“You are a Rifleman of the 95th Regiment of Foot, and you’re the best of the Goddamned best.”

IC Thread Here! greenjackets-for-king-and-country-t10041.html#p256643

Hello! My name is Muser and this is my first time being the GM of a game, and I figured I’d try and do something I haven’t seen at all on this site. I have a real love for the Napoleonic/Peninsular Wars and I wanted to try and create an RP based around them. I know there are a few games that take place in a similar time period, like Possibly Pirates (Watch your feet, I’m name dropping here, kids!) but none that deal directly with Napoleon, Wellington, Spain and everything that happened during the early 1800s up until the Battle of Waterloo. For some quick information and a timeline of the Peninsular Wars check this site out: http://www.peninsularwar.org/penwar_e.htm You will find a pretty decent run down of most of the War there, enough to get your foot in the door that is.

I’m looking to make this a darkly accurate RP. After all, no war is glamourous, and life in the armies of Britain and France during the Peninsular War were not easy lives to live. So anticipate a lot of action and a lot of gore and a lot of suffering in this. I can tell you now that this isn’t going to be a shiny happy RP, even though I’m sure there will be moments of joy and happiness. The engines and instruments of war in this timeframe were particularly brutal and thousands upon thousands of people lost their lives. Later on, if there is any interest, I’ll post some information about the weaponry and uniforms and pretty much everything we’ll need to get the mood and feeling just right. That being said, I don’t want to stay strict and rigid to the history that has already been written. I’d love to take what happened and replay it, rewrite it in our own ways, fight the battles our way and make our own outcomes. There are some very talented people on this site, and I’m sure that means we could make something particularly epic.

Now, I want this RP to focus on a particular regiment in the British Army during the war, the 95th Regiment of Foot, also known as the Rifles. This regiment was a bit of an oddity in the British army, in that they wore dark green uniforms (unlike the rest of the foot soldiers who wore red uniforms) and they used the Baker rifle, a weapon that could fire anywhere from 200 to 400 yards or even farther, which is in contrast to the standard issue smooth bore musket which is only good up to about 50 yards. The 95th Rifles were used as skirmishers mostly, deployed ahead of the main army to disrupt and sow chaos in the ranks of the French. The 95th Rifles have been featured heavily in the Sharpe series of books by Bernard Cornwell, and I will freely admit that those books heavily inspired me to do this, and that I plan to steal a whole lot from those books. If you head to http://www.1st95thrifles.com/history.htm you can get even more information on the Rifles and see how they looked back then. The long and short of this regiment is simple: They were complete and utter badasses. The French, it must be noted, did not have riflemen in their ranks. Their skirmishers, also known as Voltigeurs, used the common musket and wore blue uniforms.

All right, if you’re still reading this, then you might be kinda sorta adjacent to maybe being tangent to something that almost feels like interested in what I’m saying, so I’ll go into what I want to see from the characters and the people in this RP. If you’re looking to join this, I’d like you to be a pretty competent role-player, capable of handling your character well and possibly a number of other NPCs at the same time. I’d like your posts to be descriptive and well thought out, properly checked for spelling mistakes and grammar. If a mistake slips by you (and they will, it happens to me all the time) just go back and fix it later. I’m not going to get angry or anal about things like that. I’m going to trust YOU to know what to do and how to play/write your character(s). If its a glaringly bad typo, I might just bonk you on the head, but that’s still pretty extreme and rare. If you are brand new to role-playing all together, I hate to be a dick but this might not be a great place for you to hone your skills.

As for your characters, you have a number of choices as to what you can play. I’d like to see this RP get really ridiculously huge and that’ll involve people playing all sorts of characters. I’ll state this now so you all know: Don’t get too attached to your character. This is a very bloody and brutal war after all, and you might just catch a cannonball with your face. This RP is going to mostly center on the conflicts between the combined armies of Britain, Spain and Portugal versus the French. If you’re going to be in the British army, then you’re going to be a Rifleman for the time being. I know it’ll be tough being a badass, but you’ll just have to deal with it. I might bring in some red coats eventually, depends how far we get into it and how big the battles get.

