The Franco-Prussian War - looking for M & F for fun, somewhat realistic roleplay

[RedEve]

The Franco-Prussian war is a sometimes forgotten conflict that was nevertheless the largest European war after the Napoleonic conflicts and prior to the Great War.

I would like to use this conflict as the framework for a game that only touches upon it second-hand. That is, the game itself will not feature the battles, but the aftermath and how they are experienced by the French civilians. The basic set-up I have in mind is the civilian interactions with first the retreating French army and then later, the advancing Prussian troops.

Romance, bravery, intrigue are all welcome, but it will also explore darker themes like death, murder, betrayal, cowardice and rape. I am specifically looking for three types of PCs.

French soldiers: This group will be ragged and desperate, they will be retreating in a disorganized fashion after a large defeat. They will stop at farms and towns on their rush back West to rest and eat. Fraternization with the civilians will of course occur.

French civilians: The townsfolks and farmers who live in the areas nearby (or, as the retreating French army advances, not as nearby) the battlefield and first are confronted by their own retreating troops and then – should they choose to stay – by the advancing Prussian forces.

Prussian soldiers: They will be chasing the French fleeing army. How they treat the civilians they encounter will be determined by each individual PC as well as by any orders they might get from the NPC commanders.


As for the tone of this game, I am not looking for something 100% historically accurate. I chose this conflict because it hasn’t been overdone already in roleplays and because I enjoy the period as well as it geographical setting. Even though some of the themes we might explore are possibly quite dark, I see this game in its entirety as more skewed towards the lighter end of the scale. Think ripping bodices, heaving bosoms and the smell of gunpowder.


Please leave any message of interest in this setting in this thread. My time on Elliquiy will be pretty limited until late next week, but I hope to get to your replies ASAP. I only put this idea up already to let it gestate a bit until my return. :)

[AlexStone]

...And here I was, thinking I was the only person who thought there was great roleplaying potential using this war as a background.  Admittedly, I thought more about the Siege of Paris- both of them, of course- but, there's a lot to be said for everything else.  Count me as interested, but undecided as to character for now.

[Napanee]

I'd be up for this. I quite like the period. I suspect it is something to do with all the buttons on the uniforms. It add so much to the sense of anticipation if it takes ten minutes to get your kit off!

N

[IrishWolf]

Color me interested in playing as a Prussian soldier

[Oldknight]

I think it could be interesting to play a junker in the Purssian army

[RedEve]

Grand, I love all the interest so far. :)
Feel free to start working on a CS, I will be pretty busy this next week, but should have the time to possibly start the actual thread as early as next weekend.

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[float=right][img][/img][/float]
[b]Name:[/b]
[b]Age:[/b]
[b]Role:[/b] (Prussian soldier, French Soldier, French civilian)
[b]Background/Bio:[/b]

[IrishWolf]

Thinking about my character and I have a question. Which of the Prussian Armies will we be using? The First, Second or Third. Just want to make sure I can plan with the other Prussian players with the correct regiments.

[RedEve]

I would suggest they are all part of the Prussian Second Army.

[IrishWolf]

Ah, very nice, lots of Guard regiments were in the Second Army.

[RedEve]

click for Marie Claire's physical appearance

click for an era-appropriate attire for Maire Claire

Name: Marie Claire Le Terme
Age: 22
Role: French civilian
Background/Bio:
Marie Claire never knew her father, her only link she has to him is her name and the few things her mother ever told her about him. The man left before Marie Claire was three months old, after having conceived the child out of wedlock with Marie Claire’s mother. Her mother was a dirt-poor seamstress who made barely enough to support herself, let alone a child. When Marie Claire was eight years old, she was put up at an orphanage just outside of Paris. In showing her resistance to the harsh regime implemented by the nuns, she often found herself punished quite severely by the sisters. By the time she was eleven, she was quite fed up and ran away.
For the next seven years, she worked countless different jobs for many different employers, some lasting only a couple of days, others – when she was lucky – entire seasons. She picked crops, tended to animals, worked in factories, even served drinks in taverns – though only when she could not find any other employment. At the age of 18, she ended up in Faulquemont. Rémy La Roux owned the biggest farm in the area and was always hiring help. After several years in his employ, she worked herself in enough favor to get off the fields and tend to the family’s needs in the farm house itself. She assisted in the kitchens, cleaned the many rooms and acted as a de facto nanny to the families four young children. On top of her room and board, she received a modest salary, a new attire twice a year and her Sunday afternoons off. For someone who had come from such modest and unfortunate beginnings, the La Roux household had been a little slice of paradise.

[JackWhite]

I'm bookmarking this! Definitely interested after 13th of June

[AlexStone]

Finally managed to put together some ideas.


Name:   Josef von Kietler
Age: 21
Role: Prussian Soldier
Background/Bio:  Josef was born with two major advantages: the von before his surname and access to the stables of Finckenstein Palace.  The owner, the Count Dona-Schlobitten, believed that young men of quality should have the ability to learn to ride and other important skills on his grounds, and invited Josef and his three other brothers, among many others, to ride and, eventually, hunt on his lands with him and his sons.  Josef knew that, as the third son, his choices were the army or the clergy, and he knew that girls did not dance much with clergymen. 

