BONSAI

LONG BIT

Drifting through space, on the edge of no tomorrow sits mankind’s last and greatest city - BONSAI. Housing a zillion and a half souls, the city is threatened from without (alien warlords, grey goo, interdimensional incursions, etc.) and within (exploitation, oppression, system failure, etc.). As the ZOKU, the city’s freelance guardians, you patrol the skylanes clad in hardlight armor and fight to prolong the future.

SHORT BIT

You’re a sentai of holo-armored space ninjas tackling the Syssiphisian task of defending a humongous arkship that has no destination. Whether that means fighting an alien invasion, handing out vigilante justice, or holding a bake sale.

STRAINS

The citizens of BONSAI fall into four broad categories:

CRISPY - After millennia of compulsive gene editing the CRISPies are on the knife's edge of post-humanity. Build a race using Savage Worlds Deluxe no abilities worth more than +1.
Baseline - Normal people with minimal genetic tampering. +1 Edge.

Robotnik - Machines built to serve, their sentience and it’s relevancy are often debated. Hardy but Outsider.

Endling - Alien refugees, often the last of their kind. Build an alien using Savage Rifts. Be weird.

WHAT YOU BRING TO THE TEAM
Use Sean Bircher's 5 Man Band roles. Found here.

ZOKU KIT

Hardlight Armor - The customizable uniform of the Zoku grants Heavy Armor 4, environmental protection, and low light vision. The armor shuts down if you’re Wounded by a Heavy weapon. Make a Repair check at -2 to get the system up and running in combat.

No Strings- In BONSAI’s reduced gravity you can leap 7 yards horizontal and 2 yards vertical with ease. With a successful Strength roll you can add your Pace die.

Space Ninja Technique - Reduce the required traits for combat edges by 1 die type. Also each sentai member gets one of the following powers at a d8:

quickness, deflection, smite, entangle, boost/lower trait, bolt, speed, shapechange, summon ally

These require an activation roll.  Jutsu style hand motions grant a +1 to activate. On a raise you get the Mega version. These are just examples, if you wanted a buster cannon then bolt would be an appropriate power.

ZOKU RANKS

S // The highest rank

A //

B //

C //

F // The lowest rank< You start here

The higher your rank the more favor you can pull from those below you.

DISTRICTS -

BONSAI contains countless Districts, they mostly exist to provide some cool set pieces. Also Campaign Rules change based on the District. Some examples below with keywords.

Zigguraut - Temple of Government + Escher staircase pyramids.

Torii - Samurai + Lightcycles. Blood & Guts

Spaghetti Junction - Wild West + Forking. All guns have +2 ROF

Axolotl - Mesoamerica + Waterworld.

Red Velvet - Beyonce's Antebellum. Social Tricks can cause Wounds on a double Shaken result.

Perhonen - Fragile + Sharp + Tron. Everything here explodes in razor edged polygons. Large blast template when you miss, 2d8 damage.

Palace of the Dogs - Asylum

Kamehameha - World turtle + Jellyfish,
Cagliostro - Gankutsuo + Old World Opulence

Courthouse -

Zenosyne - Acceleration +

Pixel - 16-bit + Scott Pilgrim

Niffleheim -

Gun Barrel -

Afterlife -

ENEMY FACTIONS -

INNER

Enki Collective - Lingual hackers. Urge the destruction of the Zigguraut District.

Mammon Cabal - Stock brokers and soul traders. Quietly advocate mass upload of the population.

Great Divide - Spin doctors and access merchants. Divide and conquer while reaping rewards.

Can Openers - Anti-Robotnik militants. Feel Lowborn labor is being replaced by tireless servitors.

Also there’s rival sentais within the ZOKU

OUTER

Heart Machine - Swarms of nano machines that seek to reconstruct their eons dead space god.

Uluru - Temporal evacuees from the war that destroyed Earth.  Seek to colonize BONSAI.

The Thin Man - Monofilament rubber band alien cat burglar. Seeks a treasure hidden in the depths of BONSAI

REPO - robot lawyers representing alien intelligences that claim controlling interest of BONSAI.

