The Grand Tour

Has anyone ever sent any game character off on "The Grand Tour"?

After a visit to the "The Capture of the Westmorland" exhibition last week at the Ashmolean http://www.ashmolean.org/exhibitions/westmorland/ it occurred to me I couldn't recall hearing of it in game

I think mostly we play characters who are too rarefied to do the grand tour. Princes and the like you want to stay closer to home to avoid any unpleasantness happening to them.

I know Peter went on a Grand Tour of Europe that finished in 1699, some of it incognito. I have read stories of his exploits, particularly in England. Peter was not a typical ruler however in that he had an inquisitive mind in the sense that he would try his hand (and normally succeed) at almost anything....carpentry, dentistry etc. He wanted to visit Western Europe to learn. I think a Grand Tour could add some flavour to an individuals character but perhaps it would have to be done in disguise a bit ? Stories only emerging after you had left a location ?

Either that or make sure you have some very skilled bodyguards !

As sort of a side point, I think it would be interesting if you could build out your ruler's pre-game history.

I found out that you start out knowing French and your native tongue, even if the historical you knew more languages. If you want to get yourself to what you knew historically, you have to spend the time in game to learn the languages. I think the same could be said for other things like skill in fencing, hunting, falconry, knowledge of history or theology and the like.

I suggested to Richard for his next game start he might think about letting players establish some of these backgrounds for their rulers with perhaps perks for playing older rulers and using the historical families. (Otherwise, why not make your ruler 28, with 3 boys and 3 girls or the like?)

I was specifically excluding any 'skills' like 'master strategist' or the like, since if you included economic/military skills that had in-game effects then everybody would have to take them to maintain balance and it wouldn't be about fleshing out your ruler. The only way in-game advantage perks could work is if the list was long enough that you couldn't take them all, but then still everybody would take the useful ones, not the color ones and it would create a fair bit of work for Richard to have a net zero effect on the game (since everybody would now have them.)

In line with that, I can think "took the grand tour" could be one of those kinds of perks.

What do other people think of the idea?

I have know several characters who were very keen of the skill of fencing (with swords rather than post & rail work). This of course may have been related to the issue of the rules which included rules for dauls.

Calling your opponent out used to be a popular in game tactic but not one I have seen used much in recent years. Mind you following the death of James II by cold steel in G7 keeping up the old blade skill may return to being a popular favour.

I note that in G7 the King of Spain must have been doing some studying since he is reported to speak to Men in Spanish, Women in Italian, His Horses & Dogs in German and to whores & diplomats in French. Guess this has a sort of logic if he started off knowing French & German (native tongue) married an Italian and became King of Spain. But surely a European Gentleman with a good standard of education (which counts out Blackbeard) born in say 1670 would also be able to speak and write Latin?

Ref giving characters a "past history" my feeling is that like designing regimental uniforms and giving each ship in the Navy a name this should be up to players. Clearly regiments have got uniforms and ships have got names. Some will go into great detail, others will ignore it and people like me will only bother with names for Flag Ships and perhaps a couple of general uniform details. (ie British Army has Red Coats, Flagship is the Victory other 49 Lineships are called ???? & 5 Regiment of the Line has ? colour facings).

Likewise, if people wish to go into great detail about their characters past I am sure Richard will oblige. But be warned if you give him loads of detail about your Grand Tour do not be surprised to find your character now has an child born out of wedlock in France & has picked up a dose of the pox in Rome along with all the skills in dance, languages, sword and riding he now claims.

As alternative to the Grand Tour Muslim characters could always go to Mecca as Pilgrims. Worth lots of honour points and if you are a Persian who gets murdered on Ottoman territory even more honour points plus your heirs have good grounds to declare war.

Finally I would like it put on record that I have not claimed nicking stuff from "Verban" actually works in Glory du Roi sieges. Attempted to use the "Turkish Terror" tactic and the only result was that my Army got the plague.

I thought I'd heard that in Game 3, James killed William to claim the throne, and I've read in the game 3 paper about the skill of some kings with the sword, so I know that it is done. I think it would take a fair amount of chutzpah to put it all on the line in a sword fight, though.

Richard puts the kibosh on any claims to do anything other than your native and french. In game 8, I thought it reasonable to speak German since I married one who was mother to my many children and by all historical accounts I got on very well with, but Richard made it clear that I didn't speak German and that if I wanted to speak German, I'd have to learn it in game. Not really a big deal since it doesn't impact much, but he did draw the line.

Which was sort of the genesis of the idea that maybe we ought to have some way of claiming credit for our backgrounds. After all, a 52 year old king isn't a tabula rasa, right? I think a classic education in latin and greek, and the like would be very common.