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™
B
RITANNICA
-6
™
Written by PHIL MASTERS
Edited by ANDY VETROMILE
Illustrated by PETER BERGTING, TOM BIONDOLILLO, PAUL DALY,
JOHN HARTWELL, ZACH HOWARD, and SAM INABINET
An e23 Sourcebook for GURPS
®
STEVE JACKSON
GAMES
Stock #37-0605
®
Version 1.0 – March 7, 2008
C
ONTENTS
I
NTRODUCTION
. . . . . . . . . . . . 3
About the Author . . . . . . . . . 3
About
GURPS
. . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1. T
HE
H
ISTORY OF
B
RITANNICA
-6
. . . . . . . . 4
T
HE
D
IVERGENCE
. . . . . . . . . . . . 4
The Heirs of George III . . . . 4
Charlotte and Leopold . . . . . 4
Infinite Worlds
. . . . . . . . . . . . 4
“Two generations gone –
gone in a moment!”
. . . . . 5
The Whig Revival . . . . . . . . . 5
T
HE
I
MPERIAL
M
ONARCHY
. . . 6
The Kings of Hanover . . . . . . 6
Craze-Driven Technology. . . 7
Very Low Inertia
. . . . . . . . . . 7
British Hegemony. . . . . . . . . 8
Other Western Nations . . . . 9
T
HE
W
ORLD BY
1887
. . . . . . . 11
An Empire of Competition 11
Stylistic Variations
. . . . . . . . 11
Confused Rivals . . . . . . . . . 12
2. G
EOGRAPHY
AND
S
OCIETY
. . . . . . . . 13
C
OMMON
S
OCIAL
P
ATTERNS
. . 13
Class and Wealth . . . . . . . . 13
Race and Nationality . . . . . 14
How to Be a True Child
of Britannia
. . . . . . . . . . 14
Progress! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Crime, Law, and
Enforcement . . . . . . . . . 15
Hellfire Clubs
. . . . . . . . . . . . 15
T
HE
H
EART OF
E
MPIRE
. . . . . . 16
King Leopold III . . . . . . . . . 16
The Aristocratic-Whig
Alliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Rivalry and Engineering . . 17
Radicals
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Mr. Charles Dickens
(161 points)
. . . . . . . . . . 18
C
ONTINENTAL
E
UROPE
. . . . . . 19
France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Austria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Russia
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
The Mediterranean
and Middle East . . . . . . 20
T
HE
A
MERICAS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
The New England
Confederacy . . . . . . . . . 20
The United States . . . . . . . . 21
Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
The Free Port of
San Francisco
. . . . . . . . 21
Central and
South America . . . . . . . 22
A
SIA
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Asian Adventures
. . . . . . . . . 23
A
FRICA
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
The Cape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
A
USTRALIA
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Britannica-6, 1887
. . . . . . . . 26
3. O
UTWORLD
O
PERATIONS
. . . . . . . . . 26
I
NFINITY AND
F
RIENDS
. . . . . . . 27
White Star . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Time Tours, Ltd. . . . . . . . . . 28
Abraham Jacobov
(156 points)
. . . . . . . . . . 29
C
ENTRUM
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
T
HE
C
ABAL
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
O
THERS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Useful Advantages
and Skills. . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Dangerous Problems . . . . . 36
ISWAT Recruitment
. . . . . . . 36
N
ATIVES OF
B
RITANNICA
-6
. . . 37
Sir Adrian Carter-Sandlebury
(150 points)
. . . . . . . . . . 38
Wealth Levels . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Advantages and Perks . . . . 39
Disadvantages and Quirks . . 39
Skills. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Magic and Psionics
. . . . . . . 40
6. A
DVENTURES ON
B
RITANNICA
-6
. . . . . . . 54
I
NFINITY
M
ISSIONS
. . . . . . . . . . 54
The General Position . . . . . 54
Justice Division . . . . . . . . . . 54
Morale Division. . . . . . . . . . 55
Nexus Oversight . . . . . . . . . 55
Security Division. . . . . . . . . 55
Communications Division . . 55
Contact Division . . . . . . . . . 56
Intelligence Division . . . . . . 56
Search and Rescue . . . . . . . 56
Technical Analysis . . . . . . . 56
ISWAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
S
AMPLE
M
ISSION
: T
HE
D
ECORATIONS ON THE
C
HANNEL
B
RIDGE
. . . . . . 57
Muster, Briefing, and
Equipment . . . . . . . . . . 57
Jacobov’s Warehouse . . . . . 58
The Journey to Dover . . . . . 58
Running the Scenario With
Local PCs
. . . . . . . . . . . . 58
The Great
Construction Site . . . . . 59
