This is another old Space: 1889 adventure which ran in Challenge magazine. I wanted to write a scenario which captured some of the feel of 19th Century Utopian science fiction, in which the bulk of the story is a tour of the wonderful new society. William Pene DuBois's The Twenty-One Balloons is a note-perfect pastiche of that subgenre.
The bizarre society of Technopolis in this article turned up in real life during an interview with a local political candidate I saw on public-access cable in Ithaca around 1998 or so. The candidate was full of big ideas for improving the life of the town. As far as I could make out, he wanted to centralize everything which was dispersed (city lawnmowing services so townsfolk wouldn't have hundreds of mowers sitting in garages leaking oil), and he wanted to decentralize everything which was concentrated (replacing the "Stalinist" municipal snowplows with neighborhood kids using snowblowers).
This is exactly the guiding principle of Technopolis I used years earlier. Things which are most efficient when centralized (like railroads) are in every home. Things which work best spread out (like lighting or food preparation) are done in a single main plant. The villain plot simply popped right out of the situation. Note that in the article I was deliberately trying to be funny. The guy in Ithaca was dead serious.
So, for your edification, here is
THE CITY OF TOMORROW:
A Space: 1889 Adventure
by James L. Cambias
FURY OF THE TEMPEST
This adventure begins with the player-characters travelling on Earth by ship. Their destination is unimportant; all that matters is that the voyage takes them across an ocean. For now, it will be assumed that they are taking ship across the Atlantic.
At about the midpoint of the voyage, a terrible storm strikes. The fierce winds and waves pound the ship mercilessly. The fury of the tempest is too much for the vessel to take. She begins taking on water, and starts to go down. The Captain gives the order to man the lifeboats.
The passengers rush for the lifeboats. Though the PCs will undoubtedly follow the rule of ladies and children first, others among the passengers are less chivalrous. A group of ruffians from Second Class will try to seize one boat for themselves, and must be prevented by force. All around are scenes of terrible confusion and panic. Children are crying, men fighting, and above it all is the roar of the wind.
Tragically, there are not enough boats for all. Women and obviously elderly or infirm male PCs will be able to get seats in the lifeboats, but healthy men must take their chances in the water. As the ship starts to go down for the last time, there is plenty of loose wreckage and flotsam in the water for characters to grab hold of.
All Ashore: All night the PCs are tossed in the foaming waves. But as dawn approaches, the weather begins to calm. In the dim morning light, the characters can see an island in the distance. Happily, the currents appear to be pushing the castaways towards the island. Characters skilled at navigation will be puzzled, for the charts show no island anywhere near the ship's course.
Wet, exhausted, and chilled to the bone, the PCs reach the shore of the island and collapse on the beach. They can see no sign of life. None of the other boats can be seen (fortunately, the other boats were all rescued during the night by a passing steamer; only a few lives were lost).
THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND
After the characters have had a chance to rest and recover their strength, they will want to look around. The beach on which they are lying rises to meet a dense thicket of trees and shrubbery, which appears to cover the entire island. As they are considering what to do, a strange sound is heard from behind the trees. It grows louder as a mysterious machine comes into view.
The apparatus appears to be a small carriage mounted on four jointed legs, the whole thing powered by a steam engine noisily puffing away. When its occupant spies the castaways, he gives a shout of surprise, dismounts, and rushes over.
The man is Yoshi Tanaka. Though he is Japanese he speaks perfect English. Tanaka will help any injured characters or NPCs into his steam walker, and lead the castaways to a concealed road through the jungle. If anyone asks where they are going, he will answer, simply, "Technopolis."
THE CITY OF SCIENCE
After a mile, the jungle ends, revealing a large central valley laid out in neat fields. In the center is a city of pristine white buildings. The adventurers may notice as they pass the fields that each plant is covered by a glass bell, with several tubes and pipes leading to main lines running between the rows. In one field of tomatoes, a group of people are carefully replacing the glass covers on the plants with larger ones. Tanaka explains that the glass covers protect the crops from the elements, and allow each plant to be individually heated and watered.
At the edge of the city, the player-characters and Tanaka will be met by a crowd of people, of all nationalities. Everyone is dressed alike, in jumpsuits of some heavy gray fabric. The leader of the community is Dr. Clayton Forrester, the Chief Manager. He quickly directs various citizens to take charge of the castaways. Each refugee will be housed in the home of a citizen of Technopolis.
Dr. Forrester welcomes the refugees to the city. "Welcome to the city of the future! Technopolis! Where we have used science to create a land of peace and prosperity for all!"
WONDERS OF TECHNOPOLIS
Dr. Forrester is unmarried, and so can host two or three player-characters in his own home. Other characters can stay with the Barranza family next door. Unmarried ladies will be housed with the Jackson sisters, a pair of spinsters. Everyone will be given a chance to rest, a change of clothes, and a hot meal. Then Dr. Forrester will lead the visitors on a tour of Technopolis.
