There is no horizon, only endless clouds. The world stretches on forever, air and wind as far as the eye can see. But this world is not entirely devoid of life. Within it there are floating islands, bastions of fundament formed around elemental nodes. Larger islands become inhabited, and collections of such islands form constellations, a series of interconnected orbits all revolving around a common point. Trade is paramount for survival in this world, with powerful airships carrying goods between the various cities and ports. The people involved in this trade are you and your friends.
You are Sky Merchants.
Sky Merchants is a roleplaying game where you act as merchants. Trade goods between ports, explore strange ports, take on contracts, overcome obstacles, mitigate disaster and try to keep yourself in the black.
But Sky Merchants is not limited to managing a trading enterprise. A group that wish for action may prefer to play as wrecking crew, partaking in trade house sabotage or raiding wealth ports for treasure. There is also the option to play as treasure hunters, seeking wrecked ships, or hidden away islands, secret elemental technology, or the most elusive thing of all: a new route between constellations. There is intrigue and diplomacy between ports and trade guilds, and players may take a stab at being diplomats, spies, assasins. There are also plenty of opportunity for social play, be it partaking in rowdy tavern bawl, a high society ball in the upper districts, or dealing with interpersonal conflicts on your ship.
When planning a campaign in Sky Merchants, first prepare a trade route for the group to traverse.
The intitial trade route does not need to be highly detailed. create a small constellation with five to ten larger islands around a common point. Each such island will form a port. Draw a line connecting each port. This is your route between them. Then detail the ports and routes the player characters will visit in the opening section, as well as a few notes on the ports immediate afterwards that you may be able to hint to the players what is to come.
For each port the players are set to visit you should prepare some basic information, as well as some complications the players will need to overcome in order to cut a good deal within the city.
These are the things to consider when creating a port:
Settlements on islands range from small towns to entire metropolises. There are smaller villages as well, both on a smaller island and on the truly gigantic large islands.
Examples: Gigantic, tiny, moderate sized, moderate sized but built onto only one ledge of the island, bult around a large lake in the middle of the island, impressively sized fortification, built across the bottom of the island.
Islands form their own distinct culture. Large differences can exisit even within the same constellation. For an initial port it is enough to write a few descriptive phrases, detailing the ports attitudes and values.
More descriptive examples:
- How the society on the island is arranged.
Examples of a governing body:
Examples of an island society:
- Each island has a single elemental node that it has formed around. These nodes aligned to a single element: Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Heat, Cold, Darkness, Light or Quintessence.
- How pronunced the element of the island is. Elemental intensity has the following degrees
For the first islands created it is recommended to do Neglible or Strong. Islands that are either strongly thematically linked to their element or where their element isn’t important. Ports that require special equipment to visit can often provide that equipment for any visitor to the island - usually at a small cost.
- Any particular goods the island will sell or purchase. These may be flavourful descriptions of common tradegoods, or it might be things that are directly needed for the player characters adventures, such as information, medicines for rare diseases, labour, or something else.
Any unusual items of interest the island possess.
Examples:
Ports in Sky Merchants form their own polities, each having their own governing body, society, and internal organisation. Ports can vary greatly in size, with the largest straddling across an entire island. Polities including more than a single island exist, usually trough the use of a Gateway, a device by which people can transfer themselves between Elmental Nodes of the same affinity without having to go by ship. In rarer instances a single Port becomes powerful enough to dominate other ports within the same Constellation. A polity capable of dominating several constellations is near unheard off.
It is easy to travel between ports in sky merchants. Travelling to other constellations is difficult but by no means impossible for anyone that saves up a bit. Most people will only travel to nearby islands within their own constellation. Travelling more than a few constellations away is very rare for most. Thus the world of most people within the endless skies amount to their own island, constellation, and in rare cases the closest constellations. Beyond that there are only rumors and tall tales.
Ports in Sky Merchants regulary requires a small payment to enter, larger if you are entering as a ship or a group. Keeping a ship in in the actual port requires an initial payment and then a regular payment afterwards. Sales within a port is taxed. Dependent on the goods sold the salesman may bake this tax into the price.
Because each port has its own law system, rules and punishments differ between ports. Some commonalities exist however. Tradesmen and visitors have lighter punishments for lighter offenses; fines or short term incarceration. Fines are seldom a fixed number, rather any judge or constable handling the fine will take measure of the transgressors holding and adjust the fine accordingly. In theory this means a wealthy trading group will pay more than a smaller one. This also mean that judges have a lot of leeway in how much they fine any particular group. A corrupt judge may be bribed so as to give a lighter fine. A judge biased towards the transgressor may order a fine many times more than what would be appropriate. Seeking redress for such corruption can be difficult, requiring people to take risks or committ to deeds they otherwise wouldn’t. Other punishments include jailtime. Depending on the extent of the crime the length of such punishment can be days, years or anything in between. In the case of skyships the ship owners are commonly held responsible for the conduct of their crew, especially for smaller crimes. Should crewmembers be charged for petty thefts, being drunk and disorderly, or engaging in an overly rowdy tavern brawl the officers of that crewmember may find themselves charged right next to them, as if they had comitted the crime. For harsher crimes such as murder officers may find themselves charged as accessoaries to the crime or if they are fortunate - not charged at all. The police force of a port will do random checks on ships entering the port, looking for illegal contraband. What constitutes illegal contraband differ from port from port. For some it is hard drugs, for others it may be illidit literature, of political, obscene or otherwise unacceptable nature, weapons or sanctioned goods. Most ports view smuggling as a moderate crime and fines for it are thus harsh. Even when these fines are paid the ship and its owners are marked as potential smugglers, ensuring future inspections should they ever return to port.
Ships in Sky Merchants are readily available. While the largest vessels will be beyond the means of most civilians there are many civilian vessels available for any need, be it travel, trade, or exploration. Ships can be further modified by placing them in any larger sized port, though many modifications depend on finding an Elemental Node of the right affinity, size and intensity. Ship compartments can also be upgraded, though it requires funds. Because many islands also do not have a great surplus of raw materials most shipyards will also require private enterprises to supply lacking raw materials themselves, be it timber, metal, or various fixtures or furniture.
Guns and rifles in sky merchants are single shot flintlock and single shot musket rifles. Most of them use gunpowder to propel a small bullet, some of them uses elemental technology. A few rare rifles or pistols instead generate an elemental charge, allowing them to shoot either elemental energy or the element itself. These have shorter range than other guns, but much greater destructive power. Most ports ban guns, or at least ban guns from outsiders. Some also ban bladed weapons, leading to clubs and canes being common weapons for self defense. Clubs here are not primitive wooden sticks but finely polished and lacquired batons, well balanced and often with painted on decorations. Canes are made to signal the social status of its owner, with many a recently wealthy merchant sporting silver ornaments, elaborate engravings, or ostentious designs. Unarmed combat is viewed as honorable, leading to wrestling and boxing being popular sports. Brawling is also common. It’s viewed as extremely crude to bring weapons to a brawl, especially pulling a knife or a gun at someone is the territory of crooks and scum. It still happens. Cannons are not popular, partly due to technological limitations, partly due to the difficulty in aiming them at ships that can move in three dimensions. Combat in the skies are very rare, and when it does occur amounts to hunting down the opponent and attempting a boarding action, sometimes by going so far as forcing him to run out of fuel. Military vessels will have smaller, faster vessels on board they can launch to hunt down target ships. Some of them will also have harpons connected to chains they can fire onto and into an enemey vessel. The few ships that have cannons on them are bigger military vessels. These pieces are not intended to target other ships but rather bombard cities or islands. Sky Merchants is a moderate violent world. Violence can occur but it is not necessarily common.
