Gotham as WoD City

[wyrdhamster]

So long ago, on White Wolf forums, there were idea on making fan suplement detailing DC's Gotham City as metropolitan area in World of Darkness. With new Gotham by Midnight series becoming comic adaptation of "WoD feel" - gothic architecture, crazy villians, desperated citizens and supernatural horror - maybe idea should be revived? What do you think about it?

[Windrave]

It has potential. The main concern would be dealing with the 'heroes' of gotham in a way that works best.. and handling the nature of what appears to be a fractured veil.

[Cleverest of Things]

I've been running wod gotham for several years now. The heroes all ended up at least a little darker--for example, Batman has a ton of special effects that make it unknown that hes a human, and hes sort of the game's boogie man, suddenly showing up and scaring the hell out of everyone. Hawkman is a Mummy, so he was pretty brutal until his memory rose. Green Lantern is a seer of the throne so hes sort of secretly an antagonist. Obviously, the villains are veeeeery dark. Scarecrow is the autumn king, ivy the spring queen, and penguin the winter king. Mr Freeze is a sineater, his wife's haunting him. The Joker, much like Batman, is left mysterious and scary. Harley is a Mad Mastigos, and when she attacks with the Joker, the Joker is actually her mad hallucinations made real (and not the real Joker).

[Leliel]

I've been running wod gotham for several years now. The heroes all ended up at least a little darker--for example, Batman has a ton of special effects that make it unknown that hes a human, and hes sort of the game's boogie man, suddenly showing up and scaring the hell out of everyone. Hawkman is a Mummy, so he was pretty brutal until his memory rose. Green Lantern is a seer of the throne so hes sort of secretly an antagonist. Obviously, the villains are veeeeery dark. Scarecrow is the autumn king, ivy the spring queen, and penguin the winter king. Mr Freeze is a sineater, his wife's haunting him. The Joker, much like Batman, is left mysterious and scary. Harley is a Mad Mastigos, and when she attacks with the Joker, the Joker is actually her mad hallucinations made real (and not the real Joker).

Tell us more.

Please?

[Cleverest of Things]

For an example of how dark we toned even the heroic side.. Hawkman had been "reprogrammed" sometime in the 1900s by the God Machine. He was kept in a specialized orbital facility called the Watchtower, which housed "special assets" for the Machine. He woke up desperate to find his wife, the Hawkgirl, even though he barely remembered her. As he sought her out, he slowly remembered that he was held against his will, that his wife is an artificial hologram created to fool him into believing he was happy. She was his angelic handler, and in his previous incarnation, he rebelled when he was assigned to kill the young, recently orphanned bruce wayne. In that life, Hawkgirl found him and killed him, sending him into duat. He had those memories as Hawkgirl prepared to shoot him again. Instead, she defied her mission and Fell. Now on the run, Hawkman gathered a new cult in the image of the cult he had prior to capture--the justice society. Now, fueled with the recruits of Lantern, Arrow, and Shazam, this new Justice League is trying to keep the city from dissolving into anarchy.

[Dreaminggod]

I want to subscribe to your newsletter. That is really awesome.

[ManBearPig]

Guessing you have Grundy as a promethean...since he is and all. Lol

[Cleverest of Things]

Thanks for all the interest! Yes, Grundy is one of the signature Prometheans, as are Clayface and Wonder Woman. The Flash was the hardest to translate, but he ended up a Hellspawn that overclocks the bullet time type embeds.

[wyrdhamster]

Cleverest, can we see supernatural vilians stats? it would be sooo nice.

Scarecrow is the autumn king, ivy the spring queen, and penguin the winter king.

It's interesting who could be Summer Royality - any ideas?

Mr Freeze is a sineater, his wife's haunting him.

I could see Mr Freeze as other Winter King, being dedicated to loss of his wife and cold. But he probably works better as Sin-Eater, especially with his all "I want to cure my (dead) wife".

[akashicmonk]

For the Summer King, perhaps Jason Todd/Red Hood? For me, I believe that Wayne would be The Archetypical Hunter. Jason Todd as a member of his Cell that was abducted, his fetch dying in his place, and kidnapped to Arcadia to return "resurrected" as an incarnation of anger and vengeance makes sense.

[bwgustaf]

Cleverest, can we see supernatural vilians stats? it would be sooo nice.



It's interesting who could be Summer Royality - any ideas?



I could see Mr Freeze as other Winter King, being dedicated to loss of his wife and cold. But he probably works better as Sin-Eater, especially with his all "I want to cure my (dead) wife".

I think Bane would make an ideal canidate for summer king. He's very strong, motivated by hatred, and enpowered by a drug that sends him into a blind rage. I could even interpret his oath to "break batman" as a kind of one-sided pledge.

[Papa Bear]

I was gonna come in and add something, but fuck that, I'm on the bandwagon of Cleverest spearheading the "WOD Gotham Knights" project.

What else have you got, friend?

[Errol216]

I can't express how pleased I am that Wonder Woman is a Promethean.

[Cleverest of Things]

Actually, the lack of a summer monarch was one of the story arcs, as young starfire and a psychotic firefly both tried to gather enough power that the Crown would choose them. Indeed, even just Ivy's existence was a suprise, as Scarecrow was sole monarch since the victorian age, and Penguin was only crowned after the wayne incident. So far, the tension between the factions of summer has been a nice contrast to a "neat" court system. While I HAD originally slated Bane to be an Ogre, his player and I eventually went with Uratha just to suprise people. He'd've been a clean fit either way. As for stats, unfortunately we're still sorta shifting gears into 2e, trying to use the previews and spoilers as well as possible (aqualad's player figured out the yantra and reach stuff pretty easily), but I think I could show off Gizmo, Hawkman, and Hawkgirl's stats.

[ManBearPig]

Wonder woman makes total sense, with her creation story and clayface's both sounding like golems. J. Todd as a changling with the fetch is slick thinking. Id say Ras al Ghul as a Blood Bather (duh) and id say that Bruce Wayne is simply smart (and wealthy) enough that he has made all of TF:V armory stuff without actually being one. Curious as to Killer Croc-could fit as a brute or mutant slasher, a cheiron experiment, or changing breed (bane being uratha and all).