Savage Eberron: Bards

In my Savage Eberron game earlier this year, Manoj played a half-ogre bard. At the time I did not have access to any official rules for bards in Savage Worlds, so I made some up; since then I've got hold of the Fantasy Companion, which has the Troubadour Professional Edge, but I prefer my version, as it's a bit simpler.

Bards are arcane spellcasters, and follow all standard rules for Arcane Background (Magic), with the following exceptions:

• A bard's arcane skill is Perform (Spirit), and this skill may also be used for mundane performances. A bard's Charisma modifier may be added to skill rolls for both mundane and arcane purposes.
• A bard may only cast spells through the playing of a musical instrument, singing a song, orating an epic poem, performing a dance, and so on. If the bard cannot perform this action, they cannot cast the spell.
• All spells are available to the bard, as long as they could plausibly be cast through one of the above methods. For example, an inspiring song might have the same effect as Boost/Lower Trait, but it is more difficult to explain how dancing could generate a Barrier. Common sense and GM discretion apply.

The Ministry of Blades : The Madness of Angels, episode 1

Marsh follows his nose; Miss Sharpe tries out her new toy.

Played

4^th November 2010.

Dramatis Personae

Lady Antonia deVore - a Heavily-armed Aristocrat.
Captain Benson Curruthers - a Military Policeman.
Miss April Sharpe - a Self-taught Inventor.
Jack Prentiss - a Dodgy Pedestrian.
Rodney Marsh - a Partially-reformed Thief.
Mr Erasmus Rooke - the Boss.
The Chief Verger of St Paul’s Cathedral.
A number of Industrious Cleaners.

Plot

Shaftesbury Avenue, October 1888.

Returning from Highgate Cemetery with the corpses of the werewolves stowed in the Ministry’s own hansom cab, the group were asked to produce their reports as soon as possible. Once this was completed, they were asked to come into Mr Rooke’s office.

Their superior informed them that he had just heard about the apparent suicide of the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral, the Very Reverend Reginald Green. As the Dean was a good friend of his, he wanted to send his best team to investigate; unfortunately, they were occupied with the Ripper case at the moment, so he was having to send Captain Curruthers’ team instead. Rooke did not believe it was a suicide, so they were to take special care to confirm that this was a murder and find the culprit - starting immediately.

Picking up Marsh outside the Quartermaster’s Office, the team headed for the City. Entering the Cathedral, they were introduced to the hassled-looking Chief Verger, who said he had been expecting them, immediately raising some suspicions given the lack of Police on the scene. The Chief Verger was somewhat surprised when Lady Antonia and Captain Curruthers complained about the removal of the body to the Crypt and subsequent cleaning of the floor. He explained that early services would be starting soon and that this couldn’t be allowed to disturb the congregation.

Curruthers dismissed the cleaners while they attempted to divine what they could from the blood stains between the tiles. The body had landed almost directly beneath the open central occular of the dome: either the Dean had made a prodigious leap from the Whispering Gallery or he had fallen from the walkway around the occular Inspecting the body, they confirmed that he had indeed fallen from a great height (and rather messily). The Dean had been a very tall, thin gentleman in his sixties, bald, with a fringe of white hair. His face appeared to be locked in an expression of extreme fear and there was a fresh, horizontal wound across his forehead, such as might be inflicted by a club.

Proceeding upstairs, they investigated the Whispering Gallery, confirming that there was no evidence of him jumping from there. Curruthers spotted a staff doorway leading to a spiral staircase up into the dome, so they made this their next destination, discovering a five foot wide walkway around the occular at the top of the dome. It was little-used and covered by a thin layer of dust, showing up footprints clearly, and they found a scuff of the right size on the ballustrade, which seemed to indicate he had jumped. Miss Sharpe, meanwhile, decided that this was an ideal opportunity to test her new device, Sharpe’s Detecteronatron, designed to detect spirits and other magical emanations; she did not detect anything, other than an odd glow from Marsh, indicating a need for further tinkering, perhaps? Taking a copy of the footprint, they located more prints on the stairs, indicating someone running up them, a prodigious feat for an elderly minister. Marsh remained on the walkway, planning to shapeshift into his rat form and sniff around. Distracted by a strong smell of cheese and nearly killed by a powerful rat trap, he abandoned this approach rather quickly.

The remainder of the team followed the footprints back out onto one of the walkways above the false ceiling of the Church, winding in and out of a series of low beams and rafters. Locating a bloodstain on one of them, indicating that he may have hit his head, the found that the trail ended at a fenced off area at the far end of the roof. Some maintenance work had been taking place here and stonemason’s tools were scattered around an opening in the facing of the wall, which revealed the rubble infill. They determined that something (a block about 18 inches square) was missing from the infill, but were unable to locate it. Miss Sharpe tried her gadget again and, momentarily, thought she saw a screaming face in the mists inside, but was unable to get it to come back. Shaken, she switched the device off, turning to see Lady Antonia and Marsh extracting what appeared to be a pocket book, complete with a key ring, from under the eaves.

On the Boil

I can't recall ever having so many gaming projects on the go at once. Back in my wayward youth, I'd concentrate on one game or setting for months, before moving on to the next game and doing the same, all of which often came to naught as the group decided to play something else anyway. I'm sure this is not uncommon within our hobby.

I am working on three unrelated projects at the moment, but on the plus side, much of the work is already done for two of them:

• Our Pathfinder GM has expressed a desire to experience the game as a player for once. In fairness, this situation has arisen because he's always so full of enthusiasm for running his latest idea for a D&D-variant game, so we let him get on with it. Even so, I've volunteered to run a scenario so he can try the game from the other side of the screen; I have chosen Paizo's Carrion Hill, which is rather appropriate, as whenever I run something it seems to end up as Call of Cthulhu, and now I have an excuse.
• In the summer, I finally got a chance to run an Eberron game, albeit using Savage Worlds as the ruleset. At some point in December, I'll be running the sequel to that: Savage Eberron II: The Jewel of Galifar. Most of the work is done, but I've taken Stephen King's advice and have put the scenario away so that I can come back to it with fresh eyes in a few weeks. My plan is to run these once or twice a year, as a series of linked adventures, but not quite a campaign.
• Most recently, I've been brainstorming ideas for a return to my Rogue Trader game. I now have a good outline for the plot of the next chunk of the campaign, which will be a bit more linear before returning to the sandbox of the first "season". Players being the special snowflakes that they are, I expect it to be nowhere as direct a journey as the word "linear" implies.

In other news, we hit seventh level in our ongoing Pathfinder campaign last night, although since I've been blessed by Nurgle I decided to stay away and play via Skype. Which was fine until the camera cut out at their end and the microphone cut out at mine -- so I could only hear them and they could only see me -- and communication consisted of me attempting to figure out what was going on from their discussion and holding up handwritten notes to the camera in response.



