NPCs for a Low Powered super/magic campaign

[Rage]

Hey guys, i'm running a low powered (almost dark champions) super/magic/anime style game soon. The concept is super powered wash-ups/wash-outs/and f*ck-ups. In a modern asian city. Think Singapore if more depressing and dirty, or Hong Kong if more multi ethnic. Any way, here are a bunch of NPC concepts I'm starting to stat up. I was wondering if I could get your feed back on them, possible other story hooks, and suggestions for characters that fill roles I haven't already thought of. 

Love y'all. 
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Mei Arakawa, a sailor scout whose troupe were killed/frozen in time by their Queen Beryl analog. She was left on earth with a cracked mirror compact (barely/completely unable to do the scout transformation) and left to continue with her life. After years of jumping around, she becomes a fixer in the mystic/superhuman community – arraigning to get the right weirdo to the right job. Gorgeous, regal and loyal Her ‘sailor aspect’ is the mountain, Strong, supportive, smart and serious.

Role: Instigator for party getting together, information gatherer, support finder, connection feeder.
Story hooks: ‘I have a job for you…’, ‘I need back-up now!’, fix the compact, rescue the sailor scouts, help find Sailor Scout reincarnations, defeat ‘Beryl’.

 

Oscar Arvald – former magicians assistant who was being groomed to be sold to a group of extra dimensional beings (EDB) so his master could get eternal youth. He figured out his masters plans at the last minute and fucked up the sale. They want him and hunt him, so he hides. Years later he reappears as a part time small jobs man in the weirdo community. Paranoid, unreliable, quick thinking and inspired. A sputtering candle. He knows a lot about the magical community and a very little about magic. He knows how to carve the runes of healing (Eir), safe travel (Meili), and strength (Thor), which he carves on himself in the worst of situations.

Role: Hired muscle, arcane advisor, rival, sometime rival/enemy.

Story hooks: Extract me, guard duty against (rival magic/EDB/bounty hunters), defeat the EDB, break the contract, Oscar goes paranoid delusional, defeat him without killing him.

 

Hoa the Seeker, A burglar who has complete amnesia of a year of her life, seeks loot, love and a logical explanation for her missing memories and irrational hatred of fairies. Through her less than savory lifestyle, she’s collected a couple of cool high tech and magical toys, such as a cybernetic cat suit giving her slight super agility, and a lucky keychain that opens all key based locks, creates a deafeningly loud jingle jangle, and occasionally turns doors into interdimensional portals.

Role: Occasional enemy, sometimes hired help.

Story hooks: Give us back our stuff!, help us steal that stuff!, we followed you to WHERE?! (interdimensional portal), oh so that’s what happened at spring break (recover lost memories), kill the fairies.

 

Ludwig Kohl, a junior doctor/medical researcher at the magic/medical/alchemcal/weird science start-up called Trinity. He’s one of the last heirs of Victor Frankenstein, and has a secret binder of his writings/medical research that he’s slowly leaking and claiming as his own medical inspiration. A careful and surispect man living a lie.

Role: Occasional bank roller or client; sometimes rival, technological/medical expert, de facto paramedic.

Story hooks: Retrieve the stolen manuscript, help buy illicit parts, grave robbing,  expose the hostile demonic take over at Trinity, help defeat the Frankenstein’s Monster that runs amok, cover up his experiments, black mail him for ____ reason.

 

Knife Fighter 77, Donna Chang, an over achieving child prodigy turned Olympic fencing champion moved to the island, supposedly to do a prestidious masters program… Actually, to challenge herself in the most dangerous environment in the world – becoming a champion of the blade against any weirdo who comes her way.
Ambitious; achingly smart; and fast. She is a little short and has somewhat of a Napoleon complex.

Role: Occasional rival or ally, source of underground information, resident smart technology person.

Story hooks: In over her head she needs back-up whether she wants it or night, win the Street Fighter tournament, defeat the mad-scientists at her university, convince her family to let her stay in the city, help her up-skill/up-grade. Shut her up before her big mouth gets us all in trouble.

