Fantasy "The Boys" for SWADE

[Reynard]

I am bumping this now because the con registration has opened and the event is already full -- so it is time to start the serious design and playtesting prior to the con.

First thing's first: settle on the three Champions to get the axe over the course of the Con.

Ideas include:
The shining knight who is really a total psycho aka the Homelander alt. I think this one will have a heavily guarded secret weakness ie kryptonite.
The corrupt sorcerer who, in idleness, has turned to engaging in the most unnatural of magical sciences. This one is going to require disrupting a ritual perhaps?
A near-Monstrosity Hulk style super Champion that openly indulges themself but is very popular with a certain subset of the population. Maybe this one can be tricked into fighting another Champion in hopes of killing them both?
The master assassin that has turned to serial killing as a way to pass the time. probably invisible or ethereal or made of shadow or something. Feels like this one needs a specific weapon to kill.
The healer who has formed their own cult and the Church would really like to take down. Maybe this one isn't even actually bad?

 

[Reynard]

I am a month out from the con and working seriously at this point. I am running a playtest session this weekend just to iron out the kinks and figure out where blind spots and tunnel vision might cause me issues.

Here's my working "theory" doc for my "Savaged in the Dark" implementation of SWADE:
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Savaged in the Dark
SWADE Variant System Notes

“Die, Heroes” is being played with the Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE) rules. However, the specific needs of this adventure (mortal anti-heroes against corrupt supers they can’t hope to fight directly) have me leaning on some of the tools found in Blades in the Dark, Band of Blades and Scum and Villainy -- that is, Forged in the Dark games. So, obviously, “Savaged in the Dark.”

First: the game will run largely SWADE by the book, especially in combat. I have neither the time nor the inclination to rebuild the system from the ground up and SWADE is a solid, fun, fast and often swingy (that’s a plus) system, so I plan to keep it for most things.

The parts of FitD I want to incorporate are more philosophical. First, the failure-success-raise action resolution system in SWADE is going to look more like FitD failure/complication-success at a cost-full success continuum. Players will still be making their skill checks, but the results of those checks will look more like FitD. This includes “playing to find out” in most instances. I don't really plan that tightly anyway, so this is something I do naturally, but in the Savaged in the Dark “system” I am proposing, players will actually establish fiction in some instances based on the results of the rolls.

Relatedly, the other main tool I will incorporate from FitD is the Clocks system. In fact, the basic unit of the con slot adventure will be a clock: finding out the supers weakness and setting themselves up in a way to take advantage of it will be a clock. The confrontation is going to happen one way or the other (because it is a con game and that’s the point), so the question will be how prepared will the PCs be. The exact form that it takes will be based on the “play to find out” ethos but how it shakes out mechanically will be determined by how far along the clock the PCs are (with the last quarter of the clock determining the relative power of the Champion when engaged).

There are a couple other house rules, variant rules, and FitD tools I will be using.

Bennies can be used for flashbacks in addition to their normal uses.

Any combat other than the fights against the Champion will be dealt with as a quick combat, and most tasks in the adventure will be dramatic tasks -- this is both for speed and to keep everyone engaged. Relatedly, consequences of failure will be fiction positioning rather than “damage.”

Pre-Gens
Characters will be Veterans with a total of 9 advances. They are highly competent. They are the ones that survived the war between the Champions and the Monstrosities and the ones that suffered the depredations of the Champions. They are the ones the Church and the Crown came to. But it won’t matter much, at least in a stand up fight with a Champion. The only thing that will save them and lead to success is their wits, and applying their considerable skills in a way that actually creates an overwhelming advantage.

 

[Reynard]

We're close: this coming weekend. Here are the fluff writeups for the 3 major villains. The "redacteds" are because I use some salty language when I write for myself.
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Ser Bright the Hightouched, Throneguard of the Realm, Holy Shieldfist

Nutshell: Homelander as a fantasy adventure paladin

Powers: invulnerable to physical harm, super strength and speed, “holy eyebeams”, manifest warhorse

Weakness: Ser Bright needs to breathe. He can hold his breath a very long because of superhuman Vigor but he must eventually breathe or he will suffocate/drown.etc.

Personality: Ser Bright is a right bastard. He puts on the smiling, charming face of a truly noble hero but is inherently cruel, self serving and mad. If he has a second weakness, it is that he needs to be adored by the masses and exalted by the Church and Crown.

Relations with other Champions: Ser Bright hates Mistress Nocht and she hates him. To Ser Bright, she is a vile temptress and demonic REDACTED, with her REDACTED black masses and cult of succubi nuns. Ser Bright dislikes Ursoth but mostly because Ursoth represents the kind of unfettered fury and displays of power Ser Bright secretly wishes he could engage in. He also doesn’t know for sure that he could take Ursoth in a one on one fight.

Mistress Nocht, Lady of the Veil, Seer of the Night, She Who Answers Your Tears

Nutshell: Psychic mind controller and fortune teller with the blackest heart

Powers: Mistress Nocht can see the immediate future clearly and the farther future more vaguely. She is telepathic and clairvoyant and can enter the dreams of sleeping victims and implant ideas into their minds. She has a small army of “nuns” that follow her, who engage in abominable black mass REDACTED in her name.

Weakness: While strong and resilient like all Champions, she is not truly invulnerable. She could be killed by a powerful enough Champion or Abomination. But her real weakness is that she is always on the verge of true madness. She is almost an Abomination, and if she tipped over to that side Ser Bright would have to put her down.

Personality: Mistress Nocht is cold and calculated. While her cult of nuns are driven by lust and hate, she remains largely above emotions -- because she enjoys them vicariously. Part of her wants to just let go and cause the whole city, or realm, or world to REDACTED, fight and die for her, but she keeps that part of herself bottled up.

Relations with other Champions: She hates Ser Bright and he hates her. She hates that the Church loves him despite him being a narcissistic monster, and he hates her for being a corrupt devil REDACTED. She doesn’t care much about Ursoth at all, other than that he is a potentially dangerous foe but also a potentially useful weapon should she have to fight Ser Bright.

Ursoth Furyborn, the Bear of Bleakbarrow, Earthshaker, the Unbound Titan

Nutshell: The Hulk, but a bear totem barbarian

Powers: Super strength, near invulnerability, unending rage, every increasing power as he rages, a literal pants REDACTing roar.

Weakness: Weak mind -- when in a rage he can be easily manipulated by anger. Out of it he can be manipulated by base desires -- sex, alcohol, pride, etc.

Personality: Ursoth Furyborn is the pure embodiment of toxic masculinity. He is all about strength over feelings, but completely subject to his own emotions. He calls everyone a whining REDACTED when all he does is rage against unfairness. He drinks himself into a blind stagger while talking about being able to hold his liquor, etc.

Relations with other Champions: He hates Ser Bright because Ser Bright is at once a REDACTED for being a “good guy” but also more powerful than him. He is a little afraid of Ser Bright while also really wanting to fight him to prove he is not afraid. He is convinced cold Mistress Nocht just needs a “real man” like himself to “warm her up.”

 

[dbm]

It won’t help you timing-wise, but the new Horror Companion which is current being crowd funded sounds like it has material on figuring out Monster weaknesses that need to be exploited.

Good luck with your game!