Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Illustrated by Brett sinski; Caleb Stokes with Jason Ariciu, Aaron Carston,
Barkley, Kurt Komoda and Todd Shearer, as credited, Tom Church, David Dobelman and Ross Payton; Xan-
2013. Edited by Shane Ivey and James Knevitt. Page der Veerhoff with Carl LeCompte, Bridget Lewis and
design by Simeon Cogswell. Published by Arc Dream Glenna Thompson.
Publishing, 12215 Highway 11, Chelsea, AL 35043,
USA. Additional thanks to our proofreaders: Kirby Arinder,
Jim Auwaerter, P-A Beaulieu, Arthur William Breon III,
Except for purposes of review and except as otherwise Michael Brightbill, Steve Burnett, Camilla Chalcraft,
specified, no portion of this work may be reproduced Richard Clayton, Christopher Crossley, Zach Davis,
by any means without the express written permission J.A. Dettman, Mark Dodson, Stuart Dollar, R.N. Domi-
of the copyright holders. All rights reserved worldwide. nick, Paul the Bastard Douglas, Blane A. Elferdink,
Jon Finn, Jason Freston, Itamar Friedman, Rebecca
This is a work of fiction. Any similarity with actual peo- Grayden, Sara Grocott, Patrick Hume, Jim Jacobson,
ple and events, past or present, is purely coincidental Daniel Kane, Kevin Lindgren, Shai Laric, Kris Leeke,
and unintentional except for those people and events Chris Luong, Craig McClung, Michael Ray McLaughlin,
described in historical context. Duane Moore, Robert Nickerson, Gus OHanley, Craig
Ostrin, Shane Phillips, Ed Possing, B. Charles Reynolds,
This is a work of entertainment. Please do not con- Tim Rodriguez, Daniel Steadman and Andrew Whittle.
strue it as commentary on actual religious or spiritual
beliefs. On second thought, maybe that would get us And extra special thanks to the backersangels, all
some sweet free publicity. So go for it. who supported this project at Kickstarter.com. Please
find their names in the Acknowledgments.
Special thanks to our playtesters: R. Thomas Allwin
with Sarah Burchill, Ulf Dinnetz, Conny Johansson, First printing, 2013. Printed in the USA.
Leif Johansson, and Jim Lngstedt; Christopher Cross-
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e n ts
o f Cont
Tabl e
Esther Minges was driving he plucked her out of it (like the air/sea/land assault craft of
home from work in her Honda a single curled chip, to con- the Villainous Nine. She swal-
Fit, trying to figure out how to tinue the Frito analogy, though lowed, hard, and then recog-
stretch her maintenance bud- corn chips dont scream) and nized the distinctive profiles
get across five line items when swooped out into the night. of the seven figures emerging
there was really only money to into the red glow. Ripperclaw.
do one of them properly. She AAAAIGH! NO, PLEASE, The Mess. Violator. The Big
was paying sufficient attention I WANT TO LIVE! Esther Shot. Guts and Brains, always
to the road, but not to the sky, shrieked. more dangerous together than
which was why she was pro- apart. And then, arising from
foundly surprised when some- Youll live, Desecrator Dread the fire itself, their leader: Gen-
thing swooped down, picked replied. eral Null.
up her car, and wrenched open
the roof like a hungry teen tear- Let me go put me down please Hi, Null said.
ing into a bag of Fritos. please please...
Please let me go this must
When she saw the distinctive Not even a thank you? be some mistake Im nobody
mask of Desecrator Dread, Clearly I caved too soon on let- important oh God please dont
well-known as the most forth- ting you live, he said, and then kill me...
right and direct of the Villain- theyd arrived.
ous Nine, she screamed, and No ones going to kill you,
she kept screaming as the They were somewhere in the Null said, and she noticed that
razor spurs on the heels of mountains. A campfire burned his frightful fanged faceplate
his costume sliced through before her, and as her eyes was unsnapped on one side,
her seat belt. The car fell adjusted she took in the bulk of dangling loose and
with a thunderous crash as the infamous Cat O Nine Tails, revealing a slight
5
double chin and chapped lips. da yadda, hes being held in an Angels are spirits that want
Look, calm down. Violator, impenetrable prison beneath to do good, and demons are
dyou mind...? the Earths crust and so on. spirits that want to do bad.
Thats clear enough, right? So
Right. The Nines premier I caught that, yes. what happens when an evil
psychic nodded his peculiar spirit gets into the body of an
helmet and said, Hey honey, So were one short. evil person?
mellow out, its fine. Esther
found herself clear-headed, so Esther blinked. You... think Um...
calm it was almost eerie. I can help you get him out? I
cant... I mean, I run a homeless EVIL! The Mess barked, his
So, Null continued. Were shelter. breath making her flinch. The
bad guys. You know this, rider I got in me, Shaklakar the
youve seen us rob banks, hold Doing a fine job with limited Potent? Used to have Genghis
various nations hostage, kid- resources, too, Brains added, Khan as a host. Genghis. Khan.
nap heads of state, threaten to and Guts grunted in agree- Rampaged across Asia and
blow up the moon and so on... ment. Europe leaving piles of heads
and thousands of rape victims
Everyone knows you, Esther Youre a good person, Viola- behind him. Sure, Ive burned
said warily. tor said, in that eerie echoless down a few forests, I killed
voice that always sounded as the last Lesser Spotted Prairie
Ever wonder why we do it? if it was right behind your ear. Chicken, kept the Eastern Sea-
Genuinely decent inside. Just board browned out for three
Um... I guess I just figured... like we were, once. days but I dont think theres
er... She trailed off. anything on my conscience
What? to compare with the Golden
Insufficient mommy lovin? Horde!
asked The Big Shot in his Did you ever wonder where
distinctive Texas drawl. Yer we all got these crazy powers? Mess used to be a beat cop in
a social worker, right? Maybe Ripperclaw asked. Detroit, Null said. We recruit-
even had some sympathy for ed him after he was forced off
us, I reckon. I figured... radiation accidents, the force for whistle-blowing.
mutations, experiments...? Like you, he was a normal,
What do you want? she everyday good person.
asked. Naw, s all demons, Guts
said. An them damn fool I used to teach in an inner-city
Youre surely aware that heroes? Freakin angels. Lucky high school, Brains said.
Doomslaughter got captured, bastards.
right? Front-page news, Civic reformer, Ripperclaw
triumph of good, yad- Im not sure I follow. rumbled.
6
Null here was a for-real Zen longer and slow down the rest butts couldnt stop him before
priest, Desecrator said. of the pursuit. he wiped out a couple dozen
civilians. Hell, they wouldnt
I dont believe you, Esther So you see how it is, Null have even caught him if Null
muttered. This is some trick. broke in. You have to walk here hadnt shot him in the
that line. Keep your demon... back with that bazooka.
Do you have a better expla- entertained. It loves death
nation? Brains asked. Im a and sadism and carnage but... Its called the Nullzooka, the
genius who invented a super- sometimes even more, it loves General said mildly.
sonic plane that runs on water. spectacle. If youre flamboyant
Along with a material thats enough, you hardly have to kill So you want me to... to be
stronger than diamond and anyone at all. like you? A host for a demon
flexible as tissue. And selec- parasite?
tively adherent depending on Do the heroes know this? she
what kind of electrical current asked, head spinning. Yep, Brains said cheerfully.
you run through it. With a few Think it over, but not for too
patents, I could be a multibil- The Mess shrugged. Some long.
lionaire and then go about dont care. Some dont know.
undermining small African na- Some dont believe. They aint Take this, Ripperclaw said,
tions for my personal amuse- the real problem anyhow. holding out a strange necklace.
ment. Or funding genocides or If youre wearing that, itll
making nukes for nuts if I want- No, said Null. Theyre not. draw Doomslaughters spirit
ed to efficiently maximize my The real problem are people when it gets loose.
production of human suffer- who have demons and get
ing. What have I done instead? along with them just fine. Wait, I thought you said
The Chicago Giggles Plague? Theyre the ones who dont Doomslaughter was... impris-
Holding Germanys autobahnen dress up, dont take wildly oned, trapped beneath the
hostage? Cmon. evocative names, dont rob Earths crust. You said it was
armored cars with their bare a prison that no one could
You killed Morris Stanwick, hands or steal the Liberty Bell. escape.
Esther said quietly, and Brains
looked away. Or people who fought the Oh, were not going to help
good fight, Hellbinders like us, him escape, Null said. Thats
Yeah, he said. I killed Stan- who went over the edge. flat-out impossible. But if we
wick. Rider got the better of destroy the whole place, hell
me that day... no way out. His Doomslaughter, The Big Shot die.
voice had become sad, and bit- said grimly.
ter. But the rest of those feds No, Esther said, flinging the
just got shot in the legs. Talked Theyre covering it up, but amulet to their feet.
it into that, told it theyd suffer those Lightning League candy- No, I wont. I cant.
7
Okay, Null said, and turned the necklace on, who knows The demon could screw up
towards the plane. Cmon what kind of host Doomslaugh- royally and wind up stuck in
troops, were burning starlight ters familiar is going to find? someone even better equipped
here. They arent perfect judges of to restrain it than a woman
character, but ol Doomy was who has, if youll pardon the
Thats... thats it? a philanthropist surgeon who observation, sacrificed her
left a lucrative Boston practice youth and her whole life to the
You were expecting a No to take penicillin to kids in the downtrodden, addicted and
one defies the Villainous Nine Congo. And he went ballistic insane. If you think thats likely,
speech? Nah. We have to leave after a while. But hey, if your or that your conscience can
right now to kill our old pal. faith in the average man is handle the possibilities... sure,
He paused, with his back to her, strong enough, roll the dice. drop the necklace or give it to
and when he spoke there was Actually, itll probably be the a co-worker or whatever. But
an edge of malice in his voice. somewhat-less-honest-than- dont think too long. Were ic-
Of course, if you dont put average man. But who knows? ing him at midnight.
8
A
OD
M
KO
9
Wha Cha
t Ar p te r
Why e We 1:
Is I Doing
t Fu , an
n? d
BARKLEY
B e t t er A n g els is a role play in g g a me , which means its a story built through conver-
sation. You play it by making a series of choices, acting out the role of a supervillain. You could be a
flawed villain with heroic elements or a criminal with a heart of gold, or you could portray a simple,
straight-up monster. Thats up to you. Your character is a primary one in this story, and you determine
his or her choices.
But you dont get to decide everything that happens. One of the other players is the Game Moderator or
GM, who describes all those little people (Game Moderator characters, or GMCssometimes called non-
player characters or NPCs) who arent fortunate enough to have a player looking out for them, as well as
the weather in the sky through which you fly, the behavior of traffic into which you throw superheroes,
and the events that make all your decisions just a bit more complicated and dangerous.
So far, thats par for the RPG course. But Better Angels isnt just a game about bad people doing things
that may or may not also be bad. Its specifically about people driven by demons, or by conscious ma-
levolent forces with cruel designs that have weird powers. If thats not demonic enough for you, it should
be. Every character has a human side, run by one player, and a demonic adjutant offering advice and
infernal powers, also run by a player. The catch? Its a different player. This means that someone else
sitting around the table is along for the ride, playing the part of the mind-parasite possessing you and
trying to get you to sin, and sin boldly. It also means that, for one of the other people playing, youre the
voice in his ear saying Go on, do it, you wont get caught!
Play your human well enough and you might even force your demon back to the bowels of the Hell that
spawned it. Play your demon well enough and you could drag a mortal down to Hell for eternity.
Walking that balance, between good and evil and power and fear, is the heart of Better Angels.
Though, being about supervillains, its also about sneering and death traps and big,
overblown gestures.
12 BARKLEY
Supervillains I Am an Absolute Beginner
Are Dumb Welcome aboard! While all the rules
and jargon and spindle-shaped dice
A lot of supervillains in the comics are dumb. may seem intoxicatingly complex, at
Even the geniuses. the heart this hobby is about telling the
kind of story you want to read. Keep that
Remember the Tinker from Spider-Man comics in mind, and keep in mind that every-
in the 1980s? A guy who can turn a waffle-iron one else has their opinions about what
into a ray gun is working out of a radio repair makes a story good, and you should be
shop building weapons for supervillains? Why okay. Go read the article What Is a Role-
wouldnt he file some patents, get a few de- playing Game? at www.arcdream.com.
fense contracts and quietly reap the profits of That goes into greater depth about how
Reagans peace-time military buildup? to play this kind of game.
Evil vs. EEEEvil just as likely his commander shrugs and finds an-
other. The conscientious objector can get trans-
If you take a step back, or perhaps a step up, ferred to the motor pool. He doesnt need to be
you can find a meta-reason for all this. The writ- made an example because people who can stand
ers needed bad guys for their heroes to fight. up to the institutional evil of a Third Reich are so
The goals had to be simple enough for a single vanishingly rare that a government can afford to
issue (or at least, simple enough to fit across ignore them. One appalled guard isnt going to
several issues along with all kinds of action and bring down the system of extermination camps
derring-do and smart-alec banter). Goals that any more than one lazy delivery boy is going to
played into striking visual themes or elaborate derail UPS.
fight-scene sets were huge plusses as well.
13
Is this drifting from our original ideas of bad guys
kitted out like cosplayers, sneering and making
The Basics
demands? Only by way of comparison. Great evil The story in Better Angels is the struggle between
is done in aggregate. Its slow and amorphous, a good human and a demon trying to degrade,
and it dilutes responsibility as much as possible. bully and control him. Because this is a game and
Eeeevil on the other hand is flamboyant and per- not Paradise Lost, the score is kept mathemati-
sonal and catastrophically inefficient. cally, with a system of carefully measured sins
and virtues, instead of agonized poetic couplets.
Thats why eeeevil fails in the comics. Not be- (Though, no mistake, Paradise Lost is worth a
cause the bad guy is weaker or stupider or less read.)
intent on his goalthe writers often took pains
to show that he was stronger and more intelli-
gent and willing to break any law. It fails because
Hellbound
the hero thwarts it but, honestly, could the hero Heres a key piece of terminology for the game,
have thwarted it if the villain had just taken some even though its not related to the mechanics like
simple and obvious steps? Strategy or Nurture. When you combine one
human with one demon you get one of the Hell-
Eeeevil: I relish the opportunity to face a wor- bound. (Also, on occasion, Hellbinder.)
thy foe! Overcome me in traditional Finnish naval
wrestling and you shall have your freedom. But if This is an important term because its not syn-
I win your soul is mine! Bwah ha ha! onymous with Player Character or PC. Thats
one player, controlling the human, and trying
Evil: Have the guards take her out back and to beat his diabolical tormentor two falls out of
shoot her, like the others. three. The Hellbound is played in tandem, mostly
governed by one player, but with another play-
Eeeevil: Only you can appreciate the genius of ing the demon and sticking his oar in whenever it
my plan. When I push that button, a meteorite of seems useful or hilarious.
solid sodium, towed from the asteroid belt, will
smash into the polar ice caps! The detonation If a PC breaks his bondage to his devil, hes still
will raise the sea levels worldwide and I, having a PC, but hes no longer Hellbound. Whether you
prudently invested in inland territories destined keep playing as an ordinary human or start a new
to be the new fishing meccas, will be rich beyond Hellbound character is up to you.
avarice!
Greed: Taking what you want from others Generosity: Using your status and resources
when they dont want to give it to you. to help others in need.
Espionage: Learning or figuring out things Knowledge: Education, research and techni-
that others dont want you to know. cal problem-solving.
Cruelty: Physically attacking inferiors or strik- Courage: Facing equal or superior oppo-
ing from surprise. nents in a fight.
Corruption: Drawing out the worst in those Nurture: Drawing out the best in those
around you. around you.
Deceit: Lying and standing by your dishon- Honesty: Convincing others of the truth and
esty. standing by it.
BARKLEY
T o bu i l d your supe rvillain , you Specialties
buy stuff off a menu with a budget of points. Specialties are for things that most people dont
Then, you get to buy other stuff off a menu for even know enough to attempt. Nobodys going
the demon of the player on your right. The player to defuse an A-bomb, pilot a B-52, translate hi-
on your left gets to do exactly the same for your eroglyphics or perform an appendectomy with-
demon. Not only does she get to define the imp- out training. If you want your character to have
ish beast whos making your life miserable, she some narrow expertise like that, buy it as a Spe-
gets to play it too. This is fun. cialty. Its basically a permission to attempt a roll
for something thats normally beyond the pale. It
No matter what youre buying, Tactics or Strate- doesnt add any dice or reduce penalties or any-
gies, you use the same price list. thing, but if you buy Pilot as a specialty, you can
fly planes.
Trait Costs
There are gray zones with this. Does a character
Tactic: 1 point need a Specialty to speak Spanish? Up to the GM,
really, depending on how the games going and
Specialty: 2 points whats already established about the character. If
the character has definitively shown he does not
Strategy: 2 points know a language, he cant pick it up later, unless
the GM decides to let him get the Specialty some-
Now you just go through an easy, four-step pro- how.
cess in which you define both the characters you
control: Your human and someone elses demon. Similarly, many people can pick out a passable
tune on the piano, change the oil in a car, or knock
together an end table if they have the tools and
Step One: materials. Specialties arent required for that ev-
eryday level of skill. To play a concert at Carnegie,
Spend Points On rebuild an engine from the ground up or make a
First things first: Every character starts with one A character can never have more than three Spe-
point in Open. You need that to live. You dont get cialties.
free points in other, less purely essential traits.
-
u has an ongo
D e v i l On ch for yo ing the
The d s u
u l d e r actics a n embody
ho d T r,
Your S
gie s a n cha r a c te erve
ut Strate to your in turn, s
o picks o
er wh rewtape
as Sc ies. You,
l abilit
The play g o in g to serve o u r p a ranorma
Shes y
ing job. vides all
m o n who pro
capricio
us d e layer. s your
le fo r a nother p F ir s t o ff, unles
. s
that sam
e ro of limits ea what
to a couple u h ave no id
ub je c t site , y o o e
u r
fu n , b ut it is s th a n its oppo if it is higher, y
rea t r n n
This is g is greate ed. Eve him. Eve
in is te r Strategy s s y o u re invok w e r s y ou give e r
S un le ep o ra th
primary y o u r mortal, s e s one of th o r e fr om you,
it h e u m
going on
w unless h to hear
s s in v oked, or v e h im wanting
le a
silent un idea to le
o ft e n a good r less.
then, it s
is h in g hed hea
him w
than risk
19
An Example: picks that for his demon. This leaves him marking
Cunning as his demons Primary Strategy, which
Katie, Frank, & Tobey sounds like a good match for a smart guy like Dr.
Barbarossa. He opts for Wings as his Aspect be-
The three players for a new Better Angels game cause, hey, you gotta fly, right?
are (from left to right, because it matters) Ka-
tie, Frank and Tobey. Theyre sitting there, blank As for Tobey, hes all about Telekinesis, not for
character sheets in hand, pencils sharpened and any thematic reason, but because he thinks it
ready for step one. sounds really versatile. He wants Sly for his de-
mon, and goes for the Giant Aspect. It sounds
Katie wants to play a footloose blues musician plenty villainous to him.
named Wanda. She fills in her free point of Open
and decides to get another (2 points). Then she Now comes the good part. Or, if the players were
puts two points in Patient and three in Insightful already enjoying their character shopping, here
(10 points total). Shes spent 12 points already, comes the cruelly good part. Everyone hands
and buys a Specialty in Blues Musician for an- their character sheet to the left.
other 2. With her six remaining points, she puts
one each in every Virtuous Tactic. Katie looks at Dr. Barbarossa and plops five points
into Cowardice (5 points), just because its across
Frank shakes his head at Katies low Tactics. Hes from his empty Endurance. She then puts four
playing a highly strung neurosurgeon named points in Devious (8 points) because she doesnt
Felix Barbarossa. He leaves Insightful empty for want to let him get too Insightful. Three points in
the moment and puts three dots on Patient (6 Cunning (6 points), since its Primary and it lets her
points). Then he puts two each in Generosity and wall off his Patient stat too. With one point left, she
Knowledge (4 points) before buying a Specialty puts it into Deceit because hey, why not? She de-
in Brain Surgeon (2 points). With his remain- cides his demon is named Kazoth the Guttering
ing eight points, he buys a point of Insightful (2 Flame.
points), and two points apiece in Courage, Nur-
ture and Honesty (6 points). As for Frank, he spreads his points on Luther
broadly, adding two points to each Sinister Strat-
Tobey hasnt read the book carefully but man- egy (12 points), and then adding four points each
ages to struggle through. He puts a point each in Greed and Cowardice (8 points). Frank has
in Patient, Insightful, Cunning, Sly and Devious. plans. When Tobey asks him what the demons
(Thats right, hes buying stuff on the left side!) name is, Frank has no ideas, so Tobey suggests
That costs him 10 points off the bat. For the re- Murekabal. Frank shrugs and says thats fine.
mainder, he puts five in Courage (5 points) and
five in Nurture (5 points). He throws the name Tobey, in the same way that he bought Sinister
Luther Christian on his brave, pure soul and Tactics for Luther Christian, buys a few Virtu-
gets ready for the next step. ous Tactics for Wanda. Specifically, he adds two
points each to Endurance, Nurture and Honesty
Katie figures that Wanda bargained with a demon (6 points). Three points in Deceit seems useful (3
for unbelievable musical skills, and picks the Im- points) and he decides to crank Devious because
possible Beauty power as a good match. After all, its useful, its Primary, and because he wants to
while its usually physical beauty, it could just as use the Flame-Wreathed Aspect. He cant take it
easily be melodic. She isnt crazy about the idea to five, but he goes to four (8 points). He dumps
of changing into a monstrous freak, so she picks his last three points in Espionage (3 points). He
Invisible as her Aspect, and tags Devious as her names the demon Terbat the Splendid.
demons Primary Strategy.
Considering how physically weak Dr. Barbarossa
Frank thinks the Espionage power Inef- looks, Katie decides his demon needs Ghost Form
20 fable Defense sounds pretty useful and as its second Aspect. (She also privately figures
that if he has two Cunning Aspects, he might hes- his second Aspect. He figures hes just made him
itate to risk that Strategy which is Primary) the worlds greatest thief.
She also wants a power based on his Open Cow-
ardice, so shes torn between Arrogance and Ban- As for Wandas character, Tobey says she gets
ish. She decides on Banish for its attack potential. the Flame-Wreathed Aspect he was eyeing, and
takes Telekinesis for her for all the same reasons
Frank, in the meantime, takes Summon as To- he took it for himself. He also figures its one less
beys second power and Darkness-Shrouded as set of rules to remember.
Luther
Christian Wanda Dr. Felix
Barbarossa
Heres what Luther looks like Heres what Wanda looks like
when Tobey and Frank are done. when Katie and Tobey are done. Heres what Felix looks like
when Frank and Katie are done.
Names Names
Villain: To be determined Villain: To be determined Names
Mortal: Luther Christian Mortal: Wanda Villain: To be determined
Demon: Murkebal (played by Demon: Terbat the Splendid Mortal: Dr. Felix Barbarossa
Frank) (played by Tobey) Demon: Kazoth the Guttering
Player: Tobey Player: Katie Flame (played by Katie)
Player: Frank
Stats Stats
Cunning 3, Patient 1 Cunning 0, Patient 2 Stats
Greed 4, Generosity 0 Greed 0, Generosity 1 Cunning 3*, Patient 3
Espionage 0, Knowledge 0 Espionage 3, Knowledge 1 Greed 0, Generosity 2
Espionage 0, Knowledge 2
Sly 3*, Open 1 Sly 0, Open 2
Cruelty 0, Courage 5 Cruelty 0, Courage 1 Sly 0, Open 1
Cowardice 4, Endurance 0 Cowardice 0, Endurance 3 Cruelty 0, Courage 2
Cowardice 5, Endurance 0
Devious 3, Insightful 1 Devious 4*, Insightful 3
Corruption 0, Nurture 5 Corruption 0, Nurture 3 Devious 4, Insightful 1
Deceit 0, Honesty 0 Deceit 3, Honesty 3 Corruption 0, Nurture 2
Deceit 1, Honesty 2
Specialties: None Specialties: Blues Musician
Specialties: Brain Surgeon
Powers: Summon, Telekinesis Powers: Impossible Beauty,
Telekinesis Powers: Ineffable Defense,
Aspects: Darkness-Shrouded, Banish
Giant Aspects: Flame-Wreathed,
Invisible Aspects: Ghost Form, Wings
* Primary
* Primary * Primary
21
BARKLEY
Cha
How p te
the r 3:
SHe Cha
et w rac
ork ter
s
Think of the character sheet a Strategy may change two or three times ev-
for Better Angels as the game board. On the right ery couple of sessions, some Tactics are likely to
side, its all sweetness and light. That side of the change in just about every scene. All Strategies
sheet is home to Knowledge, Generosity and and Tactics are rated from 0 to 5. Someone whos
Honesty. When the circles on that side are filled average has a rating of 2 in each.
in, youre living right. On the left (or sinister)
side you find Corruption, Greed and Cowardice. If There are also spaces for Specialties. They dont
those circles are darkened, the devil is that much change your rolls or pools, they just let you make
closer to dragging you under. some rolls in narrow circumstances where you
otherwise couldnt. Theyre explained on page 18.
Your character sheet records how well your char-
acter does certain things and what his current Strategies come in pairs, as do Tactics. Take Nur-
abilities are. In most games, there are a few traits ture and Corruption, for example. If you look on
that fluctuate during the course of a game ses- the character sheet you see them as rows of cir-
sionhow close your character is to death, how cles, one above the other.
much willpower he has left, how close to exhaus-
tion he is, and so forth. And in most games, such Corruption
traits only improve very slowly. In Better Angels,
your abilities can change from scene to scene,
tracking the alterations in your characters mood, Nurture
condition and circumstances. Instead of a vague
gauge of his skill at fist-fighting or telling lies, Very few people are completely giving or totally
your traits reflect how good he is at it right now. corrupt. Most are a little of both. On the sheet,
thats represented by filling in circles. Start from
There are two kinds of traits on your character the left for sinister, from the right for virtuous.
sheet: Strategies and Tactics. Strategies (always
in bold green) indicate general methods of doing Corruption
things. When you pick a Strategy, it broadly de-
scribes how youre approaching the problem. If
you use physical trickery and agility, youre being Nurture
Sly. If youre trying to help someone through an
emotional appeal, thats Insightful. The Strategies Someone who is exceptionally selfless is very
on the left side are the nasty, sneaky, manipula- good at tasks requiring basic human decency. He
tive ones. Collectively, theyre the Sinister Strate- might have a chart like this.
gies. Those on the right are straightforward and
are known as the Virtuous Strategies. Corruption
Tactics (always purple italics) are more specific.
They represent what youre actually doing, not Nurture
just how youre doing it. There are six Sinister Tac-
tics on the left side of the sheet, for activities like Tactics and Strategies on the same line limit each
stealing, spying, lying and performing enhanced other. Their filled-in dots cant overlap. Thats
interrogation. On the right side are six Virtuous what the overlapping circles are for. If you have
Tactics that are the heaven-approved ways of try- Nurture 3 and Corruption 4, you can see that the
ing to achieve your goals. They include goody- line is filled up and you cant gain more of either
goody stuff like telling the truth, helping people, without losing its contrary.
enduring trouble without complaint and the like.
Corruption
Every action you roll for involves a Strat-
egy and a Tactic. Tactics are smaller-scale
24 and tend to be far more volatile. While Nurture
Growing Stronger in your personality. If a slide would push a trait
Cruelty When you roll, look for sets, which are just dice
whose numbers match. Each set has Width, which
is how many dice turned up that number. Each set
Courage also has Height, which shows the number which
turned up. Sets are noted down as Width x Height.
There are times when its helpful to have more
Courage and times when Cruelty is the right tool Example: I roll five dice and get 1,3,6,7,10. No
for the job. To understand this, you have to read sets. I roll again and get 3,3,3,6,6. Two sets: a set
the Tactic descriptions. of three threes, or 3x3, and two sixes, 2x6.
Stats never go above 5, and each half of a pair Width shows how quickly and intensely some-
limits the potential of the other half. You cant thing happens. Height indicates how
be really generous and really selfish at the same much circumstance favors the action, or
time, though its typical to have elements of both how difficult it is to stop.
25
Simple Actions
BARKLEY
shovel has a buddy behind you with a pickaxe,
you might be able to spend one gobble die to
Simple actions are those where there isnt active, duck the shovel and one to dodge the pick. There
adapting resistance to the action, but theres still are a few important restrictions on gobble dice,
an obstacle to overcome. Examples would in- however.
clude climbing a wall, building a zip
gun, digging a grave with- The gobbler has to be high enough.
out getting exhausted, or Gobble dice can only mess with sets
searching a room for a that are at their Height or lower. If you
hidden letter. For these, get a 4x4 and make it into gobble dice,
you simply roll an ap- its not going to help you if the other
propriate pool. If any fellow got a 2x8. There are enough
set at all comes up, gobble dice, but theyre weak
the attempt succeeds. fours compared to his
strong eights.
the player shouldnt bother to roll. See also To drops a die, rolls 9d, and looks for two sets.
Roll or Not Roll? on page 30.
If you want three actions or more, simply keep
Getting Fancy yanking dice for each extra action and looking for
more matches.
There are a few things you can do to try to get
more mileage out of your pool. Here are the rules What if you want to do two different things at the
for them. same time? Figure out what their dice pools would
be, use the smaller of the relevant pools, drop a
Called Shots die, and look for two sets.
A called shot is when you want to get a set of one
particular Height and you dont want to leave it Taking Your Time
to chance. You might want to get a Height 10 set Picking a lock under pressure is Cunning Greed.
(x10) to make sure its hard to defend against. Or Cracking a safe at your leisure is Patient Greed
you might want to get a Height 1 set so that you (if, indeed, the GM even makes you roll). But if
can say (technically) that you did it while secretly your pool is low, you may want to increase your
hoping that the action fails. odds by taking your time to focus.
If you want to specify a number, drop one die If you take twice as long to do something, you
from your pool. Then take one of the dice that can take a point of Advantage, or cancel out a
remains and place it on the number you want. penalty. (Advantage is explained on page 28.) If
Roll the rest. If a rolled die matches the chosen you take a round to get your footing before you
number, youve got the set you want. If you get a throw a punch, you can either add a die to your
different set, you can use that instead if you wish. pool or take a Width boost. If you take three times
as long, you get a second point of Advantage.
