[Q&A] Andrew Ragland (1879 Gamemaster’s Guide)

[19:31] <+Andrew1879> Intro: I’m Andrew Ragland, line develop per

[19:33] <+Andrew1879> For 1879 from FASA Games. It’s a steamweird role-playing game, meaning it’s the usual FASA mashup

[19:33] <+Andrew1879> In this case steampunk and magic

[19:34] <+Andrew1879> You can play it as steampunk Shadowrun, or Penny Dreadful, or Zulu Dawn, or any of the Lost World types

[19:35] <+Andrew1879> We have an alt history Earth and another world connected via a Weird Science portal

[19:37] <+Andrew1879> The mechanics are Stat plus Skill, and are a bit crunchy, but are well balanced and comprehensive, being built on the CoreStep mechanic originally developed for Earthdawn

[19:38] <+Andrew1879> There’s humans, the four metahuman races, and Saurids, plus a rival human culture, the Samsut, who have battery powered zombies

[19:39] <+Andrew1879> (done)

[19:39] <~Dan> Thanks, Andrew1879!

[19:39] <~Dan> The floor is open to questions!

[19:39] <~Dan> Can you give us an overview of the Gamemaster’s Guide?

[19:40] <+Andrew1879> Sure. The GMs Guide has the usual materials on how to run a game, plus a lot of tips and reference table a specific to CoreStep

[19:42] <+Andrew1879> It’s got an extensive chapter on the Gruv, the Grosvenor World, including the human settlements and material for the Saurids and the Samsut

[19:42] <+Andrew1879> There’s a big chapter on earth as well, detailing the various nations

[19:43] <+Andrew1879> It also includes a Bestiary chapter for Earth and for the Gruv

[19:43] <+Andrew1879> Plus information about steam power, vehicles, and some Secret Societies for the GMs use

[19:43] <+Andrew1879> (done)

[19:44] <~Dan> Now, do I remember correctly that opening the portal to the Gruv led to magic flowing back to Earth?

[19:45] <+Andrew1879> Correct, which kick-starts Earth’s mana cycle, resulting in the Awakening happening over a hundred years early

[19:46] <+Andrew1879> Speaking of kick-starting, we are running a Kickstarter for this book right now, and backers get immediate access to the PDF draft of the book

[19:46] <~Dan> So it should have happened during the disco era? 😀

[19:46] <~Dan> Please feel free to post the link!

[19:46] <+Andrew1879> Cf Shadowrun

[19:46] * ~Dan nods

[19:46] <+Andrew1879> 140 years give or take

[19:47] <~Dan> Yeah, I know… It was just amusing to take you literally there. 🙂

[19:48] <+Andrew1879> So within a month of the portal opening, the four Boojum races have appeared, elves, dwarves, snarks, and trolls

[19:48] <~Dan> How long before 1879 did the premature Awakening take place?

[19:48] <~Dan> (Snarks = orcs, IIRC?)

[19:48] <+Andrew1879> Spellcasting, summoning, and enchanting all become possible on earth

[19:49] <+xyphoid> is it actually alt-history-shadowrun?

[19:49] <+Andrew1879> The portal opens in 1877, so Earth has only had two years to adjust

[19:50] <+Andrew1879> XypOID, pretty much. We developed 1879 to fill the hole in our cosmology that was left when we sold Shadowrun to Topps

[19:50] <+Andrew1879> It’s in the same world with Earthdawn

[19:51] <~Dan> Was the world already steampunk before the Awakening?

[19:51] <+Andrew1879> Snarks are Orks yes, but there’s a Lewis Carroll thing going on

[19:52] <+Andrew1879> Dan, yes, technology was already advanced. Prince Albert survives in our game world, and remains a champion of British technological advancement

[19:53] <+Andrew1879> He gets around in a steam powered Walker ever since his coach crash

[19:54] <+Andrew1879> The portal is The Rabbit Hole, the British stronghold on the far side is Fort Alice, etc

[19:55] <+Andrew1879> Reverend Dodgson has pronounced himself quite amused with it all

[19:55] <+Andrew1879> (done)

[19:55] <+Andrew1879> I should probably talk about airships …

[19:55] <~Dan> Please do!

