Vapors & Villains

[Erasmas]

So, I am planning on running a game in the not-quite-so-near future that is going to be ever so slightly steampunk. I say "ever so slightly" because while there will be some steam technology available... it will be in its infancy and will not be completely commonplace (about on par with automobiles in the late 1800s. There will be zeppelin-styled airships, and a handful of steam-powered gadgets. I will likewise be taking heavy influence from the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

I am mashing Victorian-era London history right into literary works that are set in roughly the same time period - Frankenstein, Dracula, Les Miserables, Sherlock Holmes, Dorian Gray, Count of Monte Cristo, and even a bit of A Christmas Carol. The whole thing will be getting a healthy dose of classic Gothic Horror and will rely on combining many staples of these settings - dense foggy streets, potentially a runaway carriage chase, intrigue and murder, some globe-trotting (at least across Europe), etc.

Magic will also be available, but it is going to be based in a Christian/Voodoo kind of vein - priests & nuns will be able to repel vampires, witchdoctors & witches can use voodoo dolls, and the like.

And so, my questions to the Playground are:
A.) Does this sound interesting enough?
B.) Do you have suggestions/ideas that could fit?
C.) I would like some help on how to bolster the "caster" classes without reverting too much to the good-old-standby fantasy spells. Input?

[erikun]

This sounds like a pretty typical steampunk/gaslamp fantasy setting. On the plus side, you should have a healthy amount of material available, especially if you want to do psudo-horror setting. There are some systems specifically designed to cater to steampunk, although I'm not that sure about the quality with them.

World of Darkness immediately comes to mind, mainly because it would be so easy to find content for horror monsters. You'd just need to adjust the weapons and technology back to the appropriate timeframe. Vampire (or at least Vampire: the Masquerade) has some rules for "faith" and repelling vampires, as well. I know that the Call of Cthulhu game is almost exactly what you want for the setting, but you may not like the magic mechanics or the fact that it is mostly used for one-shot games (due to characters frequently ending up dead).

And of course, there is always the recommendation for a more generic system like Fate, HeroQuest, or Gurps. Those can handle steampunk gaslamp horror just as well as everything else.


As for suggestions for spellcasters, I would recommend reading books like Soulless (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soulless_(novel)) and sequels, along with Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Strange_%26_Mr_Norrell). Very good book anyways, and definitely what I think of for appropriate in such a setting. (They might give you some GM ideas, too. :smallwink:)

Anyways, most steampunk casters tend to have only a few spells available, tend towards the non-flashy (Sleep over Fireball), and the stronger effects tend to be lengthy rituals with high risk. Most "combat mages" is such a system will just cast a few spells and otherwise fight normally, or will use their magic to create enchanted pistols or something similar. You rarely see a "wizard" in steampunk settings, and most wizardly characters I've found tend towards just scholarly researchers packing a pistol in their coat pocket (if they'll be fighting).


Hope that helps!

[Erasmas]

Well... without getting too much into it here (one of my RL players is also a Playgrounder), I think it will have some unique stuff to it that would make it a little atypical.

I think I am going to run it in a modified d20 system (since that is what the group is most comfortable with and we will be able to still utilize the "shorthand" that has developed with it over the years).

But thank you very much for the input and the leads on the sources! I will be checking some of those out for inspiration.

[Friv]

Sounds like it could be fun, yeah.

I have only two suggestions.

#1 - Depending on how much your players are used to steampunk settings... don't go straight for the big literary works, and DEFINITELY don't go for "famous historical figure is secretly part of the plot". Everyone who uses Victorian steampunk pulls in "And then Jules Verne or H.G. Wells or Oscar Wilde was there", and if your players have experience with the genre they're going to expect that. Turn it around on them. Pull in some more off-kilter characters and folks. Bring in a few people from Ruddigore, swap out Dracula for Camilla, use Auguste Dupin instead of Sherlock Holmes. Use the ghost of Jane Clouson as the players try to exornerate Edmund Pook for her murder, years later. Use Sir William Vernon Harcourt as a political patron (or villain!).

#2 - Victorian dark magic is heavily ritual, so a ritual magic system would be a strong choice. What system are you planning to use as a base for the game? D&D, based on your class comments?

*EDIT* Oh, modified d20 I see. Then yes, ritual magic system. Something that uses material components, and requires both long casting times and starting at certain times of the day or month.

[Erasmas]

Well, none of my players are all that familiar with steampunk. And I am planning on using the more mainstream characters so that everyone has a good idea of the character without having to go into too much detail about "they're from this book; it's about a count who did [blank]" every time they are introduced. I am going more for using well-established characters in ways that (at least personally) I haven't seen done before. The gist of the set-up will be given to the players, so there's no harm in revealing it here.

