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Fax Celestis
2007-11-03, 03:28 PM
Anyone actually played this little gem? I've got the corebook, but I haven't had an opportunity to actually run anything with it.

Kizara
2007-11-03, 03:57 PM
Sorry, never even heard of it. But then again, I don't play alot of the lesser-known systems like some around here.

Lord Tataraus
2007-11-03, 04:54 PM
There are tons of great RPGs out there and very few of them are well known. Its sad really, but when you find a gem play it whenever you can. My most recent find, WARS RPG, is one such gem. Unfortunately, there only a few RPers at my college and I'm just starting to run a D&D game, so I guess there is hope :smallbiggrin:

So, in short, never heard of it. What's it about/like?

Fax Celestis
2007-11-03, 05:05 PM
So, in short, never heard of it. What's it about/like?

Well, it uses the d20 Modern ruleset, but it's set in a world where a man named Harold Wallace discovered the existence of ether--originally theorized by Aristotle as the "fifth element"--during the Victorian era. Britain quickly used this power to create incredibly efficient steam-powered machinery and vastly expand their empire. They signed a treaty with Germany: Britain got most of Africa, Germany got most of Europe. The Americas, after receiving their own version of the ether-based technology, also expanded, taking over most of Central and South America. Most of Asia is owned either by the Ottoman Empire or the USSR. China remains landlocked by British possessions, and no one really knows about what goes on within their borders.

In essence, there are four superpowers in present day: The New Reich, The United Kingdom, the United States of the Americas, and the USSR. The USSR, due largely to being the largest manufacturer of ethertech, has a strong economy and appears to be a model socialist nation.

Eugenics are prevalent: that is to say, there are people who carefully breed (and in some cases, alter the DNA of) humans to create new races. Alpha humans are the cream of the crop, bred to be athletic, intelligent, and natural leaders. Beta humans are people like you and me. Gamma humans have been gene-spliced with rats, Delta humans with dogs, and Epsilon humans with horses.

The setting itself is what I like to call "victorianapunk": it's not quite steampunk because of the social environment. Steampunk aspects do exist within the setting, though, especially with the presence of cybernaughtic implants and the Cybernaught class.

Lord Tataraus
2007-11-03, 05:21 PM
Gamma humans have been gene-spliced with rats, Delta humans with dogs, and Epsilon humans with horses.

Wait...rat-people, dog-people, and horse-people? Are they like centuars or werewolves or just humans with animalistic aspects or something completely different?

Fax Celestis
2007-11-03, 05:31 PM
Wait...rat-people, dog-people, and horse-people? Are they like centuars or werewolves or just humans with animalistic aspects or something completely different?

They're essentially humans with a touch of the said DNA. They appear like humans with minor aspects of their parent creatures. Gammas, for instance, have beady eyes, are short, and have short, coarse fur. Deltas have a lupine face and are lanky. Epsilons have long faces and a stripe of hair that runs down their spine like a horse's mane.

Illiterate Scribe
2007-11-03, 05:34 PM
Well, it uses the d20 Modern ruleset, but it's set in a world where a man named Harold Wallace discovered the existence of ether--originally theorized by Aristotle as the "fifth element"--during the Victorian era. Britain quickly used this power to create incredibly efficient steam-powered machinery and vastly expand their empire. They signed a treaty with Germany: Britain got most of Africa, Germany got most of Europe. The Americas, after receiving their own version of the ether-based technology, also expanded, taking over most of Central and South America. Most of Asia is owned either by the Ottoman Empire or the USSR. China remains landlocked by British possessions, and no one really knows about what goes on within their borders.

In essence, there are four superpowers in present day: The New Reich, The United Kingdom, the United States of the Americas, and the USSR. The USSR, due largely to being the largest manufacturer of ethertech, has a strong economy and appears to be a model socialist nation.

Eugenics are prevalent: that is to say, there are people who carefully breed (and in some cases, alter the DNA of) humans to create new races. Alpha humans are the cream of the crop, bred to be athletic, intelligent, and natural leaders. Beta humans are people like you and me. Gamma humans have been gene-spliced with rats, Delta humans with dogs, and Epsilon humans with horses.

The setting itself is what I like to call "victorianapunk": it's not quite steampunk because of the social environment. Steampunk aspects do exist within the setting, though, especially with the presence of cybernaughtic implants and the Cybernaught class.

I see what you mean about the Cyberpunk ideas; one question that bugs me is whether it predates The Difference Engine and The Diamond Age. It seems, to put it nicely, to draw rather a lot from them.:smallannoyed:

Fax Celestis
2007-11-03, 05:37 PM
I see what you mean about the Cyberpunk ideas; one question that bugs me is whether it predates The Difference Engine and The Diamond Age. It seems, to put it nicely, to draw rather a lot from them.:smallannoyed:

It actually references both of those as inspiration for the setting. The setting itself, however, is not corporate enough for Diamond Age, and...well, just different from the Difference Engine.

