Selecting character gear and accoutrements is way of exploring the material culture of the game-world, and collecting memorabilia - trophies, souvenirs - becomes a way of telling my character's story as the game progresses.
Inspired by Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying, one of the house rules I adopted for my Flashing Blades campaign years ago is that player characters receive certain items based on the character's starting background. The French Wars of Religion jeu de rôle Te Deum pour un massacre does this as well, and adds an interesting twist by adding an item for skills possessed by the character. I decided to add to my earlier house rule with one based on Te Deum . . . .
Starting characters receive the following items in accordance with their skills. Characters may also acquire these items in the process of learning new skills, at the Gamemaster's discretion.
| Skill | Item |
|---|---|
| Acrobatics | A grapnel and 10 m of rope |
| Artillery | Artillerists’ charts and tables |
| Banking | A set of scales and weights and a counting board |
| Bargaining | 1D6 bottles of good brandy |
| Bribery | A bag of 30 pistoles |
| Bureaucratics | A book of collected royal edicts |
| Captaincy | A white silk sash and a silver-gilt baton |
| Carousing | 1D6 bottles of Anjou wine |
| Chemist | A copper alembic, a crucible, and a mortar and pestle |
| Cut Purse | A billon coin with a sharpened edge |
| Disguise | A costume |
| Espionage | A cipher disk |
| Etiquette | A pair of dancing shoes and a mouchoir |
| Fine Manipulation | A clockmaker's tool kit |
| Forgery | Copies of royal writs and official missives |
| Gambling | A deck of marked cards and a pair of loaded dice |
| Gunnery | A firesteel striker and a length of slow match |
| Heraldry | An armorial |
| History | A copy of Mémoires sur les Gaules |
| Horsemanship | A riding crop and a training whip |
| Literacy | A copy of Grammaire et syntaxe françoise, Introductiones latinae, or a similar grammar for another language |
| Magistracy | A copy of Coutume de Paris or Corpus Juris Civilis |
| Oratory | A translation of Cicero's De l'Orateur |
| Pilot | Two lanterns and navigators’ instuments (cross-staff, astrolabe, tables and charts) |
| Seamanship | A marlinspike and a kerchief |
| Seduction | 1D6 bottles of perfume |
| Stealth | A pair of turnshoes and a dark hooded cloak |
| Strategy | An carved ivory chess set |
| Theology | A psalter |
| Tracking | A magnifying lens and 2D6 small wooden pins |
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