Born on the Anvil, Cadet, and Janissary

Burning Empires Burning Empires Character Burner
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EDIT: The stats in this thread are working drafts. Please see the final versions on the Burning Empires Wiki.

Unlike Merchant League Security, Commune Volunteer Soldier, or Outlaw Hive Thug, the Anvil Soldier not restricted to characters over a certain age or on the third lifepath: It’s perfectly legitimate to take “Soldier” (or “Runner”) as the second lifepath at the age of 9 or 10. Given the godawful tendency of real-world militaries in the Third World today to recruit young boys as cannon fodder, this is realistic, but I thought there should be some alternative options for Anvil characters between the two extremes of child soldier (Born Freeman/Born to Slavery > Soldier) on the one hand and regular Joe (Born Freeman > Student/Kid > Soldier) on the other. Thus, my proposal for a new “Born” lifepath, a new “must be the second lifepath” LP, and two new traits:

Born on the Anvil
(Anvil Setting)
Time: 10 yrs
Resources: 0
Circles: 1
Stat bonus: none
Skills: 1 pt: Cantonment-wise (Per); 3 pts general
Traits: 1 pt: Anvil Brat, Obedient, Rebel, Bad Egg, Loyal

Cadet
(Anvil setting)
Time: 6 yrs
Resources: 0
Circles: 1
Stat bonus: +1 P
Skills: 4 pts: Military History (Per), Spit-and-polish-wise (Per), Physical Training (Pow/Spd), Close Combat (Wil/Agi)
Traits: 2 pts: Obedient, Janissary, Homesick, Orphan, Tough, Disciplined
Requirements: Born on the Anvil, Born to Freeman, OR Born Slave and the Janissary trait. If chosen, this must be the second lifepath and may only be taken once.

New traits:

Anvil Brat (Dt) 3 pts:
While some Anvil troops live in isolated barracks, and others in ordinary homes alongside civilian Freeman, many large Anvil forces maintain entire self-contained communities for career soldiers, complete with military-only housing, hospitals, schools, stores, and entertainment. An Anvil Brat grew up on one of these “cantonments.”
This trait counts as a 1D affiliation with any other character with an Avil lifepath, whether they were Born on the Anvil or not. It gives a +1 Ob to Streetwise or Inconspicuous tests in a civilian community.

Janissary (Dt) 3 pts
This character was conscripted as a child, torn from his parents and isolated in an all-military world where he was taught to scorn what he had come from and submerge his identity into that of the Janissary corps.
A Janissary has an automatic 1D affiliation with other Janissaries and a 1D reputation as a terrifying brainwashed goon with everyone else, including other Anvil troops who are not Janissaries. He may not start play with any relationships to civilian characters, including his own parents. In addition, every time the player has the character consciously sacrifice or unconsciously sabotage a potential or actual relationship with someone outside the Janissary corps, he gains a persona point.
Restrictions: Cadet lifepath only. (Note that all Janissaries are Cadets, but not all Cadets are Janissaries).

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Nice!
Just to be Spit-and-polish-wise, I think Anvil Brat is 6pts (3pts for +1D, 3pts for +1Ob), and Janissary should be 10pts (3pts for each of two +1D and 3pts for the persona point situation, and 1pt for Orphan - not that you can buy it for 10pts, though - but the other restricted-to-lifepath traits are priced out, too).

I think you should take the Relationship restriction out of Janissary - if the player wants that, he can buy Orphan as well. Besides, how cool would it be to play a character torn from his family, raised in constant warfare, who goes back and looks up his parents 20 or 30 years later, when the war is all over. That’s some pretty heavy shit, man! Although, I can kinda see a problem with it being a Monster-Artha-Teat… maybe make it slightly more restricted? Like, sabotaging a civilian relationship in favor of your brothers-in-arms (so you have to bring the soldiers into it to get the p-point)?

Good choice of name for Janissary trait. I can appreciate the irony.

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Good choice of name for Janissary trait. I can appreciate the irony.

Agreed. Awesome. Maybe make it a Karsan phenomenon? The great Sipahi Landholders would link in nicely.

Chris

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Thanks, guys.

As for pricing out the traits, I’m modeling “Anvil Brat” on “Born to Rule” and “Janissary” on “Destined for Slavery”, both of which are 3 pointers. I’ll happily revise their costs if someone can walk me through how they’re significantly different than the ones in the book. That said, it’s all pretty moot since these both should only available as lifepath traits (I left the restriction off “Anvil Brat”), which means 1 point each regardless.

Johnstone’s points on Janissary are well taken: Denying or destroying relationships outright is not nearly as much fun as complicating or conflicting them. Thus, revised:

Janissary (Dt) 3 pts
This character was conscripted as a child, torn from his parents and isolated in an all-military world where he was taught to scorn what he had come from and submerge his identity into that of the Janissary corps.
A Janissary has an automatic 1D affiliation with other Janissaries and a 1D reputation as a terrifying brainwashed goon with everyone else, including other Anvil troops who are not Janissaries. Every time the player has the character consciously sacrifice or subconsciously sabotage a potential or actual relationship with someone outside the Janissary corps in order to focus on his duty and his comrades, he gains a persona point.
Restrictions: Cadet lifepath only. (Note that all Janissaries are Cadets, but not all Cadets are Janissaries).

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Oh, also:

NOTE: Cadet counts as a “Student” lifepath in many cases and therefore allows Bureaucrat (in the Stewardship & Court setting), Clerk (in the Merchant League and Commune settings), Functionary (in the Freeman setting), and Medic, Signals Tech, Field Artillery, or Anvil Engineer (in the Anvil setting).

EDITED TO ADD: Cadet should allow “Anvil Pilot,” too. Conversely, “Functionary” is too lowly a job – those are the people that a cadet-turned-bureaucrat gets to boss around in a military-dominated society.

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Yeah, it’s a moot point… and I was wrong, too!

Your Lordship etc are 2pts per +1Ob Etiquette plus 1pt for character, and extra dice are 3pts.
So, Anvil Brat would be 3pts for the 1D Affiliation, plus 2pts for the +1Ob = 5pts.
(although page 602 says 3pts for +1Ob…)
And, looking at Destined for Slavery I see it is 3pts. Huh, dunno why, but okay, that takes care of the 1D Affiliation with other Janissaries. You added a 1D Reputation, so that’s another 3pts, so it’s only 6pts.

(and of course they only cost 1 pt each)

Anyway, the Janissary trait is now perfect.

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Cool!

I think slave soldiers are something that almost any corner of the Iron Empires would be willing to resort too… but, Chris, sometime you’ve got to write up something short on the Arab/Islamic-influenced aspects of the Iron Empires – the Sipahis, the Comoran and Phaesian Arm worlds, Ahmilahk as “prophet” rather than “saint.”

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Yeah, yeah sure. Just as soon as I’m done trimming my toe-nails. I’m a busy man.

Chris

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Revised version now on the Wiki.