Julich1610

Having just completed such an effort, though for a different era, I can tell you to prepare yourself for a huge investment of your time researching the history, imagining the story and the characters, fleshing out the locations and perils, a thousand details. I went so far as to travel abroad to the sites where I had imagined the action taking place; it adds a lot to a fantasy game, paradoxically, to have real experiences to draw upon, to know first-hand the flavor of Picon before writing about a 17th century merchant thereof. And let's be honest, in this day and age there is not a huge market anymore for any book. Video rules. You won't get rich, but then neither did Van Gogh. I think W. Somerset Maugham wrote in "Of Human Bondage" that the only reason to be an artist is that you have no choice. Because you love it. I have had so much fun with this! To imagine something that seemed outrageous, only to discover that it was true history or true legend. Because it is Lovecraft, perhaps I realized that meaning is the superimposition of humanity over a fundamentally alien universe, but that the superimposition of sanity over madness is hope, faith, love, all those things that make human life tolerable. It is worthwhile to defend the light, even an artificial light, from the darkness. Otherwise, there is nothing left to see... Another free bit of advice, play the game with total strangers. I did this at Gencon last year, braving some strong BO on the convention floor, in the process, fortunately not from the gamers who played my table (why is it that some gamers have a strange aversion, apparently, to soap and water? Van Gogh was also reportedly malodorous, but I have no idea why personal hygiene should be inconsistent with artistic genius.). Besides having a great time running the game and getting feedback from those playing it, it really started to gel for me as a game people would actually play. Perhaps I developed greater sympathy for the GM and the player as the result of those sessions. In the end, games are about having fun, and I really believe there is more fun in making a game others play and enjoy than just showing up with a six pack in hand. One of my favorite quotes, by the way, is from Victor Hugo's description of the aftermath of Waterloo in Les Miserables, when I believe he said, "the wind in the grass was like the departure of souls." And I always wanted a t-shirt that read "I am Jean Valjean!". I have also toyed with the idea of a game based on the expedition of Napoleon to Egypt with the savants. Have fun!

