This is part 2 of Jeff Rients 20 campaign questions as they apply to my Digital Dark Age campaign setting. Part 1 can be found HERE.
11. Where can I hire mercenaries?
Need some bad ass dudes for a mission of ultra violence and no questions asked? If you have the cash you can enlist the talented legionnaires of Steelgate Security Service. Colonel Angus Steelgate is the CEO of this mecernary company that was based on the framework of the Old Earth French Foreign Legion. For the less discerning and cash deficient you could always hire members of the Hell’s Attic gang known as the Devil’s Rejects.
12. Is there any place on the map where swords are illegal, magic is outlawed or any other notable hassles from Johnny Law?
The Digital Dark Age is a science fantasy wild west. The average person probably doesn’t carry a weapon since it pretty much makes you a target for trouble. That being said it’s not entirely unusual for someone from the Underhive and particularly those people who make their living with a little bit of the ultra violence to be packing some kind of heat. Of course there are some places where carrying weapons and wearing armor is defiantly a not allowed. Government buildings, elite and private gated communities like Milan Towers, the Sky-Gardens of Eden, and Heavens Gate to name a few. In addition most religious temples and churches frown on, if not out right deny access to an armed individual. Oh and don’t even think about going into the New Vatican City with anything even remotely considered a weapon, the Elite Swiss Guard will put your ass down in no time flat. Same thing applies doubly for spell slinging magic meat heads. Practicing magic is outlawed and the average joe fears magic. To practice the art almost anywhere except maybe in the Underhive is just asking for trouble.
13. Which way to the nearest tavern?
The Bronze Horseman is Prospero’s most famous and popular dive. Located in Hell’s Attic, the booze is cheap, the woman cheaper, and an exotic and dangerous atmosphere that’s impossible to find anywhere else. The place is a crossroads for people of all walks of life and is often frequented by youthful upper crust society types when they feel the desire to go slumming. It’s established by anyone whose anyone that this is the place to go if you’re looking to find work, find someone to fill out your team, or hire someone for all manner of illegal activities like hacking, spellcasting, and of course ultra violence. Fights break out here constantly, and over the silliest of slights. The authorities tend to stay out of this den of iniquity but you can count on the fact that everyone and their grandmother has a spy keeping tabs on what goes down here. The Horseman is owned and operated by Yuri Pushkin, and eccentric man with a strong love of beer, sausages and poetry. The beefy twin brothers Dmitri and Bogdan Bogdanovich work as bouncers and doormen. You don’t want to piss these muscle heads off. You defiantly don’t want to mess with their little sister Katya who waits tables along side the flirtatious Anoushka.
14. What monsters are terrorizing the countryside sufficiently that if I kill them I will become famous?
The Underhive is infested with all maner of monsters. Heres the ten most commonly encountered: Sarthogg (Frog-Man), Giant Lantern Spider, The Grinning Man (Mothman), Judas Mantis, Hellwasp, Conduit Naga, Shrapnel Rats, Tommyknocker, Witch Hounds, Plague Zombie. In addition the A.I. known as Prophet has been sending his hive legions further and further out into the Underhive. This machine intelligence seems to have a vendetta against most biological life forms. In addition rumors suggest that prisoners of Prophet are experimented on and often remade into Cyborgs in service of the hive. Alarming reports have been coming in that the Sarthogg population is exploding. These reports indicate that these frog-men originate from lairs in and around Crippletown.
15. Are there any wars brewing I could go fight?
There is an underground resistance between the Tempest Systems Protectorate Government and the Church of the Holy Resurrection. There are plenty of political and social uprisings all across the known universe. There is also the increasing plague of the Sarthogg that if not stemmed will lead to something much worse. In the Mega City of Prospero the Drug Cartels have been battling it out for domination of the drug trade and the Prospero Police Department has stepped into the escalating fray with their new P.A.L.A.D.I.N. anti drug task force. There is the Holy Inquisition and their crusade to crush the enemies of the Church and convert all non-believers to the faith.
