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Market Research for Fantastical Baroque monograph...


mr_mitts

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I'm currently writing my second monograph, and whereas the first was (predominantly) Call of Cthulhu, this one is strictly BRP. It's a fantasy setting, where instead of the usual mediaeval or Renaissance society, the world is plunging deep into the abyss of a 1790s Enlightenment-type revolution. A world of paranoia, muskets and guilliotines sitting uncomfortably alongside ghosts, wyverns and alchemical magicks.

Tentatively (nothing's set in stone), we've crafted a world, new skills, some 30 new occupations, a system for martial arts, a new magic system and other assortments, including a few ideas for bringing mass-combat (naval and land) to the table.

However, what we'd like to gauge is whether people are actually interested in the idea of an Enlightenment-era fantasy and if there's anything non-specific that you'd like to see. We say 'non-specific' because, if we include it in the book, we don't want to be accused of theft (unless you specifically don't mind us picking your brains clear of your best ideas).

Sorry if it's a bit vague, but any opinions, ideas, etc. would be great! :)

Thanks,

Mr Mitts

~ Britannia Waives The Rules ~

Kingdom of the Blind: Call of Cthulhu roleplaying in 1920s Britain...

Its Time Come Round: Setting and campaign/arc for H.P. Lovecraft's End Times (release: on hiatus)

Slaves of Freedom: Roleplaying in a world of Revolutions, alchemical magicks, fantasy monsters and powdered-wigs (release: TBA)

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I'd be interested to know more, but to be honest I'm a bit confused how you plunge into the "abyss" of the 1790's enlightenment revolution. The Enlightenment is the era of scientific discoveries applied practically - canals, railways, large-scale factory production, expert cartography, the "Lunar men", periodic tables, modern scientific techniques, political theory, manners, early Napoleonics, George III, Jane Austen, etc, etc.

Perhaps you could provide a bit more info? I hope I don't sound too negative - or are you specifically looking at French revolution or Peninsular War or Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell type fantasia settings? In which case maybe less emphasis on the "Enlightenment" aspect might be appropriate.

Cheers,

Sarah

"The Worm Within" - the first novel for The Chronicles of Future Earth, coming 2013 from Chaosium, Inc.

Website: http://sarahnewtonwriter.com | Twitter: @SarahJNewton | Facebook: TheChroniclesOfFutureEarth

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Tentatively (nothing's set in stone), we've crafted a world, new skills, some 30 new occupations, a system for martial arts, a new magic system and other assortments, including a few ideas for bringing mass-combat (naval and land) to the table.

However, what we'd like to gauge is whether people are actually interested in the idea of an Enlightenment-era fantasy and if there's anything non-specific that you'd like to see.

Hi Mr. Mitts! Do you have a deal with Chaosium yet? Is it time to add it to the news section? What's the ETA?

I don't know about the others, but I love to see at least one short intro scenario with the book. :)

SGL.

Ef plest master, this mighty fine grub!
b1.gif 116/420. High Priest.

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I'd be interested to know more, but to be honest I'm a bit confused how you plunge into the "abyss" of the 1790's enlightenment revolution. The Enlightenment is the era of scientific discoveries applied practically - canals, railways, large-scale factory production, expert cartography, the "Lunar men", periodic tables, modern scientific techniques, political theory, manners, early Napoleonics, George III, Jane Austen, etc, etc.

The word "abyss" was really used to distinguish it from a rose-tinted viewpoint of science: it's a world where order's collapsing, science is outpacing itself, religion is obsolescent and the common man is supersceded by burgeoning industry. A worm's eye, prole viewpoint, really.

Perhaps you could provide a bit more info? I hope I don't sound too negative - or are you specifically looking at French revolution or Peninsular War or Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell type fantasia settings? In which case maybe less emphasis on the "Enlightenment" aspect might be appropriate.

