Technogadgets for Ladies and Gentlemen

Welcome, dear Guest!

I must confess that I’m really ashamed about how I failed my promise to finish The Day Urda Sunk quickly, but at the same time I’m quite proud of the reason for which I’ve had such a delay: I’ve become the new admin of Steam Pulp Fantasy, the official Wolsung website! From now on I’ll try to give justice to both of my duties, but I can’t promise that I’ll do it perfectly so right now I’m not able to plan a regular schedule for Steamagination. I’ll surely give it in the next post!

However, what I can do is giving you a summary of Steamagination FB’s Technology Week – a bunch of brand new, technomagical gadgets!

 

Aircraft carrier top-hat (15 XP)

An elegant but ridiculously heavy cylinder with miniature wyverns inside. Useful in many situations, but better not release them during a party.

Or: protocol golem with hidden combat alghoritms, unfading rose inhabited by a master swordsman’s spirit (helps during combat and discussion, not chases)

Traits: persuasion +3, power Helper x2 (helps during both combat and chases)

 

Dr Zeitgast’s Temporal Watch-Chain (10 XP)

An armoured chain watch with a chain so long that it can be used as a swung weapon. Especially that it contains a singularity generator that can create a small time warp and thus allow the watch to be used in no time – literally.

Or: self-doubling whip, Mrs Lovecut’s Shardsfield Generator, steam-powered snake in a glove

Traits: swipe, for a token: an extra attack with 2d10 dice pool.

 

Melousine Pills (10 XP)

Picture by Ewa Lubiarz

Having a singing voice is nearly obligatory in some circles, so ladies without this talent have to carry somebody else’s in their handbag. It’s not always Melusine’s brilliant soprano, but how boring would it be if every Lady sang like her?

Or: Sudden Tenorizator for Extraordinary Gentlemen

Traits: for a token: expression (singing) +5, special action: move somebody to tears with your voice.

 

Professor Gesundheim’s Energy-Efficient Relocator (10 XP)

A fast and elegant bicycle with a generator that converts movement into mana, allowing its owner not only to get anywhere on time but also to charge his brilliant inventions – or doomsday devices.

Or: Scientists’ Stroller Shoes by doctor Chodozdrovsky

Traits: athletics +3. Once per session renews a technomancer spell or power.

 

Driver’s license (15 XP)

Not every country on Urda requires drivers to be licensed, but those that do usually have really hard exams that could be passed only by Really Extraordinary Ladies and Gentlemen.

Or: vyvern pilot’s badge, sailing license, The Codex of Careful Steamotocyclist

Traits: drive (choose a vehicle) +3, on a raise: power strike, two raises: mobilization.

 

Forged driver’s license (15 XP)

Probably you don’t know how to drive anything, but long years of pretending that you do have given you some skills – as well as enmity of many policemen.

Or: rollerblades in high heels, an old-but-trusted steamobile, tank driver’s license (used to drive steamobiles)

Traits: for a token: drive +5, on a raise: daze, two raises: advantage.

 

Lovecraftian goods for Ladies and Gentlemen

Welcome, dear Guest!

The last week at Steamagination’s Facebook was Lovecraftian Week, a time full of forbidden knowledge and extraterrestrial horrors. Today I have for you a compilation of all goods that appeared on FB during that week plus one extra gadget – The picture of Filip Liebkraft. Enjoy!

 

Gadgets

 

The Book of Offerings (20 XP)

A man who used this book too often.

A rare and forbidden magical volume encouraging the reader to offer a part of himself in exchange for the lore of alien, hungry entities.

Or: an invisible imp advisor, a ritual knife of an alien cult, arcane formulas tattooed into one’s skin.

Traits: once per session: any ritualist power*, Enchance Power spell, any other ritualist spell*. Special: when using spells from this book you can sacrifice a Reputation, Constitution or Wealth point to gain an extra die just like ritualists do.

*Choose one when you acquire the gadget.

 

Fateful cookies (15 XP)

Fortune cookies (or tea cakes) with eldritch secrets instead of prophecies. Eat them regularly and you’ll soon be both well-versed in occult matters and fearless – or maybe too mad to fear anything?

Or: tea leaves of bad omen, collection of non-Euclidean statues, a psychoanalyst seeking occult meaning in his patient’s dreams.

