Primetime Adventures: Steampunk Theme

Thursday 8 pm game: Primetime Adventures

GM: Jeff Collyer

The players:

Nicholas Marshall
Me
Richard Mottern
Neil Buchatter
Stephanie Wolfe

GM: All right, ladies and germs, let's get started.

Nicholas: I'm not a germ.

Me: It's okay. I am not a lady.

GM: It's okay. I don't hold it against either of you.

We discussed what kind of a show we wanted, settling on a drama or a dramady. Someone suggested science fiction, provided we could avoid wrong science or dealing with how or why the science works.

We also decided:

No angsty teen drama
No Deus ex Machnia (Doctor Who was cited as being guilty of this)
No reveals that aren't awesome
No Gratuitous Dark

We wanted something in an older style, Detective Noir Space or Steampunk, and with a psychic element. We settled on Noir Detective SF Steampunk.

Someone: I always found Steampunk to be a lot of hot air.

And we wanted Mad Science! We also had the recent Sherlock Holmes movie in mind. And then, we started thinking about the afterlife and environmentalism. Other ideas included:

Veterinary for magical creatures
grants
work together, maybe in dirigible factory
Mining afterlife
Powers of industry

This eventually boiled down to the idea that someone, spirits of the dead were being mined and used as fuel in industry.

And, everyone had something dark about them.

We discussed lines and veils, agreeing on no pedophilia or time travel, with a veil over sex and torture.

Everything would be filmed in black and white, except for spiritual energy.

We covered the table with index cards and started grouping ideas and coming up with characters.

Richard: I feel that we're the bad guys.

GM: We don't have to be a coherent party.

Richard: Darnell Dawkins, Spirit Channeler
Lisa: Gabriel Fenton, Uncontrolled Mad Genius
Nicholas: Phillip Thorncam, Decadent Rich Guy
Neil: Connor Jacoby, Undead Detective Cop
Stephanie: Alicia St. Simon. Collector / Animal spirit

Now that we had concepts, we turned to Issues.

Issue: The _Unanswered_ Question about your character. The audience doesn't know the answer. For example:

• Redemption: How is Angel to get Redemption?
• Alienation: How can Buffy overcome it? _Can_ Buffy overcome it?

Best if _you_ don't know the answer. If you _do_, it's not an unanswered question.

Phillip Thorncam, Decadent Rich Guy and Factory _Owner_: Am I doing the right thing? How he relates. Where does he fit into the scale of humanity?

Alicia St. Simon, Collector: How far will you go to put the pieces together? The issue is not whether she would complete the big picture, as you see. The moral question is far more interesting. Alicia also has a Nemesis: Established Religion's Clergy. This did not come up in play.

Darnell Dawkins, Channeller: Am I morally obligated to help these spirits? Duty to the dead vs duty to the living. _Why_ do we care about this? Growing up dead.

Connor Jacoby, Reanimated Detective: Trapped between life and death -- where do I belong? I think he later changed this to: I have already avenged my death. What do I do _now_? Connor had Undead strength, a Creator, and also, a Nemesis: a serial killer

Gabriel Fenton, Mad scientist: Can you be loved? (This was Nicholas's idea, and very cool.) He was an Uncontrolled Mad Genius, with Mad Tech Equipment, and Rich Patrons. He also had a Personal Set; The Lab.

My notes say that Alicia had an affiliation to cats, Darnell had a possible connection to religion / clergy, and Gabriel was a colleague of Connor's creator, Albert Dawson, who also had a connection to Darnell.

We debated titles. I'm not sure if we settled on The Steam Factory or Of Storm and Spirits or Preserved Butterflies, but the tagline was: A Fogpunk Tale. This episode was probably called "A Bird in the Hand". The show's theme music was Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.

We debated which episode to run, but no one wanted to take the spotlight for the session, I think because we didn't want to crowd anyone out. In retrospect, this may have been a mistake, as the episode wasn't as well focused as might have been. Still, it was a decent pilot episode, setting everything up.

The Teaser took place in Connor's office, in the worst part of town. The desk was covered in burns. The was a beat up old file cabinet with a fist indentation, and files were sliding up. Connor was looking through newspaper clippings.

There was a knock at the door and a very large man came in. His name was Burleigh, and he wanted to find his son, Jackson, who had been missing for two days. Jackson worked in the pits at the dirigible factory.

Burleigh: I don't got a lot of money.

Connor: It's okay. I don't eat much.

The door closed, and the opening credits rolled.

Darrell: Eyes roll up, tranced, twitching, sickly green fog and sparks around him
Gabriel: Doing Mad Science!
Philip: Cigar smoke, hookah, men and women drinking, scenes of decadence
Alicia: Looking at butterflies on a tray with a monocle / magnifier
Connor: Sliding down a dark alley, steampunk gun in hand
Light music, fade out.

After commercial, the show opened with Phillip in his social circle at the home of a friend. Gabriel made an entrance. Would Phillip stand by him or stick with his social circle?

He backed Gabriel, who was enthusing about his latest success: A medicine to remove wrinkles! Phillip, a lady named Delilah on his arm, prevailed upon Edward, a much older gentleman with wrinkles, to try it. Steampunk clockwork was seen in the background.