Early Modern Controversies - Part Two Sunday, March 29, 2015 10:27 AM Continuation of a non-exhaustive list for potential agitators (most of these controversies existed prior to the Thirty Years War, the time of my own campaign). Please add as you see fit. · Should the Archbishop or the town council (Geffeln) rule over the affairs of the Free City of Koln? · Does the wandering Commedia dell'Arte corrupt the morals of the common people? · Does the shift in trade from the older Mediterranean to the newer Atlantic routes and its effects on the fortunes of cities in the Mediterranean - Barcelona, Marseilles, Genoa, Venice - and the Atlantic cities of Seville, Amsterdam and London, along with the globalization of trade to include the spice ships of Asia and the silver ships from the New World, represent a change in the balance of power toward the West? · Does a lack of Investment of the profits from international trade in the infrastructure of the nation (e.g. waterways and roadways) represent a "squandered opportunity"? Is the nobility more concerned with its own past times and pleasures than with the economic welfare of the common people? · Does a lack of efficient postal service stymy the flow of correspondence so crucial to the flow of ideas between the sages of many lands? It takes six weeks, for example, for a letter to make its way from Paris to Venice. · Are the Catholic confraternities to be found in nearly every urban center growing too rich and powerful, smug with material piety; are they being used by the religious orders, such as the Jesuits with the Marian sodalities, to fund dubious activities, and are they, in fact, despite the support of the Church, promoting a cultic element with their dramatic rituals of flagellation, lavish public processions and periodic feasts rather than promoting the charitable virtues originally intended? · Are the Genoese banking interests ensconced in Galata, near Istanbul, actually entering into an unholy commercial alliance with the Ottoman Empire with its capital in Istanbul, are the bankers selling out Western Christianity to the Turks? · Should the people be ruled by a constitution of laws applicable to everyone, from the King to the poorest peasant, or is the natural order based on the absolute sovereignty, established by God, of the monarchy? · Is the changing definition of consumer, from that of one who eats his or her daily bread with gratitude to that of one who spends and spends though desire is never fully met, necessarily a corruption of the devil by which men and women lose their souls and is the merchant the high priest of this religion of consumer goods, a servant of a mercantile Satan? · Have the pure blood statutes of Toledo, designed to keep conversos (converted Jews) out of the ranks of the nobility, actually debilitated Spain economically by driving a hard-working minority to pursue pedigree and status rather than the prosperity of the nation? · Does the telescope of Galileo, by confirming the heliocentric model of the universe proposed by the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, represent a device of the devil to undermine the teachings of the Church? · Is the cosmology of Aristotle based on imprecise measurements? · Are the courtiers of the princely courts the uomo universale of Baldassare Castiglione or are they fawning favorites of the crowned heads, vying for attention from their masters, like dogs, and do they rather distract the ruler from matters of state? · Are criminals sinners who have strayed beyond the boundaries of society and religion, or do they constitute a deviant underworld determined to pull down society and probably in league with the Devil? · Does the state's reliance on capital punishment reflect its lack of an effective police force, relying instead upon terrorizing would be criminals? · Does the continuation of an antiquated feudal social order represent an impediment to commercial development? · Is the average life expectancy of 30 in the seventeenth century the result of unhealthy living conditions created by the wealthy to suppress the poor? If the German saying, Der Mensch ist was er isst (A man is what he eats), be true, then a peasant with no food is nothing, another corpse by the side of the road. · Is Deism, the belief that man may know the truth through his own rational capacity, without reference to the supernatural, and that there are natural principles common to all religions more than non-conformity, is it heresy, and should people like Lord Edward Herbert be burned at the stake for espousing such beliefs? · Is the argument from design, which started in ancient times, but was changed by Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century to assert that the teleology, or purposefulness, of the natural order evidence of God's existence or is the inclusion of final causes a departure from the scientific, as Roger Bacon contends? · Is the human will determined by efficient causes or is it free to act as it chooses? · Are the ambassadors sent to this capital or that diplomats or spies? If quid pro quo (something for something) is the norm among the crowned heads of Europe, still there is the question of how much information should be given and how much should be received. · Has the replacement of cavalry with infantry on the battlefield by the advent of black powder weapons resulted in the rise of dueling among aristocrats more than ever sensitive about their status as "those who fight" in society? · Do nobles who engage in dueling, affairs of honor, place themselves "above the law" and should dueling be punished by the authorities to reduce civil disturbance and maintain the social order? · Does the Dutch Republic, particularly in Amsterdam, grant too much freedom to the Jews who have emigrated there from Spain? · Can the Twelve Years' truce brokered between Spain and the Dutch Republic by Henri IV in 1609 last for even 2 years given the two sides have been at war since 1566 - 43 years of fighting? · Should the government intervene more in the economy to avoid the recurring famines and crises or should laissez faire policies in support of capitalism be pursued? · Should education be compulsory and universal, as argued by Luther? · To what extent has the Jesuit involvement in education fueled the counter-reformation (eg the Jesuit education of Ferdinand II)? · To what extent should girls receive education, as well as boys? · To what extent is Empiricism, the belief that experience is the best teacher, coincide with the writings of Francis Bacon and represent a threat to religion, among whom only the mystics claim first-hand experience of God and their experience, they say, is largely ineffable? · Are the so-called mathematics of the Mechanical Engineers actually magical formulae proscribed by the Church? · Are the tools of the Military Engineer fashioned in the Devil's workshop? Are the mathematics of gunnery magical formulae?

I was going to move on to Alchemist, but I guess I will have rather more to say about Agitators. They are really a pivot point, I think, of the Early Modern, stirring up the factions in the streets and factories of the growing cities, the peasants villages that have become more autonomous from their Lords to better facilitate the productivity of agriculture in meeting the requirements of a growing urban population, starting to question and even defend themselves against the well-armed and landed aristocracy with few democratic scruples. Some of the books I am looking and will probably add to this topic: History of Peasant Revolts by Yves-Marie Berce: the Tardes Avises who if they got it that Henri IV had converted to Catholicism maybe didn't believe it. The troubles in Quercy. The Croquant. Riots over the price of bread. Riots in response to the poor behavior of soldiers - some were eaten. Soldat Tartare? Riots against excisemen and their agents - some rich folk would hire agitators to stymy the tax collectors by arousing the sentiments shared by more humble taxpayers. Urban Protest in Seventeenth Century France by William Beik. Everyday resistance. The culture of retribution - don't get mad, get even. The unenviable position of the magistrates. Notable uprisings in Montpelier, Dijon, Bordeaux. Uprisings in the time of Louis XIV. Factional parties and popular followings - Beziers and Albi, Aix-en-Provence. Princely leaders and popular parties. The Loricards of Angers. The Ormee. The German Reformation and the Peasants' War by Michael G. Baylor. Many assume that the Reformation was the principal cause of the Peasant's War in the 1520's, the largest popular uprising up until the time of the French Revolution, but perhaps both the Reformation and the Peasant's War in the 16th century surfaced deeper under-currents that spilled over into the 17th century. This book offers many of the original documents from that period of conflict for review and perhaps with them a better understanding of the social transformations that make the Early Modern such an interesting period and game setting. Obedient Germans? A Rebuttal by Peter Bickle. Der Untertan, The Subject, is almost an article of faith regarding the German culture. Viewed politically, the German was and is they embodiment of the "subject" in the word's most poignant sense - Max Weber. Certainly the defense at Nuremberg, in which it was claimed the Nazis were just following orders tends to support this view. But is this the natural outcome of the German social order or its perversion? An interesting discourse ensues... So, I will linger a bit over the Agitator. I have more possible controversies to list. More to add. But in the end, it is the agitator who provides his or her energy to the factions which I think are such a great component of the Renaissance rules. I want to know these rabble-rousers, flesh them out as Peter's perfidious pamphlateer has done in taking refugeunder a table in the tavern where his character glibly incited a row, elaborate and integrate them into my campaign. Conflict is where drama comes from! I welcome any ideas on the Agitated and those who Agitate them in Early Modern Europe, whether gentrified disturbers of polite society in drawing rooms or mercenary thugs in the streets hired by the supporters of a political or religious faction to obstruct the parade or procession of a rival faction.