Example: Having engineered a deadly fire for his Thats the ceiling though. You can never get more
boss and daughter, Carl wants it to look really than +2 Advantage by stretching things out.
dramatic when he rescues them. As he smashes
down the door, he wants to get as meager a suc- This is a sort of uncategorized Advantage. It does
cess as possible. His Open Cowardice pool is a not come from surprise, weapon or secret. Pow-
meaty 9d, so he drops one out, sets one of the ers that nullify those sources of Advantage dont
remaining dice to 1, and then rolls the 7d which work on simple preparation.
remain. Getting 1,3,3,4,7,8,10, he can make a 2x1
setor, if he changes his mind, use the 2x3 set.
27
Master Dice Advantage bonuses are cumulative, so you could
combine a +3 surprise Advantage with a +1 weap-
If youve ever played poker, youre familiar with on Advantage for clutching a roll of quarters and
the concept of a wild card. (Unless you only play add 4d to your pool, or increase a sets Width by
Texas Hold Em by the purist rules, in which case a staggering four increments. Or, you can use
you can put aside your sunglasses and dour ex- some Advantage before and some afterif you
pression to follow along.) Its a card that you can manage to amass +4 Advantage, you can add two
substitute for any other card you want. A Master dice to your pool (making a set more likely) and
Die is something similar for the One Roll Engine. then beef up your more-likely set with +2 Width.
You dont roll your Master Die (or MD for short). It doesnt matter how many sources your Advan-
You wait until you roll all the others in the pool and tage has, just split up the total. If your Advan-
then you set your MD to whatever you want. You tage all comes from revealing a devastating (+3)
naturally rolled a whole lotta nothin? Set your MD secret, for example, you can still add one die to
to equal the highest naturally rolled die and you your pool and use the remaining points of Advan-
have a set. You rolled a 2x10? Make it a 3x10. You tage for +2 Width.
got a 4x5? Try it as a 5x5.
Sources of Advantage
Master Dice are extremely powerful. Not only do Just as there are three categories of Strategy and
they make it so you never fail, they can also im- Tactics (mental, physical, social), there are three
prove marginal results or allow you to create a sources of Advantage. If youre in a physical con-
backup set in case you need one. flict, its a weapon bonus. This can come from
anything from satanic powers to a Saturday night
Naturally, you cant just buy these. Perfection is special. If youre in a mental showdown, you get
available to mortals only at a price. A diabolical a surprise bonus by unveiling some unknown
price. Its explained on page 69. and unsuspected information to the person
youre trying to startle or confound. In the duel of
Its the same with intellectual surprises. The hard- Weapons are the least complicated category. If
er a fact is to refute, or the more obscurely impor- you have a small weapon you can easily conceal
tant it is, the more leverage it gives a Knowledge and use in one hand, it gives a +1 weapon bonus.
or Espionage or Greed or Generosity roll. For This is the realm of small handguns, switchblades,
something fairly commonplace or circumstantial, brass knuckles and rough, chunky half-bricks. A
its +1: We know the guard carries a large cof- +2 bonus is for a serious weapon that you cant
fee in with him when he goes on duty, so we can just lug around without getting some looks or do-
just watch and go in when he takes a bathroom ing some explaining. Large, bulky handguns fit in
break. This videotape clearly shows Dennis here, as do shotguns and long rifles and swords
going into Barneys office on the night in ques- and axes. A +3 weapon bonus comes in from
tion. The blood at the scene was type O, and I something really nasty, like a machine gun or a
know Hillary got sick after being transfused with rocket-propelled grenade or a sword impregnated
AB blood. A more conclusive piece of evidence with demonic blood cells that provoke cancerous
merits a +2 bonus: The guard consistently hits melanomas with every hit.
Sne a k A t t a c k !
A popular use for surprise rules, especially to villains with no notions of honor, is to jump out and
strike or shoot someone unexpectedly. If you want to ambush someone, then, heres how you go
about it.
You roll Cunning Greed to sneak up on someone, and she rolls Cunning Espionage to notice. This is
a contested roll, as described on page 26. The person creeping around rolls, and the person at risk
of ambush tries to gobble out the set the sneak puts forward. If multiple people are sneaking, the
set with lowest Width gets used. If multiple people are detecting, both the Widest and the Highest
sets are applied. (However, if the sneaker gets multiple sets, he can use a backup set after the first
set is ruined.)
If the ambusher gets a set of Width 3+ and the target gets no set, the surprise bonus is +3.
If the ambusher gets a set of Width 2 and the target gets no set, the surprise bonus is +2.
If both get sets, but the target cant ruin the ambushers set, the surprise bonus is +1.
29
To Roll or
Not to Roll? T ool Up
If you want to fix, lift or vandal-
You dont need to roll for everything. If an ize something beyond easy repair, you
action is impossible, theres no point in reach for a hammer, lever or crowbar. Its just
rolling for it. Similarly, if an action is the same as a weapon bonus. Something small
absurdly simple, no rolls required. and cheap and commonplace, like a screwdriver or
pry bar? +1 weapon bonus on relevant repairing, prying
Rolls are only required when its and jimmying. A more expensive and elaborate device, like
dramatic and engaging for the a laser-guided circular saw? +2 weapon bonus, and so on.
outcome to be in doubt. If a char-
acter wants to seduce some un- Some efforts assume the presence of a tool and therefore get no
important minor character, and it bonus from it. Youre not going to do any cyber-terrorism without
has no relevance to the events at a computer, any more than youre making Sly Endurance rolls to
center stage? Let the player roll follow that cab unless youve got a vehicle of your own. In those
if he wants to let the dice decide cases, the basic and unimpressive stuff you can get easily provides
whether hes going to play smug no bonus. If you get something a cut abovea quick little dirt bike
or frustrated. Otherwise, why not for the chase, or a tricked-out high-end PC for the hackingyou
just let the player write it in? Par- get +1. Spend hundreds of thousands on a crazy fast sports
ticularly if the outcome reinforces car or dedicated distributed bot-network? +2 weapon bonus.
the players view of the character as The sort of stupid overkill for which supervillains are justly
suave lover man (or awkward loser). famed, like seizing control of an NSA installation for your
hacking, or stealing a Harrier jump-jet for your get-
This can be particularly important with away? Take the +3 bonus. Youve earned it.
mysteries. As Robin Laws pointed out
with GUMSHOE, there are few great mys-
teries about what happens when the detec-
tive doesnt find the clue. The clue is typically
given, and the detective has to figure out its im-
portance. Its similar to video games where you
have to stand in one particular location to open a
door and continue. Its not fun to search for that
spot while everything else grinds to a halt, just
like its no fun to be lost and uncertain because
you failed a roll to get a necessary clue.
30
BARKLEY
31
4 : i n g
e r
t ery t h
h p
a ev
C o
o d
w t
Ho
KOMODA
M a n y R PGs f unction as p hysi c s e mula t i on e ng i ne s. A randomizer (the dice)
determines what happens within parameters of feet and inches, success or failure at specific, concrete
tasks. Adjustments are made to tilt the randomness towards outcomes that sound plausible.
Better Angels has a different focus. The key struggles here are emotional or ethical, even when theyre
physically expressed. This means that a Hellbinders ability to get something done is less likely to hinge
on the mass of the weight hes trying to lift or the distance to the target hes trying to hit. Just as impor-
tant is his spiritual condition. If hes been defeated and worn down, hes going to have trouble. If hes
flush with victory and keen for more vengeance, it gets a lot easier.
There are three conflicts between Strategies, and six conflicts between Tactics. The tactical conflicts are
tighter, more immediate and far more prone to fluctuation. Strategies take more, or stronger, effort to
shift.
When someone takes an action directed against you, it targets a Tactic. It can be a physical attack, such
as I hit him in the groin. A mental maneuver like an artificial stock plummet could frighten a mortal into
lost Generosity. Or, perhaps most common, emotional pressure can leach a mortals purity away, leaving
him adrift in a stagnant slough of lust and corruption.
Once a Tactic is completely exhausted, further successful attacks on it exhaust the Strategy governing
it. Some very successful assaults (those of unusually large Width) go straight for Strategies, but theyre
less common than slugging away at Tactics. (This is covered at length in Chapter Five.)
If your Patient Strategy hits zero, you go berserk. You cant use Generosity, Knowledge, Greed or Espio-
nage, and you cant use the Insightful Strategy for social tasks for the remainder of the scene. Mostly
what you can do is launch spittle-flecked attacks, or else fulminate and bellow threats. At the end of the
scene, you can slide a point from Cunning to Patient, unless youre also all out of Cunning. If thats the
case, you have to spend the next scene berserk as well (or sit it out). At the end of that second scene, you
can reduce any two of the mental Tactics by one each and regain a point of Patient. (So you could, for
example, reduce Greed and Generosity, or Espionage and Greed, or any other combination, but not two
off Espionage.) Should you have insufficient Tactics in your intellectual portfolio, you stay berserk until
you get some. Good luck with that.
33
Greed vs. Generosity: Tasks for Cunning Greed
Position and
All manner of petty larceny falls under the rubric
of Cunning Greed. If you want to pick a lock, pick
Possessions a pocket, hotwire a car or shoplift a candy bar,
Cunning Greed is your huckleberry.
This continuum deals with social position and
material possessions. Generosity lets you use
what you have to help others, or just to make
Espionage vs.
things easier for yourself in an equitable and ap- Knowledge:
propriate way. Greed is more about taking what
others have, obviously.
Knowing and Spying
Just as Greed and Generosity are two sides of the
Tasks for Patient coin for dealing with property (your own and oth-
Generosity er peoples), Knowledge and Espionage are the
This is for long-term investments, things like two sides of dealing with information. Knowledge
funding a political party, building a library in an represents a very, very broad cross-section of ed-
impoverished neighborhood or helping a friend ucation and ability. If its something you can learn
get into Alcoholics Anonymous. Not just going from a book and it doesnt require a specialty, its
with him the first time, but being there when he probably a matter of Knowledge. Where are the
relapses and providing rides after he loses his li- boundaries? Ask your GM. Someone with high
cense. Knowledge is probably equally able to: change
the oil in your car, re-install your computers OS,
Perversions of Patient Generosity would include tell if a scientific publication is reputable or B.S.,
things like building a secret base on a volcanic and discuss Macedonian history at the level of an
island. informed lay person. Without a specialty, though,
he cant rebuild a transmission, drag data off a
Tasks for Patient Greed hard drive that was rubbed with a magnet, pub-
This is the domain of the long con, identity theft, lish in a reputable scientific journal or unpick the
online phishing and black-hat hacking. Its not ac- nuances of how Macedonian current events re-
tually lying to people (which is a job for Deceit) as flect historical struggles.
much as manipulating systems to yield unearned
or unjust payouts. If you have a Specialty in com- Tasks for Patien t
puter use, you can hack your way into whatev- Knowledge
er. (Just ask your GM if the game does hacking
like real life, which also requires a heavy dose of Is it long-term brain work? Then its Patient
deceit and manipulation, or Hollywood hacking Knowledge. Finding the one proper incantation
where its all just typing fast and saying Oh, I in an occult library, developing a course of treat-
know this.) If you want to fake your own death, ment for an illness (with a medical Specialty), re-
forge a passport, get undeserved welfare benefits wiring a house, and knowing who wrote Rime
or crack a safe, this is the combo that comes into of the Ancient Mariner are all matters best han-
play. This is also what you use to get past high- dled with Patient Knowledge. Because its such a
tech security systems and closed-circuit cameras. broad field of endeavor (basically all academic
knowledge), it can be good to modify these rolls
Tasks for Cunning with Difficulty ratings.
Generosity
Instead of paying a fair price for an honest ser- Tasks for Patient Espionage
vice, Cunning Generosity is about buying illegal Where Knowledge measures what you know,
things, passing bribes or throwing your money Espionage shows how well you find out what
around to get results. Use this to score you really shouldnt. Need to tap a phone, sort
drugs or pay off a cop. through someones bills to figure out where the
34 money went, clock that armored car route, check
your car for booby-traps or run a stakeout? Those Tasks for Cunning
are matters for Patient Espionage. Espionage
How well do you handle observation when youre
Tasks for Cunning under pressure? Cunning Espionage tells you.
Knowledge The sort of paranoid hyper-vigilance that charac-
This is for cases where you need to know some- terizes Cunning Espionage is good for spotting
thing right the hell NOW, not after a leisurely ambushes, realizing that a purse is unattended,
afternoon in the library. Defusing a bomb, fix- identifying an undercover cop or, really, just
ing a busted car radiator with oatmeal or play- about anything that involves spotting, noticing or
ing knowledge-based quiz games like Jeopardy! a rapid search.
all call for Cunning Knowledge. This is really for
knowledge plus pressure. Intuition if you like. Or
ass-pull guesses. (Cut the red wire! Why?
BECAUSE RED MEANS CHRISTMAS!)
An Open act is straightforward and ordinary, not convoluted or tricky. Sly moves rely on misdirection,
sneakiness, agility and the sorts of maneuvers that make the big strong fit guy whine Hey, thats not
fair!
If a mortals Sly gets reduced to zero, there is no particular penalty, other than having nothing to add to
Tactics for some tasks. Demons, on the other hand, have deeper issues. Being Slygetting away with
what they oughtntis, in some ways, their most defining characteristic. Therefore, when a demonic
entitys Sly hits zero, further attacks on it start reducing Open.
When an ordinary (non-Hellbinder) mortals Open Strategy hits zero, hes dying. If someone bothers to
try and save him with elementary first aid, direct pressure, phoning an ambulance or even just clutching
his hand and saying hang in there! he can survive to the end of the scene and then transfer a point of
Sly into Open. But if no ones there to save him (or no one cares to), he dies. He might get a chance to
shriek some curses and invective, but he dies. If he doesnt have a point of Sly to turn into Open, hes
similarly doomed, which (I guess) shows that being a scheming little weasel has its place.
Demon hosts are tougher, whether their mortal carriers are duped, resisting or actively on their side.
When a demon hosts Open gets zeroed, further damage to it goes across the aisle and reduces Sly. Even
if the demon is dormant, the host can continue to fight and run and tell lies until both Open and Sly hit
zero. When that happens, though, hes toast for sure.
35
Taking One He ll of A Be a t i ng
With human beings, taking physical hits of Width 2-3 eventually wears down Courage until its
zero (sliding everything over into Cruelty), then drains Open into Sly until the onset of death. Its
different for mortals hosting demons, though, because they can keep running until both Sly and
Open are voided. This can leave that last dot bouncing back and forth between the two physical
Strategies like a ping-pong ball while the demon-possessed mortal soaks up an amazing number
of bullets and truncheon-blows.
Thats all right. Its how the system is supposed to work, leaving the hellbound protagonist great-
ly drained and ineffective but still alive. If his Cruelty is relatively untouched, he may still be dan-
gerous, like a cornered beast. This keeps the game running.
But if it seems ridiculous, or if things are bogging down because one particular enemy just wont
drop and its getting boring, there are solutions and they involve increasing Width. Even with
only four dice in your pool, you have a 50/50 chance of getting a set. If you can get something
that gives Advantage (like two rounds of aiming, if nothing else), use that for a Width boost. Your
eventual set then becomes a 4x set, sufficient to straight erase the final point.
The Use of Force Open is the Strategy applied for face-to-face, inti-
mate fighting. Its what you use when youre too
Courage is what you use to face conflicts against close to think of your enemy as a tidy, objective
equal or superior opponents. Cruelty is what you abstraction. Punching, stabbing, and wrestling
use to degrade, wound and humiliate your infe- are all Open.
riors. Whether youre using guns, knives, fists or
hellfire-infused battle axes, you attack with these Hellbound use Courage against supernatural foes
Tactics. when they dont have demons invoked, so Open
Courage would be used for a Hellbinder with a
Humans who have no supernatural advantage dormant demon going hand-to-hand against an
use Courage when facing angels or demons, no angel or demon. Honestly, I dont like his chances.
matter how many humans there are and how well
armed. Similarly, demons always use Cruelty on Normal people use Courage when facing any su-
humans. (Angels always use Courage to fight, perhuman threat. Against other humans, they use
though using it on inferior opponents may violate Open Courage when theyre outnumbered, or un-
their angelic code, as described in Chapter Ten.) armed against a weapon-wielding foe, or when
theyre in a very structured, honorable duel.
A hellbound facing a supernatural foe uses Cour-
age until he invokes his demonic ally. Af- Angels always use Courage against demons, and
ter that, he has to use Cruelty. do so with great relish. Standard physical Cour-
age attacks target the other fellows Courage.
36
Tasks for Open Cruelty time you use a rifle, bola, bow and arrow, or en-
When a demon flogs, stabs or beats down a hu- venomed blow-gun dart, thats an example of Sly.
man from within the radius of casual blood-spat- Its like saying hes not good enough to approach
ter, thats Open Cruelty right there. Any time you you.
jump out and attack from ambush, that requires
Cruelty as well, but in that case its Sly. Ordinary, Sly Courage, then is when attempting to attack
physical acts of Cruelty reduce the targets Cour- long-distance against an equal or superior foe,
age. as delineated under Open Courage. The one dis-
tinction is that you cant snipe someone from sur-
Tasks for Sly Courage prise with Courage. For that, use Sly Cruelty.
Fighting Sly means trying to avoid paying the
sweat-equity for your win. Its when you enter the At the risk of repeating myself, attacks with Cour-
fray from far off and dont want to get your shoes age usually reduce the opponents Courage.
dirty with the blood and spittle of the slain. Any
KOMODA 37
Tasks for Sly Cruelty you want to keep him stuck, you need to keep
Assassinating someone from a great distance is making rolls that exceed his traits. He, on the
the epitome of Sly Cruelty, but generally speak- other hand, can keep trying things. If his action
ing any time youre far away and fighting some- is timed faster, it means he got it done while you
one who qualifies for Cruelty, this is your combi- were changing grips or chasing him down. This
nation. As Ive mentioned before, Cruelty attacks maneuver does not do damage or alter his stats.
reduce the targets Courage.
Tasks for Open Cowardice
Cowardice vs. Cowardice is a broad Tactic that really applies
whenever youre trying to change a situation.
Endurance: (You dont have to be scared, but it helps.) Paired
In addition, your Insightful rating has an important mechanical consideration. If someones trying to
manipulate you (either with Devious Honesty or Devious Deceit) your Insightful rating serves as a Dif-
ficulty to their roll. If the roll fails, something seems fishy to you. If theyre lying, you suspect their lies.
If theyre telling the truth, you may generally trust it (but still doubt their motives). When someone fails
at truth manipulation, it opens them to closer examination, as described under Insightful Honesty and
Insightful Deceit, below.
To use this without penalty, you have to interact with someone for a fair amount of timean hour of lei-
surely conversation (possibly spread over days or weeks), or twenty minutes of intense interrogation. Al-
ternately, you can get some sense of someone just from how they dress, stand and present themselves,
but thats a Difficulty 5 cold read. If you go through someones house looking at decor and bookshelves
and whether theyre tidy or slobs, you can make a roll at Difficulty 3 to get some sense of their better
natureno Difficulty if youre willing to poke in their checkbooks, medicine chests and private diaries.
On the other hand, you can use this on yourself to stay strong in the face of temptation. If some-
one tempts you with sleaze, roll Insightful Nurture to remind yourself of your own resolve. This
produces gobble dice you can (maybe) use against the attack set. In this instance, timing is not
39
important: You can use a 2x5 to ruin a 3x3 set be- In some rare circumstances it could even go in
cause you have superior Height and its enough the opposite direction, but only in the service of
to reduce it below a set. Even against a 4x3, you helping someone do the hard, good thing.
can at least decrease the impact. But if you try
that 2x5 against a 2x6, youre out of luck. They hit Ordinary mortals can also attack any demon-
you where it counts. hosts sinister Tactics with a heartfelt exorcism
using Devious Nurture. The sticking points on
Tasks for Insightful that are mortal and heartfelt. Hellbinders
Corruption cant exorcise, and only mortals who have pow-
erful spiritual convictions can do it (as a short-
I have a sixth sense for pleasing men in ways hand, assume someone with any religious faith
that are none of my business. and an Insightful rating of 3+ counts).
Barbara Kingsolver, Stone Dreams
Tasks for Devious
Howd she know to wear the Catho- Corruption
lic schoolgirl plaid skirt? She just Hey honey, have a seat. Drinks are on me. Hell
knew, you loathsome pervert. She never know. Theyll be fine. Its just this one
made her Insightful Corruption time. Id do it for you. Youre going to love this.
roll to suss out what makes you Make yourself comfortable.
tick and what makes you squirm.
Use this to cajole, cozen, seduce and bewilder
This is the negative-universe im- those around you. You can shift damn near any
age of Insightful Nurture. Where virtuous Tactic to its opposite with a good roll
one pulls out the good, this dredg- and a convincing rationale. For many villains,
es up the dreadful, the wicked, the this gets far more use than any freeze ray or
concealed and squiffy. Anything you death trap.
can do to understand someones good
side (or defend your own) with Insightful
Nurture, you can do with Insightful Cor-
Deceit vs.
ruption on their (or your) weaknesses, Honesty:
temptations and shocking urges.
Relating to
Tasks for Devious the Truth
Nurture
Devious Nurture is a very versatile What could be simpler
combination, because you can than true or false? Those
use it to persuade people of just are the tests where you
about anything as long as its something can even guess with a
righteous. Its all about tough love, or the 50/50 chance of getting
tender kind, depending. People are unique it right. Only it gets murky
and special snowflakes and midwifing the when you stake your banner
birth of a new moral revelation is more on the side of falsehood. Sud-
art than science. But like art and science denly everythings shifting and nu-
KOMODA
its often lengthy, painful, and leaves a anced and you have to keep track of
frightful mess. which story youre telling whom. But
hey, whats life without a few challenges?
Use Devious Nurture to plead for mercy and you A milk-flavored festival of dullness, thats
can actually shift or erase dots from Cruelty. Use what. You deserve more, surely?
it to give an inspiring speech and you can
erode Greed, to Generositys benefit, or
leach Cowardice over into Endurance.
40
KOMODA
Surprise bonuses from Deceit and Honesty can only apply when you reveal something the target
didnt already know or suspect. They have to be relevant to the roll youre undertaking. Because
theyre verbal, they only give their bonus to verbal follow-ups.
In the case of Honesty, you can give your bonus to the person youve surprised. If you finally con-
vince that journalist that the secret identity of the superhuman shes been following for months is,
in fact, her nebbish co-worker, you can offer her that bonus to figure out what he does next (since
she can now put together a bunch of previously unrelated data) with, say, Knowledge (if shes as-
sembling physical clues like the location of a hideout) or one of the Insightful rolls (if shes taking
a psychological approach). Alternately, you could make your big reveal and, while shes stunned
by her own foolishness, you could follow up with an attack on her self-confidence in one area or
another. Then youd get the bonus.
With Deceit, you can only use it for your own benefit.
42
Surprise Advantage Tasks for Devious Deceit
You tell lies with this.
Width 2-3: +1 Advantage
Width 4: +2 Advantage As with Devious Honesty, you cant shift peoples
Width 5+: +3 Advantage Tactics this way, but you can build up surprise
Advantages on follow up rolls. The degree of Ad-
Interestingly, you can also give the Advantage vantage depends on the Width of the lies roll.
to the person youre manipulating, as long as it
makes sense. Surprise Advantage
Example: Dodd is in love with Trish but doesnt Width 2-3: +1 Advantage
want to jeopardize their friendship by declaring Width 4: +2 Advantage
his feelings, especially since shes in a turbulent Width 5+: +3 Advantage
relationship with Buck. But when he finds out that
Buck is a villains henchman, he talks himself into Example: Buck tells Trish that Dodd only rat-
telling her. Hes got a Devious Honesty pool of ted him out because hes trying to get into her
6d and rolls 2,2,6,7,7,9. Her Insightful rating is 3, pants. (Ironically, while this is true, Bucks con-
so his 2x2 isnt enough to convince her, but that vinced that Dodd is gay. He rolls Deceit because
mighty 2x7 gets through. I dont want this to be he thinks hes deceiving her.) His Devious Deceit
true, but it is! Dodd squeaks. With his pair, he pool is a terrifying 8d, and hes also bargained
now has +1 surprise Advantage to any follow- with his boss (who has Cloven Hooves, as de-
up roll he wants to make. He could also give her scribed on page 82) to keep Trish as his girlfriend
the Advantage if she decides to break it off with no matter what. So he rolls 8d+MD, calling on his
Buck and she needs a boost to resist the manly Faustian pact. He gets a 3x5 and uses his Master
charms he sculpted with ten years of big house Die to make that a 4x5. He now has +2 surprise
free weights. Advantage to use when trashing Dodd or (if the
GM is generous) convincing Trish that he loves
her and only wants to protect her...
43
BARKLEY
r 5 :
a p t e h i n g
C h h e t
y s t
e P l a
T h
A ll st o r y i s base d on c onf lict: Thats Lit 101 right there. Conflict can be subcategorized
as external or internal. External conflict is against something outside, be it a freezing night in the
north woods, a Viet Cong ambush, or an office fax machine that just wont work right. Internal conflict
is some emotional problem: I think I love her but she might be happier with Bobby; he deserves to die
but should I kill him when hes helpless and praying?; if I leave home to follow my dream of being a lion
tamer, my family will lose the deed on the farm they love and I hate.
The twist in Better Angels is that the internal conflicts are semi-externalized through the Screwtape. Half
(or more) of the game can be zany supervillain hijinks of kidnapping astronauts and holding Arbor Day
hostage, but just as much can be about the bickering and resentment (or stone cold hatred) between
host and demon.
These two forms of conflict are handled very differently. Until the endgame process of hell-harrowing
(page 101) or exorcism (page 98) there are no dice rolled between human and hell-fiend. Neither can
really harm the other until they can really harm each other, if you get my drift. So its all down to nego-
tiation between man and monsterwhich is really negotiation between players, while the GM snickers
into her Snickers wrapper.
The Basics Then its very cool.) Similarly, just because its
logical to have a stumbling block in the PCs
of External path, that doesnt mean it serves the good of
the story or the overall fun of the game. Sure,
Conflict that door would, quite reasonably, be stout and
firmly locked. But if its the only way forward,
Conflict is all about someone wanting something whats the point of demanding a roll? Its either
but being unable to just casually lay hands on it. going to succeed (and the game moves on) or
Theres uncertainty, so the dice come out. fail (and the game grinds to a halt until every-
ones gnawing their knuckles from boredom and
Inanimate frustration).
Stuff and only got one set, pick which action youre go-
ing to succeed at.
Hiccups in adventure design aside, the static ob-
stacles are really the simple ones. Roll a set, may- (Note well: If you try doing two things and one
be against a Difficulty, and move on. The more is the necessary precondition for the other, you
extended, detailed, and interesting conflicts are have to assign the preconditionthe set that acts
those against other individuals. Statted-up char- first. If you only get one set, it has to go to the
acters change and react and adapt to the assault. precondition. So if your multiple action is, Im
They need a more adaptive system. going to catch the suitcase and open it, you
have to catch it before you open it, and if you
Physical Struggles only have one set, you can only catch it.)
This is what you think about with supervillains: Once you have your sets sorted, add any Width
jaw-slugging and Kryptonite pistols. In this, bonuses from Advantage or other sources.
youre attempting to degrade or eliminate your
opponents ability to fight back (or, in some cas- Step Three: Resolve. The Widest set goes first. If
es, survive). Seconds count and timing is cru- two sets are equally Wide, then Height serves as
cial, so we break down these showdowns into a tiebreaker. (If Height matches, the tie goes to
carefully-tracked combat rounds. Each round whoever rolled the most dice; or just roll a sep-
has three steps. arate die for it.) This is especially important for
people using gobble dice to protect themselves.
Step One: Declare. Everyone involved describes If a physical attack is timed faster than the de-
what hes trying to accomplish in the combat fense, the defense does nothing. The punch hap-
round. That can be as simple as I hit Lumos pened before you could make up your mind to
Pantera or as complicated as I want to dodge dodge. It doesnt matter that your Sly Cowardice
the fiery sword, close the distance to the bank dodge was a 2x10. You cant ruin a 3x1 because it
guard, and seize him in an unbreakable grasp! happens so fast.
Some groups are casual and allow people to de- If youre simply trying to accomplish a task in a
clare their actions in any old order, going back fight, its handled as described under Inanimate
to change their minds as the situation clarifies. Objectives back on page 46.
(Whoa, if the Shining Diamond is trying to
talk me out of fighting, I clearly need to defend If youre trying to affect someone, you alter one of
against that by screaming obscenities at her!) If their Tactics (or, if your set is huge, a Strategy). The
you want a firmer system, use this: The character result depends on the Width of your set.
with the lowest Cunning declares first, and then
onward, with the highest Cunning declaring last, Attack Results
after hearing everything everyone else is doing. If
Cunning is tied, Knowledge breaks the tie. Width 2-3: Slide a dot off the Tactic into
its opposite. If its already at zero,
Make it clear if youre using a multiple action slide a dot off the Strategy above it.
and get straight what pool youre rolling and Width 4: Remove a dot from the Tactic. If
how big it is after penalties, Advantage, bonus- its empty, take a dot off the Strategy
es and the like. above it.
Width 5+: Remove a dot from the
Step Two: Roll. Roll a number of ten-sided dice Strategy above the
equal to your modified pool. Then sort them targeted Tactic.
47
Moreover, any time you score a hit on someone, vidually detailed. Mobs of lesser mortals (and
he loses a die out of one of his sets. (This is why this applies for trained and organized military
its useful to get multiple sets even if youre tak- and police forces, too), while less interesting and
ing a single action: If you get hit, you can take it less germane to the games central ideas, are still
on your crappy set instead of your good one.) dangerous. But making up individual stats for ev-
ery minion in a secret lair is a lot of tedious book-
This goes on until someone drops, flees, or de- keeping. So rather than inflict that on the GM,
cides to surrender, or until the situation changes here are some rules to handle groups of combat-
radically. ants collectively.
Healing and Dying First off, figure out how many people are in the
When a mortals Open hits zero, hes dying. He mob. Write the number down.
cant take any actions, other than maybe spitting
defiance or pleading for mercy. If anyone present Second, figure out the mobs dice pool. Its equal to
chooses to finish him off, it takes one round of one die for everyone in the mob, up to 10d.
action and doesnt require a roll, unless someone
else tries to stop her (in which case the conflict Third, calculate its Advantage. Give it a point of
continues against that still-active person). weapon Advantage for each of the following fac-
tors involvedthey stack:
By the same token, if someone present decides
to stabilize the dying mortal, he squeaks through
to the next scene, assuming no one goes for the A mob leader is armed.
closing move in the interim. (Its a lot easier to kill Many people within the mob are armed.
a dying person than it is to keep one alive, after Theyre cornered.
all.) This, again, takes no roll and requires only Theyre mad at whoever they were fighting,
an action. and were even before the fight began.
