Tarnished Splendor, my Napoleonic Gothic Horror 7th Sea Sharp Practice Project

[Grumpy Gnome]

This thread is to help me track and document one of the projects my wife and I are working on, and will allow our Middle Earth thread to focus on that subject.

We would enjoy having you readers add your input, be it advice, suggestions, feedback or creative criticism.

So it all really started with the Reaper Bones V Kickstarter.

The ship on offer was too good to pass up, but it was later period than our current gaming plans. I wanted a galleon, even if that would be later period than what we “needed”. We needed a dhow, cog or caravel but we are getting a frigate/man-o-war.

Now in the very beginning we had decided to focus on just Middle Earth gaming but my wife and I both felt constrained at times by the use of just that setting. There were other itches demanding to be scratched.

We had interest in many genres but a finite amount of time, money and space. Then I was drawn to sci-fi with Dropfleet Commander and Core Space. My wife was kind enough to relax our original plan to focus on just Middle Earth.

But neither of these scratched the “Star Trek Planet of the week” exploration itch we both had.

Then I thought... what if we had a “exotic location of the week” with a sailing ship instead of a spaceship?

This then lead to broad historical, fantasy and gaming research. Searches for affordable, yet compellingly cool figures and terrain.

I thought about various inspirations.

Johnny Quest. Scooby Doo and the pesky kids dispelling supernatural occurrences. Captain Nemo. French Napoleonic soldiers dealing with a cursed forest in the otherwise disappointing Brothers Grimm movie. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The movie Brotherhood of the Wolf. The tv show La Revolution. Richard Sharpe and the story of Cortez’s gold. Pirates of the Burning Sea MMO. The Three Musketeers. Master and Commander. Pirates of the Caribbean. Frankenstein. The movie Tripoli. The movie Wind and the Lion. The movie Last Samurai. The movie 55 Days in Peking. The movie Zulu. Indiana Jones. Treasure Island. Last of the Mohicans. The Alamo. The Lewis and Clarke Expedition. The tv show The Terror. The movie Major Dundee. Various French Foreign Legion movies, including The Mummy and March or Die. Alatriste. On and on and on. So much inspiration!

And of course there was the Imagi-Nations I found on some blogs that earned my envy.

https://bogdanwaz.blogspot.com/search/label/Dr.Sandorius?max-results=20

https://themedetianwars.org.uk/tag/sharp-practice

https://blog.belisarius.org.uk/2015/03/march-2015-gaming-weekend-part-2.html

Brilliantly creative worlds with their own inherent narrative gaming. Such gaming would free us from unwanted historical baggage.

So the plan was to create our own world but then I stumbled onto the pen & paper RPG 7th Sea.

It is inspired by recognizable Earth history and mythology but is not our Earth. A little earlier than I originally had in mind at first glance but the more I read about 7th Sea the more I see the time frame is very loose. Sadly I have been unable to find anyone doing 7th Sea inspired wargaming, just typical heroic party RPG sessions. The game has a very narrative driven over the top heroic gaming system. At first I had no interest in that aspect but over time it has started to find some appeal and I am wondering if we can apply some of the core mechanics to Sharp Practice, in particular the “magic”.

I use quotes for “magic” because I want there to be a discoverable scientific explanation for all the supernatural phenomenon we discover in the game. The “gods” for example being other dimensional or advanced alien species, ie Thor in Marvel and/or Stargate. Vampirism and lycanthropy being natural, if exotic, diseases.

In the first edition of 7th Sea the metaplot involves the long gone ancient civilization the players find ruins and artifacts of turn out to be aliens. This was somewhat contentious and was removed in the second edition. I want to use it as a possible tie in to the ideas the folks at Battle Systems have to link their sci-fi Core Space game to a yet unreleased medieval fantasy game. So have the Core Space First Born be the 7th Sea Syrneth.

I think we need to be careful to remember that we are wargaming rather than RPGing in part because it is less time intensive and works better for solo or just two people. My wife and I both think RPGing works better with a bigger group of people. We are both experienced with pen & paper as well as LARPing.

The thought is for my wife to become the protagonist for our Middle Earth Gaming and me to be the protagonist for this project... which I really need to come up with a catchy name for. Any suggestions?

My protagonist character will be a captain in the army of Montaigne, the 7th Sea nation inspired by France but the game has that nation on the brink of revolution and I want to play it as post revolution, with a mix of Republican and Imperial historical France elements. Core plot themes being the spread of republican revolution, science over superstition, exploration and discovery. Think of a turn of the 19th century Starfleet and Federation.

To that end near the top of my painting priority list is my Napoleonic French figures. Being Montaigne figures instead of French will give me some latitude in regards to mixing uniforms of different years, ie no arguments over late versus early Napoleonic French uniforms.

But historically correct French are my starting point and the gaming blog most helpful so far in this regard is...

https://krigetkommer.weebly.com/napoleonics-blog

The best research resource for Napoleonic French I have found is...

http://www.napolun.com/mirror/napoleonistyka.atspace.com/index.html

Some of my French figures will be converted to be Royalist Montaigne, some will become Castille forces.

Other figures will be used for various other nations with a lot of flexibility in regards to historical fashion (thank you Fantasy elements!). Rule of cool and coolthentic suspension of disbelief being the guidelines. AWI & ACW kitbashed multi-part plastic kit figures for guerillas, pirates and militia. Tricorns in Vodecce. Fringed coats in The Colonies.

So much to do and never enough time!

Progress pictures to follow in due course. We look forward to hearing your input.

EDIT: To clarify, this will be a 28mm project with figures individually based and using sabot unit movement trays for formations. Think of it as a very large skirmish game concept, each figure representing one individual.