The Local Investigation . . . 59
Identifying the Problem . . . 60
Resolution and Departure. . 62
Mr. Owen Costikyan
(282 points)
. . . . . . . . . . 62
L
OCAL
A
DVENTURERS AND
I
NFORMAL
V
ISITORS
. . . . 64
International Intrigue. . . . . 64
Imperial Exploration . . . . . 64
Gone for a Soldier . . . . . . . 65
Heroic Engineering . . . . . . 65
Lyme Regis Vice
. . . . . . . . . . 65
A Life of Crime . . . . . . . . . . 66
Political Activism . . . . . . . . 66
The Aristocratic Lifestyle . . 67
Blood Games . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
B
IBLIOGRAPHY
. . . . . . . . . . . . 68
I
NDEX
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5. T
ECHNOLOGY
. . . . . . . . . 41
W
EAPONS AND
A
RMOR
. . . . . . . 42
Guns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Melee Weapons . . . . . . . . . . 44
Armor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
A
UTOMATION
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
P
OWER
S
OURCES
. . . . . . . . . . . 45
Roads
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
T
RANSPORT
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Vehicle-Design Rule
Considerations . . . . . . . 46
Motor-Carriage
Terminology
. . . . . . . . . . 46
Motor-Carriages . . . . . . . . . 47
Typical Land Vehicles
. . . . . 47
Air Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
The Electrical Terror
. . . . . . 48
Sample Aerostats
. . . . . . . . . 49
Rail Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Water Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Britannica-6 Battleships
. . . 50
Other Transport . . . . . . . . . 51
The Ice Dreadnought
. . . . . . 51
C
OMMUNICATIONS
. . . . . . . . . . . 52
Radio-Telegraphy Towers . 52
Primitive Radar
. . . . . . . . . . 52
M
EDICINE
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Pharmacology . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Surgery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Effective TL . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
O
THER
T
ECHNOLOGIES
. . . . . . 53
4. C
HARACTERS
. . . . . . . . . . 33
T
HE
W
ORLD
C
ONDITIONS
. . . . 33
Tech Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Cultural Familiarity . . . . . . 33
Social Status . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Clothing Styles
. . . . . . . . . . . 34
Control Ratings . . . . . . . . . . 35
Prejudices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
O
UTTIME
V
ISITORS
. . . . . . . . . . 36
GURPS
System Design
❚
STEVE JACKSON
WILL SCHOONOVER
Production Artists
❚
Marketing Director
❚
PAUL CHAPMAN
Chief Operating Officer
❚
PHILIP REED
❚
ALEX FERNANDEZ
and PHILIP REED
Sales Manager
❚
ROSS JEPSON
GURPS
Line Editor
❚
SEAN PUNCH
FADE MANLEY
GURPS
FAQ Maintainer
❚
e23 Manager
❚
PAUL CHAPMAN
THOMAS WEIGEL
Prepress Checkers
❚
–––––––
BRETT SLOCUM
❚
Page Design
❚
PHILIP REED and
––––
JUSTIN DE WITT
WILL SCHOONOVER
and MONICA STEPHENS
❚
Lead Playtester:
Jeff Wilson
Playtesters:
Frederick Brackin, Roger Burton West, John Dallman, Rick Gerdes, Martin Heidemann, Kelly Pedersen, Justin Pickard, Jeff Raglin,
and Matthew Cornell Woods, Jr. Special thanks to Roger and John for early help with vehicle concepts,
and to Hans-Christian Vortisch for assistance with weapons designs.
GURPS
, Warehouse 23, and the all-seeing pyramid are registered trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated.
Infinite Worlds, Britannica-6
,
Pyramid,
and the names
of all products published by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated are registered trademarks or trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated, or used under license.
GURPS Infinite Worlds: Britannica-6
is copyright © 2008 by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. All rights reserved. Some art copyright © 2008 JupiterImages Corporation.
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal,
and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage
the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
C
ONTENTS
2
Art Director
Errata Coordinator
Indexer
I
NTRODUCTION
This book is about
Britannica-6
, a world arising from an
alternate history, diverging from our own early in the 19th cen-
tury – and about running
GURPS
games there. It relates to the
setting described in Book 2 of the
GURPS Basic Set
and in
GURPS Infinite Worlds
, but it can also be used as a standalone
campaign location.
