Editing Night Birds

A slightly surreal dark urban fantasy PbP game of ''Cartoon Action Hour Season 3'' run by [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?members/max.462/ Max].

[https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/interest-planning-cah3-cartoon-noir-with-a-touch-of-dark-urban-fantasy-or-magical-realism.849494/ Interest thread]

Recruitment/meta thread

OOC thread

IC thread

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== 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'', ''The Big O'', ''Dark City'' (1998), ''Twin Peaks'', and more generally ''film noir'', 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 '80s dreampop and contemporary synthwave. The protagonists are various people entangled in some way with the crime and corruption of the city - police detectives, journalists, criminals, private eyes, vigilantes and plain old survivor types - imperfect heroes or goodhearted crooks with too much decency, or not enough smarts, to merely look away when they see a wrong too great 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 select 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.

== Setting ==

A glittering pile of crime, corruption and urban decay. The state capital of Washeegan, ??? was heavily built up in the preceding decade but much of this new development has been abandoned since the Depression settled in. Unemployment is rampant. Everyone is desperate for money and a moment of relief. Not a great place to live, but many have no choice and some just belong.

=== Downtown ===

The gilded heart of a city built for business and pleasure, bright and lively even in the dead of night, striped by shadows even at the height of noon.

; The Beauregard
: A popular speakeasy, a public secret. The ground floor offers family friendly dining and dancing to the general public. Trusted customers can descend a flight of stairs in the back into an underground nightclub for drinks and gambling, and even deeper below a secure suite is available by reservation for more private entertainment. Almost no one knows the owner, but it must be someone in good standing with the authorities.

; Police Headquarters
: Tall, grey and blocky. Features one of the city's great architectural mysteries, an inexplicable gaggle of gargoyles perched at every ledge and roof corner.

; Swan Lake
: A large, still pond surrounded by a small public garden, home to a flock of semi-tame black swans adopted by the city and beloved by the populace. A favored spot for families by day and lovers by night.

=== Harbor ===

Opening south-east onto the Larramet Bay, this was once a major hub of maritime transport but now many of its docks and warehouses sit rotting in silence, abandoned and empty. The facilities still in use are haunted by huddled groups of dockhands and sailors looking for work. Seagulls wheel, eerily quiet, above the drifting fog.

; El Verde Grande
: The wreck of a cargo ship resting level as if carefully placed on display on a rocky reef near the north bank of the river mouth. In the absence of anyone willing to claim ownership or responsibility, the jolly green hulk has become a local landmark, an accidental island often explored by bored kids and sometimes used as a concert stage.

=== Outskirts ===

; South Cemetery Park
: A communal area of tended woods, lawns and hedges next to the former site of the city's oldest graveyard (now an open air cinema). Populated by murders of talking crows.

== Player Characters ==

=== Player Character Name (Player Name) ===
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A brief description of the character's background, manner and looks, including a signature piece of color (red dress, blue suit, yellow hair, green eyes etc).

'''Base Oomph:''' 3

'''Upgrades:''' Upgrade X, Upgrade Y, Upgrade Z

'''Signature Quality:''' Player-Controlled Protagonist

'''Standard Qualities:''' A Quality, Another Quality

'''Traits:''' Trait Name 4 (Special Rule), Trait Name 3 (Special Rule), Trait Name 3 (Special Rule), Trait Name 2, Trait Name 2, Trait Name 2, Trait Name 2

== Other Characters ==

=== Anita Voorheisen, Chief of Police ===

By some miracle, an honest (at least when she thinks it actually matters) cop on top of the pile. Confirmed bachelor. Owns a breeding kennel and animal shelter that she helps run in her spare time.

=== Bartholomew "Boss" Blackwell ===

The ''de facto'' head of organized crime in the city and a notable philanthropist. Big, loud, flamboyant, likes white suits and cheap cigars.

=== Charles Donovan, Mayor ===

Richer than the rich and more crooked than the crooks, but quite popular largely due to his unapologetically brash public persona. Always seems shorter than expected in person.

=== The Matchstick Girls ===

An army of street vendors who sell matchsticks, cigarettes, candy, flowers and other such small things. Some also offer more suspect merchandise for customers who know when and how to ask.

=== The Newsboys ===

Omnipresent public service criers and newspaper hawkers. Usually the first ones to hear of everything. Will snoop (or not snoop) for a price.

=== Sarah Sarandon ===

A celebrated singer, actress and socialite with a taste for slumming.

== Episodes ==

=== Pilot: ''Le Cri Sans Voix''===
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Title theme: [https://youtu.be/UNBbFZZdNgk?t=136 Missing Words, "Memories" (short edit)]
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An evening at the Beauregard is interrupted by screams and sirens. Hijinks ensue.

== Links ==
[https://www.orokos.com/ Orokos] (online dice roller)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1930%E2%80%931945_in_Western_fashion 1930s in Fashion]