INSPIRATION

Gatchaman, Transistor, Gatchaman Crowds, Janelle Monae's Archandroid Suite, K, Voltron: Legendary Defender, Karnak: The Flaw In All Things, Metropolis, Karl Schroeder's Lady of Mazes, Summer Wars, Outkast’s Stankonia, Hanu R.'s Quantum Thief, Charles Stross' Scratch Monkey, Anonymous420's CORNER DOT, Pluto: Urasawa X Tezuka,

Escape From Red London

1897

Then.

Martians pulverized London, the greatest city in the world, with meteors.  Blotting out the sun and providing a staging ground for sustained invasion.  

A series of fifty foot walls were erected and Continental armies encamped facing Britain. The containment enjoys middling success, repelling smaller Triskelions but eroding under the constant siege of the Red.  A noxious weed that feasts on human flesh and exhales poison.

The Rippers and Cabal came together to form the Lodge and emerged from the shadows to aid the Grand Alliance.  Their advanced scientific and mystical knowledge a glimmer of hope.  They are mainly tasked with combatting the Crimson Court, monsters flush with the alien parasite and their own aims worming their way through the Continent.

1899

Now.

Since the sky darkened, everything touching the the northern Atlantic is lost under a Red carpet.  Paris is besieged and King Edward of Britain now rules from Egypt. The fortifications have magnified but hope is now a luxury as Martian Triskelions test Europan defenses more brazenly each day.

With the Crimson Court broken, the British government has unleashed the Lodge to wage total war against the Invaders.  Many advances in Rippertech and Black Science show promise when applied on a large scale.  Pursuing one such path of inquiry Dr., Jekyll, the Lodge’s lead scientist, was field testing a weapon in the Red Zone before contact with his aerodreadnought, the HMSS Revenant, was lost.

We have reason to believe that he survived the crash.  You’ve been tasked with recovering the good doctor and his notes, destroy the prototype if it isn’t already ruined. You will be inserted via capsule launched by the Cairo Gun Club, this is a one way trip.  Your extraction will be from the last standing tower of St. Paul’s Cathedral in 12 hours after you are fired from the Great Cairo Gun.

Be aware that there are those still trapped in Britain and none can vouch for their civility.  They have forged their own societies, surviving anyway they can from the wreckage that was.  The rules are simple: once you go in, you may not come out.

The System: Savage Worlds - Rippers Resurrected

Looks Like:  This with way more gas masks

Tastes Like: Blood Pudding and baked beans with Newcastle Brown

Sounds Like: Carpenter Brut’s Trilogy

Night Gallery

Night Gallery will house thumbnails of future projects, let me know which you'd be interested in seeing more of and I'll go into more detail.  Future installments will develop an earlier campaign frame with either a mystery, an NPC, a location, etc.  I'll fold earlier campaign frames such as The Condor, Fall of Camazotz, Wicked West, etc. into this as well.

Between - In the Lost Age when Meat comingled with Shadow the Tribe's greatest tool was The Word and Old Night was Young; the Tribe lost her greatest Heroes to the Scourge.  A Beast so terrible is defies description the Tribe nearly scattered when they got word.  Luckily for the Tribe and the Elders a new generation will be undertaking their Rite and claiming their Names.  By taking a Name the Young become the Word and transcend the limits of Meat anchoring Shadow.  The Scourge is coming.  It may be behind the far hill or in the near valley but it will be Here before you know.

System- Icons an elegant, effects based superhero game that's available online.  FATE's emphasis on fiction would parallel the setting's emphasis on language and naming.

Inspiracion- John Harper's The Wildlings, New Mutants' Demon Bear saga, Turok, Tengger Cavalry, Noah, The Quest for Fire

Magnum Opus- The War to End All Wars has torn the heart from European Empire.  The frontiers are choked with tortured steel, scattered limbs, and unheard prayer.  Even the mystical Guardians, seduced by martial glory, lie entombed in earthworks. Smelling opportunity, an entire generation of hungry American mystics flock to  Europe's capital cities, eager to begin their own Great Works and plunder the shattered halls of power.  Ignorant of ancient pacts, they shine new light on aged bones, recover lost knowledge and unleash horrors thought destroyed.

