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Old 09-05-2018, 10:30 AM   #1
Lameth
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Default Literary Characters in Game

I am pondering inserting into my Modern Urban Fantasy game some literary characters into its secret history. Such characters as Sherlock Holmes, Invisible Man, Dorian Grey, The Shadow, Doc Savage, Van Helsing, Captain Nemo, Mandrake the Magician, etc.

How would such characters hide in the real world, let alone still be alive in the modern age. Separately yes you can slow age a few of them, like Holmes using chemistry or alchemy to slow his age, or Mandrake just being "infused with magic" which slows his aging, but how about they rest? And this "slow aging" troupe cant be used on them all unless something effected all of them, right? it would not make sense. Unless you add something "if you are written about and the more you are read about, the magic of such things extends your life". Sort of being a true literary character somehow keeps you alive....? Nah. haha.

How can you interject literary characters into a Modern Urban Fantasy Game? Some ideas or direction would really help. thank you.

Last edited by Lameth; 09-05-2018 at 10:40 AM.
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Old 09-05-2018, 10:49 AM   #2
A Ladder
 
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Default Re: Literary Characters in Game

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Originally Posted by Lameth View Post
I am pondering inserting into my Modern Urban Fantasy game some literary characters into its secret history. Such characters as Sherlock Holmes, Invisible Man, Dorian Grey, The Shadow, Doc Savage, Van Helsing, Captain Nemo, Mandrake the Magician, etc.

How would such characters hide in the real world, let alone still be alive in the modern age. Separately yes you can slow age a few of them, like Holmes using chemistry or alchemy to slow his age, or Mandrake just being "infused with magic" which slows his aging, but how about they rest? And this "slow aging" troupe cant be used on them all unless something effected all of them, right? it would not make sense. Unless you add something "if you are written about and the more you are read about, the magic of such things extends your life". Sort of being a true literary character somehow keeps you alive....? Nah. haha.

How can you interject literary characters into a Modern Urban Fantasy Game? Some ideas or direction would really help. thank you.
If you're the GM just pick something that sounds good to you. Unless your players are super into picking apart your ideas and stomping on them I doubt anyone would care.

Here's some ideas:
Van Helsing: He used a mixture of vampire blood to inject into his blood stream to halt the aging process. But at what cost?

Invisible Man: He's invisible to Father Time and therefore has not aged.

Dorian Grey: Doesn't he have a magic painting that prevents him from aging? Easy.

Doc Savage: Being the most brilliant mind of all time he just made up some super science cocktail that regenerates his cells and stops them from breaking down over time.

Captain Nemo: A super rare, deep sea fish's eggs grant long life. But only Captain Nemo knows where the breeding grounds are.
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Old 09-05-2018, 10:54 AM   #3
Lameth
 
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Default Re: Literary Characters in Game

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If you're the GM just pick something that sounds good to you. Unless your players are super into picking apart your ideas and stomping on them I doubt anyone would care.

Here's some ideas:
Van Helsing: He used a mixture of vampire blood to inject into his blood stream to halt the aging process. But at what cost?

Invisible Man: He's invisible to Father Time and therefore has not aged.

Dorian Grey: Doesn't he have a magic painting that prevents him from aging? Easy.

Doc Savage: Being the most brilliant mind of all time he just made up some super science cocktail that regenerates his cells and stops them from breaking down over time.

Captain Nemo: A super rare, deep sea fish's eggs grant long life. But only Captain Nemo knows where the breeding grounds are.
Yes, I see your point and thank you. But does this concept "fit" the genre of Modern Urban Fantasy?
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Old 09-05-2018, 11:10 AM   #4
A Ladder
 
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Yes, I see your point and thank you. But does this concept "fit" the genre of Modern Urban Fantasy?
Not to come across as overly facetious or with an extreme post modern bent but what does "genre of modern urban fantasy" mean to you? I bet the examples I can think of are different than yours.

I prefer to use the Jim Butcher universe explanation of most things: Everything that has ever had a myth about it is true, but they might not be exactly like they are portrayed in the stories you heard.
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Old 09-05-2018, 11:24 AM   #5
Daigoro
 
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Default Re: Literary Characters in Game

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Unless you add something "if you are written about and the more you are read about, the magic of such things extends your life". Sort of being a true literary character somehow keeps you alive....? Nah. haha.
That's kind of what a tulpa is.

Maybe there's some god or power source that's incarnating them, with their literary description giving them form.

Perhaps all their authors were members of the same secret cult.
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Old 09-05-2018, 11:25 AM   #6
Anaraxes
 
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Default Re: Literary Characters in Game

As an alternative, the literary characters don't have to be the same age as their original fiction. You could just redo them as modern versions, while retaining the same abilities, personality traits, and motives of the originals. The characters will still be recognizable to the players, especially if they keep the same names.

You might or might not give them a modern gloss -- maybe Dorian Gray has a desktop backdrop that ages, rather than himself, while Nemo is an eccentric billionaire who, having made lots of money from an Internet startup and a few successful feature films*, started a company to do undersea exploration and built his own nuclear submarine.

