Monsters and Men Table 1

Game Master tumbler

Recruitment thread for a campaign mashing up urban fantasy settings. The prime directive of the setting is that magic is hidden, so Harry Dresden, BPRD, and Monster Hunters International are in, but settings where there are open magic users or public debates about weathermancy are out. I am happy to smooth out continuity issues between whatever settings we include.

Characters would be original and, ideally, not step on toes of whatever we decide is in universe. So, for example, if you want to be a werewolf, you have to deal with the fact that Earl Harbinger is the king of werewolves. You probably aren't better at mind magic than Molly Carpenter. And you aren't the Harbinger of the Apocalypse or Frankenstein's Monster. That isn't to say you would ever encounter any of those people or it would ever come up.

I'm thinking we start at PL 7 and 20 powerpoints per level (140 pp). 4 skill points per level. That allows characters with a variety of powers but nothing earth shattering. I tend to think of PL 6 as super cop/super agent level, so you should be roughly equivalent to a character from early Harry Dresden or early John McClane. Equipment would be allowed to break power level limits, but would be limited to real world items.

I would want to have 4-6 characters. I would like to run recruitment for about a week and then start the game on September 20th.

Posts: 1 per day would work, 2 per day would be great.

Dotting here with the character I'm developing for the game (being discussed by pm). :)

Deko from the other thread.

My bad, I was still in Pathfinder mode and thought we gain 20 points at level up or something. So 20 points per power level? I'll work on him and get him up to snuff. Will take a look at the various powers, but I kinda based him off of the Agent archetype, which doesn't use any powers at all, instead focusing on skills and feats.

Completely valid concept Deko. Just wanted to point out that sometimes super skills end up looking like powers.

Took a look at the powers, and the only ones that looked like they'd fit was the Comprehend (Languages) and the Blast power. How would the Blast power work if I use an actual shotgun? Do I add the Blast damage to my shotgun's damage? Or choose one or the other?

You would have a device with the blast power and some power feats to shape it into a shotgun. The benefit would be that you would use what are called power stunts with a power, which is a way to have narrative control. You can emulate a feat, or a different power. So maybe you use your shotgun to hit a container of acid to make an acid attack with your blast, or shoot a gas can to get an area blast. This causes you to be fatigued the next round unless you spend a Hero Point.

Hmm, I'll see if I can cook up something.

Perhaps something like Earl Harbinger.

Ah. Then I'd probably just stick with my shotgun then. And the Comprehend (Languages) I can get with the Language skill. I'll have the updated character posted either in the morning or after work.

The man who now calls himself John Bertanzetti knows he can never return home.
No one would know his face and few would remember him.
Today, he stands only 5 feet tall, though the lifts in his shoes give another couple of inches.
The man he once was stood almost a foot taller, but what he went through left its mark.
Don’t ask him the details- his memory of them are hazy.
He remembers the torments he went through, where he spent his life and body to perform the feats required from him until the lessons he was tortured with sunk in and he became able to alter matter itself into the forms his masters desired.
His mastery of transformation grew as his stature withered, leaving him with the looks of a man years beyond his true age.
As his skill grew, so did his determination to free himself and he succeeded, returning to his old world.
Only to find it was home no longer.
His family had given him up for dead long ago, he was unrecognizable as the man he had been, and even he was vague on the particulars of his captors and their world.

I'm still not sure what you want to aim for with the characters, tumbler.
The write up for John is more a collection of ideas than a chosen role in the party.
As a fighter, he might need to depend on a gun; as a rogue, he's got skills and could just animate the lock to open it.
He can do a bit of healing, if you're willing to let the concept stretch to helping living things heal.

I thought about Super Movement: Dimensional Movement to enter the Fae realms, but wasn't sure that would fit your world or your plans for the party.
I also considered Super-Senses: Detect R2 with Acute for a touch ability (or taste would work) to identify matter.

And now I must go to sleep before tomorrow's (actually today's) alarm clock goes off.

So, have you chosen what city we'll be in? I'd like to incorporate it into Wisp's background. I'm mostly done with the crunch and I'll write up the fluff tomorrow and post it all together.

The basic idea is that he was a magician (of the sleight of hand type) when he started learning about the long-dormant powers of his heritage. Being a half-breed between two of the elemental clans.

Still thinking. Perhaps a Knight of the Cross aspirant? Obviously would not really be one, and would not have one of the swords, but is someone who knows of them, and wants to fight the Denarians?

Sorry, missed the post about the thread moving.

I'm definitely interested in something like this, I love both 2e M&M and Dresden, so 100% down with that. I have two ideas in mind.

First, a sort of awakened mathematician/physicist. Someone who studied the physical laws governing the universe before his own magical potential was awakened, and can now manipulate matter by altering the states and properties of matter. Raising and lowering acceleration, or mass, or inertia, as if adjusting an equation to get the desired result.

