Being Victorian (3)

Being Victorian is harder than I thought!

As I didn't have a clear idea of the setting, just a vision, when I started out I've been nailing down what I want from the world background.  This is what I've come up with so far.


Back Story

On the 27th August 1883 at 03:41 (GMT) Krakatoa erupted explosively destroying two thirds of the island.At precisely the same time as the explosion an area of ten miles radius around London was caught in an unknown phenomena.
If you were in London at the time then you would have been awoken by the most spectacular show of the Northern Lights which lit up the sky as bright as day. Unlike the Northern Lights however this effect touched the ground forming a barrier of light that when someone or something touched it they exploded in a burst of fire leaving nothing but ash behind.The phenomena lasted for five days or that's what the scientists say. Within the first hours of isolation people began to fall sick. Panic spread like wildfire, people barricaded themselves in looters ran riot in the streets but none escaped the unholy plague.Every man, woman and child was affected by the plague and only one in three survived the unholy transformation. The plague attacked peoples very core being, it looked inside them and made them into a chimera, part human and part animal.When the phenomena lifted and the remaining living inhabitants of London could again see the outside world they were met with an alien landscape. England was gone.

Themes
Survival, exploration & self-discovery.

How to handle the anthropomorphic element
Rather than having to list lots of different animals I've broken them down into "breeds" of animals powerful (predators like big cats, wolves etc), fast (animals built for speed), small (little critters), cunning (like a fox?) and large (bears, bulls & horses etc).

Distinctions & Breeds
I've run through the list of distinctions in Smallville and picked out the ones I want for BV.
I've stolen Heritage Distinctions from Smallville and and called them Breeds to describe the animal types.  I'm using the rating of the breed to determine how human the change is starting with most animalistic at d4 working up to almost human at d12

Stress
Embarrassed, Exhausted, Feral, Injured & Insecure

Pathways
I've got some outlines for pathways, I'll post what I have as a pdf if people want to take a look.

Being Victorian (2)

Update

I've spent a fair amount of time thinking about the background I want to make and reading and re-reading both the draft of Cortex+ Drama and the Hackers Guide.  Now I think the best way to proceed is to make a to-do list and this is what I have so far.

To Do:

• Values: define what each of the values means to an average person from the setting and give some example statements to get ideas flowing.
• Pathways: I've decided on 5 stages with 25 trait steps, I want the Leads to be powerful individuals.  I also need to write up Pathway Descriptions for each step.
• Distinctions: I'll check through the Smallville book to find appropriate distinctions for my setting, I'll have to make a set of Heritage Distinctions to represent different "breeds" of animals.  I may include the "cyborg" as an option for a clockwork character.
• Abilities: I'll sort out the most likely ones to be used to define an animal.  You also can't have steampunk without steam powered gadgets so I'll keep that in mind too.
• Resources: I want to make a list of people and places that you might find in Victorian London both as a resource for myself and the players to get idea's from.

Well, that's a lot of work ahead for me.  I shall try and keep this blog updated too!

Being Victorian

Background

So, I picked up the Smallville RPG ages ago and tried to get my head around the system but it didn't quite click for me.  Recently I've become somewhat addicted to Kickstarter, having backed several new up and coming roleplaying game projects.  I've decided as I have some time on my hands, between looking for a new job, to make a cortex+ drama setting so I maybe will finally get the system.

What is "Being Victorian?"

What if?  What if Victorian London (circa 1888) was transported into another world?  What if that world had the ability to support steampunk technology? Finally, what if that world also changed any human into an anthropomorphic version of themselves?

I see this as a game of discovery set against the backdrop of a "Furry Steampunk Fantasy Victorian" setting.

Values

Taking a look at the list of values from the draft of C+ Drama I've got a short list that looks like this:

• Adaptability - Resisting or embracing the winds of change?
• Belonging - Who comes first you or the community?
• Duty - 
• Gallantry - 
• Love - 
• Class (Popularity) - Is who your parents are important? Is who their parents are important?