Yes, Fr. Joseph could definitely be Anne's confessor, at least unless his Superior sends him out on a  mission. Nowadays his own sins are also mostly of the mind, though when he was a young student in Paris...
He knows some Huron in addition to fluent French and the Latin from his college days.

I've got a busy week but will be chipping away at the to do list in advance of our game. This coming weekend is the target I'm setting myself for the first RP posts.

I'm watching your struggles with the language points and agree the system doesn't accurately reflect the multi-ethnic, multi-lingual place that New France was. So I'll be making a house rule to address that shortly.

Also, if you haven't done so already, could you send me your replies to these questions from chargen?

One word or one line answers are fine. You can DM me your replies or post them here if you're brave.

• Who are you?
• Where and when were you born?
• Who is the most important person in your life?
• What drives you?
• What do you most desire?
• What is your greatest fear?
• What defines your Faith?
• What do you think about the conflict in North American between the English, French and Native nations?

Who Are You?
Joseph de la Tour
When and were were you born?
Born in the port of Nantes in the province of Brittany in the Kingdom of France, born on the Feast of St. Joseph, March 19, about 35 years before the year of this game.  Edited Note: Since this is 1730, born about 1695.
Who is the most important person in your life?
The Jesuit Superior for my mission.
Also, the Bishop of Quebec.
What drives you?
Atoning for my youthful sins by bringing the Native peoples to God (and, for that matter, serving my fellow French Catholics like Anne)
What do you most desire?
Winning more souls for Holy Mother Church.
What is your greatest fear?
Failing my duty by 1) giving way to cowardice when faced with the prospect of martyrdom or 2) falling back into the sins of the flesh when faced with temptation
What defines your Faith?
Belief in a loving God who forgives my sins and strengthens me in my mission.
What do you think about the conflict in North America between the English, French and Native nations? Generally hostile to the English, though aware there are a few cases of English (usually those caught young) who have been brought up good Catholics. Very loyal to the French, very friendly to the Native people allied to the French, anxious to win over neutral Native people, and if possible even hostile ones, though fearful of the more militant ones like the Iroquois.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:43, Thu 26 Aug 2021.

Here is the brave, if sometimes unreliable, coureur des bois.

He may be a guide to the priest or the lady scholar, a firm friend to the warrior, and a (step? adopted?) kinsman of some sort to the feral girl. He has traded and lived some seasons with the Huron and probably taken a wife among them, as is the custom of the country.

I’m trying to work out why he might be free to adventure rather than diligently acquiring pelts. Is he in some disgrace? Has he somehow found himself unable to acquire trade goods? Has he been tapped by some official to provide escort to the missionary or the high-born lady? I welcome your thoughts and ideas.

[faint hiss and rapid vanishing from Marie at sudden declarations of kinship from random Frenchman]

Given the game starts in winter 1730 (I don't think that's been said yet, but I asked earlier) Huronia has pretty much fallen and we're dealing with a Seventh Seal-type abandoned farming landscape and associated famine at peak plague for smallpox*: it's quite possible you and your wife are desperately trying to find a safe-ish community where you won't starve before she drops a bairn. Marie might have good reason to befriend said wife - so long as she's an enthusiastic character reference and clearly not being beaten up she might not treat M. Bonpain with the usual high-wariness-to-outright-hostility non-clergy white males can usually expect from her. Her grandmother might be able to identify kinship ties, too.


Unrelatedly, props to Fr. Joseph for laying out his sins in public... I believe that's a sin, too. :D


*think of ten people in your town, then think of 6-8 of them dead within three weeks. There's a reason Marie has lost touch with most of her kin and avoids concentrations of humans.

As promised, a little language bonus, since everyone is struggling to make viable character concepts with the limited points given over to languages.

This text has also been added to the CharGen thread.

---

Language Bonus

To simulate the multi-lingual environment of 18th Century New France, and the fact that even the most sheltered individuals probably were exposed to more than one language or dialect, players may take, for free, up to 6 levels in any language that logically fits with their character concept. These can be indigenous languages, European languages or liturgical/scholarly languages (e.g. Latin, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew). Points can be spent all on one language, or split among several. This bonus is in addition to starting languages that come with your chosen Background Template.

Enchantée, Mssr. Bonpain. I'm sure Anne would love to hear your wilderness stories.

Thinking of importing books and corresponding with Enlightenment intellectuals on the other side of the Atlantic, I supposed Anne would already be alright with French (it's le siècle des Lumières, after all), but I'll take Latin, Greek and English just to be a massive nerd (2 points each).

What languages do we already have otherwise covered?
This message was last edited by the player at 16:37, Thu 26 Aug 2021.

Who Are You?
Anne Pecaudy de Contrecœur, Seignereusse de Contrecœur; the unlikely heiress of a large holding of land north of Montréal. Massive nerd, ethnographer avant la lettre and avid huntress. A restless soul, and a believer of Reason and the Lights.

When and were were you born?
Contrecoeur proper, 1707.

Who is the most important person in your life?

