Fast Combat: Musketry

In Honor+Intrigue unless Pawns gang up they usually have little chance to hit or damage the Heroes. Grouping Pawns is handy for the GM since it cuts down on the number of 2d6 rolls that need to be made by the GM. But if there are large numbers of Pawns the GM may still end up rolling multiple 2d6 rolls. One trick I've found takes advantage of one of the quirks of 2d6 odds. If the chance to succeed is 10+ then there is a 6/36 or 1/6 chance to succeed. This means that instead of having to make multiple 2d6 rolls, the GM can just roll 1d6 for each Pawn or group of Pawns that succeed on 10+. 

This tends to work best with Ranged Combat, in part because there is much less that a PC can do that will change the odds of success than there is in Melee Combat. Whereas the ranges beyond Short all have negative modifiers. By grouping the number of shooters so that each group hits on 10+ the GM can simplify the shooting by simply rolling 1d6 with a 6 = Hit.

With no bonuses or penalties, 9+ is a success in H+I. So 10+ is needed for success whenever there is a -1 penalty. Range penalties based on distance are listed in the table below. Each additional Pawn attacking the same target gives a +1 to hit. So the far right column indicates the number of Pawns needed to for the group to succeed on 10+. In the first two rows the number of the Pawns needed is still only 1 and so instead of # of Pawns the table lists the 2d6 roll needed to succeed. 

 

Example 1: A militia platoon of 24 musketeers are firing at 3 Heroes. the range is Distant. For simplicity I assume that the musketeers will target all three of the Heroes. The militia are not good shots, but they aren't terrible, so I assume their base Ranged Attack +0. The range gives a penalty of -4. Looking at the table I see that a group of four musketeers firing need a 10+ to succeed.  The militia are in two rows so half fire the first round and half the next and then it will be a few rounds before they can reload.  There are 12 musketeers in each row so each row has 3 groups of for, so one for each Hero. Since each group succeeds on a 10+ I can just roll 1d6 with a 6=Hit for each of the groups. 

Example 2: As above but we'll assume the Heroes are charging and the second row holds their fire until the Heroes are at medium range.  Now each musketeer succeeds on 10+. So just grab a handful of d6s, roll them all, count the 6s and distribute the hits amongst the Heroes. You might notice that this could be really fatal. Mordieu, but I hope each of your Heroes have the Fortune Points to turn their hit into a Close Call.

Example 3: As above but the Heroes are at Extreme range. (Maybe the militia is nervous and they don't hold their fire). Now we need six musketeers in each group, so there are only 2 groups firing each round. Figure out who is the lucky Hero who doesn't get shot at.

Example 4: As in the second example but we'll assume that the 12 musketeers hold their fire until the Heroes are at point blank range. (Personally I doubt the militias would do that normally so I'd make them roll morale e.g. Daring to hold their fire that long, but we'll ignore that for now.) Now each militia man hits on an 8+. So I can either roll 2d6 twelve times (tedious) or I can group the militia and adjust the odds. I'll still have to roll 2d6 but instead of 12 times I'll just roll once for each Hero. There are 4 militia men for each Hero so that gives the group +3 to succeed so they will score a hit on a 5+.

Random Adventure Generator Wicked City

As I have previously mentioned here and here, I like adventure generators. I came across this one on Against the Wicked City. It's for Gothic Mysteries and as the author says, some of these results are really weird. I'm guessing he wrote these while he had a high fever that he came down with after an overdose of old Gothic novels, read at night, by a fire, in a thunderstorm, inside some creaky, creepy old mansion (whiskey and soda or absinthe on the side-boy optional). The tables definitely have a febrile feel.

Here's what I got when I tried it out...

