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Better Angels Campaign: The Spared and the Spoiled

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Cthuluzord:
So we are starting the new campaign. I thought I'd post what information I can now so anyone wishing to write up their character has a place to.

The Setting

Brighter Futures Academy: The centerpiece of the whole campaign—The Brighter Futures Academy (owned by the Channing Cooperative Educational Group) is located in a low-rent residential neighborhood in downtown St. Louis, surrounded on all sides by major highways heading to better places. The school is a single story tall and located on what used to be (and sometimes still is) an active drug corner, flanked by a gas station, empty lot, and its bus garage. The floorplan is relatively small, with a modest cafeteria and a single gym. There are still enough students to organize the hallways by separate subjects, but it is still far smaller than the failing St. Louis schools around it. Brighter Futures accepts tuition from students but primarily operates off a controversial school voucher program recently passed in the city. This is its second year of operation.

The Players

PC's can be anyone regularly attending the school: students, teachers, administrators, janitors, IT professionals, nurses, lunch staff.

The World

Superheroes have always existed, though their popularity and acknowledgement as "superheroes" is the product mass media rise. The phenomenon of supercrime and heroism is only about 70 to 80 years old, though there are many tales of extreme superhuman feats as far back as history cares to mention. Previously thought to be poetic license, these events have taken the shape of Silver Age super-people tropes, likely because that is how they were reported for a number of decades, turning the message into the medium.

History hasn't been much altered. The ability to kill stuff with your eye lasers, while useful, doesn't typically make impacts large enough to alter the world stage. Some supers fought in the big wars, a few assassinations were successful that otherwise wouldn't have worked out, but otherwise stuff is the same.

The internet exists, as do cellphones, but they are much larger, more crudely made, and plagued by ugly interfaces. Cars are reminiscent of the 70's and 80's, and weapons aren't much beyond that time period either (cops still carry revolvers; the army still has M16's). A lot of time was wasted in the industrial age research abandoned superhero artifacts (that weren't actually using super science so much as divine magic). Ultimately, society has all the capabilities of 2013, but in a much cruder, less-user-friendly form. Think of John Holmes movie, but with text messaging and facebook (even though it is called "myeblackbook.net").

The Demons

I'm not elaborating on that yet. Demons are liars. Whatever explanation for demons the book suggests that the PC's want to use is fine by me. Even if they give elaborate explanation to the humans as to how they are the human collective unconscious given psychic form, it could just be a hellspawn having fun. If they want concrete information as to the existence of higher powers, they will have to pay for that information with sin.

The Mystery

I'm not ready to talk about that yet either. Suffice it to say that when events kick off, players will be reliant on their demons for information as well as power. Nothing is free in the devil game, so a major mechanic will be bargaining with demons (and other players) for plot information. Who gives up a piece of their soul for the next plot hook? Among other things...

So yeah...that's it so far. Character write-ups are welcome. It's good to have a fleshed out human before we start factoring in the demons and super-personas and whatnot.

Leviathan:
Oh boy, Caleb running a campaign where players really have devils on their shoulders (or in their mind or whatever). I bet there's a PC lunch lady that slightly poisons food just enough to not get fired.

Also, the players design their demons? Then I'm excited to hear what crazy shit they think up (I believe I saw Ross post his, which made me excited).

And Caleb. Dude. You're awesome. Can't wait to have this madness unleashed into my ears.

PaperGangster:
Demon

Surala The Ever-Truthful

Surala is odd as demons go, in that he will never tell an outright lie.  He will always tell the truth, endeavoring to be completely, brutally honest.  His favorite adage is that no good deed goes unpunished, and corruption comes from those acts of "good" that cause unseen harm.  Random acts of kindness turn into intolerable cruelty with a bit of forethought, and there is no evil more powerful than those acts performed for "the greater good."  Except, perhaps, the evil that triumphs when good men do nothing...

The good is a double-edged sword, because he will actively encourage seemingly good acts when only the demon knows where the more potent evil lies.  Every act he encourages will carry with it the burden of allowing a lesser evil to triumph, or laying the groundwork for some greater evil that grows from the seeds of "good" he encourages. 

Do you listen to him?  Do you perform the acts of kindness?  Or do you allow evil to win the day by ignoring his words?

Cthuluzord:
I'm thrilled to reward this kind of roleplaying with points.

Surala the Ever-Truthful has +1 for Nurture and +1 for Corruption to spend on his mortals sheet. After all, he views them as one and the same.

P.S. On a side note, I was doing demons wrong. If the Sinister strategy is higher than the Virtuous, then the demon is always AWARE of what is going on, but they still can't speak unless spoken to. Demons with primary strategies that are too low are deaf, blind, AND mute until invoked. Getting this rule right will certainly make the table a little less crazy next time around.

PaperGangster:
My apologies.  This turned out longer than I thought it would.  Everyone wanting to read the whole thing, start at the bold title below.  But here are the Cliff's Notes for everyone/anyone else.

1948- Born
1966, age 18- Joined army
1986, age 38- left army, went to College
1990, age 42- graduated (slightly accelerated course study plus CLEP,) began teaching.
2012, age 65- retired.
2013, age 66- present day; became librarian at the Charter School.


Bran Roark, The Life And Times Of A Librarian

One could say that the man now known as the Charter School's librarian has lived three lives.  All three of these lives have made him the man he is today, so we must go through each in turn to understand how he came to begin life again at the school.