[19:56] <+Andrew1879> We have Giffards, flexible gasbag ships based on the French design of Henri Giffards and refined by the Confederacy

[19:57] <&NM_Alan> (where does one buy this game?)

[19:57] <+Andrew1879> They are powered by microsteam engines, flash boiler systems, and carry aKipp

[19:57] <+Andrew1879> A Kipp apparatus to generate their own hydrogen

[19:58] <+Andrew1879> Game is available at FASAgames.com, in the Shop

[19:59] <+Andrew1879> GM guide is on Kickstarter right now, and there’s a bundle with the GM guide, the player’s guide, and the GM screen

[19:59] <+FASATodd> Link to the Kickstarter (Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/783548120/1879-gamemasters-guide-art-and-print)https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/783548120/1879-gamemasters-guide-art-and-print

[20:00] <+Andrew1879> Giffards are tricky beasts, but aluminium production has not yet reached the level that would support rigid frame gasbags

[20:01] <+Andrew1879> The Airship Pilot is one of the available character Professions

[20:01] <+Andrew1879> Thanks Todd

[20:02] <~Dan> If the world has only been Awakened for two years, how has anyone had time to figure out how to use magic properly?

[20:02] <~Dan> Seems like that would take years of study.

[20:02] <+Andrew1879> As a side note, I’m getting a Hangouts game together and have room for two more players

[20:02] <~Dan> Tempting! What’s the day and time?

[20:03] <+Andrew1879> Dan, there were a lot of organizations in the Victorian era trying to get magic to work. The Theosophical Society will be a playable Lodge when the Player’s Companion comes out

[20:04] <~Dan> Ah, I see.

[20:05] <~Dan> How does spellcasting work as compared to its Earthdawn counterpart? I’m guessing it’s safer.

[20:05] <+Andrew1879> We also have the Galvanic Order, which is applying late Victorian physics to the study of magic. It’s founders are Heinrich Hertz, Wilhelm Windy, and Max Planck.

[20:06] <+Andrew1879> Spellcasting is safer but it’s exhausting because spell matrices have not been discovered. Your character takes Strain for each spell cast, which is one of the limiting factors on magicians

[20:07] <+Andrew1879> Once the British crossed into the Gruv, they meet the Saurids, who have been using magic for thousands of years

[20:07] <+Andrew1879> And so the humans learn a lot from the Saurids

[20:07] <~Dan> That makes sense.

[20:08] <~Dan> Does 1879 use Earthdawn’s class system?

[20:08] <+Andrew1879> There’s also one immortal elf who’s shown up so far, and it’s not one you’ve seen in published materials thus far

[20:09] <+Andrew1879> 1879 uses Professions instead of Disciplines, but the mechanic is very similar. It’s all Skill based, theres no Talents, due to the lower magic level

[20:10] <+Andrew1879> Character advancement is much the same. If you’ve played Earth Dawn, you’ll find 1879 very familiar mechanically

[20:10] <~Dan> Has magic transformed Earth flora and fauna?

[20:11] <+Andrew1879> Yes, and we will get into that in later books. A lot of creatures of legend are going to be showing up, but not quite like the legend describe them.

[20:12] <+Andrew1879> And Cornish legend has got some messed up stuff in it

[20:13] <~Dan> So does the Earth portion of the bestiary just cover mundane creatures?

[20:13] <+Andrew1879> For example, we will introduce the Black Annis. It’s a nasty bog spirit that eats children

[20:13] <+Andrew1879> Right now, yes, the naturalists of Earth have not really gotten to the magical creatures

[20:15] <~Dan> What is the fauna like on the Gruv?

[20:15] <+Andrew1879> We put the serious effort into the Gruv Bestiary for the GMs Guide. There’s giant bugs, carnivorous land coral, exploding cacti, and dinosaurs

[20:16] <~Dan> Dinosaurs, you say?

[20:17] <~Dan> Whoops.

[20:17] <~Dan> wb, Andrew1879

[20:18] <+Andrew1879> Sorry, browser crash

[20:18] <~Dan> No problem.

[20:18] <~Dan> So you say that there are dinosaurs?