WHO IS THE VILLAIN? (roll 1d10)

7. An evil priest disguised as a ruthless outlaw.

NO, SERIOUSLY, WHO IS THE VILLAIN? (roll 1d10)

8. A lunatic

WHO IS THE HERO? (roll 1d6)

1. A well-meaning but basically useless young Italian nobleman.

WHO IS THE HEROINE? (roll 1d6)

2.  A beautiful, virtuous, and talented young Spanish noblewoman.

WHAT IS GOING ON? (roll 1d10)  

6. There's proof of the villain's crimes in town and the villain wants to destroy it.

OH MY GOD MAKE IT STOP (roll 1d10, or 2d10 if you want a twist ending)

9. ...and then everyone is OVERCOME WITH REMORSE and lives out the remainder of their days in penance and weeping.

 

What can we make of that? 

First, unless this is a one-shot adventure with pre-rolled characters and your players like acting out the plots of old novels, we need to ditch the notion that the hero and heroine are the PCs. They are other NPCs who are part of this situation into which the PCs are thrown. With that out of the way...

We have a lunatic, evil priest disguised as a ruthless outlaw. So sort of an evil Zorro. That's good. Let's make him a highwayman who robs coaches on the road to the big city. This could be any big city, perhaps the city where the PCs live or one they are currently visiting. But given the nationalities of the putative hero and heroine I'll make this a city in either Spain or Italy. Right now I'm leaning towards Spain. 

Why does a priest rob coaches? Well he's evil and maybe greedy and he's a lunatic. So he robs the coaches of the wealthy to accumulate wealth so he can rebuild an abandoned church up in the hills as a way of expiating his terrible, terrible guilt. He's a priest. Which means he's Catholic, so there's a good chance he's feeling guilty about something. And since he is evil its something bad.

One day the ruthless outlaw leader and his band of highwaymen stop a coach on the road to Seville. Inside the coach is a beautiful, virtuous, and talented young Spanish noblewoman. The ruthless outlaw leader is stunned by the sight of the young noblewoman. And before he can give the command to despoil the coach (or the Spanish beauty) he and his men are interrupted by the intervention of a well-meaning but basically useless young Italian nobleman who is also traveling the same road to Seville. The nobleman further distracts the ruthless outlaw and his men which allows the coachman time to fire his gun at the highwaymen and he wounds their ruthless leader and the outlaws retreat with their wounded chief allowing the others to proceed in safety.*

 
Of course the young Italian nobleman was wounded by outlaws, and so, once they reach her family house in Seville [1], the virtuous and talented young Spanish noblewoman must invite her young rescuer to stay at her house so she can tend to his wounds. Of course, her talents include the tending of wounds.

Meanwhile, the highwaymen return to their lair where their ruthless chief also has his wounds tended. For now he is too injured to act himself and so must work through his henchman. He has recognized the beautiful young Spanish noblewoman and he knows that once she reaches her family house in Seville it will only be a matter of time before she discovers the evidence of his crimes - which include the terrible sin for which he is robbing coaches, to get money, to rebuild the church, to atone for his terrible crime. Does this make sense? Of course not, but it does to him because...he's a lunatic.

Enter the PCs (choose one or roll 1d6)

1. A PC is related to the beautiful young Spanish noblewoman, so of course the PCs call at the house in Seville and learn of recent events.
2. A PC is a friend or relative of the young Italian nobleman who they were to meet in Seville. They happen to recognize him as he is being carried into the house in Seville so they call at the house in Seville and learn of recent events.
3. The coachman is an old soldier who served with one of the PCs. He notices them as the coach enters the town. Later he contacts them, tells them of recent events, and asks their help to protect his young mistress. [2]
4. As they are also traveling on the highway to Seville, the PCs come across the coach, the coachman, the beautiful young Spanish noblewomen, and the wounded young Italian nobleman. After they learn of recent events they may become involved.
5. The ruthless outlaw killed a friend or relative of a PC who now wants REVENGE! 
6. The PCs are hunting for the ruthless outlaw to bring him to justice. They overhear the coachman relating recent events to a third party and they realize that the young Spanish noblewoman may be able to provide them with a description of the outlaw or other clues. So they call at the house in Seville and ask to speak with her.

