What would you put in a Tick-Tock town?

[jaerdaph]

What would a clockwork-zombie outbreak look like, I wonder?

Maybe this?:

I found it yesterday Googling "steampunk cylon" images.

 

[WizarDru]

Maybe this?:

I found it yesterday Googling "steampunk cylon" images.

I like that for the BBEG behind them.

But what would somebody like that guy from Oz at the top of the thread...how would he appear different once infected? Would he throw sparks? Look rusted? I'm thinking that if a person gets bitten and infected by a zombie, they go pale, have bloody wounds/injuries and maybe have their eyes roll up, walk stiffly and so on. How would that translate from one automaton to the other?

 

[Pbartender]

Perhaps the town is secretly threatened but hasn't figured it out, yet. Some of the towns clockwork devices are ticking time-bombs and haven't noticed it yet.

What would a clockwork-zombie outbreak look like, I wonder?

Rather than Kroenen or the steampunk Cylon, I was thinking something a little more similar to the way lancet liver flukes take control over ants. But instead imagine a villager in place of the ant, and a mean little clockwork creature in place of the lancet fluke.

Say the clockwork parasite is small -- maybe the size of a large bug, like a cockroach. It crawls up the nose of a living (non-clockwork) victim, roots around it the brain a bit, and then takes control of the body. After a while, when the body starts getting too far gone to be useful, the clockwork parasite vacates its host, and looks for a new one.

To all outward appearances, it would seem an unusual and deadly plague, but with no obvious sign of the clockwork culprit... First the victims suffer chronic bloody noses, then terrible headaches and bouts of amnesia, finally they lose their appetites and waste away as they seemingly become leprous and die.

If there is only one of these parasites around, it becomes that much more mysterious (and gives a vital clue as to the culprit), since eventually someone is bound to notice that only one person at a time contracts the "illness".

 

[Mallus]

I think a clockwork town should have something called an Indifference Engine (mainly because I like puns).

Perhaps it's some kind of steampunk AI bureaucrat that the PC's run afoul of.

"Why I left the town in good hands. I constructed a "cognitive loom" to handle all the day-to-day affairs of governance."

 

[Siberys]

[sblock]

[/sblock]

The title of the thread immediately made me think of these. They're robotic, but changing them to be steampunkish would fit perfectly. They watch everybody, monitor everything, etc.

[As an aside, Gunnerkrigg Court is a great comic. I highly recommend it.]

 

[WizarDru]

I'm thinking more in terms of regular clockworks that have been "infected" and made into zombie clockworks, really. I don't want the town to be a zombie apocalypse...at least not when the players first arrive. There may be some irregularities, but I don't want actual human-hosts for the 'zombies', just clockworks that get changed. This would allow me to introduce them at the beginning of the adventure and then make them into some horrible twisted version later. Sort of like showing up in 'Babes in Toyland' and then having it turn into something much darker that the players will have to defeat to save the town.

The more I think on this, it's turning into a horror module. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. I wonder if that says something about me?

 

[diaglo]

The more I think on this, it's turning into a horror module. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. I wonder if that says something about me?

my first impression on reading the OP and title was Shrek and the newer Wonka movie with Johnny Depp.

Shrek's first visit to Duloc or Wonka's opening the door to the kids and parents.

the singing, dancing wind up welcome wagon

 

[Marius Delphus]

I tried to resist pimping the following EN Publishing products:

Mechamancy: The Clockwork Magic - EN Publishing | EN World PDF Store
Mechamancy II: Living Machines - EN Publishing | EN World PDF Store
The Fantastic Science: A Technologist Sourcebook - EN Publishing | EN World PDF Store
Steam & Steel: A Guide to Fantasy Steamworks - EN Publishing | EN World PDF Store

I realize of course these are all for 3.5E, but surely some ideas lurk therein.

 

[WizarDru]

I tried to resist pimping the following EN Publishing products:
I realize of course these are all for 3.5E, but surely some ideas lurk therein.

I appreciated your point them out to me. Unfortunately, they're mostly filled with 3.5 crunch that wouldn't really help me with this particular idea. A lot of that is geared more along Steampunk lines and player options.

 

[Pbartender]

I'm thinking more in terms of regular clockworks that have been "infected" and made into zombie clockworks, really. I don't want the town to be a zombie apocalypse...at least not when the players first arrive. There may be some irregularities, but I don't want actual human-hosts for the 'zombies', just clockworks that get changed. This would allow me to introduce them at the beginning of the adventure and then make them into some horrible twisted version later. Sort of like showing up in 'Babes in Toyland' and then having it turn into something much darker that the players will have to defeat to save the town.

That's cool...

How about this:

How about something similar to my clockwork parasite idea above, but applied to "healthy" clockwork machines instead... more like a von-Neumann-machine-like clockwork virus?

Insidious little clockwork machines insert themselves into other clockwork machines and change the "programming". Once "infected", the clockwork zombies set about attacking and dismantling other clockwork gadgets, so that the parts can be made to build more of the little wind-up viruses.