Episode 1.2 - "In the Cradle"

No cold open. Though we do see a new Lead in the credits. Becca Barnes looks lawerly and young so she's probably a law student or intern or something.

Today's guest star....

Welcome our latest addition to our the family

Our new relationship map, featuring Becca, the long-lost daughter of Dr. Jonathan Crane...

Spoilers for "In the Cradle"

 I used the Episode map suggestion from the Smallville RPG to write this episode. I have vague ideas of what I want each episode to be about (and which villains, if any, to Feature) but mapping out the relationships really helped me loop in stuff characters care about fighting over and willing to challenge each other for.

We're also adding a new Lead to the game, which I am in the process of creating. She's the strange outlier on the relationship map, but I already have some ideas on how to get her involved.

The Episode map is below the jump. If you don't want to be spoiled, stop reading here.

City of the Bat - Relationship Map

Here is the original relationship map, cleaned up and edited. I took out the relationships with the other leads for extra clarity, since those will be changing anyway. I'll be sure to check everyone's sheets to make sure they have all the right locations, backgrounds, and extras.

Feature - Catwoman

"Normally I'd throw in a cat pun here but we have more important things to do." - Selina Kyle

Tricia Helfer as Selina Kyle/Catwoman

Drives
Values
Duty: d4 -  Loyalty is for suckers
Glory: d10 -  Nobody is a better thief than I am
Justice: d8 -  I won't pick on the little guy
Love: d6 - I am NOT in love
Power: d6 - I love boys and toys
Truth: d8 - Lying is easy

Relationships
The Riddler is the second-smartest man in Gotham - d6 
Poison Ivy understands me - d6 
Two-Face could go straight if he really wanted to - d6 
Harley Quinn is a fool for love - d6
The Batman is so frustrating - d8
Bruce Wayne - Oh, what could have been - d4
Joker only cares about himself - d4

Assets
Distinctions 
Daring - d10
Add a d6 to Trouble to Reroll a die in a Daring roll.
Add a d10 to Trouble to Reroll two dice in a Daring roll.

Whip - d10 Limit: Gear

Spend a Plot Point to keep a character in a scene.

Willful - d4
Earn a Plot Point and Add a d6 to Trouble when you put your foot down.

Wealthy - d4
Spend a Plot Point to Reroll one die in a Contest or Test swayable by money.

Extras
Sister Maggie: 2d8 (faith, recovery)



Locations
Courthouse: 2d4 (law, criminals)
Penthouse: 2d8 (artifact, impressing)
Tenement: 2d6 (crime, background)

Feature - Two-Face

"What if neither of the two evils are lesser?"

Drives
Values
Duty: d6 -  I can never go home 
Glory: d6 -  Trust the coin  
Justice: d12 -  ...is blind..and mute...and dumb  
Love: d6 - Maybe there's hope for Harvey 
Power: d10 - is money 
Truth: d6 - Everyone lies to themselves first

Relationships
The Riddler is a clever little bastard - d6 
Poison Ivy is hard to resist - d6 
Catwoman Never trust a smiling cat - d6 
Harley Quinn A dangerous sap - d8 
The Batman used to be a friend - d10
Lisa smells nice - d4
Arthur reminds us of me - d4
We don't need Veronika's pity - d6

Assets
Distinctions 
Acid-Scarred Face - d10
Earn a Plot Point when your looks draw you unwanted attention.
Spend a Plot Point to Reroll a die in an Acid-Scarred Face roll.

Connected - d8
Spend a Plot Point to Gain a d8 Relationship with a Feature for the rest of the scene.
Spend a Plot Point to Reveal you “know a guy” who can provide you with information or material goods.

Scarred-Coin Obsession - d8
Earn a Plot Point whenever your coin flip doesn't go your way.
Earn a Plot Point and Add a d6 to the Trouble pool whenever someone takes your coin away.

