Bombay by Night

Bombay by Night is a Camarilla Chronicle set in Bombay (Modern-day Mumbai, India) at the end of the 17th Century. It is the time of ambitious mercantile expansion and the parasitic Kindred that follow them into the uncharted corners of the map, the chronicle is about claiming new and mysterious lands and how the Kindred fight to defend their claims from the locals who dislike your arrival.

The year is 1668 and the Seven Islands of Bombay have just been sold to the East India Company a few months after the British crown “gained” the islands from the Portuguese Empire in a political wedding, the characters are a coterie of Kindred from the newly-formed Camarilla who have been sent to the distant lands of the Far East to secure the Sect’s position in hostile oriental lands. Will the characters use the brute force of muskets or the velvet glove of diplomacy to secure their place in the world and whose loyalty will they cling to while they climb the ladder of power?

It is the Age of Discovery. Spain and Portugal are losing their dominating monopoly over the New World and the Orient, while the British and Dutch East India Companies are just beginning their rise to power. The Thirteen Colonies won’t have their Independence for another hundred years and flintlocks are being introduced in large numbers to armies despite their terrible rate of misfires.

History, both Kindred and Kine

• 1486: The leaders of each of the major European clans sends a representative to a formal meeting in Vienna at the request of a Kindred called ''Hardestadt''. Their they would agree to form a group called the ''Camarilla'', which would unite to crush the anarch movement forever.

• 1493, 23rd of October: The Anarch leaders gather with Hardestadt and the leaders of the Camarilla in ''The Abbey of the Sacred Crown'' near the English village of Thorns, in what would later be called the ''Convention of Thorns''. All bar the Lasombra and Tzimisce anarchs agree to give up their rebellion, and the Assamites would receive a terrible curse placed on them by the Tremere.

• 1534, 23rd of December: Growing apprehensive of the power of the Mughal Emperor Humayan and having suffered several defeats at the hands of the Portuguese, Sultan Bahadur Shah of the Gujarat Sultanate was obliged to sign ''the seven islands of Bombay and Bassein'' over to the Portuguese Empire in the Treaty of Bassein. Initially this was a rent agreement but nearly a full year later Sultan Bahadur had lost complete control of the islands, and an Islamic ruler would never again rule the seven islands.

• 1534 - 1535: The Portuguese, who have gone from the dominant traders of the islands to owners of the lands, purchase and acquire the lands from its inhabitants. Many manor-houses, castles, warehouses and churches were built on the acquired lands without thought about the locals feelings on the matter. The Portuguese aggressively attempt to convert everyone to Catholicism, this causes a great deal of friction with the population despite supposedly converting nearly 10,000 people.

• 1600, 31st of December: The British East India Company is founded by Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth I under the name ''Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading with the East Indies''.

• 1612, November: The East India Company, led by Captain Thomas Best, defeat the Portuguese at the Battle of Swally. While this was a minor naval skirmish of small numbers, it greatly impressed the Emperor of the Mughal Empire Jahangir who was much more favourable towards the British from then on. Portuguese harassment of Mecca-bound ships on the West coast of India also help lower the Emperor's opinion of the Portuguese. The Portuguese monopoly of trade on the west coast of India begins to fade.

• 1612: Sir Thomas Roe visits the Mughal Emperor Nuruddin Salim Jahangir to arrange for a commercial treaty that would give the company exclusive rights to reside and establish factories in Surat in exchange for goods and rarities from the European markets. The visit was highly successful.

• 1617, 12th of October: Gustavus Adolphus is crowned King of Sweden. He is known as ''the Great'' because of his radical military innovations, and he is famous for his very aggressive tactics that emphasised mobility and cavalry initiative. His early form of combined arms warfare is well known and he is even studied to this day.

• 1633 - 1639: Japan begins a system called ''Sakoku'' in which it severely limits trade from all foreign nations.

• 1652: The British East India Company urges Oliver Cromwell to purchase Bombay from the Portuguese, the growing power of the Dutch Empire is a good incentive, but Oliver Cromwell has other more local concerns.

• 1657, March: The Mughal Empire and the Maratha realm both assault the Bijapur Sultanate, claiming territory from the failing Sultanate. Both Maratha and Mughal soldier also raid each other’s territory causing friction between the two.

• 1658: Aurangzeb with machiavellian cunning, deposes his father and defeats his three brothers to becomes the new Emperor of the Mughal Empire. It is the single largest Empire that the Europeans have to deal with on the sub-continent.

• 1660, mid-1660: Siddi Jauhar, a Bijapurian general, is sent with a sizeable to attack the Maratha territories. With the conspicuous usage of British grenades and English artillerymen to assist him, Siddi takes Panhala from Maratha hands. Shivaji is angered by the British would assisted his enemy and considered this a betrayal.

• 1660, December: Shivaji’s Maratha armies plunder an English trading post/factory in Rajapur and capture the factors (merchants) who are not released until the mid-1663’s.

• 1661, 11th of May: King Charles II of England and Catherine of Braganza, the daughter of King John IV of Portugal, places Bombay in possession of the British Empire as part of the dowry.

