The Gulliver Fellowship and 18th C. Torchwood?

[abdul666lw]

Oh no offense taken!
Steampunk is widely known and understood -even by those disliking the term (and it indeed generally lacks the dystopian atmosphere of cyberpunk, though even Jules Verne himself was not always that optimistic about the future), hence it provides a convenient reference.


Btw many among the best of Lovecraft's novels are rooted in the 18th C.

so it make sense to set Lovecraftian games in that century.

[Donpimpom]

interesting thread, are you familiar with the Wold Newton work from Philip Jose Farmer?
Kim Newman openly admited their Anno Dracula is partially based on Farmer's work
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wold_Newton_family

There is a site dedied to gather all the info and family lines from Wold newton, i think you can find some nice ideas there
http://www.pjfarmer.com/woldnewton/Pulp2.htm

[Red Orc]

 

This whole thread makes me very happy. As always, you combine irrepressable creativity with relentless research. It's absolutely marvellous and inspirational.

My own musings in this direction had got no further than thinking that the Arcane Gun Mages from Privateer would make very fine Lacepunk troops, potentially combined with civilians from Westwind's Vampire wars range, specifically the 'Headless Horseman' range of 'Sleepy Hollow' figures (here.)

[abdul666lw]

Merely toying with other people's creations.

Btw, I'm at lost for finding music appropriate for a 'lacepulp / lacepunk' atmosphere: what little 18th C. ( more generally baroque) music I know of does not sound very 'gothic'  (Purcell's Funeral of Queen Mary and The Cold Song, specially in Klaus Nomi's rendition?). Haggard's excellent Italian version of 'Herr Mannelig' sounds rather baroque, and refers to a female troll ( in this context 'troll' actually meaning pagan / witch, I suspect) but does not give much details.
I could mention that Handel's 'God save the Queen' was actually a 'cover' of a piece written by Lully for the poem 'Dieu Sauve le Roi' by the duchesse de Brinon, itself translating the Domine, salvum fac Regem of Charpentier's Te Deum celebrating the successful operation of Louis XIV's anal fistula (authentic!) but it would be more 'punk' à la Sex Pistols than lacepunk  

The best approximation I know is perhaps La complainte de la blanche biche: for some obscure reason a girl was cursed to turn to a white doe every night; she is hunted down, killed and eaten by her brother and the barons of his hunting party.

The song dates of the Middle-Ages and unfortunately there is no interpretation sung in rococo style with harpsichord accompaniment . Yet mounted hunting with horns and hounds was still popular in the 18th C. (an 'Old School' set in 30mm is still available)


And to lift such a curse could be a fitting mission for a 18th C.  Witcher.



.

Are you familiar with the Wold Newton work from Philip Jose Farmer?

I read and enjoyed 'Tarzan Alive' and greatly appreciated the concept, as probably reflected in the original post of this thread and its 'Pikes, Muskets and Flouncy Shirts' complement (well, complements, the 'lacepulp' topic tends to make me excessively talkative  ).
I tried (in a very, very limited scale and using only the names rather than the whole characters) to build a similar 'family' when toying with ideas to adapt the Japanese OVA Hellsing Ultimate to the 18th C. (I have to confess that I rather *like* what I did ). I added several characters (as always, nothing original, inspiration picked here and there -from 'Underworld' for instance). A peculiarity of Vorlund  (the quasi-Austria created by LAF member Guy 'blackwolf') which I suggested as the most appropriate location is the centuries old alliance between the ruling line and the Great Wolves; combining the secret '12 of the Round Table' of Hellsing Ultimate with the formulation 'the Ten Who Were Taken' of Glen Cook's 'The Black Company' I imagined that after Emperor Karl 12 of his companions were 'chosen' by the Wolves (and probably, like himself, turned into werewolves). Among them I had one Guillaume von Baskerville (of 'The Name of the Rose' obvious inspiration) who created the Emperor's secret police, equivalent to the Oprichnik of Ivan the Terrible -the Hunde von Baskerville, obviously . Since its creation the Corps is always commanded by the member of the von Baskerville family sitting at the Tafelrunde: along the generations  a C. August, a Sherlock, a Hercules and of course Nero 'Der Wolf'; currently Dame Phyllis Dorothea Jordelia Freiin Wilhelm von Baskerville better known (since she dislikes her two first christian names) as P.D. Jordelia or P.D.J. (rather far fetched, I admit ).

