Engines & Dragons

RPG system: LARP

By

Summer Larpin' (2023), Boxboro Regency, Boxborough, Massachusetts, United States

	Abe Pressman (GM)
	Maher Tahhan (GM)

Description

Note: This is a game of limited scale. We expect the next version of Engines & Dragons to have a few more characters, and to be completely replayable for anyone who has played this version. The final version of Engines & Dragons will add more non-capitalist stories, more characters who operate in the shadows, and more goals that may conflict with those of industrialization.

Met a manticore, in the hills of Arvendale
(Grab a hammer, one and all)
So we yanked the spikes out of its tail
Now they’re holdin’ down the track, on the Magesteel line

Progress has come, kicking and screaming, to the Commonwealth of Callora. From the walls of Ver-Dooli to the distant shores of Nycari, industrialization has brought jobs, factories, fortunes, and better living through technology. For the first time ever, the locomotive, a mechanical beast made of steam and science and magic, runs between the steel towns of the Arven Delta.

But now, flush with cash and dreams, the railroad’s financiers are proposing a far more ambitious plan.

Across the continent, the Commonwealth’s newest states are home to some of its wealthiest cities. Trade between the North and South Oceans has become incredibly profitable, but the sea routes are long and treacherous. So the railroad barons want to build a proper, transcontinental railroad, along the ancient silk road that once connected both coasts.

There’s a pirate king from the golden isle
(Grab a hammer, one and all)
Bought ‘is railroad shares, now he’s pillaging in style
And he’s rakin’ in the loot, on the Magesteel line

The Transcontinental Railroad will be a massive project, large enough that old rivals and competitors will have to work together. Everyone on the continent is getting involved, from the bankers of An-Roshad to the feuding guilds of Ver-Dooli. And in the middle, trade cities and minor provinces lobby to become stops on the new train line.

Not that anything is a done deal. With an undertaking this big and risky, your sponsors could back out at any minute. And the construction will pass through vast spans of dangerous terrain, where just about anything could go wrong.

Here’s a modern troll from the Leidan bog
(Grab a hammer, one and all)
In the dining car, eatin’ coal with his grog
An’ he chugs, an’ he chews, on the Magesteel line

Engines & Dragons is a game about fantasy railroad barons. The core mechanic will involve a board game-like competition to build, fund, and profit from various sections of railway. In this version of the game, every character will have some stake in railroad capitalism, though not all will have the same goals or interests.

Outside of the central board game, there will be a full theater larp going on around it, with some “non-competitor” characters/factions appearing in this first run as NPCs (such as engineers, alchemists, anarchists, dragons, thieves’ guilds, adventurers, sky vikings, trade unionists, etc.)

Expect madcap capitalist fun, as well as themes of corporate alliance, company feuds, industrial sorcery, conflicts of values, runaway progress, geographic isolation, reckless magic, and the slow but important emergence of trade unions.

In the dunes of the desert, we was chased by a ghoul
(Grab a hammer, one and all)
Well the boss tripped him up, an’ she handed ‘im a tool
No rest for the dead, on the Magesteel line

Participant communications
Character surveys, followed soon by character sheets, which should be sent out 4-6 weeks before game. Expect short character documents (2-3 pages), as well as a public faction and world document that highlights the relevant history and politics (around 20 pages of optional reading and a 2 page quick reference sheet) and a mechanics document (around 2 pages).

Content warnings
In the first run of this game, there will be few or no opportunities to dismantle/operate outside of capitalism.

Most characters will be at least a little villainous, corrupt, or antagonistic.

Played at