Victorian Superheroes?

[smokezombie]

Looks like its rrp £15 normally but you can get it and a mini if you pledge £10

[Benny]

Thanks, i will probably just get the book now. I will sign on to the kickstarter for the PDF version though.

A bit more thinking on the Victorian heroes thing got this into my head though.

Victorian London is getting terrorised by a villain the press have taken to calling Jolly Jack. Much like his name sake (Jack the Ripper) he stalks the poorer areas of London (in and around Whitechapel). Where he differs is he doesn't seem to only prey on ladies of the night, but instead no pattern to his choice of victim is evident. Where he gets the moniker of Jolly is all his victims are found with 2 cuts made carefully to the corners of the victims mouth giving them the appearance of smiling.  As Scotland Yard investigates there chief suspect becomes famous industrialist and merchant Bruce Wayne.

Angry and frustrated by the incorrect accusations, first from Scotland Yard and now from the press as well Bruce decides to secretly mount his own investigation to clear his name. Deciding his best course of action is to capture the real Jolly Jack he begins training in Bartitsu, with weapons and increasing his own general physical fitness. Thinking that being seen in the area around Whitechapel (where the grisly crimes are occurring) would do his protests of innocence no good he decides he needs a disguise. As a boy he has always been fascinated by bats and now decides to dress as one figuring that the black of his cape will help him hide in the darkness and the terror he can instill will aid his investigations. Thus prepaired he ventures into the darkness or Whitchapel at night to apprehend Jolly Jack.

Meanwhile as part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show an American by the name of Floyd Lawton has earned the name The Dead Shot, The worlds Finest Marksman. Using the cover of the traveling wild west show he is secretly an assassin. Hiring his services out the Europe's wealthy and elite. At the moment his activities in Brittan have brought him to the attention of Chief investigator of Scotland Yard Harvard Dent QC.

One night while in Whitechapel investigating the assassinations of The Dead Shot man, Harvard is attacked and half his face is clawed asunder. When he is found and brought to medical attention all he can remember is that he was attacked by a giant bat. After limited face reconstruction surgery (limited by Victorian medicine) it is discovered the stress of it all was too much and he is placed on indefinite leave in the care of Jonathan Crane's Sanatorium. After a short while he is released with the public being told he is cured. This is far from the truth and he now seems fixated on the dual nature of his face and of human nature. Still believing he represents the law he is now known to stalk Whitechapel and surrounds dispensing justice with twin revolvers and the flip of a coin.

The attack on Harvard by a giant bat seems to fuel the legend that Bruce Wayne is creating around himself as he conducts his investigation. All but a select few who know the truth believe that it was the Batman that attacked Harvard. The truth is that after his island research facility burnt down Dr Moreau returned to London and now continues he experiments deep in the London sewers away from prying eyes. His latest experiments have moved on from pure vivisection and onto tissue and muscle grafting. The latest test came at the expense of his new assistant Kirk Langstrom, after a full night of pain and surgery a half man/half bat creature was completed. Before the proper conditioning could be performed by Dr Moreau, Kirk broke free of his cage and into the London night. Scared and disorientated by he recent experiences he was hiding on a roof top when he was disturbed by Harvard, in terror he clawed at Harvard's face then fled into the night.

I have some more to come with Mr Freeze, Solon Grundy and The Green Lantern (The Green Lamp) But i was wondering about any feedback. Trying to create a penny Dreadfull meets DC meets Boys own Adventure feel with lots of interconnected parts for all the different characters.

[Cypher226]

Excellent stuff - similar enough to be recognisably 'Bat' but tweaked enough to fit the new setting 

[Rob_bresnen]

Thanks, i will probably just get the book now. I will sign on to the kickstarter for the PDF version though.

A bit more thinking on the Victorian heroes thing got this into my head though.

Victorian London is getting terrorised by a villain the press have taken to calling Jolly Jack. Much like his name sake (Jack the Ripper) he stalks the poorer areas of London (in and around Whitechapel). Where he differs is he doesn't seem to only prey on ladies of the night, but instead no pattern to his choice of victim is evident. Where he gets the moniker of Jolly is all his victims are found with 2 cuts made carefully to the corners of the victims mouth giving them the appearance of smiling.  As Scotland Yard investigates there chief suspect becomes famous industrialist and merchant Bruce Wayne.

