St(r)eam of consciousness
May. 1st, 2004 03:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
morslaThis is a braindump of ideas for a game that I'd like to run - random thoughts on theme, structure, etc.
Steampunk Noir. More of a magitech (fantasy steampunk - Iron Kingdoms, etc) setting than "Victorian" steampunk. I'm thinking along the lines of a one-session convention-style game; probably to run at Conquest next year. Unicon runs just before my thesis goes in, and I'm already spoken for at Arcanacon...
It's a systemless game (more on that in a later post). Small number of players (3-4?). A girl, running from her past... an investigator on a mission... a man who knows some clues (and keeps his card close to his chest). I'm tempted to have five characters available, and run the game for three or more, though - depends on whether I can think of another two roles that I'd like to see played. Blend the urban smoke and soot of a steamtech setting with the street-level viewpoint of a crime story.
Blurb: would be written from the POV of the investigator, describing the city, and setting the scene.
City: Bustling cog-tech town, steamtech layered over a "traditional" medieval-fantasy city. Mad inventors. Matters of Honour. King and country. Clockwork mechanisms. Criminal connections and seedy bars. Blackpowder. Steam-powered trader wagons. Railroads. Steamjack robots that handle heavy lifting in the marketplaces. Dark, rainswept streets, hemmed in by the smoke and fog of a hundred coal-burning industries.
I'll write down a list of themes and archetypes to seed the story with, to lend atmosphere to the street and city. The city has grown beyond a mere "town" - the buildings are large enough to feel claustrophobic, but the streets are so long, and the people so many, that almost everyone is a stranger. Juxtaposition of near and far. Make personal contacts feel more important, to give the "regular" local figures a reason for standing out of the crowd.
Locations: To let the game run to a non-linear storyline, I'll write up lots of locations in the city. The "game" is essentially a setting and a weave of sub-plots, to be influenced by the characters - more of a backdrop, so that I can see where the players take their characters each time it runs. Grungy, dirty city locations. Bars. Whorehouses. Stores. Marketplaces. Gambling dens. Aristocrat academies. Workshops. Smiths and forges. Inns. The King's Palace. Gatehouse and guardroooms.
For each site (one page), describe its appearance & location in the city. Detail key personalities who might be found there - name, appearance, motivations. What do they know about, where can they lead the players to. Tie them into the various sub-plots. The direction the story takes will depend on where the players choose to go, and what they make of the information they find there.
Magitech/mechanicks: Replace "advanced" technology with magic - but treat it in a similar fashion to technology in a cyberpunk game. It does things better than unenhanced equipment, and it can be acquired at a price (from external dealers). The best on the streets use the best gear. Dangerous jobs pay well. Keep emphasis on personal motivations for each character, though.
Nuts'n'bolts:
Make a one-page glossary for the game, and a small map showing countries. Most people playing the game won't have any idea of what the Iron Kingdoms setting contains, so I'll write it with no assumed knowledge. It's a game in a human city, with relatively few outside influences. NO major IK "villains" (no dragonlord plots, etc) - make it more personal, and more individual. I can still fill the city with background details though, for anyone who looks - Toruk priests and hidden cults; religious zealots recruiting for Menoth on the streets (Bladerunner-style disinterested street crowd); bodgers working for the mechanics, etc.
I'll keep adding ideas as I think of them. Any extra ideas & suggestions are welcome - locations, notable personalities, sub-plots to run in the background, etc... the more detail I add, the better ;-)
Steampunk Noir. More of a magitech (fantasy steampunk - Iron Kingdoms, etc) setting than "Victorian" steampunk. I'm thinking along the lines of a one-session convention-style game; probably to run at Conquest next year. Unicon runs just before my thesis goes in, and I'm already spoken for at Arcanacon...
It's a systemless game (more on that in a later post). Small number of players (3-4?). A girl, running from her past... an investigator on a mission... a man who knows some clues (and keeps his card close to his chest). I'm tempted to have five characters available, and run the game for three or more, though - depends on whether I can think of another two roles that I'd like to see played. Blend the urban smoke and soot of a steamtech setting with the street-level viewpoint of a crime story.
Blurb: would be written from the POV of the investigator, describing the city, and setting the scene.
City: Bustling cog-tech town, steamtech layered over a "traditional" medieval-fantasy city. Mad inventors. Matters of Honour. King and country. Clockwork mechanisms. Criminal connections and seedy bars. Blackpowder. Steam-powered trader wagons. Railroads. Steamjack robots that handle heavy lifting in the marketplaces. Dark, rainswept streets, hemmed in by the smoke and fog of a hundred coal-burning industries.
I'll write down a list of themes and archetypes to seed the story with, to lend atmosphere to the street and city. The city has grown beyond a mere "town" - the buildings are large enough to feel claustrophobic, but the streets are so long, and the people so many, that almost everyone is a stranger. Juxtaposition of near and far. Make personal contacts feel more important, to give the "regular" local figures a reason for standing out of the crowd.
Locations: To let the game run to a non-linear storyline, I'll write up lots of locations in the city. The "game" is essentially a setting and a weave of sub-plots, to be influenced by the characters - more of a backdrop, so that I can see where the players take their characters each time it runs. Grungy, dirty city locations. Bars. Whorehouses. Stores. Marketplaces. Gambling dens. Aristocrat academies. Workshops. Smiths and forges. Inns. The King's Palace. Gatehouse and guardroooms.
For each site (one page), describe its appearance & location in the city. Detail key personalities who might be found there - name, appearance, motivations. What do they know about, where can they lead the players to. Tie them into the various sub-plots. The direction the story takes will depend on where the players choose to go, and what they make of the information they find there.
Magitech/mechanicks: Replace "advanced" technology with magic - but treat it in a similar fashion to technology in a cyberpunk game. It does things better than unenhanced equipment, and it can be acquired at a price (from external dealers). The best on the streets use the best gear. Dangerous jobs pay well. Keep emphasis on personal motivations for each character, though.
Nuts'n'bolts:
Make a one-page glossary for the game, and a small map showing countries. Most people playing the game won't have any idea of what the Iron Kingdoms setting contains, so I'll write it with no assumed knowledge. It's a game in a human city, with relatively few outside influences. NO major IK "villains" (no dragonlord plots, etc) - make it more personal, and more individual. I can still fill the city with background details though, for anyone who looks - Toruk priests and hidden cults; religious zealots recruiting for Menoth on the streets (Bladerunner-style disinterested street crowd); bodgers working for the mechanics, etc.
I'll keep adding ideas as I think of them. Any extra ideas & suggestions are welcome - locations, notable personalities, sub-plots to run in the background, etc... the more detail I add, the better ;-)
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no subject
Date: 2004-05-04 01:18 pm (UTC)I've decided that I need to read some more hard-boiled crime, and a lot more fanasy/steampunk. Time to start trawling the web for reading ideas, I think...
no subject
Date: 2004-05-06 12:21 am (UTC)You could go for the standard noir icons and give them a genre-twist. You have the gumshoe and the innocent with a secret...but don't forget the femme fatale, the joe who has his loyalty completely screwed over and the one who knows all, sees all, tells NOTHING.
Hell with it. Watch Bogart, play suitably dark tunes and open a book of steampunk. Then type.
eeeeenteresting...
Date: 2004-05-10 03:34 am (UTC)Good call on the noir icons - I definitely need a femme fatale in there. She'll play off nicely against the innocent, I think :P
no subject
Date: 2004-05-13 12:53 am (UTC)