Espionage between ports and trade houses are extremely common. Ports will always be interested in news of their neighbours doings, and the inhabitants will always be interested in gossip. There is not a trade house that does not employ at least a few spies. And the subterfuge extends far beyond information gathering. There is sabotage of competition, both directly trough means such as arson, demolitions, vandalism, and indirectly trough sabotaging someone’s ability to fulfil a contract, destruction of a rival trade house’s reputation, or the reputation of one of their operatives, or otherwise embroiling them in a scandal or conducting a hostile takeover. There is even the occasional assasination. Many trade houses will seek to cover up their illicit actions or otherwise paint over their various scandals using their resources and influence. For an independent trader it may become critical to investigate the real goings on of an event in order to properly understand a market and not risk a severe loss from inaccurate information.
Constellation - A constellation is a collection of larger islands orbiting a central point, either an island or a large elemental vortex. A constellation may also contain lesser islands, skerry-islands, elemental vortexes and other things. Constellation orbits can be arranged as a flat circular plane or as a larger three dimensional structure. The larger islands can be arranged around the central point in a circular plane, layered circular planes, in a cone shape, or in many other shapes. Constellations can have orbits of different speeds. This causes routes within the constellation to change depending on what the date is. Constellations can also have a vertical aspect with some islands being placed lower than other islands. Because the world still have gravity it is cheaper and more efficient to travel down than up. Therefore in highly vertical constellations with a lot of height difference there is a large incentive for islands placed higher to specialize in heavy raw material production, whereas the islands placed lower focuses on processed, lighter products. For an initial game it is recommended to make a simple constellation, featuring only a few islands in an equal orbit around the central point of the constellation. The central point of the constellation can be a fully formed island itself or it can be an elemental vortex.
Here follows some additional information on constellation features:
Rogue Islands: Rogue islands are islands that do not orbit any Constellation. They travel the skies seemingly at random. They may be overgrown with vegetation, barren rocks or barely hospitable islands of unstable elemental energy. Some of them show signs of being inhabited once, usually a very long time ago. A rare few rogue islands have small settlements on them, but these tend to be primitive. Some theorize that rogue islands do orbit something, just something extremely far away, but this is viewed as highly unlikely by most researchers. Rogue islands can enter constellations. They will usually veer off larger islands and the constellation center, but can be dangerous for lesser islands existing at the edges of the constellation.
Skerry-islands: A set of Skerry Islands is a small archiepelago of lesser islands orbiting a larger island. While many lesser islands orbit a larger island skerry islands are notable both for their number and for having a very stable orbit very closely to a larger island. They are theorized to be caused by a larger island failing to form completely with the leftover parts forming the skerry-islands. While the average travel time within a constellation lies between days or weeks, the average travel time between skerry-islands are measured in minutes or hours.
Lesser Island - A lesser island is an island that is smaller than normal islands, does not feature a port city, sometimes aren’t even inhabited. They may orbit the constellation itself or orbit a larger island.
Routes - Routes are plotted courses between islands. They are known, well travelled, often patrolled by ships belonging to a port in order to keep them safe and help any travelleres that are in trouble. Fuel costs of a route is well understood, the route is either stable, or any dangers on the route such as unstable weather, vortexes, or pirates are known and can be prepared for. Ships can attempt to travel outside of routes, but the risk is greater.
Seasonal Changes - Seasons exists within the world of Sky Merchants, but they are highly varied. Different constellations may mitigate or strengthen different seasons, as may individual islands. An island with a strong node of fire is unlikely to have extreme winters. Local conditions may drive tourism to or from an island.
Weather - Weather conditions within a constellation can quickly change depending on where you are in the constellation. Elemental vortexes and strong elemental nodes in islands will affect local weather conditions. Sky Merchants need not just handle rain and wind and snow, but also rains of fire or dirt, heatwaves and coldsnaps and storms of lightning. Even sudden spots of darkness or intense light can be difficult to handle. Rains of fire and dirt are less dangerous than one might think, the sparks of fire dies quickly and the dirt comes only in small amounts. However, they can still damage sensitive equipment, makes working outside the ship quite difficult, and greater storms of these elements can be dangerous. One of the considerations for settling on an island is how stable or predictable its weather conditions are, as is one of the considerations for establishing a route.
The Composed System – Sky Merchants have the following dice resolution mechanics.
Automatic: No dice is rolled, the game master decides if the action succeeds or not.
Passive: No dice is rolled, the game master checks the skill rating of a character and determines if the action succeed or not based on that rating.
Active: The player rolls an Action Dice, adding in numbers from various capabilities and modifiers they have.
Effective: The player first rolls an Action Dice, then if that dice is successful they roll an Effect Dice to check how well they succeeded in their action.
It is up to the game master to determine what resolution type is used when. Automatic resolution is useful when the players are attempting something trivial, or when they have plenty of time and nothing important is happening. Passive resolution is good for resolving when a player is not actively using a skill, such as for knowledge or perception checks. Active resolution is useful when there’s some risk involved in the action, and Effective resolution is useful for actions that carries some risk and are continous. Actions where you want an incremental progress towards some specific goal. This might be trying to wear someones defenses down in combat, crafting an item, or attempting information gathering. However the game master is free to apply any type of resolution to any roll, so that he might at some point run a combat trough Effective resolution, with multiple actions required to bring a foe down, he might run another combat using Active resolution because he determines a more loose and fast paced resolution is needed, or he might even run it as Passive or Automatic because he determines that particular combat to be fairly trivial.
Sky Merchants uses an action dice and an effect dice. Both of these are ten sided dice – 1D10 -, in addition to some modifiers:
Action Dice: 1D10 + Attribute + Skill + Modifiers
Effect Dice: 1D10 + Modifiers
In order to succeed with an action you roll the action dice against a target number between 0 and 20. If the roll is equal or higher than the target number you succeed with the action. For some actions you may also roll an effect dice to see how well you succeed, or how far you got with the action. For these you roll the effect dice and either use the result as a measuring stick for how well you did or subtract the number from something that measures how well you did, such as Guard Points from an enemy, or Labor Points from some item you are trying to craft.
The game utilizes the following modifiers:
Modifiers of the same type does not stack. If three separate sources would give you a +2 modifiers, you still only get +2, not +6.
Positive and negative modifiers of the same type negate each other. A +2 and a -2 means a +0. Disadvantage and Advantage means neither.
If you ever need to apply Disadvantage or Advantage to a roll but are not rolling them as dice you may instead apply -3 and +3 to the roll.
Recommended difficulty numbers for the game is
Modifiers can apply to both the Action Dice or the Effect Dice. However, for some resolution types you do not roll the effect dice and for some you roll neither. In these instances the modifier is simply ignored. It is assumed that if the roll succeeds the effect is sufficient to either complete the task or make adequate progress towards it. In a combat the person attacked is killed outright, wounded, or pushed back, in a mystery the player character resolves the riddle, or finds the clues he was searching for. In these instances the Game Master must judge what the players intent was for the action (or ask him to clarify), and then decide on an appropriate outcome.
