The time for our yearly vampire game is near already. I’m not sure at all that we’ll manage to find a date that fits for everyone but I have to assume we will and get ready (about time!). Just after the session last year I was thinking that next time I would send the PCs to the New World alongside Spanish conquistadores but I’m now reluctant to do so for several reasons:

1. There’s alternative interesting options that could get them anywhere in the world or they could stay in Spain and, yeah, it would be much better if they chose for themselves
2. It’s still a bit early for our timeline unless we skip a century (or fudge history).
3. It’s a lot of research for an area of the world that I don’t know well. They could start in Hispaniola, go on a rampage inland, get into Tenochtitlan alongside Cortès would be one possibility I guess? Maybe.
4. Fighting werejaguars and strange mesoamerican vampires and whatnot could be nice but I feel like the all-important intrigue side of Vampire would be quite shallow if I’m not fully prepared. It’s not D&D, fight scenes do happen but the bulk of the game lies elsewhere.

So anyway, my plan is to start just where we’ve ended last time, early in the 15th century, in the PC’s haven, the fortified city of Badajoz in Extremadura, Spain. From there opportunities to expand their horizon will certainly arise, and they could still move their homebase somewhere else but the Age of Sail is a bit further down the line so it gives us some time to choose.

Here’s some notes I can share that set the background for what’s coming:

Historical Context of the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th century

• Right at the start of the 15th century Portuguese and Spanish sailors are mandated to find a way around Africa to get access to the East and beat the stranglehold that the Venetians and Ottomans had on this most lucrative of trade route. It won’t be until 1498 that Vasco de Gama reach India that way (he’s quite the ruthless guy this Vasco btw, they don’t mention this in school!)). It was discovered that Africa is a LOT larger than Europeans of the time thought it was. That fact led to try some even bolder sea journeys, this time to the West through the Atlantic.
• There’s a constant power struggle between the monarchy, the nobility (the hidalgos and the great nobles of the South in particular), the cities and the rising merchant class.
• From the beginning of its inception the infamous Spanish Inquisition was tightly linked with the Spanish Monarchy. Historically, it served more as an intrument of persecution against the jews and muslims that converted to catholicism than against witchcraft or anything else.
• Sheep (wool) are a big deal in the economy of the time and there’s money to be made with the commerce of wool to Flanders. Accordingly there’s also a powerful sheep-herders union called the Mesta.
• There’s some intermittent wars between Portugal and Castille, Castille and Aragon, Castille and the Granada Caliphat to the south (finally overcome in 1492 amidst a messy family dispute on the almohad side). Portugal is also allied with Britain, and Castile with France for a while, in opposing alliances.
• There’s three great Orders of Knights, much like the well-known Templars, that were assembled to fight against the Muslims and that have castles all over the place.
• Aragon and Castile will unite into one realm with the wedding of Ferdinand and Isabella in 1474 after a long and complicated struggle for dominance between rival factions (with quite a few low blows, (i.e discarding the rightful heiress after a smear campaign falsely pretending she was a bastard) and the rise of a new dynasty. I’ve read that in some ways it was a surprising turn of events as an alliance of Portugal and Castile could have been seen as more natural.

Mortals Institutions worth having influence over:

• Monarchies: Portugal, Castile, Aragon
• Great Nobles: the Enriquez, Mendoza and Guzmàn families
• The Catholic Church
• The Inquisition
• The Orders of Knights: Santiago, Calatrava, Alcantara
• Trade to the North via Oviedo and the Bay of Biscay
• Increasingly far-reaching trade from Lisbon and Sevile
• Local Town officials, elected or minor nobility
• The Mesta, sheep herders Union
• The Cortes, representative assembly of towns