"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.