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River City Chronicles: Stairway to Heaven

River City is a fictional cityscape analogous to St. Louis of 1997, although some time has passed since then. The cityscape itself draws inspiration from cult television shows of the time, notably Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Forever Knight, The X-Files,and Highlander. Much of the city is mapped the same (highways, neighborhoods, rivers), but elements of various other cities are cut and pasted into it. For example, River City has a mass-transit system, a monorail, a Chinatown, and suburban country estates (think Brideshead Revisited - patrician estates). For a gothic-punk mood, chain stores and supermarkets are removed in favor of family-run businesses, unique market shops, diners and bars. Technology may seem a decade behind; computers exist but only in academic settings - never at home - and cell phones and the internet are right out. Television certainly exists and people use it like a drug. Many locations are thematic exaggerations of themselves, i.e. Downtown buildings are new, glittering, and twice as tall. Suburbia is a sprawling pastel Burton-esque nightmare. The youth fall more easily into crime (which is organized) and congregate nightly into punks and biker gangs. Religion is more pervasive, with 78% of the population being Catholic, 21% are Buddhist, and only 1% from other religions. Atheism is quite rare. Everyone seems safe under the sun, but at night anything can happen.

In 1997, the troupe returns to River City one year after their graduation from River City High. During the two months that follow, the troupe lives through what comes to be known as the 11th Hour Incident. Due to the conclusion of that incident, many involved characters, including the troupe, remember much of what occurred with the exception of the outcome. Only three individuals still in River City remember accurately: Adam, Mr. Century, and Anton d'Nile; and none of them are talking about it. The results of the Incident have shaken up the Traditions and Technocracy's efforts in River City; in fact, both organizations have formally withdrawn from the city entirely out to the Country Estates. Some mages have chosen to remain for personal reasons. The Incident caused an occult "hellmouth" effect; the supernatural now seems to naturally flow toward River City. This fact, coupled with the lack of date from the apocalyptic 11th Hour Incident, are the reasons behind both group's withdrawal until they can figure it all out. The Tradition Council tried to warn mages away from the area. The Technocratic Union has labelled the area "Total Quarantine Zone." Despite this, life in River City carries on much the same as it did before.

After the Incident, Adam left the troupe and decided to "walk the earth" for a time. Parts of his mind are closed to Drake, a feat he could not accomplish before, but she can still sense him and know he is well. He only speaks to her when he wants to. Something hurt Adam, and he's gone until he can repair that. Despite her protests, he's told Drake that he must do it alone.

Chester, alive again mysteriously, has left River City to study abroad. The events seem to have scarred him, and it's unclear whether or not he remembers having died and returned.

It is now May of 1999. The following lists the various larger regions of River City with some locations already filled in. Using the fate system, we can put Aspects (one per region and one per location) on them. A few samples are provided. After Phase 5 of character creation, players are encouraged to put an Aspect on a favorite location (or invent a new location and Aspect it).

Locations

Downtown

Downtown's pretty much the same. The buildings are a bit taller, and there are more of them.

• One Metropolitan Square; (a lurking absence) the tallest building in the city and the former headquarters of the Technocracy's River City offices. Most of the building now lies as empty office space.
• Omni Consumer Products; (cutthroat) The Detroit-based company opened an office in River City after a public relations disaster. They have issued plans to demolition most of North County as soon as they can buy out the real estate.
• Axis Chemicals; (life is cheap) the most notoriously inhumane corporation in the nation makes its main offices and chemical plants here.
• Nixon Station;(land of the lost) Richard Nixon Union Station is the largest depot for passenger trains, buses, and trolley cars in the nation. Usually called, "The Nixon" by residents, Nixon Station is historically famous for being the place where Al Capone was shot and killed.
• The Great Cathedral; (in God's hands) the largest Catholic church in the Midwest

Chinatown

formed after the intercontinental railroad was completed in River City. Many chinese who lost their jobs on the railroad decided to settle down here, and a thriving chinese culture exists today. As a result, about 1 in 6 residents of River City has learned to speak Mandarin Chinese, and many places of business operate bilingually.

