ISBN 0-9700821-7-7Copyright ©2000 Gareth-Michael Skarka and Laura Hanson,

Produced under exclusive license by Synister Creative Systems. All Rights Reserved.

Written and designed byGareth-Michael Skarka

With: Laura D. HansonT.S. LuikartSean Jaffe

Layout and Design: Joshua “Pidge” Jaffe

Cover by Christopher Shy

Interior Artwork by: hive

Raven Mimura

Thomas Denmark

Yesse America

Bradley K. McDevitt

Jerry Grayson

Frank Fallon

Nichole Clark

Andrew Baker

Delmar Samatar

Sean Benjamin Jaffe

Joshua “Pidge” Jaffe

Peter “Peet” Johnson

Clayton Graham

Gareth-Michael Skarka

Playtest/Design Commentary:Sean JaffeJoshua “Pidge” JaffeLaura D. HansonAaron RosenbergJen PurcellLou ProsperiFrank B. FallonNichole ClarkJared SorensenT.S. LiukartEdward WebbSandy AntunesEd HealyMatt SnyderDavid ArtmanAlex HeggieAndrew BrehautJoel SammallahtiChris WomackKevin L. NaultKevin MoweryTrey PalmerStuart WellsGreg BasichDerek GuderMiguel ValdespinoJeremiah GenestM. Raoul YachesStephen HerronMike MearlsMichael O’Connor

Dedicated to Allie, Maggie and Ian

—who are still my best work.

Mike SullivanShawn IsenhartYesse AmericaPaul BeakleyGarett LepperJames DroschaMatthew Hanson-WellerKevin L. NaultDan PriceKarl LowJason P.PrinceAndy GuestSteve DarlingtonDaniel PondDavid RoweMyrddin EmrysElizabeth BartleyJames HollowayPete RogersRobert A. RodgerJohn BakerSergio Mascarenhas...

...And the many others who

participated in the forums on

RPGnet

Special Thanks to Sandy Antunes and RPGnet

Dark accurate plunger down the successive knell Of arch on arch, where ogives burst a red Reverberance of hail upon the dead Thunder like an exploding crucible! Harshly articulate, musical steel shell Of angry worship, hurled religiously Upon your business of humility Into the iron forestries of hell...

-Allen Tate, The Subway

Downbelow

By T.S. Luikart

First Stone

Eisric Dane’s fabled luck seemed to run out in aback-ways sewer shaft beneath a crescent moon.Three slender rays of wan light slipped their way pastan iron grate to illuminate his final scene, but onlyserved to make the shadows darker still, a fact notlost on the sensibilities of Dane’s executioner.

The slayer in question wore a colorless trenchcoatand denim jeans, which had been tailored by Strausshimself. Pitch black loafers with ruby-sequined spatsadorned his feet and he went shirtless. In his fist’s apair of twined knives lurked; the first was flint, thesecond, steel. One of his eyes was solid black andlidless. The other was sewn shut with sinews takenfrom a dead saint’s left hand. His name was Ithio,and he hummed as he carved.

It doesn’t rain Down Below, but it should’ve been.

Comes a Ripple

There have always been places where Up Abovetouches Down Below. Pieces of bright memory &bitter regret hold pools of Radiance, and Mockeries

sift up to walk the earth and plague the ignorant.Among the broken pits of fallen Vaudeville, where

discarded wooden Charlie Lumley’s lay, talky stringsgone rot; amidst the tarnished bronze kazoos andstale one-liners, the Buckskin dwelled. When its paingrew too great to bear, when it could no longer standthe tatters of its former greatness, it would follow thesiren’s call of Broadway, and creep up, up, up to thedistant twinkling lights—always to find a dreamerwith stars in their eyes. The Buckskin collected thosestars, and kept them in a large glass tank which hadonce held the mortal remains of Houdini.

Three years after the Queen of the Roaring Heightswas coronated, two before Captain Uridian chartedthe Brooklyn Sound, Lord Steam & The Analog Kidwent to collect on the Buckskin’s bills.

What is there to say of Steam that has not beensaid? A rogue, certainly. A genius, unquestionably.A lunatic? Perhaps. The UnderWorld makes duewith what heroes it can. 5 foot 6 he stood, 5 foot 10if you counted the blazing corona of white hair thaterupted about his bald pate in a style reminiscent of"fork to socket". His eyes were pools of electric bluequestions; near to impossibly large behind brass-rimmed & bottle-sized trifocals. Tools of everyshape & caliber were always secreted about hisperson. When he saw children he gave them hardcandies and when he was angry even the toughestBravos fled.

As for the Kid, you probably grew up on tales ofhis exploits, yes? In those days, his eyes were aRolex & a hand made Swiss pocket watch. But theAtomic Clock at the center of his chest and thehonorable spirit that fuels it were the same, then, asnow.

The pair found the Buckskin’s latest victim in anunused subway shaft, half-hidden by a hasty fiend &a large strip of burlap. Steam laid her to rest & theKid cried, great wracking metallic sobs that shookstations miles away. Blue eyes looked intomechanical, and it was decided without a word. Asabove, so below. Justice. Justice long denied.

The Waves Begin

I doubt Eisric Dane was feeling the pain much.After the first few kicks, the agony kind of recedes asthe body goes into shock. He distinctly recalled thesnap of the first rib to break and the cold entrance ofthe first knife but he claims a merciful blur set in afterthat. When he came to, the first thing he noticed,with little surprise, was that he wasn’t dead. Thesurprise was swiftly replaced by regret as heattempted to stand.

I suppose the story might have ended there andthen if Moray hadn’t happened along, but there youhave it. She turned a corner in time to see a largeman in a dark trench-coat collapse against a tunnelwall with a stifled cry of pain. Moray approachedcautiously, her knife held at the ready before her.

"Mister? Hey, Mister, you don’ look so good."No response. She waited for awhile, debating thewisdom of going for help or trying to take him withher or just letting nature take its course. It was thecoat that decided it. As the light from the torch shecarried fell full upon it, a brilliant green light shinedout from the darkness of the man’s overcoat. Beforeher wondering eyes, runes began to slowly crawlacross the surface of the trench. An audible cracksent her leaping back several feet and her eyeswidened in shock as she realized that the man’sarm was realigning itself as she watched. Irongrey eyes caught and held her hazel ones as heslowly pulled himself to his feet.

"By the Radiance," she whispered, "whatare you?"

"Damned," he said, then fell, unconscious,at her feet.

Ripples Interlocking

"We will need a lorekeeper," the Junkmanrumbled. "And someone to find the path," theArtificer added, " the way to Vaudeville is longand treacherous." He smiled. "You’re notexactly agile." What passed for an expressionof amusement crossed the Kid’s wrought ironfeatures, "I didn’t make me, old man."

"It isn’t easy to mask the sound of pistons,you know…"

"Hmmm." "…And venting steam quietly without any

whistle." "Uh-huh." "At least you don’t creak." "My gratitude knows no boundaries." About that time, the old tinkerer changed the

subject. "So who’s the best?" The metal manconsidered the question for a time before answering,

"Forlan." Steam gave him a sharp look. "We couldnever afford him," Steam paused, "There is anotherwe know, and he owes me."

The clock hands of the Kid’s eyes stoppedrotating. "He’s been Outcast."

"I know." A slight pause. "Would he do it?" "He has honor, no matter what his Guild says.

Besides, if you want the Buckskin, if you truly wantto take him down permanently, we need Dane."

Slow whirring nod. "So be it."

New

Patterns Emerge

Moray searched the long corridor with her eyes asshe dragged the strange-coated man down it. Everyecho caused her to flinch and look back the way theyhad come. It was good that her burden had stoppedbleeding, though she was disturbed. What hadstarted as a torrent of blood from his side, hadsubsided to a trickle, then nothing. Moray knewenough about knife wounds to know the stranger’sshould have been fatal.

She reached her squat and probably sighed inrelief as she pulled the man into it.

"Thank you." She gasped and stepped away from him, causing

him to fall heavily to the floor. "I think," he wheezed. "Oh, sorry. Sorry. You startled me." "I tend to do that to people." In spite of herself, Moray was intrigued by the

droll expression on his face. "Who are you? Whathappened to you? Were you lost? You were in oneof the high roads hardly anyone goes up there." Heraised himself and sat against the wall. She floppeddown on the other side of the room, careful to nevertake her eyes off of him. Though she appearedunarmed, she always keeps throwing knives hiddenabout her room.

"I should tell you now, I appreciate what you’vedone for me, but I’m Outcast. There is little I can dofor you, or pay."

She put on a casual expression. "Well maybe wecan make a trade. Your life in exchange for, oh, howabout your coat?"

He smiled. "My life is not yours to give. It’sbarely mine. As for the coat… I wouldn’t be doingyou any favors by giving it to you. Wearing thiscoat," he paused for a while, "wearing this coat is aburden all of its own. I have some Above money Ican give you. You could trade it." He studied theslim girl that sat before him. Her quick sharp smile."What are you called?"

"Moray, like the eel. As in, ‘as slippery as’." Shegrinned, "and you?"

"Dane. Eisric Dane." Her eyes widened. "THE Dane? The detective?

No waaaaay." He nodded. "But, no offense, but, uh,who could do this, I mean, who could, you know,

beat you up?" "He didn’t "beat me up" girl, he killed me." "Killed…you?" He nodded. "But how?" "He didn’t know the truth about me. Next time…

next time he will." She flinched away from thepower in his gaze. "But next time, I’ll be ready forhim, as well."

"Who?" "Ithio." She practically screamed, "Get out of my flat,

NOW!!!" She didn’t though -- although she did starthyperventilating.

"Ith…io…you…fought…fought…alive…what…what?"

"I’m a Legendary, kid. One that, among otherthings, represents the belief that an underdog muststand against the odds." A dark expression crossedhis face. "That the truth must come to light, as well."

Moray slowly calmed down. "Who would send,Ith…Him, after you?"

"I don’t know. But I know why, I’m getting tooclose to the truth."

"The truth, what truth?" He made a sweeping gesture around the room. "I’ve about figured how who built all this and

why.""All this…you mean, you mean UnderWorld?" He nodded. "Whoooaa. Then you know, about the Radiance

& the Subways?" He nodded again. "Is that why you were Outcast?" "I believe so, though I have little proof. Now I’m

trapped. Can’t exist in the world above, hunted in theone below." A slight smile crossed his face. "Thesetunnels down here are mean, good thing I’m a manwithout fear." A strange expression replaced thesmile and his eyes grew vacant. "Someone is lookingfor me."

"I’ll just bet," she said. "No, not like that. Someone needs me…

Someone I owe." "How do you know that?" A series of resonating thumps echoed down the

corridor outside Moray’s squat. Both the girl and theman looked at the rug that served as her door. "Youdon’t suppose."

The curtain raised and a small man followed by a

metal behemoth entered the room. "Found you," said Lord Steam.

The Last Wave Begins

"I can’t believe you talked me into bringing her,"Dane growled, "she’s in a lot of danger."

"Everyone’s in danger Down Below, besides weneeded a scout," the old man replied.

"You owe me anyway," Moray yelled back fromthe corridor before them.

"And you," Dane turned to the Junkman whostomped down the corridor at his side, "Steam Iunderstand, but I expect better of you, Kid."

"Our need is great. It has gone on to long, Eisric.The Buckskin must be stopped. Afterwards, we canhelp you with your problem with Ithio."

"Problem? That’s one way of putting it." "Of course my boy. If I had a nearly unstoppable

psychopath that wanted to stick knives into me, I’dcall it a problem." The old man grinned.

"I see those humor experiments still aren’tpanning out for you." The Artificer frowned. TheJunkman chortled. "Moray," Dane raised his voice,"don’t stray too far ahead."

Moray appeared in the corridor before them. "Idon’t get it. We should be there by now." With that,the Buckskin struck.

Part of the wall before them flowed, quick andvicious, onto the girl. She screamed as the flesh ofher arm was stripped away by tendrils with sharpteeth. The Analog Kid roared like a semi springing tolife and charged forward. His huge mass impactedinto the Buckskin and the two of them crashed downthe corridor in a heap.

Lord Steam pulled a long device out from underhis coat and aimed it at the struggling combatants.The gadget resembled nothing so much as a Jacob’sladder that had been turned into a gun [which is whatit was]. "Blast you, Kid, get away from him!" Heturned to Dane in frustration. "What do we do?"

"We’ve got to find his focus. Probably the eyesits taken, what they represent to it. Find them anddestroy them. Look, the Kid’s holding his own."

The Analog Kid was indeed holding his own. TheJunkman grappled with the Buckskin; metal fingerslocked vice tight on slippery, changing flesh. "GO,

GO NOW!" Moray had slumped against the corridor, blood

oozing from a dozen tiny lacerations on her arm.Despite her pain, she concentrated and then pointed,"That way that’s the way. I’ll be alright, go."

The Artificer & the Outcast raced down thetunnel, the sounds of the struggle echoing behindthem. A massive cavern opened before them, at thecenter of it, a massive fluid filled tank held hundredsof eyes.

"That’s it! Blast it, Steam. Destroy it!" The Jacob’s Hammer {that’s what Lord Steam

called it} spat an arc of electricity at the tank, whichexploded with a satisfying crash. Bits of glass andsizzling eyeballs flew about the room, in the distance;the pair heard a hideous roar that gradually faded tonothing.

Shing. Shing. Shing. Steam’s triumphant grin faded. Dane looked

about, expectant. Shing. Shing. Shing.

A dark figure produced sparks in the darkness.Sparks that fell from a pair of twined knives, whichlurked in his hands as he rubbed them together. "Itseems I underestimated you," a high, soft voice,opined, "it will not happen again, detective."

"I’m ready for you this time you son-of-a-bitch." "Hmmm. I think not. Even I would rather not

face the Analog Kid. Another day, Eisric Dane.Good bye, Lord Steam." With a slight bow, Ithiostepped into the shadows and was gone.

The Kid entered the room carrying a pale, butsmiling, Moray. "You should have seen it, guys. TheBuckskin sucked into itself. It was great."

"It was revolting," grated the Kid. "Guess who we just had a chat with?" asked the

old man. The Analog Kid looked back and forth between

the two of them. "Life was getting too dull anyway."

Overview

History

New York City…the grand metropolis of theUnited States, one of the largest cities in the world, ishome to millions upon millions of people. Like manyof the larger cities on the East Coast of NorthAmerica, it has a history extends back some 400years—not as extensive as the lengthy histories of thegreat cities of Europe, but more than enough to dwarfthe respective ages of the other cities of the NewWorld.

The millions of people who live and work in thecity are surrounded by the reminders of this history:from the towering buildings that dominate theskyline—the products of the last century—to theskewed streets and narrow avenues that tangle below14th street, following the paths set by the originalDutch settlement of the 1600s. Internationalfinancial institutions of the 21st century sit next doorto pubs that have served clientele since the before the

Revolutionary War…and beneath the city streets, theworld’s most extensive subway system coursesthrough it all, like arteries pumping blood through thebody.

The New York City subway system is the resultof the work of several different independentcompanies. The first subway began construction inthe late 19th century, following the lead of London,whose Underground Rail opened in the 1890s. TheInterborough Rapid Transit (IRT) was the firstsubway line to open, on October 27, 1904. The IRTline ran from City Hall, at the lower tip of Manhattan,north to Grand Central Station, then west under 42ndStreet to Times Square, and then north underBroadway, eventually terminating at the Bronx Zoo.

This form of public transportation was greetedwith fervor and excitement by the public—on thefirst day of operation, over 150,000 people rode therails, despite cries from detractors that the processwas bad for the lungs, bad for the eyes, and bad forthe soul in general. Few people noticed that aninvisible line had been crossed. For what was oncesolely a matter for heroes of myth—journeyingbeneath the ground, travelling into the underworldand returning alive—was now commonplace.

By the second decade of the 20th century, the cityhad issued contracts to an additional subwaycompany: The Brooklyn Manhattan Transit (BMT).The two corporations constructed and ran the rapidtransit system in New York as a concession from acity that could not afford to build and operate such asystem on its own. The BMT and the IRT foughtagainst City Hall in many political battles throughoutthe early 20th century, especially during theadministration of Mayor John F. Hylor in the 20s.Hylor wanted the subways to be constructed and runby the City government. He continually spoke outagainst private monopolization of the rapid transitsystem, and proposed an Independent Subway (IND)in 1925. The IND opened with little fanfare in 1932,after Jimmie Walker, who was much more supportive

of the private subway status quo, had replaced Hyloras Mayor.

Eventually, by the 1950s, the city of New Yorkdid subsume the IRT, BMT and IND into one system,under the auspices of the Metropolitan TransitAuthority, which is how the system is operated to thisday.

It is these Byzantine beginnings that are oftencited as the reasons behind the New York Citysubway’s odd, labyrinthine layout. The officialstance is that since the system was laid out by threeseparate companies, there was little communicationbetween planners, and little effort made to coordinateefforts, resulting in the twisting mass of stations andtunnels that lie beneath the streets. The real reason isfar more complex.

Lost Magic

The world used to be a place of Magic. It isevident in our myths, our legends and our fairytales—magic was a common force of nature.Gradually, as human culture developed and grew,people began to quantify and define the world aroundthem purely in rational terms. Science was born.

As science began to spread, magical energybegan to recede. This energy, called The Radiance,began to leak away from the world like blood jettingfrom an arterial wound. Like blood, however, itpooled in some places--the UnderWorld. TheUnderWorld is one of the last vestiges of TheRadiance left on Earth. It lies beneath the world ofMan, beneath the subways, beneath the stations,beneath it all. It is a hidden world of caverns,chambers, passageways, tunnels…. and magic.

The deeper you go into the UnderWorld, thestronger the surrounding Radiance. At the upperlevels of the UnderWorld, though--the subwaystations and passageways carved by man--TheRadiance leaks away, like heat being lost.

Magic is not a renewable resource.

In fact, the loss rate of The Radiance, which grewexponentially during the 18th and 19th centuries (asthe industrial revolution sandblasted the magic fromthe face of the Earth), should have resulted in acomplete depletion by now...but it hasn't. There isonly one reason for this—the subways.

Next Stop, Rune Station

Across the globe, during the latter part of the 19thcentury, construction began on the subway systemsof the world's larger cities. Some person or group (noone really knows for sure, although there are moretheories regarding this than there are stars in theforgotten sky) subtly influenced that construction--changing a route here, moving a track there.Unbeknownst to almost anyone, the subways werelaid out in ancient patterns--similar to runes,mandalas, or the spirit-paths walked by Shamans.But instead of a single sorcerer walking the pathdictated by the arcane geometry and therebygenerating a small amount of magical energy--thepaths of the subways are followed by many people,unwittingly, every day. Each rider gives up thesmallest, most miniscule fraction of his or heressence for the generation of a magical charge.

With millions of people unknowinglyparticipating in this ritual daily, enough power wasgenerated to replenish The Radiance--to slow itsarterial dispersal at first, but as the 20th centuryplowed ever onward, and more and more peopleplugged themselves in to the hidden magicalgenerator that is the modern subway system, the rateof loss reached equilibrium. At this point, the turn of

the 21st century, The Radiance is being replenished ata rate equal to what it looses daily to the world above.

Some within the UnderWorld speak in hushedtones of the mysterious architects of this plan-wondering if they set this generator in motion fortheir own purposes, and what will happen when thesubways start to provide a surplus of magical energyinto The Radiance. But perhaps it's best not to speakof such things. After all, they say that when youthink of the Devil, the Devil thinks of you.

It is this power—maintained by the largest massof moving human flesh and blood (second only to theentire planet Earth)—that powers the magic that isthe UnderWorld.

Down Below

Far from the eyes of the modern world,there exists a realm that has only been hinted atin our myths and legends. The world beneaththe streets is full of life and magic, unseen bythe world above. The UnderWorld (as it hasbeen termed by its citizens) is divided intovarious Domains, each ruled by a Lord. Likethe kingdoms of old, the Domains of theUnderWorld forge alliances, trade in goods andservices…and, at times, make war upon eachother. The Lords each rule their domain as theysee fit: some are benign, others are despotic. Akey to survival in these tunnels and caverns isawareness of the mood and temper of eachparticular Domain’s ruler…in some cases, itcan mean the difference between life and death.

The denizens of this underground Domains

are made up of several Breeds. A Breed is agrouping somewhat akin to a species or a race,but usually cast in a wider net. Some, like theelusive Mole People, are a true race untothemselves. Others, like the Freaks, are aswidely varied as the different species offlowers that blossom in the World Above.Some Breeds like the Junkmen and theLegendaries are borne of magic and not naturalat all.

The people of the UnderWorld, in all oftheir Breeds, organize themselves byprofession. These professions, known as theGuilds, are, perhaps even more than the rule ofthe Domains, responsible for carving out asense of order in the chaos of magic andsurvival that is the World Below. Every Domainrespects the rule of the Guilds, regardless of thewhims of the individual Lord. The traditionsmaintained by the Guilds, similar in structureto the guilds of Europe’s renaissance, allow fora rule of law that maintains the status quo, andallows the secret of the UnderWorld to be keptfrom the mortal world. Traders are the onlyGuild who travel Above. Bravos are the onlyGuild who trade in violence. Mendicants tendto the health of the people. Navigators get youwhere you need to go. The Guilds all have theirroles, and those roles are sacrosanct. It is theorder of things, and all but a dangerous fewobey.

Outside of the Domains, the UnderWorld iswild. Great beasts lurk through dark tunnels,ready to devour the unwary. In caverns deeperthan any UpWorlder has ever traveled; there arelost cities, built by inhuman hands. TheRadiance manifests itself in wondrous andunexpected ways. There are villains, and thereare heroes. This is the World Below.

This is UnderWorld.

The FrameworkWhat you hold in your hands is not a game,

despite what you might have read on the cover. Tocall it a game is a misnomer. It is not truly a role-playing game, although it can be used as such. It isnot truly a Live Action game, although it can also beused in that fashion.

UnderWorld is best described as a framework.

It is a framework for you to create your owngames; your own stories. It would be folly for anywriter or publisher to attempt to second-guess thecreativity of every gamer who picks up a product likethis. So, we will not try.

What we have presented here is a framework. Aseries of guidelines that each individual gaminggroup can use to create their own specific version ofthe game. The rules presented herein are perhapsmuch more open to adaptation and interpretation thanyou may be used to. That is intentional. It is theexperience of UnderWorld’s creators that, more oftenthan not, the stricter and more detailed the rulessystem, the more likely those rules are to be changedor dropped entirely by a gaming group. So, what wehave done here is to specifically create rulesguidelines that are already in a form to be adaptedinto a "house rules" system.

Some of you may not be comfortable with thatlevel of autonomy. Some players are much more atease with a set of very structured rules…and that is

fine, as well. There are, after all, no "right" or"wrong" ways to play a game. These players mayend up using the UnderWorld setting with another setof rules. If that is how they choose to use thisframework, then that is their version of the game, andit is just as valid as those players who might decide touse the setting presented in this book with no ruleswhatsoever.

Both groups are playing UnderWorld, in theirown fashion…playing a game, using the sameframework.

Participants in an UnderWorld game are dividedinto two types, Players and Conductors.

A player is a participant who takes the role of oneof the Main Characters (MCs) of an UnderWorldadventure. They create their fictional characters toinhabit the imaginary world presented in the game.The stories created during the game are the stories ofthe player’s heroes.

A Conductor is a participant who presents theworld to the players, directs the story, and portraysthe Supporting Characters (SCs) that the MC’sencounter. Other games refer to this role as the gamemaster (GM), or referee. Conductors should makethemselves very familiar with the rules ofUnderWorld, as well as the setting (although thesetting details of the Conductor’s individual gamemay vary from the "official" setting, or any otherConductor’s for that matter). In addition, the entiretyof Chapter 6 is devoted to information and tipsspecifically for the participants who choose tobecome Conductors.

The RulesAt the heart of UnderWorld is a single rules

mechanic, known as the Head Count. Almost everysituation that you may encounter while playing canbe covered by some variation of this mechanic.

As the name might suggest, the Head Countmechanic is based on a coin toss, and a counting ofthe number of "heads" results. When faced with atask, every character in UnderWorld gets one cointo toss as a default. The character gets anadditional coin if they have a Trait that comes intoplay in this circumstance (for example, the Trait"Incredibly Strong" would be very helpful inattempting a feat of strength). Another coin can begarnered if a Breed ability or a magical technique isbeing used. In the case of skills, the player receivesan additional 2 coins to throw if a Guild or Breed-bestowed skill is being used. If the skill is not onefrom your Guild, but one of another Guild's skillsthat the character picked up as one of theirsecondary skills, then only 1 additional coin isgained. This results in a player tossing at least 1,and possibly as many as 5 or more coins to attempta single action.

After the coins are tossed, the total number of"heads" results is tallied. This result is the numberof successes. These successes are compared to thetotal number of successes needed.

There's probably not going to be a great deal of

coin tossing going on. Most of the time, theConductor will make a reasonable judgement basedon the character's ability, the difficulty of the task,and, perhaps most importantly, the needs of thestory. The only time that the Head Count will comeinto play is when the outcome is really dramaticallyimportant. Conductors shouldn’t be asking forHead Counts to see if characters can climb a rockface, for example--unless there is a giant albinosewer gator nipping at their heels, or somethingelse that makes the action crucial.

Magic, Salvage Tech, combat…all usevariations of the Head Count system presentedabove. More detail on these systems, and on theHead Count itself, is given in Chapters III and IV.

