

possibilities of the setting, but they could just as well decide to show more

interest in church intrigue - or even in the administration of the island.

Therefore I would develop the setting without too much depth and detail, and

later add what is needed according to the route chosen by the players.

So, the first things needed - apart from the general background (BRP profes-

sions, equipment, etc.) - would be the organization of the order (easy to co-

py from the real Maltese order) and a good description of the island and of

its important NPCs (knights as well as locals).

Next would be the "enemy", the pirates and - in the background - a kind of

powerful "evil counterpart" of the knights, perhaps something like the medie-

val Assassins, plus some "neutral" powers to make things a bit more compli-

cated (other knightly orders, the Jesuits, various nations' "secret services"

- greetings from Cardinal Richelieu - with conflicting aims and interests).

The most difficult part of this currently seems to be the naval warfare - the

ships and their guns, boarding actions and thelike in BRP terms.

Since I am probably too lazy to design this, I could wait for the announced

Pirates supplement for BRP to "borrow" some basic material from there, as it

seems to be almost exactly the same time period.

Well, it seems I am already working on this setting ...