1890 Shadows of the Empire

Credits

Written by Mik, Matt, Rae, and Luke.

This playset was created as part of the Fiasco Playset Design Day held in London
on the 12th of February 2011.

Boilerplate

This playset is an accessory for the Fiasco role-playing game by Bully Pulpit
Games.

Fiasco is copyright 2009 by Jason Morningstar.

The Score

Victorian england By gaslight

The British Empire is at the height of its power, and no city on Earth is as rich
and as decadent as London. In the corridors of power, civil servants enact the
iron will of the aristocracy, and ladies and gentleman of breeding dance the night
away at glorious balls. Mighty Zeppelins dot the London skyline and in foundries
powered by the spoils of empire, the greatest engineers of the age create marvels
of steam.

But amidst the glitz and finery, the seedier side of Empire lurks: a killer roams
the slums of London, and the East End is horrible black labyrinth, reeking from
end to end and swarming with human vermin, whose trade is robbery and
whose recreation is murder.

Movie Night

From Hell
Sherlock Holmes

Book Club

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Relationships

Family

1 dutiful daughter and wasteful daughter

2 adopted orphan and spiteful sibling
3 wastrel son and strict father
4 elderly matriarch and young wife
5 passionate wife and puritanical husband
6 bastard child and wealthy parent

Aristocracy

1 aristocrat and outsider

2 mourning monarch and dead husband's ghost
3 wayward prince and prostitute
4 poor baron and loan shark
5 landed gentry and American mistress
6 youthful prince and aged advisor

Science

1 sickly mother and creepy doctor

2 nurse and twisted experiment
3 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
4 asylum guard and escaped patient
5 engineer and rich backer
6 lecturer and student
Crime

1 murderer and journalist

2 burglar and lookout
3 consulting detective and nemesis
4 blackmailer and victim
5 poisoner and accomplice
6 condemned criminal and hangman

work

1 rival engineers
2 workhouse manager and cook
3 miserly accountant and clerk
4 doctor and patient
5 socialist revolutionary and capitalist owner
6 cabbie and passenger

from the empire

1 soldier and batman

2 Indian seductress and civil servant
3 railwayman and Chinese investor
4 American actress and lover
5 Aussie convict and benefactor
6 Indian mystic and broker

... In Victorian England

Needs

to get away with

1 Murder
2 My meddling
3 The crime of the century
4 My skin
5 The object of my desire
6 My reputation intact

To Experiment

1 with the finest opiates of the Orient

2 with the electromagnetic force
3 with my new patented accounting system
4 with my sexuality
5 with forces beyond my comprehension
6 with new religions

To resolve

1 our personal hell

2 a family argument
3 where the experiment is
4 the will
5 an unsuitable engagement
6 the Whitechapel Murders
To have a good time

1 by finding the perfect partner

2 no matter what anyone else thinks
3 by chasing the dragon
4 in past glories
5 by creating the perfect social calendar
6 just for jolly

to gain status

1 by marrying into a wealthy family

2 by appearing on the front page of every national newspaper
3 by revealing the great truth
4 by making a killing
5 by surviving them all
6 by winning the game

To leave

1 this mortal coil

2 an abusive spouse
3 a lasting legacy
4 a dark past behind
5 this terrible employment
6 a trail of murderous clues

... In Victorian England

LOCATions

famous

1 The Tower of London

2 Hyde park Promenade
3 Nelson's Column
4 The British Museum Reading Room
5 The Houses of Parliament
6 John Dee's Tomb in St. Paul's Cathedral

Weird

1 The smoking crater

2 Inside an opium dream
3 Scientist's weird laboratory
4 The hangman's tree at Tyburn
5 The secret passageway
6 Undercroft at Westminster Abbey

West End

1 The Albermarle Club

2 The stage of the Palladium Theatre
3 Scotland Yard
4 Covent Garden Market
5 A Lyons Tea Room
6 The Editorial Room of The Times
The East End

1 The Nag's Head Pub

2 Hackney Empire Music Hall
3 Bow Street nick
4 Bedlam Mental Asylum
5 A Whitechapel gutter
6 Opium den

Transport

1 Victoria Station
2 Top deck of an omnibus
3 Drivers cab of an an Underground train
4 Zeppelin tethered over Crystal Palace
5 Floating casino on the Thames
6 Greenwich foot tunnel under the Thames

The Country

1 The moors
2 The manor at Little Minster
3 Southampton Harbour
4 The Cock Inn Coaching House
5 The parish church of Ashbury-de-la-Zouche
6 Secluded fishing lake

... In Victorian England

Objects

dangerous

1 a very sharp knife

2 a smoking gun
3 a secret uncovered
4 a scared man
5 a vial of arsenic
6 a lion

weird

1 the ancient manuscript of a mad Arab

2 Tarot cards
3 a steam-powered Apparatus
4 an effervescent potion
5 a shrunken head
6 an orang-outang in a butlers jacket

famous

1 the Crown Jewels

2 Jack's Gladstone bag
3 the Rosetta Stone
4 a first edition folio of Shakespeare's A Midsummers Night's Dream
5 Constable's The Haywain painting
6 the Difference Engine
Ordinary

1 a guttering lantern
2 a shovel full of coal
3 ribbon-tied letters
4 a clay pipe
5 today's copy of The Times
6 a penny dreadful

Sentimental

1 lock of hair
2 grandmother's walking stick
3 my master's diary
4 an ugly idol
5 set of family china
6 a rosary

valuables

1 an heirloom necklace
2 a gentleman's wallet
3 the Treasure of the Sea
4 a private coach
5 a bejewelled frock
6 the truth

... In Victorian England