Nemesis [an idea for a martial arts campaign]

[JPL]

The idea: Kill Bill meets Remo Williams [with a scoop of the Punisher]

The setup: You were once an ordinary man with a simple life. But you and your family were in the wrong place at the wrong time. The last thing you remember was watching everyone you loved die brutally at the hands of a band of butchers.

The government man stands over your hospital bed and makes you an offer. As far as the world knows, you're already dead. He can help you stay that way. A new name, a new face, the training to kill unarmed in a hundred ways and the opportunity to try all hundred.

There exists within the U.S. government an agency that routinely ignores the Constitution in order to preserve it. Its operatives are men and women driven by revenge and the need to save others from their fate.

Welcome to Nemesis.

 

[JPL]

The game: d20 Modern, using Blood and Fists [accept no substitutes]. Characters start off around 10th level...figure five levels of "normal life" and five to represent their intensive training in the art of unarmed killing.

Nemesis recruits both experienced martial artists and newbies whose physical and psych profiles suggest potential. The instructors include everyone from a retired Special Forces Command Sergeant Major to an ancient Chinese master of dim mak, the legendary "death touch." Nemesis assassins show a great affinity for Zen training, as living embodiments of the samurai philosophy that a warrior is a walking dead man, a ghost given temporary use of its own corpse.

The missions: Always undercover, usually unarmed, with no backup except the rest of the team and no offical clearance.

The bad guys: Murderers, terrorists, and professional criminals, from the Triads to the Yakuza to the Mafia to Middle Eastern terrorists. In keeping with the genre, many of the henchmen will prefer to work up close and personal. A bad idea...

 

[Vigilance]

Wow- I really like that idea.

It has a similar feel to my BNG/BNF campaign, which is based on (very loosely) the Mack Bolan books from the 70's and 80's (I have not read them since high school).

Chuck

 

[JPL]

Wow- I really like that idea.

It has a similar feel to my BNG/BNF campaign, which is based on (very loosely) the Mack Bolan books from the 70's and 80's (I have not read them since high school).

Chuck

Hey, Chuck!

Heh...Mack Bolan is pure old-school vigilante goodness.

I'm trying to decide whether everyone in the group is trained in the same uber-martial art [a la the Destroyer's sinanju], or whether there's the full range of styles. I'd be strongly tempted to come up with a fictional martial art designed for unarmed assassination...either an ancient Chinese method or a modern system combining straightahead military martial arts with extensive pressure point training.

 

[zenld]

When and where do I sign up! I am already dead, and willing to join the forces.

I love this idea. If it goes online, I want in. If not, can I steal it?

zen

 

[JPL]

When and where do I sign up! I am already dead, and willing to join the forces.

I love this idea. If it goes online, I want in. If not, can I steal it?

zen

You don't come to Nemesis. Nemesis comes to you.

Steal away! I can't claim it's an original idea. I've just been thumbing through my old Destroyer novels and watching kung fu movies. So it's basically "Remo Williams" rethought for multiple protagonists, with the power levels dialed down and the aggressiveness dialed up.

 

[JPL]

Oh, and the theme song is "The Big Payback" by James Brown.

"I don't know karate...but I know ka-razy!"

And at least once per adventure, the good guys get to do The Walk [as discussed in Roger Ebert's weekly column].

All the good guys marching in slow motion towards the fight looking determined, like the calm before the storm, while the theme music plays.