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[Let's Read] Brancalonia: Spaghetti Fantasy Setting
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<blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8329746" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/HLPKi6t.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>This section is entirely for the Condottieri/DM. It’s part new rules, but mostly advice, charts, and tables for bringing the setting’s more unique elements to life.</p><p></p><p><strong>Spaghetti Fantasy</strong> talks about what distinguishes Brancalonia from other settings. First off, it’s “low-magic” in that while the supernatural is common, the level of magical power available to the PCs and most of the populace is overall quite minor and not something that can be relied upon to replace skill. It’s also more light-hearted, where while serious issues can be inserted, the overall mood should be a party game that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Daily life and adventures focus more so on the regular Joes and Janes versus that of nobles, rulers, and prophetic heroes destined to change the world. In terms of describing “special effects” the GM should go for a low-budget movie: recycled character actors, natural backdrops, monsters popping in and out of view, and abandoned farmlands and crumbling ruins of former empires. Additionally, liberal use of Brawls to keep a level of dramatic violence without turning every fight into a bloodbath.</p><p></p><p>There’s also a short entry of “Attitude at the Table,” which kind of goes for a safety tools approach but has some guidelines on behavioral policies that set the standard for official events, sessions, and channels. Violence shouldn’t focus on the gruesome and lurid, and Knaves who act like murderhobos you hear from online horror stories are universally loathed. Sex and romance can happen and be motivation for characters, but X-rated scenarios aren’t the focus and things should be closer to PG-13. Finally, discrimination of various kinds exists, but it doesn’t approach the systemic level or outright contempt and hatred.</p><p></p><p>Granted, this last part is more or less subverted in the realm of Penumbria, although that region’s a Ravenloftian dark fantasy place which few people are eager to visit.</p><p></p><p>The last bit of advice talks about Session 0 expectations and ideal starting regions for the game based on themes and common adventure material. Nothing we haven’t heard before in other GM advice books, and the regions we’ll get more into in the next chapter.</p><p></p><p><strong>Knaves and Kingdom Justice</strong></p><p></p><p>Barring a few places, roaming packs of monsters aren’t a common occurrence in the Kingdom’s countryside. While skirmishes and border conflicts do arise there is still the rule of law, twisted and biased as it can be. It’s expected that Knaves will not be model citizens, but as long as they can do their job relatively cleanly and without too much bloodshed this is considered a more acceptable level of violence. The slower rest rates and Brawls as alternate combat are meant to help reinforce this mentality.</p><p></p><p>Still, there are Knaves who become so inconvenient and dishonorable that their peers cannot stomach them and thus become liability. There are three broad categories universally respected by companies throughout the Kingdom: don’t snitch or sell out your fellow Knaves (includes collecting Bounties of non-Infamous), only engage in “criminally correct” behavior (no torturing of people and animals, killing children and the invalid, or similar acts of brutality), and don’t cheat your company out of money or stir up wars between companies and established governments. Knaves guilty of violating these rules become Infamous, and lose the membership and protection of their company and all other Knaves. Knaves are free to turn over Infamous and work with the authorities in order to capture or kill them, and companies encourage this to help retain goodwill with the rest of society.</p><p></p><p>When Knaves are wanted by the authorities, simple guards and militia aren’t their most common enemies. As such people vary wildly in training (often on the lower end of things), the kinds of people tasked with going after semi-nomadic outlaws are members of the Royal Bounty Agency. These specially-licensed hunters are paid by the various governments of the Kingdom in bringing criminals to justice via Bounty Values. And yes they do have their own stat blocks, although those will be detailed in a later chapter. Bounty hunters aren’t criminals per se, and as such are bound by local laws in the course of their duties.</p><p></p><p>Here we have an expanded table of Misdeeds committed during play, with values much higher than the 2-20 gold piece offenses in the second chapter.</p><p></p><p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/wnMh2nl.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/nZzOElc.