Category: blog
Hibernation Industries
Hiya folks.
As you can probably see, our attempts to return from hiatus have not been all that successful. I fear that here at Liberation Industries we were run pretty ragged even before we had to work like dogs through this shocking period of history, so unfortunately we haven’t had the time we need to get those episodes out there.
For now though, we are alright. Though stressed and exhausted we all remain in good health, and we hope that wherever you’re listening from that you are too. As much as we’d love to be slinging the broadcasts to keep you company, I fear that’s not how it played out, and we’ll reassess in the next little while as to how the project will continue.
We will have the Skyfarer conclusion to you as soon as we can manage, and then keep the site in the freezer for a bit until we can figure out a balance that’s sustainable. Our backlog will remain accessible for the foreseeable, so failing all else I guess you can listen to our scratchy but fun early broadcasts.
For those wishing to follow along, we have not left the TTRPG sphere completely, so stay tuned to Whimsy and Metaphor’s Twitch and our Twitter for some irregular gaming and event information.
Stay safe out there folks.
Liberation Hiatus!
Heya listeners!
Here at Liberation Industries, shocking as it sounds, we do occasionally do other things.
So with Lee and Sy skipping the country and Paddy having to make a bunch of theatre to make… well we’re going to need August to ourselves if you don’t mind.
Y’all stay metal, we’ll be back to polluting your airwaves soon enough.
Green Light by darkday on flickr CC A
LIBERATION REVIVAL
Well a happy Yule and new year to all our Southern imaginary listeners! With this auspicious occasion at play, we’re doing a little midwinter clean here at Liberation Industries.
Don’t panic, we’re just doing what we can to clean up our signal, so you may notice some changes in our format… you can now expect your episodes on the second and fourth Thursday of every month, and our theme music will still be provided by the very talented tgamel over at freesfx.co.uk, but our episodes and website will be seeing an overhaul in the next couple of weeks.
With the darkness of midwinter upon us, we have an alarming Antarctic adventure powered by Machine Age Productions‘ punk-apocalyptic demon splatterfest, Fuck Armageddon!
Stay metal imaginary listeners.
More of The Game Formerly Known as Karma in the Dark
Back to our Twitch stream with a slightly different team and a brand new setting, ready to take the shiny new edition of Cass K’s Crossing Worlds, which had up to this point been called Karma in the Dark.
Join us at 8:30 AEST this Sunday for the very best of magic cyberpunk action!
As always, this stream is in collaboration with Whimsy and Metaphor, the fictional alternate reality sculpted largely by Lee’s tireless work.
PRESS THIS BIG BUTTON WHEN IT IS STREAM TIME!
Coober Pedy Harry by Werner Bayer on Flickr CC A
Happy New Year!
Well, its been quite the time for Liberation Industries, and we hope that all you imaginary listeners out there are ringing in 2019 with the best possible luck. Apologies for the delay in broadcasts – we’re not dead, just sleeping – and we fully intend to resume normal broadcasts by mid-January.
Until then, enjoy the party!
Pic is Fireworks by Tony Hisgett on Flickr, CC A
Making a Monster: The Striges
Sorry for broadcast delay folks, its been the traditional cavalcade of family weddings and sickness. In recompense, here’s some design notes regarding the last little arc of our Flying Circus game.
Though Flying Circus obviously draws very heavily from historical sources when it comes to how its planes operate, the setting has been from the beginning plugged as, I suppose, a kind of diesel-punk laced high fantasy. Now we were operating in an odd place here, as a lot of the setting info is not yet published and we had adopted a slightly alternative setting anyway. Not wanting to jump straight to dragons, I decided to bring in an alternative airborne creature.
Naturally, the solution came in the form of a strange multilingual pun.
Now, our setting Maralto draws heavily on Italian imagery, and the Italian word for witch is strega. We can trace the route of this word back to the Latin strix, for screech owl, and its distant cousin strige does in fact parse as “a bird of ill omen”, which could be seen as equivalent to the bad reputation that crows and ravens have in English speaking countries. So naturally this gets thoughts of psychopomp birds stirring around in my brain.