From what I could tell things got a bit hairy, with at least two characters into critical condition -- perhaps Stuart can provide a more detailed synopsis -- but the party emerged from the troll caverns victorious and with a sizeable haul of treasure, including a +2 thundering great sword for Stuart's barbarian Artemisia, further nudging her towards the Weapon of Mass Destruction prestige class.

The Ministry of Blades: The Werewolves of Highgate

Curruthers scores a bullseye; Antonia takes the charge.

Played

21st October 2010.

Dramatis Personae

Lady Antonia deVore - a Heavily-armed Aristocrat.
Captain Benson Curruthers - a Military Policeman.
Jack Prentiss - a Dodgy Pedestrian.
Miss April Sharpe - a Self-taught Inventor.
A Bloodthirsty Werewolf.
An Unfortunate Wolfman.

Plot

As the leaves began to fall in the autumn of 1888, London was gripped by the lurid tales of the exploits of Jack the Ripper. The Ministry, suspecting a supernatural involvement, assigned its best agents to the case.

Captain Curruthers's team meanwhile, was assigned to investigate an apparently unrelated series of attacks in North London. Taking place on the nights around the full moon in late August, the assaults had been bloody but not yet fatal. They were centered on Highgate Cemetery and were reportedly carried out by a “large man-like beast”. Judging that a lycanthrope was involved, the team, excluding Marsh, who was suffering from an unknown malady, and Miss Spit, currently assigned to work with the REG's Psychical Research Team, went loaded for wolf.

Arriving at the South Gate of the cemetery not long after nightfall, Currruthers and Lady Antonia began scouring the mud for unusual tracks, while Prentiss warmed up for a fight and Miss Sharpe fiddled with her latest equipment. Curruthers discovered the fresh prints of a large dog leading into the cemetery and, on further investigation, noticed that there were no front paw prints - the creature walked upright like a man! Now convinced that their target was a werewolf, the team ensured their weapons were loaded with silver bullets and pressed on into the dark graveyard.

Despite the fog, the tracks were easy to follow and led straight to the far corner of the enclosure, as yet unused for burials. As the silver fog snaked between the bushes, they spotted a powerfully-built humanoid figure ahead of them. As it raised its muzzle to sniff the air, it became obvious it was not human, and Curruthers fired a single bullet. The figure fell and, as they drew closer to the body expecting it to rise and attack them, it became clear that he had pulled off an amazing shot, hitting it between the eyes with a single shot from thirty paces - in the dark.

Unfortunately, they did not have long to congratulate each other on their immediate success, as a snarling sound preceded a rushing attack from the bushes to one side. Lady Antonia was clawed from behind and stumbled, saved from a mortal wound only by her heavy coat, as the attacker rushed on towards Curruthers. More shots were fired, and shrugged off, before they were able to surround it. Miss Sharpe finally got her Orgonator working and opened fire, catching the beast in a crossfire with Curruthers and Lady Antonia. It continued to fight, finally going down only when Curruthers hit it in the back of the head from near point-blank range with his pistol.

Both werewolves had reverted to human form upon death and, while one of them was naked in the traditional manner, the second wore a wolfskin as a headdress. The team decided to take both corpses back for further examination.

Notes

As before, this arc began with a simple fight unrelated to the rest of the story. In part, this was necessitated by the award and expenditure of experience at the beginning of the evening and it also provided an opportunity for us all to refamiliarise ourselves with the rules before we got in with the main plot.

There were two kinds of beasts involved here: the first was a wolfman, the victim of a werewolf attack, while the second was an actual werewolf, a human that actively seeks to become a wolf using magic. Rippers often provides different levels of monster like this, and it's handy when you want to have a boss and one or more minions.

Curruthers’ perfect shot was the result of an excessively high damage role - the lesson of this being that you should never get to attached to a villain in this game. Both sides spent large numbers of bennies to aid their survival during the fight and, for the first time, I finally felt able to try and actively kill the characters (and that I didn't have to pull my punches).

Savage Eberron: Half-Giants

My infrequent Savage Eberron game borrows the character generation rules outlined here, which give starting heroes the equivalent of two free Edges. This makes them more powerful than standard Savage Worlds characters, but I think that's in keeping with the tone of the setting. With that said, I present a new race, the half-giant.

Half-Giant

• Strong: Half-giants are not as strong as their brobdinagian forebears, but are nonetheless mightier than most other humanoids. Half-giants begin with a d6 in Strength.

• Tough: With increased strength comes increased durability. Half-giants have thick leathery skin and a high pain threshold, reflected in a starting Vigour of d6.
• Big: Half-giants stand somewhere between seven and eight feet in height, and can be almost as broad. They start with a +1 to Size.
• Low Light Vision: A half-giant retains their ancestors' ability to see in darkened conditions. Half-giants ignore penalties for Dim and Dark lighting.
• Outsider: The giants of Xen'drik are considered primitive savages, the pathetic remnants of a once-proud empire, and their half-breed offspring are often seen as little better. Half-giants subtract 2 from their Charisma when around the more "civilised" races.
• Clumsy: Half-giants are big and strong, but they have little in the way of natural grace. Each Agility increase during character generation requires an expenditure of two points rather than one.

Half-giants were introduced to Eberron in Secrets of Xen'drik, which lifted the mechanics straight from the Expanded Psionics Handbook. This is in keeping with the stated design goal of the setting that "if it exists in D&D, then it has a place in Eberron", but since the half-giant in the EPH is itself lifted wholesale from the Dark Sun setting, complete with psionic abilities and a partial immunity to the desert heat, it's a bit of an odd fit. In all fairness, the designers make an attempt to fit the race into the setting, positioning them as an engineered species, constructed by the Inspired from the giants of Xen'drik, then returned there to act as heavy labour in the Inspired's projects on the continent. Even so, it's a bit of a glaring fudge if you ask me, so I've decided to go for something much simpler and have them be the result of unions between humanoids and the native giants of Xen'drik.

What's On Your Game Table?

Al asks, I answer.

Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition and Eberron Campaign Setting (3.5e version), because I'm putting the final touches to a Savage Eberron game I'm hoping to run this winter, the follow-up to a one-shot I ran earlier this year.

B2: The Keep on the Borderlands, because I've never read it, and I feel I probably should. I haven't had time to read it in the couple of months since I bought it, but I live in hope.

Aside from various sketches in various degrees of completion for Fight On! -- tenth issue out now, by the way -- that's the lot. Since most of my gaming stuff is in storage in another town, my gaming table -- which is a couple of shelves and a pile on the edge of the sofa, really -- isn't exactly groaning under the weight of stuff.

