Cortex Steampunk Game 1 OOC Discussion

[Chiyako]

3 hours ago, WickedCadrach said:

@Chiyako So I had an idea that Colette reminds Missy of herself in some ways. As a con-artist, Missy is constantly wearing masks, and but Colette can't do much to conceal what's going on with her. That vulnerability is tapping into Missy's past, and so she's started being kind of a 'pushy friend' with Colette. Maybe inviting herself over to the lab for tea and coffee, just being a nosy nuisance as she pushes herself into Colette's life to be sure she's being looked after and doing well. If that feels ok to you, I'm going to stick with, Alicia: She needs a protector... just like I did. 

This sounds great to me! I think Alicia probably wouldn't mind having someone to speak to. And maybe would be fighting the urge to try to sneak in experiments. Sometimes potentially unsuccessfully.

As for my connection, I made a connection between Aldert Helsink and The Golden Stag Casino and Saloon. If he or anyone he employs visits then they'll probably want to spend at least a good fraction of their time at the most high end place in town. That seems to be The Golden Stag.

@AsBloodTurnsEverCold Also that connection works fine with me! Alicia isn't going to say no to supplies assistance in exchange for creating more things. Especially since she could also sometimes slip little experiments into said concoctions, regardless of whether or not it is allowed.

Edited September 26 by Chiyako

[MagnificentBastard]

3 minutes ago, Chiyako said:

This sounds great to me! I think Alicia probably wouldn't mind having someone to speak to. And maybe would be fighting the urge to try to sneak in experiments. Sometimes potentially unsuccessfully.

As for my connection, I made a connection between Aldert Helsink and The Golden Stag Casino and Saloon. If he or anyone he employs visits then they'll probably want to spend at least a good fraction of their time at the most high end place in town. That seems to be The Golden Stag.

@AsBloodTurnsEverCold Also that connection works fine with me! Alicia isn't going to say no to supplies assistance in exchange for creating more things. Especially since she could also sometimes slip little experiments into said concoctions, regardless of whether or not it is allowed.

That makes sense they probably stay and the hotel too, but if you want fun you come to the casino.

[IsabellaRose]

Okay, those connections look good!

It looks like we're just waiting on @StarlitSiren to connect her circle or diamond to someone elses' circle or diamond.

[IsabellaRose]

Oh, my bad... also need @WickedCadrach to make a link

[WickedCadrach]

Ok! I just added a link from Jane Montgomery to the Thane-Cash Rebirth Music Hall. "Listening from her family's reserved box restores her anxious heart". 

[IsabellaRose]

So... with the Music Hall, Lincoln Palace, and the Golden Stag being so high end, as well as the "former observatory turned laboratory" in Alicia's house, I'm thinking this is not a small or even very new town.

I was thinking this might have originally been a water stop / refueling station for trains headed out west, maybe constructed at the crossroads of a couple trails. Before the rail, the site was just a trail crossing and water source, maybe a natural spring or small river ford made it a place for wagon trains and stagecoaches to stop.

A trading post was built by a trapper/merchant family, trading with both settlers and local tribes, eventually a blacksmith’s shack sprang up to shoe horses and fix wagons, and a rough campsite corral became the seed of today’s stockyards.

When the railroad cut west, the stop became official. A water tower and coal depot were installed for locomotives, a boarding house and first saloon were built for rail workers, and maybe a Sheriff’s shack to keep the peace among railroad men. Wooden sidewalks were built along the muddy trackside road.

Then, prospectors found signs of wealth in the southern mountains/ruins. Maybe gold or silver, maybe something else (new form of energy?). Mining camps sprang up and funneled their ore through the rail depot. The town added ore smelters and freight warehouses and entrepreneurs built the first real saloon with gaming tables, brothels, and music. The tent city grew into rows of cheap clapboard houses. A church/chapel was erected to bring “order” to the swelling camp.

