Editing Night Birds (section)

== The Series ==
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Opening theme: [https://tinyurl.com/yyo8eonr Julee Cruise, "Kool Kat Walk"]

End credits: [https://tinyurl.com/yyxka4ly Julee Cruise, "Until the End of the World"]
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'''''Night Birds''''' takes place in a world combining 1930s fashions and moods with 1980s technology, inspired by things like ''Batman: The Animated Series'' and ''Twin Peaks'', and more generally by hard-boiled crime fiction, urban fantasy and magical realism. The visual style is stark and sharp, with clear strong lines, solid black shadows and select highlights of bright color. The soundtrack uses synthwave and '80s dreampop. The protagonists are various people entangled in some way with the crime and corruption of the city - police detectives, journalists, criminals, private eyes, celebrities, vigilantes, street trash - imperfect heroes or imperfect crooks with too much decency and too little sense to merely look away when they see something too bad to stomach.

People dress in suits, dresses or casual sportswear. Trench coats are everywhere. Everyone wears hats, caps or bonnets. Everyone smokes.

Public intoxication is a crime punishable by fines or jailtime. Licensed restaurants are allowed to sell no more than one (1) or, with a special permit, two (2) servings of alcoholic beverages per meal per adult customer.

Mass media consists of TV, radio and newspapers. Music comes on vinyl records, 8-track cartridges and compact cassettes. Telephones have recently started using buttons instead of rotary dials. Phone booths are common in most urban areas. Computers are boxy things with text-based operating systems, clicky keyboards and bulky CRT displays. Portable devices are suitcase-sized, expensive and finicky. Digital data transfer using phone lines is available between some locations, mostly universities and government offices; fax machines are used by most organizations and available in some public libraries.

=== Dials ===

'''Seriousness: 3''' - Situations can get absurd, and the sort of wry, laconic sense of humor characteristic of hard boiled fiction is encouraged, but on the whole things should be played straight. "Goofy" comic relief characters should be avoided or, failing that, shot.

'''Realism: 3''' - This <u>is not</u> but for most intents and purposes <u>might as well be</u> the real world, at least in regard to how things and people <u>generally</u> work.

'''Violence: 3 (4?)''' - There will be blood, there will be death, and either might be yours. As a rule, the series aims for at most a TV-14 rating in terms of on-screen portrayal of sex, drugs and violence. When in doubt, err towards stylishly coy rather than explicitly graphic.

'''Continuity: 2''' - While most episodes are largely self-contained, they are connected by overarching storylines and character arcs, and the events of any given episode can change the status quo of future episodes.

=== Player Character Guidelines ===

'''Star Power:''' 3.

'''Tier and Trait Points:''' Human tier, 18 points to spend on Traits (maximum rating 4).

No "goofy" comic relief characters unless you want to get shot.

=== Houserules ===

All opposed checks are made against a standard DN of Trait + 6. If the defender has a Quality they could use, they can choose whether to do so after seeing the result of the check.

You lose one Setback Token after each scene in which you appear. If you are Defeated by physical injuries, you do not lose any Setback Tokens until you receive proper medical care.

You can get back up and rejoin the action at any point after being Defeated, but if you do so and gain a fifth Setback Token, you are not only Defeated again but <u>dead</u>, even if neither Defeat is physical in nature.