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Post by m3talslime on Dec 3, 2012 13:25:47 GMT -5
I am about to start a Victorian era campaign that will be dealing heavily with investigation and the occult. I was wondering what you all thought might be interesting tile/set pieces, or props in general for a game like that? So far coming up with a way to convey cool potential settings is eluding me. If you fellas can't help me then no one can!
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Post by dm1scotty on Dec 3, 2012 13:58:59 GMT -5
Did you have a plot in mind or were you going to make some pieces and then mold the story to them?
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Post by m3talslime on Dec 3, 2012 15:39:40 GMT -5
The latter, as far as encounters are concerned. I have plot ideas, just don't know where they are going to be taking place necessarily.
How do you make things like a library, a morgue, a lab, things that go beyond the cave, the chapel, and the forest?
Props will be important for the investigative aspect of the game as well. My head is swimming with ideas, and can't seem to find the shore.
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Post by unclebilly on Dec 3, 2012 23:12:54 GMT -5
Get yourself a Ouija boards. They make great props. Good for giving the party clues on what is going on with out just telling them out right. Play the part of a Gypsy Fortune Teller and move the planchette around yourself to give the clues you want. An Old book with a "forgotten letter" in it is also a great prop to use.
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steel
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Post by steel on Dec 3, 2012 23:34:55 GMT -5
First thing's first. Could you use the lightning rails from ebberon? Train battles are excellent Victorian era battles.
I'm adapting a little ebberon into my setting into the largest city, namely the lightning rails, with an enterprising dwarf who funded the creation and the eladrin who discovered how to make it. Basically i'm taking j.p morgan and edison and putting them into my campaign as NPCs who are advancing the world. Just to nod at it since i'm in love with that era
The second thing is to make a lbrary, just place a piece of cardboard about 1/2 inch wide on the squares and tell them it's a _ feet tall book case, then make the appropriate amount of 'fallen' bookcases at the 'correct' scale. Add in the librarian's desk and you're good
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Post by m3talslime on Dec 4, 2012 1:02:53 GMT -5
Great feedback guys, I am sure if we keep this discussion going it will not only benefit me, but existing and future players. I am very curious about the lightning rails concept. Is there literature on this concept?
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steel
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Post by steel on Dec 4, 2012 1:14:42 GMT -5
the ebberon campaign setting books? send me your email and i'll get you a great excerpt.
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Post by onethatwas on Dec 4, 2012 1:15:33 GMT -5
Is it Steampunk? Is it Historically Accurate? Is it Cthulhu? All important Questions.
I would recomend watching some era specific movies and get ideas for encounter sites from those. Example: The boat yard fight in Sherlock Holmes. Or the encounter in the pig slaughter house.
The main thing you should keep in mind is that the Victorian Era really didn't have much different in the way of what you may find during medieval era encounter tiles. Using a Tavern for a bar fight isn't much different for either Victorian or Medieval. A cave encounter (where a dark cult is performing a sacrifice rite to some horrific god) is still a cave encounter. A woodland encounter may have things slightly different...but not by very much. Perhaps the biggest difference between medieval and victorian games is the dress of the characters...which doesn't affect tile construction.
However, in regards to tile construction, and making it work, consider one of the things that made the victorian era so much different from the time periods before: The inductrial revolution. NOW you can have a game set on a train (And therefore you can construct train car tiles...a plan I myself and going to implement). You can have a scene like the boat yard brawl in Sherlock Holmes. You can construct props that recall the era (rather than having a candlabra in a spooky mad alchemist's lab, have a convoluted wiring mass with a small bulb representation. Tezla coils instead of a mass of mystical alchemist materials).
But unless it's steampunk (In which case now you can ALSO use mettalic paints and wire mesh to paint on a metal mesh floor or metal panels), you aren't going to see much different for tiles. Wood is still popular. And a mine shaft is still a mine shaft. The biggest change you can make is to bring life size props and have your gaming group come to the game in era specific costume (And, strangely, Victorian Era clothing is really fun to wear to a game...and stylish.
