Artificier

[SnowDog]

Hi,

I have not yet got my copy of GM's Companion (where rules for alchemy are, to my understanding) but I just finished a second book in Gentleman Bastards sequence and it got me intrigued how artificier would work within RQ rules.

To make things more clear an artificier is somone who makes clockwork things that are (almost) magical in quality. I would guess that they are to clockworkers what alchemists are to chemist when comparing fantasy setting to real world.

Does anyone have any ideas how this might work or are there already rules in some books that I could ... borrow ?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Loz]

Elric of Melnibone includes rules for automata. Might be useful.

 

[klingsor]

I am rather hoping for a Runequest based Steampunk book and this would be one thing I would expect to find there.
The excellent Gentleman Bastards books also make one very, very aware of how important alchemy can be – though they, rather like most PCs in my experience, are a bit obsessed with poisons.

 

[SnowDog]

Okay, I have to check out Elric. Thanks for the tip!

True, it seems that most of the applications for alchemy in Gentleman Bastards books is for poisons but as there are non-adventure applications for the craft as well I would not be surprised to see even more creative use. Although it seems that healing potions are not all that popular...

 

[klingsor]

Healing potions are just a bit too useful and too convenient. In RPGs they avoid a lot of down time as people have to go back and heal up which can be skipped in paragraph or so in a novel.

One of my favourite web comics (#1 of 2) is Girl Genius. There is apparently a GURPS book coming for this which I have very mixed feelings about, I think the GURPS sourcebooks are some of the best out there even if you do not run GURPS they are still worth buying for the information they contain. For Girl Genius GURPS seems a horrible match but I will still buy the book for the non-system material in it. Anyway if you want to do steampunk Girl Genius is worth a look. A nice setting you can seal as well. The Wikipedia article covers it nicely so I will spare you my attempt.

The anime Howl’s Moving Castle has some very nice pre-dreadnoughts in it, French style I think, that are for me the very epitome of Steampunk. Otherwise it has some nice bits including some interesting flying machines.

 

[SnowDog]

It's true that healing potions save a lot of down time in games (in most cases) and sometimes can put the character back to his feet even during a combat. Does this mean that we as gamers are spoiled? Why everything has to happen in an instant? Why not just spend some down time for healing and other recuperation. I know this is a wrong part of the forum but are we so used to speeding to high levels that it would be horrible if a character should spend some time recovering from damage (that he barely survived)? To me quick character development (to certain point at least) is just fine as long as that development happens in real life. If it took a lot of time in game world, that's even better.

But anyway, thanks for the tips about steampunk sources.

 

[klingsor]

I do not think they spoil the game. In games where they are prevalent you have Clerics who can also heal people rapidly. It is just part of A. D. & D., that is how it goes. Offhand I do not think we have played any other games where such rapid healing is possible at all. There healing can be a bu**er but quick healing, let alone instant, would just be silly or inappropriate. If you character is off his feet then you are basically a bit stuffed while the rest of the party can act - though fortunately if someone is that badly hurt it means a big fight where several PCs are hurt so no-one minds a bit of fast-forwarding while they heal. Otherwise you are left playing the dummy.

Injury and healing is something that is glossed over for the sake of convenience and playability in nearly every RPG I can think of. Weirdly Pendragon is one of the ones that is nastiest about it. STOCS as well implements a death spiral, where the more hurt you are the harder it is to do anything, but that is not at all fun even if it does lurch towards greater realsim.

 

[SnowDog]

I do not think they spoil the game. In games where they are prevalent you have Clerics who can also heal people rapidly. It is just part of A. D. & D., that is how it goes. Offhand I do not think we have played any other games where such rapid healing is possible at all. There healing can be a bu**er but quick healing, let alone instant, would just be silly or inappropriate. If you character is off his feet then you are basically a bit stuffed while the rest of the party can act - though fortunately if someone is that badly hurt it means a big fight where several PCs are hurt so no-one minds a bit of fast-forwarding while they heal. Otherwise you are left playing the dummy.

You can get as fast healing as in AD&D in Rolemaster I am pretty sure that there are other games with as quick healing as that, too.

Besides I didn't say that the game is spoiled by quick healing it really suits certain types of games. I actually said that we as gamers are 'spoiled' for too quick character development in game time. Obviously it is not very fun to watch the character to raise to playable point after playing weekly for a year in real time but going from a normal peasant to demigod in less than a year in game time is a bit too much

Injury and healing is something that is glossed over for the sake of convenience and playability in nearly every RPG I can think of. Weirdly Pendragon is one of the ones that is nastiest about it. STOCS as well implements a death spiral, where the more hurt you are the harder it is to do anything, but that is not at all fun even if it does lurch towards greater realsim.

I agree that when one of the party is severely wounded others might get a bit restless (I have seen this a few times). This is especially true if characters are low on money and they can't afford to stay idle.

I think that there is a reason why Pendragon has so unforgiving combat system. I have understood that the family is the character and a single character/person is just one small part of it.

What's STOCS? Death spiral is quite common in games that have comparatively quick mechanics and I sort of like that. At least in semi-realistic games...

 

[klingsor]

STOCS was a small press game back in the 80s. You can downlaod it now for free (just Google for it) but it is good enough that the author really should redo it as a PDF and start flogging it again.

Quick character development is never really something I have ever experienced. I have not played much D. & D. since the days of A. D. & D. and then we had a mean (but very good) DM who did not give out XP for treasure not did we play that frequently so the issue never arose. I quite like the new D. & D. (3.5) but have played only a few games of it but from what I have read I would agree with you that it probably has too rapid character advancement. The point is to have fun with your character. I am not really that keen on (or capable of) deep character playing but there is far, far more to it than just getting new powers and goodies.

Most high fantasy games probably have quick healing, it seems to go with the territory. I don't think it fits in Steampunk though, however convenient it would be though I do think biology and chemistry should get just as much a shake of the stick as the mechanical sciences and engineering that are classically associated with Steampunk. Maybe not quite so much for the PCs (not so exciting) but certainly for NPCs they can be a fantastic source of scenario seeds, just ask Mr. Wells (The Island of Doctor Moreau).

 

[SnowDog]

I have not played anything beyond 1st edition AD&D (and the original red box). I have since moved to other games but we played quite a lot of AD&D in our time (weekly if not twice a week). Without frequent TPKs our party would have risen quite fast to high levels. Anyway it is not so much the fault of the game system as of the pacing of game by GM. Time in spotlight should be rewarded and it should be the GM who encourages the downtime if that's what he wants (like I do).

It's true that quick healing is part of high fantasy genre (in games) but should not be part of more steampunk genre. The last game I run had quite extensive list of various alchemical potions/salves etc. and it was actually only sort of magic allowed for PCs (actual magic had very loose and light rules and wizards were NPC only). In that game even the most expensive elixir could not reattach a severed limb and it took a while to 'kick in'. Very nice (in GM's perspective).

Unfortunately there were no clockwork machines, otherwise it would have been almost a perfect fit for Gentleman Bastards sequence.

Now I am wondering if Artificier should be just an NPC profession (I still have not got my GM's Companion). Anyway it seems that even Artificiers could not do animated 'robots'...

 

[klingsor]

In a Sterampuk setting of course missing limbs are just an occasion to invite all sorts of weirdness. The PC needs a new arm but is it going to be mechanical or biological and if mechanical will it be steam powered (hard to imagine but this is steampunk after all), clockwork or something else – pneumatic is probably quite good.