System-  Probably the Cypher System, the {Descriptor}{Class}who{Focus} provides plenty of options while straddling the idea of magic as superpower vs. magic as resource.

Inspiracion- Beware the Creeper, Caravan Palace, Contrast, Dreamhounds of Paris, Neverwhere

Blog Carnival: 5 Suns and Counting

 

The word apocalypse is derived from the Greek word "apokálypsis" which means "uncovering," a literal translation means "disclosure of knowledge" or "revelation."  Out of the Cold War's shadow, the Western world's apocalypse is mostly final with a faint scrim of humanity re-purposing the leftovers of before to prolong existence.  The prophecy of climate change and environmental collapse color this further, bleaching hope from a better tomorrow.  Every American generation likes to think that they lived under the Finale's oppression, our history is littered with false prophecies and lazy nostalgia cursing tomorrow with woes unborne.

Before the United States the New World was already home to several apocalypse cultures, at least the Olmecs, the Mayans, and the Aztecs.  They each provided their own perspective on the cyclical nature of the past, present, future, and the cosmos overall. Each epoch was marked by a divinity sacrificing their existence and donning the mantle of the Sun, the central celestial figure, stepping into a divine bonfire to burn saway everything nonessential but their core nature.Though a calamity wipes the world clean, there are  always survivors but they don't stay human.  This parallels the Norse Ragnarok and Jack Kirby's Fourth World,a succession of existences destroyed providing the bones for future histories.

The 5 epochs known are:

• Nahui-Ocelotl (Jaguar Sun) - The world was inhabited by giants, devoured by jaguars. The world was similarly consumed.
• Nahui-Ehécatl (Wind Sun) - Inhabitants survived by taking the form of monkeys. This world was torn apart by hurricanes.
• Nahui-Quiahuitl (Rain Sun) - A rain of fire pelted down, reducing the world to slag. Only birds and bats survived the catastrophe.
• Nahui-Atl (Water Sun) - The waters rose over neatly everything, inhabitants survived by becoming fish. A couple escaped by becoming dogs.
• Nahui-Ollin (Earthquake Sun) -The modern era, this world will be torn asunder by earthquakes.  None can say who will survive and what will be left of us.

 

The Nahui-Quiahuitl broke into countless pieces and fell to the world, wreaking havoc and scattering the Divine Bonfire.  Heavenly embers rode the seven winds and the sky was lit by the afterglow.  In his Inverted Palace the Lord of Bats demanded the divine flame's recovery, his subjects blotted out the glow with countless squewaking forms carrying out his command.  With no sunrise to break the search King Night was successful and gathered the remnants in the Inverted Palace.

Camazotz- Lord of Bats, King Night, Unslaked Thirst, The 4th Sun

Gulping down the Divine Embers, Camazotz stoked the Bonfire in his belly and ascended into the sky.  The Night Sun bathes the world in unlight, weirdling energies, and ultraviolet radiations.  Camazotz returned the transmogged refugees to  human form before he was consumed by his new role.  The Old Ways were reinstated, city-states were reborn, the castes were reformed, the War Lodges took their place in the Flower Wars, and priests freed courageous hearts from ribcages atop stepped pyramids.

 

Without a Sun to challenge their heat, the Volcanoes stilled their hearts and Killing Obsidian has become rare.  A scarcity forcing the War Lodges to scavenge the prevalent ruins of the technologically advanced Third Sun Empire and recover the secrets of Edged Light.  More dangerous to the user, initiates to the War Lodges have ample opportunities for practice outside of the Flower Wars, hunting down the wretched mutant beasts that stalk the 3 Lands. Great Hunts for these mostros are increasingly called as outlying settlements are found destroyed or submerged. 

In the Fall of Camazotz you are recently initiated Totem Warriors who are tasked with slaying a Rough Beast, but waters rise up from the Cenotes and rumors bubble that the Night Sun and his Empire must fall to have any hopes for the future.

This month's theme is the Apocalypse and the gameable bits of the End Times.  Tune in next week for Battledancers, Brujas, Death Priests, Totem Warriors, and more for Fate.

