Cruelty and Gothic Tales (A remake of based on Wuthering Heights roleplay By Philippe Tromeur)

Cruelty and Gothic Tales
By Eldrad Wolfsbane

Set in a Victorian World somewhere in time on The Misty Continent. There are five giant cities of the Misty Continent and these are their Gothic tales.

Based on Wuthering Heights roleplay By Philippe Tromeur

Introduction
This is a game of Gothic Tales. Victorian novels like Wuthering Heights are the inspiration.

Disclaimer
In all the rules, the male gender (he, his, etc.) will be used for our examples. This of course implies the game is not suited for the feeble minds of our ladies.
This work deals with such themes as murder, suicide, cruelty, despair, liaisons, and sexual desires for the sole purpose of entertainment.

Persona Creation
Throw two 10-sided dice and add 39 to obtain your amount of Rage/Calm.
Throw two 10-sided dice and add 39 to obtain your amount of Despair/Happiness.
Throw two 10-sdied dice and add 39 to obtain your amount of Scandal/Standing.
Throw one 10-sided die and add 15 to obtain your Youth/Oldness. Unless some special Problem, this is exactly your Age.

Problems
Throw one 10-sided die. This is how many Problems you have.
Determine each Problem by throwing 1d100 and referencing to the Problem Table. If you roll twice the same problem, you should either double the effect, or roll another problem. You may refuse a problem ; each time you do that, you must roll 2 problems in its stead.

Other Details
Choose a Name, such as Archibold, Radcliffe, Reginald, or whatever you can think of.

Choose clothing according to background.

Each player starts out with 1-100 x $5000 if Aristocratic.

If not Aristocratic you have $1-100 and are looking for money.

There are 2-20 manors in each country area and thousands in each city.

Each Manor has 3-30 rooms. Each manor cost $1000 per room per month in the city and $100 x 1d10 (depending on how far out) a month in the country. If you don't pay rent roll Scandal/Standing. If Scandal you get kicked out and if Standing you get credit. A fumble means the house is destroyed by disaster. Houses cost twenty times their monthly rent and can be a part of wealth. Family members can combine their money and create even bigger manors but will have each persons problems giving and taking away from the situation. The poor are paid for by the rich or they stay out in the barn.

