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GreenDwarf
2013-06-15, 05:45 PM
Hello everyone, I'm working on my own original ruleset/setting at the moment. I have some sample rules and a snippet of the story posted on the kickstarter.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/799261150/inscrutable-puzzlements-an-anachronistic-victorian

I've finished the system for making enemies, and the system allows the GM to create literally anything they can think of quite easily. Now, I was wondering what are some interesting enemies that I could add to the example bestiary? Thanks.

CarpeGuitarrem
2013-06-15, 06:07 PM
Clockwork Robots (http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/gallery/s2_04gallery/800/clockwork_madame1.jpg), inspired by Doctor Who's episode "The Girl in the Fireplace".

GreenDwarf
2013-06-15, 06:12 PM
Clockwork Robots (http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/gallery/s2_04gallery/800/clockwork_madame1.jpg), inspired by Doctor Who's episode "The Girl in the Fireplace".

That's pretty legit. I love that episode. Yesss already thinking of devious ways they could be used.

Raimun
2013-06-15, 06:52 PM
Zombies, of course.

Bulhakov
2013-06-15, 07:03 PM
Gargoyle - flying creature that is responsible for mutilated bodies found in dark alleyways.

Mafia enforcer - typical henchman template

Psychic spy - a femme-fatale that can read minds

Mad scientist - obsessed with electricity and/or reanimation

Grinner
2013-06-15, 07:10 PM
Zombies, of course.

Maybe in the vein of "Herbert West, Reanimator". Didn't Unhallowed Metropolis already do the plague kind in a Victorian setting?

Mr Beer
2013-06-15, 09:01 PM
Actual Victorian people would be good. There are dozens of famous Victorians.

Cthulhu style foreigners with dodgy rituals. Don't have to be actual Cthulhu BTW, but that kind of intention.

Spring Heeled Jack: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring-heeled_Jack

Scary animals for every exotic location.

Headhunters.

GreenDwarf
2013-06-16, 03:26 AM
Actual Victorian people would be good. There are dozens of famous Victorians.

Cthulhu style foreigners with dodgy rituals. Don't have to be actual Cthulhu BTW, but that kind of intention.

Spring Heeled Jack: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring-heeled_Jack

Scary animals for every exotic location.

Headhunters.

I can see it now: my players walk down a backalley and see Spring Heeled Jack, and after I describe him they would get quiet then look at me and ask, almost in a whisper "You want us to kill Batman?"

Rhynn
2013-06-16, 03:39 AM
Yeah, Victorian stereotypes. The bluff, red-faced man of action. The sinister, cruel-mouthed villain. Bomb-throwing anarchists.

Also, Martian canal-people and Venusian lizard-men (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space:_1889).

Kitten Champion
2013-06-16, 03:43 AM
It seems trite, but legitimately Victorian monsters would mean Shelley's Frankenstein's Creature, Stoker's Dracula, and Stevenson's Hyde. Werewolves, ghosts, and demons were quite in fashion as well if I recall correctly.

Ravens_cry
2013-06-16, 03:50 AM
Fae and creatures out of the Orient could prove intriguing.

Hyena
2013-06-16, 04:12 AM
Angry mobs and vigilante men never have been out of fashion, even in the victorian era.

GreenDwarf
2013-06-16, 07:09 PM
Bonus Round! If you had to pick between taking on these cases, which would you pick: Investigating disappearances in a small Transylvania village, helping fisherman in a coastal British town figure out what is eating all their catches and harassing their boats, protecting a politician who is visiting London (no further details given), or being hired to hunt down a pack of werewolves by the gypsy who cursed them?
Thank ye kindly.

Mr Beer
2013-06-16, 10:23 PM
I can see it now: my players walk down a backalley and see Spring Heeled Jack, and after I describe him they would get quiet then look at me and ask, almost in a whisper "You want us to kill Batman?"

Ha ha, yes! Also have him growl out: "I'm the crazy person London deserves!" at them, before bounding away through the gaslit fog.

Mr Beer
2013-06-16, 10:25 PM
Bonus Round! If you had to pick between taking on these cases, which would you pick: Investigating disappearances in a small Transylvania village, helping fisherman in a coastal British town figure out what is eating all their catches and harassing their boats, protecting a politician who is visiting London (no further details given), or being hired to hunt down a pack of werewolves by the gypsy who cursed them?
Thank ye kindly.

I would go for Transylvania, it sounds lawless so we might be able to apply more firepower to the situation. Besides which, Dracula is cool. And it might not be Dracula, which would be interesting.

