Welcome to the 5th installment of Tropes, where we examine various genres of fiction with an eye to identifying and deconstructing the various narrative devices employed for adaptation to tabletop gaming.

Last time, we discussed the fog-shrouded streets of London, inhabited by the Penny Dreadful heroes and villains of the Victorian Era. A part and parcel of that genre is the monsters and fantastic, improbable technology of Gothic Horror and Steampunk.

We'll split this column into two sections. While each could be a column (or more) by itself, most of the ground that would be covered is behind us now in previous columns. In addition to Pulp and Penny Dreadful Tropes, A group that wants to add more fantastic elements to their Victorian Era campaign needs to understand the following tropes common to these subgenres.

Gothic Horror

He Who Fights With Monsters

The Modern Prometheus has wrought terrible science on the dead. Wolves who are also men stalk the moors. Dark princes of the Underworld stalk for blood. Deep beneath polite society and the day to day struggle to survive and thrive lurk darker, more horrific things. But beware examining these horrors. You may just find a darker reflection of your true nature.

Uses:

The classic monsters and beasts of the Victorian period represent less supernatural force and more the baser instincts and facets of human nature. Frankenstein is the Atomic Bomb of the day, Werewolves are animal lust run rampant, Vampires are passion turned seductive and deadly. Each monster encountered must in fact be a moral shadow play examining the more troubling extremes within ourselves.

Pitfalls:

We're not (usually) playing Couches & Co-Pays. Some times a Fishman is just a Fishman. If things get too intense or too introspective, it is time to go back to doing bold deeds For The Queen!

Madness... Takes Its Toll

The thin veneer of human sanity that lays like fragile new-fallen snow in the daylight can become at night a maelstrom of psychosis and disease, scattered by the winds of Horror. While half the monsters of Victorian Horror were creatures from the darker depths of the human mind, the others were perfectly ordinary men and women who abandoned the pretense of rationality, becoming either monsters or victims themselves.

Uses:

It is always safe to cast doubt on the Monster.. he may just be a madman. And it is equally useful presume a deranged individual committing crimes when in fact, something much worse is the culprit. Additionally, calling the sanity of the characters into question if a solid narrative device of the genre.

Pitfalls:

Despite the ubiquity of the trope, a PC should only go mad for good with consent of her player. Do not force actual insanity on the characters if they resist. Of course, playing a game with Sanity mechanics is consent.

Things In The Mist

Atmosphere and evocative description is even more important in Horror than in normal Gothic gaming. It should never just be day time or evening. Instead, the stark blue of an almost unnaturally clear sky should lend a false note of color to the harsh glare of the day, or the creeping gloom of the oncoming darkness should make one long for the stars to show through the dense grey clouds above. Only, the cold, distant, uncaring pinpricks of light lend even less comfort in the unearthly sheen of the Full Moon.

Uses:

You can control emotion with language. And in Horror, it is important to use your tone to build and then falsely diffuse tension, despair, and of course, fear.

Pitfalls:

Don't get caught up in your own prose. Odds are, you are not Poe, Lovecraft, or Shelly. Look to Stephen King and Dean Koontz for how to inject atmosphere with an economy of carefully chosen words.

Steampunk

Yesterday's Tomorrow

The glorious SCIENCE! and gonzo fashion sense of the genre is based entirely on extrapolating backwards from modern society and meeting the futuristic ideals of the time somewhere in the middle. The resulting mixture creates a unique aesthetic.

Uses:

Steampunk is grounded in gears, cogs, buttons, and The Road Not Taken in real life fashion, equipped with technology that fulfills functions of modern day gear long before it was invented. Tessla Wave Communicators, Bizarre mechanical walking tanks, and more can all be yours for the price of a mad genius with interesting hair.

Pitfalls:

It is easy to make the game into “Modern Day with a Desktop Theme”. Just because steam-powered magneto-radio communicators exist does not mean they should take the same role as cell phones in our day. Keep it Victorian in terms of ethic and societal expectations.

Suit Up!

A Steampunk hero is partially defined by her gear. Pouches, belts, hidden compartments, extra functions in everything from hairpins to shoelaces. The Steampunk Adventurer is Batman, Doc Savage, and James Bond all rolled into one. With a lot more seemingly unnecessary cogs, gears, wheels, levers, dials, and buttons.

Uses:

This is the core of the genre. Impossibly complex devices to do things that only a dozen real years later would be handled by much simpler machines. Shining brass, hissing steam pipes, immense vehicles.

Pitfalls:

Don't forget that the hero must also shine when stripped to nothing but their unmentionables. Don't let the gear take away from the heroics.

The Goggles Do Nothing

Any given Steampunk character will be festooned with baubles, devices, and fashion-forward retrogear. Maybe ten percent of it is ever named, used, or even referenced beyond visual affect.

Uses:

Let the character go hog-wild in their descriptions. Allow them to role play rooting through bags, pouches, and hidden devices. It really doesn't matter if the buckles on their collars serve no real purpose, or the three layers of goggle lenses on their superfluous leather caps are never lowered. Just like rifling through a dozen devices with no stats or function to get to something that “actually” exists is all part of the game.

Pitfalls:

Do not let the players start using gear they don't have title to. Using a function requires having had it to start with, regardless of the window dressing.

Sources:

That wraps up this installment of Tropes. Next time, we'll finish our tour of the 19th century in gaming by hopping across the big pond to look at the Wild and Weird West. Meanwhile, here's a list of some past and present published games that deal with Gothic Horror and Steampunk gaming. Look them up in