Occasionally a modifier may apply to other things such as a target number. These do not follow the rules described above but is a simple positive or negative integer applied to the appropriate number. The recommendation is to keep these rare.
In order to generate a character, players go trough the following step.
Allocation Reference:
Optional Rule: (Obligatory Archetype Pick) A gamemaster may wish to limit the amount of available Archetypes in order to maintain some focus to his game. While one way to do this is to just remove some of the available archetypes, another way is to enforce a mandatory archetype pick, ensuring that everyone in the group have one archetype in common. So for example if a game will feature a lot of social interaction and intrigue, the Game Master may decide that every character has to pick the Talker archetype, leaving them free to pick any other secondary archetype.
The character concept is the main idea of the character, including their name. Most names in Sky Merchants are lifted from Renaissance era names from Italy or Spain, though made up names in a similar style are also fine.
Examples of character concepts:
Nozzo - Eager tradesman
Francesco - Former explorer
Palla - Disowned son
Ruggieri - Experienced Valet
Vannozzo - Spy and gentleman
Archetypes represent the core expertize of your character. It is what defines his role in the group and outlook on the world. Players should select two archetypes and write them down. Archetype provides a player with favored attributes and skills, allowing a player to increase them further than other skills at character creation. Each archetype also gains access to an Archetype Skill.
A player should select two of the following archetypes:
You have a past dedicated to violence.
This is the archetype of soldiers, thugs, fighters, mercenaries, bandits, martial artists, wrestlers or even completely everyday people that for whatever reason have become adept at the application of brute force to resolve their problems.
Favored Attributes: Strength, Constitution
Favored Skills: Melee, Ranged, Athletics, Reflexes
Lore: Warfare
Archetype Skill – Veteran
A curious mind, your past is dedicated to solving mysteries.
The archetype of detectives and the curious. Investigators seeks the hidden and often dangerous truths in the corners of the world. Such truths are often hidden for a reason, and so Investigators draw danger to themselves and their comrades. Yet groups without knowledge are utterly powerless in their endeavours, and so investigators remains a useful part of any group.
Favored Attributes: Calm, Wits
Favored Skills: Perceive, Insight, Manipulate, Navigate
Lore:Criminology
Archetype Skill: Observe
You’ve always liked being around people.
The archetype of the sociable. Someone who genuinely enjoys talking with others. Talkers are not limited to people in any specific profession, a conman, a demagouge, a negotiator. They may just as well be people who simply have a genuine interest in others and who spent a large part of their life engaging with those around them.
Favored Attributes: Charisma, Calm
Favored Skills: Apperance, Insight, Persuade, Manipulate
Lore:Etiquette
Archetype skill: Enjoy
You have travelled extensively and are at home in any place.
Many people have travelled in their lives, and many groups will travel, but a Traveler is someone who has lived on roads and in the skies between ports. Who made the act of travel their home. Travelers are calm and patient, but often overconfident. They have great reserves of stamina and willpower, but these are by no means infinite. Regardless the relative comfort with which they move trough even extraordinary circumstances can be a great strength to those around them.
Favored Attributes: Constitution, Calm
Favored Skills: Pilot/Ride, Navigate, Medicine, Athletics
Lore:Cultures – Worldviews
Archetype skill: Grounded
Your approach to conflict have always been one of evasion, to dodge, to lie, to obfuscate. Hit people where they least expect it, in their back, in their heart, and sometimes right between their eyes.
A Rogue might have been a thief, a spy, or an assassin. Their commonality is their tendency to work in the background. Rogues want to remain unseen, unremarkable, unexpected.
Favored Attributes: Dexterity, Charisma
Favored Skills: Larceny, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Reflexes
Lore:Underworld
Archetype Skill: Opportunist
You have a thirst for knowledge.
This is the archetype of academics, scientists, or even just those who have obsessively studied a wide variety of subject until they’ve attained an impressive reservoir of knowledge.
Favored Attributes: Memory, Wits
Favored Skills: Bureaucracy, Merchantry, Medicine
Lore Skills: All
Archetype Skill: High Education
You find things, make things, preserve things, save things.
This is the archetype of crafters, scroungers, scavengers and technicians of various types. Engineers try to resolve problems trough the act of construction, be that trough spending months of experimentation and labor trying to understand and contruct some extraordinary device that will change the course of history, or trough five minutes of panicked jury rigging to point a doomsday device the other direction.
Favored Attributes: Memory, Constitution
Favored Skills: Pilot/Ride, Perception, Reflexes, Medicine
Lore:Technology
Archetype Skill: Handyman
Composed System – Sky Merchants have the following attributes:
Attributes have a rating of 0 to 5. You gain an automatic point in each attibute favored by your selected archetypes. If both archetypes share the same attribute you gain a rating of two for that attribute. After that you may allocate another 12 points across all attributes. You may set your favored attributes to up to five at character start and all other attributes up to 4.
Standard skills can have a rating of 0 to 5. Lore and Archetype skills start with a dash -, the first point allocated to them sets the dash to 0. They also have a maximum value of 5. A new character may allocate up to 17 points among this skills. Apart from standard skills a character also have access to a lore skill and an archetype skills for each archetype they picked.
Skills that are favored by an archetype may start with a rating of up to 5. All other skills may have a max of 3 at character start. An archetypes lore and archetype skill always count as favored by that archetype. The first point spent on an archetype or lore skill sets the skill rating to 0 and allows them to be used untrained. Standard skills start at 0 and can always be used untrained.
Standard Skills are:
Lores are used passively when trying to know something. Lores can be used actively when conducting longer research into the subject, attempting to formulate an expirement or similar. A character can only learn the lores related to their Archetype at character start. After the game begins they can spend experience points to pick up any lore.
Lore skills are:
Archetype skills are connected to a characters archetype. A character cannot learn the archetype skill unless they also have its connected archetype.
Archetype skills are:
Assets are capabilities your character has that are external to them. Companions or servants, wealth, special equipment, etcera.
The Assets a character can take in Composed System - Sky Merchants are as follows:
Characters have 3 points to allocate between Assets at character start.
The player should calculate and write down the following values:
Evasion: 5+Dexterity
Toughness: Toughness is 0
Guard Points: 5+Constitution
Composure: 5+Calm
Concentration: 5+Wits
Sky Merchants is not a gear focused game. However there are some rules for equipment. Most equipment will simply allow a character to take actions they could not otherwise do: A flintlock pistol allows the character to attack at range, climbing gear allows a character to scale a cliff face they otherwise would not be able to, a nice outfit allows the character to attend a party without raising everyones eyebrows.
Some gear may provide the character with a modifier on a specific skill. Low Quality or very difficult to use items would grant the character a -2 to a specific skill, High Quality or very convenient gear would provide a +2 modifier. Such gear may provide the modifer to the action dice, effect dice, or both.
Characters may purchase regular items within reason. Chances to obtain high quality gear may occur during play, and can also be obtained at character start trough the Well Equipped asset.
Armor: Because armor does not directly impact a skill, they cannot use the above system. Instead Armor provides a bonus to either evasion which makes a character harder to hit, or toughness with diminishes damage taken equal to its value. A regular item would then provide a +2 to either of these values, a High Quality one would provide +3, and a low quality item would provide a +1.
If a player wishes, they could obtain an outfit that would modify their Composure in a similar manner.
This armor represents things a common civilian could reasonable obtain within the world of Sky Merchants. Non player characters working as soldiers may have entirely different equipment.