Extras
Gilda Dent: 2d8 (law, relationships)
Rupert Thorne: 2d6 (vengeance, organized crime)

Locations
Courthouse: 2d8 (law, criminals)
Arkham Asylum: 2d6 (unnerving quiet, twisted logic)

Episode 1.1 - "Face in the Hole"

The series opens with Morgan O’Neill, Gotham City Medical Examiner, walking with a med student down to the morgue. The student points out that med schools in Gotham City allow students field work with cadavers earlier than the ones in Metropolis. O’Neill mentioned that Gotham has more bodies and there’s usually more to work on. When the intern asks why, she pulls a dramatic reveal of a corpse missing its heart. The intern starts touches the body but it’s too late – a mechanical voice from the body starts laughing and green gas pours out into the morgue. O’Niell saves the day, but the morgue is going to need a few hours to clear out of Smilex gas….

Credits. Flashing Lights is the theme song, with the credits overlapping crime scene photos reflecting Gotham’s unusual scenarios – thugs hanging from lampposts, an evidence table with Batarangs on it, and so forth.

We cut to Detective Lisa Yung-Li at her desk. Detective Li gets called into Lt. Barone’s office. Barone is irate over the Smilex gas incident downstairs because it’s going to affect the outcome of some pending cases. Yung-Li stands up for Dr. O’Neill, saying that any damage to a case wasn’t her fault but the Lieutenant thinks otherwise. We learn that Yung-Li has friends in high places – she got promoted to Gotham’s MCU during a case involving Mr. Freeze. She lost her leg, but connections at WayneTech got her a new one. Judging by the subtle glow coming from her knee, it is not off-the-rack, either.

While recovering from the close call with the Smilex gas, Morgan gets a visit from her brother, Jack O’Neill. Jack is looking for money, but he also gets in trouble soon enough when, on the way out, he spies Two-Face on his way into the building. See, Jack’s bar doesn’t really make money as a bar, but as a place where information about the streets of Gotham can be bought? Business is booming.

Turns out Two-Face isn’t walking into the Gotham Central building – Harvey Dent is. Harvey claims Two-Face has planted a bomb in the city somewhere, but whenever anyone tries to find out where it is, Two-Face takes over and laughs off the attempt. Two-Face nearly attacks Lisa when she tries to handcuff him in the interrogation cell.

Arthur Pembrose arrives at the interrogation room and gets into a heated argument with Lisa. She gets angry when he won’t act as his counsel. Most of the big name Gotham criminals pay a retainer to the firm of Goodspeed & Loeb for legal matters. Arthur came up through law school with Thomas Goodspeed and he is ready to put a call through on his Wayne Tech Smartphone to get those lawyers in place. He agrees to take Dent’s statement and is intrigued by the split personality. Two-Face is under retainer to G&L, but Harvey asked for a public defender like Pembrose. Two-Face gets the last laugh, taking a moment to assault poor Arthur and possibly break his nose.

In the holding cell, Lisa convinces Harvey to tell her where the bomb is, but Two-Face takes over and taunts her, trying to convince her that there are two bombs and Dent placed the other one. He will tell her where the other one is – if she gets him his coin back. But Lisa looks up to Batman as a role-model and doesn’t fall for the lie.

Jack picks up on the juicy information about Two-Face’s bomb and heads back to his bar. He puts the word out that he as some info and gets interest from the three mobs in town; the Falcones, the Maronis and the Thorne Mob. After a few tense moments, the Maronis win the bidding. Thorne makes a bit of a threat on the way out, and Maroni thanks Jack for helping him keep tabs on his old enemy.

Of course, wherever three of the big bosses are, Batman is sure to follow. Morgan walks in on him and uses a little bit of barman’s logic to let her brother know they are under surveillance. I don’t know who approached who for product placement, but her carrying out a case of Bacardi rum and dropping it on the counter was hilarious. Jack’s advertised special for “Dos Equis” beer was fun, too. I think the writer’s will have a blast with this barman’s code stuff for Jack’s place.

Arthur calls Tommy and they have a discussion over the phone – he wants in on the Dent case. Tommy wants him to come and work for the firm but Arthur refuses. He convinces Tommy to let him defend Dent and Tommy can defend Two-Face.

