Strange City

From the GM

Strange City is the background for any new superhero stuff I run as one-shots, whether it's solo or group adventures. It's meant to be a mid-sized metropolis with (as the name indicates) some access to the occult and the Fortean. While Strange City has the usual run of self-made tech geniuses, easily robbed labs, and mutant rights groups, it is also a mystic nexus. More people learn the fake occult here and the real occult, witches and vampires and zombies are real (if mostly hidden), and the spells from that book you found on the internet might work here, though not the way you expect.

Each section has ideas that occurred to me that might form part of an adventure or character for your character or group. These are ideas only: ignore them or change them as you please.

Stats for characters might or might not show up.

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Overview

Strange City was founded in 1666 by Ezekial and Hepsibah Strange, and it remained a small (almost endangered) community for hundreds of years. The discovery of high-quality pitchblende in the 1950s changed that, and the city quickly mushroomed because of its new connections to the tech sector. (Strange Village became a city in 1961.) The city has two universities. Both are well-respected, though not at the very top of their fields: Enoch Strange is a world leader in dealing with the sociology of the strange and the occult. SIT has developed some amazing new technology but critics say it exists mostly to feed the city's hungry tech sector.

The city has districts:

• The Mines is now the factory and warehouse district, although it was once the mining area. There are underground tunnels here and occasionally one will collapse.
• The Offices is the business and banking district.
• The Flats is the slums and the poor housing.
• The Coast is where the rich people live.

Others are named as needed (the artist district, the theatre and entertainment district, and so on).

The Universities

The two universities are well-regarded, but their names alone not going to get you a job, unless you're in their specialties.

Enoch Strange College

The much older of the two is the Enoch Strange College. It is a liberal arts college with a reputation for turning out independent thinkers. Its specialty is the sociology of the occult, and its rare book library is the envy of universities this side of Arkham. There have been scandals — one of the professors founded a cult — but the place has been free of trouble for about fifteen years. (Of course, some would say that it's ripe for problems.)

State Institute of Technology

Despite the name, the SIT is no longer affiliated with the state college system, but it is a public college. It deals with technical matters. Critics say that it exists primarily to feed the ravenous maw of the local tech scene and that it turns out drones instead of thinkers—but they are well learned drones, for all of that. There certainly are professors whose experiments are on the cutting edge, and in fact a bequest from the Judas Strange Foundation requires experiments that are risky.

The SIT campus is on the edge of town. It has a complex maze of delivery and steam tunnels underneath it that make it well-suited for criminal lairs, but the criminals in question are usually creating or growing dope.

Other

There are other schools and colleges in the area. The best-known is Nugget College, a vocational college that teaches electronics and media presentation.

The Media

Strange City has two and a half television stations, a dozen radio stations, a daily newspaper, and two weekly newspapers.

Television

Two of the stations are network affiliates. The networks do local news, but most of the programming is imported.

The half station is part of the educational process at Nugget College, a private institution in town. Its programming is entirely local and changes with each semester. Some shows have a continuity because students stay with them from term to term, but all of them change once in a while.

Annoying or sycophantic questions will probably come from reporters at the network affiliates; truly oddball shows and “events” will come from Nugget College as a student experiment. Sometimes a new reporter is looking to make a name and get hired by a bigger station somewhere.

Radio

There are three big stations whose formats change occasionally. They are currently oldies, talk radio, and country & western. They are owned by syndicates, and the programming is dictated elsewhere. The rest are small radio stations that cater to specialized tastes.

One of the talk radio hosts might choose to make vigilantes a convenient scapegoat for everything.

Newspapers

There are three newspapers.

• The Bee is the daily, and is part of a chain. Leans conservative or Republican.
• The Strange Times is a weekly with excellent investigative journalism.

Founded in the early 1970s. Leans liberal or Democrat.

• The Citizen Weekly is best known for its ads and its personals, though the personals are mostly online now. (Still, the Weekly’s "Strange Happenings" column is looked at by everyone from occultists to cat-loving grandmothers.)

In a game:

• The Bee sometimes hires someone who wants to make a name and move up. It is also an excellent adversary if someone wants to be persecuted by a paper.
• The reporters from the Strange Times are likely to uncover things that someone doesn’t want uncovered.
• The Strange Happenings column is an excellent way to spread rumours and news, and its pseudonymous author might actually be a super or occult master.

Mass Transit

Strange City has a rail system. It is mostly an elevated rail system because parts of the city are on a floodplain, but some sections are underground. There are also buses, taxis, and Karry, an electronic ride-sharing service that has disrupted the lives of taxi drivers.

• There is violence between taxi drivers and Karry drivers.
• A super starts “flight-sharing,” carrying people to destinations as part of Karry.

