Returning from Aetherfest

San Antonio – May 4-6, 2012

We’ve just returned the Utterly Ridiculous & Steampunk-Ridden Festival of all things Aetheric, our self-given codename for the San Antonio-based convention, AetherFest. As Co-Chairman Pablo “Mr. Saturday” Vazquez says, “AetherFest isn’t treated like a convention. Really, it’s more like a family gathering.” I couldn’t agree more.

Of course, Cracked Monocle did its normal gig: We ran games. We played games. We talked about games. We made up stories. We met people. We created people. And, because we’re a business, I would be remiss if I didn’t say that we also sold some games.

The AetherFest Limited Edition Book

As many of you have read, we printed a limited edition copy of Tephra’s final form. It was specifically branded for AetherFest and was the first ever final copy of Tephra created. (I had it specially made and shipped to me pronto for the event.) It was auctioned off with all of the proceeds going to the charity, Autism Speaks. I hope the winner enjoys his book and dicebag!

Steampunk Community Leaders of Texas – 2012

Last year, the AetherFest chairmen awarded Airship Isabella with an award: the Steampunk Community Leaders of Texas for the year 2011. No one deserved it more: the Airship Isabella has shaped steampunk across the state and truly brought people together. So when Cracked Monocle won the award this year, I was flabbergasted. We followed in the footsteps of greatness, and I couldn’t be more honored. I need to congratulate my staff foremost here: Alex Whisenhunt organized the astonishing Clockwork Con back in January (among his many, many projects) and the rest of my staff has been excited and involved in every aspect of steampunk they could get their hands on. I truly hope that our small contributions to the steampunk community in Texas will help foster even more steampunks and community leaders, and we’ll see our thriving community continue to grow.

Book Box Challenge

Several of Cracked Monocle’s lead developers took part in the Book Box Challenge, an event that’s quickly growing and becoming something that I dearly look forward to at local conventions. It’s a contest that begins on Friday and runs through the weekend. What’s the challenge, you ask? You’re given a small box with the cover of a pulpy book (I received “A Background to Danger,” for instance) and told to fill it with small bits and pieces to create a game. You design the game over the weekend then, on Sunday, gather with all of the challenge participants and get to make a 5 minute pitch about your game. I created a card game about being a SpyMaster and trying to build a network of spies, while Henry White built a board game about getting karma before the apocalypse hits and Marc Seidel invented a game where you play a secretary during the daytime and a cold-blooded killer at night. I was very impressed by the challenge as a form of development and equally impressed by my fellow designers’ proposals. I can’t wait to do it again!

Panels & Parties

And no convention would be complete without a slew of amazing panels and parties. Cracked Monocle hosted a panel called “Roleplaying through Steampunk,” in which we explored our favorite types of plotlines, steampunk flavors, and characters. We also threw and attended several amazing parties, but perhaps those are stories best left off the internet.

AetherFest, we salute you. As the program said, it truly is the Unconventional People’s Convention. We love you, and we’re excited to return again next year. We hope to see you there!

Cheers & Gears,

Daniel A. Burrow

Incendiary Saber full package: 827 princes

The Core Arms Sodality, a well-connected and rather large company primarily trafficking in illegal weaponry, has started selling specialized weapon packages known as the Incendiary Saber. The incendiary saber is designed to look like (at least from a distance) a dueling sword of sorts, though its basket hilt is rather bulky. But the incendiary saber gets its name from the heat it emits and the variety of poisons and gases that are packaged with it. Though it is rarely sold in the open, the saber is a valuable and deadly weapon designed to burn opponents inside and out.

The full package comes with the incendiary saber, 5 gases, and 3 poisons.

The Saber: The saber (a medium melee weapon made from metal) has a long, slightly curved blade. The basket hilt is thick, holds several vials, and includes a slew of activation buttons inside. All-in-all, though, the saber is surprisingly well-balanced. Its wielder gains a +2 on accuracy rolls with the saber. The saber has a chain the wielder can attach to his wrist, giving him a +4 to resist disarms.

For 1 reflexive action point, the wielder can activate either the saber’s pyrothermal burning or gas leaking. If the pyrothermal is activated, the blade super-heats and burns its target, dealing tier 2 burns (-3 on defense rolls) until their next breather. They can resist being burned with a tier 3 brute roll, but a tier 2 brute roll will lower the burns to tier 1. If gas leaks are activated, one of the gas-holding vials in the hilt will release one of the incendiary saber’s gases. The saber can hold up to two doses. Finally, the saber can hold a single dose of poison and can use said poison on an attack for no additional action points. Replacing either of the two gas slots of the poison costs 3 action points.

