From the Other Side of the Screen- Giving Thanks

In the States, we just celebrated Thanksgiving. While the mood of the holiday strikes, I would love to share what I am thankful for with all of you. Don’t worry; this blog will commence its purpose of adapting Victorian history for  role-playing games next Friday.  This past week, I had a number of incredible experiences around gaming tables. I am blessed to game two or three times a week but, I can’t remember a week with more terrific sessions and imaginative joys than this one. 

In my personal group, I got to play Star Wars Edge of the Empire (AS A PLAYER, NOT A GAME MASTER! YES!), and I look forward to many sessions to come. I’ll continue running my Victoriana campaign in January, but I love having another Game Master at the table.

I played over nine hours of the One Ring Role-playing Game in the past week. This campaign is the longest game I’ve played in, and I’ve had the pleasure of helping a group of younger players learn the hobby, experienced personal growth (both in character and out) through long play, and seen deepened relationships at the table.

At last, I received my Shipment from the Dust Tactics Kickstarter. My two year long awaited miniature painting orgy has commenced!  

 I ordered and received expansions for Cthulhu Wars and taught Cthulhu Wars to our gaming club at a local school. The simple elegance of the rules and the fantastic miniatures has taken hold of their imaginations and many clamor to play when I pull out the box. 

Best of all, I have been trying for a while now to introduce more strategic board games to my family at home. I brought home Castle Panic and we are playing together at last.

For all these opportunities for fellowship and fun, service and to be served, I am thankful. I’m thankful for all the people around me who share my love of gaming, or at least oblige my passion by feigning curiosity.  For everyone who has ever run a game for me, or who has played along in my own sessions, thank you. Thanks for correcting, teaching, trusting, encouraging, and improving me by our interaction through play.

My life never had so many opportunities for the games I love. I am very blessed to have so many gamers nearby, and so many open gaming tables in basements, dining rooms, patios, and classrooms. To anyone reading, I hope you have as loving a network of geeks surrounding you, and if you don’t, consider this blog a doorway inside. Happy Thanksgiving.

Next week, I’ll start my month long series, Ghost Stores for Christmas. We’ll look at haunting in Great Britain, how they could inspire adventures for Game Masters, and how they could inspire fear in players.

A Few More Portraits

In preparation for this weeks’ post, I looked over the Portrait Gallery, searching for obvious gaps or characters I’ve neglected to make. I noticed some of the subspecies illustrations are too similar for my tastes, so this week I tried to branch out from the norm.
All of the portraits are made from period illustrations, which means I can only alter what’s already there or add new elements (the teeth on the orcs for example).  This week I experimented using illustrations a little further out from what I intended to make.

I quickly learned my narrow sense of usable illustrations has held me back from using more diverse pictures as a base for my portraits. That’s not to say these portraits were easy, but I think they make welcome additions to the gallery. 

You can see them all here: Portrait Gallery

The Carrington Incident- A World Wide Storm

On September 1^st 1859, amateur astronomers Richard Hodgeson and Richard Carrington independently observed a solar flare, a flare big enough to be seen on their simple sun gazing equipment. That solar flare preceded a coronal mass ejection sending plasma and magnetic waves hurtling away from the sun, striking the earth. These waves became a massive worldwide geomagnetic storm lasting two days called the Carrington Incident.

Solar winds filled the magnetosphere, causing bright, vivid auroras all over of the world. The storm’s strength pushed the northern and southern lights close to the equator.  Aurora’s were reported in Cuba, Jamaica, Senegal, Liberia, and Hawaii. In California the lights were so bright, miners assumed it was dawn and started working at 1 o’clock at night. People gathered all over the world to watch the night sky’s display.

The disruption of earth’s electromagnetic field disrupted the world’s telegraphic systems. Operators complained of horrible shocks and burns, destroyed batteries, and telegraph lines jammed by auroral activity, A few telegraphs working better than ever while disconnected to their power sources.

The Carrington Incident may be the first event reported and experienced world wide. The bizarre phenomenon of that week would be perfect for a Victoriana adventure. Such huge changes to the world could have any number of causes and effects. Here are a few ways the Carrington Incident could be adapted for play:

Adventuring During the Carrington Incident

The Carrington Incident is so interesting and strange it doesn’t have to be the focus of the adventure to stand out. Its bizarre phenomenon can work well as a background, especially if the party outfitted themselves with gadgets and marvels. Whenever a character uses a marvel, the device could work more efficiently (added dice), malfunction chaotically (added black dice) or explode. The more technology, the greater the effect of the storm.