The Super Scene

The city has a super-group, the Centurions. Its most prominent member is Quantum Strange; his principle foe is K-Osprey (who sometimes spells it Chaos Prey). In the last few years, though, the Centurions have taken to fighting global or even interstellar threats, and the business of protecting the city largely falls to the Parahuman Reconnaisance and Tactics team and vigilantes. PRAT is always willing to bring out its big weapons, and Lt. Karpinski has a somewhat adversarial relationship with the local vigilantes...possibly because they tend to deal with the problems before PRAT can. (They never refer to themselves as PRAT, by the way, though everyone else does. In the police force, they're Strange City Parahuman Reconnaissance and Tactics, or SCPRT.)

There is an unusually high number of supervillains in Strange City: they outnumber heroes by between 15:1 or 20:1, depending on the definitions used. Enoch Strange's sociology professors have been working on why, but they haven't come up with a reason why there even are supervillains. The conservative press claims that having powers makes you a supervillain.

As a powered person yourself, you know:

• There is power suppression technology that works on most supervillains most of the time. (Treat it as a Power Nullification rank 9.)
• The federal government agency that deals with superhumans is the Parahuman Investigation and Corrections Agency (PICA). (They also hate their nickname.)
• Medical care with no questions asked is available from the Abattoir, from Dr. Chimera. The Abattoir moves from time to time, but someone usually knows where it is (a difficulty 3 task for a known super). Dr. Chimera rarely has the most up-to-date equipment, but the Abbatoir knows its business. Dr. Chimera can handle trauma from violence and has a comprehensive knowledge of the effects of various superpowers. Some have wondered why Dr. Chimera’s has never been raided; those who wonder too loudly disappear.
• There is a supervillain prison outside the city—the Black Rock Prison. It is administered by PICA but the actual day-to-day operations are contracted out to a private company.

There are a couple of places that are regarded as neutral ground. Generally, no one steals there (largely because there isn't anything worth stealing) and they are places to have a talk. The existence of places like this are one reason why the police force has a guarded relationship with vigilantes. One of the places is a bar; the other is a vegetarian cafe. The third place is medical.

• The bar is Free State, a country & western bar in the Mines district.
• The vegetarian cafe is Home on the Grains, over in the Offices district.
• The medical place is the Abattoir. Dr. Chimera and his staff do not allow fighting on the premises.

Locations

Camp Centurion

Camp Centurion is a decommissioned military base outside the city, purchased by the Centurions. It’s used for dangerous things: testing, constructing devices, examining and dismantling villain technology and gadgets.

The main building is tall and curved, about eight storeys tall, and has three underground levels. Floors are reinforced in main building to handle up to Density 8 (though that person might have to take the stairs if the service elevator is broken).

Camp Centurion has high but unobtrusive security. It’s surrounded by force field generators and scanners. Together, they keep out everything but natural wildlife and environment. Force field is between 1 and 8, depending on threat. The camp can be covered top and bottom by force field “domes” Scanners on grounds search for mental threats (possessed animals, for instance). Outside of the main building, you need a pass.

At least one room in each building has life support (in case of chemicals, gas, radiation, etc).

Magical protections have lapsed due to recent events not relevant here.

There are times when security is lessened: During delivery of supplies, for instance; or when the train arrives and departs for testing (roughly every three months), during the annual open house, or at the beginning and end of the Centurion fantasy camp, which is held there in the summer.

The camp is powered by reactor which uses combination of science, magic, and parallel universes. (The camp is now a known weak spot in dimensional walls.

The camp has a relatively small staff. If a task can be automated, it is. The functions of the camp are controlled by the camp computer, which can share databases with the main Centurion computer. There is no AI after the last one revolted.

Qualities

• Dangerous stuff happens here
• Takes the obvious precautions and some inobvious ones
• Weak spot in dimensional barriers

The Rumble Room

Used for training and testing supers. Can handle powers to level 8: it’s tall enough for Growth 8, strong enough to withstand Shooting 8, and so on. A force field can be enabled to prevent Phasing out of the room, but is not in this scenario. Applicants generally agree to a fair test, so mental attacks and some line-of-sight attacks can get through the window. (Lasers and light-based attacks cannot, in case a blast hits the window.)

Unless otherwise stated, the Rumble Room attacks as if it were Coordination 5 or Prowess 5. So to avoid a trap such as a pit, tentacles, or a flame cage, it is usually attacking at 5 versus Coordination (usually) or Prowess.

Rumble Robot I

These simple robots take the place of civilians in simulations. They’re slow, blocky, delicate, and cheap to build. Remove the quality “Minion” for a slightly tougher opponent.