Crafting: Metal medium melee weapon with the Accurate (mq.II), Gas Leaks (mq.II), & Pyrothermal (mq.II) augments and the Alchemic Tube (mq.I) and Chained Grip (mq.II) weapon accessories

Alone, the incendiary saber is worth 447 princes.

The Gases: The gas is said burn its victims inside and out. It corrodes a person’s skin, dealing 6 damage to anybody who ends their turn inside the gas. Furthermore, anybody who inhales the gas is burned internally. They take 2 damage for the next 4 action points they spend.

A successful brute resist of tier 2 lowers the corrosive damage from 6 to 3, and a tier 3 result negates the damage. Likewise, a tier 2 brute result lowers the internal bleeding to 1 damage for the next 3 action points, and a tier 3 negates it.

Crafting: Gas with the Corrosive (mq.II) & Internal Burning (mq.II) augments

A single refill of the gas can be bought for 40 princes.

The Poisons: The poison is instantaneous, acting as soon as it hits. It causes the target to dehydrate, taking a -2 on accuracy and evade rolls for the next three turns. It also deals 12 damage.  A successful brute resist of tier 2 lowers the damage to 6 and the penalties to -1. A tier 3 brute resist negates the poison entirely.

Crafting: Poison with the Instant, Painful (mq.II), & Thirst (mq.II) augments

A single dose of the poison can be purchased for 60 princes.

Benefit for Darwin Prophet

April 29, 2012 – Austin, TX 

A few months ago, a local steampunk artist, Darwin Prophet took a nasty fall, incurring several broken limbs. Darwin Prophet had always been an angel in the steampunk community, so when Sam Tyler – the owner of Austin’s favorite steampunk shop, the Mysterium - heard about the catastrophe, she stepped up and organized an event to raise money to cover Darwin Prophet’s medical expenses. And that, my friends, is where we were this last Sunday.

Several crew members of Cracked Monocle woke up early (for us), packed up, and ventured into the mystical realm of Austin for the Darwin Prophet Benefit. After a brief doughnut stop, we arrived at Things Celtic and the Mysterium, the hosts of our lovely affair. We set up our tent and table in the parking lot, prepared for an awesome day of vending, music, socializing, and all around steampunkery.

“Steampunkery isn’t a word,” you might be saying. I beg to differ.

Steampunkery is certainly a word. It’s a word to describe a bunch of awesome, creative people putting on amazing-looking clothing and going out to change the world. And that’s exactly what this benefit was.

We rolled out a whole line of prints, taking our best art and turning it into art prints and posters. We also sold dicebags, dice, and Cracked Monocle patches. Though the wind tried to tear apart our posters, we survived the gales and even turned a solid profit. We also found out that our small dicebags are the perfect size to act as fashionable iPhone holders.

A portion of our profit went to the collections for Darwin Prophet, and, dare I say, a beautiful amount of money was raised. Several vendors put on a raffle, which was to die for — I say this, having won a gorgeous, hand-tailored vest by SewFits, just in time for Aetherfest. Now I just have to decide what I’m going to wear with it!

The benefit was a ton of fun, everyone profited, and it truly brought the steampunk community together. After Sunday, I can’t wait for Aetherfest!

The Roaring Lion Pub is always filled to the brim, well known for its stout drinks, fascinating company, and the illegal fight ring in its basement that even authorities seem to ignore. The pub’s owner is nearby, the man known as the Roaring Lion, his wild blond hair and enormous build easy to pick out even when  surrounded by a dozen of his friends. But we’re not here today to talk to the old brawling champion; we’re here to chat with one of his employees. Brian Brennus is the Roaring Lion’s head bartender, a satyr with a fast tongue, open ears, and an ability to get along with any one. Mister Brennus hears more stories and tales than any other man alive, I’d wager, so if you’re looking for rumors, you’ve come to the right place. Take a seat and maybe you’ll hear a few. 

     There’s been a string of rough hurricanes battering several fishing towns along the southeastern coast of Evangless. The locals are blaming the ayodin tribes, convinced that they’re using the same weather-manipulating technologies that they used during the Hurricane Wars. The few ayodin representatives say that they’re not to blame, but, with no proof to the contrary, tempers are boiling.

     A recently widowed noblewoman has been driven from her family manor by, what she claims, is her husband’s ghost. The family fortune and a fine collection of weapons are inside.

     Something’s bothering the sacred vultures in Izeda. A third Izedan caravan has arrived in Varsylis, claiming that the vultures – long time friends of the Izedan caravans – are driving them out of the desert.