Edward's wrinkles fell out, as did all of his hair, including his mustache! He was now bald, wrinkle free, and out for vengeance.

Connor went to the dirigible factory in the late afternoon, looking for information about the Jackson kid. The kids who worked in the pits were scared of the Shovel Man, one of the factory's enforcers.

The Shovel Man: You ask a lot of questions.

Connor: You hold a big shovel.

The Shovel Man: You should take that into consideration when asking questions.

Connor: Shovels don't bother me any more.

The Shovel Man (hitting him with the shovel): Bother you now?

Connor got beaten up.

The Shovel Man: You don't come back, or I'll make sure you _can't_ come back!

Connor: Too late!

GM: Give him fan mail!

Connor did learn that that the Jackson kid was a good worker and that no one had seen him since he was called up to the main office two or three days ago. No one knew why the kid had been called to the office or if the boss were inside the office or not.

Darnell was at his usual table in the back of a smoke-filled bar. Burleigh came to his table.

Burleigh: Mr. Dawkins, I hear that you talk to people.

Darnell: They talk to me sometimes.

Burleigh didn't have much money, so he tried to buy Darnell food. Darnell turned him down.

Burleigh: This is good stuff -- it was fresh last week! I gotta buy you something!

Darnell: Word of mouth is _very_ useful.

They agreed to meet at night at the south gate of the factory.

Alicia was in her study, appealing to Phillip for funding for an expedition to collect more specimens. She talked about finches with protective coloring as Delilah impatiently told Phillip to leave and take her some place interesting.

Alicia said something about birds adapting and children. I forget the connection. Stephanie won the conflict and got narration, so, while Phillip did not, I think, agree to give her funding, he accidentally left the combination to his safe.

Burleigh and Darnell met at the factory. Burleigh was afraid that Jackson had gotten caught in the pit when some engine went off, which would have been fatal to the boy.

Burleigh: It happens once or twice a year. But a kid's gotta eat!

Darnell tried to talk to the spirits and concluded that the Jackson kid was probably alive. At any rate, he was not dead in or near the pit. But, apparently, there was _another_ dead kid.

Darnell got hit squarely in the head by The Shovel Man, who took quite a chunk out of poor Darnell. As Darnell blacked out, he saw the apparition of a woman, defined by negative space. She said something, but he couldn't hear, and he blacked out. The scene was, of course, shot in black and white, but the audience saw the red of blood and energy.

Connor confronted Phillip as he left the dirigible factory the next day.

Phillip: Where is my coach? My man is late again!

Connor: You never find a cab when you need one.

Connor tried to rouse Phillip's social conscience with little success.

Phillip: You gotta live, everyone else gotta live -- with some exceptions.

The conflict was whether Connor got information or help, or whether Phillip was able to refuse to take responsibility. You will note that these do not contradict each other, and, indeed, both men got what they wanted.

So, Phillip took Connor on his tour / factory safety review, where he spoke with the foreman, who was upper middle class, sort of a union boss without the union.

I have a note about Alicia and the ghost of her mother, but I'm not sure what came of that. The foreman had a problem on the floor to deal with, so he left, and Phillip left as well. Connor found a list on the desk. It was a list of children's names in a woman's handwriting. Some of the names on it had checkmarks next to them. Jackson's name was on it, and there was a checkmark next to it.

Connor was discovered going through papers by The Shovel Man, the Foreman, and Phillip.

Phillip: See him out.

The Shovel Man: Oh, I'll make sure he gets out.

Connor: Have a nice day.

The Shovel Man: Oh, I'll make sure it's nicely -- for _all_.

Darnell woke up near the pits on the factory floor and was discovered by Phillip and the foreman.

Phillip: You're bleeding on my property!

Darnell: A dead woman with issues has a connection to this factory.

Darnell tried to explain how he wound up unconscious.

Darnell: Your man beat me.

Foreman: He didn't beat you! You _fell_ on that shovel!

The Shovel Man: That's right. Happens all the time.

Darnell invoked the spirits and managed to get possessed by the spirit of a dead child who implicated The Shovel Man.

Somewhere around here, we decided that Alicia was the one who had been taking the missing kids.

Phillip, noticing his missing money, went to visit Alicia.

Alicia (on the phone): I told you not to call me on this line. What do you _mean_ some of them are missing?

Phillip: About things that are missing...

I think she may have convinced Phillip that she had nothing to do with the missing money.

Phillip: So, what have you lost?

Alicia: Ah... several of my cases of beaker are missing. I don't know where they went. And I need a new cleaning system.

Phillip left and Alicia went to a part of her house the audience had not seen before. There were kids in cages, oddly collapsed, sprouting feathers. We decided that the feathers should be in color.

The kids were very clean, but were not quite human any longer. And, there, the episode ended.

Next week on... trailer:

Darnell, on his knees in a cemetery. "Who are you, and what do you want with me?

Gabriel, on the phone in a police station, with cops around, saying, "Ah, Philip? I have a little problem."

Philip watching Edward drop his glove, asking Edward, "What do you _mean_ you challenge me to a duel?"

Alicia, meeting with shadowy figure at factory, saying, "We need to develop alternative means of extracting the children."

Connor at night, by a hole with children's corpses, reaches in and pulls out preserved butterfly.