1 Success Needed:Average - any schmoe should be able todo it. 2 Successes Needed:Moderate - a moderately skilled personcan do it. 3 Successes Needed:Hard - a professional is needed. 4 Successes Needed:Daunting -difficult even for professionals 5 Successes or more:Epic - the stuff of legends.

Coins Tossed # of Possible Results 1 Success 2 Successes 3 Successes 4 Successes

1 2 50% 0 0 0

2 4 75% 25% 0 0

3 8 87.5% 50% 12.5% 0

4 16 93.75% 68.75% 31.25% 6.25%

5 32 96.875% 81.25% 50% 18.75%

Soul AnteBy T.S. Luikart

I love the sound of that clock. I love the swell andpress of the crowd, everybody running nowherespecial at high speed. I was here, when they firstbuilt this station, you know. Yeah, it was a long timeago. I don’t look so old? Thanks. You kids want tohear a story? I’m waiting for this guy, so I got thetime. So this story, right, this story starts with a lostgirl an old debts and it ends with a midnight pokergame. Not just any game. You all pay attention youjust might learn a thing or two.

So I was taking care of business, doing things thatneed to get done, right? Such as? Making certainUpWorlder cops what don’t know the score don’tlean on our people, getting some decent food, thatsort of thing. What’s an UpWorlder? You all are. Itmeans you live up here, in the stations, in the light,not Down Below. My boss, Rector, he’s a good guy,just a little touched in the head, but not a man to bemessed with. Besides, you disrespect Rector, yougotta talk to me, and trust me, you don’t want to talkto me in that situation, capice? That’s another part ofmy business. So he sends somebody to bring meround so’s he can introduce me to this little girl. Shelooks like she can’t be more than 15, tops. A lookerthough. But her eyes…I been around, I know what’swhat and trust me, you’ve never seen eyes like hersin any normal kid. They were missing everythingthat counts. Everything.

So Rector says she’s an old friend, and comingfrom him, that really says something. She’s beencheated, he says. She was promised her memoriesback he says, and then I know for sure what she is,right? Why were her memories missing? Well, whereI come from, there are these people and they’ve lived

a long time. I mean a real long time. But somewherealong the road, they loose the way and theirmemories. Pretty soon, they don’t know why they’restill alive and they try to find out. Rector is one ofthem. Anyway he says, "She was so desperate, shedidn’t realize what was being asked, or what sheoffered. She was tricked out of her spirit, Robin.Without a spirit, what do memories matter?"

So I says, "Boss, if the deal was square what can Ido?"

Then, he floors me. "It was Beleth."Who’s Beleth? Beleth’s bad news. It’s straight up

Hellborn and no mistake. Yeah, I said, Hellborn.What? Yeah, I meant "it". You think I don’t knowhow to speak? All right, then. Beleth is whateverBeleth wants to be: sometimes male, sometimesfemale, maybe both or neither, capice? Maybe itchanges with the tide, I don’t know and I don’t care.

Anyway, Rector knows I got long problems withBeleth and I’ve been waiting for a long time to stickit to that punk, you know? Now most people, they’dbe scared, but I ain’t a Knight of the LesserBoulevards, and Rector’s go-to guy for nothing. It’llbe a cold day in the Boiler Yards when somebodygets one over on Goodfella Robin, and if I go down,it ain’t gonna be on account of that freak.

What do you mean, what am I talking about? Oh, yeah. Well, Rector’s Lord of the Lesser

Boulevards. The Boiler Yards, heh, you wouldn’tbelieve me.

Anyway, Rector sees the look on my face, so heknows I’m green. "Evora will, of course, be goingwith you." I know better than when to argue withhim, so, like it or no, I’ve got a tag-along. She don’tsay much, just looks at me as we leave the LB withthose great empty eyes.

"What do you propose?" she whispers.Now I’m a man who knows things, and I did a

favor for a guy a couple of years before this thingwith the girl. I got some scars out of it and a littlering. I hoped that ring was my ace, but I didn’t tell

her about it. What I did say was: "Beleth can’t resist a game of chance. Thrives on

‘em. Host a game where the stakes are high enough,Beleth’s a shoo-in. So we need a game and a coupleof marks. Trouble is, Beleth will spot a set up, easy.So the marks can’t be patsies. They can’t be in on it,either. Beleth can smell lies."

"What about you?"I gave her my best pearls. The Cheshire’s got

nothing on my grin. "Nobody knows when thePuck’s lyin, Miss. Nobody."

Who’s the Puck? I’m the Puck. Stop interrupting."So where do we find these…marks, who are

not… patsies?""Down off the Sound, I figure. Dis way." I took

her down the long way, because she didn’t look likeshe was up for the Shrieking Elevator. The Elevator?It’s like a Coney Island ride without a seat belt.Sounds like fun? Well, it ain’t called "shrieking" fornothing. Now the Brooklyn Sound, well, she’s notthe most impressive body of water, but, man, she isthe loudest. All the caverns man-made and otherwisethat she runs through pick up the noise and bounce itaround. Some say it’ll drive you mad if you’re notcareful.

When we got down to the Sound’s banks, I lit up aroad flare to call for a ride, and waited. After acouple of minutes I heard a bell ring and a soft chug,chug, chug sound. No less a person then CaptainUridian himself and his ship, the Albatross, cameround the bend.

Uridian? He charted the Sound. He’s nuts. TheAlbatross is a beauty though. She’s a cross betweena steam locomotive, a tugboat, and a bulldozer. Greatmetal hooks come up over her bow and sets of tanktreads are woven into her sides. Where Uridian can’tsail, the Albatross can walk, and her massive hookedarms have climbed them out of more than one pit.

"Ho, there, ho," came a voice."Two passengers, Captain. We need a lift to the

Iron Pig." I yelled."I know that voice," came the reply, "if’n I catch

you in my whiskey, Goodfella, I’ll feed you to thePurple Carp."

I laughed, "Sounds fair, Captain." The Albatrosspulled up to the shore, and a long metal plank hit thesand. The girl and I stepped aboard. Uridian isn’t abig man, but he’s got presence and flair. He swept offhis hat, feathered plumes and all, and bowed to

Evora. "Gentlest lady, welcome to my humble ship.Tides willing, we will make good time to the Pig."He winked at me, "and the sooner I get this rogue ofmy decks, the better." After Evora went below, Iasked Uridian what I owed. "Not a thing, Robin. Wewere headed that way already." The Albatross didmake good time, and we reached the Iron Pig in lessthan two hours.

Anywise, Evora and I stepped off at the Pig’sdocks and waved the Albatross on. The Iron Pig is anancient bar that belongs to my friend, Amrys. It wasa five-ton piggy bank. Yeah, you heard me right, fivetons. I don’t know where it came from; maybe itbelonged to a giant’s kid. Can I continue, now?

We walked in and a couple of the regulars startedto sidle up to the girl, but they vanished quickly whenthey saw me. Everybody got real quiet till I openhanded them to show that I wasn’t there on business,least ways not my usual business and they settleddown. Amrys sharked at me and waved me over tothe bar. He stood between a rack of barrels, each onewith a curling spigot, consisting of rubber tubing anda converted blender. The whir of the blenders as hepulled drafts covered the sounds of our conversationnicely.

"Who’s the jail-bait?""Nope. Nomad.""Occh, man, I hate that shite.""Wasn’t my idea.""Hmmm. One of Rector’s likelies?" "Maybe. Beleth jacked her." He let that one sit for awhile, wiped a few glasses."So," he looked me in the eye, "you’re finally

going to sort it out then?" I nodded."Well, lad, what do want from me? Whatever it is,

you’ve got it.""That’s a dangerous offer to make to me, Irish.""Don’t I know it."We both grinned. I told him parts of my plan,

never trust anybody too much, and we drew up ashort list of players. Not many are willing to face theGame. What? Yeah, its poker. But there’s poker andthere’s Poker, you know? It’s the stakes that makefor the difference. See, you play the Game, you’vegot to be willing to stake anything. Lose anything.Not many got the cojones for it.

Amrys goes, "So where do you want to be havingit, not here, surely?"

"Nah. I was thinkin’ The Glass Confection.""Will Myriad be up for it?""I wasn’t gonna ask.""You’re a cheeky bastard, Robin.""You’ve no idea. You’ll handle the

invitations?""Of course.""Will you be there?" I didn’t really

have to ask. He looked at me and I sawmore pain in his eyes than I could everbear. I had to look away.

"Aye," he said, "aye."Amrys and Beleth? No, you don’t

need to hear about that. If you everfind yourself Down Below, kids, yoube careful. You can lose a lot morethan you’re shirt, and some thingscan’t be won back.

Anyway, I took Evora, who bythe way, was staring at herreflection in the mirror the wholetime I was talking with Amrys,and made for the HundredCandle Vault.

The Vault’s name is a littlemisleading. It’s a massivecavern filled with candles alright,but there are also Bunsen burners,flashlights, kerosene lanterns, gasburning lamps from old Wall Street,arc-lights, florescent lights, neon lights,whatever. If it makes light, it’s in thevault. The candles get replaced regular byMyriad’s girls, and there are a lot morethan a hundred. The rest of the lightswere converted by Artificers to work ontheir own.

What’s an Artificer? Kinda like amechanic. Sort of.

Myriad is a Seline. One of the old Feytypes, right? Yeah, a fairy. What, youbought the rest, but don’t believe infairies? O.K. fine, she’s ah, unusual, allright? She can make glass flow likewater. She built this tavern made ofglass, the Glass Confection, in the centerof the Hundred-Candle Vault. It’s beenaround a long time. Used to be called theHouse of Twilight Rainbows, but she changed

the name and the design a couple of decades ago. It’sbeautiful. There are a few deep core electric

shafts that run parallel to the Vault, andwalking along the cables is the easiestway to get there. When we finally walkedinto the Vault and the girl got a look at it,even in her state, she caught her breath.Perfect place for the Game, eh?

Now I know Myriad’s gonna bepissed with me, and I’ll owe her big

time, but the game has got to looklegit, see? So I walk up the steps,which is always a trick causetheir almost invisible except forthe reflected light and smile, but Idon’t even get a word out before:

"No. No. Whatever it is,whatever you want, get out of myplace."

"I can’t. Invitations arealready on the way. The Game ison."

Her eyes got real wide.Myriad’s eyes don’t have anypupils so the effect is prettystunning. "Why, Robin, by the

Lady, why?"I flicked a glance at Evora.

"She lost something. Belethfound it. I’m taking it back."She looked from the girl to me,

then nodded, slowly. "If you fall,Rector owes your debt."

"Agreed.""Tonight?" I nodded. "I’ll

prepare at once.""Myriad?" She paused. "I’m

sorry." She nodded. "Could you hidethe girl?" She nodded again, and gestured

to one of her servants.When Myriad pulls the stops, there

ain’t anything to compare it to. In acouple of hours the Confection lookedlike a fireworks show frozen at the

finale. She set up her best table, notglass, but Heart’s Wood Oak taken fromthe center of a still living tree. I just satand worried and waited. Yeah, kids,

even the Puck feels fear. Never much and

never for long. You keep it under yourhats though, O.K.?

The first mark to show was LongTommy. He’s not a bad sort, and he hasskill, but he likes the sauce too much.Amrys and I figured a steady flow of thegood stuff would take care of him. Heswaggered in with smiles all around and atip of his top hat to Myriad.

"Once more into the breach, ehRobin?"

"Tommy… be careful tonight." He wasthe only one to get a warning out of me,that night. He looked at me for a longmoment then nodded slowly.

"Beleth." He said. It wasn’t a question.I just looked at him."Hmm. Think I’ll have a drink.""Do that."Mavrin Rain showed up second. Rain

was a Blade. One that didn’t askquestions. He’d gut his mother if thetrade was solid, but he always fancied agood game. I can’t say I was too worriedfor him. Mavrin sharked at me an Myriadas he banked an arsenal from beneath hislong coat behind the bar.

"Wouldn’t want any accidents, wouldwe?" I’ve heard buzz saws with moreemotion. Myriad set him straight though.

"Not unless you’d like to spend the restof your days as statuary." I’ll give Rainthis; he didn’t look baggered as hesauntered away. What? Oh, Myriad canencase people in glass. Pretty statue, badending.

The house was starting to fill. Word

moves fast Down Below. Some came for

amusement, some for vengeance. Most

came because they had to know. Besides,

people talk about this stuff for years after

and most want to say, "Yeah, I was there."

The last player, aside from the freak,

who hadn’t shown yet, was Ilian Thahn.

Deep scout he was. Good, but twitchy.

After, Beleth, he was the one I had to

sharp the most. Normally, he wouldn’t

have entered the Game, but he owed big Favors, an

he needed more than duckets. When he came in his

clothes were rustic and dusty, like most scouts. He

nodded to me, but said nothing.

I glanced around, found Amrys. I raised a brow at

him an he shrugged. I started to get up, then I felt the

crowd go still. It’s name slipped about the room,

shadow quick.

"Don’t get up on my account, dear boy." Such a

kind voice. A loving parent’s voice. An old friend’s.

I thought about ripping out the juke that produced it,

but shrugged it off. Wouldn’t have phased the freak

anyway.

"Long time, Beleth."

"Quite."

I looked at it. It was dressed in black velvet with

bright blue trim. A rock the size of an eye was pinned

at its throat. Its hair was long, blond, and unbound.

Its eyes were lavender.

"Let’s play," I said.

The Game is named after the subways, its got three

stages, called rails. Each one is worst then the last.

With each rail, the stakes go higher. It always starts

with material things: duckets, trade, artifacts you

know. The second’s when it starts to get interesting:

Favors, secrets, Charms, whatever… The Third

Rail… most don’t ride that far. Then, kid, then you

ante the only things that matter. Parts of you. Your

memories, your experiences…your soul. Beleth and

I were headed for the Third Rail; the rest was just for

show.

How do ante your soul? I hope none of you kids

ever know how. It doesn’t matter how, just know that

it can be done, O.K.?

We all moved to the table and the crowd backed

off. Beleth and I sat opposite each other. The others

filled in. Myriad produced the cards. Carved pieces

of ivory, each one unique. I got the first deal on

account of calling the game.

"5 card draw," I smiled, "Joker’s hidin, jack’s

wild."

That’s how it began. What am I going to tell you

guys, draw by draw? It was poker. Everybody was

smooth at first; the First Rail’s like that. The drink

flows, the duckets shift, you know? Tommy won a

nice converted lighter off of Rain with a low straight.

Thahn raked us all with a full house. The banter was

lighthearted still. Hell, I an Beleth even traded of few

civil shots.

"Robin, I hear it’s still difficult to hire maids these

days, are you still having the dust removed from

Rector weekly?" he asked.

"Nah. I’m letting it build up for spring." Talk like

that, see?

Myriad called for the first break. Twenty minutes,

then the Second Rail. Amrys walked over to me.

"How are you faring, lad?" he asked. I grinned at

him.

"I haven’t shanked it in public."

"More’s the pity."

"You think it’d notice?" I asked.

"Not unless you spoiled its finery." I laughed for

the first time in a long while. Myriad walked up

behind Amrys and sharped the two of us.

"Are you ready for this?"

I nodded.

"Game on then."

The Second Rail is as far as most ever go, and it’s

bad enough. The first ante is always Charms. After

that, out come the Favors and the secrets. Favors are

kinda like the old Irish geasa. No one can force you

to give out a Favor though. What’s a geasa? It’s

something you have to do, or not do. Favors though

are like markers you take against yourself. How can you risk a secret? It’s kinda tricky. There

was this Artificer name of Volken, Mad Volken tomost, who loved to gamble. He looked for a way togamble secrets for years, and one day he came out ofhis workshop with the first Loremyr. They look likea silver fish with a big open mouth. Volken toldgamblers they could write down a secret on a piece ofpaper, and stick it in the Loremyr’s mouth. It wouldthen sharp the table it was on and somehow, know

what the secret was worth, in relation to what was onthe table. If the secret was good enough its eyeswould flare blue, if it wasn’t, then red, and thegambler had to come up with something else, or adifferent secret. I don’t know how they know, kid, Ididn’t make them, but I know they work. There areonly seven of them, and Myriad has one. Way backsome smart guy figured that maybe the Loremyr’sremembered everything they were told and he tried tosteal one. It bit his hand off.

Anyway, the Second Rail was vicious. Belethslipped something to the Loremyr that made us allraise, big-time. I lost a Bravo’s Favor that I’d beencarrying for a while, but Tommy really got hit. Acouple of Charms and a secret. He shook his head,tipped his hat, and bowed out, weaving slightly.

Tommy’s departure left the hard and the desperateat the table. Thahn lost a lot of Favors in rapidsuccession, and then he did what always signals theend to old players: to make up for a lost hand, he putout a Favor on himself. If you win, everyone knowshow little you’ve got left. If you lose, they can callin your favor and have you bounced. He did win, buttwitchy or not, he knew when to back off, andknocked out.

Two down, that means the second break. Most callthe game right there. Rain looked at Beleth then me.

"I think I’ll stay," Rain said, "I like the action.""So do I, my boy, so do I." Beleth sharked.I shrugged. I went to the bar and took a long drink.

Amrys and Myriad both joined me."A long time coming," whispered Amrys."Robin," Myriad looked at me for a long moment,

"are you afraid?""The Puck, afraid? Forgetaboutit." I raised a glass

with Amrys."To justice," Amrys muttered."To vengeance," I replied as I slammed down the

whisky. "Third Rail, time to ride."I walked back to the table and took my place.

Beleth glanced at me, then at Rain, and smiled backat me. I got the message. Rain was going down sowe could get to business. It took less then ten hands,and by the end Mavrin Rain was no more. It started

simple: memories of UpWorld. What do they matterdown there? Easy to ante, easier lost. Soon came hisfirst kiss, his first love, his first kill…Mavrin Rainunfolded before our eyes and ceased to be.

As for me, what did I give up? Nothing I couldn’tafford to lose. My love of the sound of rain echoingdown from the streets above, a sight of my firstrainbow, a well-practiced feint, these and more I lost.Beleth? Beleth didn’t lose at all.

Rain slumped against the table and Beleth gesturedto have him bounced. The monks would have to carefor him from now on.

"Well?" it said. Beleth was always a stickler forthe rules. Break the rules and all is forfeit. When onefalls, the others can quit.

"The Puck doesn’t fold.""Excellent."The game raced on and I ran with it. All the pieces

of me that make me who and what I am slowly piledup on that HeartWood table. My hopes, my fears, mydreams, everything. Beleth sensed victory longdenied and closed in for the kill. In the depths of mymind, I saw Evora’s empty eyes, and remembered ahundred thousand laughing days under anothercountry’s sun, when I was another, and yet, still thePuck.

Beleth dealt the final hand. I asked for two andlooked at my cards. A three of spades, a five of clubs,a nine of hearts, an ace of diamonds and my oldfriend the one-eyed black jack winking up at me.Nothing. Nothing at all. I looked at Beleth and itsmiled. I put my soul on the table. "Raise" I said.Something dark and wondrous joined mycontribution on the table.

"Match and call?" it inquired. It knew it had won.Knew it. Amrys stared at me with horror in his eyes.The crowd was grave silent. "Do you wish to raise?"

I reached down into my pocket, and produced alittle silver ring. A ring I had acquired with a bunchof scars a long time before. A ring that was coveredwith tiny Latin print, and two names. Both namesbelonged to the freak across the table from me, butonly one came from before human history.

"No, no call," I put the ring on and held it up to mylips. I whispered a name that hadn’t been spoken on

the Earth in millennia. Then I looked the horrifiedbastard right in the eye.

"I want you to fold, you son of a bitch."Its scream shattered the ceiling. Broken glass

fell down about us, slicing the crowd. Myriadthrew out her hands and slowly, the shards meltedaway and the ceiling reformed.

Its voice was hatred and despair. "I…fold. Thegame is yours."

I snatched the dark dancing sphere off the tableand gestured to Myriad. Evora emerged from aback room. Beleth looked at me, then the girl andI saw comprehension in its eyes.

I held up my newly-won prize. "This, for thegirl’s."

Defeated, weary, broken…defiant still, itnodded.

Evora gasped as all she had lost flooded backinto her. I tossed the globe to Beleth. It snatchedits spirit from the air and walked towards the door.It stopped on the threshold, turned and glared atme.

"There is no forgiveness for this. Ever."I just sharked him.Yeah, kids, that’s it. No explosions, no epic

sword duels, just that. Evora? The shock ofregaining her spirit drove away her memories. Ithink it’s just the nature of Nomads, but I don’t tellRector that. A hero? Me? Forgetaboutit.Revenge for me, justice for my friend, a favor formy boss, where’s the hero in that? There’s myguy, I gotta go. You kids are all right. You everend up Down Below, I’ll set you straight. Trustme. Hey, would the Puck lie?

Character CreationEvery story begins with its characters. They are

the vehicle that we use to travel through the plot,exploring the setting and carrying us through to theconclusion.

A role-playing game, whether played on a table-top, or through Live Action, is very much the same.You need characters, which will act as the players’alter-egos, existing within the fictional setting, andreacting to the events presented to them by thereferee or game master (or, in UnderWorld, theConductor).

Characters in UnderWorld come in twovarieties. Main Characters (or MCs) are, just as inany story, the focus of the adventure. These are thecharacters as portrayed by the players. SupportingCharacters, as their name indicates, are thesecondary characters that are encountered by theMCs through the course of the story. They are theinhabitants of the setting, portrayed by theConductor.

All characters, whether Main or Supporting aredefined through the same rules mechanics.Characters are described through a combination of

Skills, Defining Traits, their Breed, and their Guild.These functions allow characters to be quantifiedwithout reliance upon statistics and numbers, yet stillwith enough variance to ensure that each character isdistinct from every other character.

Skills are the abilities of the character—thosethings that they have learned through either lifeexperience, or through instruction.

Defining Traits are the innate talents of thecharacter—those inborn qualities that separatepeople who might otherwise be outwardly similar.

Breeds are groupings of similar types ofcharacters, whether along the lines of race or species,or similar background.

Guilds are the occupational organizations of thecharacters, found throughout the UnderWorld.

To create a character in UnderWorld, the playerpicks a Breed and a Guild, making note of the specialabilities, magical techniques and skills that eachconfers. The player then picks three Defining Traits-those things that are the core descriptors of thecharacter. He (or she) picks one from the list of Traitsavailable to the chosen Breed, and one from the listavailable to the Guild. The third Defining Trait cancome from ANY of the lists (it's the individualized

"wild card" factor, if you will). Players are alsoencouraged to develop their own Defining Traits, inconcert with the Conductor, that will furtherindividualize the character (in fact, several of theTraits that you’ll find on the lists that followdeveloped from individualized Traits created by earlyplayers of the game).

The player then can choose three "secondaryskills" from any of the other Guilds' lists-these areskills that the character has learned, but not anywherenear the level of proficiency that a member of thatGuild would have.

Then, confer with the Conductor to determinewhat she or he considers to be reasonable startingequipment for characters in this story (equipment andweapons are listed at the end of this chapter).

There you have it. At the end of this process, youwill have a fully functional UnderWorld character.You may find that it makes the process run muchmore smoothly if you have some initial idea of thesort of character you want to play before you begin.That way, you may tailor the character as you go, andthe decisions you will make along the way will bemuch easier, since you have a mental image of thecharacter right from the start.

The UnderWorld is home to those who have noplace in the world above. The tunnels and cavernsare filled with a surprisingly large population, mostof whom live out their lives without ever seeing thesun. The population is divided into groupings knownas Breeds. Some Breeds are true species untothemselves, but most are merely convenient labelsfor similar individuals. There are nine breeds thatmake up the population of the UnderWorld: Ferals,Freaks, Homeless, Junkmen, Legendaries, The Lost,Mole People, Nomads, and Normals.

The nine Breeds are fully described on thefollowing pages. The format for the descriptions is asfollows:

1) Pick a BreedA) Note Special Abilities, Magic and Skills

2) Pick a GuildA) Note Special Abilities, Magic and Skills.

3) Pick Three Defining TraitsA) One from Breed List

B) One from Guild List

C) One from Any List

4) Pick Three Secondary Skills FromAny Guild List.

5) Determine Starting Equipment.

Name: Obviously, this is thename of the Breed. Any nicknamesby which the Breed is also known arelisted as well.

Description: The bulk of theentry, giving all of the pertinentinformation on the Breed in question.

Radiance Level: The fulleffects of the Radiance upon certaincharacters are given in Chapter III.For right now, simply make note ofthis entry on your character sheet.

Special Abilities: This iswhere any magical or natural abilitiespossessed by the Breed are described.

Defining Traits: The list ofeligible Traits for the Breed.

Skills: If the Breed confers anyskills upon a character, they are listedhere.

(Beasts, the Wild)

Never mind the homeless. The truly forgotten denizens of thecity don’t have homes or even clothes. Kicked, abused, forgotten,and occasionally even flushed, the true scapegoats of the city mustlive in constant fear of municipally ordained extermination. Theyroot through garbage for scraps of food. They languish in cells anddie nameless and forgotten.

Unless they can get underground.

The animals of the city, thedogs, cats, rats, bats, and othermore exotic beasties who inhabitthe Urban Jungle, all share acommon secret- they know that ifthey can get underground, theradiance will free them and allowthem to communicate with thehumanoids once again. In theUnderWorld, animals are verymuch people too. The Feral Breedis primarily made up of fourdifferent types of animals- Dogs,Cats, Rats and the fabled whiteSewer 'Gators. Still, theRadiance’s gift of speech can bebestowed on almost any animalunderground, and even theoccasional roach has been seen tostand up on his hind legs and startcracking wise about his livingconditions- a sobering sight.