 

Morrigan’s Raven: The raven of the Celtic deity Morrigan lives as a sort of undead super-being, supporting heroes on their battle field, making sure that their spirits arrive unmolested at the right after life and ending villains who don’t deserve to go to ‘heaven’. Morrigan’s raven has an extreme distaste for the beings that prey on souls that should rightfully be given to the gods and as such wars against vampires, demons soul eaters and the undead. Ironically, the spirit inhabits the deceased bodies of heroes/heroines that have recently died, as part of the deal the spirit helps resolve the unresolved and put to rest past wrongs.  As such, Morrigan’s Raven changes appearance regularly, but when in its full ceremonial dress of ravenic shadows is unmistakeable. The spirit has been in the city since before it was founded, and knows the place intimately. Somewhat dour and ever vigilant, you never cross Morrigan’s Raven, and a variety of superstitions on summoning and warding her off have cropped up.
Role: Sometimes ally or enemy, guide to the ancient places and history of the town.

Story hooks: Discover how to contact Morrigan’s Raven, help resolve it’s hosts issues, vampire hunting, guard the raven when it is hostless, feel her wrath, earn her favor back, guard duty against her, dungeon crawl with the goddess, reclaim sacred artifacts, return from deaths door.

 

Caval: A boy who stumbled into the gates of fairyland and was raised by the sentient hounds of a hunting obsessed fairy duke. Recently he ‘accidentally’ found his way back into the real world, human touched by the unreal magic of fairyland. Missing his pack he yearns to return to the fairy world. Until he does, he teaches a fey spear based martial art and dates the wind. Unknown to him, his return wasn’t  an accident, but a plot of his fairy master to find a way to get back onto earth and restart his Wild Hunts of yore.
Role: Occasional ally, tracker, training partner, or client.

­Story hooks: Return him to fairyland, Stop the Wild Hunt from restarting, learn the mystical art of blah blah blah, magical forces of nature be crazy – the wind is jealous, is having an argument with Caval, is showing her love by creating tornadoes et.c etc.-, His relatives come to visit – two or three of his dog brothers visit for the weekend and cause major property damage,  find the missing girl, tag-a-long mission.

 

The Slav: Years ago a cybernetic super spy was sent to the city to lie low, just as her country imploded into civil war and her agency was completely expunged. She lives here now with her own little underworld empire, while still occasionally doing wetworks, dryworks, fireworks what ever it takes to live the good life. Smug, aging, and Eastern European.

Role: mostly antagonist and rival, weirdo Mafioso.

Story hooks: Run afoul of the mob, you stole from the wrong cyborg, retrieve the documents before I do, stop an assassination, a bidding war at an underground auction, Spy Aging-cy -help replace her failing cybernetics before she ______s you.

 

Xue Yin Jui, the leader of a chinese group of gang-banger vampires. Relatively new to the game, a vampire since 1995, Yin Jui quickly made her own mark on the underworld’s underworld. A star-f*cker, she has made several mando and canto celebrities, politicians and gang leaders vampires.

Role: an adversary, occasional conspirator.

Story Hooks: Save the celeb, kill the vampires, save/end her victims, take back the night! Protect from Morrigan’s Raven. 

[bubba smith]

not bad ideas there

[pinecone]

Dang! That looks like a cool game! Very nice NPC's.

[GhostDancer]

 

First of all, looks fascinating, thanks for sharing.

 

City = Guangzhou (Canton) or Macau?

 

Sailor Scout name = 山 (Yama, Japanese: Mountain).  Could the Beryl analog be named Pearl?  Easy to remember, since it rhymes with Beryl, and they are both semi-precious.

 

Hoa the Seeker: "Who says my hatred of fairies is irrational?  Maybe they wiped my mind, and worse!"

[Rage]

Thanks Axe!  That's a stunningly obvious thing I overlooked. I'll definitely incorporate that character in there some how. If I rewrite her as Chinese her Chinese name can have it. (Maybe Shan Mei *mountain beautiful* or Shu Shan *Tree mountain*, they both sound beautiful to Chinese speakers.) 

I live in Asia and China is the hot button topic (seriously, I heard what's ISIS from a military officer I work with), so I'm intentionally trying to keep it autonomous, so away from Macau (which is sad, it's like super las vegas) and Guangzhou. I'm thinking maybe I should incorporate Macau/Singapores huge ethnic diversity though. It explains why there will inevitably be a lot of expat PCs in the city. 

[GhostDancer]

美麗的山 = Beautiful Mountain, 樹山 = Tree Mountain in traditional Chinese.