Second, and I'm being 100% derivative here, would be a sort of magical gadgeteer. Independently powerless, but with a collection of magical artifacts, and a decent mind for magical theory.

John's healing is fine. It would absolutely make sense to be able to use the Nevernever from Dresden, with the limitation that you places on earth are linked to places there, so just opening anywhere can be dangerous. As for role, I think you probably have enough points to cover multiple roles.

Philo, I'm not totally set on a city. The two cities I know best in the real world are New York and Chicago. Chicago has the negative of being Dresden town and New York lacks a lot of wilderness nearby. Probably end up going with New York anyway. It is, I think, the modern fairy tale American city. Probably be a lot of rural roving though. I imagine the campaign moving around a bit more than Dresden does.

Rynjin, a knight aspirant would be a fine submission. We know where the swords are, but there are lots of other Christian relics to work with.

VideoGeek, I am more attracted to the gadgeteer because I like the idea of a magician who isn't a wizard.

You could try Pittsburgh, it's pretty much by itself in W Pa, with lots of wilderness around it.

I'll work on a lesser werewolf who Harbinger has put in it's place. I assume it is modern day.

Vegas has a unique style. I could see it having lots of plusses and minuses depending on what you want to play.

Dotting. Love this idea, and I've been working on a list of Urban Fantasy worlds that might even be compatible, or at least semi-compatible with a little work, as a pitch for my own group.

Dresden Files (Probably my favourite book series)
BPRD/Hellboy (I don't know the comics, but I love the movies. I'm really hoping they get around to the third one before the players {mainly Perlman} get too old or run into health problems/die {He's 65; not crazy old, but pretty up there for an action movie role.})
Buffy/Angel (I think this one meshes quite easily with both the above, though how the Vampires in the Buffyverse would fit into the Dresdenverse vampire courts is a question. Since they are not rotted/dried/withered, they are not much like Black Court; their shifting between human disguise and vampire form smacks a bit of Red Court, though that would create a complication since the Red Court are all dead (or seem to be...) What I was planning was most likely to create a new Court for those types, and perhaps another for Twilight vampire (which I include because my wife is a fan, and because I think it would be very therapeutic to kill massive numbers of the sparkly t#$$s...).
Harry Potter (My wife is a fan. Would represent a different way of approaching magic, basically representing the British school of thought of how magic should work, where as the Dresdenverse might represent a more free-form approach to magic, as well as an older style apprentice model of learning, vs. Hogwarts formalized education.)
Twilight (I really want to kill some sparkly "vampires")

There are a bunch of other worlds I'm not particularly familiar with: True Blood, Supernatural, Percy Jackson, Being Human, but they might be appropriate as well, but I wouldn't really know, since I haven't watched any of them.

Just some ideas.

Needless to say, I'll be coming up with a submission soon as I can manage. Need to read through what has been pitched thus far. First thought is perhaps a Slayer (Buffyverse), obviously post-series, when there were many more Slayers out there, as opposed to just one.

So here's Wisp.

Supernatural meshes well, since really they just fight ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties that go bump in the night, and otherwise it's the real world.

True Blood poses the same problems as Buffy vampires.

Percy Jackson would probably not play nice, as it relies a lot on Greek myth and the "Mist" which hides any supernatural doings from mortals.

But the Percyverse could be looked at as inspiration. Many things would change, but I could see parts fitting in. While the Mist doesn't exist, there's a lot of times when people will have an idea about what they saw and convince themselves it was how they though it rather than what happened.

Hopefully any inspiration from Simon R Green is toned down a lot. I like his work, but hoo boy does it have power creep.

Speaking of this, I do hope that we avoid "mirror cities" like the Nightside or London Below. I think that the challenges of working within the human world is better than having an exclusively supernatural space.

Having that wouldn't bother me at all. A halfblood would be fun too.

I can see Percy existing. There are definitely gods, right? I mean Odin... is around (avoiding spoilers).

I would probably treat most of Dresden as gospel and the basic framework for things, but it is a first person narrative, and Harry isn't omniscient. It would make sense to me that the reason there needed to be so many more slayers is because a big war with vampires was coming, and those folks were involved in the war.

I think Hogwarts is in, which buts heads nicely with the way Harry was trained.

Philo, when you say elementals, your talking Elaine Calloway?

I only discovered Supernatural recently, but I am blazing through it.

Simon Green is usually a little much for me.

I agree about secret cities. I mean, there is the Nevernever, which can veer that way a bit, and things like the Troll Market.

I like the idea of Vegas. Feel free to chime in with other thoughts.

I would probably treat most of Dresden as gospel and the basic framework for things, but it is a first person narrative, and Harry isn't omniscient. It would make sense to me that the reason there needed to be so many more slayers is because a big war with vampires was coming, and those folks were involved in the war.