Spinning In the Devil's Fingers

Another Time
Another Place

Cut apart by Old Man River, eastward Tumbleson County and westward Battiste Parrish are brothers with different mothers. The larger Tumbleson was seeded by anglophones, the triangle trade, and protestant work ethic; Battiste by the French, the Code Noir, and viridian decay. Most folk work in Tumbleson and cross over into Battiste for play.  This cultural divide has cemented Tumbleson as "God's Country" and Battiste as "the Devil's Backyard."  Though that line has blurred in the past, the Good Lord has seen fit to stiffen the demarcation.  


The countryside is consumed by loose bramble, knobby cypress trees, arrogant pines, and the creeping morass.  Shadows long and deep hide secrets and evils old before man of any stripe or creed came to these woods.  The Great War's industrial scale horror has kicked these monsters awake, slouching from their lairs following the siren call of apocalypse.  Old superstitions and folkways die hard and many see the signs, whether it's social unrest or the keening of birds.  This is your home, your family, your town, and your people.  Who will survive and what will be left of them?

Tumbleson County is a mash up of Supernatural and O Brother Where Art You? using Monster of the Week. An antebellum veneer to a rotten, monstrous core, and the brave folk seeking justice in the glades and rundown plantation homes.  Trying out thematic plot hooks on a random D6,6 table. 

D6,6
1,1 - Family fortune -Grandpa Evinrude had a slew of government bonds, must be worth a small fortune. Things' ve been so bad, should get you outta here or set up someplace more comfortable.

1,2 - Lost evidence - The police seem to have "misplaced" the Rambler's car, it was supposed to be impounded but now the spot's empty.  The damned thing reeked to high heaven, stitched with bullet holes, and that awful hood ornament.  Can't see how they'd lose it.
1,3 - Sleepwalking - Keep an eye on your sister.  Tie her big toe to the bedpost if you have to.  Last thing you want is finding her face down in the creek. Or on the arm of some spectral bridegroom.
 

1,4 - Bloated body -Strangest thing at the Tagert place.  Their oldest son Bayard drowned in the bath tub. Thing is, the basin was dry and the boy's body swelled up like a sponge.
1,5 - Suspicious suicide - It's troubling, all these corpses popping up.  Mabel Ferris' suicide doesn't surprise me, with her husband running out on her and the kids. Wrists and face were bruised all to hell, to say nothing about the noose. 

1,6 - Enchanted hotel - The historic Hotel Masada has just reopened. New manager says they're gonna turn it around, bless her heart. I don't think anyone's told her about the hotel's sordid history. Or the ghosts. 
2,2 - Cannibal family - Ol' Duvall, the postman, delivered a condolences card to the sheriff's office from his Galloway County counterpart.  Something about "Good luck with the Herons!" Could be related to the Murff County Herons, backwood cousin kissers that they are.

 2,3 - Masked vigilante - The whitecaps are running around threatening everyone they come across.  Someone wrecked several of Pappy Ferguson's stills out in the woods the other night.  Hope they keep it up, his grip could lose a few more fingers.
2,4 - Buried treasure -Back in '66 a mob hanged John Benson, a no-good thief and land pirate who was running flesh and goods plucked from unguarded storehouses.  Relentless, he amassed a small fortune the envy of n'er-do-wells around, they're the ones who snitched on him.  Shame they never found it.

2,5 - False prophet - A new preacher's rolled into town, spreading the word of the Good Book. His sermon drips with promise of a New World beyond black stars and faith healing. Their tent is pitched out by the lake they've rechristened Hali. You can find many of the town's young ladies out there on Sunday. 
2,6 - Reluctant marriage - Remember young Annabelle?  She's getting married to Snake Hands Jimmy on Sunday.  I know his hands are snakes, that's not the trouble.  Her childhood sweetheart, Carp Plunkett, thinks he's gonna be a big dam hero and rescue her.  You need to stop him or there'll be blood.

3,3 - Wrongfully accused - Your cousin has been accused of an ugly crime and sits behind bars. The Young Town mob just wants someone to hang for it, they'd take anybody if it's compelling enough. He is your favorite cousin after all.
3,4 - Jailbreak - Want to help your brother?  Trouble is, Parcell State Farm is isolated.  No one's getting away without outside help, unless you ambush them out on work detail.  I know a good place to hide off the road.