More like Sleepy Hollow meets Brotherhood of the Wolf during the French Revolution. True, it's not really Enlightenment (it's a bit dark for that), but the world's teetering on the edge between a new rational order and plunging into chaos much like our own late-18th century. War, politics, and colonisation are the main themes, with strong emphasis on characters (and players) selling their souls, beliefs or friends out for survival or a greater good. Rather than working together for a common goal, each scenario has various 'solutions' - many mutually exclusive - that force the characters to act in their own best interests; be it for the state, their religion, their personal furtherance, or simply survival in a society where the Revolution will cut your head off for stealing a loaf of bread (or selling a loaf of bread for an unregulated price. Or complaining about the price of bread. Or...).

Hi Mr. Mitts! Do you have a deal with Chaosium yet? Is it time to add it to the news section? What's the ETA?

Chaosium's got it filed under Fantastical Baroque at the moment, although it hasn't got an actual name yet. ETA is (hopefully) end of this month, but little later than that if August goes too quickly. :o

Edited by mr_mitts

~ Britannia Waives The Rules ~

Kingdom of the Blind: Call of Cthulhu roleplaying in 1920s Britain...

Its Time Come Round: Setting and campaign/arc for H.P. Lovecraft's End Times (release: on hiatus)

Slaves of Freedom: Roleplaying in a world of Revolutions, alchemical magicks, fantasy monsters and powdered-wigs (release: TBA)

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Maybe some in-depth and fairly unique fencing and dueling rules. Especially an in-depth overview of the various sword fighting techniques of the era would be appreciated.

I would be extremely interested in this monograph. I've been hoping someone would do something like this for about a year now. I don't think the baroque period has been very well explored for adventure gaming. Also, wasn't there a lot of vampire hunting during that time period in the Slavic countries?

Edited by Dredj
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The word "abyss" was really used to distinguish it from a rose-tinted viewpoint of science: it's a world where order's collapsing, science is outpacing itself, religion is obsolescent and the common man is supersceded by burgeoning industry. A worm's eye, prole viewpoint, really.

More like Sleepy Hollow meets Brotherhood of the Wolf during the French Revolution. True, it's not really Enlightenment (it's a bit dark for that), but the world's teetering on the edge between a new rational order and plunging into chaos much like our own late-18th century. War, politics, and colonisation are the main themes, with strong emphasis on characters (and players) selling their souls, beliefs or friends out for survival or a greater good.

This as a setting sounds very appealing.

Rather than working together for a common goal, each scenario has various 'solutions' - many mutually exclusive - that force the characters to act in their own best interests; be it for the state, their religion, their personal furtherance, or simply survival in a society where the Revolution will cut your head off for stealing a loaf of bread (or selling a loaf of bread for an unregulated price.

This doesn't appeal to me.

So how much of it will be setting and how much scenarios?

Cheers,

Nick

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I would be on board for such a project. Integrating fencing or specifically dueling rules would be a big plus for me. Mass combat rules would have be pretty abstract to fit in with BRP but it would be interesting to see it done.

This type of background has been visited before in both historical (Flashing Blades, Lace & Steel, various Pirates/Musketeer games) and more fantastic (Pirates of the Caribbean, Flintloque (:mad:to give a bad example)) flavors.

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I would be very interested in such a thing, especially if it contained a couple of short scenarios that helped new comers grok the setting's mood.

And don't forget Realism Rule # 1 "If you can do it in real life you should be able to do it in BRP". - Simon Phipp

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Sounds interesting, Id be interested in a game whits strict stratification of the classes with very little social mobility and with very little magic or at least magic that is heavily regulated (on pain of death) by some kind of governmental organization/guild of witch hunters.

But certainly whatever comes out for BRP I'll be looking closely at.

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I think it sounds interesting.

I enjoyed the movies "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" and "The Brothers Grimm." They strike me as examples of the setting: heroic fantasy with magic set in the late 18th/early 19th century. I am also a fan of Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver series, which is swashbuckling adventure mixed with the history of science, computing, and math, set in the early 18th century.

Is it set in historical Earth or a fictional world?

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I enjoyed the movies "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen"

Beat me to the punch. :thumb:

You will find lots of (literally) fantastic ideas in the fantasy books of the time, too, including the book versions of Munchausen and Gulliver's Travels, and there's curently an interesting strip running in 2000AD, too - "Defoe".

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Maybe some in-depth and fairly unique fencing and dueling rules. Especially an in-depth overview of the various sword fighting techniques of the era would be appreciated.

