"In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity."
-Hunter S. Thompson
The job is simple.
- Point A is a warehouse on the northern end of Bleake Island.
- Point C is a dock in the Gotham Harbor, just past the Amusement Mile.
- Object O is a small locked briefcase. What is in the briefcase is none of your business.
- Time D is dawn tomorrow morning.
- Mr. X is a very rich person who would very much like Object C. Mr. X's real identity is none of your business.
- Amount Y is more money than you can spend in one lifetime.
- Consequence Z is the worst thing you can imagine, only much worse.
The job, as mentioned, is simple:
Go from Point A to Point C, with Object O, before Time D, and deliver it to Mr. X, who will give you Amount Y, or expect Consequence Z.
How you get from Point A to Point C is up to you, as well as how you deal with Complication B.
Why isn't it 'Complication C', you ask? Because this is Gotham City. And everyone in Gotham knows, 'Complication' starts with a B...
I N T R O D U C T I O N:
Fear and Loathing in Gotham City is a small-scale, one-shot adventure based around a group of small-time crooks in Gotham City. Players will be members of a low-level organized crime outfit, each with their own specialization (tech guy, wheelman, safe-cracker, etc: look at the Caper Crew page of TVTropes for inspiration). Working together, they must carry out a task for a mysterious benefactor, all while trying to avoid catching too much attention from Gotham's boys in blue...or worse, the various boys and girls in other bright colored outfits.
The general flow of the game will be sort of a "funhouse ride" in nature, not exactly on rails, but nudged from one location to another to keep the plot moving. Each district of Gotham will be populated with notable locations and NPCs, some of whom will be hunting the party, while others may be convinced to help them out in exchange for one thing or another. Like a traditional pen-and-paper RPG, the GM and AGM will be playing the parts of these NPCs, and each encounter will have various outcomes depending on how the players interact with them and each other. If you're able to find your way to the end, you win.
Unlike most Guild RPs, characters can be eliminated from play if an encounter goes particularly badly-- if, say, Deathstroke shows up, you may be able to cut some kind of deal or even come up with a clever distraction and give him the slip, but if you try to pick a fight with him, the most likely outcome is that he'll just shoot you dead. While I don't intend for the game to be a meat-grinder, I am going to treat it as a game, and part of it being a game is the possibility that you can lose.
Content: I'm looking for a sort of dark-crime-comedy vibe, something like In Bruges or Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, with elements of the eponymous Fear and Loathing and of course the DC Comics themselves (with maybe a dash of the Venture Bros sprinkled on top). I'm imagining it with a soft-R-rating, with violence and drugs and all the scuzzy things in the super-criminal underworld, but not veering into full-on 18+ rating.
T H E C I T Y:
Gotham City is a sprawling metropolitan area along the American eastern seaboard. Home to over 8 million citizens, Gotham has become one of the most notoriously dangerous cities in the world. Crime has always been a major issue in the city, as organized syndicates like the Falcone crime family have been operating unchallenged for generations, and the staggering economic inequality in neighborhoods like Park Row and the Bowery result in countless street gangs rising and falling. As corruption in all levels of government have stagnated any and all attempts to alleviate the dangerous conditions, Gotham has also become the home to a small but extremely effective band of vigilantes. As high-rise businesses and impoverished neighborhoods alike are at risk in the never-ending battles between the police, the various criminal outfits, the infamous Bat-Man, and the influx of garish 'super-villains' that have risen up in his wake, much of Gotham's population has begun to either wallow in hopelessness, or take it as a sign of their own toughness that they continue to live in such a dangerous place.
R U L E S:
- Players are allowed 1 character, who should fit within the bounds of the initial concept: a low-level criminal native to Gotham City. For example, a hard-nosed hitman working for Carmine Falcone would likely be accepted, but the top elite assassin of Ra's al Ghul would not.
- Applications will be reviewed 48 hours after submission. If the GM decides that an element of the application needs to be rewritten, a new 24-hour review period will begin after rewrites have been made. An OOC statement of intent to compete is allowed, but incomplete sheets will not be considered.
- Applications must be posted in the OOC while awaiting GM approval. Once approved, you will need to post this in the Characters tab so they are easier accessed by other players.
- While this is the Advanced roleplay section, I am not going to be particularly strict on things like paragraph count. As long as a post is in-character, well-constructed, and relevant to the plot, it will fly.
- Players must post at least once every two weeks. Extensions may be made if real-life complications arise, but otherwise, if a player misses the two-week deadline, their character will be removed from play. This could mean they are killed off, scooped up by the cops, or even snatched by the Batman, but at any rate they will be out of the game.
- While it is possible for characters to be removed from the game by way of the plot, intentionally killing or otherwise ruining another player's character is strictly forbidden without their permission. If you're going to engage in PvP, keep it friendly.
- Explicit content (particularly graphic depictions of sex or gore) is forbidden.
- Standard Guild rules apply.
C H A R A C T E R A P P L I C A T I O N:
Player Name:
Character Name:
Specialization: (driver, gunman, tech guy, face, etc)
Background:
Notable Features:
Personality:
Fatal Flaw:
