RM’s RPG Blog

 

No sane person expects a zombie apocalypse. Especially not in August.

 

 

The player characters are a team of supers in Rio Cruces in the year 2030.

 

The campaign starts out with a 4-color feel. [*] The world has superpowered individuals who have formed into teams. The PC’s have the support and cooperation of the police, the local authorities, and the law-abiding, peace-loving part of the overall community.

 

Sometimes, the happy citizens even throw block parties for the PC’s. They like PC’s that much.

 

The PC’s all have friends and family in Rio Cruces. They have all lived in Rio Cruces at least 5-10 years. Rio Cruces is home.

 

Rio Cruces is nearly 3X as big as it was at the turn of the century with nearly 5 million men, women and children. It has matured nicely–in most parts. Finance, IT, gambling, and tourism are the primary industries. Standard of living is high. The streets are clean. It’s a great place to live.

 

[*] The operative term in this sentence is “starts out”.

 

 

Base Points	200
Max Disads	150 (50 max from one type of disad; at least 25 points of DNPC’s)
Max Characteristics	60
Max SPD	10
Max CV	12
Active Points	60
Max Skill Roll	15-
Def/rDef	20/10

 

The party has a “base” provided by the city. It’s a converted warehouse on the river’s edge in a slightly dodgy part of the city. Having the base doesn’t cost any character points. Outfitting it does.

 

Buy vehicles and other unusual equipment from character points.

 

Secret identities are optional. The local paparazzi will be a presence in the life of those who don’t have a secret identity (and likely make it hard for those with secret identities to keep them secret).

 

 

The slow August news cycle has resulted in increased cable news coverage of shark attacks, dancing dogs (sometimes attacking, sometimes just dancing), and even a few stories of humans going crazy from the heat and attacking family and friends and co-workers.

 

But all of that is far away and, as the over-educated smart-asses point out, just because the 24-hour news networks are reporting the attacks doesn’t mean there any more attacks than usual. Just that it’s August, and there’s never any real news in August.

 

 

A group of friends in western Cygnar come together to seek adventure, explore ancient ruins, find treasure–and try not to get killed/eaten/digested/et cetera.

 

Doldrum Deepthroat (Henry)

Cormin Fellblade (Mike)

Pali (Zac)

Taryn Go’vena (James)

Callus (Steven)

 

Morning dawned over the Satyxis jungle, bringing with it the sound of something large and mechanikal crashing through toward the party’s camp. The party, led by Pali on his riding dog, Simon, broke camp in a hurry, heading east, toward the city. The sound of another Something Large coming at them from the east, caused them to speculate on being herded and to turn to run south, to the beach.

 

Callus, a combat alchemist, slipped into the underbrush and hid to await the Something Large and maybe blow it up. At the same time, Taryn told the rest of the party to get to the beach, and she would try to distract the Something Large and head it away from them. Just as the Something Large came into view from Taryn’s position–and revealed itself as a Deathripper bonejack–it passed Callus’s position. Callus threw one his hasty concoctions, exploding a fireball against the back of the bonejack, damaging it. Taryn yelled to get the bonejack’s attention–and to tell Callus to get to the beach.

 

Doldrum Deepthroat (Henry)

Cormin Fellblade (Mike)

Pali (Zac)

Taryn Go’vena (James)

 

Aboard the Wicked Little Sister, the party found the Orgoth compass pointing to an island. Tacking around the island, a starkly beautiful city built of white stone came into view. The city was built in terraces leading from a large harbor to a palace or temple on the peak of the hills. Two curved and twisted spires rose from the palace like giant ram’s horns. The harbor had a number of large ships of the line and merchant vessels. Terraced fields surrounded the city. Captain Dromere recognized the description of Satyx, the city of the Satyxis, and she immediately set sail to put distance between the city and her ship.