[20:19] <+Andrew1879> Some of the Gruv creatures are nightmares, like the mordslanger, a three tailed abortion the size of a truck

[20:19] <+Andrew1879> Scorpion dang it

[20:19] <+Andrew1879> Grrr autocorrect

[20:19] * ~Dan chuckles

[20:20] <~Dan> I was wondering.

[20:21] <+Andrew1879> Yes, there are dinosaurs. There’s the buff and the harpy, which are theropods that the Saurids have domesticated as mounts

[20:21] <~Dan> How similar are the dinosaurs to Earth dinos?

[20:21] <+Andrew1879> Ankylosaurids that are used in place of oxen

[20:25] <+FASATodd> Looks like we lost Andrew again for a second .. he is in a power outage and using his tablet

[20:26] <~Dan> He says the power came back on, and the switch to wifi threw him out.

[20:26] <+FASATodd> Ahh 🙂

[20:26] <~Dan> He’ll be back in a moment.

[20:27] <+FASATodd> Cool. I didn’t want to start promising bonus dinosaurs lol 😀

[20:27] <~Dan> 😀

[20:30] <~Dan> So how have you been doing, FASATodd?

[20:30] <+FASATodd> Pretty good! 🙂

[20:30] <~Dan> Glad to hear it. 🙂

[20:30] <+FASATodd> We’ve been rolling along and I finally got the new website done

[20:31] <~Dan> Great!

[20:31] <+FASATodd> Now it is almost time to start the GenCon prep cycle 😀

[20:31] <~Dan> Sheesh.

[20:32] <~Dan> Well, I’ll be going back next year.

[20:32] <~Dan> Howdy, Ray_M_HGP!

[20:33] <~Dan> Ray_M_HGP: Our guest is having technical difficulties but should be back shortly.

[20:33] <+FASATodd> Hey maybe we’ll actually get a chance to meet then! I saw you last year (or was it the year before?) but couldn’t make it through the crowd to get there

[20:33] <~Dan> Howdy, Jezibel1!

[20:33] <~Dan> Really? I thought I met you last year.

[20:34] <+FASATodd> Maybe briefly?

[20:34] <+FASATodd> I’m sure I would remember though

[20:34] <~Dan> Yeah, I think so… I know I met Andrew…

[20:34] <~Dan> Speaking of whom!

[20:34] <+Andrew1879> OK, I’m back finally

[20:34] <~Dan> wb, Andrew!

[20:34] <+Andrew1879> Sorry about that folks, the power just came back on in the area, and the wifi starting back up borked my system

[20:34] <+FASATodd> We’ll get picture evidence next year 😀

[20:35] <~Dan> No problem!

[20:35] <~Dan> So how similar are Gruv dinosaurs to Earth dinosaurs?

[20:35] <+Andrew1879> So, dinosaurs, yes, there’s domesticated theropods like the buff and harpy which are used as mounts

[20:36] <+Andrew1879> They’re a bit different. They’re kind of a parallel evolutionary track, similar, but not quite the same. Some have feathers, and there’s some nasty variants like the cheshire, which is a darned fast predator with a magical camouflage ability

[20:36] <+Andrew1879> The trihorn is pretty much a ceratopsid, but there’s some slight anatomical variations

[20:37] <~Dan> Oh, I was going to ask about magical creatures on the Gruv.

[20:37] <+Andrew1879> Oh yes, there are magical creatures

[20:37] <+Andrew1879> It’s a low to moderate magic environment, has been stable for thousands of years with no cycling, and has had some interesting evolutions

[20:38] <+Andrew1879> and some things that are just thumping unnatural

[20:38] <~Dan> Oh? Like what?

[20:38] <+Andrew1879> Lady Jennings, who’s the in-character biologist documenting the Gruv creatures, has a few very acerbic things to say about some of the creatures

[20:39] <~Dan> (Howdy, Canageek!)

[20:39] <+Andrew1879> Like the scorpiodied. Let’s see how much of this I can paste in

[20:40] <+Andrew1879> One expects a plant or animal to pick a single type of symmetry and stick with it. We humans exhibit bilateral symmetry, having our left and right sides as mirror images. Many other species, from butterflies to baboons, exhibit this same sort of bilateral reflective symmetry.

[20:40] <+Andrew1879> Starfish are rotationally symmetric, their limbs iterating in progression about a central hub. Many species of plant exhibit helical symmetry, with their leaves spiraling about a central stem.