1
Abraham von Helsinki was a Dutch knight who joined one of the last crusades into Jerusalem, where he became a Knight Templar. In one of the final battles, he was gravely injured while fighting within the city. His fellow Templars took him to the grave of Jesus Christ, where a secret passage located within the cave leads down deep beneath Jerusalem to a spring with magical healing properties known as the Fountain of Youth (and is also known as the "Holy Grail"). He was brought back from the brink and, in addition, was granted unnaturally long life. He became an icon of Christianity and of the Templars in particular. Later, when a threat of near-demonic proportions rose up in Romania... the holy church dispatched Abraham to put down the dreaded Count Vladislav Dracula, also known as Vlad the Impaler. Although he was slain in his mortal form, however, the Count had made a pact with the Devil and instead rose again as the first ever vampire. Abraham vowed to continue to hunt and fight the damnable creature for as long as it took. And so he secretly has water from the Grail shipped to him wherever he lives, to prolong his death.

Throughout the ages, the Knight Templar (now known as Abraham Van Helsing), tracked down and fought and killed Dracula many times... slowly learning the things that did and did not work against him. Several hundred years after their initial encounter, with the help of Jonathan and Mina Harker - he killed him once more; this time, he hopes... for good. Now, the Harkers have both been knighted and Van Helsing has started a group to combat all manner of vile and evil things. The party is going to make up the B-team of this group. The A-team (will have kind of a high-profile, Mod Squad sort of feel) is Sherlock, Dr. Watson, Quincey Harker (Johnathan & Mina's son), and Johnse Hatfield (from America). Victor Frankenstein and his monster Prometheus have reconciled and also work for the organization (the good doctor will be a sort of Q for them). And the group is financed by Van Helsing, the Harkers, and Frederick Holywell (the sole heir to Ebenezer Scrooge's estate).

1

But yes, something ritualistic for the magic system would be perfect!

[Man on Fire]

So, I am planning on running a game in the not-quite-so-near future that is going to be ever so slightly steampunk. I say "ever so slightly" because while there will be some steam technology available... it will be in its infancy and will not be completely commonplace (about on par with automobiles in the late 1800s. There will be zeppelin-styled airships, and a handful of steam-powered gadgets. I will likewise be taking heavy influence from the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

I am mashing Victorian-era London history right into literary works that are set in roughly the same time period - Frankenstein, Dracula, Les Miserables, Sherlock Holmes, Dorian Gray, Count of Monte Cristo, and even a bit of A Christmas Carol. The whole thing will be getting a healthy dose of classic Gothic Horror and will rely on combining many staples of these settings - dense foggy streets, potentially a runaway carriage chase, intrigue and murder, some globe-trotting (at least across Europe), etc.

Magic will also be available, but it is going to be based in a Christian/Voodoo kind of vein - priests & nuns will be able to repel vampires, witchdoctors & witches can use voodoo dolls, and the like.

And so, my questions to the Playground are:
A.) Does this sound interesting enough?
B.) Do you have suggestions/ideas that could fit?
C.) I would like some help on how to bolster the "caster" classes without reverting too much to the good-old-standby fantasy spells. Input?

My buddy ran two very good campaign in that style using Deadlands. Savage Worlds might work too.

I'll write down some of the ideas he used in his game, maybe they'll fit yours.

1) Don't start with fantastic, go with something more average, like good, old-fashioned, Sherlock Holmes style murder case. My buddy started with normal murder of gentleman that found about opim smugglers and in other game I think it was a murder of factory worker who heard his boss plotting soem shady scheme. You might may it look like it's a supernatural case if you want, but let the first adventure turn out to be mundane, maybe Scooby-Doo Hoax even.

[Man on Fire]

I'll start rest of the suggestions in new post, it should take me enough time to not make it a double.

2) One of the first plot my friend did in both campaings involved strange illness that struck nobleman's wife. As it turned out, woman was really poisoned by her own daughter, who didn't remember why she did that. It was because of the amulet said girl was given by a black bodyguard she befriended during safari in Africa. Jealous noblesman engaged with the girl though she and the guy have a romance, so he murdered the rival. Later the body has been found by victim's lover, who thought it was the girl who murdered her beloved. She tracked her back to Britain and hid in nearby forest, using her magic to let demons posess girl's body and make her do horrible things.

Also, both games had a nice moment when one of the characters has been posessed by a demon. In both cases they were threw out of their bodies into bizarre plane, where they saw some utterly crazy stuff. You might, if you want, combine this with Alan Moore's short story [=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_and_the_Sundered_Veil]Alan and the Sundered Veil[/url] for inspiration and throw character beyond time, when they meet some famous characters that gould also end beyond barries of time and space, maybe even some characters from the far future or distant past. Meanwhile their body will go on a rampage and attack other players.

[Erasmas]

Awesome, thank you for the suggestions Man on Fire! I will look into those things and see what I might be able to borrow for my campaign!