Resources for Into London 1814

QUÆ SUNT CÆSARIS, CÆSARI

I'm not the only one writing stuff on the internet, as it appears. Not even the only one writing RPG stuff, can you imagine! And others also have great ideas!
So instead of 1) stealing the stuff or 2) reinventing the wheel, I decided to make this post to list the tables, influences, and works I used to build Into London 1814 or while running it.

English Speaking resources

• One very important source of inspiration is the Series Taboo, by and with Tom Hardy. The atmosphere, the intrigues, the treatment of the supernatural aspects, the costumes, and the sceneries are the reason why I wanted to make Into London 1814.
• Other founding stones are found in the "Tales of the Grotesque & Dungeonesque" by Jack W. Shear. His book contains rules, random tables, new spells, new monsters, and a campaign setting for Gothic Fantasy adventures. I don't use the rules, but some part of the universe are perfect for Into London 1814 (at least the D100 occupation table). And Jack really does know his gothic literature, he's a really solid source for this kind of ambience
• One thing Taboo got right was how filthy London was back then. But since Taboo is TV, the smell is missing... Dirty Old London: The Victorian Fight Against Filth by Lee Jackson might only be a book, but you'll literally will feel dirty reading how dirty London was, back then (and how long it took to make it less of a cesspool)
• Not citing Chris McDowall's blog would be a crime. At least read Bastion's triple rule, with in mind that Bastion = London in my head
• Need some more random & weird encounters? Well "Sheep and sorcery" has two very nice tables (one for night, one for day) to offer. https://sheepandsorcery.blogspot.com/2019/06/welcome-to-whispershire-2d20-encounter.html
• Need an NPC ranting about the life he's living? check "Coins & Scrolls" table for peasant's grievances and adapt them a tiny bit to fit into the Big Smoke: https://coinsandscrolls.blogspot.com/2017/07/osr-1d100-peasant-grievances.html
• "Coins & Scrolls" also have a great table for Dickensian NPCs, whose books descibes the world about 50 years after 1814, but this is still a very good and useful resource (the "Appearance" & "Demeanour" entries are worth gold)
• If you need an NPC (or PC) with an unusual background, 52 baroque character backgrounds by Roger G-S on rolesrules is a very ODD resource that will jumpstart your imagination with weird strange NPCs
• London is the capital of an empire whereupon the sun never sets. With strange countries also come strange religious beliefs... Against the wicked city has a very good post on that topic, to create a religion quasi on the fly: Religions of great Road by Joseph Manola
• Fantasy Name Generators never ceases to be a good source of names (and I gotta admit, even for welsh, scottish and irish names, I need help)
• a character generator for into the ODD, maybe not the most developped characters come out of it, but it works and is a good basis for afterwards (I love to use the "though questions" made popular by the games powered by the apocalypse to create bonds with the universe and between the player's characters). Anyway, kudos to pushing cows!

French Language Resources

The french translation of "Into The Odd" added a lot of stuff to the game (also a lot of not so relevant stuff, but we'll concentrate on the positive here)

• The french introductory set to Into The Odd is a wonderful resource, and one I use a lot for Into London 1814: Into The ODD french intro kit
• There is also a mini-campaign "Into the Cave" developped for the crowdfunding for the french version of Into The Odd which is really nice (Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3 & Episode 4) and introduce Isfets and Zoogs (werecat-like-people and skaven-like wererats)