Caldwell - GURPS Age of Napoleon.pdf - Napoleon En - g.ryba

GURPS Age of Napoleon Playtest

Written by Nicholas Caldwell · Edited by Alec Fleschner

Very rarely, one man defines the time in which he lives. One such man was Napoleon

Bonaparte, and his ambition shaped the face of a continent. From humble beginnings in

Corsica to ignominious defeat in Russia and at Waterloo, Napoleon was the sun around

which Europe revolved.

Now GURPS brings the age of Napoleon to life. The book focuses on 18th and 19th-

century Europe, including the beginning of the end of colonialism. GURPS players will

find a wealth of roleplaying information about commoners, soldiers, nobles, spies,

privateers . . . and revolutionaries. Filled with the superb research which roleplayers

expect from a GURPS historical supplement, Age of Napoleon breathes life into bloody

battlefields . . . as well as the equally bloody political intrigue of Napoleon's Europe.

As always, Game Masters can combine GURPS Age of Napoleon with many of our

other worldbooks (such as Old West , Swashbucklers , Time Travel , or - for a really wild

game - Steampunk ). There's no limit to the possibilities ...in the Age of Napoleon.

128 pages · Suggested retail price $22.95

Stock number 6539 · ISBN 1-55634-451-1

Introduction

History

Nations

People

Everyday Life

Military Life

Arts and Sciences

Characters

Campaigns

Bibliography

Advertising Copy

INTRODUCTION

Military, political and social conflicts within

and between nation-states in Europe and the colonies made the latter half of

the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century one of the most violent,

adventurous and exciting eras in world history.

The American War of

Independence, then known as the (First) American War, established a new form

of government, and began the liberation of the New World from the control of

the Old World. The later Second American War, now misnamed as the War of

1812, signaled the dawn of the United States' own imperial

ambitions.

The French Revolution saw the bourgeoisie challenge the

power and privileges of the aristocracy and the monarchy and overthrow both.

For over a century, rebels and revolutionaries in Europe and beyond would

draw inspiration for their own struggles from the French experience. The

Revolution also gave a young Napoleon Bonaparte the opportunity to

distinguish himself in battle, defend the French Republic, and eventually

become its dictator.

Soldier and statesman, Napoleon's dreams of

empires in Europe, in India and in the Americas engulfed the entire world in

war. In the crucible of conquest and rebellion, the peoples of Europe gained

and renewed their national identities. Elsewhere the boundaries of the

colonial empires shifted with every battle by land and sea.

About

The Book

GURPS Age of Napoleon is organized into eight

chapters. The History chapter describes the major events of the era.

Nations outlines the geography and general politics of the European

nations and their overseas colonies. People provides biographical

sketches of interesting and influential personages who might be encountered

in a campaign. Everyday Life details how members of the various social

classes from nobles to peasants lived, worked, and played in the 18th

century. Military Life covers how soldiers and sailors lived and

fought through the wars. Arts and Sciences presents the artistic and

philosophical movements, which shaped the intellectual climate of the

period, and the technological advances that were beginning to change

society. Characters contains notes on creating GURPS

characters for the Napoleonic age. Finally Campaigns discusses the

diverse types of campaigns possible and provides a number of suggested plots

for each.

About The Author

Nicholas HM Caldwell

Born

in Northern Ireland, Nicholas now lives and works in Cambridge, England. He

has been role-playing since he was twelve, and was immersed in

science-fiction, fantasy, and historical fiction at an equally early age. He

holds a B.A. (in Computer Science) and a Ph.D. (in Engineering) from the

University of Cambridge. Along with gaming and reading, his current major

hobby is editing and managing a gaming magazine (see

http://www.guildcompanion.com).

HISTORY

The State of the World

In 1769, the European

states and their overseas empires were still recovering from the convulsions

of the Seven Years War (known then in Britain as "The Great War for the

Empire"), which had raged from 1756 to 1763. The Treaty of Paris had ended

the conflict and redrawn the borders of the colonial empires.

Britain

retained most of its conquests. In America, the existing colonies of New

England, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland were augmented by the acquisition of

Canada from France and Florida from Spain. Holdings in the West Indies,

Belize, and British Guyana were preserved. The new territories in India

provided increased security for trade from both coasts of the

subcontinent.

The French empire was reduced to a handful of trading

posts in India and Africa, French Guyana in South America, and a number of

islands in the West Indies and the Indian Ocean. Louis XV gave the vast

Louisiana Territory to Charles III as compensation for the loss of Florida.

Cuba and the Philippines were restored to the Spanish crown. Their mainland

empire, consisting of the western seaboard of North America and all of

Central and South America (bar Belize, Brazil and the Guyanas), was

untouched by the settlement.

Although thwarted in India, the Dutch

retained Ceylon, Java, and other profitable island territories in the East

Indies. The Cape of Good Hope colony and Dutch Guyana continued to increase

the wealth of Amsterdam's merchants. Portugal had remained neutral in the

war and its empire in Brazil and trading posts in India, Africa, and China

were unaffected by the war and the peace.

Britain had certainly won

the Seven Years War. The Royal Navy had become adept at the strategic

application of its squadrons and in supporting amphibious offensives. The

army had learned valuable lessons in wilderness combat. However the best

generals had died in North America and ten thousand soldiers had succumbed

to disease in the prolonged Cuban campaign.

The weakness of the

British and the incursion of land-hungry American settlers in the wake of

the retreating French spurred the Indian revolt of Pontiac in 1763. Fresh

troops from England were required to suppress the rebellion, which lasted

until 1765. In return for peace, all of the land west of the Appalachian

Mountains was reserved for the Indian tribes. This prohibition on westward

expansion provoked the hostility of the American colonists and was a cause

of the American Revolution (see The American Quarrel , p.

00).

But Britain had not won the peace. In their haste to end the war,

the British abandoned their Prussian allies, leaving Frederick the Great to

resolve his own disputes. This desertion was long remembered by Prussia.

Moreover the British government feared that their newly increased empire was

too large to govern and would only produce continual envy from the other

colonial powers. So the British negotiators offered generous terms to their

erstwhile enemies in an attempt to address these fears.

The scheme

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