Things fall apart, the center cannot hold, the falcon did gyre and gimble in the wabe...wait, hang on.
The Game: The Widening Gyre
The Publisher: High Rock Press
Degree of Familiarity: None with this particular game, but I know Savage Worlds pretty well
Books Required: Widening Gyre and some version of the Savage Worlds rules
Widening Gyre is Savage Worlds steampunk. That's simple enough, but it has an interesting and compelling setting, and also a chapter talking about what conventions and tropes are intrinsic to steampunk, and another about other applications of the game. It looks pretty well put-together, actually.
The default start for the game is 1895, and in addition to steam- and galvanism-powered magic, there's also, like, magic-magic afoot. The real turning point in the setting was when Savants (mad scientists) started showing up and slinging amazing steam-powered tech around, which was all very well until some yo-yo created an entire flying city that flew the length of France in one night and then crashed into Paris, killing a lot of very important people (and, like, just people-people).
I think I want to make a Savant, but I think it'd be interesting to make one who's a Clockwork Man. The book doesn't seem to prohibit that, so I'm gonna. Clockwork Men are basically robots made for some kind of specific purpose, and my character was made for doing Weird Science, the thinking being that if the Savant is a construct under government control, then at least they can shut it down before it does anything too wacky. (It just occurred to me that I'm dangerously close to making a chatGPT robot as a character, and may need to be flogged.)
Anywhichway, Clockwork Men are made of steel and brass, so they don't breathe or eat or anything, but I do need a genre-appropriate fuel source. I'll say my guy is wind-up; he has to stick a key into the port in his side and wind himself at least once a day. Also I have the Outsider thing going on, which...oh, right, Widening Gyre is an Explorer's Edition thing, but my brain goes to SWADE. Well, fine, I'll convert to SWADE, it's not like it's hard.
Moving on, I get 2 Armor because I'm made of metal, honey, like you're really gonna hurt me with that WAIT WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THAT MICROWAVE?! Magic used on me directly takes -2, which is fine. I also get a d6 in a skill of my choice to represent my programming, so um, I'm gonna make that Weird Science.
Whew, I think that's all the baseline shit. Attributes! Tempting as it is to frontload my Smarts, I'm gonna put a d6 in everything because that kind feels right for a robot.
Skills! Again, converting to SWADE, so I get d4 in Persuasion, Common Knowledge, Athletics, Stealth, and Notice, and then of course my d6 in Weird Science, and then I get 12 more points. I'm gonna bump up Common Knowledge and Athletics to d6. That's 10 more points. I'll give my robot a d6 in Science, a d6 in Occult, a d4 in Fighting, a d4 in Piloting, a d6 in Repair, and a d6 in Research.
Hindrances! Gotta dig into this guy's backstory and brain a little more. I see him as being created to do Weird Science in a controlled way, in a kind of "guard the dangerous shit" sort of way. His name is Ladon, after the dragon of mythology that guarded the golden apples. Ladon himself has pointed out that a) this makes him a monster, not a scientists and b) Hercules fucking shot Ladon and stole the apples, so what exactly is the thinking here?
So already we're leaning, I think, toward a robot going rogue and leaving behind its intended function. Well, heck, let's take Wanted as a Major Hindrance - the powers that be want him back because he knows things. (I think it'd be interesting if the "things" he "knows" aren't even all that earth-shaking, it's just that he knows how to do Weird Science and if he's not being controlled by the powers that be, said powers get all grabby-hands.) In a related matter, I'll take Suspicious as a Minor Hindrance. I'll also take Hesitant (draw two action cards, take the worst), as Ladon needs a minute to run simulations before he acts. I suspect in play I would eventually want to flip that to the Calculating Edge.
Speaking of Edges, I have four "points" to throw around! Let's use two to take Arcane Background (Savant) and the other two to bump Smarts to d8. Since I have the Arcane Background, I get two powers. While Ladon's knowledge of and affinity for Weird Science were programmed, the devices he came up with were all his (this, by the way, would invite some very high-falutin' "holy shit the singularity" kind of discussions in a more sci-fi kind of game, but in steampunk I don't think that's necessary).
Since Ladon is a literal Clockwork Man, I think his devices should be mechanical rather than galvanic, at least at first. If Ladon's programming was basically "do science and make people better," what problem would he think to solve? Coming out of the Time of Turmoil, I think Ladon might start basic and notice how flimsy human beings are, and seek to protect them. So let's give him Deflection!
Ladon developed a set of braces worn over the arms and torso, much like a shirt with stiff guide wires and a central wheel that can be used to wind it up. Microfilaments along the arms and across the chest measure incoming vibrations and make the body react, moving it out of the way of an attack. Ladon is always trying to figure out how to miniaturize it, or make it a little more intuitive for humans to use - they tend to try and fight the motions.
Second power: Havoc. Ladon developed a circular device about the size of a football. Activate and throw it, and it flies apart with bands of metal and leather, whipping everything in a small area around. I think the "Bedlam Disc" was part of Ladon's initial experiments in prediction of incoming danger, just a happy accident that works well as a weapon.
Cool! Now, that would normally be it, but Widening Gyre characters also get four advances. So!
First advance: I'll bump Weird Science and Science to d8. Second Advance: New Powers (Entangle and Illusion; for Illusion I picture a wrist-mounted lens that he shines a light through). Third Advance: Vigor d8 (Ladon figured out a new hardening process for his metal body, I guess). Fourth Advance: You know, this is weird, but I want the Berserk Edge. Of course Ladon doesn't go "berserk" in the classic BWWAAAGGH sense, just that he fashioned a special key that winds him really tight and then lets go. It makes him devastating in combat, but not terribly precise and not able to pull his punch, and it means he's "wound down" afterwards.
And that's basically it! Ladon is man-sized (5'10, about 400 pounds because he's all metal). He's brass and steel, but his eyes have glass lenses. If it's quiet you can hear him ticking. He wears clothes, and thinks of himself as a man, which is why it's so perplexing to him that he clearly wasn't designed to be anything like a human being.
I think his arc would either take him away from violence and into esoteric stuff like language and mind-reading, or, depending on how things break, deeper into violence and destruction and chaos as Ladon searches for some deeper meaning in why human beings seem to regard death and war as abstract exercises right up until they start spurting fluids (ew).