Indeed quite interesting, these forts. The Spanish were pushing inland, searching for Cibolla, the Seven Cities of Gold. Trying to construct a Mesoamerican Mythos is rather challenging but it really does fit with Lovecraft. The Aztecs cut the hearts from people because they believed the mist from the still-beating hearts would bring the rain. Can't understand why there is no apparent attempt by Lovecraft's imitators to explore this more. Somehow I find myself reminded of that poem by Allen Ginsburg, "The Howl". Moloch. "the detestable god of the Ammonites" demanded the sacrifice of the children to the flaming maw of his idol and their parents would do this, to ensure their own prosperity. I think there are unfortunately many parents today who sacrifice their children to darkness...you hear about it on the news all the time. "What sphinx of cement and aluminum bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination? ...Moloch, the vast stone of war!" Interesting he would use "sphinx" in the poem; rather conjures the Black Pharaoh avatar of Nyarlathotep, doesn't it?

An odd coincidence. I was in France last September near the Marne at Chateau-Thierry where my grandfather had fought with a field artillery regiment in the 42nd division; I have inherited his campaign medals. There is a great book called War Bugs, written by Charles MacArthur (who also wrote the screenplay of Wuthering Heights). He fought in the same regiment during the Great War which began 100 years ago last year, so it was like a narrative of my grandfather's experiences in France. MacArthur said of Chateau-Thierry (I took my nephew to the battlefield so that he would understand that if his great-grandfather were under one of the crosses in the American cemetery, we wouldn't be here today) that the smell of bodies was so bad in the July sun that the men wore gas masks for "common decency". My grandfather jumped into a crater in No Man's Land when the shelling started. It still harbored a little mustard gas (smelled like garlic, they said - once the Americans thought a group of passing Italian soldiers who had just finished their dinner were a gas attack and put on their masks!). He permanently lost partial vision in one eye after a few seconds in that crater. So this is close to home. A Renaissance version would be welcome! Look forward to reading and gaming this!