[d phipps]

Great thread! Very inspiring!



THANKS

[kidterminal]

Have you seen the Japanese anime series Le Chevalier D'Eon? It has secret societies, talking skulls, sorceress' and undead swordsmen.
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3650421017/

http://www.anime44.com/le-chevalier-deon-episode-1

You might like it.

[Franz_Josef]

 I believe that would be Freiherrin Wilhelmina von Baskerville (sounds like a transplanted Hugenot family, a number of whom did take refuge in Protestant German states - a Germanic version would be von Baskerburg).

[abdul666lw]

Since Charge! and The War Game 18th C. is the period par excellence for playing wargame campaigns with imagi-nations. the imaginary antipodial continent of Pangaea is the locale of a vast Lace Wars campaign of scale, scope and style of famous Tony Bath's Hyboria, including a great campaign journal complete with funny pastiches of advertisements. Unfortunately, twice at a few years interval years of rich archives of the campaign were lost or scattered beyond repair when the forum housing them changed hands / server.
In Pangaea Vorlund is, by the mid-18th C., roughly the equivalent of Habsurg Austria. In Vorlund Guillaume de Baskerville was a defrocked abbot of the mid-15th C., probably from (Old, then) French-speaking Nouvelle Champagne who roamed Pangaea and eventually became one of the most trusted companions of Emperor Karl. Once 'germanized' his first name became part of the family name of his descendants, though used only in formal addresses.

About historical Huguenots a number of them, at first exiled in the Netherlands, went to South Africa around Le Cap, often as wine-growers. They eventually were absorbed in the Dutch majority, but one can build a mid-18th C. Imagi-Nation on the hypothesis that they became dominant there: a Huguenot Republique de Bonne-Espérance, with a phoenix on its flag. Shades of Stirling's Domination of Draka, hopefully in less dystopian.


.

Have you seen the Japanese anime series Le Chevalier D'Eon? It has secret societies, talking skulls, sorceress' and undead swordsmen.
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3650421017/
http://www.anime44.com/le-chevalier-deon-episode-1

Thanks a lot for the input!
So far as an anime set in European 18th C. I knew only of 'cute' Lady Oscar the Rose of Versailles

and I better appreciate the gothic horror / pulp nature of the more 'adult' Le Chevalier d'Eon; besides it is set during the WAS, my favorite moment of the 18th C. -and since many Japaneses like cosplay...  (though I hate the way Japaneses give Napoleonic épaulettes to Lace Wars officers )

[kidterminal]

Also the chevaliers bow and scrape in the Samurai fashion.

[abdul666lw]

For a 18th C. vampire countess / sorceress GW (Mordheim) Marianna Chevaux with her garters    looks quite appropriate

(source)
Indeed she looks a lot like 'Emma', a poetess – sorceress associated with the Comte de Saint Germain in Le Chevalier d'Eon -here translated in cosplay -warning, some may find the image NSFWife / Work).
To look definitively 'Lace Wars' she could receive a tricorne (Wargame Factory WSS plastics are a great source of conversion bits), like Lahmia here:

(source)


Speaking of anime, I toyed with idea about a 18th C. transposition of Hellsing Ultimate.

[kidterminal]

Oh my, that's not period correct underwear. I like the new one better.

The vampire counts figures are nice but on the large size.

And don't forget Black Scorpion's wonderful pirate range.



Not to mention their fantastic undead pirates. Ghost highway men interest you?

[abdul666lw]

You are perfectly right, this type of underwear is *terribly shocking* as blatant historical inaccuracy  
Indeed, contrary to what this modern image suggests

18th C. Western women wore no underwear at all.
Female underwear appeared in the Western World ca. 1840, at first as very flouncy trousers for very young girls, whose dresses were then shorter than those of the adults. The first western adult women to wear undergarments were burlesque / cancan dancers, for obvious reasons.