Obviously the evil, lunatic, priest, disguised as an outlaw is related to the beautiful, virtuous, and talented young Spanish noblewoman. Unknown to her he is her uncle or her father and he is responsible for the death of her mother and father (if he is her uncle) or her mother (if he is her father).[3] This is the terrible crime he is afraid to have revealed. 

[1] Option: instead of the big city, set the action in a village along the road on the way to the city. This will restrict the action to a smaller locale and more limited official resources.

[2] He may be concerned that the highwaymen may want to silence the young Spanish noblewoman before she can describe or identify the attackers to the authorities.

[3] If you want a more twisted end that supports everyone being overcome with remorse and doing penance, then he is both her uncle and her father.

Shopping mini-game by Telecanter

I really like a lot of the stuff that Telecanter does. I tend to be verbose while he takes a more pictorial perspective that I find refreshing and useful. He makes me think outside my box and yet his stuff is so often useful. 

Here he created a simple, mini-game for shopping. I like this because it reinforces that the game world is not one with Wall Marts and other mega-stores that allow people to buy off the rack, on the shelf items that give them almost exactly what they what, when they want it, in a variety of colors. In 1620s Europe many items will be tailor made, customized, or otherwise created for the purchaser. This also means they often will not be available right now. 

Here's a version of the table that I adapted for Honor+Intrigue.

EDIT: I was revising the table to adjust the sizes to be a bit more forgiving and I noticed that I had left the D12 out of the table headings.

Corrected and Revised Table

I'll have to consider how to adjust the table so that a national capital and large city like Paris has more items available and readily available then a provincial capital or town. One thought would be to tie the number of possible shopping attempts to the size of the town or city. So a small town might only allow you 1 roll. Essentially, after 1d4 hours, you've looked in all the tailor shops in that tiny town. Whereas a place like Paris might allow you a dozen or more shopping attempts, which means you may more easily get what you want, when you want it, at a price you mght afford in Paris...but it may take searching every neighborhood and suburb which will be time consuming. 

This would give shopping in Paris the potential to always be like the Scavenger Hunt adventure from Flashing Blades. I adapted that for Honor+Intrigue and the players really enjoyed it. It was a nice reintroduction for the PCs to Paris after the long diplomatic arc in the Netherlands (both Spanish and Dutch) that culminated in the PCs being some of the besieged during the Siege of Bergen-op-Zoom.A lighthearted adventure was just the thing after the blood, mud, and explosions of a siege.

Relationship Maps

Player Character Relationships

What my RPGs focus on varies over time. Probably not too surprising given that I started playing and running RPGs in 1974. I've done quite a bit of duet gaming (one GM and one Player) and a lot of small groups (one GM and two players). My H&I campaign started out with two players, then expanded to three and then four regular players and the once in a blue moon guest. Currently I have three regular players with an occasional fourth who shows up when the stars are right. 

One thing I noticed with only one or two players, was that proportionally more time was spent talking about how the PC(s) relate to the other PCs and the NPCs. Now some of that is probably a function of the specific people involved, but some of it is a matter of time and focus. With only one player there is no need for concern that another player is bored or needs to have their turn or share of the spotlight and that can make it easier to delve deeply into what a PC thinks and feels about what happens. Also, I think part of it is it just seems a little more difficult or awkward to discuss the internal state of mind of a PC when several other people are in the conversation whose characters don't have access to that kind of information. In any case, whether the lack is due to time and focus or awkwardness I sometimes miss knowing more about what is going on in the heads of the PCs that I GM for. 

In one post in a long and rambling discussion thread with Chirine on the RPGsite I happened across a reference to relationship maps and a link to a Gnome Stew article by Phil Vecchione. I'm pretty certain* I'd read that article, but this time around something about it piqued my interest with the thought that this might be a means of getting the players to spend a little time and effort detailing how their character feels about others in the game world (and vice versa).

You might want to skim or read the Gnome Stew article as I won't repeat what Phil said in his article.

Here's Phil's example of a completed relationship map for his super heroes campaign.

