Imagine a world where the First World War never ended and the Bolshevik Revolution never happened. Inspired in equal parts by
Girl Genius,
The Laundry Files,
Paranoia, and
Unhallowed Metropolis, engineers and arcanists battle zombies in the Imperial Court of an alternate-universe magical Russia. It is 1920 and the Motherland is besieged by undead armies from the west. You are a machine wizard. Your project group is charged with developing archanotech devices to save Russia from the undead hordes while maneuvering through an increasingly treacherous political landscape, keeping secrets from rival groups, avoiding and engaging in sabotage, and somehow attaining dire Rasputin's blessing to present your finished magical machine of war to the Imperial Court.
Snow falls over St. Petersburg or, as it has been known for the last six years, Petrograd. In the distance you can hear the big guns, but war with the Germans has yet to touch the capital. The center of Russian art and culture continues what the French used to call
La Belle Époque (when there was still a France). For six long years, the Great War has ground onwards, with ever more unconventional weapons being used. In the west, the Germans have stalled in protracted trench warfare against the might of British wizardry and the new tanks, and have turned their undead armies to the east. Though outmatched by the magic of the Imperial Starets led by Rasputin, every soldier that falls adds to the German ranks. They now control Ida-Viru County and advance towards the city. Desperate, and desperate not to seem so, Tsar Nicholas II has reached out to any who might be able to save Mother Russia.
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Seeking to reboot after letting the game lie fallow for a time. Lurkers and/or kibitzers are invited as well. Your application for a kibitzing role
must include a brief list of faction types which interest you. Read the series pitch's
Adversaries section for ideas, at this
link to a message in another game. If accepted, you shall be assigned a faction to run or allowed to pitch one of your own creation. Kibitzers should read the two articles below, and be familiar with the tropes of alternate histories.
Iron Tsar is rated ADULT more for the level of maturity expected of players than for actual content. My intended tone will be darkly comic, in keeping with Russian fatalism, so while grimdark to an extent there will be much absurdity. Life, after all, is farce.