 

What about "Circuit City" or "Science City" for the name of your town?

 

Less likely, since it's real, is Hsinchu City*, the base for high technology industry in Taiwan. Hsinchu Science and Technology Industrial Park is home to 360 high tech companies including TSMC, Philips, United Microelectronics Corporation, Holtek, AU Optronics and Epistar. As a result, the city has the highest income level in Taiwan.

 

*Rendered many ways into English, including Xinzhu, or my favorite, Sin-tek.

[bubba smith]

sin tek could be a cover organization for an evil cabal

[Rage]

Lol, I used to go to Hsinchu for work a lot. It's big damp and industrial parky. It could work, but people usually travel there for work and leave. If I was going to use a real Taiwanese city the southern port of Kaoshuing would work relaly nicely though, it's the second biggest city, has massive high rises and huge population. The northern port Keelung would also be usable. Keelung is cool, because it's got the aforementioned port and has a bunch of ancient shrines inside hard to get to caves (literally, fat people can't visit them because of the tight squeeze.) It has a really famous ghost parade that happens every year and just feels... spooky. It's rather ancient, having been around since before the Japanese and Chinese take overs of Taiwan, so folk religion and Taiwanese traditions kind of reign there. 

Usually Chinese personal names are 3 characters, like my (joke) name 山豆寺, and cities are usually one. If it's an Island I can have as many characters as I want. Maybe 山島 (mountain island) or 神島 (god island) would work, what about something from mythology like 怪獸島? (Chinese-Manticore Island) Gui Shou Dao, or 島麒麟 (Kirin Island), 島狮战 would be a mangled (but legible) version of Lion's War Island? It sounds pretty hardcore. 

[pinecone]

Very cool! I just may use this sometime. I could easily see a villain trying to hijack the Ghost parade, and turn it into a mystical super weapon.

[Rage]

Do you guys think i'm missing anything cool? DO you have a suggestion for a not overly cliche Asian bad guy? I'm wracking my head trying to think of a non fu man chu or triad style baddy. 

[bubba smith]

EASY try a western style big bad

[pinecone]

How about the "new" cliché? A "Tony Stark" type. Or a Cybertech crazed villain? I seem to remember reading in old books about the martial arts that Taiwan was considered the origin of several styles, and techniques. Wu Shu, and super-tech, mixed with anchient sorceries should make a tasty soup!

[GhostDancer]

_{Asian baddie #1: Motoqilin!}

[bubba smith]

wow that's a nice one

[Rage]

EASY try a western style big bad

I kind of feel that not choosing an asian villain in a stock pile of villains in a game set in Asia is just as racist as not having one, maybe more so. Mor eot the point I feel like it's missing out on a lot of the fun that the setting promises. You know what I mean?

[Rage]

_{Asian baddie #1: Motoqilin!}

That;s a kick butt idea. Let me see what I can come up with. 

[GhostDancer]

_{Glad y'all like Motoqilin.  Rage, love to see what you do with him and stats for all the characters.}

[GhostDancer]

Here's a map that Lowell Francis adapted from Gotham City for you to further alter or whatev.

[DShomshak]

Do you yet have a cool bar with a cool bartender? It might be a "neutral ground" for all the super/supernatural types, like MacAnally's pub fromj the Dresden Files.

 

After all, people who have adventures traditionally meet in bars.

 

Dean Shomshak

[GhostDancer]

Asian baddie #2: Lord Tiān'é (Swan,天鵝)

[DShomshak]

Keelung sounds interesting. If you decide to use a made-up city, you could use Keelung as a starting point.

 

To get the expat/cultural melting pot aspects of Singapore and Macau, maybe create a "Taiwan's Hong Kong" sort of city. In the 19th century, the Taiwan city was leased to European country as a port and trading post. The lease, of course, is about to expire -- so who does sovereignty revert to? The Taiwan government assumes of course that it takes over the city, but the PRC is (of course) claiming that it's the legitimate successor to the Qing empire. If the soon-to-be former colonial power has severe economic problems -- say, Spain or Portugal -- the PRC could exert a lot of pressure/bribery to be designated the new owner.

 

In any case there could be a lot of PRC spies at work in the city. They would not be the Big Bad, but could be a pretty important distraction or red herring.

 

I hope to hear more about this project.

 

Dean Shomshak