The Ferals are an angrybreed, and although they canunderstand the difference between the humans above and thehumans below, their anger often boils beneath the surface. The dogs’loyalty leads them into a compromised position with the humans-they claim that they have taken an ancient blood oath to serve andprotect their "best friend", but they feel betrayed, and the sting ofthat betrayal worsens with every stray put to sleep. The cats, asusual, could give a rat’s ass, and the rats take umbrage with this,seeing as how they collectively have plenty. By far, the most vocaland outspoken haters of mankind are the ‘Gators, the oldest ofwhom even still remember their own painful, frightening anddemeaning journey below, and how many of their parents andgrandparents drowned on the way down. The 'Gators travel in packs,and all but the toughest or dumbest humans know to give the gangsof huge white reptiles a wide berth or face the toothy consequences.

The most obvious difficulty with being a four-legged individualin a two-legged world is the lack of hands. To this end, Feralartificers have come up with dozens of devices that are operated

instead with claws, paws, and jaws. More than one Feral artificer hascome up with a set of robotic strap-on arms and hands, but the proudFerals tend to disdain such devices as human trappings. Any animalwho would actually wear one of the clumsy rigs had better beprepared to face some harsh criticism from their peers.

The Ferals are a proud Breed, strong and willing to fight for

what they believe in. They tend to keep a close eye on animal-rights

politics topside. Most realize the inevitable outcome of any sort of

confrontation with mankind, and so choose to bide their time and

make decisive strikes that take out the worst offenders. The time will

come, though. One day, there will be a revolution.

Radiance Level:1

Special Abilities: Thegreatest special ability of theFerals is that which allows themto be played as characters in thefirst place: their Radiance-bestowed higher intelligence.Other special abilities willdepend upon what sort of animalthe character is: most will havenatural weapons (offering anadditional coin during combat),some have heightened senses(cats have their eyes, dogs havetheir noses—again, offering anadditional coin for any actionwhere those abilities come intoplay). Use common sense indetermining what abilities aFeral possesses that are trulyspecial, and work it out with the

Conductor.Defining Traits:

Feral FriendlyVicious

CuteSmallLargeWild

CunningLoyalFast

Tough

Skills:Scrounging

(Monsters, the Tribe)

The Freaks are the most widely varied Breed of theUnderWorld. Throughout history, they have been the monstersthat fill the dark corners of our imaginations. The Minotaur wasa member of this Breed, as was the monster created by VictorFrankenstein in early 19th century Austria. The Breed rangesfrom side-show oddities (Phillippe, the dog-faced boy—currentLord of the Under East Side—is famous throughout theUnderWorld) to the truly monstrous (such as the championgladiators of the Washington Depths, who are rumored to bethe discarded results of military genetic experiments). Whetherthey are the products of mutation, or of experimentation, or ofnatural evolution, it doesn't matter—they're all Freaks.

Freaks have a single bond that unites them as a Breed.They must live in the UnderWorld, for they would be huntedand destroyed in our world. This has happened on more thanone occasion, and the instances have entered into legend: Thelesson learned by Frankenstein’s monster, for example, has notbeen lost on his fellow Breed. Humanity has always destroyedwhat it fears, and the Freaks have learned that it is safer to livefar from the torches and guns of the World Above.

Despite this harrowed existence, the Freaks are not avengeful Breed, nor are they particularly melancholy abouttheir lot in life. Vengeance comes from a sense of outrage, andthe Freaks are extremely pragmatic about the conflict betweentheir kind and the upper civilizations—they know thatinteraction with humans is dangerous for them, and is thereforebest avoided.

Each Freak is unique in appearance—some are animalistic,

others hideously deformed. No two Freaks are exactly alike. Aplayer choosing to play a Freak should have an idea in advanceof the appearance of his or her character, and should then workwith the Conductor to tailor the character to fit theirconception.

Radiance Level: 1

Special Abilities: The Freak has a number of specialabilities, usually tied in to their appearance. For example: wingedFreaks have the ability to fly, animalistic Freaks have naturalweapons like claws and teeth that offer them additional coins incombat. It is recommended that the Freak character possess nomore than one major ability—one that offers a major game effect(such as flight, or resistance to certain types of weapons) and nomore than three minor abilities (tracking scent, natural camouflage,natural weapons, etc.). A major ability can be defined as one thatoffers the character an advantage that they can use again and againwithout penalty, and a minor ability would be one that only offersa bonus to a Head Count throw.

Defining Traits:StrongAgileTough

IntuitivePerceptive

FastClever

Strong willedCommanding

Stealthy

Skills:None.

(Strays, Gypsies, Folk)

The Homeless are the rank-and-file members of theUnderWorld population. They are the most common of the Breeds,and, unlike many of the others, they can be found in the WorldAbove almost as often as the World Below. They are the onlyvisible part of the UnderWorld in the daily lives of theUpWorlders… although they are often ignored, outside of theoccasional guilt-ridden offer of a few spare coins or a scrap of food.They are derided as bums or vagrants by the World Above, whichremains unaware of the true majesty of their subterranean domain.

The common bond of the Homeless is that they havecollectively turned their backs upon UpWorld society.Certainly, most of the Homeless did not choose to becomewhat they are—but without exception, all of the members ofthis Breed chose to remain as they are. These are not thehelpless alcoholics or overflow from the mental wards that do,unfortunately, make up a percentage of the topside homelesspopulation. The Homeless who make up the Breed that bearstheir name have discovered the wonder of the UnderWorld,and have simply ‘jumped ship’ to another way of life. Theyhave seen behind the façade of "reality" as it is definedaboveground, and have chosen to no longer participate.

Their unique nature, straddling the two worlds, makes themthe primary source of news and materials from the surface. Assuch, many Homeless are members of the Traders Guild (q.v.).Even those who are not Traders,however, maintain some ties with theworld of the surface, usuallyold friends from their previouslives aboveground.

Below ground, theHomeless make up the bulk ofthe citizenship of theUnderWorld, and a goodpercentage of the rulingclass as well. The name ofthe Breed is a misnomer,in fact, since they do havehomes—just not any thatthe UpWorlders can see.Some find the moniker"Homeless" an insultinghold-over from the stigmaplaced upon them by thesurface society, preferringinstead to call themselves"Folk". However, mostHomeless wear their name as abadge of honor, an outwardsign of their abandonment ofUpWorld culture.

Radiance Level: 0

Special Abilities: The Homeless possess the uniqueability to use UpWorld technology at any level of theUnderWorld, regardless of that area’s Radiance Count, or theRadiance Level of the technology being used. Homeless cantake guns, laptops, cellphones, and other modernaccoutrements down into the deepest levels of theUnderWorld, and they will continue to function.

Defining Traits:Clever

IntuitiveJack of all Trades

PerceptiveResilient

CharmingCourageous

StealthyFast TalkerStreetwise

Skills:Contacts (surface)

Scrounging

(Ticktocks, Heaps, Clunkers)

Created by the Artificers (q.v.), the Junkmen areautomatons—robots created from trash and abandonedmachinery, directed by the intelligence of a ghost who hasbeen bound within the metal frame, and powered directly bythe Radiance itself. Their forms are as widely varied as theimaginations that spawnedthem. Whirring gears andcogs, hissing steam andcrackling electricity, theJunkmen wander the worldbelow, living out their newlives. Some are overjoyedat this new existence, thisstaving off of death—butsome Junkmen aremelancholy creatures,longing for release fromthis world.

The Junkmen are a rareBreed—the process ofcreating them is incrediblydifficult, and there are fewArtificers capable ofachieving such a feat.Those Junkmen that arecreated are effectivelyimmortal, however, onlyneeding occasional repairsto keep going. They areimpressive creatures—great clanking collectionsof metal, rubber, and otherscrap, lumbering down thetunnels and caverns of theUnderWorld, drawingsustenance from raw magic.

The Junkmen vary in

construction—most are

roughly humanoid in form, however. The ghost within the

machine finds it easier to acclimate if it’s new body is at least

somewhat familiar in shape. However, there are some non-

humanoid Junkmen—ranging from a sentient vending

machine on wheels to a strange combination of a remote-

control helicopter and the brass head of a boardwalk fortune

telling machine.

The biggest drawback of existence as a Junkman is thattheir connection to and dependence upon the Radiance forpower effectively keeps them within the UnderWorld. AJunkman cannot exist in the World Above…without the

power of the Radiance to draw from, theyrun down and eventually ceasefunctioning, leaving nothing but the pileof junk from which they were built.

Radiance Level: 2

Special Abilities: As created

beings, Junkmen have Salvage Tech

(the bizarre inventions of the

Artificers) incorporated into their

bodies. A Junkman player character

can devise two Salvage Tech devices

(using the rules in the Salvage Tech

section of Chapter IV) with which to

begin the game.

Defining Traits:StrongToughClever

ResilientJack of All Trades

Strong WilledCommanding

InventiveIntelligent

Radiant

Skills:Junkmen can pick

three additional skillsfrom any list to representthose abilities "left over"from their previous lives.

(Spooks, Archetypes)

The UnderWorld is home to heroes and villains…gods andmonsters.

Legendaries are the after-effects of continuous magicaluse. The magical properties of the UnderWorld createsomething akin to a magical background radiation, knownas the Radiance. Sometimes, this energy coalesces, andspontaneously shapes itself into a being. Often,these become the monsters that inhabit thedeepest tunnels— but sometimes, the spark ofawareness is created, and a new lifeform is theresult.

Legendaries often take the form ofarchetypal ideas—the result of drawingtheir awareness from the collectiveunconscious of the millions ofsurrounding people. They are UrbanLegends personified. They take theshape of tales that are told in hushedtones by nervous subwaypassengers, or loudly proclaimed asfact at the corner deli orneighborhood playground.

Not to say, however, that allLegendaries are the embodiment ofmyths specific to the urbanexperience. As the Radiance hasslowed and eventually ceased itsdispersal, Legendaries have taken morewide-ranging forms, including charactersfrom particularly well-loved books, or classicarchetypes from ancient myths. Legendariesare literally dreams given form…however,it is always prudent to remember that notall dreams are good.

Like Junkmen, Legendaries arecreatures that depend entirely upon theRadiance for their existence, and as such,cannot venture into the World Above.Legendaries who do fade into the ideas and emotions that spawnedthem, and are re-absorbed into the minds of the humans in theimmediate area. This can have a disruptive effect uponUpWorlders…recently, a vile Legendary that was the embodimentof the Sexual Predator distilled from the fears of the City’s womenwas chased to the surface by a group of Bravos (q.v.) hired to huntit down. Unfortunately, it surfaced near the south end of CentralPark during a heavily attended Puerto Rican Day Parade. Theconcepts of the Legendary dissipated into the crowd, resulting in agroup assault on several dozen women in what the local mediareferred to as a "wilding."

They have no idea how appropriate that term is.

Given the possibilities inherent in this Breed, players wantingto portray Legendary characters should have a clear concept inmind (similar to the situation when playing Freaks)—it will makecharacter creation flow more smoothly.

Radiance Level: 2

Special Abilities: Legendaries abilities are linkto their legend. Like Freaks, the Conductor should

allow no more than one major affect, and/or threeminor affects for starting abilities. For

example: a Legendary like Eisric Dane(from the story at the beginning of

Chapter I), who is based on thearchetype of the hard-boiled private eyewho always gets his man despite

impossible odds, has one major effect ashis ability: He always finds what he’s

looking for…although this often meansthat he’s set against very powerfulenemies. As another example, a

Legendary based on the archetype ofSherlock Holmes might have as hismajor effect a brilliant deductive

skill. A Legendary that is therepresentation of Uncle Sammight be able to come back fromany injury, as long as the United

States exists.

Creating a Legendary requires closecommunication with your Conductor, todetermine what abilities would be

overbalancing for the campaign inquestion.

Defining Traits:StrongAgile Tough

CunningResilient

Jack of All TradesRadiant

Strong willedKnowledgeable

Charming

Skills:Lore

(Anachronisms, Temps)

There are many ways into the UnderWorld. Some of thesepathways travel across more than just space, but through time

as well. The Lost are people from another time, whowandered into the UnderWorld, and now cannot find the way

back. The Lost uniformly come from the past—a fact thatsome offer as proof that the future is unwritten. Regardless ofthe reason, denizens of the past are almost uniformly stunned

by the huge, loud metropolis that is New York. Unable toadjust to life in the UpWorld, The Lost remain below, eking

out an existence, while searching for a way back home. Some Lost choose to remain above, however most of these

end up either dead by fatal miscalculations, or in BelviewHospital, receiving treatment for their "mental illness".

So far, there is no evidence that any member of this Breedhas ever made it back to their correct time. That does not stopthe Lost from looking.. After being down in the UnderWorld fora while, however, most Lost end up concentrating on the task athand—namely, surviving in their new environment. A memberof the Lost never truly gives up the search for home, but formost it becomes an overall goal, rather than the driving force oftheir day-to-day existence.

As a Breed, the greatest connection between members of theLost is their shared desire for the eventual resolution of theirtemporal exile. When two members meet, they often share talesof their progress with their fellow Lost, in the hopes thatsomeday, another may provide that last remaining piece of thepuzzle that makes it all come together, and leads the way backhome.

Radiance Level: 1

Special Abilities: The Lost have one special ability—due

to their exposure to the vagaries of time, they have a special

relationship with the 4th dimension. They have an unerring

Time sense, and have a limited ability to control the flow of time

as well: time can flow slightly faster or slower for the Lost,

depending upon his or her whim (this allows the Lost to choose

their action last, but act first in combat, or they can slow time to

allow for extra care in attempting non-combat actions, giving

them a bonus coin, for example). Groups of the Lost can

combine their abilities to more major effects (see the section on

Magic in Chapter 4).

Defining Traits:FriendlyToughDriven

KnowledgeableResistant

IntelligentInventive

CourageousPerceptive

Commanding

Skills:The Lost can choose

three skills from any listto represent theknowledge they broughtwith them from theirown time.

(Fuzzies)

The only Breed which truly is a species unto itself, the Mole

People might have been human at one time…or perhaps not.

Their origins are shrouded in the dark corners of history. It is

assumed by modern UnderWorlders that world-wide legends of

the little people who live under the ground are most likely

references to encounters with the Mole People. Small, lithe and

able to see in the dark, the Mole People have evolved through

generation after generation of living underground. They

are unable to live in the world above—sun light harms

their eyes.

The Mole People (not their true name,

which is unpronounceable to human

tongues) tend to live in insular

communities, away from other

UnderWorlders. They venture out of

their settlements only to trade with

others, or in emergencies.

Young Mole People often

seek their fortunes out among

the other UnderWorlders,

returning to their villages

only after making a

name for themselves.

Mole People worship

the Radiance as a god,

believing it to be the force

responsible for the creation of the

world. They believe that the

World Above has turned its

back on this god, and as

such view anything or

anyone that comes from

the surface with

suspicion.

Radiance Level: 1

Special Abilities: Mole People have several special

abilities: They can see in near complete darkness, they have

hightened senses of hearing and smell (extra coin bonus when

attempting to detect something through these senses). They

possess natural claws which can aid them in digging, or in combat

(a one coin bonus). In addition, they have a natural affinity with

magic that makes it easier for them to use (see the chapter

on Magic), and allows starting characters to begin the

game with twice the number of charms. (or, if your

Conductor allows it, you can give up all of

your starting charms and begin the game

with a relic instead.)

Defining Traits:Agile

ResilientTough

FastCleverSmall

PerceptiveStealthyIntuitive

Fierce

Skills:None.

(Immortals, Shadowmen)

Legends from all over the world talk of the connectionbetween the search for Immortality and journeying into theUnderWorld. The Greeks spoke of travelers who would drinkfrom the subterranean river Lethe, which would allow them tolive forever, but make them forget everything. The Chinese toldtales of the hollow mountain of K’un Lun, and it’s grove ofmagical peaches which bestowed immortality.

These legends have a basis in fact.

Nomads are immortal—they do not age, and, barring massiveinjury, cannot die. However, they do not know how they becameimmortal, or even who they were before they becameimmortal…for as surely as they live forever, their memories of theirprevious lives have gone. Some Nomads return to the world aboveto attempt to get on with their lives…but many choose to remainwithin the UnderWorld, searching for some clue of their previouslives, or the source of their incredible life span.

This Breed takes its name from the lifestyle of its members.Very few Nomads choose to remain in one location for verylong. Their quest for their memories drives them to constantlymove from place to place, looking for new sources ofinformation. There are exceptions to this, naturally—Rector,the Lord of the Lesser Boulevards, for example, is a Nomadwho has become the Lord of one of the Domains.

Given their wandering nature, and their…unique

physiological anomalies (see Special Abilities), Nomads,

especially those of the Bravo Guild (q.v.) are highly valued as

assassins…what better weapon than an unknown stranger, who

cannot be killed? In fact, it is sometimes said that if the

Nomads were not so pre-occupied with the recovery of their

memories, they could dominate the UnderWorld, by virtue of

being unstoppable. This is not said loudly, however. It

wouldn’t be smart to give the Nomads any ideas.

Radiance Level: 0

Special Abilities: The Nomads posses only one

special ability: Immortality. They cannot die from

natural means, and can return to life

from even the most critical of injuries.

Catastrophic damage such as being

blown to bits, or chopped into pieces, or

disintegrated, etc. will permanently kill

a Nomad, as no degree of healing will

re-join the various parts of body.

Conductors should allow Nomad PCs to heal normally, even from

the point of death…it will take time, but eventually, the Nomad

will pull through. (For rules governing healing, see the section on

Combat in Chapter III)

Defining Traits:Resilient

ToughCourageous

CommandingPerceptiveIntuitiveResistant

FierceTirelessAgile

Skills:None, and in fact, a

Nomad may only pick twosecondary skills, ratherthan three (to represent oneof the many side-effects oftheir lost memory).

(UpWorlder, Meat, Commuter)

The last Breed of the UnderWorld isn’t really aBreed, or from the UnderWorld, for that matter.Normals are people from the World Above, who, forwhatever reason, have found themselves in theUnderWorld.

They do not truly belong to the World Below, andas such, are only able to be Guildless (q.v.). In fact,Normals should only be played when the Conductorwishes to have them be the focus of the campaign—the source material for UnderWorld (see InspirationMaterial in the Appendix) is full of stories of regularmen and women who are drawn into the fantasticworld. If this is the sort of story that the playinggroup wants to tell, then Normals are theBreed to use for this purpose.

Radiance Level: 0

Special Abilities: As youmight imagine, Normalsreceive no special abilites.

Defining Traits:Courageous

FriendlyMundane

KnowledgeableWealthy

Jack of All TradesInventive

DrivenCleverOdd

Skills:Professional

Contacts (UpWorld)

The world below the streets is much moreorganized than anyone might expect. Despite apopulation that is a chaotic mix of many differentkinds of individuals, all bound together by a uniformrejection of the mores of civilized society, theUnderWorld is, in some ways, more structured thanthe World Above.

The denizens of the UnderWorld long ago realizedthat it is this very structure—a combination of orderand tradition—that aids in surviving a hostileenvironment, and also allows for the existence of theUnderWorld to be kept a secret.

One of the most pervasive elements of thisstructure is the dominance of the Guilds.

Similar in arrangement to the Guilds ofRenaissance Europe, the Guilds are occupationalorganizations that completely govern and control thepractices of their professions. The Guilds gathersimilar occupations together for training andeducation, and strictly control their trade by insuringthat only Guild members are licensed to performcertain functions within the UnderWorld.

Some Guilds are more powerful in some Domains(especially in those where the Lord—often a memberof a particular Guild himself—acts as a patron forthat Guild, giving them privileges over the otherswithin the Domain.

No Lord would ever think of risking the ire of theGuilds by using non-Guild tradesmen (at leastpublicly). The Guilds rigidly enforce theirmonopolies, boycotting those employers that havefailed to follow Guild dictates. A Lord can ill afford,for example, to suddenly have all of his HouseGuards walk out on him because he had hired anassassin who was not a member of the Bravo’s Guild.

Being a member of a particular Guild does not

insure that skills are proprietary, only the practice ofthose skills. For example, just because you’re aBravo doesn’t mean that someone else might not be abetter fighter than you are (through combination of adifferent set of special abilities, for example). Whatit does mean, however, is that as a Bravo, you arelicensed to commit violence in the fulfillment of acontract. Full details of the proprietary trades of theGuilds are given in their descriptions, which follow.

There are 8 Guilds and 2 "non-Guilds" forcharacters to choose from: Artificers, Bravos,Librarians, Mendicants, Navigators, Sappers,Taggers and Traders make up the Guilds proper, andOutcasts and the Guildless fill out the list.

The entries for each Guild adhere to the followingformat:

Name: The official designation ofthe Guild.

Purview: The professionsgoverned by the Guild.

Description: A fuller explanationof the Guild’s activities andmembership.

Special Abilities: The specialability available to members of thisGuild

Magic: The list of charms or othermagic made available to Guildmembers.

Skills: The roster of skills taught

by the Guild to its members.

Defining Traits: The list ofeligible Traits for the Guild.

Purview: Salvage Tech Inventors

Description: The Artificers are sometimes

called "Mad Scientists", especially by their critics.

The designation is not entirely unwarranted.

Artificers are the inventors of Salvage Tech,

bizarre technology based on junk found in the

underground and powered by the Radiance itself.

Salvage Tech is a magical science—it’s inventions

cannot function in the World Above, since they are

theoretically impossible. However, in the

UnderWorld, the Radiance makes the inventions

not only possible, but allows Artificers to

accomplish the impossible on a regular basis.

The side effect of working in this medium is thatthe Artificers are stark, raving mad. The membersof the Guild argue that it is precisely this non-linear method of thinking that allow them towrestle with the concepts necessary to constructSalvage Tech—non-Artificers simply say thatthey’re as crazy as loons, and their inventions

work because they’re crazy enough to believe thatthey will.

Whatever the reasons, it is an undeniable factthat the crazier the Artificer, the better an inventor.There is some link between the two factors. Assuch, starting Artificer characters must begin thegame at least slightly crazy. As an Artificerexpands his inventing ability, so must his insanityexpand. Example forms of insanity can be foundin the Salvage Tech section of Chapter IV. Astarting Artificer begins the game at StageOne…higher levels of Inventing ability (andaccompanying craziness) must be achievedthrough play.

Special Abilities: The Artificers are the only

Guild that are able to invent and build Salvage

Tech (as described above). A beginning Main

Character starts the game with this ability, as well

as three pieces of Salvage Tech (See Chapter IV).

Magic: The Artificers Guild concentrates on

Salvage Tech to such an extent that they do not

practice magic, as a rule. Individual Artificers

may accumulate charms and relics through play,

but none are provided by the Guild

itself.

36

Defining Traits:Inventive

CleverDriven

KnowledgeableEnergetic

Skills:InventionResearch

ScroungingLore

Observation

Purview: Fighters of all sorts—Bodyguards,assassins, gladiators, etc.

Description: An environment where survival isparamount, like the UnderWorld, definitely needsfighters. Hence, the Bravos: those that serve as hiredmuscle, bodyguards, assassins, gladiators, or anythingelse where the ability to deliver physical injury toanother living being is a marketable skill.

The Bravos are one of the most powerful Guildsin the UnderWorld. All of the warriorswho owe allegiance to one of theDomains are members of thisGuild (armed conflict betweendomains is greatly help by thefact that there is no proscriptionbarring fighting against fellowGuild members…it is expected,in fact). Freelance fighters arealso members…or, rather,they’re supposed to be.

The Bravos are the onlypeople in the UnderWorldwith a legal right to performviolence. Any violence donewithin the UnderWorld bysomeone who is not a recognizedmember of the Bravos Guild willnot only brand the perpetrator asan Outlaw (q.v.) but will drawthe wrath of the Guild itself.(Go ahead--try to exist in theUnderWorld with everyBravo out for your head.Nice knowing you.)

The legal right meansthat a Bravo could kill someone in apublic bazaar, and, when the guardsarrive, simply hand over his contract toprove it was sanctioned. (Many times, when a fightoccurs without a contract—a common enoughoccurance—the Bravo in question will simply handover his Guild identification. The guards, Bravosthemselves, usually let it slide).

In the rare event that a particular Lord still opts to

throw the Bravo into an Oubliette or just execute himoutright, the Guild will come down on that Lordhard--no further business for example (especiallyproblematic when the Lord's Guards are all Bravosthemselves). A non-sanctioned attack, however, froma non-Bravo, confers no legal protection upon theperpetrator. The Lord is free to do whatever he wantsto the offender, assuming the Bravos don't attempt to

rectify the situation themselves.

Keep in mind that this proprietary rule isonly a legal matter. Many fights occur farfrom the eyes of any witnesses, after all, and

who’s to say if the combatants weresanctioned or not?

Special Abilities: The Bravos are masters of

combat. Their combat abilities, a guarded secret passed

down from Bravo to Bravo, are legendary in the

UnderWorld. Using these abilities, which the Bravos

refer to as battle-craft, a Bravo can choose to either: a)

gain an extra coin for use in detailed combat (see Chapter

III), for attack or defense; or b) gain an extra coin for use in

abstract combat (again, Chapter III).