Now you are done and may start playing.
Problem Table
01 You are a drug addict (1 hour a day)
02 You are honest
03 You are in love with someone from your family (Mother, Brother ...) 10
04 You are a sex addict (once a day)
05 You smoke (12 hours a day)
06 You gamble (2 hours a day)
07 You play the bagpipes (1 hour a day)
08 You sing (1 hour a day)
09 You play the piano (1 hour a day)
11 You are a poet (4 hours a day)
12 You read too much (8 hours a day)
13 You dress improperly
14 You are poor
15 You are unhealthy (double your Oldness but not your Age)
16 You are old (double your Oldness, with your Age)
17 You are naive
18 You are a bad guy
19 You are a of some strange foreign relegion
20 You are a catholic
21 You are a foreigner of low social status
22 You are a of a Wandering People and have no country
23 You are obsessed by the occult
24 You are ugly
25 You have a bad sight
26 You are small
27 You are bald
28 You are thin
29 You are fat
30 You are illiterate
31 You are mute
32 You are hemophiliac (triple your Oldness only when Wounded)
33 You are deaf
34 You are an albino (without a big sword) 40
35 You are a bastard of a noble
36 You are a bastard of a prince
37 You are a bastard of the king
38 You are a bully
39 You are a child and you must throw one 10-sided die and add 5 to obtain your Youth/Oldness.
40 You are a complete fake as you dressed in fancy clothing when the guest returned
41 You are a courtesan
42 You are a devil worshiper
43 You are a dwarf
44 You are a fairy
45 You are a foreign spy
46 You are a foreigner from an unknown land
47 You are a gentleman/lady thief
48 You are a giant
49 You are a hermaphrodite
50 You are a hunchback
51 You are a lawyer
52 You are a loan shark
53 You are a martial artist
54 You are a medium and can see and speak top the dead just not very clear
55 You are a pirate and have a pirate ship
56 You are a priest
57 You are a rapist
58 You are a simpleton
59 You are a spy
60 You are a vampire and all it's strength and weaknesses and you get one additional Rage/Calm roll in combat and double your money
61 You are a vampire hunter and everyone is suspect 88
62 You are a veteran of a terrible war
63 You are a war hero
64 You are a werewolf
65 You are an alcoholic (5 pints a day)
66 You are an exorcist
67 You are an homosexual
68 You are an invalid
69 You are an opium addict
70 You are blind
71 You are deformed
72 You are devil possessed
73 You are formal noble turned servant 60
74 You are gifted with visions and dreams of the future.
75 You are incredible beautiful/hansom
76 You are of a political view that favors the owners of business and the elites'
77 You are of a political view that has everyone equal and the state owns and shares everything
78 You are of noble blood but not noble heir
79 You are sadistic
80 You are without a family
81 You belong to a heretical sect or religion
82 You cry very easily
83 You do fortune telling
84 You gamble (2 hours a day) and owe $1-100 x $1-100 to loan sharks
85 You have a delicate stomach (roll Oldness after each meal not to vomit or have diarrhea)
86 You have a good twin
87 You have an evil twin
88 You have complete amnesia
89 You have escaped from the asylum
90 You have syphilis
91 You have terrible nightmares where you wake up screaming Roll all attributes for various effect (Game Master's choice)
92 You look just like a recent murder victim
93 You own a train line 94
94 You were a war criminal and have just returned from prison
95 You were injured in combat and are a eunuch because of it
96 Your business deals have failed and you owe $1-10 Million
97 Your family died in a terrible accident and some blame you for it
98 Your family is rumored to participate in vile things such as incest, cannibalism, and devil worship
99 Your family needs to die in a terrible accident as they are horrible people
00 Your family suffers from a horrible curse

Basic Rule
You hay two ways to Check a Quality. Roll above. Roll below.
If the roll equals your Quality, it's a Fumble. A romantic Fumble should make one's life a real pain ...

Rage/Calm Checks
A violent action requires the Persona should roll below his Rage/Calm
To refrain from reacting too violently, a Persona should roll above his Rage/Calm

Despair/Happiness Checks
To make an important decision the Persona should roll above his Despair/Happiness
To be sincere, a Persona should roll below his Despair/Happiness

Scandal/Standing
Each week you roll Scandal/Standing. If it is Scandal then you loose 1-1000 x $1000. If Standing you gain 1-10 x $5000. A fumble is all money lost. This is not to mention the cost of parties and other expenses.

Youth/Oldness Checks
To test his wisdom, one should roll below his Youth/Oldness
To test his physical well-being, one should Surpass his Youth/Oldness

Duel
Both would roll below their Rage/Calm.
Should one succeed and the other fail, the latter gets a Wound (see below)
Should both succeed, both lose 1 Rage point and the duel keeps on, if both would agree.
Should both fail, they stop the duel and become friends, or something like that. They would not fight again for 1d10 days.
Whatever the other's result, a Fumble shall give you a Wound.
If both Fumble, both are Wounded

Murder
The murderer should roll below his Rage/Calm twice.
Two successes mean a perfect Murder
One success and a failure mean only a Wound
Two Failures mean you couldn't do such an horrible act. Lose 1 Rage/Calm, gain 1 Despair/Happiness
One Fumble means you killed someone else, but not your intended victim. Lose 1d10 Rage/Calm, gain 1d10 Despair/Happiness.
Two Fumbles mean you killed the wrongest person (your true love if possible). Lose 1d10 Rage/Calm, gain 1d10 Despair/Happiness.

