Power Ballad is a post apocalyptic Feng Shui tabletop RPG setting inspired by heavy metal album covers and wicked cool van art.
Genesis
I’ve been playing games since I was 11, and running them since I was at least 13. This has taken many forms over the years, from weekends lost in a friend’s basement, to spiral notebooks filled with hastily scrawled campaign notes, to quickly jotted lists on the back of several napkins.
My players and I… we’re middle-aged, now. Busy. We have full time jobs. Some of us have kids. What we don’t have a lot of is “time” or “the ability to commit to a hobby at the same time every week.” Or energy, for that matter.
So, in designing a campaign, it has to be easy on my poor brain-fried players – no clever puzzles or multi-layered mysteries – and able to roll on even if only a few people can show up. That means highly episodic – self contained in the three hours a week we can gather – and action oriented.
I had an idea for a game set in a ruined dark fantasy world of isolated communities separated by a monster-haunted wilderness so dangerous that only the truly elite – adventurers – were safe venturing out beyond town walls. This appealed to the players, so I decided to run with it, combining it with an old content generation method I used to use in high school – basing game sessions on specific albums.
Keeping with the game’s general themes I decided to compile a list of albums to draw from, and each week I pick one at random to build the game around.
Background
Ten years ago the world was at peace, the people prosperous under the Court of the Crimson King. A powerful psychic, his knights kept the mutants at bay so that humanity could continue the laborious process of reconstruction in peace. The secrets of the old world – a civilization that had spanned the world and contained billions before destroying itself – were centuries lost, but a new order was rising up to replace it.
There was war, yes, there was strife, there was death and plague and hunger, but it was all kept in check by the Cabal – a powerful cabal of wizards and mentalists dedicated to the balance of light and darkness – every rose ahd its thorns, every shadow its bright-side. You could live a happy life.
Then came the Viscera – a dark rain of blood and slime that splattered the land for weeks on end, as if the skies above had been disemboweled. None of the priests or oracles could find out why, and it was as if the gods themselves had fallen silent.
From the puddles of mud arose great beasts, more powerful than the most viscious mutants, as if birthed from myth and legend. They came from the deep forests to enchant men and strip the flesh from their bones, and up from hell to pull children into the dark earth. Good men turned into fell beasts, stalking the land to bring chaos and carnage to the lands of King Crimson.
Only later did we discover that the psi-lord Benedict had overthrown the rest of the Cabal, scattering his fellow sorcerers to the winds to claim the title of Dark Lord for himself, bringing forth the Viscera with his infernal powers. The temples could not stand against this world of ruin, scarcely able to hold the dark beasts at bay long enough to perform his last great act, the erection of great runed walls around the major cities, strong enough to keep his people safe.
It is now the tenth year of ruin. The cities and castles are islands of light in a world of madness. The power of the Crimson King fades, allowing lesser Cursed to sneak in and feast from time to time. None dare travel the lands, save the Damned.
The Damned
Those exposed to the Viscera do not immediately turn to darkness. It grips them, and they can feel the Dark Lord’s pull, and eventually all will fall – but those with a great strength of will and something to live for can last years before succumbing. They are known as the Damned, and while they’ve gained great power from their infernal taint, it is only a matter of time before they succumb to the Curse.
Until then, they are the only ones that can hold the darkness at bay, that can cross the vast and deadly wilderness. They are seen as a necessary evil – to be used, but never trusted.
The Players
This is where the PCs come in – among the Damned, with enough self control to retain their humanity – like all Feng Shui PCs, they are defined by their formidable hypercompetence that sets them well above the masses of unnamed characters.
I’ve asked them for two additional details – one, to decide what physical features set them apart from their fellow man and mark them as Cursed – and two, what it is they live for that keeps them from succumbing to the call of the Dark Lord. Duty? Love? Regret? Revenge?
Character Advancement
I’m not using Feng Shui’s Chi War background. No. Instead, Advancement comes from the Dark Lord’s favor… giving in, asking for more power, surrendering your humanity. I like the idea of keying player growth to something that exists within the setting.
The Setting
What you see presented in the Background is almost all the work I’ve done. The setting will be defined as the players encounter it in the episodic sessions that follow. It’s very kitchen-sink Apocalyptic, with swordsmen and gun battles and monsters. There’s a Dark Lord. There’s a Crimson King. There’s whatever the players invent for their backstories.
The Process
In the week before a session, I’ll pick an album at random and listen to it. While I listen, I’ll make notes. The song titles, their lyrics, the album art, even the music videos will inspire characters, events, and places, and I’ll build a short three-hour playtime episode from what it gives me.
Want some worked examples? Stay tuned, I’ll be working the process out here on the blog as I go.
