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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: Hadeshorn on January 08, 2013, 05:59:24 PM
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So I finally came through on a promise/threat to run a Dresden Files based LXG Game for one of my groups, based in 1938.
Currently the "roster" is as follows:
Sherlock Holmes
The Shadow (Lamont Cranston)
John Coffey (The Green Mile)
King Arthur (Reverse of "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court")
Teddy Roosevelt (American version of Alan Quartermaine)
The base plot is that Allistair Crowley and his cronies (So far I'm thinking Dracula and Rasputin) are manipulating Hitler in order to cover up their fiendish plot to combine Frankenstien's necromancy and various other things to create an army of super undead monsters.
I'd love any questions, comments and/or feedback as I continue to post about this in hopes of creating an overall better experience for my players.
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I'm guessing you're going for a pulp fiction feel?
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Crowley, Dracula, and Rasputin are good, solid, villains. That said, having the other two minions of Crowley? Probably a bad call. Of the three, he's youngest and in all likelihood least personally scary. And having them manipulate just Hitler is a bit off. Having, say, Crowley manipulating the British, Dracula the Nazis, and Raputin the Russians in a similar fashion is a bit more plausible and expands the scope of their plan...and provide globetrotting fun as they investigate each segment of the plot, or time pressure as they strive to disrupt a meeting between the three.
In terms of PCs, John Coffey's debatably a bad choice due to being from fiction about the era, not fiction from the era (unlike the original League), though if you're opening that door, Indiana Jones might be a cool addition. Doc Savage also seems like a must if you're going pulp...though perhaps overpowered, so I suppose a reference might be sufficient. Are these from your players directly? If so, it's not a bad lineup, but not an ideal one either...if not, I'd leave it up to them, people all have their favorite characters, after all.
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I did a bit of research and put together a "master list" of choices for them to pick from. I read the idea of Coffey from another forum and liked the idea. We're essentially playing him as a good version of Solomon Grundy.
Here's the actual list I put together:
For some of these, I've listed authors meaning you can play the author or any of their characters.
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Character List:
Teddy Roosevelt
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Edgar Allen Poe
Jack London
Harry Houdini
Alexander Dumas
Benjamin Franklin
Peter Pan
The Shadow
Agatha Christie
Rudyard Kipling
Edgar Rice Burroughs
John Coffey
The Phantom
Dick Tracy
The Lone Ranger/Tonto
Green Hornet
Mary Shelley
Bram Stoker
Christopher Robin
Doctor Dolittle
L. Frank Baum
John Carter
The Phantom of the Opera
As far as the pulp feel goes, yeah, I was originally going to use SotC for this game but when I decided on using Crowley and company as Villains as well as allowing the Shadow, I figured some of the powers and such from DFRPG would work a little better.
I should also throw in that the "M" for the team is Tesla. I was originally going to allow him as a PC option but decided I liked him as M a little better. There were some other options that I would have allowed had someone asked, Indiana Jones being one of them, along with Captain America or even Batman.
The guys playing Arthur and Coffey respectively aren't overly familiar with the pulp genre so I think that's why they decided on those. Arthur was originally going to play HG Wells but changed his mind. I'm genuinely surprised no one picked Dick Tracy or the Phantom, other than they might have felt redundant with Holmes and the Shadow already there.
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I would have gladly picked Dolittle.
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Crowley, Dracula, and Rasputin are good, solid, villains. That said, having the other two minions of Crowley?
If Crowley is indeed "The Great Beast" then they could be his minions. I mean, Crowley used to brag that his own mother once called him the Anti-Christ.
There's some good pulp crossover in Farmer's writings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Jos%C3%A9_Farmer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Jos%C3%A9_Farmer) points you to some of his pulp mash ups - including a Tarzan and Sherlock Holmes team up. And then there's the Wold Newton family - a series that links Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, Doc Savage, Lord Peter Wimsey, Solomon Kane; Captain Blood; The Scarlet Pimpernel; Sherlock Holmes's nemesis Professor Moriarty; Phileas Fogg; The Time Traveller (main character of The Time Machine by H. G. Wells); Allan Quatermain; A.J. Raffles; Professor Challenger; Richard Hannay; Bulldog Drummond; the evil Fu Manchu and his adversary, Sir Denis Nayland Smith; G-8; The Shadow; Sam Spade; Doc Savage's cousin Patricia Savage, and one of his five assistants, Monk Mayfair; The Spider; Nero Wolfe; Mr. Moto; The Avenger; Philip Marlowe; James Bond; Lew Archer; Travis McGee; Monsieur Lecoq; and Arsène Lupin.
(Yes, I did paste that in from wiki).
Not all of his works are pulp, but they can easily serve as a starting point.
Richard
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I'm thinking for the initial phase of the campaign, I'm going to send them off to Africa in search of some sort of mystic artifact. This way I can introduce my unfamiliar players with a bit of classic pulp elements.
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Like Africa.
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I'd add Sidney Reilly to the list - the British agent on which James Bond was based. He would've been 65 in 1938, had he lived that long - in RL he didn't but maybe in your world, he did!
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I will keep that in mind!
The team is assembled and I'm going to send them off to Egypt to try and stop agents of the Enemy from stealing the Book of the Dead. I can borrow heavily from "The Mummy" and introduce some classic pulp to get my newbies' feet wet in the genre.
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After thinking about it, and having some revelations due to rereading Ghost Story, I've decided that the Big Bad will be none other than Kemmler himself. He's exactly the sort of Magnificent Evil Bastard to try and pull this level of scheme off. Plus its hinted that he may or may not have been responsible for both World Wars.
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I like this idea.
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Very cool. One thing... I would think that if you really want the League feel you should try mimicing the plot of a novel somewhat. I don't know which I'd do, but definitley keep the Bad Guys as you have them... I worry about Kemmler and Crowley though... The pair together is scary.
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That's a good thought Animar. I'm leaning towards doing a rough recreation of The Mummy with Brendan Fraser. It'd be very easy for The Villains to have agents trying to find/steal the Book of the Dead or even the Lock of Anubis from the DF:TV Series. And unleashing some Mummy nonsense could be fun as well.
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That's a good thought Animar. I'm leaning towards doing a rough recreation of The Mummy with Brendan Fraser. It'd be very easy for The Villains to have agents trying to find/steal the Book of the Dead or even the Lock of Anubis from the DF:TV Series. And unleashing some Mummy nonsense could be fun as well.
Definitley. It works with Kemmler well too. Getting that final bit of research on the Darkhallow done by adapting a long lost Pharoa's curse and finding the Arke of the Covenant(oops, that's Indiana Jones).
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The Ark of the Covenant isn't a terrible idea either. Though, I may save "book 2" for a middle eastern biblical lean.
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You'll have to excuse my brain for making wild connections between continuities. Indiana Jones spoiling Kemmler's plans was just too fun. (As is the burgeoning bit adding Hellboy style continuity in, wherein Rasputin is Kemmler's equal.)
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Yeah, there's so many unexplored possibilities with this campaign. Hopefully some of the guys will want to change characters a bit or something after the first chapter. Hindsight being what it is, I wish I'd modified my possible character list a bit more. Having someone play Captain America or Black Panther (T'chaka) or even a WW2 era Batman would be really cool.