Perhaps it’s the Downton Abbey success or maybe it’s the centenary of the sinking of Titanic, but my Transatlantic playset for Morningstar’s Fiasco game has been gaining traction this year!
A recent positive review on Shut Up & Sit Down introduces the game and uses Transatlantic as the mechanical demo. Sean Nitter wrote up some excellent Actual Play about Fiascon’s play session:
Hot damn. Within a few scenes Nikola was revealed as a spy bent on giving secrets transported on the Leviathan to a German Uboat that was following us. As the torpedo was fired and the ship was sinking, that’s when we realized Nikola was actually Nikolas! He is a she is he again! And “he” took my Elke hostage!
As the sinking of the Titanic’s anniversary is quickly approaching, there are a few new online resources that would be excellent for consideration in advance of your next Transatlantic play:
Titanic Real Time is a “real time” twitter feed of fictionalized account of how the Titanic was built, stored and how things may have progressed towards that fateful day. Excellent quotidian fire for your fiction. Here’s an example:
#photographer I snapped this as she left Belfast on her trials. I’m already itching to rejoin her at Southampton! http://twitpic.com/94lvk5
#crew We have just been given the orders – sea trials to commence immediately. Next stop – Southampton.
#engineering A nervous but exciting morning for us. In 30 minutes the ship will leave dock for sea trials – let’s hope for a clear day
#engineer Refrigeration units are of the C02 type utilising the gas in its compressed form. Hopefully the poultry should keep!
#engineer Titanic has two ice-making machines located on G Deck. We want the passengers to have every luxury whilst they drink and dine.
#crew Sea trials tomorrow but most of the interior isn’t even complete yet! Let’s hope the boys in Southampton work fast!
Want more? FirstyWork has released a detailed Titanic Titanic App with a slew of historical information and photographs about the ship and the event.
Snippets of life onboard the Titanic have been making the round this month. This one in particular seems appropriate:
The story of the Philadelphia millionaire Billy Carter, for example. He boarded the Titanic with 60 shirts, 15 pairs of shoes, two sets of tails, 24 polo sticks, a new Renault and two dogs. His reaction, when he realised she was sinking, was to put his head round the door of the family suite and bark at his wife to dress herself and the children, before scarpering to grab himself a place in an early lifeboat. They met again at eight o’clock the following morning, aboard the rescue ship, Carpathia. “All he said,” his wife testified during their divorce, “was that he’d had a jolly good breakfast, and never thought I would make it.”
Play well!
