Worldwatch Wednesday: Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense

The Bureau of Paranormal of Research & Defense is a organization that was founded in 1944 by Professor Trevor Bruttenholm to combat various occult threats uncovered in operations against Nazi Germany.

By 1948, the Bureau was based in a facility in Fairfield, Connecticut, retaining links to various branches of the United States Armed Forces that it had built up during the war.

A private organization that receives funding from several major governments, it had numerous human agents, in addition to some unusually talented or noteworthy agent. Of course, the B.P.R.D. also has had paranormal agents such as Liz Sherman, Abraham Sapien, Johann Krauss, Ben Daimio, and -- of course -- their most famous agent: Hellboy.

Campaign Use

The B.P.R.D. (or something very much like it) is a useful organization in a campaign because it has several attributes that help flesh out the setting and perform some useful game functions:

• We've been around since the War. -- As an organization with a relatively long history has many secrets, many past employees and agents, and many past cases (and possibly artifacts) and ongoing experiments and files;
• Those don't grow on trees, you know -- Government funding isn't always (surprise!) extravagant, or predictable. Some pet projects get the money, while others end up shelved and some things wind up pushed back or short of resources. Until it's an emergency, of course.
• Dark corners of the world -- Adventures for the B.P.R.D. agents take them all around the world, into all the dark places that they must walk.
• The Abyss also gazes -- While some agents' lives are short, others transition through many phases across many major and minor (traumatic?) cases, and developments in their own lives due to exposure to the occult or the use of their own powers. Seldom for the better.
• We've lost track of it -- Part of the reason that the B.P.R.D. tries to keep tabs on personalities and artifacts of interest is that there's always someone (or something) that has an agenda for the world.
• Beyond the Bureau -- Another aspect of the B.P.R.D. is that each agent has ties, alliances, and enemies beyond the Bureau. And sometimes those lead into stories and adventures beyond the current agency mission list.

Armchair Review: The Nazi Occult

The book The Nazi Occult (from Osprey Publishing) is packed solid with adventure hooks and telling details on the occult in Nazi Germany during WWII.

Here's my review as it appears on RPGNow:

It should be pointed out that this book is written as an 'alternate history', detailing a richly imagined and meticulously researched tapestry of Nazi plans, activities, artifacts and personas. 

With that out of the way, this is a must-have for GMs who are planning to run games (or are already running ones) that are set in WWII with a touch of mystical / magical elements, weird science hints, or even Cthulhoid intrusions. It's also a treasure trove of origin hooks for superheroes or supervillains from the WWII / post-WWII era of comic book gaming.

Even a cursory read will clue you into names major and minor in the network of allied and opposed occult factions; a close read will give you a rundown of a multitude of Ahnenerbe activities around the world, major artifacts that passed through Nazi Occult hands like the Spear of Destiny, the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant (with a tip of the hat to our favorite adventuring archaeologist), Nazi mystical rites with occult significance with their exact dates in the timeline, and ties to locations like Agartha and to technologies like the Vril-powered Bell.

If you want to freak your players out with fantastic and horrific adventure elements strongly grounded in history, this is the book for you.

I strongly recommend you pick it up, and read it with notebook or digital recorded in hand -- to capture all the ideas that will be triggered on a page-by-page read of this tome. And, if you're already familiar with the subject matter, you may find inclusions of well-known and lesser known characters from pop culture and gaming culture added into the mix.

Armchair Review: Rocket Age

Rocket Age a love-letter to the era of pulp planetary romances. Radium-powered rocket ships are zooming humanity (and other alien races in the solar system) all around, with 1930s versions of the U.S.A., Britain, and France coming into conflict with the proto-Axis versions of Germany, Italy, and Japan. Aliens from Mars and Venus, and a rich tapestry of rocket age technology, expansionist policies, and interplanetary politics provide a fantastic backdrop for your planet-hopping adventures.

The Vortex system, which captured the neo-pulp feel of the newer adventures of Doctor Who (also by Cubicle 7), really reinforces the swiftness of action and the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants tone of the genre.

An example of the interior art -- a stylized map of the Rocket Age solar system.

I really enjoyed the meatiness of this book: the black & white art, which somehow gave modern era weight and gravitas to the classic alien and rocketship imagery from this well-known genre; the tour of the solar system, which gives the broad strokes of each planet as a mini-setting, along with locations and characters of note, and loads of plot hooks; the clearly laid out tables, the illustrations of planets and aliens to help GMs and players visualize the setting -- the love of the genre and the project is quite evident in the density of material in the Rocket Age RPG.

All in all, a fine RPG to add to the library of this pulp subgenre.

On The Radar: Far West -- Weird and Wild

Far West is a different take on the Weird West. I've been seeing this come up for a while now, so I thought I'd put up a quick post on it.

According to the Far West site, here's the premise of the game:

Imagine: A fantasy world, but not one based on Medieval/Dark Ages European culture and myth, but rather one based on the tropes of the Spaghetti Western and Chinese Wuxia. Add steampunk elements. Mix well.

A fantasy world that’s The Gunslinger meets Storm Riders meets Deadwood meets Afro Samurai meets The Wild Wild West meets Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon meets Django meets Brisco County meets House of Flying Daggers and more.

A fantasy world that’s explored through a constantly-updated website, a tabletop role-playing game, a web series, artwork, fiction, comics and much, much, more. A fantasy world that is shaped by its own fan community.

This is Far West.

The set up is interesting, not only because I like a lot of the inspirations of the game, but also because it evokes a slight feel of Firefly / Serenity with its mix of Eastern elements into the West, and because it is posited as a fantasy world -- sort of  like a small kitchen sink setting that spans many subgenres.