• The Dragon of the Black Pool; (Fortune Cookie Wisdom)(we have what you need)run by old Egg Shen, the Dragon serves the best damn chinese food in the city.
• Lo Pan's Warehousing; (the wicked city) David Lo Pan runs a largest importing business in the city and an adjunct building serves the second-best chinese food in the city. Also rumored to be a front for Chinese tongs.
• Three Jewels Regional Hospital; largely Buddhist, this hospital is usually overcrowded.

South City

the cultural center of the city.

• Tommy Two-Times pizza; best pizza in the city. Tommy's place is a combination bar and pizza joint. He likes kids to come by, play pool, throw darts, and eat pizza. For the older customers, he makes the kegs available. Tommy also volunteers at a halfway house for abused teens.
• Black Canoes; (a better home than my own) one of the more popular night-spots, Canoes caters to the goth scene. Originally a coffee shop, the owners procured a liquor license when all of their customers stayed up all night drinking coffee. Now they're obscenely popular.
• Jayne Cobb's; an Irish bar. They serve cigarettes, beer, whiskey, coffee, and donuts. They play the Rolling Stones 24 hours a day. Despite the inordinate number of beatings which occur there, police never seem to notice them.
• The Limestone Wolf's Den; (canine) a hidden cave beneath Jayne's, home to Drake's sanctum; an underworld place, in the mythological sense, a going down. It is meditative and flowing with a togetherness/pack aura.
• Drake’s Apartment; (omphalos) the fridge is stocked, there are spare blankets, there is ice cream, cable, Netflix, the couch is a bed, there are spare beds, pizza money on the counter, restaurants on speed dial, and Drake for company
• Lemp Brewery; (the masque of death) the most famous haunted building in the city is the Lemp Mansion and the attached brewery. After the owner's suicides during prohibition, it was purchased by agents of the Euthanatos. Although Anton d'Nile still lives there, the Chantry is all but empty.
• Spirit of the Century; (lost and found) a newly-opened curio and antiquities shop run by Mr. Century.
• St. Jude's Rare Books; (sanctuary, divine guidance) A rare bookstore built into an abandoned church and site of Michael and Marcus' sanctum
• Nameless Club; a brickhouse ratskeller where Ecstatics once drank of the passions of life, site of Nate and Adam's sanctum
• Pete's Diner; (a safe touchstone) best milkshakes in the state. open 24 hours.

Suburbia

many such neighborhoods are all over the city. There are about five different styles of two-story home in all of the city, thanks to the technocracy's success with prefabricated houses.

• River City High School; (origins and endings) the school all the players attended. Their mascot is the Golden Dragon.
• The Red Spot; a suburban gas station and convenience store outside which high school kids hang out.
• Davison Household; (house of food) Nate's - and Michael's adoptive - household in Suburbia.

The Country Estates

surrounding River City's suburbs all all sides are green country acres owned by wealthy families. Built into these rural hills are old civil-war forts and castles transformed into palatial estates. A number of manor houses also dot the landscape. The untamed landscape also offers a prime breeding ground for werewolves.

• James Estate; the mayor of River City, Dr. Gregory James, PhD, makes his home here.
• Aperture Science; thought to be a dot-com upstart, the company surprised Wall Street by buying up a decrepit country villa and building a series of tunneled laboratories beneath it.
• Toluca Lake; (shrouded isolation) this huge, placid lake outside town is almost always covered with dense fog. Half of the lake is reserved for wealthy private residents, while the rest is open to the public.
• The Lighthouse; (soothing banality) actually built into an old lighthouse, the Lighthouse Mental Sanitarium caters to the mental health of the masses.

The Undercity

River City's sewer and public works are much larger than in St. Louis'. A sprawling underground network of subways, sewer lines, and caves connect to form the undercity where many homeless, runaways, and idle teenagers like to dwell. Rumors abound of a society of mole people whom live in this underground system, but such tales are little more than urban legends. Old Egg Shen will tell you that the undercity is infested with Ghouls.

The Waterfront

Laclede's Landing and Soulard comprise the Waterfront, the most dangerous parts of the city at night. Both are famous for their nightspots and clubs.

• Confession; (thirsty) a punk, rave, and (once every month) BDSM club. Formerly Chains. The owner is an out-of-the-closet vampire calling herself Venus Dare.
• The Market; (your heart's desire) in the daylight, the Market consists of several thousand independent merchants doing an honest day's work. Under the moonlight, the Market is where you go to get things that the stores don't sell, including meeting the Unseelie court.
• Shillelagh; (has no heart) formerly The Haven. Owner Janette Duchene sold her former club in 1998 and left the city having felt the need to move on. The new club is a shameless derivative of the old one.
• Vesuvius; (scent of a woman) a popular bordello run by the charming Velvet Velour. State law legalized prostitution in 1994.

