The Traditions of Death- The Mourning Gloves

The Victorians had a number of superstitions and rituals around the death of a loved one. In a world where necromancers can raise the dead, magnetists can talk to the departed, and magicians can see ghosts, these taboos and procedures are doubly interesting. Here is a ghoulish tradition followed by a macabre scenario seed.

In the 1700’s, invitations to a funeral were sometimes accompanied with gifts such as rings, black scarves, or black gloves to be worn during the mourning period. The quality of the materials used in these gifts depended on the wealth of the bereaved. Rings could be made of silver and engraved with skulls or caskets. Gloves could be made of calf skin, satin, lace, or cotton. Sometimes only one glove was sent to lower the cost of the funeral.
The tradition of wearing black gloves to a funeral continued into the Victorian age, but only some of the longer lived subraces, such as gnomes or elves, might remember to send a gift to announce the death of a loved one.  

The Mourning Gloves
In life, James “Jack” Hollip was a crude, bellowing, blaggard of an ogre. His success in diamond brokering is due only to the raw aggression that helped him muscled into a full partnership with timid men, and the rumored strangulations in South Africa that brought him back to London with a bag full of uncut diamonds.
In death, he was just another body in Highgate cemetery. Relieved at his passing, his partners claimed ownership of the diamonds over the objection of his widow and relieved their spite by the petty revenge of leaving her penniless.
A few weeks later, two of Hollip’s former partners were found strangled to death in their beds. No clues have been found, aside from the fact that a black pair of gloves was found at the scene of both crimes. The gloves seem to be made out of the same material: white sheet dyed black. Doors and windows were locked on the inside at both tragedies. Mutterings of the similar, but over- looked death of a grave robber can be heard in the rookery.
The remaining partners are scared. One tried to pay off the Widow Hollip, but she laughed in his face and told him to dress warmly.

Announcement
Today’s post is shorter than usual because I am working on another larger project for the blog. I am writing out the adventure “A Man of His Word” as a full scenario to be posted here. I have learned a lot but it is time consuming and I can’t just write about role-playing games all the time, can I?

Don’t Worry, I know a Guy- Contact Expertise Dice Optional Rule

One of my favorite parts of character creation in Victoriana is creating contacts. Contacts fill out the PC’s connection to the rich Victorian world around them (You’re a respectable country squire, how do you know so many criminals?), but players new to the idea of contacts may be hesitant to use them.
A contact is an NPC the player characters know and trust who can help in course of adventuring. A contact could loan money or equipment, give the word on the street, or drive the getaway coach. Aside from their place in London’s class structure, there are no stats for contacts. Making full stats for contacts at character creation would bog it down horribly, but it would be nice to have some sort of “how helpful can this contact be” number.  

Contact Expertise Dice 

Aside from asking for rumors, begging for equipment, and enlisting their help, players can also ask for advice. The advice’s helpfulness is dependent on the Contact’s Expertise Dice.

When a player creates his contacts, the player has a pool of Contact Expertise Dice equal to their Presence attribute times two. The player assigns a number of dice to his contacts in a single area of Expertise that each contact has. This is not a skill, but a broad job or hobby description.

Example: Rene Abattoir (ogre harpist) is making her contacts. She has four Contact Expertise Dice and three contacts, Timothy Panhandle (halfing beggar), Alistair Grub (dwarven reporter), and Karl Hoffman (human composter). She decided to give three dice to Timothy Panhandle, two to Alistair Grub, and zero to Karl Hoffman.
Timothy Panhandle’s dice are assigned to Burglary, and Alistair Grub’s to Journalism.

When a PC visits a contact, they can consult the contact about an obstacle they except to encounter. If the Gamemaster thinks the contact’s Expertise is appropriate to the situation, the PC adds the contact Expertise Dice to a single skill roll when trying to overcome the specified obstacle. If the roll fails, the Expertise Dice are lost to any subsequent attempts.

Example: Rene needs to quietly break into the warehouse storing the sets for the opera to see if the actor’s death was an accident. The door to the warehouse is padlocked. Rene is not very good at lock picking, so she visits Timothy Panhandle for advice. Because Timothy has three Expertise dice in burglary, he tells Rene about a gap in the constable’s beat, and a tip for dealing with that kind of lock.