Bran was born in 1948, the eldest of three children born to Malcolm and Keira.  Malcolm was a coal miner, a fair man who instilled the virtues of hard work for honest pay in his children; Keira was a gentle woman with a quiet sense of humor, who taught her children to smile every day at life's little miracles.  Bran was studious, helping his brother Edan with his schoolwork every day, until Edan was old enough to assist their sister Muriel with both Catechism and arithmetic.  Both boys hunted regularly, supplementing the table with wild game; Malcolm, however, was adamant that school came first for all three.  He wanted his sons to have an education, a better life; his life was one of toil and hard labor, a lot he would NOT allow to fall upon the boys.

Bran's graduation from High School in 1966 was marked with news of conflict oversees.  Vietnam was erupting in violence, and the draft was in full force to shore up the ranks of America's standing armed forces; everyone spoke of the coming conflict as "when," not "if."  Both Bran and Edan were fit and healthy; one of the two was bound to be drafted.  Bran enlisted, as the recruiter assured him that if one brother would serve the other would become ineligible for the draft (a false claim; there is a "sole Survivor" policy, but for it to be in force Bran would have to die in combat.)

Bran's second life began then at 18, in the U.S. Army.  Bran's work ethic carried him through boot camp with flying colors and command of a squad, and his experience with a rifle led to marksmanship certification.  His first active wartime service was Vietnam.  Bran went from boot camp directly to the front lines, and two tours later (1970) he was given a brief leave to attend Malcolm's funeral; the Roark patriarch succumbing to Black Lung.  Bran went home, and then went back to Vietnam just in time for the Cambodian Campaign of 1970.

Edan's letters from home kept Corporal Roark in good spirits.  While Bran had fought and bought his brother's freedom, Edan had completed medical school and met a girl! Keira's letters told a clearer tale, of Sofie setting her cap for the oblivious Edan and pursuing him; according to their mother, Sofie had fallen in love with the top of Edan's head over the top of a copy of Grey's Anatomy. Two tours later, Bran had an extended leave to return home and stand as best man to his younger brother's groom.  Edan and Sofie were married in 1974, with Muriel conspicuously absent.  (Bran would later learn that his sister was in jail; her protests of the war her eldest brother fought had turned violent.)

Sofie and Edan went to the Bahamas for their honeymoon, but a tragic parasailing accident ended their life together...together.  Devastated, Bran reenlisted; his promotion to Staff Sergeant was met with no fanfare whatsoever.

1976, Korea, border incident. 1978, Zaire. 1980, Sinai peninsula; Operation Bright Star.  1981, Libya.  Every year brought further conflicts, from which Bran emerged alive and well... mostly.  Over his twenty year career, he was decorated three times with Silver Stars and a cross for distinguished service. Lebanon, Egypt, Grenada; a stray bullet added a purple heart to his numerous decorations, forcing him to take a stateside assignment at Fort Bragg, training new recruits to be soldiers like him.  A final letter from home ended First Sergeant Roark's career- Keira was dying.  Bran retired.

The cancer had taken its toll, ravaging Keira's liver, lungs, and pancreas.  Her eldest child brought out the same quiet joy she always lived by, though, and she smiled again when Bran came home, this time to stay.  Conflict on three continents and a constant dance with death did not prepare Bran for this fight; he watched his mother slowly shrivel and die, and he was powerless to stop it.  Three months after he moved back home, Bran buried his mother.  Muriel attended in matching bracelets, chained together, with an armed correctional officer in close escort.

Muriel's fifty-year incarceration had scarcely begun.  She told of her time with an anti-war protest group, of the situation getting out of hand, of the bombing.  Muriel had turned on her cohorts, testifying against them under the condition that she got the same judgement as them all; the blood of innocents was on her hands, and she stated her intent to serve every year of her sentence in penance. 

Thus, Bran began his third life, the one his parents had intended for him years before- College.  He began in 1986, majoring in English, with a focus on literature and library sciences.  Four years later, First Sergeant Roark became "Mr. Roark." 

He taught English for twenty years, reaching students that other teachers had long ago given up hope of educating.  Keira's bottomless reserve of joy inspired him to see the best of all his kids, Malcolm's steady resolve showed him patience, and Edan's love of learning came through in every lesson plan.  Muriel showed Bran all about taking ownership; every child in Bran's class was "MY student," "MY pupil;" First Sergeant Roark firmly informed Mr. Roark that every failure was his own, that a single child he couldn't teach meant failing all of them.  His tactics were often dirty, his methods proven; parents knew the moment their children's grades slipped below a B-, and those who dropped to the C level got extra counseling after school.  The one D+ student had suppertime visits for a week until he understood what Mark Twain was getting at with Huckleberry Finn; the girl who had a D- at midterm refused to say what happened, but her final grade of a B+ got her a gift of Dante's Divine Comedy.

Muriel died in 1993, her liver failing after a bout with Hepatitis C.  One of Muriel's former comrades had contracted the disease and poisoned a shiv with her blood; Muriel's death occurred within a week receiving the shallow cut.

Union rules forced Bran's retirement in 2012 at the age of 65.  After two months of doing nothing, Mr. Roark dug until he found a loophole in the union regulations; he couldn't teach, but there was absolutely nothing preventing him from working in a school library.

*Present Day*
Bran is quiet, but friendly, greeting students and faculty alike with a smile.  He dons his uniform on Veteran's Day, but refuses to talk of his experiences (calling them "things that happened a lifetime ago" and changing the subject.)  Mr. Roark rarely speaks of his family; the rare occasions when he does are marked by the absence of his trademark smile.  His standard clothing is dress slacks, a turtleneck, and a blazer or sport's coat; he carries a walking stick, barely leaning on it except when the weather is bad (he has a metal plate riveted his right femur.)

Edit: One last note: he has not touched a firearm since he left Fort Bragg.

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