The city is filled with super-scientific wonders. They are summarized below; all are very Victorian and slightly loopy. New inventions have their Knowledge Area, required knowledge level, and Reliability modifier listed in parentheses. Referees are encouraged to add devices of their own creation. All should be slightly impractical.
Transportation: Many of the pedestrians on the sidewalks of Technopolis wear clockwork-powered rollerskates, so that they can travel at a walking pace without any effort (Transportation 5, -1). All the streets have narrow-gauge railroad tracks running down the middle, and the Technopolitans travel about within the city aboard small locomotives. The air is filled with the sound of bells and whistles. Each house has its own railroad siding.
For rapid travel to distant sites on the island, such as the submarine harbor or the defensive emplacements, there are pneumatic tubes which blast the passenger along using compressed air (there are three sizes of tube -- for small, medium, and large passengers). Tube passengers travel unprotected, and often arrive mussed by the air.
Travel on rough terrain is accomplished with steam walkers, like the one Tanaka was riding when he first encountered the castaways (25, 2).
Home Life: Each house is surmounted by a device like a giant umbrella. This collapsible canopy protects the dwelling from rain and sun. The beds in each house are fitted with sheets woven from asbestos, so that they can be cleaned and sterilized in a flaming furnace. Bathtubs come equipped with a steam-driven scrubbing-machine, which briskly cleans the occupant using stiff brushes and strong soap (Precision Machinery 4, -1). The houses are heated by steam-heat, provided from the central steam-plant. All the homes must be heated to the same temperature, so there are daily votes on the heat level. Many citizens supplement the steam heat by wearing clothes containing battery-operated electric heating fibers (Electricity 6, 2). Light is provided to all the homes by powerful searchlights mounted atop the powerplant. According to Dr. Forrester, this simulates the light of the Sun, and is more healthy than lamplight. The blinding searchlights are controlled from their target homes by a telegraph device.
Food and Drink: For ease in storage, all foodstuffs on the island are kept in a dehydrated state, reduced to a fine powder (Biochemistry 6, -2). Huge bins of dehydrated foods are kept in the central kitchen. At any time, the Technopolitans can request meals from the kitchen via telegraph. The dehydrated food is reconstituted, heated, and fired to the customer through a powerful pneumatic tube. The result is that all meals in Technopolis consist of variously-flavored pale brown mush.
Communication: The Technopolitans have almost completely abandoned writing with pens and pencils. Instead, each home is equipped with a compact typesetting machine and printing-press. Dr. Forrester explains that this allows copies to be kept of everything one writes. Books are printed on huge rolls of paper, so that they can be set up on a mechanical page-reel, which rolls the sheets past the reader at a constant rate (Precision Machinery 1, -2). Daily news for the island is displayed on a huge screen atop the power-plant, using a magic-lantern device. Each house is fitted with a telegraph device, for comminication with the other homes. Everyone in Technopolis is highly skilled at sending Morse code.
Society and Politics: Dr. Forrester explains that there is no crime on the island, because everyone has access to wonderful scientific luxuries. There are not even any weapons. The entire city of Technopolis is protected by batteries of powerful steam-cannons, equivalent to 10-inch naval guns, but with a much higher rate of fire (Power Production 20, 4; rate of fire equals Reliability).
The basic unit of currency in Technopolis is the Pound -- not the British pound, but the Pound of steam-pressure. A Technopolitan pound-note represents 1 hour of steam at 1 PSI, and is worth about a penny. Consequently all prices in Technopolis will initially seem outrageous, as they are based on the amount of power used to manufacture the items.
The chief industry of Technopolis is invention. Most of the residents are inventors, and share half of the royalties from their inventions with the community. This means that the citizens are forever testing out bizarre devices, often in the middle of the night.
Technopolis is governed by a committee of managers, each of whom is responsible for one part of running the community. There is a Power Manager, a Farms Manager, a Housing Manager, and so on. Clayton Forrester is the Chief Manager. All the managers are elected, but there are no campaigns or parties. Each candidate in an election merely sends his résumé and a policy statement to all the voters, and the people make their decision based on that information.
At present, society in Technopolis is very much like that of America or Europe. A few of the more radical citizens have proposed experiments with "social inventions" such as Anarchism, Socialism, Free Love, or allowing women to vote. So far none of these have been implemented.
ENTER THE SERPENT
But the player-characters are not the only survivors of the shipwreck on the island. One boat was commandeered by "Roaring" Frank Nelson and his gang of ruffians. They washed up elsewhere on the shore of the island, and were not discovered by the inhabitants. While the PCs are being shown the sights, Roaring Frank and his men will be spying on the city and making sinister plans.
The night after the characters have had their tour of the city, Roaring Frank and his men will strike. Stealthily slipping through the streets of Technopolis, they will reach the central power-plant and barricade themselves inside. Control of the steam plant gives them total control of the city; nothing works without power. Even the mighty steam-cannons are silent.
