Urban fantasy GURPS

[WorstUsernameEver]

Let's start from the beginning, shall we?

 

Last year (it was september IIRC) I began a GURPS campaign with some of my friends, set in an urban fantasy incredibly stereotype version of Los Angeles, when pretty much every walking NPC except the plot-important ones are either hobos, incredibly racist gun nuts, gangsters and morbidly obese police officers.

 

Now why, I'm sure you're asking me, the hell have you opened this topic?

 

Well, various reasons, but mainly for feedback, detailing what happens in the campaign, suggestion to make the campaign and my DMing skills better and insults to the italian government.

 

So now I'm going to detail the basic ideas behind the setting, what has happened until now and what could possibly happen in the future assuming I don't change my plan and that the players don't completely change the outcome of the story (it already happened once).

 

I'll post about the setting soon, for now feel free to suggest me bits of USA pop-culture to enhance the setting and make it feel less cookie-cutter.

Edited May 28, 2010 by WorstUsernameEver

[Whipporwill]

The rainy season usually lasts from December through February, occasionally beginning in November or lasting through March. Rain is very rare outside this period, although July and August may feature occasional light showers. Santa Ana winds are hot, dry winds that blow down from the desert and make everyone miserable. Crime and disorder are reputed to spike during these winds.

 

The desert, by the way, is the Mojave (Mo HA vee) Desert. There are none of these, but there are plenty of Joshua trees and creosote bushes.

[WorstUsernameEver]

The rainy season usually lasts from December through February, occasionally beginning in November or lasting through March. Rain is very rare outside this period, although July and August may feature occasional light showers. Santa Ana winds are hot, dry winds that blow down from the desert and make everyone miserable. Crime and disorder are reputed to spike during these winds.

 

The desert, by the way, is the Mojave (Mo HA vee) Desert. There are none of these, but there are plenty of Joshua trees and creosote bushes.

 

Thanks Whipporwill that's interesting.

Any word about the economy outside the city itself?

I have to decide where to set the cover-up facility devoted to.. well, technically the production of a magical drug.. sounds silly and technically it's silly, but somehow it worked in the context of the setting.

[Walsingham]

I remember reading some pulp cyber-noir where white people were the minority in America and were referred to insultingly as 'blancos'.

[WorstUsernameEver]

I remember reading some pulp cyber-noir where white people were the minority in America and were referred to insultingly as 'blancos'.

 

Lol. I'll try writing up something comprehensible about the setting. Even if I can't change it anymore, it's still nice to hear a couple of comments about how bad and unoriginal it is (and surprisingly, the familiarity/originality balanced worked pretty well so far ).

 

Also looks like another player is going to join for the next session.

[Walsingham]

You could have one old guy who flips patties at their favourite bar and who constantly harps on about how in the old days anyone could eat real meat.

[WorstUsernameEver]

You could have one old guy who flips patties at their favourite bar and who constantly harps on about how in the old days anyone could eat real meat.

 

Oh I've plenty of NPCs like that. Part of the philosophy of this campaign, is that even random NPCs should provide entertainment and be memorable, so usually I try to give them a character trait on the fly and emphasize through either body language, change of voice tone, speech patterns etc.

Granted, I may have overdone it, but so far it seems the approach has been appreciated by my players.

 

Next post will be the setting, this time I promise (and after writing that I'll finally catch up with you Warhammer sort-of-blog-thread, promise ).

[WorstUsernameEver]

This will be probably an incoherent rambling, but meh, I'll try to keep it as simple as possible.

 

If anyone of you is familiar with the World of Darkness, this is kind of.. a mix of both, with less emo-ness and more outright silliness.

 

Simply put, there are a few pillars I worked on when I designed (such a big word for a couple of badly organized lines written part on PC and part on paper... I honestly just like mimicking developers' way of writing for once X

[Walsingham]

Roll a few random characters and items from my patented threads for each in this forum.

[WorstUsernameEver]

Roll a few random characters and items from my patented threads for each in this forum.

 

Interesting, but for now, I honestly don't feel like I have to generate characters with a randomizer. They just usually either come together on the fly or I design them (if they're plot important) when I'm preparing the session.

Thanks anyway.

[Walsingham]

Well, now I have to somehow get an artillery engineer, a tedious old bastard, a mountain man's fine goatskin shoes, and a voodoo doll into the story.

[WorstUsernameEver]

Well, now I have to somehow get an artillery engineer, a tedious old bastard, a mountain man's fine goatskin shoes, and a voodoo doll into the story.

 

I fit together a morbidly obese taxi driver, a violet horribly deformed lady with an enormous mouth on her stomach, a cigarette smoking tough guy all too prone to take out a gun and a drug dealer in the same story without a random generator... ok, technically my mind is a random generator.

 

EDIT : Btw, Walsingham, don't think your random generator isn't an interesting resource. It's simply that I don't need it right now, it's one of the few things I don't have problems with, generating random things lol.

Edited May 30, 2010 by WorstUsernameEver

[Walsingham]

Fair does. If I ask myself for random ideas I generally get something from the table below:

 

1. A booby

2. A huge gun

3. A steak

4. Death

 

Although now I come to think of it, those four things would make a pretty awesome adventure.

 

I think I may put your characters into my adventure as an homage. Tell us more about them.

[WorstUsernameEver]

Fair does. If I ask myself for random ideas I generally get something from the table below:

 

1. A booby

2. A huge gun

3. A steak

4. Death

 

Although now I come to think of it, those four things would make a pretty awesome adventure.

 

I think I may put your characters into my adventure as an homage. Tell us more about them.

 

To be pretty honest, with fantasy elements, it's pretty easy to come up with strange characters and plots, it would probably be at least a little bit harder if I was organizing a realistic campaign.

My players are also pretty slow when it comes to adventure, which means that usually after a session I can look back at what they did, spot plot holes, fix them, see what I can twist/retcon to make the story more interesting etc.

Oh yeah, I'm going to post about the organizations pretty soon.