Once it was settled that he would join the army, the Count agreed to pay for his education, and smoothed the way into military school for young Josef.  There, he probed an able horseman, a good fencer, and the sort of person people would follow into utterly stupid situations- and Josef enjoyed getting into utterly stupid situations, believing that they were, in fact "adventures."  Between that attitude and the really cool uniforms, he was destined to be an officer in a hussar regiment.  Once again, his patron stepped to the fore, and suggested that the 1st Life Guard Hussars could use a man like him.  Josef wasn't too sure, until he saw the giant death's head on their busby, and signed up right there.

The war came at a pretty opportune time.  They were getting pretty close to figuring out who had smashed all of the windows in that tavern, and Claudia seemed to think that bastard she'd had looked like Josef for some reason.  Time to ride!

[RedEve]

Okay I am back darlings.
Send me your CS or post them on here. :)

[Haibane]

I have to take my hat off to you at a very brave premise. My husband is a wargamer and has large painted miniature armies of French and Prussians from the 1870 war, plus a fairly big library so I've picked up a few things about the conflict, which seemed terribly one-sided. I think it was the real start of the concept of Prussian efficiency and military unstoppability wasn't it? Didn't they organise train timetables to exact degrees to get their troops to the front in a very short time?

I hope the writers that have come forward are loyal to the period and role-play this in the spirit that it deserves, I shall be watching it closely.

[RedEve]

We will try to match your expectations! :P

Still waiting for some more CS. :)

Also some more players, if possible.

[Oldknight]

Name: Fredrick Von Zenner
Age: 24
Role: Prussian Solider
Background/Bio: Born to an elite family in Prussia, actually Silesia, he grew up on a large farm which was given to his family not long after their service in the 7 years war. His family had always been of noble birth, a Junker, he was going to be the next in line to take over the family farm and run it. Still as such, it was his responsibility to take up arms and fight for Prussia in its wars with its enemies.
Fredrick named after Fredrick the Great, was always a man whom loved cannons since he was young, he learned the math that went behind the use of the cannons in battle, and worked on new ideas of the flying artillery after reading about their successes in the Mexican American war, which happened a good while before his birth. He was always interesting in the newest ways of fight, learning more tactics, and looking at reports of past battles across the world, including the American Civil War, which he looked at the tactics of their generals closely. He went to military school and accelled getting his commission and advancing up the chain of command rather quickly till he was now a captain in the Horse Artillery of the 3rd Brigade of the Calvary division of the Army of the Rhine.

[JackWhite]

RedEve, looking for French soldiers too or what's the plan really? Because I only see Prussian warwinners so far :p

[RedEve]

Yes, I would have preferred a bit of all three groups.

[JackWhite]

Then I might go for a French one :)

[RedEve]

Could everyone who hasn't yet done so put up his CS in here?
Thanks!

[JackWhite]

Name: Henri Beauregard
Age: 23
Role: French Soldier
Background: Henri came from a proud French family, as everyone he knew, he'd say that France was the greatest county in the world. Better than those men that live on the other side of la mer. He couldn't stand their language, not even close to the beauty of their own French. All that hate against them had no real starting point though. It had been there from the moment he was born, thanks to everyone that lived around him. The Englishmen weren't the only ones he hated. Nowadays the Prussians think that they're mighty and can do whatever they want. The annexation of Southern Germany had made him pissed. It was a smack in the face of every true French man and he could feel that war wasn't far off when that happened.

War finally had come and Henri was one of the defenders. He wouldn't let his country fall in the hands of those dirty Prussians. Henri wasn't special, he was just a man like all the others. Some  might say his courage was greater or he loved his country more but Henri didn't believe that. He was only a man amonst his team, trying to defeat the enemy.

[Chrystal]

Hi Eve. This is really quite interesting. As a tomboy with an interest in Military History, I find that the Franco-Prussian war is one of the forgotten wars of Europe - along with the 30 years war and the winter war.

In fact the Franco-Prussian War was the fore-runner to the German invasion of France in WWI. The French were still thinking in terms of Napoleonic conflict, the Germans had taken on board the new "Total warfare".

Britain did not get involved, as I think we were busty elsewhere...

Anyway.... I would be interested to play a French civilian, on the proviso that my character does not get raped. I don't know if there was a "resistance" movement back then, but if there was, maybe she could be in it?



@JackWhite

You might want to change your image? That is a 21st century French soldier. We are talking about the 19th century


Camouflage uniforms did not come in to use until after the Boer Wars in the 1880s and 1890s, when the South African Boers wore dull, drab coloured uniforms and kicked the living shit out of the red-coated British, until the British started wearing olive drab too...



EDIT: Okay a bit of research reveals that there were French Irregulars operating behind the Prussian lines. Most were men, but I'm willing to bet there were women in there too.

Name: Yvette Tonneler

Age: 20

Role:  French civilian

Background/Bio: Yvette is the daughter of Gaston and Marie Tonneler. Gaston owned a bar in the village of Adelange, about a league south of Faulquemont. Yvette works in the bar, with her Maman. Her Papa joined the Army when the mobilisation order came, and has not been seen since. Like most peasant women, Yvette is not only a good cook, good with a needle and thread, and good at making everything go as far as possible, but she is also a crack shot with a hunting rifle! As her uncle works in a nearby gypsum quarry, she has also been taught how to handle explosives.

Yvette is a virgin, as she has been saving herself for "C'est quelqu'un de très spécial", (That certain special someone), as she puts it.

[JackWhite]

It's about the face, not his gear.

[Chrystal]

Fair enough.

[RedEve]

Would love to have you on board Chrystal.

And you do not have to worry about any non-con episodes, I expect all the players to hash out such encounters OOC prior to initiating them IC.