Pirate one of these game concepts, or add your own in the comments section. Generally speaking, one-off games and campaigns only intended to last 2-3 sessions can revolve around a group of ordinary individuals in an extraordinary situation, while sustained campaigns require players to begin by making adventurers with a shared sense of purpose.
Sustained Campaigns:
1: Rogue Wind: A renegade crew of an independent airship takes contracts to keep flying. During the first session have players make their characters and design their airship together. Give everyone three extra assets to pool towards item creation and use the templates provided in the Cabinet of Curiosities supplement to help them build an airship they can name and love. Game sessions are episodic adventures, (you could even use the ‘one-offs’ below for content.) Think Firefly meets Jules Verne.
2:Occult Investigators: A unique team of occult experts hires themselves out to banish demons, commune with ghosts, destroy chimera, and generally protect others from dark forces seeping into the Clockwork. The catch is that the price has to be right. Individual sessions can be different combinations of mystery, horror, and comedy. Think victorian Scooby Doo or Sherlock meets Call of Cthulhu.
3: Clockwork Inquisition: A team of witch-finders and their assistants travel the realm rooting out sorcery and crushing the Pontus wherever it rears its shadowy un-thingness. Sometimes the PCs will be viewed by the communities they visit as heroes, and sometimes as villains; but they have a job to do, even if it means setting aside conventional morality to accomplish the purge. Think Van Helsing if it were good meets License to Kill.
4: The Archivists: A fellowship of gentleman and lady academics dedicate themselves to recovering dangerous artifacts. The PCs travel the world raiding ancient temples and pursuing dangerous fanatics, always with the intention of securing an object of great power that is subject to misuse. Sometimes, there are pith helmets. Think Raiders of the Lost Arc meets Masterpiece Theatre
5: The Lord Chamberlin’s Men: A traveling acting troop is also a team of professional thieves and hustlers with hearts of gold. Each session sees them in the employ of some new patron with either a fat purse or a noble cause. Think The A Team meets Ocean’s Eleven but in period dress.
6: The Missing: The characters awake in a sanitarium with no idea who they are or how they got there. The fog-eyed girl in the mirror explains that they escaped from Annwn by trading their memories for their freedom. To discover who they really are they will have to find a way back to the Borderlands to confront the wyldling prince who imprisoned them. In the meantime, they are being pursued by changelings who are bounty hunters for the same wyldling prince.
Specific Scenarios for Shorter Campaigns:
1: The Buyers: A group of representatives for the British Army travel incognito to Germany in order to meet with an inventor who claims to have designed prototype mechanical soldiers that might be of interest to Her Majesty’s government. Things do not go as planned.
2: The Sideshow: Circus freaks in a traveling sideshow that includes strong-blooded changelings and beastmen share an inseparable bond. The Ringmaster is duped by his recently acquired righthand man: a Prussian sorcerer. Now this rag-tag bunch of outcasts has to save the small town that treated them so badly.
3: The Pale Stranger: A beautiful boy with skin the color of alabaster climbs from a well in a small country village. He only speaks the Hidden Language and is in obvious distress. The village priest and a group of compassionate locals must travel through the well to the realm of the Tuatha De Denaan, where the demon soul of a dead naphil has tricked the faire king out of his crown.
4: The Grail Knight: In the north of England, a group of children loves stories of Arthur so much that they unknowingly create a Feyfolk version of Galahad who will stop at nothing to find the grail. He must be convinced by the children that he is not real before he tears the village apart.
5: The Wine Merchant’s Daughter: A group of young British socialites on holiday in Spain are invited to a private party by the beautiful daughter of a Portuguese wine merchant. It turns out to be a plot to butcher them for their blood, which the wine merchant intendeds to family of Nephilim. (They use they Knowledge in the Flesh to consume the memories of pleasant sensations experienced by the rich.) Horror and hilarity ensue as the socialites attempt escape. Think PG Woodhouse meets Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
6: The Assyrian Pony characters are a group of merchants and retired soldiers hired by a philanthropist to oversee the transportation of the statue of a horse from Egypt to the British Museum. While their ship is at sea, the characters realize that members of the crew are behaving strangely. The statue is a tether for a dangerous demon that begins possessing members of the crew.
