Primavera Occulta playtest thoughts

 Played a quick solo game of Primavera Occulta (52-card version). Still toying with some details, but feels fun to play overall. Lots of tension in the rolls, plenty of options to consider for each turn, the occasional moment of crystal-clear hindsight. Maybe next time I'll manage to make a proper battle report of it.

The turning point turned out to be the shooting of the priest, and the subsequent defection of his summoned spirit (in cat form) to the rival gang. Unbalanced? Or an appropriate risk/reward trade-off? Also, still considering where playing a card (as opposed to drawing a card or rolling a die) is or isn't appropriate. Gonna try a few more games and see... 

more objectives for Primavera Occulta

 Treasure chests are all well and good, but I wanted a few more objectives with a little more character...

The Caryatid Column (statue lady) is the only unconverted purpose-built item here, from Reaper. The goat statues are little knicknacks tied around the necks of a certain beer brand that unfortunately I cannot recall the name of, based on pennies. The emerald tablet is the butt end of a plastic fork, with some "carvings" poked onto the surface with a knife. The skeletons are made from the Warlord Games (formerly Wargames Factory) skeleton infantry sprue, which is also the source of the horned skull. The pedestal for the horned skull is a pushpin.

Objectives for Primavera Occulta

Here are some basic objectives for Primavera Occulta, the Renaissance skirmish game I've been posting about. I eventually plan to make some less generic ones, but these will do for early playtesting. The idea is that some objectives need to be claimed by a Mental test, others by a Physical test, and some can be claimed by either. So, if the objective is in a grave, it's purely a physical issue of digging it up to claim it. If it's a pile of treasure or an open chest, it's a mental test to sort through the trinkets and find the esoterically-valuable piece. If it's a closed chest, it's either a mental check to pick the lock or a physical one to bust it open. Not sure which of these the candelabra is, but I like how it looks.

These are all Reaper minis, except the gravestones which I believe are 4ground.

With an eye to playtesting, I've actually re-written the basic rules to use a standard 52-card deck. The extra complexity of the Tarot deck will be necessary for the campaign system and a more advanced magic system further down the line, but for playing through the basic mechanics there's no reason to restrict my potential playtester pool. And speaking of which, if you are interested in trying out these rules, let me know at thaddeus.urban[at]gmail.com and put "primavera occulta" in the subject line.

Renaissance Occultism Skirmish Ruleset Concept

 Years ago, I bought a tabletop RPG that uses Tarot cards as its primary resolution mechanic. This inspired me to buy a deck of them, and also to start reading about their history. I was delighted to learn that their documented origins (if not the cartomancy traditions that grew up around them) go back to the Italian Wars, a period that already interested me for other reasons.

One thing lead to another, and I started to brainstorm ideas for a Renaissance-era wargame that could incorporate some of the more esoteric aspects of the era's culture. I have now written enough rules for it that I've started to playtest, although it will be some time yet before it is worth sharing.

The current notion is that every warband has a core of four "initiates", inspired by the court cards of the Tarot, who practice, to varying degrees of success, some form of ritual magic. Each warband has a "King", representing a true renaissance man who is either the leader or the chief patron of the occult circle; a "Queen" of high intellectual or spiritual achievement; a "Knight" with fearsome physical prowess; and a "Page" that is a novice type character with room to improve. Reinforced by hirelings and the occasional summoned spirit, they battle other small groups of occultists over the wealth of esoteric texts, alchemical formulae, and ceremonial objects that have accumulated in and about the Italian Peninsula as a result of various historical currents of the final century of the medieval era.

Here are some examples of how I might represent these initiates with miniatures from my Italian Wars project (plus a few from other projects), from left to right in the order described above, followed by a spirit and a couple sample hirelings:

For my own solo playtesting convenience, they are roughly color-coded, but I probably wouldn't do that for the "real thing".

Generally speaking, D12s are used for "mundane" actions and Tarot cards for magical effects. I anticipate the games themselves being fairly quick (am playtesting on a 2ft by 2ft area), with much of the enjoyment coming from the campaign system (probably also Tarot-driven) that links them.

Not-renaissance Characters

 Posting from my phone because today got weird, but here's another piece of the puzzle: 

lesser spirits that take the form of humans (in anachronistic garb) or animals (but sinister or out-of-place).

 

Greater spirits with no fear of displaying their otherworldly natures.