In fact, Britannica-6 receives a one-paragraph discussion on
p. 116 of
Infinite Worlds
, and many thanks are due to Ken Hite,
author of that book, for the idea. I developed it for use in a con-
vention game, with the aid of the discussion boards associated
with Steve Jackson Games’
Pyramid
magazine. Thanks are
owed to everyone who contributed to that dialogue.
obsession with progress for its own sake, and unqualified belief
in human perfectibility, sometimes lead to tragedy.
Britannica-6 is also a TL(5+2) “steampunk” setting of sorts.
The technology isn’t as divergent as some timelines that have
advanced onto a steam-tech path – the local laws of nature don’t
seem to support anything
too
bizarre – but it’s
used
with exces-
sive enthusiasm. (Some variety is possible in this according to
the type of game desired; see
Stylistic Variations
, p. 11.) It’s
developing particularly rapidly in specific areas, such as phar-
macology and transport, with some striking breakthroughs,
and the local rulers have adopted it as a tool for their rivalries
and power games.
Significantly, this
isn’t
a “Victorian” world, although the cur-
rent date is 1887 and the British Empire is at full strength. It
diverged before Queen Victoria had a chance to be born, so she
never existed and the local culture is derived from the older
“Regency” pattern, with little of the Victorian reaction into
bourgeois respectability. Visitors who expect straight-laced
Victorian culture are in for a surprise.
A Note on the Name
GURPS Infinite Worlds
mentions seven “Britannica” time-
lines, and any campaign can see more discovered. However,
Britannica-6 is the only one discussed in this book, so the name
is sometimes shortened to “Britannica” for convenience.
Concept and Mood
As described in this publication, Britannica-6 should come
across as a colorful, eccentric sort of world, with significantly
divergent technology and enough intrigue (mostly between the
rather loopy monarchs, aristocrats, and politicians of the local
British Empire) to fuel any number of plots. That’s not to say
it’s a comedy setting (although the “Ruritanian steam-tech”
style can certainly support some comedy). The world’s politics
can turn all-too-literally cutthroat at times, and the local
A
BOUT THE
A
UTHOR
Longtime RPG writer Phil Masters has written or con-
tributed to a number of
GURPS
books, including
GURPS
Castle Falkenstein
,
GURPS Who’s Who 1
&
2
,
GURPS Places
of Mystery
, and
GURPS Banestorm
. His last e23 project was
Transhuman Space: Changing Times
. The version of Britain
where he lives doesn’t rule the world.
About
GURPS
Steve Jackson Games is committed to full support of
GURPS
players. Our address is SJ Games, P.O. Box 18957,
Austin, TX 78760. Please include a self-addressed, stamped
envelope (SASE) any time you write us! We can also be
reached by e-mail:
info@sjgames.com
. Resources include:
Pyramid
(
www.sjgames.com/pyramid
). Our online mag-
azine includes new
GURPS
rules and articles. It also covers
the
d20
system
, Ars Magica, BESM, Call of Cthulhu,
and
many more top games – and other Steve Jackson Games
releases like
Illuminati, Car Wars, Transhuman Space,
and
more.
Pyramid
subscribers also get opportunities to playtest
new
GURPS
books!
New supplements and adventures.
GURPS
continues to
grow, and we’ll be happy to let you know what’s new. For a
current catalog, send us a legal-sized SASE, or just visit
www.warehouse23.com
.
e23.
Our e-publishing division offers
GURPS
adventures,
play aids, and support not available anywhere else! Just head
over to
e23.sjgames.com
.
Errata.
Everyone makes mistakes, including us – but we
do our best to fix our errors. Up-to-date errata sheets for all
GURPS
releases, including this book, are available on our
website – see below.
Internet.
Visit us on the World Wide Web at
www.sjgames.com
for errata, updates, Q&A, and much
more. To discuss
GURPS
with SJ Games staff and fellow
gamers, come to our forums at
forums.sjgames.com
. The
GURPS Infinite Worlds: Britannica-6
web page is
www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/britannica-6
.
Bibliographies.
Many of our books have extensive bibli-
ographies, and we’re putting them online – with links to let
you buy the books that interest you! Go to the book’s web
page and look for the “Bibliography” link.
Rules and statistics in this book are specifically for the
GURPS Basic Set,
Fourth Edition.
Page references that
begin with B refer to that book, not this one.
I
NTRODUCTION
3
T
HE
H
ISTORY OF
B
RITANNICA
-6
“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I’m sorry to drag you
all away from your regular duties, but we do have an urgent mis-
sion for you.