Return to the Campaigns of Elemental Evil

Not counting the Savage Eberron one-shot I ran back in the summer, it's been a while since I sat behind the GM screen, and even though I'm enjoying playing in a regular game, I've started to get that itch. I want to run Savage Eberron again at some point, perhaps some kind of loose sequel to the earlier game, so I'm throwing together some ideas for that, but most of my thinking of late has been on two possibilities: a continuation of my Rogue Trader campaign, and a return to Call of Cthulhu. The latter would be something brand new, not connected to my previous effort, and I'm thinking about a short - three or four episode - and self-contained site-based campaign, either set in the modern day or the gaslight period, and using some ideas I've pinched from a couple of indie games. I may end up running neither, or even both. We shall see.

Team Benny

One of the things I liked about Shadowrun was the Karma mechanic. It was a combination of experience points and an ahead-of-its-time action point system, so you could spend it between adventures to improve your character, or use it within a scenario to add dice to an action. The best bit about it, and the bit that was really ahead of its time, was the Team Karma concept. This was a pool of points which was used to boost actions, much like individual Karma, except that it was donated from the personal stashes of the player-characters, and could be used by any member of the team. Not only did it have an effect on game mechanics, but it also tied the group together.

On Saturday, I finally ran an Eberron game, using the Savage Worlds rules; I might post a summary of that game later, but there's something else I want to discuss first. Savage Worlds also has an action point mechanism, called "Bennies" in the game's terminology, and these Bennies have multiple uses. There are no hard and fast rules for awarding these points, and they're more of a general award for good play.

Each player starts with around three Bennies, depending on the setting, and can pick up more through the session, while the GM gets one for each of the players, plus two for each main villain. The interesting thing here is that the first set of GM Bennies are kept in a pool which can be used by any NPC, while the latter set can only be used by the NPC to which they're attached.

So what happens if you use a similar system for the players? The three Bennies with which they start the game are theirs to use alone, but any Bennies awarded during the session go into a Team Bennies pool, which can be tapped by any player. Furthermore, any player can donate any of their personal Bennies to the pool should they so wish.

Note that this does cross over somewhat with the Common Bond Edge, although that can be used on any Wild Card, whereas this rule only applies to player-characters. Next time I run Savage Eberron, I'm going to give this a go.

The Ministry of Blades : The Pyramids of Hertfordshire, episode 6

Antonia and Marsh play with really big guns; Constantina takes a tumble.

Played

17th June 2010.

Dramatis Personae

Lady Antonia deVore - a Heavily-armed Aristocrat.
Miss Constantina Spit - a Rebellious Debutante.
Captain Benson Curruthers - a Military Policeman.
Jack Prentiss - a Dodgy Pedestrian.
Miss April Sharpe - a Self-taught Inventor.
Rodney Marsh - a Partially-reformed Thief.
Mr Erasmus Rooke - the Boss.
Mr Chester - a Foreign Gentleman of the Scientific Persuasion.
Jackson - an old Associate of Curruthers.
Two Anonymous Scientists.
A Sceptical Commandant.
A number of Heavily-armed ‘Gamekeepers’.
A large number of Shambling Corpses.

Plot

Prentiss sprinted for the powerhouse, bursting through the door, then ducking at the last moment to avoid losing his head to a shovel wielded by a panicking stoker. Marsh arrived behind the zombie fighting Curruthers, returned to human form and, nearly decapitating it, followed up by bowing ironically to his combat trainer. Lady Antonia decided to try and help the guards while Miss Sharpe powered up her weapon and aimed it at the top of the mast, soaking it in a stream of corrosive liquid. Miss Spit followed Prentiss into the powerhouse, arriving just in time to see him pull a thick cable out of the steam-powered dynamo, causing a massive shower of sparks which made up for the lights going out.

Prentiss staggered as the engineer whipped a huge spanner across his throat from behind and attempted to strangle him while the dynamo sped up, its whine rapidly rising in pitch. He managed to turn his attacker to take the full brunt of the blast as the building exploded in a shower of flames and shrapnel…

Miss Spit was still standing in the doorway and was thrown in a spectacular arc across the square, landing with catlike grace near the transmission mast. Prentiss was apparently buried in the rubble.

All around them, the zombies pressed their slow but relentless attack; small groups of soldiers desperately trying to hold the gaps between buildings against up to twice their number. As the remainder of the team tried to decide what to do, several of the soldiers went down screaming and Curruthers and Lady Antonia leapt to help shore up the defences, closely followed by Miss Sharpe and Miss Spit, each heading for a different group. Marsh, spotting the collapsed guard tower, reverted to rat form and scurried out of the battle zone.

Lady Antonia grabbed up one of the large rifles used by the soldiers, a magazine-fed elephant gun, and put her marksmanhip skills to good use, blowing several zombies to pieces in quick succession. Miss Sharpe made similar use of her ‘ectoray orgonator’ while Miss Spit, using her deflection spell to avoid damage, charged straight into battle swinging a makeshift club. Curruthers arrived just in time to see three men fall and found himself holding the defence together, using the bayonet on the end of his elephant rifle.

Prentiss pulled himself out of the ruins of the powerhouse and, grabbing the huge spanner as a club, looked around to take in the situation. Spotting Marsh in the ruins of the tower, he burst through the line of zombies to join him, where he found the little thief attempting to set up a Maxim machine gun. Between them, they got it braced and proceeded to spray the nearest group of zombies with bullets, stopping frequently to unjam the weapon.

Gradually, the tide of battle turned, although by the time the zombies were all destroyed, so were all but four of the soldiers.

As a result of running out of time, the following was not actually played through.

Once the battle was over, the survivors picked through the bodies, separating the wounded from the dead and the undead. With his remaining troops securing the perimeter, the Commandant gathered the team together in the mess to thank them for their help in fighting off the zombies. Overcoming his pride, he admitted that they had been right and that there was obviously a link between the experiments and the zombies. Turning to the scientist, Mr Chester, he informed him that the experiments were over until they had been thoroughly examined by other military scientists. Chester, his temper flaring, stalked out of the room, swearing to take his ideas to the Americas where they would “appreciate the genius!”

The team were escorted back to London by the Commandant himself, where reports were made to Mr Rooke, and matters between the Ministry and the Royal Esoteric Guards were taken ‘upstairs’. The team were congratulated on their handling of the affair and Curruthers, Marsh and Lady Antonia were finally promoted to full Field Agent status.

Notes

The Royal Esoteric Guards are the military equivalent to the Ministry and form the sixth of the elite Guards regiments. As well as regular soldiers of the line, trained in combatting supernatural as well as mundane foes, their organisation includes a number of autonomous research and intelligence teams, enabling them to deal with most problems without help from other military units that might not be able to cope with the same kind of conditions. If Curruthers had remained in the Army, he may well have joined them. Obviously, they are still capable of making mistakes.