Characters may earn experience points during a game, that can be spent to improve their characters. The cost of increasing character capabilities by 1 are as follows:
Attributes: 10xp
Skills: 5xp
Assets: Cannot be increased trough experience expenditure. Can only be attained trough gameplay. Note that because Assets can only be obtained trough gameplay they can also be lost trough gameplay. Your servant may quit, or join a union, your priced overcoat may be destroyed when you use it to put out a fire, and your great fortune may be greatly diminished when you listen to closely to the wrong piece of investment advice. By the same token you may find new treasure and new fortunes at the very next port – if you are skilled… and lucky.
Defensive Statistics: These are increased when their associated attribute is increased. Equipment can also increase them. Toughness cannot be higher than 5 and the others cannot be higher than 12.
After a player has spent 50 experience points, all further expenditure increase by 5 points. After a player has spent 100 experience point all further expenditure increase by another 5 points. After 150 points spent no further increases can be made. If at that point a character increases an attribute they have to decrease another one. Same for skills.
Experience less adventures: An alternative way is to simply not give out experience points. This is useful when the group wishes to focus less on character improvements and more on the world or the story. In this instance it’s recommended to give a small amount of experience at character start (such as 30 points) and then nothing after that. Occasional character improvements in such a game can still happen, but they work like assets. The player characters must obtain them in game trough training, studying, finding mentors, or accomplishing things.
If your group use experience points it is recommended to give each character a flat number of 2, 3 or 5 experience points per session, depending on how quickly characters should improve. Bonus experience can also be awarded for special accomplishments.
The defensive statistics of a character is used when non player characters or player characters attempt to attack, affect or befuddle a character. For physical attacks you use evasion, toughness and guard points.
Evasion forms the target number to hit a character in combat.
Toughness is subtracted from the result of an effect dice if a hit is scored.
Guard Points represents the stamina, attention and posture of a character. Diminished Guard Points takes the form of minor wounds such as bruises, swelling, or minor damage to clothes and armor.
Guard points should be returned to a character at the end of any given conflict provided they have a few minutes on them to rest.
Composure is the target number for social checks. If someone attempts to affect a character emotionally, such as riling them up, intimidating them, or enticing them they can roll against that characters composure. Note that while a success means the character has some emotion instilled in them it does not control them. A character can act contrary to their emotions, though a negative modifier of -2 or Disadvantage would be appropriate in that case.
Concentration is used when players try to befuddle or confuse a character.
Wounds are taken by characters when they recieve damage that puts them at 0 or negative Guard Points. Wounds can be lesser or grevious, at the game masters decision. Wounds are negative conditions that affects a characters health. The most common wound would be unconsciousness. Wounds linger. Lesser wounds may clear up in a couple of minutes but should still leave the characters with a -2 to any rolls related to the wound for a couple of days at least. More grevious wounds should linger for weeks or months. Example of a more grevious wound would be a broken bone or a major concussion.
It is up to the game master if a wound is grevious or not, and how long it lasts. Tending a character with the Medicine skill should help diminish the effects of the wound, allowing a character with disadvantage to instead only have a -2, or allowing a character with a -2 to ignore it for a while. Tending may also be required to ensure a wound does not become permament, such as a broken leg healing wrong.
Strength – Applies to any feats of strength. Melee and Ranged attacks relying on brute strength, Athletic actions related to lifting or moving heavy items, or even Persuade rolls relying on intimidating people trough someones physical appearance.
Constitution – Applies to any feats of endurance. Athletics related actions related to marching over long periods of time, maintaining a run for more than a short distance, Melee actions related to resisting a grapple or tiring out the enemy before the character himself is tired out, or any other actions that occur over a long time in a stressful circumstance such as an extended surgery using the Medicine skill.
Dexterity – Applies to any feats of speed and coordination. Melee or Ranged actions requiring precision and finesse, Pilot/Ride actions occuring at his speeds, or Bureaucracy actions to fill in immaculate paperwork over a short period of time.
Charisma – Applies to feats of social interaction or emotion. Persuade actions to convince someone (or know what they can’t be convinced of) , Handling actions to instruct or train someone, or even Reflex actions to grab an indivudal or groups attention.
Calm – Applies to feats of composure. Persuade actions to oppose and counter someones argument, Appearance actions to device the perfect outfit for a night on the town, Medicine actions to overcome discomfort from disease while keeping someone company on their deathbed, a Navigate action to find a path trough a building on fire.
Memory – Applies to feats of intellect such as Lore actions to research a specific topic, Merchantry actions to commit a contract verbatim to memory, or even an Athletics action to pull off one specific move the character has spent a week on memorizing.
Wits – Applies to feats of quick thinking. Insight roll to oppose someone trying to decieve or confuse the character, Manipulate actions to confuse others, Percieve actions to spot someone while actively looking for them, or even Appearance action to craft a subtle insult into a characters outfit, or a Larceny action to disarm a trap.
Standard skills start at 0 and can be used untrained. Any character can improve at a standard skill as long as they can train or study it.
Melee - Melee covers all form of close combat, including unarmed combat.
Ranged - Ranged covers all forms of ranged combat, including firearms, bows, throwing weapons, and even the occasional cannon.
Athletics – Athletics covers any feats of stamina or strength, including running, jumping, climbing, and acrobatic tricks.
Reflexes – Reflexes cover any feats of speed or coordination, be it catching a thrown item, or who moves first in a contest or conflict or getting someone else off balance.
Apperance – Appearance covers not just looks but posture, body language, accents, ones ability to coordinate outfits, ones overall ability to provide the impression they wish to provide. People with a high rating in appearance will appear as they wish to whether it is fabolous, important, intimidating or absolutely unremarkable.
Insight – Insight covers social awareness, understanding peoples motives, emotions, intent.
Persuade – Persuade covers both convincing people to do something and understanding what people can be convinced to do. It can also be used when one wants to instill a strong emotion in someone.
Manipulate – Manipulate covers deceit and guile. Attempting to lie to someone, confuse people, or recognize when someone is being played uses Manipulate.
Pilot/Ride – Pilot/Ride covers controlling a vehicle or mount, be it a skyship, a wagon, a horse, a skybike, or something else.
Navigate – Navigate is the skill for finding ones way. It can be used to avoid getting lost, orienting oneself in the wilderness, foraging, tracking a target trough a difficult environment – be it a jungle or a city – as well as plot efficient courses for a skyship.
Medicine – Medicine covers first aid, diagnosing illneses, prescribing treatments, even surgery.
Handling – Handling covers the arts of instruction and training. Handling allows a character to teach or train people and animals efficiently.
Bureaucracy – Bureaucracy covers any interaction with an institution, be it a port authority, a governmental department, a trade house, or a religious order.
Merchantry – Merchantry covers economics and trade, and can be used to appraise a trade goods, evaluate a contract, or research an old businuess deal.
Perceive – Percieve covers physical awareness, such as searching trough a room or notice you are being tracked.
Larceny – Larceny covers breaking and entering, as well as protecting oneself from burglary. It can be used to pick locks, recognise and disable traps or alarms, evaluate security systems and figure out the best routes for infiltrating a building or complex.
Sleight of Hand – Sleight of Hand can be used to pick pockets, swipe small items, conduct party tricks and quickly swap one item out for another.
Stealth – Stealth can be used to move unseen and unheard.
