A guidebook with maps of every public transit system in the world that has at least one underground station. Scribbled notes describe how to get from any one of them to any other.
By taking certain trains, in a certain sequence, at certain intervals, the passenger can end up in distant underground systems without ever stepping out of the system. The amount of time required riding the rails is not connected to the physical distance, a journey from London to Tokyo may take an hour, while a trip from London to Paris could take four.
The guidebook itself is not magical, rather it is the culmination of knowledge of the secret ways between these systems. It is possible to take these routes without using the guidebook directly, though there are so many special cases and exceptions when travelling between transit systems, it would be easy to get very lost without it. Note that this also means that if someone is tailing the characters, they can follow them right through to other subways. If they aren’t magic-savvy, they will have to take a check against the unnatural.
To find out how long the journey takes, roll a D100, and take the tens value. The tens are the number of discrete stops in different cities required. With every stop, roll against mind (or maybe some subway guide skill). A success takes one extra stop off the journey. A failure does nothing, but you’ll still be down by one stop, so it’s still good. A matched failure leaves your character stranded in whatever city they’re currently in (roll against the 100 biggest undergrounds in the world, or GM fiat will determine which city), and they will have to start again.
just a provisional system, I’m still working on one that might be more fun
This is supposed to be a useful and reliable way for typically money poor UA characters to get around the developed world in a post-modern fashion. There are a few pitfalls, but they are mostly mundane, such as not having a visa or passport when you get there, and maybe not speaking the language if they get stranded. So long as they have a hold of the guidebook, they can get out of most situations that the guidebook gets them into.
I like it. Useful, but not over-powered, and it enables scenarios that might otherwise be quite difficult to bring about. Plus, if it becomes troublesome, well, paper burns easily enough.
Better: A matched failure strands you in a bizarre otherspace made of (hopefully) abandoned tunnels for a number of hours shown on one roll of a d10.
Or, you could make the PCs have to pay the fare in some way. They can ride, get there ok, but will owe someone a big favor.
I like the matched failure result of Caeser Salad, it’s perfect. A mishmash of abandoned tunnels and subway stations from around the world, perhaps inhabited by other travellers who got lost, and certainly by rats and roaches.
The fare thing could work, this is UA and YMMV greatly. The original feel was that the main dangers were mundane. So they will have to pay in (the guide will tell them what type of ticket they need to buy to get to a specific destination from any given departure, it may be expensive), but they won’t have the right kind of ticket to have access to the other subways, so they could get kicked off.
So the artifact here is actually the mystical subway system.
Beautiful.
Basically, if someone could memorize or copy the entire guidebook, they could sell it on to the next buyer in the Underground.
I wonder how many copies are circling around now?
Maybe the original guidebook has some extra edge? Or maybe someone gave it an extra edge.
I think that there are multiple copies in the world. The first copy probably has some special aspect with regards to some adepts who might want to own the first of something, a bibliomancer or cliomancer, perhaps. but I think in this case, the modernist interpretation must mean that the best copy is the newest.
As new stations are added to subways, as old ones are closed down, as timetables are revised, as fares are increased or redued, hell, as grafitti is scrawled or covered over by paint, the whole ‘astrology’ of the subway changes, and so too do the routes between them. So each guidebook is a work in progress, mapping the ways between, and that is why you must make more than one roll when travelling by subway, since you have to adjust for unexpected consequences of your movements, update the guidebook, compare it to your knowledge of how the subway works, and keep travelling. So each guidebook will be different, and all will be obsolete in some way.
like the idea that using this to get from one place to another has some kind of price to balance it out. Perhaps the price could be built into the system. For example, in order to use the tunnel system from London to Tokyo requires that the traveler have a Shinto talisman and 4 pounds sterling to be left on the track when entering the train. The “price” would be at least mystically significant if not also monetarily. (Think of it as being a ritual that is used to gain access to the specific passage. Each passage with it’s own ritual.)
Also, perhaps some of the passages are not entirely safe.
I wonder if there is a new skill that can be created out of this?
But yes, the idea of a guide book to do this with is cool. I like the idea of a cost to do these journeys. Perhaps for a plutomancer or a plutophage the cost should be 5 large denomination coins of each country – five pound coins and five yen coins to go from London to Tokyo left on the tracks. For a bibliomancer maybe a book from a british and a japanese auther left on a bench. For a dipsomancer maybe a generous measure of gin and of saki poured as a libation on the platform.
What do you think?