Joel Rieber
Concept: Beast
Joel is an American exchange student at the Marmite-Bentley University in Edinburgh. Part as a prank, part as an experiment he injected himself with DNA from a common house fly. Yes…and it worked. Imagine that.
Awareness 4
3D vision
Walk vertical planes +1
Destruction 5
Acid saliva/vomit +1
Pathogen carrier
Instinct 1
Insect pheromone (repellent or attractive)
Survival 2
Super-evolved evasion +1
Archetype: The Fool 7
Shadow: Shortened life-span
Ana Weir aka. Encana
Concept: Elemental
Ana works as an office administrator at the Supreme Ministry for Energy, as an anonymous, lowly paid lowlife worker among an army of similarly anonymous colleaues. But Ana is one of a kind. She is able to control types of light around herself, objects or other people. She can enshroud herself in black light and become invisible to normal eyes, dissolve, bend or enhance sunlight or electric light, and travel as light, at lightspeed. She mostly uses her powers to spy on rich people and report about what she sees on a vlog under the name Encana. Her vlog entried have made her notorius and rich.
Affinity 4
Black light +1
Control light +1
Conciousness 4
Night vision +1
UV Vision +1
Domain 0
Embodiment 4
Transform into light +1
Lightspeed +1
Archetype: Magician 4
Shadow: Insomniac
Sana
(Concept: Ghost)
Sana was formerly Sarah Napier, a medical student and feminist activist from Ground Zero. While she was working as a volunteer at an abortion clinic in the Vaults, a group of thugs high on mescal and gint (think Gin & Tonic on acid) attempted to gang rape her. She killed every single one of them in a prolonged struggle lasting several hours, but was declared dead when a private security firm finally found her. While lying on a slab at a morgue, she rose from the dead and named herself Sana, intent on cleaning the world of sexual criminals. And of the fathers that brought them up.
Dread 5
Cause self-mutilations +1
Cause Inside visions
Ectoplasm 2
Blood spray +2
Possession 0
Relentless 5
Super strength +1
Oblivious to pain
Archetype: The Warrior 6
Shadow: Can’t hurt women
Stupido (Born Stuart Peters)
Concept: Freak
Stuart Peters was wounded several times during the war of independence, but never saw real action. Once he was the sole surviver of a nerve toxin attack on his army barracks. According to the now classified reports from the different rescue companies, he was suffering severe trauma and multiple personalities disorder. Another time, when he was in psychiatric treatment, he was hit by the after effects of a nano-nuclear strike. He is now a well known figure in the Vaults, where he sleeps in rubbish containers and seems to be able to digest anything. Stupido can receive people’s thoughts, but only send raw emotions back telepatically.
Clairvoyance 3
Thought reception +1
Emotional transmission +1
Control 5
Transform living tissue to metal +2
Distort waveforms
Subterfuge 3
Mind shield
Morph
Unnatural 1
Extra brain/spinal cord +1
Archetype: The Moon 5
Shadow: Mind of a pre-school child
Inside Prime
Concept: Construct.
Inside prime is the sentient mainframe that runs and updates the Inside mindspace. It’s completely self-controlled and independent, capable of programming new Inside applications.
Assimilation 0
Function 4
Dimensional Flight
Quantum programming +1
Form 6
Cloak
Localised black hole
Quantum intrusion counter measures +1
Interface 2
Inside admin +1
Archetype:The Sun (7)
Shadow: Disconnected from the grid/network
SAI/HoverTech
Concept: Construct
SAI/HoverTech is a profitable merger between Scottisch Aerospace Industries and Hovercraft Technologies, two leading companies within warfare electronics, communications and transportation systems.
Assimilation 3
Legitimate business
Employee pension scheme
Function 5
Alien technology +1
Lobbying
Form 2
Limitless funds +2
Interface 2
Government advisory status
Archetype: The Hermit (7)
Shadow: Crippling bureaucracy
This is the first post with characters for my Black Watchmen imprint. To give you an idea of what it all means, DP characters have four Motifs based on their Concept. Burkan below is a “Vampire” concept, meaning his Motifs are Domination, Hunger, Preternatural, and Transformation. The same for all other Vampire concept characters. Under each Motif a number of Powers are added, and these Powers are completely created by the players. So, no Powers list in the book or in an imprint. The numbers are the number of dice you roll in a challenge for the right to narrate new panels. There’s more, but that’s the very basics.
Burkan Hare
Concept: The Vampire
Burkan is second generation of Hungarian immigrants. He now runs a reasonably successful plastic surgery business in up-town Edinburgh. At night he haunts the Vaults for victims, who he cuts into surreal sculptures of meat and bone. Burkan lives on his victims darkest secrets, which they reveal to him during his devastating crimes. His victims’ pain and suffering combined with their unveiled secrets have gradually transformed Burkan’s night persona to a hunchbagged cripple, mentally and physically. The deformations have begun to transform into his daily life, as they seem to be keeping him alive as well. According to his birth certificate, Burkan is 140 years old.
