The Widening Gyre2

Table of ContentsIntroductIon .......................................................3the Blood-dimmed tide .................................................. 4

What’s In This Book ......................................................... 4Victoriana ....................................................................... 5

A Brief History .................................................................. 6

cHApter one: creAtIng cHArActers .................7Step One: Race ............................................................... 9

Clockwork Man ............................................................ 9Step Two: Traits ............................................................. 10

Secondary Statistics ................................................... 11Step Three: Edges and Hindrances ................................. 11Step Four: Gear ............................................................ 11Step Five: Spend Experience Points ................................ 11Step Six: Background .................................................... 11

character Archetypes .................................................... 12Adventuress .............................................................. 12Airship Pirate ............................................................. 12Aristocrat .................................................................. 13Consulting Detective ................................................. 13Doctor ....................................................................... 14Explorer .................................................................... 14Savant ..................................................................... 14Soldier ...................................................................... 15Sorcerer .................................................................... 15Watchman ............................................................... 16

Skills ............................................................................ 17Edges .......................................................................... 21Hindrances ................................................................... 22

cHApter two: wondrous devIces ...................23weapons ........................................................................ 26

Common Limitations on Steam-Age Weapons ................. 26Energy Weapons ........................................................ 26Galvanic Weapons ..................................................... 27Projectile Weapons .................................................... 28Automatic (Gatling) Weapons ...................................... 28Energy Weapons ........................................................ 29Galvanic Weapons ..................................................... 29Projectile Weapons .................................................... 29Gatling Weapons ....................................................... 29

weapons of war ............................................................. 30Poison Gas ................................................................... 30

defenses ........................................................................ 31Steam-Powered Armor .................................................. 31

useful devices ............................................................... 33Eyewear for the Fashionable Savant ............................... 33Communications Gear ................................................... 34Patent Medicines .......................................................... 35Other Useful and Delightful Objects ................................ 35The Analytical Engine .................................................... 37

walking Machines ......................................................... 38

Walking Artillery Pieces ................................................. 38The Beauregard Walking Gun ..................................... 38

Amazing transportation ................................................. 39Steam-Powered Carriages ............................................. 39The Auto-Gyroscopic Ornithopter ................................... 39Spacecraft .................................................................... 39Armored Airships .......................................................... 40Time Machines ............................................................. 40

Beauregard Walking Gun ............................................ 41Steam Carriage ......................................................... 41Auto-Gyroscopic Ornithopter ....................................... 41Cavorite Spacecraft .................................................... 41Imperiatrix Armored Airship ........................................ 41

sorcery .......................................................................... 42Trappings ..................................................................... 42

Sample Spells ........................................................... 44Evil Spells ..................................................................... 46

cHApter tHree: tHe world ...............................47Running The Widening Gyre ........................................... 49

the time of waiting: 1837-1860 ................................... 50The Rise of the Savants ................................................. 50

Roleplaying During the Time of Waiting ....................... 50The City of Glass: 1860 ................................................. 52

the time of turmoil: 1861-1880 .................................... 53Wars in America ........................................................... 54

The American Civil War: 1861-1865........................... 54The Indian Wars: 1864-1890 ..................................... 54

Wars in Europe ............................................................. 54Franco-Prussian War: 1862-1870 .............................. 54Other Wars ................................................................ 55

Technological Developments of the Time of Turmoil ......... 55Roleplaying During the Time of Turmoil ....................... 56

the gilded Age: 1880-1914 ........................................... 57The Discoveries of the Gilded Age .................................. 57

Roleplaying During the Gilded Age .............................. 59the great war: 1914-1918 ............................................. 60

Technological Developments of the Great War ................ 60Roleplaying During the Great War ............................... 62

what Happens next? ..................................................... 63The Death of the Dream ................................................ 63Two Minutes to Midnight ............................................... 63The Cycle Ends ............................................................. 64The March of Progress .................................................. 64

the timeline of the widening gyre................................ 65

cHApter Four: orgAnIzAtIons .........................69Heroic organizations ..................................................... 71

The Clockmakers Guild.................................................. 71How to use the Clockmakers Guild .............................. 72