I wondered how the Agitator fit within the period of the ECW. With so many factions, everyone involved in the ECW seems some kind of agitator! Didn't realize it was so specific a role in the ECW. For my part, I have have taken a rather broad view and done a little research in an Encyclopedia of Early Modern History for anything I could imagine stirring up controversy, attracting agitators, that might even provide a seed or two for an historically based adventure. I plan to add more as I go along but I wanted to get this first chunk posted because it might spawn some ideas...I realize most folks are concerned pretty much with food, housing, clothes, but the Agitator is a bit different. · Absolutism - what are the limits of potestas (absolute power) and auctoritas (absolute authority) that should be allowed the crowned heads of Europe? · Agriculture - who owned the land, who farmed it, and who had rights to it? · Augsburg, Religious Peace of - should the subjects of a prince be forced to conform to his/her particular faith or emigrate (cuius regio, cius religio - whose the regime, his the religion) as provided by the Peace of Augsburg 1555? · Augsburg, Religious Peace of - should Calvinists, Anabaptists and other dissenters be excluded from the protections provided by the Peace of Augsburg (they were excluded)? · Augsburg, Religious Peace of - has the Peace protected the Reich from the religious wars of France and the Netherlands or is it storing up tensions like a powder keg? · Baconian philosophy - should the natural philosophy of Francis Bacon, first published in The Advancement of Learning 1605, which relies on observation, the compilation of natural history and inductive reasoning supersede Aristotle, Neo-Platonism, Empiricism, Alchemy and Atomism as the most modern approach to natural philosophy? · Balkans - is the preoccupation with religious matters by the crowned heads of Europe ignoring the advancement of the Ottoman Empire through the Balkans, now on the very doorstep of Europe? · Baltic - is the collection of a toll by the King of Denmark on all ships entering or exiting the Baltic that must pass under the guns of Helsingor castle the practice of "legalized piracy" as the Danes are accused by the Hanseatic League? · Banditry - should bandits be treated as criminals and social outcasts or are they still part of peasant society, representing heroes, avengers and fighters for justice to the oppressed peasant classes (e.g., Robin Hood)? · Banking - do letters of exchange, a staple of early modern commerce that allow a merchant to buy in one currency and pay in another actually usury because the profit is disguised in the difference of exchange rates? · Bankruptcy - does the seizure of property and the arrest of individuals who cannot pay their debts represent injustice? · Baroque - does this form of art and architecture represent self-aggrandizement by the wealthy? · Bavaria - are the Bavarian dukes in league with the Jesuits to promote the counter-reformation in Germany? · Does the Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, Jesuit author of the Controversies, a famed counter-reformation document refuting Protestant doctrine, represent a saint or a devil? · Was the King James version of the Bible in 1611 royally authorized, or does the enormously popular Geneva Bible first published in 1566 still represent the best English translation? · Does the succession of the Valois dynasty by the Bourbon dynasty of Henri IV, King of France, represent a coup d'etat by the Huguenots? Was Henri III assassinated on the orders of Henri IV? · Are the bourgeoisie, who do not fit well the traditional tripartite division of society into those who fight, those who pray and those who work represent the corruption of God's natural order? · Did Johannes Kepler pervert the valuable data gathered by the late great imperial astronomer Tycho Brahe (d. 1601) to bolster the foundation of a Copernican heliocentric cosmology opposed to the teachings of the Church that the earth was at the center? · Does the English East India Company founded by Elizabeth in 1600 represent a threat to the interests of the Dutch East India Company? · Was Giordano Bruno a heretic and magician deserving of execution by the Church in Rome in 1600 or was he a visionary in understanding the metaphysical implications of Copernican cosmology in his statement that there was really no such direction as "up", · Is Henri IV, King of France, intervening in the mayoral elections of towns in strongly Catholic Burgundy? · Is their truth in the Cabala introduced by Isaac Luria in the 16th century that men serve the forces either of good or evil in successive incarnations until perfected in service and finally freed from the cycle of rebirth and eternal struggle? · Is Jakob Boehme, the mystic, in secret league with the Cabalists as his writings might suggest or is it true, as Pico della Mirandola claimed, that "no science can better convince us of the divinity of Jesus Christ than magic and the Cabala". · Is the Julian calendar followed by most Protestant states better than the Gregorian calendar named for the Pope Gregory who introduced it in 1582? · Are pastors called by God, as Calvin contends? How can a Calvinist resist a tyrannical ruler? Does the Genevan Consistory of the Reformed Church exceed their prerogatives in providing oversight of doctrine and morals, excommunicating and even executing (eg Michael Servetus in 1538) the heterodox? · Is wealth a sign of God's favor, as many capitalists seem to believe? · Is the Carnival celebrated in the days preceding Lent a decadent holdover from pagan days or is it still needed to chase away the demonic followers of the Winter King of the Dead and to encourage the return of the sun, the fertility of beasts and field? · Is the new Cartesian philosophy not only a challenge to Aristotle but also a challenge, however veiled to Christianity? · Are the Spanish mystics, like Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, right to insist that the human soul must be purified before it can attain union with God or were they minions of Philip II who affirmed the Inquisition when it destroyed the body to save the soul?

Let me begin by saying I really do like the way Renaissance Deluxe has created Professions to go within social classes and provide characters with many different options for role-playing. I am not a rules lawyer, that is not the point. Rather, I would like to elaborate on the various Professions from my historical readings for the common weal. I will begin alphabetically with the Agitator. Of course, the great religious controversy of the Reformation must by considered. The Early Modern period was also rife with pamphlets that were a by-product of the printing press introduced by Gutenberg in 1450. Protest was generally more prevalent than I think is credited and i was also inclined to think the lower classes were more or less docile subjects of the ruling elite, but in one book I am reading about urban protest in France during the 17th century "It took a variety of forms, ranging from isolated grumblings to clandestine threats, gatherings of angry citizens, harassment of targeted scapegoats, rock throwing, pillaging, seizures of public places, armed forays through the streets, expulsions of purported traitors, sometimes mutilations and murders." Rather more intense, perhaps, than the student protests of the 60's! So, I invite all and sundry to add their thoughts on the Professions listed in the Renaissance rule book, either from the perspective of history, actual experience role-playing the profession in a game context, perhaps by sharing non-player characters (there are many excellent in Clockwork and Chivalry, for example) one has designed, pure imagination and/or literature. In this way, I hope we can collectively flesh out the professions that we can all make use of in a Renaissance campaign.

