Table of Contents p.5 - Old Barky Using the resources available through online historical archives, you can easily add a dash of Jauthenticity to your ships in Beat to Quarters. Here is a fully realised ship and crew, ready to play, based upon real records from the Battle of Trafalgar. p.13 - Death or Glory! The Black Brunswickers dressed in black, wore silver skulls and fought alongside the worst scum in the army to exact their revenge of Napoleon for destroying their homeland and killing their Duke - step out of your Redcoat and take up arms for another country! p.23 - Utter Bastards! Every hero needs a really good villain to help them shine. Presented here are seven of the most evil, manipulative and dangerous characters you could come across on a dark night - perfect to make even the most hardened redcoat take stock of their actions. p.31 - Strangers in a Strange Land Travelling back to the American War of Independence, we encounter the historic relatives of the Black Brunswickers - the Hessan Jagers - as they fight their way across the rebelling states. An elite unit of marksmen, the Hessans were renowned and feared as they fought in this strange land. p.41 - Dealing With History Empire! games are set within a very real historical context, but sometimes using that history can be a daunting thing for players and GMs alike. His article seeks to give you some tips that will help you bring that history front and centre in your games. p.45 - Twisting Traits Empire! offers you a plethora of traits to individualise your characters with, but there is always room for that little something more. Here is a look under the hood at the mechanics of traits, allowing you to make your own, specific to your character. p.49 - The Move to Empire! Converting Duty & Honour to Beat to Quarters In the beginning there was ‘Duty & Honour’ and then, after a year, came ‘Beat to Quarters’. With a year of refinements and player-suggested changes, the ‘Empire!’ system had changed. In these pages I explain how to seamlessly update your D&H game to be 100% compatible with the Empire! system. Sample file p.53 - The Irish Rover ‘On the Fourth of July, eighteen hundred and six...’ begins a song of debauched adventure onboard a ship sailing from Ireland to the USA. Take the role of the brave seamen of the Irish Rover as they and their insane cargo face absolutely anything and everything in their path. Probably the most infamous BtQ ‘adventure’ ever... p.61 - Rescue The Lady A Lady of great importance has been captured by the pirates of the North African coast and is being auctioned to the highest bidder. Can the Royal Navy and his Majesty’s Army work together to rescue her and unravel a French plot to gain a foothold in the Mediterranean? p.65 - Treason and Gold As the French retreat through Spain, Wellington is delayed by spies, leaked information and a rogue officer who wishes to be king of all he surveys. A crack squad of soldiers is needed to oust this charlatan leading to a tale of bravery, religious intolerance, forgery and rampaging egos! p.69 - Quickstart Sample Characters A selection of Duty & Honour and Beat to Quarters characters designed to be used alongside three of the adventures included in this book. These character sheets can also be downloaded alongside adventure mission sheets from the Omnihedron Games website. J 2 1810 Miscellany 1810 Miscellany J Introduction Welcome to the second collection of articles for Duty & Honour and Beat to Quarters. This year has been a very exciting one for me as I released Beat to Quarters, a project which I have always wanted to complete and bring to the table, the games really seemed to gain some traction in the UK market and they even garnered a little bit of critical success at the Indie RPG Awards in the USA. I think, of all of those things, the most gratifying has been watching my games being played and enjoyed by people and hearing the tales that they tell of gallant adventure against the Frogs. Actually, that’s not 100% accurate, as many of the tales have been of adventures against more esoteric foes, historical, fantastic and futuristic. My games have been ‘hacked’, as the saying goes, as people put their own spin on the system and mould it to their own settings. For me, that’s exceptionally exciting and something that I wholeheartedly support. It is with this in mind that I come to this book and the choices for the content. In many ways, the theme of this miscellany is about flexibility and change. Within these pages are the adventures, adversaries and information you would expect about the Napoleonic Era, but also the tools to help develop your own settings and characters, tweaking the game a little to suit your table. This book also sees the first official