Lore skills start at a dash value (–) and cannot be used untrained. The first point spent on a lore skill sets it to 0 and allows it to be used. Lore skills can be learnt by anyone as long as they can find some books or a teacher related to the lore. However a character can only start with lores that are favored by their archetypes.
Warfare – Covers knowledge related to military matters. Those knowledgeable about warfare will know about armies, military history, military strategies, armaments and military hardware.
Criminology – Covers knowledge related to the investigation of crime, forensic techniques, criminal psychology, the organization of police departments, and various historical crimes.
Etiquette – Covers knowledge related to proper conduct. Those knowledgable in etiquette will know and understand the proper forms of adress, increasingly esoteric protocols of conduct, and a surprising amount of truly intricate insults.
Cultures – Worldviews – Covers the knowledge of various ways to percieve the world as related to geographic areas. Those well versed in culture understands how other people think, what different worldviews values. They will also know of and understand various belief systems, be they religious, ideological, or personal.
Academics – Covers any history not covered by another lore, anthropology, architecture, archeology, classical literature and similar academic pursuits.
Underworld – Covers knowledge of criminal organizations, where to find or sell illicit materials, and even any subculture that is disapproved of by the current locale the characters find themselves in.
Technology – Covers knowledge of machinery and the mechanical, including both engineering and scientific principles underlying their construction. Also covers elemental technology.
Archetype skills starts at a dash value(–) and cannot be used untrained. The first point spent on them sets the skill to 0 and allows it to be used. A character can only learn the archetype skills of their selected archetypes. However they do not require a teacher or a book to improve further.
Veteran provides the following benefits:
You may conduct maintenance in order to temporarily increase the quality of a regular item to high quality by spending an evening cleaning sharpening and patching it up. You can do this once per day, and the quality lasts for a number of days equal to your veteran score, with a minimum of one day. Most high quality items provide you with a +2 bonus to a particular skill or defensive stat, but you are free to cooperate with the game master to decide on other bonuses.
You can spend an action and make a Veteran skill check to shake the effects of a lesser wound for a scene or ignore a -2 two modifier. If a wound or other condition would normally prohibit the use of an action (such as being unconscious or surprised) you can still make a roll, you simply lose the next action you would be able to take. You can attempt this a number of times in each session equal to your Veteran Rating.
You may replace your skill rating in Persuade with your rating in Veteran while interacting with other Combatants.
Talkers are adept at both enjoying the moment, and spreading that enjoyment to others.
Enjoy provides the following benefits:
Lower the difficulty by your rating in Enjoy to any actions attempting to:
Make people who are friendly or neutral towards you feel comfortable, at ease, or otherwise content.
Make people who are irritated with or hostile towards you feel increasingly frustrated and annoyed with you.
Enjoy can also replace any skill used to oppose mental stress or emotional fatigue.
Wether it's because they are at ease, jaded, stoic, or that they simply take things as they come Travellers are some of the most grounded people out there.
Grounded provides the following benefits:
You may add your Grounded rating to your Guard Points and Composure defensive stats. This ignores the standard maximum for these stats, setting the theoretical maximum to 17.
You may replace any skill used to oppose mounting physical, social or mental exertion with Grounded if it is higher.
The act of not merely seeing or hearing, but to analyze the information at your disposal and make the correct deductions.
Observe provides the following benefits:
You can lower the difficulty of Insight and Percieve actions with your rating in Observe.
You can roll to analyze an item or individual, gaining additional information relevant to what you are observing. Examples include: Identifying where in town the mud from a pair of mud soaked trousers may come from. Infer the emotional state of whoever wrote a particular text. Infer the profession, habits, or overall personality of an individual from seeminly innocous details.
Observe is less a matter of perception and more a matter of combining extensive background knowledge on a wide array of subjects with a keen eye for detail allowing you various leaps of logic that to an outside observer may seem staggeringly disconnected.
You take advantage of the opportunities afforded to you. As a consequence you have also become adept at the managing of risk.
Opportunist provides the following benefits:
When you have advantage or disadvantage on an Action dice you may replace the value of your skill with the value of opportunist if it is higher.
When you have advantage or disadvantage on an Effect dice you may add the value of Opportunist to the effect.
Once per session you may reroll a failed skill, using the value of Opportunist instead of the value of the skill.
Highly Educated provides the following benefits:
For each point in Highly Educated above 0 you may allocate two points among all Lore skills.
When interacting with Scholars you may replace Persuade and Manipulate with Highly educated.
You are licensed to operate heavy machinery and well versed in a number of practical skills.
Handyman provides the following benefits:
Handyman can be used to understand and work with complicated machinery.
Handyman can be used to craft gear, including High Quality gear.
Handyman can be used to improve low quality gear to regular quality.
For each point in Handyman above 0, a character may put one point in a lore they have not already taken, setting its value to 0 and allowing it to be used untrained.
In order to craft an item the character requires raw materials, production facilities, and time. The game master determines exactly what is required. A ’production facility’ can be anything from a fully stocked workshop with numerous assistants to a simple set of tools kept in a cupboard. The time required is as follows:
Jury Rigging: Can be done in a matter of moments.
Tinkering: Takes an evening, around four hours of work.
Craftsmanship: Takes a couple of days.
Large Project: One or more weeks.
Architect: A project taking months of time.
Once a time period have been determined, the character can make a crafting roll at the end of that period. If successful this either completes the project or if Effective resolution is used a number of labour points is diminished equal to the result of the Effect dice. What a character can craft is determined by the lores they know. Note that the character only needs to be able to use a lore to craft items within it. If the game master determine a particular item to be highly complex he might require a higher rating in Handyman for the character to be able to craft it but the lore can still be at 0.
Examples of items a player can craft tied to each lore:
Warfare – Arms and armor
Criminology – Investigate tools such as magnifying glasses, chemical analysis kits, or fingerprinting kits.
Etiquette – Tailored outfits, engravings or other aesthetic modifiers
Cultures – Worldviews – Cuisine, including local specialities
Academics – Books, instruction manuals
Underworld – Picklock tools, poisons, modify another piece of gear to be easier to hide
Technology – Mechanical items, machinery, elemental technology
The default for High Quality gear is that it grants a +2 bonus to a specific skill. If a character wish they are free to craft regular or low quality gear (requiring less production materials, facilities and/or time to do so). Regular quality items allow a character to take actions they otherwise couldn’t, but provide no other bonuses. Low Quality items either gives a -2 bonus or some other negative tradeoff.
Assets are capabilities a character has that are external to them.
The character has a single NPC that is particular loyal to them. This NPC might be a servant such as a personal butler or valet, a bodyguard, a favored assistant such as a family lawyer or doctor, a very close friend, or even family such as a wife or spouce. It could even be an animal, such as a large and well bred hound. How close they are is determined by the Companion rating.
Note that the game master designs the companion, both its stats and personality. If a character works for a larger organization a good way to give him a companion is to have him simply request one in character, ask him what his character is looking for, give him a short description of three people, and then further develop whoever he picks. This could also be used when the character seeks an employee. This allows the player to get mostly what he asked for, but not a perfect match.
A game master that do not wish to run companion NPCs may wish to hand the NPC over to the player. This is fine, as long as the game master remembers the companion is still their own character and will occasionally interject to have the NPC act according to their own interests.
The player character have some personal wealth independent of the trade house the group belongs to.
Each rank of wealth allows the character an increasing amount of spending money.
