Beyond the Noir?

[MikeM]

I have been obsessed with period pieces that take place in the 1930's and thought it would be a perfect fit for Beyond the Supernatural.
Has anyone tried running BtS in such a setting?

Gangsters, Femme Fatales, hard boiled private eyes.

I think it could work really well!

[Natasha]

Never have done so but I agree that it would work and work well.

[Holister]

YES, I have ran such a campaign using some Call of Chuthulu stuff. I actually allowed a couple of players to run the great-grandparents of their current characters. EVery now and then we go back to the "past" game so that they can leave more new "inheritance" for the current era characters. Its pretty wild.

[Beatmeclever]

As a matter of fact, my games take place in Edge City:

Spoiler:

Edge City is where all the action is: a crowded city larger than Los Angeles or New York City. No one has ever taken a census, but estimates of the area's population range from half a million to 5.5 million people.

The architecture of Edge City is an amalgam of yesterdays and tomorrows. Newly-erected towers of glass stand side-by-side with granite Gothic citadels. Most large buildings are built of modern steel and glass or in the venerable old Gothic style, with occasional experiments by architects like Bruce Goff, Frank Lloyd Wright, Buckminster Fuller, Morris Lapidus, or Eero Saarinen. The bleak Gothic ramparts were intended to be a bulwark against iniquity, but most common critics will tell you that the constructions have effectively barricaded vice and evil within the city. The Edge City Rapid Transit System (ECRTS) monorail spirals through the city on 134 miles of elevated track.

In the business and wealthy districts, the streets are broad, clean, and filled with the good looking and powerful. Elsewhere the streets are narrow, twisted, filthy, and thronged with those who don't fit in well anywhere else in the world. Graffiti, often disturbing and unusually enigmatic, adorns most surfaces.

The city has several hot spots that focus arcane energies, energize psychic powers, and attract the supernatural. Other problems in the city include organ thieves, vigilantes, crazed religious cults, organized crime, drug wars, government corruption, secret societies, a media that is out to maintain the public ignorance (by force if necessary), and wealthy patrons who can turn against you at a moments notice.

The styles of the people and technology are the same as the architecture of the city – old and new combined.

We have been playing here for three years now and it has been GREAT!

[Lord Z]

Weren't the First Street articles set in the 1920s?

The problem I have with period pieces is that I have never seen a group with total buy-in. Some players outright despise historical games due to a boring history class sometime their pasts that still resonates with negative emotions. They consider anything before their own time to be history. Other players hate modern games, usually again because of emotional reasons. I remember one long term player in my group for years who hated both history (boring high school class) and modern (she hated guns in real life). There is always one or more malcontent in every group. Soooo, that's why a lot of groups end up in those darn genenric dungeons all the time.

[mrloucifer]

There is always one or more malcontent in every group. Soooo, that's why a lot of groups end up in those darn genenric dungeons all the time.

I dont know if you'd care for my 2 cents on this on Lordy Lord, But in your case it sounded like that player should have been removed from your party, especially if everyone else was enjoying it.

[Lord Z]

Heh heh, we were gaming at her house. Besides, she was a very good gamemaster.

[Garm]

The wife suggests a HBO movie called "Cast a Deadly Spell" for some reference. The movie is set in the late 40's basic gumshoe, femme fatale with zombies and magic. Hard to find it as it has not hit DVD that we have found, it was copy righted in 1991.

[Natasha]

There's a familiar "face". Welcome back.

[mrloucifer]

Heh heh, we were gaming at her house. Besides, she was a very good gamemaster.

Well, that does indeed change things. I'm also impressed that you found a female GM. Those are in very short supply in my hood. Seriously, I'm involved in the local RPG yearly con, and you can count the number of female GM's in a crowd of 300 on one hand!

[Lord Z]

Sidenote: I wonder which character class a fem fetale would be.

In my face to face group, I am encouraging all of the teenagers, boys and girls, to try running a game at least once. That is how we get an occassional injection of estrogen in the GM chair.

[mrloucifer]

Are women really that scarce as GMs, or is that total female count as per con?

In my experience, sadly yes. And its a shame as the few that I've been involved in playing with were pretty adept at running "story" based games, my persoanl favorite types as oppsoed to the majority of the dudes wanting to run a more "action" oriented game.

[Cybermancer]

That makes me sad.

Don't be sad. Are gems any less precious for their scacity?

My favorite GM of all time was or rather is a woman.