Magic: Bravos can start the game with two

charms, taken from the following (for complete

descriptions, see the Magic Section in Chapter IV):

Daedelus Twine

Life Stone

Freeze Tag

Brass Knuckles

Free Ride

Soup Stone

Mob Cap

Luck Chips

Colors

Sleep Visor

37

Defining Traits:Cunning

FierceWildCalm

Veteran

Skills:Fighting

SurvivalAcrobaticsContacts

(UnderWorld)

Purview: Information Brokers

Description: This Guild is devoted toinformation. They deal in knowledge. Sages,advisors and specialists of every sort, the Librarianskeep the maps, the records, the books and the files.They know things that no one else knows-they haveheard of things that no one else has heard. TheWorld Below is a huge place, with countless tunnels-and each of those tunnels has a story. This Guildknows those stories, and countless others. Think ofthem as the UnderWorld equivalent of the Oracle,Sage and the Bard of ancient history, plus the Dealerand Middle-man of the street. If they don't have theinformation itself, they know where it is hidden, andhow to get it.

They more connected than any other Guild, havingtheir finger on the pulses of sources in both theUnderWorld, and the World Above. They amasshuge storehouses of information, available to anywho will meet their prices. Some Librarians deal inbarter for services rendered, others prefer to takemagic in exchange for information. The most

dangerous Librarians are those that will only acceptequal trades: information for information….becauseyou never know who’s going to end up with whatyou tell them, somewhere down the line.

Special Abilities: Each Librarian has a library.Despite its name, this does not have to be acollection of books—libraries take as many forms asthere are individual Librarians. Some are thestandard, sprawling collection of books, newspapersand other documents. Some are merely arcanescribblings on scraps of paper that the Librariancarries on his person. Some are data, stored inRadiance-powered, Artificer-built computationalmachines in the deepest tunnels, or hidden inunused caches on some corporation’s basementserver.

Regardless of the form, the Library is the character’sstock in trade. With it, the Librarian has the potential toaccess to any information sought. Using the ResearchSkill, any pertinent Defining Traits, and an extra coin orcoins depending upon the extensiveness of the Library,the player makes a Head Count. Beginning charactersstart with a Library that only grants them onecoin…better Libraries are garnered through play (seeChapter 6: Conducting for information onadvancement). The number of successes needed isbased upon the level of information sought: between1 and 5, with 1 representing commonly availableknowledge, and 5 representing the most obscure, oreven legendary, facts.

Magic:Librarians maybegin the game withany single charm.(see the completelisting in ChapterIV).

Defining Traits:Intelligent

KnowledgeablePerceptiveStudious

Deductive

Skills:Lore

Contacts (UpWorld)Contacts (UnderWorld)

Savvy

Purview: Healers and Caregivers

Description: Every society needs people whoare concerned with the welfare of their fellow man.Many times, this responsibility falls to a society’sreligious community. Such is the case with theUnderWorld. This Guild is responsible not onlyfor patching wounds inflicted by the manydangerous elements found in the tunnels, but alsoto generally care for the well-being of the denizenstherein. After all, in far too many cases in the realworld, getting sick while homeless can equal adeath sentence. Exposure leads to a worsening ofthe condition, and the weakness brought about bythe sickness itself can easily lead to falling prey tovarious predators (human, more often than not).

The Mendicants Guild teaches its members theappropriate medical skills, as well as imparting tothem a sense of custodianship for the well-being oftheir fellow UnderWorlders. They are a religiousorder, revering God (in the abstract, non-denominational sense), and practicing theircaregiving as a matter of religious devotion as wellas secular responsibility. Members of this Guildare addressed as "Brother" or "Sister" dependingupon their sex.

The Guild takes its name from the fact that mostof its members keep no fixed abode, and travel the

UnderWorld, begging for food and shelter.Mendicants usually have no trouble finding either,since many UnderWorlders view it as quid pro quofor the medical services that the Guild provides.Some Mendicants do settle in one location,especially if they believe that it is a locationparticularly in need of their care and attention.

Special Abilities: The Mendicants possesthe ability to heal, not just through their skill,but through miraculous means as well.Believed to be a manifestation of the Radiance,filter through the religious beliefs of theMendicants themselves, this laying on of handshas, in some cases, even raised the dead. TheMendicant lays his hands upon the afflicted,and performs a Head Count with three coins(modified by any appropriate Defining Traits).For each success, one wound level is healed(more details on wound levels can be found inChapter III). This ability is exhausting: eachuse delivers one level of temporary wounddamage to the Mendicant. The temporarylevels heal at the rate of one per hour.

Magic: The Mendicant may start play withone charm taken from the list below:

Life StoneSoup StoneProtective IncenseSleep VisorFree Ride

Defining Traits:BlessedCalm

CommandingFriendlyTireless

Skills:Empathy

NegotiationSurvival

ScroungingFirst Aid

Begging HatDousing Rod

Purview: Operators of Transports

Description: Down in the tunnels, there arerivers (rainwater or sewage-who knows, but I'm notjumping in there to find out...)—and where there arerivers, there are boats to travel on them. Travel,though, is not limited to the rivers...your charactersmay have a need to travel down below the deepesttunnels, further than any Tagger has explored...andwho better to take you there than CaptainQuinn and his Leviathan Crawler?

Navigators are the owners/operators of transit devices (Boats,private subway cars, whatever),who take people where they wantto go. They have access to avehicle of some sort, as well asknowledge of the routes to getthere. They are the transitsystem below the transitsystem, and their vehiclescome in every shape and size.

The Navigators Guildcontrols shipping in theUnderWorld, operating "portauthorities" at some of thelarger Domains, and levyingtolls to ensure that all trafficis being handled byNavigators. Traders willcease dealing with anyone(and thereby cut off avaluable life-line of supply)if they discover that personor organization has donebusiness with non-Guildmembers bringing ingoods.

Main Character Navigators will fit within the moldof the old Tramp Steamer Captains of the pulpstories, or the Space Freighters of science fiction: a

character with a vessel, who travels from place toplace getting into trouble. Navigator’s transportsmake good focal points for a playing group—it givesthem a reason to be together (they are the crew thatworks for the Navigator), as well as giving them amobile base of operations.

Special Abilities: The Navigator starts play

with a vehicle of some kind. Discuss the design of

the vehicle with your Conductor. Most Navigator

vehicles are, or incorporate, Salvage Tech devices.

These can be taken from the examples given in

Chapter IV, or constructed with the rules found

there.

Magic: Navigators begin play with one charm,

taken from the following list:

Daedelus Twine

Brass Knuckles

Luck Chips

Guiding Light

Life Vest

Sleep Visor

Defining Traits:Clever

IntuitiveShrewd

StreetwiseVeteran

Skills:Transport

SavvyContacts(UnderWorld)

SurvivalNegotiation

Purview: Tunellers and Engineers

Description: In a subterranean setting likeUnderWorld, you have to have some people who areskilled at digging (and more importantly, *repairing*)the tunnels and caverns. The Sappers Guild isdevoted to teaching its members the skills of bothdigging new tunnels and shoring up the old ones.They are also often used by Domains as combatengineers, of particular use because of theirdemolitions skills.

But Sappers are more than that. They’reexperience with the deep tunnels of the UnderWorldhas attuned them to the Radiance. A Sapper canalmost smell the stuff, and can lead you to areaswhere it concentrates (known as RadiancePools). Using these Pools, and theirengineering and tunneling skills, Sappers areable to control the flow of the Radiance to asmall degree, increasing or decreasing the localRadCount. (For more information on theRadiance, RadCounts, and the like, see ChapterIII).

This combination of skills makes theSappers a Guild whose skills are very much indemand. Lords often offer great favors to Sappersin return for having the RadCount of theirholdings increased, or for the discovery of a newRadiance Pool. A clever Sapper can become verywealthy and influential through the accumulation ofsuch favors, and many have done just that. For theSappers who have yet to "strike it rich", however, lifeis different. They wander the UnderWorld, exploringthe hidden corners of the Deep looking for newRadiance Pools, using their more mundaneexcavation and engineering skills as a way to eke outa living until they score the big jackpot.

Special Abilities: Sappers can senseconcentrations of the Radiance. Using a three-coinHead Count, Sappers can determine the following,based upon the number of successes achieved:

1 Success: The RadCount of the local area2 Successes: The directional heading of the nearest

area with a higher RadCount3 Successes: The directional heading of any nearby

Radiance Pool (it is up to the Conductor to determinedwhat constitutes "nearby"…remember that RadiancePools can have a powerful effect upon the game (seeChapter III), and should not be discovered easily).

Magic: Sappers can begin the game with onecharm, taken from the following list:

Guiding Light

Luck Chips

Beer Goggles

Hot Rocks

Ace of Spades

Glowstix

Life Stone

Defining Traits:Driven

InventiveRadiantStrongTireless

Skills:Demolitions

SurvivalFighting

EngineeringClimbing

Purview: Graffiti artists and scouts

Description: There are fewpeople in New York City withmore bravado and courage thanthe graffiti artists. They risk lifeand limb to leave their markupon overpasses, buildingledges, and other inaccessiblespots. You see a colorful scrawlon a elevated train trellis, andyou wonder at the fact thatanyone was brave (or stupid)enough to crawl out there,suspended in mid-air, to practicetheir art. However, below ground,these efforts are even moreimpressive. Below ground, thereis the Taggers Guild.

This Guild is made up ofgraffiti artists who, in theirsearch for new places to tag,found themselves delvingdeeper and deeper into theUnderWorld. Eventually,this Guild became afixture of UnderWorldsociety, offering theirservices as scouts.After all, if theywere going toexplore the deepestregions of t heUnderWorld anyway, why not get something out ofit besides a new place to mark?

The Taggers are the explorers of new frontiers, andthe markers of the way. They mark the paths withsigns that only other Taggers can read, therebyinsuring their usefulness as a Guild. Their sigils tellof what landmarks to expect, what pitfalls to avoid,

what monsters lurk, and which Domain claimsjurisdiction. Any expedition into dangerous territoryusually brings a Tagger along, to read the signs, or tomake new ones. Those that don’t, don’t often return.

Special Abilities: Taggers have two specialabilities, both related to their graffiti. First andforemost is the language of the tag itself. TheGuild teaches all members how to use this secretcode, and guards this knowledge fiercely. Hiddenwithin combinations of color, letter and form aresurprisingly detailed accounts of what lies ahead

on any particular passage.

The second ability is even more useful.Taggers have the ability to imbed magicaleffects within their tags. A Tagger cansuspend the effects of any charm theypossess, along with specific information

regarding the trigger (for example,specifying that the effect goes off if anyonetouches the tag, or comes within 5 feet).Obviously, this will only work with charms thathave external effects. It would not do any good,for example, to suspend the effects of a LifeStone (q.v.) in the scrawl, but suspending theeffect of a pair of Hot Rocks would result in apiece of graffiti that gives off a comforting heatwhenever anyone is near. The magical tag willcontinue to work until removed or defaced.

M a g i c :Taggers beginthe game with

t h r e echarms,

takenf rom

anywhere. (Acomplete list can befound in Chapter IV)

Defining Traits:ArtisticAgile

CourageousStealthy

Streetwise

Skills:Lore

SavvySurvivalStealth

Climbing

Purview: Merchants

Description: The UnderWorld, separate as itmay be, depends upon the World Above for manythings. Salvage Tech, for example, an important partof life beneath the streets, is constructed from thedetritus of above-ground civilization. Food isanother sought-after commodity (there is food nativeto the UnderWorld, but one tires of rat andmushrooms after a while). With these, and manyother categories, there has developed a vibrantmarket for "artifacts" from the UpWorld.

The Traders are a Guild of merchants, whobring treasures from the surface (old blenders,scraps of mattress springs, cans, and maybethe occasional firearm) down Below,usually in their ubiquitous shopping carts.Given the nature of thisGuild, membership islargely limited tothose Breeds who areable to functionaboveground. Assuch, the

majority ofTraders are Homeless, and Legendary and JunkmanTraders are extremely rare (and usually limit theirtrade to purely subterranean operations).

The Traders are like the Merchant Caravans of old,

bringing their wares to far-flung settlements, andsharing news of the outside world with any who havea moment and an ear for the tale. The Traders Guildkeeps the UnderWorld apprised of what’s happeningup top, and this, along with the valuable artifacts thatthey bring with them, makes them a valuable ally toany Lord.

The economy of the UnderWorld is based in barter.Traders exchange their goods (and often, theirinformation) for other items of value, whether in theform of equipment, weapons, magic, a service, or afavor. This system guarantees that when a Traderpushes his cart into your Domain, you can be sure thathe carries things far more interesting than just a bit ofbroken clock radio, or the water pump from a 79Oldsmobile.

Special Abilities: The Tradersdeal with all sorts of people in theirday to day lives. As such, theyhave developed an uncanny ability

to speak any language towhich they are exposed.

In addition, Main CharacterTraders begin the game in

possession of a stash ofUpWorld artifacts—the specific

contents of which are left for youand your Conductor to decide.

Magic: Charms are one of the morecommon ways that people pay Traders fortheir goods. As such, a Trader may begin thegame with three charms, taken from thecompletelist inChapter IV.

Defining Traits:CharmingCunning

Fast TalkerPerceptive

Shrewd

Skills:Contacts (UnderWorld)

ScroungingNegotiate

SavvySurvival

Outcasts are not a Guild. Rather, they are thosethat have been excommunicated from their Guild fortransgressions of one sort or another. A member maybe cast out for going against the wishes of his or hersuperiors, or by being an accomplice in the fosteringof non-Guild employment, or by any number ofother reasons. They are pariah, essentially outlawswith no legal right to perform their trade.

A player who is considering playing an Outcastshould think twice about this option. You areessentially branding your character as a criminal,with the accompanying stigma. You should expectto be shunned, not only by others of your Guild, butby others as well, since it is a common belief in theUnderWorld that Outcasts bring misfortune in theirwake.

To create an Outcast character, go through theprocess as normal , including choosing thecharacter’s former Guild (you do receive all of theskills and abilities of your former Guild, but you donot begin the gamewith any of themagic—you arestripped of these, andyour Guildidentification, whenyou areexcommunicated) .Lastly, decide, withyour Conductor, thereason behind yourcharacter becomingan Outcast.

You begin thegame with no GuildMembership, and norights to engage inyour profession. Youmay, depending uponthe severity of yourtransgression, alsobegin the game withany number ofenemies who are nowout to get you.

Expect to be treated roughly by the citizens of theUnderWorld, or even worse, in some Domains.Welcome to the life of the Outcast.

Some Outcasts are able to find their way back intothe good graces of their Guilds, but, in the traditionof all great stories, such a fate must be the reward forincredibly heroic actions in the fact of almostinsurmountable odds.

The average Joe-in-the-tunnels doesn’t necessarilybelong to a Guild. There are those who have noprofession, and simply live their lives day-to-day, as thegeneral population of the UnderWorld. These arereferred to as Guildless. The Guildless include all ofthose minor professions which have no organizingstructure in the UnderWorld, including food service,clothiers, candle-makers, etc.

Occasionally, members of a profession band togetherand a minor Guild iscreated, but it is a rarity,since few are strongenough to organize onthat level. Usually, theyjust continue to toilaway as Guildless—some thankful that theydo not have to contendwith the politics of theUnderWorld.

Guildless are notintended to be MainCharacters, but if theneeds of your particularstory demand it, theycan be created---theyreceive no specialabilities, and only oneGuild-bestowed skill:Profession (specific), togovern their livelihood.

Defining Traits

As discussed earlier, the Defining Traits that youchoose during character creation are theindividualizing factors that separate your characterfrom others who share the same Breed and Guild.You choose one Trait from the list of those availableto your Breed, and another from the list of thoseavailable to your Guild. The third Trait can comefrom anywhere, without restrictions.

The list below contains all of the Defining Traitsfrom the Breeds and Guilds, as well as some thatappear only here. In addition, Players are encouragedto develop their own unique Defining Traits, with theapproval of the Conductor, using the following Traitsas guidelines.

As an optional rule, Conductors may also allowMain Characters to take Negative Traits—reversalsof the Traits presented herein. Where ‘Agile’ givescharacters an extra coin for actions involvingdexterity, for example, ‘Clumsy’ (it’s reverse) wouldpenalize the character one coin in the same situations.If the Conductor allows this, Players may take anadditional Defining Trait for every Negative Traitthat they choose, up to a maximum of 2 additionalDefining Traits.

Agile: The character receives a bonus coin when

performing actions where physical dexterity is

important. (negative: Clumsy)

Artistic: The character gains an extra coin when

attempting to perform any artistic task (painting,

singing, musical instrument, dance, etc.) (negative:

Untalented)

Blessed: The character receives a bonus coin

when performing actions where his or her strong

religious faith is called into play. (negative: Cursed)

Calm: The character receives a bonus coin to

resist the effects of fear. (negative: Panicky)

Charming: The character gains an extra coin

for use in persuasion attempts. (negative: Annoying)

Clever: The character gains an extra coin for use

in mental feats. (negative: Dim-witted)

Commanding: The character gains an extra

coin for use when attempting to lead groups.

(negative: Weak personality)

Courageous: The character receives a bonus

coin in situations where their bravery is called into

play. (negative: Cowardly)

Cute: The character gains a bonus coin in

persuasion attempts based upon their appearance.

(negative: Ugly)

Cunning: The character gains a bonus coin in

any situation where trickery is called into play. Note

that these situations can include when the character is

attempting the trickery, or is attempting to discover

other’s attempts. (negative: Thick)

Deductive: The character gains an extra coin for

actions involving the solving of puzzles or riddles, or

the interpretation of clues. (negative: Oblivious)

Diplomatic: The character gains an extra coin

in persuation attempts based upon negotiation.

(negative: Undiplomatic)

Driven: The character gains an extra coin in any

situations where their life-long goals are of supreme

importance to the outcome. (For example: a Nomad

attempting to regain his or her memories).

(Negative: Lax)

Energetic: The character gains an extra coin in

situations where exhaustion comes into play.

(negative: Feeble)

Fast: The character gains an extra coin for

initiative. (negative: Slow)

Fast Talker: The character gains an extra coinfor persuasion attempts based upon glibness andguile. (negative: Blunt)

Feral: The character gains an extra die foractions involving a close connection to nature (forexample: following a trail by scent, foraging for food,etc.) (negative: Tame)

Fierce: The character gains an extra coin incombat. (negative: Timid)

Friendly: The character gains a bonus coin inany situation where their personality comes into play.(negative: unfriendly)

Honorable: The character gains a bonus coin inany situation where righteous and upright behavior iscalled for. (negative: Dishonorable)

Intelligent: The character gains an extra coin insituations involving mental acuity. (negative: Stupid)

Intuitive: The character gains an extra coinwhen they do not have an appropriate skill for thetask at hand, but have a related skill. (negative:Rigid)

Inventive: The character gains an extra coin foruse in invention. (negative: uninspired)

Jack of All Trades: The character may flipover any one coin, changing the result into onesuccess, in any situation where they do not have theskill required for the task. (no negative version)

Knowledgeable: The character gains an extracoin in actions involving recall of information.(negative: Uneducated)

Large: The character gains an extra coin in

situations where size is an asset. (negative:

Lumbering—not the opposite, but the negative

connotation of large)

Loyal: The character gains an extra coin insituations where their allegiance to others is calledinto play. (negative: Disloyal)

Mischievous: The character gains an extra coinwhen attempting humorous actions. (negative:Humorless)

Mundane: The character gains a bonus coin insituations where the facets of UpWorld society arecalled into play. (no negative version)

Odd: The character receives an extra coin insituations where they are dealing with the strange andbizarre. (negative: Traditional)

Perceptive: The character gains an extra coin forfeats of observation or perception. (negative:Inattentive)

Precise: The character gains a bonus coin foractions where precision is required. (negative:Imprecise)

Radiant: The character gains an extra coin inactions involving use of the Radiance. (negative:Blocked)

Resilient: The character gains an extra coinduring feats involving the recovery from wounds.(negative: Frail)

Resistant: The character gains a bonus coin toresist the effects of magic. (negative: Susceptible)

Shrewd: The character gains an extra coin

towards the detection of guile and deception. (Known

in the streets as a "bullshit detector.") (negative:

Gullible)

Small: The character receives a bonus coin in any

situation where small stature is an asset. (negative:

Tiny—not the opposite, but the negative connotation

of Small)

Stealthy: The character gains an extra coin for

actions involving concealment, obfuscation or silence.

(negative: Obvious)

Streetwise: The character gains an extra coin in

situations where familiarity with "the Street" is called

into play (Yes, this even applies to life under the streets

as well). (negative: Clueless)

Strong: The character gains an

extra coin for feats involving

physical strength. (negative: Weak)

Strong Willed: The character

gains a bonus coin for willpower

feats. (negative: Weak Willed)

Studious: The character gains

an extra coin in any situation

involving research or study.

(negative: Uninformed)

Tireless: The character gains

an extra coin to resist the effects of

exhaustion. (negative: Tired)

Tough: The character gains an

extra coin to resist damage.

(negative: Fragile)

Veteran: The character gainsa bonus coin in situations wheretheir past experience is calledupon. (negative: Rookie)

Vicious: The character gains anextra coin in combat—but only when

they show no restraint whatsoever. (negative:Bloodthirsty. A special situation: in this case thecharacter’s viciousness is so extreme that he or shemust make a successful Head Count to avoid attackingallies as well as foes)

Wealthy: The character gains an extra coin

whenever the action involves the use of worldly

wealth (equipment, property, etc.). (negative:

Poor)

Wild: The character gains an extra coin in

combat, but only if they fight with no weapons.

(no negative version)

The use of these Defining Traits is not limited to

the situations described in their entries. The Traits

may be adapted to fit many different situations.

We’ll go into more detail on that in the next chapter

.

Skills

Every character has all of the skills learnedthrough their Guild, plus three secondary skills thatcan be taken from any of the Guild lists. SomeBreeds offer characters bonus skills, as well. Breedand Guild Skills give you two coins for a HeadCount, whereas Secondary Skills only give one.

On the list below, you will find all of the Skills thathave been listed under the various Guilds and Breeds,as well as some that appear only here (and hence areonly available as secondary skills).

Acrobatics: Leaping, tumbling, tightrope

walking, etc.

Animal Handling: Familiarity with control and

care of animals.

Carousing: Skill with less-than-wholesome

forms of entertainment: drinking, gambling, etc.

Includes the ability to locate establishments that

provide such services.

Climbing: Self-explanatory.

Concealment: The ability to hide an object or

yourself.

Contacts (area): A contact is a person with

whom you’ve had previous dealings, who is allied to

you, and will provide you with assistance. The skill

is used as an abstraction of your ability to find any

one of a number of your contacts at any given time.

You must specify the area where those contacts are

found (the UnderWorld or the World Above).

Cooking: The preparation of meals.

Criminal: Catch-all skill governing knowledge

and familiarity with the procedures of the criminal

world.

Demolitions: The ability to set and detonate

explosives.

Disguise: Concealment or alteration of your

features.

Empathy: The ability to connect with people on

an emotional level. This skill allows you to get a

basic read of a persons emotions, or to successfully

communicate your emotions to them.

Engineering: The design and construction of

emplacements or structures.

Fighting: An abstract skill representing combat

ability.

Games: Skill with games of chance or recreation.

First Aid: Emergency medical treatment. In

play, used for the healing of wounds.

Invention: Design and construction of devices,

machines, weapons or other implements.

Lore: Knowledge of legends, myths and rumors

in the UnderWorld.

Negotiation: Persuasion of a supporting

character through verbal interaction.

Observation: An abstraction of the characters

ability to perceive or notice details.

Professional: Skill in the core abilities of a

profession. That profession must be specified when

the skill is taken, and the skill must be taken multiple

times to represent multiple professions.

Research: Scholarly or scientific investigation,

study or inquiry.

Savvy: Knowledge of the situational status quo

in the UnderWorld, as well as any current events.

Sciences (specific): Knowledge in any of the

UpWorld sciences. Must be specified.

Scrounging: The ability to find needed items (food,

supplies, etc.) through foraging or salvage. Sometimes also

called "dumpster-diving".

Stealth: The ability to move in a covert manner.

Survival: The skills necessary to thrive in the

UnderWorld environment, outside of the civilization of the

Domains.

Tracking: The ability to follow the path taken by your

target, and to locate them.

Transport: Catch-all skill representing the operation and

maintenance of any form of transportation.

Trivia: Catch-all skill representing a wide variety on

non-specific skills and knowledge.

EquipmentUnderWorld is a game of modern urban fantasy. As

such, there is no need for any exhaustive equipment

lists, since the players will be more than familiar with

the sort of equipment that can be found in the modern

world.

One thing that you will need to keep in mind,however, is that the Radiance has a detrimental effecton certain types of equipment…the more associated itis with the modern world, the less reliably it works inhigh RadCount areas. Full details on this can be

found in the section on the Radiance in Chapter III.

Weapons are a necessary evil in the UnderWorld.There are always monsters lurking around the nextcorner, or steely-cold Bravos out for your head on theorders of their Lord. Sooner or later, you’re going toneed a weapon.

The effect of the Radiance makes the reliability offirearms questionable (see Chapter III). The lastthing you want to have is questions about somethingon which your life may depend, so manyUnderWorlders choose to rely on lower-techweaponry. After all, you never have to worry aboutwhether or not a crowbar will work….

Another reason for the UnderWorlder’s reliance onmore primitive weaponry is that firefights could drawunwanted attention to the UnderWorld, in the form ofUpWorlder police investigations. It is much quieter,after all, to shiv someone in the dark than it is to blastaway indescriminately.

