2019/04/29

OSR: Magical Industrial Music and Jokes

Magical Industrial Revolution has very few long backstory sections. Instead, I've decided to add in little popular songs or jokes to provide a sense of immersion (if the GM feels like singing) or background (if not). I'm not sure how many of these will make it into the final book, or if they'll all end up in some disused appendix, but it's a fun exercise.
(Prof. Runcible is a lecturer on history at Loxdon College.)
Professor Runcible
Is easily distractable
And totally intractable
And utterly implacable
His eyebrows are impeccable
His knowledge undebatable
But quite incomprehensible
Is our Professor Runcible
(Fatty Satan is a large crocodile that allegedly lives under the New Bridge. He's wildly popular with children.)
Fatty Fatty Satan,
Knocking at the door.

Silly maid let him in
He tossed her to the floor.
Gobbled up the children,
They say he ate a score.
Fatty Fatty Satan,
Knocking at the door.


Fatty Fatty Satan,

Hiding in a lane.
The costermonger's daughter,
Was never seen again.
Coppers searched the town for him
He always gets away.
Fatty Fatty Satan,

Hiding in a lane.

Fatty Fatty Satan,
Went to school one day.
Teacher tried to whack him,

Teacher went away.
All the happy schoolboys
Cried hip hip hooray.
Fatty Fatty Satan,
Went to school one day.
(George Miles, the inventor of the Moving Miracle, has a well-known and much-mocked dream of one day reaching the moon. Here's a popular "love ballad" on the topic.)
Where are you going,
Oh Miles oh Miles,
Where are you going,
Oh Miles of mine?
To the moon my dear Fanny,
Oh Fanny oh Fanny,
To the moon my dear Fanny,
Oh Fanny of mine.

They say on the moon there's a queen dressed in silver

With ivory skin and a palace of songs
Oh Miles oh Miles, if e're you meet her,
Will you be content to return to my arms?


I'll pick for you Fanny a bundle of roses,
Silvery roses that grow on the moon.
Oh Fanny oh Fanny, I'll fly to you safely,
You know I'll return to your loving arms soon.


And how will you get there?

Oh Miles oh Miles,
How will you fly there,
Oh Miles of mine?

On a tower of magic,

Oh Fanny oh Fanny,
I'll toss up a tower,
Oh Fanny of mine.
(The introduction of Portable Room, extra-dimensional spaces that can be added on to existing buildings, solved the housing crisis in Endon but introduced new complications.)
I've a room of my very own I do,
A room of my very own,
At the back of a house,
At the top of the stairs,
Is a room to ease all my troubles and cares.
It's a comfortable room I know.
For everyone tells me so.
I've a room of my very own I do,
A room of my very own,
At the back of a house,

At the top of the stairs,
Through a cupboard or two,
And then over some chairs.
It's a comfortable room I know,
For everyone tells me so.

I've a room of my very own I do,
A room of my very own,
Through a cupboard or two,

And a hostler's shop,
It's quite a long climb,
To get to the top.
It's a comfortable room I know,
For everyone tells me so.

I've a room of my very own I do,
A room of my very own.

I've yet to go in for it takes me a day,
To get from the street to the room where I stay...
And then I turn round and return on my way,It's a comfortable room I know,
For everyone tells me so.

Jokes

The following jokes were written to match Punch Magazine's style; a bit clunky by modern standards but excellent for setting tone and adding flavour. Some of them were adapted from actual Punch cartoons.

SCENE: A Tax Collector visits the house of a woman with nine unmarried daughters.

TAX COLLECTOR: Now, have you any enchantments?
WOMAN: None but dear Bertha's eyes, and our Mabel's singing voice, and it has been said Christina's lips are bewitching...

QUESTION: Is eating polymorphed meat advisable?

ANSWER: Yes, if you have a polymorphed stomach.

SCENE: A wizard berates a group of apprentices. 
WIZARD: You foolish, lazy, untrustworthy wretches. Which one of you threw an apple at my experiment?
PASSER-BY: You are far too kind to your apprentices. Back at my shop in Redding Cross...
WIZARD: Redding Cross? Redding Cross? There is no Redding Cross anymore! Now which one of you threw an apple at my experiment?

SCENE: A doctor examines a patient.
DOCTOR: This is a very serious case. I prescribe a long ice-cold bath every morning.
PATIENT: Surely that will give me pneumonia.

DOCTOR: True, but I know how to cure pneumonia.

SCENE: A child questions a wizard on a park bench.
CHILD: Is teleportation quite safe?

WIZARD: Yes child, quite safe. [pats child on the head]
CHILD: There are no adverse effects?
WIZARD: None at all. [pats child on the other head].

SCENE: Two coal magnates examine a newspaper.
FIRST MAGNATE: Did you read this? Another hundred people suffocated in the night due to thick fog. This is terrible.

SECOND MAGNATE: Yes, terrible. I will raise funds at once.
FIRST MAGNATE: What for?
SECOND MAGNATE: To buy out the publishers of this d--ned paper.

QUESTION: If it is possible to polymorph a mouse into a whale, could the Prime Minister be polymorphed into a wise man?
ANSWER: Some things are not possible even with magic.

QUESTION: If one is served by an illusionary servant, is it correct to leave a gratuity?

ANSWER: No. The production of illusionary money is illegal.

SCENE: A very nervous apprentice wizard is examined by a circle of glowering masters.
APPRENTICE: The eight colours of light are... red... white... claret... port...
MASTER WIZARD: No no, start over. Red, orange...

APPRENTICE: Lemon... pine-apple...

5 comments:

  1. scene: a wizard admires the immense magical battery on the roof of a colleague's warehouse. an urchin plays on the sidewalk.
    wizard: young man, does that thing draw much?
    urchin: i'll say! it draws the attention of every d—ed fool who passes by this place!

    spinning up an accumulator will sometimes cause an explosion, but one must learn to accept it, as it is the way of the whirled.

    a political jest: what are the similarities between [name of current Prime Minister] and one of those new hot-air-balloons? both hang aloft in the air with no visible means of support.

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    Replies
    1. a sign on the door of an industrial-magical facility: those who would trespass are asked to kindly bring their own coffins with them.

      scene: the minister of justice sits in a packed court.
      minister: silence! i must have silence! i have judged half a dozen causes this morning and did not hear a single word of them!

      scene: two wizards discuss finances for their new operation.
      first wizard: if we purchase this reactor at second-hand, we will save half the cost of buying it new.
      second wizard: goodness, then if we should purchase two of them at second-hand would we save the whole cost?

      a political jest: what are the similarities between [name of current Minister of War] and a dog? both shall only be quiet when they are dead.

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    2. Good grief, it's rather vexing to have someone stop by in the comments with much better jokes. :D
      Mind if I put a few of them into the book (with credit of course)?

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    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    4. My last comment was a helpful link to the image you had at the top of this very post. Oops! Anyway, go nuts with my lightly-edited Victorian jokes.

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