Theyre trained for conflict or have strong ide-
It works just the same with hellbound, except ological motivation.
both Sly and Open have to zilch out before theyre
dying. If your Open hits zero, you feel like crap, When the mob acts, roll its pool to form attacks,
but your demon keeps you going because it isnt using Advantage however you want. They do
done wreaking havoc in the mortal world yet. damage to Courage and then to Open. Mobs can-
not defend themselves. Even if youre an ordi-
Healing up after being bludgeoned and mangled nary guy, there are good odds that you shake up
can be handled with a bit of hand-waving. If you one or two guys in the crowd before they trample
raise your Courage or Cruelty back up to their you. If youre shooting into the mass or using
previous levels, youre functionally healed. Even superpowers? Well, it gets bloody fast. Assume
if youre covered with cosmetic bandages and that any power that could be used to attack one
are playacting how bruised and miserable you persons Courage can damage the mobstuff
are, you dont need to change your rolls. This like Terror and Dominator Strike are handled the
system doesnt care much about impeding you same for mobs, by letting you roll. Even though
by giving specific penalties for that broken leg: Terror usually only hits one guy and doesnt do
You take damage directly on your ability to ac- physical damage, assume it can scatter and even
complish things, so additional penalties would kill people in mobs, since the terrified person
be redundant. Keep the descriptions colorful but may shoot someone on his way out or fall and
cinematic, not clinical, and dont worry about it. get trampled.
I dont know.
Rounds are an abstraction and thinking about them as representing a number of seconds is
less useful than thinking about them standing for a quantum of intensity. If a fight isnt criti-
cal, if one side or the other is willing to cave after taking a few hits, then one round could
represent a whole wrestling match. If its to the death with the man who killed your daddy,
you may want to have every exchange of blows as a round, because thats going to wear
down the loser deeper and faster.
Given this flexibility, it makes no sense to bother with movement rates or exact descriptions
of injuries. Negotiate politely and casually with the GM to decide if your character can make
it to his goal in time for free in a round, or if he has to make a successful Open Cowardice
roll, or if he can get there with no roll by giving up his action. Accept her decision. If its
inconsistent, thats a feature more than a bug because it means your GM is paying atten-
tion to pacing, which is one tool for a good game. Trust her to make things a little harder
or a little easier in order to make the game better for everyone and dont sweat the finicky
details. There are lots of great games that handle those physical things elegantly, but this
one focuses on character and ethics instead.
50 BARKLEY
Intellectual You cant make anyone do anything through so-
The big difference is that when you punch some- If its a simple day-to-day hassle, she slides a
one, you want to cause pain and injury. When you point off one Tactic and into another, explaining
argue with someone, you want compliance and why the character has had his attitude forcibly
agreement. So make sure everyone knows what adjusted. Fell off a wall? Slide Endurance to Cow-
youre trying to accomplish with social pressure. ardice, because the character is now hurting and
If you get a set that causes a result, the target can being a little less daring. Made your neighbor
avoid the change or damageif he agrees to do suspicious when she caught you climbing in the
what you want. window wearing a leotard? Slide Greed to Gener-
osity because you now have to circumscribe your
Example: Acid Papa has managed to manipulate actions and act like a decent person, at least when
his demon into getting him to a violent bank rob- youre around the house. Note that if the GM asks
bery with promises of hijacking the heist. His real you to slide a point from something thats empty,
goal is to keep the hostages alive. He points a gun you have to slide a dot off the Strategy above it
at a robbers head and says, Let her go or Ima instead. (You cant expect the GM to keep track
ventilate your brain. This is a Devious Corrup- of all your empty Tactics, and if youve let one
tion roll targeting the other guys Cruelty, which get empty youre obviously vulnerable to worse
the robber would use to shoot an unarmed hos- outcomes.)
tage. Acid Papa gets a massive 5x6 result, enough
to simply shear off a point of the guys Sly. If the If its a more significant setback, like having
robber lets the girl go, he doesnt have to suffer someone throw you into a bathtub full of gin
the Sly loss. But if he doesnt, hes now got one and light it on fire, or getting run over by a mo-
less Sly die to use in his pool to kill her. torcycle? The GM names a Tactic and you
just erase a point, instead of sliding
it. Youre under police surveillance?
51
Chop a point off Greed. The lead news story Optional Rule:
was footage of you eating a live kitten? Lose a
point of Corruption, since people arent going to
Collateral Damage
listen to your honeyed words when your breath Heres something you may want to throw in to
still reeks of poor Missy Mittens. Someone gets make the strained lives of your PCs even less ten-
access to your bank account? Lose a point of able. Its a simple system for figuring out civilian
Generosity. Again, if the relevant Tactic is emp- casualties when superpowers are getting thrown
ty, it goes off the Strategy above it. around in populated areas.
For serious, cataclysmic disasters like the afore- Heres how it works: You assemble a pool and
mentioned train-and-third-rail combo, lose a roll it at the end of every combat round where
point straight off a relevant Strategy. (In that certain especially dangerous powers are in
case, Open.) If the Strategy is already empty, lose play. If you get a pair, someones at risk. Width
a dot off its opposite. (So if youre out of Open, determines how badly hurt and Height deter-
you lose the dot off Sly.) If the Washington Post mines how many.
puts together your supervillain identity and your
ordinary life and your demonic-Aspected appear- Step by step, heres how that works.
ance, and its front-page over the fold? Lose a
point of Cunning. Get pinned down and subjected Assemble the Collateral
to lengthy torture involving waterboarding, non- Pool
therapeutic ECT, mock executions and terrifying Add a die for each of the following factors:
doses of ketamine? Lose a point of Devious or
Insightful, as your grasp on your self-image and Each combatant who aggressively uses any
trust of humanity erode. of the following powers or Aspects: Teleki-
nesis, Wither, Dominator Strike, Terror, That
GMsunderstand that this is an authority to be Hideous Strength, Horned, Giant, Flame
wielded lightly. Characters can already lose a lot Wreathed.
of Tactics and pay heavily to restore them, so A single person firing a gun.
having them slid around or excised capriciously Multiple people firing guns.
is going to tip the balance into frustration and Each person who gets bloodily mangled.
helplessness on their part. But when they get There are at least a dozen people present.
themselves in trouble (and they will), this is how There are fifty or more people present.
you reflect the consequences.
These factors all stack. So, for example, two de-
mons are fighting, but theyre not (initially) using
any crazy powers. Theyre doing this in the mid-
dle of a baseball game, so the crowd is pretty big.
On the first round, the collateral pool is two dice,
because there are at least a dozen people pres-
ent and because there are more than fifty people
present. The GM rolls, no set, no problem. People
are uneasy but still kind of confused.
52
Rolling for Threat So in our example, the two battling villains have
Heres the twist: Collateral Damage is rolled at the a 5d pool. The GM rolls and gets a 4x4. (Its un-
end of the round, after all the actions have been likely, but I just threw my dice and thats what I
resolved, and it determines potential danger to got.) So four people (the Height) are at risk of se-
onlookers and property. You explain to everyone rious injuries (as per Width 4). The GM tells the
involved whos in peril and from what, and leave two villains that their thrashing and gunfire have
it up to the players to mitigate, exacerbate, or ig- prompted a mass flight, so only a dozen people
nore the danger. will be left on the battlefield at the end of the
round. Thats the good news. The bad news: The
Width determines the level of risk. bleachers are collapsing after the fiery giant fell
into them, and some people who couldnt get off
Collateral Damage Risk are now at risk of getting pinched and spindled
by the crumpling aluminum. Can the giant help
Width 2-3: Minor injuries, scrapes, them? Probably not, unless he switches off his
bruises, cuts and twisted ankles. fire. Is the gunman willing to turn his back in or-
Width 4: Serious injuries: broken bones, der to drag people free? He might get one or even
severe burns, concussions. two, but not all four
Width 5+: Death.
These rules simultaneously make it easier to rack
Height determines how many people are at risk up sins (as described on pages 89-92) while mak-
from the threat. ing characters far more guilty of destruction. Use
with caution.
BARKLEY 53
KOMODA
e p h e t
i s h - N
d Ka r e r
a n
Me the De f i l
I take a deep breath as I walk starts making her way to the Karish, if its okay with you, Id
into the bank. There is no reason door, I get impatient. I let Karish- like to transform into the Ser-
this has to end badly. No rea- Nephet in. pent Princess and rob the bank.
son at all. There are no visible If you can fit that in your busy
guards. This isnt a main bank, Karish? Time for serpent form, schedule.
just a little branch. Theyre buddy. Lets go.
relying on cameras for security. Time is as nothing to the
Unfortunately for them, cameras Who dares invoke the De- infinite Karish-Nephet! Let
only deter people who arent filer?!? your puny form be garbed in
already in every police database my glory!
in America and Europe (not to Come on, its me. Margie. Who
mention all those posters in else calls on you these days? When the cops review the
African post offices). video footage, theyre going
Ah, Margaret. Once more you to see plain old me on those
Right. Deep breath. Its not like come crawling, debasing your- CCTVs for the first few minutes,
Im an A-list criminal. Not yet. self for the favors of thy infernal Margaret Silverberg in her
Wait, that doesnt matter. I just master. mom-style jeans and cowl-neck
need a couple thousand bucks. sweater. And then BAM! The
Easy peasy. I could be another At this point, I seriously consid- sudden appearance of a scaly,
customer, another soccer mom er walking out of the bank and eight-foot-tall woman with a
or school teacher coming in to giving it up. But once Radio serpent head and tail, wav-
deposit a tax refund check. Karish is on, its a while before ing a scepter and dressed like
he gets bored and if I dont do an Egyptian princess as envi-
I wait in line while a senior citi- something to entertain him, sioned by Fredericks of Hol-
zen hobbles up and monopolizes hes going to be a pain in the lywood. Only, you know, with a
one teller while the other teller ass all afternoon and probably slit in back for the tail.
works the drive-in. After granny half the night.
55
I do not understand why the On your feet, slaaaave! As if some bourgeois Catholic
Serpent Princess has such Karish really digs it when I theologian could contend with
a rack. Shouldnt boobs be put extra vowels in. Adorn my greatness. He scoffs, but he
reserved for mammals? thy princess with tribute! does it. The compulsion he
okay, we inflicted ends and
Cower, mortals, lest thy days Karish, scan the bankers. the runner lies there, sobbing
end in unimaginable suffer- Theyre all going to be cool, and exhausted.
ing! right?
Honestly, I dont know what
Crap, Karish is talking out loud. Perhaps I do not care to. difference it makes. I could
Thats never good. As one of have just let him get away. But
the onlookers pulls out his cell What? This is no time to screw Karish seems a bit thawed, hes
phone, I feel my arm point at around! I dont want any sur- rummaging through the local
him. In the moment, Im not prises. You dont want to look minds three more employees
really sure whether its me or bad, do you? My zombified in back on the phones, whatev-
Karish directing it. guy is lurching towards the er horrified onlookers, stark
counter and climbing over it. terror, good, none of them are
No pictures, asswipe! I mean, going to make trouble one of
um, submit and kneel before Reading such quotidian minds the tellers is sticking in a dye
the Serpent Princess! is beneath the glory of the pack.
Defiler.
Hes not doing it. I really hate Karish?
seeing those shots on the Oh for the love of hey, some-
internet. ones making a run for it! I attend.
Lets kill him! Halt! Kowtow thyself! Thou who wouldst besmirch
my greatness, stain thyself
No! Um, just humiliate him! Do The bank patron crashes down instead!
the zombie thing! halfway to the door, smacking
his own head onto the floor. The teller who grew a
Yessss. pair jerks upright and his
Thatll do. Let him go. eyes glaze over. That re-
Bow and cower! ally creeped me at first, that
Who are you to direct Karish- and the soulless voice, but I
With that, camera-man drops Nephet? guess people can get used to
his phone, kneels on it with anything. He marches to the
his full weight and prostrates Im the only body youve got, corner by the drive through
himself. All hail Karish- crap-monkey! Now let him and releases the dye-pack on
Nephet go or I swear my next stop is himself.
an exorcist!
56
Laugh! Behold the one who Worse, one of the tellers is be plain enough to appreci-
sought to outwit the Serpent wearing an engagement ring ate his sagging fifty-year-old
Princess, and laugh! Karish- that she just got yesterday, and charms. I believe the exact
Nephet commands it! Karish wants it. phrase had something to do
with punching your weight.
And everyone in the bank
laughs in unison, mechanical Add to that a long-distance
and forced. But that doesnt You may be wondering how a relationship that was already
bother me. Ive got other prob- nice middle-class intellectual on the rocks, which foundered
lems. wound up playing Are you when I told him about the pro-
there, abominable hell-god? fessor putting on the moves.
First off, someone in the back Its me, Margaret with an evil Bradley (the boyfriend) asked
on the 911 line got told that spirit that prefers to refer to how he was supposed to trust
a superhero is on the way. himself in the third person. me. Hello? Maybe he could
Well Ill tell you. Its a caution- trust me because I told him all
ary tale. It could happen to you. about being hit on and how I
said no? I think he was look-
I was working at the ing for an excuse to end it, and
British Museum as an him getting engaged just seven
intern. Im from Mas- months later seems to support
sachusetts, and it was the thesis.
a great opportunity,
only it turned out But hey, I got even. Me and
my mentor was Karish-Nephet.
trying to
get into So I was cataloguing minor
my pants. Now, Egyptian artifacts and feel-
that in and of itself ing very, very sorry for myself
is pretty discour- when I found the ushabti. I had
aging. But I found the card for carved wooden
this out because Id box, serpent motif and was
befriended one of the typing it into a computer that
museum secretaries was, itself, an antique. Seri-
who couldnt keep her ously, it had a black box screen
mouth shut after two with green letters on it. Re-
hard ciders and she member those? So I was using
confided that not only their painful command-line
had Dr. Shelleigh picked cataloguing software, but first
me as a sex object, hed I was to check every
specifically thought Id single item and make
57
KOMODA
sure it was still intact. Which, took that little jade figurine and defensive posturing just made
for the most part, I did. I swallowed it. it worse and worse and I made
them have sex with each other.
But that carved wooden box, I am quietly confident that its A couple times.
serpent motif, rattled. When still in me somewhere, prob-
I opened it, there was a tiny ably near the base of my spine, I mean, Karish suggested it.
green serpent-headed statue, because thats where I feel
which I (incorrectly) assumed Karish-Nephet sleeping when But no, I did it. I let it happen.
was Renenet. I stole it. hes dormant. I bet itd show up Its on me.
on an X-ray.
I checked with triple care Last I heard, Bradley had gone
that it wasnt missing or mis- That night, the Defiler awoke out to Alaska and was working
filed. I told myself that it was and I felt the fire climb my on one of those canning ships.
crudely made, possibly fake spine for the first time. I heard Professor Shelleigh killed him-
and certainly not worth more the voice in my mind speaking self in his hotel room, leaving a
than $880.00 US. (Id shopped of glory and revenge, and Pro- note with some pithy observa-
around.) I also struggled for fessor Shelleigh had done plen- tions on how easy it was to get
some moral high ground by ty to make that sound like a a gun in the USA.
reminding myself that the Brit- great idea. I had power, not just
ish Museum had, themselves, the brute zombie-brain clobber Me? Well for me the honey-
stolen it from someones tomb. but subtle influence, and it all moon was over and I was, for
(From the card, they think he seemed too fun and too easy better or worse, in a long term
was called Something-kopshef to get under a Welsh guy with relationship with an immortal,
the Blackened and Accursed. great hair, great abs and an mind-controlling sadist. One
Should have been my first absolutely swoony accent. (Ter- with a serpent motif.
hint.) But really, I was pissed at rible bridgework though.) Then
the museum, at Bradley back when I was back in the US, it
home and Professor Shelleigh was childs play to get back in
upstairs. So stealing the ush- touch with Bradley and tell him I point at the bank teller and
abti was my small, spiteful, there were no hard feelings, snap my fingers. The ring.
cowardly revenge. and then when Shelleigh came
to attend a conference I lured Her eyes get wide. What?
Of course that was the day them to my apartment with
they started searching museum promises of my famous brisket. Oh bitch, dont play dumb. Kar-
employees. I found out later Once they were there I called ish hates coy and Im not crazy
that someone had nicked the upon Karish-Nephet and about it myself. Difference is,
museum directors Nimba fer- Karish will bleed it out of you.
tility mask as a joke and hidden And it all got out of hand. I was
it in the mens room. really angry. Hysterical. All Your engagement ring. Put it
But I panicked and I their blustering apologies and in the sack.
58
She blinks. why you were too stupid to pursued, nor would I accept,
hand over a lump of carbon! product endorsementsunlike
Make her put it in. that guy with the overgrown
She starts tugging. Its stuck. hatchet who shills for the body-
Nay. spray people. I may rob and
Put your finger in your kidnap, but Im honest.
What, youre a horse now? You mouth, I tell her, and then the
want the ring, take the ring, ceiling cracks open. Those self-righteous pricks
lets go. with capes and masks? Frankly,
theyre careless. Grandstanding
I dont care about the ring. I puerile jerks, and I know that
care about her choosing to part Lets talk about superheroes for sounds pretty ironic coming
with it. I care about her fear. a moment, kay? Ill start out by from someone who says sub-
saying that, if you want to put mit and kneel far more often
I suppose I should be grateful. your underwear on top and run than is strictly necessary. But
Theres a guy I worked with, into burning buildings, fine. Ill tell you this for free: Anyone
has the same kind of thing. Rescue people. I mean, maybe who dies in a fight with me?
Only his evil spirit likes him to youd do better if you hired on They died because I wanted it.
stack up dead kids like fire- with the fire department and I do not do collateral damage,
wood and then leave cryptic got training on how to pull a not ever, none, zero, zilch. Can
hints to this one particular FBI ceiling or do CPR. But what- your goody-goody Tom Cour-
agent. Still, this situation is not ever, follow your bliss. I dont age claim that? Nope. Destiny
getting any better, so I grab the know. Could be theres a psych Crusader? Nuh uh.
stupid tramp by her scarf and screening for EMTs.
reel her in close. And those are the guys who,
But most superheroes arent at least, feel bad about leav-
You think your mans going to prying people out of car wrecks ing trails of bystander bodies
stop loving you cause you lost and aiding faltering swimmers, in their wake. Sure, they like to
the ring? If hes that much of a now are they? Or at least if put all the blame on the super-
dick, Im doing you a favor. Be- they are, those arent the ones villainsbut last time I was
cause if you make me kill you you see on Fox News and CNN. up against Destiny Crusader,
over this ring, it is not going to No, there its all about crime- I actually pulled a guy out of
be all romantic like that stupid fighters. the way when ol DC knocked
Fifties song a wall down. Did I rub his face
Having forced my ex-boyfriend in it? Oh sure, I made good and
Earth Angel, I believe. to sodomize my onetime certain he knew that I was a
sexual harasser, I do not have bank-robbing, mind-controlling
This isnt Earth Angel, its a lot of moral high ground to devil-bitch and still better at
just going to be your parents claim, but at least I never said I doing his job even
sobbing at your funeral about was a role model. I have never when I didnt want to.
59
Thats how I got away. It was a in the wreckage. Im tempted Karish? Can you drop this
close thing, too. That crazy mo- to point out the cameras so he weenie?
ron can kick through buildings can aim his puffed chest more
and he blames me for people accurately, but the guy who ran Fly away, little fool!
dying when he tries to take a for the door earlier just got his
lick at me? Puh-leeze. ankle smashed, looks like, and I try to help. I gesture, I even
he screams pretty loud be- hiss, and the kid staggers back
Dont even get me started fore passing out. Crap. I really half a step before straighten-
on all the gritty heroes who should have just let him bolt. ing.
treat their sociopathy like a
Two-For-One coitus coupon So. Princess Python. I should Youll have to do better than
with the rescue groupie of the have known it was you! that, he says.
day. Theres a guy in Arizona?
His freakin nom de guerre is Oh goody, hes a talker. Left!
Collateral. He teamed up with
Body Count last month and Why? I ask, grabbing the I lunge left and the hero misses
went after a supervillain who loot bag. Because the name me by inches. I swear, I feel
was just as bloody-minded. I popped up when the computer the wind of his passage, right
think that between the three of recognized Margaret Silver- before his fist slams into the
them they killed five, injured berg? And its Serpent Princess marble counter and shatters
at least a hundred, and demol- anyhow, idiot. it. I get a nice southpaw rabbit
ished a police station, a parking punch to the back of his head
garage and a Taco Bell. Sorry, but there are so many and its like socking a truck tire.
snake villains, he sneers. I dont think he even notices.
I guess part of it is, you never Sergeant Sidewinder, Burning Ooh, one of those.
know what youre going to get. Cobra, Snake Gandhi
Some hypertrophic Boy Scout Maybe talking wasnt so bad
with dilated pupils and a mar- There is not a supervillain after all.
tyr complex? Or some weirdo called Snake Gandhi!
with heat vision and a person- And whats your brand iden-
ality like Uday Hussein, LAPD? Yuh huh! tity, little boy? Captain Dress-
Up?
Are we suddenly back in third
grade? That got him. He turns red be-
Hes almost here, Karish says hind his blue domino and says,
in my head, about two seconds Next time, he says, Pick Im SKY ARROW!
before the bank ceiling crashes something a little more origi-
down and some guy who looks nal. Youll have plenty of time Hit him with the brain-zap, do it!
like hes barely post-pu- to think up something cre-
bescent strikes a pose ative in prison! Sleeeeep!
60
He stumbles again and palms Sometimes I think my life is
his eyes as I throw a desk blot- way too complicated.
ter at his face. Pathetic, I know, The guy with the ankles prob-
but Karish-Nephets mind Theres a lot of noise going on: ably going to need pins in his
whammy is doing something. Various people pleading for leg, according to the evening
Im going to have to stay out mercy or screaming or pray- news. One of the guys in the
of Arrows way if I dont want ing, police bullhorns out front, back room had a heart attack,
to end up a red smear on a car the groan of steel and crack but hes stable. No fatalities,
loan poster. Your puny powers of drywall as they slowly start though only me, the teller and
are no match for me! I squeak to crumble. On the plus side, Sky Arrow know how near a
and keep scuttling as he swings its making that roof-gap a lot thing that was.
and connects. The Serpent closer. On the minus side, Im
Princess can take a hell of a soon going to be on top of a With the hero knocked out I
punch, but that doesnt mean I building as it falls in on itself. went up the hole, took a couple
like it. The next time he swings, gunshots from the cops in back
I sidestep and sweep his ankles I tip up the desk and push it before I could command them
with my tail, leaving him to under the hole as I realize Sky off on a wild goose chase, then
smash full force into a wall. Arrow is actually obeying. crawled out onto the roof over
the drive through and climbed
Its load bearing. I hear it start The teller, the one who just down in the confusion. Back
to groan and decide its time to got engaged, shes screaming, to human form, and I walked
get moving. the heros pulling back one of away with $6,500 cash and a di-
those brick-smashing fists I amond ring I didnt even want.
Right. The front and back are can only hope he stops for a Oh, and Sky Arrows oath to
lined with cop cars, and I dont bon mot before he destroys capture me. He swore it in front
really want to make some cops this girl. of the TV reporter.
shoot other cops again. I think
the way out might be up, since Karish, knock him out! Theres got to be an easier
Mr. Arrow thoughtfully created way, I mutter into my KFC
a skylight. Its just going to be No. Hes about to kill her. eight-piece box, but no one an-
tough reaching it. I tell Karish swers. Karish is subdued again.
what to do. But he doesnt realize it!
p t e r 6 :
Cha n at i o n
e to da m
e u ps i d
th
Bei n g one of the he llbound me a ns Now figure out which of the following best de-
frequent internal bickering, danger, heartbreak, scribes it. It may qualify for more than one, in
the risk of assault by angels and superheroes which case you have to add its costs together.
and also a very real chance of being bodily cast
into eternal perdition. None of those sound like Environment Change, Minor. This is something
selling points, but there are upsides to the condi- normal science could accomplish, though sci-
tion. Otherwise, nobody would do it. ence usually demands larger devices and more
noise. A ring that can knock over walls, uproot
trees like a bulldozer and dig holes like a backhoe
Demonic is making minor environment changes. Rule of
thumb: If it isnt attacking and can be done with a
Prerogatives machine the size of a two-car garage or smaller,
its a minor environmental change. Cost: 1 Gen-
There are a number of things all demons can erosity
do, simply because theyre demons. They can
recognize one another, they can build infernally Environment Change, Major. It does something
cunning devices, and they can help their mortals that, with science, requires a much larger ma-
achieve impossible results (if they really want to). chineor something science cant quite manage
These specific abilities are detailed below. just yet. Heres where you put your silent airships
that run on water, devices that turn lead into gold,
Those moon-splitting lasers, silent hovercars In fact, any device that mimics a power or an As-
and insanity gas grenades dont just build them- pect is at this level as long as it doesnt attack. If
selves, you know. Any demon can, with time and the power is based on a Tactic, assume the device
effort, create scientific-seeming devices that are has that Tactic at 2. If the mimicked Aspect usual-
actually powered by hellfire and spite. Some just ly requires a pool roll to activate, give the device
make their cursed amulets look like cursed am- a pool of 4d. Cost: 3 Generosity
ulets and have done with it, but many take the
modern approach because (1) theyre mortified of Environment Change, Cataclysmic. Anything that
looking like theyre behind the times and (2) its can mimic a nuke or a MOAB goes here. Anything
hilarious to watch real scientists try to replicate that can drastically overturn political or economic
impossible devices. (Until they succeed, like Al- assumptions overnight is in this category, as is
exander Graham Bell and his stupid telephone. anything thats substantially more badass and
Arish-Kanneret the Honeyed Voice of Betrayal is magic than any Aspect or power. Cost: 5 Gener-
still pissed about that.) osity
Heres how you construct a monstrous device Attacks a Tactic Automatically. You can point it at
with which to inflict your will on whimpering, someone (at roughly rifle range), pull the trigger
cowering citizens. and make a Sly Cruelty attack against the Tactic
defined when the device is designed. You want
Step One: a confuse-o beam that fuddles Knowledge, or
Define What It Does a poverty curse that kneecaps Generosity? This
Be specific. Is it a flying carpet? A blinding fog? A does that. You could also fix up a truth beam that
wand that makes people age at a ghastly, acceler- clobbers Deceit, if you were feeling perverse.
ated rate? A fertilizer ray that makes plants grow
huge and become viciously animated? Write that Alternately, if you want the device to fight on its
down, along with a brief description of the ma- own, you can give it this ability and it does so
chine. with 4d, no Advantage. Cost: 1 Knowl-
edge
63
BARKLEY Step Two:
Flaws
Attacks With Nastiness. When you make an at- If your device costs two points of Tactics or more,
tack on a particular Tactic, using a specific dice it needs at least one flaw. The more it costs, the
pool, you get a weapon Advantage. For every more flaws it needs. For every point the device
point of Knowledge the device costs, you get a costs above the first, it needs one flaw off the list.
point of Advantage, up to a maximum of +4. For Note that you can buy some flaws multiple times:
example, you could make a magical silver tongue These flaws are marked with an asterisk (*).
stud that gives you a +4 weapon bonus to De-
vious Corruption when you use it against some- Blatant: There is no subtle way to operate the
ones Nurture. That would cost four Knowledge. device. It might emit a blinding flash of light, a
Or you could make a crazy bladed glaive-claw cloud of thick black exhaust or a very loud noise.
glove that adds +1 Advantage to every Open Cru- As soon as this goes off, everyone within the ra-
elty attack on Courage. That costs one point of dius of a few blocks is going to be craning their
Knowledge. necks towards it unless youre really muffled.
Alternately, instead of connecting to all attacks Bulky*: Its large and awkward to carry. If you buy
from one pool you can attach this to a magical this flaw once, the device is at least seven feet
weapon or attack device, the kind you make with long and requires both hands to direct properly.
attacks a Tactic automatically. Cost: 1 Knowl- Buy it twice and its the size of a stretch limousine,
edge per point of Weapon Bonus with the same speed and maneuverability. Buy it
three times and the device is the size of a nice
64 house in the suburbs and cant move anywhere.
(Note that in the case of vehicles where being big- mortal with a Sinister Tactic at 3+) with a seething
ger is an advantage, this is a great flaw to buy.) lust to possess it. While youre carrying it openly,
you get a -1d penalty on all Devious rolls. (Thats
Cooldown Rate*: You cant use it very often. If especially inconvenient with the Bulky flaw.)
you buy this flaw once, the device can only be
used every other round. Bought twice, it can be Rare Components*: Whether the component is
used once per scene. A third purchase means it scientific-ish (Wonderflonium! Unobtainum! Ad-
can only be used once per day. amscottglantium!) or arcane (The skull of an Eng-
lish queen! Hair shaved off an angels scalp!), its
Easy Disarm: No matter how big and complicated
the device is, control of it can be wrested from
you fairly easily. Instead of being built into your Why A r e nt We A ss- D eep in
armor, the controls are wired to, say, your iPad; D e mon Ma c hi ne s?
as soon as someone pries that out of your hands,
If demons can make magic items and all it
the machine becomes useless to you. If its not
costs is human distress, why arent there
immediately obvious how someone making a Sly
thousands of them lying about? Good
Endurance roll can get control of the item, ex-
question, with several answers.
plain it so the GM (or other Hellbound) can plan
appropriately.
1) Demons can deactivate their devices
at any time. The demon decides to shut it
Expensive Upkeep: The thing demands pricey
down and down it shuts, regardless of pos-
fuels, constant repair or some other expensive
session or distance. But once its stopped,
factor to keep it running. If your Generosity stays
its deactivated forever (or until its rebuilt
below 3 for more than two scenes, you can no
with more Generosity or Knowledge).
longer afford to keep it working.
When the times done, the Tactics are sacrificed The only exceptions are when the target is us-
and the flaws are paid off, the machine is ready. ing supernatural powers to conceal or disguise
himself. In that case, while you (the demon) can
Step Four: recognize some kind of spirit, you may misiden-
On My Command, Unleash tify or get only a vague impression.
Hell
Once its flaws are dealt with and the Tactics have For example, if someone decides to use Dead Ring-
been shaved, the device is in hand and ready to er to impersonate an angels host, or the host of
go. Typically it requires some sort of dice-pool a different demon, the observer is fooled by the
roll to activate. (Sly Cruelty if its a weapon, Cun- spiritual impersonation as well as the physical
ning Knowledge for a machine, just about any- one. Similarly, someone using Darkness-Shrouded
thing that seems sensible for mystic stuffPa- scans as demonic (assuming the crawling tene-
tient Greed for a functioning alchemy lab, for brous chill wasnt a sufficient hint) but the demons
example.) The roll may be mitigated by other identity cant be ascertained, nor is the sense spe-
rolls or Difficulties at the GMs discretion. But by cific enough to allow you to shoot in the darkness
and large its been paid for and it works as with any improved chance of hitting.
advertised.