Societe de Paris d'Exploration ........................................ 72

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33Introduction o The Blood-dimmed Tide

How to use the Societe .............................................. 72the darkness ................................................................. 73

Followers of Darkness ................................................... 73The Council of Midnight................................................. 73

How to Use the Council of Midnight ............................. 74The Circle of Technologists ............................................ 74

How to use the Circle of Technologists ........................ 75The Cult of Wei-Fang .................................................... 75

How to use the Cult of Wei-Fang ................................ 76Martians and Moon-Men ............................................... 77

The Hemipterans .......................................................... 77The Observers .............................................................. 77

Exploring the Moon .................................................... 78 The Martians ............................................................... 78

How to use the Moon-Men and the Martians ............... 78

cHApter FIve: Adventure generAtor ..............79The Hook .................................................................. 81Location .................................................................... 82Heroes' Goal ............................................................. 84Villains ...................................................................... 85Villain's Goal.............................................................. 86Henchmen ................................................................ 87Victims ...................................................................... 88Obstacles .................................................................. 90

campaigns ..................................................................... 92Who Watches the Watchmen? .................................... 92Brave New World ....................................................... 93Mad Boys and Gadget Girls ........................................ 94After Midnight ........................................................... 95A World Apart ............................................................ 96

cHApter sIx: plot poInt cAMpAIgn ..................97savage stories ............................................................... 99

Darkness Drops Again ................................................... 99A Dozen One-Sentence Plot Seeds ............................... 101Starting Out ................................................................ 101

Intro Adventure: Hardly Are those words..................... 102the darkness drops Again overview ........................... 108Act one: the dark sorcerer of the east ....................... 109

Indignant Desert Birds .............................................. 109 Where to Go From Here .............................................. 112

Troubles My Sight .................................................... 112While All About ........................................................ 112The Second Coming is at Hand ................................. 113A Shape With a Lion's Body...................................... 118

Act two: the wicked witch of the north ...................... 118Vexed to Nightmare ................................................. 122

Where to Go From Here ............................................... 122Moving its Slow Thighs ............................................ 123While the Worse ...................................................... 123The Tide is Loosed ................................................... 123Innocence is Drowned .............................................. 125Mere Anarchy is Loosed ........................................... 127

Act three: the vampire lord of the world .................... 127The Sands of the Desert ........................................... 139The Head of a Man .................................................. 141

Where to Go From Here .............................................. 145As the Sun .............................................................. 145Twenty Centuries of Stony Sleep ............................... 145

Slouches Towards Bethlehem ...................................... 146Continuing the Campaign ......................................... 150

cHApter seven: BestIArY ................................151

cHApter eIgHt: steAMpunk sourceBook .....169the victorian Age ......................................................... 171

Gothic Horror ........................................................... 171detective Fiction ...................................................... 171Social Satire/Comedy of Manners ............................. 172Steampunk Subgenres ............................................. 173

steampunk .................................................................. 173Steampunk and Other Genres ................................... 175Genre Moods ........................................................... 175Genre Settings ......................................................... 177The Industrial Revolution .......................................... 179

steampunk conventions and elements ....................... 179Steam Engines (c. 1784) .......................................... 180Clockwork ............................................................... 180Automated Production .............................................. 180Trains and Steamships ............................................. 180Airships ................................................................... 181Telegraphs (c. 1837) and Telephones (c. 1876) ......... 181Photography (c. 1835) and Motion Pictures (c. 1885) 181Electric power (c. 1873-1900) .................................. 182Social Change ......................................................... 182Anachronistic technology.......................................... 183Elegant yet clunky designs ....................................... 183Flying Machines ....................................................... 183Submarines ............................................................. 184Space travel ........................................................... 184Time machines ........................................................ 185Automata (Robots) ................................................... 185Radium Furnaces (atomic power) .............................. 186difference Engines (computers) ................................. 186Clockwork "Cyberware"............................................ 186Walking War Machines ............................................ 187death Rays .............................................................. 187Lost Worlds ............................................................. 188Magic ..................................................................... 189Alchemy .................................................................. 189

