In the early stages of designing a FitD hack influenced in part by City of Mist, Rippers (Savage Worlds), Monster of the Week, Worlds of Darkness and the excellent Band of Blades.
Players will be members of a Team (more Delta Green than Buffy), assigned by a city’s Council to investigate, contain and ultimately thwart a BBEG.
It will feature:
- a City with 12 districts, each with its own obstacles, locations and NPCs, and with attributes that represent the populace’s mood, health, safety, faith etc
- a Council of Five that ‘rule’ the city, each member having their own moves, attributes and abilities
- 12 factions (The Bloodletters, The Ferals, The New Church, The Green Faerie, etc), each with their own agendas, allies and foes; each also with four ‘threat’ levels of enemies and faction base
- A BBEG that rises from one of these factions (GM chosen or randomly determined), that has a plot ‘arc’ that they are attempting to complete
- three Teams (A, B and C) - the players start off in the ‘C’ Team, with the other two Team assignments being managed by the Council; the players start off as underdogs with limited resources
- at least 8 playbooks covering the normal archetypes, with The Mystic and The Person of Faith opening the way for magic and supernatural moves
- a Team Base that players upgrade after successful missions, unlocking more gear and moves
- as per Band of Blades, players will take on the roles of Operatives in the ‘C’ Team during missions, as well as play one of the Council members during the Council phase
- random missions of various types, against generated threats, factions and obstacles, each with suitable rewards (cash, kudos) and penalties (city mood, time). There will be more missions than there are available teams - some will therefore incur their penalties automatically
Game phases would be:
1. Mission Phase
2. Advancement phase
team advancement
base advancement
3. City Phase
impact from harm (more/less obstacles, increased threat etc)
faction clock changes
4. Council Phase
mission generation
council moves
team allocation
5. BBEG Phase (GM only)
BBEG moves
Arc progression
Like Band of Blades, a game would have an ‘end’, though it could continue beyond the defeat of one BBEG by running a new ‘season’ with a different one.
An initial playtest will be happening soon …