'The Confident Hope Of A Miracle' by Neil Hanson covers the Armada campaign in detail. Pretty much confiirms all of the above about Phillip - the title is a direct quote from him as regards concerns others voiced about the viability of the Armada (or the 'Enterprise of England' as it was also called). Proper delegation of tasks and authority simply was not in his vocabulary.
However, Queen Elizabeth 1 does not come out looking much better, though for different reasons. Much is made of her alleged cunning - but it really comes down to her being almost chronically incapable of making a firm decision about ANYTHING; and of never wasting any chance to keep money to spend on personal gratification ratherr than spend it on literally anything else. The military was kept in an incredibly parlous state because she would not shake loose any money for gunpowder or proper equipment, but there was always money (and, mostly, IOUs) for court finery and so forth.
A notorious session of 'Cthulhu By Gaslight' ('Call Of Cthulhu' in the Victorian Era). Note in advance that this session happened shortly after the movie 'Young Sherlock Holmes' came out. Everybody had seen it - the GM got A LOT of ideas, and the PCs naturally had acquired a few .... preconceptions..
Any way, the PCs are in London in the 1880s, following rumours of evil cultists and so forth. Oddly enough, their investigations lead them to a large warehouse. Checking it out further, they discover some things of interest.
First, there are a number of sigils and Egyptian hieroglyphs in a number of concealed locations within the warehouse.
Second, there are a system of tunnels and chambers beneath the warehouse, with lots more Egyptian-style decor.
Third is the fifty-foot-high pyramid (mostly timber) in the centre of all this, covered with further sigils and hieroglyphs.
Yep, just like in 'Young Sherlock Holmes'.
No sign of cultists as yet. The PCs rove about the area defacing everything they can find. As a final touch, they place explosives deep inside the complex. There is a prolonged and unnecessarily heated argument about how much burn-time they should have on the fuses, but the PCs FINALLY opt for thirty-plus minutes. Theoretically, long enough to get some distance, and then sit back and enjoy the fireworks. They light the fuses, and leave.
Unfortunately, the party is confronted by the "cultists" in the street just outside the entrance. Perhaps even more unfortunately, the cultists are actually a White Magic group (ie. GOOD GUYS!), who are justifiably upset about all the vandalism the PCs have just done to their secret place of worship.
Discussions are not helped when the PCs state something along the lines of "Ooops, sorry, we thought this was a Temple Of Set...". Given that these cultists are so anti-Set that just speaking his name is both an insult and major desecration, this does not go down at all well.
However, by Herculean use of their Diplomatic skills, the PCs actually start to calm the cultists down just a little.
Right about then, the explosive charges start going off.
Yeah, a bit early, but the party's demolitions skills and rolls thereof were mediocre at best anyhow. Ref just about has hysterics as he gleefully describes this part. As the two groups watch, the entire warehouse catches alight, kind of folds in on itself and noisily collapses into its basement. And then the gas main underneath all this adds its own little bit, so there is this dramatic WHOOSH and a column of flame that erupts out of the wreckage.
A very brief silence follows, with the Ref gasping for breath after laughing so hard.
At which point, the PCs spontaneously and unanimously decide to RUN LIKE HELL! The remainder of their session is spent fleeing the lynch mob of formerly peaceful cultists (and the police), through winding backstreets. Illuminated all the while by the consequences of their most recent adventure - the flames can be seen all over London, pretty much. Afterwards. the party spent a session otr two basically hiding from just about everybody, before literally jumping at a "mission" that took them out of the country for a while.
In our 'Rogue Trader' campaign, there is an NPC Inquisitor who is kind of a permanent passenger on our ship. Doesn't go out much - his main function seems to be to mess with the Rogue Trader's head, usually in the nicest possible ways. RT Player is a Good guy, but with very strong views about how ####ed up the WH40K Church is. So, his Character has .... somewhat .... radical leanings. Which, since he has an Inquisitor (and associates thereof) residing onboard, he has to moderate somewhat.
Then there is the small (5 women) Sisters of Battle contingent on board as well (headed by my Character). When riding in a vehicle or otherwise unoccupied, we often have sing-alongs.
Unfortunately, our music tends to bother some of the other PCs. Can't imagine why. Rousing tune (and just what is wrong with 'Flight Of The Valkyries'?) with nice simple lyrics (and what could be more uplifting than "Kill The Mutant. Kill The Mutant. Kill The Mutant. Kill The Mutant. Kill The Mutant. Kill The Mutant.. etc."). But people like the Navigator have a problem with Inspirational Hymns. Dunno why.
Ian Mackinder got a reaction from Cancer in What Non-Fiction Book have you just finished?
Ian Mackinder got a reaction from New Hero in Quote of the Week from my gaming group...
