Those of us behind Paper Mages come from a background of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, wargaming (Games Workshop), Advanced Fighting Fantasy and other very Britishy products… No shock then that we enjoy keeping alive the things that made those products so great for us. Fairly early on when I was drafting the steamshaft I realised that I was making an upside down Necromunda in many ways, what a shame that Games Workshop never considered making Mordheim a more direct fantasy imagining of Necromunda… part of me hopes it would be much like the Steamshaft.

We’re not going to get rich doing this but we do get to put out our work and hopefully see it get used, that is a reward in itself. We’re still going to have fun setting games in our own worlds whatever happens. Generally we’re giving stuff away free in a wiki format, as a word document or PDF. Sometimes (at great struggle) we will have a print release on the table, the first such release is likely to be the ‘Anno Geometrica’ core rules and will be via the likes of Lulu. With a print copy we’re putting in effort to produce the best possible version of the freebie we can, normally in the form of art or exclusive material, so it will only happen if we have demand. The good thing with a print copy is that you can stroke it lovingly and we might get a few bob to spend on a pint or a packet of crisps, we also get to buy our own copies and pretend we’re real game designers… But this is talk for a later time!

The finished image is now up on http://www.papermages.co.uk/

-Tom

The Hevnar is the strongest support column, acting as a focal point for upwards and downwards travel aswell as being the central support to a specific region. The Hevnar is constructed from a material that baffles the inhabitants of the Steamshaft, the same material is used on the horizontal sheets, domes and chambers that are pivotal to the integrity of the structure. This material is largely responsible for the stability that has allowed the overall environment to survive for so long. Even with this strength, other parts of the Steamshaft have fallen into gross disrepair and collapses are common. Some areas  have even been overrun by terrors too horrible to imagine and so are of an unknown stability or make-up, it is believed that some creatures have corrupted and distorted structures in ways that boggle the mind.

There is more I could say regarding the Hevnar supports but I’ll leave that to a wider commentary on the other supports.

I have recently been writing and thinking about how battle is conducted within the Steamshaft, often the battlefield is confined but as things progress it opens up and tactics must change… Got some very cool shields that are used for tunnel advances. Early on I planned for a large variety of fantasy weaponry but  this list has been shortened greatly. All talk for another time!

-Tom

The Steamshaft is broken up into three segments, the Delvus Minor, the Crux Delvus and the Delvus Major. Within these segments there are large regions that have acquired names of their own from the peoples that call them home. The blacked criss-cross near the middle was originally intended to be of no consequence but I have now written in a very interesting bit of background and information about what is hiding there. I will say only that it ties in with the larger story and is likely to feature in any large campaign, though a GM may opt not to use it.

The above does not feature the thousands upon thousands of outward digs, with the exception of a few specific areas I am writing, these oft-dangerous outward regions are at the discretion of the GM who can create as many as he/she needs.

While this is an early concept I am likely to leave it unchanged, beyond making it visually stronger.

Furnace Town is likely to be the base camp of early adventuring as the only large settlement in the deeps and one of the most important in the Delvus Major region of the Steamshaft. In this map (My first attempt to visualise the settlement) it should be noted that the central section containing the dead furnace is raised above the outer sections. Underneath this central plate are the last eight districts of the settlement… I’ve sketched a layout for one of these districts. The section jutting out on the top-right is a prison of sorts. Furnace town sits at the heart of a chasm of steam and can only be reached by three supply tunnels, or (at grave risk of death) by the five pipelines to the east.

Furnace Town, The starter settlement for most campaigns.

The next settlement was the result of a day dream on the way back from work (I normally do this, most walks home consist of dreamed worlds, stories and adventures.) while I was pondering a region called, ‘The Creaks’ named because of the instability of the area and the frequent collapsing/sliding of settlements or travel routes… I knew I wanted/needed a settlement in such a risky zone and so we get Shakes Town… the only place that has a surface cow herd (Yes, Milk Shake… I did think it at the time and it does allow room for roleplay group collapse, though nowhere near the standard of ‘The River Kok’ Incident from Titan. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Fighting_Fantasy]). Shakes town is still in note form and nowhere near Furnace town in terms of development but I harbour a soft spot for it based on the chaos it sits atop/within.

Shakes Town, not the easiest place to reach...

I should say that (as with much else) this is only intended to suggest how the area looks rather than a ‘to scale’ rendition, I was trying to get a fix on how the collapsed regions might look. I actually day dreamed travel upto the town and around ‘The Creaks’ in general so I could work out how goods and people traverse the madness, let alone live in it.