16. How about gladiatorial arenas complete with hard-won glory and fabulous cash prizes?
In Hell’s Attic there are numerous fight clubs. None however can match the opulence and popularity of Belphegor’s Inferno Club. This underground-fighting arena is the hub for illegal gambling and death matches of all types. Well attended, and remotely viewed by thousands the eponymous Belphegor is a energetic and consummate showman. As the host of this multi million-dollar business Belphegor takes on the persona of a well-dressed servant of hell. He sports intricate make up reminiscent of 1980’s metal musicians and has a flare for the dramatic. The wet dreams of wanna be reality television stars have been brutally crushed or realized in the "Rings of Fire".
17. Are there any secret societies with sinister agendas I could join and/or fight?
The Consortium is a legendary body of movers and shakers you supposedly are the true directing force behind the legitimate government. This group seeks nothing more than to serve themselves and their own greedy nature. The Consortium is in direct conflict with the Church of the Holy Resurrection who has thus far been beyond their ability to manipulate. Then there is the Cult of Mem’Dathou which seeks nothing more than the annihilation and rebirth of the universe as prophesied by their alien deity.
18. What is there to eat around here?
The Mega City of Prospero is renowned for an endless selection of a variety of foods from every ethnicity imaginable. If you’re in Hell’s Attic try the Silver Dragon. This is a great place for pan-fried noodles and their famous Spicy General Tao Chicken. But seriously, don’t ask about the chicken. The average persons diet tends to consist of some kind of mixture of soy and rice.
19. Any legendary lost treasures I could be looking for?
If one was so inclined to look for it a fist sized exquisitely cut red ruby known as the Eye of Azathoth was recently stolen from the Prospero Museum of Natural History. The word on the street is that someone at the Eclipse Corporation wants a stolen and expensive prototype returned to its R&D lab. According to a representative of the Dead Letter Office there are a number of magical books and other arcane artifacts that have disappeared along with their owners. The Yakuza are on the look out for a jacked shipment of Tetrameth, and the Church is always on the look out for any number of holy relics, art, and texts that might be in the possession of an unwitting or disreputable dealer or collector.
20. Where is the nearest dragon or other monster with Type H treasure?
The closest thing to a dragon is the Devourer Worm. Also known as Mem’Dathou, this alien monstrosity lives in the bowels of its great underground temple near Crippletown. Only a fool would consider this date with death a sane idea. Protecting the Priory of the Worm is all manner of vile cultists, of which only some are human. Sarthogg live here in great numbers, and according to some accounts so does their leader an immortal behemoth of a Sarthogg known as Leviathan. That being said, if one was crazy enough to mount a raid on the Temple, they could net a great deal of wealth if successful.
Showing posts with label P.A.L.A.D.I.N. Blues. Show all posts
Showing posts with label P.A.L.A.D.I.N. Blues. Show all posts
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
The Digital Dark Age
As I continue to write out my thoughts on the P.A.L.A.D.I.N. Blues campaign a thought continued to nag at me. While P.A.L.A.D.I.N. Blues is meant to be a cyberpunk police drama it’s far from the only story that could be told in this dystopian universe that has begun to take form in my minds eye.
In fact the whole idea for the Tempest System first emerged years ago from a failed attempt at another campaign I called The Saints of Los Angeles. I tell you more about that campaign later, but suffice it to say that was frighteningly similar to Firefly/Serenity. Frightening in the sense that since I had never seen an episode of the Firefly television series, nor the Serenity movie. In fact I knew absolutely nothing about the franchise at all. It blew me away at how it was possible that my own idea could be so similar.
Finally it dawned on me what it was that was bothering me. I was working on writing more than just the details to be able to run this P.A.L.A.D.I.N. Blues story arc. I was in fact creating a campaign setting that was quite capable of being utilized as shared universe. A setting that in my mind could be plundered to tell as many other stories that could be imagined. Stories told by me, or by others.
After having identified this particular issue the next step in my mind was to provide some sort of framework as to what this campaign setting was all about. I went back to my stack of spiral notebooks and took a gander. That was when I found the notes I had written for my own personal vision for a Shadowrun inspired setting of my own design. A setting I had called the Digital Dark Age.