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>As you can tell, the kind of stuff that turns Knaves Infamous are the kinds of things that are prohibitively expensive to pay off. Don’t forget that gold pieces are effectively platinum pieces in Brancalonia. In some cases criminals who repeatedly offend can be branded with a certain mark, showing to others that they are troubling reoffenders. Finally, most of the Kingdom doesn’t practice the death penalty, but this is more due to economic concerns than moral ones. The cheap labor of prisoners is considered highly convenient by governments to adopt. There’s also non-numbered tables for Royal Bounty Laws (talking about how the agency and bounties function on a bureaucratic level), and Unwritten Laws (not technically laws but social conventions and expectations that can alter public perception of crimes based on circumstance). </p><p></p><p><strong>Creating Adventures</strong> Is a short one-page list of four tips. Although Brancalonia and its supplements are very generous with sample adventures, there will come a time when the DM must turn to their own imagination. First off, it discusses some already-covered material like what kind of Band the PCs belong to and appropriate regions for favored sub-genres, as well as two new bits of advice. The book notes that some opponents cannot be beaten; this most commonly reflects otherworldly immortal creatures or the more established political power structures. For the former, it suggests doing alternatives like exile, exorcism, and games of skill and chance to bind the entity in such a way that it cannot menace the mortal world for a time. In the case of the latter, nothing less than a colossal company with hundreds of members can be a threat to a regional power.</p><p></p><p>Additionally, the GM is encouraged to plan for the Big Heist, the climactic event at level 6 that concludes the Band’s story and allows them to retire in wealth and (hopefully) comfort. It doesn’t have to be a typical heist, but can be all manners of colossal hoaxes and treasure-seeking that makes their names legendary among all the companies of the Kingdom.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I have to wonder if this is a relic from a former version of the book, as nothing in the rules supports going beyond 6th level.</p><p></p><p><strong>Dive Generator</strong> is a two page section, with tables for generating inns, restaurants, bars, brothels, and other such establishments frequented by Knaves and their allies. The first table determines the establishment’s purpose, the second a name and descriptive sign. Four more tables detail a sample list of owner names and personalities, peculiarities that make the Dive stand out from others of its kind, house specialties, and local brands of alcohol and their tastes.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/8GhK54V.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p><strong>Roads to Nowhere</strong> represent the many overgrown trails, remnants of paved Draconian-era highways, fairy-altered terrain, and other such avenues that seem to have no practical purpose or lead anywhere useful. Most people stick to what they know and ignore them in favor of trusted routes, but rumors, folktales, and desperate Knaves in need of evading the law may provide incentive in using them. We have four tables: one to determine the type of road (sheep track, magical path, etc), another for how to follow it (maneuvering through difficult terrain, overcoming a dangerous guardian, etc), who can be met there (a marionette friar preaching to trees, a witch with a favor to ask, etc), and where the road goes (literally ends in trackless wilderness, the Den of a local company, a convent of isolated nuns, etc).</p><p></p><p>The third table has some entries for figures not detailed elsewhere in the book, or are actually entities from Brancalonia’s later supplements such as the Macaronicon, or more obscure yet still existing terms such as a <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/postilion" target="_blank">postilion.</a> One such result is “a pair of elusive spaturnums,” which a CTRL + F search reveals to be the only entry of its kind in the book.</p><p></p><p><strong>Placing Prophecies</strong> is a short one-page rule for a cultural variation of gambling. Games of chance done for money are illegal in the Bounty Kingdom, so to get around this loophole Knaves and other such people place “prophecies” instead of bets. Basically someone approaches a bookmaker posing as an oracle with a written prophecy. In order to be legitimate, said prophecy must have a verifiable time and place of its fulfillment, and contain 1 to 4 elements formulated in a precise and specific sentence. Said elements must be cryptic in formulation but clear when fulfilled, and for each element fulfilled the stakes are doubled up to a maximum of 16 times the original bet. Use of masks, shape-shifting, and disguises are not valid, and one cannot place identical prophecies with different oracles or multiple prophecies before the previous one has been fulfilled or disavowed.</p><p></p><p><strong>Thoughts So Far:</strong> Overall this is a fine chapter. The tables for generating Dives and Bounty Value for Misdeeds are likely going to see the most use. The rest of the chapter is more or less situational, more for local color on the DM’s part. The Prophecy system is likely subject to abuse, although I can see pulling off the faking of a prophecy (or getting one to come true as part of a job) can be a good adventure hook.