Clockwork Dominion

Time for a little steampunk ......

The Magisterium taught us that we live within the Great Clockmaker’s orderly creation, an intricate world which shows the glory of the Divine in its perfect symmetry. Science has taught us to understand this creation and harness its power through steel and steam, creating the majesty of civilization, a clockwork of our own. The alchemists taught us that the very fabric of creation could be broken down and reformed in ways limited only by our imaginations. Explorers have mapped the globe, and spiritualists have mapped the realms beyond it. Yet, however bright the light of human accomplishment can shine, the shadow it casts still hides what most refuse to see: this Clockwork, so diligently created by God and man, was constructed from chaos … and the chaos wants it back.

Clockwork: Dominion uses an intuitive card-based mechanic, a non-linear initiative system that allows combatants to act at any moment, and a robust social conflict system to push intrigue to the heart of your story. Players take the role of exceptional individuals within the British Empire of 1896 as it strives to maintain tradition in the face of scientific advancement, powerful mystical practices, and the threat of the Pontus—the primordial chaos which is slowly reclaiming creation. 


Clockwork Dominion is yet another Kickstarter I backed, under the name Clockwork Empire, and is definitely one of the better ones. Some fine short fiction scattered about the rule book is very evocative of setting and helps set the scene.

The rules book comes in at hefty 330 pages pages:
Welcome to Clockwork 18 pages
Clockwork Society (background material) 26 pages
Cosmology (more background) 18 pages
Rules & Systems 40 pages
Character Creation 76 pages
Accouterments & Technology 36 pages
Transcendent Powers 40 pages
The remainder is GM stuff

As you can see Character Creation takes up the biggest chuck of pages and is quite intricate but pretty straight forward with lots of choices and consequences. It creates quite complete and individual characters, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Now, pretty obviously, you are not going to sit down and create a character in 10 minutes, and it would be better for it to be a group effort, but it is a very interesting system.

You can pick from four races each with its unique abilities and bonuses:
1. Pure Human 98+% of the population
or the "corrupted" races
2. Beastmen - Humans that have animal body parts grafted on to them.
3. Changelings - Fey blooded
4. Nephilim - Descendants of the Grigori, a choir of guardian angels.
Each of the three corrupted races has many options within them.

CHARACTER CREATION IN TEN STEPS
1 Choose a Bloodline: Is your character a pure mortal, or does she descend from a corrupted
ancestry? Choose a bloodline, record its bonuses, blessings, and curses.

2 Choose a Pursuit: How does your character choose to act against the Pontus, and how does that affect her core nature, motivations, and personality? Choose one pursuit, record its bonuses.

3 Choose a Background: What trade, lifestyle, or situation of birth influenced your character
the most? Choose a background, record its bonuses.

4 Assign Aptitudes: What are your character’s core competencies? Assign 5 ranks to aptitudes.

5 Assign Skills: What skills has your character learned? Assign 12 ranks of skills.

6 Choose Assets and Liabilities: Does your character have any special social advantages or disadvantages, fiscal resources or debts, or other benefits or complications? Choose a number of assets determined by your chosen background. Any character may choose up to two liabilities, gaining an additional asset for each one taken.

7 Choose Affinities: What are the things, people, or ideologies that drive your character to do what she does? Place three ranks into at least two different Affinities.

8 Choose Reputations: For what behaviors, adventures, or events is your character known? Place three ranks in at least two Reputations.

9 Choose Starting Accoutrements: What special gear and accoutrements does your character own?

10 Finishing Touches: Calculate common derived traits and get her ready for play.

The Game Rules
The overall mechanic for everything from task resolution to Social conflict is pretty straight forward, add all applicable modifiers, subtract the difficulty and draw a card, if you get a value of +1 or better you succeed, otherwise you fail (with some exceptions). There are varying levels of success and failure, but that's it in a nut shell. Most other elements of the game are fairly basic, each character has a class, aptitudes, skills, etc.. However there are a few parts that are fairly unique, for example reputation, affinities and dispositions, which all have mechanical effects on Social conflicts. 

Players may spend Purpose to take narrative control at various times.


Here is a youtube video that explains the basic mechanics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMbzu13xp8Y

There is till more extras heading down the road from the Kickstarter......

In conclusion if you are interested in a Steampunk Gothic Horror setting I would strongly recommend looking at Clockwork Dominion, it rattles, rolls and hisses :)