I haven't read Dresden. Would this make things too hard to follow?

Philo, when you say elementals, your talking Elaine Calloway?

I don't know her work. I was sort of leaving it nebulous, as he's only picked up bits and pieces and it lets you fill in what you need for the story. If you prefer I can come up with more on them.

I agree about secret cities. I mean, there is the Nevernever, which can veer that way a bit, and things like the Troll Market.

That's the way I'd do it. There are places within the city where supernaturals congregate, but not a huge alternate world.

I like the idea of Vegas. Feel free to chime in with other thoughts.

Vegas Pros -

• Vegas already has a larger than life feel to it.
  
• Vegas already has a tourist/native divide that echoes the supernatural/mundane one.
  
• People are expecting spectacle in Vegas - you can sometimes get away with odd things.
  
• It's a 24/7 city with hot and cold running vices.
  
• The Mob is one of the few mundane groups that could deal with supernaturals.
  

• Vegas is small as urban areas go. It quickly gets into the suburbs. If there's lots of supernaturals it's going to get crowded. IT might be better for a visit than the focus of the campaign.
  
• Anywhere near the strip is always well-lit and full of cameras.
  
• Vegas doesn't has as long a history as other cities.
  
• Vegas doesn't have the underground infrastructure of other cities. It does have flood control channels that are 6'x12', but the nature of these means that when the rains come everything is washed away.
  

OK, have my submission.

Oh, man, I love the idea behind this. Dresden Files is one of my favorite book series and all of the rest of the sources of inspiration you guys are using are so awesome. If I knew anything about Mutants and Masterminds, I'd have already started whipping up a character in the hope that I could participate. Then again, I suppose I have a week to teach myself...

Oh, man, I love the idea behind this. Dresden Files is one of my favorite book series and all of the rest of the sources of inspiration you guys are using are so awesome. If I knew anything about Mutants and Masterminds, I'd have already started whipping up a character in the hope that I could participate. Then again, I suppose I have a week to teach myself...

It's based on 3.5e, so it's not entirely foreign, but then, beyond the core mechanics, not much D&D remains, so there is learning to be done fore sure. It is learnable in that time frame though, in my opinion, especially if you ask some of the vets here to help you through the trickier parts of character creation. In fact, it is a fun system to tinker around in, so I'm sure if you even just state what it is you are hoping a power or ability (or suite of abilities) will do, you'll find a few volunteers to mock it up for you, after which you can do any needed fine tuning.

I don't completely remember the system, and I have been exchanging ideas with our GM :) hopefully I'll have something more solid soon.

Third concept: "Magical hacker" based on another series I read a while back.

Can't remember the name of it, but quick breakdown is Greek myth is true, but over the years spellcasting and stuff has changed with the times, and spells are basically programs, and magical creatures (like goblins and trolls) are basically machines (to the point that the main character's goblin familiar doubles as his laptop). Eventually the main character becomes a lesser god (The Raven), an agent of primordial chaos. I only read the first two or three, but I think there are more.

City wise, as most posters on this forum tend to be American, it makes sense that that is the default assumption for the location, but playing outside the US can present some interesting possibilities as well.

Eastern Europe has plenty of wilderness, a lot of history, castles, ancient relics, churches, pagan sites, even the possibilities for remnants of modern historical conflicts, such as the Nazi's, Fascists, Kaiser Wilhelm's Austro-Hungarians, etc, etc. Solid options are Bucharest, Budapest, Bratislava, Prague. If you'd rather keep things in English speaking countries, a setting in Scotland, Wales, or Ireland could be interesting; Edinburgh is supposed to be a really cool place - I personally feel London is overdone (as is New York).

If we do end up in the US, those of us who live elsewhere are usually pretty familiar with what the US looks like and how it functions, via the miracle of American media domination; though there is always the issue of the perceptual shift caused by artistic license and storyteller bias. However, most people are happy working with a movie-version representations of a setting, so that usually doesn't cause too many problems, unless someone actually lives in the very city we end up choosing.

Whatever it is, it should obviously be somewhere old, with plenty of history (religious monuments, ancient cathedrals, and masonic underpinnings are always a plus for an Urban Fantasy setting). Wilderness nearby has been stipulated, and being coastal would add in another entire avenue of environments to explore. First ones that come to mind for me are Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC; maybe Seattle...

Aside: I took a look through my old DVD's for inspiration; would Highlander be appropriate for inclusion? Immortals?

Philly might work as well for an area where you can get past the burbs pretty quickly, but I doubt anything near DC is still in that regime (so Baltimore is probably also out). Boston could work as well I guess (not familiar with the area).

DC has a bit of the same issue as Vegas in that it's fairly small, and the surrounding area(s) in Maryland are...not glamorous in the least. At least not where I lived last year.

Philly might work as well for an area where you can get past the burbs pretty quickly, but I doubt anything near DC is still in that regime. Boston could work as well I guess (not familiar with the area).