GreenDwarf
2013-06-16, 10:28 PM
I would go for Transylvania, it sounds lawless so we might be able to apply more firepower to the situation. Besides which, Dracula is cool. And it might not be Dracula, which would be interesting.

Yeah that's one of the cases I playtested. Let's just say that vampirism was a red herring :smallbiggrin:

Kitten Champion
2013-06-17, 12:19 AM
I'd probably take the coastal village, since it could have an obvious Lovecraftian bent to it. Or something like a leviathan.

tbok1992
2013-06-17, 01:51 AM
Here's my ideas:

-Other-dimentional Lawful Evil magically-powerful monsters with an Eye motif who act like the real Pinkerton detective agency (IE, breaking strikes; crushing populist protest).

-A sort of Iron Lich; made by powerful industrialists transforming themselves into living machines via a combination of magic and injections of various chemicals (capped off with an injection of molten steel). Think Andrew Carnegie mixed with your typical fantasy evil overlord, though combining the two may be redundant.

-Demons who look like paper thin caricatures of the worst racial stereotypes of the era; who offer vengance to the downtrodden and oppressed (Such as those who are stereotyped that way) but at a dread price.

-A semi-sentient war train (Which can be steered and needs no tracks) powered by the torture of debtors/the homeless poor/fallen women in chambers of spikes in a horrible effort by the upper classes to "make them contribute to society".

-Gordon Gekko-type cyberpunk-y executives from the future; with lots of slick and shiny biotech (Think Cronenberg meets Apple asthetic-wise) & biological enhancements who use the past as their personal hunting reserve and occupy the approximate role as Mind Flayers in D&D settings. Because the paralells between their time and the Cyberpunk/80s/Current era are eerie.

-Sentient apes created as an attempt at proving the theory of evolution; now trying to destroy mankind due to their species viewing mankind as too cruel and evil-heated to live.

-Women who have mutated into furred; clawed; muscular monsters due to their being so repressed. Despite being considred a threat to family and society by most of the world though; they'd actually be mostly rather positive Chaotic Good social revolutionaries. They'd likely be the sort of enemies who you later join after you realize you're fighting for the wrong side.

-Zombies of the women who died from working in match factories; missing their lower jaws and breathing a stream of flaming phosphorous

-Rats grown giant and intelligent from feeding on the filth and human corpses in the slums; who feed on human misery (The emotions released by suicide i particular) and have psychic powers to help it along.

I could go on if you want. Or am I going too dark/political?

Eldan
2013-06-17, 03:45 AM
Throw your players into the Great Game. Can't be much more Victorian than that.

The advantage being, of course, that you can throw agents of Russian, Persian, Afghan, Qing, Central Asian, Tibetan, Tatarian or pretty much any other nationality at them.

And then the mythology of all those countries, if you want something supernatural in it.

Jacque
2013-06-19, 02:52 AM
Returned famous safari hunter/explorer who secretly is hunting humans in the city just for the sports.

(Make sure his lair has a collection of exotic wild animals)

Eldan
2013-06-19, 03:04 AM
Because the most dangerous animal of all is... the Zookeeper!

DigoDragon
2013-06-19, 06:35 AM
Zombies, of course.

How about Emperor Zombie?
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_5Qcl1S1MdQQ/SH9feJcBDgI/AAAAAAAAK84/h4V1sFidCzc/s400/smoking.jpg

You can't help but admire an intelligent zombie with a thirst for evil forbidden knowledge... and who can absorb people's memories by smoking them in a giant hookah.
He also employes a vampire, werewolf, cannibal mechanic, and a monkey as his henchmen.

comicshorse
2013-06-19, 07:41 AM
Victorian fiction is full of interesting villains waiting to be used.
Victor Frankenstein and Dracula have already been mentioned but there's also Professor James Moriarty, Robur the Conqueror, Raffles, Fu Manchu, Colonel Sebastian Moran, Doctor Nikola, etc
If you have the time you might check out Alan Moore's 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' (the comic NOT the film) or Kim Newman's 'Moriarty : The Hound of the D'urbervilles' for some ideas

mcbobbo
2013-06-19, 01:13 PM
It seems trite, but legitimately Victorian monsters would mean Shelley's Frankenstein's Creature, Stoker's Dracula, and Stevenson's Hyde. Werewolves, ghosts, and demons were quite in fashion as well if I recall correctly.