I am reforming my opinion of Hernan Cortes, whom I had always read as the villain of the piece before opening Conquistador by Buddy Levy. As he made his way into the Aztec Empire, Cortes and his small force of less than 500 soldiers came upon blood-spattered temple after blood-spattered temple, piles of dismembered bodies, where human sacrifices had their still-beating hearts cut from their chests by the chief, wielding an obsidian knife so that the sun would rise in the morning, so that the rain would fall and the crops would grow. The Aztecs even fought to capture or wound their enemies, rather than kill them. so they could offer them as sacrifices to their gods. It must have been like the American soldiers at Buchenwald, the British soldiers at Bergen-Belsen, the Russian soldiers at Auschwitz. A soldier at Buchenwald did the math in the crematorium - three bodies to a tray, thirty trays and still the Nazis couldn't keep up. bodies stacked like cord wood. I once saw a rare color film of a concentration camp, bodies frozen in blue ice by a railroad siding. Lovecraft uses words like "unspeakable horror". That was what Cortes and his men were seeing all around them at the core of Aztec civilization - the Mythos in Mesoamerica. He tried to put a stop to it. He dragged the stone idols to the edge of the altar and toppled them down the steps of the pyramids while the natives moaned, believing their world would end. It did end. There is no question that Cortes was not moved by greed and the desire for political power. He even told messengers from Montezuma that he and his men suffered from a disease that could only be cured by gold. Somewhere deep inside, I suspect, the Aztecs knew that they had gone astray from the course of sane humanity. They were waiting for Quetzalcoatl to come from the east on 1-Reed, a day that only occurs once every 52 years, and "shake the foundations of heaven." Cortes arrived on that day of 1-Reed, which was also good Friday. Yes, he wanted gold, but he was not the villain of the piece, Tezcatlipoca was. And will be, in the adventure I will write; nothing, really, compared to the adventure of Cortes in Mexico. But an echo of this story, however remote, is better than silence.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ABlack_Tezcatlipoca.jpg From the Borgia Codex. I ordered a book entitled Mockeries and Metamorphoses of an Aztec God: Tezcatlipoca, "Lord of the Smoking Mirror". Behold the MesoAmerican Nyarlathotep, also known as the "Senor de Chalma", the Black Christ! When I was in Montserrat, I saw the veneration of many pilgrims for the Black Virgin, in odd contrast to the nearly total absence of worshippers in Turin at the cathedral of the Turin shroud.

Tezcatlipoca: he was considered a true God, whose abode ws everywhere - in the land of the dead, on earth and in heaven. When he walked on the earth, he quickened vice and sin. He introduced anguish and affliction. He brought discord among people, wherefore he was called "the enemy on both sides". He created, he brought down all things. He cast his shadow on one, he visited one with all the evils that befall men; he mocked, he ridiculed man. tetzala, tenepantla, motecaia: ipampa y, mjtoaia necoc iautl, muchi quijiocoaia, qujtemoujaja... From the Florentine Codex of Bernadino Sahagun, a Franciscan missionary among the Aztecs, written between 1540 and 1585. He also included the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs in the Codex. Sounds a lot like Nyarlahotep from the Cthulhu cycle, doesn't he, The Smoking Mirror? I really like the name "Enemy on Both Sides" for a deity of discord. I can sort of feel this campaign begin to reach the correct proportions!

Awesome, Michael! Thanks for the visuals, really helpful! I think it's quite interesting you sport a rapier...I would really love to learn to wield one after the manner of an historical fencer. Have you taken lessons? For the game, one of the factions would be the Marxbruder (no, I'm serious - though it makes one wonder who was Groucho, who was Beppo, etc). They were also known as the Brotherhood of St. Mark and they were headquartered in Frankfurt Am Main, not far from the setting of the campaign. Their rivals were the Federfechter of Prague. They were both guilds licensed by the Emperor to train the snotty nosed young nobles of the period in the use of the rapier and other dueling rather than military weapons. A couple of encounters with the Marxbruders' Bohemian enemies would be great fun, ja? Any pointers (again, pardon the pun) you might offer on swordplay? It would seem another extension of the rules would be in order to include such feints as the Guardia di Faccia. I have seen it written "the great art in the fencer was to pass with rapidity from one guard to the other...by thus changing the guard, and consequently changing the probable attack, the quicker fencer of the two forced his adversary into new attitudes." I imagine many folk could be persuaded to change their attitude at the end of 40 inches or so of steel! I have never really seen a gaming system that reflects the intricacy of footwork and hand motion that must go into fencing, much like the forms of T'ai Chi, I imagine.

