steampunk tabletop card rpg

Hi, here are some ideas for your steampunk tabletop roleplay game competition. If you are interested in taking this further with kickstarter funding to produce a box set then let me know, it will be great to collaborate on a project.

Basic Victoriana skills set: Alchemy, Mechnology, Botany, Physician, Apocathery, Business, Oration, Etiquette, Empathy, Streetwise, Brawling, Artistic, Sculduggery, Survival, Gambler, Arcana, Researching, Fencing, Presence, Obfuscation, Educated, Intimidation, Housekeeping, Kitchen, Acrobatic, Player, Voodooism, specialist trade, etc.

Each character has any three skills based on Professional Type.

Attributes are simply; Mind, Body, Soul, you have d6+1 points per attribute and it is a nice d10 to test, scoring equal or less than the relevant attribute. The attributes are the skills categories.

You then have 5 free points to alot to your skills, no skill can rate at higher than 3 but can rate at zero. 3 is master, 2 is adept, 1 is practised, zero is novice. These scores are added to the relevant attribute to do a skills test. Task difficulty modifiers are +2 easy, -2 hard.

Income bracket is loosely based on Profession and Skills expectations, however characters begin at random by rolling a d6 on the income bracket chart. Character Backstory is based on justifying disparency between profession and income bracket.

destitute 1
 poor 2
waged 3
wealthy 4
affluent 5
rich 6

multiply each number by itself and then multiply that number by itself to determine how much you earn on average in one week. This also shows the starting level of equipment you have in financial terms.  Upkeep on properties and paying staff comes out of this income. Any big assets, work out cost and backtrack that number of weeks for how long you have had it.

Each character also has a numeric rated statistic called Vitality. This functions as stamina, hit points and reaction time. It measures personal magnitude, it is also magic points level if you use magic in your games, think of it in terms of the force in starwars. Vitality points can be used up as modifiers to tricky dice rolls to improve your chances on a one to one ratio. Vitality is regained by eating and resting. Characters begin with 5 vitality points. There is no maximum but most humans score less than ten, and zero means unconscious/dead.

Items can also have vitality; Use of armour soaks up damage that would otherwise reduce vitality rate. Encumbrance also reduces vitality rate. Vitality measures what order characters actions happen in, especially useful for during combat rounds.

As a card game, the card types are the skills set, and Stuff for all the useful items to be found in the game, there will be quite a lot of it ranging from medical kit to mansion. Because steampunk is what it is, many of these cards will have to be compatible for example a clockwork engine card, a steam engine card, a crystal capacitor card, are all useful to power any device that requires energising, such as a vehicle, weapon, winged knapsack, robotic manservent, etc. This way the players can customize the experience and no two games are quite the same.

Other decks cards for locations around the loosely constructed map, and npc characters to be found there, changes from scenario to scenario in this way the game can be expanded in future by campain/scenario booster packs.

 List of probable locations, can be owned as in monopoly to justify income brackets and visited during roleplay adventures; warehouse, orphanage, factory, hospice, docks, backstreet lair, library, gentlemans club, cathedral, train station, hansom cab station, mansion, townhouse, whorehouse, town hall, playhouse, university, ballroom, workshop, (carpenters, metalsmiths,) market stalls, herbalist, post office/telegram, telephone exchange, steelworks, loom weaver clothesmaking place, cemetery, castle, streets, backstreets, main street, police station, bank, mines, tailor, baker, grocer, tinker,  candlestick maker, soup kitchen, laboratory, hairdresser, spirit medium seance hall, sewers, gallows, prison/dungeon, moneylenders, 

THIS BLOG IS REPOSTED FROM G+, original post dated Saturday 8th March 2014. 

Reposted to date-mark by way of copyrighting material viewable from the public domain.