life in the 19th century ............................................... 190The Victorian Era ..................................................... 191Victorian Morals ....................................................... 191Social Classes ......................................................... 191Women in Society .................................................... 192Racism.................................................................... 192War in the Victorian Age ........................................... 193Occultism ................................................................ 193Romanticism and Realism ........................................ 194Philosophical Societies ............................................. 195Consulting Detectives & Criminal Masterminds ......... 196Political, Economic, and Social Change and Unrest .... 196Overcrowded Cities and Poverty ................................ 197Labor Unions ........................................................... 197Luddites .................................................................. 197Smog ...................................................................... 198

putting it All together................................................... 200The World and the PCs ............................................ 200

AppendIx: BIBlIogrApHY ..................................201

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The Widening Gyre4

Welcome to the 19th Century that never was! It is a world of wonder, of horror, of adventure, of magic, of strange technology and unprecedented cultural revolution.

This is an age that should have been, filled with radium-powered flying machines, clockwork automata, and steam-driven computers. It is an age of dark magic, sinister secrets, and unholy cults. It is a time in which the world teeters on the edge of chaos, where the enlightened scientific mind battled against ancient superstition and ignorance, in which the souls of all mankind hung in the balance.

The Widening Gyre presents a glimpse at the Industrial Age as it truly was, envisioned by those far-sighted luminaries and Savants who looked beyond the feeble limitations of man and created a world in which science, technology, and logic triumphed over the mundane physical limitations of the Universe. And yet, Logic’s victory is far from complete. This is also a dark and gothic world, where monsters from ages long past still prowl and men with evil motives call upon ancient sorceries to grant them the power to control the world.

The Widening Gyre is a world in which you’ll play consulting detectives and adventuring academics, occultist thrill-seekers and Savants both heroic and insane, all working for a secretive organization of benevolent technologists who seek to prevent the dark monsters of humanity’s past from overwhelming its bright and burgeoning future.

Welcome to the Widening Gyre!

What’s In This BookThe Widening Gyre presents an entire world of adventure in the 19th Century That Never Was, but it is not

a complete game in itself. To use it, gamemasters need a copy of Savage Worlds (Deluxe or Deluxe Explorer’s Edition).

The first two chapters are for everyone. Chapter One, Passionate Intensity (Creating Characters), shows how to create a character, including arche-

types, for Steam Age heroes. It also describes how to use many Savage Worlds character creation elements, discusses how to use them in the genre and proves expanded rules.

Chapter Two, Darkness Drops Again (Weapons, Equipment, & Magic), offers an enticing look at the weapons, vehicles, gadgets, and gear of the Age of Steam. Furthermore, it provides a dark, gothic magic system for use in your campaign, including an extensive list of spells and sorcerous powers.

The next chapters of the book are for gamemasters only. If you’re a player, you might want to stop reading so as not to spoil the surprises the world of The Widening Gyre has in store for you!

Introduction: The Blood-dimmed Tide

Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of Spritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds. The darkness drops again; but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

William Butler YeatsThe Second Coming

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55Introduction o The Blood-dimmed Tide

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had every-thing before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authori-ties insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

– Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Chapter Three, The Center Cannot Hold (The World of the Widening Gyre), discusses the history of the world of The Widening Gyre, and how it diverges from the world with which we are familiar.

Chapter Four, The Falcon Can Not Hear the Falconer (Organizations in the Widening Gyre), pres-ents several organizations which can help, hinder, or harm the heroes.

Chapter Five, To Be Born (Adventure Generator) gives several examples of different types of games you can run in the world of The Widening Gyre, plus some random adventure generators to help fire up your creative furnace!

Chapter Six, Things Fall Apart (Plot Point Campaign), contains a series of short, ready-to-run adventures that, taken together, form a complete Widening Gyre campaign. Alternately, a GM can use these adventures as a spring for his own imagination to create his own campaign or to slip into an existing campaign.

Chapter Seven, What Rough Beast? (Bestiary) is a bestiary of characters, creatures, and creations that the heroes might encounter in their adventures.

