Crossposting from Tavern Keeper, because some folks would rather play by googledoc than by forum.
Too many cool ideas, too few players, too little time! In a nutshell, how about a slight variation on Masks? Still a team of superpowered youngsters, but with a little bit of a twist. This owes homage to (among other sources) the Monkey RPG from d101 Games, Anima Prime from Berengad Games, and the Dark Heavens trilogy by Kylie Chan. A little urban fantasy, a lot of wuxia, and a handy dandy excuse for martial arts shenanigans all wrapped up in one neat little package.
Here’s the original thumbnail, which could be easily rolled over to Masks. Legacy? You’re from a long line of heroic gods. Transformed? You got turned into a Demon. Delinquent? Half the pantheon slips onto the naughty list sooner or later! And let’s face it. Having the Benevolent Goddess Herself tell you that you’re a bad little godling is the sort of thing that the Influence rules cover nicely.
“Ministry of Thunder”
PCs are immortals, or demons, or animal spirits who have screwed up and are working off their misdeeds through community service by helping the Duke of Thunder, Lei Gong, police the mortal world and handling any problems that the mortals can’t. This means lazy dragons asleep at the switch and causing droughts or floods, rioting demons breaking loose from the Ten Thousand Hells outside of contractually permitted intrusions, naughty Immortals causing trouble to alleviate their boredom…you name it, it’s under your job description!
Operatives are allowed their own weapons of choice and are issued an official badge in a plain black leather carrying case and a pair of sunglasses, because it’s always vitally important to look cool when kicking demon hindquarters.
PCs should have names based on the various animals of the Chinese Zodiac, possibly with alliterative epithets. Y’know, like…Modest Mouse or Honest Horse or Awesome Ox.
The whole has a retro-cool feel to it, a mashup of art deco and wuxia: tommy guns, Model Ts, big jazz bands, fedoras, swords, fans, temples…Hellboy meets Gangbusters by way of Drunken Master 2 and Final Fantasy.
The MoT itself is a ramshackle detective agency on the second floor of a three story building in a crowded neighborhood. The Boss is a stern older woman who traditionally wears pantsuits and insists on being addressed only as ‘Duke’. There is a tiny reception area with a small desk and telephone, three rickety chairs, and a table with several old magazines on it. The main room has a desk and phone for each PC, plus another two. Duke’s office has a bigger desk, a phone, a tickertape machine that periodically spits out instructions from one of two sources (identified as EBH and WDH), and a most unusual Go board. There is also a file room, a bathroom, and a kitchenette. Apartments for the staff can be found on the third floor, but these are rarely used since the Operatives are usually out in the field somewhere.
(The Go board on Duke’s desk is a situation map of the world. Each of the points on the 29 by 29 grid can be ‘expanded’ into an 8 by 8 grid for more precise locations. How this manifests is that the stone on the point turns blood crimson and a golden trigram appears on it to denote the subsector. You know it’s really bad when no trigram appears.)
Discuss!
This won’t be terribly fast, as my Zootopia 77 players are aware, but it could be a lot of fun.