66
I Think, Pe r ha ps, I ll B e A Je r k
The ability to activate Aspects blindly runs, head-first and hard,
into issues of separating player knowledge from character knowledge.
If a demons uninvoked and running on a Sinister Tactic deficit, he doesnt know
whats happening with his mortal. You, the player controlling that demon, may know
that the mortal is right in the middle of a tender reconciliation scene with his ex-wife. That
would be the worst possible time for a demonic Aspect to kick in, wouldnt it?
And maybe thats great fun for all the group. Maybe your mortals player loves the opportunity to
chew scenery and emote and be livid at his demon. But what do you do if hes annoyed that you up-
staged his scene and turned his high drama into low farce?
If youre a nice guy and youve got a friendly, cooperative group, call a time out and ask player-to-player.
I totally want the demon whos bored and cooped up to ruin the hell out of this. Please?
If youre a more competitive group, just go for it. But understand that the price for putting things on
an adversarial footing is that you wind up on an adversarial footing. Its perfectly in character for
a mortal whos been demonically cock-blocked to decide that demonic help just isnt worth
it. It could be your ticket to more time silenced, not less.
Then again, the conflict is the core of the game. Play it by ear and dont be
a dick.
BARKLEY
the Aspects gov-
At the end of a scene in which erning Strategy,
a Hellbound mortal does some- without adding a
thing bad, the demon can improve one Tactic to the pool. If the
Sinister Tactic by one point. Maybe even two demon gets a set on this roll,
points. If he was acting like a real monster, the the Aspect goes on for the rest of
Sinister Strategy governing the Tactic might im- the scene. If it fails, the Aspect still goes on,
prove. But only if the sin was bad enough. This is but now the governing Strategy weakens, sliding a
described at length starting on page 89. point into the opposite Virtuous Strategy. You dont
have to be actively invoked to do this! You can be
Note that you can only improve Tactics when in the dark, seething and angry while hes being
you know whats going on. If your mortal locks all tranquil Bruce Banner and thenWHAM!sud-
you out by having a Virtuous Strategy equal to denly hes wreathed in hellfire, or is intangible in
or greater than your primary Sinister Strategy, the middle of an erotic interlude, or has goat legs
you cant raise a Tactic, no matter how much of a at the beach! Good dirty fun for the whole damn
slimy weasel your mortal host is. family.
68
Sinful Perfection
You can transform one of the dice in your human Why is this?
hosts pool into a Master Die, but you probably
wont want to. Heres why. When you do it, the Because demons used to be angels. To do any-
Sinister Tactic on the actions line gets hit, slid- thing perfect, a demon has to let its angelic na-
ing over into its opposite. (If that Sinister Tactic ture show, just for a bit. Humans can feel that in
is already empty, you cant invoke Sinful Perfec- the long run, even when that holiness has been
tion.) If, for example, you give him a Master Die corroded and yoked into the service of wicked-
in Courage, it costs you a dot of Cruelty, just giv- ness.
ing it over to his Courage. Even if you give him
a Master Die in something bad like Corruption The demon remembers too. Thats why the wick-
or Greed, the evil wears out and turns to virtue, edness weakens. It becomes shameful to use.
sliding over into Nurture or Generosity (respec-
tively).
Lets start with the good news: Screwtapes can roll Patient Knowledge (based on their hosts
Patient Knowledgeat last, a use for all that goodness-and-light crap!) to see what they re-
member about secret history, infernal gossip, grudges and trysts from the War On Heaven, oc-
cult weirdness and similar diabolical topics. They can do this all on their own or at the behest
of their host.
The bad news is that the GM sets Difficulties as she sees fit and doesnt need to tell the demon
what it is. Screwtapes who beat the Difficulty get a straight answer. Screwtapes who roll a
pair but dont beat the Difficulty get any plausible-sounding BS the GM wants to lay on them.
A Screwtape who fails the roll doesnt knowbut his host remains ignorant of his ignorance,
meaning the Screwtape can tell the mortal whatever lie sounds plausible.
The catch for the Hellbinder host is that he has to invoke his demon if he wants to ask advice.
The catch for the demon is that if he tells lies to influence the mortal, he could wind up getting
caught in the lie and being invoked lesseven if he honestly passed on manipulative misunder-
standings from the GM.
Obviously, the potential for hurt feelings and misunderstandings abound, as does the possibil-
ity of getting too-easy insight into the workings of other demons. Hence, this rule is entirely
optional. Use it, or not, to fit your groups needs.
69
The Domain of es he hasnt tried listening and wants to be more
receptive are both perfectly legitimate.)
At the end of every session, you can slide one If you go this route, you get three demonic pow-
point between two opposite Strategies. You ers, but the Screwtape gets to decide when to
could move a point from Devious to Insightful, or activate them, not you.
you could slide a point from Open to Sly. To ac-
complish this, you need to explain whats chang-
ing in your characters personality and approach
to life. Why is he now listening instead of
chattering? (Because listening worked
70 that one time and because he realiz-
I Can t E x plain
Demonic
There are no rules or guidelines for what Powers
makes an explanation for sliding points good
Each Sinister Tactic has three associated pow-
or even acceptable. Thats because there
ers, as listed below in tidy alphabetical order. De-
arent right and wrong answers. The expla-
scriptions follow. Unless it states otherwise, any
nations are primarily there to help you, the
power that attacks physically can be dodged or
player.
blocked like any other physical attack.
But they arent just an arbitrary imposition
from a game designer whos a little too art- Corruption
sy-literary for his own good. Honest. The ex- Impossible Beauty
planation for why your character changes is Teleport Self
helpful for everyone. Wither
Deceit
It helps your GM because it shows your view Body Control
of the game and what you think is coming. If
Dead Ringer
you keep amping up Devious, the GM knows
Telekinesis
you think thats getting hammered, or that its
particularly useful to you. Knowing that helps Cowardice
her craft a good game for you. Armor
Arrogance
It helps your fellow players as well, for much Banish
the same reason. You know how you think Espionage
your character appears to them, but you dont Animal Form
know how your character actually seems
Clairvoyance
thats limited to your acting ability and I, for
Ineffable Defense
one, am no Dame Helen Mirren. The interior
glimpse at the end of the session gives them Greed
cues on how to back your plays when you try Alchemy
to present your character as sullen, or charm- Psychic Object
ing, or serenely wise. (When the character for Summon
whom youre Screwtape starts shifting and Cruelty
converting, listen up. Thats how your demon Dominator Strike
knows what to offer.) Terror
That Hideous Strength
All this is on top of the help it gives you in
playing your character. People play RPGs for
all kinds of reasonsbecause they love the Alchemy (Greed)
interplay of fictional personalities, they like
For the avaricious, theres the beauty of changing
the tactical rule challenges, or they need an
flowers, lead or hero sandwiches into expensive
excuse to get together with their buddies.
statuary. For the just plain vicious, you can do the
The explanations for changing your charac-
same to a heros girlfriend.
ters stats are an obvious payoff to one type
of player but may seem like a pain to other
The Midas Touch gimmick of turning some-
types. If youre one of those other types, give
one completely into an inert statue is indisput-
it a chance. There may be fun at work there
ably classic and classy, but it has some restric-
that you arent expecting.
tions. You cant do it on someone whos
running, kicking you, or otherwise be-
ing anything other than helpless. In
71
short, if you could simply shove a pillow over you can, because anything you turn into 24 karats
someones face and kill him without a roll, then changes back after 24 hours.
you can turn him into a statue with a roll. (Pillow
to the face, cmon, wheres the fun in that?) Hes When its used for attack, you can roll Cunning
okay once the power wears off, unless you melt Greed as an attack pool. You cant improve this
him down. In which case, ooh, ick. with a weapon, but it has a range about equal to
a pistol.
For people who are running and kicking and oth-
erwise resisting your decorative ambitions, at- Any time you use Generosity to buy someone off
tacks with this take the form of randomly mak- or bribe him, you can use one die in the pool as a
ing chunks of them golden. This wears off after a Master Die, as long as your Greed is equal to or
while (like adolescence) but is painful and confus- greater than your Generosity.
ing while it lasts (also like adolescence). If nothing
else, there are plenty of sneering musical puns to
be made after transforming someones anatomy,
Animal Form
ranging from Shirley Bassey (Golllllldfingah!) (Espionage)
through Neil Young (...keep me searchin for a
heart of go-oh-ohld) and Jurassic 5 (...holdin You can turn into a wolf, or a raven, or a giant snake.
on to whats golden). Enjoy the laughs while (The snake thing is perennially popular.) You can
become any natural animal youre aware offish,
fowl or monotreme. Its typically
a somewhat sinister specimen
of the relevant species, unless
its something that just doesnt
come in creepylike a bunny
or a kitty. But if you turn into a wolf,
its a black wolf with red eyes unless
you specify otherwise.
72
BARKLEY
Animal Abilities Armor (Cowardice)
Espionage 1: If its human-sized, you look like it; Demonic armor is not pretty. At least, not the kind
but you have no other special capabilities. PCs get. It tends towards knobby plates of discol-
ored chitin that would make a deformed lobster
Espionage 2: You can shrink to the size of a very start cracking wise, or glowing eldritch runes that
large bird (vulture, condor) and fly like one. moan and spark with baleful luster, or matted
stinking clots of hair and filth.
Espionage 2: You can grow to the size of a horse
and gain +1d Advantage to all Open rolls while To activate Armor, roll Open Cowardice. If you
changed. get a set, your armor appears and remains vis-
ible for the rest of the scene. Any physical dam-
Espionage 2: You can take the form of an aquatic age has its Width reduced by one point. More-
animal like a shark or porpoise and gain its abil- over, weapons can no longer give Width bonuses
ity to breathe water or hold your breath, but you when used to injure you. Weapon bonuses to
cant swim any faster than you run and your basic non-physical attacks, still factor in, be they from
attacks are unchanged. powers like Terror or from someone using a knife
to threaten your mom.
Espionage 3: You can shrink as small as a rattle-
snake or cobra. If you hit anyone with a bite, your Unfairly (as is so often the way when dealing with
poison offers a +2 weapon Advantage. things infernal), deluded heroes as described on
page 125 usually wind up with either glitter-spar-
Espionage 3: You can shrink as small as a pigeon kly energy fields or simple toughness that cant
or sparrow and fly like one. Tracking you by ordi- be perceived at all, until you hit them with a truck
nary means is effectively impossible. or something. It helps maintain the illusion that
theyre something other than hells pawns, while
Espionage 4: You can grow to the size of a rhino PCs get no such comfort.
or elephant and, while transformed, gain +2 Ad-
vantage to all Open rolls.
Arrogance
Espionage 4: You can shrink as small as a mouse, (Cowardice)
thereby gaining a Master Die in situations where
youre trying to hide by being mouse-sized. Most demons have a certain degree of smug
superiority. Theres a minority of cringing sniv-
Espionage 5: You can shrink to the size of a bee or elers scuttling around and mumbling gollum,
mosquito, flying like one and gaining that hiding but most stand tall, dress gaudy, and speak of
task Master Die. themselves in the third person. Its more fun even
though, just like your grade-school teachers use-
Espionage 5: You can grow as large as a whale lessly told you, bullies are only lashing out to
and hold your breath appropriately. (Or, if you cover up their insecurity.
prefer, breathe water as a giant squid). You get +3
Advantage to all Open rolls in this shape. But not all demons can make arrogance into a
form of supernatural defense. You, however, can
To change, you always have to roll a set using do just that. Your self-regard covers a fundamen-
Cunning Espionage. The change lasts until you tal unwillingness to examine your own motiva-
quit it, or until the end of the scene. tions. Like an impenetrable shield, that stubborn-
ness protects you from doubt, persuasion, and
plain-spoken good advice.
weapon. Moreover, you can always use Cruelty To activate Impossible Beauty, roll Devious Cor-
to attack with Dominator Strike, even if for some ruption. For the remainder of the scene, you get
reason youd normally have to use Courage in- Advantage to Corruption or Deceit rolls made
stead. to influence people, but not to activate demonic
powers. The Advantage is equal to the Width of
76
Ineffable Defense Any rolls that use surprise or secrets for bonus-
Psychic Objects
(Greed)
You can produce objects from no-
where and, when you no longer
need them, banish them back to no-
where. This could simply be a case
of legerdemain (...of course I have
my passport right here!) or you
can present it as a full-on Green
Lantern power ring.
Summon (Greed) But others are perfectly fine with stopping bul-
lets in midair and hanging people upside down to
Summon is the polar opposite of Banish, in terms emphasize a point.
of limited teleportation. You see an object in the
distance, gesture dramatically andbamf!it ap- You can lift a hundred pounds for every point of
pears in your hand. Obviously this doesnt have Deceit you have. You have to be able to see your
the same broad-scale possibilities for mayhem target, and it has to be within ten feet for every
(unless youre standing at the edge of a building point of Deceit. You can move it at about the pace
or something), but man is it sweet for shoplifting. of a brisk walk. Fine control is problematical. If
Or disarming your enemies. youre at the full extent of your weight, your mar-
gin of accuracy is going to be within 18 inches,
You can only teleport the object (or fraction there- give or take. If youre moving something the size
of) from somewhere within thirty feet, and you of a pencil, you can scrawl with it but not write
must see the target with your naked eye. (Sorry, gracefully. Tapping keyboards works fine though,
you cant just teleport someones heart into your if a bit slowly.
handunless it was already visible, in which
case, whats the point?) You can teleport up to a Human bodies are considered one thing and,
hundred pounds for every point of Greed. As with being pretty large, its hard to just poke an eye or
Banish, you can rip stuff apart with Summoning, close off a carotid artery. However, if youre in a
though its less precise because you dont start situation where you could simply smother some-
out at point blank range to your target. one with a pillow, you can also use TK to dispose
of him dramatically. You can use it for a coup de
To attack with Summon, roll a set with Cunning grace, but not as an instant, sure-fire kill.
Greed. The first time its used to attack someone
in a scene, it gets a +1 surprise bonus and a +1 Any time you use TK as an attack on someone,
weapon bonus. After that, its just the +1 weap- roll Insightful Deceit. The first time you use it
on bonus. If youre not attacking, any set is suf- against someone who hasnt seen or heard about
ficient to bring over any suitable object. the power, it has +2 surprise Advantage and +1
weapon Advantage. Every time after that, the in-
As with Banish, you can dedicate an item for each herent surprise bonus drops to +1. If youre not
point of Greed. To qualify for dedication, it has to attacking, any roll is sufficient to lift an object
belong to you without contest and be within your thats in range and light enough.
78
Teleport Self has to have enough open space to contain your
79
BARKLEY
cloaked giant certainly might increase the effect That Hideous
with a weapon bonus). Even if you look like a
mild-mannered bookworm, you can strike people
Strength (Cruelty)
with mortal terror. Theres no need to gesture or Super-strength is simple to understand. You can
say anything or even look (though, lets be frank, lift, crush and uproot this, that and the other
uncorking lines like Tremble before me, puny thing. But in an RPG, it can be hard to imple-
mortals! is pretty typical). You just pick some- ment, especially if you want to be accurate about
one nearby and decide you want him freaking your physics. Can someone pick up a semi-trailer
out. by the back axle without it snapping in half? If
someone holds a main battle tank over his head,
To invoke Terror, roll Devious Cruelty. It has the shouldnt his feet get poked into the ground like
range of a handgun. If your set pierces their de- fence posts?
fenses (and the only thing normal people can use
to defend is Insightful Nurture), it strips away Better Angels is not focused on Newtonian phys-
one point of Courage. (Its not slid into Cruelty, ics. Rules are provided for bludgeoning people
it just goes away.) However, once Courage hits with your bone-breaking thews. Any other feat
zero, Terror has no further effect. Additional hits of strengthpulling up trees, flipping over cars,
do not affect Open. throwing garbage dumpsters through cathedrals,
punching out skyscrapersis pitched to the GMs
judgment, within some simple guidelines.
Cruelty 1:
Cruelty 2-3:
80 BARKLEY
C ust om Powe r s
The little stories throughout this book contain supervillains who are using all kinds of crazy pow-
ers that arent on this list. You can too. If youre one of those who wants a demon whose power
is Raise An Army From The Very Stones or Alluring Succubus Disguise That Only Affects Men, or
something a little more standard like Telepathy, heres how it works.
Go to Devilish Creativity on page 63. Build something that costs three points. Thats your power.
If it costs four points, take one flaw. If it costs six points, take three flaws. Your GM picks a Strategy/
Tactic pair for its pool and, if necessary, what gets rolled to gobble it up. There it is. So Telepa-
thy? Does something science cant quite manage; major environmental change; three points. If I
were your GM, Id make it either Cunning Espionage or Insightful Corruption, and if the latter youd
only be able to detect the yucky stuff. (If the former, only very practical things, not secret hopes or
hidden emotions.) People can roll Insightful Nurture to resist the Corruption version, or Cunning
Knowledge to misdirect the Cunning Espionage version.
Want to call up a batch of demonic minions? Thats going to cost you. First, its a major environ-
ment change, bringing a load of entities into existence where there were previously none. So thats
a +3 effect. That may be okay if you dont want them to be able to attack, but if they cant attack
they arent very good minions, are they? Tack on the ability to automatically attack for +1 and give
it a point of Advantage to keep them from being total suck. Now you have to buy this off with two
flaws. How about blatant and palpably evil? Hell, if youre calling up minor imps to wreak may-
hem, those barely sound like drawbacks. Once per round you can barf out a servitor. Lets base
this on Cunning Generosity (because youre gaining an object or advantage, but not in any kind
of decent or virtuous way). Roll a set, generate a minion. You can have a total number of minions
equal to your Cunning pool. They either attack with 4d and get Width+1, or they attack with 5d.
Wither (Corruption)
Cruelty 4-5: You grab someone (or something), shout Feel
your flesh writhe in the grip of malice! and
your victims arm or leg or face turns leprous
Combat Rules: +3 weapon bonus and dry and shrivelly. Or grab a car and make it
rust out, turn a thriving tree to a blasted dead-
Without a Roll, You Can: tip a locomotive engine fall, or corrode a painting into a cracked, faded
onto its side, throw a car engine a city block. mess. Wither is pretty good against inanimate
objects and better at injuring humans. But since
it leaves Courage alone, its less effective against
With a Rolled Set, You Can: collapse one corner
supernatural enemies.
of a skyscraper with your bare hands.
Make a Devious Corruption roll. This is a physi-
Those weapon bonuses come into play whenever cal attack that only works on grappled victims.
you punch someone or throw something at him. If It cannot be improved with secret or weapon
youre hitting someone with an object that would Advantages, though surprise works normally.
When it hits, it moves a point of the victims
normally give a +1 weapon bonus or more, your
Open into Sly, no matter the Width of the roll.
weapon bonus rises by a single point until it max- Against an inanimate object, Wither does about
es out at +3. Note that it doesnt matter whether as much damage as having a drunk driver
youre throwing a full beer keg at someone or a smash an SUV into it at 35 mph. It can be
single peach pit. We just assume the beer keg is dodged and blocked normally.
slower and easier to dodge, while that peach pit
can do some hellish damage at high speed.
81
Demonic Carapace (Sly)
Aspects This looks like Armor (see page 73 for its howl-
ing faces and swirling negative energy voids) but
Every one of the Hellbound has the potential to functions differently. The two powers are quite
physically reveal his demonic nature, though this complementary, so if you want to really, really
is not always a wise or subtle course. If you want soak up punishment like nobodys business, Ar-
people to help you out willingly, sprouting horns mor + Carapace is the way to go. Just stay clear
and flames may not be the best way. But if you on which hideous disfigurement comes from the
want people to help you out fast, it can work won- power (suppurating pustules? gnarled scales?)
ders. Your mileage may vary. and which comes from the Aspect (parasitic de-
mon fetuses that jump out of enlarged pores to
Only the demon half of the Hellbinder pair can martyr themselves on incoming bullets? blizzard
activate the Aspect, and then only at a dreadful of wind and hail obscuring you and forcing back
(to the demon) cost, as described back on page attackers?).
68. Short version: If everyone plays nice, the hu-
man slides a point off a Virtuous Strategy. If the When your Carapace is active, every physical
demon does it without permission, like for a spe- attack against you has its Height reduced by a
cial birthday surprise, the demon rolls the rele- number equal to your Sly. If Height is reduced to
vant Strategy with no Tactic. No set? Slide a point zero or less, the attack misses.
off the Strategy, but the power activates. Got a
set? Yay, it activates for free.
Cloven Hooves
Something important to know about Aspects is (Cunning)
that they come on fast. When a Screwtape an-
nounces that hes putting on an Aspect during the You may have read the entry label and scratched
declare phase, it comes on during the roll phase, your head. Hm, you may have thought, Ba-
before any other actions get resolved. This can dass wings or goat feet? To soar above the rabble,
be especially important for defensive powers like or have limbs that look like they belong in some
Ghost Form or Carapace. hideous soul-food stew? Kind of an easy pick
Maybe youre not even reading this! Maybe you
The Aspects for each Sinister Strategy are as fol- just skipped right to the wings! Well if you cant
lows. be bothered to read this, screw you!
Wings. Feh.
BARKLEY
83
have Devious 3, you and three others can navi- gets hurt. The only exception is other people who
gate the shroud unimpeded.) You and your allies are Flame-Wreathed, or people who have some
get +1 surprise Advantage on any physical ac- kind of fire immunity, but how often are you go-
tions taken against enemies who are also within ing to brawl someone like that?
the shroud. No one can get a surprise bonus on
an attack against you, or your protected allies, if Any time anyone hits you with a close attack,
they strike from outside the cloud. If they have he slides a point of Courage away, except as
no means of seeing through the darkness, their described above. When you make hand-to-
attack is against Difficulty equal to your Devious. hand attacks, you can add your Devious to
your Open Cruelty pool. If this produces a pool
When you turn this on, youre covered in fire. Note that the pool increase from being Flame-
Thats simple enough, isnt it? You can describe Wreathed is not a surprise bonus, a weapon bo-
the flames as you wishguttering orange flick- nus or any other kind of bonus. Effects that re-
ers, bright green jets, surging tendrils of gusting move those sorts of bonuses do nothing against
redit all works the same way. Anything you hit Flame-Wreathed.
gets hurt, and anyone dumb enough to hit you
Ghost Form
(Cunning)
You get a tiny bit transparent
and a whole lot ectoplasmic.
You can walk through walls or
people, cross traffic without
looking, and avoid all manner of
physical hassles. It makes you
immaterial.
When you phase out, you can carry about ten The Height of every attack you make using your
pounds of clothing and gear with you, but noth- horns is increased by an amount equal to your
ing living. You cant use this to shred items by Sly. If this raises your Height above 10, the attack
turning part of (say) that motorcycle helmet in- becomes immune to gobble dice.
tangible and leaving part solid, either.
85
Invisible (Devious) Then the bonus drops to +1. In addition, when
attempting to hide or move unseen, you can add
Moving about unobserved has a definite appeal, your Devious stat to your Cunning Greed pool.
and Im sure you dont need me to tell you about This is not a surprise bonus (which you also get),
all the opportunities this provides. So lets talk but a pool enhancement. If your pool is over ten,
limitations for a moment. Even when youre un- you still get to roll all the dice to which youre
seen, it doesnt mean youre inaudible, or that entitled.
you wont displace smoke or leave footprints or
exhale steam in the winter. Its a hell of an edge,
but it wont stop people from shooting or swing-
Wings (Cunning)
ing blindly, and it can be a surprising pain in the Ah, flight, the dream of mortals and the majestic
ass to get out of peoples way when they dont transport method of devil and superhero alike.
know youre there. Whether you want to dodge the slings and ar-
rows of outrageous costumed angel-handlers, or
On the plus side, anything youre wearing or car- to swoop down and bash the crap out of people,
rying also becomes invisible. Wings can let it happen.
When you turn invisible, you get +3 surprise Ad- Given the loose and narrative nature of how
vantage on all actions where remaining unde- events happen in Better Angels, theres no rea-
tected is a big plusuntil people realize youre son to get all hard and fast and miles-per-hour
there. (Like, if you punch someone or fart loudly.) about how fast you can fly. While most Aspects
86 BARKLEY
are available for one scene only, Wings get a bit car in light city traffic. You can hover in place,
of a pass if youre trying to cover great distances where demons with lesser Wings are stuck wheel-
in order to make the plot more convenient. Think ing and circling like some manky bat.
of Wings as a narrative excuse to arrive where the
action is and gloss over such annoying details as Cunning 4: You can reach fifty feet in just mo-
whether you took the bus or where you parked ments and swoop down with enough force and
the Supervillainmobile. precision to enhance hand-to-hand attacks. If
youd normally have no weapon bonus, the dive-
Cunning 1: You can fly at the pace of a brisk jog, bomb attack gives you +1 weapon Advantage. If
circling to raise yourself ten feet per action. You youd normally get a +1 or +2 bonus, it rises by a
take no damage from falling if you have your single point. If youd have a +3 weapon bonus, it
wings out. stays maxed out. Thats just the way it is.
Cunning 2: You can fly at a sprinters pace and Cunning 5: You can zip up to the top of a ten-story
gain fifteen feet per action in height, more or less. building in a single bound, fly as fast as a speed-
ing locomotive, and get all the advantages of the
Cunning 3: You can shoot straight up, thirty feet previous levels as you wish.
just like that, and cruise at about the speed of a
Whatever your Cunning, if youre flying and
someone else is walking, he cant punch you.
Youre effectively immune to hand-to-hand at-
tacks from earthbound people unless you make a
close-up attack on them. They can still pepper you
with gunfire, of course. Also, at the GMs discre-
tion, someone with the Giant Aspect active might
reach you, using increased reach and speed.
BARKLEY
87
t e r 7 :
Chap e )
n d v i r t u
sin ! ( a
KOMODA
P u t t i n g some kind of ob je c t i v e mor a li t y i nt o a r ole pla yi n g gam e
is always a fraught endeavor. Theres a risk of creating paradoxes, Catch-22 ethical conundrums and flat-
out special cases where, yeah, maybe Gandhi would punch a pregnant nun in the stomach. But in Better
Angels, thats all part of the fun. (Ethical conundrums, not nun-punching.)
The puzzles play out through the rules. The PCs are walking a thin line, trying to please their demons and
keep them strong with acts that satisfy their vile natures, while simultaneously trying to contain their
demons and create good outcomes from evil acts. Is it possible to destroy the devils house with the
devils tools? Or are the supervillains just fooling themselves and traipsing in complicity down the path
of good intentions?
The Imbalance
The human has all those Virtuous traits, measur- Here, then, are the exact fuels each sin needs to
ing his aspiration to do (and be) good. The de- burn bright, with various magnitudes.
mon has Sinister stats, indicating its desire to rip
it up with a realness. The combinations of these Cruelty
factors produce the power pools rolled to do the Bloodlust is pretty straightforward. Death = joy.
horrendous anti-miracles for which the hellbound More death = more joy. Not pleasant, then, but
are infamous. So far so good. straightforward.
But the halves are almost always in conflict, and Raise and Deed
even in the short terms there has to be a win-
ner and a loser. When a demons primary Sinister 1 Cruelty: Killing. This isnt anything elaborate
Strategy and its opposite Strategy arent equal, and premeditated, and it doesnt even need to be
theres a fight to see just who wears the pants unwarranted. But any time your actions leave a
in the relationship. Or, as the case may be, who body in their wake, youre entitled to raise Cruel-
wears the bloodstained leotard. ty. It can be an accident, a him-or-me self-defense
scenario, or an entirely justified murder. Doesnt
Sinning matter. Thou shalt not kill. Its in the book. In fact,
you can qualify just by leaving someone to die. If
Increasing a Sinister Tactic isnt hard. Sinning you hit and run someone who later gets saved by
has famously been likened to a slippery slope. a Good Samaritan, you still sin up.
The details are down to which sin is getting at-
tention in any particular scene. At the end of 2 Cruelty: Kill in cold blood. Sure, it was unfortu-
any scene where one of the Hellbound was tak- nate when that late-night office worker ran around
ing part in the action, the Screwtape player can the corner and you shot him without thinking. But
argue for a Tactic increase, if he saw his host when someones restrained and helpless and you
being appropriately naughty. The exact form the kill him anyway, thats another thing entirely. At
moral breach takes determines which Tactic can this point, you could show mercy. You have to go
increase. out of your way to kill. And you do.
But type is not the only factor to consider. Theres 1 Sly: Kill a hundred people at once. At this point,
also magnitude. If he broke the rules a little, you it becomes largely a matter of numbers. It doesnt
can raise the Tactic by a point at the end of the really matter whether the bus you fire-
scene. If he commit a great crime, you may raise bombed was on a Seniors Vegas Tour or
that Tactic two points. For something truly hei-
nous? You can directly raise a Strategy.
was carrying recent convicts to Super-
max prison. Quantity counts.
89
Cowardice Its hardly worth it if you catch them being good.
Though hardly incompatible with wrath, coward- So to make your peeking and prying okay, you
ice is different. The biggest cowards dont see have to show people theyre just as warped, or
themselves as quailing, frightened twerps. Theyre weak, or ethically incontinent as you, if not more
making a statement, showing contempt for the so. Derision is the main course for Espionage. It
rules and morals, and expectations of decent folk. goes down well with avarice and a nice hearty
These being demons, its expressed through mis- merlot.
ery, because humans dont deserve happiness.
Cowards dont get into fair fights, they just have to Raise and Deed
demonstrate their superiority. Have to.
