An OSR campaign idea: A pseudo-Victorian / Edwardian society, a newly fashionable seaside resort. Coast on the west, wide and romantically desolate mudflats to the east. In summer, the fashionable gentry (the players) flock to the hotels and boulevards. Near the end of the season an aether storm struck and the train line home has sunk into the ooze. Now you are all overwintering in the cold and spray-splashed streets.
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Various activities – dancing, reading, cold sea swimming, shell collecting – are employed to pass the stormy season, but soon a mania for archaeology/tomb robbing grips you all. Fueled by an collection of manuscripts left by a gentleman who died some years ago, you investigate maps of island ruins and barrows in the mudflats. Soon, this is augmented by ghost stories and rumours of pirate treasures extracted from the common folk.
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Some more thoughts about this on my blog:
https://weavingstories.co.uk/blog/2026/03/15/victorian-beach-holiday.html
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martin