Game Resources

[3rd-I]

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This thread is for discussion of game resources, including relevant rules sources and informative works of fiction and non-fiction. This is also the place to post any questions you have about the period. I have plenty of books so if you have a question it's bound to be in one of them!

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This game is run using 3rd edition GURPS. As is often the case with GURPS I will be drawing on rules from several supplements.

GURPS 3rd Edition (Core Rules)
GURPS Compendium I (Additional character traits)
GURPS Compendium II (Optional realistic combat and injury rules, mass combat)

GURPS: High Tech
I suggest eveyone reads the material on black powder weapons and ammo in Chapters 4 and 5.

GURPS: Age of Napoleon
There's not actually a lot of rules in this book, but its an excellent sourcebook.

I may be able to help if you are having trouble getting hold of books. PM me.

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Useful reference material:

The "Sharpe's" Series by Bernard Cornwell. The series of books that sparked this little obsession of mine. He's primarily an historian, not a writer and sometimes it shows, but great reading regardless.

The Napoleonic Wars by Gunther Rothenberg. A good summary of the major conflicts. Very well illustrated with lots of maps.

I will add more to this section when I know exactly what the setting is.

[TetNak]

I'm assuming GURPS: High Tech is the 3E version?

[3rd-I]

Yup, everything I'm using is 3rd Ed.

[3rd-I]

If anyone is interested in picking up any of the Sharpe books, Sharpe's Fortress and Sharpes Tiger are both set in India during the same period as the game.

Some links to some cool old maps, remember the game is set in 1798:

India in 1804 - Note Territory recently ceded by Mysore 1792-1799.

The Presidency of Bengal in 1831 - Note Calcutta south-west of centre, and the mouths of the Ganges river to the south.

An excellent map of Calcutta from 1848 - Its from 50 years after the game, but the layout doesnt seem to change much.

[3rd-I]

Nice, today I scored a £50 amazon voucher, for my 5 years "long service" reward. 5 years is a long time now? There's a sign of the times.

Think I'll go book shopping. Got my eye on a few nice books on the BEIC.

[Trogdor]

I need to send an email to my cousin about that very same thing. He's a university history professor whose specialty is British-occupied India. I was going to ask him for some book recommendations.

[3rd-I]

Now thats handy!

[Trogdor]

Yea, what are the odds?

[Trogdor]

For anyone who's interested, here are the book recommendations that my cousin made:

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William Busteed, <<Old Calcutta: Reminiscences of the Days of Warren
Hastings, Francis, and Impey>> (1908). This book is definitely out of
print, but if your friend is willing to make a trip into DC to the
Library of Congress he will surely find a copy. A bit dense and
quaint in its style but filled with the type of antiquarian detail
that gives a good impression of life in India at the time.

Antony Wild, <<The East India Company>> (HarperCollins, 1999) an
easy-to-read coffee table book. Accessible and with lots of images of
art, architecture and artifacts from the period.

William Dalrymple, <<White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in
eighteenth-century India>> (Penguin, 2002). A great book about a
British officer and his Indian princess wife. Also a brilliant social
history of East India company relations with Indian principalities and
the depth of their cultural exchange.

Maya Jasanoff, <<Edge of Empire: Lives, Culture, and Conquest in the
East, 1750-1850>> (Knopf, 2005). A study of art collectors and
entrepreneurs in various Eastern colonies in the British Empire. A
few good chapters on Calcutta.

Peter Marshall, <<Bengal: The British Bridgehead. Eastern India,
1740-1828>> (Cambridge, 1993). A brief but classic work of
scholarship. It is accessible to the general reader. Focuses mostly
on politics and economics.

Geoffrey Moorhouse, <<Calcutta>> (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1971). An
overall history of the city but chapters 2 and 8 focus specifically on
the colonial period.

Percival Spear, <<The Nabobs: A Study of the Social Life of the
English in eighteenth-century India>> (Oxford UP, 1963). This book
goes into detail about the opulent lifestyles of East India company
officials and the power they wielded in India and Britain.

Lastly, there is a section of Patrick O'Brian's nautical novel <<HMS
Surprise>> that describes a Royal Navy port visit in India. It is
very detailed and evocative of time and place in the way typical of
O'Brian's other novels.

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A pretty good list, I think. I knew he'd be the right person to ask. Alas, some of them are a bit pricey. But then we knew we weren't looking for trade paperbacks ...

And since I live in the DC area, I just might try and get into the Library of Congress (in my copious free time) and take a look at the first book he mentioned, though that might be a stretch.

[3rd-I]

Thanks Trog. Thats good to know cause I ordered "Bengal: The British Bridgehead. Eastern India, 1740-1828" off Amazon today. £27 though, expensive like you said.