Best Soundtrack I have found so far to capture the tone and theme of this project is the Anno 1404 pc game soundtrack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_AUZVS5LP0

[Bogdanwaz]

Sounds like a great project!  I'll be keeping my eye on this.

[Grumpy Gnome]

Cheers mate.  Since you are one of my inspirations, any advice you might have would be especially welcome. Thank you for sharing the inspirational work you have done!

[Spinal Tap]

Sounds like a great project!  I'll be keeping my eye on this.

My sentiments exactly.

Looking forward to it.

[Grumpy Gnome]

For those interested in knowing more about the 7th Sea second edition world, the best online resource I have found so far is this blog...

https://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/mors-rattus/7th-sea-2nd-edition/#6

As I research 7th Sea there seems to a somewhat problematic development process, from the original edition two decades ago to today. Chaosium, the current publisher seems to be handling the... difficult... Kickstarter fulfillment issues. But everything seems to be taking much longer than originally expected... delayed as in the order of a couple of years delayed. Which is a real shame.  I am particularly keen for the expansion, The Colonies to be finished and released.

We are waiting for some first edition nation books we‘ve won (at shockingly low prices) on eBay to arrive and if they look good we may go ahead and buy new 2nd edition PDFs from Chaosium.

We won some Hannoverian infantry that I am going to paint up as Eisern in service to Avalon. And we want to get some British Rifles from Wargames Atlantic when they come out.

We have plenty of Multi-Part plastic kits of Zulus, Afghans, Sudanese, Woodland Natives, and Arabs just waiting for conversion kitbashing.

I am wondering how we might make use of ancient Greeks and Persians (since I have so many going spare) for this project. Suggestions welcome!

[Blackwolf]

Nice! I like this very much
Your Hoplites could be a lost race? A friend of mine and I have a running joke about the Trojans (I know earlier than Hoplites etc) being responsible for all sorts of early settlement,not just Italy

[Grumpy Gnome]

Not a bad idea.

We have Ghost Archipelgo but have not played it yet, too many other projects. But perhaps we could use the Greeks as Dricheans and combined the Ghost Archipelago lore with 7th Sea. If I was not concerned about the confusion caused by trying to learn so many different games at the same time we might play Ghost Archipelago as well as Sharp Practice and use characters that match our Sharp Practice characters for the “smaller” expeditions.

Seems like just the kind of thing to appear in the Atabean Sea.

Something to serious consider, thanks! That is exactly the kind of input I am after.

[Grumpy Gnome]

So, according to what I have read Theah is the continent based on Europe. Numa is a Nation of Islands descended from the City States that once formed a great empire and so is largely based on Roman/Greek influences. Numanari soldiers (mercenaries?) served the Queen in Avalon during their civil war/war of unification.

I am thinking of adapting some plastic Zouaves to be Numanari in Avalon service based on the Napoleonic era 1st Regiment Light Infantry. And using a Dragoon head for their leader based on Theodoros Kolokotronis.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Regiment_Greek_Light_Infantry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodoros_Kolokotronis

Thoughts?

The only down side is I keep finding more skirmish units than line units for my opponents.

[Bogdanwaz]

Steve Barber has a line of Greek War of Independence figures that would be perfect for this idea:

https://www.stevebarbermodels.com/store/Greek-War-of-Independence-c36555078

I was going to suggest considering the Ghost Archipelago Drichean setting if you wanted to introduce some Greek lost civilization.  I'm working on a campaign for Oathmark using this as a setting, essentially Bronze Age vs Medieval fantasy armies:

http://bogdanwaz.blogspot.com/2020/12/oathmark-achipelago.html

[Bogdanwaz]

Rick, you might also want to take a look at the Monster Blood Tattoo series by D.M. Cornish.  It's a fantasy series set in a world with a society like 18th century Europe in which humanity has an eternal war against "monsters."  No magic per se but they have a bizarre biological science, ala Frankenstein, where humans are implanted with vat-grown organs to give them special powers.  You might be able to adapt some of the ideas into your campaign.  There's a pretty good summary on wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_Blood_Tattoo_Series

Cornish is an illustrator so there are a host of very evocative illustrations available online, just do a image search for Monster Blood Tattoo

[dampfpanzerwagon]

Here is a link to the official Monster Blood Tattoo site;
https://web.archive.org/web/20060809022348/http://www.monsterbloodtattoo.com/home.html

Tony

[Grumpy Gnome]

Excellent suggestions, just the kind of input I am after. 

Thanks for the links!

I have been reading many of your battle reports mate and recognize the bizarre biological science. We will have to see what we can use from those works.

The advantage of the Zouaves is that I have a couple sprues of them going spare so no additional spending involved. I suspect Brexit is going to impact the future cost of this hobby.

[3 fingers]

Rick, you might also want to take a look at the Monster Blood Tattoo series by D.M. Cornish.  It's a fantasy series set in a world with a society like 18th century Europe in which humanity has an eternal war against "monsters."  No magic per se but they have a bizarre biological science, ala Frankenstein, where humans are implanted with vat-grown organs to give them special powers.  You might be able to adapt some of the ideas into your campaign.  There's a pretty good summary on wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_Blood_Tattoo_Series

Cornish is an illustrator so there are a host of very evocative illustrations available online, just do a image search for Monster Blood Tattoo

I toyed with the idea of doing MBT and was going to use crooked dice scarecrows as rever  men

[Grumpy Gnome]

Progress from this week...

https://thegrumpygnome.home.blog/2021/02/09/tarnished-splendor/

... a rather long blog entry. I am very pleased with my Napoleonic ... er I mean Montaigne Republic troops but wow, they are a lot of time consuming work.

[CookAndrewB]

Good looking stuff. That castle is a hefty chunk of real estate!