As mass battles go, this one actually went quite quickly, it just didn't seem like it.

Savage Worlds is definitely quite good at handling large numbers of battling characters; the “two hits and you're down” approach to Extras is much easier to track than hit points, just requiring markers for Shaken figures. The players quickly realised that ganging up on opponents is the key to success, both for the +1 multiple attackers bonus and for the guaranteed kill on a Shaken Extra. I was also able to hand groups of five soldiers to individual players to manage, taking some of the pressure off me.

The problem was basically with the number of players. We had an extra player this week, taking us to seven, which slowed things down enough to get in the way. The playing card initiative system can also cause delays, as players frequently forget to hand them back after their action or at the end of the round. Even handing the whole initiative system to a player didn't work as well as I'd have liked. Chatter amongst the players is always a distraction and the only way I can see around this would be to reduce the numbers - or start deliberately killing off characters!

One element that didn't get to play out was that Prentiss and Miss Sharpe's two-pronged attack on the electrical transmission system was successful: the zombies were about to collapse of their own accord when the battle ended for the evening. In retrospect, I probably should have upped the number of zombies to increase the apparent danger then had them collapse at a suitable dramatic moment, but I'm trying to avoid too much GM's fiat - even for effect.

We didn't quite finish in the main session, although the battle was virtually over, so the wrap-up was kind of assumed.

The game is now on hold until the autumn.

The Ministry of Blades : The Pyramids of Hertfordshire, episode 5

Curruthers meets an old colleague; Prentiss pulls the plug.

Played

3rd June 2010.

Dramatis Personae

Lady Antonia deVore - a Heavily-armed Aristocrat.
Miss Constantina Spit - a Rebellious Debutante.
Captain Benson Curruthers - a Military Policeman.
Jack Prentiss - a Dodgy Pedestrian.
Miss April Sharpe - a Self-taught Inventor.
Rodney Marsh - a Partially-reformed Thief.
Mr Chester - a Foreign Gentleman of the Scientific Persuasion.
Jackson - an old Associate of Curruthers.
Two Anonymous Scientists.
A Sceptical Commandant.
A number of Heavily-armed ‘Gamekeepers’.
A large number of Shambling Corpses.

Plot

After the night's exertions, the team headed for the darkened lounge of the Inn and several members consumed a stiff brandy (at least three in Marsh's case). They prised Marsh's discoveries out of him and decided that they would visit the mysterious camp in person the following day, making no secret of their true authority.

They hired some riding horses and, after much deliberation over the best route, led them by the known forest trail over the ridge. They hit a well-packed gravel road to the north-east of the camp at around 1 pm and, surmising that it led to the camp, followed it to the south and west. Marsh followed them separately though the woods, acting as a kind of back-up.

After ten minutes of travel, they encountered a border-style checkpoint and were hailed by a man dressed in tweeds, armed with what appeared to be a very large double-barrelled shotgun. Curruthers immediately assumed an air of authority and demand access in the name of the Ministry. The man looked confused, but asked them to wait while he headed inside a hut by the side of the road. The heroes could hear him talking to someone whose voice couldn't be heard. A moment later, another man in tweeds poked his head out of the door and, this time, Curruthers recognised him instantly as Jackson, a Colour Sergeant he had known in India. They exchanged some pleasantries while the one-sided conversation in the hut continued, then Jackson returned to the hut and joined that conversation. After a minute or so, he returned, saying that the ‘Commandant’ had agreed to see them.

He accompanied them along the mile or so to the camp, which was revealed in daylight to be quite a defensive structure. A long earth ramp led to the main gate of the facility on the central rise, broken only by a makeshift drawbridge. A twenty-foot high guard tower containing two guards with a machine gun overlooked the main approaches and the bushes around the edge of the rise provided natural crenellations hiding snipers.

Watching from the woods, Marsh saw them cross the ‘moat′ and follow their guide into what appeared to be a guardhouse. Jackson asked them to wait while he fetched the Commandant.

The Commandant turned out to be a traditionalist type who immediately began to butt horns with Curruthers, pointing out that the project was a top secret operation of the War Office and that the Ministry (which seemed to know about) had no authority there. After much argument, he agreed to show them the experiments, on the basis that they were nearly completed anyway.

They were led to the open square at the centre of the camp, situated between four prefabricated structures, one of which appeared to contain a steam-powered electrical generator, and containing a tall mast, linked by cables to the powerhouse and the building opposite. Knocking on the door of that building, the Commandant entered and returned, accompanied by a short, moustached man, who he introduced as Mr Chester. Chester turned out to be Hungarian, judging from his accent, but was soon persuaded to explain how they were experimenting with broadcasting electrical power through the æther to vehicles and other devices.

This was then demonstrated as the generator was started up, causing hairs to rise on everyone, before one of his companions drove an electric vehicle out from behind one of the buildings. Miss Sharpe discussed the theory with Chester, putting forward the theory that the broadcast electricity was responsible for animating the zombies; both Chester and the Commandant rejected the idea as impossible and refused to consider the idea.

The Commandant now informed them that they would not be allowed to leave until the final experiments were finished and locked them in what appeared to be a barracks. The group immediately began looking for a way out, checking the floor, door and windows.

Outside the camp, Marsh became aware of movement around him and spotted numerous zombies shambling towards the camp. He panicked, transformed, after a brief stutter, into a rat and bolted for the camp.

Inside the barracks, the team were preparing to break the door down, when they became aware of gunfire, increasing in volume and rate of fire, and soon accompanied by the chatter of the tower-mounted machine gun. A number of screams were also heard and it became apparent that the guards were being overwhelmed. They renewed their efforts with repeated charges, then Curruthers bust the door open and was nearly flattened by a walking corpse. As he battled for his life, aided by Lady Antonia, the others tried to figure out how to shut down the electrical broadcast. Around them, the guards were attempting to hold a perimeter against the shambling attackers.

Prentiss sprinted for the powerhouse, bursting through the door, then ducking at the last moment to avoid losing his head to a shovel wielded by a panicking stoker. Marsh arrived behind the zombie fighting Curruthers, returned to human form and nearly decapitating it, followed up by bowing ironically to his combat trainer. Lady Antonia decided to try and help the guards while Miss Sharpe powered up her weapon and aimed it at the top of the mast, soaking it in a stream of corrosive liquid. Miss Spit followed Prentiss into the powerhouse, arriving just in time to see him pull a thick cable out of the steam-powered dynamo, causing a massive shower of sparks which made up for the lights going out.

The dynamo sped up, its whine rapidly rising in pitch, until the building exploded in a shower of flames and shrapnel…

Notes

Ooh! A cliff-hanger!