Re: DC Never been there, but Bones seems to have the characters heading out of DC and into Virginia, and instantly enter Deliverance country as soon as they leave the city. Have no idea if it is actually that close to those kind of areas or not.

DC has a bit of the same issue as Vegas in that it's fairly small, and the surrounding area(s) in Maryland are...not glamorous in the least. At least not where I lived last year.

Small can still work well in Urban Fantasy, particularly when it is a place with a lot of history like that, and is such a center of attention in politics.

There's also a bit of an issue with the number of military bases and the kind of surveillance around the DC area (like the NSA headquarters at Fort Meade).

Stretches credulity that the "masquerade" can survive in a place like that, though perhaps an interesting twist if the government is aware of all this stuff and there's a Men in Black style government agency policing the supernatural community.

Ya, but think of all the misunderstood artifacts being inadvertently activated by "experts" at the Smithsonian. None stop fun.

Edit: The Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense (a department of the FBI), was listed as one of the default elements of the setting mentioned in the original post. Government knowledge of the supernatural seems a given.

I'm pretty sure Bones drastically exaggerates how easy it is to get past the burbs. The DC Metro area is huge now. Wouldn't surprise me if it was getting close to the NYC one in size. There is, though, plenty of rural territory in VA as it is a large state for the east coast.

I do concur that unless we want subplots that bring the government in, DC is a sketchy business. Very many alphabet soup agencies make the rounds there in profusion.

FBI
DEA
DIA
NSA
CIA

Just to start. Plus anything big and scary in the area probably gets the attention of the secret service. On top of that you have several military bases as Rynjin mentioned.

As somebody who lived in Maryland for upwards of 15 years, it is actually right next to Virginia. And West Virginia. Which is definitely Deliverance country. That said, Boston would work as it's a place with a TON of history and it's not hard to go from skyscrapers to rolling hills and dense forests pretty quick. Just my two cents.

Boston is always nice for the easy Irish Catholic connection, depending on how tired you feel that trope might be...

Man, leave to go to work and the thread gets filled up quickly!

That said, I got my detective fleshed out crunch-wise, with all 140 points settled. Here is the finished Detective Jarrod Liam Jackson Hope it meets all specifications and your approval. Still reading up on the rules and stuff, though I haven't encountered many problems since I started out playing 3.5. Let me know what you think!

I didn't see any mention of which version of M&M was to be used (perhaps I missed it), so I just used the current version. Conversion is fairly minimal iirc.

Sorry, I am in the middle of my real life game. I'll be back to catch up in a couple hours.

And just to clarify, we're using 2e, right? Not 3e? Just want to make sure I'm not learning the wrong edition for this.

The difference between the two is fairly small (I consider 3 better, but both are good). Most obvious difference is they changed the stats to be just the bonuses (you'd see that in my stat block).

There are other mechanical considerations as well, but the stats stare you right in the face.

3e is much less lethal than 2e, in my experience. For that reason, while 3e is well suited to 4-colour settings, it requires a fair bit of modification to be dangerous enough for darker/grittier settings. I lean the other way and consider 2e better. 3e is in many ways a simplified version of 2e, making it a little more beginner friendly, but taking away a lot of the versatility. The changing of the Abilities and other terms was to allow them to stop paying for the 3.5 Open Gaming License, since their game bore only a slight resemblance to 3.5 anyway.

We're using the 2e rules.

Awesome, thank you! Downloading a pile of the 2e books now. If anybody has pointers about the system, I'm all ears. Or rather, my PM inbox is eagerly awaiting. Whichever.

OK, I guess I'll have to redo my build. Shouldn't be too hard, though I don't have 2nd Ed in Herolab which makes it much less pleasant.

Eastern Europe has plenty of wilderness, a lot of history, castles, ancient relics, churches, pagan sites, even the possibilities for remnants of modern historical conflicts, such as the Nazi's, Fascists, Kaiser Wilhelm's Austro-Hungarians, etc, etc. Solid options are Bucharest, Budapest, Bratislava, Prague. If you'd rather keep things in English speaking countries, a setting in Scotland, Wales, or Ireland could be interesting; Edinburgh is supposed to be a really cool place - I personally feel London is overdone (as is New York).

I've only been there once, but Edinburgh was very cool.

OK, I guess I'll have to redo my build. Shouldn't be too hard, though I don't have 2nd Ed in Herolab which makes it much less pleasant.

Then get herolab for M&M 2e. :)

Oh, to all those who have played this before and are more familiar with chargen, can you look at my character sheet and let me know if I did everything right?

So here's Wisp.

Wisp looks good. How would you feel if the elementals in question are Jinn. Jinn are made from living fire in the same way that humans were made from clay. The Jinn are a kind of fey, but not in the pixies and leprechauns sense.