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Hi all and Happy New Year.
So, Mike Richards wrote League of Heroes (a supers rpg using BoL) with a bit of help from me. We struggled to get it to work properly so left it alone (it was available for free d/l for a while, so many of you will have it).
I'm quite a fan of supers role playing (having come up with Supers! and Triumphant! - both of which you should all have ) so I thought I'd give the supers genre another go with the BoL "engine".
I think I figured out why LoH didn't really work. It was trying to cover ALL types of supers - from gritty street level to inter-galactic guardians and that doesn't work with BoL. You have to have a tightly focused design.
So, here we have Watchdogs of Killcade. Killcade is the city where it all takes place. The watchdogs are the pcs - they're vigilantes in a dark, bloody, grimy, "sin-city" cesspool of a city. It's a dark knight, watchmen, daredevil, punisher-level of play. There are a few new ideas in the game. A few new rules, but it is definitely BoL.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. Maybe I'll need to speak with Ludospherik, as they are now in charge! But when I have something that looks like it's more or less there (could be a few months), I'll come back here and let you know.
If you'd be interested in seeing the draft and playtesting it when it's ready, state your interest here. It'll at least tell me that there is interest in such a project.
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A bit of setting info:
INTRODUCING KILLCADE CITY
In the slums of Killcade City, veteran cop Vic Corrigan lies in a pool of blood, his life slowly ebbing away. The insane serial killer Manny O’Rourke looks down upon the dying detective without a shred of remorse. He got what was coming to him, he thinks to himself, he was prying into my affairs. He turns away, blood dripping from the machete used to brutally hack the cop from behind. Manny is the off-the-rails son of Senator O’Rourke, who has bribed Corrigan's corrupt partner, Harry Fortune, to cover up his son's crimes. Harry had tried to persuade Vic to walk away; but Vic, stubborn as a mule, just had to go inside the condemned house. Now Harry has another mess to clean up…or will he get a pang of guilt and come to his partner’s aid …
The War
There are tons of theories about why the War started but no-one knows for sure. Things weren’t going great in the City. There was unrest – no jobs, no money, no hope. Demonstrations turned to riots, turned to looting, turned to killing. The authorities couldn’t cope. The Government feared it would lose complete control and there would be anarchy. Then, the War happened. It was somewhere else but it was a threat. It was why there were shortages. It was why there were no jobs, no future. We could do something though. We could fight for our futures. All we had to do was sign up and ship out. Thousands of men and women were drafted up off the streets and sent out of the City to fuck-knows-where to fight for fuck-knows-what. It lasted forever and then it just ended. But the Government had maintained its hold. It was smug, confident…arrogant even.
The Contagion
Not long after the war-weary and shell-shocked survivors came back, the Contagion came along. The politicos said it was brought back from the war-zone. They even tried to label it the “War-Plague”. Cynics say different. The politicians should have been making preparations but instead had been squabbling amongst themselves. The high taxation (“to pay for the War”), the corruption, the incompetence meant that nothing had changed. Unrest started to rise again as thousands of veterans started filling the City with no jobs to come back to. Then they started dying. Convenient, some might say. It was slow at first but gradually increasing in number. The politicians dithered, prevaricated and eventually acted. Ineffectually. Of course, they were safe in their gated homes and gilded towers with their money, their privileges. They sat in watch as the plebs died.
That was years ago now. There was an inquiry, obviously. But the Government was exonerated. They’d done their best. They deserved their pay rises. It was necessary to increase taxes to pay for it all. What do you expect – there was the War and then there was the Contagion. You’re lucky to still be here. The Government will look after you. Move on.
The Contagion killed most of the people it touched….but not all. Some survived the nausea, the burning lungs, the head pain, the coughing up blood, the fever. Some of those that survived had changed. Just like some of those that had served in the War had been changed. Some were given drugs to make them fight better, or to dull the pain or with no explanation at all. Others have hazy recollections of being shot or blown up and then waking in white rooms attached to machines. These men and women can scream and shout all they like – there’s no help for them. Get a job…the Government can’t do everything for you…there was a War and a Contagion that need to be paid for.
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Hi Simon
Firstly, it's great having you active again on these forums.
Secondly, as a superhero gaming fan, I am very interested in the idea of a gritty vigilante style RPG using BoL. I absolutely loved Matt Reeves' take on The Batman. I'm also a fan of Marvel's Night Raven character, along with Watchmen etc.
Count me in for any draft and/or playtesting.
Last edited by The GIT! (1/02/2024 11:27 am)
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Sadly, I'm not a fan of supers gaming, it's never worked for me as either player of GM, but street-level supers (preferably not wearing skin-tight, silly costumes) is what I'd run if I did play supers.
I loved the fiction about Killcade City though Simon!
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Gruntfuttock wrote:
Sadly, I'm not a fan of supers gaming, it's never worked for me as either player of GM, but street-level supers (preferably not wearing skin-tight, silly costumes) is what I'd run if I did play supers.
I loved the fiction about Killcade City though Simon!
Well, that's exactly what Watchdogs of Killcade is. So you'll be playing it forever.
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The GIT! wrote:
Count me in for any draft and/or playtesting.
Tell me where to send it (PM me - goes for anyone here)
Last edited by SimonW (1/03/2024 2:19 am)