I had to think about this for a while. Most of the fantasy RPGs I run, are either extremely generic settings or ones of my own design. I’ve held on to a couple of these unique settings for possible future games. Lately though my group has had more of a focus on using generic rule systems to fit a book series, or show, or any kind of preexisting setting that we enjoy. They’re also really good for more “real world” style games, with a few enhancements.
For example, right now we’re running a game using Cortex based on the Black Lagoon anime/manga series. I think at this point we each have two or three sessions planned out, and we each take turns running it for short periods.
Based on that I went browsing through my movies and books until something jumped out at me. The Vampire Earth series by EE Knight is one of my favorites. For those not familiar, the story follows a soldier in a kind of post-apocalyptic setting in the not too distant future. Basically two warring factions of an alien race came to earth. One faction known as the Kurians took over earth. The others, called Lifeweavers, decided to help humans fight back. One of the things the Kurians did was release a virus that turned a large population into what are essentially zombies. Alright so far we’ve got aliens and zombies, that’s not a bad start. Now these aliens are a frail species and don’t generally interact with humans face to face. They have avatars that the humans call Reapers. This is where the vampire bit comes in. These things are biological, they just don’t have any kind of mind or will. The Kurian takes control of it and interacts with the world through it. The Reapers are sustained by blood, and the Kurians are sustained by Vital Aura, which is given off by all living things. This essentially makes them immortal.
The other group has “teamed up” with humans in various little resistance groups around the planet. The story takes place around the Ozarks, a region in Missouri and Arkansas. Three branches of the resistance military are comprised of soldiers that have been enhanced by the Lifeweavers. In North America they’re called the Wolves, Cats, and Bears. The Wolves are primarily scouts; they have increased senses and endurance. Cats are infiltrators and spies; they have quicker reflexes and increased vision. The Bears are shock troops; they’re big, tough, incredibly strong, and work themselves into a rage before going into combat.
Now in terms of a campaign, I think I would run it primarily in the main region the book focuses on just for more source material. I decided I needed to check before writing this and it turns out that an RPG was published for this, based on the Savage Worlds rules. I don’t know anything about Savage Worlds, so I can’t speak to the mechanics but after this I’ll definitely be trying to get my hands on a copy. I would initially run this using Cortex. If you don’t know Cortex it’s a pretty simple system to use. There are different starting tiers which give players a certain amount of creation points to spend on attributes, skills, and assets. They can also take a certain number of complications to get more points to spend.
If a player wants to make a regular human character they get the full amount of points but there’s just certain traits they’ll never be able to take. If a player wants to play an enhanced soldier, they start with a couple specific traits and a reduced number of points. This will give the players that bit extra but keep the party balanced. Now this being primarily a military campaign, not many things are done solo (unless you’re an infiltrator), so you could easily run this where the party are all part of a unit, be it regular humans or not. The real trick will be getting my group to read the book!
Here’s some more info:
I’d also be down for doing something on roll20… just saying.
Justin
Latest posts by Justin (see all)
- Campaigns to Play: The Dark not so Distant Future - July 11, 2016