Since I'm not familiar with Google Draw, I used PowerPoint to create a similar template. Which I then gave to my players.

My Template

I'm curious to see what I get as a response. I hope that it will add depth to my understanding of their heroes. I'll post a follow up article later.

• I put the PowerPoint file on Google. Here's a link to the PowerPoint template.
• And another link to an OpenDocument (.odp) format that should work with Open Office and Google Docs. 

* I probably saw it last year when I was working on a faction relationship maps to graphically present information about the campaign world to my players.

New Links Page

I created a Links page (the tabs at the top of the blog) that lists some of the links I've found that are interesting and useful for an historical campaign. Currently I'm focused on the 17th century, but many of the links work for thousands of years into the past or even the future.

Check it out!

Adventure Generators

I like adventure generators. A few years ago I came across a really detailed and useful generator for swashbuckling adventures. I blogged about it here. It is called the Swashbuckling Scenario Generator. by Ralph Mazza. I've used his generator to create several adventures for Honor+Intrigue. Like all random generators it requires some interpretation and judgment, but I find such tools a great way of generating new ideas or throwing something even I don't expect and wouldn't have considered into the campaign. The really nice thing about the Swashbuckling Scenario Generator is it really does output the sort of plots one sees in swashbuckling fiction but it has a broader range than do most individual swashbuckling authors since it is clearly culled from many sources.


Unfortunately the game it was designed for never saw print and the generator is no longer directly online, though for now at least it is still available view the Way Back Machine. I'd love to post it or post a modified version for France in the reign of Louis XIII, but I have still not yet succeeded in tracking down Ralph Mazza and I am reluctant to publish it without permission. But great minds and all that, I came across a short adventure generator on the Wine and Savages blog by Sean Tait Bircher & Robin English-Bircher. It's designed for Champions of the People (a game I am not familiar with). The game seems focused on populace heroes like Zorro and Robin Hood. Here it is:

Champion of the People Adventure Generator

The authors note that the tables need to customized or interpreted based on settings, e.g. "Zorro’s California is much more likely to suffer a drought than Robin Hood’s England." The generator has several tables.

Roll once on Table 1 for Villain, once on Table 2 for villain’s target, once on Table 3 for Threat, and once on Table 4: Is This a Trap?

Obviously Table 1: Villain needs to be customized to the setting. We have four different types of villain:

• Local Authority (Captain Ramon, Sheriff of Nottingham, crimelord, etc.)
• Higher Authority (governor of California, Prince John, etc.)
• Unaffiliated Criminal (roll on Table 1a)
• Innocent in the Wrong (roll on Table 2: Innocent)

The Local Authority and Higher Authority will need customization. If the location is the city of Paris, the local authority would be the Provost of Paris who commands the Archers of Paris, the closest thing to a city police that Paris has in the time period. He'd be the nearest equivalent to Captain Ramon or the Sheriff of Nottingham. Because my campaign is not as focused as are stories about Zorro or Robin Hood, I'd probably include other local authorities - though for a shorter, more focused campaign selecting a single local foe as the major target might be smart move. The higher authority in Paris would be King Louis XIII or, more probably, the Cardinal. Thanks in part to Dumas, the Cardinal often ends up as a villain.

If the setting was in the provinces outside of Paris, the local authority would be the governor of the closest city or biggest, closest town and the higher authority would be the provincial governor or again, the Cardinal. If the setting doesn't have close city or town, then just drop the Provincial Governor or Lieutenant Governor to play the local roll. To add depth to the campaign one could add three levels of authority, e.g. a town governor, a provincial governor, and the Cardinal as the final villain. Once they defeat, expose, or the players tire of the Governor they discover that the Governor is just a pawn of the Cardinal.

Unaffiliated Criminal and Innocent in the Wrong work just fine as is. The six criminals types listed in Table 1a: Unaffiliated Criminal work just fine for 17th century France. So no change needed there. Similarly the four innocents listed in Table 2: Innocent are all fine for a French setting. If the setting is a city, like Paris I'd tweak Table 2a: Local Notable by swapping a  Jurist or Lawyer for the Land Owner.