Traits: courage +3, occultism +3, token: +5 in a conflict against an enemy who causes Fear.

 

The picture of Filip Liebkraft  (10 XP)

The picture told me that there was a shoggoth on the roof.

A portrait of famous Wotanian occultist who probably was kidnapped by venrierist to help in contact with the Elder Gods. The picture is said to have gone mad instead of Liebkraft himself. If it talks to you in your dreams, don’t worry – but be sure not to sleepwalk for you may enter the picture and never come back.

Or: Dr Zauberberger’s Remote Investigator, crystal ball with zoom option, clockwork third eye.

Effects: occultism +3, special action: find out any piece of lore related to the Elder Gods or Elder Races.

Special thanks to Liebkraft from Yog-Sothoth.com for giving me an inspiration for this gadget!

 

Saint Mario’s Spyglass (10 XP)

Some say that Mario Slavio, the most curious traveler in the Middle Ages was made a saint because he remained a faithful dualist despite the things he has seen during his voyages. Most of them have been seen using this spyglass.

Or: Dr Zauberberger’s Remote Investigator, crystal ball with zoom option, clockwork third eye.

Effects: spot +3, special: you can always use analysis or occultism to analyze the things you see through this spyglass as if you were standing next to them.

 

Walter Jackson’s notes (10 XP)

The notebook of a consulting detective that stopped at least dozen unholy rites, arrested the high priest of The Dancer Throught The Aeons and is currently considered lost in time and space.

Or: “Be a cultist!” disguise set, fake tattoo of a dangerous cult, talking skull of an ancient priest-king

Traits: occultism +3; +3 to social actions against cultists, warlocks and madmen.

 

Feats

 

Alien Heritage (5 XP)

And one day you won’t recognize yourself.

Strange things happen around you and maybe even in you. They may have happened since your birth or have begun after a strange event in your past.

Effect: once per session you can add a second card to the result of the roll at a cost of Reputation or Constitution point. This card represents something strange and shocking, like gills opening on your neck or a mysterious voice advising you on swordplay. You can’t use this ability when you play a second card by exhausting a power.

 

Fearless! (10 XP)

Requirements: trained in courage.

Effect: you draw an additional card when you succeed on a Fear test (normally it takes a raise). If Fear was caused by a creature during a conflict, a raise on that roll gives you an extra d10 for your next action against this creature.

 

Bend reality – a new spell

You can suddenly turn a favorable opportunity used by your opponent to your advantage.

Variants: Steam-powered Fate Depolarizer, a leak of matter from the tenth dimension, minor time manipulation, spinning a narrative of the real world.

Requirements: use this spell only when your enemy is playing a card. Discard all cards from your hand, lose a Reputation point (due to the mind-shattering scope of this spell) and make a roll of your arcane skill with TN dependent on the card: 2-10 means TN 10, J-K TN 14, Ace TN 20 and the Joker TN 30.

Effect: if your roll succeeds the card played by your enemy gives him a penalty instead of a bonus, for example a roll result of 17 with an ace is 12 and not 22. If your enemy was using a card instead of rolling the dice his test simply fails.

 

Sanity loss – a new scar

Some monsters – demons, the Elder Races, some undead – may be so appalling that losing any conflict with them causes a loss of Composture instead of Agility or Brawn. A PC whose Composure is reduced to 0 in that way can regain it by getting a following scar:

Sanity loss: courage -3, occultism +3

 

A Game of Shops, final part

Greetings, dear guest!

My exams are over since yesterday, so Steamagination will once again have regular updates. Today it’s time to finish Game of Shops.

 

Addicting addition

The last thing worth writing about in a Game of Shops is a major subplot that started as a joke and turned out to be really, really serious, probably more serious than anything else in the campaign. When a halfing scoundrel, Tomek Bugajło (Bugaylo) allied with the PCs they not only gave him promised shelter, but also tried the black lotus he was selling! At first they were very wary about using this drug, but soon they began to indulge in it.