[20:40] <+Andrew1879> Often, this will combine with reflective symmetry, where the leaves themselves can be folded on a

[20:40] <+Andrew1879> central axis to show that each side mirrors the other.

[20:40] <+Andrew1879> Combining bilateral, trilateral, and rotoreflective symmetry in a single creature is, however, simply too much. One wonders if, long ago, the biological weapons designers of the Grosvenor Land engaged in a bit of one-upmanship, the sort of absurd competitiveness that men sometimes indulge themselves in, with the scorpiodied being the end result. One imagines

[20:40] <+Andrew1879> the women of the time shaking their heads, and telling the men fine, as long as you don’t let it loose in the house, and off the scorpiodied went to the remote desert, with no expectation that something so ungainly could possibly survive.

[20:41] * ~Dan chuckles

[20:41] <+Andrew1879> Lady Jennings uses the scorpiodied, along with the mordslanger and the shardraqx, as evidence that the Gruv was once a biological weapons testing ground.

[20:42] <~Dan> What’s the shardraqx?

[20:42] <+Andrew1879> Given the increasing frequency of mordslanger encounters, I suspect that the peninsula that we occupy was once a proving ground for biological weaponry, and that either old caches of said weaponry are opening, or the creators are releasing new versions into the wild.

[20:43] <+Andrew1879> Shardraqxi are nasty big bugs the size of a Corgi, that attack in swarms

[20:43] <+Andrew1879> The forelegs carry heavy armor and talons, suitable for fighting and ripping at prey, while the three pair of motive legs end in long, sharp spines. The tail has no stinger, but instead a curved blade with a sharp inner edge. The chelicerae curve toward each other, narrowing abruptly to sharp points. The repetition of “sharp” should indicate why this creature

[20:43] <~Dan> That sounds unwholesome.

[20:44] <+Andrew1879> resides in the Nefarispinum order. When attacking its prey, P. achmedii drives its motive legs into the victim’s flesh for anchoring, and rips with both chelicerae and tail blade. If counterattacked, it lets go and drops off, to climb back up for another attack while the prey is dealing with the rest of the swarm.

[20:45] <+Andrew1879> Yes, the Gruv is a darned dangrous place, and we haven’t even talked about the plants. Ripping creeper, sticksand, springvine, grinning monkey orchids…

[20:46] <+Andrew1879> So the GM’s Guide has an entire chapter of this sort of creature…

[20:47] <+Andrew1879> As well as some guidelines as to why you’d have a creature encounter in the first place – why is it attacking? Hunger? Derangement? Protection of young? Teritorial imperative?

[20:47] <+Andrew1879> (done)

[20:47] <~Dan> What is the nature of technology on the Gruv?

[20:48] <+Andrew1879> Varied. The British and the other humans (so far just the Prussians, and that one Russian expedition) have brought steam power, rudimentary electricity, and all the machines of Earth with them

[20:48] <+Andrew1879> The Saurids are kind of Amish. They know about advanced technology, but they choose not to use it. They shake their heads and rfer to the War of the Machine People, and don’t want to talk about it.

[20:49] <+Andrew1879> Also, the Saurids are amphibians, and so they’re very concerned about their environment, and their impact on it. Some of the tribes have gone to war against the Earthers already because of the impact of Earth tech.

[20:50] <+Andrew1879> The Samsut are another thing entirely. When a group of Babylonians fleeing the sack of the city found a portal thousands of years ago, they also found a trove of alien technology. They assumed it had been left for them by their gods, and refer to the race as the Anunnaki.

[20:50] <+Andrew1879> The Samsut figured out some of it, and they can treat mana as a power source. They have mana batteries, mana accumulators, and mana-powered devices, such as the aforementioned zombies. They use railguns instead of black powder firearms.

[20:51] <+Andrew1879> The Samsut have contragrav, but no propulsion system, so their sky chariots are drawn by pteranodons.

[20:51] <~Dan> Cool. 🙂

[20:51] <+Andrew1879> There’s room for some serious aerial action between the Giffards, the sky chariots, and the Saurid pteranodon-riding cavalry.

