The Kerberos Club, that great pile of mouldering stone in the otherwise respectable Square of Saint James, is refuge for the Empire’s monsters and broken heroes. It is sanctuary and sometimes home to those who have gazed too long into the darkness and those who have been touched by the Strange. Occasionally members of the club join together to confront threats to the unsuspecting peoples of the Empire. Of course, most of those good Victorians consider the Club to be the worst sort of disreputable, but Kerberans all have their own reasons for doing things. There is every reason for the club’s motto: MALUM NECESSARIUM. In this exciting adventure, a trio from the Club tackles a most vexing dilemma. Top scientists have been kidnapped by mysterious forces and only the Kerberos Club can solve the mystery. Their investigation reveals a villain they would have never suspected!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:15:17 — 89.4MB)
Subscribe: RSS
oh. oh, no. if Unhallowed Metropolis is the unlikely awesome intersection of two genres I hate, zombies and Victoriana, Kerberos Club is apparently the quintessentialization of why two genres I hate, Victoriana and superheroes, are each independently awful, and worse when combined. can’t even begin to even.
While I understand how Victorianna is a polarizing set piece, especially after the Steampunk renaissance (I prefer my Steampunk mixed with sword-and-sorcery and my Victorianna with period accurate poisonings and sexual politics) may I request clarification towards the superhero hate? I feel like the RPPR crew covers the spectrurm from four color to nihilistic realism on an episode to episode basis, so there should exist an episode for everyone.
Also, how do you make it through these so quickly? This episode came out late and is longer than the entire performance of Les Miserables I just came from. Made me think of David, those outfits did.
Aww, thank you Thes! Is that because im…
Master of the puns, wearer of the grape,
Luck so bleedin’ scary it’s been caught on tape!
Folder of the trash, knows of the wrong,
Singer of the slightly off-key song
Everybody’s favorite Big Guy, combat monsterby my choice!
Just listen in and cheer when you hear my sultry smoker voice~
I was a little disappointed there wasn’t a “monkey on your back” joke/aspect when Caleb carries Aaron around. Also, is it just me or does Caleb’s Cockney accent kind if shift towards Australian at times?
I gave up very early in. =P
@Noah
It’s not just you. My accent is absolutely terrible. I apologize, but sometimes you just have to go all in.
In fairness, an Australian accent is similar to a cockney accent (or a cockney accent from 250 years ago — so the Dickensian cockney is somewhere between modern cockney and Australian in some ways). The biggest differences I notice when I fake the two is that I keep my mouth closed more for a cockney accent. If I try to do a cockney accent while grinning widely, it sounds Australian.
@Caleb
No need to apologize, just making sure I wasn’t going nuts. Your dedication to the role is commendable and the whole game was a fun listen.
Ada Lovelace!!!!! You referenced Lovelace, you get the win, the ultimate win.
In the transhuman future when apes are actually uplifted, your APs will be considered just as offensive as blackface. 😛
I’m curious why in this episode and in the Base Raiders episodes you guys are declaring your Fate point spends before you roll. Is that a house rule or something? Not sure about Kerberos Club but in Fate Core and in Base Raiders you normally only invoke aspects after rolling if you are unsatisfied with your result. I seem to recall Caleb wasting perfectly good Fate points on a +2 when the roll was still unsuccessful, but he should have been allowed to re-roll if he had announced it after the fact. I also seem to recall reading that the fact it is after the roll is fairly important because the point of Fate points is to cede some narrative control to players.
I don’t remember there being a definitive rule for when to invoke an aspect; I think the general rule is it is best to wait until after the roll, but if it makes sense for the player to invoke an aspect prior to the role (usually for a role-playing reason), then they should. I generally invoke an aspect prior to the roll because I tend to find it more dramatic storytelling; just because you are invoking something you are good at is more of an internal character decision, not a guarantee that it WILL go well.
Fun session. I particularly enjoyed Drew’s grand plan to summon the enemy’s guardian demon for them. There also seemed to be a greater sense of danger/threat than in some Fate games, which is great.
It does say to use fate points after the roll in the Base Raiders rules – look at page 96. I don’t remember stating that they had to spend ahead of time, but I think we were subconsciously using the rules from Wild Talents, where willpower had to be spent before the roll.
I think most of the time players just declared their use before they rolled. I didn’t stop them though.
So, when is RPPR going to play Continuum?
Caleb could just keep Stoney Smithson – he’s demonstrated some understanding of the concept – and I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say that watching him come up with one of his trademark machinations with the added dimension of time travel would be a wonderful experiance.
Besides, I don’t know anyone brave enough to even attempt Continuum, so watching it vicariously through RPPR may be all the chance I get.
Really enjoyed the game, funny how Caleb made all sorts of roleplaying being too strong while Aaron nearly had to be forced by Ross to aknowledge he was a chimp.
I wasn’t sold on superheroes either but heroe sof new arcadia and many baseraider games have shown me that it can be done well. I really don’t get skipping on a game entirely because of it’s genre but whatever.
Considering that the enjoyable game of Base Raiders is based somewhat off Kerberos Club, this doesn’t surprise me too much but excited to see more adventures in the Victorian superhero time period if this keeps going. Even if the accents were off, everyone did a great job of sticking with the character mindset so if the accents help, go with it. Main point, everyone having fun. I like how Caleb didn’t quite get his barbarian character yet but an everyman works too & did a good job with him as well as everyone else, the cast of characters is quite compelling to see what happens next as well as any backstory on how they wound up how they are now.
Not trying to spoil it too much, but the ending reminds me vaguely of the ending of the Cloud from Freakazoid but a lot funnier & makes this worth listening to. Also once they were out of London in the Victorian era I’m surprised people didn’t die from all the harmful fresh air full of deadly freshness. Next mission might just be going back & finding out what the hell is wrong with the clouds making them white & that glowing orb in the sky.
I can see the Freakazoid similarities a bit.
but goddamn, that was a terrific listen. even with pregens (yes, I’ve been skimming the book) the group really shone, and interesting story and all. all in all, Caleb as a cockney Benn Grim loudly defending the principals of Christian babies and fine proper English whalers while condemning the witchcraft that is electricity was probably the highlight of the whole game
I think someone should acknowledge David’s song lyrics comment for being awesome. So I will.
I adored this one, it was just a lot of fun!