Disclaimer: I am all for strong female characters, I wouldn’t own the Alien series of movies if I wasn’t, but unfortunately, there were no women allowed in any of the armies back then, be it French or British or Prussian even. There were definitely women around, such as soldier’s wives and whores who followed the armies around as they marched (I can post more information about them as well). If you want to play those kinds of characters, you can. But honestly, that’s not really any fun. I will say this though, the Spanish partisans or guerrillas who fought the French in the hills and villages of Spain had some seriously badass women who fought like devils alongside and even leading men, and if you’re going to choose a female character, I suggest you play a partisan. I’ll post more information on the partisans and their war later. Besides, you get to choose a cool Spanish nickname for yourself, like “La Aguja” which translates to “The Needle.”

If you would like, please feel free to draft up a quick little character sheet. Here are the guide lines. I’m going to be a bit of a dick here, but I’d much prefer you to describe your character in words and phrases, rather than use a picture. You can have a picture in mind and reference it, maybe even show us later, but not for your sheet here. If I’ve been unclear about anything (and I probably have) or if you need any help with figuring out your character, just send me a PM and we’ll work it all out.

The ranks in the British army are as follows:
Non-commissioned: Private => Corporal => Sergeant => Sergeant Major
Commissioned Officers: Ensign => Lieutenant => Captain => Major => Colonel and so on.

Non-commissioned soldiers are the men who are recruited off the street and in pubs. The British army was made up of scoundrels and the scum of the Earth; men who instead of going to prison and ending up getting hung for their crimes, took the King’s Shilling and went to war. That’s not to say there weren’t some fine upstanding citizens in the army as well, who joined up for the supposed romanticism and adventure. Commissioned Officers are those men who bought their rank and come from wealthy and often influential families. Only very rarely has a non-commissioned man been promoted out of the ranks, such as the lead character Richard Sharpe has happen to him the Sharpe series.


Name:
Age:
Army (British, French, etc):
Rank in said Army:
Appearance:
Brief history:

I’m still doing a lot of figuring out on this whole RP thing myself, so this will be a bit of a process. As I said before, I’ll be posting a lot of information to help us all out, and to reference back to later. I get confused all the time, so I’ll definitely be going back to it. All of this is still quite rough, and if I’ve got anything wrong here, then first off, you need to join this RP and second of all, please point it out to me.

Cheers for taking the time to read this and I look forward to RPing with you.

-Muser

Hahahaha awesome! I love Sharpe! Count me in!

Yes, a thread which you have YET to post again on, Mr. Wolf!

Okay I got two questions; when are we starting with this? At the beginning of the Peninsular campaign, or sometime in the middle?

And, since you said not to get too attached to your character, are responsible for bumping off our own character, or are other people/you the moderator allowed to do it also?

Name: Eugene Gosselin

Age: 17

Army (British, French, etc): French Army

Rank in said Army: Soldat (private)

Appearance: Of regular height, but extremely thin. Cold blue eyes and sandy blonde hair with a spread of freckles across his tanned face. Currently wearing the uniform of the Line Infantry that from its condition had a less than fortunate previous owner.

Brief history: Born and raised on a farm in the Perigord (Dordogne), Eugene grew up with only a vague idea of the wider world and of the changes gripping French politics at the time. He spent most of his free time hunting in the nearby rugged and woody hills or else fishing in the Dordogne. His straightforward and at times aggressive personality won him many followers and enemies, but few friends. Several months ago, however, he was conscripted and sent to a depot, where he was a dispatched as part of a draft to the 94th Regiment of the Line, which was currently in Gen. Vilatte's division in Spain. He has already established himself within his company as a good shot and fine hunter who often keeps the men fed.