[20:53] <+Andrew1879> Now, pteranodon is a bit misleading there – we were just talking about the difference between Earth dinosaurs and the Gruv creatures. These are more birdlike, with beaks, down, feathers in some areas, actual flying creatures and not just gliding reptiles

[20:53] * ~Dan nods

[20:53] <+Andrew1879> We also haven’t talked about the kistalmi, who are the highlands Saurids, the ones with the gliding membranes, who are kind of Mennonites to the lowlander Amish. They use a lot of low-tech tricks and some green technology to live comfortably and still minimize their impact.

[20:54] <+Andrew1879> There’s an entire book about the Saurids, about three quarters written, that will delve into their cultures, their history, their tech and magic, etc.

[20:54] <+Andrew1879> Including Saurid-only Professions. I ran a Saurids game at GenCon this last year, to show off the Saurid character possibilities.

[20:56] <+Andrew1879> A lot of idlers, not many questions. Poke poke.

[20:56] <~Dan> Yeah, that happens sometimes. Anybody awake out there…?

[20:56] <~Dan> You mentioned that the Samsut have zombies?

[20:57] <+FASATodd> me, but I dont count lol

[20:57] <+Andrew1879> Yes, the abd-salamtum. The bodies of the Ardites, the low caste, are recycled. When a peasant dies, a tarayshlamtu, an undead controller, comes round, and puts a control module in the head and a battery in the torso, and creates a drone.

[20:58] <+Andrew1879> Eventually, the zombie rots to the point where it’s not so useful, and then they boil them down to bone, put in a different module, and have skeletons. Zombies are useful as shock troops, field workers, barnacle scrapers, etc.

[20:59] <+Andrew1879> Skeletons are more fire and forget munitions. The Samsut don’t use cannon. They just turn loose mobs of skeletons at the enemy.

[20:59] <+Andrew1879> Forget your Turn Undead spell. Not gonna work. Have to shoot these things in the battery.

[21:00] <+Andrew1879> The Samsut have a waste not, want not attitude, and a concept of Life Debt, that leads to things like the abd-salamtum. The British of course hated them on sight.

[21:00] <+Andrew1879> The Samsut told the BRitish that the Brits could have the land they had already settled on, if they gave the Samsut their dead.

[21:00] <~Dan> What are relations like between the Samsut and the Saurids?

[21:00] <+Andrew1879> Didn’t go over well.

[21:01] <+Andrew1879> The Samsut and the Saurids have an uneasy truce that has lasted a thousand years, since the Samsut went to war against the Saurids for territory. The Saurids came up with some clever tricks and took down the Samsut, and forced a truce on them.

[21:01] <+Andrew1879> Unfortunately, the Brits have landed right in the truce lands between the Samsut and the Saurids, and are mucking everything up.

[21:02] <+Andrew1879> So the Gruv s degenerating into a three way brawl, with the Saurids, the Samsut, and the Earthers, and it’s gotten messy

[21:02] <+Andrew1879> THis is where the Minis wargame comes in. We have an entire line of minis produced by Ral Partha Europe, and the Minis Corebook is out and available through our store.

[21:03] <+Andrew1879> Forthcoming are the British Forcebook and the Samsut Forcebook

[21:03] <+Andrew1879> Those are mostly written and partly laid out

[21:03] <~Dan> How well does the miniatures game integrate with the RPG?

[21:03] <+Andrew1879> After those will be the Vehicles Sourcebook, the Prussians and Saurids Forcebooks, and a Creatures Sourcebook

[21:04] <+Andrew1879> There’s a conversion package we’re putting the finishing touches on. It will be a free download from our website, and will allow you to convert back and forth between the RPG mechanic and the Minis mechanic.

[21:05] <+Andrew1879> So you’ll be able to use the RPG combat system to zoom in on a battle, or use the Minis system to zoom out and see what’s going on around your RPG characters

[21:05] <~Dan> (brb)

[21:06] <+Andrew1879> WHile Dan’s away, the RPG also has a Polot Point Campaign series, like an adventure path, with three books of linked adventures collectively titled The Akkadian Connection. Book one, Big Trouble In Little Soho, is in final draft.

[21:07] <+Andrew1879> It takes place in London, and ends with the characters pointed to the Rabbit Hole. Book two, Saurids on the Grosvenor Express, takes the characters through the Rabbit Hole to Fort Alice, and then out to the wilds of the Gruv.

