As I mentioned in my last post, I have recently started another,
completely different DWAITAS campaign, with my wife Sylvie (Lady Penelope’s
player) and two very good friends of ours, Cyrille and Nathalie. We had
recently finished a long-running Amber Diceless RPG saga in which Cyrille and
Nathalie and we were looking for a new campaign concept – and since they are
both Doctor Who fans and steampunk enthusiasts, DWAITAS came out as a natural
(if slightly obvious) choice.
Of course, it had to be completely different from the ongoing Lady
Penelope’s Odyssey, for my own gamemastering comfort and because Sylvie would
play in both campaigns; she and I decided right from the start that this new
campaign would be set in a completely different universe, a parallel timeline
if you will, to avoid any sort of interference or crossover temptation between
the two series. I also decided that, while Lady Penelope’s Odyssey takes direct
inspiration from the Doctor Who continuity, this new campaign would be modeled
after Torchwood – but with quite a few key differences. The basic concept is
the same as that of Torchwood: an Earth-based team of agents who investigate
the mysteries and perils of the wider Whoniverse… but with the following
variations:
The characters are not members of Torchwood, but belong to its French
counterpart, the Bureau des Affaires Extraordinaires. They are not based in 21st
century Cardiff… but in 1900 Paris (which does change quite a few things, in
terms of atmosphere, style and story opportunities). The three
player-characters are actually the only active field agents of the Bureau,
which has just been created as the French answer (riposte?) to those darn Brits
with their oh-so-victorian Torchwood Institute; in this campaign, Torchwood
will be used as the heroes’ main rival organization with the mysterious,
deathless Jack Harkness as the British’ newest asset (remember he was recruited
by Torchwood in 1899!) in the continuing secret struggle to prepare for the
futuristic challenges of the 20th century. But as the characters
themselves have begun to discover at the end of our first episode, things may
be more complicated than this, with some mysterious forces at play around (and
behind) their very own Bureau (more on this later).
So what about the characters? I handled character creation as a group
session, to make sure that we ended up with a well-rounded team – but I also
wanted to make sure that each player would create a unique character. Not just
a “typical 1900 adventurer” kind of character, but a hero (or heroine) who
would really have the flavor of the Whoniverse – and the results really lived
up to my expectations.
Cyrille plays a character named Théophraste – but it’s not his real name
you see, because he is actually a blue alien who fell to Earth a couple of
years ago and has forgotten pretty much everything about his past, including
the history of his species – but has the elusive certainty of being the last of
his kind. Yes, that’s right: the only male agent of the Bureau is actually an
alien. Of course, he has a holomorphic
gadget which allows him to appear human (think Abe Sapien masquerading as
Adrian Brody). Thanks to his high Science and Technology skills (and native
Tech Level), Théophraste is the main “techie” of the team, but also plays the
part of the eccentric, detached investigator.
Nathalie plays Philippine de Blois, an independent, free-spirited woman
of adventure, explorer and aeronaut, with her own steampunkish dirigible (full
of futuristic tech, thanks to Théophraste). But because of a scandalous tragedy
in which she played a major role (to make a long story short: she rebuffed the
courtship of a young man, who then committed suicide – and since he was the son
of a wealthy and powerful industrial magnate, she also gained a powerful enemy
in the process), her social reputation is more than slightly damaged, which
adds a darker touch to her character and personal history. As the two other
characters, she also has a mentor (more on this later), who played a key role
in the creation of the Bureau and more or less acted as a role model during her
adolescence – her aunt Cordelia, an aging, eccentric spinster who has obviously
quite a few secrets to hide (more on this below).
Sylvie plays Louise Moreau, an elusive adventuress with a combination of
scientific and espionage skills… and a few dark secrets in store. Secret n°1:
she is a Torchwood defector (and stole some precious alien tech from them).
Secret n°2: she is actually the daughter of the infamous mad scientist Dr
Moreau – yes, that one (and yes, in this universe, the novels of H.G. Wells are
based on real facts – for a number of reasons which will become clearer later
in the series). Secret n°3: as you’ve probably guessed by now, her father
experimented on her during her childhood and she is actually a feline hybrid,
complete with heightened senses, retractile claws and catlike curiosity. She
(rightly) sees her late father as a monster, who abused her in a terrible (if
rather unusual) way.
Each of these characters was given a mentor – and these three mentors
are the founders and what we might call the “old guard” of the Bureau:
Théophraste’s mentor is professor Varende, a scientific genius / classic
absent-minded professor who rescued him after his traumatic arrival in our
world through the Paris space-time rift,
and whom he regards as a father figure, the human who taught him everything
about Earth and humanity.
Louise’s mentor is her uncle, Colonel Forestier, a gruff military
officer with government and secret services connections – which allowed him to
create the Bureau as a semi-official organization, an obscure branch of the
French secret services dealing with “weird stuff” and trying to outplay the
British Torchwood.
Philippine’s mentor is the aforementioned Aunt Cordelia. At first, I
hinted that Cordelia had obviously been a spy or secret agent of some sort in
her younger years, but (part of) the improbable truth was revealed in the very
final scene of the first episode: the characters discovered that Aunt Cordelia
was actually not Philippine’s aunt at all… but a time traveler from the future
- echoes of H.G. Wells again! She went
on to explain that History was in danger, because there was a big space-time
rift around Paris – a rift which was obviously tied to Théophraste’s arrival in
our world and also explained the real purpose behind the creation of the Bureau
(beyond the whole “riposte to Torchwood” thing). So the adventures of our
heroes will not simply be about investigating strange events in 1900 Paris: it
will also be about exploring a hidden, larger world, with space-time rifts,
hidden agendas and history-manipulating forces…
But what about the adventure itself?
Well, for the first episode, we obviously needed something quite
straightforward – a classic Whovian investigation (with all the added French
flair and Parisian panache of la Belle Epoque, naturellement!) which could set
the overall tone of the series and would not throw the characters right in the
eye of the whirlwind from the start, while still lifting a significant corner
of the proverbial veil. So I went for a story involving spontaneous human
combustion, the spiritualist movement, the Pyroviles and a tragic family
backstory. The title was Le Bal des
Ardents (“Dance of the Burning Ones”, after a rather horrendous 15th
century event of French history) and I must say it worked really well.
The next episode will probably have something to with the 1900 Universal
Exhibition… Stay tuned for more information about Le Bureau des
Affaires Extraordinaires…