• 1661: Bombay's population is registered to be 10,000. This figure would mean that the Portuguese have successfully converted the entire population. Any form of travel through Bombay disproves that they are entirely Catholic and many religions co-exist together on the islands.

• 1662, October: Abraham Shipman, the first British Governor arrives at Bombay to take over the city. The Portuguese Governor refuses, citing irregularities in the paperwork, promising only to give over the seven islands and its dependencies. Shipman refuses this deal and is subsequently refused entry to the port. He is forced to retired to the island of Anjediva in North Canara where he dies in October 1664.

• 1662: Surat, which was the prominent port on the west coast of India, starts to lose its position to Bombay.

• 1664, 5th of January: Shivaji leads his Maratha armies in a lightning strike to sack the city of Surat, a wealthy Mughal trading city. The badly defended city is easily overtaken and the plundering continued for six days. Most of the city was burnt to the ground.

• 1664, November: Shipman's successor, Humphrey Cooke, agrees to the Portuguese deal on the condition that the Portuguese citizens are given special treatment and that the British do not interfere in the Catholic's conversion attempts.

• 1665 - 1666: Governor Cooke ''acquires'' about half of the dependencies from the Portuguese for the British Empire.

• 1666, and onward: Hostilities between the Mathura lord and the Mughal Empire ebb as a peace proposal is kept by both parties, despite Shivaji’s unwillingness to participate in Mughal court life.

• 1668: The British East India Company established a Factory in Bombay.

• 1668, 21st of September: Bombay is transferred to the English East India Company for the annual rent of £10. Sir George Oxenden becomes the first Governor of Bombay.

• 1668, late November: The ship ''The Bounties Might'' arrives in Bombay and delivers its shadowy passengers...

Historical Notes

Factory

The word factory, which is Feitoria in Portuguese, is used in a different context in this time. It is used to describe what we might know as a specific city district used by Europeans as a base of their trading. It was almost always walled to be separated from the local inhabitants and was used as a marketplace, warehouse, customs office and a launching off point for further expeditions. It was essentially considered a different country, so any attack on a Portuguese Feitoria was like attacking Portugal itself, and it is not to different from a modern dockyards being treaded like a modern embassy while still functioning as a dockyards. Portugal is famous for making vast numbers of these areas all across the world and meant that all of their trade went through merchants that they could control and tax. The British and Dutch East India companies used similar areas, but usually the British and Dutch Factories used them as precursor's for colonial expansion.

Characters

Character Creation

All characters are being created using the 20th Anniversary Edition Vampire the Masquerade and each character is given 50 extra experience points to spend before the start of the game. This is to represent the lives that the characters lived before they came to Bombay and the interesting stories that drove them away from Europe (or drew them towards India).

Abilities

The abilities used in this game will mostly be the same as those in V20, with a few added in to represent the time differences. All the abilities will be listed below, and any: alterations, subtractions or additions will be explained briefly and if it is not mentioned then assume it to be the same as is written in the V20 book. Do note that depending on how far the game progresses, timewise, this list may be altered to reflect the changing times.

Talents: Alertness, Athletics, Awareness, Brawl, Empathy, Expression, Intimidation, Intrigue (see below), Leadership, Streetwise, Subterfuge, Hobby Talent

Skills: Animal Ken, Archery (see below), Commerce (see below), Crafts, Etiquette, Firearms (see below), Larceny, Melee, Performance, Ride, Sailing, Stealth, Survival, Professional Skill

Knowledges: Academics, Heart Wisdom (see below), Investigation, Law, Medicine, Occult, Politics, Science (see below), Theology (see below), Expert Knowledge

Abilities Explanation

Archery: This ability covers any ranged weapon that does not include gunpowder. Examples include: Bows, crossbows, javelins, throwing daggers, etc.

Commerce: This ability cover the physical and social interaction required to gain money. It covers negotiating prices, knowledge of trade routes, and identifying who would want them. Commerce is different from Finance because it has no emphasis on computers and micro/macro transactions and is focused on pre-modern age trading. Do note that banks, long distance journeys, shares and joint stock companies do still fall under this heading.

Firearms: This ability covers any ranged weapon that does use gunpowder. Examples include: Muskets, pistols, cannons, etc.

Hearth Wisdom: This ability isn't a academic sort of knowledge. Heart Wisdom is knowledge accumulated by peasants, traders, or others who don't have servants or live in isolation. It covers knowledge like: where are the best places to fish, which herbs are good for cooking, the signs of impending bad weather, rules of thumb to resolving domestic disputes, etc.

Intrigue: This ability covers your ability to plot and plan effectively. It is about how to manipulate others through trickery and plots, and how to expose a target's vulnerability. Intrigue, though similar to Subterfuge, is different and is much more theoretical and consequential in nature while Subterfuge is much more based in fieldwork and actual sabotage.

Ride: This ability covers using horses or other trained animals to move quickly. It also covers using those animals in combat.

Science: This ability is much less identifiable than modern science, as certain parts of science are still in their infancy. A perfect example is that Galileo is currently under house arrest for suggesting that the earth revolves around the sun and not the other way around. Alchemy is still a credible practice and Issac Newton has just suggested in his 1675 book (Hypothesis of Light) that ''the ether is used to transmit forces between particles''. Science is just starting to head towards the scientific method at this time.

