Roleplaying Punk

Punk in my roleplaying, like a badly written Rian Johnson Star Wars film, it's not what you think. I have been taking a break today from writing up the Christmas scenario Yule of the Yetis and doing the post-production of the Spacers(TM), to scribble around in what can only be called "historical roleplaying." While being a history major, I know better than to try to accurately portray chronological events as recorded and make interesting table-topping. Nobody except maybe the most basement-dwelling Spawn of Fashan enthusiast wants to see the man-crush that Joseph Stalin had on Adolph Hitler with dice and character sheets. SO punking things up like playing loose with the facts helps.

Ah my "powder punk" setting, I've just given up. And by giving up, it's not what you think. I mean trying to play with accuracy. I want swashbucklers, buccaneers, and musketeers to be able to wander around some high renaissance period somewhere between say 1502 until 1617-- I mean who doesn't mark the period of Peter Henlein's mechanical clock and the forced retirement of Marie De Medici already?-- sheesh. Bumping into Martynas Mažvydas (a big fan of Martin Luther) as well as Ivan the Terrible (a big fan of himself) while doing a secret job for the Bohemian Crown, the characters can enjoy all the highlights that Catholic/Protestant wars have to offer. Now let's throw in a 20 y/o Elizabeth, the First, as the monarch of England, a 30 something Götz of the Iron Hand, and a teenage Cardinal Richelieu. Ooo. What fun. Pity a few billion peasants are dying horribly every Tuesday in the machinations. I shouldn't highlight that last part too much, but is a part of milieu for the personages and the capers being pulled by the heroes and villains of the time.

This world is still a fantasy world. The Europe 1550, where the Dutch-speaking states are still striving against Spain landlords but definitely making the listing, is a good place to start a map. Can't post the map yet as my image-transfer specialist, Peryton, is out of town right now. I might as well work in my New India Seas for some pirate action, but I don't want to get wrapped around the axle there.  Then I stumble across my scenario from a decade ago The Wrong Side of the Fuse and want to rewrite it with my streamlined format. But the Red Bat system is just a little too generic. I suppose it's time for "Red Bat: Swashbuckler". It'll be no more than 13 pages dammit.

I already have illustrations for this. I could make this work... we'll see.