Charles Darwin: On the origin of "On the Origin of Species"

Victorian London, 1851. Charles Darwin is working on the most important scientific text in history, and Ryan's just turned up at the pub under the deeply suspicious pseudonym "Ryland Mulchroneforth." His plan? Gaslight the father of evolution, steal credit for the Theory of Natural Selection, and demand a piggyback across town.

The Game Master this week is Marvin the Paranoid Android from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, so the AI is depressed, sarcastic, and deeply unimpressed by everyone's existence. Ryan's approach to Victorian science: walk into a pub, shout for noble scientists, and then inform Charles Darwin that On the Origin of Species was actually his work all along. The gaslighting is relentless, the robot companion is threatening violence, and there's a mysterious banned word that must not be spoken. And for reasons that remain unclear, local cheese production keeps coming up.

The Great Exhibition of 1851 had just opened at Crystal Palace, showcasing Britain's industrial might to the world. Darwin, meanwhile, was at Down House obsessively breeding pigeons and building towards the publication that would reshape biology forever. He was not, historically, the sort of man who gave piggybacks to strangers who claimed to have invented evolution first. But then, historically, nobody had ever asked.

Contains: Intellectual fraud, involuntary piggybacks, and a Game Master who wishes it was all over.