Table 3: Threat works just fine as it is.

One final tweak I'd make is to Table 4: Is This a Trap? I'd start out with at least the first adventure or two as strstraightforward and not a trap. If the first experiences the players have is "Its a trap!" then they are likely to have a hard time getting into the good guy behavior. After they've solved one or two straightforward problems then I'd allow them the chance for a trap.

So have you found any interesting tables for generating adventures?

Campaign Calendar

One of the things I've done for several campaigns is to keep a campaign calendar. I first started doing that around 1980 when I started my first Runequest campaign set in Balazar and the Elder Wilds of Glorantha. A lot of that campaign was wilderness exploration, literally in the case of the Elder Wilds, and weather and seasons were a big factor in travel. In addition the detailed information on cults in Glorantha made it important to know whether or not a day was the Holy Day for some cult. 

Later in the 1990s when I started my Star Wars campaign, I had multiple player groups and a co-GM so tracking time had the potential to be important to keep track of who was where and when. I wanted the player characters to have time to grow in knowledge and competence before the movies. At that time, there were only the original three films so I set the start of the campaign to 3 years before the Battle of Yavin (3BBY). The timeline started in the mists of the Old Republic 25,000 years before declaration by Senator Palpatine of the New Order and Empire. The ancient history provided by West End Games and the extended universe was useful for a few relic hunting adventures and to know how long some of the alien and human cultures had interacted. But for the most part, the history closer to the time of Episode IV: A New Hope was important. I included things like the Clone Wars, Foundation of Empire, and the year or even date of birth for PCs and for relevant NPCs. I needed to know how old an Old Republican Senator might be and it was kind of satisfying to know how old characters were or even to be able to celebrate a birthday. As the prequels came out, I fit those dates into my chronology. I used one of the calendars from the extended universe that had ten months of 35 days with a few intercalary days. The intercalary days nicely fit my image of Palpatine and the Empire, mirroring in some ways, the Claudian dynasty and the start the Roman Empire. And the intercalary days provided some holidays, which occasionally provided a plot hook and helped ground the players and characters in the setting. Using the calendar I was able to fit in activity for the PCs that linked to and supported A New Hope. PCs were responsible for the creation of one of the Rebel Alliances major medals, the Wings of Freedom, awarded for saving the life of Mon Monthma, spiriting away from Incom the plans, prototypes, and core design team for the X-Wing, a couple of key steps in the acquisition of the Death Star plan, the rebellion of an entire sectors, and other stuff along the way. The campaign ran for over 10 years of real time and 3 years of game time (some PCs lead very hectic lives) and finally went on hiatus at the end of 2011 or about six months after the end of A New Hope. 

That is all a long introduction for the fact that when I decided to run Honor+Intrigue and set it in an historical fiction version of 1620s France, I knew I would need a calendar so I could track what was going on in the wider game world based on our real world history. I wanted to involve the PCs with real life people and events - as well as with fictional characters. The King's Musketeer PC practices fencing with Athos and several PCs are in the Cardinal's Guards. One is the Guard's first Captain-Lieutenant.  

The timeline is a bit long. It runs to an 18 page table. I've grabbed historical events from a lot of sources to create the campaign timeline and then fitted in the adventures of the PCs when they occurred. To keep it from being ridiculously long, I've kept the entries for the adventures to just the Book, Adventure # and name, and Chapter # and name. I have a separate file that lists the experience (Advancement Point) awards and expenditures of the PCs and third file in Excel so I can run stats to see how fast I award APs and at what rate different PCs gain awards.

As the timeline might be useful as a resource, I decided to place the timeline as a page on my blog. I'll update the page  periodically.