The weapons listed below are representative of thesort that are commonly used in the UnderWorld.You’ll find the weapon’s damage rating, expressed inthe number of coins that they add to the damagedetermination portion of combat, and their range,expressed as either Personal, Immediate, or Distance(see Chapter III for details).

Armor, like many weapons in the UnderWorld isimprovised. Padded armor can be made byelectrical-taping yellow pages books to your torso.Metal armor can be fashioned from street signs. Allarmor is rated by the amount of coins they add toyour damage resistance.

Weapon Damage Range

Brick/Rock/Concrete 1 PersonalImmediate (thrown)

Knife/Small bladed implement 2 PersonalImmediate (thrown)

Garrotte/Choking implement 2 PersonalWhip 2 ImmediateCrowbar/Axehandle/Bludgeoning implement

3 PersonalSword/Large bladed implement 3 PersonalSpear 3 Personal

Immediate (thrown)Sling/stone 1 DistanceBow/arrow 2 DistancePistol 3 DistanceSub Machine Gun 4 DistanceShotgun 5 ImmediateRifle 5 DistanceThe above list should allow Players and Conductors to extrapolate statistics for similar weapons.

Armor Type Resistance BonusPadded (paper, leather) 1 coinLight metal (street signs) 2 coinsHeavy metal (manhole cover) 3 coins** You must have the "Strong" trait to be able to wear this type of armor.

Excerpt from Metropolitan Transit AuthorityInternal Review Department Document AJ7-5W-300

Interview with Rivera, Constantino J. (Employeeno. 337-57-9961)

Rivera: …so then me, Mullaney and Carterheaded down Access shaft 28, just like the Supervisorsaid.

MTA: That would be…ah…. Patrick Mullaneyand Tyrone Carter?

Rivera: Si. Yes, that’s right.

MTA: Please continue.

Rivera: OK…half way down 28, we spot the cave-in. A section of the wall had crumbled…fallen intothe Access Shaft, ya know? Happens sometimes.This section is real old…the walls are brick, andnobody has used this shaft regularly since…I dunno,like the 30s or 40s.

Anyway, the hole leads into a passageway. Butit’s like, ya know, like a cave? Not brick or anything.

MTA: It’s natural?

Rivera: Yeah. So, Carter and Mullaney and me,we figure this is probably where the problem is, sowe check it out. We light up, and in we go.

The first thing we notice is that this sucker islong, man. We must’ve walked for like a half a mile,and the whole time, the thing is angling down. We’repretty deep at this point…hell, Shaft 28 is below themain lines itself, and we’re going down from that.

Anyway, that’s when we notice that there arelike…steps, carved into the rock. Just one, every fewyards or so. You walk along a little bit, and then

there’s a shallow step, and then you continue, andthen there’s another…

At this point, we’re figuring this might be someof the original work tunnels from the first sandhogdigs, or something like that. That’s what Mullaney’ssaying, anyhow. Me, I don’t know. I don’t thinkwe’re in the right part of town for that.

The passage goes along like that for a while…Idon’t know exactly. Kinda lost track of time…it wasweird down there. Felt weird.

MTA: Could you be more specific?

Rivera: I dunno, man…just weird…you know thatsort of detached feeling you get when you first wakeup? When it’s like you’re still dreaming, but you’reawake? It was kinda like that.

(Note: results of post-incident medical examsindicated no evidence of alcohol or narcotics in anyof the subject’s blood tests. See attached.)

Rivera (continued): After a while, Carter startssaying we should head back. We’ve been down thereGod knows how long, and it doesn’t look like we’reanywhere near the end of the passageway. He’s alllike "who knows how far this thing goes" and talkingabout how even we turn back now, it’s still gonna beafter quitting time by the time we get back. Mullaneyand I figure that he’s got a point, so we mark the wallto mark how far we came, and start heading back upthe passage. That’s when it started.

MTA: When what started, Tino?

Rivera: After about a dozen or so yards back up,we come to a fork in the tunnel. Crazy fucking thingwas, though—that fork wasn’t there when we camedown. It had been a straight shot all the way. All of

us got real quiet. Nobody wanted to say anything.Me, I figured it was just me…I had been slacking off,and hadn’t noticed that we had come down one sideof the fork. So, I just waited, figuring that I’d followeverybody when they headed back up whichever onewas the right one.

Nobody moved. After a couple of seconds, Patsays "Alright…which way do we fucking go?"Carter and me crack up at that point…not because itwas funny, really, but more outta relief that we’re notthe only ones that didn’t remember any fork in thepassage.

I move up a bit into the left-hand passage, just tosee if anything looks familiar. All of a sudden, it getsreally cold. I mean like in a freezer. I can see mybreath and everything. No way, I say to myself. Iwoulda remembered walking through a goddamnedmeat locker. I backtrack out of the tunnel, and we alldecide to take the path on the right.

We hike up the passage for about a half an hour,then we come to a cave—this thing is big. We can’tsee the other side of it, even with our flashlights. It’sgot those spiky rock things…you know, like you seeon the Discovery Channel…hanging from the ceilingand growing from the floor.

MTA: Stalactites and Stalagmites

Rivera: Whatever. We weren’t too concernedabout what to call them. We were too damn busyfreaking the hell out, because we sure as shit didn’tcome through any cave on the trip down. Carter isloosing it at this point, going off about how we’relost, and how nobody’s ever gonna find us. You hearstories sometimes about guys coming down andgetting disoriented, unable to find their way back.They end up starving to death, or falling down somehole or shit like that. So all of this is running throughour heads, and things are looking pretty bad. I mean,we don’t know where to go…and then Pat noticesthat the passage we came in from isn’t there anymore.

MTA: What do you mean, "isn’t there?"Rivera: Just what I said, man! Chingada! We turn

around, and were we just walked in, there’s nothingbut a smooth rock wall. A wall!

(Subject lights a cigarette at this point in theinterview. He takes a few minutes to calm himself)

Rivera (continued): What could we do, man? Westarted walking around, looking for a way out of thiscave. We followed along the wall, looking for anyopening. At this point, we didn’t care where it led, aslong as it led out. We’d sort out how to get backhome after that.

We were so intent on looking for a way out thatwe didn’t notice the guy until we were almost on topof him.

MTA: …and this would be the indigenoushomeless man that you mentioned in your initialinterview?

Rivera: He was a man, all right. I’m not too sureabout homeless, though. I kinda got the feeling thatthe cavern was his home. Not that he was squatting,or anything like that, but that he belonged there. Hewas part of it, somehow.

He was a big guy…well over six feet tall, andbuilt like a brick shithouse. White. He’s wearingthese beat-up cargo pants, you know—the kind withall of the pockets? Got ‘em tied at the waist with apiece of rubber cable insulation. Wearing a pair ofConverse Chuckie T’s…red and white…I ain’t seenthose since I was a kid. No shirt, but he’s got thislong trench coat with the sleeves torn off. He’s gotlong blond hair, but it’s all matted into those white-boy dreads that you see the kids in the Villagewearing, and around his neck, he’s got a necklacewith a rat skull hanging from it.

It was all I could do to keep from going apeshit.I figured…that was it, ya know? This guys a CHUD,and we’re gonna get eaten.

MTA: I’m sorry…a CHUD?

Rivera: Cannibalistic Humanoid UndergroundDwellers, man…what’s the matter with you? Younever go to the movies?

MTA: Guess I missed that one.

Rivera: So, this guy steps out of the darknessright in front of us. Tells us that we don’t belong

down there. Starts talking all this crazy shit…abouttrespassing in the Lord’s Domain, and like that. He’susing this Shakespeare talk the whole time, like oneof the fruits that works that Renaissance Faire thingthat they do in the summer at the Cloisters? Saysthat he is the "Warden of the Stone Forest"…you canstop looking at me like that. I know it soundsfucking crazy, man…I’m just telling you what theguy said. And no, I have no idea what the "StoneForest" is…like I said, the guy was a nut job.

I figure, crazy or not, this guy might know theway out. So I tell him that we’re sorry fortrespassing, that we didn’t mean it, and that we’dlike him to show us the way out so that he can goback to Wardening, or whatever.

He nods, and then he says—and I remember thisspecifically. Don’t think I’m ever gonna forget it foras long as I live—he says "But tarry not, nor followin any step but mine own, for some paths are, andsome have never been…and those that walk them,walk alone."

I had no friggin’ clue what he meant, but he wasoff, and we followed. Sure enough, in no time at all,he had lead us to another passageway that exited thecave. He walked in front of us, guiding the way.The tunnel branched, and branched again, andsometimes turned around back into itself like atraffic circle. I couldn’t keep up with it all in myhead. I just fixed my eyes on this guy’s back, andwalked.

He didn’t walk slow, either. It was all I could doto keep up with him.

We walked like that for what seemed like hours.He kept looking back over his shoulder. A couple oftimes, he had this concerned look on his face, and Iwould get worried that we were following some loonwho had no more idea of where he was than wedid…but he didn’t move like that. He moved like aman who knew his surroundings.

All of a sudden he stops, and points forward. Hetells us that he can go no further. Tells us to justkeep to the left, and we’ll be fine. Well, we didn’tneed to be told twice, right. We high-tailed it. Aswe’re leaving he says something like "Time is adistance, and distance is a space. That which is not,can not."

I’m like "whatever, holmes." I didn’t want tostick around. Sure enough, about twenty minuteslater, we come out into a storm drain in Battery Park.

MTA: That’s all you remember?

Rivera: Yeah, that’s about it, I guess.

MTA: What about Carter and Mullaney?

Rivera: What about them?

MTA: Where are they?

Rivera: What do you mean? We all got out…

(Subject is becoming visibly upset)

MTA: Listen very closely, Tino. There is noPatrick Mullaney, or Tyrone Carter…there never hasbeen. There is no record of any employees of theMetropolitan Transit Authority with that name. Youwent in to that tunnel alone, and you came out alone.

Rivera: What?

MTA: There are no such persons, Tino. We’venever heard of them. Nobody has ever heard ofthem. They don’t exist.

Rivera: (becoming more agitated) Who the fuck isthat? What the hell is this? I’ve worked with themfor three fucking years, man! I know those guys. Iknow them! You trying to mess with my head?After what I’ve been through? What is this?

MTA: Take it easy, Tino. Take it easy….

Rivera: (yelling) It isn’t true, damn it! I knowthose guys! I know them. I’ve worked with them,I’ve hung out with them. I know them! They’rereal! They’re real!

(At this point the subject became agitated to thepoint of necessary restraint. The interview ends).

RECOMMENDATION: Rivera shows signs ofextreme delusional syndrome. Treatment at a MentalHealth Care facility is merited, to be covered by theEmployee’s Union coverage plan.

SECONDARY RECOMMENDATION: Seal offAccess Shaft 28.

Now that you’ve got characters, what do you dowith them?

UnderWorld wasdesigned to be playedas either a tabletop or alive action role-playinggame. For those of youwho are unfamiliar withthe difference, tabletoprole-playing games areplayed entirely withinthe imaginations of theparticipants. TheConductor describes allof the action, the settingand the SupportingCharacters that theplayers encounter. It isreferred to as a "table-top" game, since thegame usually takesplace with theparticipants seatedaround (you guessed it)a table. It’s a goodplace, after all, to putcharacter sheets, chips,soda, a few copies ofthis rulebook, and thefew handfuls of coinsthat you need to playthe game.

A live action game is a little more complex. Theplayers physically act out the roles of theircharacters, in a setting reserved for that evening’sgame. There is often more than one Conductor,since one person can’t be everywhere at once(believe us, we’ve tried), and in addition, there areusually assistants who portray the various

Supporting Characters encountered at that location.For more details regarding the different

considerations of live action versus tabletop play,see the Conductor’s section, Chapter VI.

The need for ease of conversion between tabletopand live action play necessitated the development ofan extremely light rules system—one that would be

able to be intuitiveenough for players touse without having tolug around copies ofthis book forreference. In addition,the game wasdesigned so th

at live action playwould require nos p e c i a l i z e dequipment. To thatend, a rules systemwas developed thatuses coins as arandomizer.

As mentioned in theI n t r o d u c t i o n ,UnderWorld uses asingle core rulesmechanism known asthe Head Count. Asyou may have alreadynoticed by reading thedescriptions of theDefining Traits and

Guild special abilities, the Head Count can beadapted to cover every eventuality encounteredduring play.

A Head Count is a simple coin toss. You don’thave to use coins…any disk with differing designson the obverse and reverse sides will suffice: MardiGras favors, subway and bus tokens, engravedbuttons, and some varieties of poker chips will allwork just as well.

Head CountThe only thing you have to remember is that the

number of "heads" results you get in any toss isthe final number of successes your characterachieves. How many coins do you toss? Use thefollowing formula.

The Conductor will set a Difficulty for everyunopposed action, which will give you the numberof successes needed for the action.

If you’ve read the introduction, you’ve seenthese percentage breakdowns before. However,they bear repeating , so for ease of referenceappear on this page as well.

That’s the core of the entire game.

Conductors should only demand Head Countswhen the situation is dramatically appropriate—

when the outcome of the action has a criticalbearing on the direction of the adventure. There’sno need for players to be tossing coins for everylittle action they attempt, especially if it issomething that they are reasonably skilled at, orsomething that is fairly mundane.

For example, a Conductor probably wouldn’tmake someone throw a Head Count to climb arock face, unless something makes this particularrock face special: The character is attempting toscale the wall quietly, to infiltrate the villain’skeep perched on top; or there are regular tremorsfrom passing subways; or there are 6 albino Sewer‘Gators chomping at your heels as you climb.(Note that this is all assuming that the character inquestion has the Climbing skill. If they do not, theConductor would be perfectly within reason todemand a Head Count, just to see if the charactercan climb without falling to his or her death!

1 coin Default1 coin For every Defining Trait that

comes into play in this circumstance1 coin If a Breed Ability or magical

technique is being used2 coins If a Breed or Guild-bestowed

skill is being used1 coin If a secondary skill is being

used.

This formula results in a character throwing atleast 1, and possibly 5 or more coins to determine thesuccess of a single action. After the coins are tossed,the total number of "heads" results is tallied. Thisresult is the number of successes.

1 Success Needed:Average - any schmoe should beable to do it. 2 Successes Needed:Moderate - a moderately skilledperson can do it. 3 Successes Needed:Hard - a professional is needed. 4 Successes Needed:Daunting - difficult even forprofessionals 5 Successes or more:Epic - the stuff of legends.

Coins Tossed # of Possible Results 1 Success 2 Successes 3 Successes 4 Successes

1 2 50% 0 0 0

2 4 75% 25% 0 0

3 8 87.5% 50% 12.5% 0

4 16 93.75% 68.75% 31.25% 6.25%

5 32 96.875% 81.25% 50% 18.75%

Examples of Play

Let’s take a look at a couple of situations, to get an idea ofhow the system works.

One

The Analog Kid, a Junkman Bravo, is attempting to getout of the way of an oncoming subway train, by running tothe nearest access shaft. The Junkman has 1 coin as a default,and has the Defining Trait "Fast", which gives him anothercoin. There is no skill for running, but the playerargues that knowing howto avoid being flattened bysubways is an UnderWorldsurvival skill, and he should beable to use his Guild skill,Survival. The Conductor thinks itover, and decides to allow it. Thisgives the Kid another 2 coins to use,bringing his total to 4 coins. TheConductor rules that getting to the accessshaft before the Train pastes you is definitelywhat you’d call Daunting. The haplessJunkman needs 4 successes.

The Kid throws his coins, and gets…three heads. Close,but no cigar.

Don’t worry, though. The Kid is really Tough. Gettingsmacked by a train will probably only piss him off.

Two

Pez is a Homeless Tagger. He’s good at what he does, too.Unfortunately, today finds Pez hanging by his fingertipsfrom a water pipe, suspended over a very, very, VERY deephole. (He doesn’t know how deep…and he doesn’t want tofind out, which is the point of this little exercise.)

Pez gets 1 coin as a Default. He has no appropriateDefining Trait, so he’s out of luck there. He also has theGuild skill "Climbing", so that’s worth 2 coins, for a total of3. The Conductor says that pulling himself up onto the pipeis Moderate difficulty, needing 2 successes.

Pez throws his coins, and gets heads on every one. 3successes! He pulls himself up onto the pipe, and crawlsalong it to safety, silently cursing the twist of fate that placedhim in this example in the first place.

The above examples only cover unopposedactions. What happens when one character attemptsto compete directly against another? That is evensimpler. Using the same formula for determining thenumber of coins to throw, both characters comparetheir total number of successes. The character withmore successes is the winner. It’s that simple.

Let’s take a look at another example, toshow how an opposed action

works.

Three

Nefret is a Lost Librarian. Sheis attempting to persuadeHarkness, a Homeless Trader, tolet her have a book that he’s got,

for substantially less than he’s asking.She and Harkness both get 1 coin for

default. For Defining Traits, Nefret has "Clever" (theConductor says that he thinks it applies here), and

Harkness has "Shrewd". That brings their totals to 2 each,so far. For skills, Nefret has none that are applicable, butHarkness has "Negotiate." So, the final tally is 2 coins forNefret, 3 for Harkness.

Both throw their coins—Nefret gets two successes…andso does Harkness. The negotiations are stalemated, and theycontinue. They both throw again—this time, Nefret getsonly one success…but Harkness gets none. Nefret returnsto her home, with a new addition to her Library that shepicked up for a very reasonable price.

The above examples both featured situations whereplayers argued different uses for their Skills and Traits thanthe write-ups originally indicated. This sort of thing shouldhappen with some regularity during an UnderWorld game.The Traits and Skills are purposefully broad in theirinterpretation, and Players and Conductors are encouraged toexplore the possibilities.

InteractionThe Head Count can be

used to handle any form ofinteraction between MainCharacters and SupportingCharacters. Most of theseinteractions will take the formof an opposed roll, asdescribed above.

Interaction between MainCharacters, however, shouldnot be handled via HeadCounts. No player shouldhave to have the actions of hisor her characters dictated by arandom result. Interactionbetween MCs, therefore,should be played out.Negotiations, Persuasionattempts and like shoulddepend upon actualconversation between theplayers, rather than HeadCounts. This also applies tosituations where Conductor-played Secondary Charactersattempt to persuade orotherwise influence a MainCharacter. The Conductorshould take the role of the SC, and then theinteraction should be played out as if it wastaking place between two MCs.

Other iterations of the Head Count systemare Checks and Feats.

Checks Checks are Head Counts to determine the

outcome of tests of a character’s reactions to

outside stimuli. The most common checks areagainst Fear and Exhaustion.

Fear Checks

When a character is faced with somethingthat causes fear (some monsters generate fear,other situations are outlined below), they makea Head Count. The character gets one coin as adefault, and bonus coins for any appropriateDefining Traits. Some skills may apply here aswell (Veteran, for example). The number of

successes needed to overcome the fear dependsupon the severity of the stimulus (see above).

If you fail to achieve all of the necessarysuccesses, you subtract the number ofsuccesses you made from the number youneeded. The number left over is the number ofturns that you are unable to act, frozen withfear.

Exhaustion Checks

Even with the abundance of magic and beingswith unusual powers, there is no getting aroundthe simple fact that everyone needs rest. EvenJunkmen, who are artificial constructs, have toshut down, if only to offer their minds a respitefrom the days events.

However, things are not always perfect, andsometimes you just can’t find a safe place tobed down for the night. This happens fromtime to time, and is unavoidable to an extent.After all, better to push yourself throughanother day than to let your guard down in anarea where you might "wake up dead."

For every day that you don’t sleep, however,you have to make an exhaustion check, with adifficulty equal to the number of nights sleepthat you’ve missed. Success indicates that youare able to continue. Failure also means thatyou can continue, but all Head Counts that youmake during that day are at a penalty equal toone coin for every day that you haven’t slept.When your penalties exceed 3 coins, however,

you must sleep, or you start taking one woundlevel for every additional day that you stayawake, in addition to taking the coin penalties.If this continues, it is possible to die fromexhaustion.

A good nights sleep, however, subtracts onefrom the penalty. To get back up to normal,you have to sleep a number of consecutivenights equal to your current penalty, or spendentire days resting and sleeping, which willreduce your penalty by two coins per day.

FeatsFeats are normal uses of your abilities and

skills, as described in the basic Head Countexplanation at the beginning of this chapter.For the purposes of determining applicabilityof Defining Traits, Feats are divided into thefollowing categories:

Fear Severity Example Stimulus Successes NeededMinor Vertigo, Single Fear Bugs 1Moderate Giant Slobbering Monster,

Animated Corpse, Oncoming Train 2Severe Fear Bug Swarm,

Animated Corpse of Close Friend 3Major The Devil, Subway Dragons 4

Mental Feats: activities involving mentalacuity.

Strength Feats: raw tests of physicalmight.

Dexterity Feats: tests of coordination oragility.

Observation/Perception Feats: tests of acharacter’s ability to notice details.

Recovery Feats: gauging the character’sability to heal from damage (see combat)

Social Feats: tests of the character’sability to interact with others.

Willpower Feats: tests of a character’sstrength of mind.

The Radiance

The magical background radiationof the UnderWorld has been largelystabilized by the continual effect ofthe subways travelling along theirmystic pathways. The riders,oblivious to the true nature of theglyphs that their travels etch into thefabric of the cosmos, each give up alittle piece of their essence with everyride they take.

This harvest of raw magicalenergy has reached the point where itgenerates the same amount as is losteach day. Magic has reached a pointof equilibrium. Despite this,however, the distribution of magic isnot equal. The Radiance grows more concentrated thedeeper you travel. Immediately below the surface of thecity, there is barely enough Radiance to register. Travel intothe forgotten passages and natural caverns hundreds of feetbelow, however, and the Radiance abounds.

The measure of the inherent Radiance in an area isknown as the area’s Radiance Count, or RadCount.RadCounts have a critical effect on equipment, magic,Salvage Tech and some characters.

The deeper you go, the higher the number gets. On thesurface (the UpWorld), the Count is zero. In the Subwaysthemselves (the stations and train tunnels), you start gettingjust a little bit "other-worldly", and so the Count is 1. Thefurther away you get from the "real world", the more theCount climbs...2, 3, 4, up to 5. All of the areas described inthe setting section in Chapter V give that area’s RadCount.

Every character and piece of equipment will have aRadiance Level. The Radiance Levels of the Breeds aregiven back in their entries in Chapter II. Those Breeds thathave a closer association with the Radiance (Junkmen andLegendaries, for example) have higher Radiance Levels.When characters with high Radiance levels operate in areaswith low RadCounts, they receive a penalty on all HeadCounts equal to the difference between their RadianceLevel and the RadCount of the area.

If there is no Radiance in the area (the surface, forexample, has a RadCount of zero), characters and creatures

with Radiance Levels of 2 or higher take damage, at a rateof one wound level per turn. This is the reason thatLegendaries and Junkmen cannot function in the WorldAbove.

Objects, on the other hand, have problems operating inareas with higher RadCounts. In general, the more an objectis associated with modern reality, the lower that object'sRadiance Level will be. The reason for this is that magicoperates on a system of sympathetic relationships andsymbols. The more an object is a symbol of the modernworld, the more at odds it is to the magical nature of theRadiance. This means, for example, that firearms, despitehaving been around since the Renaissance, are less and lessreliable in high Radiance areas, because they are so potent asymbol of modern life. The same thing would apply tolaptops, cellphones, PDAs, and CD players.

The Conductor is the final judge of the Radiance Levelsof items. Equipment should have Levels from 5 to 0. Usethe guidelines below to assist you in making your finaldecisions

Obviously, there is a lot of room for interpretation here.That is as it should be—after all, as we said in theIntroduction, UnderWorld is merely a framework. Itbecomes a game when Players and Conductors begin theirown stories. Something which would have such a wide-ranging effect upon a campaign should be within thepurview of the the individual Conductor. If your Conductorwants to allow more modern equipment and weapons in the

deep tunnels, then feel free to go ahead…it’s your game.

From there, it's pretty simple: When using anobject in an area where the Count is higher than theobject's Rating, the player receives a penalty to thecoin toss equal to the difference. For example: let’ssay that your character is trying to use a Laptop(Radiance Rating 0) in a cavern with a Count of 3.Any attempt to use that Laptop would receive a 3coin penalty...probably enough to prevent it fromworking at all.

That's it. Nothing too complicated. You can see that thissystem does not prevent the use of modern weapons and

equipment in the deep tunnels. However, with RadianceRatings of 0 to 1 at best, they're going to be less and lessreliable the deeper you travel.

So what happens if an item doesn’t work, due to thepenalty on the Head Count? Just that…it doesn’t work. Itshould work, but for some reason, it hasn’t. A gun will failto fire, or inexplicably jam. A laptop or cellphone willsuddenly lose battery power. Ahalogen lamp will suddenly

fizzle out. The items will still work when taken up to areaswith lower RadCounts, and in fact, might work the next timeyou try to use them here. There’s no way of telling—theeffects of the Radiance remove that sense of reliability thatwe have come to expect from modern technology.

Radiance Pools

There are areas where the Radiance collects intosources that are of much higher concentration thanthe surrounding area. These spots are known asRadiance Pools. Pools are essentially collections ofpure Radiance, with RadCounts so high as to beuncountable.