Urban fantasy is full of myths given reality. There's no reason those myths have to be older than a certain age, so feel free to use some literary myths. In fact, Lovecraft isn't any older than those characters, and mind-bending outsider elder gods feature in some popular urban fantasy series like Dresden or the Laundry Files.

--
* Feel free to name this one either Elon Cameron or James Musk, as you prefer.
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Old 09-05-2018, 11:39 AM   #7
arnej
 
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Default Re: Literary Characters in Game

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Originally Posted by Lameth View Post
How can you interject literary characters into a Modern Urban Fantasy Game? Some ideas or direction would really help. thank you.
Probably wouldn't work for all of them, but since my Modern Urban Fantasy is War for the Oaks, one or two of them could have gotten lost in Faerie for a time, a la Rip Van Winkle.
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Old 09-05-2018, 11:41 AM   #8
Lameth
 
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Not to come across as overly facetious or with an extreme post modern bent but what does "genre of modern urban fantasy" mean to you? I bet the examples I can think of are different than yours.

I prefer to use the Jim Butcher universe explanation of most things: Everything that has ever had a myth about it is true, but they might not be exactly like they are portrayed in the stories you heard.
LOL that is mine as well. I love the books and they where a inspiration to me for various games. Its a world that once had magic, over 1000 of years, slowly fading, and then around 600 years it finally went away [mostly]. Magic and this time became a thing of myths and stories and faded into the history book. Those creatures of magic slipped into the background for hiding and safety, or left for parts unknown like other smaller realms, like Fey.

Then around 100 years ago, magic started to flow again into the world after an Event, but it was secret and hidden still. Over the next 100 years or so it slowly built up here and there and grew in power, but very slowly.

In the last few years, maybe 3-5, in the game world supernatural has come out of the shadows in some ways. Starting with minor things like those with psi powers, or odd weather or stories popping up. Then major things like a vampire on a cop chest cam feeding. A werewolf attack in London. A group of elves coming out of Central Part from their fading portal from Fey, running maybe from a band of orcs, who then follow them into New York. Magic is starting to show as real. Some of those people that have been saying they can do magic for centuries [voodoo, wicca, etc.] can now really do it. Also more esoteric things, like mystical martial arts and medicine are starting to truly become real. The Wall of Sleep that keeps out elder things is cracking. Some of the laws of physics are breaking down or changing.

Basically the world is changing now and the supernatural is slowly becoming an open part of it over the last few years, and those that have been hiding in the shadows are starting to come forward or be seen against their will.

Inspirations of a mix of Call of Cthulhu and all of Lovecraft, Gurps Monster Hunter, Cabal, and Technomancer, League of Extraordinary Gentleman, Dresden Files, TV shows of X-Files and Fringe, Shadow Run, Buffy, DC "Books of Magic", Hellraiser, and "Sandman", Netflix Comic "The Magic Order", and the MMO Secret World.

Magic system I think will be a mix of RPM with maybe tweaks of Effect Shaping or Book, not sure yet. Im not a fan of RPM yet and I normally use Path/Book! RPM does not seem open to different magical traditions and making them special and unique. They all use the same rules and appear to look they same in the book. Also there does not seem like the idea of trading spells or finding a book of spells to then add to your sheet. It seems like a spell book is nothing more then a magic item to boost a single spell. And there is no need to trade or hunt for spells, because you can make or create what you need when you need it. So you will not have that mage seeking a spell or trading for it, he will just go off and make it. Am I wrong on this?
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Old 09-05-2018, 03:36 PM   #9
dcarson
 
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Default Re: Literary Characters in Game

If enough people believe in a character they keep appearing.

Holmes for instance was born 30 years ago and got the nickname Sherlock because of his knack for figuring things out. It wasn't until he was finished college and found himself sharing an apartment with a guy named Bell who had been a medic in Afghanistan and gets a small disability pension from a wound he received that he realized himself just what was happening.
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Old 09-05-2018, 08:51 PM   #10
David Johnston2
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Default Re: Literary Characters in Game

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Originally Posted by Lameth View Post
I am pondering inserting into my Modern Urban Fantasy game some literary characters into its secret history. Such characters as Sherlock Holmes, Invisible Man, Dorian Grey, The Shadow, Doc Savage, Van Helsing, Captain Nemo, Mandrake the Magician, etc.

How would such characters hide in the real world, let alone still be alive in the modern age. Separately yes you can slow age a few of them, like Holmes using chemistry or alchemy to slow his age, or Mandrake just being "infused with magic" which slows his aging, but how about they rest? And this "slow aging" troupe cant be used on them all unless something effected all of them, right? it would not make sense. Unless you add something "if you are written about and the more you are read about, the magic of such things extends your life". Sort of being a true literary character somehow keeps you alive....? Nah. haha.

How can you interject literary characters into a Modern Urban Fantasy Game? Some ideas or direction would really help. thank you.
How I'd do it is to just let most of them have legacies. Over the years a lot of people could have messed with Griffin's formula, the Shadow could have kids with Margot, Nemo's Nautilus could have been discovered on the Mysterious Island, and there could be a whole clan of vampire-hunting Van Helsings.
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