Angry and frustrated by the incorrect accusations, first from Scotland Yard and now from the press as well Bruce decides to secretly mount his own investigation to clear his name. Deciding his best course of action is to capture the real Jolly Jack he begins training in Bartitsu, with weapons and increasing his own general physical fitness. Thinking that being seen in the area around Whitechapel (where the grisly crimes are occurring) would do his protests of innocence no good he decides he needs a disguise. As a boy he has always been fascinated by bats and now decides to dress as one figuring that the black of his cape will help him hide in the darkness and the terror he can instill will aid his investigations. Thus prepaired he ventures into the darkness or Whitchapel at night to apprehend Jolly Jack.

Meanwhile as part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show an American by the name of Floyd Lawton has earned the name The Dead Shot, The worlds Finest Marksman. Using the cover of the traveling wild west show he is secretly an assassin. Hiring his services out the Europe's wealthy and elite. At the moment his activities in Brittan have brought him to the attention of Chief investigator of Scotland Yard Harvard Dent QC.

One night while in Whitechapel investigating the assassinations of The Dead Shot man, Harvard is attacked and half his face is clawed asunder. When he is found and brought to medical attention all he can remember is that he was attacked by a giant bat. After limited face reconstruction surgery (limited by Victorian medicine) it is discovered the stress of it all was too much and he is placed on indefinite leave in the care of Jonathan Crane's Sanatorium. After a short while he is released with the public being told he is cured. This is far from the truth and he now seems fixated on the dual nature of his face and of human nature. Still believing he represents the law he is now known to stalk Whitechapel and surrounds dispensing justice with twin revolvers and the flip of a coin.

The attack on Harvard by a giant bat seems to fuel the legend that Bruce Wayne is creating around himself as he conducts his investigation. All but a select few who know the truth believe that it was the Batman that attacked Harvard. The truth is that after his island research facility burnt down Dr Moreau returned to London and now continues he experiments deep in the London sewers away from prying eyes. His latest experiments have moved on from pure vivisection and onto tissue and muscle grafting. The latest test came at the expense of his new assistant Kirk Langstrom, after a full night of pain and surgery a half man/half bat creature was completed. Before the proper conditioning could be performed by Dr Moreau, Kirk broke free of his cage and into the London night. Scared and disorientated by he recent experiences he was hiding on a roof top when he was disturbed by Harvard, in terror he clawed at Harvard's face then fled into the night.

I have some more to come with Mr Freeze, Solon Grundy and The Green Lantern (The Green Lamp) But i was wondering about any feedback. Trying to create a penny Dreadfull meets DC meets Boys own Adventure feel with lots of interconnected parts for a

I love it- I feel inspired!

[goon3423]

Cool stuff Benny, I'd like to see & play them all!

[axabrax]

Cool background! Now all we need is figures for them all 

[Hat Guy]

Benny's ideas got me thinking after our Pathfinder session last night, I do like the Victorian hero idea, I just want to do something different to the many heroes I already have with it. Before bed, I was reading the prose narrative "Alan and the Sundered Veil" at the back of the first volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. In this story, Alan Quartermain teams up with John Carter, Randolf Carter (from the Lovecraft stories) and the Time Traveler (from The Time Machine) against an invasion of things from "outside of time", which are revealed to be Mi-Go and Shoggoths.

I thought to myself; "Time travel, alien invasion, family and friends thrown together by circumstance? There's your Victorian Fantastic Four right there."

Yes, I am a fan of Reed, Sue, Ben and Johnny (and Peter and Jenifer and Crystal and Lyja and all the others), but to me the FF are so very tied into the Silver Age of comics, I didn't actually like their appearance in 1602.

So, while Benny works on his Bat people, I may look into a couple of Carters and painting my Mansions of Madness pieces.