 

Doldrum Deepthroat (Henry)

Cormin Fellblade (Mike)

Pali (Zac)

Taryn Go’vena (James)

 

The party met with Bastian Lattimore. The party said they planned to follow the “Orgoth compass” on the assumption it pointed to the missing artifact. Lattimore introduced the party to Captain Nivenne Dromere. “Captain Dromere is one of the most feared pirates from Five Fingers. Her schooner Wicked Sister frightens merchant shipping up and down the coast.”

 

Doldrum Deepthroat (Henry)

Pali (Zac)

Taryn Go’vena (James)

 

Doldrum, Pali and Taryn had a long talk with Genari. Genari kept trying to get them to go back to his shop so he could retrieve “some things”. Finally, the party admitted they had already found his secret vault and had both his spell book and the odd Orgoth device.  Ginari took back his spellbook, but said the party could keep the Orgoth compass.

 

Ginari told them he acquired the “Orgoth compass” in late 604 AR in a trade with a junk dealer, Elder Boggins, who had collected it on his travels up the coast of Cygnar. The compass, a sphere obviously old and almost certainly of Orgoth manufacture, had value. The trick was to figure out who would want it. There were collectors of Orgoth artifacts, even ones that appeared to be as useless as this one. So Ginari held onto it. Which is to say, it sat on a shelf of his antiques and arcane mechanika shop in Crucible Alley on Doleth Island.

 

Doldrum Deepthraot (Henry)

Pali (Zac)

Taryn Go’vena (James)

 

Not wanting to trust the locals, the party decided to have Cormin carry the spell book and have Doldrum keep the Orgoth device. (Unless the GM remembered that wrong.)

 

The party went to the Laden Galleon to find Devlin Darkmantle. Unfortunately, Cormin was unable to go. Much  to his disappointment. Doldrum introduced himself and sat in on Devlin’s game while Pali and Taryn kept their eyes on the crowd. Doldrum told Devlin he was looking for the next location of Waernuk’s Death Pits. Devlin said he had never been, but knew someone who might be able to help.

 

Doldrum Deepthraot (Henry)

Cormin Fellblade (Mike)

Pali (Zac)

Taryn Go’vena (James)

 

Doldrum Deepthroat, a trollkin fell caller of kith Gordon in the Bydand kriel of the Vescheneg Headlands on the coast of Khador, arrived in Five Fingers. He checked in with Olvemir Crenichko of the Greylords Covenant, his contact in Five Fingers, then walked to the Kithgrav Bourg on Hospice Island to meet Heath Bluetongue.

 

Cormin Fellblade, a gun mage of Cygnar, arrived and went to Bull Island to meet his contact, Ambassador Lord Dardan Wyatt. Wyatt sent Cormin to a hotel on Captain’s Isle.

 

Pali, a gobber cleric of Dhunia from the wilds of Ord, walked into Five Fingers and crossed the bridge to Bull Island. His contact, Belchor Degrata, offered him a room in his brownstone.

 

Taryn Go’vena, monk of the Order of the Fist and mother of tree, arrived and found the small Temple of Menoth on Doleth Island. Larkin Kaddock, priest of the temple, welcomed her and told her where she could find lodging.

 

 

After watching the first two(-ish) seasons of NBC’s “Heroes” with my wife, and chatting about characters and aspects of the show with her and my friends, I thought it might be interesting to run a “Heroes”-like RPG campaign.

 

I say “Heroes”-like because I didn’t plan (or want) to run the game in the “Heroes” universe. Rather, I was intrigued by what I saw as the premise for the show: normal people with normal lives suddenly begin manifesting supernatural powers of various sorts. My campaign would explore how those people lived, how they kept their secret (if they did), how they used and abused their powers, and how movers and shakers of the world around them tried to use and abuse their powers. I called the campaign “Normal Heroes”.

 

John Doremy gave up trying to trace down Geeky after a week. He requested that the Gallo-Rose Society transfer him to the Caribbean, but learned they had no organization in the islands. John offered to establish one for them. They just looked at him. John eventually went there his own, taking a much-needed vacation (he couldn’t remember ever taking a vacation in his life, and it seemed a good time for it) and living off his accumulated earnings.