Happy Sunday!
The Game: Supernatural
The Publisher: Margaret Weis Productions, but the license must have expired because it's not up on DriveThru anymore
Degree of Familiarity: More with the underlying system than the TV show
Books Required: Just the one
Supernatural is one of those properties that I'd probably be really into but just never got around to watching (but it's still on Netflix, so maybe someday). When Midnight Roads came out, I remember people asking me why Supernatural wasn't in the inspirations, and the answer was simply that no one working on the book suggested it and I'd never seen it. I have now seen a few episodes, and I can safely say that it looks like a good property upon which to base an RPG...except that "normal people hunting hostile supernatural creatures" is not exactly untrodden ground for an RPG.
Reading the game, I don't see the "hook." I mean, I do, because the core concept is solid and the show has a following, but like, off the top of my head: Hunter: The Vigil, Chill, Monster of the Week, Vampire$...there are so many of these games. Does Supernatural have something so unique to its setting that it demands another monster hunter RPG? Or was this just a case of cashing in on a popular geek property? I dunno, I suspect the latter, but in any case, I'm more interested in seeing how Cortex handles the genre.
Right, so, chargen. My friend Jenn gave me this song for inspiration ("Sweet Jane," Cowboy Junkies):
(She actually gave me this song Friday and I was going to use it for ACKS, but I like the song too much to waste it on that game.)
This song has a sad, wistful vibe to it, and makes me think of loss and bittersweet memories. I actually think it's pretty much perfect for inspiring a Supernatural character. The classic monster hunter, of course, is someone who lost their family to monsters, but I think I want to play someone who left his family because of the monsters.
Wade Berry used to be a social worker. He had the unenviable job of performing house inspections; might not have been his first choice, but he was big, strong, and soothing (he looks like everyone's dad or cool uncle). Wade had a husband and two boys, and like a lot of folks in his job, he struggled with leaving the shit at work and dealing with compassion fatigue.
And then one day, he did a visitation and the girl who let him into the house, probably all of 13, seems undernourished, nervous, gaunt - nothing too uncommon, except she had odd wounds on her neck and wrists. Wade called for an ambulance, and then opened a door he thought led to a master bedroom. The room was pitch dark, and he went in and opened a window. Sunlight flooded the room and someone - something - in the corner of the room screamed and disappeared.
Wade never saw the girl again, and apparently she disappeared from the hospital that night. All Wade knows is that she was anemic. But the next night, Wade's dog turned up gutted on his porch. His husband, who works nights, started seeing people following him. And then Wade got a letter at his office that simply said: You'll pay for burning him.
Wade wasn't an occult expert, but he was smart enough to figure what was going on. He left town, ostensibly to visit family. His husband reported no more stalkers, but Wade started to see them. That's when he realized he couldn't go home.
Right, that's a good, if sad, start. What next? Need to set a starting level; Wade's pretty obviously a rookie. That means 42 Attribute points, 62 Skill points, and 0 Traits.
Attributes: We buy them in dice, so a d6 (average) costs 6 points. There are 6 of them, so spending enough to get a d6 across the board would mean I've spent 36, giving me 6 remaining. Ugh. I want Wade to have higher-than-average Strength and maybe Vitality.
Well, if we do d6 across the board and then spend 4 more to jack Strength to d10, and then 2 more to jack Vitality to d8, that's all my points. I can live with that. I could lower something to raise something else, but I don't see Wade as below-average in any of the other Attributes, so that'll do.
Skills! I get 62 points. I can take up to a d6 in a General Skill, but past that I have to buy a Specialization, but I only have to pay the difference (meaning if I want a d10 Specialization I'd need to spend 4 points on it). Let's see. I'd like:
Animals d4
Athletics d6 (Weight Lifting d10, Running d8)
Covert d4
Discipline d6
Drive d6
Influence d6 (Bureaucracy d8)
Knowledge d4
Lore d4
Perception d6 (Empathy d8)
Unarmed Combat d6 (Wrestling d8)
That's 62. Cool, now Traits. I don't get any for free, so I have to take Complications if I want some Assets, which I do. Let's see!
Well, Combat Paralysis d4, that sounds good. I'll take Dead Broke d8, reflecting that Wade just kinda walked away from everything and he's got basically nothing to his name. Hunted, obviously, and whaddya know, "vampire with a grudge" is an example at d8. Straight & Narrow is an easy d4 because Wade doesn't like to break the law, and I'll take Memorable d2 (Wade is a large, muscular black man, and depending on the venue and the situation people will remember him). That gives me 26 points of Assets to pick.
OK, I'll take Brawler d4 (Wade can fight, he's just better in theory than practice). Devoted is perfect - Wade is Devoted to going home, but he's gotta take out this vampire first. Good-Natured, that's perfect, d6 (I've spent 16, so I've got 10 remaining).
Higher Education; he's got a Masters degree, after all. D4 oughta cover it. And then...Hmm. I want both Natural Athlete and Sensitive. I could take one at d4 and one at d2, I suppose, or I could just take one at d6.
Actually, you know, I'll ditch Brawler, take Natural Athlete instead (d4), and take Sensitive at d6, and that'll finish out my points. Derived traits put Initiative at d6 + d6, Life Points and Endurance Point at at 14 each, and Resistance at d6 + d6.
Wade, as I mentioned, is large (6'4"), very muscular, dark skinned. He didn't take much with him when he left, so he's got a duffel with a couple of changes of clothes and an extra pair of shoes, some cash (not much; he wasn't going to drain the bank account), a couple of notebooks (Wade is notoriously averse to tech and prefers to write longhand), and a book about vampires (perhaps Lust for Blood by Olga Hoyt). I think he'd be played by Winston Duke. I also think it'd be fun to have him stumble into a group of hunters going after something nasty and getting wrapped up in it, and I'd want the "season" to conclude with him finding that pale girl again, probably while "Sweet Jane" plays.
