Campaign Toybox
Story: Sifting through the papers of the late Dr Henry Jekyll, the doctors of the Edinburgh School of Medicine realize that Jekyll’s mysterious elixir did not unlock the dark side of the human soul, but rather unlocked the door to the spirit world. His first subject, Mr Hyde, had been contacted through a séance, and his spirit solidified into ectoplasm through the application of the atomized liquid. The madman Hyde had apparently possessed the doctor and caused terrible havoc, but now the solution seemed clear: by applying Jekyll’s methods they could bring back the doctor himself. And after the doctor came more of his late colleagues, and then others: friends who died too young, students keen to experiment with crossing over, great minds whose minds still seemed to have so much to offer.
As is the way of these things, something went wrong.
Other things have crossed over, and not all the human spirits came back as blythe or as sane as they left. Now monsters and shades stalk the streets, spreading mayhem and murder under the tutelage of the bloodthirsty Hyde. And with death and strife comes also plague and disease, illness and deformity of a kind not known to science. In such a strange new world, only the greatest of scientists can hope to police the chaos. Through science, the gate was opened. Through science, it will be closed again – and order returned to the streets of Edinburgh.
Style and Structure: On the surface, this looks like another supernatural hunt, a Victorian spin on Orpheus or last month’s installment a few decades later. The difference, in this case, is the doctors. Medicine and its practitioners dominate our televisions, but they are almost entirely absent in our RPGs, while the same cannot be said for the TV-ubiquitous policemen and detectives. The problem with medical shows is the difficulty of emulating the process of medical investigation, with either system or player knowledge. Producing something with as many twists and turns as an episode of House is almost impossible without a PhD. The nice thing about medicine in the 1880s is that it was in total infancy and anyone can bluff their way through it by watching an episode of General Hopsital. Add a macguffin to the mix in the form of ectoplasm and spiritualism and you’ve got a winner. Ghost doctors and patients allow you to riff off all the old hospital clichés, making them new and fresh again – imagine, for example, heart surgery done without cutting as a ghostly doctor passes his hands clear through the patient.
The medical twist is what keeps this from being another bug hunt through Victorian streets. You can alternate episodes investigating mysterious events in the field with cases just arriving in the hospital. Meanwhile, the Victorian feel and supernatural science will let you rip off every episode of House, ER, Grey’s Anatomy and even Scrubs that comes along. You can even build up – with the help of your players – the whole field of medicine, as redefined by the supernatural events. Many RPG campaigns conclude with an epic story told, but imagine the fun of the players also ending with an entirely new science documented as well. Publish or perish might be taken literally…
PCs and NPCs: Arthur Conan Doyle was of course a student of medicine in Ediburgh at the time, and his mentor, Dr James Bell informed much of his creation, Sherlock Holmes. Any of those three make excellent protagonists, and the literary sources don’t stop there. Stevenson’s Jekyll is perhaps better off screen but his novel is full of useful minor characters and colleagues. Mad scientists were all the rage at the time – Dr Frankenstein could certainly be a noted rival or fellow experimenter, as could Captain Nemo and Hawley Griffin and the rest of Alan Moore’s Extraordinary Gentlemen. For a less pulpy campaign, TV medical dramas (not to mention hundreds of period novels) provide plenty of models for earnest young doctors – the egomaniacal and dashingly handsome surgeon, the determined crusader who wants to save the world, the jaded educator who still has a last glimmer of humanity. Hospitals also feature nurses, matrons, priests, administrators, wealthy backers, filthy janitors, destitute servants, huge orderlies and whimsical madmen – plenty of variety for everyone. Finally, Edinburgh is famous for being the most haunted city in the world. If you can’t find a ghost you’d like to play in its history, you’re just not trying.
Plots and Villains: Medical shows can provide the dilemmas of the week; bigger plots can come from understanding the new science and the monsters it has produced. Hyde is a nice big bad, because of the hanging question of whether the process itself drove him mad, and his powerful literary associations. Hospital politics can also provide plenty of villains and obstacles: hospitals still need to make money, save lives and appear above suspicion and no doubt the less-than-orthodox methods of our heroes will constantly bring them into conflict with their superiors, angry relatives and the burgeoning press. Lastly there’s a question not just of understanding what has happened and its effects, but determining if it can be stopped – and if so, should it be stopped? If science can make something happen, can such a thing truly be against god’s will? Surely it is just a tool to understand his world better, and is as good and evil as the men who wield it? Or are some doors far better never opened? This is just what Stevenson’s Strange Tale of Dr Jekyll asked; now you can ask it too, and get your own answers.
Sources: I’ve covered these as I’ve gone through this time. Every medical show on TV is your basis. For Victoriana, you are also spoiled for choice – pick any of the countless Jack the Ripper books, movies, comics and computer games to start. The recent BBC series Dr Bell and Mr Doyle had lackluster mysteries but the depiction of the medical science of the time was fantastically detailed. Doyle’s descriptions of Watson’s work are also enlightening all on their own. Speaking of Victorian authors, do read the original Dr Jekyll, and the original 20,000 Leagues and Dracula and the Invisible Man and everything else. For an introductory guide to Edinburgh’s bloody history, start with Wikipedia – or go to the source. The city hosts one of the largest ghost-hunting societies in the world - and one of the world’s only universities devoted to parapsychology.
RPGs: There are two excellent Victorian RPGs in print right now: Eos Press’ Unhallowed Metropolis and the Savage Worlds setting of Rippers; both would be perfect. Other works include D20 Etherscope (for a more steampunk edge), D20 Horror and several supplements for Call of Cthulhu. You can always reduce or replace the weirdness in GURPS Goblins or Space: 1889. With the medical focus, don’t be afraid of something complex and detailed – the more technical GURPS supplements may be just right. If you want to hew very close to House, consider Prime Time Adventures for the TV feel; if you want to be Jekyll’s minions performing darker and darker acts in the name of science, you absolutely must choose My Life With Master.
