Soon enough I will start my Rio de Janeiro campaign.
After quite some thought, I will suggest my players to pick from Mortality only.
They should be hunters, but corruption and compromise are common-place here. There will be plenty of sleeping with enemy, cutting shady deals, and jeopardizing your roots and ideals. Those who prosper either retire or become the enemy. And you have the Hunter, a tragic rebel and martyr.
Potential? Suggestions?
I think having 1 person per faction is neat. You make sure PCs have radically different commitments, ideas, and approaches in the city.
You can make obvious that PCs are not at the top of the heap – most relevant for the Vampire and its web — but everyone cuts deals in Urban.
naaah, too obvious.
I am looking for a very specific feeling, not your average True Blood episode.
We are talking Rio. We are talking Brazil.
Death squads, candomblé santeria, corrupt politicians and cops, heroes who are too clever for their own good, uncompromising rebels who become martyrs.
Die young, or you live long enough to become a villain.
I’ve not read it, but you might want to check out Cartel, also from Magpie.
I have it.
But make no mistake, the goal here is Urban shadows… with a twist.
So it’s essentially an Urban Shadows game, without the shadows?
The book advises you shouldn’t have more than one player with the same playbook, so you might want to think of building different variations of the hunter playbook, showing the different kinds or behaviors of hunters (difference between one working for military, versus a local gang enforcer), since you won’t allow other playbooks.
It sounds like an Urban Shadows style Monster of the Week (another PbtA game) game.
You could limit playbooks to the close to mortality ones but still have 1 per player. Vet, aware, Oracle, Hunter. Maybe wizard and fae. This will keep the tension of US but tie in with the flavour you seem to intend. My game has ended up like this anyway.
If you’re talking about mortality-only, you shouldn’t pick just Hunters and write off the Aware or the Veteran, both interesting archetypes.
The Veteran could be a lot of interesting things in Rio – ex-politician, ex-police officer, ex-gang member.
The Aware could be a muckraking journalist/blogger, a teenager trying not to get caught up in the undertow of the favelas, or a police officer who’s seen things he/she shouldn’t have.
In both of the above cases, they fit into Rio and compromise is going to be necessary. Both archetypes require compromise: Veterans compromise with the urge just to sit back and stop caring about the world again. The Aware have “day jobs” and “day lives” they have to sacrifice to do their business in the supernatural world. Both can be just as tragic as the Hunter.
Of course… I am planning on you use all Mortality archetypes!
Sure compromise will be a BIG thing.
Mainly, I want to see how much they will sacrifice for power and influence, for the easy way out.
And how they will hang on when reckoning comes and find them corrupt and.. compromised.
My apologies – I read “they should be [lowercase h] hunters” and assumed something about the group. Sounds interesting otherwise — will you be including recent political events in your campaign?
Political distress will be more scenery than plot. And I hope to subtly tackle issues such as the violence of state / elites towards any rebel element, the corruption of lofty ideals and the price you pay when you believe that the ends truly justify the means.
Have you checked out the World of Darkness Hunter add-on by Tommy Rayburn (et al)? https://plus.google.com/u/0/104591880381730141397/posts/Y6KPcMkPZdw