I will allow each character to begin the story with two sets of clothing, including hat/s and shoes/boots etc  You can choose your own appropriate descriptions and add them to your sheets.

I will also allow you to start with some personal belongings but you will need to advise me up front for approval, they will be stored in a trunk in your cabin.  None of you are wealthy so be reasonable with what you want to start with (no weapons other than perhaps a small knife, appropriate to your character)

Any other equipment or supplies will have to be salvaged from the ship.

Perhaps posting what you think you can start with here will give everyone an idea of what is acceptable.

Could I possibly have one of these in my purse?  I believe a lady should be as well equipped as possible when travelling to the subcontinent.

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/1196337378883308/

I imagine Craig would have all of his belongings rolled up and stored in his hammock, so it would be a fairly short list.

Here are my suggestions.

1 set light pants and shirt, beige duck cloth, recently sewn

1 straw sennit hat, unadorned.

1 set clothing for Sunday or shore rig. White linen shirt, black trousers, black buckle shoes.

1 dark blue home spun woolen guernsey frock (sweater)

1 "sou' wester" oilskin tarpaulin jacket, black, knee length.

1 sturdy knife, 4.5" blade, "puuko" style

1 spool of flax thread, partially used, w/ upholstery needle.

That item is quoted as mid-18th century, it is 1809 so I am not going to allow it and I don't believe it is the kind of item a 'lady' would carry anyhow.

I will allow ordinary, mundane items.  No specialist survival equipment, selecting those kinds of items borders on metagaming and I will not be establishing that kind of precedent right at the start of the game.
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:23, Mon 25 Oct 2021.

In reply to Craig MacMillan (msg # 3):

Possibly a canvas sea bag or personal sea chest (ditty bag or ditty chest).  Chests seemed to be more common earlier and bags were encouraged latter in the 19th century.  Though some did just keep all their possessions in their pockets.

Theft was a huge no-no among crew (though not for officers, notably middies would steal from each other at least;-), so pretty much any passenger would probably have a locked personal sea chest

A puuko knife may be a bit too lightweight to cut hemp ropes, a sailor's knife would be part of your expected kit though (they tended heavier folding curved blades at around 6.5", often with a rounded tip so they were no good for stabbing)
This message was last edited by the player at 15:09, Sun 24 Oct 2021.

Craig has his reasons, and a sharp knife will cut rope just fine no matter it's length.

Strauser has two pairs of trousers, a nice linen shirt for Church and a decent cotton shirt for everyday wear. Sturdy boots, undergarments, work gloves.

He has an apron with pockets and straps for his tools, which are about what you'd expect from a traveling jack-of-all-trades laborer; hammers, awls, a gimlet, maybe a froe and mallet. Maybe a trowel, maybe some tongs. Whatever makes sense.

Mess kit: a knife, bowl, and cup. Cookpot, a frying pan. Etc.

Sophie has two outfits.

One is a simple dress with flat shoes, stockings, shawl and wide brimmed hat.  In the first decade of the 19th century (1800-1810), women's clothing was very similar to that worn by patrician ladies in Ancient Rome, so

The other is Salwar Kameez consisting of trousers (or churidar) and a shirt (or kameez) as worn by upper class ladies throughout India (and by men in the South around Tamil Nadu as far North as Kerala).

She has a purse containing make up, a small mirror, comb, hairbrush, nail scissors and file plus a few sundries.

Everything else is in a locked personal chest containing a small portable writing 'desk' (something that allows her to have a hard flat surface to write on when sitting up in bed) with writing materials, paper, pens, two letters of introduction, one to a Colonel Maugham and the other to one Gurmukh Nihal Singh and his wife, Menjit Kaur.  There are also books, namely: a bible; Lady Morgan's The Wild Irish Girl; Jane Porter's Thaddeus of Warsaw, an English-Hindi dictionary; and a copy of the Mahabharata in Hindi.

You are going to need to be specific, 'maybe's' are too vague and there is a limit to how many tools you can carry.  A hammer, not 'hammers' etc as I stated earlier, none of you are wealthy, passage on a ship is not cheap and your luggage will be limited (and charged) by weight.  Most laborers would not have their own tools, they would be supplied and owned by your employer.  You could have your own knife, spoon, cup etc but cookpot and frying pan is not likely unless that was your actual profession.

This game is about the challenges of surviving the conditions you find yourselves in, if you all suddenly start the game with all the 'modern' tools needed to survive then there is zero challenge or point to the game.

The idea of allowing you all to start with a few items was to help with detailing your character, not to equip you all with the latest fashion, the newest gadgets and all manner of tools and equipment, otherwise I will re-write the beginning of the scenario and you can all wash up unconscious on the beach with nothing but the clothes on your back.

Please be reasonable, as I have already explained, none of you are wealthy, you have traded most of what you owned for passage on this vessel to India in hopes of starting fresh or earning your fortune, perhaps offering your services on board to help pay your passage.

Strauser has his clothes, and that's it. He had to pawn everything else - including the tools that had been passed down through his family for generations - just to afford a ticket.

You don't have to sell everything, you can retain a keepsake, perhaps an item of sentimental significance.

Should I edit mine as well?

