Been thinking of a Steampunk letter writing style game

[rovingjack]

been thinking on letter writing games in the style of De Profundis and how they might be played online. All I can think of is maybe in the Roleplaying threads of the forum do a sort of scientific society for mad sciences to share their experiments toward a common theory or goal. People would invent a character, and the goal or theory would be proposed in the first letter and it would progress to the next letter and the person could quote the previous letter to the recipient in their post, but nobody playing could read the posts not addressed to them.

I'm not sure I've figured it all out but I'd like to play something like this. Heck I'd enjoy playing De Profundis, but the only person I know who wants to write letters and would be interested is on medication for delusions already, I don't really want to break them by starting a group letter writing game with lovecraftian roots.

[David Vivian Haraldson]

"Warning: this topic has not been posted in for at least 120 days."

Oh, dear. Well, never mind. It's an such an interesting idea that I feel compelled to reply, even after more than 120 days--and an idea that seems well-suited to Steampunk-RPing.  May I ask, @rovingjack ,  if you've had any further thoughts in this direction?

I've been meaning to try Epistolary, which seems like it might be fairly flexible. (And, possibly of interest, there's a list of other epistolary-RPGs/ storygames over at DiceBreaker.)

[Sorontar]

I am wondering too. There are certainly dialogue games that have been previously played, but these tend to be non-directive in who can reply.

• With a Flick of My Wrist - https://brassgoggles.net/wiki/index.php?title=With_a_Flick_Of_My_Wrist
• Mornington Crescent - https://brassgoggles.net/wiki/index.php?title=Mornington_Crescent

Sorontar

[rovingjack]

May I ask, @rovingjack ,  if you've had any further thoughts in this direction?

In late august- early september I sent several messsages via text to friends who I know played RPG, Asking them if they would be interested in a game of 10 candles, the horror tragedy game for 'octoberween' and None of them talked to me for the past month. So I decided that perhaps I would consider solo play rpgs I could record for one of my youtube channels.

I was thinking of De Profundis, and maybe figuring out a way to play 10 candles solo. The first being much easier to figure out how to manage but also a bit tricky if you're not much of a letter writer and it's lack of mechanisms of play can be a bit too vague to help a first time player do it well on the first try.

Most of these will not be set in a steampunk or victorian setting. In large part because it's tricky to get the feel right with historical aspects. Like gender and enthicity roles. My inclination is to have more equality and everybody being able to do most anything they want, and it can sometimes work for a steampunk fantasy but it can tend to make it more fantasy with steampunk dressing rather than steampunk with fantastic elements.

some scenarios I'm considering for the de Profundis game:
a supernatural investigator who is writing letters to 'themselves', because they are in fact a stray soul/spirit of some kind that found a host that had been vacated somehow, and they took up the identity of the person and through investigations of the supernatural hope to discover where they come from and what happened to the host spirit/soul.

A doctor Jeckyl and Mr.Hyde. Somebody who starts as a whole person trying self improvement regime to get rid of things they don't like about themselves, writing a journal of the exercises, supplements, meditations, etc they are trying. Only to find that there are notes that contradict their entries in the journal, and entries of somebody having successes where they had failures etc, and eventually bridging over to writing letters to each other and finding each other to be what they were trying to become, and how maybe what they wanted wasn't such a good thing after all, and then they start trying to destroy the other.

A changeling writing to it's fey parents about it's experiences in the human world, with no reply coming back for some reason.

and supervillain who has been mind wiped and given a new mundane life by a Charles Xavier type in a world where nobody knows that mutants exist and it all happens in the background kind of like Hellboy, and the dual horrors that the character had their mind and life taken from them, but also that they were a monster, as they uncover the secret world of superpowers. Not sure who they are writing to, maybe doing a sort of trying to dig up dirt on somebody they don't like for no reason that they can think of but trying to find a justification.

the 10 Candlesgame experiment, i'm thinking of playing multiple characters generated from drawing from a hat, and while it might eliminate some of the surprise character moments for me to know most if not all the twists about characters and 'them', in order to play the parts, I think it will be good improv practice and also make a good video story.

also have bits of ideas for De Profundis games that could be multi-player, or refined for single player options (either playing more than one character myself, or changing the direction a bit to not need anyone to write to). Like somebody working on clockwork automaton design. An amatuer alchemist. An occultist that has summoned something that terrifies them but doesn't know how to banish it. An Atlantis nerd uncovering secrets about it still existing. and a few others.

[David Vivian Haraldson]

In late august- early september I sent several messsages via text to friends who I know played RPG, Asking them if they would be interested in a game of 10 candles, the horror tragedy game for 'octoberween' and None of them talked to me for the past month. So I decided that perhaps I would consider solo play rpgs I could record for one of my youtube channels.

I was thinking of De Profundis, and maybe figuring out a way to play 10 candles solo. The first being much easier to figure out how to manage but also a bit tricky if you're not much of a letter writer and it's lack of mechanisms of play can be a bit too vague to help a first time player do it well on the first try.

Most of these will not be set in a steampunk or victorian setting. In large part because it's tricky to get the feel right with historical aspects. Like gender and enthicity roles. My inclination is to have more equality and everybody being able to do most anything they want, and it can sometimes work for a steampunk fantasy but it can tend to make it more fantasy with steampunk dressing rather than steampunk with fantastic elements.

Egads! So sorry for the delay in replying! (My notifications were turned off.  )

You've got some intriguing ideas, there--I'd love to hear how things turn out, if you manage to get some folks to sign up.

I haven't played it but Epistolary has been the letter-writing game that has most piqued my interest. And, unlike De Profundis, it doesn't require that players explore sanity-blasting concepts. The game's itch page has some nice discussion--I should really bite the bullet, buy the game, and play it myself!

But if you are stuck with solo-journaling RPGs, do you know Trollish Delver's series of Quill games? There is now quite a range (I think that the same author's English Eerie also uses the same

As to the various problems of social inequality in steamy settings ... well, I certainly hear you on that one. I know that a couple of TTRPG steampunk settings do make sure gestures to making things more equal. IIRC, Castle Falkenstein (with an 1870s setting) has emancipated and swashbuckling ladies and Abney Park's Airship Pirates RPG is actually set in the future. Might you borrow or take inspiration from one of those settings? (I'm a Bryan Talbot fan, so I'd probably set my game in a world inspired by the Adventures of Luther Arkwright.)

[rovingjack]

I had another idea that demanded I do that instead, but then living space issues came along and demanded attention and when I got back around to prep... I had lost what I was supposed to be doing. I swear I commented on it somewhere online, but I have no idea where.

sigh.

such is the way of things.