"In her Majesty's name: Creating new factions? " Topic

I am a bit interested in using IHMN for historical-fiction as opposed to steampunk scenarios in 19th and early 20th century Europe. More specifically contests between state agents, anarchists, secret societies etc but without the steam=punk sci-fi elements. I would like to build a austro-hungarian force and was wondering how easy it is to make new factions with the rules?

With Respect
KTravlos

Dear K Travlos

I confess complete ignorance of the rules, but I have made my own game already called "Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna" which I about intrigue, spying, wine women and song and seduction in a stylized old Vienna. This game has a huge pile of home built special factions all of which fighting to take over the world covertly while all the rest of Europe is trying to do it overtly and the Austro-Hungarian Empire has already taken it over culturally. I'm just getting into Victorian Sci fi and am developing my own system for use on the Austro Hugnarian colony on Titan. Anyway, it's not at all regular, but if you want and give me a week or two to dig out the materials I'll send them to you if you wish. Send me your postal delivery address to sigurd@eclipse.net and I'll mail them to you. It may take a bit till I can find them and copy them but I'll get it eventually. Some of the secret societies I can recall are…

The Golden Knights of the Lost Cause-- group of Confederate die-hards seeking to resurrect Ole' Dixie in Anfrica, Venus or Elsewhere.

Her Majesty Royal Boffin Society. A group of addle-brained scientists constantly making inventions that at the critical moment don't work.

The International Order of Mad Scientists. A group of crazed scientists who make malevolent machines that work all too well, but are constantly foiled by their need to "monologue" the captives and give them time to escape.

The Slavers- A criminal organization of rum-runners, gun runners, red light runners, and road runners who attempt to smuggle everything.

The S.L.U.T.S. The Sisterhood of ladies united Temperance
Society- A society dedicated to the destruction of anything fun to husbands, fiancés, boyfriends, males in general.

TRSOSEFDSRFAFWTAFWTD The Royal Society of Starry-Eyed Females Desperately seeking Rescue From a Fate Worse than a Fate worse than death.' Actually a noble dating society which aims to match young women desiring high romance where they are rescued by the dashing young officer of their dreams. Sends out junkets of young dashing females into god-forsaken out of the way places where they are captured by malevolent Eastern Potentates, Fierce African tribes, or insidious Chinese of the YPS (Yellow Plague Society) who work with the slavers to bring them together with similar bodies of young handsome adventurers.

TYP The Yellow Peril Society, or the Secret Empire of Fu Manchu- Attempting to take over the world through their highly successful chain of Chinese Restaurants. A wholly owned subsidiary of this is the…

WCDANOS- The Wily Chinese Detactive and Number One Son group…

WWMNS- The World Wide Missionary Nutritionist society. Under the banner of their guild, a black kettle, this society is helping to turn the starving, benighted, hopelessly backward natives of today into the healthy happy cannibals of tomorrow. Their marching Song.

Protestant Stew hot
Catholic porridge cold
Missionaries in the pot
Nine Days old.

There's about a dozen more, but I forgot them…

Of course there's communists, anarchists, and all other hum drum societies besides.

Hahaha I must confess those ideas are very interesting and entertaining, but a bit out of what I ma looking for!

With Respect
KTravlos

Some searching on the net uncovered some helpful stuff

inhermajestysname.wordpress.com

You can create the kinds of units you seek quite easily. The leader figure, often almost a superhero, can be very toned down. The result at any point level is a few more of the basic troop models.

Making new factions is very easy.

Leaving out the steampunk devices and mystical powers is simple, and doesn't 'break' the game at all. You'll probably want to eliminate some of the Talents as well ("Immortal", for instance!)

Without any armor to protect your troops, you will want to invest in more of them. And probably a Medic.

There are some good additional rules in the HVF supplement as well, for vehicles like the Black Mariah, Hansom cabs, etc., and animals (some fantastic, but also dogs, elephants, etc.).

A friend of mine who no longer actively games, actually put together a list for Wyatt Earp's "Avenging Angels" for the Vendetta Ride. We never played it, but it certainly looked like it would work.