Steam Punk RunnerSTORY AND NOTES

Assumptions• Reader is fluent is Hass short hand

• Game world is Earthlike (EL)

• The game takes place in the mid-Victorian era of the EL world• Large industries have already begun to sprout up in the Prominent Powers (PP)• The PP have spent a large amount of resources seeding their people across the globe• Current communication and travel technology prevents instantaneous communication from the PP to their colonies • Certain forms of Magic exist, based around science, such as; Alchemy and Ritual magics• The Ether or æther (see later) exists between the noumenal and the phenomenal, it can act as an energy source fuel by

the ideas within the noumenal (needs further development).• A revolutionary power source has been discovered the Ether Battery (EB), a combination of Physics, Alchemy and

Ether, discovered by a Moor (Islam) like society.• The Battery behaves like a mixture of Primary Battery and a Soul Possession, the Ether pushing both power and a low level

sentience into the devices it powers. Since the Ether is touched by the noumenal it allows for the powering and development of devices that ‘should’ only work in theory.

• The divide between the PP and the Rest of the world is great, many of the PP cities have taken on the haze of Gaslights, while the colonies may still be lighting pith torches.

• Sociologically there are two Peoples (Old Money and those who work for a living)• Old money feels they have the ‘right’ to be in the position they hold, while holding distain for anyone who ‘works’ for a

living, even the equally wealthy.• A movement has begun to give the workers rights and to organize them into the protection of guild or unions.

Establishing a World• Primary

• The EB is an allegory for oil in many ways, it is a scarce resource and few nations can access or create them, creating a massive demand if the nation is able to compete.

• This ‘Demand’ has created the shadow Ether wars, in which nations invade, ally, and sabotage eachother in the name of freedom, segregation, or other; but in reality it is about the transportation and development of Ebs.

• Two nation may war while their national leaders (gentlemen) meet in clandestine locations to discuss the weather, politics, and mutual friends.

• The working class is viewed as very little more then resources that the leader have the right to use and abuse.

• Groups that rise up are often labeled as terrorists, while false flags actions are taken in their names to create smear campaigns.

• Secondary• One of the PP has entered into an economic

downturn, which has put its elites into the guillotine distance of the working class.

• Rumors of pandemic have begun to spread across a particularly rambunctious colonial group.

• The PPs have access to Ether-Steampowered drones

• An upstart nation on the cusp of becoming a PP has entered into a loggerhead as the deal with the conversion of their culture from a religious one, to a one driven by science.

• A PP has begun to press on racial tensions between two other nations

• Rumors have begun that the use of Ether may have a destructive effect (rumor or truth)

Putting the Punk in Steam

• Social vs the Laissez-faire vs Nilism

• Single Tax

• Women Rights

• Uprising of the Lower Class

• Intellectualism vs Religion vs Morals vs Decadence

• Alienation (Ostracism – Monsters)

Historical What Ifs?• Science

• the Ether Battery replaced the need to move to fuel

• Geology• Great caverns existed below the planet• Alternate dimensions where reachable

• War• Powerful weaponry caused a chilling effect on technology• Flying cities existed allowing for vertical national growth

• Industry• Common workers could be replaced with cheap automotons

• Primitive Discoveries• Anti-govs and Criminals are marked as primitives or unevolved

• World Views• Medievalism had caught on within a nation (Steam dragons and knights)

A Proper Society

• Among the ‘Gentlemen’ is uncouth to admit to infidelity• It is however expected• Blackmail schemes are always in the work to expose these infidelities

publically• A thriving Prostitution industry exists• A Mans wife is not considered to be sexual

• Drugs are considered to be means to an ends, but not an evil

• Smoking is an Elitist activity (you DO NOT smoke in front of you superiors)

• Men are kept at their word, which is unquestioned

NPC Archetypes• Aesthete (Scandalous Victorian, embracing their passions)

• Army or Naval Officers (Often positions are purchased, and not earned, they are the model of the perfect citizen)

• Captain of Industry (Self-made man, hated by the lower class, disdained by the old money)

• Clergyman (Respected by those of the oldways, seen as a relic by the hipsters)

• Creation (Artificial man)

• Demimondaine (Courtesan – Business woman of the night)

• Detective (Systematic investigator, a profession that is just beginning to take root)

• Engineer (Keeper of the engines)

• Explorer (Gather of knowledge from the distant and impossible to reach areas of the unexplored world)

NPC Archetypes 2• Inventor (Futurist)

• Medium (Spiritualist sensitive to the Ether, or a Hoaxer)

• Native Leader (Leader of the last of the Primitives)

• Reckoner (Early programmer)

• Reformer (Agitator of society)

• Reporter (News hound, the rights of the press have just begun to take effect)

• Scientist (Wizards of the New Age)

• Servant (Gentlemen’s Gentlemen)

• Sportsman (Hero’s of the New Age)