24. Missions

Missions

1. Each season, some or all of the Factions will be required by the Pope to go on a Mission.

2. The selection is made in the last month of the preceding season by the Councillor for Concord, using the Force Commitment Table, and the Secretary to the Pope in accordance with the Coalition Commitment Table. If either of those Councillors is an NPC, the dice shown in the relevant table are rolled for that Councillor's decision, which may be influenced. A PC Councillor may simply decide.

3. The Secretary to the Pope then decides if there will be a substitution.

4. When on a Mission, a character's pay and allowances are received and Court Companion's upkeep must be met. No Support costs, Club dues or other monthly expenses need be paid.

5. For each month spent on a Mission, a character gains the equivalent of 1 week's Eloquence study.

Mission Results and Oratory Ability

6. Each Mission lasts one season. During the Mission, units receive a monthly Mission Result (MR), with an individual's MR depending on luck, the Oratory Ability (OA) of his Leader and the Leader's Adviser and the success or otherwise of that Leader's superiors. OA, rounded down, also affects the Mission Results of units that a character is Leading or is an Adviser to and his own personal outcome on a Mission. The Faction's MR is used to assess the personal outcome for all members of the Faction.

7. As set out in the Effective Oratory Ability Table, the OA for a Chapter Leader or above may be modified as a consequence of the results of those above him in the Leadership Structure and the effective OA of a Faction Leader or above may be further modified dependent upon the OA of his Adviser. Such changes are cumulative and temporary.

8. A good or bad MR, as set out in the Leaders' Mission Results Table, may lead to modifiers to the character's promotion, MID and Humiliation rolls, an Estate attempt or even trial for gross incompetence. Moreover, depending upon his MR, his OA may also change in accordance with the Oratory Ability Gains and Losses Table.

9. Even allowing for temporary modifiers, a character's OA may never fall below 1 or rise above 10.

10. An example Leadership structure for a Mission in which 2 Coalitions are sent in addition to the Missionary Faction and Papal Scholars follows:

Mission Destination: France

Delegation Leader/Adviser & Secretary to Delegation Leader

Assistant Delegation Leader/Adviser & Secretary to Assistant Delegation Leader

3rd Coalition

Coalition Leader/Adviser & Secretary to Coalition Leader

Borgia

Faction Leader/Adviser to Faction Leader

Farnese

Faction Leader/Adviser to Faction Leader

5th Coalition

Coalition Leader/Adviser & Secretary to Coalition Leader

Doria-Pamfili

Faction Leader/Adviser to Faction Leader

Gonzaga

Faction Leader/Adviser to Faction Leader

Papal Scholars

Missionary Faction

Thus before the MR for the Farnese is assessed, the MR for the Delegation, Assistant Delegation and 3rd Coalition Leaders must be assessed. Individual Chapters within each Faction also have their own MR, as affected by the OA of the Chapter Leader.

11. When a unit goes on a Mission, all the characters within that unit, including Swiss Guards, leave for the Mission. If a Leader goes on a Mission, he is always accompanied by his Adviser and Secretary, if any. A character attached to 2 units who are simultaneously on Missions serves with the higher level one.

12. Coalition Leaders and above, their Advisors and Secretaries use the corresponding Leadership modifiers, not the Faction ones.

13. Given a unit's MR, each PC in that unit has a chance of Humiliation, Promotion, an MID and Treasures. Those rolls depend upon the individual's rank, Leadership position and Faction. By contrast, an NPC has a chance of Humiliation and Promotion and receives the regimental, but not the rank, modifiers.

Conviction and Equivocation

14. Orders for a character on a Mission should include the extent of his Conviction (e.g. if Humiliation roll is over 10, reduce it to 10) and Equivocation (e.g. if Humiliation roll is under 8, increase it to 8). These instructions appear on the character sheets and remain in force until a change is ordered.

15. When a character shows Conviction (the Humiliation roll is reduced), the opposite modifier applies to his rolls for promotion, MIDs and Treasures.

16. Equivocation acts as the reverse of Conviction, by increasing a character's chances of survival but decreasing his chances of gaining an MID or promotion. An Equivocating character does not gain Treasures.

Example: Enzo has modified his chance of Humiliation to 10. Hence if his Humiliation roll is less than 10, it will be raised to 10. Enzo's unmodified Humiliation roll is a 7. Since that is less than 10, the roll is modified by +3 to yield a result of 10. Since Enzo has modified his chance of Humiliation by +3, he now has a -3 to his chance of gaining an MID or promotion and he may not gain Treasures. Thus if Enzo misses his MID or promotion roll by 3 or less, his conduct will have been noted and he will receive a CID. Should Enzo receive a CID, he will not be able to count the 2 MIDs which he has previously accrued towards his next Estate attempt.