The Striges then, within our setting, are a kind of revenant. When a strong-willed witch or sorcerer dies and that death cuts short the great work of their lives, the screech owls of the ghost world may offer them a choice. Rather than carrying them on into the great unknown beyond death, the owl may bring their spirit back into the world, repairing the body in their own image and fueling it with a hunger for blood, vengeance and the shadowy magic of the netherworld.
With this flickering magic surging through their skeletal frames and between their grey feathers, the Striges are given a near immortal chance at vengeance or, more rarely, closure. Their shadow wings carry them as fast as a fighter plane, and the long claws on their fingers can tear horrific gouges in steel plate and flesh alike. Perhaps most alarmingly, these avian horrors seem beyond the reach of death; though they can most certainly be wounded and broken in the manner of mortal things, the shadows will knit them back together in time. There are rumours that only burial with full funerary rites in consecrated ground will spell a true end to these creatures, but given the rarity of priests willing to cooperate with such actions this remains speculation.
So there you have it. Our terrifying owl-channelling sky witches were based on an old Italian play on words and some bits of James O’Barr’s The Crow, with perhaps a smattering of the Strix from Vampire the Requiem. But ain’t it funny how inspiration works that way…?
Good hunting to y’all.
Paddy
Sacrifice by Paul aka howzey on Flickr, CC A N$ ND
Flying Circus: Playing Chess
For those following along on our playtest of Erika Chapell’s Flying Circus, I have enclosed a dossier of the three rogue pilots operating out of the Span. Hopefully it will prove useful to your further inquiries.
Geneve Schmidt appears to be the newest addition to the group, and despite rank inexperience as a combat pilot she has displayed an unusual knack for ambitious and highly creative feats of engineering. Origin currently unknown, but her dress and speech modality would suggest one of the far southern farm holdings, potentially Zuhaus or Fiore. She currently flies what appears to be a heavily modified Barbierri Asino, though what put it into her mind to attach those engines to a battered cropdusting biplane, or indeed where she got them at all, remains a mystery. Known Weaknesses: Cannabis and romantic novels.
Zelig Weiss is an exile from Greyreach, one of the insular fisher communities clinging to the southwestern cliffs. Despite presumably having vacated that community after trespassing their strange edicts, Weiss still presents as one of their priests, though the legitimacy of this is unknown. With the aid of his alarming follower who goes only by Nyx, Zelig operates a scarred but serviceable Caruso Scorpione. It might not be top of the line anymore, but the light cannon in the waist mount of these attack planes can still tear down a fighter or brain a skywhale with equal ease. Exercise caution. Known Weaknesses: Opium and Prayer.
Francesca di Flores we have a little more information on, though her early exit from the military stronghold on the other side of the mountains leaves clear records somewhat lacking. We know that she departed with several squadmates, though they took very little equipment with them, though rumours surrounding the unregistered departure of Striker, a clockwork built from the remnants of her former commanding officer have cast some suspicion over their actions. Between them, however, they still have access to a fearsome asset; a fully operational Martinelli Biscione monoplane fighter. There might have been better tuned fighters built in the last decade, but good luck finding one. Known Weaknesses: Amphetamines and compulsive exercise.
So far this little crew have limited themselves to minor strikes against pirate forces, but in the hub that is the Span the scope and strangeness of work they might find is limited only barely by their ambition. Time will tell.
Pic is Dornier Do X by Tom Wigley on Flickr. CC A.
Buy Lee’s Book!
For those of you following along at home, you may have recognised that the Liberation Industries crew frequently leap headlong into creative endeavours, followed by screams, explosions and a great deal of boozy rambling close at their heels.
But after a spectacular chrysalis, the first instalment of Lee’s book series, The Ferryman’s Apprentice, is now available for you to possess! So for those among you who prefer something with physical mass, its your lucky day; head over to Amazon and check this out!