1 Espionage: Victory gloat. If you overcome
Its possible to do this without any bloodletting someone who isnt cataclysmically feeble and in-
whatsoever, and many supervillains like it for just ferior, you can grind out an Espionage perk by
that reason. Just be careful that the excuse, I hectoring them about their weakness, stupidity,
never killed anyone doesnt lull you into a false how they could have triumphed if they hadnt
sense of righteousness as you irreparably scar a been so foolishly noble (or idiotically predictable,
childs psyche in front of his helpless parents. or so overconfident). This works fine on cops, FBI
agents, other Hellbound and, of course, anyone
Raise and Deed who calls himself a superhero. Ordinary people
at the wrong end of your home invasion? Not
1 Cowardice: Humiliate someone. If you deliber- challenging enough, even if you refer to yourself
ately make someone feel total embarrassment, in the third person.
thats pretty sweet to a demon of cowardice. Pan-
tsing a kid in the lunchroom or giving him a lin- 2 Espionage: Ruining a hero. Most superheroes
gering unkind nickname is all it takes. Who knew have a secret identity. Learn it. Put it on the web
so many junior high kids were diabolical? (On and basic cable news. Eat popcorn. Laugh. Or
closer consideration, I did.) impersonate him, kick a few orphans and puppy
dogs and then watch people cringe when the real
2 Cowardice: Torture. Most people call this cross- guy shows up to save them. Removing a heros
ing a line. Lots of folks have taunted and humili- powers? Tall order, but also super hilarious.
ated and often feel bad about it after. Deliber-
ately causing intolerable pain or fear? Thats big 1 Cunning: Steal a rivals lover. Yeah, there was
league. Thats your first step into a darker world. sometimes a triangle between Lex, Clark and Lois,
This often involves some planning and prepara- wasnt there? If your death ray or moon-missile
tion: The elaborate death trap concept works cant bring your hero enemy low, a dozen roses
perfectly. Not only am I better enough to beat and some availability on a Friday night might. Of
you, Im better enough to beat you with one hand course, the perfect act of villainy is to then dis-
tied behind my back. Now get in the man-sized card said lover as callously and viciously as you
pinball! can manage.
To turn Greed into Generosity, the player has To change Deceit into Honesty, the player has to
to explain how his actions in the scene helped show how he told the truth and it was injurious to
someone to whom he owed nothing, and from him or his interests.
whom he had no good reason to expect repay-
ment in kind.
A
M OD
KO
93
Chapter 8:
Good vs. Evil (Temerity vs.
Irritable Monstrousness)
KOMODA
T he conf lic t W ITHIN a huma n So your demon is controlled by one of your fel-
who wants to do good but is lured into evil is low players. The technical term for the guy play-
thrown into great relief when that evil has a ing the role of your demon is Screwtape, after a
name, a voice, and a fist full of temptation made main character in C.S. Lewis Screwtape Letters.
manifest through showy superpowers. If our hu- In Better Angels this is, on occasion, shortened to
mans are protagonists, certainly some of their plain ol Screw.
antagonists are going to be smug superheroes;
and the chilling monsters who result when de-
mons find accepting hosts (one could call them A ll Ha i l Ob li v i on
super-duper-villains but that would sound far
A lot of this idea for players being Screwtapes
too precious); and angels trapped by wicked men;
to each other comes from the old World of
and some plain ol normal people. But for a lot
Darkness game Wraith: The Oblivion. Ken
of groups, those are just ancillary. Theyre the
Hite once described it as the setting so bleak
warm-up. The real workout is the conflict inside,
your GM has to deputize the other players
between demon and host.
to torment you. But the goal of the Shad-
owguide in Wraith (which was their name
The game presents this as player vs. player.
for the guy who offered you dice if youd do
lousy things) was to bring your character into
If youre an experienced gamer, lots of red flags just
unimpeachable contact with his own worse
shot up. Pitting players against one another, espe-
nature. The Shadow was an embodiment of
cially when their characters are (at least nominally)
everything rejected and despised about the
supposed to be helping each other, often turns into
self, but it was inescapable because it was
a tense, tight knot of ill will and resentment. But the
(after all) you.
question is, who else can do it?
Dealing With Your not win by making his character miserable, and
youre actively a loser if you deliberately set out
Player as a Screw to make the player miserable. You win by help-
ing him make an awesome story about someone
If youve run a game as GM, you may already walking a moral tightrope, trying to do good from
be ready to Screwtape and just not know it. (Or a position waist-deep in evil.
maybe you do know it.) The function of the GM
is to provide opposition thats appropriate to the So help him when he asks for help. Make sugges-
characters. If the characters are all investigators, tions you think hes actually going to accept or,
theyre not going to like a scenario that can only alternately, give advice so diabolically over the
be solved by mindlessly cracking heads. Theyre top that you know hes going to say no and you
unlikely to enjoy a no-win situation, unless they can both enjoy the exchange. The Odd Couple
explicitly signed up for a horror game, and may- dialectic is one of Better Angels charms. Theres
be not even then. But games with no challenge, characterization gold in the back and forth ex-
no threat? Those get dull fast. changes of weak human and needy demon. But a
good magician always leaves the audience want-
This is probably old hat to you. If it is, then ing more. If you think it might be time to end the
unpack all those ideas from your mental GM in-character argument, its time.
drawer and put them in your Screwtape
drawer. Playing this game, you sign up to When youre in character as a demon, keep in
wrestle with the devil, and theres no point if mind that while youre ancient and evil, youre
the devil just lies there belly-up. On the other not necessarily contemporary or all that sophisti-
hand, its not much of a wrestling match if the cated. Youre all id, no internal censor, relentless
devil brings a chainsaw. Strike the balance. desire with no moral center. Understand that the
Tempt, dont bully. Give him meaningful choic- player is going to manipulate the demon through
es, but accept his decisions without trying to its simple nature, and enjoy that. When he comes
force his hand. up with a clever supervillain trope that wallows
in flamboyant, puerile and self-gratifying comic
96 book evil instead of the hopeless, efficient ba-
nality of real life evil, thats gold. Thats exactly Being on the receiving end can also be fun, as
where the game is meant to take you. But youre long as it doesnt go too far and as long as it
not going to get there unless you work together doesnt seem unfair. But unfair in this context
at providing a strong conflict. is so vague and subjective that its not all that
helpful. So lets be more particular.
Theres a real risk of getting bogged down when
you have to play two characters at once. The best Screwtape is fair as long as its a demon toying
way to handle that is dont play two characters with a character. It is not fair when its a player
at once. In many games, the mantra is never toying with a fellow player.
split up the party. Here, you dont have to abide
by that. When one player goes off on his own, Its an odd balance to strike and accusations of
hes not showboating or hogging the spotlight if taking it personal can be impossible to prove. But
he invokes his devil. Youre never alone with de- lets try a little thought-exercise. Imagine youre
monic possession. in a play. Youre in Romeo and Juliet and youve
been cast as Tybalt. Tybalt hates Romeo. When
But what if your character is in a scene and the youre onstage, you want to project loathing to-
character for whom you Screw is too? Concen- wards Romeo with every word, every gesture,
trate on your character. You can throw in a com- every eyebrow twitch. But you dont hate the ac-
ment here and there, but a good rule is to keep tor playing Romeo (I hopethough he did get the
your mouth shut unless (1) his actions touch on lead role), you dont feed him miscues and try
one of your favorite sins, (2) hes chasing down to trip him and replace his Aqua Net with spray
some virtue and it doesnt fit your designs or paint. That would just be crazy.
(3) youre being helpful. This games a little like
the Internet. Just because you can comment on In Better Angels, your Screwtape is Tybalt. Youve
everything doesnt mean its a good idea. Only got Romeo, the guy with the good lines and all
contribute when your contribution is wanted (or the time onstage. But without antagonism, youre
when it makes things more interesting for every- going to be a very boring Romeo. So when
one). Screwtape plays tricks and tempts your character,
thats all right. Hes doing his job. If he succeeds
Dealing With in destroying the character, you still get the dra-
matic death scene. If he fails, your character just
Your Screwtape looks better for having overcome steep odds.
97
On the other hand, maybe the other guy takes it
too easy on you. If you want to subtly encour-
Final
age him to throw a little more opposition in your
face, thats easy too. Taunt the demon. Talk some
Conflicts
smack. Just make sure its character-to-demon The balance between a mere mortal and a raven-
smack and not player on player. If you detach, he ing hell-beast is a delicate one and, while some
should back off. If you intensify, hes likely to re- couples rattle along together, regardless of dif-
spond in kind. ficulties (like, say, Bill and Hillary Clinton) others
reach a breaking point and explode in a public
If your Screwtape is harassing you, dont be afraid orgy of humiliation and pain (like Jon and Kate
to pipe up with, I aint invoked you yet! Thats Gosselin). Maybe youre happy playing Hillary
perfectly appropriate. In the advice on playing as to your demons Bill, but the more common out-
Screwtape, I made sure to mention how okay that come is the fight. The nasty, nasty fight.
is.
When the demon half of the equation maxes out
Step Two: Going Inside After the memory replay, the human player has
The crude 19th century exorcism was beat the an opportunity to voluntarily drop his Virtuous
devil out of im, guvnor but for a supervillain Strategy back down to 4. If he does, the conflict
there are additional steps. Physical brutality can ends and the demon/human hybrid continues in
get you part way there, but the demon can then supervillainy as before. But if the human sees
offer its mortal host temptations, in hope that he the worst outcomes that could have happened
weakens and continues to let the demon ride him. without diabolical aid and still tells the demon to
get outta town, the conflict escalates to its third
This tempting takes place in the memories of the stage.
human. The demon forces him to recollect some
traumatic event (ideally one from earlier in the If the human agrees to ramp back his
game) and shows how much worse it could have Strategy, both demon and mortal re-
been without the demons help. Or maybe the turns to consciousness. Theyre still
99
De mons a nd A mule t s
Demons are tied to the physical world through their hosts, but between hosts they need to fall back
on devices that are less likely to get old, die, go insane or come to Jesus. They need amulets.
Typically these are little paintings or carvings or pendants, often illustrating some element of the
devils appearance or personality. When the spirit has a human host, the amulet is nothing but a
very old gewgaw.
If the demons host dies, the creature reverts to the amulet. It can exert a subtle influence on the
nearest person to the object (whether that persons touching it or a hundred miles away). This in-
fluence typically helps the amulet get found or dug up if its lost. Once found, the devil tries to get
the holder to invoke it, either directly or subconsciously. (Ironically, once the demon has a formal
agreement with the mortal, it can only address the host once the host asks for it.)
Amulets arent indestructible by any means. If one gets dissolved, smashed or melted down, it
ceases to function. A demon without a host is up a creek without a paddle if its amulet is ruined. If
it does have a host, it can make a new amulet, but theres a catch. The demon has to give up a point
of its primary Strategy, and the human has to sacrifice a dot off that Strategys opposite. Getting a
feisty human to agree to that can leave a demon making all sorts of concessions.
sharing and the demon may be feeling a little gets zilched out. All physical damage is taken on
chastened and compliant after such a close call. Cruelty.
But its back to the status quo.
The mortal, on the other hand, is now just a nor-
On the other hand, if the human still wants to mal human being. Maybe a human being with a
evict, its time for the third and hardest step. rocket launcher or a bunch of friends standing by
ready to swing crowbars when the thing shows its
Step Three: face, but in the final analysis, frail flesh. However,
The Bludgeoning he can use Tactics from both sides of the charac-
At this point, the demon physically separates ter sheet if he wants, at the levels theyd reached
from the human, usually through an orifice of before the demon was expelled. (This does mean
the demons choice. This is universally nonfatal he has zero Cruelty to use.)
(worse luck) and does no real damage. Then the
demon and the human fight. The hell-creature has to fight to the deatheither
its old hosts or its own. If the host dies first, the
The demon in this state is both majestic and frag- demon can find a new host, just as if the mor-
ile. It can reallocate dots from any Sinister Tactic tal died without challenge. But if the demon dies
into Cruelty, and both its Aspects are automati- first, its exiled from the mortal realm. If it has
cally activated for free. It can use its powers at an amulet somewhere (see Demons and Amu-
will. However, it cannot use any Virtuous stats. lets), its stuck in that until someone deliberately
If it has a power based on Sly Cruelty, it can rock tries to coax it out with lots of mischief and mojo.
that hard. If it has one based on Insight- If the amulet has been destroyed, or is on the
ful Corruption, its pool for that is Cor- mortal hosts person, or gets destroyed while the
ruption only. The demon dies if its Sly
100 demons trapped, then the demon is flung back to
KOMODA
In addition, it has to
Hell where it wails and gnash- carry out this gross
es its teeth. The human wickedness with the
triumphs, living out human hanging on its
his days without back yelling, Hey!
superpowers Stop! Thats my wife,
but free. douche-bag! No one
but the devil hears
101
Hell On Earth ordinary guy in a notorious supervillains getup.)
After twenty-four hours as a man, the creature is The demon finds a new host and the mortal deals
forced into its true form, which it cannot hide. Its with the fallout of the previous 24 hours devil
Aspects turn on and wont turn off. It takes con- dickery.
trol of its infernal powers, which it can roll at full
strength, even if it needs to borrow a Strategy for Maybe the demon fails to get its guts strung be-
the activation roll. The mortal is still stuck in the fore the clock ticks down. If thats the outcome,
passenger seat, but can still sacrifice Tactics to its primary Strategy drops to 4 and it goes back
pull dice out of sets, as described above. Though to being a passive passenger on the mortal, who
its likely that by now, his store of Virtuous Tac- regains control of the body just in time for the
tics is pretty depleted. (This is a fine time for the wracking pains and grossness of its transforma-
mortals player to put a little extra effort into his tion back to human shape. The devil and mortal
Screwtaping, as described on page 96.) are back in traces, working together in the same
unlikely buddy-movie pairing they had before the
The demon, unveiled and in charge, has one demon hit Strategy 5 and started getting ideas.
hourjust sixty thin minutesto round up five
innocent victims, murder them, and arrange their But maybe the demon succeeds. Maybe the de-
entrails in a pentagram. For the purposes of this mon gets its five-man quota and says a brief chant
gruesome rite, innocent means someone the and the intestinal pentacle bursts into flame.
demon hasnt met before, doesnt know, but who
still isnt a horrible hell-bent soul. If he grabs five Maybe the demon opens a portal to Hell.
people at random and one just happens to be a
child molester, murderer, renegade bank execu- Abyssal Cage Match
tive or war criminal, the ritual fails. Home! Im goin home! ON MY TERMS, BITCHES!
This may not sound all that difficult for a beast Thats pretty much the spirit of the situation. The
of infernal might, but keep in mind it just spent demon hops through the hole into Hell (which
the last twenty-four hours in egregious destruc- the GM gets to decorate as she sees fit) barfs
tion, and it is now clearly, visibly and obviously out his mortal (with neither man nor monster
a Thing That Should Not Be. Most peoples re- taking damage from the process) and laughs
sponse is to run, call the cops, pray, or cry out and laughs and laughs.
loud for superhero intervention.
Dragging a human being physically to Hell re-
Maybe the demon dies at this stage. If it does, the sults in a demon becoming more powerful,
mortal body can emerge, relatively unscathed, more prestigious in what passes for decent so-
form the wreckage of the diabolical form. (If the ciety among the damned, and he gets sent back
human was hurt beforehandif, say, his dad hit to Earth with another amulet (page 100) to do
him in the brisket with a pipe wrench during the it again. The human? Well, Ill just say it goes
first stage patricidethose injuries remain.) The poorly for him and let your imagination fill in
mortal has had the demon forcibly flung off it and the rest. No, filthier than that. More painful.
is now just an ordinary guy. (Well, probably an More humiliating. There.
102
Although the devils triumph and the mortals despair only occur if the man cant escape. Odds are, he
cant. Hes in human form with no powers or Aspects, hes beat up, and all he has is any equipment he
put on the super-suit. The portal could be right next to him but more likely its way up in the roof of an
echoing, sulfurous cavern with his old pal the demon standing between him and it.
The demon? Hes in his native form once more with fun new superpowers. If he did not already have the
Wings Aspect, he gains it. If he did not already have Carapace, he gets it. If he was not already Flame-
Wreathed, he now is. Fun!
The mortal? If the demon kills him, he re-forms unhurt in two rounds with Open 1, Endurance 1 and
Courage 1. But he only has ten rounds to get out the hole before it closes, locking him into the under-
world forever and making his rivals gains permanent.
The smart money is clearly on the devil in this situation, if it stays mano-a-demono. About the only hope
the mortal has is if someone on the sunlit, God-watched world of Earth jumps through the hole to try and
reel him out. Even then, the odds arent great unless its someone with powers of their own fit to beard
the devil in his own den. (Everyone knows the devil has a beard. Its that black, pointy, pie-stabbing num-
ber.) So if the mortals fellow supervillains decide to take the plunge, they might literally yank his nads
out of the fire. Of course, if theyre on the hot n fiery side when the gate closes, they count as additional
trophies for the demons den wall, while their demons get stuck in Hell occupying subservient roles to
the demon who opened the gate.
You know what? I think the smart moneys on the demon, no matter what.
KOMODA
103
Chap
big f te r
at e 9:
xam
ple s
BARKLEY
Remember Tobey, Frank and Katie, our intrepid players from back in Chapter 2? Its time
for their first session. Their GM, Sarah, has imposed a narrative contrivance on them. To wit, their de-
mons are all pals from back during the War On Heaven and, while its excessive to suggest that they trust
or like one another, they hate and fear each other less than they might other people.
Both Wanda (the blues musician with, so far, no last name) and Luther Christian have Virtuous Strate-
gies that are lower than their Screwtapes primary Strategies, so their demons (run by Tobey and Frank,
respectively) can constantly spy on their mortals but not say anything. This means that both those de-
mons have seen images of a display of ancient Incan statuary coming to the local museum, and theyre
aware that a fourth member of their little band has that statue as his amulet. But until called, they cant
do anything. Sarah mentioned the statue to all three disparate hellbound, but only Felix Barbarossa has
taken the bait. Therefore, hes on hand to see the museum director (with a somewhat dazed expression)
making his way through the moderate crowd, two guards at his side, setting up velvet ropes to keep
people ten feet back from the idol. Then the director gestures to a petite woman who has a strange effect
on Dr. Barbarossa.
FRANK (FELIX): ...huh. Okay, something weirds SARAH: They beat down your sorry asses in the
going on here, but Im just going to play it cool war. Whats that tell you?
for a bit.
FRANK (FELIX): Do angels automatically recog-
SARAH: Youre not the only one affected. An awed nize demons?
hush falls over the crowd as she nears the case,
and then people start babbling things at herI SARAH: Nope. You can get the drop on her, maybe.
love you! Please help me! Tell me what you
want! and so forthjust as the museum director FRANK (FELIX): Nah, Im going to shout out at
unlocks the case. her, Hey, thats stealing! Youre stealing that!
Thou shalt not steal!
FRANK (FELIX): Hey, whats going on?
SARAH: Okay, what are you trying to do here?
SARAH: No ones paying attention. The museum
director is grunting as he tries to pull out the stat- FRANK (FELIX): A Devious Nurture attack, at-
ue. tempting to wear down her um, lets go straight
after her Nurture.
FRANK (FELIX): Im going to regret this but
Kazoth? You there? KATIE (KAZOTH): Ooh, can I give him an MD to
help with that?
KATIE (KAZOTH): Oh, thats me, right? Ahem.
Tremble, puny mortal, as dread Kazoth attends SARAH: Itll cost you a point of Corruption.
thy sniveling invocation!
KATIE (KAZOTH): ...which is zero. Okay, I guess
FRANK (FELIX): ...yeah. So any idea whats Im restricted to cheerleading. Your temerity
going on there? pleases Kazoth, mortal! Perhaps you shall prove
106 a worthy host of my
FRANK (FELIX): Yeah, yeah, did she hear me? SARAH: Roll Sly Cowardice to sneak around and
skulk. Any set will do it. You were towards the
SARAH: Shes trying to defend herself with In- front so getting to the back is easy. Everyones
sightful Nurture. trying to get closer to the adorable woman.
FRANK (FELIX): So what bonuses do I get? FRANK (FELIX): Kazoth, you want to help me
skulk?
SARAH: None.
KATIE (KAZOTH): ...no.
FRANK (FELIX): What? Im taking her by surprise
and Im telling the truth about her stealing! Thats FRANK (FELIX): ...and I roll a pair of tens.
gotta be worth some Advantage!
SARAH: Youve skulked. What now?
SARAH: Normally, yes. But it doesnt work against
her. Making an angel doubt itself is an uphill task FRANK (FELIX): Hes trying to stop her! He must
at the best of times, and shes got a trick protect- be evil! Hes protecting the evil statue! Get him
ing her. before he hurts her!
FRANK (FELIX): ...oh. Im rolling 6d and I get SARAH: What are you trying to accomplish with
ooh, a pair of nines! this?
SARAH: Holy snap, Frank! Even with a Master FRANK (FELIX): I want the crowd to get riled up
Die she cant avoid the guilt trip from your pair and mob the guards and director, or at least get
of sixes. mad at them so she has to deal with it.
FRANK (FELIX): Theyre nines. SARAH: Okay, roll Devious Deceit to create a mis-
understanding.
SARAH: Theyre sixes now. She falters for a sec-
ond, then says, I realize this is irregular, but this KATIE (KAZOTH): Have a Master Die. I can add
statue is very dangerous. I have to dispose of it one to this and oh, do I ever want to!
safely. The museum director is looking a little
puzzled, too. FRANK (FELIX): Lets make that a pair of tens,
shall we?
FRANK (FELIX): Im going to look at him and yell,
Are you just going to let her steal and destroy it? SARAH: The crowd starts shoving and shouting,
Who is she anyway? and now the guards are bellying up to the vel-
vet ropes and scowling, and suddenly instead
SARAH (AS THE MUSEUM DIRECTOR): Um, of being a little woman with a beaded handbag
thats a good point er, Miss, I dont think I caught and recycled flip-flops, shes a ten foot tall blaz-
your name could you, maybe, go into a little ing statue made of diamonds with wings and a
more detail about what youre planning to do? halo. People are openly falling down in worship.
Kazoth, you do realize that if you dont do any-
FRANK (FELIX): Okay, Im going to try and slip thing, your good friends amulet is likely to get
into the crowd so Im blended. destroyed, confining her to the fiery furnace for
the foreseeable future?
SARAH: Youre in the crowd already.
KATIE (KAZOTH): All we need to do is get close
FRANK (FELIX): Yeah, but I dont want her, or any- enough and we can start teleporting the thing
one else, to realize that the same guy says the away from her. Shes dealing with the
next thing. crowd, right?
107
SARAH: Felix would have to make an Open Cow- FRANK (FELIX): All right, Im shoving my face
ardice roll to get through the people, who are down to hide it and sending the thing.
now really clumping up around her. Difficulty 3.
Frank, you going to try it? SARAH: Shes trying to grab you and yank you off
it before you can do anything.
FRANK (FELIX): She hasnt really identified me,
right? FRANK (FELIX): I get no sets.
SARAH: Theres a lot going on. How would you tell? SARAH: And she gets a pair of tens to haul you
off it. Youre now dangling from her hand and
FRANK (FELIX): All right, Ill push to the front of shes staring at you balefully.
the crowd again. Six dice and look at that pair
of tens and pair of eights! Haw! FRANK (FELIX): Kazoth, can we please phase out
of this?
SARAH: Youre right by the demon statue, but
theres a guard in front of you. KATIE (KAZOTH): And now the mortal pleads for
his mistress favor. Very well, squealing one. But
FRANK (FELIX): The crowds surging around, thou owest me greatly!
right? Can I make a Banish attack when I brush
against him, without him noticing? SARAH: Next round, youre trying to use Ghost
Form and shes trying to stop you from using
SARAH: Um you can try, but thats a multiple Ghost Form. Both happen simultaneously, so
action between Devious Deceit and whatever you call the roll odds or evens?
use to activate Banish.
FRANK (FELIX): Odds!
FRANK (FELIX): Ooh. That would be four dice, try-
ing to get two sets. Okay, Im just going to knock BARKLEY
down one of the rope stanchions, flop forward
and land on the doodad.
SARAH: Okay, Katie calls it and its odd. You SARAH: Thats what he says. Over her shoulder
slide your point of Devious and start to go through you see a guy dressed all in black, except for a
her fingers when she cries Demon! and sud- narrow red triangle on his forehead and a thin
denly youre solid again. But hey, you might as red diamond in the center of his chest. Black
well bring out the wings, since your gig is already cape, black boots, one black glove and one red,
up. black mask.
KATIE (KAZOTH): She can just switch my powers FRANK (FELIX): Gimp or domino?
off?!?
SARAH: Gimp. The mouths unzipped. He makes
SARAH: That one, apparently. a gesture, and suddenly theres a burning axe in
his red right hand. Prepare to face THE AXE-
FRANK (FELIX): Right, Ima Banish her hand. HOLE! Hes taking a swing at the diamond wom-
an. Shes going to fly up in the air with you to
SARAH: Hm normally youd get a fat surprise avoid him.
bonus, but shes immune to bonuses
FRANK (FELIX): Im going to try to get away from
FRANK (FELIX): What, like, all of them? her.
SARAH: Shes going to punch you real hard. SARAH: Roll your Sly Cowardice.
Hows your Courage? Shes trying to take you
straight out of the fight. FRANK (FELIX): What about Open Cowardice? Its
higher.
FRANK (FELIX): Courage two. Maybe Ill just try
to eel out of her grip before she hits me. SARAH: Fine. She swoops up just as he swings,
and?
KATIE (KAZOTH): Ill give up a point of Cowardice
for that! FRANK (FELIX): Pair of sixes.
SARAH: Hm. You trying to avoid the blow or get SARAH: You slide out of her grip and sprawl
away or make a multiple action for both? on the floor. The crowds fleeing, except for the
guards, who are pulling out their nightsticks.
FRANK (FELIX): Gah! I guess I have to avoid the
punch FRANK (FELIX): Grab the statue and send it to the
stairwell.
SARAH: Katie, are his wings out?
SARAH: You sure? Youre actually the most Cun-
KATIE (KAZOTH): Not yet. Hell, if hes going to ning person here, so you can wait and see what
get beat to death, he might as well die looking the Shining Diamond and Axe-Hole do first.
human.
FRANK (FELIX): Oh. Ill do that, then.
SARAH: Roll em.
SARAH: Axe-Hole points at a guard and says,
FRANK (FELIX): Triple sevens, with that Master You know what I like to do in a museum? Deface
Die! things. Shining Diamond swoops down at him.
SARAH: Enough to beat her triple fives. You squirm FRANK (FELIX): ...yeah, still thinking Ill
out of the way and hear someone behind her shout, send the statue to the steps. Two sevens,
Hey, face your real nemesis, you slutty slutface!
109
two fours! On four dice! Thank you very much! KATIE (KAZOTH): Oh yeah! Lets see what Felix
did Cowardice? Humiliate someone. Humiliat-
KATIE: Your dice are hot today. ing yourself presumably doesnt count. So using
Cowardice for what it says on the tin doesnt im-
SARAH: A red scrap of flesh appears in Axe-Holes prove it? Greed steal something useless, would
hand while a guard screams and clutches his the statue count? No? Crud For Cruelty I need
now-bleeding head. Then the Diamond crashes to kill someone. Didnt do that. Espionage? Need
into him and he gets flung back a good ten feet. a victory gloat, which implies victory. Drat. Well,
You teleport the statue away just like you wanted Corruption needs minions in service and I sure as
while the crowd stampedes, the museum director hell dont have the open betrayal and mockery I
flees, and one guard tries to help the other. Next need for Deceit.
round, Axe is going to start swinging wildly at
the crowd, Diamond shouts I forbid you to harm SARAH: Sounds like a whole lotta nothing. Frank?
these people! and Katie? You get the feeling that Got anything to turn Sinister Tactics Virtuous?
Ghost Form might just work now.
FRANK (FELIX): I cant turn virtue back into sin?
KATIE (KAZOTH): Really? Oh, lets do that!
SARAH: Nope. This is repentance were talking
FRANK (FELIX): Can I get through the floor? about.
BARKLEY
pulverize me with a single hit, right?
KATIE (WANDA): Right Terbat, should we go SARAH: Yeah, people are pointing at that.
invisible?
KATIE (WANDA): Right. Plan B. I stride forward
TOBEY (TERBAT): Screw you. and look for the two biggest guys in the crowd.
You! You in the Tap-Out shirt and over there, the
KATIE (WANDA): What? Screw screw me? I guy in the Coors cap! I need you to lift me over
thought we were coming here to rescue the amu- the fence.
let for your old buddy, but if thats going to be
your attitude TOBEY (TERBAT): You know, Invisibility is start-
ing to sound good right about now
TOBEY (TERBAT): I dont wanna! Cmon Wanda,
going invisible is hard. Why dont we just use TK SARAH: One of the onlookers is kind of sidling
to mess up the light, then climb the outside of away, towards the front where the cops are
that building, then throw the hook into one of
those trees and get across that way? KATIE (WANDA): Im going to pick the sidler up
with Telekinesis.
KATIE (WANDA): Fine, well try that.
SARAH: If youre not hurting her, thats any In-
SARAH: Roll Insightful Deceit to undo the light- sightful Deceit roll, complete with the surprise
bulb. and weapon bonuses.
TOBEY (LUTHER): Oh, Im for sure heading that SARAH: Plus one, unless its like a super-awe-
way. some Stradivarius guitar. Yours isnt.
SARAH: ...and our runner got a pair of tens in her KATIE (WANDA): Any surprise bonus?
attempt to get police attention, so two cops are
going with her. SARAH: The cops are surprised that youre sing-
ing at them, but its not really that helpful.
KATIE (WANDA): I just wanted to get over the
stupid fence. Im going up to it and throwing my KATIE (WANDA): Right. No sets.
grappling hook. I cant TK myself over?
SARAH: Theyre grabbing you.
SARAH: Nope. Open Cowardice to get over the top.
KATIE (WANDA): Im going to levitate one cop
KATIE (WANDA): Oh crud. (Rolls.) Not a sausage. into the other.
SARAH: Tobey, as Luther rounds the corner, he FRANK (MUREKABAL): Im going to activate the
sees her trying to climb the fence and not having Giant and Darkness-Shrouded Aspects.
a very good time of it. The cops are closing in.
Frank, youre Tobeys Screwtape, right? TOBEY (LUTHER): What?! No, dont!
FRANK (MUREKABAL): Murekabal, reporting FRANK (MUREKABAL): I cant just let Terbat get
for duty. thrown in the slam.
SARAH: That incompetent-seeming woman is SARAH: You cant stop an active demon from
hosting Terbat the Splendid who soloed against switching on your Aspects. Roll your Strategy
four seraphim to give you time to drag a wound-
ed Kazoth to safety. Now two donut-fed po-pos FRANK (MUREKABAL): Two threes.
are trying to cuff and stuff her.
KATIE (WANDA): On two dice? Thats it, Im
FRANK (MUREKABAL): Luther! You must help changing dice.
her! Murekabal commands it!
SARAH: Your Aspects have been thrust upon you,
TOBEY (LUTHER): I think Im just going to hang Tobey. What are you going to do with them?
back and see how this plays out.
TOBEY (LUTHER): Um, I guess Ill exclude her
KATIE (WANDA): Im unslinging the guitar and from the darkness shroud and yell at them to let
starting in on a soulful blues song about how her go.
badly Ima reprise on anyone who touches me.
