This will be pretty bare bones until I know that there's interest, and then I will start to flesh it out.
EDIT: that turned out to be a lie. Hider at the bottom has my world lore, it is a work in progress, though.
Here's the premise in a nutshell:
A slice of life story, set in a steam punk, faux-Victorian world, and focused on a school for mad scientists.
Depending on the demographics of the characters(or players) I was leaning towards it being an all boys school, but I want to include a plot where one of the characters uses his(or her, depending) skills to make a girlfriend. Antics ensue.
EDIT: Probably dropping this bit, unless anyone is interested in playing that story out.
Of course everyone's characters can(and hopefully will!) have their own things going on.
So, is anyone interested? Any questions at all?
I'd like to do a group RP with a fun cast, but depending on interest, I'm willing to do a 1x1 as well.
Franc and Stein's Polytechnic Institute
Franc's is a school dedicated to teaching the many sciences that mankind has discovered. The school is multinational, and maintains a strict policy of neutrality. Neutrality necessitating independence, the school has long since abandoned a traditional campus, and instead is held on an airship that floats above Europe, occasionally straying into Asia or the Atlantic.
Disciplines taught include:
Medicine: The practice of diagnosing and treating the many ailments of the frail human form.
Chemistry: The properties of different substances, their reactions with each other, and their uses.
Resurrection: The reanimation of dead tissue to create resurrected creatures(often called rezzies). Both animal and human parts are used, and combining parts from different animals is common(though more difficult). Resurrection is achieved by creating a sound body, balancing said body’s humors, and applying a current of aether to catalyze the many physical reactions that constitute life.
Engineering: Using mechanical and aetheric principles to create machines for any and all purposes.
Automation: A newer discipline, with a lot of overlap in engineering. Automation is focused on creating machines that can act on predetermined protocols, without the need for constant and direct control from a human being.
Doctor Thelonious Franc, a seventy year old Dutch man. Dr. Franc is the curmudgeonly school administrator. While he loves the students dearly as a whole, he doesn't seem to like them much on an individual basis. Any student who transgresses egregiously enough to be sent to his office is in for the harshest punishments the school provides. In addition to running the school, Dr. Franc also teaches mechanical engineering classes for the most advanced students.
Doctor Jurgen Vogel, a fifty-six year old German man. Soft-spoken and a little morose, Dr. Vogel is nonetheless well respected by students and faculty alike. He is widely considered the kindest of the teachers, and the most inviting of confidence. Dr. Vogel teaches chemistry and metallurgy.
Mister Isaac Turing, a thirty-five year old American man. Mister Turing is an anxious perfectionist. He has a jittery manner, and can become quite irritable if things don't go the way he expects. He teaches protocol for automatons, as well as mathematics in general.
Professor Tallulah Toste, a 48 year old British woman. A stickler for manners, it is widely joked that Professor Toast is the unofficial etiquette teacher at the school. She tends towards the indulgent side, and can be manipulated by polite flattery and good manners. Professor Toste teaches physics, aetheric principles, and mechanical engineering.
Miss Jane Walthrop, a 27 year old British woman. Though polite and perennially helpful, she is often marked by her distinct lack of humor. She doesn't seem overly serious, but rather misses the joke most of the time. She does, however, have a quiet appreciation for puns. Miss Walthrop teaches gross anatomy, biology, and behavior.
A living body contains three humors, which help it to function. Their balance is of vital importance to the health of an individual. In a living being, humors can be balanced by healthy activity, and can be unbalanced by poor health. In a resurrected creature, they must be calculated carefully, and checked for proper balance. The balance of humors in a rezzie(to use the commoner's parlance) is not the same as its living counterpart, simply because they are not living.
Red humors bring vitality and vigor. A deficit would leave one sluggish and weak. An excess causes fever and inflammation. Resurrects, being sensitive as they are to heat and fire, can be greatly affected by this excess, risking damage to valuable components.
Yellow humors aid in the function of the organs, and the purification of the body. Their balance is more complicated than simply too much or too little, as the location in the body is a good deal more important. Imbalanced yellow humors can cause bad smell, irregular bowels, and can cause a bad reaction to drink.
Gray humors relate to thought and intelligence. Select few physicians work with these, and resurrects are afforded very little, as they need only be intelligent enough to obey.
A mysterious force that exists all around us. Though it is capable of permeating any matter, it has been discovered that it tends to collect in vacuums(it is theorized that the vacuum beyond our atmosphere is dense with Aether, but no airship can reach that high… yet). As a result, vacuumed glass tubes can be used to collect, store, and direct aether, which can power devices and produce a wide variety of effects under the right circumstances.
Huh... sort of Frankenstein mashed up with Weird Science.
Could be fun.
I think the term you're looking for is "Neo-Victorian", assuming the setting entails a Victorian era society/world persisting beyond the real world history?
I think the term you're looking for is "Neo-Victorian", assuming the setting entails a Victorian era society/world persisting beyond the real world history?
Definitely an applicable word as well. I meant it in the same way you'd say faux fur. It's made to mimic the look, but isn't the real thing at all. Either term may be redundant, anyway, since we all know that's what Steampunk is.
So despite my hesitancy to write lore ahead of time, I've started on that. I'm gonna add a list of teachers and their subjects. I'm also hoping to come up with a map of the school/airship, but I don't yet know how I mean to do that.
Regarding the fake science I lay out: it's mainly there so that characters can have consistent technobabble. Don't think too hard about it. But if you have an idea of something to add to it, feel free to mention.
Cool, it'll be a bit until I have time to update the setting info or create an ooc.
EDIT: just a quick amendment, "a bit" here means a few days. I'm working and have plans tonight and tomorrow.
However, anyone can feel free to ask questions about the setting, and I will be checking the thread periodically to answer them. I haven't actually written much more than can be seen in the first post, so the questions you ask(or suggestions you make) will likely help form the world.
I intend for politics and society to be more or less the same as in real history, but I have yet to decide on a specific year that this takes place. The school is neutral, though, and somewhat isolated, so real-world history will probably play very little role in the game.
I'm going to offer up some good stuff for the setting(moreso tips for players):
Instead of computers, one works with "analytical engines"
In steampunk fiction, the aesthetic is often emphasized, so be sure to describe things and their functions/operations, even if we're leaning more into the fiction than the science. The same goes for fashion, definitely lean into the style, and the cultural mannerisms, even if the society is presented as more egalitarian/modern than what might be considered accurate to the period one is emulating. Basically, the genre lends itself well to "padding" :P
the aether angle can accommodate some tech and devices otherwise not possible when limited to steam and clockwork; take advantage of that! Like the OP said, you don't feel constrained to the limits of hard science, it's not science fiction it's science fantasy :P
And if I'm stepping on toes do tell me to back off
I still intend to do this, but have been very busy!
If anyone would like to submit a character, feel free to do so. I have no formal sheet, I just ask that it be easy to read.
A few notes, for things that will need to be included:
> The school does not have age or prior schooling requirements. However, it is expensive to attend, and does have an entrance exam. So you will need to justify having the knowledge to pass, and having the funds for tuition(whether you're rich, have a scholarship, or a patron of some kind)
> The school's stated philosophy is that anyone with ability should be allowed to attend(their tuition cost begs to differ, but airships are expensive to run, damn it!). So the school is in fact co-ed and multinational. This is unorthodox for the time(even in my AU here, though it is more progressive than the real life period).
> I like picture references, but they aren't required. I do take a hard line that real photographs are off limits for this. I find it creepy(I've done it in the past when it's been required, but I don't like it).
> You should include age, nationality, and academic focus/specialty.
Any further questions, feel free to ask, and I'll try to answer.
