Interest in '50s supernatural noir?

I am gauging interest for a d20 game taking place in Los Angeles during the early 1950s. I am shooting for a postwar, noir atmosphere, with supernatural elements. Think James Ellroy meets Delta Green and the X-Files (in fact, the background material incorporates both timelines).

It will be run with d20 Modern plus a few house rules (primarily setting the scene of the times, but also including - for lack of a better word - sanity). Ideally I would like about three players; interest in playing FBI special agents would be a definite plus.

Players:

1) Candide
2) The Shaman
3) [ALT?] XXX

I'd love to do something like this.

Oooh! Oooh! Pick me! Pick me!

...ahem...

Yes, I'd love to play, thank you for asking.

What do we need to do as far as character creation?

I am thinking 3rd level characters in terms of power. Feel free to run some character ideas by me, but if you want to crunch numbers ignore feats for the time being. I'm more interested in descriptions at this point so I know what sort of things to set up.

To be honest, Special Agents out of the LA FBI office would be in my perfect world. But just about any noir archetype would suit me OK.

If you wouldn't mind telling me what things you'd want to see in a game, and if two players is enough - I am ready to start asap.

I was thinking of something like this: A former Private Investigator who joined the FBI. He was only an investigator for a year or two, he's in his mid to late 20s. He has a shadowy/turbulent past, which he joined the FBI to get away from. I'm not sure about what class(es). Smart/Fast maybe or Smart/Dedicated. How are we to do stats?

I'm a huge fan of anything pulp really. Though the 50s is full of cheesy goodness too. Occult-sorcerer Nazis would definitely be cool. Though I'm not sure how close you want things to hit to home, as it were. Commies, Space invasions, definetely robots too. Anything that is pulpy or good, cheezy scifi.

I think 2 people is enough. Large groups online for me are difficult, remembering who is what character.

Candide said:

I was thinking of something like this: A former Private Investigator who joined the FBI. He was only an investigator for a year or two, he's in his mid to late 20s. He has a shadowy/turbulent past, which he joined the FBI to get away from. I'm not sure about what class(es). Smart/Fast maybe or Smart/Dedicated. How are we to do stats?

Click to expand...

32 points, four levels, hold off on feats and backgrounds.
Can I email you house rule stuff?

I'm a huge fan of anything pulp really. Though the 50s is full of cheesy goodness too. Occult-sorcerer Nazis would definitely be cool. Though I'm not sure how close you want things to hit to home, as it were. Commies, Space invasions, definetely robots too. Anything that is pulpy or good, cheezy scifi.

Click to expand...

I tend to spill over into pulp no matter what I play. But the only sorcerors in LA are Jack Parsons and the rest of his lodge. All the 50's Nazis are in South America - and New Mexico

Candide, if you're going the Smart and/or Dedicated route, I'll go for the 'blunt instrument' part of the team. I was thinking about a reporter, but I could be just as happy playing a G-Man.

This is what I have as far as a character background so far...

Ricardo Garces was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His parents Eduardo and Rosa ran a diner, and Ricardo and his sister Graciela helped out at the family business.

Ricky was drafted in 1944 and served in Italy and Germany, first as a combat rifleman and later as a military policeman. On his return to the States he entered the University of New Mexico and after graduating applied to join the FBI.

Ricky is proud of his heritage and he is sensitive to slights about his ancestry. He is acutely aware of his place as a minority in an overwhelmingly Anglo-Saxon organization, and so he strives to do everything a little better than peers.

Ricky can be working at the LA office easily enough - perhaps the Bureau sent him there because he's Hispanic. I'm tentatively leaning toward Tough 2/Dedicated 1 or Tough 3.

And by the way...

Committed Hero said:

All the 50's Nazis are in South America - and New Mexico

Click to expand...

Okay, that's spooky - I wrote the draft background last night.

Both ideas sound great.

Here is a site with the house rules I have used in this setting. I think that everything is up to date, but if you have questions or something doesn't work please let me know.

As far as chargen, you can select up to three backgrounds to your character, rather than one, as a way of showing his history (for example, I had a player with a farmboy type who picked Rural-Military-Police to show his journey to the FBI). Each background has certain perks you can purchase.

Special Agents are issued either a .38 Official Police revolver or a .38 Colt Super Auto if you prefer a semiautomatic pistol. Agents on violent crime duty can requisition a S&W .357 Magnum; there are plenty of other heavier items in the FBI armory you might get your hands on later....

Candide, if you go the PI route and select Detective as a background, you can get several "connections" to people in the city which are basically ways to get favors. I haven't fleshed out this stuff but we can talk about it if you want some specific guidelines.

Finally, each character has a starting Personality score of 3, divided into Career and Empathy (one will be 2 and the other 1, though you can raise these at the beginning with some Feats). When you encounter sanity-affecting things you can't shrug off, you'll have to choice between lowering one of these scores or taking some kind of disadvantage that hurts some other ability.

Don't take skill ranks in Profession or Computer Use!

Post your chars whenever you want.

Committed Hero said:

As far as chargen, you can select up to three backgrounds to your character, rather than one, as a way of showing his history (for example, I had a player with a farmboy type who picked Rural-Military-Police to show his journey to the FBI). Each background has certain perks you can purchase.

Click to expand...

So if I understand you correctly, I could select Blue Collar, Law Enforcement, and Academic for Ricky?

The Shaman said:

So if I understand you correctly, I could select Blue Collar, Law Enforcement, and Academic for Ricky?

Click to expand...

Urban for the first background, Military second, and University third - there are prereqisites to make things go the way they typically did in the Fifties.