At the time those notes were meant to be used in conjunction with Monte Cook’s Arcana Unearthed, a d20 rules variant and fantasy campaign setting. Consider the idea that if a mash up of Cyberpunk 2020 and D&D were the major inspiration for Shadowrun, then a mash up of Shadowrun and MC:AU was the inspirational seeds for the Digital Dark Age. Not a new concept by a long shot, but at the time I was pretty excited about the idea. Of course like most of my hair-brained ideas it never got off the ground. Yet the notebook and ideas endures to this day. Heck, I just might take another shot at that idea again some day. Except this time I might call it Burning Arcana, or something similarly riffing off the Arcana Unearthed or it’s updated abd expanded incarnation, Arcana Evolved titles.
So this all this is all a roundabout way of saying I’m hijacking the Digital Dark Age title and using it for this current world building project right now. Some times we have an idea that’s ahead of its time. Some times I even think our ideas are like that jar full of mixed types and sizes of screws we all have stored away on a shelf somewhere. Every once and a while we take that jar down. We rummage through it, or pour it out looking for the perfect screw for the job. Some times you might even try a few of the out to see how they fit or if it can do the job just right. So welcome friend to the Digital Dark Age. Cyberpunk roleplaying set in a new Dark Age of mankind’s far future.
In fact the whole idea for the Tempest System first emerged years ago from a failed attempt at another campaign I called The Saints of Los Angeles. I tell you more about that campaign later, but suffice it to say that was frighteningly similar to Firefly/Serenity. Frightening in the sense that since I had never seen an episode of the Firefly television series, nor the Serenity movie. In fact I knew absolutely nothing about the franchise at all. It blew me away at how it was possible that my own idea could be so similar.
Finally it dawned on me what it was that was bothering me. I was working on writing more than just the details to be able to run this P.A.L.A.D.I.N. Blues story arc. I was in fact creating a campaign setting that was quite capable of being utilized as shared universe. A setting that in my mind could be plundered to tell as many other stories that could be imagined. Stories told by me, or by others.
After having identified this particular issue the next step in my mind was to provide some sort of framework as to what this campaign setting was all about. I went back to my stack of spiral notebooks and took a gander. That was when I found the notes I had written for my own personal vision for a Shadowrun inspired setting of my own design. A setting I had called the Digital Dark Age.
At the time those notes were meant to be used in conjunction with Monte Cook’s Arcana Unearthed, a d20 rules variant and fantasy campaign setting. Consider the idea that if a mash up of Cyberpunk 2020 and D&D were the major inspiration for Shadowrun, then a mash up of Shadowrun and MC:AU was the inspirational seeds for the Digital Dark Age. Not a new concept by a long shot, but at the time I was pretty excited about the idea. Of course like most of my hair-brained ideas it never got off the ground. Yet the notebook and ideas endures to this day. Heck, I just might take another shot at that idea again some day. Except this time I might call it Burning Arcana, or something similarly riffing off the Arcana Unearthed or it’s updated abd expanded incarnation, Arcana Evolved titles.
So this all this is all a roundabout way of saying I’m hijacking the Digital Dark Age title and using it for this current world building project right now. Some times we have an idea that’s ahead of its time. Some times I even think our ideas are like that jar full of mixed types and sizes of screws we all have stored away on a shelf somewhere. Every once and a while we take that jar down. We rummage through it, or pour it out looking for the perfect screw for the job. Some times you might even try a few of the out to see how they fit or if it can do the job just right. So welcome friend to the Digital Dark Age. Cyberpunk roleplaying set in a new Dark Age of mankind’s far future.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Prospero’s Underhive: Hell’s Attic
Despite the fact that the entire of Planet Prospero is covered by one large city, living space here is at a premium. Prospero’s Mega-City is divided into sectors based on many of the original municipal boundaries of the cities that were first built during Prospero’s colonization period. The average citizen works for the government, or is a cog one of the massive corporations that bases their central headquarters on the planet. This means that the mid-to-high middleclass citizen on Prospero tends to live in one of the many spartan arcology complexes located throughout the city.