You can find more ways to support Lee at their website, Whimsy and Metaphor, including the book in both electronic and physical format, so… well , frankly, the more you support Lee the higher the number of Jury the Rigger’s clones you all get to meet. Ultimately its win-win.
Keep on rockin’, listeners (and readers).
Karma in the Dark: The Team
Having taken a look in our previous installments at the City and the Factions that we created for our Karma in the Dark game, its probably time that we took a look at our leads! The base unit of Karma is a team of crooks toeing the line between striving and selling out… and its these desperate folks that we’ll be following on their adventures.
The Laundry
Our group decided on a crew of Cleaners… that being cleaners in the Jean Reno sense, specializing cover-ups, frame jobs, and at the extreme end outright assassination. Their lair is tucked away in the guts of a long abandoned tower block in the labyrinthine heart of Metro East’s decaying coastal highrises. Though partially collapsed, the team is in the process of stripping the building for resources.
Having chosen Anarchy as their Ideal, they’re going to need all of the resources they can get… but with their Tenacious rep and a knack for getting others to take the blame for their misdeeds, if anybody’s going to get away with it.
Jury the Rigger (Tech Jockey)
The teams resident tech head and getaway driver, Jury grew up in the elegant surrounds of one of the Clan capsule communities until the orcish tusks and muscles manifested along with puberty. Packed away to a vocational education away from prying eyes, Jury makes most of his money as a mechanic down in the lower levels these days. Despite little hints of sentimentality for his upbringing, Jury prefers a world where people have a purpose of their own, rather than being viewed as disposable.
Rebellion: Consumerism, Virtue: Give new purpose to the forgotten, Look: Mechanic Chic
Evie (Mystic)
Having made an unceremonious exit from her Clan after an unforgivable betrayal, Evie refined her understanding of the Source to push her body past the limitations of the petty laws of physics. As a highborn and an elf, she enjoyed a more refined upbringing than her compatriots, which made the fall more even more scarring, leaving Evie distrustful and wary of authority structures. Admittedly, when you’re a Source-fueled brawler who can free-run up sheer glass walls, structures begin to feel less and less real.
Rebellion: Exploitation, Virtue: I keep my promises, Look: Goth Clergy, Jaded: Distrust
Bertrand (Shadow)
If a life spent in and out of prison taught Bertrand anything, it was how to keep his head down. With a knack for co-opting social groups and a will to collapse concentrated power, he knows that power isn’t established by violence or strength, but by having others willing to use those for you. Understated, unobtrusive and on the run, Bertrand acts as a parasite living in the body of large and dangerous factions, and for now remains undetected… only time will tell how much damage he can do.
Rebellion: Monopoly, Virtue: I will feed the hungry, Look: Grey and Greasy
Fixer: Granny Lock
The ageing matriarch of an ever larger clan of low grade street criminals, Granny Lock has her ear to a lot of keyholes, including a string of recent coffee dates with Doctor Pierce of the Tailors’ Union. Granny shifts seamlessly between nurturing and ruthless; she knows from harsh experience that the city runs on the law of the wild, but also that its impossible to survive there alone. To her, the team are somewhere between adopted wastrels and a tentative retirement plan… no sense letting such talent go to waste, after all…
Traits: Ambitious, Patient, Drive: Secure the family’s future, Circle: Organised Crime
Tune in this Sunday to see what happens when the City and the Team collide…
Karma in the Dark: The People
Having given a description of our future-Sydney, Metro East, in last weeks post, lets take a look at some of its inhabitants. Building factions is collaborative in Karma in the Dark, and you can basically make as many as you like. With our team of ne’er do wells inhabiting an abandoned building down near the flooded districts and the industrial zones, that strongly influenced the flavour of our factions, and Karma gives you a lively nest of vipers right out of the gate.
