1894

NB: Anything copied from the rules is not intended as a challenge to anyone's copyright. It's still their material.

• 22 Investigative Build Points +1 Social Class +1 Language point (default is +1 Streetwise +1 Tradecraft)
• ?? General Points -- I can't recall whether I gave folks 60, 65, or 70 points. Anyone remember?
• 10 free Cover
• 15 free Network
• 4 free Health, max 12
• 4 free Stability, max 12
• Sanity = Stability and is free
• MOS
• Solace, Symbol, Safety
• Absent Skills
• New Skills
  • Geography
  • Riding
  • Telegraphy
• Modified Skills
  • Outdoor Survival: This no longer incorporates horsemanship, which falls under Riding.
  • Driving

This primarily refers to carriages, wagons, hansom cabs, and other horsedrawn vehicles, not motorcars. Outside major urban areas, automobiles are the playthings of the rich, and their controls are far from standardized. Driving a motorcar is a Mechanics test, and it requires a one-time 1-point spend of either Urban Survival or High Society to be able to do so at all.

Driving a railroad locomotive is also a Mechanics test; it requires a one-time 1-point spend of Working Class to have experience driving a train. With such experience, the Difficulty of the Mechanics test decreases by 2.

• • Piloting: This refers to boats, ships, and balloons. There are no heavier-than-air aircraft, and almost no gliders or dirigibles until 1900. The first rating point in Piloting always refers to small boats (sailboats, rowboats, dories, etc.). Additional points can provide mastery of barges and tugs, sloops and schooners, steamships, clippers, balloons, etc. Arthur Holmwood demonstrated surprising mastery of a steam launch when pursuing Dracula by river. (Also plumbing -- very weird for a nobleman.)

• • Social Class Notes

You must spend 1 point from the Interpersonal ability in question to use Bullshit Detector, Flattery, Flirting, Intimidation, Negotiation, or Reassurance at all on targets “outside” your native social class, even if you have a rating in more than one, unless you are successfully Disguised as a member of the class you are interacting with and you have the relevant Social Class ability.

The Difficulty of a Disguise test increases by 1 if the disguise also shifts a social class: e.g., for a Working Class Agent to disguise himself as a butler in a gentleman’s club. If it is intended to fool members of that social class, the Difficulty of the Disguise increases by 2: e.g., for a Working Class Agent to disguise himself as a butler below stairs or in a tavern catering to those in service.

If the players don’t want to build Agents covering all social class bases, remember that you can use Network to build a trusted servant, working-class lackey, or aristocratic patron encountered during military service, at a Masonic meeting, or on one of those slumming excursions.