It used to be dear Father (Francois-Antoine Pécaudy de Contrecœur), until his heroic death fighting the English at the head of the Régiment de Carignan-Salières. Since then, my baby brother, François-Antoine, born 1721.

What drives you?

Getting out of the stifflingly boring atmosphere of Contrecœur - be it only mentally, by reading and corresponding with like-minded gentlemen, or physically, getting out as often as possible. The wilds lands of the north, and particularly the culture and customs of its native inhabitants, are fascinating and MUST be studied and documented, as Reason demands.

What do you most desire?
To complete and publish the comprehensive, definitive, authoritative "Treatise on the Lands and Native Peoples of Northern New France, As Observed & Faithfully Recorded by The Author, A.P. de Contrecœur"

What is your greatest fear?
Dying in childbirth, like Mother.

---

How's this?

In reply to Anne Pecaudy de Contrecoeur (msg # 27):



Do you mean personally or as a group? You will get your native language as fluent (Lvl 12), and many background templates receive one other language at level 1.

In terms of languages possessed by the group, characters have French, English, Latin, Huron/Wendat and Abenaki for a start... of course, none of that guarantees that you can communicate with each other...

As a group, I meant, with a view that we coordinate to have as much ground covered as possible, languages-wise.

Do we... not all speak French?

What are you, some kind of colonialist?

I'm sure we can work it out somehow...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G42YHaGPou0
(Abenaki-family Algonquin-speaking folk to Marie to Hurons to French)

Mme. de Contrecoeur, did you want Marie's mother to make you/museums a winter coat at all?

...and do you want your surviving brother assassinated from behind a grassy knoll before he gets old enough to claim the majority of your joint inheritance? [/dodgy humour] Incidentally, if I point out typos or anything I'm not making fun of people, I just find them funny, in case that needs said at the outset.

Character sheet updated, boss!

Who, me? No, I just happen to be a French woman owning a ton of land thousands of miles from France because... uhmmm, eeeh...

• Who are you?
Ignatius Bonpain
• Where and when were you born?
Lille, Flanders (France), about 26 years ago
• Who is the most important person in your life?
Emile Tavernier, local agent of Selliere Freres, the company that hired Ignatius to come to New France as a coureur.
Isabeau (aka White Dove), my Huron wife and our children Paul and Anne
• What drives you?
Trade and its consequence, coin!
• What do you most desire?
Freedom
• What is your greatest fear?
Sickness
• What defines your Faith?
I pray to God and try to keep his commandments and he will watch over me and bring me to Heaven.
• What do you think about the conflict in North American between the English, French and Native nations?
I want France to keep its hold over the forests and streams so that I can ply my trade. But borders in the forests--who can say where borders run?
This message was last edited by the player at 02:53, Sun 29 Aug 2021.

Very glad we now have 2 bold adventurer types to protect the rest of us.

...et vot' femme, alors?




I am not sure whether this implies that Pierre and Nat are going to adventurously try and locate Marie to protect her, or whether they're protecting you non-wood-dwelling types from Marie, but either way, sounds like a challenge!

Non, non! Emile he is the name of un homme! Emélie she is the name of une femme!

That said, given the premise of the game, heteronormative relationships are neither expected nor required.

I support Ignatius and Emile being true to their ownselves, whatever the nature of their relationship.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:56, Fri 27 Aug 2021.

Mmm, worthile suggestions. To the first one, yes, I'd love that. To the second one, sadly for once I'm not playing a bad bitch character, Anne is more interested in her cartographic/ethnographic endeavours than in accumulating wealth and political clout.

But ask me again, if/when I get married against my will.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:00, Fri 27 Aug 2021.

??? Je le sais bien, mais il a dit que le patron était plus important a son âme que sa femme...ce n'est pas très gentil, ça...

...it's true, though, many if not most Europeans with primary same-gender attraction would get het married anyway, to stay out of trouble or just make life easier with division of labour. If the wife is down with it, I support this couple (triad?)!

[thumbs up to Anne] I don't think anyone is going to force the lady with independent wealth to marry them; even if an Iroquois ran off with her in a raid he'd probably be aware that doing that to a fancy lady would get him Disapproved of by the first officer to come by. The wealthy have considerable class solidarity by nature of using it to tamp down everyone producing said wealth, after all...if you lose all your money at gambling, though, well...don't do that.

Emile is not even a friend, but he’s important because he controls Bonpain’s purse.

added my wife and children to my most important people.

For some reason this really gave me a good laugh :D

Too late, we all know about Emile and you.

In reply to Ignatius Bonpain (msg # 40):

I figured that out immediately --he was not your lover, just your boss. For some reason, our other PCs saw it differently, though none of them (so far) have suggested Fr. Joseph's ecclesiastical superiors are his lovers, whatever scandals there might be in the modern church.

Ah, no, we just assume Fr. Joseph's had it off with half of Paris instead. How the brothels and young men of the alleyways pine for our émigré...

(it was a joke, because Nat put Emile down as more important than his wife first thing.)

Pierre, do you want some gentle harassment? You've the only male PC in the group who hasn't been teased for hypothetical affairs/general sluttiness yet...
This message was last edited by the player at 08:13, Mon 30 Aug 2021.