[21:07] <+Andrew1879> Book three takes the characters into the Samsut lands.

[21:08] <+Andrew1879> We’ve also got gazeteers un progress for London, Paris, Fort Alice, and Berlin.

[21:09] <+Andrew1879> Fort Alice has already outgrown its original palisade wall, has a trade town springing up outside like Silver City Nevada, and an entire ikhanda of Zulus settled on the plains next door.

[21:10] <~Dan> (back)

[21:10] <~Dan> What are the Zulus doing there?

[21:11] <+Andrew1879> The Zulu Nation is a protectorate of the British Empire. When the Brits needed more troops for the Gruv, they regularized the colonial militias, including the Zulus. When the Zulu regiment went to the Gruv, their prince’s entire ikhanda went with them, children, cattle, and all.

[21:11] <+Andrew1879> Yes, there are Zulus in British uniform (more or less)

[21:12] <~Dan> Huh. Interesting.

[21:12] <~Dan> Did they bring Gurkhas?

[21:12] <+Andrew1879> We were looking at ways to integrate the game world, and regularising the militias was an easy way to do it. So you’ve got a Maori regiment, a Zulu regiment, and an Indian regiment

[21:13] <+Andrew1879> all serving in the Gruv.

[21:13] <+Andrew1879> That also gave us our gender balance solution. You don’t tell a Zulu woman she doesn’t get the fancy red coat. And once the Zulu women were in uniform, there wasn’t anything to keep any other woman out of it.

[21:13] * ~Dan nods

[21:14] <+Andrew1879> Women soldiers and officers are something of a rarity, but becoming more commonplace

[21:14] <+Andrew1879> Especially with the advent of the Boojum races

[21:14] <+Andrew1879> The Army isn’t picky about the gender if the recruit is a troll

[21:15] <+Andrew1879> A platoon of trolls in a bayonet charge is a terrifying thing, enough to make even a Zulu think twice.

[21:15] <+Andrew1879> The Gurkhas aren’t impressed, but then they’re Gurkhas

[21:15] <~Dan> Heh. 🙂

[21:15] <+Andrew1879> … got to meet a few Gurkhas a while back, that was interesting

[21:15] <~Dan> Has the military developed any troll-specific weapons?

[21:16] <+Andrew1879> Yes, the military has weapons specific to all four of the Boojum races. The trolls get Gatlings and Maxims, guns that for them are man-portable but would normally require an emplacement

[21:17] <+Andrew1879> Ever see a punt gun?

[21:17] <~Dan> I think so…

[21:17] <+Andrew1879> Trolls carry them as rifles.

[21:17] <~Dan> (Link: https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BJj8M7XhggQ/V83jJjZDtpI/AAAAAAAAK70/V4BUQJ9A-UoKMy4oKuX2CGT1s8qgJwx1wCLcB/s1600/punt_gun.jpg)https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BJj8M7XhggQ/V83jJjZDtpI/AAAAAAAAK70/V4BUQJ9A-UoKMy4oKuX2CGT1s8qgJwx1wCLcB/s1600/punt_gun.jpg

[21:18] <~Dan> Heh. 🙂

[21:19] <+Andrew1879> of course, the enemy has its special weapns too. For instance, the Samsut have made the humans wary of water, as the Samsut like to leave zombies int he water with orders to attack anyone not a Samsut

[21:19] <+Andrew1879> A zombie can wait underwater for hours without making a single bubble or ripple…

[21:19] <~Dan> Does the Gruv have magical races of its own?

[21:19] <~Dan> That’s creepy.

[21:19] <+Andrew1879> Yes, the Gruv has some fun places. Mount Somerville, for instance, has the Anunnaki Ruins.

[21:20] <+Ray_M_HGP> I’ve seen movies like that. Underwater zombies. Terrifying stuff.

[21:20] <+Andrew1879> It’s meant ot be creepy…

[21:20] <+Andrew1879> Oh, magical =races=

[21:20] <+Andrew1879> No, the Gruv has the Saurids, but they’re enough

[21:21] <~Dan> Are the Saurids related to the T’skrang?