Presenting Information to the Players - Valois + Bourbon Lineages

One thing I've learned over the decades is that players differ a lot in how they perceive information in play, how much they understand of what they perceive, how much they can remember, whether or not they take notes and if they do how detailed their notes are, how skilled they are at connecting seemingly unrelated data, and how much effort they are willing to put in to figuring things out either during or between sessions. 

I like detail. A lot of detail. Shockingly, a lot of people don't like detail. At least that's a conclusion I've come to over the years. So I try different ways to present information to the players to help them understand the information they have without telling them what to think. Now maybe the point I am trying to make here is clear...but I doubt it. I know what I mean, but I don't think what I wrote above conveys it very well. Maybe an example will help. 

In the last session the I summarized some clues the players had acquired and they then followed up on some of the leads the resulted from the summary information. But some of the information is pretty detailed and it requires seeing certain connections and drawing conclusions from those connections. Now the connections are fairly clear to me. I discovered them (many are actual historical connections) or created them. But the connections are not so clear to the players. But two of the PCs are experienced courtiers with good connections and knowledge. One is also a spy master with a network of spies and a pair of elite agents.  So these sorts of connections should probably be almost as clear to for them as the connections are for me, the GM. The question is, how do I do that? And how do I do that in a way that does not take away control from the players, doesn't make the PC a pawn of the GM, and doesn't take away the chance for the players to have fun drawing conclusions from the connections?

Here's the information I gave the players. It's not secret. You can look it up by browsing the Internet. That's how I found most of the information in the first place. In essence, here's what I told the players:

The next afternoon, the four friends met in de Chambre’s Paris apartments to discuss next steps. At their latest encounter at the Eyes of Esus, the Witch called the accompanying noble “Monseigneur” which is a title for a Prince of the Blood or a prince of the church, i.e. a Bishop, Archbishop, or Cardinal. Later Father Signoret followed the noble and heard one of his retainers address him by the same title. Guy and de Chambre recalled the bynames of the four acknowledged heirs in succession for the throne of France: the King’s brother called “Monsieur,” the Prince de Condé called “Monsieur le Prince,” Condé’s infant son who was too young to have a byname, and the Count of Soissons called “Monsieur le Comte.” 

So what conclusion do you draw from this information about the identify of the mysterious noble who goes by the title Monseigneur?

This is what the players concluded. 

Since none of the four used “Monseigneur” as a byname, Guy suggested that the unknown noble might be an illegitimate heir who self-styled as a Prince du Sang and used the byname “Monsiegneur.” 

And here is the additional information they found.

The four friends separated to follow various leads. The Seigneur de Chambre collected information on royal bastards. He identified several possibilities for the noble called Monsiegneur. Charles IX of the House of Valois died in 1574 without legitimate male issue and was succeeded by his brother Henry III. Henry died without issue and was succeeded by Henri IV of the House of Bourbon. Henri IV had two children out of wedlock by Catherine Henriette de Balzac d'Entragues (now Marquises of Verneuil). The first, Gaston Henri de Bourbon the Marquis de Verneuil, called “the Bastard of France” is the Abbot of Saint Germaine de Pres and the Bishop of Metz. A bishop of the church is called “Monseigneur.” However, Father Signoret said the voice that he heard was not that of the Bishop of Metz who the Jesuit had previously met at the Abbey of Saint Germaine des Pres. 

The second child, a daughter Gabrielle Angelique, was married to the Duke de La Valette. If the contract that Guy found were upheld, the Duke’s wife would become a Princess du Sang. La Vallette’s father is the Duke d’Épernon. Épernon never accepted Henri IV as king and was rumored to have aided François Ravaillac, the assassin of Henri IV. The Duke de Bellegarde is Épernon’s first cousin. Épernon’s youngest son is the Cardinal de La Vallette. Cardinal de La Vallette is said to be a very good friend of the Princess de Condé.

Catherine Henriette was at the heart of a 1604 Spanish-backed plot to install her son Gaston-Henri as heir to the throne. Her father was involved in this plot, along with Charles de Valois d'Auvergne, her half-brother. In 1616, one of her former companions, Mlle d'Escoman, accused Catherine Henriette of meeting with the regicide François Ravaillac.

