Here's the promised description of the setting/characters in the upcoming PTA game I'm running. People uninterested in roleplaying, now is the time to escape... :)
We cast the net pretty widely when we were deciding on the setting, but initial discussion established that we were happy with something set in the present-day, and the players were more interested in playing ordinary folks -- math teachers, rather than pyrokinetic US Army rangers. That said, we were felt it woudl be good to have some sort of "twist", and fairly quickly settled on there being a fantasy flavour to the game; the players thought it would be cool if the unnatural stuff that turned up was drawn from actual mythology/folklore (rather than a "the writers thought up a cool monster" approach typical of Buffy/Charmed).
So here's the basic background we came up with:
Since 2003, there have been an increasing number of reports of so-called "supernatural" events. The main-stream media initially compared it to the UFO hysteria of the 1950s, but increasing pressure on the government to be seen to be doing something resulted in the executive order that created the Presidential Commission on Unusual Phenomena. The Commission's mandate emphasised that, while its investigative groups would be headed by federal agents with investigative backgrounds, the other members of these teams should have a wide variety of skills and histories -- ostensibly to widen the range of skills and viewpoints that the team would draw on. In actual fact, the main reason for drawing civilians into these teams is that the powers-that-be wanted none of the credibility questions that dogged the Airforce's "Operation Blue Book": with civilians so closely involved, accusations of "government cover-ups" would be much easier to dismiss.
Which was important, what with the powers-that-be trying to cover things up, and everything.
The conspiracy's plan for the Commission is to direct investigators towards faked supernatural events (that conspiracy has either discovered or set up). Once the false events are uncovered, any real events can be tarred with the same brush. The characters are in an investigative team, and do not initially know about the conspiracy (although the players do) and part of the game will almost certainly involve the characters uncovering the conspiracy.
* * *
The main characters are not the dregs of the investigative teams, precisely; but the head of their team, Special Agent Whitlaw, is nearing retirement, and those in charge have decided that he's not likely to kick up a fuss if given the some of the more... difficult of the Commission's recruits.
(I suspect that he has his own agenda; certainly, he'll doing things like sending his personal assistant (a main character) into the field.)
I'm not sure who the other people in the team are, but below are summaries of the characters the players have come up with.
* * *
Sok's character is Whitlaw's PA, Cassandra Ferris. A career public servant, Cassie started as an idealist, and while working on the front lines was able to feel she was making a difference in people's lives. But as her career has moved upwards and inwards, she has become increasingly disillusioned -- even when her bosses are not making backroom deals, she's seen how any new legislation to fix problems will be perverted by big-company lawyers before the ink is dry. With her growing cynicism has come a similar sense of gamesmanship when it comes to rules, though with a more whimsical flavour; stocking the stationary cupboard with purple glitter pens, for example, or organizing press conferences in Pizza Hutt ball pits. This has sometimes meant that she has been shuffled sideways through various government departments, though she's never been at risk of losing her job. She has no significant other, and no pets; the closest that she comes to a companion is a cactus.
But she wants to believe in people -- her issue is "she wants proof that optimism isn't stupid", and she's become grudgingly convinced of the powers of the Psychic Investigator on the team (see below). Indeed, her previous experience with this investigator is why he was recruited to the Commission. Cassie's Edge is "Knowing (and bending) the Rules", and her Connections are "Lawyers" and "Downtrodden Bureaucrats".
(Sok -- before the next game, you might want to think about why/how you know Norm's character. Maybe a sibling or parent hired him? An ex that she still likes/has feelings for? Someone slightly hopeless that she helped near the beginning of her career? Cassie doesn't seem the type to hire a "psychic investigator", even if things are desperate... You might want to send an email to me and/or Norm with any thoughts you have.)
* * *
Norm's character is Hayden Rockwell, Psychic Investigator -- at least, that's what it says on his business cards. For him, it's a convenient way to avoid scrutiny while still using the skills from his former life; as an ex-CIA agent who's had extensive plastic surgery, there are still people out there who would be very keen to discuss with him the circumstances that forced him to leave the CIA. Basically, he convinces his clients of his psychic abilities by using his keen observational skills and extensive ability to read people, slogs through the case conventionally, and then attributes his success to his mystical powers.
He figured he was unlikely to ever have to deal with government work again, outside of the occasional desperate sheriff's department; but the Commission came calling, and talking about how it might be bad publicity if people knew that he had refused to help. And it doesn't make sense for his cover to refuse public validation of his claims; so he's joined up, safe in the knowledge that this sort of hysteria will blow over fairly soon.
Hayden's Edges are "Con Artist" and "Ex-CIA", but Norm hadn't decided on his Connection yet -- he seemed to be leaning towards "police" or "intelligence community". Norm was also still deciding on Hayden's issue; he knows that Hayden wants to clear his name from whatever got him out of the CIA, but that doesn't tell us the underlying reason.
(Norm -- I don't think we need to decide what got him out of the CIA, but it might be helpful to work out why he joined in the first place.)
* * *
Finally, Superlate's character, Dr Benjamin Levi -- though most soap-viewers would know him as Dr Lorenzo McPherson. We don't yet know why he left medicine to enter daytime television, but he's at the stage where he wants to break into primetime, or maybe even the movies, and that means exposure: hence his decision to join the Commission. Of course, the fact that his television career has been built on portraying a doctor is a double-edged sword, since it means that there are a number of people who will trust him as a doctor, but think of him as "Dr Lorenzo", and a larger number of people who assume that he doesn't actually have any medical training, since he's "just an actor".
His Edges are "Actor" and "ER Doctor", and his Connection is "Daytime TV viewers". Superlate hasn't pinned down his Issue either; it was initially "wants to legitimize himself as an actor", but that's a little specific for the kind of game we want.
(Superlate, you might want to think about why he left medicine, and whether there's anything (or anyone) on the set of his previous show that he's trying to leave behind. If it's okay with you, I'm going to have him joining the team for the first time in the pilot, so we can introduce the characters and set-up to the audience.)
* * *
We're starting with a pilot episode, to get a feel for the game, and decide whether there's anything we want to tweak. The character arcs they've worked out are:
P 1 2 3 4 5 | Episodes ============================= 2 1 1 2 3 2 | Cassie 2 2 3 1 2 1 | Dr Levi 2 1 2 2 1 3 | Hayden
As you can see, that means that the first real episode will be fairly plot-heavy, setting up the doctor for his big episode (with the ex-CIA agent in the foreground). The third episode looks like the ex-CIA agent and the bureaucrat, and something in that episode comes to a head in the fourth episode for the bureaucrat. Then there's the series finale, which is the agent's big episode... should be good.
Oh, and players -- don't let me forget, at the end of the game, we should do a "Next, on..." where you get to say some stuff that'll happen in the next episode. :)
And we need to come up with a series title. ;)
Posted by svend at November 1, 2006 4:06 PM