Citizens of Prospero’s privileged wealthy and elite class however, get to bask in the luxurious and spacious, penthouses and condominiums that scrap the city’s skyline. These veritable palaces tend towards the ostentatious, are lavishly decorated, and often sport large swimming pools and lush indoor gardens full of exotic plants gathered from the far reaches of the Galaxy.
But for many even the luxury of a basic arcology apartment is far beyond their means. For those unlucky enough to have to make a choice between food and shelter, the Underhive City of New Kowloon are all they can ever afford to live in. But even these desperate people consider themselves lucky. When the average impoverished citizen of New Kowloon considers the desperate lost souls who find themselves forced to live in the proverbial belly of the beast, they consider themselves wealthy indeed. Located deep in the bowels of Prospero there are forgotten sewers and service tunnels. Here can be found the worst of Prospero’s hive-like ghettos, and one of the most notorious of these abyssal hellholes is Hell’s Attic.
Hell’s Attic
If for some unexplainable reason you wanted to visit Hell’s Attic, the easiest way to get there would be to descend into the dark dregs of the Liberty Trench that divides central New Kowloon east and west. This dark and scary place echoes with strange sounds, reeks of garbage, and other unidentifiable smells. Junkies and other sub species of humanity wander aimlessly around in the shadow. Once here you might think that you have reached the "Attic". This would be a mistake. Your journey is just beginning and it takes you even deeper into the stinking bowels of the planet. Here you must navigate through a labyrinth of zigzagging tunnels, cross-shaky catwalks that threaten tumble fall into chasms. Then finally after what seems like an eternity of following ancient power cables and pipes encrusted with flaking mold and paint and avoiding the putrid fluids that drip from them, that you will eventually find yourself in the infamous ghetto known as Hell’s Attic.
It the "Attic" one finds an odd juxtaposition of people and places. Looking to your left you are quick to discover prostitutes soliciting their carnal services. While directly opposite of them a priest gives an impassioned sermon to a motley congregation of the desperate and hopeless. Squatting inside the burnt out shell of an ancient vehicle a young mother breast-feeds her newborn child, while she waits for her drug addicted boyfriend getting high in the flophouse across the street. Making your way deeper into these warrens of sin and flashing neon lights you can see an armed team of aid workers from the surface. Quickly and quietly they unload much needed medical supplies into the only clinic for miles around. A long line of sick and malnourished "Hivers" squat along the front wall of the clinic hoping for a small measure of food or medical aid. Across from the clinic, the thunderous bass of heavy metal rock music blazes from a gang’s clubhouse. Young hotheaded gang members can be seen inside roughhousing and drinking toxic homemade booze. On a balcony above scrawny dirty children play video games in a cheap arcade. By night the children will be kicked out and Arcade will undergo a subtle transformation into a combinations strip club and brothel. In short Hell’s Attic is a very strange complex place and difficult to generalize about. It’s a place that’s both extremely frightening and yet also a place where people continue to lead normal lives.
Citizens of Prospero’s privileged wealthy and elite class however, get to bask in the luxurious and spacious, penthouses and condominiums that scrap the city’s skyline. These veritable palaces tend towards the ostentatious, are lavishly decorated, and often sport large swimming pools and lush indoor gardens full of exotic plants gathered from the far reaches of the Galaxy.
But for many even the luxury of a basic arcology apartment is far beyond their means. For those unlucky enough to have to make a choice between food and shelter, the Underhive City of New Kowloon are all they can ever afford to live in. But even these desperate people consider themselves lucky. When the average impoverished citizen of New Kowloon considers the desperate lost souls who find themselves forced to live in the proverbial belly of the beast, they consider themselves wealthy indeed. Located deep in the bowels of Prospero there are forgotten sewers and service tunnels. Here can be found the worst of Prospero’s hive-like ghettos, and one of the most notorious of these abyssal hellholes is Hell’s Attic.
