Machina: Steampunk Roleplaying

[Delmer Esau]

This is what we are going with. Input requested...

Machina

No one knows who first laid the Machina beneath the great city-state of New Orthom. It grew though, we can know that for sure. New Orthom needed the Green Powdyr, the fuel, the scourge, that Machina created, so New Orthom made sure that the Machina was was well supplied when it demanded the slaves.

And Machina grew.

An unholy labrynth of gears, pullies, and steam, Machina's sole purpose was to shed the powdyr from the skin of the green ones. These special beings are made a subjected servant of industry, a cog, literally in the mechanism of a dark engine. The slaves and the green ones often know not of any world above, but only of the civilization of a machine.

Some do know, having been kidnapped from their lives under the sun in New Orthom or some other idyllic locale (and it does seem idyllic after being brought to Machina) and they suffer for the memory. Those that get to keep their memories, anyways, as Machina's overlords and taskmasters, the Drakkai, don't often let their slaves have a past.

One must serve the machine without distraction, you know.

Above is New Orthom, a gilded city of bronze, airships, cannon warriors, and and upper class joy. You can tell the time by the shadow cast by the tower castle, and you better, because you don't want to be late for tea. The Duke rules justly, as just as he can with a pit of hell feeding the airships, steamships, and cannon with the fuel it needs, the powdyr.

Rumour has it though, that something is awry in Machina...and a revolt is near...

Potential Roles and Figures in the Machina Steampunk RPG

Himat

The Green Ones. These nature sentients look human except for being shorter and having a greenish tinge to their skin. Most are brought to Machyna from the Tree Cities. A race that has suffered for centuries.

Drakkai

The rulers of Machina, though it could be said Machina rules them. Sword toothed lizard men with a gaze of death in their eyes.

The Order of Ortho

The cannonier knights of the Duke. They live by the smell and blast of the powdyr. They keep New Orthom safe in a world of warring city-states.

The Powder Rebels

These soldiers will bring an end to Machina, or die trying.

To use the "d10" OGL system currently being developed by myself. More information here: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=6372



What do you think? I love the idea of designing a steampunk game and I thought I'd start with one city and one Machine. The whole world of Republica is a collection of Machine integrated city-states. The Machines work differently in the different cities and locales.

Any thoughts?

How about how this setting will fit with the d10 system? Any comments on how to integrate the two?

[deadpanbob]

Delmer Esau

Welcome to the Forge, again.  I posted a general welcome in your other thread - if you're interested.

You've posted some very interesting ideas for a setting - qutie uniqe (in my limited experience).

In response to your question, in terms of relating this vision of system to the OGL d10 system you're developing, I would ask a couple of follow-up questions:

In the other thread, you mention being a fan of 'Cinematic Action', is that an asthetic that you want to come out in this Steampunk setting?

If so, you're going to have to consider providing some type of mechanic that either encourages Cinematic Action, or allows players to circumvent the standard mechanics of action resolution to do amazing things.

For the former, I'd look into Daniel Pond's series of games, which can be found here, for inspiration and thoughts on how others have done it before.

For the latter, I'd look at White Wolf's Adventure! as one of the best examples of how a resource can be used to circumvent the normal action resolution rules (Inspiration Points are the mechanic I'm talking about).

The reason I bring this up is because the general thumbnail you gave of the OGL d10 system don't seem to give me the feel of Cinematic Action.

In terms of marrying mechanics to setting/color/style, I'd check out  Dust Devils, and perhaps Octane.  Both of these games have mechanics that are very closely linked to the setting and feel of their respective game universes.  Finally, you might also want to look at the work being done on Alyria - while not finished yet, it also has a very close integration of mechanics and setting.

I know that I'm throwing a lot of games/material at you - and that may not be exactly what you wanted.  It's been my experience, however, that the best way to get inspiration for my own work is to read the work of others - to see how lots of different designers approached an issue (and preferably designers who are perceived to have nailed the issue with their work) - which then either inspires me to incorporate something into my own design or more rarely sparks an entirely new idea as I think about their designs in terms of my own.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,


Jason[/url]

[Delmer Esau]

Well maybe not cinematic so much as heroic.

With the Hot Effects there is a chance that when a skill is used (specifically 1 in 10 plus success of the action) that something overboard will occur.

An example might be rolling for an attack against a clockwork beast with hand cannon skill while attacking with your arquebus, and achieving a Hot Effect. The Hot Effect for the hand cannon skill would be a critical hit. The GM would determine that it being a heroic success, the character shooting at the clockwork beast shot out one of the beasts stained glass eyes.

That is just to use the easiest to understand example of course, the Hot Effect for the skill of running might be heroic speed, running the 4 minute mile, so to speak. Think of the power ups common in video games, where when the character gets it Just Right, hardcore action ensues.

[J. Backman]

I am actually working on a similar project myself -- The Coil (formerly known as The Shining) is a weird mixture of dieselpunk, science fiction and fantasy horror, something like The Matrix mixed with H.P. Lovecraft and Thief (the excellent computer game).

The only advice I can give to you is: don't be too careful. Go for it. Include every little wacky idea you get. The setting can take it. In fact, I think that the setting demands it.

[Malcolm Craig]

The only advice I can give to you is: don't be too careful. Go for it. Include every little wacky idea you get. The setting can take it. In fact, I think that the setting demands it.

I'd agree, just go for it full bore. Steampunk-esque settings thrive on the bizarre and outlandish (eg: Harry Harrisons 'A Trans-Atlantic Tunnel, Hurrah!', James Blaylocks 'Lord Kelvins Machine' and 'The Digging Leviathan' and, more tangentially, Neal Stephensons 'The Diamond Age').

In writing a/state, I found that some of what I though were just silly, throwaway ideas actually were the ones that players becamse the most enthusiastic over or enjoyed the most.

Cheers
Malcolm