Cortex Steampunk Game 1 OOC Discussion

[WickedCadrach]

1 hour ago, MagnificentBastard said:

Lawlessness, I think one of the things that makes a western feel like a western is this sense of lawlessness, I think this also helps with horror and erotica.

Agreeing with this. The feeling of exposure and self-reliance when there's one lawman for your town and sometimes not even that (I'm thinking of Bass Reeves, the US Marshal who was the only lawman covering a frontier territory roughly the size of South Dakota and the real-world inspiration behind The Lone Ranger).

[WritesNaughtyStories]

I think I'm going to come at this in three steps. First, @Chiyako's biologist, then @IsabellaRose's religions and then a combination of @MagnificentBastard, @StarlitSiren and @WickedCadrach's balls, promiscuity and promiscuous balls.

So, @Chiyako, it seems the REALLY important thing is being in hiding, on the run and doing these shady experiments. That's more Doctor Frankenstein than vampire. The look is easy to achieve. Anemic and pale, or straight albino, and the experiments and history (removed from the big, fancy hospital back in Saint Linus for unapproved surgeries that revealed your experiments? Maybe to cure your hereditary anemia or perfect that animal soldier idea the army pulled the plug on?) mean you have to hide who you are and what you do. Just trying to find how to get the most important parts to fit the setting. I still have concerns that this could become 'you vs. us' which gets out of the rivalry business and into conflict.

@IsabellaRose, I was wondering how we got to the simple padre, in his dusty white cassock, helping the wounded gunfighter to the angry castigations Prudence delivered, and endured. I think your Puritan squared schism from the older church handles that well. But what are the Daughters of the Unbound's feelings about the Old Church? It feels like they don't like them, but aren't as vehement in their desire to tear it down. Not until the bigger problems are taken care of first. There's probably a new church, here in town, dragging people in front of their Judgements, shaming them, demanding their saloons be closed, I guess? The Old Church mission is probably out of town a ways, where the humble priest and tasty (there we go with the part you don't say aloud) nun try to shepherd settlers and save the heathen savages. Sound about right, or did the town run the new church out and they have a little white, clapboard square meeting house where they rail and rant at the evils of man?

 

Work, calls, me hardies (it's talk like a pirate day - go nuts) time to trim the mains and hoist the gallants!

[IsabellaRose]

16 hours ago, WritesNaughtyStories said:

Yeah, that's why I really want her as part of our history. I really want to play a monk of the Daughters of the Unbound. I love the idea of someone like Kwai Chang Caine being the champion of her message of love, acceptance and caring (and being kind of a slut about it, because they love everybody).

So I'm thinking about Prudence and her Ashborn, and given the setting... Prudence would very likely still be active.

Perhaps her protection is a sort of frontier legend. Some people who say they've been protected by her have spread her legend, and some directly affected have now started a new faith, one of love and protection. This new faith draws all sorts of followers and is rapidly growing. Perhaps one of their first, or their very first, chapel is in the town where the players are based...

Just a thought, given her wild west themed origin.

[IsabellaRose]

28 minutes ago, WritesNaughtyStories said:

, I was wondering how we got to the simple padre, in his dusty white cassock, helping the wounded gunfighter to the angry castigations Prudence delivered, and endured. I think your Puritan squared schism from the older church handles that well. But what are the Daughters of the Unbound's feelings about the Old Church? It feels like they don't like them, but aren't as vehement in their desire to tear it down. Not until the bigger problems are taken care of first. There's probably a new church, here in town, dragging people in front of their Judgements, shaming them, demanding their saloons be closed, I guess? The Old Church mission is probably out of town a ways, where the humble priest and tasty (there we go with the part you don't say aloud) nun try to shepherd settlers and save the heathen savages. Sound about right, or did the town run the new church out and they have a little white, clapboard square meeting house where they rail and rant at the evils of man?

I think there's room for everyone to have a presence in town. 

I'm imagining the various factions being sort of like the warring powermongers in Deadwood (the HBO series) - they are all in town, all trying to establish themselves in positions of power due to (resource) being abundant in the area and this being the main railroad stop closest to the mine, ruins, spring, or whatever source of (resource) we decide is nearby to create a gold rush feel. They need the people to follow them, to see them as the power in the area. I can imagine the schism church trying to exert its power, to spread its influence back east. I can also imagine other powerful organizations, individuals, etc. all trying to lock down their control over this town, and thus lock down their control of (resource).

The aforementioned resource could be gold, the "new coal", or something else. Whatever this unobtainium is, it is valuable and rare enough that people will kill for it. 

[WritesNaughtyStories]

Does this mean the New Church has bounties out for Ashborn and her blasphemous cultists?

Now that I'm actually on deck, I can slack off on the lines and think. Picking up where I left off in my earlier post this morning, ball, promiscuity, lawlessness and blue coal.

Balls. It sounds like we all agree, there need to be occasional galas, where what passes for wealth in town, shows up in their frontier finery and parades about in desperate attempts to seduce each other, impress the common folk and angle for alliances and influence.

How big of a deal is it when the musicians come into town for these balls? Do they happen on the solstices and equinoxes? I feel like there's powerful symbolism there that the churches don't much like, and those cults (maybe the First Nations too?) @MagnificentBastard mentioned use the townsfolk's distraction to have big gatherings of their own.

Promiscuity - I feel like this is frowned on by society (much as it is now) but debauchery has a long and happy history behind the scenes. Saha Sky Eyes, Who Walks Between The Rivers, (who I have just found a name for) makes no effort to hide her promiscuity though. She loves freely as Ashborn teaches. She loves the balls because it encourages everyone to be more open.

This unobtainium, I feel like needs to be some kind of energy resource. Zeppelins, automatons and crazy experiments all need power. Is it some kind of low temperature, high output "blue coal"?

Edited 1 hour ago by WritesNaughtyStories
more thoughts

[MagnificentBastard]

1 hour ago, IsabellaRose said:

I think there's room for everyone to have a presence in town. 

I'm imagining the various factions being sort of like the warring powermongers in Deadwood (the HBO series) - they are all in town, all trying to establish themselves in positions of power due to (resource) being abundant in the area and this being the main railroad stop closest to the mine, ruins, spring, or whatever source of (resource) we decide is nearby to create a gold rush feel. They need the people to follow them, to see them as the power in the area. I can imagine the schism church trying to exert its power, to spread its influence back east. I can also imagine other powerful organizations, individuals, etc. all trying to lock down their control over this town, and thus lock down their control of (resource).

The aforementioned resource could be gold, the "new coal", or something else. Whatever this unobtainium is, it is valuable and rare enough that people will kill for it. 

I couldn't agree more.

[StarlitSiren]

Sorry for slow response- stuff to add but working, will poke this when home <3