If for some unexplainable reason you wanted to visit Hell’s Attic, the easiest way to get there would be to descend into the dark dregs of the Liberty Trench that divides central New Kowloon east and west. This dark and scary place echoes with strange sounds, reeks of garbage, and other unidentifiable smells. Junkies and other sub species of humanity wander aimlessly around in the shadow. Once here you might think that you have reached the "Attic". This would be a mistake. Your journey is just beginning and it takes you even deeper into the stinking bowels of the planet. Here you must navigate through a labyrinth of zigzagging tunnels, cross-shaky catwalks that threaten tumble fall into chasms. Then finally after what seems like an eternity of following ancient power cables and pipes encrusted with flaking mold and paint and avoiding the putrid fluids that drip from them, that you will eventually find yourself in the infamous ghetto known as Hell’s Attic.
It the "Attic" one finds an odd juxtaposition of people and places. Looking to your left you are quick to discover prostitutes soliciting their carnal services. While directly opposite of them a priest gives an impassioned sermon to a motley congregation of the desperate and hopeless. Squatting inside the burnt out shell of an ancient vehicle a young mother breast-feeds her newborn child, while she waits for her drug addicted boyfriend getting high in the flophouse across the street. Making your way deeper into these warrens of sin and flashing neon lights you can see an armed team of aid workers from the surface. Quickly and quietly they unload much needed medical supplies into the only clinic for miles around. A long line of sick and malnourished "Hivers" squat along the front wall of the clinic hoping for a small measure of food or medical aid. Across from the clinic, the thunderous bass of heavy metal rock music blazes from a gang’s clubhouse. Young hotheaded gang members can be seen inside roughhousing and drinking toxic homemade booze. On a balcony above scrawny dirty children play video games in a cheap arcade. By night the children will be kicked out and Arcade will undergo a subtle transformation into a combinations strip club and brothel. In short Hell’s Attic is a very strange complex place and difficult to generalize about. It’s a place that’s both extremely frightening and yet also a place where people continue to lead normal lives.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
The Tempest System
For the P.A.L.A.D.I.N. Blues campaign I’ve been working on I wanted a dystopian far future. I wanted to set it on a planet in solar system of my own creation. Mostly I did this because I’m lazy I wanted to be able to be able to just make shit up based on real world people and places. I don’t want to be chained to real world near future geo-politics, history and science. I wanted a futuristic noir space opera set on Coruscant like planet. Think of this campaign as being the bastard love child of a passionate threesome between the Matrix, Firefly, and Star Wars.
With that in mind I came up with a collection of planets known as the Tempest System. Located in the distant reaches of space the Tempest System lies in sector spacers call the Outback. The Tempest System is made up of: Tempest: This solar systems Sun, and the Planets, Sycorax, Setebos, Caliban, Ariel, Prospero, Miranda, Iris, Ceres, and Juno.
At the center of the Systems web of commerce and government is the Planet Prospero. As one begins their descent to the planet surface the Mega-City of New Kowloon can be seen sprawling across the entirety of the planet like a scabrous skin of steel and concrete. It’s massive building complexes and towers stretch high into the planets polluted skyline. It’s here on Prospero that I plan on setting the stage for probably the bulk of the campaign, and in future blog posts I plan to elaborate on the myriad of people and places of this vile hive of dreams and despair.
With that in mind I came up with a collection of planets known as the Tempest System. Located in the distant reaches of space the Tempest System lies in sector spacers call the Outback. The Tempest System is made up of: Tempest: This solar systems Sun, and the Planets, Sycorax, Setebos, Caliban, Ariel, Prospero, Miranda, Iris, Ceres, and Juno.