I won’t get much sketching or writing done on Thursday, Friday and Saturday because I’ll be baking bread at 3am in the morning and come midday I will be far too knackered to do anything useful with my brain or body.  Sadly as much as I’d like to spend all my time doodling, writing and dreaming I must grunt my way through reality even when it strikes a chill to the noble soul within.

-Tom

This featured entry is going to be consumed by The Steamshaft Chronicles!

Perhaps the best part of world building is found when you get to concept sketching little details. The pick and pickaxe is an important symbol and tool of life in the Steamshaft… a source of income, a weapon at need and indicator of wealth or heritage. So I’ve been spending some time thinking about how each race approaches the pick, even the Elves who would rather not dig any deeper (or outwards for that matter) have ornate and less functional incarnations.

The pick claw is a concept for the ratkin, a small race who maintain and have access to areas of the steamshaft that larger races could never hope to reach except by calamity or intentional destruction. I like the idea that PC ratkin could have modified pick claws that act as grapplers or at need, a crude projectile weapon.

The Inheritance pick is something I’m considering as a rarity, a very ancient/powerful/unique/racially significant item… it should be the sort of pick you see on a particularly distinguished or important NPC. The source of quests or campaign reward.

Ideally I want a GM to have an idea of a basic pick/pickaxe for each PC and NPC race, followed by a crafted version and lastly a few inheritance designs, I fully expect a GM to give thought to designs between these three tiers.

As I continue to blog about the world, it should make a bit more sense and you can connect dots between previous articles and newer ones. Hopefully by then I will have sorted the mini-site with a collected body of information, in essence the beta of the free ebook.

As always I welcome comments for good or ill, even if it just alerts me to the fact I have people interested in what I’m doing as opposed to running this as a ‘Howling at the Moon’ exercise.

-Tompl

This week I am going to talk about factions, I like the idea of reputation and I’m going to play test one such system as an expansion unit for the AG core rules or the fantasy variant of those rules (@DrMagister seems to be hooked on making the fantasy transition and since I’m building TSC to work with the AG rules, it makes sense to delay some rule modifications.) at some stage. I am largely working on the idea of two main factions, rather than a multitude of small factions whom are the key to extra perks, privileges, and dangers.

The Steamshaft Chronicles: Climbers faction. (Faction Crest)

The Climbers – They seek to claim back the highest reaches of the Steamshaft and perhaps even forge a path to the paradise they know awaits them on the surface. They are dominated by Elves, the seers of which paint a vivid memory of the world they lost, the heaven that awaits those who seek the road upwards. The climbers reward the repair of upward tunnels, supply routes and the clearing of the great staircases among other things. Could you be the key to the final freedom and victory of this powerful faction?

The Steamshaft Chronicles: Delvers faction. (Faction Crest)

The Delvers – As the Climbers house many Elves, do the Delvers provide a place for the Dwarven folk and their agenda is just as simple, head downwards. They believe that salvation and paradise await in the furthest deeps and will do anything to lay claim to that dark future. They reward the forging of downward paths, support networks and many other things. Could you be the key to unlocking a legacy long denied to the people of the Steamshaft?

The two additional factions I have toyed with are The Cropmasters and The Waymakers, the former are a hostile and ritualistic organisation who own almost all of the underground fields. These fields are part of an often precarious  life support system and the method of maintenance is lost to all but the quirky members of this faction. The Waymakers tend to maintain a good relationship with The Climbers and The Delvers as they busy themselves with reclaiming and building collapsed or decaying regions of the shaft often to the benefit of the upwards and downwards agenda, they have at times been at odds with The Cropmasters for trespassing on the dead fields.

Interested? Want to know more? What is this Steamshaft Chronicles? The Steamshaft Chronicles is a fantasy steampunk world setting for Anno Geometrica, set in a world that I describe as Games Workshops Necromunda, only upside down (and strangely it works really well). Currently the intent is to create a supplement about the world above, which will provide ideas about follow-up campaigns for player parties who choose to head upwards and emerge… because the GM will be the one to decide if they find a wasteland, a renewed world or even a future/modern day us… (raising questions about how the Steamshaft had remained undetected for so long). I have some very exciting plot hooks, villains and heroes prepared with some very unusual settlements but much is still forming and reforming on paper and in the mind. The greatest challenge so far has been establishing the exact structure in a way that works, I’m close but some things still don’t make sense in a way that will allow a more casual GM to relax.

As this series develops I will be constructing a bigger information page, if you think you’d like to contribute in some way feel free to drop me a tweet @tompl with the hashtag #steamshaft, or in comments here and we can get talking. This also applies should you want to be an on-line playtester and have Skype, though these tests are  a long way off yet… Working 39hrs a week limits my creative time.

-Tom