3,5 - Serial killer - The Rambler, Otis Lee, was caught and arrested after a vicious shoot out. Lee still lives despite his multiple wounds. Hooked to a morphine drip, he calls for someone named Henry in his sleep. His survival is a travesty considerin' what he did, someone oughta finish him off.
3,6 - Unnatural storm - You say that old Bloodland is filled with strange lights? Before your time Bloodland was a den of vice, all manner of brothels and gambling parlors.  Not the ruin it is now; that's on account of the unseasonable hurricane wiping the town off the map.  My mother always said the strange lights in the Bloodland ruins were a warning.

4,4 - Hungry statues - See that grave marker? That one right there.  That belonged to old Miser Gold, spent more on that memorial of his death than anything in his life.  Creepy huh? Kids were daring each other to spend a new moon under its wings until the Harman boy was killed.  Looked like something had taken big bites out of him.
4,5 - Strange child - Don't forget Lorecia Conerly's funeral is in 3 days, you'll want to look your best.  Never know who comes out to these things.  Of course her family will be there, just because she died of childbirth out of wedlock doesn't exile her.  The midwife claims the babe has the legs and tail of an alligator.  Hell, if that's true I'm surprised they're taking as much time with it as they are. 

4,6 - Star-crossed lovers - Feuding families aren't new, and their fool headed children coming together is equally cliche. The Bigtrees and the Conerlys are in that very situation. Gator farmers by trade, they got into competition over a particular bull. Soon it was after-church shoot outs and bush whacking.  Now Euless Conerly and Ava Bigtree are convinced they're gonna mend a bridge that's been washed out by bloodshed. 
5,5 - Demonic possession - You know that juke joint off the tributary? Ruby's? Yeah, it burned down. But not before some bluesman seized the crowd by the soul and turned 'em inside out. Some of them are still out there, stalking the marshland. 

5,6 - Mystery cult - They say the scales have to be in balance and new life needs old death.  Some years back, rains were heavy, the levees broke, and the river overran county and parrish.  Things were bad, sickness and starvation were rampant.  Old Ms. Harman led several of the youth out into the swamp, "to pray on what'd happened" she said.  They came back fewer, but with nets full of fish, saving us.  These days, kids go missing but the river stays tame.
6,6 - Cipher - Take this basket out to your Aunt Ima.  I know her house smells foul, it's all the feral cats.  She's touched in the head, some sort of antennae to the angels.  Fills notebooks with funny writings, says she sees around the corner.  Warned my daddy to stay away from Bloodland when that hurricane hit.

Anatomy of a Campaign Frame

Successful campaigns are woolly and difficult things to nail down. I have ran far more games than I've played, leaning towards a collaborative style with plots that the players care about but don't care about the players.  Cobbled together, cooperative Frankenstein constructs where every participant, player or GM, adds a little something (Nate dragged up a permissible torso, Larissa found a heart in the cupboard, Cameron thinks two livers would be grand, Rick had a plethora of toes, Carol dredged up a washboard for abs, Jeremy thinks making a centaur would be cool, etc.) Outside of Actual Play, when the dice hit the table, the most important way to stoke excitement is the pitch and how you frame it.  When putting together a campaign frame I like to brainstorm answers to three core questions: who are the player characters, what do they do, and what else is going on? 

The first question has variable answers, choices available depend on the game and which characters are picked (ex: in Apocalypse World - if someone picks the Chopper, then pack hierarchy is intrinsic.  In D&D 5e - if there aren't any outdoorsy types then the group are obviously NOT campers.)  You can often pencil this in if you know who your players are, players tend to cover specific facets of play (ex: I'm usually a barbarian.) If you're into niche protection then hold character creation with all of your players as an episode 0, so everyone knows what is being brought to the table.  If you aren't sure who's playing then keep it vague. This is where you start laying pipe to answer the second question, if this is a game where the characters are post-apocalyptic survivors, mecha pilots, hillbilly cannibals, super powered police investigators, or high school students then you need to cover that now.

The second addresses the core activity of the campaign and what the characters will be doing.  Look to inspirational media in a shared vein and crib from that (ex: In Supernatural - you're a family unit roving back roads and small towns of Americana killing monsters. In The Shield - You're all a group of dirty cops, balancing your responsibility to the unit and your civilian life.) This where you meet the players halfway and lay plot hooks for them. I like to hold character creation with everyone as a group and bounce hooks off my players and see what gets a strong, positive reaction.  This is a prime opportunity for your group to hash out what narratives you're interested in pursuing, if your players want to participate in a Battle of the Bands then incorporate it.  If you're leaning towards creating a world that doesn't revolve around your PCs, or the genre isn't familiar to your players, then you may want to jot up some plot devices/story hooks and just kick them out.  Make a table and have them roll on it, so there's a sense of input.

The  third topic you have direct control over, as it relates to macroplots (or metaplot,) campaign setting and backstage boogaloo.  Remember that no game prep survives the PCs, so don't over invest your time and energy.  Just provide clues and glimpses of what's behind the curtain to entice the players' imaginations (ex: In Max's Minions we've been manipulated by a wizard and now we want answers.  In the Adventure Zone our heroes have seen hints that the Bureau they work for has ulterior motives.  In Masks of Nyarlathotep, being a good friend of Jackson Elias is dangerous to your health.) Actual Play is where this pays off as you sustain player buy-in by building sympathy for NPCs, mildly frustrating players' schemes, and incorporating nearly everything that players put forth.  If a character has an entrepreneurial slant and he opens a pawn shop, then great.  Burn it down later, after he cares about it or not.  That's future you's choice.

After you've identified these bits of info you should be able to make a madlib that goes like this:
In (campaign name) you are (who are the player characters) who (what they do) but/and (what else is going on.)

Some examples from my previous posts:

In Wicked West you are occult prospectors who exploit the Otherworlds and introduce them to the power of gun.  Your greed and opportunistic actions poison the Tree of Life, and worst of all you aren't alone.

 In Habrá Sangre you are luchadores who fight for pride, tradition, honor, and the Gold  But the future, and your livelihood, is at stake so don your tights, pull on your mask, run the ropes and piledriver you opponents for glory.  Because in the end, this could be your last show.

In Kismet you are the flower of a romanticized age of Araby; visit the greatest cities of any age, defend your homeland, woo romantic companions, dare to engage in sword fights amidst pitiless dunes, and scribe your deeds on the Firmament.  Beware prideful ways, hubris lays low even the greatest among us.

In The Condor you are a crew of colonial criminals of conscience engaged in a global felonious fight against the impudent Imperial powers of Europa.  As in all Ruritanian romances of fighting trim, everyone knows someone of import and your actions may stoke the fires of a Great War.

This is the method to my madness, what works for you?

Donde El Diablo Hizo Su Nido

When los campesinos overthrew the corrupt landlords of el Corazon, La Republica was born.  Catching the envious eye of the Federal Empire, it didn't even take a year for hope to die.

The blades, bullets, and shells rained down from the North; butchering the dream of La Republica and ending the War of Eagles before it even began.  In the Northern Frontier farmland is scorched, settlements erased, mountain passes collapsed, food poisoned, and it was all in vain. The Federal Empire's naval superiority allowed them to strike at the very heart of the country.  Los Yanquis got to choose their battle, and they won it, but the fight still smolders in the hinter country.

Your militia regiment was broken, disbanded and the remnants returned to San Pedro de Los Saguaros, the hinterland hamlet you called home.   Barring a bleeding younger generation, nothing here has really changed. El Jefe, Don Crescencio Hurtado de Mendoza, still lurks behind the high walls of his hacienda, keeping your familia in perpetual debt slavery and near starvation. Accepting money from the Federal Empire to keep the region pacified, reasoning empty stomachs can't bear arms.

Yes, things here haven't really changed, but you have.  You've seen comrades die in droves, perforated with Gatling gun fire, confettied by artillery shells, the dark things dragging away their corpses, and the wanton sac & ruin left by the Northern army.  Your brothers and sisters weren't torn apart so Don Mendoza could smother their families while sitting fat and happy.