Will Prentiss and Miss Spit survive the explosion? Has Marsh finally taunted Curruthers one too many times? Did Miss Sharpe really understand anything Mr Chester said? What will happen if Lady Antonia gets her hands on a really big gun?

Find out in the next thrilling instalment of…

The Pyramids of Buckinghamshire!

The Ministry of Blades : The Pyramids of Hertfordshire, episode 4

Marsh dodges a bullet; April puts the boot in.

Played

20^th May 2010.

Dramatis Personae

Lady Antonia deVore - a Heavily-armed Aristocrat.
Miss Constantina Spit - a Rebellious Debutante.
Captain Benson Curruthers - a Military Policeman.
Jack Prentiss - a Dodgy Pedestrian.
Miss April Sharpe - a Self-taught Inventor.
Rodney Marsh - a Partially-reformed Thief.
A Cynical Landlord.
Two Shambling Corpses.
A Panicked Rifleman.
Several Less-panicked Riflemen.
Three Bushy-moustached Scientists.

Plot

Following their visit to the Manor, the team deliberated their next move over dinner, eventually deciding to try to locate and scout the camp in the forest that evening. Grabbing copious supplies of tea to keep them awake, they armed themselves and headed out into the gathering fog. Prentiss took the lead with his ground-eating pace, but Lady Antonia had to prevent him drifting off the faint path; in the meantime, Marsh's attempts to move quietly parallel to the group combined with his lack of wilderness skills led to him trailing them by quite a distance. They arrived at the ridge after darkness fell completely, settling down to wait for a few hours while Marsh scouted out the camp location.

Around midnight, they saw the lights appear over the valley, manifesting in several locations within the cloud before swirling together. There was no obvious source, but the effects were clearly centred on the camp. They could also feel the vibrations in the ground start up as they appeared. Curruthers tried to get a good look at the camp using his binoculars, but nearly blinded himself despite his best efforts. With nothing else happening, Curruthers and Prentiss both attempted to get some sleep.

Marsh arrived at the camp, which was situated on a small plateau, surrounded by a 10-foot bank, and followed the perimeter around, taking the occasional peek over the bank to survey the area. Noting the bright lights emanating from the camp itself, he was extra careful, but his second attempt was nearly his last: he was looking almost directly down the muzzle of an elephant rifle held by a well-hidden sentry. Luckily he was not spotted and was able to drop out of sight.

Back on the ridge, Miss Spit became aware that the surrounding woods were very quiet, then heard crashing noises in the fog. She quickly warned Lady Antonia and Miss Sharpe, then woke Prentiss and Curruthers to wait for the visitor. After a few minutes of watching, Miss Spit became impatient and used a spell to illuminate the area below the ridge and clear the fog, revealing a zombie.

At first, they hoped it was going to ignore them, and wander past, but to their chagrin, it began to climb the slope. Lady Antonia prepared to shoot it, but Curruthers reminded her that the shot would be heard across the valley, so she lobbed a rock at it instead, failing to do any damage. Several attempts were made to prevent it succssfully cimbing the slope, but it demonstrated dogged persistence, taking a swipe at Miss Spit as it arrived, but she had cast another spell to disguise her location so that it missed. Lady Antonia tripped it up, with some effort, and Curruthers pinned it to the ground with his sword. It continued to try and hit them, but they pounded it with rocks and batons (Prentiss sitting on its leg) and, eventually, April connected with a steel toe-cap and caved the side of its skull in.

It stopped moving.

In the valley, Marsh continued to silently skirt the camp, then stepped on a twig, causing a loud crack. This was immediately followed by a deafening blast and something whistled past about five feet away, while the lights went out. Thinking the shot was aimed at him, Marsh panicked and ran for the trees, while more bullets whizzed past him. He turned into a rat, then realised he was not the target as he saw several zombies heading towards the camp. The sentries were destroying them quite effectively with their large-calibre rifles, so Marsh decided to take advantage of the confusion and sneaked up onto the plateau, changing back to human to scout the camp itself.

As the lights came back on, he noted a central fenced-off area, containing two barracks buildings or offices, a steam-powered electric generator, some kind of laboratory and the mast. Standing in the central square were several soldiers and three gentlemen who appeated to be scientists by their dress. Marsh decided discretion was the better part of valour and, having memorised the layout, he returned to the ridge, where his colleagues, a little worried after the gunfire, were waiting for him.

Notes

I find zombies and fog always go well together… It took a while to take down the lone zombie - bad die rolls seem to cause lots of problems in this game, but it was nice to see Constantina's magic finally getting an outing.

The Ministry of Blades : The Pyramids of Hertfordshire, episode 3

Antonia visits the Manor; Curruthers sends a telegram.

Played

6th May 2010.

Dramatis Personae

Lady Antonia deVore - a Heavily-armed Aristocrat.
Miss Constantina Spit - a Rebellious Debutante.
Captain Benson Curruthers - a Military Policeman.
Jack Prentiss - a Dodgy Pedestrian.
Miss April Sharpe - a Self-taught Inventor.
Rodney Marsh - a Partially-reformed Thief.
Sir Upton Scudamore - a Self-made Eccentric.
Villiers - a Butler of Few Words.
Madamoiselle Melissa D'Arqué - a Governess.
Alice and Peter - Sir Upton's Grandchildren.
Assorted Cooks, Grooms, Groundsmen and Navvies.

Plot

While Miss Sharpe attempted to figure out what had gone wrong with her weapon, Prentiss began to poke through the remains of the formerly-animated mummy. Upon receiving a nasty acid burn, he began poking more carefully, uncovered four bronze statuettes and a number of small clay tablets, all of which he pocketed for later examination.

The group decided that they had done enough for one night and Captain Curruthers confidently led them back towards the Inn. They realised they were lost as they crested a rise, emerging from the trees to gain a moonlit view of their surroundings. The village lay behind them, Avery Manor and its pyramid to their right, and a small, but brightly lit, clearing to the north. Using binoculars, they could see signs of arc floodlights, temporary buildings and a tall mast of some description. Taking their bearings and noting the position of the clearing, they tried again to get back to their beds.

In the meantime, Lady Antonia tried to wake the church verger but had no success, despite pelting his window with gravel. Giving up, she returned to the graveyard and found the group had left. Following them, she discovered the remains of the mummy, then tracked the team up the hill, where they finally reunited.

They returned to the Inn at about four in the morning and got some sleep, before discussing their next steps over breakfast. While Miss Sharpe began repairing her weapon, the remainder of the team set out to try and locate the clearing in daylight. They had little trouble, but as they approached, they were confronted by a hunting-tweeds—clad gamekeeper, armed with a shotgun, who informed them it was private land and asked them to leave immediately. Curruthers noticed odd movements in locations where he would have placed hidden sentries; noting that the gamekeeper seemed familiar, he decided it was advisable to leave. Suspecting some kind of secret government research installation, Curruthers sent a telegram to the Ministry upon their return to ask if they were aware of any such thing.

