Wednesday, February 12, 2020

HEROIC AGE: Modern Pulp Adventure in the Trinity Continuum


The Trinity Continuum roleplaying game by Onyx Path Publishing is excellent for creating pulpy, proto-superhero type characters. I love such extraordinary but relatable characters over super-powered ones, focusing on Action, Science and Guile Heroes fells more substantial to me. That said I like the thought of a world shaped by mad science and full of all of the weirdness of the pulps and strange fiction.
Though I will be using elements of the Aeon Continuum of games, I will be focusing a on Talents. Psiads, Psions, Novas and Aberrants will be replaced Anomalies. Aliens, mutants, urban legends and eldritch abominations. Psychics in this setting will be cold readers, hypnotists and users of weird gadgets and drugs. But don’t worry, things will get pretty weird as is.
If you would like to see more of this setting, including maps, creatures, NPCs and other tidbits, swing over to my Patreon. Follow, join, comment and contribute, and I will churn out material in greater amounts. 
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OVERALL HEROIC AGE SETTING
Heroic Age takes place in a modern(ish) setting of 2033. A world where ghosts, UFO’s, demons, mutant monsters, urban legends, magic and weird science are all real and have influenced the world in many wonderful ways. Everyday folks mostly ignore these strange entities and occurrences until they are directly troubled. Many times, people are more embarrassed by alien abductions, demonic possession or abuse of super science by their kids than horrified. Most people are trying to get on with their lives, with strangeness being another thing on the news.
Furthermore, costumed heroes are a presence. Some, such as public “Science Heroes” and other themed "Two-Fisted" adventurers. Such heroes are vigilantes who work as bounty hunters bail-bondsmen and semi-criminals are more-or-less legal. The more popular are seen shaking the hands of politicians and opening supermarkets, thanks to their publicists.
The setting is a “retro now” version of our reality, being an ultramodern version of the near future — live prime-time TV and soda fountains in drugstores coexist with orbital space stations and interplanetary flight. Alien invasions, mad scientists, zombie uprisings, Atlantis and cosmic monsters have changed the course of human history.
Excellent inspirational reading: Airboy (the Image reboot), Archie Comics (2015 reboot), Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot, Dick Tracy (strip), SCP Foundation, Two Fisted Tales, The Goon, The Onion, The Weekly World News, Hellboy and Tom Strong. Podcasts of relatable content are the Drabblecast, Coast to Coast AM, The Weird Tales Podcast, and the Stranger Than Fiction Podcast.

WEIRD HISTORY
As a general rule of the Heroic Age, a great many pulpy and over the top events in pulps, B-Movies, comics and cartoons are in-fact Historic Documents. Player characters will have grown up watching atomic horror flicks in school as documentaries and vampire films in health class. Some movie examples are: The Blob, Conga, Dracula (book and movie versions), Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, Gwangi, Night of the Living Dead, Gorgo, Them!, The Deadly Mantis, The Giant Claw, Galaxy of Terror, The Land that Time Forgot, War of the Worlds (all versions) and Zarkorr!, the Invader (to name a few).

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NEXT! Locations of Note. Origins. Factions. Anomalies and More!

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