The Park

Forest Park is but one of many parks in River City, and is still bigger than NYC's Central Park. A popular urban legend claims that Forest Park is haunted, and that spirits patrol the area from midnight until dawn. In Daylight, those in the know can find the Seelie court.

• The Spire; There is no Arch in River City. Instead, in the Park, an immense half-mile high tower stands, the base of a planned space elevator. The project was cancelled when the NASA project was scrapped after the Challenger disaster.

Across the River

in addition to the urban sprawl at the top of the city, shanty towns have sprung up all over the Illinois side of the river, victims of an economic recession.

North County

the industrial and urban sprawl filled with tenement houses that stretches for miles.

• The Trainyards; a coterie of Orphan mages, led by a brash young girl calling herself "Devil Tiger," operates out of the extensive rail yards here. They have a reputation of appearing and disappearing without warning. Their motives are unknown, and people (including mages) have been known to vanish into the trainyards.
• The Sprawl; an series of near-to-condemned tenements that stretches for miles.

Character Creation / Transferral

Character creation starts with a blank sheet of paper. On this paper you answer a series of questions. This is done before anything else. In addition to getting your concept out, this will end up giving you 7 Aspects (mechanical and narrative devices that are central to your character. If you are transferring your character from White Wolf, look back at your old sheet. Several Aspects good for you may already be there - things like your Occupation, your Tradition (if you still have one), Merits, Flaws, etc.

A Word on Aspects

Characters also have a set of traits called aspects. Aspects cover a wide range of elements and should collectively paint a picture of who the character is, what he’s connected to, and what’s important to him (in contrast to the “what he can do” of skills). Aspects can be relationships, beliefs, catchphrases, descriptors, items, or pretty much anything else that paints a picture of the character.

Some possible aspects include: ŠŠ*To Serve and Protect

• Cursed
• "Pick up the gun"
• Sucker for a Pretty Face
• Never Say Die
• Grandpa's Trusty Six-Shooter
• Money-Colored Eyes
• Filthy Rich
• Faerie Child
• "Like Hell You Will!"
• Twin Souls

ŠŠ*Stubborn as a Mule ŠŠ*Trained by the Euthanatos

When one of your aspects applies to a situation, you can invoke the aspect to get a bonus by spending a fate point (see below). In this capacity, the aspect makes the character better at whatever he’s doing, because the aspect in some way applies to the situation (such as invoking To Serve and Protect when acting in the interests of the Law).

An aspect can also gain you more fate points, by bringing complications and troubling circumstances into your character’s life. Whenever your character ends up in a situation where one of his aspects could cause him trouble (such as Stubborn when he’s trying to be diplomatic), you can mention it to the GM in the same way you mention an aspect that might help you. Alternately, the GM may initiate this event if one of your aspects seems particularly apt. Either way, this is compelling an aspect, and it limits your character’s choices in some way. If the GM initiates or agrees to compel the aspect, you may get one or more fate points, depending on how it plays out.

Aspects are a much bigger topic than we can get into in this overview. For a lot of groups, aspects make up the core of the game. We go into more detail on invoking and compelling, along with what makes a good aspect, in Aspects, starting on page 98. As for fate points, we’ll talk more about those shortly.

High Concept

In short, your high concept is a phrase that sums up what your character is about—what and who he is. It’s an aspect (page 98), one of the first and most important ones for your character. Think of this aspect like your job, your role in life, or your calling—it’s what you’re good at, but it’s also a duty you have to deal with, and it’s constantly filled with problems of its own. That is to say, it comes with some good and some bad. There are a few different directions you can take this. See page 55 of the book.

Trouble

In addition to a high concept, every character has some sort of trouble (which is also an aspect) that’s a part of his life and his story. If your high concept is what or who your character is, your trouble is the answer to a simple question: what complicates your high concept?

