Night Birds
A slightly surreal dark urban fantasy PbP game of Cartoon Action Hour Season 3 run by Max.
Recruitment/meta thread
OOC thread
IC thread
The Series
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 sparingly used highlights of bright color. The soundtrack uses '80s dreampop and contemporary dark 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 to merely look away when they see a wrong too great to stomach.
People dress in suits, dresses or casual sportswear. Everyone wears hats, caps or bonnets. Everyone smokes.
Mass media consists of TV, radio and newspapers. Music comes on vinyl records, 8-track cartridges and compact cassettes. Computers are boxy things with text-based operating systems, clicky keyboards and bulky CRT displays. Telephones have recently started using buttons instead of rotary dials. Portable devices are suitcase-sized, expensive and finicky. Phone booths are common in most urban areas. 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 is not but for most intents and purposes might as well be the real world, at least in regard to how things and people generally 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 - Most episodes are self-contained stories, but 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 dead, even if neither Defeat is physical in nature.
Player Characters
Player Character Name (Player Name)
Brief description of the character's background, manner and looks, including a signature piece of color (blue dress, red tie, 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 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.
The City
A glittering pile of crime, corruption and urban decay. The state capital of Washeegan, ??? was heavily built up in the preceding decade; after the Depression hit, much of this new development has been abandoned. 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 can make a big profit.
Downtown
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 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. Most of the facilities still in use are haunted by 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 several rival murders of talking crows.
Episodes
Pilot: Le Cri Sans Voix
Main theme: Julee Cruise, "Kool Kat Walk"
An evening at the Beauregard is interrupted by screams and sirens. Hijinks ensue and a dark thing comes to light.
Links
Orokos (online dice roller)