The player character have some particular fine items in their possession. Perhaps a family heirloom, or as a result of earlier wealth. Each point put in Well Equipped lets the character starts with one High Quality item. The game master determines if the character can reasonable obtain the item.
The player character personally employs a group of servants. These can be maids, caterers, chefts, accountants, security guards or anything else the game master agrees is reasonable.
If a character has a servant in their employ but no Wealth asset it is assumed either their family, a wealthy patron, or a personally negotiated benefit of the player characters trade house pays for that servant’s salary. This also applies for the Companion asset if it takes the form of a valet or a butler. If a character has the Wealth asset at equal or higher than his servant asset it can be assumed he pays the salary of his employees.
The character has a widespread network of people they know both personally and not. When they enter a new port they may ask for a specific type of contact, and then roll a relevant attribute + contact rating to see if they know any such person in that port. The difficulty should relate to the size of the port, with recommended default difficulty for larger islands being 8 and smaller islands 15. Not all contacts will be personally known by the character. Instead they might have heard of the person from an associate of an associate, or they may simply be keeping tabs on individuals with a wide variety of skills (”You have heard rumours of a famous chef from outside the constellation supposedly travelling here in search of recipes, you realize he is in this very town, he might just have the expertise you wanted”). As with all rolls the game master is free to use another type of action resolution such as automatically allowing the roll to succeed when he determines it reasonable.
If the game master cannot find a good way to implement the request contact in that port they may simply have the player know another NPC that might be useful to them.
The player character is well known. A Fame rating of 1 indicates that the character is known by a few individuals, likely related to his work or expertise (such as people who know of his trade house, or non player characters that share an archetype with him). A Fame rating of 5 indicates that near everyone has heard of the character. Fame can be good or bad, and different groups may react to a characters reputation very differently. Therefore the Fame asset is a double edged sword. However because the character is known he can always open some doors no one else will be able to. Aside from making sure non player characters recognize the character the game master may allow the player to replace a characters skill rating with his fame rating when he tries to lean on his reputation, whatever it is, assuming whoever he is talking to has heard of him and isn’t to annoyed with him.
Larger Islands:
Size: Moderate sized island with a large city. The rest of the space is focused on agriculture, rich orchyards and fruit yards of darkness aspected plants stretching out across the island. There is no wilderness on Noctern. Every available piece of land is either the city, its outskirts, or otherwise carefully tended by the island’s inhabitants.
Culture – Refined. Large amounts of tourism due to the aesthetically pleasing environment.
Governing Body/Island Society – Aristocratic. Several large families control Nocturne.
Element - Darkness
Elemental Intensity – Strong. The island is surrounded by a near eternal night. Plant and animal life have mutated from the Dark aligned elemental energy to live within the darkness. Around fifty percent of the people living on Nocturn are Darkborn.
Goods – Noctern exports luxurious foodstuff, as well as advanced light based technology (an area it has attained a large amount of expertize in due to its own need for such technology. Noctern imports large number of Light Nodes, of any size, most from its sister city of Arosa. It also imports large amounts of oil, quintessence and wood as fuel for its lights.
Notable Features: Noctern is well known for its tourist industry, with plenty of resturants, pubs, theatres and other entertainments available to would be visitors. It is particular well known for the beauty of its city, with numerous lanterns and lights littered across its pictorusque architecture.
Size Small, most of the underside and central parts of the island is composed of a maelstrom of water, earth and ice. A ring around the island is solid, and a small research output has been built on one side. A handful of paths lead in towards the centre.
Culture – Research focused. Dalrose have plenty of scholars, scientists, and engineers.
Governing Body/Island Society – Independently funded research enterprise. The outpost on the island has been established by several different trading house cooperating in order to research the unstable elemental node at the center o the island.
Element - Water
Elemental Intensity – Inhospitable – Only the outer edges of the island have a settlement. Anyone trying to reach the inner parts of the island requires protective suits.
Goods – Dalrose exports research material. A few times a year they will also manage to extract a high intensity elemental node, usually water, air or cold aligned. The trading house funding the Dalrose settlement will bid on these nodes among themselves.
Notable Features – The settlement on Dalrose is heavily reinforced to protect itself against the hostile environment. There are also a few walkways built into the inner parts of the island. While they have less shielding, they are the safest way to travel inwards into the island.
Size Huge – Moderate city built on the underside of the rocky island.
Culture - Mercantile. Fundament is the focus of a large number of trade houses due to its extensive ship yards and as a result large amount of trade occurs all across its city, both from the constellation and from outside. The first stop of most travellers to the Roccana constellation will be Fundament.
Governing Body/Island Society - A council of trade houses vote on a single ruler every four years. This ruler is not absolute but shares power with the council.
Element - Earth
Elemental Intensity - Moderate
Goods – Fundament have extensive shipyards and will often construct ship on comission. They also perform ship renovations, upgrades and occassionally decomissions old ships.
Notable Features –
The city of Fundament has been built across the bottom, with habitations split between those dug into the underside of the city and those built ontop of break away rocks floating in a locked position in relation to the Fundament central elemental node.
There are deep forests on the top of island. In addition to the vast mineral deposits on Fundament, these forests are managed in order to obtain raw materials for ship building. Forest wardens patrol this forest. Parts of the forest are harvested at different time intervals. The forest has wildlife within it, and sometimes visitors or people of means arrange hunting expeditions.
Size – Medium sized island with a medium sized city.
Culture – Isolationist. Carrossa is surrounded by permanent elemental storms that cuts it off from most of the rest of the constellation.
Governing Body/Island Society – Carrossa is traditionally ruled by a council of long since established landowners. In recent years there’s been increased calls for reform of this practice however.
Element - Quintessence
Elemental Intensity – Moderate – The elemental storms that surround Carrossa is the cause of close by elemental vortexes with an overwhelming intensity. Carrossa itself only has a moderate intensity in their elemental energy. The Quinessence aspect makes itself noticed all across the city as an increrased intensity in all sensations. Colors shine a little brighter, taste is sharper, sounds linger for a little while longer.
Goods – Carrossa exports quintessence in exchange for a large number of necessities. They also occassionaly trade in a variety of elemental nodes.
Notable Features: Carossa has since long attempted to build a gateway connected to its central node. While theoretically possible they have yet to succeed.
This is a small introductionary adventure for Sky Merchants. A large investor named Costello have contacted the player characters and offered them a deal. He’ll supply them with a ship and sponsor their trading enterprise. In return they’ll need to travel to Carossa - the island at the center of the Roccana constellation - and retrieve Costello’s sister. Carossa is however wracked by elemental storms, and the journey there is difficult, so first they will have to travel to surrounding islands in order to pick up necessary supplies and upgrade their ship.
At each port the players will have a specific objective to succeed with. Costello will contact the player characters trough their ships communication link in order to provide them information of their next objective.
Nocturne is hosting a large festival, with a market place, dancing, competitions and more. During this festival several of the towns aristocrats will attend – most who will be in disguise.
Objective: Costello will ask the players to retrieve a letter of recommendation for an auction that will take place on the island of Fundament in a few weeks. In order to do so the players must locate one of the aristocrats attending the festival and persuade them to provide the letter of recommendation. First however they will need to make port and declare themselves with the harbour master.
Costello has asked the players to travel to Nocturne in order to obtain a sponsorship for an auction that will occur on the island Fundament in a few weeks. He has ensured the player characters have an invitation to a small dinner party of various influential people. The players must convince one of these people to sponsor them. Costello has told the players they can offer favorable contracts from the Costello trade house in exchange, however he is not certain this will be sufficient. The players must establish trust.