RadCounts are highly sought after byUnderWorlders, and many Domains have gone towar over ownership of Pools. They are of great aidin the creation of charms and the performance ofrites, as well as the construction of Salvage Tech (seeChapter IV for details).

In addition, Radiance Pools, being concentrationsof magic, sometimes are the sites of events thatcannot be predicted or quantified. Pools have beenthe birthplace of Legendaries, have broughtUnderWorlders back from the dead, and have beenthe catalyst for events which can only be described asmiraculous.

Conductors should use Radiance Pools ascomplete magical wild card factors. Anything ispossible when dealing with a Radiance Pool,, and theConductor should use them to let their imaginationsrun wild, as the focus of events and adventures thatshape their campaigns.

Item Radiance Level

High-tech electronics, Modern weapons(1980s or better) 0

Common late 20th Century items and weapons(1950s or better) 1

Early Industrial technology and weapons(19th century and up) 2

Non-technological items and weapons 5

64

Or, Subterranean Ass-Kicking 101

Here we go.

The root of all action-adventure stories. Thepulse-pounding excitement of combat…

Let’s face it—the setting can be cool, thecharacters interesting, the plot of an adventureintriguing, but when you get right down to it, the realexcitement comes when you’re facing down a power-mad Artificer and his dozen Junkmen shocktroopers,and you’re all that stands between the good people ofthe Lesser Boulevards and certain death.

That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it. This is not to saythat combat should be the sole focus of anUnderWorld campaign, but a hero occasionally has topound on a few bad guys…it’s in the union contract.

That said, UnderWorld needs two combat systems.

That's right, two.

Why two? Simple--back to the idea of this beingrun as both a table-top RPG and a live action game.Combat in LARPS is a touchy subject. There can beabsolutely no actual contact involved. You don’t wantto have your live action players going after each otherwith crowbars and bricks (not to mention swords,knives or the like). Simply using the standard RPGrules, adapted for the LARP situation, seems boring.

Two systems will cover it. One is a detailed, turn

by turn, standard RPG combat system, and the otheris much more abstract system, representing the entirecombat, taken as a whole. Live action play can usethe abstract system, which will distill the combatsinto a streamlined whole. Some table-top might likethe option of switching back and forth between astreamlined, abstract combat system and a moredetailed one, depending on the importance of thecombat in question. For example, a table top gamecan use the abstract system for fights with thefaceless hordes, and then switch to the detailedsystem for the final battle with the main villain of theadventure.

Turn By Turn

The more detailed of the two is really not that detailedat all. It is simply an adaptation of the Head Count mechanicthat you're already familiar with--except in this case, insteadof going for a number of successes based upon difficulty, thecoin tosses are opposed.

Combat will be broken into turns. Everycombatant gets to make an attack each turn, as wellas defend against any incoming attacks. Turns arebroken down as follows:

Initiative: All combatants make a standard HeadCount throw, and tally their total number ofsuccesses. Combatants also will receive bonuses toinitiative based upon the situation:

65

1. Combatants throw for Initiative2. Attacks proceed in order. Damageis tallied after each attack3. Wound checks are made

Situation BonusAmbush Ambushers receive 2 coinsReadied weapons 1 coinHeld action last turn 1 coinAppropriate Defining Trait 1 coinFighting Skill 2 if Guild, 1 if secondaryOther Appropriate Skill 2 if Guild, 1 if secondaryOther Conductors decision

Actions then proceed, from high success, throughnone. Combatants with the same number ofsuccesses in initiative perform their actionssimultaneously.

Attacks: Attacks need to be made at theappropriate range. The ranges for weapons inUnderWorld are as follows:

Keep in mind, that in a setting like theUnderWorld, Distance attacks are going to berare…there are almost no areas in the UnderWorldthat have that much space where combats will occur.

The attacker makes a Head Count toss, opposedby the defender. Results are compared, success tosuccess. If the attacker has more, the attacksucceeds. Extra successes go through to deliverextra damage.

Damage: To determine damage, you take adefault coin, a number of coins based upon thedamage of the weapon, and any extra coins left overfrom the attack, and throw a Head Count, opposedby the defender, who gets a default coin, modified byDefining Traits and any Armor they might bewearing.

Every success by which the damage throwexceeds the defender’s throw delivers one woundlevel to the target. There are four levels of wounds:Unharmed, Lightly Wounded, Seriously Wounded,and Dead.

At the Conductors discretion, some types ofattacks (fists, for example) will do temporary, non-lethal damage. This damage is tallied seperately,although it uses the same designations as above,although "Dead" is replaced by "Knocked Out".

Wounds are cumulative, as well. If you take threewounds of one type, they become a single wound ofa higher level. For example, if you have taken 2levels of Unharmed, and take one more, the 3 levelsbecome one level of Lightly Wounded—and you nolonger have any levels of Unharmed. If you takethree more levels of Unharmed, they become yoursecond level of Lightly Wounded, and so on.Penalties are not cumulative, however, you onlysuffer the penalty of the highest wound level youhave taken.

This is a deadly combat system. It only takes 4successes to kill someone outright. This is as itshould be. Combat is not something that should beentered into lightly.

In addition, at the end of every turn, everyone whohas taken wounds needs to make a Wounds check.This is a standard Head Count, against a difficultyequal to the highest wound level you have taken. Afailure indicates that you suffer the full penalty ofyour wounds, starting next turn. A success, however,means that you are still wounded at that level , butyou do not suffer the corresponding penalty.(You’ve shrugged off the effects) Note that you arechecking to see if you suffer the effects of yourhighest wound level, even if you haven’t taken thatwound that turn. For example, you’re SeriouslyWounded, but have managed to shrug off the effects.Next turn, you take a Light Wound. At the end of theturn, you have to make your Wounds Check againstthe Serious Wound, because that is still the highestwound level you have taken.

Personal: You’ve got to reach out and touchsomeone.Immediate: The target has to be within yourimmediate area (same room, for example).Distance: The domain of true rangedweapons - if you can see them, you can hitthem.

Unharmed: minor scratches and bruises.No effect

Lightly Wounded: Flesh wounds, somebleeding. 1 coin penalty to Head Counts

Seriously Wounded: Internal injuries,broken bones, heavy bleeding. 2 coin penaltyto Head Counts

Dead: Self explanatory.

Example of Combat

Lord Steam, the Homeless Artificer, is facingdown against Ithio, the Legendary Bravo. Steam isarmed with his Jacob’s Hammer, a gun that chucksbolts of electricity for 4 Damage. Ithio just has hisknives—relics that do 3 Damage, instead of aknife’s normal 2, and give him 2 extra coins forresisting damage against him.

Turn One: First comes initiative. Bothcombatants get 1 coin as default. Ithio has Fast asa Defining Trait, and Fighting as a Guild Skill.Steam has Fierce as a Defining Trait, and Fightingas a secondary skill. Steam will throw 3 coins forinitiative, and Ithio will throw 4. They throw—Steam gets 2 successes, and Ithio gets 4. Ithiogoes first.

Ithio’s looking to end this quickly. He goes forthe kill. He gets to throw 4 coins (1 default, 1 forhis Defining Trait "Vicious", and 2 for his Fightingskill). For defense, Steam gets to throw 3 (1default, 1 for his Defining Trait "Tough", and 1 forhis Fighting Skill). They throw—Ithio gets 2successes, and Steam gets 2: the attack fails.

Steam opens fire. He gets only 2 coins (1default, 1 for his Fighting Skill). Ithio has 3 fordefense (1 default, 2 for his Fighting skill). Theythrow—Steam gets 2 successes, and Ithio gets only1. The attack succeeds, with 1 coin going towardsextra damage.

Steam takes 5 coins (4 for the damage of theJacob’s Hammer, 1 extra), and throws againstIthio’s 3 (1 default, and 2 for his relics). Steamgets 3 successes, and Ithio gets 1. Ithio takes aLight Wound.

Ithio makes a Wound Check. He gets 2 coins(the Conductor feels that his trait "Vicious" shouldallow him a certain maniacal relentlessness). Hethrows, and only gets 1 success. Failing the check,

Ithio is now at a 1 coin penalty to all Head Counts.Snarling at Lord Steam, he uses his Legendaryability to travel through shadows to escape,vowing vengeance against the heroic Artificer.

AbstractThe abstract system is just that--an abstraction of

the entire process. Instead of going round-by-round,attacking, defending, etc., the abstract system distillsthe entire combat process into a single opposedthrow. This is handled a little differently than theprocess listed above.

In the abstract system, each combatant (or group ofcombatants--this can be used as a fight betweengroups, as well) determines their goal for the combat--this can be to simply kill the opposition, or to knockthem unconscious, or to capture them, or otherwisesubdue them, etc.

Before the throw is made, each side tallies up their"advantages": things, like greater numbers, combatskills, etc., that give them an advantage over theopponent:

Then, each side throws three different types ofTokens as a single throw. Each token represents adifferent aspect of the combat. One represents attack,one represents defense, and the third represents thegoal (as defined above). To achieve your goal, youmust have a "heads" result on all three.

AdvantagesGreater numbersHigher number of appropriate skill levelsNatural weaponsSuperior weapons (ranged versuspersonal, for example)Maneuverability advantage (flight,transport, etc.)Appropriate Magical abilities (charms,relics, etc.)Appropriate Breed abilitesSalvage Tech superiorityOther as determined by the Conductor.

This is naturally only going to occur 1 out of 8times (12.5%)--that's when your advantages come in.For each advantage you have, you can flip a coin toits opposing side. This can be one of your coins, toaid you in achieving the three heads result, or it canbe one of your opponent's coins, to keep them fromachieving three heads--but they (and you) can alsouse advantages to re-flip the coin back to a positiveresult. So, basically the abstract system is a singletoss of three coins, followed by a "bidding war" ofsorts to re-direct the results to your advantage.

As a bit of flavor, it is encouraged that when acoin is flipped by an advantage, the "flipper" shouldnarrate what is happening in the combat to reflect thischange of favor. This can be easily imagined, bylooking at the particular advantage involved, andwhich coin (attack, defense, or result) is beingflipped. For example, if my side's "Greater Numbers"advantage allows me to change the result of the"goal" coin--I can say that we swarm over the enemy,overwhelming them from all sides. If I flip the"defense" coin because my side has a SuperiorWeapons advantage, I can say that because we werebearing down on our opponents with fearsomeweaponry, they were hesitant to approach and attack.

This system will result in one of three results: Oneside will achieve their goal, neither side achievestheir goal, or both sides achieve their goal. This iswhere Conductor adjudication begins, to interpret theresults of the combat. This will depend entirely uponthe stated goals of the combatants. The Conductor

will have to determine how the combatant’sgoals (or the failure to achieve the same)should translate into game terms.

This system requires much more work onthe part of the Conductor—it is almost anarrative method, rather than a true gamemechanic. For this reason, it should be used byConductors who are experienced gamemasters, and who are comfortable with theirability to craft a story out of abstract elements.

Example of Abstract Combat:

Mina, a Freak Bravo, faces down against a half-dozen Bravos in the services of the Lord of theWashington Depths. She is a bat-winged, clawedmonstrosity who wields a kusari-gama (a martial artsweapon—a hand-held scythe with an attachedweighted chain). The WashDeep Bravos are allarmed with guns (this occurs in a hig tunnel).

Both sides tally their advantages. Mina has naturalweapons, flight and "Fierce" as a Defining Trait.(She also has Fighting as a Guild skill, but so do theother Bravos, so it’s not an advantage.) TheWashDeep Bravos have greater numbers, andsuperior weapons.

So, Mina has 3 advantages, and the Bravos have 2.

The Bravos goal is to kill Mina (she wandered intoa tunnel where they are preparing a nefarious plan forMordecai, the Lord of the Washington Depths). Hergoal (aside from avoiding being killed, is to wipethem out, as well.

Both sides throw their three coins:

Attack Defense GoalMINA Tails Heads HeadsBRAVOS Heads Tails Tails

The Bravos use their 2 advantages to turn theirTails to Heads. (note that they could use them toinsure that Mina will not succeed, but the Conductoris running them in accordance with their goals…it ismore important for them to try to succeed at their

goal than to prevent her from achieving hers). TheConductor narrates that their greater numbers aidedin their defense, since she had to split her attacksamongst six targets. The Conductor also says thattheir superior weapons helped them achieve theirgoal, since bullets are more conducive to killing thanto wounding.

Mina uses one of her advantages to turn one of theBravos newly-acquired heads results to tails, therebyensuring their failure. She decides that her flightnegated the benefit of their superior numbers, sinceshe attacked from above. Using 1 of her remaining2 advantages, she changes her Attack coin into aheads result…narrating that her claws and barbed tailevened out the odds, effectively tripling her availableweapons.

The final tally:Attack Defense Goal

MINA Heads Heads HeadsBRAVOS Heads Tails Heads

Mina achieves her goal. The Conductor

decides that she flies into battle, a flurry of

blades and claws coming from above,

and the Bravos are slaughtered to a

man.

In the above example, if bothsides had achieved their goals,the Conductor would have had todescribe how both sides were ableto kill their opponents, and yet wereslain themselves. If neither side won,the Conductor would have given bothsides a few wounds to representthe effects of thecombat, but wouldhave had to engineer areason for the combat tohave ended with noresolution…perhapsthe combatantswere interruptedby a third party.

HealingHealing of wounds requires medical attention and rest. A

wounded UnderWorlder must seek someone with the FirstAid skill, or some other healing ability (some charms arecapable of healing wounds, for example).

The healer must make a Head Count, with a difficultyequal to the number of wound levels the victim has suffered.In addition, if the victim has a Defining Trait such asResilient, it adds coins to the Healer’s Head Count. Unlikea normal Head Count, however, not achieving the totalnumber of successes is still a good thing. Each successrepresents one level of wounds that will be healed. Eachwound level takes two days to recover from—even with asuccessful healing Head Count. During the days it takes toheal, the patient must rest. Lack of rest will negate the effectsof the Healing.

Note that the special healing ability of Mendicantsinstantly heals those wound levels, without thenormal healing recovery period.

For example: An UnderWorlder is sufferingfrom a Serious Wound. A doctor makes a

Head Count, and gets 2 Successes. TheSerious Wound will heal, becoming alevel 1 (Unharmed) wound, but willtake 4 days of rest to get to that point.If the healing was performed by aMendicant using his special ability,

the healing would have beeninstantaneous.

Magical healing effects are covered inthe Magic section of Chapter IV.

Temporary woundlevels (such as those

inflicted throughfisticuffs) aren a t u r a l l yhealed at the

rate of 1 woundlevel every 6

hours.

Last Train To Valhalla"Christ, this is not good."Walker shook his head and looked up at Robin. The

Goodfella just stood there, a look of shock on his face.Between the two men (well, Walker was a man—Goodfella Robin was a Legendary, but that’s neither herenor there), a body lay sprawled in a pool of its own blood.

Walker brushed his dreadlocks back from his face. "It’sMeridian."

Robin winced. "Shit. I wouldn’t want to meetwhatever was able to do this to someone like Meridian. Ialways thought that his bastard would be able to whackDeath himself."

Walker stood. "It looks as though he was shot. Bigholes, too." He looked over at the Goodfella, who wasexamining the walls and floor of the surrounding tunnel.Robin gestured to the spray of thick, clotting blood on thetunnel wall. "He was shot here. But, ah…."

"Don’t tell me. No bullets."The Puck nodded grimly. There was only one gun that

was able to do that sort of damage, and yet fired no bulletsever crafted by man. The .44 Caliber Killer. The revolverwas a relic—a legendary archetype based upon the gunused by the Son of Sam, David Berkowitz, who terrorizedthe city during the summer of 1977. The gun certainlywas not the actual weapon that the killer had used—thatwas recovered over two decades ago by the police. The.44 Caliber Killer was a magical relic, distilled from thefears of the millions of people who lived through thattense, hot summer.

What was even worse was that the relic was thepreferred weapon of one individual:

"Lorca." Robin and Walker simultaneously intoned thename of the assassin, a Freak Bravo known for hisefficiency as much as the armored plates which grow fromhis skin.

"I’ll say it again. This is not good." Walker startedpacing nervously.

Robin silently stared at the body on the floor, lost inthought. "You know…."

Walker stopped pacing. "Aw, hell no, Puck. Not even.You’ve got that look." A wry smile crept across theGoodfella’s face.

"What look would that be?"Walker pointed. "That one. The look that says ‘Hey,

Walker, I’ve got a helluva plan, which will be fraught withdanger, and most likely get you killed.’ That look. I’ve

seen it before."The Legendary began to lift Meridian’s body in a

fireman’s carry, hoisting it up over his shoulder. Helooked at Walker expectantly.

Walker threw up his hands in resignation. "OK, fine—ya got me. What’s the plan?"

Robin grinned. Walker was always dependable. "We’regoing to take Meridian for a ride."

Walker pulled a crowbar from a sling on his back."…and then we go after Lorca?"

"Abso-frickin-lutely. I’m getting tired of that beetle-skinned bastard. Plus, that gun needs to go. I think Iknow of a good forge to toss it into."

Half an hour later, the two Bravos sat on an unusedsubway platform. City Hall station used to be a thrivinghub of activity, until the adoption of modern trains, toolong for the antique curved platform, forced its closure.

Walker stood and watched over Meridian’s body asRobin fished through his backpack, pulling out a smallleather pouch.

"There are three of us riding. This will take my lastthree tokens. I hope it’s worth it." Robin emptied thecontents of the bag into his hand: three old brass subwaytokens, grown green with age.

He tossed the tokens, one at a time, onto the tracks,very carefully aiming to hit the third rail. Each tokenbounced off the rail with a flash of electricity and thesmell of ozone.

"The train will be here soon." Robin said. "All wehave to do is ride it for three stops…that should do thetrick. Meridian should come back to life, and then thethree of us can go after Lorca."

Walker shivered. This sort of magic was far toopowerful for his tastes. Charms were one thing—but ritesof this level of power frightened him. There was too muchthat could go wrong.

Almost as if in answer to Walker’s concerns, the soundsof slow footfalls echoed up and town the platform. Robinand Walker whirled around to see the chitinous form ofLorca striding purposefully towards them, the .44 CaliberKiller leveled at them steadily. The flat grey of his skinglistened under the low light of the abandoned station.

"No need to go after me, Puck. I’m already here." TheFreak’s voice grated like a knife blade being drawn acrossa concrete wall.

Walker and Robin froze, staring down the barrel of themagical revolver. One shot from that gun was enough tokill either one of them, and Lorca had them dead in hissights. The Freak came closer, moving like a cat that hadcornered its prey.

An onrush of air announced the approach of the trainbefore the sound reached the platform. "I suspected thatyou were lying in wait to see if anyone was going to comeafter Meridian." Robin said calmly.

"False bravado doesn’t become you, Goodfella." Lorcayelled. The roar of an approaching train began to fill thechamber. "If you think I’m going to let you resurrectMeridian, you’re a bigger fool than you appear to be."

Walker flexed his hands around the grip of his crowbar,looking for an opening to attack. Robin pounded his fistsinto his thighs in frustration. "I can’t believe I made sucha mistake." He muttered. Lorca smiled.

Suddenly, the platform was filled with the roar of thesubway car that rocketed into City Hall Station. It was anolder car, painted in the red livery of the IRT line. Therewere no passengers visible through the windows, and thetrain’s arrival made the hairs on the back of Walker’s neckstand up.

Over the din of the mysterious train’s brakes, GoodfellaRobin yelled to Walker. "Whatever happens, make surethat Lorca doesn’t get on board that train!" Walkernodded in agreement.

The train ground to a halt and the door opened with ahollow-sounding chime. Lorca’s smile had split into afierce grimace of triumph. "Wrong again, Puck. Wrongagain." He leveled the gun at Walker. The sound of abarking dog could be faintly heard…which seemed to becoming from the gun itself. Lorca backed towards theopen train door. "Neither one of you can stop me."

The next couple of seconds went by in a flash. Walkersaw one of the aluminum poles from within the subway

suddenly detach itself from the ceiling of the car andsnake outwards, quicksilver and impossibly fast. Itwrapped around Lorca’s torso, pinning his arms to hissides. Lorca’s eyes widened in disbelief as the metaltentacle tightened around him and dragged him back intothe subway car.

Walker stared in horror as the other poles in the cardetached and tore at Lorca, like a nest of vipers, tearingthe armor plating from his skin in ragged crimson strips.Lorca’s screams grew shrill and wet-sounding before theystopped altogether.

A sephulcural voice echoed from the subway’s PAspeakers, sounding like a call from the bottom of a deep,deep hole. "Please step into the car and away from theclosing doors."

Robin stepped backward, putting his hand out to moveWalker back as well. "No, that’s alright. We’ll wait forthe next one."

There was a pause, almost as if the train wasconsidering its options. "Very well, Goodfella. You usedthe tokens, so it is your choice whether or not to ride.Next time we meet, however, things will be different."With that, the doors closed, and the train pulled out of thestation. As it disappeared into the dark of the tunnel,Walker could see the train continuing to devour Lorca’sbody.

He turned to face Robin. "Son of a bitch. ‘No, don’tthrow me into that there briar patch…’ I told you that youhad that look."

Robin just shrugged. "What are ya gonna do. Man hada train to catch."

Magic

More so than any other place on Earth, theUnderWorld is a place of magic. This is not themagic of the UpWorld occult movements, whichattempts to quantify thesupernatural in structures andrules of almost scientificprecision. This is themagic of folk and fairytales—magic ofsymbolism andchildlike logic.

Magic in the UnderWorld comesin three varieties: Charms,Rites, and Relics. Charmsare the most common—small objects imbuedwith magicalp ower, orsimple actionsthat have beent a u g h t fromgeneration t ogeneration. Rites aremuch morepowerful, reality-altering and muchmore rare—theiroccurrence is the stuffof legend, even in theUnderWorld. Relics are,essentially, Legendary objects (rather thanindividuals)—items which, like themembers of the Breed, have distilled theessence of legend or belief into theirsubstance.

Magic can only be attempted byindividuals who know the correct Charm or Rite, orwho possess the appropriate Relic. Charms and Ritescan only be attempted in areas with a RadCount of atleast 1. Some Charms (and most Rites) require amuch higher RadCount—those requirements arelisted in their descriptions below. If you areattempting to use magic in an area which has a higherRadCount than needed, each level of Radiance above

what is necessary bestows a one coin bonus to theHead Count of the attempt.

In cases where magic is being used againstsomeone, the target has the ability to resist the effectsof the magic through a Head Count (modified by anyDefining Traits or magic that they possess). Eachsuccess on the target’s Head Count removes one

success from the attackers attempt.

Each individual use of magic has itsown procedures, which are described inthe individual entries that follow.

CharmsCharms come in

two varieties: smallobjects that areimbued with

magical effects, andcertain formulaic

actions which result in a magical effect.Some example charms are:

Daedalus Twine:A ball of string or yarn thatunwinds along twisted passages

to help wanderers find theirway in, out or through alabyrinth. The user places

the ball on the ground, andthe ball rolls along, spooling its

thread out behind it, leading theway. It’s usage requires a Head

Count using three coins(modified by any appropriate

bonuses), achieving two successes.(Minimum Radiance: 1)

Brass Knuckles: A set of brassknuckles that have been imbued with

the essence of a sledgehammer, enablingthem to do far more damage than their appearancewould merit. When a successful attack is made withthe knuckles, the attacker makes a three coin HeadCount. Each success equals a bonus coin fordamage determination, over and above the singlecoin, which the knuckles would normally bestow.

(Minimum Radiance: 1)

Forget-Me-Knots: A charm to hold acaptured thought. As the information isremembered, a knot is tied to trap the thought andkeep it from being lost. The knot or bow can takeany form, and is a favored charm of Nomads. Theuser throws a three coin Head Count. If nosuccesses are garnered, the charm fails. If onesuccess is made, the charm succeeds. If two ormore successes are made, the memory can beretrieved by anyone untying the knot, rather thanjust the original user.

(Minimum Radiance: 1)

Red Rover: A vocal charm for retrieving smallpersonal items. The user says "Red Rover, RedRover, send (object) over," while holding out theirhand, palm up, to receive the item. A three coinHead Count is thrown, and on two successes, anypersonal item owned by the user, but not currentlyin hand, will appear.

(Minimum Radiance: 2)

Luck Chips: Small poker chips that containstored Luck. By "cashing in their chips" (casting thechips away from them, which uses up their charge),the user gains an additional Head Count coin for everychip they spend.

(No minimum Radiance.)

Guiding Light: A flashlight or lantern with astored charm within it that allows the light to shine inthe direction where the user wishes the go. The lightwill bend around corners, etc. to aid in traveling to aparticular location. This charm can only be used toguide the user to a location, rather than to find aspecific person or object. A Head Count of threecoins, achieving two successes is necessary for itsuse—otherwise it functions as a normal light.

(Minimum Radiance: 1)

Life Vest: A charm which allows an article ofclothing to act as a life preserver that works on bothwater, and in the air, protecting the wearer from falls aswell as drowning. It takes a three-coin Head Count toactivate. One success will bestow buoyancy, and twosuccesses will bestow weightlessness.

(Minimum Radiance: 2)

Ill Wind: The creation of a short blast of galeforce wind by pointing at your target and whistling.The wind will begin from the end of the caster’sfinger, and travel at full force to the target. The windis strong enough to knock over any target that isslightly larger than man-sized, or less. The wind itselfdoes no damage, but could certainly be dangerous ifdirected at someone precariously balanced over aprecipice, for example. The charm requires a three-coin Head Count, with two successes.

