Band of Bastards Play by Post interest?

[Korbel]

How about we all start brainstorming the type of game we want to play?

Actually, why not!

I'm perfectly fine with you DMing and choosing setting, no problem.

Why Venice and this period? My Wikipedia says there was lot of fighting, Venice changing sides, and so on... Interesting times. This is why you chose this setting?

[taelor]

I would also be happy to GM it, provided I get to pick the setting (1520's ish Venice with just a LITTLE magic to keep you on your toes. Don't worry, I'm not going to make you read history books or anything).

Sounds good to me.

[thirtythr33]

Why Venice and this period? My Wikipedia says there was lot of fighting, Venice changing sides, and so on... Interesting times. This is why you chose this setting?

A combination of things.

A city based campaign seems to fit BoB very well. You get to have a based of operations and access to your contacts and stuff without having to carry it around on your back. People get to wander off and follow their passions instead of always having to be joined at the hip. You don't get to just walk around armed to the teeth all the time, so good planning is rewarded.

I think Venice is a city particularly well suited for daring escapades. Chases down narrow alleys. Leaping out 2nd story windows into the canals. Duels on bridges by moonlight. Dumping bodies in the rivers to be swept out to sea. Lots of merchants looking to cut a deal. Venice is a little strange in that it wasn't run by hereditary nobility, but a circle of powerful merchants who elected their Doge (Duke). Very capitalistic and corrupt but also extremely wealthy. It says a lot about a society when the penalties for theft were more severe than for rape or armed assault.

As for the time period, I like having the Italian Wars going on in the background but not necessarily as a focus of the campaign. The city states and countries in these wars made and broke alliances every other season; something I think would trickle down into the way the merchants of Venice would be conducting their business (pretending to be like the nobles making war is fashionable you know!). It's a time when the Arquebus and pike block were just starting to really come into it's own, but cavalry knights were still a major part of the armies of the time, creating an interesting tension between the old and new ways of warfare. The Renaissance is just starting to really kick into gear in Italy, producing great artists like Michelangelo and thinkers like Leonardo da Vinci. Yet it's still backward enough that a large portion of legal disputes were settled by Honor Duels and Trial by Ordeal.

Also because I know a fair bit about the area and time period .

[taelor]

Sounds awesome. My main areas of historical study are Plantagenet England and Tokugawa Japan, so I know next to nothing about the Italian Renaissance, but am interested in learning.

[Korbel]

Sounds great, indeed.

So... can I propose some basic, starting ideas for my character?

Obviously, I would play a Pole!
A Polish soldier (noble maybe), an honorable man, seeking revenge on a guy who is responsible for killing his family. To find him, he must earn trust of a specific merchant (or his company, or family...).

Because of in-game and out-of-the-character language barriers, I'd like to avoid playing a socially gifted group's spokesman, so I prefer this soldier-fighter character.

[Agamemnon]

This is all extremely cool. If you're going to do this though, might I suggest referencing the Band Creation section? Specifically: Basis, Relations, Action. Before you guys start figuring out characters, you definitely want to figure out what the game itself is going to be about.

Renaissance Venice is an extraordinarily interesting place and time to start a Bastards campaign though. Good choice!

[Korbel]

If you're going to do this though, might I suggest referencing the Band Creation section? Specifically: Basis, Relations, Action. Before you guys start figuring out characters, you definitely want to figure out what the game itself is going to be about.

Specifically? OK, so here's my proposition:

1) BASIS
Strifes between merchants: intrigue, violence on the streets, theft.

2) RELATIONS
We could be working together for a merchant, as personal guards, thiefs-for-hire. Now I have another character in mind, he could be a son of this merchant, helping his people (other players) do their job.

3) ACTION
To be discussed. I don't know, maybe one war has just ended and there's a lot of soldiers and mercenaries around, and they make trouble fighting for various merchants.
This revengeful character (to be played by me or anybody, if you want to use this concept) has just arrived to the city and is looking for his enemy.

So these are my ideas for consideration, if there's someone interested and if they make sense to you.

[hector]

Strife between merchants sounds like fun - could be that we are all either members of or hired by a specific merchant house which has some new ambitions or that is being targeted by a different house for whatever reason. From there, the house we're attached to could end up falling, or we could end up going into business for ourselves for a different reason, or we could just rise through the ranks of the house we're attached to, or something else that I didn't think of.

