Unhallowed · Metropolis

http://www.ottens.co.uk/gatehouse/

When the appointed day arrives, the crew has the ship in spotless condition and a large crowd gathers at Hay's Wharf to see them off. The morning is foggy and cold. The crowd seems quite excited but the ubiquitous gas masks make their cheering muffled and subdued. Stanhope addresses the crowd from the Cassandra's aft:

“Ladies and gentlemen of our great city of London, today we take a most important step in the rebirth of Empire! A great colony of ours has been without word from their mother country for almost two centuries.We shall find them and, like two candles in the dark, combine to become a mighty torch to Illuminate the rest of the world with the civilization of the English people! The Borneo expedition shall welcome them back to the arms of queen and country! God save the queen!”

The Army band at the wharf launches into a loud rendition of “God Save the Queen” followed by “Rule, Brittania!” The ship's crew lets slip the moorings, and the Cassandra slowly moves from the wharf. The thick mist quickly obscures the crowd and, shortly after, swallows up the sounds of the music. The Cassandra is enveloped in the dark fog and greasy waters of the Thames as she ventures out towards the North Sea.

The campaign is accompanied by pre-generated characters, new skills, new items, the Wonders of Botany and a new Calling for Unhallowed Metropolis: the Explorer.

“Up the River,” written by Simon Berman and illustrated by Robert Tritthardt, will be available as a downloadable PDF summer, 2009.

The entire session should take approximately four hours, including pre-game discussion, actual game play and some post-game debriefing for my notes.

Players with little or no experience with Unhallowed are especially welcomed.

Participants will naturally receive the questionable reward of credit as playtesters and probably a beer or two.

Respond here or by email if you're interested.

etheric_labs 

A few of us are actually managing to play Unhallowed Metropolis instead of just writing/photographing/drawing it. Jason has rolled  a predictably lethal Undertaker, Chuckie's got himself a pretty entertaining Parapsychologist and I've rolled an Explorer.

I wrote the Explorer Calling to be included with my campaign Up the River coming this July. I envisioned the Calling to be equal parts Dr. David Livingstone, Allan Quartermain and Indiana Jones with a hint of Lovecraftian antiquarian. I wanted players to be able to portray a whole range of characters from bug collecting academics to men and women of action who brave the ghoul tribes of the Wastelands searching for ancient mysteries.

But the Explorer I made tonight is a touch different.


Harold Paget-Morrison was the sole survivor of a failed expedition to the Lower Nile in 2088. When the expedition ship sank, Harold found himself washed up on the shore of Tunisia. He spent over three months living in the shadowed ruins of Carthage before a Prussian merchant vessel saw his signal fire and rescued him.

Upon returning to London, Harold was granted the honorary title of Baron by the Queen in recognition of his expedition's sacrifice. Harold attempted to settle into the life of his industrialist family. But time in the wilds had left Harold changed. His diet was now strange and his appetite constant. He soon developed a nasty temper and alienated his family. Succumbing to strong drink he soon involved himself in a number of scandals that resulted in his family granting him a certain amount of money before cutting all ties.

In no time Harold descended into the alcoholic nightmare of London's gambling hells and taverns. Flush with money and liquor he indulged his appetites to the full becoming corpulent and vicious. In just a few years he found himself suffering seizing fits, occasional delirium and screaming night terrors. When he submitted himself to his first medical physical in a decade the doctor wasted no time in pronouncing a diagnosis of syphilis. Harold cursed savagely and muttered something about the "damned strange whores of Tunis" before shoving the doctor to the ground and stalking out.

Today, Harold finds himself in a desperate amount of debt as his expensive taste in liquor and strange dietary habits sap his wealth. Aside from his venereal disease, he is in shockingly good health. Still an excellent shot with a rifle, he can occasionally be found giving shooting lessons to the children of aristocrats and industrialists. The violent strings of vulgarity to which he is prone typically means that these opportunities for employment seldom last long. Indeed, Harold is better known and feared for his other weapon; an oversized silver-headed cane with which he terrorizes the serving girls and doormen of the few establishments still willing to suffer him for his dwindling reputation.

This is one of the homebrewed Callings I've cooked up recently, and I thought I'd try to spread them around the fandom looking for feedback. So lets get this started, shall we? I figure I'll post the rest later on.

Adventuress

High class courtesans and paramours,

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The book will go on sale on the Hallows Eve Designs website and as a PDF on Drive Thru RPG on May, 1.

I have a question for international folks: What is your preferred method of shipping? Hallows Eve Designs is trying to decide what will be the best option for you. Please let me know.

"A Theme Night of Steampunk, Gas-Mask Chic & Victorian Fashion" celebrating the release of the "Unhallowed Necropolis" supplement for the Unhallowed Metropolis RPG.

Costume Contest!
Industrial/EBM/Dance/Ooonst DJs!
21+!

An Interview with John R. "Buck" Surdu and Christopher Palmer
creators of G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T.

We also have news bits on:
Unhallowed Metropolis

Space 1889

Adamant Entertainment

Note this write up is off the top of my head and has been in no way edited.

( Description and stats behind the LJ cut. )

We will have books for sale at the party.

We are also about to put up a newly updated PDF of the Unhallowed Metropolis book on DriveThruRPG for $20. I will make the announcement when this goes up which I expect to be sometime this week. The PDF integrates the errata and has the new index.

Unhallowed Metropolis books should be available from the Hallows Eve Designs online store within the week.

Additionally we have three new PDFs on the way, including a scenario (No Ghosts, No Masters), a min-campaign (Up the River), and the Deathwatch calling. Each will be fully illustrated and available from DriveThruRPG.

We should have a couple official sounding press releases out this week detailing our release schedule in greater detail.