#19: Ticket of Leave

[RPGnet Columns]

http://www.rpg.net/columns/campaignt...toybox19.phtml

Summary:

A free ticket to New Albion ... if you're a convict.

Go to the column for more information.

[Craig Oxbrow]

Mark Rein*Hagen's never-finished Exile (ancient RPGnet forum discussion here, its own page has long since fallen off the internet) was somewhat similar, starting with PCs sent to the frontier for crimes they may or may not have committed. The PCs were thrown out of a transhuman federation like Iain M. Banks' Culture, so the social dynamic would have been very different, and seemed less relatable than this.

Besides, I'm up for a setting that could eventually lead to Ned Kelly, Warlord Of Mars.

[smascrns]

Dude, Mrs. Branican. Yes, it means Jules Verne. Enough said.

[SteveD]

Originally Posted by smascrns

Dude, Mrs. Branican. Yes, it means Jules Verne. Enough said.

Who what now?

[smascrns]

Originally Posted by SteveD

Who what now?

Jules Verne has a novel about Mrs. Branican in three volumes (at least in the Portuguese translation). Here is the blurb from the Internet Book Database (http://www.ibdaf.com/IBDOF-book-deta...ook_id=13000):

"After her husband John has gone to sea and she loses her only child, Wat, San Diego resident Dolly Branican goes mad. When she recovers, 4 years later, she discovers that her husband's ship was lost at sea. As heir to a substantial fortune during her madness, Dolly uses these resources to finance the discovery of the whereabouts of her husband's ship, the Franklin because she doesn't believe he is dead. Years later a clue to the fate of the Franklin is discovered in Australia, Dolly quickly goes to there to discover that her husband may still be alive in a remote part of northwestern Australia. "

There are, it seems, two XIX century translations into English. At least one can be bought in a digital form, but you'll need to look for it since I couldn't find a translation at the Gutenberg Project. I Googled and found the next interesting links:

http://jv.gilead.org.il/forum/2009/02/0062.html

http://books.google.pt/books?id=ECGQ...gbs_navlinks_s
(In this case note the references to other books about Australia.)

Here you have the art from the French original version, including pictures of Australia:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/3212945/Mi...-Branican-1890

What the French historian Mar Ferro has to say about Mrs. Branican: http://books.google.pt/books?id=2Xou...esult&resnum=4 (check page 163.)

(By Google's page 2 I also found a reference to this thread, more specifically to my first post...)

[Jody Macgregor]

"...the British navy, a world where rum, sodomy and the lash was altogether too much rum and sodomy."

Epic lolz.

[Heronymus]

Thanks, Steve. I may end up trying to spin this idea as a miniseries with my group...this could be really great played as a grim-n-gritty funfest.

[Rallan]

I'm surprised the pitch didn't make any suggestions about using corruption among the officers as a plot device, since it was one of the dominant parts of politics in colonial Australia until the colonies managed to transition from purely penal settlements to being mixed economies. Plus since nobody outside Australia has ever heard of the New South Wales Corps or the Rum Rebellion, GMs can shamelessly rip 'em off without anyone being the wiser.

[SteveD]

Originally Posted by Rallan

I'm surprised the pitch didn't make any suggestions about using corruption among the officers as a plot device,

Check Paragraph 9.

[SteveD]

Originally Posted by Craig Oxbrow

Ned Kelly, Warlord Of Mars.

That's a lot of awesome in just five words.