As the ship closes in towards Nocturne the skies shift into a golden red, as if it is dusk. But it is several hours to early for dusk. Eventually dim stars appear, and the skies darken further. Then Nocturne is sighted, a glimmering city of light, hovering within an eternal night. The stars shine brightly. The island is large, yet the city takes up a signification portion. It is covered in a sea of soft lights. The harbour is packed with ships, and the streets are full of people. The festival is in full swing.
This is the Nocturne harbour. The Nocturne harbour is full of ships. People are all about, menial laborers load or unload ships in port. Tourists and tradesmen wander about. Everywhere there are sailors, as well as official harbour personnel.
There is a harbour master here. His name is:
Galasso. Galasso is greeting the players as a personal favor to the Costello trade house. However this is not uncommon for him. He greets many dignitaries in his position as the Nocturne harbour master. It is part of the island’s focus on tourism. He will welcome the players to Nocturne and give them a well rehearsed speech on the fair city. He will bring up its pictoreusque architecture, its well known fine cuisine, many resturants, as well as the extensive gardens and cultivated farms in the islands surroundings.
If a player character appears interested, enthusiastic about their visit, or otherwise high energy, Galasso will be delighted as he will feel he is doing a good job. If a player character appears disinterested, aloof, or otherwise arrogant Galasso will be saddened.
If the players ask about the tourist trade, Galasso will recommend several places for the characters to visit, including theatres, museums, and art galleries. If the players ask about their dinner party Galasso will mostly have surface knowledge. He’ll know its location and will volunteer this information to the party, as well as information about the dress code (the equivalent of businuess casual).
If the players manage to persuade him to give them more information (should be easier for players that he likes and harder for those he dislikes, with neither for people he is neutral towards) he will offer the guest list to the players where they can find the names of the other attendees. He’ll also mention the festival usually ends with a dance and recommends the players bring good shoes.
Of the people on the guest list he is only deeply familiar with Solavita, the elderly widow. He will not reveal further information on her without further persuasion on the players. The difficulty for this should be harder as the information is more personal, with modifications based on his rapport with the player character he’s talking to.
Depending on what he is asked he can reveal
Solavita lost her husband about a year ago, due to some illness. He was in his seventies.
Solavita is a reserved woman, unlikely to easily warm up to strangers.
She is good friends with Verderia, the wife of Adelchi, the hosts of the dinner party.
Solavita is a well respected aristocrat. She does not have a businuess, but she is from a well off family (she has wealth and prestige).
If asked about Taudisca and if he's been made friendly to the players he will look her up in his harbour log. She appears to be the owner of a very small tradehouse, probably attending the party for similar reasons to the player characters. Her ship is in the harbour.
Of the other characters he knows nothing and can only recommend that the players ask around in town.
The guest list carries the following names
Adelchi & Verderia - Hosts
Vigoroso
Sclavo
Zelante
Galasso
Solavita
Tuccio
Taudisca House:
Taudisca
Costello Party:
A list of the player characters names
A short description of these characters can be found at the end of this adventure. Some information on them will also be provided in scenes where they appear.
From the guest list the player characters will recognize Adelchi, Vigoroso, and Solavita. They will know that any one of these people will be able to provide a sponsorship to them. Tuccio can also provide a sponsorship, but Costello does not know him and the players have no information about him. They will also recognize Verderia as the wife of Adelchi, but will not have a lot of information about her.
The player characters will have a few hours to prepare. They need to pick up some appropriate clothes. They may also look up more information on the people they are trying to convince. For clothes the game master may wish to ask each player what impression they will try to make. An appearance roll may be called for. If succesful it should give the players the appearance they are going for. If a failure the appearance look a bit put on, shoddy or otherwise fake.
There are plenty of tailors with formal clothes available for rental in the city and the players can be expected to have one prepared for them. They are free to accessoarize their outfits as they see fit. The game master does not need to expend any great amount of time on this scene unless he wish to. The name of the tailor would be Stregino. He is delighted by fashion but will not say no to a customer regardless of how he is treated.
If the players wish for more information it can be found at several places. There are plenty of people in the city to gossip with and as the members of the dinner party are reasonable well known the players may be able to find out a few things. If the players return to the ship they can contact Costello trough the ships communication link to ask for advice or additional information. They can also refer to their ships archive about the town. They may also find directions to the trade house offices of some of the people involved. These officies will have workers that will know these persons as well.
Assuming the players obtained the guest list and knows what characters to ask about then information that can be found out by asking around is as follows:
Adelchi - Adelchi is a minor aristocrat with many connections to various trade houses. His wife is Verderia.
Taudisca - A free trader by the name of Taudisca has met with Adelchi recently.
Solavita - An elderly widow and an aristocrat. Her husband died from illness. As it happened about a year ago her mourning period is almost over.
Tuccio – Adelchi has a friend by the name Tuccio, who is a farmer and who owns a respectable amount of land, including both wineyards and less prestigous but still useful cabbage lands.
Vigoroso - Is an artist of some fame. Known for being very stern and not a little cold. His art is impeccable though and is sold at high prices. He is both a painter and a sculptor.
The dinner party starts with a flower viewing.
This is a flower viewing. It takes place in a small villa near the inner parts of the city. The host family are the Alhegeri family with Adelchi and his wife Verderia Alhegeri in attendance. They are a couple of minor aristocrats, wealthy and with connections, but not astronomically so and not that distant from the independent traders they have organized this get together for.
The flower viewing takes part in their garden. It is a moderately sized garden, well maintained with a large amount of small trees, shrubberies, and flower beds. A female servant is playing a harp in the vicinity. There are also a table with small amounts of appetizers and a few bottles of wine.
People present are: Various servants. Adelchi and Verderia Alhegeri. The guests, including Solavita, Sclavo, Taudisca, Tuccio, Vigoroso and Zelante, as well as the player characters.
Adelchi Alhegeri – Adelchi Alhegeri is a tall man well into his forties. He is relaxed, at ease within his home. Adelchi Alhegeri wish to make connections. He will attempt to evaluate his guests as the evening passes. Adelchi can sponsor a character, allowing them access to the V.I.P slot in the auction on the island of Fundament.
Solavita is a woman in her late sixties. She is wearing the black dress customary of a widow. Her grey hair is put up in a net. She sits to the side of the rest of the crowd, present, but a quiet observer. Her posture is good, indicating some refined upbringing.
Sclavo – Sclavo is a man in his mid twenties. A bueorcrat by trade, he is a represantive of the Acampo trade house. Sclavo cannot sponsor the players. However, he greatly wishes to get in good with the Costello trade house. He will seek to approach the players, trying to impress them in various ways. If the characters blow him off he will switch his target to the other guests.
Taudisca – Taudisca is a woman in her mid twenties. She is the head of her own (very small) tradehouse (the Taudisca tradehouse). Indeed she only owns a single ship, and is more or less equivalent to the player characters on the social ladder. She cannot sponsor the players. Rather she wishes to obtain a sponsorship. She will attempt to get a foot in the door with the other guests in order to do so, and may easily end up fighting the player characters (socially) for the attention of one of the other guests. Taudisca wish to appear refined and graceful. However she is somewhat insecure in the current situation and worried that that will shine trough (it does to an extent). She is however capable within her profession. Like the player characters she will be wearing rented clothes. Her shoes are bad.