In the meantime, the team decided a visit to the Manor to investigate the pyramid and its eccentric builder was in order. Using their existing disguise as a group of upper- and middle-class occult enthusiasts, they sent Prentiss, in the guise of a servant, to request permission to visit. Upon arrival, Prentiss encountered the butler, Villiers, then returned with an invitation. The visiting party consisted of Lady Antonia, Curruthers and Miss Spit, with Prentiss as the driver and Miss Sharpe as maid to the ladies. Marsh was to sneak onto the grounds to explore the pyramid building site.

Sir Upton Scudamore turned out to be an aging railway tycoon, working-class in origin, but made a Baronet for his services to the country. He was very welcoming and only too willing to give the ‘enthusiasts’ a personal tour of his extensive Egyptian collection, while describing his interest. Remarking that he was now retired and that his son, Charles, ran the company, Sir Upton explained that he was planning his funeral, hence the pyramid; he didn't believe in any of this nonsense about mystical pyramid powers, just liked the idea of being buried in a pyramid. He was somewhat annoyed about the theft of his latest mummy from the outbuilding where it was being stored while its display case was completed. Prentiss and Miss Sharpe were invited to wait below stairs and took the opportunity to talk to the servants; they found that they knew little more than anyone else about the goings-on in the area, maintaining that Sir Upton was good boss, if a little eccentric.

The team eagerly accepted when their host offered them a tour of the pyramid site and, given the distance, they travelled over by carriage. On the way out through the front doors, they were introduced to Sir Upton's grandchildren and their French governess, Madamoiselle D'Arqué. Marsh had successfully infiltrated the pyramid site, skulking betwen piles of building materials and rubble, but was unable to discover anything more unusual than a pyramid being built on a 19th century English estate. The rest of the team also came to the conclusion that this was just an architectural folly. Casual conversation revealed that Sir Upton knew nothing of the facility in the clearing, even though it was his land.

Discussing what they had learned as they returned to the Hangman's Dance, the group's suspicions turned to Sir Upton's son. They found an answer to their earlier telegram to the Ministry, saying there was no government installation in the area, and sent a further enquiry for more information on Charles Scudamore.

Notes

With the missing players back in town, this session was mostly talk, concentrating on a hitherto ignored branch of the investigation.

The Ministry of Blades : The Case of the Jade Dragon (an Untold Tale of the Ministry), episode 1

Marsh encounters a dragon, Prentiss swings a boathook.

Played

8th April 2010.

Dramatis Personae

* Lady Antonia deVore - a Heavily-armed Aristocrat.
* Captain Benson Curruthers - a Military Policeman.
* Jack Prentiss - a Dodgy Pedestrian.
* Rodney Marsh - a Partially-reformed Thief.
* Mr Erasmus Rooke - the Boss.
* A Mysterious Chinese Gentleman.
* Several Burly Guards.
* Eight Tong Gangsters.

Plot

A couple of weeks before dealing with the Highbury Horrror, the team (who had yet to encounter Miss Sharpe and Miss Spit) were assigned to watch the unloading of, identify and possibly secure, a package from a ship newly-arrived from the Orient. Although Mr Rooke seemed to know which ship and when and where it would dock, he was not forthcoming with the nature of the cargo.

Heading into Limehouse as night fell, the group quickly located the target dock and Marsh quietly broke into a neighbouring warehouse. They climbed the interior staircases and took up residence on the flat roof, from which they could watch the unloading of the Orient Star.

The ship was not long in arriving, and a number of Chinese dock workers appeared as it tied up at the wharf. Gangplanks were run out and a steam-powered crane brought into operation under the bright arc-lights of the dockyard. The team watched as thirty crates of varying sizes were removed from the hold, and also took note of the presence of a tall, elegant individual in Chinese dress watching from the bridge of the ship, flanked by heavyset guards. Marsh attempted to get closer to the ship, but was nearly spotted by the guards and had to leave rapidly. Eventually, the dock workers finished unloading the vessel, were paid and left, along with most of the guards and the observer. Prentiss decided to follow the observer, assuming he was some sort of boss, as he got into a carriage and was delivered to a luxurious hotel nearby.

When he rejoined them, the team crossed to the roof of the next warehouse, in which the goods were being stored, and descended to explore. They found the crates on the ground floor and while Lady Antonia kept watch, Prentiss began examining them, discovering a quantity of souvenirs, food and other trade goods.

Curruthers and Marsh checked out the office overlooking the ground floor and found a cabinet full of papers written in Chinese, of which some bore a mark also found on one of the crates being unloaded. Deciding this was significant, they returned to the floor and located that crate. Levering it open, they uncovered a statue of a Chinese dragon carved out of a single huge block of jade; as Marsh examined it, a pale replica, apparently made of mist, coalesced above it and struck at him, knocking him out. The others leapt in to help and Curruthers forced the lid back down on to it, just as the doors banged open and a gang of eight Chinamen ran in brandishing wicked-looking meat cleavers.

Battle began following a shouted challenge and the team shot half the attackers before they reached the crates. A confused meleé broke out, and the heroes prevailed, despite the attackers' spectacular high kicks. Marsh recovered in a timely fashion and used his rat amulet to sneak up behind one of the attackers, who had an injured Lady Antonia at his mercy. Wielding a boathook in an impressive fashion, Prentiss managed to force one to surrender (the others died of their injuries).

Notes

I ran this story because two of the players had the temerity to take a two week trip to Japan. The flashback story has no bearing on the current Pyramids of Hertfordshire storyline, but is more of a Marvel-style ‘untold story’. The plot itself reflects the kind of things these people do when they're not chasing vampires and is derived from the unused tong/underworld war plot I wanted to use in the Temple Vampire. This was intended to be a one off, but the Eyjafjallajökull volcano had other ideas…

The Ministry of Blades : The Pyramids of Hertfordshire, episode 2

Prentiss dodges a mummy; April accelerates its collapse.

Played

25th March 2010.

Dramatis Personae

Miss Constantina Spit - a Rebellious Debutante.
Captain Benson Curruthers - a Military Policeman.
Jack Prentiss - a Dodgy Pedestrian.
Miss April Sharpe - a Self-taught Inventor.
Rodney Marsh - a Partially-reformed Thief.

Plot

As Lady Antonia headed off to locate the verger to inform him of the grave robbery, the rest of the team slowly became aware of a throbbing vibration in the ground and of a green glow from above the hill. With the fog and mud making it impossible to make out much in the way of details, they investigated, heading back up to the woods in search of clearer air and firmer ground.