SARAH: Right. The cops are trying to grab her
TOBEY (LUTHER): Doesnt reprise mean when all this stuff goes down, they are totally not
repeating a musical theme? expecting crazy demon powers from behind.
112
KATIE (WANDA): I got two fives, two sevens to KATIE (WANDA): If by crap you mean zero
levitate the cop.
SARAH: Whatre you doing?
SARAH: Why does Luther want to yell at the cops?
KATIE (WANDA): Im yelling Hey, lift me over the
TOBEY (LUTHER): Um he doesnt want them to fence!
hurt her, or for her to hurt them.
TOBEY (LUTHER): Subtle. Im just ripping the fence
SARAH: Good enough, roll Devious Nurture with open. Im crazy strong when Im huge, right?
a +2 weapon bonus.
SARAH: Yeah. Youre also an easy target, or
TOBEY (LUTHER): Im taking that on my result. would be if you werent all Darkness-Shrouded.
Three sixes, two fours. Ill add the +2 so that be- The cops are shooting at you.
comes five sixes, right?
KATIE (WANDA): Can I TK a cop?
KATIE: Howd you get that giant pool?
SARAH: Sure. Same one or the other one?
TOBEY (LUTHER): Im a very nurturing person.
KATIE (WANDA): The one who lost Open last
SARAH: Right. One cop hesitates as the giant time. And Im putting all my Advantage into extra
yells at him, and the other gets knocked over with Width.
TK but doesnt quite hit his partner. People are
now yelling and running. So you know, Katie, SARAH: Noted. Tobey, to get that fence uprooted
youve slid one cops Courage and Luther, youve youre going to need to roll any set with Open
decreased the other cops Open. Next round? Courage. (Rolls.) The cop youre aiming at, Katie,
Wanda, your Cunning is crap, right? gets a pair of sevens, good enough to penetrate
the darkness.
TOBEY (LUTHER): Im punching the guy who shot KATIE (WANDA): Cmon, I just killed a guy!
me. Or can I swing the fence at him?
TOBEY (TERBAT): All right, pay me my Insight.
SARAH: Yeah, youve got a piece of fence debris. Yeeeaaahh...
Give yourself a +2 weapon bonus.
SARAH: Youre invisible and going through the
TOBEY (LUTHER): Im putting everything into fence? Thatll take you out of the scene.
boosting the pool. Normally, my pool for Open
Cruelty is um two No wait, it just got an- KATIE (WANDA): Im fine with that. I get a point of
gried up to three! So +2 from the weapon up Cruelty for killing that cop, right?
to +3 from being Giant along with +1 surprise
from the cloud seven dice? SARAH: If Tobey wants to take it.
SARAH: That guy got a pair of eights, so do better. TOBEY (TERBAT): And why wouldnt I?
TOBEY (LUTHER): I got a pair of twos. Thats SARAH: Sure. Any kind of repentance going on to
not better. slide stuff around?
TOBEY (TERBAT): All the more reason to keep FRANK (MUREKABAL): Thats pretty clever.
alert. Not to mention that it might be a bad idea
to take offensive powers off the table when 5-0s SARAH: Okay. There are about five cops shooting
going on the warpath. at you. Youre going to need to make an Open
Cowardice roll to vault over them without trip-
KATIE (WANDA): Okay, Ill leave it on Espionage. ping over one.
TOBEY (LUTHER): Before Luther leaves, he has TOBEY (LUTHER): Does the surprise bonus help?
to gloat over the fallen cops. Does it count if I let
Murekabal do it? SARAH: No, cmon. They cant see you coming,
how are they going to get out of your way?
SARAH: If you stand around declaiming about how
great thou art, more cops are going to surround you, TOBEY (LUTHER): Pair of sevens.
increasing your risk, no matter who says the words.
Youre trying for a Tactic increase, right? Yeah, you SARAH: Cop one pair of eights. Cop two
can let your demon spout off and get the raise. miss. Cop three pair of nines.
TOBEY (LUTHER): Hell, Im grabbing three guns SARAH: Yes. Only one of them is still armed, but
and putting all three points of Advantage into my hes out of the cloud.
pool. It starts at seven, goes up to ten, loses two
for two extra targets TOBEY (LUTHER): Hm is there a storm sewer
grate around, or a manhole cover?
SARAH: Yeah, theyre shooting you some more.
SARAH: Yeah, theyre all over the place.
TOBEY (LUTHER): Pair of nines, pair of threes.
Hm TOBEY (LUTHER): Im heading over to it and
wrenching it out.
SARAH: Cop one misses. Cop two misses.
Cop three misses. Cop four misses. And cop SARAH: If thats all you want to do, you can get it
five gets a pair of threes, which miss because without a roll.
youre cloaked in the inky night.
TOBEY (LUTHER): Grand.
FRANK (FELIX): I guess thats why youre sup-
posed to hit the ground when guns go off. SARAH: The last cop takes a shot at you while
youre doing that. Holy cow, he hits!
SARAH: They think they have to aim ten feet up
to get center mass. Youre now holding two guns. TOBEY (LUTHER): Hes after my Courage, which
is empty?
TOBEY (LUTHER): Well shoot, that worked great.
Lets do it again. Ill just go after two this time, SARAH: Yep, so it goes into Open.
since the surprise from Summoning wears off.
Thats eight dice, looking for two sets pair of TOBEY (LUTHER): Ah, but being Giant lets me
nines, pair of fives. decide whether it impacts Open or Sly and Im
knocking down Sly to slide into Open.
SARAH: The three cops who still have guns
ones trying to get out of the dark and the other FRANK (FELIX): You realize thats going to shrink
two are shooting. One misses, the other gets a you? Youre just weakening your own giantism.
pair of sevens.
TOBEY (LUTHER): Id like to deactivate Giant and
TOBEY (LUTHER): Did I disarm him before he get down the manhole.
could shoot?
FRANK (MUREKABAL): Oh very well. I sup-
SARAH: Lets see, you aimed at two of the three pose we have created enough of a distraction for
cops two of them shot at you and you got two our erstwhile ally Terbat.
guns call it a forty percent chance of getting the
right guy? Roll and if you get a 1 through 4, you TOBEY (LUTHER): Not to mention that we stole
disarm him before he shoots you. guns we dont really want or need and probably
humiliated those cops.
TOBEY (LUTHER): Nope.
SARAH: Youre down in the storm sewer. Give
SARAH: Lose another point of Courage me a success with Open Cowardice and you can
into Cruelty as he shoots you. put the cover back. Eh, lets make that Difficulty 3,
116 since youre under it and its heavy.
TOBEY (LUTHER): Pair of fives. Luther is buff. SARAH: Why?
SARAH: Right. If you switch off the darkness, you FRANK (MUREKABAL): Yeah, why? Itll just
can get away clean and they think you just van- make you less awesome.
ished. That ends the scene.
TOBEY (LUTHER): Because Luther could have
FRANK (MUREKABAL): Okay, well lets see what started shooting those unarmed cops dead, and
Tactic we can crank. Did we humiliate someone? with Cruelty all maxed out he must have wanted
That could raise Cowardice, which is already nice to, but he showed forbearance.
and high we stole those guns, which we didnt
need, that could raise Greed SARAH: Okay, thats reasonable. Luther really
didnt want to hurt those cops.
SARAH: Thats kind of a stretch.
FRANK (MUREKABAL): Running away, in this
FRANK (MUREKABAL): Well the victory gloat case, increases your Courage stat? How do you
for Espionage is a lock, right? And our Espionage figure?
is empty, so Ill raise that.
TOBEY (LUTHER): Because I stood up to Mureka-
TOBEY (LUTHER): Can I move a point from Cru- bal, which is a lot harder than facing down some
elty back to Courage? policemen.
BARKLEY
117
Sarah then switches the action back to Wanda as FRANK (FELIX): Ill go first. I risked my life to
she sneaks through the museum to search for the secure the amulet of my comrade, and I categori-
statue, which she eventually finds and retrieves cally will not let her be destroyed over some an-
(though not before she swipes a couple of nice cient grudge. If I was willing to let that happen, I
folk-art necklaces from the gift shop and a few could have just let that Shining Diamond creature
netsuke that catch her eye in the Japanese ex- do it!
hibit). Some debate ensues about whether this is
a new scene (giving her the opportunity to raise SARAH: Okay. Who are you glaring at while you
another sin) or whether its a continuation of the say that, and whats it meant to accomplish?
old scene (which would let her stay Invisible with-
out having to reactivate the Aspect). They com- FRANK (FELIX): Um, Luthers the one who wants
promise by letting her get inside unseen before to smash it, so Im pointing that at him and trying
the invisibility wears off (complete with Terbat to kinda scare him into backing down, and kinda
groaning, Its haaaard) and requiring her to impress him with my loyalty. Or, I guess, Kazoths
make some Espionage rolls to remain unspotted, loyalty.
but the clever use of a few telekinetic distractions
gives her the bonuses she needs to escape with SARAH: Sounds like Devious Corruption, aimed
the statue just in time to run into Luther and at Courage? Nurture?
Felix, whove rejoined the crowd of gawkers, de-
mons active so that they easily recognize her. FRANK (FELIX): Lets make it Courage.
Retiring to Felixs office, they narrate their back- TOBEY (LUTHER): You just want my Cruelty all
stories and then discuss what they want to do plumped up!
with the Inca statue containing their old comrade
Nuzathon the Diacritically Intolerant. (Its a very SARAH: Luther? Whatre you doing in response?
rough translation from the old Abyssal, hard to
explain in English.) It emerges that while Kazoth TOBEY (LUTHER): Look, are you sure that letting
is a huge fan of Nuzathon (to the point of hoping out another demon is such a great idea? I mean,
to get the spirit in a female form so that Dr. Bar- sure, getting even with an unfair system sounded
barossa can continue the on-again, off-again love great in the abstract, but theres a dead cop in the
affair kindled during the war), Murekabal has street thanks to us. Im going with Insightful
zero interest in helping someone whos diacriti- Nurture to keep my Courage intact. I didnt fold to
cally intolerant (the umlaut in his name indicates Murekabal, Im not folding to some satanic doc-
a form of demonic well, thats too much to go tor with delusions of grandeur.
into here, just suffice to say they didnt see eye to
eye on some critical political questions during the KATIE (WANDA): Hey, I had those cops totally
rebellion against the Lord God Almighty). Add in under control until you had to giant out and make
Terbats filthy lust for Nuzathon (complete with them panic!
hopes to get it in a male host more susceptible
to Wandas particular set of charms) and the con- TOBEY (LUTHER): What, with a power ballad?
versation gets quite heated. With demons active,
all three start bickering over the ultimate fate of SARAH: You guys just bickering, or are you really
the Incan statue. trying to make some shifts? Tobey, its going to
be a multiple action if youre sniping at Wanda.
SARAH: All right, each of you has made some ar-
guments, but no ones really whipped out the stats TOBEY (LUTHER): Im just blocking Felix.
and started trying to re-arrange someone elses
character sheet. Im willing to close this scene and KATIE (WANDA): And Im just lashing out be-
call it inconclusive unless youre willing to cause I feel guilty and think he was slyly making
start with the cutting remarks that cant be a dig at me.
118 unsaid.
SARAH: Roll em. afraid and then break down crying. Devious
Nurture, I guess.
FRANK (FELIX): Trip threes?
SARAH: Wow. Right, hes unexpectedly snif-
TOBEY (LUTHER): Pair of tens. fling and weeping and Luthers defending when
no ones attacking. Katie, youve strummed and
KATIE (WANDA): Im going to start idly strum- hummed and are as in tune as youre getting.
ming my guitar.
KATIE (WANDA): Im unleashing Impossible
SARAH: Idly? Beauty. Thats +1 Advantage from the guitar and
+2 for taking two rounds to aim, right? Okay,
KATIE (WANDA): Just warming up. I can take my hm Im adding one die to the pool and two to
time with this, right? the Width. Do I have to make a multiple action to
whammy both these guys?
SARAH: Sure.
SARAH: Nope. The power targets you, making
FRANK (FELIX): Felix makes the point that if we you persuasive, so its not multiple. Whatre you
work together, were a lot more protected. I, for guys doing while shes bursting into song? Lu-
one, am in no hurry to face that horrible angel ther, you declare next.
again by myself. If we team up, we can watch
each others backs. TOBEY (LUTHER): I think were all pretty
stressed out and distraught. We dont have to de-
TOBEY (LUTHER): Youve got a funny way of cide this tonight, after all. Why dont we kick back
arguing for cooperation. You start with inflexible and make decisions tomorrow when our minds
demands that we take dangerous actions, then are clear? So thats Devious Nurture, attacking
fall back on insisting we protect one another! his Corruption. He either agrees to put off the de-
cision or takes the hit, right?
SARAH: Whatre you guys up to? Luther, you de-
clare first. SARAH: Right. Frank?
TOBEY (LUTHER): Im going after his Corruption FRANK (FELIX): I guess Ill defend with Insight-
by making him realize how unreasonable hes be- ful Nurture? No, I cant do that, can I? Ill have to
ing, and what a terrible risk hes taking. counterattack. Hm. Okay. Here we go. Felix looks
up, eyes wet and says, You dont know how
SARAH: That doesnt sound like what you said. deep Kazoths feelings for Nuzathon are! I really
think he loves her. I think thats the best part
TOBEY (LUTHER): All right, then Ill fall back of him, something that didnt get soiled and cor-
into a defensive Insightful Nurture crouch. I rupted, something that kept him going through
dont want another demon rampaging around. his imprisonment! Without her I dont know, he
Thats bedrock. could go completely crazy! So either he agrees
to let Nuzathon out, or he loses a point of Nur-
FRANK (FELIX): Can I add a die to my pool next ture!
round if I dont roll this round? Just set up argu-
ments, like aiming in combat? SARAH: If you get the sets. Roll, suckas.
SARAH: Sure, but you have to explain what TOBEY (LUTHER): Two fives.
youre setting up.
FRANK (FELIX): Nothing. Nuts.
FRANK (FELIX): Crap, my Corruption is lousy
Ive only got good stuff to persuade with. So I KATIE (WANDA): Pair of tens, pair of
guess I have to go with the Im so lonely and fours. With the Width boost, I get +4
119
Advantage to all Corruption and Deceit for the isnt it a little hypocritical for the guy hosting
rest of the scene. Hey guys, lets chat! a demon through a gunfight with the cops to
suddenly have all the scruples about unleash-
TOBEY (LUTHER): Do you feel boned? I feel kinda ing demons? Thats Devious Corruption target-
boned. ing his Nurture. I want to lance that big boil of
decency on him!
FRANK (FELIX): Distinctly boned, yes.
TOBEY (LUTHER): ...ohhhkay. Ill point out that,
SARAH: Be that as it may, the music seeps into one, Im the fellow who got shot a lot, and that,
your minds and coils there like a moist, smoth- two, as a demon host, Im front and center for
ering layer of poisoned perfume. Wanda? Youve their viciousness and incidental murders. Im do-
got the whammy on em, whatre you doing with ing Devious Nurture against her Corruption to re-
it? mind her how guilty she felt about rupturing that
dude.
KATIE (WANDA): Ill start with Luther. Im going
to point out that I was the one who shed blood FRANK (FELIX): As long as shes not aiming at
for this thing, Im the one who took the risk of me, Im boo-hooing about my fears and trying to
sneaking in and hauling it out and, in passing, get her to commit to some kind of mutual protec-
tion deal. Would that be Devious Nurture?
120 BARKLEY
SARAH: Youre trying to play on her sympathies die to 10 and I roll 3x9, which should do it.
while shes distracted to get her to protect your
mewling little self? Not exactly pure. Devious SARAH (BACK WITH THE OTHERS): Right, shes
Corruption, hombre. falling back to, Lets deal with it in the morning.
TOBEY (LUTHER): Two fives, two fours. SARAH: You okay, Frank, what about you?
KATIE (WANDA): Two pair, tens over fives. FRANK (FELIX): One more plea that we agree to
help one another out. Ill suggest that it be on a
SARAH: Okay, so Luther loses a point of Nur- trial basis, for like two weeks? Devious Corrup-
ture, sliding it into Corruption. That wrecks one tion against Wanda, she gets hit unless she com-
of Tobeys sets, but he has two, so Wanda loses a mits to the team.
point of Corruption, sliding it into Nurture.
KATIE (WANDA): Oh, you Im going to
FRANK (FELIX): Were approaching a steady state.
FRANK: No results. I need more Corruption.
KATIE (WANDA): Wanda doesnt have any Cor-
ruption. KATIE (WANDA): Wanda takes Felixs hand in hers,
stares in his eyes and says, Yeah. Im in it. No
SARAH: Lose your Devious, then. more lone wolf Wanda. Now were like a pack. Like
a family. Tearing up, super-intense, total climax of
KATIE (WANDA): Slide? the Oprah network movie emotional intensity.
KATIE (WANDA): Oh, youre paying for that one. KATIE (WANDA): Devious Corruption to get him
I was going to wrap the good doctor around my to feel obligated to protect and assist Wanda the
finger, but instead right. I stop playing, cold and way he wants her to help him.
say, Okay Luther, youre right. Well sleep on it and
make our decisions when were not so wound SARAH: You think thats corrupt? Getting him to
up. Hey doc, can you recommend a place to stay? put himself at risk and deal squarely? Sounds like
And where do you think we should store the thing? a job for Nurture.
Will it be safe in your clinic?
KATIE (WANDA): Ugh, fine. I got a pair of twos.
SARAH: Whatre you doing here, Katie? Come
over here and tell me in the other room. SARAH: Thatll do. Whatre you aimed at? Ooh,
looking at his sheet, it doesnt matter. If he doesnt
KATIE (AS WANDA; IN PRIVATE): Im lying to Lu- cave, its coming straight off Devious.
ther. I want to get him off my back and then find
a good host for Nuz, or at least hide the statue so FRANK (FELIX): I need some Deceit and Corrup-
he doesnt break it. tion Right. Bursting into tears, Felix throws
his arms around her and says, Until the wheels
SARAH (IN PRIVATE): Roll your Deceit, and beat come off, Wanda!
his Insightful. Youve got +4 Advantage, how do
you want to divvy that up? SARAH: He means it? Hes really dedicated to this
teamwork?
KATIE (AS WANDA, IN PRIVATE): Width doesnt
matter? Ill put it all into a pool boost and drop a FRANK (FELIX): He is at this second.
die to make a called shot, setting one remaining
121
KATIE (WANDA): How else could he get that cov- your ability to pay for stuff it was zero well,
eted point of Deceit later? I guess youre getting called back for a job! All
right, I think this is a good place to end the ses-
FRANK (FELIX): Now youre getting how the sion. You can slide a point between Strategies,
games played. and you can increase a Strategy by sacrificing one
bad Tactic and one good Tactic under it. But doing
SARAH: Okay, lets go through the six sins and this requires an 80s-sitcom-style lesson learned
see if anyone can rise up in some evil. No victory thing at the end.
gloat no stealing no ones betrayed, yet no
minions, no killing Hm, would you guys say Fe- TOBEY (LUTHER): Hm Im going to move a
lix got humiliated? point from Open to Sly. I know, its kind of self-
defeating, but giantism needs Sly. Besides, get-
FRANK (FELIX): No. ting shot all the time makes losing Open seem
reasonable, and since sneaking away worked so
TOBEY (LUTHER): Yes. well, hes probably going to fall back on tricks
again. Im not going to make any other changes.
KATIE (WANDA): Yes.
KATIE (WANDA): Im taking a point off Cruelty
SARAH: Hm. Id let both Wanda and Luther take a and off Courage and putting them into Open.
point of Cowardice. Wandas really freaked out over that cop and
wants to avoid fights in the future. I think Ill leave
KATIE (WANDA): Sweet! Ill totally take that. everything else untouched. I could move a piece
of Devious, but I think Ill leave it there in case I
TOBEY (LUTHER): Im not leaving it on the table, need it for Aspects.
thats for sure.
FRANK (FELIX): Losing a point of Courage and a
FRANK (FELIX): I just have to get some more point of Cowardice to raise Sly. It sucks to lose
points can I slide a point of Honesty to Deceit? Cowardice, but I need something to keep me
from just dying after one punch and its hard
SARAH: You can only slide off Sinister Tactics, to explain how Felixs Sly increases after all this
onto Virtuous ones. beating and weeping, but here goes. Hes now re-
ally embarrassed and feels the need to overcom-
FRANK (FELIX): Except for Cowardice, Felix is to- pensate. Hes rededicating himself to not getting
tally out of sins. messed around again. But at the same time, Im
moving a point of Devious to Insightful. His un-
SARAH: Shouldnt that be a good thing? expected weakness and emotional fragility has
given him greater compassion and insight, or
FRANK (FELIX): Um okay. I guess Ill move a something.
point to Endurance. Yknow, since you all seem
so pleased that Ive been humiliated. KATIE (WANDA): Plus you want to have Insightful
to defend against Wanda.
KATIE (WANDA): I think Im leaving my Sinister
Tactics untouched. Wandas in an okay place FRANK (FELIX): Well
with herself.
KATIE (WANDA): Youre learning how this games
TOBEY (LUTHER): Im moving a point of Greed played, too.
over to Generosity. Seeing Felix crack up like that
really bothered Luther, especially since he wasnt
trying to provoke a crying jag.
123
Chapter 10:
my enemies list
KOMODA
Ev er yone has pe ople w ith whom t he y st r ug g le a nd c ont e nd . The differ-
ence is, a normal persons enemy is the guy in the office who hogs funding and trashes her work behind
her back, or maybe a mother-in-law who always thinks her son could do better. A supervillains enemy
can change the course of mighty rivers, make the night his servant and command the very elements
themselves (not to mention news anchors).
Opposition is the core of conflict, and conflict is the key to story. This chapter shines a light on sources
for opposition.
Angel-Infused
bonus to Devious rolls, whether the angel is man-
Do-Gooders ifest or not. Theyre built as normal people with
between 40 and 60 points to buy stats. Naturally,
You know how you got stuck with a sarcastic psy- theyre really heavily invested on the right side of
chopath whose idea of a real fun night is goading the character sheet.
you into backhanding a hostage right through a
steam radiator? Not every host to otherworldly be- On top of that, they get angelic powers and As-
ings has that problem. Some people get angels. pects. Because angels are GMCs, these powers
Presumably their paranormal voices do stuff like are fairly simplified. That doesnt mean theyre
remind them to get flowers on their wifes birth- not buff. As a rule of thumb, one starting angel
day and tip them wise when an orphan is about to can face off with two or three starting hellbound.
stumble in front of a dump truck.
Basic Angels extends out ten feet for every point of Honesty.
Anyone within that radius either (1) automatically
slides a point off the designated Tactic into its op-
When you get a human and an angel working in posite Virtuous Tactic or (2) must flee outside the
harmony, its a powerful combination. The host radius. If theres no place for the people to flee to,
can add a Master Die to every mundane action the loss cannot be avoided. However, if a Tactic
when the angel is manifest, right up to the point gets zeroed, the power has no additional effect
the action stops conforming to the angelic Code (that is, it does not start eroding Strate-
of Conduct (described below). Also, angels are gies).
freakin gorgeous: That works like a +3 weapon
125
EXAMPLE: Metatron has Circle of Abjuration, In- Righteous Arm (Courage)
sightful 4 and Honesty 4. He sets the ward to ex- You know what angels like to do with demons?
pel Greed and rolls 8d. Rolling an excellent 3x9, Hit them. They hit them so hard. None of them hit
the field goes up. Everyone within 40 feet has to harder than those with a Righteous Arm.
either get back or lose a point of Greed, for the
next nine rounds. Whenever the righteously armed hero physically
attacks someone, he gets a weapon bonus equal
Only one Tactic can be abjured by a single hero at to his enemys Cruelty or Sly, whichever is high-
any time, but if you get two with this power work- er. If he attacks with a weapon, his bonus is equal
ing together, it gets scary quick. to the foes Sly, Cruelty, or the weapons bonus,
whichever is highest.
Foresight (Knowledge)
The angels in these hosts are old, smart, and Unstained (Nurture)
theyve seen all your jive-turkey tricks before. No You ask him when hes going to divorce his wife
matter what you try, what you do, what you make, and he says, Its complicated. You ask why the
its old hat to them. Life is one big rerun channel army cant send troops to stop the genocide and
or oldies station to them, only its your sinister the politician says, The regional politics are re-
plans punchline theyre stepping on and your ally complex. You ask the banker where the
master strategys refrain theyre singing by heart. money went and he says, These financial instru-
ments are really sophisticated.
Any roll intended to decrease a Virtuous Tactic,
directed against someone with Foresight, has For some people in some situations, though,
its Height decreased by the targets Knowledge things arent complicated at all. Theyre just right
score. If Height drops to zero or below, the set is or theyre wrong. For those Unstained, things
discarded. Foresight is always on. are right. These people possess a simple good-
ness that cuts to the core of a situation and di-
Meek Endurance vides good from bad like sides of the Red Sea.
(Endurance) Things that would sound corny, or nave, or child-
This may be a bit of a misnomer, since when you ish from most people sound irrefutable from the
see an angelic figure streaking into battle with Unstained.
piercing light streaming off its halo, the last thing
youre likely to think is, Wow, thats some meek No dice pool directed against the Unstained is
endurance hes got working there. But whatre improved by Advantage from surprises, secrets
you going to do? Theyre angels. They can call or weapons. This power is always active.
their powers whatever the heaven they want.
126
Angelic
Othe r Powe rs
Aspects
Angels have Aspects, just like demons do,
Just about any demonic power can be
only theyre based on the virtuous side of the
kluged onto an angel with appropriate ad-
character sheet and, oh yeah, they dont have to
justments. Base it off a relevant Tactic and
sacrifice anything to switch them on. They just
Strategy and keep the rules the same. Keep it
happen, when they need a little extra whatever to
fair to your players and you can have a fine
get the job done. Angels may have one Aspect,
time throwing them curveballs.
two, or even all four. They all have Wings at the
very least (as explained in the sidebar).
Chorus (Patient)
Angels are attuned to the music of the spheres,
Word of Blessing the implicit order that undergirds all the laws of
(Generosity) science in a symphonic whole. So when they co-
operate, its not just the hesitant and half-baked
The power of the right word at the right time teamwork that mortals struggle for, with last-
shouldnt be underestimated. Someone who looks minute cell-phone calls and resentments over
at you before you step onstage and says, Break forgotten maps and snacks. Its a perfect align-
a leg, or who says, I believe in you before you ment of immortal intelligences, acting like sepa-
make that speech, or says, Come home safe rate fingers on a single hand, and that hand is the
before your shift at the fire station can give you smiting fist of a righteous God.
the courage to endure or the faith to see through
your anxieties. And those are just mortals. When An angel with the Chorus Aspect sings in action
someone speaks with the words of a heavenly and, as if that wasnt annoying enough, for every
messenger, its like getting clobbered by a sledge- other unfallen angel present he gets a +1 weapon
hammer of trust and encouragement. bonus on every Virtuous Tactic roll, to a maximum
of +3. Fortunately (for evildoers) there seem to be
Someone with the Word of Blessing power acti- a lot fewer angels around than demons, not every
vates it by making a Patient Knowledge roll. (Be- angel is in the chorus and theyre spread pretty
cause the user must be Patient, this power can thin. Still, when you see a barbershop quartet
only be used on someone that the hero knows a headed your way, glowing blades of sunlight un-
bita half hour of interaction is sufficient. After sheathed as they partake in four-part harmony,
that, the roll can be made at any time.) If the roll just get the hell outta there.
gets a set, the angel can take one point off any
one of its Virtuous Tactics and put it on any other Halo (Open)
Virtuous Tactic. The Tactic that grows can be the You know that golden pearlescent ring of light
angels or someone elses. It can, for example, around the heads of angels and saints in old-
take a point of its own Courage and transfer it timey pictures? Well, it represents more than just
to someone elses Nurture. Or it can take its own the light they emit (though, that said, they do illu-
Knowledge and move it into its Honesty. (When minate a night most prettily). No, that halo repre-
used on the angel itself, the power requires a half sents the perfection of the Lord flowing through
hour of prayer and contemplation.) them, their incorruptible nature blazing through
the fallen world like a blowtorch through tissue
paper. When the broken realm of physical matter
comes into conflict with incandescent holy per-
fection, can you guess which one gives way? I
bet you can.
127
With the Halo Aspect active, an angelic hero re- The Angelic Code
generates one lost point of Virtuous Tactic every
round. This wont improve a Tactic that hasnt
of Conduct
been harmed, and it wont raise one above the Those angel powers sound pretty nifty, dont
point it started, and it does nothing for Strate- they? Huge social bonuses, nigh-invulnerability
gies. But it doesnt have to be rolled and, as a and so on, but remember: Theyre all premised
side effect, it emits about as much candlepower on keeping the Code of Conduct, and thats tricky.
as one of those big cone lights the stadium uses Lets take a look at the Code.
for night games. (They can dim it down as nec-
essary, of course.) Thou Shalt Be Honest. Angels cant lie and dont
like it when their mortals lie. Their beauty bonus
Understand that if a Virtuous Tactic gets shifted and Master Dice dont apply to rolls for dishon-
by a 2-3 Width hit, this power shifts it back. It est dealing, and its not just literal lies. Someone
doesnt regenerate the Virtuous side while letting asks you a question and you say a non sequitur
the Sinful side remain engorged. that sounds like it should be the answer? Breaks
this commandment. Telling the truth in a way cal-
Radiance (Insightful) culated to mislead? No good. Telling the truth but
A less searing, more penetrating and warming leaving out a critically important piece of context?
sort of light comes from the emotional founda- Not honest. The closest most angel-folk can come
tion of the Insightful, instead of the brute strength to deception is looking you forthrightly in the eye
of Halo. This radiance represents what should be, and saying, Im not going to answer that.
where the halo is the brute infliction of what is.
While gentler, Radiance is no less powerful. Aid Ye the Needful. If someones in danger, you
go to help them. Doesnt matter if youve only
An angel with Radiance can pick one demonic got a one-in-a-thousand chance of saving his life
power or Aspect. No one he can see can apply without getting your own legs fatally burned in
that Aspect or power. Theres no roll for this, but the process. You go help him. Doesnt matter if
it only affects one power or Aspect at a time. If its your worst enemy. You help.
directed against the Darkness-Shrouded Aspect,
the Radiance suppresses the darkness. Howev- Harm Not the Harmless. Angels are only per-
er, if another Aspect or power is targeted, it can mitted to use violence against two categories of
still be used if the user is protected by being people. One is people who started it, and in that
Darkness-Shrouded. instance the angel can only match their level of
escalation. If a guy spits in an angel hosts face,
Additionally, if an angel attempts to block a de- the angel can chastise him verbally but is forbid-
mons Aspect with Radiance, and they both acti- den to deck him. If the bad guy shoots at an angel
vate the Aspects at the same time (as in the ex- and knows for a damn fact (well I guess it would
ample on page 127) the GM can just roll a die to be a blessed fact) that the angels bulletproof, its
see which happens first. not permitted to throw a truck through the shoot-
er. The angel can only engage him with violence
Angel Wings (Open) that would hurt him as much, or as little, as he
All angels can manifest wings or, at the very least, could hurt it. So angels can really only take off
can fly. This works just like demonic Wings from the gloves and start dealing Old Testament smit-
page 86, only its based on Open. ings against people who are trying to kill them
and have a chance of getting it done.
