elements of 19th century rpg?

[redwing]

I'm looking for a collection of the basic elements of a 19th centruy campaign drawn from novels of the period or possibly modern novels/movies. I'm not looking for references to any RPG's. Sort of like "The league of Extraordinary Gentleman," but taken further.

Some things I've came up with:

Space Travel: From the Earth to the Moon
Time Travel: The Time Machine
Alien Lifeforms: War of the Worlds
Man/Animal Hybrids: The Island of Dr. Moreau
Advanced Transportation Technology: several of Jules Verne's works

What other strange concepts would you like to see in a 19th century campaign that originated in the novels of the century? I'm sure I've seen a reference to dinosaurs (Lost World possibly?)

 

[Ed_Laprade]

Space travel can be more than Earth-Moon. Mars and Venus were visited occasionally as well. (Pick up Space:1889 if you can.)

Underground civilizations.

Underwater civilizations. (Atlantis, Mu, etal.)

Voodoo and Zombies!

Uber scienticif/magic Asian villains. (Dr. Fu Manchu.)

Other lost civilizations. (Burroughs was good for these, even if he was a bit later.)

I'm sure I'm forgetting some...

 

[WayneLigon]

The major thing you need for a 19th century RPG is Spiritualism. The Spiritualism movement was in full swing, spawning or codifying most of what we in the 21st century think of as 'The Occult'. There was tremendous mainstream interest in the occult and it was supported by many popular figures of the day. Mediums of various types, psychic phenomenon, and hypnotism (Mesmerism) are the major players.

 

[Tonguez]

Tsarist Conspirators in Afghanistan
Thugees
Cowboys
Weird Science Potions of Invisibility
Weird Science Potions of Raging-Homicidal-Maniac-Form (ie Mr Hide)
Noble Savages
Ghosts
Independent Domestic Women
White Rabbits (Alice in Wonderland)
The Yellow Peril
The White Mans Burden
Pickpockets (Oliver)
The Urban Poor (Dickens genrally)
White Whales
Vampires
Flesh golems
Alien Invaders in London (War of the Worlds)
Satirical Utopia (Erewhon)

Erewhon also predicted Thinking Machines (AI)

for non-fiction

Darwins Origin of the Species was causing a sensation too - so both biological and cultural darwinism might be a theme

 

[Glyfair]

Appropriate 19th Century novels to get ideas from:

Arthur Conan Doyle: Sherlock Holmes series
Jules Verne: Lots of themes already touched on
Mark Twain: Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer (lots of adventure without being superfantastic)

 

[haakon1]

Beat me to it on five of these! I say, well done, old chap.

That of course means you also need detectives . . .

I used to run a Boot Hill campaign that pulled in:
- Thugee worshippers of Kali (read the world's first mystery novel, the Moonstone; or see the 1930s movie Gunga Din; or see the 1980s movie Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom)
- Shao Lin temple kung fu wanderers
- a detective (for the Cities of New York and Brooklyn Department of Police)
- a detective (for the North West Mounted Police, predecessor to the RCMP)
- two (!) frontier woman posing as men
- a ghost of a conquistador
- native Americans
- Mexican bandits
- Mexican revoluntionaries (Viva Zapata! Viva Zorro!)
- a Confederate cavalry officer who never quite surrendered (see the 1950s John Wayne movie "The Searchers" and the 1970s Clint Eastwood follow up "Outlaw Josie Wales")
- a preacher man with a fast trigger finger (see the 1980s Clint Eastwood movie "Pale Rider")

Who needs sci fi 19th century when the plain regular fictional one has SO much going on!

Thugees
Cowboys
Noble Savages
Ghosts
The Yellow Peril

 

[JRR_Talking]

actually working on something for this right now., but trying to keep it historical..some blurb i have given my players. working on a time line at the moment.

Victorian Quest
I have picked 1865 as weapons are about to take a leap, lots trains, social classes beginning to break down from breeding to wealth, no finger prints as yet, no automatic lathes, no machine guns in circulation or true grenades, telecommunications on the way up, american civil war still important, UK beginning to be master of the world, beginnings of some welfare strikes, child reform, environmental issue, established police force, beginnings of european anarchist movements, karl marx+communist leagues in london, sewerage system, building of undergrounds under the river, Poe has written the first true detective + horror stories, robin hood is all the rage , hynoptism and mediums and illusionists are flourishing, great exhibition has brought new ideas, etc

most games u can buy tend to be 1880 or later.

The RPG game "passages" may be what you are looking for, blue devil games

 

[sjmiller]

What you really want to go find is Marcus L. Rowland's Forgotten Futures. You should be able to find just about everything you need for Victorian Era Fantasy and Science Fiction RPGs there along with stories of the time period, art, magazine articles, and a host of seriously cool stuff. It is at Forgotten Futures . The thing you will like is that it's all free, and if you want a nice CD-ROM of it you can get it and help a charity at the same time. Check it out, it's worth it.

 

[J_D]

- a Confederate cavalry officer who never quite surrendered (see the 1950s John Wayne movie "The Searchers" and the 1970s Clint Eastwood follow up "Outlaw Josie Wales")

I think the John Wayne movie you're looking for is "The Undefeated", a 1969 movie. John Wayne played a Union cavalry officer, and Rock Hudson played a Confederate cavalry officer who left the south and headed into Mexico rather than surrender to the Union. John Wayne and his men left the army and ended up there independently, and the two groups actually became friends when they got caught between the Juaristas and the forces of Maximilian.

"The Searchers" actually was about a years-long search for a girl abducted by Indians and had nothing to do with non-surrendering Confederates.

 

[Wombat]

What you really want to go find is Marcus L. Rowland's Forgotten Futures. You should be able to find just about everything you need for Victorian Era Fantasy and Science Fiction RPGs there along with stories of the time period, art, magazine articles, and a host of seriously cool stuff. It is at Forgotten Futures . The thing you will like is that it's all free, and if you want a nice CD-ROM of it you can get it and help a charity at the same time. Check it out, it's worth it.

Gotta second this one! Rowland has done a fantastic job on covering a wide array of Victorian and Edwardian "fantastical" literature!