Thank you for your suggestions, they are excellent! As for the material culture of the 17th century, I really am keen to know more about the costume of the era, as part of my visualization of the times. I have a book entitled A Visual History of Costume - The Seventeenth Century by Valerie Cummings. Most of it. though, is based on the rather expensive fashions of those who could afford to have their portrait painted for posterity. The common people are perhaps less well represented. One of the better illustrations I have depicts the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, All have long hair, over their ears, beards and moustaches. They are wearing doublets and jerkins which may be buff, though the drawing is black and white, so hard to determine. Their sleeves are contrasting patterns, not sure of the material. Capes over the right shoulder for two of the figures. They wear hats with crowns of various height with wide soft brims, some with feathers, some with jewels. On January 31, 1606, however, I rather think Guy Fawkes and his fellows had rather more pressing concerns than their sartorial splendor. But I do have a question as to the nature of a buff coat, how much protection it affords since I know it was much in use by the military. A re-enactor such as yourself, Mr. Bagley, might be well-equipped to answer such a query, if you will pardon the pun! I think the factions are everything in a game of Clockwork and Cthulhu, Clockwork and Chivalry, etc. The early modern times are often characterized by a greater emphasis on the individual, but also a greater emphasis on the organization to which the individual belongs, particularly the emerging nation-state. Some of the heads of state in 1610 would therefore seem to form factions of their own - the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II, the 7 electors of the Empire including Friedrich V of the Electoral Palatine, destined to become the so-called "Winter King" of Bohemia thereby touching off the Thirty Years' War, Philip III of Spain, Henri IV of France, shortly succeeded by Louis XIII, Pope Paul V, James I of England, who as James VI of Scotland penned Daemonolgie, perhaps as an apologetic for having presided over the North Berwick witch trials held after James and his fiance Anne of Denmark encountered stormy seas on their return trip (I am also inclined to conduct a witch trial of the airline whenever my flight is canceled), But I think it is more than crowned heads. The Rosicrucians are certainly very mysterious and very interesting - I am learning more about alchemy to understand better what they mean in the Famas and The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz. With Nyarlahotep in mind, I also recall my visit to the Basilica of Montserrat, west of Barcelona, the long lines of people waiting to see the Black Virgin. Ignatius Loyola, a Basque soldier recovering from the serious wounds he suffered in the Battle of Pamplona, made a pilgrimage to Montserrat and founded the Jesuits, "God's Soldiers", who were instrumental in the counter-reformation. Another faction? Also, the Fuggers (pronounced "Foogers") of Augsburg are rather fascinating, the rise of Jakob Fugger from poverty to heading a multinational commercial enterprise, loaning money to Popes and Emperors alike. By loaning the Archbishop of Mainz the funds to acquire two archdioceses, for which His Excellency ceded the indulgences granted by the Pope Leo X for the construction of St. Peter's. The conduct of the Dominican Johann Tetzel in the purveying of these indulgences (Buy one mortal sin, get two venal sins free?) lead Martin Luther to observe Fugger and similar people really need to be kept in check. Luther's outraged sensibilities regarding these dealings led to the Reformation. It seems to me that by determining what factions are involved, the whole tenor of the game is set.

High praise indeed from the author of so many great gaming ideas...thank you! In terms of Early Modern Warfare, I really like William Urban's book Matchlocks to Flintlocks: Warfare in Europe and Beyond 1500-1700. I've always wanted to own a flintlock or wheel lock pistol and a rapier. Maybe someday... Although it is proper to begin this story in Mexico, I discovered that Mark Twain visited Heidelberg and wrote about it in A Tramp Abroad (1880). What's more, the text is replete with illustrations which should also prove useful when I get around to our heroes meeting their Rosicrucian patron in the garden of the Hotel die Hirschgasse, which has been operating since the 15th century and was where Twain witnessed a fencing duel between Heidelberg students, all for sport. There are many famous views of Heidelberg from the Hirschgasse across the Nekkar River I may have to get one to hang on the walls of my study. It is close to the Philosophen Weg, or Philosopher's Path, though there is a steeper path that winds up the Heiligenberg, or Holy Mountain (why does Thomas Mann's Zauberberg come to mind?) where there are two monasteries repossessed by the Kurpfalz during the Reformation and a dark and disturbing hole in the ground called the Heidenloch (Heathen Hole), a deep pit where the Devil is said to have his seat. I suppose the witches need somewhere to dance sky-clad under the serious moonlight, but this comes later. Meanwhile, in Mexico -- I am reading The Mound by Zealia Bishop, which describes one of Coronado's soldiers separated from the main body of explorers and finding the entrance to a rather fantastic, subterranean world in Oklahoma, though the language of the inhabitants, when not using telepathy, represents a purer form of the "debased" Nahuatl language spoken by the Aztecs. This was one of the "revisions" by which Lovecraft earned his scant living, cleaning up the work of other writers, and The Mound was published in 1929-1930. With the Wall Street crash, there were probably a lot of folks who wished they could crawl underground! Interestingly, the Sanctuary of Chalma was built over a cave sacred to Tezcatlipoca. As a chthonic deity, he was known as Oxtoteotl, the Dark Lord of the Cave. In the campaign, of course, he will be the Mesoamerican avatar of Nyarlahotep. Reading ahead: I have Aztec and Maya Myths by Keith Taube, The Arcane Secrets and Occult Lore of the Ancient Mexicans and Mayans by Louis Spence. The Popol Vuh translated by Dennis Tedlock, and the Seven Volumes (like the Seven Cities of Gold) I am waiting for of The Florentine Codex compiled by Fray Bernadino Sahagun in the 16th century, arguably the first anthropologist, who spoke to the elders of the Aztec communities about their gods while there were still those who remembered their life pre-Conquest, Conquistador by Buddy Levy, The Fire from Within by Carlos Casteneda (I read many of Castaneda's books avidly in my high school days), Spanish Society 1400-1600 by Teofilo Ruiz, and of course, Captain Alatriste by Arturo Perez-Reverte (thanks again Mr. Bagley!) to quickly skim for ideas and then read more carefully at a later date. I will give myself two weeks with this material and then I will share whatever occurs to me as the Cult of the Smoking Mirror transported back to the Old World by the Spanish treasure fleet. As always, I welcome any questions or comments you might offer...