[Benny]

Looking at a slight change for Harvard Dent. Taking the advice of Dr Crane to heart and his family having some standing in London Harvard is actually reinstated at his job at Scotland Yard. With the lack of internal affairs in Victorian police forces and the fact that for the most part his peculiar brad of justice is making a difference in the worst parts of old blighty like Limehouse and Whitechapel he is managing to keep his job for now.

That allows me to assign him to the police faction of the new Empire of the dead force as a special Character.

Jolly Jack just uses the rules for Jack the Ripper.

The Man-Bat uses a statline of a Vampire Consort but no access to weapons only having 2 sets of claws. But he does get the ability of flight. I am thinking on night missions he can turn up and generally complicate things. No alliance to one side or the other and also repelled by figures carrying lamps or lanterns.

Batman, i am open to suggestions on how to incorporate him into the game as a playable character/faction. I dont want some games to just be Batman and Jolly Jack running around the table, i am open for suggestions on how to get those 2 into factions. They dont have to be large factions but i would like a miniatures game with more than 2 figures on the table.

Also, with the turn that Harvard (Ha'peeny Dent behind his back, as that's the coin he flips) has taken, Batman feels to some extent obliged to fix the problem. Dent was an old friend and Bruce cant stand the sight of him abusing his power and ruining he family's reputation. It seems the harder Bruce tries to solve London's woes the further into its seedy underbelly he is pulled.

Bruce Wayne is a chief suspect as he has been seen in and around Whitechapel numerous times and one time was found standing over the body of one of the victims.
What most people dont know is that he has been in negotiations with parliament to assist in the urban redevelopment of the East End Rookeries (The wikipedia entry on Rookeries should give most folks and idea on where i am heading with this) and was inspecting it for his own satisfaction. And once, upon hearing a cry and moving to investigate was the first to stumble upon a victim, only to be found by a local Peeler no more than a few moments later.

[Benny]

Also just to add more fat to the fire.

After failing to capture his experiment in the cold Arctic Victor Frankenstein relocates to London to continue his science studies. It is here he is approached by the Gold family to bring there beloved son Cyrus back to life. Seeing this as a chance to repair some of the damage from his past experiment and reunite a family torn asunder he agrees to help. After resurrecting Cyrus Gold Dr Frankenstein finds the experiments did not go the same as those previous with his monster. The time spend in the family's mausoleum unprotected from the atmosphere has affected Cyrus, his body has swollen to a huge brute of a man, but the brain is another matter. All he seems to be able to recite or remember now is the child's nursery rhyme "Solomon Grundy". Indeed after many months of teaching and experimentation Frankenstein concludes the experiment to be a failure. At this point he moves to kill Cyrus for a second time, realising what is about to transpire Cyrus attacks and wounds Dr Frankenstein before escaping into the night. Now free Cyrus roams London at night where he continues to moan the rhyme of Solomon Grundy. So much so that those that see him have taken to calling the hulking brute that stalks London's foggy nights Solomon Grundy.

[psyberwyche]

When I started reading about Frankenstein's exploits in the Arctic, I was expecting to read the origins of Victor von Freeze :-)

[styx]

May want to check these out, they are 35mm I think but they have some crazy stuff...

http://www.smartmaxstore.com/smog-a-victorian-fantasy.htm

[Mason]

May want to check these out, they are 35mm I think but they have some crazy stuff...

http://www.smartmaxstore.com/smog-a-victorian-fantasy.htm

They are not 35mm, but 1/35th, so more like 50/54mm scale.

[axabrax]

You realize now that we're somehow going to have to fund miniatures for your entire back story, right? 


PS: Those Smog figs are brilliant!

[proditor]

I had a couple minis I converted for an article I did for Digital Hero way back in the day (War of the Worlds: Champions, issue 39)

Britannic:



Donnybrook: 



I never got around to finishing up the other two: Stella Stovepipe and Nike.

[Benny]

Well, i have Finished Harvard Ha'penny Dent and working on some bobbies to go with him (photos soon) Also dont Victor Freeze and have a reason for him in the setting too.
Also done a conversion of Bats thats waiting for paint too. When i get some photos done i will be starting my own thread on here for all to see.

Also, Smart Max are damn cool, just too damn big