Needing Renaissance era Adventure Ideas

[Vrecknidj]

Hmm, ok, my ideas so far:

Basing some ideas off Dungeon Damage's take on things with hints of Shadowrun and what not. Clerical and Arcane magic exist, to what strength I'm not really sure yet, the Church for the most part tries to regulate ALL magic, with opposition to how its conducted and its other practices leading to the reformation by Martin Luther.

Amusingly I thought a funny thing to do is have him be an Elf masquerading around as a human, and in a previous incarnation having his name being Jan Huss (leader of the Hussite Revolution some years earlier). Luther was accused of being a Hussite alot during the early bits so I figure that'd be a nice turnaround.

This brings up an interesting point. With as long-lived as many races are compared to humans, especially compared to humans when the human lifespan was far shorter than it is today, some members of other races could have lived for tremendously long times. I suppose you could have whole campaign plots structured around this. Maybe there are elves behind the thrones of many kingdoms. Maybe there are dragons behind some. Perhaps the human penchant for killing other humans is just part of them being the puppets of these other beings.

Rule wise I was thinking of going with a Vitality point system, and maybe in the spirit of the high fantasy bit, some kind of hero point system.

Also, wanting to dumb down the cleric somewhat and introduce a more "priestly" cleric, along the lines of the intellectual one presented in Unearthed Arcana but more capable of being the party voice, etc.

I can't really comment on the second idea here, though it sounds okay. The vitality system might in fact work better if you're interested in a lower-level, lower-magic, high fantasy campaign.

Dave

 

[handforged]

An interesting event would be to somehow get the PC's in Firenze for the late 1490's when Savonarola, a wacky reformist and iconoclast, was preaching against the arts and sponsored several "bonfires of the vanities." Many precious objects were lost in such events because the people looted the entire city and stole from anyone who couldn't defend himself to burn paintings, jewels, sculpture, etc. Any magic items that are obvious would be ripe for the picking unless the PCs want to attack the crowds.

~hf

 

[Dogbrain]

Elf masquerading around as a human, and in a previous incarnation having his name being Jan Huss (leader of the Hussite Revolution some years earlier).

The Hussites weren't "revolutionaries" in the political sense. The Hussite religious movement has its origins in the writings of Wycliffe, actually. Jan Hus began his separation from Rome by holding Mass in the vernacular rather than Latin, and went on from there. After the execution of Jan Hus in 1415, his followers among the Czechs promulgated the following principles:

Freedom in preaching (non-priest ministers); communion in both kinds (body and blood for all, not just the priests); reduction of the clergy to apostolic poverty (removal of Church lands and wealth); severe punishment of all open sins (standard puritanical fare).

In essence, they were "Protestants before Protestantism". Turning them into merely political rebels would ignore a great deal of what the Hussites were and what the Hussites are today.

 

[Caspian Marqine]

The Hussites weren't "revolutionaries" in the political sense. The Hussite religious movement has its origins in the writings of Wycliffe, actually. Jan Hus began his separation from Rome by holding Mass in the vernacular rather than Latin, and went on from there. After the execution of Jan Hus in 1415, his followers among the Czechs promulgated the following principles:

Freedom in preaching (non-priest ministers); communion in both kinds (body and blood for all, not just the priests); reduction of the clergy to apostolic poverty (removal of Church lands and wealth); severe punishment of all open sins (standard puritanical fare).

In essence, they were "Protestants before Protestantism". Turning them into merely political rebels would ignore a great deal of what the Hussites were and what the Hussites are today.

Thought the big part of that was the issue over the wine of communion. Yeah, the protestantism before protestantism was the angle I was thinking on with some random long lived race, an elf or a family of them with a bit of a grudge against the Catholic church or something.

Might want to add that the Hussites when they ended up having to fight off the various groups sent out to take them down (for some reason Eastern European Knights seem to pop up in my mind), they were really proficient with guns, light cannon and wagon defences.


Ya, I had forgotten that most Clerics were sons of nobles and such, which makes for an interesting point, really shouldn't have to be a Cleric to be a priest in the Church so to speak, so "actual" priests would be held in a higher regard or lower depending on the current political situation.

Mmm, Savonarola. He could be a barrel of laughs, definately can twist that story around to be of use.

I'm starting to wonder how best to incorporate nonhuman races into the game. As pointed out earlier, longer lived races could find their way into places of power and stay there for some time, like say, an Elven Pope.



Jonathan