Soon, wealth from the mines and barons from the east poured in. A bank opened, followed by rival saloons and gambling halls; hotels and bathhouses rose for investors and visiting barons. The courthouse (later infamous as Gallows Hall) was built to assert official law. The graveyard on the hill filled quickly, as mining, duels, and disease took lives. About this time the first steam-tech workshops appeared, repairing engines and experimenting with mining devices.

The town sprawled outward, pushing toward small-city status. A shantytown / tent city was permanently entrenched outside the core, housing laborers, immigrants, and the desperate, but in the center of town, a theatre district emerged... vaudeville, cabaret, burlesque, and music halls. Wealthy mansions appeared on the northern rise, called “The Heights”, looking down at the town. Stockyards and cattle pens pushed into the prairies to the north. Mining supply depots flourished as more claims were staked and mines dug in the south, creating a constant churn of wagons and mule trains. Experimental automaton prototypes, mechanical drills, gear-driven elevators in mines, and new electrick lamps in the better hotels.

Now, the town is too big for its infrastructure, with politics, power, and chaos everywhere. Multiple factions claim control: barons, entrepreneurs, the towns founders, church zealots, outlaws, indigenous tribes. The rail carries both wealth and ruin, with trains loaded with ore, barons, arms, and fortune-seekers. Every street corner has opportunity or danger: fortunes made and lost in hours. Law exists, but as in most wild west towns, the handful of deputies can't possibly hope to enforce it; most justice is vigilante, corrupt, or supernatural.

Um. Which might be more than I intended to write about it. But ideas flow. I think the gist is that the town is bigger than it can handle, older than I originally thought, might have abandoned buildings, squatters, and more.

[WickedCadrach]

Did we... did we just accidentally re-found San Francisco?

[IsabellaRose]

No, it's nothing like San Francisco. There's no bay. 

[AsBloodTurnsEverCold]

Well when I made the Music Hall (or rather adjusted it) I did so with the understanding this was meant to be a forming Boom Town so figured it'd have been erected to bring in wealthy patrons and satisfy the ones who did live there for whatever reasons they do but I do like this. A bustling Frontier Town that can't really handle the growth is pretty close to a place like Deadwood before the cattle industry died. 


Neat though! Still a fun setting. 



 

[IsabellaRose]

It doesn't have to be all that... I just got started and didn't stop til all the thoughts were out of my brain.

[MagnificentBastard]

In my view the The Golden Stag Casino & Saloon is simply a place I acquired and rebranded I don't think its particularly grand, but it's probably the best you can do unless you get to a mayor settlement.

My character is not particularly attached sort like Lex Luthor isnt particularly attached to his properties in Smallville.

Edited September 26 by MagnificentBastard

[StarlitSiren]

(sorry i've not been able to check in yet- will get replied in tomorrow morning! Got busy!)

[MagnificentBastard]

I updated almost all of my relationships these one got @IsabellaRose seal of approval so they shouldn't change again.

[StarlitSiren]

I've updated the sheet. Willis Sloan has money invested in the casino, and business dealings there.

I'll also update my relationships on my sheet now and keep them punchier and short

@IsabellaRoselove the town!

 

[IsabellaRose]

The town I outlined above is mutable - we can add, remove, alter to our heart's content. The only immutable things for now are those that have been added to the Pathways Map in Miro.

That being said, it's time to complete Step 2 - Youth under Pathways over in the Rules Reference. Choose Apprentice, Drifter, Rebel, Believer, or Outsider and complete the steps under it. Add or Step Up the listed items on your character sheet.

I can't reiterate enough how important it is to step up your Relationship ratings with the other PCs.

Also, step up your current Distinction ratings. Anything you want to be good at your want AT LEAST a d6 rating in, preferable d8 or d10 if it's your main thing.

Post here when you're done with Step 2 so we all know when everyone is done. Feel free to discuss ideas amongst yourselves - character creation in this game is not meant to be completed in a vacuum. You will all be interconnected and interrelated in various ways, so building the world and characters together makes the most sense. Float ideas, ask for input, brainstorm... it only gets better if we all work together.

