Exilian

This will include basic info and frequently asked questions.

GENERAL INFORMATION

What is all this about, then?
Guns, Swords, and Steam is a setting I've been working on for a long time. Its primary manifestation is twofold; in an episodic story I've been writing about it, and as a set of tabletop dice-based RPG rules designed around the world. The basic theme is clockpunk, steampunk and gothic inspired; it's a world of vampires, steam tanks, and hardy footsoldiers slogging it out. There are plenty of twists, though; other magical creatures are included, and a magic system primarily based around illusions and mind tricks is also worth watching out for.

THE BACKGROUND

How does magic work in GS&S?
Essentially magic comes in two linked forms, illusion and summoning. Magic can't directly manipulate the physical world; it's essentially a form of communicating with the "astral" - a sort of secondary universe that brushes up close to our own and supplies a lot of the necessaries for conciousness. Summoning basically opens/finds a hole between the universes big enough for some raw conciousness to get through and imbue physical forms with a thinking mind for a time. Illusion uses the astral universe as a shortcut straight into someone else's (or lots of other people's) head or heads, allowing the manipulation of their thought processes.

Will there be technology X...?
- Airships?
> Certainly not common or in frequent use, but probable yes to occasional and somewhat dysfunctional ones being constructed.
- Cyborgs/Robots?
> Confirmed no.
- Hovercrafts?
> Probable no, though I can't say I've looked in every inventor's workshop to check!
- Rifles?
> Confirmed yes, though muskets are still far more common and rifles are hard to produce.
- Spaceships?
> Confirmed no.
- Steampunk body modifications?
> Maybe relatively low-tech ones, I can imagine some barber-surgeons might get fairly experimental at times - it'd certainly be a risky and unusual process.
- Steam-guns?
> Confirmed yes, but they're not nearly as efficient as a modern machine gun and are not seen on most battlefields - tactics still look more like those of the early C18th than the first world war.
- Steam tanks?
> Confirmed yes - they look very much like Da Vinci's tank design, and are known as "Trammechs".
- Submarines?
> Confirmed yes, but they're rare pieces of cutting edge technology. And may or may not run on pedal power.

Quote from: Jubal on June 17, 2012, 01:00:01 PMmind tricks

Jedi mind tricks?

Check out some of the back issues CG. Jub's been writing a story in more-or-less monthly installments.

http://s1.zetaboards.com/A_Call_to_Arms/index/

Look forward to seeing some more GS&S stuff Jubal. :)

I'll migrate all the episodes over to here I think and have a big locked thread of 'em all, since CtA is effectively dormant. And I need to get round to posting the rules.

CG: Actually, they can do things pretty similar to Jedi mind tricks, yes.  :P

So, how common is this magic stuff exactly and how magical is it?

DRAGONS!

Well.. maybe not :P But dragons things can be awesome and there :)

Hovercraft and submarines? Two of the most ridiculous things in the world that fit steampunk quite well.

It's already got subs, if you read the issues of A Call to Arms you'll find out a bit about it.

I'm in the process of reading, think I'm on 4 or 5 atm. Good to hear though :)

Up to 6. It reminds me of the Gaunts Ghost books. We need to see more battles and stuff, like at the start. I enjoy reading it anyway.

I'll try and shift the rest onto Exilian. I consider it quite badly written compared to things I've spent a decent amount of time on, but glad you're enjoying it - let me know what you think of the world and setting in particular and do ask any questions that spring to mind.  :)

Magic - essentially this comes in two linked forms, illusion and summoning. So magic can't directly manipulate the physical world, it's essentially a form of communicating with the "astral" - a sort of secondary universe that brushes up close to our own and supplies a lot of the necessaries for conciousness. Summoning basically opens/finds a hole between the universes big enough for some raw conciousness to get through and imbue physical forms with a thinking mind for a time. Illusion uses the astral universe as a shortcut straight into someone else's (or lots of other people's) head or heads, allowing the manipulation of their thought processes.

Hovercraft are probably a no, submarine yes but exceptionally rare, a decent submarine would be considered cutting edge military/spy hardware.

Dragons... I'm saying nothing yet.  :P

When it's finished how will it work? Will you run it here, at the A Call to Arms site or create a new site for it?

I dunno - the idea is that it'll be a ruleset such that anyone can run a campaign. Probably if I run a game I'm more likely to do a campaign IRL because I think I'm better at those than running them online which tends to be quite slow & open ended. I've got no specific plans as to games to run though.

We need an Exilian IRL chat than, with multiple channels that we could use for different things. :)

Quote from: Jubal on September 28, 2013, 06:11:59 PM
I dunno - the idea is that it'll be a ruleset such that anyone can run a campaign. Probably if I run a game I'm more likely to do a campaign IRL because I think I'm better at those than running them online which tends to be quite slow & open ended. I've got no specific plans as to games to run though.

We are still going to finish Axiosa though aren't we? :( ...eventually... maybe?

An exciting new announcement is in the offing sometime in the next few weeks, hopefully  :)

Yay! :) Can't wait!

I was just wondering, when you finish writing up all the rules and stuff, would it be possible to incorporate it all into an RPG like Axiosa was? It would be awesome if we could have another like that or similar at some stage.

There will be more RPGness happening. Probably not until mid-August though :/

Quote from: Jubal on July 27, 2015, 11:42:32 PM
Probably not until mid-August though :/

Guess what time it is Jubal... ;D

Just joking. Work at your own pace. I'm really not around all that often, so you can just ignore me. :P

I was expecting a less grim and less busy summer :( Nonetheless some work may come in the next few weeks, but it depends on some family issues quite a lot that may mean me having to down tools on everything.

As I said, take your time. Do have a break if you need to sort out family stuff, that's always more important. It's not like you're working on a deadline or anything like that. :P

As is fairly evident, yes!