Some notes on the game and its mechanics
Sections General notes Massive caveat The flow of time in the game Works of Art Control of Florence Military forces and battles Character death Meta rules
The game is intended to cover three broad areas, which should each impact all or most characters. They're all based on things which actually happened in the period from 1492 to 1500.
The first is a likely French invasion in support of King Charles VIII's claim to the throne of Naples (and/or to grab some of the Northern Italian states) with possible similar action from the Spanish. This is liable to directly involve everyone with control of or influence over military forces.
The second is a three-way tussle for control of Florence post the death of Lorenzo de' Medici. This is between the Medici faction, the 'True Republicans' led by Piero Soderini and the Rule of God advocated by Savonarola and his supporters. This will involve Florentine characters most directly.
The third major element is the fantastic flowering of art during the period and especially the concentration of great talents like Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Botticelli and Raphael around Florence at virtually the same moment in time. This was a time when artists were changing from being considered mere artisans to being thought of, nearly, as stars. But they still needed patrons with the money and power to commission them and subjects and models for their work.
These three major themes drive the three main mechanics used in the game. These cover Works of Art, Control of Florence and Military forces and battles and are outlined below. It should be reasonably clear which character might be involved with which, but if you particularly want to avoid or be part of one, please let me know in the questionnaire.
But, while these are deliberately the main themes of the game, they are not the whole of what's going on. There's also a supernatural element which will significantly impact some characters and effect others not at all, as well as some religious issues (Savonarola was an early example of protest from within the Church against its heirarchy that a few years later resurfaced in Martin Luther and others), matters of education and discovery (including rediscovery of the Classics) and a fair amount of personal plots and intrigues.
As many plots as possible are based on actual facts and events from the time. Similarly, every character in the game is based on a real character who did live and die around that period. A few characters (notably Veronica Franco and Nostradamus) are from up to fifty years away in time, but most of them really were contemporaneous or almost so.
That may lead you to ask why I've left out some other obvious candidates for inclusion as player characters in the game who were also around at the time. Examples might be Christopher Columbus, Nicholas Copernicus, Rodrigo Borgia, Martin Luther, Vlad Tepes, Johann Faustus, Sebastian Cabot or Luca Pacioli (one for the accountants). The answer is threefold. Firstly, this game isn't about the exploration and conquest of the New World. Secondly, it's also not about the split of the Church, the Protestant movement and the election of a new Pope. That's because, thirdly, when I wrote this game I was saving those things and others for a (very long) planned Weekend game with two to three times this number of players set in Rome in the Jubilee year of 1500. However, now I've actually written and run a full Weekend-long game I frankly doubt I'll ever get round to writing another.
But... I'm not an expert in Renaissance History. I actually gave up history when I was twelve, so this game is written from the point of view of an interested amateur. I know a lot of facts, but they're often selectively interpreted and connected. And I have made a great number of gratuitous and probably grotesque changes. Wherever I have fancied it, whether for plot reasons or to simplify things, I've made changes as I saw fit.
So if your knowledge of this period is better than mine, I apologise in advance for the many liberties I've taken. If it isn't, then it's all true (even the supernatural stuff).
Theoretically, the game is a meeting of the Great People of Florence (and visitors) in the Medici Palazzo shortly after the funeral of Lorenzo de' Medici. It thus will take place in two or three hours of 'real time'.
However, parallel to this, there may well be significant military movements, some great battles, vast switches in public opinion and the creation of a number of works of art.
So the flow of time is going to be a bit fuzzy. It may well be that a character will take part in a conversation, rush off a hundred miles to fight a battle, sit for their portrait and then return five minutes later.
My plan is to just not worry about it.
The mechanic for creation of Works of Art, at its core, is very simple. The artist poses the subject(s) and we take a digital photograph and print it out (possibly with a bit of fiddling to make it look like an oil painting or mural and maybe with a special effect or two added).
This is complicated by the facts that artists need commissions from rich and/or important people who will have a lot of influence over their subjects and that there's a physical limit to the amount of pictures each artist can produce. The quality of each artwork will be determined via a combination of ability cards and a player vote.
This means that costumes would be nice and a few people bringing along some spare clothes and props would be rather good.
The rule of Florence will be determined by the opinion of the Florentine public. Whoever the public supports at the time will be in charge. Public opinion will be swayed via ability cards covering a wide variety of factors from fiery oratory through public works and bribery to the presence of troops on the streets.
This is going to be as abstract and as simple as I can get it, with all troop locations on public display at all times. (Word travels fast). Turns will basically consist of:
- Movement
- Deciding if you're going to fight or flee
- Battles (determined by troop strengths and ability cards)
Because the time flow is rather fluid and many characters just are never going to be at risk, the basic rule is there is going to be no direct character combat at all and there will be no character death.
In fact, many characters will be immune to any kind of adverse effect from robbery to imprisonment. The few characters who are vulnerable to specific things (such as Pico Della Mirandola's outstanding charge of Heresy) will have an indication of this on their character badges.
I normally have three meta rules for every game. These are called 'No death until...', 'No running away' and 'The paperclip rule'. I've covered death above.
No running away
Characters who leave the game early because they've acheived their goals and want to avoid upcoming consequences of their actions may do so, but always then die ignomiously somewhere out of shot. I subtitle this rule 'Murdered by bandits on the Road to Spain'. The rule probably isn't necessary in this game, but it's in anyway.
The Paperclip Rule
Everybody's character envelope will include a paperclip. If you find yourself bored with nothing to do at any point and think this is going to be more than a brief lull in the action for you, then put the paperclip over your character badge.
If you see someone wearing a paperclip like this then please try to involve them in something you're doing - and be willing to act a little out of character to do so.
And if you're wearing a paperclip and meet someone else also with one then consider it an opportunity to try something together that's off the wall.
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See a brief summary of the game background