Note, too, that all of these stories above hinge on a similar fear of clashes between the old world and the new. Frankenstein is about the fear of medicine. Dracula has heavy disease and foreigner themes. Hyde personifies man's lust for power through science, and so on.

Eldan
2013-06-19, 03:10 PM
The dangerous foreigner always work. Find a non-European world power and you have a terrible, mystic enemy.

Kitten Champion
2013-06-19, 04:30 PM
I think it would be interesting if you combined the anxiety about alcoholism, youth fighting gangs, and the bleakness of urban life into the idea of Jekyll and Hyde. Have a Hyde-type character (or the character himself, I believe it only implied Jekyll died at the end) selling Jekyll's potion on the street to the growing body of alienated and violent youth as a sort of drug that liberates them from guilt and conscience and turns them into Alex from Burgess' Clockwork Orange at his most sociopathic and content.

You could have Frankenstein's Creature labouring in the secluded English country-side, grave robbing and trying to create a new species of Prometheans which could potentially be an interesting PC race - particularly if you play the whole sentient creature formed without any background beyond twenty minutes ago. The player can define the whole life essentially starting with the first game without the 20+ years of relevant back story. The failed products of the Creature's efforts ending up as zombies. Fear of foreigners and their habits works pretty well here.

As to Dracula, well, actually, after seeing Vampires being re-contextualized so often, getting it close to Stoker would be interesting.

Rhynn
2013-06-20, 12:00 AM
I believe it only implied Jekyll died at the end

Naw, Jekyll-as-Hyde...
... dies by poisoning himself considerably before the end, because the story is told non-linearly.

archaeo
2013-06-20, 01:16 AM
Just a couple of ideas:


I like the idea of magic users who augment their powers with era-specific drugs. The Opium Master is able to channel his powers through a cloud of the drug. His attacks could slow or stun characters, or he could imbue the drug clouds with sentience. An entire "dungeon" could be built around this enemy, the Opium Den, with various practitioners of this dark art working to spread their evil smoke around the city.
The Late Count of Monte Cristo could be a formidable undead foe, a spirit motivated by revenge. Like the real Count, he would be enormously wealthy and ludicrously clever, but instead of accomplishing his goal while living he continues hunting the unworthy in death. Maybe a vampiric figure? It would be more fun if he was a man-about-town despite being an undead champion of vigilante justice.
Finally, how about Mesmerists? These real-world charlatans would be incredibly powerful in a world with real magic, and as enemies, they could disable PCs, cure their allies, and enchant local fauna to cast wards.


That last point should be expanded upon; spiritualism was very popular, so necromancy in your setting might not need to be Always Evil. I'd also note that photography was really taking off in this period, so why not add in some spirit cameras and the like?

Good luck with your project!

Rhynn
2013-06-20, 01:28 AM
You, uh, might want to be careful with some of these ideas (like Fu Manchu*) - you could easily slip into orientalism or other kinds of racist exoticism implementing them. "Foreigner as dark, creepy, and hostile" sure is a Victorian trope, but it's also a racist trope, and while racism is hardly off-limits for games, you have to be careful not to depict it straight, as if buying into it. Authorial intent is hard to decipher, and even if you include some explanation, it is easily discounted if the material just doesn't feel like it jives with your stated intent.

* How exactly is Fu Manchu a Victorian villain? That's stretching the period by over 30 years. If we're going "early 20th century," though, then all of Edgar Rice Burrough's marvellous fantasy novels (Tarzan, Barsuum, Pellucidar, etc.) are game. "Hollow Earth" in general makes a fitting trope to use - it can be full of dinosaurs, morlocks, hyper-evolved humanoids, giant animals, etc.

Avilan the Grey
2013-06-20, 01:45 AM
A lot have aready been said

Zombies, in the Frankenstein version, as well as in the actual Voodoo version. NOT in the The Walking Dead version.

Mad scientists, think Tesla on acid. Or Dr Frankenstein. Or a combination.

Assassin cults

Foreign leaders and spies. Yes, not exotic as such, but this was a time when the tension between countries in Europe was still very high. Especially between France, England and Germany (as usual, I might say).

Clockwork robots and Steam-powered mechas

Evil insane-asylum doctors

Vampires, of the old fashioned kind (Nosferatu, or the "real" Dracula)

Werewolves

Sea monsters (Jules Verne, anyone?)


Edit: as a side note... I have been planning for years to write a campaign or at least an adventure for Call o Chthulu set in the 18th century instead or the 20ies in the US or Victorian London which are the most common settings. It is a sadly unused time period that should be perfect for this. Almost every aristocrat and royal experimented or was very interested in both the occult and science, often combining the two, for one thing.

