The Roommates of 1664 Marshmallow Lane [d20 Modern/Urban Arcana]

Pindo

First Post
Hello again. I'm thinking of running a game. I just got a hold of the d20 Modern sourcebooks and thought, hey, wow, pretty cool. I like the system.

I want to run a game that's mostly social. I figure, it's the modern nights. Deaths will be investigated, even if that person was a criminal, or even a sinister Shadowkind. If violence is your answer to 50% of every situation, I think you likely won't have fun in my games. Just a friendly warning.

This will be a game that's quite light-hearted, but hopefully will be mixed in some classic horror elements. But don't go thinking ahead about those elements. This should be a player- and role-playing-driven game. Please don't think of Advanced and Prestige classes right now. Let the game unfold a bit, let the chemistry develop between the PCs, THEN we'll talk about Advanced classes, all right? Deal?

All right now, here's the setup:

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The Shadowkind have only recently started moving into Florida. They're still pretty rare, and are pretty well tolerated. They've been on the TV for the past decade, as far as anyone can remember, and it was only a matter of time before they started disseminating into the rest of the country. Regardless, many of them still get odd and curious stares from the humans.

Jacksonville is a big city. It's got a football team, though it still is "unknown" enough to afford many Shadowkind a life of anonymity. Cheap real estate, a couple of decent universities, and a fair amount of jobs in different sectors are to be had. A good place to establish a life for oneself, save up, then get the hell out.

So, that brings us to 1664 Marshmallow Lane. It's a run-down old five bedroom, two and a half bathroom mansion in the trendy "art district" of the city (and by "art", it usually infers very old fixer-upper houses, beautiful parks, lots of coffee shops, bars, and many couples of alternative lifestyles). It was built quite a bit after the fire that burned down the neighborhood at the turn of the 20th century. It was never really taken care of until about the 1970s, when the old Aaron Berger bought the place. He was obsessive about restoring it. He completely restored the place from the ground up. It was his pride and joy. Too bad he was horribly murdered during a home invasion in 1977.

Since then, the house has gone downhill. No one likes a house where someone that was stabbed 177 times in his bed once lived. The lawn has since died off, the trees are gnarled and leafless, and the few weeds that dare to intrude on the land look very sick. The swimming pool in the back is dry and cracked, unable to hold water for a long period of time.

At one point, the mansion became a crackhouse, but after a month, everyone turned themselves in to the police, mumbling, "HE'S F***ING CRAZY!" over and over.

Now it's a place many community college and university students crash. Rent's dirt cheap, and if you can deal with the fact that it seems like everytime you fix one thing in the house, something else breaks immediately afterwards. It's old, it's creaky, smells like mold, but it keeps the rain out. Sometimes the plumbing acts up, but just jiggle the handle. And sometimes the spectre of Ol' Man Berger'll complain about you not cleaning up after yourself. Just ignore him, and he'll go away.

So far, the only occupant is a young orc named Gorug. He's a certified nursing assistant at a local nursing home, and he's working on his actual Nursing degree. He'll leave you alone if you leave him alone. If he puts a glass or dish in the sink, don't touch it, he's probably going to use it a little later. He hates it when you touch his stuff.

Plenty of room available for a slacker. Hope you like instant ramen noodles and generic Choco-Puffies Cereal.

___________________________________________

Yes, that's right. Total Losers wanted. You're not a hero. You never thought you would be.

So, RULES... (Please don't ask for "exceptions" to them)
  • d20 Modern
  • Level 1 starting
  • 32 point buy
  • Humans, Elves, Orcs, Goblins, Dwarves, and Gnomes only. The other Shadow Races do exist, but they either haven't gotten to Florida, or are quite rare. I'd like to keep things on a +0 LA level, and I can't stand Halflings.
  • Do you -really- need armor and guns, or any kind of weapon? I don't think so.
  • 4 to 6 players
  • A brief background is required, a single paragraph is fine. I pick players not on a first-come, first-serve basis. I'm not asking for literature, just something that "feels right" for the game.

Any questions?

Any interest?
 
Last edited:

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Are Shadowkind new to the modern world okay? I have a vague idea (the annoying-barbarian-unfamiliar-with-'normal'-customs type), but I'm not sure if it would be usable.
 

I... I'm not sure that fits what I'm going for. It may have a "sitcom" feel to it, but I assure you, I do plan on adding a bit of cinematic drama (and thankfully not that Emo angsty catty drama that usually is witnessed in artsy districts in major towns).
 



Pindo said:
For about 30 years, but only for about 10 in Florida.
OK, well, in that case, I would like to play a human.

Born in nearby Gainesville, FL, Hen3ry always thought he was different from everyone. His parents were generally too busy to deal with young Henry (as he was known then) so he ended up exploring a lot on his own. It was on one of these occasions when he was hiking through the local Devil's Millhopper that he fell through a cravasse. He couldn't climb back out, and worked his way in the pitch dark through a confusing warren of half-submerged caves. It took his parents a full day to figure out that he was missing, at which point they launched a full-out manhunt. Hen3ry finally found his way out two days later, but never quite was the same after that.

He ended up going to the University of Florida where he stumbled aimlessly through a few majors before finally landing in the Fine Arts department. To everyone's surprise, including his own, he developed quite a fascination with painting and metal sculpture. His teachers all thought he was very dedicated and driven, if not actually talented. Hen3ry ended up getting into an argument with his art history professor over an obscure Pre-Raphealite painter, which ended with the middle-aged teacher being punched in the nose.

He was quickly expelled and has spent the last few years trying to make enough money to get buy, which generally means living in the cheapest housing he can find. Hen3ry has developed quite a reputation among the North Florida landlords, after he ... shall we say, redocated a number of apartments in a somewhat unorthodox manner. He found himself on Marshmallow St because he had nowhere else to go. He doesn't like the street name, as he feels marshmallows are just tools of corporate control.

He works nights at the local Happy Family Drive In.
 


If anyone would like to debate a point on the story background, by all means. I haven't fully fleshed this place out, so any little flavor is welcome.

I'm still deciding on the "half" races. I figured they haven't had time to "mix it up" so early on to have an adult half-elf or half-orc yet (I'm assuming that those pulled from Shadow are full-blooded). Also, I think the pollution in our world at the time has taken its toll on the races, thus shortening their lifespans to that of humans... But hey, what do I know? :)

I don't think anyone needs to worry about knowing about Jacksonville. There will be plenty of fictional places to visit, anyway.
 

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