Background: The setting is an alternate universe in which there are extraordinary people. People who can do amazing things far beyond the capabilities of ordinary people. The time frame is late 19th through early 20th Century, when technology is beginning to change lives on a more grand scale than before. However, even though these people are extraordinary, they have their flaws.
This story focuses on a group thrown together by circumstance but stays together through, dare I say friendship? More than likely money. And power. They are a diverse group of individuals from all walks of life and from places around the world. But the more they work together, the more they find out about each other and themselves. Sometimes it's not pleasant what they find out. Remember, at no point did I use the word "hero".
This campaign is inspired by the graphic novel League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill. I took the basic concept and amped up the power level of all of the characters to be around the same as Hyde in the graphic novel. I designed the characters using the Hero System in order to keep the power levels consistent. Having stated that, the majority of the characters are NOT bulletproof. If a non-bulletproof character get hits with a bullet, they will feel it like anyone else would. And, as in the graphic novel, this is the darker side of Victorian/Edwardian eras. Many things we take for granted or treated as more normal are not the same as it was back then. Just take a look at what happened to Oscar Wilde. Also, drug use and alcoholism was not as frowned upon back then as it is now.
I also took inspiration from Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, and other writers of the time to add to the flavor to the story. If you look at China today, you can see similarities as to what is happening there to what happened to Great Britain at the turn of the last century. As Britain modernized and as China modernizes, the merchant class expands as more and more people come into the big cities from the rural areas. The poor stay poor but the rich get richer.
This is a continuing campaign, as in, the results what the players do, or don't do, influences what happens next. As I have already run 12 games as of this date and have about another dozen to go, I run each story once and continue on. Otherwise I would be running this game into my 70's. I know that this must annoy some players because they would be missing stories, but now you see why.
Thanks: First off, I'd like to thank Keith Darron, Robert Mitchell, and Quinn DeSmet for their encouragement and acting as sounding boards for my ideas as I started to flesh them out. I'd also like to thank the PlayTestCon Florida players who playtested the original scenario and also gave feedback to fine tune the game. And lastly and most importantly, I'd like to thank all of the previous players and all of the future players for playing. You people make this whole thing work. I use this game to entertain people and I hope that you were and will be entertained.