The Jews, according to a rabbi I studied with, don't think of their Bible as The Old Testament (compared to the "New and Improved Testament"?). Does your class consider the Talmud as the oral law? One could inadvertently develop a rather ethnocentric RPG, if not careful. For Jewish magic, of course, there is nothing that quite compares to the Kabbalah. Any golems wandering about Prague, courtesy of the Maharal, Rabbi Judah Loew Ben Bezalel in the 16th century? I thought Ars Magica did a good job in The Divine Realm with Jewish mysticism/magic. I can understand if your class keeps you on the Law, the Prophets and the Writings, but that deprives your RPG of some of the richness of Jewish culture, which didn't end BCE I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

Thank you both for encouragement and inspiration. I look forward to sharing with you the threads of this campaign as they become more interwoven. I looked up Captain Alatriste on Amazon and, intrigued, downloaded the first book to my Kindle. One of my favorite historians, Teofilo Ruiz at UCLA, has written a book entitled Spanish Society 1400-1600. I think Captain Alatriste will make a perfect companion to the history. Interestingly, Ruiz was born in Cuba, which is where Hernan Cortes was stationed as governor prior to the Conquest of Mexico. Ruiz has also written a book on "The Terror of History", a title that sounds a bit Lovecraftian, eh? One of my primary resources for the campaign, by the way, is the 6 volume encyclopedia Europe: 1450-1789 edited by Jonathon Dewald. It has hundreds of short articles on the people, places and events of the period and each article has a bibliography of its sources. This has allowed me to excavate more detail of the history of the early modern period that I find so compelling. On a personal note, I will be in Guadalajara, Mexico in June, which was founded by the aforementioned Cristobal Onate, though I imagine there are few residents who realize he was a Cthulhu cultist. Anyone in the pay of that maniac Guzman, however, should not be surprised by suspicion in this regard, in my opinion. I am also planning a trip up the Rhine by boat to Heidelberg, the walls of which might have been built by my ancestors and subsequently torn down by Louis XiV (a pox on the Sun King!) though I rather admire his ancestor Le Bon Roi, first of the Bourbons, Henri IV, who was also assassinated in 1610 (by a cultist of Nyarlahotep - hmmm?), Victor Hugo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame intimates a conspiracy of this sort. Thanks again for your input, a sense of collaboration makes this much more fun!

