I’m running a game for a crew of Shadows with an espionage focus. They have finally settled on wanting to get involved in industrial espionage. Focusing on Coalridge and Charhollow — drumming up unrest with the workers, starting union talks, blackmailing nobles / owners, and stealing and selling plans/prototypes. Needless to say, I think this is great.
I’m curious if anyone has done anything similar. What kinds of prototypes or industrial secrets should I throw in there? I know the Ironworks is all about Leviathan Hunter ships. Maybe I should do something with that angle. Any other strange industrial tech you would use?
I’m just looking to source some ideas on what kind of intrigue/opportunity to throw their way.
My Shadows stole the engine of a new and exiting tech – demon engines. basically Blade’s equivalent of nuclear energy generator, if those were Evil and pyromaniac. Also, they didn’t touch the machine – just bottled the demon and run.
Robots! Thief 2: The Metal Age would be a great place to steal from. Demon-bound Hulls (rather than Ghostly ones), straight-up steampunk robots not reliant on magical power, industrial robots that can replace entire workforces (ok that one is from the real world).
To go with Leviathans, things that the houses are hoping will give them an edge over each other. New hunting weapons, a Leviathan sensor… maybe something like jetpacks, so crew can harry the beasts from the air (and your crew can use). A submersible prototype – perfect for sneaking around Duskovol if you appropriate it.
It could be useful to think in terms of categories; proprietary tech that has its own unique elements. Incremental improvements that give the leg up on the market. Prototypes that may revolutionize things, or be curiosities. The next big thing, worked at for years in a well-funded lab.
Format of theft is also useful to think about in categories. There are blueprints, defectors, scale models, encrypted specs, reports on failed attempts, reports on successful attempts, and hostages to force key figures to comply with the espionage.
Types of tech to involve: water locks to affect water level in the canals and docks. Electroplasm divides into miniaturization, batteries, power, distillation, pollution control, generation, and fuses. Architecture is huge, especially incorporating the new things like indoor plumbing and electroplasmic energy; but there’s still room for the old gaslight technology because it’s everywhere, but to be regulated and refined and hybridized.
And you’ve got emerging tech; it’s a race to get to working subways, surface trolleys, and goat-less carriages, maybe even with hip power packs that connect to a skateboard/Segue. Maybe there’s a race to build generators that can power multiple blocks of apartments with a fee structure and maintenance contract; who can make the most effective and efficient version, and mass-produce it?
Add in a robust inventor culture; you have what you need for it. There are arrogant aristocrats and wealthy tycoons who have the time and energy to seek meaning through invention, who provoke envy with their labs and wealth, who can plant the seed of imagination of what it is to be an inventor. That seed drifts down into the lower classes too. Science needs to show there’s been progress, and will be progress, and now is right and the past is wrong and science can fix anything and the future will be shiny and chrome. It’s at the heart of the Gothic divide that science/intellect holds the answers as it wrenches itself out of the superstition/fear that stains the past.
If this is the focus of the group, go big! Put a tier 4 Captain Nemo in his Nautilus parked in the river, only it’s a giant fabrication facility in the river because he’s paranoid about thieves and has used his devices to bind spirits to river predators to protect his privacy.
Connect this world of crafters together with their own subculture and holidays and exhibition fairs, and start them out related to some small fry and maybe a nephew of a Tier 3 inventor. Fill the “scene” with inventors who value intellect above all else, including social skills, who do not fully exist until they’ve conquered with some invention that makes everyone jealous. The whole culture runs on jealousy; you’re only as good as your latest invention, and there’s a mass behind you looking to make themselves look good by trashing your work.
Then let this crew feed that machine.
Love the suggestions so far, Thank you!.
Especially Andrew Shields, your response is great inspiration.