There are some interesting posts on several clans (The Jade Family, The Rangers, The Preachers, The Foxglove Society)  in the game setting, and more material on their website. Do take a look.

Setting Expeditions: The Hero Universe, Part IV -- Cowboys and Victorians

So, here we are just about to hit the modern era of the Hero Universe. The past three installments can be found here...

Setting Expeditions: The Hero Universe, Part I -- Pre-Cataclysm
Setting Expeditions: The Hero Universe, Part II -- Post-Cataclysm to the Medieval Era
Setting Expeditions: The Hero Universe, Part III -- Musketeers, Pirates, and Revolutions

... and we still have quite a ways to go. No time to dawdle then! On to Leagues of Extraordinary Gentlepersons and Blazing Saddles!

Victorian Hero (1837 to 1910)

A page from Bernie Wrightson's awe-inspiring masterwork: Frankenstein.
His linework and visual interpretation of the novel goes a long way to
evoking the feel of the era and the story. The resoluteness of Frankenstein
and the power and savage strength of his monster are so vivid here.

A fine time for adventures, beginning with Queen Victoria’s ascension to the throne and the invention of the cartridge. Encompasses great explorations, gold rushes, frontiers, the American Civil War, lost lands, darkest Africa, strange forbidden magics, Frankenstein, the Mummy, Dracula, Fu Manchu, Sherlock Holmes, Captain Nemo, and more. Hudson City is a hustling, bustling center of commerce and culture, second only to New York City in the Americas.

As yet, no “superheroes” exist, but there are “masked adventurers” from time to time, and many more who are not masked. Toward the end of this period some people begin to verge, albeit slightly, toward true “superpowers”; this is best seen in Hawley Griffith, the so-called “Invisible Man,” and Dr. Jekyll. The presence of “steampunk” weird science is also possible.

For influence and ideas, see the works of Haggard, Doyle, Verne, Stoker, and Wells.


Note: This era has blossomed into many different types of genre variants and pastiches for gaming. In addition to Steampunk and Faeriepunk (Castle Falkenstein, I'm looking at you), Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novels really opened the eyes of many people to the wonders of adventuring in a world where elements of fiction set in the era are/were true. Of course, fans of the work of Jules Verne were sold on the idea long before.

Western Hero (1866 to 1890)

The Wild West, an era of gunfighters, Indians, lawmen, outlaws, gamblers, saloon gals, and trains. Some magical or strange elements — shamanic magic, steampunk science, vampires — could also exist.

I was never able to collect all the graphic novels of Lucky Luke, unlike my Tintin and Asterix collections.
But the man who shoots faster than his own shadow has a certain charm that I wish I'd been able to complete.

Note: well, heck. This is a genre that also has tons of source material for it in various media. My fascination for it on this blog has tackled Western RPGs, an ongoing weird west comic known as The Sixth Gun, and my strangely popular post on a seminal Filipino Western movie. Like many of the eras in the timeline, this era deserves a sourcebook on its own -- and this is the strength of the Hero Universe: the ability to provide a broad canvas for nearly of all the heroic eras in a single timeline.

Modern Era Classes -- Having Weird Adventures

Not as clumsy or random
as a pistol or a barrel-fed
tommy gun.

I've been thinking about this for a while -- what kind of classes or character templates does the Weird Adventures setting call for?

As a mash-up of traditional fantasy RPGs and a more modern pulpy feel, it makes sense that the classes would have a little of both. So I racked my brain for the very basic types of classes or templates on both sides.

For fantasy, it would seem that you'd have the basic fighter, mage, cleric, thief contingent along with their respective variants. For pulp, it's a little bit less defined; the modern world is rife with strange backgrounds and combinations of talents and skills and professions.

Since I decided to use the Hero System anyway for this exercise, the wide variety of possible classes isn't a problem. It's finding those sets of archetypes that are appropriate for the genre. And that starts with the basic campaign frame or the types of adventures you're looking at having. Let's start with the classic types of D&D adventures and see what Weird mash-ups we can inject into them.

Dungeon Adventures

For dungeons set in the wilderness, these could be your basic criminal overlord lairs, your strange tribes of creatures preying on nearby settlements, your awakening evil stirring, your portal to a strange underground world, your journey to the center of the earth (or hollow world)!

This was an awesome series of Tintin meets Cthulhu
Mythos faux covers. Maybe hecan do Tintin in
classic D&D modules as well?

For dungeons set in the cities, sewers and subways immediately come to mind. In addition to any of the options above, you can have underground communities that run by different rules from the surface world, and perhaps some strange remnants of a wondrous, long-forgotten era in the city's past that has found new uses by less than scrupulous inheritors.

Wilderness Adventures

Weird Adventures has a lot of interesting options for these. Monster hunting springs to mind, as does extending the reach of civilization into wild areas. Investigating strange rumors for wealth, power, knowledge or science are more than sufficient motivators for expeditions -- and expeditions to other lands or lost civilizations are a staple of both FRPGs and Pulp RPGs!

City Adventures

There's no shortage of story hooks for this (you've read Weird Adventures, right?), but the types of non-dungeon adventures I'd run would include the monster-loose-in-the-city trope, the city-predators-in-disguise trope, the series-of-strange-crimes trope, the find-the-macguffin trope, the murder-mystery trope, the break-the-curse trope, the race-to-get-all-the-pieces trope, the stranger-dies-and-passes-on-the-mystery trope, the dude/damsel-in-distress trope, it just goes on.

Okay, I think I've got a better handle on it. Next step is to come up with a campaign frame or two and start listing classes / templates.