Sneak Preview #24 – Roger Steel in trouble again ...

A steampunk RPG
FenCayne
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Sneak Preview #24 – Roger Steel in trouble again ...

Post by FenCayne »

After last week's rather heavy post detailing some of the background to Roger Steel's world, I thought this week it would be more interesting to reveal a vignette from the game itself. So, no history but just a smidge of action involving a few of the characters you can recruit (or who may invite themselves) into your party. No prizes for guessing the corpse isn't one of them. :wink:


As the red-head rummages through the drawers of the ancient desk that looks incongruously like one Steel's teachers sat behind during his interminable schooldays, Steel gets the feeling he made the wrong choice of where to search first.

Looking at the leather straps he pulled from the dead man's pockets, he has an idea. Removing the corpse's sandals, he finds tucked a small stained and folded scrap of parchment.

Still kneeling, he unfolds the parchment carefully.

It's a map with jagged lines and sinuous waves and delicate iconography delineating mountains, rivers and verdant valleys. A map drawn by a cartographer who loved his craft.

Steel whispers the single legible word inscribed on the scrap of parchment.

“Ravenscrag.”

Steel looks up to see the red-head looking at him with an unreadable expression.

“Maybe ...,” he begins, then feels the faintest touch against the back of his neck, just behind his ear.

An odd time and place for their Chinese companion to become amorous, he thinks.

He attempts to rise and turn, but finds he cannot.

The red-head seems to be retreating and the room darkening.

What ... ? he says, or thinks he says. But his words and the world alike are seized by a sharp pain and then lost in an all-consuming dense and velvety blackness.
ankewl
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Re: Sneak Preview #24 – Roger Steel in trouble again ...

Post by ankewl »

Very intriguing..... I like this idea of weekly updates even more and more!
SpectralTime
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Re: Sneak Preview #24 – Roger Steel in trouble again ...

Post by SpectralTime »

See this? This right here? This is why you never let the Chinese assassin of ambiguous motives stand behind the rest of the party. Daggome it Steel!

Also, nuts. I'm always up for a recruitable corpse. Stick some voltage plugs in his neck, scavenge some muscles to replace the ones that've rotted away, and he's as good as new!

...Except for the neural degeneration from right after death. And the smell. Hmmm... not as easy as you'd think.
biscuit
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Re: Sneak Preview #24 – Roger Steel in trouble again ...

Post by biscuit »

*chews popcorn, watches*

Question: Is this the POV from the player character (who I thought wasn't going to be Steel?) or more of a narration text?
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jack1974
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Re: Sneak Preview #24 – Roger Steel in trouble again ...

Post by jack1974 »

No it's not from the character's PoV (indeed if you look is written in 3rd person). In the beginning of the game there's a short scene introducing Roger Steel, then you can select if to play as male/female main character. Roger will be like Loren, a star-character but at least in this one you don't play a slave :lol:
ankewl
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Re: Sneak Preview #24 – Roger Steel in trouble again ...

Post by ankewl »

jack1974 wrote:No it's not from the character's PoV (indeed if you look is written in 3rd person). In the beginning of the game there's a short scene introducing Roger Steel, then you can select if to play as male/female main character. Roger will be like Loren, a star-character but at least in this one you don't play a slave :lol:
Is it going to be like Lone Ranger and Tonto (we play as Tonto) :?:
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Franka
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Re: Sneak Preview #24 – Roger Steel in trouble again ...

Post by Franka »

I look forward to more context, this is... vague.
FenCayne
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Re: Sneak Preview #24 – Roger Steel in trouble again ...

Post by FenCayne »

biscuit wrote:*chews popcorn, watches*
Hey, don't even think about throwing that stuff at the screen! :)
Question: Is this the POV from the player character (who I thought wasn't going to be Steel?) or more of a narration text?
The extract is a lightly modified version of the text that will appear in the game, presented for easy on-screen reading and more dramatic tension. :wink:

You're right, Steel isn't going to be a player character. But his problems are going to become the player's ...
FenCayne
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Re: Sneak Preview #24 – Roger Steel in trouble again ...

Post by FenCayne »

ankewl wrote:
jack1974 wrote:No it's not from the character's PoV (indeed if you look is written in 3rd person). In the beginning of the game there's a short scene introducing Roger Steel, then you can select if to play as male/female main character. Roger will be like Loren, a star-character but at least in this one you don't play a slave :lol:
Is it going to be like Lone Ranger and Tonto (we play as Tonto) :?:
Or Tonta, as the case may be? (Tonto's tougher older sister, edited from history by the rampant sexism of our times ...)

Yeah, Ann is certainly no slave or camp follower of Steel's. She'd make Spartacus' rebellion look like a pillow fight in a convent school. :lol:
Last edited by FenCayne on Tue Feb 05, 2013 10:45 pm, edited 2 times in total.
FenCayne
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Re: Sneak Preview #24 – Roger Steel in trouble again ...

Post by FenCayne »

Franka wrote:I look forward to more context, this is... vague.

Evil plan is evil ... :wink:
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