This is the thread were i'll be posting about this new game. The plan is to be close to as open as i was with Stone Horizons.

It might be a trifle slow for a while, as i still have to finish off SH, but it'll gather up a head of steam sooner or later.

Awesome! It's officially a project then!

I would suggest cobbling together the important bits of the other thread and posting them here, as a foundational document, so folks can get what you are going for more quickly.

-clash

At Clash's suggestion here are some relevant thoughts about the game so that you can get up to speed on it. (The abbreviated form of the game is FKaC! hee, hee).

Abstract

Colonial adventure game in the style of among others, Kipling and the Flashman books of George MacDonald Fraser.

Tone and scope
I'm seeing boys' own adventures, kipling, the man who would be king, flashman, Sir Richard Burton's African adventures, derring-do, cads, stiff upper-lips, courtesans, exotic foreign beauties, cricket, rugby, afternoon tea, theatre & travelling carnivals, pea-soupers, berry-berry, dropsy, spear-chucking, canoes, peelers, zulus, darjeeling, the kyber pass, the new world, the Pinkertons, plantations, work-houses, gentlemans clubs, upper class twits, working class heroes, Oliver Twist.

The most important is, of course, cricket

Personality Traits
I think that the inspirations we are talking about are pretty optimistic in tone generally. Things that we consider as negative character traits today are positive and useful in the faux time period we are talking about.

So i'm already thinking that personality traits are quite important and not always having an effect that you'd intitially think about.

*spitballing*

So "haughty" might actually give you a plus to impressing certain classes of folk. "Hoarder" might give you bonuses to noticing pick-pockets etc. "Speaking in a loud voice" might intimidate some folk.

Social Class
I've had some thoughts, but admit that they might have negative connotations that rile some folk up...

Social class, for example. I'm thinking that we have 4. Upper Class Twits, Middle Class Drones, Working Class Heroes and Johnny Foreigners & Ne'er Do Wells. Those are working titles and might give impressions that i'm not after, but they seem to sum up the genre tropes pretty well.

Luggage
There is no such thing as equipment, there is only Luggage.

Mumbo-Jumbo
Oh, and the skill governing magic and mystical pursuits is called Mumbo-Jumbo.

Entourage
I'm also toying with the idea of 'Entourage' being a stat of sorts. These are the folk that hang around you, go on expeditions with you etc. You know, the expendibles. However, if you give them a name, they are no longer an expendible. Sort of mooks, i guess, that get a way out of mookness if they are named by the player - there's a limit to the number of named characters in your entourage (yet to be determined) and an Entourage is easier to intimidate, scare off or kill - you know, like the literary and filmic sources.

So, Sir Phillip Ross is an Upper Class Twit Professional Gambler. He has an Entourage rating of 4 (3 street toughs, 1 accountant & aide). Whilst on the notorious River Stentforth pleasure-cruise with the Gentleman Spy Roger Manforth, he comes under attack by some Johnny Foreigners! (Barge-People). The ensuing caffuffle sees Sir Phillip's life saved by his aide! In a rare moment of charity, he enquires of his aide "What exactly is your name, sonny?" Peter Corry is the reply. From now on Peter gets a larger Stipend and is no longer considered as part of Sir Phillip's Entourage when trouble next strikes.

Clash's thoughts on manservants
Very good! I like it! Upper Class Twits should have at least one body servant as well, with a name and a "presence". I would personally have some other player play the servant as a sort of troupe character, whatever the rules say! If a servant goes down - nobly, one would hope - another can be appointed from the entourage. Servants should be one of the following:

Old Family Retainer
Trusted Native
Former Batman
Native Royalty in Hiding

What do you think? Servants are always important in the literature.

David R suggests an Eccentric 'career'
What about someone who operates without (ahem) class ? The Eccentric.

I've got 97 Pursuits (the name for careers) so far, split along class lines. Career sounds a bit bland for an adventure game, so i figure Pursuit sounds a bit more dynamic.

Here's the Working Class Hero list.

Athlete
Batman
Bodyguard
Cornet (lowest officer of horse)
Courier
Footman (works on carriages)
Forester
Guinea Pig (workman who works for a guinea)
Henchman
Jockey
Man-Servant
Non-Commissioned Officer (army and navy)
Policeman
Professional (working class cricket player)
Pugilist
Strongman
Teamster
Topman (ships lookout)
Tumbler

Edit: I should point out that there isn't necessarily going to be cricket in the game - but a facsimile, certainly. I'm not going for historical recreation as much as literary reproduction.

Quote from: One Horse Town;346488I've got 97 Pursuits (the name for careers) so far, split along class lines. Career sounds a bit bland for an adventure game, so i figure Pursuit sounds a bit more dynamic.

Here's the Working Class Hero list.