(Minimum Radiance: 2)

Sleep Visor: A sleeping visor of the sort handed

out on airlines or at hotels, imbued with a charm thatallows the wearer to experience a full night’s rest inonly one hour. No head count is necessary.

(Minimum Radiance: 1)

Life Stone: A stone worn on a necklace,enchanted to give the wearer an extra coin to resistdamage during combat. No Head Count is necessary.

(Minimum Radiance: 1)

Soup Stone: This is a charm that will allow theuser to create a pot of soup by dropping any stone intoa pot of boiling water. Its successful use will feed oneperson for every heads result on a three-coin throw.

(Minimum Radiance: 1)

Protective Chalk: This chalk is able to drawlines through the Radiance. Inscribing a circle with itprotects those inside from the effects of charmsdirected at them. (No Head Count necessary)Obscuring the chalk line will remove the protectiveeffects.

(Minimum Radiance: 2)

Protective Incense: This charm allows thesmoke from any stick of incense to create a perimeterof smoke roughly 20 feet across. A three-coin HeadCount is thrown. Every success will add one level ofdifficulty that must be overcome by anyone attemptingto cross the smoke. The smoke lasts for as long as theincense burns.

(Minimum Radiance: 1)

Free Ride: The FreeRide is a MetroCard (amagnetic strip debit cardused to pay for subwayrides) that has beenenchanted to allow theuser to pass throughturnstiles without havingto pay. Normally,UnderWorlderswould simply leapover the turnstiles, but

that is not possible in some stations, which usefloor-to-ceiling revolving iron gates knowncolloquially as "Iron Maidens"—the Free Rideallows passage through these. No Head Count isneeded.

(Minimum Radiance: 1)

Begging Hat: The Begging Hat is a beat-upold hat with a charm placed upon it that attractsmoney. The user lays it down, and throws a three-coin Head Count. The hat will magically attractsmall amounts of money, subway tokens, and evenfood if the throw garners two successes or more.

(Minimum Radiance: 1)

Dousing Rod: A dousing rod is a stick with acharm placed upon it that can be used to findsources of drinkable water. One success on a three-coin Head Count is all that is required (well,OK…that, and a stick.).

(Minimum Radiance: 1)

Freeze Tag: This charm can be placed on anytorn-off mattress tag,

turning it into apowerful weapon(see, there’s a reasonthat you’re notsuppose to remove

those…). If anattacker can successfullyslap the tag onto a targetduring combat (treat as a

hand-to-handattack), the tagwill freeze the

target in place. Thecharm will activate on three successes on a three-coin Head Count. The target will remain unable tomove until the tag is removed.

(Minimum Radiance: 2)

Mob Cap: This charm, when placed on anordinary hat or cap, allows the target to blend into

78

crowds, becoming indistinct and unmemorable. Theuser throws a three-coin Head Count, and eachsuccess acts as a one coin penalty against anyone’sefforts to locate the user within the crowd.

(Minimum Radiance: 1)

Colors: Enchantment placed on any clothingemblazoned with signs of the character’s allegiance(the emblem of their Lord, for example), that allowsit to act as armor against attacks. When the item iscreated, throw a three-coin Head Count. Thenumber of successes achieved is theprotection offered by the armor.Multiple layers of Colors are notpermitted.

(Minimum Radiance: 1)

Beer Goggles:This is a charm thatenchants any pair ofglasses, turningthem into eyewearthat allows the userto see in the dark.One success on athree-coin Head Count isneeded during the creationof the Beer Goggles. Ifthree successes areachieved, the goggles will also be able tosee the invisible or magically obscured.

(Minimum Radiance:1)

Hot Rocks: This charm is cast on any twostones. A three-coin Head Count is thrown, and iftwo successes are achieved, the stones will alwaysradiate the heat of a campfire if they are placed incontact with each other. This heat sheds no light,and will do 3 coins of damage if anyone touches thestones while they are in contact. The heatcompletely disappears if the stones are moved apart.

(Minimum Radiance: 2)

Ace of Spades: This charm can be placed onany digging tool. The item in question can allow the

user to excavate twice as fast as normal. Inaddition, if the item is used as a weapon, it will dobonus damage equal to the number of successes ona three-coin Head Count, in addition to the normaltype of damage for the item.

(Minimum Radiance: 1)

Glowstix: This charm, when placed upon astick, makes the stick in question radiate all of thesunlight it once absorbed. The Glowstix can then be

used as light sources in theUnderWorld. Many UnderWorlderscarry them wrapped in cloth to dousetheir light until needed. No Head

Count is necessary to create thischarm.

(Minimum Radiance: 2)

Slapstick: A charm placed on anystout piece of wood (approximately two

feet long) carried in a plain burlap sack.When the bag is opened, the stick

will fly out and begin tothwack any targetappointed by the ownerabout the head and

shoulders until the bag isopened a second time—at

which point thestick returns to the

bag. Creating theSlapstick requires two

successes on a three-coin HeadCount. The stick is a distance weapon

which does 3 coins of Damage.(Minimum Radiance: 2)

Acorns: Charms can be placed on acornsallowing them to carry a small charge of lightning.Acorns are rare in the UnderWorld (no trees, afterall), but some UnderWorlders try to gather acornsfrom the surface after a thunderstorm (Throw 6coins…you find 1 appropriate acorn for eachsuccess). Those acorns can be thrown at a target(range: immediate) and will do 2 coins of electricalshock damage for every acorn thrown.

(Minimum Radiance: 1)

79

Pack o’ Smokes: This charm summonstransportation. The user takes a regular pack ofcigarettes, and taps them three times on the heel ofhis hand. The user then takes out a cigarette andlights it. Transportation of some form will arrivebefore the end of the cigarette, if the user can makethree successes on a three-coin Head Count.

(Minimum Radiance: 1)

Moths of Confusion: A charm placed on asmall wicker cage filled with moths (two successeson a three-coin Head Count to enchant the moths—but first you have to gather them). When the cage isopened, the moths flutter around the face of thetarget, distracting the target from whatever he or sheis doing. Throw a three-coin Head Count. 1success indicates the target is distracted…3successes indicates that the victim suffers temporaryamnesia for about an hour.

(Minimum Radiance: 1)

Bedtime: A mix of fine sand and eyelashesblown from the palm of the hand across the subjectto be put to sleep. 2 successes on a three-coinHead Count will put the target into a deep, naturalsleep. The target can be woken as normal.

(Minimum Radiance: 1)

Pixie Stix: Drinking straws full of concentrated"Radiance Dust", collected by capturing pixies andshaking them (careful, they bite). One strawful ofthe dust can make up one level of differencebetween the local RadCount and a higher levelneeded for use of a charm.

(No minimum Radiance)

Hair of Rapunzel: A short coil of rope

braided from strips of cabbage leaf. (2 successes on

a three-coin Head Count to create) When uncoiled,

it grows into a length of climbing rope as long as

needed. It reverts to its former size when re-coiled.(Minimum Radiance: 2)

Voice of the Mermaid: This charm requires

the user to breathe in through a conch shell. No

Head Count necessary to create the charm—

although you do have to find a conch shell.)

Breathing in through the shell will give the user a

magnificent singing voice and a charming and easy

manner which makes them much more persuasive.

(Throw a three-coin Head Count. The effects last

for a number of turns equal to the number of

successes, and bestow a bonus to persuasion equal

to those successes as well).(Minimum Radiance: 2)

Bluebeard’s Key: A charm which will unlock

any lock. To create the charm, you need a found

key, and then you need to wrap a blue hair around it

seven times. (Blue hair is not as hard to find as it

once was, especially if you look in Greenwich

Village). When the key is used on any lock, throw a

three-coin Head Count. 1 success will open the

lock.(Minimum Radiance: 2)

Strength of the Green Knight: A charm

that bestows upon the user two additional coins to

resist damage, and one additional coin for Strength

Feats. It is cast by weaving a tendril of ivy around

the caster’s neck, which grows tendrils down around

the torso and limbs. Creation of this powerful

charm requires three successes on a three-coin Head

Count. (Minimum Radiance: 2)

Jinx: A charm that can cause the target to failwhatever action he or she is attempting. The castercrosses their fingers, kisses the knuckles and pointsat the target. A Head Count is thrown, and 2successes are required to make the target fail. If 3successes are achieved, then the target not onlyfails, but fails spectacularly.

(Minimum Radiance: 2)

Abracadabra: A charm to heal wounds. Theword "Abracadabra" is written 3 times on a scrap ofpaper, and then bound over the wound. A three-coin

Head Count is thrown, and a number of wounds isinstantly healed for every successes gained.

(Minimum Radiance: 2)

Creating New Charms

Additional charms will appear in futureUnderWorld releases. In the meantime, though, ifConductors and Players wish tocreate new charms, they shouldlook to folk and fairy tales forinspiration. Most of the abovecharms (those that weren’t basedon bad puns, and some of themthat are) were taken from classicfairy tales.

In general, a charm shouldrequire at least 2 successes on athree-coin Head Count to create,unless the magical effect is trulyminor. More powerful charmsshouldn’t necessarily be harderto create than that, but shouldrequire a higher level ofminimum Radiance.

Example of Charm Use:Goodfella Robin is running

from a group of UpWorld Police,who want him for questioning(something about a runningswordfight taking place on the 7Train during rush hour). He triesto lose them in Grand CentralStation, by using a Mob Cap. Hewhips up a charm, and puts aknit NY Rangers cap on hishead. The area he’s in has a RadCount of 1, and theMob Cap has a Minimum Radiance of 1—so, he cando it, although he doesn’t receive any bonuses for theattempt. Following the directions of the charm, hethrows a three-coin Head Count, and gets 2successes. The police are trying to locate him, andthey’ve got 2 coins to do so. The 2 successes of theMob Cap completely negate the 2 coins possessed bythe police, and so the Goodfella successfully avoidsdetection, blending into the bustling crowd.

Special Abilities and Magic

Certain Breeds and Guilds, as well as certainDefining Traits, have magical effects, as described inthe Characters section.

Mole People, for example, receive an extra coinfor any attempt to use magic, due to their inherent

close relationship to the Radiance.

People possessing the Trait"Resistant" are very difficult to affectwith magic. Any attempt to usemagic against them suffers a 1 coinpenalty. In cases where activeresistance is called for, the Resistantindividual can add 1 coin to theirattempt.

The Lost, as previouslymentioned, have the ability to affectthe flow of time. Normally, this is aminor effect (as described in theirBreed entry). However, when groupsof the Lost band together, they canaffect time to a greater extent. Asingle Lost can manipulate time on ascale of seconds. With three or moreLost, the scale moves up to minutes.A dozen or more Lost moves thescale up to hours. It is even rumoredthat if 100 Lost could ever gettogether and act in concert, theycould take action that would affectthe flow of time on a scale of years.No one has ever attempted this,however—finding that many Lost in

one place is nearly impossible.

Lastly, as mentioned in their Guild description,Sappers have the ability to affect the flow of theRadiance in a particular area. The mechanics for thisare as follows: The sapper makes a Head Count,using their Engineering skill, and any appropriateTraits. They are able to raise or lower the RadCountof a local area by 1, for a number of turns equal to thenumber of successes. If the area is in proximity to aRadiance Pool, however, that modification of theRadCount is permanent on three successes or better.

RitesRites are another matter entirely. Rites are powerful

magic—the sort of thing that appears as the main focusof a fairy tale. These are the spells that cover an entirekingdom in thorns, or places a princess in a magicalsleep that lasts a hundred years. Rites should be createdby the Conductor, and should be a major event in thecourse of an adventure—these are not the sort of spellsthat characters should be throwing around commonly, ifat all. They should form the cornerstone of theadventure. For example, an entire adventure can bewoven around the quest for magic to counter the effectsof a rite, or a race to stop a villain from completing thesteps necessary for a rite.

Rites must be tailored to the specific needs of thestory that the Conductor is crafting, and as such, no"shopping list" presented in this or any other book wouldbe able to cover all of the possibilities inherent in theircreation. After all, only you know what suits yourcampaign.

In general, there are four categories of rites:

Restoration: The returning of the target to a previousstate. This is the form that most counter-rites take, usedto reverse the effects of another rite. Other examplesinclude resurrection of the dead, or the re-building of adestroyed location.

Binding: The trapping of a target within a particularlocation or state of being. Examples include theimprisonment of genies within bottles, or a curse thatplaces the target in a magical sleep until woken by "truelove’s kiss".

Transformation: The changing of one thing intoanother. Examples include the transformation of anarrogant prince into a hideous beast, or changing a groupthem into a flight of swans.

Destruction: The obliteration of a target. This can beoutright destruction (wiping it from the face of the Earth)or more sublime (covering a kingdom in impassablethorns).

The casting of a rite will require a very specific set ofconditions, which can form the basis of adventures as thecharacters attempt to meet or prevent those conditions.Conditions can often seem impossible or contradictory—part of the puzzle of rites is figuring out how theconditions may be met. For example, in Shakespeare’sMacbeth, the Scottish Thane is convinced that he isinvincible, for he is told that ‘no man of woman born’can harm him. Unfortunately, his enemy, MacDuff, was‘from his mother untimely ripped’—he was a caesarianbirth, and hence not technically "of woman born". Ritesare like that…tricky.

Relics

Relics are highly sought after by UnderWorlders,for the power that they bestow upon the user.Adventurers delve into the deepest reaches of theUnderWorld in an effort to locate new, undiscoveredrelics for their use, or on behalf of a Lord or anotherpatron.

As mentioned earlier, relics are legendary objects,the distillation of myths or ideas into physical form.Like members of the Legendary Breed, they have aRadiance Level of 2—they cannot function on thesurface.

Conductors are encouraged to develop relicsspecific to their own campaigns. Example relics aredetailed below:

The Key to the City: This oversized golden keyis the distillation of the power of the City itself--andits wielder becomes part of the very fabric of the City,both UpWorld and UnderWorld. The holder of theKey becomes "tied to the land" in the same way thatArthur was tied to Britain. As the Key bearer thrives,so thrives the City, and as the bearer falters, the Cityfalters with him. No door in the City is barred to onewho holds the Key, and it is rumored that theRadiance generated by the Subways (and perhapseven the Subway itself) moves in accordance with theBearer's wishes. The Key is the most powerfulArtifact in the UnderWorld--and the most soughtafter...for its location remains a mystery. No oneknows who currently wields the Key--but it isassumed that it has no current owner: After all, ifsomeone had the Key, they would be the undisputedruler of the entire UnderWorld.

The Silence Knife: On March 19th, 1964, 28-year-old Catherine "Kitty" Genovese was stabbed todeath in front of her apartment in Queens. Therewere thirty-eight witnesses, but not one intervened.The police eventually caught up with the killer,Winston Moseley, and he is now serving a lifesentence in prison--but that murder entered into the

City's collective unconscious, a towering example ofshame and our fear of getting involved. The SilenceKnife is the result of that fear. No one knows if it isthe same knife that killed Genovese--it probably isn't.Rather, it is the archetype, created by the Radiancefrom the mental images of several million people,outraged at the crime, but more ashamed of thebehavior of the witnesses. The Silence Knife is awickedly sharp blade with a deadly magical effect.No-one who witnesses the knife in use is able to lifta finger to intervene. Worse, the knife prevents themfrom ever being able to communicate to anyone whatthey saw. The wielder of the knife is free to use itwithout fear of being stopped or testified against. Itis the distillation of our worst fears of urban violence,and our inability (and shameful unwillingness) to doanything about it. The Silence Knife does 5 coins ofdamage, in addition to its magical effects.

Travelling Trunk: In a space-crunched city likeNew York, people are always obsessing over havingenough space for their stuff. This obsessionmanifested itself in the Travelling Trunk, a batteredsteamer trunk with tarnished fittings. If the trunk iskept hidden in a secure location, it can be summonedup by its owner tapping the ground three times withthe key. The trunk will appear out of thin air, andreturn to it’s previous location when the owner tapsthe ground again.

Beauty’s Ring: This is a silver ring, engravedwith roses, taken from the fairy tale "Beauty and theBeast". It will instantly transport the wearer to theirhome when the ring is turned three times around thefinger. It can only transport one living being at atime. Interestingly enough, it is uncertain whether ornot this relic even exists any longer—the Disneyversion of "Beauty and the Beast" (both the animatedfilm and the Broadway musical) does not feature thisring, and this version of the tale is in danger ofsupplanting the original story, thereby weakening thelegend that created this relic.

Romper Mirror: For many people who grew upin the 1960s and 70s, the television program"Romper Room" was a fixture of their childhoods.

Each show would close with the female host of the showholding up a mirror, and saying "I see Amy, and Joey, andCharlie, and Jennifer…" The list changed every show,and children watching would eagerly wait to see if theirname was called. This childhood magic created theRomper Mirror. If the user holds up the mirror, andintones the activating phrase "Romper Stomper BomperBoo," the mirror will allow them to see any person thatthey specify, via a live magically-transmitted image. Thisrelic has been seen more often recently, especially in avariation which some are calling "Beauty’s Mirror", basedon a similar item which appears in the latest version of theBeauty and the Beast story (currently on Broadway).

The .44 Caliber Killer: In the summer of 1977, NewYork City was held in the grip of a madman. A serial killercalling himself "the Son of Sam" stalked the city, killingyoung brunettes with a .44 Caliber pistol. Eventually,David Berkowitz, a pudgy, lonely little man, wasapprehended. Berkowitz claimed that the killings werecommanded by his neighbor’s dog, who was in fact aseveral-thousand year old demon. He was convicted, andsits in prison today. The terror generated by the murdersand the insane taunts sent by Berkowitz to the newspapersdistilled into a relic weapon of fearsome power. The .44Caliber Killer is a burnished black revolver, which neverrequires loading. It does 6 coins worth of damage, yetfires no physical bullets. The sound of a barking dog canbe heard before the gun is fired.

The Umbrella of Impending Doom: This appears to bea flimsy black collapsible umbrella, similar to theubiquitous variety available at any corner newsstand inManhattan. These umbrellas are invaluable urbansurvival tools, and most New Yorkers have more than onelying about their homes (after all, they’re so cheap, that ifit rains and you’ve forgotten one, you just buy another).This relic, however, when opened, acts as a defensiveshield against distance attacks, offering full protection—unless the user attempts to look around the umbrella at theattacker, in which case the umbrella offers no defense.Sometimes referred to as the Wile E. Coyote umbrella.

Summoning Tokens: These aged subway tokens weretaken from the tillers of the opening night of the New YorkCity subway system: October 27, 1904. These tokens canbe used to summon the dreaded Late Train, or any othermagical train (see Chapter V), by throwing a token ontothe third rail of the subway tracks.

Personal Relics

Another form of relic is created when a MainCharacter becomes so well-known in theUnderWorld that pieces of their personal equipmentbecome so associated with their growing legend thatthey take on the powers of a relic.

This sort of thing will only happen after a characterhas been played for a long while, and has become awell-established part of the UnderWorld. Personalitems will begin to bestow bonus coins based uponfamous events in which they were used. Forexample, if the character has a sword which was usedduring their career as a gladiator, the sword mighteventually begin to bestow a one-coin bonus in anysituation where the character fights in front of anaudience.

Changing a character’s equipment into personalrelics is a reward that should be meted out sparinglyby a Conductor, Make sure that the character is trulydeveloping a legend around their name—this sort ofpower has the potential to be unbalancing to acampaign, and should be a benefit given to characterswho have truly earned it.

As a general guideline, the Conductor shouldbestow 1 bonus coin at the end of every adventure(note: an adventure is a full story, not a single gamingsession), which can be affixed to any piece of thecharacter’s equipment. These coins can be used asHead Count bonuses, or may be saved up. Threecoins can be traded in to give an item a major effectrather than a bonus (the silence effect of the SilenceKnife, for example).

In this way, the characters can eventually take theirplace within the tapestry of legend and myth thatmakes up the UnderWorld.

Salvage Tech

Salvage Tech is the bizarre science that is the purviewof the Artificers. Using junk that they have found in thetunnels, or purchased from Traders who have carried itbelow from the surface, the Artificers bend reality totheir will, warped through the Radiance—producinginventions that physical science never envisioned.

One cannot begin a discussion of Salvage Techwithout speaking of the madness of the Artificers. Someargue that it is their daily proximity to the Radiance thatgradually drives them insane. Others say that it theirinsanity that allows them to create the Salvage Tech inthe first place—for it is the instability of their minds thatpermit them the freedom to think in the bizarreterms necessary to shape everydaywreckage into working, fantasticinventions.

As stated in the section onCharacter creation in Chapter II,Artificers begin the game with aform of insanity, at Stage One.As an Artificer’s careerprogresses, and their talent forinvention grows, so does theirinsanity. The crazier theArtificer, the more talented aninventor they are…they put the"Mad" in "Mad Scientist."

What follows are descriptionsof several different forms ofinsanity, and their correspondingStages. Note that these aresimplified charicatures of actual, seriousafflictions. This is not intended as a belittlingof these disorders. No player of UnderWorldshould mistake the information presented inthis game for serious attempts to define real-world sicknesses.

Multiple Personality Disorder:This form of insanity manifests itself in the

development of more than one distinct personalityresiding within the same mind. The Artificer hasadditional personalities, usually in stark contrast to theirdominant personality, and often with their own desiresand motivations.

Stage One: The Artificer has one additionalpersonality, which manifests itself during times of stress.

The Conductor orders a Head Count, and the secondarypersonality manifests itself on a result of 2 successes.This manifestation is usually temporary (the Conductordecides the duration).

Stage Two: The Artificer has one additionalpersonality which manifests as above, except only 1success is necessary, and the duration of manifestation isusually longer than Stage One.

Stage Three: The Artificer has between 1 and 3additional personalities…each of which manifest duringstress on only a single success on a Head Count. Themanifestations are permanent, until another stressfulsituation forces another change.

Manic-Depressive:

This form ofinsanity manifestsitself in wide,

sometimes violentmood swings—

sometimes also referred to asBipolar Disassociative

Disorder. Manic-Depressivesfluctuate wildly betweenenergetic, almost frantic highs

and deep, crippling lows.Stage One: The

Artificer throws a HeadCount every day. If thereare more successes, theArtificer’s mood ishigh…they are filledwith energy andenthusiasm, andgenerally positive in theiroutlook. If the result isprimarily tails, the

Artificer is depressed—unmotivated, laconic, and in a

generally dark mood.Stage Two: The Artificer’s moods behave

as above, but with additional game effects:positive moods give the Artificer an additionalcoin for all Head Counts, while negativemoods give the Artificer a one-coin penalty.

Stage Three: As above, but the moodswings come more rapidly. The Artificer must make aHead Count to determine his or her moods every 8hours, rather than once per day.

Paranoid:Individuals suffering from this form of insanity see

enemies around every corner. Whereas in a setting likethe UnderWorld, this may actually be the case, thedegree to which such perceptions exist within the mindof the Paranoiac is extreme—seeing enemies and plotswhere none exist.

Stage One: The Artificer is filled with suspicion atevery facet of his life. He trusts no one, and makes nolasting friendships.

Stage Two: The paranoia increases to the degree thatthe Artificer believes that everyone he encounters is outto get him, a part of some vast conspiracy specificallyengendered to bring about his downfall. This view willcolor and direct all of the Artificers actions.

Stage Three: The Artificer will interpret almost any

action taken by those around him through his or herpersecution complex. The Artificer at this point isbeyond reason, and may even take pre-emptive measuresto insure that no harm befalls him—including attackinghis allies or people who have no connection to him at all.

Obsessive-Compulsive:This behavioral disorder is marked by a need to

complete certain actions in an almost ritual observance.The further this disorder progresses, the more elaborate

these rituals become, and the more crippling the effectsif the rituals are not followed.

Stage One: The Artificer has one small ritual thatmust be followed…for example, a thorough washing ofhis or her hands after a certain material is touched; orwalking around the workbench, clockwise, three times,before beginning work. If the ritual is not followed, theArtificer suffers a one-coin penalty until the ritual iscompleted.

Stage Two: The Artificer begins to develop morecompulsions. (the Player and Conductor decide upon 2-3additional situations) If these rituals are not followed, theArtificer suffers a two-coin penalty.

Stage Three: The Artificer’s compulsions become socrippling that he or she cannot take any action without anaccompanying compulsive obsession. No penalties areincurred by not following them…simply, the Artificer

must follow them.

Delusional:This is a very wide-ranging disorder, with many

manifestations. Individuals suffering from this form ofinsanity labor under misapprehensions about the natureof reality. The form this delusion takes, however, is aswidely varied as the individuals themselves.

Stage One: The Artificer has a single core beliefwhich is Delusional (for example, the Artificer believes

that he is accompanied by a 6 foot tall rabbit namedHarvey) This belief, while odd, is relatively harmless,and does not otherwise negatively impact the Artificer’slife.

Stage Two: At this stage, the Artificer’s delusionsbegin to impact his or her life: for example, a belief thatthe Artificer is invisible, or that anyone wearing a hat is,in fact, a demon.

Stage Three: The Artificer’s delusions are now

so extensive that he or she is operating fully

within that world. At this point, the delusions

have the potential to seriously endanger the

Artificer’s life—for example, a belief that the

Artificer is immune to damage.

Sociopathic:

A sociopath has no internal moral compass—

they literally cannot discern between right and

wrong. They take action based on efficacy and

self-interest, with no regard for the welfare of

others or the mores of society. This is a very

dangerous form of insanity for Main Character

Artificers.