Sorry this is kinda crappy, but I'm tired

Hey. My apologies for not replying sooner. My band played a show over the weekend in the town we just moved away from, so that involves a few three hour drives in a cramped truck. Not to mention we're still bringing stuff down to our new house, so we're stuffing all the stuff we need in the back of everyone's vehicles, on top of our gear. Anyways, on to business.

First, I'm planning on setting this RP in 1809 at first, right when Wellington started to make that first solid push out of Portugal and into Spain. The exact date, I'm not sure of, but I'm leaning towards September.

Second, when it comes to killing your character off, that is something we'll talk about in PMs. I might just randomly PM you one of these days and that might be it for your character. I'd like to keep the feeling, especially in battle, random and chaotic. As for someone else killing off your character, that'll be a little more unlikely. I want to avoid the whole "Bang, bang! I shot you, you're dead!" "No way, you missed me!" "Yes I did!" mess. There are going to be so many NPCs floating around, there will be enough killing for everyone.

Thirdly, Michel, profile looks great. No worries about being tired, I'm almost always in a constant state of having just woken up and I'm groggy all the time. I'll have my own profile up before the end of play today.

Hey man no problem being out of town. I've been moving into a new apartment this past week or so, thus I'm sitting here amid a sea of boxes pirating onto someone else's wireless.

I like your idea about character-killing. It makes things more interesting and makes me feel less like a guardian angel.

And I hate to be nit picky, but is this before the battle of Talavera (ala Sharpe's Eagle) or after?

Looks good, Irish Wolf. Cheers.

Michel, I'm thinking that this RP will start in the fall after Talavera, September 1809, and will move from there. Not to say I don't want to re-do Talavera at some point in time, just not right now. =D

Now, I get to treat myself to another cramped 3 hour drive to play another show in a place we'd rather not be playing! I'll get my own character profile up asap.

Hmmm, your character killing method sounds interesting. I'm interested in participating. Be whipping up a char profile in a few.

Sounds good, Nils. Welcome aboard! Diggin' the avatar as well.

Well guys, I'm working on the opening post as we speak. I've just started the third page of it now, and hopefully I should have it all done very very soon. So, look for the IC thread any day now. I'll link this page and the IC page when its up.

I have to admit it though, I'm way too lazy right now to write up a character sheet, so I'm going to just reveal him in the opening post. I wouldn't worry too much about any of your profiles, because well, by the end of this, we might all be playing completely different characters! Don't forget to use NPCs to your advantage, we have lots of 'em to use.

Cheers,
M

I nearly forgot about this, heh. Thanks, I hope I can keep up. Here's my character sheet, but... not sure if I'll use him. We'll see!

Name: Ethan Swift
Age: 23
Army (British, French, etc): British
Rank in said Army: Private

Appearance: Ethan is of average build and in fit shape. He stands just short of 6'. He has light brown eyes and is easily identifiable by his prematurely gray hair, which makes him look older than he should. He wears the uniform of the 95th Rifles.

Brief history: Ethan was a well-to-do man with a gambling problem and a reputation as a notorious womanizer. Soon he had lost most of his money and accumulated numerous debts. Fleeing from his debt-ridden life and the powerful people he owed money to, he enlisted in the British Army.

Is the IC up yet?

Grrrrrr.....I want to join so baldy....but don't know if I will have time. Any idea how active this RP is going to be Mauser??

Damn straight yo

Grrrrr I can't take it! I'm joining!

Name: Paule (Paul) Triveane (Triv-a-ane

Age: 19

Army: French

Rank: Private

Appearance: 5' 8", jet black hair, lightly tanned, deep green eyes, thin wiry frame and chiseled features. Wears a brand new French 7th Line Infantry uniform and carries a new gun (Will we be using the 1782 model muskets or a later model like the .66 Calibre?).

Brief History: Paul is the son of a rich political aristrocrat in Paris. Paul was supposed to go into politics alongside his father, but he craved glory and adventure, with a group of friends he enlisted. By right Paul should have become an officer becuase of his fathers position and wealth, however Paul shirked the responsibilty and duties of an officer and became a private with the Line Infantry.