Prentiss pressed on ahead as the main group got caught up in mud and a tangle of roots and, separated from the rest of team, found himself confronted by a strangely-aseptic smelling figure. Turning his torch on the figure's face, he found himself confronted by a horrific sight: a dry, crumbling, parchment-like visage wrapped in yellowing bandages. Panicking as the figure took an ungainly swipe at him, he hit at it with his cudgel and ran back to the group, nearly toppled by a powerful blow as he went.

Miss Spit magically-illuminated the scene as he returned, immediately regretting it as the creature lumbered into view, now clearly identifiable as an animated Egyptian mummy. Marsh was immediately immobilised by the shock, but the rest recovered and a confused battle ensued. Prentiss let fly with his blunderbus and Curruthers leapt forward with his swordstick, stabbling it through the chest. Marsh recovered from his bout of sickness and ran around to attack from behind with his daggers. Nobody seemed to have much effect, as blades slipped easily through the bandaged without disturbing them and bullets passed through with little impact, until Prentiss realised that fire might work. He opened and emptied a cartridge of black powder over the creature, just as Miss Sharpe finally got her mysterious weapon to work, discharging a corrosive substance at the mummy. This reacted with the creature's preservatives and it caught fire, encouraged by the black powder. A second blast put it out of the running for good, although Miss Sharpe's weapon then promptly failed with a spectacular shower of sparks and a worrying grinding noise.

Notes

Making up for the previous session's lack of action, this was basically an all-out fight. The mummy had the upper hand until the players figured out how to damage it, whereupon it went down quite fast. This was basically the plan. I had no urges to fudge the dice rolls, which was quite pleasing!

The Ministry of Blades : The Pyramids of Hertfordshire, episode 1

Curruthers meets a detective; Marsh trips over a corpse.

Played

11th March 2010.

Dramatis Personae

Lady Antonia deVore - a Heavily-armed Aristocrat.
Miss Constantina Spit - a Rebellious Debutante.
Captain Benson Curruthers - a Military Policeman.
Jack Prentiss - a Dodgy Pedestrian.
Miss April Sharpe - a Self-taught Inventor.
Rodney Marsh - a Partially-reformed Thief.
Mr Erasmus Rooke - the Boss;
Mr Hinton Waldrist - a Ministry Observer.
Detective Alton Barnes - of the Yard.
A Carriage Driver.
A Corpse.

Plot

Fresh from their triumph over the Highbury Horror, the team were briefed for a new mission that would take them out of London. Rooke tasked them with investigating some strange events taking place in and around the village of Aldermansford in Hertfordshire. A series of strange lights and glows had been seen above the woods to the north of the community, usually accompanied by low frequency vibrations. Occasionally, when the lights were quite bright, human figures were seen moving through the mist between the trees.

The team were to meet to catch the noon train from Euston to Berkhamsted. Marsh arrived late and they only just caught the train. As the train entered rural Hertfordshire, Marsh began to claim that the whole place smelt funny.

Arriving in Berkhamsted, they rode a carriage to Aldermansford itself, a small village built around a millpond and set under a forested hill. On the way into the village, they passed Avery Manor, the residence of Sir Upton Scudamore, Bt., and noted the presence what appeared to be a half-built pyramid behind it. The driver commented that Sir Upton was a bit eccentric, but very generous to the village.

Having scared off the local children by attempting to talk to them, the invstigators took up residence in the four rooms they had booked in the Hangman's Dance, the local coaching inn. While everyone else got settled in, Prentiss and Curruthers decided to visit the local Ministry observer, Hinton Waldrist, who filled them in on the details of the mystery. The weird phenomena consisted primarily of bright blue and green glows in the night sky to the north of the Manor. Those living or walking in the area had reported a low throbbing noise that sounded like the “chanting of the sacraments at the church of a Sunday morning, as heard from several hundred yards away”. Bright lights had been seen shining out of the woods covering the hills in the north of the estate, broken by shadowy figures moving about within them. Waldrist had a number of theories as to their origin, mostly revolving around ancient ruins that may have been associated with fairies.

They also learnt about the recent murders of Ansty Coombe, one of the estate gamekeepers found near the pyramid, Maggie Burton, a young local woman who appeared to have died gathering flowers in the woods, the Reverend Harold Norris, a visiting clergyman staying at the Parsonage and found in the Manor's ornamental lake, and Coney Furlong, a poacher found in a ditch in the woods. All had been beaten to death with a couple of heavy blows within the last couple of weeks. Scotland Yard had sent a detective to investigate.

Marsh and Miss Sharpe, meanwhile, descended to the bar where Marsh became aware of the presence of Detective Alton Barnes of the Yard, the man who had finally ended his criminal career. Knowing that Barnes had wanted to see him hang, Marsh decided to try to avoid him. Curruthers and Prentiss rejoined the group for dinner, filling them in on their discoveries. Curruthers decided to have a brief chat with Barnes, policeman to policeman but learnt nothing new: Barnes was investigating the murders and considered the lights to be a local fairy tale.

Later that evening, the team headed out to see what they could find and in the hope that the lights might decide to manifest. Trudging up into the woods at around 10 pm, they encountered a thickening fog and Marsh, attempting to move quietly away from the rest of the team in case of an ambush, became separated from them. They only became aware of his location when he tripped over a corpse and screamed. Gathering around, they noted that the corpse looked like it had been buried in a coffin for several months (being relatively dry, with little sign of insects) and was wearing good boots and a suit, implying it had had a funeral. Once he had finished bringing up his dinner, Marsh mused over the possibility of taking them, but decided they were a little too rotten.

The investigators looked around for drag marks and found none, but did note a single set of boot prints leading up the hill from the graveyard. Following them back, they found a grave that looked like it had been opened from the inside. Lady Antonia decided to inform the verger, in spite of the time, that one of his graves had been robbed.

Notes

The mystery begins!

This was a very talky session, setting the scene for the later investigations and (I hope) horrors. Aldermansford is supposed to resemble one of those Miss Marple-type murder locations and is deliberately set on the edge of the ‘Avengers Triangle’. The lights in the woods are inspired by those torch and aliens scenes in the X-Files.

Marsh's connection with Barnes was not planned, but was one of those spur-of-the-moment ideas that just seemed to make sense. Tripping over the corpse was the result of yet another fumbled roll.

The Ministry of Blades : The Highbury Horror

Marsh provokes a brawl; April gains a stalker.

Played

25th February 2010.

Dramatis Personae

Lady Antonia deVore - a Heavily-armed Aristocrat.
Miss Constantina Spit - a Rebellious Debutante.
Captain Benson Curruthers - a Military Policeman.
Jack Prentiss - a Dodgy Pedestrian.
Miss April Sharpe - a Self-taught Inventor.
Rodney Marsh - a Partially-reformed Thief.
Mr Erasmus Rooke - the Boss;
A Large Gentleman.
Another Large Gentleman with a Short Temper.
Assorted Pub-goers.