But the same applies to the Countess Karstein mini, and her armor 'dates' her; anyway we have to make concessions, and I'm sure Marianna with a tricorne would look 18th C. enough. Btw, same 'under garment difficulty' with the Paloma of Carnevale; the Foundry Revenant Elves and Eureka / Shadowforge Scarlet Lady elegantly avoid the problem.

Regarding scale discrepancies between miniature ranges from diverse manufacturers, first real persons are not all of the same size: compare Sarah (Michelle Gellar or Sahi) with Sigourney (Weaver) and Adriana (Karembeu), in 1/60 they would differ by almost 5mm. Then one can play on the thickness of the bases on both directions, specially if the figurines are 'acting individually' rather than closely packed in regular regiments -for the 'huge' ones by removing the original base and gluing the (thinned) feet on a thin metallic plate. During a game the minis are not seen from the side but mostly from above: differences of thickness between the bases are barely noticeable, what matters most is the homogeneity (or lack of) of their decoration.  Nor are all people of the same 'bulk' (to account differences of style between ranges): compare Kate (Moss) with Pamela (Anderson) [NSFW in some countries]

Btw the movie is what it is but has great lacepunk contraptions:

[kidterminal]

Yes I am aware of the history of ladies undies. But thanks for explanation kind Sir. Yes the movie was what it was and not even Mila could save it. I have watched the 1973 film of the same name just the other day streaming. It doesn't have lacepunk, but it does have George MacDonald Fraser screenplay and an all star cast including Oliver Reed, Charlton Heston, Faye Dunaway, Christopher Lee and Raquel Welch in one film.

I hope you're enjoying Le Chevalier D'Eon. I've only just begun watching it myself.

As a personal aside my Grandfather is from Lyon.

[abdul666lw]

At least the 2011 movie was entertaining, and far less awful (and a betrayal of the novel) than the 1993 Disney one, where Richelieu plots with Buckingham and is eventually knocked out -and drowned?- in a sewer by Louis XIII! Not even 'so bad that it's good', for the comical input I preferred the (conscious) one of 'The Three Must-Get-Theres'.


Raquel Welch, she who had invented mascara and waterproof permanent wave 1 million years BC... Then a 'Lost World' (either on a kind of Skull Island -hopefully without King Kong- or 'at the center of the Earth' à la Pellucidar)


inhabited by cave girls in fur bikinis (Maidenhead, Eureka / Shadowforge)



would make a *great* Lacepunk (because it's Sci-Fi) setting. For a 'Lost civilization' of pre-gunpowder level à la She the Tékumel minis -for once a range not made of pastiches of historical Ancient / Medieval types!- are perfect: the Tsolyani light infantry could be easily converted to war engines (Warhammer repeater bolt throwers, Megalith scorpio in fixed positions) crew.

Eureka unfortunately sold their great range, and the Tékumel Project / Tékumel club seems unable to re-use the molds; but new minis are progressively made.

The new Bronze Age Minis Dead Earth Warrior Women also look good:

and of course the Raging Heroes (Fantasy) Blood Vestals would also fit:





Speaking of actresses, to think that with slightly different costumes -not for her, she's already fitting for a 18th C. heroine from Eastern Europe- Kate Beckinsale would have appeared in a rather silly (that repeating crossbow without a functional 'bow'!) but funny Lacepulp movie.





Now, I'd really like to follow an Underworld campaign set in London or Paris during the War of Austrian Succession (some thoughts about the possible rules)




For a musical background, besides Tristania Nox Arcana and Theatre of Tragedy have also some *real* (if you bear the style) potential.[/center]

[kidterminal]

Why not? Do an 18th century Underworld. Use the Blue Moon werewolves.


I am a Theatre of Tragedy fan. I have a few albums including that one.

Raquel Welch hated the fact that everyone would bring up that movie, one Million Years B.C.