17. If the character should fail to gain an MID or promotion as a result of the negative modifier incurred as a result of Equivocating, that character's conduct is noticed and he is Criticised in Dispatches (CID). Each CID is worth between -1 and -6 SP each month for 6 months from the date when the character next returns to Rome and a permanent -1 SP thereafter. Moreover, a character who incurs a CID cannot count any existing MIDs towards the number needed for an Estate attempt.

18. For each 3 CIDs accrued, a character may face charges for Equivocation. An NPC Inquisitor will bring charges on 4+ on 1d6 and may be influenced.

Humiliation, Promotion, MID and Treasures

19. A roll greater than the Humiliation roll leads to Humiliation, whereas a roll equal to the modified Humiliation roll leads to a roll on the Hazards and Humiliation Table. Even if the Humiliation roll is 12 or more, a roll of 12 gives a 50% chance of Humiliation and a 50% chance of rolling on the Hazards and Humiliation Table.

20. Any roll on the Hazards and Humiliation Table precludes any possibility of the character collecting Treasures that month.

21. If a member of the Clergy makes or exceeds his promotion roll when serving with his Faction, the character is promoted provided there is a vacancy at the rank above him, he meets the minimum requirements for the new rank and he can afford to purchase any new robes required for that rank. If the promotion cannot be taken, an MID roll is received instead.

22. If a member of the Swiss Guards makes or exceeds his promotion roll, the character is promoted within the Swiss Guards, provided there is a vacancy at the rank above him, he meets the minimum requirements for the new rank and he can afford to purchase his new uniform. There is no consolation prize for a member of the Swiss Guards who cannot be promoted.

23. A character may only be promoted once per season due to a successful promotion roll.

24. Civilians do not get promotion rolls.

25. If the MID roll is made or exceeded, the character receives an MID worth 1d6 SP for 3 months from the date when the character next returns to Rome and a permanent +1 SP thereafter.

26. For every 3 MIDs received and not interrupted by a CID, the character is entitled to an Estate attempt provided he is SL 6+. For a character below SL 6 with 3 or more MIDs, the first MID he receives once he has reached SL 6 will trigger his Estate attempt.

27. If the Treasures roll is made or exceeded, the character receives a random amount of Treasures. The amount received depends upon the character's MR.

Hostages, Ransoms, Escapes and Rescues

28. If taken hostage, the character will be held for a maximum of 3 months before he is killed or released. There is a 50% chance of either outcome. Friends may offer a ransom of 100*hostage's SL from the month after the character is taken hostage, but only 1 ransom offer may be made for each hostage. There is a 50% chance a ransom will be accepted, in which event the character will return to Rome at the end of the month in which the ransom was offered.

29. Whilst being held hostage, a character may not communicate with anyone other than fellow hostages or his guards. If 2 or more characters are taken hostage during a single Mission, those characters will be held together.

30. Rather than wait to be successfully ransomed, a hostage may make an Escape attempt. The Escape attempt takes a month. Characters held hostage together may choose to make a group escape attempt, though they must all order this for it to happen. Should a character's orders fail to state that he is participating in a group Escape attempt, he will be considered to have chosen not to participate. The prospects of a successful escape increase for a group escape or if there are individuals with Wit 15+ or a Seminarian in the group, whereas they diminish if there is a Senior Cleric amongst the escapees. If there is a group escape, all the escapees share the same fate. If an escape is successful, the characters return to Rome at the end of the month.

Example: A Subdeacon and a Canon from the same Mission are taken hostage. They decide to wait out the first month and see if a ransom is offered. It is not. They resolve upon a group escape attempt (-1 modifier) in the second month. The Subdeacon and the Canon each have Wit 15+ (2*-1 modifier). Thus the total modifier for the attempt is -3. If they had tried to escape individually, the Subdeacon would have a -2 modifier (rank and Wit) and the Canon would have a -1 modifier (Wit). Thus each gains from the cooperation.

31. A Rescue attempt may be mounted by 1 or more characters acting as a group. The Rescue party may contain characters from rival Factions without giving rise to cause for a Debate. The Rescue attempt takes a whole month, the characters being treated for costs and SP purposes as if they were on a Mission. A Rescue party gains a -1 modifier if there are at least 3 rescuers, -1 if at least 1 member of the Rescue party has OA 6+ and a further -1 if the Rescue coincides with an Escape attempt. The outcome is determined from the Rescue Attempts Table and is independent for each rescuer and hostage. The Humiliation roll is unmodified and an exact roll leads to a roll on the Humiliation Table. If captured, the rescuers are kept together with any existing hostages who failed to escape. If the rescue is a total success, all rescuers get an automatic MID.

Force Commitment Table

Coalition Commitment Table

Mission Results Table

Leaders' Mission Results Table

Personal Outcome Table

Effective Oratory Ability Table

Oratory Ability Gains and Losses Table

Hazards and Humiliation Table

Escape Attempts Table

Rescue Attempts Table