Plot

It was three months after the case of the Temple Vampire. Following a dressing-down over their precipitous conclusion to the case, Professor Wyntermere and Doctor Crabb had temporarily withdrawn from active service, leaving Marsh and Lady Antonia to babysit a quartet of junior agents through a series of basic surveillance and information-gathering tasks.

Their latest mission took them out to Highbury, where there had been reports of a brutal individual of great stature terrorising the local inhabitants. Several women had gone missing and the Metropolitan Police, as usual, were at a loss to stop the attacks. The Ministry was taking an interest because the descriptions of the attacker bore a great resemblance to the perpetrator of the Hyde Attacks a couple of years before. The team were assigned to survey the situation, gather intelligence on the attacks and, if possible, identify the attacker so that a task force could remove him from the public arena.

After briefly exploring the area, the team decided to try asking the locals what they knew. Spotting a public drinking establishment on a nearby corner, they divided into two teams: Miss Sharp, Prentiss and Marsh would enter the bar, while Miss Spit and Captain Curruthers would ask questions in the more genteel surroundings of the lounge. Lady Antonia decided this was not the place for an aristocrat and remained outside, prepared for trouble. Things went well for half an hour or so: buying the occasional drink, Curruthers, Miss Sharpe and Prentiss spoke to a number of the clientele, while Miss Spit rapidly found herself at the centre of a group of admirers. Marsh toyed with starting a game of chance, then decided on a more direct approach, asking if any large ugly types had been seen in the area: at this point, it all went downhill, as he found himself standing next to a large ugly gentleman.

Lady Antonia was briefly shocked by the sound of breaking glass, then realised that Marsh had joined her in the street. The rest of the team decided discretion was the greater part of valour and they met up to compare notes. Four attacks had taken place in an area a quarter of a mile square, all but one fatally; the lady in question was in shock and seeing no-one, but had spoken of being grabbed by a large, well-dressed man with calloused hands. All attacks had taken place late at night and had involved individuals, except in one case where a couple was murdered.

The team decided to try to lure the attacker out to see if they could identify him and divided into three teams: Miss Spit and Curruthers, Miss Sharpe and Prentiss and Lady Antonia and Marsh. In each case, the female member walked apparently alone while her colleague followed at a discrete distance. The plan worked: Miss Sharpe was promptly grabbed from within a shadowed alley by a huge figure. She screamed for help and pulled out her pistol as Prentiss rushed to the rescue; the others, all operating on nearby streets, also raced to the scene. Miss Sharpe was finding that her pistol was having little effect, the bullets getting lost in her attacker's voluminous cloak, while Prentiss began trying to club him over the head. Marsh arrived and laid into him with his knives, before Curruthers and Lady Antonia were able to take potshots with their own weapons.

The attacker proved to be incredibly tough, but eventually they brought him down through sheer persistence, drugged and cuffed him and then dragged him back to the Ministry. By the time they had arrived, the attacker had mysteriously shrunk and was now a scrawny young man. Prentiss remarked that he had seen something similar before and Mr Rooke confirmed that there had been a small number of sightings of creatures bearing similar abilities and appearance to the mysterious Mr Hyde of several years previous. The monster was taken away for examination and the team commended for their success, before being asked to return the following morning for their next briefing.

Notes

This mission was intended to perform the same role as the battle with the rat-men at the beginning of the Temple Vampire: shake-down the new characters and give the new players a chance to get used to the combat system. The investigation seemed to get a little involved as I was expecting the team to explore the streets first and just get attacked, but the final version allowed for another classic Marsh foot-in-mouth incident so was a definite improvement. The new characters got a chance to show what they were made of and establish their personalities, but as usual, the fight went on slightly too long, partly because I forgot the monster was an Extra, rather than a Wild Card, and gave it too many wounds.

I'm getting better at this, though!

The Ministry of Blades

The Movie Pitch

Steed and Mrs Peel meet Dracula.

The Elevator Speech

Agents of a secret government agency use magic, gadgets and fisticuffs to battle the forces of darkness in the fog-shrouded streets of Victorian London.

Tone

Pulp horror, with strong helpings of fisticuffs, weird science and stiff upper lips.

System

Savage Worlds.

Player Character Roles

Junior agents of the Ministry of Blades, officially known as the Esoteric Research Office. Agents are drawn from all walks of British society, but all have been exposed to the horrors of the night and have not only survived, but have shown courage in fighting back.

Adversaries

Vampires.
Werewolves.
Distorted products of twisted science.
Ghosts.
Sinister criminal-types.
Fiendish foreign agents.

Locations

Assorted evil-infested locations across London and the British Isles, including:
Sewers.
Rookeries.
Mansions.
Dimly-lit streets.
Museums, cathedrals and other historic buildings.
Occasional forays into the wider Empire and world.

Appendix N

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (comics rather than the movie).
Sherlock Holmes.
Dracula.
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
The works of Edgar Allan Poe.
The Avengers (television).
Adam Adamant.
Doctor Who.
Castle Falkenstein.
The Brothers Grimm.

---

The initial idea for this came from an organisation briefly described in the Victorian Age Vampire Storyteller's Handbook, but rapidly evolved into a Victorian-era cross between the Avengers, James Bond and Dracula. I prefer it that way (they probably ship the emotionally-damaged off to a small village in North Wales)... The game style itself is very cinematic, I'm trying to encourage over-the-top action (players will not be penalised if they fail to achieve something spectacular) and ridiculous coincidences (the players can use Bennies to adjust the plot - although not at this stage of the campaign). Rules additions are coming from Rippers, the Savage Worlds Victorian horror campaign, and Thrilling Tales, Adamant Entertainment's pulp supplement. I'm not sure whether this counts as "Gaslight Fantasy" or "Steampunk" but I'm happy with either appellation; I'm terming it "SteamPulp" as that seems to reflect the more action-oriented approach I'm taking.

The format of this summary was inspired by posts on I waste the Buddha with my Crossbow.

The Story So Far

The details of the team's first mission and their encounter with the Temple Vampire can be found on the links below:

Welcome to the Ministry
A brief introduction to the Ministry of Blades, as delivered by Major Keithley.

The Temple Vampire, episode 1
Lady Antonia has a bite; Dr Crabb meets a new patient.

The Temple Vampire , episode 2
Professor Wyntermere and Dr Crabb go for a coffee; Marsh meets a lady of the night.

The Temple Vampire, episode 3
Professor Wyntermere catches some ruffians; Lady Antonia blows them away.

The Temple Vampire, episode 4
Dr Crabb conducts an interview; Marsh plays the mime.

The Temple Vampire, episode 5
Marsh tracks a vampire; Curruthers sets it alight.