Upon further consideration I have decided to formalize a couple of things and will update the character generation to reflect this:

Any character with Literacy starts the game with 1 book of your choice however it must be a book that actually exists in 1809.  For most it would probably be a family bible but if you are a professional it may be a book relating to your profession or a novel that has been written by 1809.

Characters with trade skills may start with 3 tools appropriate to your trade i.e. a carpenter could have a hammer, a hand saw and an auger etc.  If you have more than one trade you still only have 3 tools but a wider selection.

If anyone has any additional suggestions I am all ears :)

I will also let each player start with one item of food and drink i.e. a bottle of wine or flask of water and a loaf of bread, a wedge of cheese or some jerky but no fresh produce like fruit or veges

Oh my.  One book?  I've already replaced Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein because they weren't written.  The Bible was not a family bible because Roman Catholics didn't read the Bible unless they were Priests or Nuns and even then, it was still in Latin.  I'm going to lose the dictionary because she learned Hindi from an Ayah who refused to speak English and also because I can find no evidence of a Hindi English dictionary before 1888.

Her father would kill her if the Mahabharata was the only book she read, and probably similar if it was the Wild Irish Girl, so by a process of elimination, it's Thaddeus of Warsaw - Jane Porters four volume novel about Polish resistance to occupation, published in 1803.

Is that acceptable?

There are English language versions of the bible by 1809, I believe the King James Bible and the Geneva bible had English versions by 1800 and I am sure there were others.

Heh... I would have put money on that Jane was Protestant given where she's coming from and education.  One thing that would be noted by passengers/crew though is did JSS start with a maid (who either died during the trip or basically jumped ship along the way like at Cape Town) or has she been traveling alone (leading to other assumptions)?

English Catholics had to practice at home at varying times and I would lean that certain things from their Protestant neighbors did leak in but YMMV;-).  There was a English translation of the (Catholic) Bible- the Douay Rheims Bible.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...E2%80%93Rheims_Bible

The DRB wasn't as widely printed of the (Protestant) KJV Bible for some reason and was more expensive.  Possession of it at this time at least is not a crime.

The player characters were the only passengers on the ship, no NPC's other than the crew and despite victor's (IC) post, the ship is not undercrewed, it had a standard crew for a ship of this type and size.

Hmm, thinking more about it, you're right.  She's Church of Ireland.  Of course she is.  Bible it is then.

Edit:  or rather from 1800-1869 that was the United Church of England and Ireland.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:07, Mon 25 Oct 2021.

In terms of tools Strauser has a carpentry hammer, hand-saw, and froe. He also has a knife for general utility and as an eating utensil. There is a sausage in his pocket. He is not happy to see you.

He wears a nickle Saint Wolfgang medal around his neck, the patron saint of carpenters.

No problem, you can add all those things to your character sheet.

In reply to The Oracle (msg # 19):

Victor's experience is largely on RN vessels...7 to 800 men on a 5th rate Ship of the Line, and about half that on a frigate (as low as 200 sailors, 100 marines to up to @500-600 for a frigate).  And as a side note impressment from what I can find was extensive due to Britain's manpower drain from the Wars and the fact any RN ship on the route of a merchant could pull off sailors was a consistent complaint from the resources I plowed through for a tiny bit of background detail.

But regardless just to point out manning would look very light to Victor.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:25, Mon 25 Oct 2021.

Jane has a bottle of decent red wine 1801 vintage if that's okay

I had all the info I needed for ships crews when I started this game and do you think I can find it again now?  Anyway let's move on to the actual game instead of debating minutiae that is no longer relevant.

Yep, add that to Jane's sheet.

Just waiting on Wilbur Francis-Wright to finish character generation so I can introduce everyone.

Shrug, it's possible.  Particularly if Jane from a English (Catholic) family rather than an Irish one.  Though considering her surname, did you take it from Jonathan Swift (d. 1745)?  He was an Anglican cleric so if related that's another tick in the Protestant column.

I considered Jonathan Swift but I took Jane Sophie Swift from the lover of Walter Savage Landor, called Ianthe in several of his poems.  In reality, she married several times and was a French countess by the time she went to stay with Landor in the 1860s when both were in their eighties (I'm making her ten years younger than she would have been in 1809).

I've made the 1801 into 1802 because it turns out that 1801 was a terrible vintage.

I guess everyone should have a small amount of starting money, so add this to your character sheets,

After paying for a berth on 'Chance' a Professional passenger will have 1d4 Pounds Stirling and 1d6 Shillings in their wallet or purse.  A Practical character or seaman will have 2d6 Shillings and 2d10 Pence.

2 farthings = 1 halfpenny
2 halfpence = 1 penny (1d)
3 pence = 1 thruppence (3d)
6 pence = 1 sixpence (a 'tanner') (6d)
12 pence = 1 shilling (a bob) (1s)
2 shillings = 1 florin ( a 'two bob bit') (2s)
2 shillings and 6 pence = 1 half crown (2s 6d)
5 shillings = 1 Crown (5s)
20 shillings = 1 Pound
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:43, Wed 27 Oct 2021.

Jane has two outfits, the dress should be self explanatory but I've added a picture of the shalwar kameez at the end of her description (and below) except that she wears boots instead of high heeled shoes which were not popular in India at the time)