The Campaign Builder's Guild

Quote from: LlumFinally I had one last question, would their be steam powered analogue computers?

No.  To be honest I've just never been a fan of steam powered analogue computers.  Something about them annoys me.  I guess I want advanced technology, but not totally modern technology either.  I don't know; I guess I have to figure out where I want this to really be technologically.  If I don't push it forward in a significant way from the actual technology of the era, then it doesn't mean anything.  But how far do I want to leap forward?  It's something I have to think about and come to a decision on.  But no computers.

Yes, figuring out where the tech level really is can be definitive...and figuring out where popular tech and where experimental tech are at can be two different things.

( I point to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comical books as an excelent way to envision this.)

And in terms of magic, is this the kind of steampunk where the general populace belives heavily in the progress of technology, but views magic as superstition?

Quote from: LordVreegAnd in terms of magic, is this the kind of steampunk where the general populace belives heavily in the progress of technology, but views magic as superstition?

Yes.  Superstition, viewed with a mixture of cynicism and fear--The general belief that it's all nonsense, but the seemingly unjustifiable fear of "but what if it's not?"  And a deep seated fear of those who observe this "superstition," as much over the morality of such a person than fear of their "powers."  Crowley was mentioned above.  Think of the kind of reactions he received.

I just thought of something for that airship. You could set up the balloon to be able to split and unfold into a parachute-type thingy, thus allowing you to go down in a very controlled glide. On second thought... it probably wouldn't work.

While it has a 'tech' level beyond what you're describing, I'd recommend China Mieville's books (particularly Perdido Street Station) as a reference. Has the similar gothic/Victorian London feel while still maintaining a distinctly non-Earth historical atmosphere.

I'll second the reference (Mieville is probably my favorite fantasist), though notably in Mieville's book the fantastic is everyday and omnipresent, whereas it seems that this setting is going for a more furtive, invisible, subtly delivered fantastic.  And there are lots of steam-powered analogue computers...  ambitious steam-powered analogue computers.

Ok, just a little teaser of what is soon to come:

Werewolves, and The Beast within.

And later:

Luddites
Freak Shows, grotesque spectacle
Prostitution, the hidden empire
And much, much more!

Quote from: Seraphine_HarmoniumOk, just a little teaser of what is soon to come:

Werewolves, and The Beast within.

Run and Hyde, everybody!

Er, I mean...

Now who's to say Hyde isn't his own thing?  He would make a great NPC.

True. Especially if the PC's are in the Rue Morgue, but ah, that's been done.

By the way, not to distract your current creative priorities, but what are you doing with firearms? Do we have rifling yet? Repeating shots?

I'll work it out more fully in the future, but so far what I'm thinking is:

Rifling Yes
Repeating Shots--At least the revolver, but I think you may mean more in the sense of machine gun.  I haven't decided about machine guns.  The Gattling Gun appeared midway through the REAL Victorian period, so it's probably in.  I mean, in a steampunk setting, if anything it'd make sense to ramp UP the tech.  Don't know about semi-automatic rifles and the like yet.

Semi-auto rifles-- specifically the Winchester and the Spencer-- were in America in the late 19th century, so I don't see why they couldn't be in here. A steampunk Gattler, however, is just plain really cool.

I do have reasons for asking about firearms, by the way, and depending on your cooperation, I might be watching the development of this setting very closely...

Which reminds me, you said you want secret societies. One thing that always got me about secret societies is, since they're secret, you don't know how many are really out there. Great fodder for conspiracy theories. Are the Knights Templar in league with the Freemasons? Are they for, against, or neutral to the NWO? How does the Illuminati fit in? Maybe-- just maybe-- they're all just separate branches of a single organization of unimaginable influence! Anyway, "alternative press" websites might be useful here.

If you're doing secret societies, you might want to look at something along the lines of:
Born in Blood (the Masons are descended from underground Knights Templar who plotted the Great Peasant Revolt of ...)
Holy Blood, Holy Grail, The Messianic Legacy, and The Da Vinci Code (there's a secret society called The Prioiri de Sion who know where and who the potential Merovingian claimants to the throne of France are and they want the Merovingians re-instated because the Merovingian kings of France were descended from Jesus and Mary Magdalene, oh, and this group is a splinter group of The Knights Templar)

Also, concerning the occult and demonic presences, you might want to look at the version of The Goetia edited by Crowley.

World of Darkness might be a good system for this sort of thing, too.  I'm thinking of either the Vampire or Mage mechanics.  You could customize it however you wanted, adding different types of powers and such, changing the skills, and tossing White Wolf's setting completely, but as a template I think it would probably work well.  It's got a simpleness to it that is easily adaptable.

[blockquote=SDragon]Semi-auto rifles-- specifically the Winchester and the Spencer-- were in America in the late 19th century, so I don't see why they couldn't be in here.[/blockquote]
I'm looking up Winchester, Spencer, and Semi-automatic rifles, and thinking they all probably all acceptable.  Various versions of the Winchester "Repeating rifles" were available as early as the 1830s, and from there to Semi-automatic seems basically to just be removing the lever from the equation.  FULLY AUTOMATIC rifles make me wince.  This isn't the Matrix.  I don't want PCs running around with Uzis and M-16s.

On Secret Societies
The possibilities are endless.  They are, after all SECRET societies, so I can include new ones if I like, even thought there are already so many historical ones to work with.

Freemasons
Knights Templar
Rosicrucians
Theosophists
The Illuminati
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

And there are probably many many more.  How they interact with one another is as much a mystery as everything else about them.

 [blockquote=Acrimone]World of Darkness might be a good system for this sort of thing, too. I'm thinking of either the Vampire or Mage mechanics. You could customize it however you wanted, adding different types of powers and such, changing the skills, and tossing White Wolf's setting completely, but as a template I think it would probably work well. It's got a simpleness to it that is easily adaptable.[/blockquote]
I was looking at game systems, and I thought the World Of Darkness system was one of the more viable options.  I'm not sure I like the specifics of Vampire in every case (although they might be useful when it comes to designing Vampires in my setting, if I end up using their core system).  I haven't seen the specifics of Mage yet.  I also like One Roll Engine, from what I've seen.

Now, back to work on my Werewolves . . .