Khosan
2007-11-03, 05:44 PM
Wait...rat-people, dog-people, and horse-people? Are they like centuars or werewolves or just humans with animalistic aspects or something completely different?

The people spliced with pythons are completely different.

[/nerdjoke]

Illiterate Scribe
2007-11-03, 05:47 PM
It actually references both of those as inspiration for the setting. The setting itself, however, is not corporate enough for Diamond Age, and...well, just different from the Difference Engine.

Heh, thought so. Oh, and I totally forgot Brave New World. :smallwink:

What's the chronology like though? I'm interested to see how they'd get a fully-fledged communist state in Russia if Britain made such huge leaps forward in its empire. Did WW1 happen in their timeline?

Fax Celestis
2007-11-03, 05:56 PM
There's not been a "world war" in the sense that we understand it. There's something called the Pan-European war, in which the New Reich rose and took all of Europe but for Spain, Portugal, Holland, and Britain, and then later there's the Pacific War, where Japan loses their empire to the British but is saved from being destroyed by the Americans. At time of the book, there's a Cold War simmering between Britain and America, mostly based around the Dominion of Canada and the northern border of the United States.

Zeful
2007-11-03, 06:48 PM
This sounds interesting, have you thought about running a game here?

I only ask because it seems so damn interesting.

Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll
2007-11-03, 06:52 PM
So, Canada's stuck in the middle of a Cold War.

Just great.

Did 1812 already happen? Or is that part sort of a neo-1812?

Fax Celestis
2007-11-03, 07:25 PM
So, Canada's stuck in the middle of a Cold War.

Just great.

Did 1812 already happen? Or is that part sort of a neo-1812?

Canada's a protectorate/colony of Britain, actually. And the game is set in 1984.

HomerHT
2007-11-03, 07:53 PM
The people spliced with pythons are completely different.

[/nerdjoke]

I'm not sure if I should be ashamed to have laughed at that. :smalltongue:



This sounds interesting, have you thought about running a game here?

I only ask because it seems so damn interesting.

I concur, this sounds quite interesting. Lupine-people for the win!

Fax Celestis
2007-11-03, 08:06 PM
Heh, thought so. Oh, and I totally forgot Brave New World. :smallwink:

What's the chronology like though? I'm interested to see how they'd get a fully-fledged communist state in Russia if Britain made such huge leaps forward in its empire. Did WW1 happen in their timeline?

Actually, here's a better timeline:
1874: Harold Wallace discovers Etherspace and invents the Etherscope, a device capable of creating vast amounts of power with virtually no heat displacement or space consumption.
1914: Archduke Ferdinand is assassinated. Britain ignores the following war in Europe and takes France's colonies during the distraction.
1922: The Pan-European War halts. Germany owns most of Europe, Britain owns most of Africa, the Indies, and India.
1925: The Russian Revolution strikes, and Russia becomes a socialist state.
1926: Kaiser Wilhelm III marries the Austrian Princess Sofia, unifying German power and furthering the bounds of the New Reich.
1937: A communist party rises within Britain and is struck down without mercy by the British government. This leaves Britain without much of a workforce, but the Eugenics League steps forward with a solution: genetically modified working classes.
1935-1941: Japan takes control of a lot of China's coast and the Siam peninsula, but loses it all to Britain during the Pacific War.
1943: The Americans defeat the British navy in the Yellow Sea in defense of the Japanese. A peace treaty is signed.
1952: The Americans develop technology capable of transferring the human consciousness into Etherspace.

BardicDuelist
2007-11-03, 09:52 PM
Having just read Brave New World, I find this highly intriguing. Who is it published by?

Fax Celestis
2007-11-03, 11:01 PM
Having just read Brave New World, I find this highly intriguing. Who is it published by?

Goodman Games. It's a really good set, and I think I'm going to be acquiring more of the series.

Lord Tataraus
2007-11-04, 12:21 AM
1952: The Americans develop technology capable of transferring the human consciousness into Etherspace.

Sweet! What does that do? Or is it one of those "in development, you decide what it does" things?

Matthew
2007-11-04, 08:22 AM
Ah yeah, I have heard of this. Actually, I downloaded the adventure 'Just a Delivery' from RPGNow for free, but it doesn't appear to be free anymore...

Fax Celestis
2007-11-04, 05:33 PM
Sweet! What does that do? Or is it one of those "in development, you decide what it does" things?

There's actually a whole chapter dedicated to Etherspace. It's a bit like the Metaverse in Snow Crash, if you've read it.