And demons.
128
Angels are permitted to do anything they want to UsE
demons, up to and including shooting them in their
sleep with rocket launchers. But demons in conflict Angel-bearers in harmony are a flavor to use
with their hosts are something of a gray area, so sparingly in a Better Angels campaign, for a cou-
most angels attempt to engage them honorably. ple reasons. One is, if you push their point totals
and have them teaming up, they may be an unfair
Accept Surrender. Oh, this ones fun to play challenge unless the PCs start playing against the
with. Once you wave that white flag, angel- Code of Conduct, and thats only interesting and
heroes have to stop hitting you unless youre fun the first few times. Those initial encounters
obviously a manifested demon. If they try to can be quite a trial to PCs, too, as their choices
keep attacking after you surrender, their powers are either to (1) passively accept defeat at the
weaken. Its a laugh riot. hands of some serene pretty-boy who doesnt get
the blues like they do or (2) actively transgress an
Once an angel has transgressed these command- agent of supernatural kindness and decency. Pick
ments, even by accident, his powers degrade your poison.
and you get a more nuanced situation. Its
described under Cherubs in Abusive Relation- A good time to throw a character like this at the
ships (page 139). Note that the angel has to be PCs is when the human side is doing exception-
active and aware during the transgression. But ally well and the devil side is rather weak. PCs
that does put people in the position of either hav- who meekly surrender are probably on the fast
ing super angel powers or having license to treat track to a five in a Virtuous Strategy, and can be
people shabbily. signaling that theyre ready for their redemption
plotline, please. On the other hand, if anythings
One other difference between angels and de- going to drive someone back into the arms of evil,
mons (if the harps and songs and halos didnt tip its a cloying assault by the unstained supernal.
you off) is that angels dont eavesdrop. They only
monitor the actions of their human host when in- The other time to use an angel is when the human
vited, unlike demons, who spy lasciviously any sides on the ropes and the devil may drag him
time their primary Strategy is greater than their under. Then it serves as a big red warning flag:
hosts contrasting Strategy. Angels, by contrast, The PC as supervillain has gotten bad enough
meditate on the sublime or something. that real agents of Good want a piece of him. If
they dont answer that wake-up call, then it may
be time for a final harrowing.
129
The Shining Diamond
Sometimes shes an improbably imposing woman nine feet tall, sometimes a moving diamond statue
(still tall) and always a thundering juggernaut of justice. The Shining Diamond prowls the East Coast
sticking her elegantly chiseled nose into hijackings, hate crimes, kidnappings and (of course) attempts to
seize penitentiaries or hold court houses for ransom.
No one would suspect the woman behind the crashing fists is a five-foot-two folk singer named Chartreuse
Milante. Having sung protest songs in coffee houses about environmental destruction, the withering of
personal privacy and the injustice of war, she nevertheless dated Mark Golard, a right-wing libertarian. It
was a classic case of opposites attracting, but she was sure she could change him. (Or, as she thought of
it, redeem him.) Then came the day he proposed. He slipped a gorgeous ring on her finger and she just
knew that if she asked Is this a conflict diamond? it would ruin her relationship. But she also knew that
if she didnt ask, the relationship would ruin her. So she said no, broke it off, and he let her keep the ring.
Neither of them dreamed that the ring was a beacon to a spirit of righteousness, which found in Char-
treuse a good-hearted person for whom the spirit had always been willing but the flesh, alas, weak. With
her new spiritual partner, the weak flesh has become diamond solid.
Stats
Cunning 1 (+MD*), Patient 3 (+MD*)
Greed 1, Generosity 2
Espionage 2, Knowledge 3
BARKLEY
Sly 2 (+MD*), Open 3 (+MD*)
Cruelty 0, Courage 2
Cowardice 2, Endurance 2
130
The Doorman
Any time, any place, anywhere theres a door, the Doorman can show up. Its never when anyones look-
ing, but when the bank robber blinks, the Doorman arrives, just between frames of the security footage.
Most commonly he looks like well, a small-d doorman, the kind you get at a nice hotel or apartment
building. You know the guy, long red coat with bright brass buttons, sturdy shoes, a cap? Add a black
domino mask and youve got our hero.
When not fighting crime, the Doorman is actually a doorman named Devon Devlin. When a police officer,
in uniform, started slapping his girlfriend around in the lobby, Devon stepped in and got arrested. His
steadfast insistence that hed done the right thing hit the Thin Blue Line really hard, and while the cop
was suspended indefinitely (with pay) Devon lost his job and has been harassed with parking violations,
speed traps and vague police insinuations ever since. But he also received a strange statuette in the mail,
no return address, depicting an angel atop a gateway. With that tucked under his arm, he opened the
door to his apartment and stepped, instead, into the middle of a mugging.
Surprisingly, the Doorman cant fly. He seems almost unique in that regard among angel-infused heroes.
Is there some mystery there to investigate?
Stats
KOMODA
Aspects: Halo
But when youre a giant panther made out of glowing daylight, thats not a problem. Neither is gravity. Nei-
ther are most bad guys, because theres only thing on earth fitting that description and its Lumos Pantera.
Lumos Pantera never speaks (though it roars once in a while) and it seldom concerns itself with picayune
stuff like muggings and stickups. Its more likely to streak down from the sky like a comet when theres a
sinking ship, a terrorist standoff, a tsunami, an unprovoked invasion or some other serious disaster, set
things right, then fly off without even leaving a single silver cat turd or accepting a tin of Fancy Feast.
Unlike most super-folk, Lumos Pantera doesnt have a secret identity. Its human has so humbly submit-
ted to the angels will that it just flies around the world, glowing panther style, all the time. Some satel-
lites say it has a lair in the middle of the Gobi Desert, but it only stops back there every few days.
No one ever calls it just plain Lumos. No one ever calls it plain ol Pantera.
Stats
Cunning 1 (+MD*), Patient 3 (+MD*) *These bonus Master Dice come into play only
Greed 1, Generosity 2 for mundane tasks in keeping with the angelic
Espionage 1, Knowledge 4 Code of Conduct, when the angel has been in-
voked.
Sly 1 (+MD*), Open 5 (+MD*)
Cruelty 2, Courage 4 **This bonus applies at all times, but can be-
Cowardice 2, Endurance 5 come degraded if the Code of Conduct gets
violated while the angel is perceptive.
Devious 1 (+3 weapon bonus**) (+MD*), Insight-
ful 4 (+MD*) ***The same as the demonic power Animal
Corruption 0, Nurture 5 Form, except its based off Patient Knowledge.
Deceit 0, Honesty 4
****Lumos Pantera uses this power on itself
Powers: Animal Form***, Meek Endurance, unless, through some strange chance, it has a
Word of Blessing**** half-hour to nuzzle a target protectively.
Aspects: Blaze of Righteousness*****, Cho- *****This works like the demonic Aspect Flame-
rus******, Radiance, Wings Wreathed, only (1) its targets slide a point
off Cruelty instead of Courage and (2) Lumos
Pantera adds Insightful to Open Courage, instead
of adding Devious to Open Cruelty.
132
KOMODA
Rules monsters.
Hanks gut likes machines and order and things in their proper place. He didnt have the grades for engi-
neering (or college, really) but he got a job driving an asphalt paver and internalized the idea that good
roads make for good neighbors. When he hears the phrase street crime he bristles because, hey, its
not the street holding up stores and mugging people.
He was picking up some weekend hours working a construction job way out in the boonies when his
bulldozer uncovered a weird wooden statue. As he picked it up he could tell it looked old and native, but
at the same time it had exquisitely carved wooden gears and articulated arms. When you raised one arm,
the other drew back, and when you moved that arm the head turned and tilted. It was awesome!
More awesome were the dreams that came. Dreams of progress and devices and cities to the horizon.
People protected by walls and four-lane highways that no marauding bear or vicious serpent could ever
cross. People going to work on time without traffic jams. Everything predictable and controlled and nice.
The very next day he called in sick and went to work creating his sterile, treeless, constricted utopia. He
would pave the world to save the world. He was the Pavior.
Stats
Cunning 1, Patient 2
Greed 3, Generosity 1
Espionage 1, Knowledge 3
Sly 3, Open 2
Cruelty 3, Courage 2
Cowardice 2, Endurance 0
Devious 1, Insightful 1
Corruption 2, Nurture 1
Deceit 1, Honesty 1
134
...Ha d S o Many De vic e s
Pavior, as printed, is just starting out with his dewy-eyed plan to create a grass-free Uto-
pia, but if you want to present your PCs with a more challenging, more experienced
Hank Marceau, (especially if they have a nature-themed supervillain identityhe hates
snakes) you can simply assume hes flushed gobs of Knowledge and Generosity down
the toilet of diabolical creativity. Heres what hes likely packing.
The Flattener. It resembles a tracked tank, only without the tank part. Its all
track, a triangular rolling mass of steel twenty feet long that, with Hanks di-
rections, rumbles over an area and reduces everything in its path to rubble.
Anything you could do in a long day with a big bulldozer, you can do in
a few minutes with the Flattener. It counts as a minor environmental
change. Pavior can roll his Sly Cruelty pool to send this rumbling after
someone, attacking their Cowardice Tactic with +1 Advantage.
The Road Monster. Its a monster truck, massive and loud and
clouded in blue-black exhaust. In addition to the minor envi-
ronmental change of being a huge powerful machine that
can race down the road and knock over flimsy suburban
homes, it mimics the Carapace Aspect. It balances
these advantages with a double-dip of the bulky flaw,
as well as being blatant.
KOMODA
135
Sea Change
Keesha Acevedo got out of the Navy and went straight to work for the Coast Guard in a drug interdic-
tion task force. She met a great guy on her crew and they were engaged when they plotted an intercept
course with a speed boat off the coast of Florida.
Smugglers rarely fire on Coast Guard vessels, not if they know whats good for them. So Keesha wasnt
expecting anything beyond frantic cargo dumping and stammered excuses. She certainly wasnt expect-
ing a supervillain.
What followed is what professional soldiers affectionately call a donkey rodeo. The traffickers were
hugely outgunned, but before the supervillain died from an excess of bullets he tore apart the two Coast
Guard cutters and summoned two dozen starving sharks to prey on survivors in the water. Keesha was
just grabbing for something to float on when she threw her arms around the sea-serpent corpse of the
super-smuggler. She saw its necklace, a pendant in the form of a green-eyed snake, and she knew.
When the rescue chopper arrived, only a few Coast Guard personnel had survived. None of them could
explain why the sharks ignored them (even two who were bleeding) and viciously attacked an unhurt drug
smuggler. None but Keesha, and she chose not to.
Since that time, Sea Change prowls the Florida waters, roams the Everglades and even takes to the sew-
ers of Miami in search of drugs and crime. Her body count has gotten quite high, but it doesnt bother her
one bit. The part that would care drowned with her fianc.
Keeshas demon dabbles in envy but mostly focuses on cruelty, which means that Sea Change has been
known to spend hours waterboarding a suspect for information that she might have found after thirty
minutes with library microfiche. She feels better killing people when they beg for it, and heartily encour-
ages them to do so. Once shes finished toying with them, of course.
Stats
Cunning 2, Patient 1 *In her case, its the animal control variant de-
Greed 2, Generosity 1 scribed on page 74.
Espionage 3, Knowledge 1
**In this instance, huge venom-dripping fangs.
Sly 3, Open 2 Still works just like being horned though.
Cruelty 1, Courage 1
Cowardice 3, Endurance 1
Devious 1, Insightful 2
Corruption 2, Nurture 1
Deceit 1, Honesty 1
136
KOMODA
137
Lifeshooter
Take a guy whos aggressive by naturehonestly, just pushy, got too much testosterone in the womb
or somethingand put him in a household with strict pacifist parents. What happens? In Tyson Franks
case, immense cognitive dissonance, a nasty split between parents and child, and massive rechanneling
for his baser energies. Tyson played football and rugby right up to the point that he went to med school.
He might have neurotically directed his pent-up wrath against illnesses but when he was trying to save
the life of a drug dealer who got all shot up by the cops, he stumbled across a strange piece of metal
lodged between folds of the fellows intestines. Washing it off later, he saw it was a grinning little pos-
sum demon statue, and at that moment he realized that he could resolve his feelings, his training and his
ethics in one fell swoop. All he had to do was dress up in lab whites and apply his anatomical knowledge
to taking crooks apart instead of putting them back together. It was all so simple! Tyson cant understand
why every doctor doesnt go vigilante on days off. Insufficient devotion, he guesses.
Tysons ridden by a non-verbalizing devil of bloodlust and treachery, which found the unstoppable force
of Tysons natural inclination towards carnage almost as delicious as the irony it created when plastered
against the immovable object of his Quaker roots. Dr. Franks eager ash-
canning of the Hippocratic Oath was pretty
great too.
Stats
Cunning 2, Patient 1
Greed 3, Generosity 2
Espionage 3, Knowledge 2
Sly 4, Open 1
Cruelty 3, Courage 1
Cowardice 2, Endurance 0
Devious 1, Insightful 1
Corruption 1, Nurture 1
Deceit 1, Honesty 1
*When he lays hands upon anyone with anger in mind, their ten-
dons, muscles and ligaments become weak and easily torn. He
thinks he can do this because he took a semester-long
Aikido class as an undergrad and paid a lot of attention KOMODA
As often as not, the answer is a resounding may- Both sides are (openly or secretly) concerned
be, sometimes. with minimizing damage, with doing good with-
out upsetting a delicate balance, and with keep-
139
Gorillawrench
Sylvia Hogarth was down in the rain forest doing anthropology research when her particular rainforest
tribe told her they had this stuff that would put her in touch with the divine if she packed it into her na-
sal sinus. She figured it was plain ol yoppo, the Amazon hallucinogen noted for producing spectacular
headaches, copious vomiting, and a sensation that youre at the center of the cosmos with everything
else everywhere gently twirling around you.
Well, it wasnt yoppo. Near as she can tell, her angelic self-mate used to be a tree and the natives had
been grinding it up for years as a nasal ingestible. (It smelled wonderful.) But unfortunately for Sylvia,
she took her ceremonial huff just as a rival native group attacked, toting brand-new shotguns theyd
been given by narcotraffickers hoping to chop down the trees and make a secret road through the jungle.
(Their American engineer dubbed it Eight Miles Highway.)
Her hosts were slaughtered without mercy, but Sylvia transformed into an incandescently beautiful
woman and was doing swimmingly against the bad guys until they started surrendering and her angel
insisted that she honor it.
Sylvia, as an anthropologist, knew for a fact that this particular tribe firmly believed no real oath could
be made with outsiders (who were, they felt, not even actually real). She knew theyd go back on it the
minute it became convenient. Knew it.
So she broke the truce first. When she was marching them back towards a civilized prison, she waited
until her angel was quiescent and her captives were lining up to cross a stream on a fallen tree. Then
she opened fire with one of their own shotguns. She brought down two before the others swarmed and
she had to invoke the angel again, but by that point her enemies had decided that this surrender thing
wasnt even worth faking, and fought to the death.
As her angel wept within her, Sylvia was already plotting how she could befoul the drug runners plans
as a mortal and bring her angel in only for ethically pure stuff. That was in three years ago and since then
shes been the holy terror of the whole river valley. Ironically, she wears a gorilla costume when she does
most of her crime-busting because a glowing figure of resplendent glory draws too much attention. Yes,
she knows gorillas arent native to the Amazon.
Sylvia competed at bodybuilding and triathlons before she went to South America, and she lived in the
jungle for two years before the tribe accepted her enough to blast angel dust up her nose. So she can
hold her own with just a big heavy pipe-wrench and determination. But shes becoming increasingly
frayed as she tries to balance pragmatism (but no powers) with power (but back-breaking idealism).
So far shes kept most of her misbehavior hidden from her angel, but the strict rules she plays by when
glowing have made her feel increasingly entitled to sucker-punches, arson and intimidation when shes
working without celestial backup. Shes also broadened her enforcement purview from murderers and
drug runners to lumber barons, polluters and corrupt government officials.
140
Stats *This bonus applies at all times, but can become
degraded if the Code of Conduct gets violated
Cunning 2, Patient 1 while the angel is perceptive.
Greed 2, Generosity 1
Espionage 2, Knowledge 3 **Its the animal control variant described on
page 74. This is a fun power in the Amazon, a
Sly 1, Open 3 region known for alligators, boas and big cats.
Cruelty 2, Courage 3 Fortunately, the legendary dangers of piranhas
Cowardice 3, Endurance 1 and candiru fish are greatly exaggerated. Un-
fortunately, the bird-eating 12-inch spiders are
Devious 1 (+2 Weapon Bonus*), Insightful 1 totally real.
Corruption 1, Nurture 1
Deceit 1, Honesty 2
KOMODA
141
EverLove
Tina Trimble is a hard-case romantic. Love at first sight? She believes it happens all the time. She finds
nothing wrong with silly Love songs (and when Tinas considering it, Love is always capitalized). She
thinks there is one soul mate for everyone on the planet and that its destiny for everyone to have the
chance of true Love and total happiness and contentment, if they just have the courage to go out there
and look for it.
Tina found an angel embedded in a bit of geode quartz crystal that was incorporated in a piece of
kitschy elf art (no, not Legolas elves; more like got lost in Germany on a trip from Santas work-
shop to that Keebler tree elves). The angel is so ancient that it doesnt really communicate in words,
just urges and impulses. Its pretty alien to humankind, so it may not grasp exactly everything Tinas
doing with its power.
What shes doing is matchmaking. She sees two people she thinks belong together? She befriends them
both (not at all hard with a Master Die in Devious) and sets them up on blind dates. If they dont hit it off?
Then she gives them a lil pep talk!
It gets a bit uglier when she sees people who dont belong together. Sure, shes gotten some people
(both genders) out of abusive relationships, but as her confidence has grown shes started to take a
broader view. Theyre both so poor, theyd be happier with people who could support them and buy
them things! Oh, theyre so lazy together, Im going to fix her up with a physical trainer and him with
that adorable breakdancing girl! But what if they had kids and the kids got his giant German potato
nose? Theyd be hideous!
She means well, which may be scant consolation when shes chiseling apart you and your lover because
one of you only bought daisies on Valentines Day. (Daisies? Who does that?!?) Shes constantly ma-
nipulating people, either to shove them towards relationships they otherwise wouldnt pursue (no matter
how much they should) or to break apart couples who, in her view, just arent happy enough.
Her non-Christian, vaguely New Age semi-animist view of the spiritual world means that Tina wont nec-
essarily reject someone out of hand just because hes hosting a demon. Indeed, she believes that the al-
mighty power of Love can redeem any spirit.
Shes fascinated by superheroes and supervillains and thinks they need her amorous assistance more
than anyone. Thats warning flag number one. Flags two through fifty? She has not, herself, found her
soul mate, but shes certain hell be a brooding, troubled supervillain that she can redeem.
142
Stats *These bonus Master Dice come into play only
for mundane tasks in keeping with the angelic
Cunning 2 (+MD*), Patient 1 (+MD*) Code of Conduct, when the angel has been in-
Greed 0, Generosity 2 voked.
Espionage 0, Knowledge 1
**This bonus applies at all times, but can be-
Sly 2 (+MD*), Open 1 (+MD*) come degraded if the Code of Conduct is broken.
Cruelty 0, Courage 2
Cowardice 3, Endurance 1
KOMODA
143
Mr. Dignity
Dignitys a good thing, right? People respecting one another and behaving with comportment, such that
theyd be pleased to be watched? Dominic Brown takes it all too far. Always a stickler for grammar and
manners, it was his considered opinion that the worlds problems often arose from a failure of basic civil-
ity. Hey, maybe he has a point: Police have found that if you crack down on little stuff like loitering, fare
hopping and public drinking, you get a drop in felonies too.
Which is why when someone in the apartment building plays his stereo too loud, Dominic and his angel
(whom he picked up from an odd statuette that caught his eye in a junk shophe likes bargain antiques
almost as much as he hates it when people misuse apostrophes) may pay a visit. He may sternly (but
courteously) explain your thoughtlessness to you, perhaps with reference to Judith Martin. When some-
one with an angel as a Devious weapon explains manners to you, they stay explained. Similarly, grammar
errors on signs get you a lecture from The Elements of Style that youll remember on your deathbed after
Alzheimers has claimed your mothers face and your first lovers name.
Is this a terrible abuse of power? A bit. But far more, its a terrible waste of power. Mr. Dignity does
not respond to hostage crises, drug-riven neighborhoods under the boot heel of vicious gangs or even
supervillains with the means and motive to poison every living thing in Lake
Manitoba. Unless, maybe, someones ransom note or manifesto has colons
misapplied.
On the other hand, considering the havoc a well-meaning and ambitious idiot
could do with that much mind control, maybe its just as well.
Stats
Greed 1, Generosity 2
Espionage 0, Knowledge 2
*These bonus Master Dice come into play only for mundane tasks in
keeping with the angelic Code of Conduct, when the angel has been
invoked.
**This bonus applies at all times, but can become degraded if KOMODA
the Code of Conduct gets violated while the angel is perceptive.
144
Matches Made Also, because theyre not in conflict, they tend to
be built with 45-60 character points instead of the
in Hell more typical 40.
145
Steve Stiles
Why is Steve Stiles alive? Hes alive because its the 21st century, when a rare cancer that would have
been untreatable even ten years ago is now held in abeyance by an implanted node of radioactive mate-
rial. Hes alive because hes got a demon tossing him Wiggle Dice on his Endurance rolls to not perish,
himself, from radiation poisoning. And hes alive because all the women and men and children hes sexu-
ally abused have been so befuddled by his mind-twisting looks or his impenetrable disguises that they
cant bring themselves to tell anybody or to stop him themselves.
Any scumbag can ruin a year (if not much more) with a savage rape or confusing molestation. It takes a
demonic scumbag to make the violation a central part of your identity afterwards. And it takes an atomic
demonic scumbag to infect a good 37% of his victims with radiation sickness.
Incidentally, in addition to being a monster of absolute evil, Steve works as an economic development
consultant. Takes him all over the world, most often to the poor parts.
Stats
Cunning 4, Patient 2
Greed 4, Generosity 2
Espionage 3, Knowledge 2
Sly 3, Open 1
Cruelty 2, Courage 1
Cowardice 4, Endurance 2
Devious 4, Insightful 2
Corruption 4, Nurture 0
Deceit 4, Honesty 0
146
The Honorable Jane Attenborough
People think a demons going to go straight into politics. Probably a relic of The Omen and The Dead
Zone. But while the executive and legislative branches have splayed out their tawdry charms to the dia-
bolically inclined, the judiciary seems to get short shrift. Maybe its just because there are bibles around
for swearing-in all the time.
Judge Jane Attenborough gets right around that by using a specially printed fake bible. Every book has
been altered, and not always subtly, either. Most of the Ten Commandments in her swearing-book (as
she charmingly calls it) simply have not tidily removed from behind various shalts and reinserted
in others. Thou shalt commit adultery, Thou shalt not honor thy father and thy mother, and so on.
Similar vandalism has been wreaked on the Beatitudes, producing verses like Stupid are the meek, for
they shall be called big yellow pussies.
That wasnt Janes idea. A detail-oriented demon put that volume together as a hobby, and Jane stole it
from him after throwing him in the path of a monk from the Holy See whod been rescued from an illegal
pit-fighting ring as a child and who now battles crime as Brother Vengeance. (Hes a gritty hero.)
No, Jane just sits in court and listens to cases and excludes evidence and runs things by the book as much
as possible, only stooping to commit procedural errors when necessary. Various scumbags in her area (Hor-
ry County, South Carolinaits a real county, look it up!) have been promised either a mistrial or a not-guilty
verdict in return for favors to be named later by a sweaty Greek guy known as Priapus Ambrosia. Priapus
is a colorful character, renowned in the South Carolina underworld not only for his body odor, colorblind
taste in suits and outrageous name, but also for making people sign agreements in blood. Oh, and for get-
ting people off the hook. Hes known for that, too.
Stats
Cunning 3, Patient 3
Greed 3, Generosity 3
Espionage 3, Knowledge 2
Sly 2, Open 3
Cruelty 2, Courage 0
Cowardice 4, Endurance 2
Devious 4, Insightful 2
Corruption 4, Nurture 0
KOMODA
Deceit 3, Honesty 0
147
Chae Jin Sook
Obviously, the next time Jesus Christ came to Earth he would come in a female body, right? Cause of
gender parity. Fairness and being evenhanded, thats what God the Father is all about!
(This all makes much more sense when Jin Sook perkily explains it.)
Chae Jin Sook is only seventeen years old and exactly 958 people have accepted her as their personal
savior. She preaches universal happiness through love, and all religions are really one, and if everyone
just held a flower and opened their hearts all the wars and cruelty would cease. Also, she would like you
to sign over a large percentage of your salary, pre-tax please.
An ugly corollary to her beliefs is that people who suffer misfortune do so because God is either test-
ing them or punishing them, and either way helping them with anything other than positive energy and
public cheering is an affront to the divine plan. But at least Jin Sook can tell you which ones are Gods
real enemies and which are just going through the ol refiners fire!
From the Temple of Herself (occupying some prime Hawaiian beach front) she records her sermons and
web-casts and performs expertly-staged healing miracles. There are about five thousand people world-
wide (mostly in South America, Hawaii and California) who ascribe to her religion financially, another
five thousand who read the occasional ghostwritten book, go to a concert-like awakening session (with
really good pop music) or watch one of her late-night infomercials. But to get to the rank of Apostle
you have to sign on the dotted line, and the durable power of attorney is entirely secondary to the blood-
oath of soul bondage. Of course, to get to that point you have to prove your loyalty by cutting all ties
to your family, going through some sophisticated brainwashing programs and, oh yeah, getting your
personality melon-balled by Jin Sooks demonic splendor.
958 people have signed up for that, and theyre the ones running drugs from South America, making
threats to keep prominent cultists out of jail and hiring lawyers to harass anyone who speaks badly of
Herself. Theyre also the ones who compete for her favor because the highest honor she can bestow
(and this is known only to the 958 Apostles, of course) is to personally release you from life as a hu-
man sacrifice to her greater glory, casting off the shell of self to reach Nirvana/Heaven/Satori or some
other promised Graceland in the sky. The sacrifices are carefully selected, of course, to be those who
(1) wont be missed and (2) will be most surprised to find their souls damned to eternal torment.
148
Stats
Cunning 3, Patient 2
Greed 3, Generosity 3
Espionage 4, Knowledge 1
Sly 3, Open 2
Cruelty 3, Courage 0
Cowardice 3, Endurance 0
Devious 4, Insightful 2
Corruption 4, Nurture 0
Deceit 4, Honesty 1
149
KOMODA
BARKLEY
r 1 1 :
p t e
Cha t t i n g ,
s e
the as it is
s u c h
L e t me l ev el with y ou: I dont have a rock-solid idea for the setting and never did. This whole
book started out as a thread on the RPG.NET forums, and from then to now, the driving idea has been
the central conflict of good human vs. evil spirit in the context of supervillain capes and masks. I did
not have a firm idea of what the demons actually were, whence they came, what they were really after
(other than assorted mayhem) or of the history preceding the arrival of the PCs.
I think thats okay. The setting is not the focus of Better Angels, the characters and their harassing de-
mons are. Rather than throw together something lackluster for an audience well known for reworking
settings in any circumstances, I decided to leave the book shorter and cheaper and give you the tools
to build your own setting around your preferences and interests. If you want to tack it onto a more de-
veloped setting, you could easily bolt this onto Grim War and probably This Favored Land, two setting
books for Wild Talents.
That said, Im unwilling to slam the back cover in your face so abruptly, so Im going to suggest this is
brainstorming across time and space. Im throwing out ideas on January 19, 2010 in Illinois. You can
catch and juggle them where you are when youre reading this.
The Nature of
Their sole motivation is to bring mankind into
damnation with them, not because misery loves
Demons
company, not because they know itll make them
feel better, but out of the thin possibility that it
might help them suffer less.
Characters may want firm, settled notions of just
what these obnoxious tenants in their minds are, The biggest strength of the traditional diaboli-
and tough noogies for them if they do. It can be cal setup is familiarity. Everyones on the same
an unanswered mystery that nags from the side- pageharps on this side, pitchforks on the other.
lines of the action like Hells cheerleading squad. Its clear and uncluttered and provides a stable
But maybe the players want to know, and are go- platform from which to leap into the personal
ing to have less fun if theres no answer avail- conflict. This is a good option for a group thats
able. Maybe as GM you can use the search for not particularly interested in doing deep back-
the spirits true nature as a metaphor for mans ground discovery and just wants to emote over
existential questions and dicey relations with the their struggles and then tie up a superhero.
ideas of a higher power. Or maybe you can use it
to string together lots of way-cool fight scenes. The drawback is, with this option, your rockets
If you want that to be an element and its going too small to frag God. It drags traditional Christi-
to contribute, you have some decisions to make. anity front and center, which may not be a com-
Heres a palette of choices. fortable place in your group. If youre all good
Lutherans and have a tacit agreement of How
Angels with Things Go, fine. If youre all ardent atheists and
have a different opinion (possibly much camp-
Broken Halos ier), theres probably no conflict. But in mixed
groups youre going to bash into this head-on.
Maybe demons are straight-up demons. They are Maybe thats good. Maybe its the kind of juicy,
exactly as they present themselves: foul fiends meaty philosophical exploration that some peo-
exiled from the presence of God for prideful ple demand of their spandex-bedecked heroes.
transgression, eternally cast out of divine grace But know what youre getting into beforehand
and unquenchably envious of mankind. and wear a helmet and/or a bib.
152
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The id o i ng to b P C s are eit a n eggrol d psy-
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compl a big E the wh unt the
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t can, ltiple a mo by gn.
