Renaissance is Cakebread & Walton’s D100 roleplaying system designed for the age of black powder weapons. It is available in two forms – the Renaissance SRD, a bare-bones rules system which is free to download, and Renaissance Deluxe, a fully-fledged core-rulebook, available as a 170 page softback from Cubicle 7 Entertainment. Renaissance Deluxe contains everything you need to tell gritty, heroic tales of adventure – whether they be historical, alternate or pure fantasy – for the period from around 1500-1800.  The rules are released under an Open Gaming License, which means that other companies can use the rules in their own games.

The rules were originally designed for our game of alternate historical fantasy, Clockwork & Chivalry 2nd Edition, but have been expanded to be usable in any “flintlock and steel” background you care to mention.

Our game Clockwork & Cthulhu is a background and three adventures which pit adventurers against the minions and monsters of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos in an alternate English Civil War setting. This game can be played with just the Renaissance rules, although players and games masters will get more character and background options if they have access to the Clockwork & Chivalry Core Rulebook.

Dark Streets: The Adventures of the Bow Street Runners in their Struggle Against the Minions of the Cthulhu Mythos takes the players into the seedy heart of Georgian London, where among the slums and bordellos, evil breeds…

London, 1749: A city of vice, crime and misery. Gangs of ruffians rule the streets, unopposed. Brothels proliferate. Child-beggars starve in filthy gutters. Corrupt night-watchmen and thief-takers turn a blind eye to wrong-doing. And dark creatures lurk in back alleys, called from beyond by the desperate with nothing left to lose.

But there is a new force on the streets of London; for the author and magistrate Henry Fielding has teamed up with his brother John to form the city’s first police force – the Bow Street Runners. The Fieldings have persuaded parliament to fund their crime-fighting endeavour, but they know that there is something behind the vice – for John Fielding’s blind eyes can see things that others cannot – things that man was not meant to know.

Dark Streets is a 180 page worldbook for the Renaissance Deluxe RPG, in which players take on the roles of officers in London’s first, desperately small, police force, investigating the dark secrets behind the sordid crimes of eighteenth century London. Requires the Renaissance Deluxe RPG core rulebook. It is published by Cubicle 7 Entertainment.

Flintlock & Steel is a series of inexpensive (and sometimes even free!) adventures for the Renaissance system. Available so far:

The Mystery of Shirdley Hall: An adventure for Clockwork & Cthulhu.

Hellfire: An adventure for Dark Streets.

The Wolves of the Coast: A FREE stand-alone adventure and resource pack featuring Irish warriors against Vikings.