[i]The salty air is crisp, and cuts along a morning breeze, as you hear a few scattered gulls call from above. Somewhere behind you a bell tolls, back in the city, but your entire life is placed upon these docks. Even in the early hours the Port of London bustles: mariners pilot their vessels skillfully into slips, laborers unload valuable merchandise, and soldiers practice drills aboard a magnificent British warship. By contrast, your dock seems still. So far, close to forty people stand there, having already said their goodbyes to whatever family they may have. The captain, an Italian man of about forty, explains that he’s expecting around one hundred passengers total aboard his vessel, the galleon [i]Nuova Scoperta[/i]. The majority will be English, he tells you, but certainly not all. You look out toward the water, past the Thames and out toward the ocean.
	And you recall why you’re standing on this dock to begin with. You were promised wealth, or an escape – a new beginning, away from it all. You were offered a new life, and you took it. You’re headed for the New World.[/i]

This will be an alternate history RP set in the year 1617, though I hesitate to call it that. Essentially, nothing that happened before the year 1617 will be modified – it will all have happened in the game world as it did in real life. Columbus still reached the New World in 1492, Jacques Cartier still explored Quebec in the mid 1500’s, Alvarado and Pizzaro and the other Spanish conquistadores still succeeded in conquering much of Central and South America, and Jamestown was still founded by the Virginia Company in 1607. However, following the expedition of the [i]Nuova Scoperta[/i] from the Port of London, history will continue along a different trajectory. There are some events which I have decided will not happen in this history, or may happen differently than it did historically. Others may happen just as they did, but our colony may now play a role.

You will play the part of a colonist – or family of colonists – who has paid for passage aboard this vessel. Your motivations are up to you – you may be a struggling aristocrat, with a dream of finding newfound wealth in the New World; or an unemployed family who is struggling to feed their children; or a criminal, who wants to put an entire ocean between them and the law. Your destination is the eastern shore of North America, within the border of the Massachusett tribe, and near the village of Naumkeag. There, you will found a colony under the oversight of the Canterbury Company, which is loyal to England. There will be around one hundred colonists, along with the [i]Nuova Scoperta[/i]’s crew of one hundred and forty. The ship and her crew are instructed to stay with the fledgling colony for the first few months, before returning to England for fresh supplies and potentially more colonists. In the mean time, the remaining colonists will have to figure out how to survive and thrive in such an unfamiliar and, at times, hostile environment.

This is what I have so far! I've already thought quite a bit about the various scenarios and events which would take place during the RP, but I'm hesitant to say those just yet. In the next day or so depending on the interest I'll put up a map of the area, as well as some brief historical summaries of pertinent events or groups (such as the Massachusett tribe) to give some background. Let me know what you think!

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[u]Not-So-Frequently-Asked-Questions[/u]
(Questions I imagine would be frequent if this were not just recently added interest check; a.k.a. questions I want to answer now, as it may help you understand this RP more)

[b]Will there be any fantasy elements in this RP?[/b]
No. I'm not a huge fan of mixing history with fantasy, and I won't be doing this here. There won't be any giants in the new world, or dragons which are in need of taming -- just the world as it was in the year 1617 -- or, perhaps, how it could have been. Though rest assured, things will be different. Just in a realistic way.
[b]Will the Mayflower still land at Plymouth Rock in 1620?[/b]
The short answer is, probably not. Aside from two small colonies many miles away (Jamestown in the south, and the English fishing villages in Newfoundland to the north), your colony will be alone, with the only assistance coming from aid from the [i]Scoperta[/i], which will be few and far between. That, or you could attempt to broker a deal with the Wampanoag.
[b]Why is an Italian captain sailing for the British?[/b]
This was not as uncommon as you'd thing back then. After all, Christopher Columbus was Italian (Cristoforo Colombo was his birth name) who petitioned the Portuguese, Italians and English before finally reaching an accord with the Spanish. Ferdinand Magellan was Portuguese, but sailed for the Spanish. Also it is important to note that this captain is employed by the Canterbury Company, a joint-stock company based out of England. While they may be loyal to England, their motives are far more profit-driven than they are for loyalty to the crown.
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