Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => VSF Adventures => Topic started by: Andrew May on October 15, 2013, 11:20:40 AM
-
(http://img845.imageshack.us/img845/5918/ofq5.jpg)
http://steamandaether.blogspot.co.uk/
Over the last few months many of you will have followed my miniatures project here and over on Kickstarter. Over that time I've been musing over and planning out the background story and game world for my ongoing project. To compliment the miniatures that I have sculpted I wanted to create a new setting, separate from traditional Victorian Scifi and still different from the newer and established steampunk settings. So with the the concepts and story all set out I decided to approach a professional writer to coalesce my imaginings into a solid backstory. Mark Latham has done a marvellous job for translating my ideas, approaching the subject matter with great enthusiasm. I'll be publishing the backstory over the next week starting today. I hope everyone that decides to follow it enjoys what we have created. The next stage is the continued development and playtesting of the Steam and Aether ruleset, if you want to stay abreast of what I've got coming then please follow the blog and I'll keep you all updated.
In the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, peace descended on a troubled Europe for the first time in living memory. It was an age of reason, of enlightenment, and progress. An age where the ingenuity of mankind scaled heights previously unimagined. And yet, it was not science or intellect, nor even conquest that was to change the world. It was the discovery of something older and far more mysterious than anything humanity could have dreamt; something that had lain dormant since the dawn of time…
-
I look forward to reading it.
-
I look forward to reading it.
I second that.
-
The first instalment is already up. ;)
-
Interweb trickery! That wasn't there earlier ;)
-
Will certainly have a butchers later, mate.
:D
-
Excellent work! :-* :-*
-
Thanks fellows. Part two up now, due to blog format you'll have to scroll down to get part 1 if you've not read it yet.
Though France controlled all commerce in Aetheric goods across Europe, the benefits for all could not be denied, and many common people in Unified Prussia and even Britain reaped the rewards of the new age of invention......
-
Wow, no one at the time saw the rot inherent in the ease of the process? No one saw there would be a karmic "price to pay" for such (literally) a power grab?
Humans were still fallen creatures. We always dislike the powerful and successful, always have throughout recorded history. Rivalries and hatreds can be buried and (for a while) controlled but never completely erased despite our best efforts.
Looking forward to when the fractures start becoming evident and the results of that.
Gracias,
Glenn
-
Excellent - helps shorten the train commute home - looking forward to the coming instalments
Boldwin
-
Here you go.....
Part 3
http://steamandaether.blogspot.co.uk/
What the Consulate scientists were working on in the lowest, most secure levels of the extraterrestrial complex will perhaps never be fully understood. However, the pinnacle of their work was surely the invention of portal technology—the ability to transport a living person from one place to another almost instantaneously, by passing through a portal of pure Terrestrial Aether.......
-
Turning out to be a great background.
Now how do we folk in the UK get over the water? Deep submersibles, take to the air or go along way North or South?
-
We don't it's a wasteland, we go civilise America :)
-
America is suspiciously quiet for now. I'm staying around Eurasia in the current setting. UK stays in contact over the oceans with its colonies, more to come tomorrow. 8)
-
And here's Part 4
http://steamandaether.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/part-4.html
The cosmic strife persisted for almost two decades, remaining mercifully confined to France and the surrounding environs until one day in 1867, quite suddenly, the storms calmed. The sun rose into a blue sky for what seemed to be the first time in eons, and the world held its breath. No-one knew what had befallen France and its people. No-one knew what the other nations had been up to during the time of isolation. But the race was on to find out.....
-
Here you go.....
Part 3
http://steamandaether.blogspot.co.uk/
Karma, dude, karma...
lol
Gracias,
Glenn
-
And here's Part 4
http://steamandaether.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/part-4.html
"... With uncertain foes and fickle friends all around, von Bismarck’s armies set about securing the borders, creating hundreds of miles of defensive lines, unbreachable by foreign aggression, and from whatever perils lurked within the Aether storms..."
Two Words.
Maginot Line.
Gracias,
Glenn
-
Instantly put me in mind of this.
Cpt. George Mainwaring:
I could have sworn that they would never break through the Maginot line.
Sgt. Arthur Wilson:
Quite right sir, they didn't.
Cpt. George Mainwaring:
I thought not. I'm a pretty good judge of these matters you know Wilson.
Sgt. Arthur Wilson:
They went round the side.
Cpt. George Mainwaring:
I see... they what!
Sgt. Arthur Wilson:
They went round the side.
Cpt. George Mainwaring:
That's a typical shabby Nazi trick, you see the sort of people we're up against Wilson.
Sgt. Arthur Wilson:
Most unreliable sir.
-
The final part up today (although a small additional part will be added tomorrow).
With so many horrors, and with France still very much in a state of Aetheric flux, it seems foolhardy for any nation to contemplate expeditions into the wasteland. And yet the Prussian central ministry and the Royal Geographical Society of Britain have put together several expeditionary forces to foray ever deeper into old French territory. And they are not alone—several of Britain’s more partisan regiments have disobeyed orders and entered France in search of riches. Mercenary warbands from rival nations delve into the wasteland unaided. And all this, for the merest opportunity of fame, fortune and the advancement of science beyond measure.
http://steamandaether.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/part-5.html
-
Read it a few mins ago. I think I can be persuaded to play in this setting :)
So will you be sculpting strange denizens?
-
Oh yes of course! But more humans first :)
-
As promised.
http://steamandaether.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/additional.html
-
France wiped out - could only be a British fantasy ;)
now I understand all the breathing devices
nice and interesting read...
my input:
I wonder what happens now with Africa and the Ottoman Empire, now that they are all busy with looting what is left of France
-
Very nice! Sounds like an exciting background. :D
-
Thanks guys!
As for Africa/Turkey etc, as I said I'm concentrating in the European theatre for now. Some other folk may appear as mercenaries etc in the future but if the project goes on for years then who knows what'll happen. :D
-
Cool story. It looks like fun.
-
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-78aXUhXXAtY/Uo5I8MkMJYI/AAAAAAAAATc/oxn-ph0i564/s1600/brits.jpg)
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Sj55BCyiLPo/Uo5I_G8WD7I/AAAAAAAAATk/IZAdc9z2C3s/s1600/prussians.jpg)
Apologies if you've seen these paint jobs before on my kickstarter page http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2004599158/meridian-miniatures-steampunk-army
but the Steam and Aether setting wasn't fully set in stone when I first painted them so I decided to stick with my old default basing scheme. I've chosen to refinish the bases to represent the post catastrophe landscape of industrial France. I've simply removed the grass tufts and added (overscaled) miniature bricks and tiny cogs (both from eBay) with some pieces of card create nice bits of loose paving. This all received a coat of dark grey plus a black wash, then a little brass and brick red to pick out the details. Next came a light grey drybrush plus some orange on the bricks and the odd patch of ground. A little chestnut ink was added to shade the brass. I hope you'll agree that they've turned out to be very effective and evocative of the setting for relatively quick jobs.
More on't blog
http://steamandaether.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/kickstarter-figures-rebased.html
-
Looking good, mate!
:-* 8) :-*
-
France wiped out - could only be a British fantasy ;)
Cheese eating surrender monkeys.... I expect there may be a couple of others in the "lets kick the French" queue.
:~}