“Many of you will recognize the building in
this
picture – yes,
it’s Windsor Castle. British royal residence, west of London; some
of you have doubtless played tourist there on Homeline. But I’m
sure you’ve all guessed that the added towers are unusual.
Officially, they’re used for astronomical observations, but given
the atmospheric conditions and light pollution over there, we
have our doubts. Actually, we
think
that they house anti-airship
weapons of some kind, but we don’t have very good intel assets
in place yet on the timeline, so we can’t be sure. The odds are that
whatever is in them makes a dramatic sound and light show
when it’s activated; it might or might not really be any good for
shooting down airships.
“
This
, on the other hand, is a structure that’s unique on any
timeline we know. There are a few bridges across the English
Channel on various Europe-dominated lines, but this design is a
one-off. Yeah, and a bit gaudy . . .”
Infinite Worlds
Such naïve outsiders are likely to be outtimers; read-
ers not familiar with this should see pp. B523-546 or
GURPS Infinite Worlds
. Infinity discovered this time-
line a little while ago and now have a range of operations
in place, though mostly still on a small scale – see pp. 27-
30 for details. As a Quantum-6 world, Britannica-6 is
quite accessible from Homeline, but represents a poten-
tial front in the war with Centrum.
Britannica-6 is unlikely to gain access to any sort of
parachronic travel any time soon – the local understand-
ing of physics really isn’t up to the task, and its electron-
ics remains quite basic, while any sort of outright para-
normal activity appears to be non-existent here (which
may just mean that it’s kept very quiet, of course).
Infinity scientists are pretty sure that Britannica’s engi-
neers couldn’t begin to understand a conveyor even if
they captured one intact, let alone replicate it. On the
other hand, too many of those locals are enthusiastical-
ly efficient or inspired about too many things.
While Britannica-6 possesses exotic technology that its
inhabitants use in rather peculiar ways, it’s also a timeline with
an alternate
history
– and one with a fairly recent divergence
point. Infinity Patrolmen and players who want to operate
there successfully need to know something of its past.
T
HE
D
IVERGENCE
From the point of view of Homeline, the key to understand-
ing Britannica-6 lies in the late-18th century – specifically in
one of those unfortunate dynastic bottlenecks to which mon-
archies are so vulnerable.
King’s last madness and later became George IV. He was noto-
riously extravagant and self-indulgent, but not entirely stupid;
and did allow himself to be married off to his cousin, Princess
Caroline of Brunswick. Unfortunately the couple couldn’t
stand each other, and soon separated. They did produce one
child, a daughter, Princess Charlotte, in 1796. Meanwhile, the
Prince’s brothers were largely avoiding marriage in favor of
mistresses and generally living as they pleased around London
and Europe.
T
HE
H
EIRS OF
G
EORGE
III
Whatever his other failings, before he slipped into his
famous madness, George III (on this timeline as on Homeline)
performed his dynastic duty admirably. He produced 15 chil-
dren, with no fewer than seven sons surviving to adulthood.
The crown was guaranteed to pass on smoothly to the next
generation – and, anyone could reasonably assume, beyond.
However, his sons proved unlucky or much less dutiful. The
eldest ruled in his father’s place as the prince regent during the
C
HARLOTTE AND
L
EOPOLD
Princess Charlotte was regarded as a difficult child, who fell
out with her mother (not that this was unusual) and whose
movements were restricted after one attempt to marry her off
T
HE
H
ISTORY OF
B
RITANNICA
-6
4
C
HAPTER
O
NE
failed. However, in 1816 she did marry Leopold of Saxe-
Coburg, an intelligent young prince who had already achieved
moderately distinguished military and diplomatic careers, and
the marriage proved happy. Her first two pregnancies ended in
early miscarriages, but within a year she conceived with
greater success.
This is where the divergence occurred. Whereas in
Homeline history Charlotte died soon after giving birth to a
dead child in November 1817, on Britannica-6, Leopold lost
his temper with the doctors who were mistreating the (proba-
bly quite minor) health problems during pregnancy, prohibit-
ing them from bleeding her. Stories suggest that he adopted a
number of “folk treatments” that were, at the worst,
harmless, and he certainly ensured that she received
a reasonable diet. As a result, her son was born alive
and well and Charlotte survived, soon regaining her
full health. In fact, she would go on to produce a
large, healthy, and
very
active family.
enthusiasm, eliminated the legal constraints on minority reli-
gions, including Irish Catholics. The relationship between the
London-based government and Ireland remained difficult for
years but gradually improved, especially when far-sighted
Whig businessmen began investing in the creation of modern
industries in Ireland. Tory landowners grumbled but lacked
the ability to block these changes for long, and it became clear
that attempts to reverse the changes could lead to outright
revolt. Old-fashioned landed aristocrats in the House of Lords
slowed things down a little, but found they couldn’t risk too
much obstruction given the support the Whigs now
commanded.