As always, I'm around for help if needed. Just tag me so I see any questions!

[StarlitSiren]

the rule only shows a single relationship step up; have I missed some or are more coming?

[WickedCadrach]

@IsabellaRose I was thinking of giving Missy the Rebel path for her Youth, but I wanted to check because the text doesn't match the image of the chart in the rules reference. 

Rebel in the chart reads: 
+NEW Distinction
^ Distinction
^ Relationship, Asset, or Resource

Rebel in the text reads: 
Step up Glory or Justice twice, or step up each once.
Add a Distinction (Recommended: Impulsive, Daring, Smartass).
Step up a Relationship.

Which version should I be going with?

4 minutes ago, StarlitSiren said:

the rule only shows a single relationship step up; have I missed some or are more coming?

Unless you picked Common-Born for your Origin, I think we've only had 1 chance to step-up a Relationship before now. 

[IsabellaRose]

3 minutes ago, StarlitSiren said:

the rule only shows a single relationship step up; have I missed some or are more coming?

You haven’t missed any, I just want to make sure everyone understands that they’re one of your 2 primary traits you’ll roll every single time you do anything. The other is Values, but the steps up there are forced by the Pathways steps. 

 

2 minutes ago, WickedCadrach said:

@IsabellaRose I was thinking of giving Missy the Rebel path for her Youth, but I wanted to check because the text doesn't match the image of the chart in the rules reference. 

Rebel in the chart reads: 
+NEW Distinction
^ Distinction
^ Relationship, Asset, or Resource

Rebel in the text reads: 
Step up Glory or Justice twice, or step up each once.
Add a Distinction (Recommended: Impulsive, Daring, Smartass).
Step up a Relationship.

Which version should I be going with?

I had this in a word doc. I’ll have to see she copy pasta nonsense I did when I get back to my laptop. 

[MagnificentBastard]

1 hour ago, IsabellaRose said:

The town I outlined above is mutable - we can add, remove, alter to our heart's content. The only immutable things for now are those that have been added to the Pathways Map in Miro.

That being said, it's time to complete Step 2 - Youth under Pathways over in the Rules Reference. Choose Apprentice, Drifter, Rebel, Believer, or Outsider and complete the steps under it. Add or Step Up the listed items on your character sheet.

I can't reiterate enough how important it is to step up your Relationship ratings with the other PCs.

Also, step up your current Distinction ratings. Anything you want to be good at your want AT LEAST a d6 rating in, preferable d8 or d10 if it's your main thing.

Post here when you're done with Step 2 so we all know when everyone is done. Feel free to discuss ideas amongst yourselves - character creation in this game is not meant to be completed in a vacuum. You will all be interconnected and interrelated in various ways, so building the world and characters together makes the most sense. Float ideas, ask for input, brainstorm... it only gets better if we all work together.

As always, I'm around for help if needed. Just tag me so I see any questions!

Okay I think I did most of it.

I added The Golden Stag Casino & Saloon as resource though not sure what the text should be, I picked Drifter as "Youth", upped Passion Twice, improved my relationship with Alicia, added Shameless Flirt and I am supposed to up a resource, those are two dices, I am guessing they both go up, so did that for the Casino.

I feel drifter doesn't make sense with my characters background of son of a noble house, but it does make sense of I am immortal and have to move every 30 years or so to pretend to be my own son.

Let me know if I need to do anything else or if I got something wrong.

[WickedCadrach]

Brainstorming a little, I think I may step-up the relationship die with Millie, @StarlitSiren On the one hand, yes, Missy wants to use Millie's skills for her own goals, but I think she also sees Millie as a fellow entrepreneur. They're both woman running their own businesses in a cut-throat town, so I think Missy might see it like 'If I had Millie's skills and Millie had my charm, we could both have this city by the throat'. And that idea makes her more than a little invested in the red-headed machinist with grease on her face. 

