Character Creation

  • your characters have offended someone; they want you dead.

  • you’re onboard the Iceberg—are you on the run, employed on the ship, suffering from wanderlust? All three?

  • what’s your background (see Character Backgrounds (Referee’s Table))?

  • you wake up from a drug-induced slumber, trapped in storage B.

  • flashback appropriate to your background: How do they know what they do?

Table 1. Character Backgrounds (Referee’s Table)
d6 Background Prerequisite Decks Known Special Resources and Knowledge

1

Passenger

none

rough idea of upper decks

one additional item

2

Cabin Crew

none

upper decks, galley, infirmary, crew quarters

food elevator from galley to dining room, bridge is a lifeboat, captain won’t abandon bridge

3

Stowaway

stealthy

layout of random lower deck, diving room, brig

knows one of the prisoners, who is loyal to them

4

Guard

visibly ready for combat

shaft, storage B, upper decks, brig

knows about the security system and high-energy magic cargo hold, has key to brig

5

Stoker

strong and enduring

boiler and engine deck, shaft

knows about the water inlet, door from shaft to coal storage doesn’t close properly

6

Ship’s Doctor

intelligent

infirmary and above

can disable the security system in the service room

The Ship

  • lit by self-igniting gas lamps (gas pressure pushes a firestone into the side of the pipe)

  • lamps have valves next to them as on/off switches

  • ship transports cargo from many different companies & people

  • cargo is loosely based on east–west trading during the Age of Sail

  • looks like a fast, small passenger ship; these are either filled with VIPs and armed to the teeth or full of third class passengers – neither a good target for piracy

  • actually has an enormous, semi-secret cargo hold

    Why are we sinking?

    The Antagonist executed the following plan:

    1. drugged you to make you compliant, brought you to storage B

    2. knocked you out

    3. took the McGuffin from storage A

    4. prepared the fire in storage C (beeswax from storage), opened the grating and the coal store

    5. opened and jammed the diving air lock, unlocked all hatches on the way to shaft/storage C

    6. lit fire, climbed up shaft towards life boats

    7. panic crew and passengers, get away in life boat

Table 2. Random Cargo Table
d10 Item

1

Tea

2

Spices

3

Opium

4

Silver

5

Beeswax and honey

6

Furniture [obvious]

7

Bales of cotton and silk [obvious]

8

Porcelain

9

Mail

10

Wood, strips of metal, ship repair stuff, tools [obvious]

11

Food [kitchen storage]

12

Coal [coal storage]

Lower Decks

  • pipes everywhere:

  • hot and cold water, steam

  • pneumatics

  • gas

  • strong metal doors with speed wheels and bulkheads separate rooms

  • flooding prevention:

  • all bulkhead doors open to the outside of the ship

  • all hatches open downwards

  • hot, stuffy air

Security System

pneumatic robots, HD 2d8

  • fire metal slugs via air riffles 1d6

  • magnetic feet clamp to ship’s hull

  • as big as a basketball

  • need to refill compressed air every 10 min

  • are hard-programmed to 'guard', can’t be used for anything else

  • magic script inside chassis

  • ship has small double hatches next to every door == Room Description

Lower Decks

High Energy Magic Storage Hold (aka Storage A)

  • strong bulkhead with riddle lock

  • airlock tunnel

  • bolts that allow to decouple storage A from the ship (will sink)

  • a sign that explains how to do that

  • lined with lead

  • magic crackles, small arcs strike between items and walls

  • contains one sublimation bomb (converts all solid matter to gas in a 50 m radius)

  • and an empty, broken box

Storage B

  • exits

  • bulkhead towards storage A

  • big metal door towards central shaft

  • hatch towards brig, waterlogged, cold to the touch *

  • wooden crates of diverse origin

Storage C

Central Shaft

  • runs entire height of the ship

  • metal doors to all levels

  • pipes on the outside, set-in ladder on the inside

  • removable gratings with small openings for the ladder

  • levels

    • storage b: ash raining from above

    • storage c: coal fire on the grating, hot air rising

    • engine deck: grating removed, coal hatch open

Smoke Stack

Security System Service Room

  • tools

Brig

Coal Storage

Boiler Room

  • hatch to coal storage

  • coal gasification plant

  • water heater for cabins

  • water distillation for drinking water

  • sea water inlet: big enough to escape thru, if you’re willing to flood the deck

Engine Room

  • water pump for cabins

  • air compressor for pneumatics

Galley

Infirmary

Diver Room and Airlock

Crew Quarters

Main Deck

  • Cargo hatch

  • life boats below

Superstructure

Cabins

Dining Room

Lounge / Smoking Room

Superstructure Smoke Stack

Bridge