SuperPanda
2013-06-20, 02:39 AM
Pratchett's Lords and Ladies style of Fey (or just old world Gaelic fey legends) creeping back into the world would work too.

The fey in these stories are far more Cuthulu and far Legolas.

The victorian era works beautifully story-telling wise as a time of transition, it is movign away from the old-world of fantasy but it still has alot of the old ways built in. The caste-system is getting shaken up but it hasn't been shaken out, same with the Monarchy. In a time of great changes, some people get worried about Traditions not being followed and others embrace change to the point of wanting to be rid of traditions.

Having an old Tradition that served an important purpose be forsaken in the name of progress fits a Victorian setting very well, and the Fey make an excellent antagonsit group because they are very much a foil for Victorian sensibilities (especially if the heroes are Leauge of Extrodinary Gentlemen types).

Adding some of Pratchett's sci-fi-ish themes to the Fey makes it fit the time and aesthetic better (particularly the description of Fairyland from Wee Free Men) but the more rooted in the older stories the better. Chidren going missing and coming back... changed. People killed in horrificly creative ways (Drowned in rose petals ala-torchwood, twisted into imposible shapes, frozen to death in mid-summer).

Raine_Sage
2013-06-20, 02:42 AM
There was a book I read a long time ago called the Haunting of Alizabelle Cray or something like that, google can probably get it right if I got it wrong.

It was a fairly mediocre book, not terrible, not wonderful, entertaining if nothing else. But it's set in a victorian/steampunk style world overrun with creatures call wytches or something silly like that. Essentially fairy creatures that do everything from steal children to swim through vats of molten steel and cause accidents. I remember there being some really cool concepts in there so if you're looking for enemy inspiration it might be a resource to check out.

One I remember as being really cool was a monster that followed people through the streets. Completely invisible and intangible it could only harm you if you looked over your shoulder three times at which point it would become "real" and chase you down until you'd either killed it or it killed you. And you would look, because while you couldn't see it you could still feel it watching you.

Eldan
2013-06-20, 04:11 AM
Pratchett's Lords and Ladies style of Fey (or just old world Gaelic fey legends) creeping back into the world would work too.

The fey in these stories are far more Cuthulu and far Legolas.

The victorian era works beautifully story-telling wise as a time of transition, it is movign away from the old-world of fantasy but it still has alot of the old ways built in. The caste-system is getting shaken up but it hasn't been shaken out, same with the Monarchy. In a time of great changes, some people get worried about Traditions not being followed and others embrace change to the point of wanting to be rid of traditions.

Having an old Tradition that served an important purpose be forsaken in the name of progress fits a Victorian setting very well, and the Fey make an excellent antagonsit group because they are very much a foil for Victorian sensibilities (especially if the heroes are Leauge of Extrodinary Gentlemen types).

Adding some of Pratchett's sci-fi-ish themes to the Fey makes it fit the time and aesthetic better (particularly the description of Fairyland from Wee Free Men) but the more rooted in the older stories the better. Chidren going missing and coming back... changed. People killed in horrificly creative ways (Drowned in rose petals ala-torchwood, twisted into imposible shapes, frozen to death in mid-summer).

Also, read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell, if you haven't. That's elves and magic pre-inserted into Victoriana for you. Though they lean a bit more towards fairytale fae.

TripleD
2013-06-20, 05:32 AM
Quick question. Is this set in an alternate history of "our world", or is it a completely new world, just with the Victorian aesthetic?

If it's the former, I'd really like to see some tropes shaken up. "The long century"/"Victorian Era"/"Belle Epoch"/"Gilded Age" was a time of relative peace and stability for Europe and Eastern America, and a bloodbath for most of the rest. The Taiping rebellion alone killed more people than World War 1.

Here's what I'd like to see in Victorian Era RPG - No Victorian England. Or at least, England is the bad guy. Make the story about resisting the onslaught of the European Powers (the "Clockwork Empire" or some other stand in) and the rebels who resist them. I would so much rather fight alongside the sons of Shaka Zulu than sit in a parlour listening to some fat guy talk about the spirits in the ether.

With this angle, characters like Sherlock Holmes or Victor Frankenstein become the basis for your enemies, not your heroes.



I could go on if you want. Or am I going too dark/political?


Those were awesome ideas. Fantasy, like Sci-Fi, should make you think once in a while.

