World of Megapolis, 1935

[BASHMAN]

So we are doing a new BASH! campaign that is going to be a Rotating Narrators (GMs) style where we take turns running the game. This is a globe-trotting troupe-play/Western Marches style game where each player can have multiple Heroes of their own to use and swap to whichever one they prefer for the given scenario.

The setting is the year 1935. It is early enough that the various Axis powers (though they have yet not formed the Axis) can be used as villains without making every single story revolve around it. So GMs can still run adventures taking on American gangsters without it seeming out-of-place (while a game set in the middle of WWII would definitely seem strange for the PCs to suddenly leave the front lines to start fighting gangsters back home).

The PCs are members of a group called A.C.T.I.O.N. (Agency to Curtail Terror Invasion Oppression and Nationalism)-- a sort of hybrid of the Red Cross, SHIELD, the Kingsmen, and the Peace Corps. They are independent of any government, but most membership is drawn from the US and UK with unofficial communication with those governments. With isolationism bogging down US efforts to curtail fascism abroad, FDR looks to this private agency to help. “Citizens of ACTION” might take part in rescue missions, espionage against fascist plots, bust international organized criminal syndicates, and so on. This would allow the party to do all sorts of *-punching, gang-busting, and globetrotting as part of their adventures. Because it is a private agency there is no reason why they cannot operate on US soil or internationally.

Leader: The mysterious "Man of ACTION" who none of the PCs have seen but gives them their missions.

The world is the same as Megapolis, but as it is 1935 nearly all of the Heroes and Villains from that setting haven't been born yet. Nearly all. So not only are we making a bunch of new Heroes and Villains, we are also building on the world of Megapolis by adding additional (fictional) cities.

Megapolis: A major industrial city on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States that is the home of Titan Steel. Inspiration: Pittsburg, PA.

[*]Home of the Silver Specter and Ned Grabhem

Diesel City: A major industrial center in the state of Michigan, Diesel City is a major manufacturing center for American automobiles and also rife with organized crime. Inspiration: Detroit / Gotham.

[*]Home of “The Diesel Dames” Mechani-Gal, Anne Droid, Betty Boom

Empire City: A major financial center on the US Eastern Seaboard. Inspiration: New York City / Metropolis.

[*]Home of the Silver Siren

Centropolis: A midwestern industrial center on the Great Lakes, founded as a railroad hub of the meatpacking industry, Centropolis has become a very diverse city. It is home to immigrants from all over the world, and as a former stop on the Underground Railroad and major industrial center during the Great Migration has a sizable Black population. It is also a major stronghold of the Order of the All-Seeing Eye, a white nationalist terrorist group that has infiltrated control over major parts of the city government and judiciary as well as the surrounding counties and possibly even the governor’s mansion. Inspiration: Chicago / Indianapolis / Central City

[*]Home of the Blue Mantle

[*]Order of the All-Seeing Eye: An evil white terrorist organization with cultlike supernatural aspirations (like a hybrid of the KKK and the Thule Society). Leader: The Cyclops King

Las Estrellas: Named for the constellation that guided a desperate Spanish explorer to its harbor safely, Las Estrellas was a key settlement in Spanish colonial Alta California. Today Las Estrellas has a great many industries ranging from oil production to citrus crops. But probably the most well-known is the movie industry, with major studios set up along “Falling Star Blvd.”. Even in the depths of the Great Depression, people still scrounge up a nickel to get away from their problems for a couple of hours. The L.E.P.D. is notoriously brutal in its treatment of alleged criminals and rumors of corruption abound. Inspiration: LA Confidential, LA Noire, Chinatown, Mulholland Drive

Fortune City: A tourist destination on the Eastern seaboard known for its legalized gambling and swanky hotels, Fortune City is also known as the Gilded Cage. A stalemate between organized crime families for control of the city is tenuous, and every once in awhile, innocent people get caught in the crossfire. A well-bribed local police department that is rotten to the core, and J. Edgar Hoover’s refusal to acknowledge that organized crime exists keeps the gangsters that run the town out of jail. Inspiration: Atlantic City,
[*]Home of Prestige

[Solarblast]

Can I please get in on this? I love this era of history and would love to run both GM and play in this game.

[MrJupiter]

This is an outstanding gaming idea and definitely a great way to add meat to the BASH universe! I'm looking forward to seeing how events and stories develop.

[BASHMAN]

Well, I've been running it off and on. I had a lot of GM-Burnout towards the end of my last campaign and began this one only under an understanding that it would be done as Rotating Narrators. Each player in the group is supposed to take a turn running a game, and at the most I would do every other Story-Arc.

But for a while, one of the other players wanted to run a fantasy RPG instead so we switched to that for a while and it seemed to fizzle out. I've also started an Honor + Intrigue game for the summer.

I am starting to put together ideas for the next arc of Megapolis 1935 for me to run, but would like to let another player run another Issue before I delve back into it.

Our most recent Issue run by another Narrator involved ACTION sending the PCs to coal country to investigate a standoff between super-powered Pinkertons and workers attempting to stage a strike when management increased quotas and cut pay simultaneously. It turned out that the bad guys were really searching the mines for an Atlantean artifact and were using the strike (deliberately trying to instigate violence against the workers) as a means to have the mine to themselves to search for it. They had managed to hypnotize another hero known as "The Steel Hammer" to work for them, but when we managed to disable the hypnosis via a strobe-light type invention, we turned the tables on them and saved the day!

[Solarblast]

I will run something for BASH if you let me. I have the Pulp Hero stuff as well.