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aliens ould p l a i n iple vu ll the i
and ev o ssibly w hy eve lnerab ngredi
il thou s t r etch to r y one de i l i t ies, m ents c
superv g h c f a u ltiple F reates
illains t-form over t ults to i n
sense i s becau s p rojecte h e m all? Th h e roes a a l Show-
to the se tha d from e reas nd vill
human ts the beyon o n ains. W
s they conve d the w that e hat
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Think perate Thats i m rits, ev
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cepts. h. The a s a t i v e r ed. To ncann
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erms o n-
f costu
mes,
Rather than go two falls out of three with Gnosti- sign? Are the angels and demons locked in To-
cism, you can yank off the devil mask and find tal War, wasting each other with blasters in the
a pair of unblinking eyes in a stubby gray face. asteroid belt while they scheme and contend
Maybe the demons and angels are monsters from behind the scenes on the third world from the
outer space and theyre using human cats-paws sun? Perhaps theyre so advanced that theyre
as their agents on Earth. Sufficiently advanced settling a bigger conflict by betting on a race of
science is indistinguishable from religion, right? hairless apes. Perhaps the angels have no real
moral superiority and are just showing human-
As with Christianity, the question of extraterres- kind what its prepared to accept, and so are
trial intelligence is one everyone has an opinion the demons. Maybe rejecting both is the only
about and no proof, but for most people (most) safe course. Or maybe theyre only a little more
its less controversial. But there are still issues advanced and in different directions: Theyre
to contend with: What do tech-savvy ETs want screwing with us because they dont have the
with Earth? Is the whole conflict one big anthro- secrets of the atom and want them. Or maybe
pological experiment for them? Is Earth unique electronics dont make sense to their brains,
and exceptional in some fashion, such that they even though interstellar travel and mind-
have to act carefully instead of just dropping melding do.
from the sky with an Under New Management
153
If youre Screwtaping in a group like this, empha- can now be considered in isolation, apart from
size callousness, disconnection and a real difficul- all the influences that impact so firmly on so-
ty understanding positive human emotion. Dont cial creatures. The next bit is data checking: The
use metaphors or similesmisuse them. Make demon has to dissect five people as a control
confusing and nonsensical statements or exclude group, confirming its observations about its
pronouns. Manipulate people for inscrutable rea- hosts neurological structures. If it does its mur-
sons or couch your urging in the language of ders, it can call for an extraction and (since its
blunt, individual self-interest. Perhaps demons scientific mission is complete) its distant mas-
of cruelty are studying the only emotions intense ters agree and open the portal. Now instead of
enough for them to track. Perhaps the vain ones skulls and lava and stalagmites, the final fight
are simply exploring drives that seem so funda- takes place on an orbiting cruiser where the
mental to humans. truth of the charade is finally stripped aside. If
you want to go a little cheesy on it, maybe this
GMs can have fun with this, altering the usual is the PCs chance to upload a virus from their
Faustian tropes by sliding wildly along the con- laptop (or, more plausibly, slaughter a battle-
tinuum from fire and brimstone at one side, to ship full of aliens single-handedly) and end the
saucers and abductions on the other. Similarly, whole damn situation.
the end-game conflicts when Strategies hit five
can have a change of backdrop without substan-
tially altering the mechanics. Instead of typical
Ugly Tourists
amulets, perhaps the invaders identities are From Beyond the
channeled through psionic broadcast crystals, or
maybe theyre tied to containers that have their
Fifth Dimension
original physical templates and master gene lines If the previous option owes a debt to Forbidden
encoded within. Combining these ideas with tra- Planet and This Island Earth, here we harken back
ditional trappings can be a treat when players to a long-faced gent from Providence who may
crack open that 4,000-year-old statue and find a be gamings most checked name: H.P. Lovecraft.
shriveled, inhuman mummy inside, or examine Instead of physical aliens who somehow sprayed
the Devils Ruby under a scanning-tunneling elec- their spores into the drinking water, now theyre
tron microscope to uncover the impossibly small immaterial aliens whove transfixed human con-
circuits laced throughout it. sciousness with their own and are slowly extrud-
ing their polydimensional selves into our tidy
When the human attempts to cast off his rider, 3-D world. (If you think our world isnt tidy, you
the first step can take the form of some kind of havent looked under the sofa of a nine-dimen-
scientific assault on implanted alien tissue. The sional intelligence organized through iterative
second stage is when the demon attempts to re- chaos math.)
tain its psychic connection after its physical in-
festation has been weakened. The final phase is Some of Lovecrafts entities had the kind of in-
when the creature shows its true nature, stripped volved personal malevolence you expect on
of disguise and vulnerable, though fearsome for grade-school playgrounds and at the DMV, but the
all that. Should the man kill it, it just freaking dies most famous are inscrutably Other. If you want
instead of being sent to Hell. what most people think evil looks like, go with the
Christian model. For a manipulative and devious
The demons victory can go through the same evil, go with the Grays. But for an eerie, nihilistic
filter. The aliens triumph is that it has finally un- void of confusion, check in with Lovecraft.
derstood something deep and profound about
humankind: our evil. The first part of the process Screwtaping has to change a lot in this model.
weakens the humans will to resist by isolating Instead of jokes and sadism, go for callousness,
him from the herd, and also makes the curiosity and the bizarre. The demon wants
personality more digestible because it things, and those things include worship or mur-
154
treasure honesty and human life,
theyre not exactly tame. They are
defending mankind but they arent
saying why. The folks who bear
them are either as freaked and para-
noid as the PCs, or theyre starting
to see from that distant moral pla-
teau, and it gives them a fanatics
million-mile stare.
Creeps From the ture and word choice. But its in there. You read
his mind, albeit in a faint and meaningless way.
Collective Id
Think of your favorite fictional psychicJean Grey,
These demons act like demons because they be- The Amazing Turtle, David Blaine, whoever. Now
lieve theyre demons, but its an illusion. Theyre assume that 99% of the population has only one
really manifestations from humanitys collective millionth of a part of that persons psychic juice.
unconscious.
In a world of seven billion people, that means the
If youre not hip to Jung, heres the quick ver- collective unconscious could potentially access
sion, adjusted for RPGs: Your conscious, individ- seven thousand times the power of your favorite
ual self is the one of which you are most aware. psychic. Your favorite psychic sucks! The power
But you have an unconscious mind, gnawing at undergirding the demons and angels is like two
suppressed fears and desires, irrational and only thousand Jean Greys, two thousand Amazing Tur-
truly free in dreams. Thats Freud territory, but
Jung goes him one better. Freuds unconscious
was still individual, with each man an island.
Jungs collective unconscious is
the ocean in which those islands
sita stew of common beliefs,
archetypal social roles, urban leg-
ends and sourceless factoids that
everyone knows.
156 BARKLEY
tles and two thousand David Blaines combined, Human-on-
with a thousand Uri Gellers added for good mea-
sure. Plenty of energy for teleportation and body Demon Violence
reshaping, along with the more traditional psy-
chic stuff like mind control and TK. Just as the horrible truth about demonkind can
vary from game table to game table, so can the
Screwtaping in this setup doesnt have to change history of it. But while there are loads of ways
a bit, since demons conform to peoples ideas of you can go with the real nature of demon posses-
demons by definition. Same with the Hell of high sion and superpowers, there are really only three
Sinister Strategy. If your soul gets dragged off broad categories of historic possibility.
and enslaved by your resident devil, you can con-
sole yourself with the thought that you havent re-
ally been sentenced to eternal damnation. Youve
Twas Ever Thus
just had your identity scanned into a psychic ge- If you take the tack that demons have been
stalt where it will be punished until humankinds around ever since the Fall of Man, it makes for
aggregate personality changes enough that de- some work, but at the same time it saves you
mon has no ideological weight. (Honestly, for some explanations.
the purposes of a jaw-socking supervillain game,
theres not much difference.) The good news is, you dont have to deal with
questions about the logic of putting on a cape
What can happen with this setup (though it and kicking Virtue in the shins. If demons have
doesnt necessarily have to) is that the PCs find been riding mankinds ass since time immemo-
out whats really going on and start trying to har- rial, people are surely used to folks in masks
ness the power of the collective unconscious and flamboyant outfits screaming Kneel be-
without going through the silly mediation of de- fore me, puny mortals! Kneel before MON-
mon projections and angel imagoes. If they can STER MASTER!
sink a pipeline down to that power and direct it
consciously, without the interpretation of a self- Well, as used to that as one can get.
interested psychic sock-puppet, they could be-
come greater than any angel or demon. The point is, the idea of the supervillain makes
lots more sense if great power has long been
Do you suppose the angels and demons will like yoked to moral extremes. If thats just the way
that? Hell, even if the PCs cant drill their power its always been, then you can hit the ground
well, how are angels and demons going to take running. Characters can quite reasonably throw
being told that they arent even real? Sorry together a colorful persona because thats what
there, Ashmodaedel the Infinite Destroyer, youre people who get powers do.
only a pack of cards! Thatll go over real well.
The work comes with deciding about your alter-
nate history. Can all the great evils of history be
tracked back to demons? Was Vlad the Impaler an
early supervillain? Was Hitler carrying a demon
that hit the jackpot of cooperative hosts?
157
heroes by asserting that they had supernatural especially good people with evil ideas impacting
Good propping them up the whole time. their minds, desperately seized any framework
they could find for dealing with their situation.
An interesting variant is to suggest that, in the They became supervillains because it seemed
great sweep of history, superheroes and villains like the best way to calm down their riders with-
count for very little. Angels and demons dont out giving in to them entirely.
just cancel one another out, theyre less likely to
triumph for their sides than collections of nor- But if the previous option meant you had a lot of
mal people led by extraordinary leaders. The work to do on the past, this one means you face
strictest good and evil are, in this setting, just a job with the present and the future. What would
not practical. world leaders do with superheroes (and supervil-
lains!) on the government payroll? If theyre crop-
On the other hand, if you decide to make it heavily ping up evenly all over Earth, thats probably a
alternate-history, what then? You have quite a bit of big jab in the crotch for the USA, the EU and even
work to do explaining what changed, how and why. China. If the powers are in the hands of the ma-
jor developed nations (who can at least pay for
This is also an approach that causes difficulty them) how does that change the power dynamic?
with one of the nontraditional explanations for More terrorism? A new Cold War? World War III?
demons. If demons are actually Gray aliens, If youre going down any of those routes, I rec-
surely theyd have figured humanity out after five ommend making it a very gradual build up, one
thousand years of experiments. (Unless theyre the PCs get to fully participate in and experience.
just doing it for fun.) But Lovecraftian aliens have In fact, you could probably structure a pretty fine
opaque motives, so thats okay, and the sub-sub- campaign where its the PCs actions that deter-
conscious rationale just means humanity is get- mine which of those three options you get.
ting the world it richly deserves.
Or maybe humankind, if the PCs are good enough
New! Improved! Evil! at being bad, lucks into a fourth option that
doesnt totally suck. Maybe supervillains can pro-
On the other end of the spectrum, you can have vide such a spectacular distraction and such an
this whole ongoing angel demon superpower impressive threat that Iran isnt willing to turn its
cosmic fiasco as a unique event in the history of back on Doctor Mayhem (and his sidekick Mayhe-
mankind. They werent here before, but they sure matite) to make good on its threats against Israel.
as hell are here now. And vice versa, of course.
As the negative image of the Oh yeah, the Crim- This idea is a good fit for a space alien explana-
son Marauders been jacking diamonds all over tion. They werent here before; now they are. It
town for months now, just ignore him approach, works just as well extradimensionally. (Really,
this has the opposite problems. History can stay one of the charms about an opponent with no
firm and familiar, no problemo. But you run into a true grasp on sanity or humanity is that any-
very good question. You can violate the laws of thing it chooses to do is automatically in charac-
physics in ways that no one can even understand, ter.) If you have the standard Christian demons,
you have impossible powers, and your best idea you may want an answer for Why now?!? You
is theme-party museum heist? could brush up on Revelations and have this be
the straight-up End Times, thereby enjoying the
This is the core question of Better Angels, and charms of pre-post-apocalyptic gaming. Alter-
having supervillains (and heroes too, fine) pop in nately, if you go with the collective unconscious
from nowhere makes it even starker. If you fol- as your source, you can hand-wave it with any-
low this path, comic books existed long before thing from delayed millennium fever, to a criti-
real costumed adventurers, and that can cal mass of population, to the universalizing cul-
be your explanation right there. People, ture represented by McDonalds and Wal-Mart
158
bringing the collective lexicon of experience into
enough sympathy to really synch up, to psychic
21 Short Ideas
experiments from behind the Iron Curtain finally
trickling through into private companies, other
Concerning
governments, and well-heeled terror cells.
Supervillainy
It Comes and Goes, I hope these help inspire your game.
pouring of generosity from the people local to his business deals always seem to leverage the
the PCs city. (If the disaster coincides with some worst aspects of human nature for deep profit.
outrageous act of PC villainy, thereby deposing Lots to admire there.
it from the headlines, all the better.) The city has
gathered food supplies, medicines and money to Now hes built a private island in the middle of the
send overseas to the needy. All that stuff, along Pacific, shaped like his (self-made) family crest,
with a bunch of firefighters and doctors, is being with a hundred-room mansion on top of it. Care-
loaded onto a generously donated freighter. Its fully designed as a self-sustaining ecosystem (as
having a big public sendoff from the city docks. long as youre willing to go vegetarian which, like
Hitler, Gin Daddy is) the island is cutting all ties
Sinking that boat would crush the hopes of mil- with the outside world. Isolated with his wife and
lions, if youre cruel. On the other hand, holding a bevy of secretaries along with a couple phy-
it for ransom could be very profitable and indis- sicians, chefs, craftsmen, masseurs and a world-
putably newsworthy. class beautician, Daedolopulous is ready to wait
for death in style, flipping a double bird at the
#3: Billiongins Island rest of humankind as he does.
Billionaire distiller Jim Gin Daddy Daedolopu-
lous has been increasingly erratic in re- Clearly, the place is just itching to be seized,
cent years, though his business sense since no nations navy is responsible for pro-
160 is as sharp as ever. Cynical and cryptic, tecting it. Of course, Daedolopulous is no fool,
so who knows what defenses hes built in there? and accept roles as his sidekicks? Do they break
In fact, arent his actions perfectly in character the cordon and risk looking like heroes? Is there a
for a supervillain? third option that makes them look bad while still
saving the city?
But the fact remains. Its a swell hideout. Sure
would be a shame to leave it unoccupied (by #7: Poached!
which I mean, occupied by anyone other than Right after a PC has pulled off some magnifi-
the PCs). cent caper, another guy in cheap spandex, call-
ing himself Lord Nadir, claims all the credit!
#4: In the Autumn, Its a Who is this joker? What does he want? Is there
Riot of Color any way to steal back the blame, or will Nadir
People are used to supervillains perpetrating ou- just mock them for an act of plagiarism that, in
tr and grotesque acts of mayhem, but its a dif- reality, he performed?
ferent matter when its a cop. In this case, a police
officer who just happened to be white gunned #8: Poaching?
down a fifteen-year-old who just happened to be Its a beautiful crime. No one knew Dennis War-
Latino. Now the citys sizable Latino community chovski was the sole witness to a heist, except
has just happened to erupt into an orgy of vio- for two detectives, their chief, one ADA and the
lence, looting, protests and arson. five patrolmen put on his protective detail. Den-
nis didnt even know where hed been taken, just
Thats all without the PCs getting involved. Can that it was the windowless part of a hotel suite,
they somehow take the credit for this spasm of with police officers in the next room checking ev-
civil unrest? Exploit it? Or is there some way to ery carryout pizza that came through.
use their eeeevil reputations to subtly defuse the
situation, right behind their demons backs? No one knew how valuable Mr. Warchovski was
except the detectives, the chief and the lawyer. But
#5: Sticks and Stones someone entered that room unseen and skinned
Gordy Warville wants to run the city one day. He him alive without the cops outside noticing until
successfully switched from crusading district attor- the blood started to soak through the carpet. They
ney to city council member, and now hes challeng- had to break the door downit was locked from
ing the mayor. But he needs media attention. He de- the inside and there was no one there but the very
cides to seek it by going on the radio or on TV and dead Dennis Warchovski with his socks stuffed in
mocking one of the PCs costumes. At length. Like, a his mouth and a look of horror locked on the dry-
total Worst Dressed List treatment. You just gon- ing muscles of his face.
na roll over and display your tummy for that?
No one is claiming credit for this beautiful, beau-
#6: Whatever Happened to tiful crime. The media has a whiff of it; they know
Professional Courtesy? he was in protective custody, but not why.
The PCs may have made it perfectly clear that
theyre in charge of their little square of turf, but Do your PCs dare take credit for this? I mean
apparently one guy didnt get the message. The blame. Will they take the blame?
Human Volcano has caused magma eruptions,
blocking the major highways into and out of their #9: Pretty Please?
metropolis, and hes threatening to do the same to GMs, you have to tailor this specifically to one of
the railroads and airport unless his demands are their PCs. Set up a problem that only one charac-
met. (His demands? The usual. Public obeisance ters superpowers can solve, something the local
and surrender from the police chief, a superhero hero cant otherwise get a grip on. Now have the
to be publicly unmasked, a golden throne to be hero come and ask the PC for help. When that
constructed by melting down treasures from the doesnt work, he can beg. Make it a heart-
history museum, and the hand of the TV weather wrencher if you want, something thats
girl in marriage.) Do the PCs join his fiendish plot going to force the hero to really grovel.
161
BARKLEY
Will the PC agree? On what condition? Just how should fit your characters sins like it was sewn
do the other characters feel about this? (It works on. It should seem too good to be true.
well if the hero is a particular thorn to a different
character.) Because, natch, it isnt true. Its a trap, and if they
investigate just a little, they can spot hints of that.
#10: Too Good to Be True! Do the humans let themselves get captured to miti-
(Thats a Lie) gate their demons evil? Do they reverse the trap on
What is the perfect crime for one of your PCs (or their stalkers, and the hunters become the hunted?
for the whole villain clique)? Bring near some Is there some way they can actually get the mask/
rare, valuable item thats ideal for their personal moon rock/amorous marsupial and escape?
villain identity; a golden Pharaoh mask for some-
one with an Egyptian persona; moon rocks for a #11: I Know What You Did
lunar baddie; an endangered animal visiting a zoo Last Thursday
to mate-in-captivity for someone with an extinc- If a PC is keeping an identity secret, have some-
tion theme. For those with cruelty or bloodlust one realize it. Not someone with powers, just
as their drug of choice, make it a politi- some everyday schmoe who sees this as a way
cal summit that, if disrupted, could cost to cash in. With paranoid precautions, he keeps
162 thousands of lives. Whatever it is, it himself hidden while hitting up the supervillain
for cash and favors. Can the PC find him and deal crime. Hell, he could be a performance artist.
with the arrogant upstart, or will the blackmailer
out him to the media (or a superhero) out of fear? This is a good one to foreshadow a bit, only to
have it be a red herring. While the PCs are scratch-
#12: Cheap Imitations ing their heads over what to do with the wannabe
The whole point of a distinctive costume is to (We could put him in the Maze of Doom I sup-
ensure that people know its you, but only the pose I dunno just doesnt seem worth it)
you youve chosen to be. Murdervixen, scourge you can surprise them from another angle. Or
of East St. Louis, wants to be instantly recogniz- with another angel.
able as such, but doesnt want her private life as
Madge Valavel exposed. (Otherwise shed never #14: Shoulda Done More
get a moments rest, what with the arrest warrants Pushups
and job offers from skin magazines.) So what hap- Right in the middle of a super-fight, with Buicks
pens when someone else dresses up in Murder- being heaved like snowballs and eyebeams going
vixens signature corset, fishnets and fox mask? off left and right, the PCs powers conk out. Full
stop. No reply from the demons. But fortunately
You dont have to leave that as a rhetorical ques- for them (?) the same thing has happened with
tion. Just swap out Murdervixen for a PC in whomever theyre fighting. Suddenly the heros
your party, ideally one whos got a bit of vanity wings and halo have deserted him. Now what?
and a really distinctive look. Someone else makes Keep fighting with fists and cinder blocks? Run
a knockoff costume and starts a petty, unwor- away? Chase him if he runs away?
thy crime wave by cashing in on the PCs hard-
earned street cred. What to do? Let the cops or The question is, of course, what happened to their
some schmuck-ass hero catch the phony? Tempt- powers, and you have to answer that. No, Im not
ing (and maybe worth it if the villain is also lazy) going to, you do it. The question of Do they really
but its probably more interesting if the villain want those powers back? is left for your players.
tracks down the impostor himself. If nothing else,
it ensures that the frame sticks, once it goes on.
165
166 KOMODA
i c i c l e
a n d V
H e l l
K i d
The hero faded from sight. last time hed fought the self- thing. If he had to take a couple
styled Cold Pimp Supreme a of shots to the nads now and
Hed never let on that he could flying icicle had hit his armored then, it was worth it for the
turn invisible. People knew he crotch hard enough to leave rush.
could fly and they knew beams him walking funny for two
of force from his eyes could days. (He always thought of his
punch through cinder blocks, super-clashes as gittin it
but the invisibility he kept He took a deep breath to try on and had considered try-
that one up his sleeve. In fact, and calm himself, but the mo- ing to make Lets git it on!
hed designed his entire well, ments before the fight were like his tag-line. But he couldnt;
he guessed the guys teach- a drug. Later on at home, when the guy with the flame-colored
ing Heroic Semiotics at the he was swallowing ibuprofen cape was too self-conscious
university would call it his and trying to stretch the sore- to do it. He knew with a bleak
persona around gaining ness out of his limbs, hed certainty that snarky sexual
attention. The costume was a see everything he did as an banter would inevitably follow,
garish red and yellow number exercise in self-sacrifice, as a not just from the villainous, but
with fractal-inspired flame pat- martyrdom for justice, as self- from those goddamn teens on
terns on the forearms, ankles less and high-minded heroism. the Internet. Villains demeaned
and waist. He was hard to miss, But at moments like this, right everything. It was one more
but when he knew he was soon before gittin it on, he had to thing to hold against them.)
going to tangle with the vicious admit it was fun. It was black-
Vicicle, he preferred to remain diamond skiing and high-stakes A couple of inches off the floor
unseen. He wasnt the only one poker and after-hours dance of the New City History Muse-
whose powers could punch clubbing all rolled into one um, he drifted forward,
through cinder blocks, and the magnificent, brightly colored unseen, no footsteps
167
to hear, inching closer to the Behold the great icy fool, He still there, see, he said,
center of the crime, feeling the intoned Vicicle. Kid Hell could And his puny games best stop
temperature drop from sum- hear him, but not see him. immediately, lest my wrath fall
mery to cool to cold. When He craned his neck down and upon him through a groin pum-
he started to see snow on the just barely caught sight of his meling of awe-striking propor-
floor, he smiled. No footprints foe sitting on a looted Theban tions, yuh huh.
from him. judges chair. A woman was
sitting on his lap, absent-mind- What is it you want, you fro-
His breath was visible as he edly stroking his hair. zen deviant?
came around the corner into
the museums great central Yall might take yo shot, Want? I wanna make money
chamber. It didnt occur to him bitch-ass, the villain con- and bend bitches, yo, but first
that might give him away until tinued, if thou trusteth thy I got bidness. Dont you worry
he heard Vicicles odd mix of aim to smite me an miss my bout what I want. Concern thy-
lordly formality and coarse gut- new friend, Museum Director self with what I command!
ter patois. Bates.
Oh, so you need my help?
Kid Hell, he drawled. Thou I loooove you, the mesmer- Kid Hell asked.
art prompt wid a realness. ized woman crooned.
Word unto thy sagging-teated
But the hero didnt hear the Shut up, baby, I know it. materfamilias, I need nothing.
villain say Slumber gently, But you need to get yo head
yall, because a bolt of frosty Kid Hell desperately tried to straight and bend knee to thy
force had already smashed his find an option. Blast the ice lord and master, rightly won
face and left him dazed on the away from his hands and feet? through battles trial!
floor. No, hed break his own bones.
The ball was too heavy to fly Sure, just let me down
off the floor. Desperately, he
When he awoke, Kid Hells turned himself invisible, hop- Soon enough. We aint got
teeth were chattering viciously, ing that Vicicle might think hed much time. The Reaver, the
and he could feel cold leaking teleported. Roamer and the Robot Messiah
into his feet and arms. Spread- are on they way here and anon,
eagled in midair, his limbs No luck. Instead of a startled we must attend to their depre-
were frozen into a massive mistake, Vicicle responded to dations an whatnot.
snowball behind him, pushing Kid Hells gambit with a deep
his back into an uncomfortable laugh and a snowball to the The Three-R All-Stars? Oh,
arc. chest. theyll settle your hash soon
enough, Vicicle! My embarrass-
ment is a small price to pay
168
Those dumb fools think they An all that nano jive did nut- Nah, but you hear a voice,
heroes, just like you. Ignorant, hin before 1991, an it all came dontcha? Or is it just a feelin?
they think theyre coming for together that one year? An inchoate and partially-
me, but they bein led by the formed sensation, emotions
nose. S all about Cambodia, Hey, I read all about it in that alien to yo former life but
boy! one Wired article, it was seeming more natural and na-
was emergent complexity! tive daily? Something in you,
Kid Hell blinked. I knew there Chaos math, that explained it! put into words or merely a
was an exhibition opening Chaos math and stuff, he tugging of spirit, crying for de-
here, stuff from that temple on mumbled. struction, excitement, release?
the Cambodian flag
Thou hast dined upon this No
Im confident that yo deep fatuous claim of emergent
and inky ignorance makes no complexity as if twere the fin- Oh aie, dont try an fool a
exception for Indochinese cul- est Chateaubriand steak, when pimp, boy. Vicicle was on his
tural history, the villain spat, verily tis naught but a stank- feet now, staring arrogantly
adding Bee-yotch as an after- ass pile of doo-doo butter. up at his prisoner. His embroi-
thought. The great city temple dered blue coat brushed the
of Angkor was left untouched Kid Hell blinked. What? snow with its white trim, gold
by Cambodias civil war, with sparkling from his teeth, the
even the Khmer Rouge respect- 1991! The end of the Cambo- peacock feather in his wide-
ing its integrity dian civil war, the beginning of brimmed hat bobbing gently as
the looting of Angkor Wat! Five he spoke.
Keep talking, Kid Hell said as hunred an forty guardian stat-
he struggled to see if he could ues displaced, stolen, chopped You think a brother in the
free a hand by stripping it out up an sent abroad after centu- hood with a few tricks is gonna
of its frozen glove. This is ries undisturbed! Including the essperiment with nanites or
fascinating. one you frozen against right have a radiation accident?
now! Im possessed, an so are you,
Aight then, lets try another and so are those three wroth
way. Whered superheroes What the hell does that have knaves heading here right now
come from? to do with anything? to destroy that statue once an
for all. Oh, my ungentle spirit
Uh various places. Genetic Whend you start hearin the was well fuddled from its age-
engineering, um, a tech ac- voice? long confinement in darkness
cident for Robot Messiah vile, and seeing my raiment
implants nanotechnology Kid Hell felt a chill that had took me for a king. How it
um nothing to do with the giant ice raged to learn it had gifted icy
ball at his back. I dont hear glory upon a common
voices. bawd! But so long as
169
the statue remains, it is trapped ble or nothin. Outside the with the first thunderous blow
within me, bound in part to my hall, Kid Hell could hear the against the chambers sealed
will. Let your fellow heroes, thundering footsteps of the door.
your All-Stars, let them have a Robot Messiah. Or you can
piece a me an I promise that let yourself believe what you Hide yoself, Vicicle said
guardians gonna get blowed know, deep down. Somethin gruffly as he moved into posi-
up inna battle. They fierce. You in you aint good, its evil. tion. If them three dont mop
help me, we might just fight You can accept truth and me up right away, they might
em off, keep the statue whole, just maybe fight the beast. just let something slip.
keep a lid on this bubblin Or you can deny it, remain
kettle of devil poo. no more than an idiot with a Kid Hell floated to the ceil-
flame-print jockstrap, and do ing, unseen like heat haze on
Youre insane. far more evil in virtues name a summer day, as the door
than ever I have in the cause sundered.
On my honor I speak truth. of vice.
Vicicle shrugged. You can Vicicle, you cold-hearted
kill me. You can eyebeam Mind spinning, Kid Hell felt fiend! cried the Reaver. Hand
the livin crap outta me right the ice around him withdraw over the statue and no one gets
now, freal. Im playin dou- and he dropped to the floor hurt!
170
m e n ts
dg e
c k n o wle
A
Better Angels was made possible by 639 backers in a Kickstarter project in mid-2012. Greg Stolze first
conceived the game around 2010 in an RPG.net discussion thread, and he worked with Shane Ivey and
James Knevitt at Arc Dream Publishing, and an amazing playtest team, over the next couple of years until
it was final enough to see what kind of response it would get from the fans. The response was incredible.
As part of the project, we also launched a number of bonus items that backers got free and that newcom-
ers can get online: The Good, the Bad, and the Hunky, a stand-alone adventure; Soul-Catcher In the
Rye, a short story; six detailed scenario seeds to spin into your own adventures; a Better Angels char-
acter creation app for mobile devices; and more. Visit arcdream.com to see whats available.
While youre there, register for the message boards, where we have a space just for Better Angels dis-
cussions. And register a username at the main blogwe encourage you to post your own Better Angels
characters, powers, devilish devices, demons, angels and adventures for others to share! Follow us on
Facebook, Google+ (+Greg Stolze, +Shane Ivey, +Dennis Detwiller), and Twitter (@gregstolze, @sha-
neivey, @drgonzo123) for updates.
We are so glad to bring Better Angels to your table. Its all thanks to these amazing backers of the Kick-
starter fundraiser.
Demon: Player:
CUNNING (primary)
Note the Strategy and Tactic for each power. Dice Pool = Strategy + Tactic.
PATIENT
spot an ambush espionage reconstruct a crime scene
Demonic Aspects
quick fix, jury-rig knowledge education
SLY (primary)
Devilish Devices
OPEN
avoid or escape cowardice smash obstacles
DEVIOUS (primary)
Specialties and History
INSIGHTFUL
tell lies deceit stand by your wicked ways
By Arc Dream Publishing, www.arcdream.com. Greg Stolze. Permission granted to print or photocopy for personal use. All other rights reserved at the peril of your immortal soul.
What a ScreWtaPe can dO
Talk to the host when invited. (If the
hosts primary Sinister Strategy exceeds
its Virtuous opposite, the demon is active
all the time.)
Help the host build devilish devices.
Recognize angels and demons and
their hosts (unless one is concealed by a
power).
Activate Aspects (if the associated
Sinister Strategy is greater than zero).
Transform one die in the hosts dice
pool to a Master Die. (Careful! That also
slides the Sinister Tactic for that actions
line to its Virtuous opposite.)