So long as you breathe, the Republican Eagle can still take flight. Don your spurs and load your guns, time to take the fight where the devil makes his nest. 

"Donde el diablo hizo su nido" is a condemning turn of phrase akin to "middle of nowhere."  

This is a weird western set in the northern frontier of a Mexico that never was during Polk's War combined with the black metal aesthetic of Shadow of the Demon Lord.  Mix in El Topo, The Holy Mountain, From Dusk Til Dawn, Brutal Nature, House of Penance, Blood Meridian, & One Man's Hero. The opening adventure is the Battle of Chapultepec mashed up with Worms of the Earth.

The Kruger Affair: A Heist of the Century

The year is 1900, a new century is born accompanied by the heroes and villains of an age. The Great Imperial Powers play a game of daggers, waging proxy wars over colonial holdings in the corners of the Globe.  Their homelands are protected by bands of Extraordinary Citizens; America is defended by the Century Club, England has the League, Le Hommes Mysterieux protect France, and so forth.  By contrast, the megalomaniac Shadows plot to bring the World under their individual heels, only to find themselves stymied by the geographically relevant band of Extraordinary Citizens.

Taking a page from the heroes' playbook, you've formed a coalition with the aim to bring a little chaos into the World and loosen the Imperial grip on the throats of your homelands. Headquartered in the Condor, an experimental aircraft, you strike out across the globe, performing acts of criminal bravura that shake the Halls of Power but too petty to attract major attention.  Boast as much as they like, most Citizens wouldn't know the Florentine Diamond existed, much less its current wherabouts.

 

Five years ago, the British Crown's catspaws raided the neighboring Transvaal Republic but failed to seize control.  Since then what was a series of border skirmishes has escalated to full blown conflict.  British air superiority has been sorely tested as gyrocopters of the Transvaal Luchtfoto Marine utilize their superior knowledge of the terrain and weather patterns to wage an asymmetric war on invading British airships.  Sensing an opportunity, your gang begins laying the pipe to purloin the Kruger Millions and draw Great Britain into conflict with Dr. Belsidus' Black Empire. and further erode the Imperial grip on the globe.

King Leopold  is next, so he had better watch his back.

The Kruger Affair is a campaign of Ruritanian romanticized criminals in a steampunk, pulp world that never was.

Player Characters are created with Fate Accelerated, follow the text accordingly.  Characters must either hail from an Imperial colony (fictional or real) or a criminal of conscience.  Stunts may be used to obtain a situational bonus to an Approach, recruit Minions, or endow you with a Supernatural Power.  The game session will end with a round of the Great Game as Imperial Powers jockey for position in response to the Condor's activities, I will provide the character information for the various Imperial Powers.

Inspiration: Strange Tales of the Century, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Graustark, The Prisoner of Zenda, Leverage, The A-Team, Planetary, Lobster Johnson, Heart of Darkness, Parker novels by Richard Stark, Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard, Monaco, Drawing the Dark by Tim Powers

Habrá Sangre

The year is 1952, disputed king of lucha libre, Vincente Alonso, has died a few short days before the biggest show of the year: La Hora Cero.  The promotion's lawyer, Pablo Jimenez, has unearthed his last will and testament dividing the company's assets between Alonso's three children.  In honor of their departed father, the 3 scions will put on one last show to the best of their ability.  But the locker room is plagued with nagging questions:

Which of you luchadores will keep their jobs?

What killed Señor Alonso & why isn't anyone allowed to look at the body?

Which of Vincente Alonso's three children do you back?

Or is it time to hang up your mask and go back to the farm?

Don your tights, tie your boots, and lace up your mask.  You've got scores to settle in the ring and answers to find outside of it.  As the road crew erects El Castillo De La Gloria outside Monterrey, old rituals will be performed and fresh blood spilled - the show must go on.

Inspiraciones: El Santo Vs Las Mujeres Vampiro, Mil Mascaras Vs The Aztec Mummy, El Santo and Blue Demon Jr Vs Los Mostros, Ringside, Blood Red Makes the Dollar Green, Lucha Underground, Las Momias de Guanajuato, King Lear