Tuccio – Is a man in his mid thirties. While not a sailor himself, he is a merchant of some repute. He owns several farms around the island, producing not just wine but apple orchards as well as cabbages. His skin is grey as stone, his hair is pitch black, and his eyes gleam red. This means he is elementally aspected to the Darkness element. This gives him a sinister appearance that he sometimes like to play up, especially with tourists. He has a dry sense of humor. Though he does not have a sponsorship to the Fundament auction currently, he should be able to obtain one with relative ease and can offer to sponsor any character that manages to convince him. He is not at the dinner party to make connections. Rather he is mostly here to talk with Adelchi who is his friend, and enjoy the good food and company.
Vigoroso – Vigoroso is a painter and a sculptor. He is in his late twenties. He is rather aloof and cold towards strangers. He can sponsor the players but are unlikely to do so. While he would never stoop to openly insult someone he is unlikely to quickly warm up to people, especially if he notices they are trying to kiss up to him. He is worried about his next piece, a small sculpt of a local aristocats son.
Zelante – Zelante his a woman in her upper fifties. She is a member of the local tourist association, art appreciation society, teacher’s association, and a bridge club that meets on wednesdays. She is an incurable gossip, but often ends up talking extensively about nothing. She is able to obtain a sponsorship for a character, though she does not have one at present times. Her husband could not come to the party due to grout, one of many ailments he suffer from which she is very happy talking about.
Verderia Alhegeri – Verderia is the wife of Adelchi. She is the main person responsible for the party arrangements, and as such want the night to proceed smoothly. She is in her mid thirties and has been married to Adelchi for over twelve years now. They are on good terms. If not the romance of the century, they are still content with eachother. She cannot sponsor a character, however if she recommends someone to Adelchi he likely will listen. For the flower viewing party Verderia will wait until everyone is seated and has been offered an appetizer and a glass of wine. She will then welcome everyone to the party. As an icebreaker she may name the guests, introducing them to eachother. In this case she will refer to the player characters as the ’Costello party’ before referring to them each by name. She will then offer the guests a guided tour of the garden. Solavita, Tuccio and Zelante will take her up on this. At this point characters are free to talk to eachother, as long as they do not speak to loudly. Even if the players do not, other characters will do so with eachother, and some of them may approach the player characters.
Summary:
Upon arriving to the villa where the dinner party will be held, players will be led into the guarden.
The garden will have servants, guests and the hosts.
The players will have a few moments gaining their bearings, observe the other guests, and be offered appetizers and wine.
Verderia will welcome the guests, introduce them to eachother, and start the flower viewing. People are able to talk to eachother.
People will have some time to mingle before relocating to the dining room.
During the flower party, the players may be approached by:
Sclavo may approach one of the player characters, trying to befriend them.
Taudisca may introduce herself to one of the player characters, trying to size them up.
Zelante may engage the player characters in small talk.
Players may approach any character at the flower party.
The dining hall is an airy well lit hall, with a large open window and an excellent view of the city. A large table is set. There are no preset seating arrangements, people are free to sit where they please. The players may decide for themselves who their characters wish to sit next to, though they will have to do so quickly or the seats will be taken.
The dinner will be composed of three courses. A small soup will be served, conversation may occur. Then the main meal will be served, high grade beef served with a highly complex sauce. More conversation may occur. Lastly a desert will be served, honeyed fruit within a pudding like cream.
Adelchi will welcome the guests to his dining room, ask that everyone freely enjoy his wine and meat, and express his hope for good connections in the future. Verderia will be seated next to him. If a character approaches him he will talk businuess, offering his opinions and asking the character for theirs. Opinions he finds insightful or clever will put him in a good mood. Opinions that seem foolish to him will bemuse him and make his regard for the characters fall.
Events that occur during dinner:
There will be plenty of wine and beer served. Alcohole consumption is expected, characters who refuses will be considered boorish. It is easy to get lightly drunk. Characters may need to roll to avoid letting the alcohol get to their head. Failure to do so means they do not hold their liquer well, their speech becomes imprecise, their balance unsteady. This intoxication will last for the rest of the dinner party. Characters so affected should have a negative modifier on skill checks with failure meaning that they committ some minor faux pas. Spilling a drink, rambling a bit to much, not making themselves understood. Players may also device some way to avoid drinking without giving an impression that they do not appreciate their hosts, be it trough joking, pretending to drink, diverting attention somewhere else, or trough some other means.
During the dinner a few characters may stand up to make a short speech, mostly complimenting the hosts or the party overall and expressing gratitude for their attendance. The player characters are free to do the same, and may be coached to do so by Tuccio or any other character they’ve made a raport with.
Sclavo will become increasingly drunk. He is a calm drunk and may open up to much about his worries or opinions. If it goes to far he will apologize and retire to one of the adjacent rooms to lay down for a while, reappearing in another scene.
Verderia will talk to Solavita, unless a player character chose to sit down beside her. If a player character approaches Verderia she will turn to her husband, drag him into the discussion, and the conversation will shift to various businuess dealings.
Taudisca will attempt to talk to one of the characters that could sponsor her, Adelchi, Solavita, or Tuccio.
Vigoroso will talk about art.
Solavita will do mostly small talk, either about the earlier flower viewing or the festival at large. If asked about her husband she will give shorter answers and may excuse herself after a while.
Zelante will talk about the other guests.
After the dinner party people will be free to do as they wish, be it mingle with the other guests, visit the festival outside, or otherwise do as they like.
Unless anything else happened Adelchi and Tuccio will be gambling using cards. They will allow anyone who asks to join in, though they only have spots for two other people.
Zelante, Solavita and Verderia will engage eachother in conversation.
Sclavo, if he feels he has managed to get a connection with one of the player characters will retire. Otherwise he will once more try to convince them.
Taudisca will attempt to seal the deal over a sponsorship. Who she goes after, Adelchi, Solavita or Vigoroso depends on what has occurred earlier.
Vigoroso will relax with a bottle of wine, chatting with whoever comes by. If someone tries to engage him in conversation he will eventually challenge them to a game of poetry.
The evening will close with a ballroom dance. Unless the players have already convinced someone to provide them with a sponsorship this will be their last chance to do so.
The ballroom dance does not take place at the villa. Rather it is one of the highlights of the festival. The ’ballroom’ is really just an open area closeby that has been cordoned off. A few seats have been placed off to the side for people wanting to sit down. A small troupe provides the music.
Adelchi and Verderia will dance in the opening along with a few other couples. Adelchi will then retire to one of the seats, while Verderia will do a few more dances. Either of them can be asked for a dance. Unless they have a negative impression of the character they will accept.
If Taudeisca has managed to obtain a sponsorship she will relax of to the sidelines. Otherwise she will ask to dance with whoever she feels she has the best chances to obtain a sponsorship with.
Zelante will dance with a few older gentlemen and then retire entirely for the night, thanking Adelchi and Verderia for the party.
Vigoroso will refuse most invitations to dance, unless someone rolls truly high attempting to persuade him.
Sclavo will have retired for the evening by this point, unless something has occurr that would cause him to remain.
Assuming a player character has managed to improve a non player characters attitude of them sufficiently, they should be able to obtain a sponsorship. While they only require one sponsorship, more is better as it gives them more spots in the v.i.p seats of the Fundament auction.