This historical GURPS supplement deals with Venice in the 15th and
16th centuries.
Disclaimer: I made some comments on the playtest, but not enough
to gain credit or a free copy.
This could obviously be considered a companion piece to the same
author's Hot Spots: Renaissance Florence, and some general material
on the Renaissance and the nature of contemporary armies isn't
repeated.
The book opens with the geography, relevant to any setting and
particularly here: the physical location and layout of Venice will
form a major part of the atmosphere in adventures set there, and the
chapter gives the general map, some specific details, and a few key
locations, as well as the larger local area.
History is next, broadly in the form of rise, power and decline, with
details of just what was gained and lost when. There's also a useful box
with important people, generally not the leaders but merchant sailors,
mercenaries and scholars.
The third chapter deals with the governance and society of Venice,
from the doge (and the complex process for selecting him) down: police
and the justice system, espionage, social class, trade, the military,
and so on. It's a bit of a grab-bag, and blends into the fourth
chapter, about daily life, religion, art, food and drink, and so on.
There's plenty of colour here, and even a few adventure ideas.
The final chapter is about campaigns, with Venice either as a base
(which suggests either merchant princes or secret agents) or as a
destination; there are also suggestions for using it in various sorts
of campaign, and with other historical GURPS books. (And of course
most of the suggestions for Renaissance Florence can be used here
too.)
It's a solid book: the research is great, the writing is clear, but I
find myself oddly uninspired by it and I don't know why. Perhaps it's
that, because of the size of the book, I'd have to do lots more
research actually to take advantage of the setting to a standard I
felt happy about? Hot Spots: Renaissance Venice is available from
Warehouse 23.
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