And it was quite a surprise for me. Drugging themselves is something that positive characters certainly shouldn’t do and while nineteenth century knew less about addictions than our times the lotus is not just any drug, it’s the opium of Urda – and Urda probably already had its Opium wars. I must honestly admit that I haven’t read much about opium usage while I was running A Game of Shops but now I know that while it was used as a medicine in the nineteenth century selling it to people who didn’t really need it was a crime in victorian England. Even before I knew that it was clear to me that such an addiction must have some consequences, but I didn’t want to simply disallow using the lotus. It would be treating my players like children, something too similar to “sledgehammering” described in Drugs are bad at TvTropes.

There’s nothing wrong (period-wise) with a character smoking a pipe. Opium, however, is a more serious matter.

At first I’ve decided to demonstrate how inconvenient it is to smoke lotus. It looked like an innocent joke – every time somebody smoked lotus he rolled expression and his thoughts materialized with intensity based on the result of this roll. TN 15 gave a single picture while rolling 25 or more created something real and lasting.

The one who smoke the most was Zdzisław Nowicki (Zdhyswav Nowitsky), an ogre athlete always dreaming of battles with worthy opponents so his lotus dreams were various powerful boxers – trolls, ogres and so on. Sometimes a single test was enough to defeat them and make them vanish, but with good rolls they were so durable that Our Ladies and Gentlemen had to fight them for several rounds. Lots of things in their estate got demolished, but strangely they found it amusing rather than distracting and continued to smoke.

Amoral and shocking, isn’t it? But now as I think about this addiction it seems to me that the whole story became better because they didn’t stop. You know – drugs are such a danger because they are tempting. The PCs liked the “trips” they owed to the lotus so they indulged themselves with one drug-stuffed cigar after another and that allowed me to consider them real addicts and serve them a real nightmare trip. Courtesy of a sandbox-liking Game Master.

Black lotus is a fantasy drug[1], so getting addicted to it has very peculiar effect. It is strongly associated with writers who can’t tell the difference between their creations and the real world, so I’ve decided that the PCs who smoked lotus regularly – Zdzisław and Kevin, a sniper from Avalon – were losing their grip on reality. Zdzisław was haunted by a hallucinatory Szkudrycki (you know, the policeman who arrested him before) while Kevin, who at the moment of the first hallucination was spying in an inn like a Hooded Stranger from a fantasy setting met a group of three typical D&D heroes: a halfing thief, a dwarven warrior and an elfen mage. They asked him to give them a quest and later to protect them from a mysterious undead Warlock.

Both Kevin and Zdzisław were attacked by their hallucinations, but only Zdzisław resisted. It was a fun to hear him talking to Szkudrycki: I wasn’t guilty! You can’t arrest me! Wait, why am I talking to you? You don’t exist! Kevin, however, gave in. not only did he cooperate with his newfound friends, he also took later the side of the Warlock and began to believe the words of this wraith more than those of his existing companions.

Others tried to persuade him to turn back from this path leading nowhere, but when he decided to listen to their advices it was too late. When the campaign came to an end, a devil attacked Vidlice. The rest of Our Ladies and Gentlemen were fighting with him while Kevin hid himself with an artifact the devil was after, but then the Warlock approached him and persuaded our poor addict to enter his astral realm. A realm of ice and undeath, in fact created only to be an eternal prison for naïve Kevin. There was probably no higher-staked discussion in the entire history of my Wolsung sessions.

However, it wasn’t a va banque confrontation, so Kevin had a chance of escaping – Daphne Fatestring, a True Artist from a session long ago had a dream of his prison and drew a painting which was a gate to this remote astral realm. His friends managed to get him out of there, but the lesson was well-learned: now every time somebody mentions black lotus at the table the rest tells him to stop at once. I don’t want to boast myself but I think that it was such a good lesson because I’ve designed it not as a lesson, but simply as a logical consequence of PCs’ actions. I haven’t told even once something like “don’t do this” or “lotus is dangerous”, I’ve just allowed the players to do as they please and then I made them face the consequences.

 

But enough of my stories of myself! Next time we’ll look at Operation Wotan, the first Wolsung supplement released in Poland. And next week I’ll post here a three-part mini-campaign about a great expedition to the North Pole with lots of mysteries, villains and, of course, tentacles. For what good are arctic regions without a little bit of At the Mountains of Madness?

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[1] I saw it in Baldur’s Gate II and in stories about Conan, so it may in fact be the most generic fantasy drug ever.