7: The Kidsmen: A group of sewer children in victorian London find and release a naphil who has been chained there for a thousand years. This powerful being comes into conflict with “Nicholas,”the feyfolk father that the children have unwittingly created for themselves by leaving misunderstood offerings for the patron saint of thieves and children. If your players don’t like playing children, they could be a group of constables investigating strange occurrences around these events.
8: It Rose for Emily In the faded grandeur of the American south, an ancient Dowager is keeping something alive that she should not. A group of occult investigators is sent in to discover the truth.
9: Think You’re Fast Enough? A german engineer who has created automaton gunfighters wants to create an American style wild west show. The Pontus rises.
10: School Daze: A group of teachers at an old and prestigious private boarding school must quietly address a dark and ancient secret that plagues the institution.
I am particularly fond of the chart on page 268 that lists some great inspirational sources from movies, tv, books, and music. I was thinking this would be a decent spot to list additional sources. I’ll follow their format, and I’ll also list what the primary or secondary of the main themes of each work would be, in order of focus.
S = Steam
P = Punk
V = Victorian
H = Horror
So, saying V/H means it has a major focus on the Victorian theme, with a secondary focus on Horror.
TV:
Penny Dreadful: H/V: As the name promises, this is a horror series that includes many pulp concepts like ancient Egyptian Curses, Frankenstein, vampires, and so forth. Starring the always watchable Timothy Dalton, Josh Hartnett, and Eva Green. It’s a delightfully creepy show.
Murdoch Mysteries: S/V: This is a Canadian detective series set towards the end of the 19th century. While classified as Steam, it is a very realistic show–there are no jetpacks or anything, but rather the main characters relish the age of innovation they find themselves in. It does a good job of presenting social justice issues in a period-appropriate, but sympathetic way. This show is quite the undersold gem. There are numerous appearances by historical characters such as Nicolai Tesla, Arthur Conan Doyle, a young Winston Churchill, etc. (It was also the inspiration for when I asked my players, “Who would you be more excited to run into in the game? Sherlock Holmes or Arthur Conan Doyle?”
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: V. This tv series starring Jeremy Brett as Holmes is often considered to be the ‘definitive’ Holmes adaptation. It stays generally faithful to the original stories, being tv adaptations of Doyle’s work. In particular, the characters are emminently watchable. This tends to be a great window into Victorian England, with different stories emphasizes different themes. (With the site owner’s permission, I’ll make a later comment that breaks the stories down into different themes–some are great for horror, many for Victorian themees, etc).
Murder Rooms: The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes: V/P:. This started as a made-for-tv movie and then became a mini series. It focses on a young Arthur Conan Doyle and Dr. Joseph Bell, who served as the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes. It only had a few episodes, but does a great job to bridge the gap between the more upbeat canon Holmes and the darker elements.
Literature:
The Seven Percent Solution: H/V: I’m a huge Sherlock Holmes fan, so there are a couple of these on the list. This is a non-canon story by Nicholas Meyer. It focuses on Holmes’ drug addiction and his painful attempt to overcome it with the help of a young Dr. Sigmund Freud. He also must tryito solve a mystery as he goes through withdrawal. It was also made into a movie with a particularly terrifying detox sequence. Interestingly, the movie focuses more on the detox, somewhat at the expense of the mystery, while the book does the reverse. I’d say the book is V/H and the movie is H/V
The Picture of Dorian Grey: H/V: Not only a classic horror story, but a great look at the seamier side of the dark side of Victorian England
The Alienist, by Caleb Carr: H/P: This book made a splash in the late 20th century. It is a serial killer novel set in New York in 1896. The heroes involve the titular alienist (psychologist), journalist, street tough, aspiring policewoman. It’s a decently-written book and shows much of the dark side of the gilded age.
A Study in Emerald, by Neil Gaiman: H/P: This is a freely available short story. I don’t want to go into too much detail here, as it’s it’s so short that nearly anything would be a spoiler. Suffice it to say, it blends the Holmes stories with the Cthulu Mythos.
Tai-Pan, by James Clavell: P/V. This is the first of James Clavell’s ‘Asian Saga.’ Its focus is on two warring trading companies vying for supremacy in Hong Kong. It features a giant, multi-ethnic ensemble cast that helps hilight the friction between industry, politics, and the natives.
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I love the list of inspirational resources. (I like how the old White Wolf books included lists like this.)
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