      A veteran of the civil war is being charged with a warcrime for slaughtering a number of innocent citizens in a nearby town. Since the event happened several years ago, he’s having a hard time proving his innocence, and the family members of the victims are gung-ho about seeing the man hanged.

     A local farm-owner had been experimenting with bio-flux for years to improve the quality of his crop, but a couple nights ago somebody broke into his home and sabotaged his bio-manipulating irrigation system. The altered irrigation system instantly killed his crop and destroyed the quality of his land. The farm-owner believes only one other man has enough knowledge of bio-flux to do this, another agriculturalist who has bio-manipulated his livestock in, what some say, is horrendous ways.

Steal these plot hooks and storylines, run adventures with them, and let us know your favorite!

The Lawn-Deformer 32 princes

Spendo brings you his newest product in his line of landscaping tools. Designed with vigilante gardeners in mind, this nifty chainsaw acts as a medium weapon. Whenever you successfully hit an opponent, you can spend an action point to deal 1 unsoakable damage to them by spinning the chainsaw blades. This can be done as many times as you have remaining action points during your current turn.

Spendo-Brand: 91.6% Guaranteed! 

As you may have heard on the Aetherfest Facebook page, Cracked Monocle is pleased to announce that we will be donating a special, one of kind Tephra gaming set to the Autism Speaks Charity Auction. In fact, not only will it be the only copy ever released with the Aetherfest logo in the background, but it will in fact be the first official print of Tephra: The Steampunk RPG!

“Our dear friends at Cracked Monocle will be contributing a Tephra gaming set for the charity auction benefiting Autism Speaks. It will include some character sheets, a dicebag, and some dice. But it wouldn’t be complete without a Tephra rule book. Not just any old rule book. How about a custom ONE-OF-A-KIND AetherFest Limited Edition Tephra final print rule book. Sorry, you can’t buy this one anywhere. You’ll have to bid on it at the auction on Saturday.”

Mister Midnight Steals Siddeya Crystal

By LUCAS HAWKSFIELD
Aldamiir Weekly News

VIRAGUAY – At approximately 2:30 AM last night, the thief known as “Mister Midnight” broke into the home of Viscount Horace Donly and stole the prized Siddeya Crystal.

As is typical for Mister Midnight, a letter was received by Chief Constable Isaak Ulysses exactly 72 hours before the heist. The letter stated that Mister Midnight planned to steal the Juniper Token from the Viraguay Gin Museum. Detective Sir Hargate Oystercatcher VI puzzled together that Mister Midnight never reveals his true target (often saying that he is going for something small, like the Juniper Token, while really aiming for something much bigger), but the true target of the heist is always within 5 blocks of the announced target.

Based on this information, Chief Constable Ulysses posted officers at seven different locations last night, each protecting very valuable items. The Siddeya Crystal, easily the most valuable single item in all of Viraguay, received both Ulysses and Oystercatcher’s personal attention. The Siddeya Crystal, the ancient and most beloved gem of the Siddeodru nation, is a small graviton sphere that, for some inexplicable reason, caused an almost perfect diamond to form around it. The Siddeya Crystal has long been stored in a glass case that generates a small wind cyclone, causing the diamond to float in mid-air, kept aloft by the graviton sphere inside.

Though reports vary and the constables on hand are not commenting, some facts remain obvious. Mister Midnight, as per normal, was using an aether-draining umbrella as a weapon, darkening almost the entire Donly Manor of light before attacking. He then used small flashpellets (also likely related to aether-use) to stun the constables. In the end, Mister Midnight overpowered the Siddeya Crystal’s glass case, causing the cyclone to spin the crystal too quickly and make it burst right out of the case and fly straight through the ceiling. Mister Midnight, through unknown power, followed through the roof immediately after.

The search for Mister Midnight is still under way. If you have any information regarding his potential capture or arrest, please contact the Constabulary Office.

Commodore Gletsis Mutantslayer’s

Trans-Paldoran Explorer & Evolutionary Reversal Ray

7 years ago, a few brave gnomes from Valdru accepted an assignment to infiltrate the mutated wastelands of Paldorus and dispose of several abominations. Few of those gnomes survived. Commodore Gletsis Mutantslayer struggled for seven years against those abominations, making a rugged living in the overgrown jungles. Recently, however, two of his most prized possessions – his vehicle, the Trans-Paldoran Explorer, and his bio-zapper, the Evolutionary Reversal Ray, have been sent back to his closest of kin, reporting that he is missing in action. But, though these two items have been returned, Gletsis Mutantslayer and his rifle, the Anti-Abomination Aetheric Longrifle, are still missing.