</p><p></p><p><strong>Join us next time as we tour the Brancalonian Peninsula and surrounding environs in The Bounty Kingdom!</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Libertad, post: 8329746, member: 6750502"] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/HLPKi6t.png[/img][/center] This section is entirely for the Condottieri/DM. It’s part new rules, but mostly advice, charts, and tables for bringing the setting’s more unique elements to life. [b]Spaghetti Fantasy[/b] talks about what distinguishes Brancalonia from other settings. First off, it’s “low-magic” in that while the supernatural is common, the level of magical power available to the PCs and most of the populace is overall quite minor and not something that can be relied upon to replace skill. It’s also more light-hearted, where while serious issues can be inserted, the overall mood should be a party game that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Daily life and adventures focus more so on the regular Joes and Janes versus that of nobles, rulers, and prophetic heroes destined to change the world. In terms of describing “special effects” the GM should go for a low-budget movie: recycled character actors, natural backdrops, monsters popping in and out of view, and abandoned farmlands and crumbling ruins of former empires. Additionally, liberal use of Brawls to keep a level of dramatic violence without turning every fight into a bloodbath. There’s also a short entry of “Attitude at the Table,” which kind of goes for a safety tools approach but has some guidelines on behavioral policies that set the standard for official events, sessions, and channels. Violence shouldn’t focus on the gruesome and lurid, and Knaves who act like murderhobos you hear from online horror stories are universally loathed. Sex and romance can happen and be motivation for characters, but X-rated scenarios aren’t the focus and things should be closer to PG-13. Finally, discrimination of various kinds exists, but it doesn’t approach the systemic level or outright contempt and hatred. Granted, this last part is more or less subverted in the realm of Penumbria, although that region’s a Ravenloftian dark fantasy place which few people are eager to visit. The last bit of advice talks about Session 0 expectations and ideal starting regions for the game based on themes and common adventure material. Nothing we haven’t heard before in other GM advice books, and the regions we’ll get more into in the next chapter. [b]Knaves and Kingdom Justice[/b] Barring a few places, roaming packs of monsters aren’t a common occurrence in the Kingdom’s countryside. While skirmishes and border conflicts do arise there is still the rule of law, twisted and biased as it can be. It’s expected that Knaves will not be model citizens, but as long as they can do their job relatively cleanly and without too much bloodshed this is considered a more acceptable level of violence. The slower rest rates and Brawls as alternate combat are meant to help reinforce this mentality. Still, there are Knaves who become so inconvenient and dishonorable that their peers cannot stomach them and thus become liability. There are three broad categories universally respected by companies throughout the Kingdom: don’t snitch or sell out your fellow Knaves (includes collecting Bounties of non-Infamous), only engage in “criminally correct” behavior (no torturing of people and animals, killing children and the invalid, or similar acts of brutality), and don’t cheat your company out of money or stir up wars between companies and established governments. Knaves guilty of violating these rules become Infamous, and lose the membership and protection of their company and all other Knaves. Knaves are free to turn over Infamous and work with the authorities in order to capture or kill them, and companies encourage this to help retain goodwill with the rest of society. When Knaves are wanted by the authorities, simple guards and militia aren’t their most common enemies. As such people vary wildly in training (often on the lower end of things), the kinds of people tasked with going after semi-nomadic outlaws are members of the Royal Bounty Agency. These specially-licensed hunters are paid by the various governments of the Kingdom in bringing criminals to justice via Bounty Values. And yes they do have their own stat blocks, although those will be detailed in a later chapter. Bounty hunters aren’t criminals per se, and as such are bound by local laws in the course of their duties. Here we have an expanded table of Misdeeds committed during play, with values much higher than the 2-20 gold piece offenses in the second chapter. [img]https://i.imgur.com/wnMh2nl.png[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/nZzOElc.png[/img] As you can tell, the kind of stuff that turns Knaves Infamous are the kinds of things that are prohibitively expensive to pay off. Don’t forget that gold pieces are effectively platinum pieces in Brancalonia. In some cases criminals who repeatedly offend can be