Victorian Era Adventure

[Gomez]

Several months ago I started working on a campaign setting, Africa Incognita, for use with d20 Modern/Past - it was inspired by Source of the Nile, the old Discovery/Avalon Hill boardgame. The characters would be explorers probing the heart of the mythic Dark Continent of H. Rider Haggard, C.J. Cutliffe Hyne, Joseph Conrad, P.C. Wren, and Rudyard Kipling. Frustrated with the Modern magic systems and impatient to get the game started, I scrapped writing it up as d20 Modern/Past and instead prepared to run the campaign using Mutants and Masterminds instead. Our tabletop group plans on playing our first Africa Incognita adventure sometime in the next month or so, when we reach a good point to take a break from our regular Modern game.

I still wanted to put something together for d20 Past, however, so I decided to try a more historical game, without the fantasy trappings, and started working on what I'm tentatively calling The Great Game, inspired by the clash of empires, Russian and British, in Central Asia in the 19th century. So far I've devoted most of my time studying the historical "Great Game" (the Russians refered to it as the "Tournament of Shadows") as well as re-reading Kipling's Kim and Talbot Mundy's King - of the Khyber Rifles and Caves of Terror, novels set in and around the period.

As far as the game system goes, I honestly don't expect d20 Past to provide me with everything I need to play the game I want, so I'm finishing the fifteen or so AdCs that I started working on originally for Africa Incognita for use with The Great Game. As of right now I plan to use material from Sidewinder: Recoiled as well - a couple of AdCs and some of the skills and feats will translate very well to this campaign-setting. As a result the system likely will be a blend of d20 Modern/Past, S:R, and a batch of homebrew.

I'm not familiar with d20 Adventure, so I couldn't tell you if that would be useful or not. I imagine Grim Tales would work well with this genre, too.

My goal is to have the first Great Game adventure ready by March - I picture a Russian spy sneaking into the palace of the Khan of Khiva, a British royal engineer exploring the snowy Pamirs, Baluchi tribesmen preying on caravans in the Bolan Pass, Turcoman slavers selling their human wares in the bazaar of Bokhara, Indian sepoys holding a lonely outpost on the Afghan frontier, Persian merchants gathered in the caravanserai of Tashkent...

WOW! What some great ideas! I would love to run a historic adventure game set during the Mahdist Uprising in the Sudan or the Anglo-Zulu war of 1879. British India is also a very rich area for adventure ideas. I will have to pick up Hopkirk's The Great Game . I would also suggest The Washing of Spears by Donald R. Morris, it is a great chronicle of the Zulu nation and particularly the war of 1879

How did you use M&M rules for a normal human adventure game? I would love to hear how your Africa Incognita game turns out.

 

[Gomez]

From your lips to the magic deer's ears...

Nisarg

I am sorry, I don't understand that statement.

 

[Wraith Form]

Maybe he is talking about Pagen's The Golden Dawn.

That's essentially what I concluded.

....and I'm not sure what Nisarg is talking about, either.

 

[The Shaman]

I imagine you've read Hopkirk's The Great Game, Shaman - I'd play in this setting in a second (I actually made a Great Game scenario for the computer game Civilization II).

So far I've read Hopkirk's The Great Game, Meyer and Brisac's Tournament of Shadows, Wood's The Silk Road, and the Kipling and Mundy novels I mentioned above. I plan on reading Lawrence James' Raj over the next couple of weeks and I'm ordering a copy of Hibbert's The Great Mutiny for additional background .

I would love to run a historic adventure game set during the Mahdist Uprising in the Sudan or the Anglo-Zulu war of 1879. British India is also a very rich area for adventure ideas. I will have to pick up Hopkirk's The Great Game . I would also suggest The Washing of Spears by Donald R. Morris, it is a great chronicle of the Zulu nation and particularly the war of 1879.

I read Morris' book years ago - good stuff.

The Mahdist uprising would make a very intersting campaign. If you decide to run it online. let me know - I'd march off to Khartoum to relieve General Gordon!

I'm currently running a Modern French Foreign Legion game (c. 1956), but I've also considered running a one-off of legionnaires in the Sahara in the late 19th century, after my other games (!?!) are moving along.

How did you use M&M rules for a normal human adventure game? I would love to hear how your Africa Incognita game turns out.

I created a bunch of character archetypes based on the Modern AdCs I'd originally worked on - Trader, Guide, Ranker, Missionary, and so on. The game is PL 6 with no "super-powers" other than sorcery (Witch Doctors) and simple mental powers like telepathy and telekinesis (Mentalist archetype) - this is fantastic Africa, after all; I used PL 6 for my previous M&M Twenties and Thirties pulp-era action adventures, and I didn't find it over-powered. I use some of the rules from The Nocturnals regarding firearms and other "grim 'n' gritty" elements. Our tabletop group is going to give it a try in the next month or so.

 

[Nisarg]

That's essentially what I concluded.

....and I'm not sure what Nisarg is talking about, either.

check out the recent "blue rose" threads and you'll know what the magic deer is, but basically "from your lips to "god's" ears" means I certainly hope so.

Nisarg

 

[Krieg]

The Boxer Rebellion, Meije Restoration & the (supposed?) destruction of the Thuggee cult fall neatly into this time period.

Hmm members of the Gurkha Brigade against Boxer Tong assassins anyone?

 

[Committed Hero]

Maybe he is talking about Pagen's The Golden Dawn.

Naturally.

Really messed up my players with King Arthur....

 

[gevrin]

So far I've read Hopkirk's The Great Game, Meyer and Brisac's Tournament of Shadows, Wood's The Silk Road, and the Kipling and Mundy novels I mentioned above. I plan on reading Lawrence James' Raj over the next couple of weeks and I'm ordering a copy of Hibbert's The Great Mutiny for additional background.

Have you looked at Hopkirk's Setting the East Ablaze? Astonishing true stories of the later stages of the Great Game in the post-WWI era on the roof of the world. Full of brave spies, mad aristocrats, scheming warlords, nationalists, communists, etc. Great Stuff.

Edit: have a look too at the brilliant figures produces at Copplestone Castings (http://gisby.org/copplestone.htm) for this era and these settings.

Dave

 

[The Shaman]

Have you looked at Hopkirk's Setting the East Ablaze? Astonishing true stories of the later stages of the Great Game in the post-WWI era on the roof of the world. Full of brave spies, mad aristocrats, scheming warlords, nationalists, communists, etc. Great Stuff.

The Great Game is the only one of Hopkirk's half-dozen or so books that I've read so far - I plan on getting his book on Kipling's Kim next, and then working into some of his later histories of the Game.

I've been planning my campaign around a start of 1870 or so, but really anyone could set a game in this area from 1820 to 1920 and have an amazing array of adventures to chose from.

Edit: have a look too at the brilliant figures produces at Copplestone Castings (http://gisby.org/copplestone.htm) for this era and these settings.

Excellent!

The Foundry also makes a great line of Dark Continent miniatures as well.

 

[Committed Hero]

Have you looked at Hopkirk's Setting the East Ablaze?

lol finished it yesterday. I thought GG was better (longer, too).