Trans-Paldoran Explorer 1,500 princes

Gletsis Mutantslayer’s highly prized Trans-Paldoran Explorer is a gnome-sized cockpit with a variety of metal tentacles coming out at all sides. It’s designed to move through horrible terrain, up talls trees, and go anywhere the horrible abominations of Paldorus can go. Though it was designed for a gnome, many scientists have reviewed the Explorer and designed human-sized alternatives.

The Trans-Paldoran Explorer can move across land and climb up almost any surface with a speed of 20 feet per action point. It is unaffected by rough terrain. It has 20 hit points, 36 wounds, and the vehicle loses 5 feet of speed whenever it takes wounds damage. Thankfully it’s well armored: it has a soak class of 4 and provides a +6 evade bonus to its passengers from cover. The armoring comes at a cost, as the vehicle suffers a -4 on evade rolls.

Evolutionary Reversal Ray 1,240 princes

Gletsis Mutantslayer was a professional abomination hunter. His goal was to find essence-manipulated monsters and dispose of them. His specially built bio-zapper was designed to reduce the abomination’s weird powers, making them more human or animal and, therefore, easier to hunt. Replicas of the Evolutionary Reversal Ray resemble a three-pronged brass handgun with a small sniper site on top.

The Evolutionary Reversal Ray is a medium bio-zapper. It provides the user a +2 on accuracy rolls with it. The bio-zapper has only one setting: it temporarily drains the essence of its target. Those hit by the bio-zapper lose 3 of their essence slots until they can take a breather. They may resist with a spirit roll: for every tier they receive above tier 1, they lose one less essence slot.

Well folks, that time has finally come. On Sunday we sent the release version of Tephra: the Steampunk RPG off to the printer and today we received, reviewed, and shipped back our hardcopy proof. Yes, that’s right, the final okay has been given. In 3-4 weeks time, we will have 2,000 absolutely gorgeous copies of Tephra on our doorstep.

What does this mean for you? Well, for all our wonderful Kickstarter backers, it means that as soon as we have books in our hands, we will be packaging them up with all your other swag and shipping them out as soon as possible. Our goal is to have books on everyones doorstep by the end of May at the very latest! If you haven’t pre-ordered your book yet, remember that they are still currently discounted at $34.99 in our online store.

This also means that we should have Tephra available for sale at nearly all of the conventions we attend this summer, including, Comicpalooza (Houston), A-kon (Dallas), Anime Overload (Austin), Texicon (Fort Worth) and  a new convention for us, Space City Con (Houston).

Yet again, we just want to thank all of you for sticking with us and helping us make Tephra what it is today!

Click to get a better look at the Tephra Proof!

]]> http://www.crackedmonocle.com/2012/04/18/tephra-is-off-to-the-printer/feed/ 4 http://www.crackedmonocle.com/2012/03/11/im-sexy-and-i-know-it-delivered-as-promised/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=im-sexy-and-i-know-it-delivered-as-promised http://www.crackedmonocle.com/2012/03/11/im-sexy-and-i-know-it-delivered-as-promised/#comments Sun, 11 Mar 2012 19:32:55 +0000 Alexius Carthwall http://www.crackedmonocle.com/?p=1220

January 4, 2012 our Kickstarter for Tephra-The steampunk RPG opened, we held our breath and didn’t even bother to look at the numbers until we suddenly got an email, “Congratulations you have broken your goal!” Woah, wait, what? It had been less than ten hours since we launched the Kickstarter, and already we were above and beyond our target.

The numbers kept going up and up as word spread of our project, and by the end we raised nearly twenty three times our target goal all thanks to an amazing community. So to reward them, we let them name any song of their choice, and we would make a music video for it. Of course they chose I’m Sexy and I Know It, by LMFAO… So here it is, with our own flair, Enjoy.

For more information on our game, Tephra – The Steampunk RPG, visit our website (http://www.crackedmonocle.com), or follow us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Tephra.Steampunk)

Cracked Monocle does not own either of the songs remixed in this video, and we highly suggest you support individual artists. So if you like the music, go buy it!

Background Remix:
- Parov Stelar: http://www.parovstelar.com/
- LMFAO: http://www.lmfaomusic.com/#!featured
- Marquis of Vaudeville: (I’m Steampunk and I Know It Voiceovers)http://marquisofvaudeville.com/
- Remix By DJ Kineticzz: http://soundcloud.com/djkineticzz

Closing Credits:
- No-Fi Soul Rebellion: http://www.nofisoulrebellion.com/