Domination 3
Command the lesser educated mind +0
Hunger 3
Hypnotic gaze +1
Physical attraction +0
Preternatural 4
Night vision +1
Intuitive surgery +1
Transformation 2
Scalpel finger nails +0
Archetype: The Void (7)
Shadow:Emotionless
This is my Imprint for Darkpages.
Black Watchmen Wordle
Scotland has established itself as a one-party independent republic after a short but bloody war of independence with the United Kingdom. The war became a modern testing ground for new weapons systems, including nuclear, chemical, biological and seismic/meterological technology. Having the mighty United States as an ally, the UK quickly looked as if they were going to eradicate Scotland from the map. The tide was turned by a company of Russian Union trained special forces from the famous Black Watch regiment. Or so the story goes. After suffering several devastating defeats and eventually being forced to recognise the new Republic of Scotland, the UK has decended into anarchy and despair, with no functioning government or military and several dead zones after nuclear strikes.
Scotland is now a country haunted by earthquakes, tornados, and almost eternally rain-soaked except for the odd years of drought. Public service of any kind has been privatised, including law enforment, justice, education and transport. Everything except energy and banking, which have both been nationalised and are the prime concerns of a huge public administration.
The gap between rich and poor has widened immensely. Corruption is a fact of life. Crime is sky high. Veterans from the war of independence have continued to make their mark on public life. When Dougray McAllister, a highly decorated Lieutenant-General from The Black Watch, and a small band of his former super soldiers began to enrich themselves by robbing the Bank Of Scotland, other veterans set up a private police corps to fight crime. All sorts of vigilantes, bounty hunters and thrill seekers, some with strange powers gained from special training or experiments have since been claiming they were fighting crime or saving humanity.
Whatever their motives, common people call all of them, good, bad, sane, crazy, the Black Watchmen, and avoid them like the plague. They are outcasts, some responsible for the most heinious crimes, while others are working to keep the streets safe.
SPACES
The Vaults/Abnormality 5
The lowest part of the city, centred around the old vaults under the now defunct South Bridge, including the lowest street level. In this lawless, damp environment without any natural light whatsoever, life seems to evolve around crime, extorsion and a thriving black market economy. True slums have returned to the city of Edinburgh, and to its old familiar places. If you’re stuck here, at least you won’t live long.
The Cave, Poverty, Depravation
Ground Zero/Normality 5
If anything is normal or square in Edinburgh, this is it. This is where Mr and Mrs McCullen live and work, try to raise their children. This is Edinburgh as a city of businesses, living quarters for the relatively well off classes. And where scum from the Vaults sometimes come to prey on new victims.
Burgeosie, 24-7 Monitoring, Private law enforcement
Above the City/Absolute power 5
Edinburgh’s new ruling class have settled for million pound homes hovering over the city. A completely new New Town has emerged in the sky above Edinburgh. Here the Scottish Government has its HQ, here the President, the Supreme Ministers and many more honoraries and filthy rich live. Some hover estates even have their own localised environmental and weather systems in place, oblivious to the real world below them. Hover home technology is owned and trademarked by SAI/HoverTech and was a spin-off of war technology from the war of independence.
Powers that be, SAI/HoverTech HQ, Presidential Palace
Inside/Escapism 0
Where can you escape to in times like these? Into your own mind. Or, rather, into the electronically powered collective mindspace that is the Inside. Inside was created as a side effect to another project by SAI/Hovertech, but it turned out that it was not possible to turn it off or make it go away.
Dreamscape +1
Darkpages Wordle
Darkpages is Jared Sorensen’s long time in development roleplaying game inspired by dark comics from Werewolf By Night and Ghost Rider to Swamp Thing, Watchmen and 100 Bullets. And it’s still not done, but Jared published 66 copies of an Ashcan version for Gencon 08. I’ve managed to grab hold of one via Gregor Hutton.
It’s very interesting, to say the least. It’s a collaborative story game using the storytelling techniques from comics, for one GM and max 2 players. You even PLAY the game like a comic, describing the panels with dialogue and sound effects, angles, the lot. You even have “writers’ guidelines” for your characters. When player characters die or disappear from the story they may return “re-incarnated” either as a different version of their former self (think Harvey Dent/Twoface), as Son of… or in several other ways.
The Challenge mechanics click into action when the players (GM is a player) don’t agree what’s going to happen in the folowing panel. If you win, using your character’s motifs and powers, you gain the right to narrate the panels. You even gain the right, momentarily, to control another player’s character. When you lose, you gain Pain for your character, which can threaten powers, connections and the character himself.
I’m giving Darkpages a test run this week, and have been noting down a setting, which Jared calls an Imprint, of course, since we are talking about comics here. The Imprint contains setting description, mood, style, characters, and the setting as a whole is played by the GM as a character as well, meaning he can gain Pain for it and eventually lose setting elements or powers.
You are currently browsing the Dark Places. blog archives for September, 2008.
Dark Places. 