Wound
A Wounded Persona should roll above his Youth/Oldness. The die roll is modified by the kind of weapon.
punch          d100 + 20       2 meter fall
knife, stick   d100 + 10       5 meter fall
sword, pistol  d100            10 meter fall
rifle          d100 - 10       20 meter fall
cannon         d100 - 20       50 meter fall
A failure means the Persona is Dying
A fumble means Death, after the death speech, of course.

Dying
A dying Persona must try to roll above his Oldness every night.
Two successive successful nights bring you back to life.
Two successive failures kill you.
The roll is modified by the conditions.
battlefield        d100 - 15
at home, in bed    d100
hospital         d100 + 15

Suicide
Once Despair/Happiness reaches 90 or above, the Persona must Murder himself.
If he fails, he loses 1d10 Rage.

Mania
If Despair/Happiness reaches 10 or below, the Persona is happy and spends the days doing useless but funny things.
After that, he gains back 1d10 Despair/Happiness.

Madness
If Rage/Calm ever reaches 90 or above, the Persona must try a very risky task.
After that, he loses d10 Rage/Calm.

Zen
If Rage/Calm ever drops to 10 or below, the Persona loses all energy and must spend the day reading, meditating, dreaming...
After that, he gains 1d10 Rage/Calm.

Ghost
If a persona dies before the end of a Tragedy, he might become a Ghost, 2d10 minutes of gameplay later. A Ghost may act on the physical world by rolling below his Rage/Calm and losing d10 points of Rage/Calm after that. He may appear and speak to one other character by rolling below his Despair/Happiness and losing d10 points of Despair/Happiness after that. Ghosts can fly slowly, but can't go through solid objects. They disappear when their Rage/Calm or Despair/Happiness reaches 10 or below, or at the end of the Tragedy. They never gain Rage/Calm or Despair/Happiness.

Emotional Shocks
During a Tragedy (an 'adventure'), the persona will go up and down Rage/Calm and Despair/Happiness scales.
A strong shock (death of a friend ...) will make you gain / lose 2d10 points in Rage/Calm or Despair/Happiness.
An important event (love success / failure, death of someone ...) make you gain / lose 1d10 points
Some events / situations may make you gain / lose 1 point (good / bad weather, small success / failure).
Aging
Every Christmas, the Persona must roll above his Oldness ; a failure means he shall be Dying d10 x d10 days later.
A Fumble means a heart attack (death).
Once a year the Persona has 20% to gain a new Problem. Re-roll if not feasible.

Rewards / Evolution
Should some persona survive a novel (a gaming session), give one of them the possibility to lose a Problem.
If a persona's Rage/Calm or Despair/Happiness is greater than 55, they lose 1d10 points.
If a persona's Rage/Calm or Despair/Happiness is less than 45, they gain 1d10 points.
Add 1d10 to your Youth/Oldness (1d10 years pass) at the end of each story with a scene of reflection.

Story Ideas
Attending a funeral then the reading of the will
On a holiday in the country with many grand balls and intrigue
In the city during the party holiday season
In the country during a great storm
On a train heading to or from the country
You are in a carriage to or from the city
In the city during war
Escaping to the country from war
Plague in the city!
Foreign spies in the midst

The Misty Continent

The Five Great Cities
Par Rees – The great old and ancient city were the people are similar to the French. They are always having wars and revolutions.
Lon Dun – The island of the kings very much like the English right of the coast. They are sometimes at war and mostly have noble houses fighting each other in their dreary moorland island.
Vin Ace – The Mountain Country of gingerbread houses and mountain top manors and castles. They have many wars with the Bear Lindens.
Bear Lin – The land of wolves and bears with large dark forest and remote manors far out in the wilderness.
Roam – The holy city of the holy church. There are many battles between the church and the heretics but unlike in ages past it is mostly political scandals and sabotage of businesses. The manors are the escapes from the turmoil.

Every city has thousands of country areas that are 1-10 days away. The farther the cheaper with the prices going from $1000 a room to a mere $100 a room. The average price is $500 at five days away from the city.