Rhynn
2013-06-20, 05:45 AM
With this angle, characters like Sherlock Holmes or Victor Frankenstein become the basis for your enemies, not your heroes.

Heh heh. A Study in Emerald.

Also, Victor Frankenstein isn't exactly far from being a villain; he pretty much is usually depicted as one. The original story is pretty much two "grey" villains squaring off...

Also, The Picture of Dorian Gray!

Eldan
2013-06-20, 05:58 AM
See, when I was talking about mystical Oriental villains, I was quite aware that they wouldn't see themselves as villains. But you can be sure Her Majesty's Agents would.

Turning it around is of course always a good idea. Plenty of material to play as Qing, Japanese, Abessinians, Zulu, Persians, Native Americans, (Chickasaw, Creek, Cherokee, Seminole, Sauk, Sioux, Comanche, Apache, any, really), Afghans, Sepoy, Egyptians, Ottomans, Tartars or dozens of others.

TripleD
2013-06-20, 06:01 AM
Also, Victor Frankenstein isn't exactly far from being a villain; he pretty much is usually depicted as one. The original story is pretty much two "grey" villains squaring off...


True. Bad Example.

But maybe you could twist the story of Dracula around. While Vlad the Impaler was reviled as a monster by his enemies and nobility (not entirely without justification) he was celebrated as a folk hero by the peasantry for his resistance of the Ottoman Empire. Maybe one of your players could be a farmer turned rogue seeking vengeance on the "assassin" Van Helsing.

MrBanana
2013-06-20, 10:18 AM
It seems that you really have two angles you could do this from:

A) The ideas above, where you fight for or against an Evil Empire.

B) The Victorian England world full of Gothic, fantastical, and other elements most people talked about in page 1.

I'd go with B myself.

TheStranger
2013-06-20, 02:33 PM
I feel like Rasputin should be involved in this somehow...

Zombie Rasputin overthrows the Tzars after his death and leads a Russian army in an invasion of Western Europe?

Rhynn
2013-06-20, 02:36 PM
I feel like Rasputin should be involved in this somehow...

Zombie Rasputin overthrows the Tzars after his death and leads a Russian army in an invasion of Western Europe?

Rasputin died 15 years after the end of the Victorian era, and 6 years after the end of the Edwardian!

I know these are small differences, but "Victorian" in common use is pretty much restricted to "later 19th century," and is not "early 20th century."

TheStranger
2013-06-20, 02:38 PM
Rasputin died 15 years after the end of the Victorian era, and 6 years after the end of the Edwardian!

I know these are small differences, but "Victorian" in common use is pretty much restricted to "later 19th century," and is not "early 20th century."

Bah! Never let facts get in the way of a good* idea, I say!

*As always, a relative term.

hamishspence
2013-06-20, 02:50 PM
Victoria herself did die in the very early 20th century.

Rhynn
2013-06-20, 06:08 PM
Victoria herself did die in the very early 20th century.

January 1901. World War I and related events, like the Russian Revolution, are not Victorian by any definition, nor even Edwardian.

"Victorian era" is 1837-1901, of which 1/64 or 1/32 is 20th century (depending on whether you incorrectly count 1900 to be 20th century).

Actually, given she died in January, it's considerably less than 1/64, really... more like 1/700...

GreenDwarf
2013-06-21, 09:32 PM
Quick question. Is this set in an alternate history of "our world", or is it a completely new world, just with the Victorian aesthetic?
.
It is just an alternate history of our world. The quick and dirty is that it is 1879 and the Grand War (started by the Holy German Empire when they assassinated the Pope and stopped by a ceasefire namely due to Excalibur being utilized) has been over for 5 years. Basically the first world war happened much quicker and the world gained access to new technologies at a rapid rate. They also utilized experimental technology in the war (which is where the steampunk flavor comes from).

Thanks to everyone for the excellent ideas, I will definitely be using them. Here is a monster I put together for one of the last playtests.

Zombie
The zombie is a reanimated corpse, brought back from death to serve a purpose. They look the same as they did in life, though they will be decomposed or gruesomely wounded.
Ratio: 2:1
Size: 1 square
Move: 6
HP: 6
SP: 2
Damage: 1 (fists)
DmP: -
Penalties: -
Skill Training: d6 Brawl, d10 Brawn
Gut Leash: The zombie pulls out his guts and flings them at a target, entangling them. A single target within 3 squares must make a Gymnastics shrug attempt of 4 or higher or they cannot move further than 3 squares from the zombie. This ability requires 1 SP and an action.