Raptus Regaliter

So, my group played SotC as a one-shot last night. Rather than going for the standard pulp adventure feel, we did sort of a steampunk/pulp mix. The year was 1857 - during the Indian Revolt - and instead of having fought in the Great War, everyone was a former member of the now-defunct East India Company.

The intended plot was fairly simple. The H.M.S. Balthazar, a ship carrying tea and spices and other sundries from India to London is attacked by mysterious turbaned pirates during the night. The characters are awakened from their bunks, and run to defend the ship. After warding off the pirate attack, they find that a couple of clay tablets - the Tablets of Brama - have gone missing! This leads to an investigation upon their return to England, during which they discover that the Tablets were supposed to go to one Dr. Bartholomew Farnham, a Professor of Antiquities at the British Museum.

Dr. Farnhan is reputed to be working on some secret project for the Crown, and hasn’t been seen for some time. Investigating his office at the British Museum, they find one of the turbaned pirates rifling through the good Doctor’s belongings. When they chase down and capture the mysterious man, he crumbles to dust, but leaves behind a page from Dr. Farnham’s notes - a rubbing of a chunk of the Tablets, and the address to a warehouse on the banks of the Thames. Some research into the rubbing indicates that the Tablets of Brama, which, legend says had the power to end wars, were in fact an ancient blueprint, but a blueprint for what was unknown.

Making their way to the warehouse, they find hundreds of the strange pirates loading steam-powered boats with supplies. Dr. Farnham is there as well, bound and held captive. The characters go in guns blazing and fists swinging, causing massive chaos, and setting off some of the crates of gunpowder. After a vicious fight, Dr. Farnham is rescued.

He informs the characters that he was captured  by the real mastermind of the operation, one Sir Randall Dalton, former Leftenant in the East India Company*. It seems that he was unwilling to let the dissolution of the Company go, and was convinced that if he built the weapon, he could crush the Indian Rebellion and once again restore the East India Company as the rulers of India. Capturing the Tablets (actually, the remaining tablets) also allowed him to control their ancient guardians, who, through some strange Eastern magic, were undead slaves to whomever held them.

So, the characters track Sir Dalton to a small, rocky island off of Britain’s northeastern coast. They can plainly see the pirate ship that attacked them in the first scene. The island itself is dominated by a crumbling keep. Sneaking onto the island, they make it to the underground workshop where Dalton has finally completed the weapon - and modified it for his own purposes! During the ensuing battle, Dalton activates his monstrosity - a giant iron clockwork and steam powered elephant, armed with very large guns. Of course, the characters defeat it, and bring the keep down on Dalton and his mechanical monstrosity. As the keep crumbles, the characters make a dashing escape back to England.

Now, in practice, we didn’t make it all the way through. They managed to stop Dalton immediately after the scene in the warehouse. I do, however, really like this scenario, and I might use it for convention play at some point.

Some changes I’d make:

• The characters shoudn’t start off on the ship. If the players do well enough, they can prevent the theft of the Tablets and pretty much blow the game out of the water (no pun intended). Instead, they should be handed the assignment of investigating the attack of the H.M.S. Balthazar, and find out about the Tablets later.
• Use the quick character creation rules. Or, better yet, use pregenerated characters. For a convention, I’ll probably use variations of the characters that were created by my group. I really liked their ideas
• Really shave down the amount of investigation that the group needs to do. As awesome as it can be, if not done right, or if the players have no clear idea of what they’re after, it can take far too long and lead to serious tangents.
• I need to prep better. The minions are easy (SotC’s minion rules rock!), but I need to really work on my NPC’s.
• Finally, I need more steampunkish stuff. Maybe Dalton’s ship needs to be a dirigible. Even better, he may need a good henchman to foil the characters.

Despite the problems, the system itself is a joy to run - incredibly intuitive. I had some difficulty (by some I mean a lot) compelling one of my players’ Aspects. I’ll chalk this one up to poor communication of the rules on my part. Still, all in all I think everyone had a good time. Running this game was great practice for the Dresden Files playtest that we’re starting tonight.

*I don’t know if there actually were Leftenants in the East India Company. But it made for a decent plot, so fuck it.

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