Chapter Eight, Turning and Turning (A Steampunk Sourcebook), is a discussion of the Steampunk genre, touching on several sub-genres which can be attached to any game. It includes a brief historical overview of the Victorian Era (roughly 1830 to 1901) and continues with a list of the conventions of the genre – those things that put the “steam” in Steampunk – then shows how to apply the ideas and concepts to your game.

Appendix, A Vast Image (Bibliography): The Widening Gyre finishes with an Appendix of recommended reading and viewing for anyone interested in furthering their exposure to the world of Steampunk and the Victorian age.

VictorianaThe Victorian era is a time marked by the reign of

Queen Victoria, from 1837 to 1901. It was a time of great change, where new technologies reached across the world, bringing new light -- and new problems -- to this planet. It was an age not entirely unlike the one we live in today: an age of bewildering new scientific achievements, new political systems, and new social problems.

At the same time, it’s an era very much different than our own. The telephone was brand new; television and radio had not yet been invented, and the internet was something not even the wildest visionary could have predicted. Social interaction was compulsory. It was an age of manners and gentility where everyone knew their place in society.

Victoriana is a way of looking back at that time, romanticizing it, and taking those parts that were good and true and making them our own. Perhaps Victoriana (and Steampunk) is a sort of philosoph-ical nostalgia, in which people imagine how their lives would be in a simpler time, with limited (but still recognizable) technology. A time where if you wanted to communicate with someone, you had to seek them out, look them in the eye, and speak your mind clearly and intelligently.

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The Widening Gyre6

A Brief History

In the Year of Our Lord 1837, amongst much pomp and circumstance, Queen Victoria ascended to the throne of the United Kingdom. She was showered with gifts from leaders and dignitaries around the world. One gift was an ornate clock specially built by the Clockmakers Guild of London. The clock, a deli-cate and beautiful thing, did not work, and it was removed from the palace and disappeared; little more

than a footnote of history. However, it was around this time that the world began to change. The twin giants of science and industry

arrived on England’s green and pleasant shores. At first there were a handful of scientists and engineers, toiling away at their creations. Then there were scores. Then hundreds, then thousands. It was a brilliant time. Things once thought impossible were now the stuff of everyday life. Inventors developed new machines undreamt of just a few short years ago.

A new breed of inventor was born. They were more than scientists; more than engineers. They were called Savants, and they could invent and build creations that even their most brilliant contemporaries were hard-pressed to match. How did they do it? Nobody really could say. But their creations seemed to defy the scientific laws of the universe.

But of course, all things must come to an end.In 1860, a Savant by the name of Cardinalè created the greatest invention yet, a flying city known as the

City of Glass. However, on its maiden flight the city crashed, killing thousands. The leaders of the world suddenly realized that the power of the Savants, left unchecked, could destabilize the world. This began what is now known as the Time of Turmoil.

Savants began to turn their energies to creating bigger and better weapons. The fields of Europe and America were scarred with the results of this deadly research. Clockwork soldiers and giant mechanical walking machines strode through battlefields. Giant artillery pieces lobbed shells across hundreds of miles. Flying machines spied on, or dropped bombs upon, the enemy’s formations. For twenty long years, it seemed like the whole world went mad with a lust for blood.

Eventually this constant warfare wound down. Perhaps humanity finally had its fill of blood? Or more likely, the various nations were merely exhausted from fighting. There were still wars and skirmishes, of course, but compared to the previous decade it seemed like a golden age had arrived. Savants turned their considerable talents to more peaceful activities, such as trade and exploration, and a new age – the Gilded Age – began.

The world began to open up in ways that it never had before. Great distances were no longer a barrier to trade and communication. Travelers journeyed over continents, across the seas, and even through the air. A handful of brave Savants attempted to explore the Moon, the bottom of the sea, the center of the Earth, and even time itself.

It is now the Year of Our Lord 1895. With science and industry on the rise, it seems as though humankind is finally ready to fulfill his greatest potential. But there are powers at work, hidden from the sight of most, which want to see humanity stumble and fall. They wish to bring about an age that will make the Time of Turmoil seem like a pleasant afternoon in the park.

And they will succeed, unless you stop them.

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Chapter One:Passionate Intensity

Character Creation

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