Catherine Henriette’s mother Marie Touchet Dame de Belleville was the mistress of Charles IX of France. Although an old woman (age 75) Marie Touchet is still alive. Marie Touchet had a son by Charles IX. He is Charles de Valois d'Auvergne the Duke of Angoulême. Charles de Valois is the half brother of Catherine Henriette. He was involved in 1601 Biron Conspiracy with Savoy and the 1604 Spanish plot. Charles de Valois is married to Charlotte de Montmorency (b. 1571), the half-sister of the Princess of Condé (who is also named Charlotte de Montmorency). They have three sons: Henri de Valois (b. 1594), Louis-Emmanuel de Valois (b. 1596), and François de Valois (b. 1598).

Now I could be wrong, but I'm betting that it is not very obvious from the above five paragraphs which, if any, of the NPCs are likely to be the mysterious Monseigneur. There are a couple of problems. First the names are long, confusing, and frequently different people share part or all of their name. Second, it's hard to see who is related to whom. Now the latter is, as we say in mathematics, a previously solved problem. Showing relationships between people, especially related people, is something that genealogy charts have been doing for well over a hundred years. So first thing I decided to do was to provide a simplified, 1-page chart of the relevant lineages. Here's what that looks like.

The next thing I did was to show basically the same information as the parapI've already presented two other examples of presenting information in these two charts for religious groups and for the Prince de Condé.

“Monseigneur” maybe be an illegitimate heir self-styled as a Prince du Sang. Investigating illegitimate births turns up several possibilities. 

Charles IX of the House of Valois died in 1574 without legitimate male issue and was succeeded by his brother Henry III. Henry died without issue and was succeeded by Henri IV of the House of Bourbon. Henri IV had two children by Catherine Henriette de Balzac d'Entragues (now Marquises of Verneuil). The first, Gaston Henri de Bourbon the Marquis de Verneuil, called “the Bastard of France” is the Abbot of Saint Germaine de Pres and the Bishop of Metz. A bishop of the church is called “Monseigneur.” However, Father Signoret said the voice that he heard was not that of the Bishop of Metz who the Jesuit previously met at the Abbey of Saint Germaine des Pres.

The second child, a daughter Gabrielle Angelique, is married to the Duke de La Valette. If the contract that Guy found were upheld, the Duke’s wife would become a Princess du Sang. La Vallette’s father is the Duke d’Épernon. Épernon never accepted Henri IV as king and was rumored to have aided François Ravaillac, the killer of Henri IV. The Duke de Bellegarde is Épernon’s first cousin. Épernon’s youngest son is the Cardinal de La Vallette. Cardinal de La Vallette is said to be a very good friend of the Princess de Condé.

Catherine Henriette was at the heart of a 1604 Spanish-backed plot to install her son Gaston-Henri as heir to the throne. Her father was involved in this plot, along with Charles de Valois d'Auvergne, her half-brother. In 1616, one of her former companions, Mlle d'Escoman, accused Catherine Henriette of meeting with the regicide François Ravaillac.

Catherine Henriette’s mother Marie Touchet Dame de Belleville was the mistress of Charles IX of France. Although an old woman (age 75) Marie Touchet is still alive. Marie Touchet had a son by Charles IX. He is Charles de Valois d'Auvergne the Duke of Angoulême. Charles de Valois is the half brother of Catherine Henriette. He was involved in 1601 Biron Conspiracy with Savoy and the 1604 Spanish plot. Charles de Valois is married to Charlotte de Montmorency (b. 1571), the half-sister of the Princess of Condé (who is also named Charlotte de Montmorency). They have three sons: Henri de Valois (b. 1594), Louis-Emmanuel de Valois (b. 1596), and François de Valois (b. 1598).

Is this information easier to understand? Which presentation makes it easier for you to see connections? To draw conclusions?

Do you do this for your players? If you were a player is it something you would find useful?