foray into the American Revolutionary War with Gary Bowerbank’s piece on the Hessen Jager. Another important part of this book is providingSample a definite file conversion point for those using Duty & Honour to move their game over to the tweaked ruleset in Beat to Quarters. Bringing some harmony to what has become known as the ‘Empire’ system is of paramount importance to me and it begins here. The future of the game looks bright as well. Whilst I am loathe to put promises of new material into print - the bane of games designers everywhere - there are definitely other irons in the fire and other settings to be exploited. Exciting times afoot for me and Omnihedron. I’m glad to have you with us for the journey. Neil Gow Omnihedron Games J September 2010 1810 Miscellany 1810 Miscellany 3 J Sample file J 4 1810 Miscellany 1810 Miscellany J Old Barky The Adventures of HMS Sirius (36) Roll of Honour The adventures in Beat to Quarters exist onSample a historical canvas file that, thanks to the records kept by the Royal Navy at the time, are rather detailed, and thanks to the internet are readily accessible. Due to this, you can merge the imaginary world of the Age of Sail with the real world quite easily. One great source is the roll call from the Battle of Trafalgar at http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/ Trafalgar/. This fantastic website shows the crew names, their ranks and their ships. Some judi- cious searching and you can easily crew a ship with some of its original crew names. Jumping to Wikipedia, there are a load of ships have their own pages, with some quite detailed information available. Of course, you shouldn’t let this restrict how you use them, but it does give a window into the sort of adventures a ship participated in during this period. Finally, Google Images has a slew of ship pictures relating to individual vessels. Use them to illus- trate your game and help your players have a better appreciation of the size and the fury of the ship they are using. Detailed in this edition of the Almanac is the HMS Sirius (36), the ship which is currently patrol- J ling the seas north of Cuba on a secret mission from the Admiralty in my own Google Wave driven campaign. The fully realised characters are all the player characters from the game. 1810 Miscellany 1810 Miscellany 5 HMS Sirius (36) HMS Sirius (36) is a fi fth-rate frigate in the service of the Royal Navy. She was built in Deptford in 1795 and launched in 1797. She is currently commanded by Capt. William Prowse, a veteran of Cape Finisterre, Cape St. Vincent and Trafalgar. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Prowse). JIn game terms, use the generic ‘Teacher’ Captain from the BtQ book. The crew roster below is drawn from the records from the Battle of Trafalgar, with a smattering of player characters added to the mix. As you can see, not all of the positions are fi lled, but it gives you a starting point to establish NPCs. Indeed, in our game, Dennis Scully has graduated from just a name on a page into an integral part of the game as the enforcer for the intellectual Harris. Name: HMS Sirius (36) Type: 5th rate Frigate (36 Guns) Traits: Expertly Coppered Hull, Jolly Tars Hull: ¨¨¨¨| ¨¨¨¨| ¨¨¨¨ Guns: ¨¨¨¨| ¨¨¨¨| ¨¨¨¨ Crew: ¨¨¨¨¨| ¨¨¨¨¨| ¨¨¨¨¨ Rigging: ¨¨¨¨| ¨¨¨¨| ¨¨¨¨ Broadside: +2 Speed: 5 Handling: +2 Awareness: 3 Gunnery: 4 Command: 4 Maritime: 3 First Aid: 4 Seamanship: 5 Call Muster Offi cers Ratings SampleCaptain’s file Steward: Joseph Finlay Captain: William Prowse Able Seaman: John Davis, Capt of the Foretop First Lieut: Bartholomew Hastings* Able Seaman: John Greemers Second Lieut: James Wilson Able Seaman: Johnathan Pricely Third Lieut: Philip Martin. Able Seaman: Barret Jansen Sailing Master: William Wilkinson Landsman: John Brownrigg Boatswain: Mr Keates Landsman: Peter Harris* Coxswain: Morgan Crofton Landsman: William German Gunner: Hugh Perry Landsman: Edward Meeley Surgeon: Mr Field* Landsman: Edmund Sheely Purser: unnamed Landsman: William Thomas Carpenter: William Bradford* Landsman: Dennis Scully Midshipman (Senior): George Rafferty* Midshipman:unnamed Marines Midshipman:unnamed Lieutenant: William Magin Sergeant: John Ingram * Sailors marked thus are detailed as Private: Samuel Grimes characters in the following pages Private: Isaac May Private: Patrick Connolly Private: William Saye J 6 1810 Miscellany 1810 Miscellany J Bartholomew Hastings English, Protestant, Naval Officer, Sailor, First Lieutenant Guts: 4 Discipline: 4 Charm: 3 Influence: 3 Skills: Command-4, Courtesy-2, Diplomacy-2, Gambling-1, Gunnery-1, Maritime-3, Scavenge-1, Seamanship-5, The Arts 1 Wealth: 3 Reputations Personal: Admiral Henry Darby is keeping on eye on me -2 Personal: Appropriately friendly with Cpt.