Using the magic-lantern device, Roaring Frank issues his demands: he is to be made King of the city, and everyone will do as he says from now on. If the people agree, he will restore power. Otherwise, not a wisp of steam will come from the plant. Without steam, there is no light, no heat, no water, and no food for the city. The citizens will not be able to resist more than a few days.
Roaring Frank's real plan is to make Technopolis a haven for criminals. It is not on any maps, and with the advanced weapons designed by the citizens, Technopolis can be made impregnable against attack. Wanted men from all over the world will flock to this refuge, safe from the law and equipped with all modern conveniences to boot. Nelson plans to keep most of the current citizens in Technopolis, to serve himself and his criminal friends. The City of Tomorrow will become the City of Criminals.
BATTLE FOR TECHNOPOLIS
The citizens of Technopolis are completely at a loss. With no weapons, they are helpless to resist Roaring Frank. They have not even so much as a carving-knife. In addition, very few of the Technopolitans are skilled at fighting. Most are inventors and scientists -- men of peace.
It seems that the player-characters may be the last hope of Technopolis. If they have any personal weapons, they can fight Roaring Frank and his men. Perhaps half a dozen Technopolitans will also volunteer to fight, arming themselves with croquet mallets, letter-openers, and tree branches. Nobody has any knowledge of tactics, so the PCs must devise a plan of attack.
Attack on the Power Plant: Roaring Frank and his men have barricaded themselves inside the powerplant. (See the floorplan.) It is a huge, windowless brick building at the center of Technopolis. The plant has numerous skylights, and two large steel doors. The doors are shut, but have no locks.
Inside the plant there are a dozen thugs, all of them are armed with knives. One man at each entrance is armed with a heavy revolver. At any time, half of the villains will be on guard duty, while the remainder rest. The thugs are all Veteran NPCs, with high physical attributes. They are all terrified of Roaring Frank, and will not give up until he does.
CONCLUSION
Once Technopolis has been saved from the threat of Roaring Frank's gang, the player-characters will be heroes. The citizens will tend any injuries, and send the PCs back to civilization aboard the city's submarine. And they will be entrusted with the greatest secret of Technopolis: the coordinates of the island. Should they ever return, they will be welcomed. But they must promise never to reveal the secret of Technopolis to the outside world.
DR. CLAYTON FORRESTER (Green NPC)
Dr. Forrester was one of the founders of Technopolis, and is its most enthusiastic proponent. As Chief Manager he is responsible for making long-range plans for the community, and co-ordinating the work of the other managers. He is merely the chief administrator, and by no means is the "ruler" of the city.
Forrester is very optimistic about science and progress. He dreams that someday the whole world will be as happy and advanced as Technopolis. Dr. Forrester is himself a talented inventor, with many devices to his credit. His Steam-Cannon keep Technopolis safe from outside attack. Dr. Forrester still has one Intellect die to use creating new inventions.
Motives: Knowledge, Ambitious, Friendly.
Appearance: Dr. Forrester is a short, slim, long-faced man with a shock of grey hair and a heavy mustache. He wears thick spectacles, and is never armed.
Attribute Skills
Str: 1
Agl: 4 Stealth 3, Mechanics 2 (machinist)
End: 2 Wilderness Travel 1 (mapping)
Int: 6 Observation 6, Science 6 (physics), Engineering 4 (Naval
Architecture)
Chr: 3 Eloquence 2, Linguistics 2 (German, Japanese)
Soc: 5 Riding 4 (horse), Leadership 2
Research Areas: Power Production 22, Biochemistry 15, Metallurgy 14, Combustion 13, Precision Machinery 11, Transportation 7, Ether 5.
Inventions: Steam-Cannon, Reliability 3; Dehydrated Food, Reliability 5; Steam Turbine, Reliability 4.
"ROARING" FRANK NELSON (Veteran NPC)
From the slums of Whitechapel in London to the South Pacific, Roaring Frank Nelson is known and despised wherever he goes. He has never earned an honest cent in his life, preferring to gamble, swindle, smuggle, steal, cheat, or forge his way through the world. Roaring Frank openly bullies anyone weaker than himself, and treacherously plots against those he cannot terrorize. The fact that he is cunning as well as strong makes him very dangerous.
Motives: Liar, Greedy, Boastful.
Appearance: Roaring Frank Nelson is a huge man, with a massive chest and thick tattooed arms. His voice is deep and thunderous, and he seldom speaks in anything but a shout. His little eyes are sharp and treacherous. Roaring Frank always carries a heavy revolver, and keeps a Derringer hidden in his sleeve.
Attributes: Skills:
Str: 6 Fisticuffs 5, Throwing 3, Close Combat 4 (edged)
Agl: 4 Stealth 3, Mechanics 1 (steam), Marksmanship 2 (pistol), Crime 3 (forgery)
End: 4 Wilderness Travel 3 (mountaineering), Swimming 2
Int: 5 Observation 5, Gunnery 1 (BLC)
Chr: 2 Eloquence 1, Linguistics 2 (Malay, Samoan), Bargaining 1
Soc: 1 Piloting 1 (sailing craft)
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