“Two generations gone
– gone in a moment!”
When Infinity’s historians look at Britannica-6, they often com-
ment that, while this particular timeline looks rather improbable,
it’s actually strange that there aren’t more alternates with diver-
gence points clustered around the death of Princess Charlotte.
Before her pregnancy, she’d seemed a healthy enough young
woman; she was happily married and popular with the public, and
the prospect of an heir seemed to assure the future of the monar-
chy. However, the doctors applied what were then thought to be
sensible principles during her third pregnancy – which meant reg-
ular bleeding and a strict diet. Then when the childbirth proved dif-
ficult, the obstetrician apparently panicked, failing to use forceps.
Her son was stillborn, and in a few hours Charlotte herself died.
(Left distraught by his failure, the doctor involved shot himself
three months later.)
This tragedy provoked widespread mourning, sometimes com-
pared to that following the death of Princess Diana two centuries
later. It also presented the British ruling classes with a problem:
Any potential heirs to the throne looked ill-suited and unprepared
at best. The government went into negotiation with the royal
princes, basically offering them bribes to produce children. Three
of them, the Duke of Clarence (later King William IV), the Duke of
Kent, and the Duke of Cambridge, raced to put aside their mis-
tresses and get married. Clarence’s two children didn’t survive, but
the Duke of Kent’s only daughter did. Hence, when George IV died,
he was succeeded by William, who in turn was followed by that
daughter – Queen Victoria.
But all this makes Victoria, one of the most symbolically potent
figures in history and the reliable figurehead of the British Empire
for over 60 years, something of a historical fluke. If Charlotte’s son
had lived, or if she had survived in good enough health to try for
another child, all that negotiation would probably not have hap-
pened, and would certainly have been delayed. The result might not
have been Britannica-6, but there’d almost certainly not have been
a “Victorian era” as such. Even a slight change in the dealings
between the princes and the government – a different winner in the
race – could have produced a different succession.
And yet, Infinity keeps discovering timelines with Queen
Victoria, in the past or present. It’s clear she’s some kind of high-
probability element, at least in the structure of n-dimensional para-
time reality as Infinity can perceive it. This leads to lots of theoret-
ical analysis, and a certain amount of cautious but intensive
research in echo timelines with a current date around 1815.
T
HE
W
HIG
R
EVIVAL
Charlotte’s survival in turn produced a major
political knock-on effect. At the time, the two main
political parties in Britain were the Tories, who had
effectively been in power for many years; and the
Whigs, who had suffered from internal splits and the
opposition of George III. Both were essentially made
up of members of the aristocracy and landed gentry,
but the Whigs were marginally more liberal and
reformist. (There was also an outright Radical fac-
tion, but this was weak and the ruling classes, terri-
fied by memories of the French Revolution, worked
hard against it.) On Homeline, the Whigs lacked a
strong image. Some of them had briefly supported
Princess Caroline when George IV sought to divorce
her, but that was more of a Radical cause and
Caroline was something of an embarrassment. The
Whigs were also drifting out of touch with most of
the people, despite their traditional populism. They
would only regain power in 1830, and then with a
limited majority and a lot of compromises.
On Britannica-6, moderate Whig politicians
began to associate themselves with Charlotte (a
known Whig sympathizer) and Leopold, who were
seen as a refreshing and popular alternative to the
aging and increasingly reactionary royal generation
preceding them. They made rapid progress, and in
the election automatically triggered (according to
the law of the time) when George III died in 1820 (a
couple of months later than on Homeline), they
gained enough seats to claim power. At first they
had to operate cautiously, especially as the new king
instinctively opposed many of the reforms they pro-
moted, but their confidence grew even as George IV
was subjected to polite persuasion from his daugh-
ter and son-in-law.
Hence, the Whigs were able to bring in a series of
political and social reforms at least a few years
ahead of the same changes in Homeline’s past. They
updated the electoral system (though never granting
the vote to the general population!); freed up
trade; and then, swept along on a wave of popular
T
HE
H
ISTORY OF
B
RITANNICA
-6
5
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