I skipped Archetype creation to simplify the introduction of the new system to my players. None of them had played the game before, so I decided not to use this meta-stage of chargen. I allowed Intrinsics to be purchased independently, and just assumed 1 or 2 sources and the Super permission for each character, and I’d wing anti-power stuff when it came up (which it hasn’t yet).

Setting Sketch
Red 1
Gold 1
Blue 4
Black 2
 
It is 1860, and the crown weights heavy on Victoria ’s pale brow. Magic, mad science, social upheaval, revolution, and revolutionary invention are all running mad- the coming thing is everywhere. Victoria is like a cross between Elizabeth I, a Roman emperor, and a Babylonian godking- she is literally becoming divine, and is transforming into something implacable and terrible and awesome. When the Empire bleeds, so does she. During the Indian Mutiny three years previous, her stigmata bled for months, and from her blood flowers sprung. One can trace the paths she walked during those troubled times by the unique blossoms which still grow there. The Church of England is split- the Royalist branch sees her as a true divinity, and places shrines to her in their churches. The Traditionalist branch denies her divinity, and cleaves to the Christian doctrine. She has far more real power than her real-world counterpart as well, and parliament is increasingly becoming her rubber stamp. With the public disgrace of Gladstone (his sexual proclivities revealed in the sensational press), her great critic is silenced, and others fear which of their secrets might become the subject of public humor.

Enter the Kerberos Club.

It is a notoriously egalitarian and sensational Club which claims to be as old as the Roman occupation, and to have occupied the same location since London was Londinium. But the Kerberos Club is made up of the Empire’s most infamous liars and charlatans, as well as its great monsters, heroes, and mold-breakers. Kerberans are subjects of public fascination and public consternation. Fiend and Hero in one. All in some way attract and repel the Victorian sensibility. The Kerberos Club guards the Empire against weird and unnatural threats, foreign and domestic. Members don’t get assignments, rather they do and ask favors for one another- the favor is the currency of the Club.

The Club is set into deliberate rivalry with Special Branch- Victoria ’s tight-laced moralistic secret police. Her Majesty understands the need for internal controls, competition, and a healthy well-nurtured low-level hatred amongst her apparatus of state.

Characters begin as junior members of the Club (as none of them took a Kerberos Club background skill indicating sway or long-time membership).

Our Heroes (at 200 points, with 52 free with 1 dot in each stat and core skill)

Simon Green (“The Green Man”). The Illegitimate son of Queen Elizabeth I and Auberon of Faerie, who has the distinction of being the bastard or not one, but two royal houses. He’s been a Kerberan for simply ages, but he’s so debauched and erratic, that he has only the status (and knowledge) of a new member. Genially corrupt… I imagined him as Johnny Depp playing Byron. His powers include the ability to control plants, to ‘infect’ those around him with his own emotions, and he carries a potent artifact- a Dionysian thyrsus which is able to change shape and size (remaining more or less rod shaped of course) and project mystical bolts. So that’s Control (plants), Create (emotions), and am indestructible focus with a few potent powers imbedded in it… also, his stat pools are quite nice all around. Played by J.

Professor the Lord Reginald (“The Challenger of the Unknown”). A minor lord with decades of adventuring under his large belt who enjoys s self-made fortune, a huge circle of old adventuring friends, and the largest collection of mystical and magical artifacts in the world in private hands. The collection occupies the majority of Lord Reginald’s apartments, and is organized by no system a sane or sober man might recognize. I worked out the powers build for this character, and am quite taken with it. He has 1wd of Aces which requires him to relate some story about how the current situation reminds him of a previous encounter. He also has the Collection which I bought like a hybrid of Spell Casting and Enchanter into a huge immobile foci- his cluttered apartments. I bought with ‘no willpower cost’ for x2 to keep the play experience of it easier to deal with for the player, and so the roll to “create” the artifact allows one to be found in the collection. Once found, the artifact must be returned to the collection for a new one to be collected. If destroyed, then the power that artifact contained can never be reproduced. It has 6+2wd in it as well. Played by T.

Madam Lakshmi. The daughter of a British officer and Indian mother. She is the current toast of London ’s music halls- an actress and performer. She is also an avatar of the Goddess Durga, and leads a secret Thuggee cult in London . Exotic- and perfectly willing to play on her exoticism- as well quite forward and forceful, she defies both English and Indian feminine stereotypes. When she takes upon herself the Aspect of the Goddess, he third eye opens expanding her awareness and projecting the terrible glory of the Goddess into the minds of those who see her. In this elevated state, she is terrible- her word is death, her hands slay, and she is more than human. It’s a fricken cool build- a flawed down version of Projected Hallucination with 2hd onto which her other powers (hyper-stats for Sense, Command, and Body) are attached. Played by D.

 

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.