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steel
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Post by steel on Dec 4, 2012 1:42:06 GMT -5
if you really want weird-for-rpgs, specifically dnd, make mechanical vehicles that are used by the rich and pompously dressed. steamboats (water archons pushing the boats while in cages), railroads (a.k.a. lightning rails), huge mechanical forges in the middle of a forest because it needs wood but not iron so much, or a rare type of 'ironwood'. If you want to go industrial/labor revolution in America's history, you can use the Carnegie/homestead 'massacre' as some inspiration for some 'horror' element. A closed factory now haunted by wraiths from workers who died just trying to get a fair shake
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Post by anthonyroma1969 on Dec 5, 2012 8:46:46 GMT -5
Well, the issue becomes that the more technology you will add, the smaller the details would be if you want to add them. Yes, SteamPunk type tech would have huge gears, but there would also be small gears as well.
I would try to make some bookcases, desks, etc. for the encounters, but remember the theatre of the mind will be adding a lot of the small details.
As another idea, just focus on the large stuff (like the lightning rails). Take the tech that they had in that era and think of the equivalent for that using magic.
Let us know if you need any other ideas. Any details that you can give us will help us make ideas for your campaign.
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steel
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Post by steel on Dec 5, 2012 11:09:48 GMT -5
Yeah, the small details are going to have to be theatre of the mind in my group, there's no way i'd be able to draw gears that small. However i think that building a textile mill with sewing machines that are basically a U shape with threads would make an interesting trap. The characters or monsters would be pushed into the trap and they'd take 1/2 standard damage for that level trap and be immobilized until they could break free. Man i'm getting some great ideas here
please excuse me here, a lot of this stuff I'm posing here for future adventures in my own campaign. Hope everyone finds this useful
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Post by dm1scotty on Dec 5, 2012 12:01:58 GMT -5
I use theatre of the mind quite a bit for small details. I only craft something if it will play a significant roll in the fight like cover or an obstruction. Since you are not crafting walls you can always give descriptions about architecture or wall ornamentation. Don't feel you have to craft every lil' detail.
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Post by m3talslime on Dec 7, 2012 0:36:07 GMT -5
It is going to be a Steam Punk/Chthulu mythos style campaign with a dash of the mist from ravenloft concepts for easy time and planar travel as needed. I love the idea of the "lightning rails" playing a major travel/encounter role.
You guys have given me a lot to think about! I knew you wouldn't let me down! Thank you all so much!
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Post by m3talslime on Dec 7, 2012 0:38:12 GMT -5
Also, I can't get enough of movies from the time period. I really enjoyed the Sherlock Holmes movies that you suggested. If it is mainstream, I have likely seen it. Anyone have some more obscure reference material or things that you just flat out would like to share?
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Post by onethatwas on Dec 7, 2012 3:47:33 GMT -5
Sometimes good source material comes from unexpected places. Keep in mind that what was the Victorian Era for Europe was the same "Wild West" era for a large portion of America. So you can get alot of good source material for ideas from good westerns too.
Also, I should point out that there is a big difference between Steampunk and Magipunk (Which is Eberron). Steampunk assumes that current age technology (such as high powered computers) were possible with the steam, coal, and budding electric technology that was prominent in the Victorian era. Think of it as if Tezla's inventions were on hyperdrive. Another good example of Steampunk is Back to the Future 3. Doc Brown is a perfect example of a Steampunk Mad Scientist.
Magipunk, however, assumes that the technologies that exist today are possible....with magic instead of actual technology. Eberron is a perfect example of it.
It may not seem like a big difference, but in order to capture the feel of a Steampunk Game, it's important to know where the line is drawn. That and some people can get really sensative about stuff like that (As I learned the hard way when I made an off comment in a Comic Book store).
Obviously the same goes for Cyberpunk (The Matrix), Deisel Punk (Hard to think of a good example...it's basically like Steampunk, except instead of technology being advanced using Victorian Era tech, it emphasizes technology prominent in the 1920-1940 period).
So, just some additional info thar...
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steel
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Post by steel on Dec 7, 2012 17:00:32 GMT -5
The end of the Victorian era is when the American industrial revolution was taking place. Steel manufacturing (dwarves/equivalent) under a giant with a Scottish accent is an excellent representation of Carnegie steel. Having some single person selling lamp oil is a good representation of standard oil. Having a world's faire type of place in your campaign with lots of inventions i one place is another great setpeice, though it might be better in flavor than actual design on your tiles. Something to look at is pictures of the crystal palace (i believe the london world faire), one of the first worlds faires was inside of it, built to contain but not destroy the natural landscape and trees. There's a lot of great things from that era to pull from, which i'm going to be doing liberally in my campaign
Yes i'm pushing hard on the late victorian side
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Post by m3talslime on Dec 12, 2012 1:25:54 GMT -5
I am definitely not going to be as advanced as computers. I love the worlds faire idea! I am including that for sure in some fashion or another.
