Saturday, September 26, 2009

Plague of Demons

To give the new side game a proper title.

The premise is that it's 1345, 2 years before the Black Plague strikes, and the current PC, Pam, is a demon hunter. Basically, many (if not all) plagues in history were caused by demons prior to this, and Genghis Khan's invasion was actually a demonic army, or at least had demons in it. Prior to this, demons had little knowledge of how to fight wars.

Pam is a demon hunter for the Order, an organization funded by the Church to protect Christendom -- and the rest of the world -- from the demons of Hell. Pam's family is well known in the church and produce many members of the order and high-ranking priests from the far-off land of England. She's joined the Order, been paired up with 2 other novices (Rose, a healer, and Bede, a thief/magician) who are seeking a supposed Necromancer or Sorcerer north of Rome and Saint Jude's Academy, where they get trained.

Normally, novices wouldn't be sent out on their own, but the Order seems to be short handed and their true mission is to find signs of demonic activity close to Rome. They've been ordered by Abbot Costello to not engage the Necromancer and asked by Gerard, the spear-wielding member of the Order who took them on their first mission, to find out if the Necromancer is a real one and if he can die.

At present they've reached the city of Reti and so far encountered people spell-bound to raise the dead, a sorcerer making a magical Gate and, currently, a weapon in Reti capable of killing Healers. The Necromancer seems aware of them and is throwing up roadblocks to slow them down, but to what end remains unknown.

Saturday, September 05, 2009

THE WORLD IS IN YOUR HANDS

This is not an idle statement: to save the world from itself, several superhuman beings have banded together and taken over the entire world. You are among this number. Each of you is far more than human, capable of feats inspiring both awe and terror. You are the heroes, the guardians of a new age, and this is your story.

The year is 2020, the Year of Good Vision. By 2011, the middle east had enough nukes to turn each other into piles of dust, and all sides were willing to use it. Russia was sliding back into communism, the USA was entering into another cold war, China was threatening to cripple the global economy without using a single weapon, global warming had reached a fever pitch, Africa was a mess the world was having trouble ignoring and everything seemed to be heading down a long dark tunnel with a mach at the end.

That was when a group of superhumans – heroes and villains – got together and declared the world under their protection and law. Superhumans had existed since the first word war (blossoming in the second) but had mostly fought their own battles, dealt with their own kind. They were gods, but their concerns were with heaven and not earth, as one wag put it.

Until they came down off their mountains, put aside their old battles (what became of their myriad foes remains unknown) and the heroes went to the villains and told them that we all lived on the same world, that it meant we were on the same side, and by dint of compromise and debate, the Protectorate was born.

And despite all the naysayers and new age gurus and the revelationsists, the world past 2012 thanks to them. Nuclear weapo ns were destroyed along with those far more dangerous, governments abolished. The hoarded wealth of the Swiss banks was used in africa, along with the monies at the Vatican never used to actually help the poor. Wealth was redistributed, and goods as well.

Eight years have passed, and the world is a far different place. Most of the world counts as a second-world country (running about the level of technology from the early 90s: cable TV, cable for computers, pentium IIIs and cellphones though things are steadily improving). Most governments have been reinstated, organized religions given very limited access to funds, and militaries are pretty much folded into the police for each country. And over it all the gods watch, patient, their vigil neverending.


This is an idea for a superhero RPG game. Basically, it’s about what happens to humans once the superhumans rule the world. It’s about freedom, security (and happiness), duty, power, responsibility and how far we can go to save each other. It’s about angels and choices, power and will, and the world of our desires.

It’s not a perfect world, but what world is? Things are changing, education has become free and the world is slowly moving towards a one-world government. Goods and wealth have been redistributed, the systems of power that permitted the idea of maximizing profit dismantled or limited, and the world is once more looking towards the future. Only the past keeps rearing up its head, and there are those convinced humanity should never have been saved, those who hate the gods for taking away freedoms, and a few villains still around trying to remake the world in their own image.

The PCs are all members of the Protectorate in good standing. The dark side of the dream has begun to rear up and some believe the dream has reached it’s zenith. No one knows how far various factions will go to achieve their ends. The world has been saved, but whether it is better, whether the current system can remain and so forth are debates ranging about the globe, with no real answer in sight.

System: Undecided. BESM at 900-1000 points might do; the template in my head is roughly analogous to the Justice League in that PCs could easily take down regiments, and maybe destroy a city alone, but no one (at least, no pc) running around with the power to break worlds and moons in half. Weaknesses are required, magic preferably not used and each PC should be able to take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’ as well as have some mode of transport to get to places quickly.

Toss thoughts here or in game1; this is pretty rough at this point.