FATE in the BAWG

This is a living world document for a homebrew FATE campaign set in the city of Aeol. This game is a technicolor pnumatipunk game with a free-form magic system built around channeling energy from conceptual elements. We are aiming for a lighthearted tone, but with occasional moments of darkness.

What is technicolor pnumatipunk

A new genre we made up just for our game! In the vein of steampunk or dieselpunk, lets imagine a world with a 1910’s feel where internal combustion engines/gunpowder never developed and electricity only shows up sporatically, but pnumatic (compressed air-powered) technology has taken off to the extent that there are skycrapers and humanoid robots. Now color it all in with the glory of technicolor and dump in some crystals for good measure.

An intro to Aeol (The game intro I gave at the beginning of Session 1)

The high speed intercity gondola bounces gently in the whipping wind over the endless sea of dunes. You wear dark shades despite the heavily tinted windows, and you are still almost blinded by the sun beating down from above and reflecting in prismatic sprays off the glittering dunes and crystal outcrops below. Ahead an organically twisting crystal spire rises from the crushed diamond sea, a whirling windmill on top powering the drive wheels that hold the gondola’s cables. As you pass by, the cars grips raise a clatter on the wheels above and refracted sunlight sprays rainbows off the tower and through the car. The sound of pneumatic actuators pulls your gaze back into the inside as the conductor comes down the central aisle. They call out, “Hi folks! It’s your conductor TRAIN_BOI_137ye245 just here to say that we are coming up on our final destination for this leg of our trip and you should be able to hear the city coming up shortly. It’s sure been a pleasure having you and I just can’t wait to ride the cables with you next time you take a journey!” As he walks off with the click pffferrrrttt of pressurized gas through valves you start to hear a moan in the distance that rises in time with the wind until it drowns out the hum of the cables. Ahead a shining point in the distance resolves into a spray of twisting crystal spires. As you approach you can slowly make out the webbing of cable that runs between the towers and the swarm of activity in the air around the city. Gondolas and line riders zip from tower to tower, while around them swarm flocks of kites, gliders, and squirrel suits. Even closer and you can see pedestrians bustling across rope bridges and flocks of dragons swooping and wheeling. None of them ever dropping down to ground level. Below you can see the endlessly marching prismatic dunes breaking on the base of the city where the bottoms of the towers disappear into a roiling cloud of glitter caught up in the turbulent gale. Then the view is cut off as the gondola slides into the side of one of the towers and the grip releases the drive cables. As the car comes to a stop and the doors clatter open TRAIN_BOI_137ye245 calls out “Welcome to the shining city folks! Glorious Aeol, this may be a long awaited return or just the next stop on a fabulous journey, but either way, I hope you have just a truly sparkly day!”

An intro to The Depths (The intro I gave at the beginning of Session 10)

You descend the ladder in the maintenance tunnel for what seems like an eternity. Hundreds then thousands of rungs slip by, next to you water pipes and air ducts rattle suspiciously. Every once in a while there is the clattering whoosh as a freight elevator hurdles by somewhere off in the darkness. The light from the hatch above dwindles to a pinpoint and with the light goes the constant harmonics of Aeol’s wind. For what seems like ages you descend in darkness illuminated only by what you carry with you. Slowly from below you begin to hear a rising clamor. With the noise comes a thick clinging humidity and a sulfurous scent. After another eternity of climbing over rungs growing steadily slicker with condensation you find yourself descending into what appears to be a utility closet hewn from the rock and packed with sweating pipes. From beyond a banded stone door a cacophony. As you ease the door open to glance out you see a darkness that teems with movement surging and pulsing just beyond your sight. Strange sigils and symbols glow and flicker in the black, the only sources of light.

As you blink and your eyes adjust you make out that you stand on the edge of a bustling marketplace, the sigils hang from store fronts - gasjets in colored crystal tubes worked into business names and logos. The movement is the flow of bustling crowds. The light from the signs shines from black leather trench coats and piercings. Conversations and the calls of vendors layer over each other echoing and amplified by the tunnel walls and competing with the sounds of food sizzling over gas flames, the rumble of trains, and the rhythmic thump of distant music. The smell that hits you is melange of cooking spices, fish, and damp stone layered on top of a base of hot spring sulfur.

System

We are using the FATE Core system. With some homebrew additions.