Back in July, Captain Robert of Abney Park announced the pre-order of the upcoming Steampunk RPG, Airship Pirates. The first 300 ordered from Abney Park's store would be signed and numbered, and I thought this was shiny. Having poor impulse control (seriously, I should have that tattooed on my forehead) I couldn't resist ordering... and justified it as a self birthday present, seeing as it was due to be released and shipped around my birthday. I had no idea about the company he'd partnered up to do this project with (Cubicle 7, Cakebread & Walton), but I figured even if it did suck, that it would still be a pretty piece of Abney Park flavored collectible.
After much excited waiting, it finally arrived the first day of September. My first impression of the book was it's gorgeous. I spent a bunch of time just flipping through it, reading it from cover to cover. The artwork is amazing from some very talented people, the layout is beautiful... and all in all, I am very pleased with the book I received. Considering I am a print geek, that says a lot. Some of the time I spent poking through the book was at work (while watching my printers, on lunch, or whatever). I had multiple people in the shop actually stop and note how pretty the book was... one in particular asked me what it was because it's gorgeous.
Armed with my excitement from what I'd read so far, my love of Abney Park's music, and how the system seemed to encourage role playing over roll playing, I was quick to encourage my regular gaming group to start building characters. Most of my friends were more than happy to do so, and we found the characters easy to build, not unlike the old World of Darkness system I had taken such a fondness to. The only spanner in the works was one of my two munchkin friends. He kept trying to crunch stats, rules lawyer and all in all try to work a system that's for the most part pretty damn light. Once we finally got him to remove his cranium from his ass, his character finished up relatively quickly. The only other delay at that point was haggling over the ship's stats, and whining about how tiny the Tigerfish class airships are.
I had opened character creation saying that I was going to leave who is the captain of the ship up to "friendly" competition among the players, and that I was open to being bribed if a tie breaker for the decision was needed. Sadly, bribery was not in the cards yet... as it was quickly agreed that our more violent munchkin (the one who wasn't the cork in the butt hole of progress) should be captain, as in our Battlestations game he is always vying to steal the captaincy of the Mahna Mahna from me. The ship was soon named the SS Pearl Necklace, under Captain Gavin McCloud.
A motley band of mercenaries who hide behind the facade of a flying 'Wild West Show', they are careful to try to keep a non-reputation. Gavin is a seventeen year old Skyfolk with ginger hair, green eyes, bad reputation and an addiction to masochism. His uncle Jordan McCloud is the Pearl Necklace's doctor, an older pirate at the archaic age of thirty, and has a clockwork eye to replace the one he lost (the scar across that eye speaks of the savage nature in which it was lost). The mad scientist is one Mr. Wizard, a twenty-four year old upper class gentleman escaped from a Change Cage City so that he might be able to learn and explore more than The Emperor deemed fit without ending up in the Change Cage for it. Abigale Sirocco is a somewhat absent minded nineteen year old gadgeteer tasked with keeping the Pearl Necklace airworthy, and helping out wherever the crew needs it. John Turing, formerly known as John-2 in a life forgotten to him, is a Doll who fell in with the Pearl Necklace. "King" Matata Roche is a witch doctor from the bayou with the training of a Beast Dancer, generally feared by both crew and locals when in port. The reason why he left his Neobedouin tribe is as much a mystery as it is why Captain McCloud keeps him around... though he is certainly not at odds with the James West diplomacy embraced by the crew: "shoot first, shoot later, shoot some more, and, when everyone's dead, try to ask a question or two."
( We opened the first session in a bar on High Tortuga... )
Mechanically speaking, the system is indeed lightweight and fun. We did have some hickups during these first two sessions, but that is easily attributed to still getting used to the system. I am hoping to put together a GM screen with some of the more common mechanics broken down for quick reference, as well as the weapons damage chart and other useful bits of quick reference, to hopefully help the flow in the future. I also want to acquire more of the black pirate dice I have, so that I can make those the "official" black dice for rolling. It would be fantastic if Captain Robert could offer up some dice customized with the Abney Park jolly roger logo, but I don't know what all would be involved in doing that, nor how much it would cost up front or who else would be interested.
Hopefully after a few more sessions, we'll get more into the flow of things. I already have some ideas for subplots I wish to put into play, and I will have to ponder on options for the shorter one off stories also. I think my players all had fun, and hope they're looking forward to future sessions.
