What Is an Adventure

So, what does an adventure in Renaissance look like?

What you do

We've talked about it a bit elsewhere, but it's good to make a quick note of it now, to frame the content that's going to follow. Renaissance is designed to explore slightly different themes than some other fantasy games. Other systems and settings are already very well suited action and adventure in crumbling ruins; while we'd like to support that kind of adventure, it's not our main focus. We're trying to focus on other themes and modes of play, ones that those systems don't support as well.

In general, you're less likely to:

• delve into dungeons looking for artifacts, because modern knowledge eclipses anything of past ages;
• slay bands of robbers, because the large and well-funded Commonwealth military keeps large bandit problems from cropping up;
• slay "monsters," because many of your neighbors will be from "monstrous" races.

However, you might:

• venture under cover into neighboring nations in order to destabilize them;
• deal with local city-crime problems, like gangs, the mob, or government corruption;
• deal with problems caused by troublesome (or mysterious, or brutal) spirits;
• explore distant lands;
• grapple with ancient mysteries, possibly beyond mortal understanding.

Who You Are

Perhaps unsurprisingly, this tends to favor a different breed of adventurer. While other games may line up a cast of combat experts, in Renaissance, teams may include rich backers, investigators, propagandists, crafters, and more. If your party are High Road agents, and your mission is to infiltrate a Goblin Kingdom and play a cat-and-mouse game with a local noble family, then political insiders, propagandists, infiltrators, wealthy backers, potion-makers, and local criminals may all be much more useful than a warrior or archer.