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Post by m3talslime on Dec 12, 2012 1:29:46 GMT -5
I love the "anything is possible if you can imagine how it might exist in this time" feeling, in conjunction with the spunky "do it yourself" attitude of steam punk. That is what has always drawn me to it.
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Post by clanoneillguy on May 28, 2013 9:27:55 GMT -5
I just watched a series called Copper on Netflix. I think it was originally from the BBC. It is about a cop in New York City during the Civil War. There is another series called Hell on Wheels which is very similar. In the second the guy is a Civil War vet working out west on a railroad. Very similar plot lines but both would give you ideas of law enforcement and investigative things in America at about the same time frame. I watched another tv series called Murdoch Mysteries on Netflix. Again I think it is from the BBC. It is set in or very close to 1899. Its a very light themed cop show. The main character uses "modern" and scientific techniques to solve crimes. Picture CSI Victorian. His co-workers are old school and still beat confessions out of people so he is always explaining what he is doing. He meets famous historical people (mostly scientists) that help him. Some of the things are accurate some are a stretch but it is still a fun show. I hope these three sources of North American investigations adds to your research.
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griffonwing
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Post by griffonwing on May 29, 2013 3:21:19 GMT -5
Something that I have done in one of my games.
The Setup: The party mage was sent to find a lost manuscript from it's last known location (2 hundred years ago) a library in a nearby city.
The Problem: The manuscript has been the subject of MANY MANY searches of the library, so what makes the party menber thing that they would succeed at a search where so many others with far greater skills have failed?
The Location: The manuscript's hiding place is located inside of one of the stone pillars in the lower repositry where rare scrolls are kept. The pillars are of dwarven craft and the secret panel follows the filigree of the design masterly.
The Solution: Next to the library is a gnome workshop. The party notices this as they roam the town. Most think nothing of it. The mage spends a few nights rummaging through the scrolls and manuscripts in order to try and locate the one he needs. While he is perusing the paperwork, the gnome tinkerer leaves his workshop and heads to the tavern for a pint...forgetting that he left a burner lit under a sealed brass globe where he was working on steam pressure. The subsequent explosion an hour later caused the complete devastation of the workshop, as well as a serious quake in the subchambers of the library...so much so that the hidden catch of the pillar jarred loose, and significantly lowered the search DC.
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AJ
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Post by AJ on May 29, 2013 9:01:24 GMT -5
I used to use Palladium Book's 'Beyond the Supernatural' setting as an element in my 'Heroes Unlimited' games, and there are lots of ideas in that book which translate really well into a steampunk/Cthulu setting. My first advice is always to check out actual historic events of the period you are setting your game, because even if your world is different, the events from our past often lead to great adventure ideas, and having real places that these things happened, gives you solid ideas for what sort of adventure locations to build and use in your game.
I ran a pre-WWII Super heroes campaign and built up quite a feel for the era, while providing better immersion for the players by having things at hand, like newspaper headlines, 'events in history' stuff that was taking place around their characters.. also, NPC's in your steampunk/cthulu game will have attitudes toward things that fit commonly accepted views, bias and politics for that era.
One simple thing to try out, is the interdimensional house trope.. this has been done a lot.. Poltergeist featured a portal to the spirit world, House featured portals into the main characters past (Vietnam) and a sort of dark limbo, even a closet that had a monster appear at a specific time each night. You can have a lot of fun with objects that normal people find, which have some sort of odd power, that people take advantage of, usually for petty reasons, a great example is the TV series 'Warehouse 13'.. thats also got a lot of steampunk themed items in it, and some fairly standard encounter locations.
Also, when it comes to encounter tiles for Victorian era locations, break them down into basics.. they probably have walls made of brick, they will probably feature wrought iron struts, supports, scaffolds and such, a warehouse is a big space with some big doors, some small doors and an office, a factory is exactly the same, except instead of all crates, it has some machines in it.. a hospital ward is a large space with some offices and surgical theatre rooms in it.. all these places are the same basic building, just with different objects in them.
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slurpy
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Post by slurpy on May 29, 2013 10:58:37 GMT -5
House featured portals into the main characters past (Vietnam) and a sort of dark limbo, even a closet that had a monster appear at a specific time each night. I don't remember Hugh Laurie fighting the Cong or closet monsters. I mostly just remember him being a bastard and taking pills. . .
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