Long Term Projects

My groups have had trouble figuring out exactly what rules can be broken, and what they want to focus their long-term projects on, so I figured some other groups might have the same issue. Feel free to list long term projects you’ve thought of or worked on, and discuss!

Eau de Undead
My group wanted to infiltrate undead camps, but it’s hard as they’re easily identifiable as living. But by diluting some compounds extracted from Blighters troops, they hope to come up with a salve or injection that makes them temporarily undead enough to pass.

Clock size 4

Side effects may include

  • craving for the meat of the living
  • 2 corruption per dose
  • vulnerability to the commands of powerful undead
  • discomfort around reliquaries
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This is hillarious but awesome. Also be careful about the vulnerabilities, agency in games is a big deal for players.

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I was planning for that vulnerability to be invoked like a standard consequence, either from a roll with consequence or following directly from the fiction, and entirely resistible.

Example 1: You try to Consort with a bunch of Crows. On a 4-5 you do it, but are compelled to help build a Horror. If you want to do ANYTHING else, or sabotage, you’ll need to resist first.

Example 2: you’ve successfully blow up one of Blighter’s bases. Viktoria Karhowl emerges from the rubble, and you, quite correctly, want to run away. But you have to resist to not walk up to the scientist and offer yourself up for examination.

OK. My players (a bit proded by myself) identified a huge capablity gap between the Threat 2 Fine Orite rifle or Fine hand weapon, and the Threat 3 (only) siege weapon, that you have to carry on a cart or which is quite cumbersome. So they decided to start a LTP to develop a lighter weapon, also Threat 3, but with some limitations (range…). So in two Downtime phases (with the help of Labourers) they developed a Scorpio, T3, which can be carried on a single horse/donkey, or broken down in three elements (tripod, body, bow), carried by the squad on assault missions and assembled in the field. A bit like a 81 mm mortar, the staple of all infantry companies for the last half-century or more.

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Nice! I was thinking of prodding my players to develop a mountain howitzer, or at least a falconette. Or maybe Hussite war-wagons.

And then the next LTP after that : in order to compensate the fact that Black Shot arrows are less efficient against armor, they launched a LTP to conceive and build Black Shot munitions affixed to an armor-piercing quarrel. So I decided:

  • one 4-clock to forge alchemically reinforced crossbow quarrels
  • one 4-clock to learn how to appropriately affix the Black Shot to them (easy since Black Shot arrows already exist)
  • Those crossbows and quarrels could only equip the Scout (Instead of the bow) and one squad member, and of course with a much slower loading time which has to be integrated in the fiction.

Yeah, a light cannon was another option, but I tend to prefer antiquity or medieval settings!

(Edit) Thinking of it… affix an alchemical charge to a scorpio quarrel, and you have your perfect Scale 2; Threat 3 weapon!

Those are great and very much adapted to the late medieval/Renaissance setting of BoB. I guess many good ideas for LTPs could be obtained by visiting Clockpunk or Vinci-punk tropes.

My group’s QM is currently working on the following special project:

Sign Language
Long ago the Legion fought a terrifying Chosen who could turn people into his thralls with the power of his voice. The Crimson Lions purposely pierced their eardrums so that they could fight him. Afterwards, the Lions developed their own dialect of sign language which spread to the entire Legion. The practice died out after the Godswar but has been recently re-adopted.

  • Legionnaires may communicate with each other using hand gestures.
  • Subtle commands that won’t be seen by outsiders can be done with a Sway action.
  • If a Group Scout Action is lead by a Legionnaire with at least 1 rank in Scout, all Legionnaires participating in the action are treated as having at least 1 rank of Scout.
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Absolutely awesome!
And an excellent way to incite players to put a point in the Sway action, and to increase the interest of the Officer playbook!

Reconnaissance Kites
My Wednesday group doesn’t have a spymaster, and wants to be able generate intelligence and ask additional questions. So they’re trying to recondition some old Imperial era man-lifting kites that with ongoing maintenance (acquire assets) will let them scout out the enemy.

Good one! And… yummy yummy, says the Devourer.