Lisa discovers the bomb at St. James Cathedral and the Batman arrives quickly. She watches him disarm the bomb and I’m pretty sure there’s more than professional admiration going on there. That might explain some of her WayneTech gadgets. Batman disarms the bomb and disappears with barely a word to her.

The tag scenes flow into each other – Tommy and Arthur sharing a beer after their day in the courts. Morgan in her lab, analyzing the Smilex gas to make sure it doesn’t endanger others. Lisa calling Bruce Wayne and telling him all about her encounter with Batman. And Jack, installing extra security cameras in the Bar, find a note from the Batman – “You’re lucky to have family that cares about you.”

A preview of things to come...

This is the hand-drawn original relationship map from our first session. Brad's additions are in red, Sarah is blue, Mike is brown and Lauren is green.

I'm very excited about these connections..

"Great. More paperwork. How many 'r's in 'Batarang'?"

--- Det. Harvey Bullock

This is a blog for a six-session chronicle of an RPG using the Smallville RPG rules.

Genesis:

Margaret Weis Productions is releasing two new RPGs this year, both based on TV shows. I was initially drawn to the Leverage RPG* since I love the show and want a good low-to-mid crunch system for heist and spy capers. The fact that a few members of the Spirit of the Century team are part of the design, as well as Matt Forbeck made me even more excited.

Reading up on the systems, I saw these weren't the usual tie-in RPGs from MWP. They were taking some chances with Cortex that I liked, and Smallville had a particular indie bent. I decided to pick up both, with the idea that I could use Smallville for some game down the line involving superpowers and intrigue. I never run those.

While listening to one of the pocasts featuring Josh Roby, the design lead, he mentioned a Teen Lantern game in their playtests. They run with the idea that you will 'spin-off' from Smallville and do a modern take on your favorite DC heroes.

I haven't watched the actual show since the early seasons, back when I was in Boston. It never really sucked me in, but then, Superman was never one of my favorite heroes. Besides, I didn’t weally want to do a 'modern take' on Batman - Christopher Nolan has a pretty good handle on that.

It reminded me of another bit of random trivia. The success of Smallville made DC look at giving other heroes a similar treatment. Batman was #1 on the list, but there was a struggle inside DC. They were all shot down because Batman Begins was in development and they didn’t want to flood the market so soon after Batman and Robin. There are tales of an abandonded Aquaman show, a Robin prequel called The Greysons and a show based on the comic series Gotham Central

The thunderbolt hit.

I've been toying with doing a game without powers and a cop drama seemed to be one of the ways to go. One such idea was cops on Blue Planet, mxing a mundane procedural with an alien planet. It never got much of a nibble from my players

But this, mixing with characters everyone knows from Batman and the usual personal drama of cop shows? This grabbed me hard.

Setting and Goals:

Batman has been around for about a decade. Most of the villains are around as well, though I reserve the right to mess with the lesser-known ones. My rule of thumb is that if they showed up in The Animated Series, they are probably safe from any major changes.

The PCs are members of Gotham City's MCU division, which primarily handles the cases that involve Batman or his Rogues. Even the cases that don’t directly involve Two-Face or Riddler probably tie in somehow. Players may have relationships with Rogues and everyone has a relationship with Batman.

Because everyone has a relationship with Batman, everyone has some say in if and when he shows up during a case. Most licensed games hold the canon characters at arms length either having them be too 'powerful' for the PCs to mess with or having the PCs be their little buddies and do the jobs they don’t have time for.

Each episode will feature one Rogue at most. More than one Rogue seems like a case for turning on the Signal and waiting for the Bat to drop off the offenders on the roof.

I expect conflicts to come from within the characters and their motivations. Some cops think Batman is great. Some think he's a freak. Some want to prove they are better than him. This is a street level look at Batman, from the guys that show up after the crooks are dangling from the lamppost.

This is also a chance to do something I really enjoy doing - taking a standard trope and twisting it. Both twisting Batman mythology as well as procedural drama.

The Smallville rules are supposed to be out at Gen Con. Once they are in hand, I have at least three players chomping at the bit to play.

*If all goes well with this blog, I may do another for that Leverage game.