Cogs, Cakes & Swordsticks

Cogs, Cakes & Swordsticks is a game of steampunk pulp adventure, designed to be played in the comfort of your favourite tea shop with your friends, and requiring nothing more than your imagination, a pen, napkins and a sugar cube (should a six- sided die not be readily forthcoming)*. This brand spanking new edition combines both the core rulebook and the game’s first supplement, plus a little something extra. Inside you will find:

• A nice, simple introductory guide to get you playing as quickly as possible (including a short adventure with its own pregenerated characters) • More details on the setting and rules, including how to create characters of your own and how to run a full game of Cogs, Cakes & Swordsticks (with another, bigger adventure set against the backdrop of the British Museum) • A closer look at Her Majesty’s fantastical flying city HMFSC Atlantis, a marvel of the modern age and the new jewel of the British Empire, which hovers above the Atlantic Ocean like a proud, floating galleon. Well, a gigantic, metal galleon that doesn’t actually go anywhere, but I’m sure you get the general idea • A feature-length mystery set aboard The Cog (as Atlantis is known to her inhabitants) • And, for the first time, a selection of historical trailblazers ready for use in your own adventures

So grab the cake of your choice and a piping hot cup of tea, settle down and allow us to welcome you to the Empire of Steam – an age of marvellous gizmos and mad inventors, Babbage Engines and flying steamships, dashing heroes and femme fatales, and the odd fiendish villain for good measure. In short: a time of exploration, intrigue and high adventure! We’re glad you could join us.

*Although sugar cubes aren’t actually cube shaped these days. What ever is the world coming to? Sample file Sample file Credits Legal

Interior Artwork by Public domain artwork courtesy of KIT COX & Dover Publications Electronic Clipart book GEOF BANYARD “Victorian Goods and Merchandising”, islandofdoctorgeof.co.uk used in accordance with their terms and conditions.

Additional Artwork by Any unauthorised use of copyrighted material is illegal. RICHARD HARDY Any and all artwork may only be reproduced with the Graphic Design & Layout by written permission of the relevant artist. MICHAL E. CROSS mehow.nl All web pages indicated are correct at the time of going to press. Creative Director & Publisher CHRIS BIRCH Any trademarked names are used in a historical or fictional manner; no infringement is intended. Produced by MODIPHIUS ENTERTAINMENT LTD. Find out more about other 35 Turneville Road, London, W14 9PS Modiphius Entertainment games at [email protected] www.modiphius.com & www.facebook.com/modiphius

Playtesters Modiphius Entertainment product number: MUH03011B Dave Barnett, Gina Barnett, Sarah Beamish, Harry Bentley, Alexandria Boyd, Richard Dickens, Christopher Duffill, Steve Ellis, Philip-Jon Francis-Coshmore, Gwen Fyfe, Alex Goodwin, David Griffiths, Jean Guittet, Clarence Harper, Stephanie Harper, Jema Hewitt, Nik Hewitt, Matthew Knighton, Jen MacVicar, Simon Morgan, Lucy Oxenham, Jonatan Rostén, Martin Sandell & Katarzyna “Mizzy” Sokolowska Sample file iv Contents Book One Book Two

Chapter 1: The Game’s Afoot! . . . 2 Chapter 1: Her Majesty’s Act 1: The Prologue ...... 2 Flying Steam City Atlantis . . . . . 48 Act 2: Hitting the Ground Running . . . . 4 Introduction ...... 48 Act 3: Time Flies By ...... 6 Act 1: The Upper Ring ...... 51 Act 2: The Lower Ring ...... 59 Chapter 2: The Rules of the Game . . 9 Act 3: Monturiol ...... 61 Act 1: Character Creation ...... 9 Act 2: Using Attributes ...... 11 Chapter 2: Adventure in the Clouds 64 Act 3: Creating Stories ...... 19 Act 1: From Here to There ...... 65. Act 2: Murder Most Foul ...... 69 Chapter 3: The Empire of Steam . . 22 Act 3: The Big Bang ...... 72 Act 1: Cogs ...... 22 Suggested Timeline ...... 73 Act 2: Cakes ...... 26 GM Troubleshooting ...... 74 Act 3: Swordsticks ...... 30 Chapter 3: Dramatis Personae . . . 75 Chapter 4: Devices & Designs . . . 35 Act 1: A Bit of a Do ...... 35 Act 2: The Plot Thickens ...... 38 Act 3: Showdown ...... 40 Book Three Chapter 5: Sample Characters . . . 43 Chapter 1: Trailblazers ...... 80 Chapter 2: Sample Attributes . . .88 Cogs ...... 88 Cakes ...... 91 SampleSwordsticks ...... file . . . . . 94 Either/Or ...... 96

v Sample file vi Book One

Sample file Chapter 1 The Game’s Afoot!

at its core steam-powered equivalents of modern technological ACT 1: THE PROLOGUE devices (making it, effectively, an alternative history). Cogs, Cakes & Swordsticks (CC&S) is a steampunk pulp In steampunk, as mentioned above, the age of steam never adventure game. It was originally conceived to be played in made way for the age of electronics. The ideal of beauty in a tea shop with your friends and the minimum of fuss and design is still very much alive: not only should an item be func- nonsense. Not that you need a tea shop, of course (anywhere tional, but it should be attractive as well. Progress and etiquette comfortable will do), but we do advise against fuss and non- march hand in hand towards the steam-shrouded future. sense wherever possible. And what about pulp adventure? The name “pulp” derives But what is steampunk? In all honesty, it means differ- from the cheap paper these fiction magazines were printed on, ent things to different people. Many people had their first the first of which appeared in around 1896. They contained sto- encounter with steampunk through William Gibson’s novel ries (often by famous authors) covering a wide range of genres, “The Difference Engine”, yet others with R. Talsorian’s “Castle from crime thrillers and mysteries, through romance, sport and Falkenstein” roleplaying game. The underlying themes behind fantasy to science fiction. Often they were a little racy, but they it are much older, though, and can be found most famously in were always larger than life. Notable characters that appeared the works of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells (amongst others): in the pulps (often in serialised versions of proper novels) the so-called “scientific romances”. These tended to be sweep- include Buck Rogers, Conan the Barbarian, Doc Savage and ing adventure stories or commentaries on society with science John Carter of Mars. And of course, the most famous modern acting very much as a supporting character or means to an end. proponent of the genre would have to be Indiana Jones. Steampunk is effectively a much newer sub-genre of these CC&S is not intended to be a darkly realistic, gritty game tales, usually set in the Victorian or Edwardian era and having focussed on all of the inequalities and injustices of the actual historical period it is set in. Steampunk in CC&S is defined by the ideals of Victorian science and popular fiction: rugged heroes, beautiful femmes fatales, bluff engineers, devious villains and lots and lots of magnificent steam-powered tech- nology. History is its inspiration, not its master. To play CC&S you will need napkins (or good, old-fash- ioned paper), pens or pencils, one six-sided die (or a sugar cube with dots on, should a die not be forthcoming) and your imagination. And preferably tea and cake. Lots of tea and cake. You can never have enough tea and cake. You are Vic- torian, after all.

AND WHAT IS A ROLEPLAYING GAME, MAY ONE ASK? A roleplaying game or RPG is somewhere between a murder mystery game and improvisational theatre. One person is effectively in charge, and they are known as the Games Master or GM. They direct the flow of the game, interpret the rules and arbitrate disputes; it is their responsibility to Sampleplot and scheme on behalf of the otherfile players, without ever forcing the direction of the story, and to ensure that everyone has a good time.