The new setting 'Clockwork & Chivalry' from Cubicle 7 (for Mongoose's RuneQuest II) looks seriously cool.  It is an 'alternative earth' setting: the 17th century, specifically, the English Civil War.  That is, it is the English Civil War plus 'clockwork leviathans' (on the side of the roundheads) and 'alchemy' (on the side of the cavaliers).

The website 'Clockwork and Chivalry' is devoted to the setting, in case you are curious to learn more.

I've always found the seventeenth century to be a fascinating era, and especially the events in England. The English Civil War(s), the Exclusion Crisis, the Glorious Revolution, and so forth, all had an enormous impact on the development of liberalism and rise of the modern world.  And the addition of alchemy and clockwork machinery to the era is intriguing.  I'm really looking forward to getting this!

Anyone have this yet?  Opinions?  

And of course, the campaign will feature the Great Fire of 1666.

I have it. I'll write a mini-review for it when I get the chance sometime this week.

Quote from: Akrasia;405884The new setting 'Clockwork & Chivalry' from Cubicle 7 (for Mongoose's RuneQuest II) looks seriously cool.  It is an 'alternative earth' setting: the 17th century, specifically, the English Civil War.  That is, it is the English Civil War plus 'clockwork leviathans' (on the side of the roundheads) and 'alchemy' (on the side of the cavaliers).

The website 'Clockwork and Chivalry' is devoted to the setting, in case you are curious to learn more.

I've always found the seventeenth century to be a fascinating era, and especially the events in England. The English Civil War(s), the Exclusion Crisis, the Glorious Revolution, and so forth, all had an enormous impact on the development of liberalism and rise of the modern world.  And the addition of alchemy and clockwork machinery to the era is intriguing.  I'm really looking forward to getting this!

Anyone have this yet?  Opinions?  

My problem with alt-earths is alsways the same.  I love history and always find inspiration there...but I look back at the additions of different scineces and magics and realize too many things would have happened very differently.  Technology, science, and philosophy are very tied to together, and if you add magics or different scientlific angles, it changes the ourtcome. The setting normally loses versimilitude quickly, unless the unbalancing factor is introduced in some sort of a further singularity (time travel, etc).

Sorry, will read it anyway...My own issues, carry on.

I share your concerns with 'alt history' settings, LordVreeg, and in fact normally don't care for them for those reasons.

However, I'm more sympathetic to settings that try to reconstruct the metaphysics and physics of the world in accordance with the beliefs of the (educated) people of the era in question.  So if C&C presents rules for 'alchemy' and 'clockwork machines' that seem to conform to what philosophers and scientists actually believed in the 17th century (well, more or less), then I have more sympathy for that.  

(Just as I would be okay with a 'golden age space opera' setting that embraced the views about space travel, etc., that people held in the 1930s or 1940s.)

Of course it's written by WFRP v1 luminary Ken Walton, so it can't be bad.

Quote from: One Horse Town;408594Of course it's written by WFRP v1 luminary Ken Walton, so it can't be bad.

Interesting!

I wonder if I could get my group to play runequest for this.   Unfortunately, most of them aren't history buffs.  This would be a great time period for a game.

Quote from: One Horse Town;408594Of course it's written by WFRP v1 luminary Ken Walton, so it can't be bad.

While its nice to be called a luminary, I'd just like to point out that I'm co-writing with Peter Cakebread, who I'm sure will become at least as luminiferous in the years to come...

Quote from: Ken Walton;408636While its nice to be called a luminary, I'd just like to point out that I'm co-writing with Peter Cakebread, who I'm sure will become at least as luminiferous in the years to come...

Most welcome, sir!

Also, your co-author has a name worthy of being immortalised in the Cool Real Names thread.

Quote from: One Horse Town;408640Most welcome, sir!

Also, your co-author has a name worthy of being immortalised in the Cool Real Names thread.

Well, we did spend ages trying to think of a memorable name for our company, then decided Cakebread & Walton would do :-)

That's a fine name indeed.
Welcome to the RPG Site, Ken.

UK history can be very obscure to me, especially the English Civil War. Right now the only thing that sticks out in my memory is Cromwell massacring Irish people by the thousands. I'm sure there must be more to this period. Would one of you sell me on the historical side of this setting, please?  

Looks like it could be very compatible with On Her Majesty's Arcane Service, setting-wise, am I right?

Quote from: Benoist;408648That's a fine name indeed.
Welcome to the RPG Site, Ken.

Thank you, you seem a friendly bunch!

Quote from: boulet;408700UK history can be very obscure to me, especially the English Civil War. Right now the only thing that sticks out in my memory is Cromwell massacring Irish people by the thousands. I'm sure there must be more to this period. Would one of you sell me on the historical side of this setting, please?  

Looks like it could be very compatible with On Her Majesty's Arcane Service, setting-wise, am I right?

We're actively avoiding Ireland in our game -- role-playing genocide is no fun.

Basically, parliament and the king have fallen out and parliament have had the king's head chopped off -- this is a major symbolic act as it leads to people questioning all sorts of authority figures they previously obeyed without question, like husbands, nobles and God. The two main groups, the Parliamentarians and Royalists, are fighting for control of the country (in our universe, Parliament have massive clockwork war machines while the Royalists use powerful Alchemical magic), while there are dozens if not hundreds of little political and religious groups in the middle, all struggling to carve a place for themselves in a fractured society. There's been a big battle, at which Clockwork and Alchemy were really unleashed for the first time, causing such mayhem that both sides have retreated into a sort of cold war while they lick their wounds and reassess. In the 6-part campaign we're producing, the PCs are working for a pair of patrons, one on either side of the divide, who are secretly working together to forge a lasting peace -- they have to investigate threats to that peace and put a stop to them. This involves lots of trekking the length and breadth of England, meeting various weird and wonderful characters, fighting magical and clockwork threats, and trying not to spend too much time squabbling about politics and obscure theological points. Imagine a slightly more historical WFRP but with humans only, and you can't go far wrong. Of course, you don't have to play it like the campaign -- you can be staunch Royalists fighting to regain the throne, proud Puritan Parliamentarians, trying to set up a Republic, communistic Diggers working for equality for all, or just ordinary folk trying to survive while armies requisition your belongings at the drop of a hat.

I've not seen On Her Majesty's Arcane Service, but it's set 100 years earlier than C&C, when politics was less fractured and the country at peace - at least internally. OHMAS seems to focus on secret agents, whereas C&C is much more open -- you could play secret agents, but you could equally be mercenaries, camp followers, journalists, alchemists, clockwork engineers or any of 30-odd professions - and with lots of religious and political factions to choose from too. It's a very open game world, in which lots of stories can be told. Because we're using the scientific world view of the time, this even allows us to go to the moon! :-)

Anyway, that was more than I intended to write, better stop now!