If we were attached to a merchant house, I wouldn't mind playing an experienced (possibly elderly) man at arms.

[Agamemnon]

An idea that comes to mind, take it on its own merits:

One of the interesting things about the renaissance is the status of the nobility. Pike and shot troop formations and the rise of the professional soldier (mercenary or citizen) conspire to make their battlefield role obsolete, taking with it much of their hereditary prestige. To make matters worse, they are forbidden from taking on "normal" professions, because that is by definition ignoble. Meanwhile, you wind up with a merchant class that is steadily growing in power and wealth, many of whom eclipse some of the lesser nobles in both. You have this fascinating thing where you have petty starving nobles who can claim among their possessions little more than a name looking down with disgust on these peasants who dwarf them in wealth and real power who daydream of being nobles themselves, not fully realising that nobility is no longer what it used to be.

What if the players were either: members (or in the employ) of a noble house fallen into ruin, desperately trying to reclaim its former station by any means possible..

OR

Members (or in the employ) of a (possibly criminal) merchant family clawing their way to wealth and power, to earn for themselves a noble title. This particular plot reminds me a great deal of the House of Batiatus plot line before it got all crimson and messy.

Either solution gives the players a clear unifying goal, a fairly clear and desperate motivation, and an excuse to play in circles high and low.

[Korbel]

What if the players were either: members (or in the employ) of a noble house fallen into ruin, desperately trying to reclaim its former station by any means possible..

OR

Members (or in the employ) of a (possibly criminal) merchant family clawing their way to wealth and power, to earn for themselves a noble title.

More like this second option, I believe. It seems that it better suits Venice.

So, hector, I think we have a scenario to present to our DM? I have a character in mind, being a son of a powerful merchants fits him well - but you can play a hired soldier, and we are still tightly connected - good for the start.

So, is there anybody else willing to play and what do you, 33, think about all of this stuff?

[hector]

I could easily be a hired man at arms who has been working for that merchant for a really long time - that was pretty much what I'd had in mind anyway. Being elderly is a major flaw, so I'll probably take a 2 in both Class and Edges/Flaws, Proficiencies 5 and 3 each in Attributes and Skills; my character's main edge in combat is going to be experience and cunning rather than any amount of physical prowess.

[taelor]

If we're pitching character concepts, I'd be interested in playing some kind of underworld type character. It seems to fit the campaign concept, and I've been itching to try out the spy-sabateur Free Agent archetype. Maybe I could be employed by our shady merchants to ensure that they always have a leg up on the competition (literally, even, on occasion).

[Korbel]

So our band is slowly starting to take shape, we got one or two (depending on Marras decision) experienced fighters, a spy\thief, and a ranged combat specialist (me) - looks like we can play-test many aspects of the game, nice.

[thirtythr33]

What do you, 33, think about all of this stuff?

Great stuff guys, I'll be happy to run with whatever you guys are putting together.

Just a couple of things to keep in mind when building characters in Venice.

• Weapons
• You can't just walk the streets with any weapon. Daggers, Short Swords and Buckler are acceptable for civilian self defense. A noble can carry any single handed sword.
• Same with armor. Gamberson, Arming Doublet or Jack of Plates is about as heavy armor as you will get away with for casual wear.
• Any weapons and armor is legal, though it is expected to be kept in your home or at your fencing school for training with.
• Someone on State Duty can use their full armament if appropriate (Eg A policeman making a house arrest). Keep in mind that "state duty" might be just about any order given by someone on the Council of Forty (40 heads of houses from rich merchant or noble families).
• It is a bureaucratic society. People used loopholes to get around above restrictions. Eg People would carry their swords in bags out of city limits before having a duel. Or claiming their sword was actually a really big dagger because it was attached by a tang and no pommel.

• Skills
• Horsemanship is not likely to be useful.
• Players are by default Literate.
• People local to Venice or Italy know the Italian language. People from all around Europe in the highly educated class communicate with Latin.
• Lore skills related to magic are allowed but I'm not promising it will be useful.

[hector]

In that case, messer might be a good backup proficiency for my character to pick up (I'd been planning on having the main one be sword and buckler). Having said that, it depends on how short a sword one could feasibly use with a buckler (I'm guessing that a buckler would be acceptable for self defence, but a full sized shield would get me some funny looks at best).