Theology: This ability covers both knowledge of religious scripture (of any type) and religious laws (of any type).

Backgrounds

At character creation, characters cannot have the Domain background (because of the move to India making the Domain useless to the characters) and they cannot have the backgrounds: Contact, Fame or Influence above one if they try to purchase them for use in Bombay.This means that a character can have Fame 3 (Paris) for example, but they cannot have Fame 3 (Bombay), because they have just arrived in Bombay and have not had the time to establish themselves yet. All characters start at generation 13 before purchase of the generation background.

Backgrounds cannot be purchased with experience points (either the 50 at character generation or with ones gained later), they can only be gained by in-game or downtime based actions. Combining backgrounds is possible both during play and before the game begins, but each case must be checked for approval.

The available Backgrounds are: Allies, Alternate Identity, Contacts, Domain, Fame, Generation, Herd, Influence, Mentor, Resources, Retainers, Status.

Character List

Bryon McClennan (Gangrel) played by Sabermane

Jonas Harrington (Brujah) played by Motorskills

Reverend Robert Black (Malkavian) played by Marikir

Game Information

Expectations of the Players

1. Have Fun. This is a game, it is supposed to be fun. If you are not finding it fun, then please talk to the ST. The ST cannot read minds and does not know what everyone enjoys, so help them out by talking to them.

2. Post twice a week. So that we can keep the game at a reasonable pace all the players should agree to post at least twice a week. You can post more times than this but it is not an expectation and if players are posting a sizeable number of posts per week above this then the game becomes disconnected between the various players. Essentially, post wisely and comfortably for you.

3. All in-character posts should be written in the present tense and in the third person.

4. Keep OOC out of IC. They are separated for a reason and if you want to discuss things that may slow down the game, please do it in the OOC thread. Small clarifications or requests an be done in spoilers but if they go over 10-15 words, use the OOC thread

5. Don't puppet another character. Whether they are a PC or an NPC do not detail what they are doing or thinking. Only the player of an PC can say what that character is thinking or doing and only the ST can state what the NPC's are thinking & doing.

6. Don't read certain spoilers. The ST will make sure to mention who should and shouldn't read specific spoilers in the IC thread. It may be because only certain characters understand the language or because only certain character have the skills or abilities to interpret the information available. If you are asked not to read a spoiler, please don't. It won't ruin the game, but it will give you an unfair advantage.

7. During combats post expectations. This is because we use dice to represent how random or skilled our actions are, so you cannot know that you will hit the opponent. Instead post what you intend to do like: I aim my pistol for the ruffians chest and pull the trigger.

8. If speaking a language other than the group's common language, use spoilers and clearly state which language you are using. This is a crude by necessary method to represent the language barrier.

9. Don't use conditionals. An example of this is I shoot the ruffian and then if he falls down dead I shoot the next ruffian. It is much better if you simply wait to see the reactions from your actions before moving into the next action. You can thinking about what might happen OOC (in the thread or in your head) but don't create elaborate streams of if's and but's in the game.

10. Please take the time to use proper English grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Nobody is perfect, we all know this. I would recommend that either you write your posts in a word processor first and then paste it in, or once you have written the post but before you post it you re-read it once or twice to pick out the obvious problems with it. Small things like this will help give the game a better flow.

Expectations of the ST

1. If you think that the ST has made a mistake, tell them. The ST is a person, and as such isn't perfect. If you feel that they have made a mistake then bring it up in the OOC thread, and it can be discussed. Putting your point across clearly and calmly is much more likely to get the ST to agree with your position, but it doesn't mean that they will always agree with you.

2. The ST is working with the players. The ST and the players are in this game together, we are not competing for a victory condition or anything else. We are here to tell a story together, and while the ST has to consider that their are several players to work with, they must work with them all to create the story.

3. The ST's job is to listen and to understand the players. This game has multiple players each with their own desires for the game, the ST has to listen to what the players want out of the game and try to help them realise these desires.

4. Prioritise Story over Rules. The tale shouldn't be restricted by the rule, and the story should be enhanced by the limits placed on character. This isn't free-reign to ignore the rules, this is a gentle reminder that this is a Roleplay Game, not a Rollplay game.

5. The ST should involve the players whenever possible. When the players come up with ideas about the world they are inhabiting, bring them into the story.

6. The players are the most important, but not necessarily the most powerful people in the story. This is the story of the coterie, not the story of an amazing NPC's actions.

7. The ST is the final authority of the game. This isn't meant in an authoritarian sense, but please be aware that the ST is the arbiter of the rules and should be treated as such.

Pooled Background

Allies: 3

Major ally: Charles Dunwoody, senior representative of the British East India Company in Bombay.

Minor ally: Alastair Kinnock, Captain of the trade ship Dundalk

Minor ally: Badr Muhammed, local merchant in Bombay. He has ties both in Bombay and in the rest of the Mughal Empire.

Contacts: 1 (Sailors)

Mentor: 3 (Alfric of Clerkenwell, Elder of London)