Trouble has many forms, though it can generally be broken up into two types: internal conflicts/personal struggles, and external problems. Both threaten the character or are difficult to contain. Whatever form the trouble takes, it drives the character to take action, voluntarily or not. A character that does not have some sort of recurring issue is going to have a much harder time finding motivation, and that sort of character doesn’t tend to have many reasonsto go out and do the crazy things that make for adventure. Without adventure, things would just be boring!

Most characters have several troubles they have to deal with, often reflected by the rest of their aspects (which you’ll select as you create your character), but there is usually one core trouble that shapes the character. This aspect will probably be the one most thoroughly exercised during play (at least in terms of compels—see page 100).

Trouble is a potent hook for the GM and players to draw on for ideas. As you think about your character, try to figure out what kinds of problems you want your character to continually deal with. Try to pick one that has no easy solutions— many may not have solutions at all!

Also, troubles are one of the major ways that characters get compelled, which is important for getting fate points back. So it’s to your advantage to play to your character’s troubles in the adventure as much as you possibly can. (Troubles are like giant red flags to the GM saying “Hey, pick me!”)

Phase One: Early Life

Where are you from? What was your childhood (birth - puberty) like? Was your family life satisfying, or did you grow up in a troubled home? Who were your first friends, and are they still around? This questions asks about the ultimate origin of your character, and provides a baseline for whom she may become. Don't worry about who you want to "grow up into" at this point - that will come later and you may change your mind along the way (as often happens in youth). Write down 2 or three sentences about your early childhood, and choose one Aspect to define it. Good Aspects include any that are intrinsic to your character; in other words, Aspects that you were born with or had no choice in. Samples include Silver Spoon, Twin Souls, Suburban Brat, Broken Home, Missing Father, Little Princess, Child Prodigy, Large Family, Jewish, Irish Catholic, etc.

Phase Two: High School

In Spirit of the Century, Phase Two is about your character's involvement in World War I. Here we offer High School, meant to be a cataclysmic time of physical, mental, and social upheaval. It has been said by psychologists that you should forget about war, forget about politics, forget about death - if you really want to mess someone up, send them to High School. What was your High School life like? What classes did you excel in, or not? What groups were you a part of? Did you fit into the classic archetypes of criminal, princess, basket-case, brain, and athlete? This is also the phase where your character meets all the others, since your common connection (other than magic) is being part of River City High School class of '96. Write down a couple sentences and think of an appropriate aspect. Some examples include Brain, Athlete, Princess, Loser, Slut, Weird Kid, Follower, Gang Member, Chess Club Champion, etc.

Phase Three: The Awakening

Now is the time - just after High School and before their reunion a year after, that your characters awaken into magic. What was their awakening like? Did they visit another world, or did they meet their mentor in an auspicious fashion? Were they inducted into one of the Traditions? What paradigm of magic do they have? Write a couple sentences about your awakening, and choose an aspect relative to their Tradition, paradigm, or resulting state after awakening. The Awakening can be a harsh process, and while you might end up with an aspect like Son of Ether, Ecstatic Mage, Student of the Dragons, or The Chosen One; you can also easily wind up with something like Trust No One, Cursed, Betrayed, or Addicted to Magic.

Phase Four: The 11th Hour

Phase Four takes you through the previous adventure, the 11th Hour. Every character present in the last adventure remembers all of it save for the conclusion and the fight with the Big Bad (whatever that may have been). The only two exceptions to this are Drake (who does not remember the scenes of rape or her daughter, Eve) and Adam (who is walking the Earth). Write down a couple sentences about your role in the 11th Hour Incident and how it affected or changed you. Remember, you may no longer belong to the Tradition you once did, or your paradigm could have shifted significantly during this phase. You could easily have aspects like Ex-Etherite, I've Been Dead Before, Hero of the Day, Take Me Instead!, Mr. Century Must Die, or Shattered Memories. If you weren't present in the last adventure, don't worry. Write down what you were doing at the time and choose an appropriate Jack Burton-esque aspect like Oblivious, What's Going On?, or Outsider.