Rumble Robot II

These robots are an actual opponent in simulations. They’re not minions. Normally they blast, but in lethal simulations, they can shoot. They can also be equipped with some customizations (such as Affects Phasing).

People

Known Heroes

Magnificent Centurions

The Centurions are the original superhero team for the city. They’re not local any more, because they now handle global or even interplanetary threats. They consist of whomever you need, but you can start with:

• Quantum Wyrd, a powerful wizard-like figure who controls the very power of quantum reality. Quantum Wyrd is the de facto leader.
• Black Aster, an environment controller who can shape things to her will. She can control the weather or shape the wall itself into a fist that grabs you.

• Heartbreak Kid, a mentalist who is best at manipulating emotions. (The “Kid” hasn’t aged in ten years.)
• Blue Streak, a speedster. (Evil twin or alternate personality called “Mean Streak.”)
• Shadowguard, a vigilante who plans for everything.

(The existence of five heroes implies the existence of about a hundred villains. Because heroes and villains are at about a 1:20 ration.)

Team Qualities

• The Premier Team (With Premier Problems)
• Been There, Done That
• “Carry the Standard!”

Adam Silverback

Intelligent gorilla. Polymath. Lives in a compound in town under PICA supervision.

Dr. Ghost (Dr. Andrew Wassermann)

A beginner at this hero thing. Dr. Wassermann is an oncologist with a clinic in the city.

Team Heroes

A team of super-powered teenagers.

If you need them, a set of rivals who are all teenagers (all have the extra quality “Teenager”). Determination is provided in case you want to use these as player characters.

Team Qualities

• Like We Practiced!
• Ready Or Not, Here We Come!
• We Get No Respect (From Old Folks)

Membership

Aria started the group with Gateway. Growth Spurt joined after that, and then Identity Thief and Argus. Backspace came last.

In a game, they can either shame your players into developing maneuvers and team qualities, or provide relief to be rescued.

Known Villains

Agent of Chaos

A nihilist villain.

Blastshadows

A group of villains who got their powers from explosions.

Cruncher (Francis leTourney)

Epiphyte

Transformed into a plant person, Epiphyte (also known as Caroline Flow, as the Lady of the Glade, as Sundew) lives in Isley Park, and has a rough deal with various criminal activities, who deliver to her people they want killed. The police tend to avoid the park, which is officially closed at night.

K-Osprey (Thabiso Lincoln)

Lucky Strike (unknown)

Lucky Strike got her name from her lucky breaks. She’s a thief, and a good one. She is best known for her luck, but the gadgets she carries and improvises are also well known.

Mr. Bland

A supervillain with supremely practical evil plans, some of which are legal.

Rebound (Karl Groenveld)

Silver Prism (Brendan Li)

Twitch Kid (Owen Carmichael)

Handsome, born to wealth, built armored suit to regain family’s lost fortune by force.

Vampire Squid (Harlan Cornell)

The two tongue attacks can happen separately, but target gets Determination point if one without other.

Known Supers: Other

Parahuman Security, Incorporated

A small security firm that hires parahumans as security guards, usually by organizations that expect to have to deal with parahuman invasions. (There isn’t money to hire PSI for the university labs, though.) Buildings are generally set with alarms, and three-person teams head out (the third person stays in the truck). Team structure depends on the powers available, but PSI doesn't like to break up a team that works.

Because powers are relatively rare, PSI has had to be quite egalitarian in its hiring. Color, creed, sex, or criminal record don’t matter as much as whether you have a useful power. It is notable as a place where ex-cons can get work, once they have a Certificate of Rehabilitation from the government.

Here’s one successful team.

Stalker (River “Eyes” Glimpt)

Fixes “third sight” on one of the team and reports back if there’s any unusual problem. Unlike the other two, Glimpt has a criminal record, arrested for being the eyes for a criminal gang for a couple of jobs.

Padlock (Dwight Celenza)

Parahuman security team. He can bind things up.

Scope (Mackenzie Ney)

Parahuman security team. The one who finds things.

Notable non-supers

Cameron West

Reporter for the Strange Times. Stats average except Intellect and

Awareness, which are 4; Specialty Writing (+1); Qualities: Journalism is important; Can’t make omelettes without breaking eggs

Standard Supervillain Minions

There is an employment agency that makes them available. Its owner,

Carmine Childress, always refuses offers of work from known supervillains, but the thinnest of excuses will work. His cousin is a real estate agent who finds these people lairs.

• It would amuse me if there are actually only six minions in the area, as a result of cloning or illegal duplication problems. They are minions because they can't work in the straight world: they're undocumented illegals in the worst of ways.

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