I am starting to prepare a Clockwork and Cthulhu campaign entitled "A Clockwork of Orange" for play in the summer of 2016 which gives me a little time to prepare. I wanted to start this thread to share some of my ideas around the campaign, some of the historical references I am using, and to solicit whatever input you, the readers of these posts, might be able to provide. The title was more than I could resist. I am reading the biography of William the Silent, written by C.V. Wedgwood, a female English historian of the last century. William the Silent was also known as William of Orange, leader of the Dutch Revolt, who was murdered by Balthasar Gerard at Delft on July 10th, 1584. The clockwork in question, I think, was an armillary sphere designed by Leonardo Da Vinci and pictured in the Codex Atlanticus. It would have come to William the Silent by way of Francis I, King of France, who was at Da Vinci's bedside when he breathed his last and was also the foe of the Hapsburg Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. I think a lost Codex detailing this sphere and its unique capabilities was somehow obtained by William the Silent during the rebellion but the actual sphere was not constructed until it fell into the hands of the Johann Wilhelm, the mad Duke of Julich-Cleves-Berg whose "death" in 1609 lead to the war of the Julich succession, precursor to the Thirty Year's War which began in Prague in 1618 (I actually stood on the spot in the Old Town Square of Prague where 27 Protestant Noblemen were executed in 1621 by the victorious forces of the Holy Roman Emperor. Charles V was succeeded in the West by his son, Philip II, King of Spain. Enter Cthuhu and his minions. the Spanish Conquest of Mexico began in 1519. Interestingly, Pope Leo X published the a papal encyclical entitled Exsurge Domine ("Arise O Lord") intended to refute the 95 Theses of Martin Luther in 1520, the first volley of the Counter-Reformation. Perhaps the Spanish Conquistadores, arriving in the ancient city of Teotihuacan stole an artifact known as "The Smoking Mirror". sacred to the Aztec Deity Tezcatlipoca, while claiming the city for the Pope. Perhaps Tezcatlipoca was an avatar of Nyarlahotep in Mesoamerica. Tezcatlipoca is described as a god of "the night sky, the night winds, hurricanes, the north, the earth, obsidian, enmity, discord, rulership, divination, sorcery, jaguars and war". Tezcatlipoca was called "The Smoking Mirror" in the Nahuatl tongue of the Aztecs. Since the theft of the mirror, his dark thoughts are affecting the dreams of the most sensitive Eurpeans, Da Vinci among them, who died in 1519 ( perhaps too sensitive?) in Amboise, France. Perhaps Da Vinci wrote the Codex in the last days of his life, under this influence, to provide a blueprint for an armillary sphere to return the Outer Gods from their exile in time and space. Perhaps his power to create enmity is responsible for Pope Leo's encyclical which unconsciously manifests Tezcatlipoca's enmity against mankind and will lead to terrible wars of religion between Protestant and Catholic. Those who stole the artifact of Tlaloc were murdered by the brujos (sorcerors) of the Aztecs, but not before the artifact fell into the hands of Nuno Beltran de Guzman, the Governor of Panuco, "a cruel, violent and irrational tyrant", who was possessed by "The Smoking Mirror" and founded the cult of the Senhor de Chalma, "the Black Christ", a syncretism of Catholicism and Tezcatlipoca. These cultists returned to Spain with Cristobal Onate, a captain of Guzman, when Guzman was arrested for treason and genocide against the indigenous population. They are now seeking the Clockwork of Orange inspired by Tezcatlipoca/Nyarlahotep which they believe has the power to return the Outer Gods from their aeons long exile when "the stars are right" and will bring about the end of the world, which the millenarian aspect of the cult of The Smoking Mirror, the Senhor de Chalma, the Black Christ. The year is now 1610, the place is Heidelberg, Germany in the Nekkar Valley. The 14 year old Friedrich V, Elector Palatine of the Holy Roman Emperor, has just lost his father, the head of the Protestant Union, to alcoholism. His mother, Louisa Juliana, is the daughter of William the Silent, Prince of Orange. As regent (there was a controversy over this that led to much bad blood), Johann II, Count Palatine of Zweibrucken, is concerned about the Julich succession controversy. One of his councilors, a pre-Fama Rosicrucian, is more concerned about what he and his brethren at Heidelberg University have determined regarding the construction of Da Vinci's Armillary Sphere by Hans Gruber, an artificer from Nuremberg, at the court of the mad Duke Johann-Wolfgang of Julich-Cleves-Berg (see Mad Princes of Renaissance Germany by HC Erik Midelfort). The Rosicrucians are also aware of the infiltration of the church by minions of The Black Christ, Nyarlahotep, and realize how dangerous it would be if they were to find the Sphere. And so, the party of adventurers will be dispatched by boat down the Rhine to Dusseldorf, from whence they will make their way to the palace of the Dukes of Julich-Cleves-Berg to attempt to recover the sphere before the minions of Nyarlahotep succeed in doing so and bring about their millenarian vision. So, some questions: 1. is this the kind of Clockwork and Cthulhu adventure you would find enjoyable? 2. Does anyone know of any Cthulhu in Mexico resources that could be used? I have, from an historical perspective, Aztec and Maya Myths, by Karl Taube, though I think the identification of the Black Christ of Chalma, a syncretization of Tezcatlipoca, with Nyarlahotep is my own unique idea. 3, As far as I know, the Clockwork game system focuses mostly on the English countryside during the English Civil War period, which is a bit later than the Thirty Years War than where my own campaign is leading. Does anyone know of any Cakebread and Walton materials based on this slightly earlier period? I am putting together some of my own factions but don't mind "leveraging" (stealing?) the work of others in this regard. 4. If you were running this game, what are some of the elements you would include? Thanks all - look forward to hearing from you!