Everyone’s been gushing about Scum & Villainy (for good reason), but I want to give a little love to Vigilantes.
Our crew just finished their first mission. They planned on having their Whisper’s possessor spirit contact (you know the one) possess the leader of the Fog Hounds, so she’d not harass the tavern that was giving help and jobs to Skovlan refugees.
They rolled a mixed result on engagement. Who ends up at the meeting with Whist, the Fog Hounds leader, but Master Creep (Oscarr Skurlock). Not a great thing to happen when you’re transporting a secret spirit inside one of your crew member’s bodies. Just when Oscar was about to bust the whole operation wide open, they cracked his spirit mask by “accident” and got him to leave by offering to help reconstruct the mask. Then Settara became fascinated with our own Whisper.
Our crew was really unprepared for how amicable Whist was. She seemed like such a nice, down to earth person. Two out of three of the crew decided to abandon the plan, but the Whisper carrying the spirit inside him went ahead anyway, and Whist became possessed as planned. Frog, Whist’s child spy, ended up being “adopted” by the crew, though he still doesn’t trust them.
Being able to throw one of the legendary Bloodletters at the crew and watch them circumvent him felt great and bolstered their reputation as Savvy quite a bit. Watching them abandon their plan when a gang leader wasn’t just a brutal monster showed that they’re still the good guys. When one followed through with the plan, it really developed the characters and created wonderful friction between them.
Our crew overcame great challenges flawlessly and the plan went off with barely a hitch, yet they still felt a bit guilty about it. The “good guys” spin on Blades as well as the great starting situation made this session and our characters come alive.
Since I’m just finishing Jessica Jones and the like, I’m very interested in getting to field a Vigilantes crew. My group’s previous cult was a little bit too weird and dark for me. 🙂
Thanks for sharing
Curious: how relevant do you think the Vigilantes material is for inquisitor type characters (similar to Warhammer 40K)?
/sub
Mark Cleveland Massengale I wish I could say, but I’m not familiar with Warhammer 40K universe.
The kind who are committing usually-criminal acts but under the authority of the law. Similar to.. the fiction of the Judges in Mega City One, except with inquisitors it’s also about enforcement of religious law too
Mark Cleveland Massengale Huh. Sounds like it could work if your crew took the “Real Police” or “Scion of the Gods” Drive and ignored the implication that you’re breaking and hiding from the law. Heat would have to take on a new meaning, like criminal factions hunting you down or something. A handful of Entanglements would need to be replaced or recontextualized as well for the same reasons.
Beyond those issues, I actually think it could work quite well!