One of the things we're trying to move away from is the swordfighting aspect. Of course, characters can swash their buckles with impunity, but the age of Three Musketeers type combat has been surpassed by the flintlock. Duelling's in there, though, and sword-fighting has its place, but the musket has become weapon de rigueur.

You will find lots of (literally) fantastic ideas in the fantasy books of the time, too, including the book versions of Munchausen and Gulliver's Travels, and there's curently an interesting strip running in 2000AD, too - "Defoe".

Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischuetz, though written much later, and Peter Will's Horrid Mysteries: A Story From the German Of The Marquis Of Grosse are more the style we're aiming for (with a bit of Gilliam's movie Brothers Grimm), although Munchausen's definitely been dipped into a few times. ;)

Is it set in historical Earth or a fictional world?

It's an analogous Earth. The world map is very different, but the general qualities of the nations should allow people to transplant it to real-world maps if they so desire. So, for example, the setting's main nation of Liberté is a (very different) version of Revolutionary France; you can use the map provided or simply transfer it to France. The nation they're fighting is a (very different) Germany, and can easily be overlaid onto our own world's Germany. Because we can't provide maps for every nation, GMs can put as much personal effort into making the world work as they want or simply slap it onto a map they find. We'll provide a rough approximation for which countries can overlay where.

Id be interested in a game whits strict stratification of the classes with very little social mobility and with very little magic or at least magic that is heavily regulated (on pain of death) by some kind of governmental organization/guild of witch hunters.

Class isn't really an issue anymore, because the Revolution's abolished it within the main setting nation. Magic is uncommon and is half-superstition and half-believed in by the general population. Witch-hunters (sanctioned and not) are definitely a character occupation, mainly because they give a lot of leeway for travel.

~ Britannia Waives The Rules ~

Kingdom of the Blind: Call of Cthulhu roleplaying in 1920s Britain...

Its Time Come Round: Setting and campaign/arc for H.P. Lovecraft's End Times (release: on hiatus)

Slaves of Freedom: Roleplaying in a world of Revolutions, alchemical magicks, fantasy monsters and powdered-wigs (release: TBA)

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Sounds fun ... especially the relationship between magic and (at least what would be in our world) the developing of scientific methods. Opposition vs. integration and grey areas in between.

I'd be interested.

Abusus non tollit usum

"Abuse is no argument against proper use"

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Sounds like a solid plan to me.

I'm not certain about the scenario idea you have in mind myself, but that doesn't mean that the idea is not market-viable. I think that sort of innovation is very good and the kind of thing that the Monograph-concept was made for and even if I don't use it as-is, I would still like to take a look.

I am working on something like this myself (a setting Monograph, not this sort of specific setting concept). I'd like to be a bit closer to being done before I extend market research feelers as you have here. I like your Not-quite-Earth notion, which is similar to my own. I'm going with a very close to Earth in history (up to a point) and geography for similarity yet plenty of room. Your setting history/geography seems to be a bit further from Earth's than mine. I think there is plenty of room there for either certainly...

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the setting's main nation of Liberté is a (very different) version of Revolutionary France; you can use the map provided or simply transfer it to France. The nation they're fighting is a (very different) Germany

Hopefully the latter gets inspiration from E.T.A. Hoffmann's Tales. Love 'em.

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I too an interested in what happened. I am currently working on a "A Dark Enlightenment", a CoC setting in the 18th century. The background material is all done and now I just need write the adventure portions. Much of the Material is also applicable to BRP, but it is all basically historical background without and fantastical add ons.

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I saw this thread title and immediately thought of Musicamancy. What if Bach, Handel, Haydn and Mozart were sorcerers as well as musicians? What if the music itself carries spells?

It might give added impetus to the competition among royal courts to hire the best musicians possible, and to the cutthroat competition among the musicians themselves for royal favor and patronage. Then Beethoven comes along in the Revolutionary Age and brings with him a completely new paradigm that brings musicamancy to the people.

Perhaps Mozart really was poisoned in such a setting -- but by magic as opposed to chemicals, as a warning to his peers to leave certain things alone....

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