Athlete
Batman
Bodyguard
Cornet (lowest officer of horse)
Courier
Footman (works on carriages)
Forester
Guinea Pig (workman who works for a guinea)
Henchman
Jockey
Man-Servant
Non-Commissioned Officer (army and navy)
Policeman
Professional (working class cricket player)
Pugilist
Strongman
Teamster
Topman (ships lookout)
Tumbler

Edit: I should point out that there isn't necessarily going to be cricket in the game - but a facsimile, certainly. I'm not going for historical recreation as much as literary reproduction.

Very good! I think that covers almost every Working Class Hero I can think of from the genre!

-calsh

I've had a few more thoughts.

Lifestyles

First up, as well as choosing a Pursuit (career) for your character, you'll get to choose from 4 Lifestyles in your social class. Lifestyles are a sort of template that you apply to your character.

So, Upper Class Twit Lifestyles could be; Philanthropist, Company Man, Explorer and Thrill-Seeker. Eccentric will, of course, be a Lifestyle that is classless and available to all regardless of social class.

Perseverance

There will also be a derived Perseverance statistic which is very important. Not sure how it's derived yet, but it will be!!

The heroes in these stories always seem to be able to laugh at death, struggle on against all the odds and beat lethal diseases. So Perseverance has a number of uses. Ideas at present are :-

1. Disregard 1 distinct Attrition result (see Entourages below)

2. Re-roll any 1 failed test with the same modifiers in place.

3. Save a named NPC from death.

4. Disregard negative modifiers from wounds for the current scene.  

Chances are that there'll be a Stiff Upper Lip Trait that affects your Perseverance.

Your Perseverance is spent in one of the ways noted above. 1 point each.

Perseverance is replenished with rest and when within Safe Havens.

This idea is to simulate long-term journeys of discovery, as well as act as a sort of 'hero point.'

Entourages & Attrition

When you're out in the wilds with all your assembled entourages, the idea is that where in SH i included a great deal of random tables for creating your corner of the castle, here i'll be doing the same for exploratory expeditions with geography and natural hazards. I'll also have tables for random discoveries, the field of that discovery, so you know what you take back to civilisation.

After each time period (a week?), the party rolls an Attrition check and apply the results to their entourage (subject to being offset by Perseverance, see above).

If the random discovery chart suggests a Safe Haven, then the entourage can re-stock and folk recover some or all of their Perseverance.

Sweet! I love Eccentric bing a classless lifestyle! That's perfect!

Perseverance is a great way to name hero points. That's probably the one common thing linking all the fictional heroes of the genre - they all keep going when others have turned back.

Looking great so far!

-clash

Cheers!

I say, dashed perfect timing, fellows.  I finished the first Flashman book a couple of weeks ago.  Cad of the first water, but a jolly romp through the kush, wot!

This game sounds just up my street. Crack of with it, there's a good fellow.

If you want some reading material:

Talking of cricket, Bernard Cornwell's character in "Gallows Thief" (an excellent book, one which I had hoped would be the start of a series - not quite in the Flashman style though) is a cricketer.

You might also check out Edwin Thomas's Martin Jerrold character, who is a bit of a Flashman-type character, but in the Navy.

Then there's the Raymond M Saunders character of Fenwick Travers, who was a direct American equivalent of Flashman.

Maybe not quite the right time period, there is the Brigadier Gerard character of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle too.

Looking forward to this.

Simon W

Oh, and I nearly forgot

Space Captain Smith, by Toby Frost.

Ok, it's the British Empire in Space, but it captures some of the right stiff upper lippishness (is that a word? I doubt it).

Cheers
Simon W

Quote from: Simon W;347827This game sounds just up my street. Crack of with it, there's a good fellow.

If you want some reading material:

Talking of cricket, Bernard Cornwell's character in "Gallows Thief" (an excellent book, one which I had hoped would be the start of a series - not quite in the Flashman style though) is a cricketer.

You might also check out Edwin Thomas's Martin Jerrold character, who is a bit of a Flashman-type character, but in the Navy.

Then there's the Raymond M Saunders character of Fenwick Travers, who was a direct American equivalent of Flashman.

Maybe not quite the right time period, there is the Brigadier Gerard character of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle too.

Looking forward to this.

Simon W

I'm surprised you didn't come up with it first, Simon!

-clash

Quote from: flyingmice;347835I'm surprised you didn't come up with it first, Simon!

-clash

I have been working on-and-off with something called Mad Dogs & Englishmen in a similar vein but that seems destined never to get finished. I've change systems on it more times than I can remember...

Simon W

Quote from: Simon W;348017I have been working on-and-off with something called Mad Dogs & Englishmen in a similar vein but that seems destined never to get finished. I've change systems on it more times than I can remember...

Simon W

Aha! I knew it! It's an idea whose time has come!

Great title, by the way! :O

-clash

This sounds interesting. I like the entourage concept. How do the core mechanics work?