Phase Five: My Dream / My Nightmare

If Phase Four was about the last adventure, Phase Five is about the adventure to come. The Date 1999 was not chosen at random. This is to be the year of the Millennium, and everyone has their own prediction of the future. Think back to 1999 and the crazy stuff going on and the wild Y2K predictions. Add paradigmatic magic to that and see what happens. Each character in this story has had a vision - you can call that what you want based on your paradigm. Perhaps it is a prophecy from God, a Flash Forward, a vision from the beings beyond the stars, a Faerie geasa quest, or a drug-induced trip to the multiverse where Elric of Melnibone showed you the End of Everything. The point is, you have received a Vision From Another Place on New Year's Day of 1999. What the vision was, how long is lasted, what you saw is completely up to you. You are encouraged to be as creative as you can. Your Phase will be appropriately called My Dream / My Nightmare / My Prophecy accordingly. Obviously, what you write here will be the source of endless plot hooks and character motivations for you, so what you put in it is what you get out of it. If you need more than two sentences here, go for it. When you're done, give yourself an aspect somehow relative to your dream or nightmare.

Skills

All characters have 35 Skill Points and a Skill Cap of Superb. You can find the complete skill list in the Dresden Files book. The Skill ladder goes like so:

• Superb (+5)
• Great (+4)
• Good (+3)
• Fair (+2)
• Average (+1)
• Mediocre (+0)

A skill of a certain rank costs an equivalent number of points, so a skill at Great level costs you 4 points. The system requires that your character build a base of lesser skills upon which your better skills rest, so that for any one tier where you have n skills, the tier directly below that also needs n skills in it. The best way to do this is just make a skill pyramid - one skill at Superb, 2 skills at Great, 3 at Good, 4 at Fair, and 5 at Average. That's all 35 points.

If you are transferring over you character, the old White Wolf system has skills rank at 1-5 also, so it's an easy transfer if you want a feel for how you used to be. All it takes is a little tweaking.

If you are transferring, the three key magical skills are Discipline, Conviction, and Lore. Your Discipline skill should be ranked at half your old Arete rating (round up or down), your Conviction should be half your old Willpower rating (round up or down), and your Lore should be at your old Avatar rating.

While the Lore skill basically covers Hermetic Alchemy quite while in the Dresdenverse, it does crap for Dreamspeakers or Ecstatic mages. Therefore, Lore skill is whatever "text" covers your form of paradigmatic magic, be that lyric sheets and a drum kit or cameras and incense. Your Lore skill will be different from someone else's, and it merely represents how well you understand your own style of magic.

Stunts and Powers

All characters start with a base refresh level of 10. That will decrease depending on how may Stunts and Powers you take. Each mortal stunt reduces this level by one. Powers reduce it further. All characters must take Evocation at -3. It works much the same was as in the book, except that instead of a choice of 3 elements, you have a choice of 3 spheres of magic: Correspondence, Entropy, Forces, Life, Matter, Mind, Prime, Spirit, and Time. These will be the only 3 spheres you can use with Evocation. You can specialize in them and use focus items for them, as usual.

Thaumaturgy -3 (or Ritual -2) is optional. Thaumaturgy has a minimum time frame of 10 minutes (no you cannot use Time magic to change that), and can't be used in combat. Thaumaturgy is not restricted by sphere knowledge. If you don't have a sphere in your Evocation list, Thaumaturgy is where you can use it. If you don't take Thaumaturgy or Ritual up front, you can always take them later (presuming you have the refresh to spend on them). Remember, you can't have a refresh level below 1 (or you become a Marauder).

Other mortal stunts (and you must take at least 3 from the book), are all available for -1 refresh each.

Final Touches

Record your final refresh level, Physical, Mental, and Social stress boxes, and give yourself a name, if you don't already have one.

Now Reach Beyond

Pick a Location (or two, or three) on the River City locations list. This should be a location that your character has some connection with or some special bond to, such as the coffeeshop where you spend all your time, or the old church that serves as your sanctum. If you don't have a special location already written down there, feel free to make one up (get crazy shit approved by the GM first - you will know crazy shit when you see it). Write down an Aspect intrinsic to that location. This aspect can be tagged and compelled like any other while you are present at said location (or discussing said location, etc.). Good aspects include things that anyone walking into such a place should be able to guess, such as a local bar with the aspect Where Everybody Knows Your Name, or the abandoned tenements with the aspect We Shouldn't Be Here. Think of something appropriate that can both get you into and out of trouble, such as Friends in Low Places.

Enjoy the Game

Save the Cheerleader. Save the World.

Take me to River City Chronicles: Stairway to Heaven

Or go back to River City Chronicles: The 11th Hour

Or go to the Hypertext FATE system SRD

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