Later when Rene tries to pick the lock, she rolls her 1 Dexterity Die + 2 Lock Picking dice + Panhandle’s 3 Expertise Dice.

With 2 successes, Rene unlocks the door, and sneaks behind a backdrop painted to look like an Italian villa.

Contact Expertise Dice cannot be added to a skill roll if the PC's skill dice (not attribute, just skill) exceed the contact’s dice. The PC already knows all the tricks, and could potentially advise their contact.

Cabinet of Curiosities- Three Victorian Mcguffins to Drive Story

Not every adventure needs to be complicated. Sometimes all you need to drive story is a Mcguffin: a valuable item an interested party (or parties) is looking for. They can be stolen, hidden, bought, or lost, whatever makes the story possible.
An astonishing amount of plots from movies, books, and television are based on a Mcguffin, from Citizen Kane (Rosebud) to Raiders of the Lost Ark (the Ark of the Covenant).
If you are stuck for an idea, here are 3 Mcguffins. Just pick one, decide who had it, who wants it, and why.

The Prussian Plans to Invade France
In the Wake of the 7 Weeks War, the German Confederation was dying. Prussia had pulled the smaller northern nation states under its wing, leaving the south fractured. Seeking to further unify the German states into an empire, Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck schemed for a war with France.
He looked at plans for theoretical invasion of France developed by the much venerated Prussian Major-general Carl von Clausewitz. The plan had been updated and was revised as Bismarck waited for his War to start.
Spies might travel across western France searching for any intelligence that could be added to the invasion plans. If the French government ever found out they would kill for a chance to read it.  

Description
A large journal with hand drawn illustrations of the French countryside surrounded by a travelogue written in German. The descriptions and travel records conceal the invasion plan. Descriptions of an inn reveal troop placements, and an account of a cycling accident suggests a possible weak point.  

A Valuable Fern
In the 1850s fern collecting frenzy spread all over England. Dubbed Pteridomania, collectors potted wild ferns, bought exotic ferns from around the world, and even bought furnishings with fern motifs. A number of British ferns were almost completely removed from the wild due to their popularity as houseplants. Many fanciers kept their ferns in closed glass paneled Wardian cases (similar to modern terrariums) to keep the fern humid and protect them from pollution.
Several enthusiasts died looking for ferns on cliffs sides. A particularly rare and valuable fern could lead unscrupulous men to add more deaths to Pteridomania’s infamy, while others may believe it to be a weed in their ignorance.

Description
A small, exotic fern (taken from the Americas or Asia) planted in a three foot tall glass-paned Wardian case. The case’s intricately carved base has several small drawers. Surrounding the case is an open topped wooden crate filled with hay.

GM Note- This Mcguffin is nicely farcical if players are not sure what they are looking for. They sneak in, open the box, and see… unexciting ferns. Or better yet, they may have over looked their value and already disposed of the plot point by accident.

A Russian Icon
In the late Middle Ages Christians in the Russian Orthodox Church began painting small religious events on wooden panels called icons. Because these images were full of elaborate symbolic meaning, Icon craftsmen were very careful to copy old images accurately. They saw the creation of their Icons as reproducing the truth of the Gospel, not personal expression.
Some Icon’s are believed to simply appear by the will of God, known as Acheiropoieta (made without hands), and are reported to perform miracles.

Description
A 1 foot square wooden panel with no frame. One side of the wood has been painted with an image of a saint with a golden halo surrounded by 3 unidentified figures. The others side has two back slats running across the board to keep it from warping over time. A metal overlay covers the edges of the icon, but leaves the scene clearly visible.

GM Note- While the Aluminate Church is not the exact same as Christianity, I think there is plenty of wiggle room for sacred images to fit. Icons could feature images of Archons, the Eight Voices or Aluminate Saints. The possibility that an Icon may not have been made by human hands, also opens a number of doors into the spiritual world of Victoriana.  

Mcguffin Hooks
Rumor spreads through the rougher parts of town that a thief stumbled onto something very valuable. He bragged he had two very distinguished gentlemen, a lady, and a foreigner fighting over it in a bidding war. He died in the gutter last night. His valuable find has disappeared, and now two very distinguished gentlemen, a lady, and a foreigner are asking around.

Something interesting has been placed in a diplomat’s safe in the embassy of a foreign power. Someone is very interested in that safe’s contents

A parcel of mail has gone missing before it was delivered. A body matching the description of the man who mailed the package was found floating face down in the Thames. The Royal Mail must complete its job.

What is this crate that just showed up on my door step?

The Amateur Cracksman- Inspiration from the Raffles Stories

A great deal of inspiration for Victoriana can be found in the Holmes stories by Sr. Arthur Conan Doyle, but there is another series of stories written by Doyle’s brother in law, A. W. Hornung, that contains ideas and plots which are just as useful.While players may solve mysteries like Holmes, they will undoubtedly commit crimes like Raffles.

A.J. Raffles is cricketer and well connected society house-guest by day, but at night he is a brilliant and methodical burglar. His stories are chronicles by his partner in crime Bunny Manders. The two principle characters have the exact same dynamic as Sherlock and Watson. Bunny is not especially skilled but is reliable and always amazed by his partner abilities. Raffles is superhumanly perceptive and does not reveal how he pulled off his trick until the climax. Appropriately Hornung, dedicated the first Raffles book to Doyle.

Raffles inspiration:
Much as Sherlock explains his deducing methods to Watson, so does Raffles explain his criminal methods to Bunny. Obstacles, tools, security, locations, surveillance, and other minutia of a criminal enterprise are well described. Although the majority of the Rafffles stories are at best late Victorian if you’re playing a thief, or running a game with thieves these tricks of the trade might be useful.
Such as:
How to lie low in the house of an expert of criminology while he is away in Switzerland
Make a directional lantern by putting a candle in the crown of an upside down hat
Wear a sash of a silk rope with folded foot holds under a waistcoat
Taking a door off its hinges can be quicker than picking a lock
Escape plans are a must (horse, carriage, police uniforms, rented studio etc.)
If a job requires some funding, your fence may be willing to make a loan. This may make it more complicated.
If you think you're being followed, don’t turn around!
An iron spike topped fence is no match for a few Champagne corks
A small diamond, brown paper and some treacle will get you through a glass window
Wax warmed by the heat of your hand can take an impression from a palmed key.
In a tight spot, a very very specific wanted add in the Daily mail can covertly pull the party together

Possible Plots 
Many of the Raffles adventures can be cribbed for their basic plots. Here are the plots of a few of the stories written as story hooks:

A group of amateur sleuths try to trick a suspected crook into confessing at a dinner party, but they are not very good at it. Are the players the crooks or consulted to help?

A shady diamond millionaire returns to London and buys his way into a prestigious club. His libertine company and drunken thuggery, bring shame on his fellow members, but everyone is too frightened to confront him. He might be taught a lesson through the theft of his most bragged about possessions.

A criminal associate was smuggled into a bank vault, but his escape plan has fallen through. How can he be saved before he is discovered or runs out of air?

The son of an eccentric art collector stole one of his father’s paintings and sold it to his father’s rival. The buyer is not willing to return it, and the father wants to avoid a scandal. Maybe the players can help arbitrate a shady solution.

A lot of story mileage can be gotten in these stories. The four collections of original Raffles stories are available to read on Project Guttenberg.
The books are:
The Amateur Cracksman
Raffles: Further Adventures of the Amateur Cracksman
A Thief in the Night: A Book of Raffles' Adventures
Mr. Justice Raffles

More Portraits

I’ve added 5 portraits to the gallery. These figures should add a little more variety to the gentle ladies and gentlemen all ready illustrated. It’s difficult to find good portraits that are not dressed in their Sunday best, but I hope the bearded elf, the enlisted gnome, and the hobo ogre are a sign of what can be found with a little more digging.

Again, all these illustrations can be found in their original forms on these Flickr pages:

British Library

Internet Archive Book Images