On Trial. Day 5

[David Flin]

Again, @Sgt Frosty presents a little something in the absence of the meat-sack. If you're interested in RPGs, the forum has its own Games Corner.

Discuss this Here.

 

[varyar]

Space 1889 suggests a likely focus - planetary romance instead of faux-medieval fantasy. PCs would likely be John Carter or Vernean explorer types thrust into the strange worlds beyond the atmosphere (or below the surface). Hollow Earth, Dying Mars and Vibrant Venus would be the typical settings instead of Middle-earth clones and/or or Not!Earths like the Forgotten Realms.

 

[FriendlyGhost]

Gerald: "Oh go on, we haven't had one in the party before."
Reginald: "I don't mind."
Cecil: "Neither do I."
Sebastian: "Nor I."
Maurice: "Alright then, you can be an American. But don't try to do the accent. I haven't forgotten your attempt to be a Spaniard when we played 'The Search for El Dorado' last month."
G: "Great. So I've got a Colt six-shooter, which gives +4 to reaction time, and a Winchester, which gives +2 to accuracy."
M: "Only when you have the initiative. If you're surprised, you get -2 to attack with the Winchester."
G: "Are you sure?"
M: "Yes. It says so here in 'Wondrous Weapons of the World' - see?"
G: "Well, I'm going to equip the Colt as my primary weapon then."
M: "Fine. So, that's your party. Have you all read the prologue for 'Return to the Lost World' or should I recap?"

... later ...

M: "Roll for initiative. All except you, Sebastian, you're still unconscious."
S: "Just my luck."
R: -rolls die- "2."
G: -rolls die- "9."
C: -rolls die- "7."
M: -rolls die behind a screen- "Gerald, you're first, what do you do?"
G: "I sneak up behind the ape-man and hit him over the head."
M: "With what?"
G: "Ehhh, with the butt of my rifle."
M: "Roll to attack."
G: -rolls die- "2"
M: -rolls die behind a screen- "The ape-man turns round as you raise the rifle above your head. Your attack is foiled. He stabs at you with a sharpened stick. Roll to avoid his attack."
G: -rolls die- "2"
M: "It's not your day today, is it? The stick catches you in the stomach for..." -rolls die- "5 damage. Cecil, what are you doing?"
C: "Can I use my whistle in one round?"
M: "Where is it?"
C: "In my left breast pocket."
M: "Then yes."
C: "I blow my whistle."
G: "Can't you do something useful? I'm bleeding to death here!"
R: "No, no, don't you remember? I got the whistle from the tribesmen. They said it summons help."
S: "What, like the gemstone you had last week? Those Martians nearly killed us for having one of their sacred stones!"
M: "Alright, alright, let's stick to this game. Reginald, roll for luck."
C: -rolls die- "20!"
M: "A small pterodactyl swoops out of the sky and attacks the ape-man."
C: "See, I told you so!"
S: "Hmmph. Well, right now I need another port and it's your round, old boy."

 

[Alex Richards]

We'd have a lot of uncomfortable-in-hindsight elements relating to Atlantis or other lost planet-spanning civilizations that were the ancestor of all modern 'advanced' nations, their remnants being found in the still-unexplored corners of the world- Darkest Africa, Antarctica, the centre of Australia, High Tibet, Amazonia and the like.

I'd also expect to see your typical characters being more frontiersmen, explorers, nobles or scientists- your more typical steampunk vibe might well be more common.

Although the alternative is if it's coming from the pre-Raphaelites or Arts and Crafts movement- could end up heavy on the Arthurian Romance vibes.

 

[Ncw8]

“Anyone want a game of Warriors and Witches? I’ve just got the latest Rider-Haggard sourcebook and I’m dying to try out his King Solomon’s Mine campaign.”

 

[M_Kresal]

H.G. Wells became a noted early author of game scenarios in the mid to late 1890s. The Chronoauts saw players thrown forward into the future by a temporal device, with the Scenario Master using Wells’ guidelines to have them either defend the Eloi from the Morlocks or join forces with the subterranean brutes to recover humanity’s lost future inheritance. Players who attempted to return with it to the present would instead be betrayed by the Morlocks who would seek domination over the Earth both in the present and future. The popularity of the latter ending inspiring Wells follow-up The War of the Times, which saw players facing the tripod clad Morlocks as they invaded Victorian Britain.

 

[AndyC]

“Anyone want a game of Warriors and Witches? I’ve just got the latest Rider-Haggard sourcebook and I’m dying to try out his King Solomon’s Mine campaign.”

Dammit, I was going to go for for an H Rider-Haggard direction.

 

[Stateless]

Given Dungeons and Dragons was majorly influenced by The Lord of the Rings, Victorian RPGs would draw on different inspirations. The Matter of Britain, particularly the Arthurian cycle. Greek myths. The Prose and Poetic Eddas.

But maybe the book that would spark it would be Edward Bulwer-Lytton's Vril: The Power of the Coming Race, a book that launched the first ever science convention (the Vril-Ya Bazaar and fete) (and Bovril).