Il Carnevale di Scattocaso

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

great stuff.

would try and get some weathering  in the buildings / terrain if poss. (but more than undertand in terms of time / results).

dab some white glue here and there, and chuck some sand / gravel on?

apologies if already discussed above etc.

Bloggard, thanks for taking the time to comment and I think you are right. However, I get easily distracted and speed is of the essence here, to complete 12 buildings, various bridges, fountains and the streets, plus enough minis and gondolas to play the game. Also, I had an idea, bearing in mind the background of the 'Rent in the Sky', that I wanted a slight 'comic-book' feel to some colourful scenery. I thought the light from the sky would be rather macabre, bearing in mind what's coming through the Rent. Perhaps all the magic floating around in the ether gives the buildings a slightly unreal feel to them (and is a good excuse to cover up my laziness!).   

[Doug ex-em4]

Bloggard, thanks for taking the time to comment and I think you are right. However, I get easily distracted and speed is of the essence here, to complete 12 buildings, various bridges, fountains and the streets, plus enough minis and gondolas to play the game. Also, I had an idea, bearing in mind the background of the 'Rent in the Sky', that I wanted a slight 'comic-book' feel to some colourful scenery. I thought the light from the sky would be rather macabre, bearing in mind what's coming through the Rent. Perhaps all the magic floating around in the ether gives the buildings a slightly unreal feel to them (and is a good excuse to cover up my laziness!).   

You’re right, Martin. This is a very ambitious project (do you do any other type?) and you need to keep your eyes-on-the-prize. And your rationale for the look of the scenery holds up very well.

I’ve been assuming that Rent in the Sky was something to do with the price the characters had to pay for leaping and jumping around the tops of the buildings (I know; I’m a little slow off the mark sometimes). Having read your last post, I guess it’s a phenomena - a kind of mysterious "hole in the ozone layer" type of event?

Doug (trying to keep up with things and almost succeeding)

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

Europe was forever changed when a mysterious visitor bringing the secrets of magic was slain by the Vatican, levelling the city of Rome, plunging most of Italy below the sea and wrecking havoc across Europe. The powers of the Mediterranean and wider Europe are reeling, starvation haunts the lands and chaos spreads. Sheltered from the cataclysm, Venice which had fallen into ruin and irrelevance finds itself in a position to restore its fortunes. With control over the Mediterranean thanks to the destruction of other naval powers and the eradication of other Italian cities, the Serene Republic rises once more. Trade brings in a flood of new people, and power struggles erupt.

The rent in the sky that was opened by the cataclysm shines a baleful light onto the city. Now it never truly sleeps, being trapped in a terrible perpetual twilight. A sense of doom pervades all, and magic and horror reawakens among the canals and streets of the city.

The worshippers of Dagon, and their inhuman masters, plot under the cover of charity. The Guild, a federation of criminal enterprises exerts its influence. Dracula, the Impaler, has awoken and travelled to Venice to learn it’s secrets and to attack and dethrone God. The Patricians, the nobles the city, have driven themselves into madness and debauchery, fuelled by the terrible oppressive foreboding and their desperation to hold onto their power. The Vatican, reborn in France thanks to stolen magics, wages a holy war to reclaim it’s influence. The secretive doctors that once looked to cure the madness brought in by the rent in the sky now harness it, abducting people off the streets to serve as subjects of their experiments.

This maddened sleepless fervour, the endless blend of days and night, the pulsing unnatural light of the rent in the sky: in the face of this why not live for tonight? That’s why two years ago when Easter arrived the Carnevale did not end, and has not yet finished. Every night is soaked in alcohol and desperate frivolity, as the city loses all sense of time and place. It is 1795 and the end seems close.

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

The rules themselves (plus many other resources), can be downloaded for free from TTCombat

The ruleset is about 40 pages. However, the printed copy is about 240 pages and contains an in-depth history of the rent in the sky.

A quote from the Goonhammer website explains it better than I can:

The thing that strikes you first about the rulebook is the cover art which, like the art throughout, is striking and beautiful. Venice has such a distinct aesthetic, and the decision to lean into this even when it wasn’t historically accurate, really pays off in the artwork and overall design of the product.

The second thing that strikes you is that this is a substantial book – no simple rulebook of a few dozen pages, this is a hefty glossy and sense book. Full colour artwork is lavishly strewn throughout its pages, and it’s of a remarkably consistent and high quality. It’s punctuated with photos of models in situ, which I like a little less – the studio paint scheme is certainly striking, but feels very flat and smooth in a way that doesn’t suit the chaotic rotting grandeur of the setting.

