<span class="bbc_u"><strong>Setting Notes</strong></span><br/><br/>The Kingdom is vaguely, loosely based on France in the early 17th Century, with the occasional touches from the Victorian period--pocket watches, for example, or clockworks.<br/><br/>There are four main bodies of 'musketeers' to be found in the Capital: the King's Musketeers, the Queen's Champions, the Cardinal's Guard, and the Maidenguard.  Except for the color of their tabards (blue, green, red, and lavender, respectively), they have very similar skills.  (The forte will be posted later.)<br/><br/>The group's patron, the mysterious Duc du Masque (it's pronounced mah-SKAY), is a known eccentric.  He never appears without an ornate ivory domino mask, and his true name and identity are both zealously guarded secrets.  He is slightly less powerful than the Cardinal, but better liked.<br/><br/>+++<br/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_u">Forte Reference</span></strong><br/><br/><strong>Musketeer</strong><br/>Taken by the elite soldiers who serve the four most powerful and important people in the kingdom as direct agents and guards.  They are widely regarded as the best soldiers in the World. They wear tabards in the appropriate color and hats with feather plumes.<br/><br/>Prerequisites vary as follows:<br/>King's Musketeers must be male and have the Aristocratic forte.<br/>Queen's Champions must be male and have the Aristocratic forte.<br/>Cardinal's Guard must be male and have the Priest forte.<br/>Maidenguard must be female.<br/><br/>Musketeers are skilled in athletics, fencing, the use of firearms, first aid, all of the Military Arts (artillery, fortress defense, logistics, mining/sapping, soldiery, and tactics), and riding. They have organizational ties to their particular body and their patron.<br/><br/>Musketeers often have a Foible of Loyal to their Patron, Protect the Kingdom, Compulsive Dueling or something similar.<br/><br/><em>“I Wanna Be a Female/Commoner Musketeer!”<br/><br/>You do? Cool!<br/><br/>Here’s a neat thing: You can use Foibles to obviate prerequisites to any Forte, if the GM permits.<br/><br/>Here’s how you violate the prerequisites for Musketeer—make your Foible something like Secret: Not a Man or Secret:<br/>Not Noble, and come up with a good explanation on how you fooled the Musketeers for your backstory.<br/><br/>If you want your character to be any two of these, make your Foible Secret: Not a Noble Man, and your explanation should be  phenomenally good.</em><br/><br/>+++<br/><br/>Facts from PC Style Dice use go here.