Hot War shares a lot with Cold City. Same designer, same system, same universe. The year is now 1963; last year the Cuban Missile Crisis ended badly, and the Cold War went hot. The setting deliberately omits who fired the first shot. But nuclear weapons were used, and everyone joined in. Finally, some of the supernatural and weird tech discoveries the Nazis had made, and that the RPA procured in Cold City's Berlin, came into play as well. Nightmarish creatures and weapons were unleashed, holes to unholy places opened in the skies, and things went even further out of control than they already were. Hot War plays in London where the survivors are trying to somehow make it through the freezing winter a year later.
This time the PCs belong to the Special Situations Group (SSG), an organization where people from the military, the police, and civilians come together to ... hunt down monsters and their creators, but also to oppose the more mundane enemies of the severely reduced population of London. Similar to Cold City, characters come with hidden agendas - the country is close to collapse, and as always different factions fight for control over the scraps. Infrastructure and most achievements of modern civilization have collapsed, or are about to, and people are fighting over the debris. If anything, the setting is even more dire than Cold City. The book notes a slightly different flavour in the setting, something more akin to 'cosy catastrophe' - a more homely feeling than in Cold City, but also with the addition of the impending final collapse. No roaming biker gangs, but the plush sofa and porcelain tea set (on cosies) in a house that is close to collapse - needs must, stiff upper lip, and all that.
If I might be allowed a personal note, in the past I thought the idea that people would just ignore massive threats to their existence and get on with politics instead of pulling together to be an unrealistic assumption. But if I look at the world as is, I have come around to the idea that it might be more realistic than I thought. But enough of that.
Similar to Cold City, the game does have an initial phase of sitting down and discussing what the game should be. Like last time, I will skip it here. That does take away the option to refer to any antagonists created in that discussion, but I am sure I will come up with something. But I will note that I am a big fan of games that allow the players to create their environment, like these two or Kult. It is really cool, and a present to any GM who likes to work with a less sturdy foundation.
For the character, I will make the assumption that Nate Kent somehow made it through the events of Cold City, and is back in England, fighting the good fight. In 1963, he should be maybe a bit more than 40 years old, so that works. Several missions in the leads he followed brought him to the KSK; acquiring it led to most of his team dying, and he was forced to let them. After acquiring the Nazi weapon and handing it off to the RAF, he was offered a promotion to a desk job that would get him out of Berlin. He is now a Sergeant First Class in the Royal Military Police, and until the mushroom clouds rose he worked in an RAF base close to London. Due to all the nasty events in 1950, and the resultant memories, he has developed a bit of an alcohol problem. He found himself forced back into action, where it quickly became clear that some of his nightmares had come back to haunt everyone.
His Attributes are Action 1 (booze has taken its toll), Influence 4, and Insight 3. The events of Cold City have left marks, most importantly that he feels the RPA was crucial to things becoming as bad as they are. He feels massively guilty, and that has made him driven.
His traits are 'High-functioning alcoholic' and 'This is all my fault somehow' for the negatives, and 'Power of conviction', 'I know some rather unique people', and 'I fought evil things in back alleys and lived' as positives. The negatives should be clear, for the positives I took his feelings about his role in Berlin, but also the fact that he has been an on-and-off part of the secret world for a long time now.
As for his Hidden Agendas, the personal one will be 'Protect civilians from abuse by those who were given power in secret'. He is also tasked by the RAF to find out if a nuclear stockpile 30 km west of London is still active, and how to access it - the information was lost in the war, and it is believed a surviving soldier named Alice Walters is hiding somewhere in Lambeth. She should have access. As with Cold City, we would now have a conversation about trust...
Done. See the character at the end. As a final note, I really like what I see, and the games suddenly climbed onto my 'play sometime' list.
Attributes:
Action 1 Influence 4 Insight 3
Traits:
'High-functioning alcoholic' (-)
'This is all my fault somehow' (-)
'Power of conviction' (+)
'I know some rather unique people' (+)
'I fought evil things in back alleys and lived' (+)
Hidden Agendas:
'Protect civilians from abuse by those who were given power in secret' (personal)
'Find Alice Walters, and acquire access codes to the nuclear stockpile from her' (RAF)
No comments:
Post a Comment