branded with a certain mark, showing to others that they are troubling reoffenders. Finally, most of the Kingdom doesn’t practice the death penalty, but this is more due to economic concerns than moral ones. The cheap labor of prisoners is considered highly convenient by governments to adopt. There’s also non-numbered tables for Royal Bounty Laws (talking about how the agency and bounties function on a bureaucratic level), and Unwritten Laws (not technically laws but social conventions and expectations that can alter public perception of crimes based on circumstance). [b]Creating Adventures[/b] Is a short one-page list of four tips. Although Brancalonia and its supplements are very generous with sample adventures, there will come a time when the DM must turn to their own imagination. First off, it discusses some already-covered material like what kind of Band the PCs belong to and appropriate regions for favored sub-genres, as well as two new bits of advice. The book notes that some opponents cannot be beaten; this most commonly reflects otherworldly immortal creatures or the more established political power structures. For the former, it suggests doing alternatives like exile, exorcism, and games of skill and chance to bind the entity in such a way that it cannot menace the mortal world for a time. In the case of the latter, nothing less than a colossal company with hundreds of members can be a threat to a regional power. Additionally, the GM is encouraged to plan for the Big Heist, the climactic event at level 6 that concludes the Band’s story and allows them to retire in wealth and (hopefully) comfort. It doesn’t have to be a typical heist, but can be all manners of colossal hoaxes and treasure-seeking that makes their names legendary among all the companies of the Kingdom. I have to wonder if this is a relic from a former version of the book, as nothing in the rules supports going beyond 6th level. [b]Dive Generator[/b] is a two page section, with tables for generating inns, restaurants, bars, brothels, and other such establishments frequented by Knaves and their allies. The first table determines the establishment’s purpose, the second a name and descriptive sign. Four more tables detail a sample list of owner names and personalities, peculiarities that make the Dive stand out from others of its kind, house specialties, and local brands of alcohol and their tastes. [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/8GhK54V.png[/img][/center] [b]Roads to Nowhere[/b] represent the many overgrown trails, remnants of paved Draconian-era highways, fairy-altered terrain, and other such avenues that seem to have no practical purpose or lead anywhere useful. Most people stick to what they know and ignore them in favor of trusted routes, but rumors, folktales, and desperate Knaves in need of evading the law may provide incentive in using them. We have four tables: one to determine the type of road (sheep track, magical path, etc), another for how to follow it (maneuvering through difficult terrain, overcoming a dangerous guardian, etc), who can be met there (a marionette friar preaching to trees, a witch with a favor to ask, etc), and where the road goes (literally ends in trackless wilderness, the Den of a local company, a convent of isolated nuns, etc). The third table has some entries for figures not detailed elsewhere in the book, or are actually entities from Brancalonia’s later supplements such as the Macaronicon, or more obscure yet still existing terms such as a [url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/postilion]postilion.[/url] One such result is “a pair of elusive spaturnums,” which a CTRL + F search reveals to be the only entry of its kind in the book. [b]Placing Prophecies[/b] is a short one-page rule for a cultural variation of gambling. Games of chance done for money are illegal in the Bounty Kingdom, so to get around this loophole Knaves and other such people place “prophecies” instead of bets. Basically someone approaches a bookmaker posing as an oracle with a written prophecy. In order to be legitimate, said prophecy must have a verifiable time and place of its fulfillment, and contain 1 to 4 elements formulated in a precise and specific sentence. Said elements must be cryptic in formulation but clear when fulfilled, and for each element fulfilled the stakes are doubled up to a maximum of 16 times the original bet. Use of masks, shape-shifting, and disguises are not valid, and one cannot place identical prophecies with different oracles or multiple prophecies before the previous one has been fulfilled or disavowed. [b]Thoughts So Far:[/b] Overall this is a fine chapter. The tables for generating Dives and Bounty Value for Misdeeds are likely going to see the most use. The rest of the chapter is more or less situational, more for local color on the DM’s part. The Prophecy system is likely subject to abuse, although I can see pulling off the faking of a prophecy (or getting one to come true as part of a job) can be a good adventure hook. [b]Join us next time as we tour the Brancalonian Peninsula and surrounding environs in The Bounty Kingdom![/b] [/QUOTE]
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