[21:21] <+Andrew1879> They come in a few variations – the lowland Saurids, the kistalmi with the patagia, and the hulks, big atavistic Saurids that you point at the enemy and then wait till they’ve calmed down

[21:21] <+Andrew1879> Funny you shoudl ask that

[21:22] <+Andrew1879> If you look at the Saurids in the Players Guide, they look almost exactly like the t’skrang

[21:22] <+Andrew1879> There’s an easter egg.

[21:22] <~Dan> Interesting!

[21:22] <~Dan> Can Obsidimen be far behind? 😀

[21:22] <+Andrew1879> Windlings? WHo knows?

[21:23] <~Dan> 🙂

[21:23] <+Andrew1879> Imagine an Obsidiman speaking in the House of Lords…

[21:23] <~Dan> In the time remaining, is there anything we haven’t covered that you’d like to bring up?

[21:23] <+Andrew1879> or a Windling riding the S-Bahn in Berlin

[21:23] <+Andrew1879> Probably 🙂 There’s a lot of world to discuss, a lot of mechanics to talk about.

[21:23] <+Andrew1879> Oh, magic.

[21:24] <+Andrew1879> Mages are straight up spellcasters, and belong to an Order. Priests are part spellcaster, part spirit worker, and belong to a Faith. Shamans are spirit workers with some spellcasting ability. Weird Scientists are effectively enchanters, and belong to a School.

[21:24] <+Andrew1879> Orders, Faiths, Schools, they’re all grouped togther as Lodges

[21:25] <+Andrew1879> Your Lodge determines your approach to magic. In the last two years, everyone has reinvented the wheel, and nobody’s comparing notes, and so you have all sorts of approaches to magic.

[21:26] <+Andrew1879> We deal with this by having a base spell list that’s foundational, with a Bolt spell, a Freeze spell, a Heal spell

[21:26] <+Andrew1879> The Lodge then has Known As Variants, KAVs, that determine the appearance of the spell, its style, and any special effects

[21:26] <~Dan> Interesting approach.

[21:26] <+Andrew1879> So when an Anglican Priest casts Shield, he invokes the Protection of the Divine, and a big cross appears between him and his foes

[21:27] <~Dan> Nice!

[21:27] <~Dan> (wb, Ampersand)

[21:27] <+Andrew1879> When an officer of the Order of Britannia Victorious casts Shield, he erects an Iron Bulwark, and plates of riveted iron appear to protect him

[21:27] <+Ampersand> Thankies!

[21:27] <+Andrew1879> Players are encouraged to build their own KAVs, to give their characters their own style magically

[21:28] <+Andrew1879> And we have a Kickstarter for the GM’s Guide, let’s plug that once more

[21:28] <+Andrew1879> (Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/783548120/1879-gamemasters-guide-art-and-print)https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/783548120/1879-gamemasters-guide-art-and-print

[21:28] <~Dan> Certainly!

[21:28] <+Andrew1879> There’s still a few EarlY Bird bundles left where you can get the Players Guide, GM Guide, and GM Screen for a discount on the set.

[21:29] <~Dan> That’s cool.

[21:29] <+Andrew1879> This is a tightly focused KS, just going for the art and printing for one book, with only two stretch goals, both already revealed.

[21:29] * ~Dan nods

[21:29] <+Andrew1879> Anything in the last few seconds?

[21:30] <~Dan> Well, I’ll just mention that you’re more than welcome to hang out with us as long as you like. 🙂

[21:30] <+Andrew1879> OK then. Dan, thank you for having me here and letting me expound for two hours

[21:30] <~Dan> I’ll just pause to log the official chat.

[21:30] <+Andrew1879> Heh. I live on a farm. I have to get up in the early morning.

[21:30] <~Dan> And thanks for joining us, Andrew!

[21:31] <+Andrew1879> Thank you and good night!

[21:31] <~Dan> Ah, understood. Well, give me just a moment to get you the chat log, then.

[21:31] <+FASATodd> Thanks for having us Dan!!

[21:31] <~Dan> And as a reminder to my readers, my tip jar is here, if you’re so inclined: (Link: https://gmshoe.wordpress.com/the-gmshoes-tip-jar/)https://gmshoe.wordpress.com/the-gmshoes-tip-jar/

[21:31] <~Dan> You’re welcome, FASATodd!

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