[IsabellaRose]

4 hours ago, MagnificentBastard said:

Okay I think I did most of it.

I added The Golden Stag Casino & Saloon as resource though not sure what the text should be, I picked Drifter as "Youth", upped Passion Twice, improved my relationship with Alicia, added Shameless Flirt and I am supposed to up a resource, those are two dices, I am guessing they both go up, so did that for the Casino.

I feel drifter doesn't make sense with my characters background of son of a noble house, but it does make sense of I am immortal and have to move every 30 years or so to pretend to be my own son.

Let me know if I need to do anything else or if I got something wrong.

Sorry, I messed up. Step 2 doesn't get any Value increases, so Step Passion back down twice.

Otherwise, you get to add the Distinction, Step up the Location, and Step Up a Relationship Distinction Ability or Resource, so everything else can remain as is.

4 hours ago, WickedCadrach said:

Which version should I be going with?

The text has been corrected to match the chart. I made a copypasta error. Sorry for the confusion!

[MagnificentBastard]

47 minutes ago, IsabellaRose said:

Sorry, I messed up. Step 2 doesn't get any Value increases, so Step Passion back down twice.

Otherwise, you get to add the Distinction, Step up the Location, and Step Up a Relationship Distinction Ability or Resource, so everything else can remain as is.

The text has been corrected to match the chart. I made a copypasta error. Sorry for the confusion!

I'll probably change to Outsider but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

[Chiyako]

So I think Outsider fits Alicia best, given the weirdness that she is, and being forced to move from one place to the next (and thus always being an outsider). Drifter could work for that too, but I think her moving because she is an outsider fits more.

I intend to step up her A Vampire by Rumor and Science distinction. I would also like to add an ability. I imagine this is where I'd start putting actual abilities down in the Ability section? I think Accelerated Regeneration might fit best as a first one, partially because it would explain how she has been able to live so long (not only due to her illness with the sun but also due to all the people hunting her), but it also seems like something she might have stumbled upon in her experiments while attempting to cure her condition. How would I go about adding something like that?

As for stepping up the third part of her origin, I think it'd make most sense to step up her relationship with Millie Gerenhart, given she is the one Alicia would probably feel closest to in terms of kin (both being academically minded, of course!).

[IsabellaRose]

33 minutes ago, Chiyako said:

I would also like to add an ability. I imagine this is where I'd start putting actual abilities down in the Ability section? I think Accelerated Regeneration might fit best as a first one, partially because it would explain how she has been able to live so long (not only due to her illness with the sun but also due to all the people hunting her), but it also seems like something she might have stumbled upon in her experiments while attempting to cure her condition. How would I go about adding something like that?

Check out the Rules thread. Expand the Abilities section, then The Big List and take a peek at Regenerative Tonic. Let me know how that looks. We can adapt it to fit your idea of her regenerative ability, if it doesn't seem to fit.

[Chiyako]

1 minute ago, IsabellaRose said:

Check out the Rules thread. Expand the Abilities section, then The Big List and take a peek at Regenerative Tonic. Let me know how that looks. We can adapt it to fit your idea of her regenerative ability, if it doesn't seem to fit.

I think that one kind of fits perfectly. The only chance I could possibly see is if we wanted to fit it into the more erotic aspect of this game with the limits with some sort of 'in heat' side effect of the tonic working overdrive on her body. But it probably wouldn't even need that either. Or tie it more into her 'totally-not-a-Vampire-but-she-seems-kind-of-like-a-Vampire' status. Maybe an effect it has gives rise to something which outsiders could point towards and say 'look she is totally a Vampire because X!'. But I don't know precisely what something like that might be. An otherworldly glow to her already unnatural gaze? Excessive blood production which leaks out from her mouth from time to time and makes others think she's been consuming other people's blood? Nails grow longer and more claw-like? Teeth grow longer and pointier? I don't know how I would quite work that into the mechanics of the game either.