Starting info
Reply With QuoteA few short notes about 1889 Britain.
TRANSPORTATION: Steamships (although some sailing ships can be found); carriages, horses, and cabs. There are airships (they can carry up to four people!) but not yet zeppelins, and of course, no planes. Horse-drawn boats still pull cargo up the canals in Great Britain. London has the underground, and trains run everywhere.
On water, the speed record is below 9 mph, which is established in 1893.
On land, I have a vague recollection of trains doing between 30 and 45 mph, but haven't found a resource yet. (Ah. In 1888 and 1895, there was a race from England to Scotland; in the 1895 race, very light trains--only three coaches each--made 63.3 mph on average. So 45 mph is a reasonable speed and supervillains might manage more.)
WEAPONS: The bullet as we know it finally came into use early in this decade; older revolvers and rifles might use fulminate nipples (longer to reload) or even black powder (much longer to reload). Swords are part of the dress uniform in many forces, and a real gentleman still can use one. Ships that are part of Her Majesty's navy will have swords for the officers as part of their dress uniforms, and cutlasses or revolvers for the crew in case of boarding. Compressed air can be used for weapons, too, and might be for smugglers weapons.
HOME: Although the electric light bulb has been invented, it has not made headway yet. DC power does not go far enough. In America, the genius Nikola Tesla is promoting something called "alternatng current". Most homes are still lit with gas, which is piped to most homes. Citadel found a fine link which gives prices: http://www.victorianweb.org/economics/wages4.html Given the difference in some items, it's tough to peg a difference in costs, but about a third of the people in London were living in poverty.
PEOPLE: Darwin is dead, since 1883. Marie Curie is about 22, and hasn't yet married Dr. Curie. Thomas Alva Edison is the wizard of Menlo Park, and competes furiously with Tesla, who is still alive. Edison recently remarried, and his fourth child (and first from the new marriage) was born last year. Tesla is in New York City, and is aware of X-rays.
Van Gogh is in an asylum right now, and will be freed in 1890.
Jack the Ripper hasn't been caught yet, though he will soon (in this history, I mean: the Gaslight one).
Benjamin Disraeli died in 1881; the Marquess of Salisbury, Robert Cecil, is Prime Minister of a Conservative government right now, and Gladstone will be Prime Minister in 1892.
COMMUNICATIONS: There are transatlantic telegraph cables. From London, you can wire nearly anywhere in the UK or North America or mid-sized cities on the Continent. The mail in London arrives twice a day, morning and evening. Gentlemen and ladies present calling cards so that you'll know who is coming. (Telephones are still a quarter century in the future.)
RULES
Weapons
In general, guns do 1 point less than in the book because of technological differences between now and then, unless you have a special bore--that is, more power. (A simple Craft[Mechanical] skill is all one needs to be a gunsmith.)
There are enough odd sizes floating around that any size of gun could be equally claimed as "Equipment" or a "Device". My ruling is that there are enough gunsmiths required that guns unless clearly fantastical are equipment. That is, a gun that is a large enough bore to do +5 is simply specialized equipment; a gun that also shoots a line or a beam of cold is a device.
Hold-out pistol: +1
Light pistol: +2
Heavy pistol or light rifle or airgun: +3
Custom heavy pistol or rifle: +4
Shotgun: +4/+5
A harpoon cannon on the deck of a boat might do +6.
Flamethrower: +5
Grenadoes: +3 or +4
Melee weapons are as listed in the book.
Armor, unless designed by a supervillain, is also heavier and less effective.
Expect Victorian technology to top out at +5 damage normally for handheld weaponry and +8 for ship weaponry--this means that ship's guns such as 40-inchers do +8; only supervillains can do more.
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