The Marine Patrol Corps (Police Faction)
A municipally funded force has the primary function of keeping a lid on any crime and unrest in the city’s vital aquacultural centres. Painfully underfunded and thinly stretched, the MPC would have their work cut out for them if it was just jittery unions they had to worry about; with the continuing campaign of sabotage perpetrated by the Circle of the Tides they are beginning to get desperate. Their shows of force might not be enough to stop the situation from boiling over… they need up to date gear and boots on the ground, fast, and they are getting rapidly less picky about who supplies those.
Drive: Order, Goal: Acquire Up to Date Hardware, Methods: Shock and Awe, Crackdowns
Relevance: 5 (Pervasive, Protective)
The Circle of the Tides (Arcane Faction)
A loose conclave of mystics, beast speakers and environmental extremists who have taken the Outbreak’s mission to annihilate technology as their own, seeking to defend a natural world that each day grows more complex and dangerous with each day. With extensive knowledge of the city’s flooded districts, powerful magic and a bestiary of awakened animals at their disposal, they seek to rid the coastline of exploitative resource extraction and return to the world to a state of balance. Viewed by some outsiders as misguided and others as a deranged death-cult, the Circle nonetheless continues its mission in places where those same outsiders would struggle to survive.
Drive: Defend the Natural World, Goal: Disrupt the Kelp Farms, Method: Secrecy, Hit and Run
Relevance: 3
The Circus Maximus (Entertainment Faction)
The Circus is a loose alliance of celebrities, entertainers and their myriad support staff, driven by the whims of the Oligarchs’ patronage and sharpened by their precarious position. With the favour of the great clans comes some of the benefits they enjoy, including the coveted biotech and longevity treatments… as long as one can hold the spotlight. Their power comes from being able to make or break reputations, and cultivation of powerful friends… though some whisper their attempts to secure monopoly rights in the burgeoning international market are their first step in replacing the nobility they have imitated for so long.
Drive: Power, Goal: Acquire an export monopoly, Method: Social Engineering
Relevance: 5 (Pervasive, Trendsetting)
Circus Maximus Agent: Clint Burgundy
Clint was one of the beautiful people once, but that was a long time ago. With the good life of sex, drugs and loud music having turned him into something of a greasy walnut of a human male, he clings on to his place in C-Max as a broker, enabler and troubleshooter. The team has landed on his Shit List due to their cover-up activities… if there’s a PR clusterfuck looming, Clint wants to be the one in control of it.
The Tailor’s Union (Crime Faction)
In Metro East, the rich get access to tailored bioware, and the finest medical care that can be found. For everyone else… there’s the Tailor’s Union. Where there is a demand a supply will surface soon enough, and the Union have a strong hand in keeping the city’s poor and desperate alive, running the black clinics, pharmaceutical smuggling and illegal cybernetics that keep the human element from breaking down. The fact that they cement this position with a merciless network of blackmail and a small army of augmented assassins has not done anything to hurt their reputation.
Drive: Expand criminal empire, Goal: Inflitrate the MPC, Method: Secrecy and Terror
Relevance: 4 (Consuming)
Tailor’s Union Agent: “Doctor” Francis Pierce
A quiet, almost monkish demeanour hides the scalpel sharp mind of “Doctor” Pierce, with the willowy troll being perhaps the most capable surgeon ever to have their license revoked. Not cruel, or malicious, they might best be described as efficient, whether in an improvised operating room or aboard a smuggling sub… and they owe the team one, on account of some help with some personal problems…
Artemis Pharmaceutical Futures (Corp Faction)
The local branch of APF has seen better days… a long way from their patron’s heartland, the lab has been struggling to produce the results that they need to avoid being written off as a loss come next review. The Head of Research is going to need to get creative… especially after a rather nasty chemical spill that they may or may not have been responsible for. There’s a lot to worry about, but Artemis aren’t to be written off just yet; they might not be a big lab, but their parent corporation doesn’t like competitors messing with their assets…
Drive: Secure more funding for research, Goal: Cover up recent accident, Method: Market Manipulation
Relevance: 4 (Protective)
Tune in next week, and we’ll meet the team!
-Paddy
Liberation Industries 