The Incident may not have only upset the earth’s electromagnetic field, but it could have wreaked havoc on the aetheric field as well. Magic might temporarily work in strange new ways. The foci of petty conjurers worshiping archons of storms, sky, or sun could be extra powerful or may suddenly activate on their own. Sigils of heat, speed, and energy might give greater bonuses or last longer than ever before. Thaumatergists may not be able to do their spells without glowing or catching on fire.

The Carrington Climax

The world wide effect of the Carrington Incident makes for a perfect climax to an adventure. What I think would be the most fun is a decade long campaign with one adventure per year spanning the 1850’s, ending with the Carrington Incident. The player characters successfully stopped the destruction of earth with only a few telegraph operators hurt and the magical energy disperses majestically across the sky.

You just have to figure out a plot evil enough to use solar radiation, the northern lights, and the entire earth.

Here are a few campaign ideas that could lead to the Carrington Incident:

A global conspiracy works to bring back magic’s lost potency by realigning lost ley lines.

Archons from multiple pantheons are being pulled together into one solar deity. Kinich Ahau, Tiwaz,

Apollo, Shamash, and others combine against their will to make a galacticly powerful sun god, and one very powerful cult.

The Royal Astronomical Society recently expelled a member recently returned from Egypt. Members murmur in back rooms of his impossible knowledge of solar activity and the strange slow moving servant in his employ.

Fasting Girls pt 2 - Anorexia Nervosa, Anorexia Mirabilis, and Anorexia Mendaci

In the 1800s a series of young girls (adolescent and preadolescent) claimed to live without eating for long periods of time. These “fasting girls” became bedridden celebrities. Publishers sold pamphlets detailing their cases, and showmen went to court over their public display rights. Well-wishers donated funds for their care, and gawkers paid to visit. Their apparently supernatural survival on little to no nourishment fascinated the public, and led to fame, wealth, and death.

These bizarre stories and miracles connect to many strange pieces of folklore, medicine and religion.

The Tricks

Chances are most, if not all, fasting girls were frauds. These bizarre cases invariably led to the attention of the medical establishment, so how did they continue their scheme under skeptical vigilance? Most fasting girls simply ate when alone or with their compatriots, but a 24 hour watch complicates their situation. The families of fasting girls invented some clever (and often disgusting) tricks:

- A parent passes a small morsel of food through a kiss

- Food could be hidden in folds of clothing ready to be eaten at a providential time

- A rag soaked with broth was rubbed on the child’s face and subtly squeezed in their mouth

- A compatriot distracts the watcher while the fasting girl grabs a quick bite

- Food might be folded in handkerchief and dropped into the mouth during a pretend sneeze

-A little chewing and swallowing might be covered by a yawn

Sometimes the quality of the watchers helped the fasting girl. Not everyone was a trained medical professional ready to question everything. Some of the watchers were neighbors, who might have been in on the scheme. Often watchers left their shift early before their replacements arrived, giving the girl time for a few mouthfuls. Many watchers paid little attention to the fasting girl’s parents when they were in the room out of a polite respect for privacy. Several of Sarah Jacob’s watchers brought alcohol with them, and at least one left her home drunk.

Anorexia Nervosa

The feminine ideal of the mid 1800s had pale skin, small hands, cleanly parted hair, and most importantly a small waist. Fashions dominated by corsets, and crinolines were designed to give a woman’s figure an hourglass shape. Much like today, the pressures of the feminine ideal drove girls to starve themselves trying to attain the perfect figure. Sir William Gull (one of Queen Victoria’s physicians) diagnosed and named the eating disorder “Anorexia Nervosa“ in 1873.

Anorexia Mirabilis

Many female saints and blesseds of the Catholic Church reportedly suffered through “Anorexia Mirabilis”, miraculous starvation out of piety, penitence, and devotion to God. Some ate nothing but small amounts of vile substances, some ate only the Eucharist, and some starved to death after many years with no food.

During the height of the public’s excitement with fasting girls, miraculous signs were rumored to accompany their starvation, such as stigmata, the expelling of strange fluids (ectoplasm?), prophecy, and second sight. Many of these abilities also exist in stories of Anorexia Mirabilis as signs of God’s power in his saints. They are also said to have healed the sick, and miraculously produced oil, food and drink.

Adventure Idea

Miracles seem to keep happening near the home of a fasting girl. A growing number of her faithful admirers want her to be made a saint of the Aluminate church. Church officials are dubious of their claims and need someone to quietly look into it.

A strange disease keeps children from eating. Their throats close up in the presence of food, and any attempt to force feed damages the esophagus. Can the children be saved before they starve to death, or worse the disease develops to the next stage?