Reading the lore and background material provided is a enjoyable experience. The quality of the writing is high, and it’s clearly been proofed and edited to a high standard. It’s also compelling in a way that I wasn’t necessarily expecting – the broad strokes are rather striking and almost crude in their directness, but the details that accompany them transform the setting into something with a huge amount of depth.

The basics (a vast explosion that levels Rome and the following cataclysm) are easy enough to grasp, but the book then leads you through the logical and intriguing consequences. It seems to understand cause and effect in a way many fantasy settings miss – the world is obviously different in almost every way because of this cataclysmic diversion from history. It doesn’t shy away from that, and though the setting has a lot that is familiar it is definitely not our world. It is alien and terrible in a way not immediately obvious.

The setting is, to my surprise, one of the darkest and most horrifying I’ve seen for a wargame. Many other games have seemingly more hellish settings, but this is not a world whose horror is told to you, but instead shown. Each thread, explicable and believable, draws together with every other, to weave a terrible nightmare that is unpleasantly familiar and identifiable. There are almost no elements in the backstory that do not feel like the way people would genuinely react to the circumstances. As such, the terrible world that results pulls on a hundred little threads of seeing how we might get there.

This might sound easy, but to tie all of this into a coherent and cohesive whole that still serves your game is a herculean task. The end result is a lurid, vicious, ethereal nightmare of a setting. The people in it are pushed past normality into madness and inhumanity, but in a way that stays grounded. The Guild fight their war in the streets because the people are starving, and there’s money to be made. The Patricians, pushed to constant wakefulness by the terrible light of the rent in the sky, fall into greater and greater debauchery to attempt to distract themselves. The Doctors slowly twist their purpose from aiding those afflicted to using them. The Vatican, shattered, belligerently attempts to claw back its power.

Even the more overtly inhuman factions mostly have known visible motivations and they act in a way that makes sense. Dracula and the Strigoi are in service to his vision to attack and dethrone God. The Rashaar cloak their activities in charity and piety so desperately hungered for by the poor. Their motivations may be mysterious, but their methods are familiar and explicable.

The end result is Venice resurgent, for reasons that make sense and are coherent. But this is a Venice permeated by madness, and the sense of desperate lunatic revelry of a carnevale two years in is palpable from the pages. There are mysteries littered throughout the text, but they all feel like mysteries thematically at home. It’s mentioned that at the height of chaos, as the city is on the brink of starvation and order is about to finally collapse for good, ships arrive with food and stores, that are sold for nearly nothing. They disappear again, their origins unclear. It’s a mystery not with no answers, but too many. There are far too many explanations for these events, and all of them are terrible and foreboding. This is masterful world building, weaving a setting together to serve the narrative but without any discordant or jarring notes.

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

This maddened sleepless fervour, the endless blend of days and night, the pulsing unnatural light of the rent in the sky: in the face of this why not live for tonight? That’s why two years ago when Easter arrived the Carnevale did not end, and has not yet finished. Every night is soaked in alcohol and desperate frivolity, as the city loses all sense of time and place. It is 1795 and the end seems close.

I have to say that this quote from a post above, seems to also describe the bacchanalian jamboree that is the Annual General Meeting of the Gentlemen of Much-Piddling!

[Doug ex-em4]

I have to say that this quote from a post above, seems to also describe the bacchanalian jamboree that is the Annual General Meeting of the Gentlemen of Much-Piddling!

You mirror my own thoughts precisely….! And I note that we Patricians have been driven to madness and debauchery. How true…! In fact, I’m feel an imminent debauch - I must away……………

Doug

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

...and now La Casa di Padrona Sculacciatore is complete.

[Doug ex-em4]

Tremendous - and done within minutes of the Postie delivering vital painting supplies. Where is the Santo Dougliano Torre we all ask?

Doug

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

Thanks, Doug. La Torre di Santo Dougliano is on it's way (slowly).

...and a view of all the complete buildings, so far.

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

First of three of these bridges complete.

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

Completed two wells. These are handy for Chained Jumps.

Chained Jumps
Once per turn when you perform a Jump onto an Obstacle or Debris, you may immediately make an additional 0AP jump from the obstacle or debris.

(from the Carnevale rulebook)

[Doug ex-em4]

More very attractive work, Martin. And I must say that, at my age, I do like the idea of "an additional OAP jump", whatever that may involve

Doug

[Roo]

🤣

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

More very attractive work, Martin. And I must say that, at my age, I do like the idea of "an additional OAP jump", whatever that may involve

Doug

Henceforth, whenever we play, this will be known as he OAP jump!          

[Anatoli]

Love the carnevale minis, what kept me from the game was the amount of specialized terrain needed. Can't wait to see your full table once it's done!