At the center of the Systems web of commerce and government is the Planet Prospero. As one begins their descent to the planet surface the Mega-City of New Kowloon can be seen sprawling across the entirety of the planet like a scabrous skin of steel and concrete. It’s massive building complexes and towers stretch high into the planets polluted skyline. It’s here on Prospero that I plan on setting the stage for probably the bulk of the campaign, and in future blog posts I plan to elaborate on the myriad of people and places of this vile hive of dreams and despair.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
P.A.L.A.D.I.N. Blues
As I wrote yesterday for the past few months or so I’ve been running a D&D 4e campaign. I haven’t been as thrilled with it as I had initially hoped for. The fault ultimately lies with myself. One of the things that made my previous Cthulhu campaign so much fun was the interactions that the PC’s had with the world and NPC’s they met along the way. You just don’t get that many meaningful interactions in a dungeon crawl, and thus far it’s been a real crawl. Pace wise it’s taking forever to complete the mission the group was hired to accomplish. Like I said my fault as I should have done things differently and have been more focused in my design. But lets face it, the game is called Dungeons & Dragons after all!
As I began to consider aborting this cluster fuck of a campaign I went back through my old notebooks for ideas on running my next great campaign. One of my unrealized rpg dreams has been to run a campaign with major cyberpunk themes running through it. So when I came across an entry I had scribbled about an elite police force called P.A.L.A.D.I.N. my imagination went into over drive. The idea was basically inspired by anime shows like Ghost in the Shell, Appleseed, A.D. Police, and Bubblegum Crisis. The thinking being that the PC’s would play what boils down to modern day knights in shining mecha armor.
My concept revolved around the idea of the PC’s taking on the role of an elite mechanized swat team. The over arching plot would be to confront the escalating threat of the drug cartels in a city rotting from crime and corruption. I really like the implications of running a police drama campaign. For instance I like the police station as an easy way of handing out missions. Yet at the same time having lots of potential for numerous conflicts outside of investigating and combating crime. There are all sorts of other personal and political conflicts that could engage the PC’s attention. Best of all in my opinion is that by having all the PC’s beginning as members of a team you don’t have any of that awkward, how did you all meet, or motivation for going on an assignment business to worry about. Presumably the teams collective goals will coincide most of the time, thus having less reasons for the team to split up as well.
It’s said that when your trying to sell a TV series one of the best things you can do is come up with a compelling logline to capture the essence of what your series will be about. This is the logline I might use to sell this campaign idea to my current group:
P.A.L.A.D.I.N. Blues
From the cockpits of armored fighting machines, an elite police task force fights a desperate war against pervasive and bloodthirsty drug cartels in a bid to reclaim a city gripped by crime and corruption.
The more I think about it the more I dig it. It might even be interesting to explore doing some kind of a D&D 4e rules hack that could make for some intense mech combat.
As I began to consider aborting this cluster fuck of a campaign I went back through my old notebooks for ideas on running my next great campaign. One of my unrealized rpg dreams has been to run a campaign with major cyberpunk themes running through it. So when I came across an entry I had scribbled about an elite police force called P.A.L.A.D.I.N. my imagination went into over drive. The idea was basically inspired by anime shows like Ghost in the Shell, Appleseed, A.D. Police, and Bubblegum Crisis. The thinking being that the PC’s would play what boils down to modern day knights in shining mecha armor.
My concept revolved around the idea of the PC’s taking on the role of an elite mechanized swat team. The over arching plot would be to confront the escalating threat of the drug cartels in a city rotting from crime and corruption. I really like the implications of running a police drama campaign. For instance I like the police station as an easy way of handing out missions. Yet at the same time having lots of potential for numerous conflicts outside of investigating and combating crime. There are all sorts of other personal and political conflicts that could engage the PC’s attention. Best of all in my opinion is that by having all the PC’s beginning as members of a team you don’t have any of that awkward, how did you all meet, or motivation for going on an assignment business to worry about. Presumably the teams collective goals will coincide most of the time, thus having less reasons for the team to split up as well.
It’s said that when your trying to sell a TV series one of the best things you can do is come up with a compelling logline to capture the essence of what your series will be about. This is the logline I might use to sell this campaign idea to my current group:
P.A.L.A.D.I.N. Blues
From the cockpits of armored fighting machines, an elite police task force fights a desperate war against pervasive and bloodthirsty drug cartels in a bid to reclaim a city gripped by crime and corruption.
The more I think about it the more I dig it. It might even be interesting to explore doing some kind of a D&D 4e rules hack that could make for some intense mech combat.
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