Stage One: The Artificer’s behavior is

motivated purely by self-interest. The Artificer

gives no thought to the consequences of their

actions, outside of how their actions would effect

their own interests.

Stage Two: The actions of the Artificer begin

to stray outside the realm of acceptability for any

member of a civilized society. The Artificer

increasingly begins to view others as simply

inhabitants of their personal world, or means to an

end.

Stage Three: At this point, the Artificer has

become truly dangerous. They will commit acts of

violence, giving it no more thought than they

would to crossing a subway platform. They are

completely disassociated from normal human

behavior.

Maniacal:

Another widely varying form of insanity, mania

manifests itself in one of any number of forms.

Mania is most easily described as an unnatural

fascination with something. Examples include:

Egomania (a fascination with self), Kleptomania

(fascination with theft), Pyromania (fascination

with fire), Homicidal mania (fascination with

killing), etc.

Stage One: The strength of the Artificer’s

mania is minor (the character can avoid temptation

by achieving a single success when faced with the

object of their fascination).

Stage Two: The Artificer’s mania is of

moderate strength (the character can avoid

temptation by achieving two successes).

Stage Three: At this point, the Artificer no

longer responds to temptations—he or she goes out

of the way to create situations that satisfy the

fascination.

The Effects of Insanity

OK, so now your character is nuts. Whatgood does this do you?

Every Stage of insanity gives the Artificer anextra coin for use in the invention of SalvageTech (1 coin for Stage One, 2 for Stage Two, 3for Stage Three). Hence, the crazier theArtificer, the better an inventor they are.

All Artificers begin the game at Stage One.Progressing to further stages is covered in theConductor’s guidelines in Chapter VI.

Inventing

The rules for the design and construction ofSalvage Tech are divided into several parts.First, you must determine the Operants of theinvention. Operants are the "verbs" of SalvageTech…what the item in question is intended todo, upon completion. There is no limit to thenumber of Operants that may be featured in asingle invention, but each Operant adds anotherlevel of difficulty to the construction.

The seven basic Operants for Salvage Techinventions are: Destruction, Transportation,Repair, Creation, Transmutation, Manipulationand Communication.

Destruction: Any Salvage Tech weapon uses

this Operant as it’s primary. This Operant is the

ability to deliver damage to a target. The form that

delivers this damage is defined by the player creating

the invention: electricity, pure Radiance, ready-whip

spray cheese, it doesn’t matter—the mechanics are

the same. You determine the range and the damage

delivered by the item to determine how many

difficulty levels it costs.Range:

Personal 0Immediate 1Distance 2

Damage:per coin of damage 1Temporary damage x .5

So, a gun that fires bolts of electricity siphoned offthe third rail—a distance weapon with a damagerating of 5 would cost 7 levels of difficulty. If thegun only did stunning damage, it would cost (7 x .5= 3.5, which rounds up to) 4 levels.

Transportation: This Operant governs

movement from one location to another. Difficulty is

based upon the mode of transportation (transports

may have multiple modes—each one adds its

difficulty to the whole), as well as the size of the

transport in question—which is rated in the amount

of space for passengers (although this may be cargo

space, depending on the role of the vehicle).Mode of Transportation:

Ground (wheeled, tracked) 1Ground (legged—can climb) 2Water 1Water (submersible) 2Air (flight) 2

Size:Personal (user only) 0Small (user + passenger) 1Medium (4-6 passengers) 2Large (6-20 passengers) 3Immense (20+ passengers) 4

Repair: The returning of an item or a person totheir natural, undamaged state. This Operants’ cost isbased upon the number of coins it uses to performHead Counts. These Head Counts are the means bywhich wounds are healed, or damage (i.e. wounds toobjects) is repaired.

Repair Coins: 2 levels of difficulty for every 1coin. (For example, a healing ray that mends woundswith a 4-coin Head Count would total 8 levels ofdifficulty)

Creation: This Operant governs the creation of

something from nothing, and is one of the hardest to

pull off (this is the Operant which is used in the

creation of Junkmen, for example). The difficulty of

this Operant is based entirely upon the complexity of

the objects being created, and must be determined by

the Conductor, with the following guidelines:Simple materials of no real use 3Simple, useful materials 4Complex compounds

(food, for instance) 5Complex systems 6Living machines12 (Fizzers) to 20+ (Junkmen)

For example: Lord Steam wishes to build a devicethat creates a liquid which hardens into stone. TheConductor rules that rock is a simple material, but ahardening liquid form is definitely useful, and so thedifficulty is level 4.

Transmutation: Transmutation is the

changing of one thing into another. This Operant is

another of the more difficult ones in the Salvage Tech

arsenal. Again, the Conductor will have the final say

regarding the difficulty of constructing inventions

using this Operant. General guidelines for

determining difficulty are based upon the similarity

of the objects in question.Variations of the same object 4Similar objects 6Dissimilar objects 8Usable against living targets x3

For example: Doc Fortune wants to build a"Change-O-Ray"—a weapon that willtransform any person struck by its beam intoa duck. The Conductor rules that peopleand ducks, while worlds apart, are bothliving beings, and hence could qualify as"similar objects" (the Conductor reasons that ifFortune wished to turn people into ScandinavianLiving Room Furniture, that would qualify asdissimilar). The difficulty level for similar objects is6, and the multiplier for use against living targets is x3. The final difficulty for Doc Fortune’s "Change-O-Ray" is a whopping 18.

Manipulation: This Operant’s usage istwofold. First, it can be used for the physicalmanipulation of objects—creating robotic arms forlifting, as an example. Second, it can be used tomanipulate individuals, via the domination of theirwillpower. Difficulty is based upon the number ofcoins available to the device for Head Counts.

Per Head Count coin 2Physical multiplier noneMental multiplier x 3

For example: The wicked Artificer Jojo constructsa helmet that allows him to brainwash his targets intodoing his bidding. He gives it three coins for theattempt, and remembers to apply the mentalmultiplier. The final difficulty level is 18.

Communication: This Operant governs thetransmission, receipt, or exchange of information. Itis most commonly used to construct devices whichallow distance communication in the UnderWorld (alocation which is not kind to radio waves, and inwhich cellphones can fritz at a moment’s notice).Difficulty is based upon the range and the method.

Range:Local (same domain) 1Intermediate (same part of borough) 2Long (entire UnderWorld) 3

Method:Text 1Voice 2Image 3No reciprocity x 4

For example: Lord Steamconstructs a communications

device. He decides to pull out allthe stops. He makes it able totransmit his image, anywhere in

the UnderWorld…anddecides that the receiving

party does not have to evenhave a similar device on their end

(no reciprocity). This device will beconstructed at a nigh-impossible level 24 difficulty.Steam rethinks his plan, andinstead builds a Long-RangeVoice communicator that

requires reciprocal units, for adifficulty of 5.

ExtrasIn addition, Salvage Tech items may be given

Defining Traits (as characters), or inherent secondaryskills, which would bestow bonus coins to any user’sHead Count. These items also add difficulty levels tothe construction: 1 per Trait or Secondary Skill.

Some items can also deliver temporary HeadCount penalties to their target, at a cost of double theintended penalty. (1 coin of penalty for two levels ofdifficulty)

To lower the cost of an item, limitations may beattached to it. These limitations must be fully workedout with your Conductor. Examples include:

Limited Use (runs out of fuel or ammo)After single use -4After multiple uses

(set with Conductor) -3After day -1Fuel or ammo is rare additional –2

Unreliable(requires successful Head Count to

activate)2 successes needed -23 successes needed -4Negative Defining Trait -1Penalty to Skill Use -1Other As determined

by Conductor

Construction

Now that you have your total difficulty, you dividethe number, as evenly as possible, into 3 categories:Design, Materials and Construction. Each categoryrepresents a portion of the invention process. Designrepresents the development of the initial concept anddrawing up of plans; Materials represents theacquisition of the necessary materials; andconstruction represents the final stage, wherethe item is actually built.

Each portion’s difficulty is thrownseparately. Full success is needed, orthat portion must begin again, thistime at a higher level of difficulty(+1 for each failed attempt). Eachlevel of difficulty corresponds tothe number of days each portiontakes, even on a failed attempt. Notethat if the Artificer fails any stageoften enough, the difficulty can grow toexceed the Artificer’s ability (thedifficulty being greater than the number ofcoins in the Head Count). In this case, theinvention is a failure, and must be scrapped.

Example of Invention:Going back to Doc Fortune and

his "Change-O-Ray" from aprevious example, you’ll recallthat the final difficulty for thisdevice was 18. Doc decides thatthe device in question is a little too difficult asis…so he says that the device is one shot only (itneeds to be reloaded.) This brings the difficulty down

to 14. In addition, he says that the Ray runs on solarpower (a rare commodity in the UnderWorld),bringing the difficulty down to 12. This dividesequally, giving each step of the invention, Design,Materials, and Construction, a difficulty of 4. Dochas a 5 coin Head Count for invention (1 default, 1for his insanity, 1 for the Defining Trait "Inventive"and 2 for his Guild skill). He tries the first step,Design, and throws four heads. Design takes 4 days,and is successful. Doc moves on to Materials andonly throws two heads. DAMN IT ALL TO HELL!(he screams). Materials takes 4 days, and fails. Hemust try again, this time at difficulty 5. This time, hegets lucky and gets 5 heads. The step takes another 5days, and he moves on to Construction (difficulty 4).He throws four heads, and the "Change-O-Ray" is

complete, having taken 17 days, start to finish.Quack!

Sample Salvage Tech

Track SabersA relatively simple piece of salvage tech,

The Track Saber is simply a one-piece metalsword with a thick rubber handle. Sticking out

of the bottom of the handle is a long cord thatattaches to an iron electromagnet. Some of the

more complex versions have retractable cables.The Track Saber is designed for use almostexclusively in Subway tunnels. Simply chuck the

magnet at the third rail, poke your opponent andwatch’em fry. Click the button to disengage themagnet, and you’re done. The amazingpopularity of Track Sabers probably has a lotmore to do with the highly familiar hum theyproduce, and the spark-spraying lightshow

when two Track sabers clash in battle.(Range: Personal, Damage: 6)

PlungerstickersAnother relatively common piece of

salvage tech are the Plungerstickers, named for theirclose resemblance to plungers that attach at the

elbows and knees. They take a little getting used to,but an advanced user can actually scuttle along anysurface- wall, ceiling, or floor- at a pretty good clip.They’re designed to hold to a ceiling, but theywill work almost anywhere. The specialgel-plastic cups will adhere to any surface,no matter how dirty or rough. A favoredtool of spies and assassins, Plungerstickersare useful for anyone who needs to passthrough unnoticed. (Transportation: ground,personal)

Jacob’s HammerAn invention of Lord Steam, the

Jacob’s Hammer is an adaptation of theJacob’s Ladder (the electrical-arc labequipment so often seen in madscientists lairs). The rife-sized device looks a bit likea tuning fork—and throws a bolt of electricity at itstarget. {Range: Distance, Damage: 7, no reloadsnecessary (runs on static charge)

Tunnel CrawlerA common form of transportation in the

UnderWorld, a tunnel crawler is a small trackedvehicle with room for two people, made from bits ofold Big Wheels and strips of washing machine driverbelts. It is not particularly fast, but it is rugged(Defining Trait: Tough). (Transportation: Ground,Small)

Doctor DeathsHead Battle ArmorThis suit of powered armor was built by an

Artificer with a severe delusion: He thought he was acomic-book villain. The armor uses the RepairOperant to counteract damage (3 coins worth), andcontains an integral Rocket Pack (Transportation, air,personal) and Chainsaw fist (Destruction, Range:personal, Damage: 4). A fearsome bit of equipment,if not for it’s extreme unreliability (3 successesneeded).

I Go PogoNot a very popular form of transportation in low-

ceilinged tunnels, the I Go Pogo is a mechanical pogostick that goes like a bat out of hell once activated(Defining Trait: Fast). (Transportation, ground,

personal)

Ready Whip Aerosol Cheese GunNo Artificer is mad enough to admit to being the

nefarious mind behind this hellishcontraption. The gun is a large fire-hoseand backpack affair that douses itsintended target with literally gallons ofthick, clotted, processed cheese food. It

does 4 dice of temporary damage (based onsuffication), and bestows a one-coin penalty

to physical action until the goop can be washedoff. (Destruction: Range: Immediate, Damage 4(temporary), -1 penalty to physical action). The

gun fires from a clip of Aerosol Cheese (arare substance in the

UnderWorld…thankfully), and must bereloaded after every 6 shots. Sick.

Track SkatesRollerblade-style skates intended for use on

subway tracks. They draw power from the third railto propel the wearer at speeds rivaling the subwaysthemselves (Defining Traits: Fast, secondary skill:Transport). (Transportation: ground, personal.)

The MotivatrixPerhaps the ultimate vehicle, the Motivatrix is a

large (10 passengers plus cargo) vehicle that featuresall modes of travel: Ground (via tracks and legs),Water (surface and submersible), and Air. It featuresa long range voice communicator, self-sealing armor(4 coins of Repair), and an electrified skin(Destruction, Range: Personal, Damage: 4). It is apreferred vehicle for the discerning Navigator (or atleast those that don’t have custom conveyances).

NetGunThis devices casts a net at a target, wrapping them

up in the lines (made from old bits of string andfishing line). The weapon does no damage (Range:Immediate, Damage 0), but hits the target with a 5coin penalty against any physical actions, untilsomeone releases them from the net.

Rock’em Sock’emGauntlets

T h e s eg a u n t l e t s ,c o n s t r u c t e d

from Goalie mitts and ErectorSet pieces, function both as aweapon and a tool. As a

weapon, the Gauntlets arePersonal Range, 4Damage items. Theyalso posses the

Defining Trait "Strong",and have 3 coins of

Manipulation built in to them. This considerableability is offset by the fact that they make the userClumsy (negative trait)…and they look pretty silly, too.

FizzersA few UnderWorlders can remember a time when

there were no Fizzers- a few. Now, the ubiquitouslittle pseudo-junkmen are just about everywhere.Apparently some long- gone artificer came up with atiny, easy to make device that, when dropped in anordinary soda can, would turn the thing into a tinyhomunculus that would follow one simple command.Without thinking, he created hundreds of the things,which in turn started making more and more ofthemselves.

The initial device is still relatively easy to find- It’sa simple charm that resembles two bottlecaps that areheld together by a rubber band. Drop it in a can ,shake it up, and out pops a pair of tiny arms, legs, anda little head. The tiny homunculus will follow onecommand, then, it goes off on it’s own. It’s unknownexactly what the proto-junkmen are up to, but theyare everywhere, jabbering in their strange languageof rattles, clinks, and clanks. They are not inhabitedby ghosts, like true junkmen, but by ideas, emotions,and passing whimsies. Ambitious homeless stillcollect hundreds of cans in the hope of creating aminiature army; this tactic rarely works. Fizzers,oddly enough, can operate topside and are excellentspies and thieves because they can retract their arms

and legs and blend in instantly with the rest of thecity junk. Still, there is a high attrition rate topside.Those who have figured out what they can of theFizzer language can recount stories of "horrible big-mouthed blue monsters" and the terrible place theFizzers only know as "the Recycling Center."

Creating a Fizzer is a level 12 Creation invention.This is a basic Fizzer, as described above. “Soupedup” Fizzers, that essentially have additional SalvageTech added to them, come in at a higher difficulty.

Players are encouraged to let theirimaginations run wild when designing theirArtificer’s Salvage Tech inventions. Workingwith your Conductor, there should be no limitto what you can come up with. Furtherexamples of Salvage Tech appear in certaincharacter descriptions in the Setting Chapter(V) and Adventures (Chapter VII). FutureUnderWorld products will contain additionalexamples as well.

© MTA, Used with

Don’t Sleep on the SubwayBzy Gareth-Michael Skarka

Emma grabbed her purse and held it tighter to herchest. She hated having to ride the trains this late atnight, but there were no cabs to be seen, and this wasstill the fastest way home. The way she saw it, it wasbetter to be home in 15 minutes and have to put upwith a little bit of danger, than to take 45 or more towalk home—a prospect whose danger levelincreased the longer it took her.

The A train was pretty empty, especially for aFriday night…or Saturday morning, as the case maybe. The cars were usually filled with people on theirway to and from the clubs, which didn’t close until 4a.m.—and then only if they were strictly adhering tothe law. Her car, though, only held herself, a bag ladysleeping in the corner seat, and a couple of laptop-carrying web-heads heading home from some latehours at whatever pre-IPO Silicon Alley dot-com wastheirs.

Her eyes drifted to look out the window. Funny,she thought, how you tend to do things like that toavoid eye contact with people, even in situations likethis, where there was nothing to see outside exceptthe flash of tunnel lights as they sped by. Sort of likebeing on an elevator—you look anywhere, except atthe people who are standing there with you. Emmafound herself wondering why they even bothered toput windows on the purely underground trains—lineslike the 7, which ran aboveground in Queens, shecould understand…but these?

The train rolled into the 72nd Street station. The

doors slid open to the sound of the accompanyingelectronic chime, and the echoing notes of someoneplaying saxophone somewhere in the station. Theweb-heads got out, buzzing to each other in some sortof binary code for people, headed, Emma imagined,to some cozy Upper West Side 1-bedroom,comfortably paid for with seed money from somewitless, over-eager venture capitalist.

The doors slid closed, and the train set off againwith a slight lurch. "81st Street, next stop. Watch theclosing doors." The announcement came over thetrain’s PA about a second behind the doors actuallyclosing. Typical.

The rhythmic rocking of the train caressedEmma’s weary mind, lulling her ever closer towardsunconsciousness. She flexed her eyebrows, tensingand releasing in an effort to force her eyes open.Falling asleep on a subway…not exactly at the top ofthe list of urban survival skills. "Don’t sleep in thesubway"…the faintest fragment of a song driftedthrough her mind—wasn’t that Petula Clark?

At least someone on this train was getting somesleep. Emma looked over to the snoring form of thebag lady, bundled under layers of old clothes. Aslight metallic sound caught Emma’s attention, andshe noticed a beer can drop from under the woman’smakeshift blankets and roll back and forth on thefloor. That explains how she can sleep, she thought,watching the can rock back and forth against thewoman’s seat.

Suddenly, the can leapt upright, and little metalarms and legs punched through its aluminum sideswith an audible pop.

Emma stared, blinking in disbelief as the little can

climbed, with no small effort, up the seat to thewindow, and appeared to peer into the darknessbeyond. With a movement which managed to denotea sense of surprise, the can jumped down with aclank, and began to tap the bag lady furiously on theshoulder.

"Ermph? Gnnn?" The woman began to sit,swatting at the distraction on her shoulder. A meatyhand caught the can squarely, knocking it across thesubway car, where it landed at Emma’s feet. Shewatched, mouth gaping, as it got back up on its legs,gave her an "excuse me" shrug, and headed back overto the bag lady, who was now standing up andtucking her belongings under her arm. The trainbegan to enter the 81st Street station.

"Heh. Almost missed my stop." The woman’svoice, worn rough by drink and cigarettes, cackled.The train stopped, and the doors opened. The womannodded to Emma.

"You’re not sleepy, are ya? I could leave him withya…he’s mighty useful at watching over ya while yasleep…"

The can did a little "ta-da" flourish. Emma tried

hard not to notice."No…I couldn’t possibly…" She began."Aw, hell, girl—you don’t hafta worry: he’d find

his way back home, eventually. Fizzers are good thatway." The bag lady was holding the door open withone hand, preventing it from sliding shut.

"No, that’s OK. I’ve only got a couple more stopsto go."

The bag lady winked. "Suit yerself, girlie. Becareful, now." She left the train, and the doors beganto slide shut. The little can—did she call it a Fizzer,Emma wondered—barely made it through in time,scrambling after the bag lady on tiny, scrabblingmetal legs.

The train slid out of the station, and Emmawatched as the bag lady turned and waved to herthrough the window as she dropped out of sight.

Emma had no difficulty staying awake for the restof her ride home.

The UnderWorld

The UnderWorld is….?

Well, that’s the question, now isn’t it?

For thousands of years, scholars (both surface andsubterranean) have argued that very point. TheUnderWorld has existed, in some form or another,since the beginning of time. The ancient myths speakof it—the land of dead, far below the earth, fromwhich no travellers save heroes may return. Dantewrote of it, or his interpretation of it, filtered throughhis religious beliefs, in his Inferno—"Lasciate omnisperanza, voi ch’entrate", he wrote: "Abandon allhope, ye who enter."

Not all visions of the UnderWorld have been sodire. The ancient Celts saw it reflected in the homesof their gods, the Tuatha De Dannan. These legendssurvive to this day, in the form of little fairies whodwell inside of hills.

There have been UnderWorlds beneath almostevery human settlement, since the dawn ofcivilization (since the loss of magic in the world, thenumber has significantly lessened—there are nowonly UnderWorlds beneath those cities that havemanaged methods of replacing the Radiance, usuallyin the form of a subway system). Does this factindicate that the UnderWorld is merely asubterranean reflection of the world above, cast inearth rather than water? The subterranean world hasalways been a home to our legends and the mysticexpressions of ourselves. Perhaps, then, that is therole that the UnderWorld plays, it is the spacebeneath the bed of the world, where monsters dwell,and the rabbit hole to wonderland can be found.

Regardless of its purpose, the UnderWorld is nowalmost a world unto itself—connected to, yetseparate from the World Above. Its citizens go abouttheir day to day lives, most never encounteringsurface society, or seeing the light of day. Many ofthese citizens are cast-offs from that daylight world:the homeless, the unwanted, the forgotten. These andmore have left us behind, to forge their own world inthe tunnels and caverns below our city.

The people of the UnderWorld are as widely variedas those in the World Above. A mix of cultures makeup the population, as is the case with any large city.Some of these cultures are similar to those that youwould find in the streets of the city above you, butmixed in with these familiar strangers are those thatare stranger still: the Freaks, the Legendaries, each asindividual as a snowflake. The Lost, out of timespast, and the Nomads, who have no such past.Manufactured beings like the Junkmen, the definitionof "Ghost in the Machine" made manifest; andspecies like the Mole People, or the Ferals, who forceus to re-examine what we call "people".

All of this, bustling through the ground beneathour feet.

The UnderWorld is a confusing mass of tunnels,chambers, passageways and rooms, stacked uponeach other in layers that reach down thousands of feetbelow the surface. The overlapping territories andlevels makes maps nearly useless in the WorldBelow. Directions are usually given in terms of whatlies above them, in the top layers—the subways. Asubway map is your clearest guide—from there, all

you need to figure out is how far down to travel.

How to find your way, though? You could alwaysask another UnderWorlder, but who is to guaranteethat they might understand you?

The lingua franca of the UnderWorld is English (itlies below New York City, after all, and at leastnominally, that's the main language of the city).However, the language spoken by the UnderWorldersis filled with specificity to their environment andtheir lifestyle--a slang that reflects the mix of culturesthat make up the population, combined with thecircumstances they endure, unique to theUnderWorld. Mix this with healthy helpings of thelatest street slang from the UpWorld (brought in bythe Homeless Traders), and there you have the basepatois, called Tunnel. Other languages are spoken,including Spanish, Chinese, Haitian Creole...hell,even 17th Century Dutch in some places...but Tunnelis the common ground that most denizens share.

A Brief Glossary of Tunnel

Agarthan (n): someone who's spent a long timedown deep, or (adj) a deep tunnel or place. Thus also,something which goes on for a long time, eternal.

Amadán (n): An idiot or fool. From the Irish.

Baggered (adj): Scared, terrified--from the Dutchphrase "bagger schijten", meaning literally "to shitmud".

Ben Zsona (n): Son of a Bitch. From the Hebrew.

Bounce (v): To get out, to leave.

Christ-time (n): The time of day from roughly 5:00pm to 6:00 pm when cars pack the UpWorld streetsso fully that an UnderWorlder could walk the lengthof Manhattan Island solely on the car's tops, likewalking on water. Also named for the most commonepithet coming from the drivers of those cars.

Climbing the down (n): To kill time, or to bestalled in one's effort, from the result of trying to goup a down escalator

Clockwork Zombie (n): A derogatory term for aJunkman.

Crow-Ho (n): A derogatory term for anyone whowears a preponderance of leather, PVC, rubber, nylonor other "goth" accoutrements. A reference to JamesO. Barr's comic book series, The Crow.

Domain(n): One of the political territories of theUnderWorld, something like a nation on the surface.

Duckets (n): Money (from ducats, an old form ofcoinage).

Fastness (n): A variety of Domain that isrestricted—usually walled, and closed to strangers.

Freehold(n): A variety of Domain that is open to alltravellers.

Hellenback (v): To travel a long way, especiallythrough difficulties. Ex. "We hellenbacked all theway to Brooklyn."

Jack Roll (v): To rob, usually from someone whois helpless. Often shortened to either "jack" or "roll".

Jump Stiles (v): To leave, rapidly--from "jumpingturnstiles" in the subway.

The Frizz (n): One of the more youthful synonymsfor the Radiance.

Green (int.): Understanding. Usually in the formof a query or response: "We green?" "Yeah, green."Taken from green indicator lights in the subwaytunnels, showing that the way is clear.

High-Tide(n): The time period that comes from5:00 am to 8:00 am (roughly), when the UpWorld ishaving their morning showers and the resultant extrawater flow comes through the pipes. Also can be usedfor "very soon"

The Horde (n): the collective name for the legionsof UpWorld people who fill the stations everydayaround Christ-time.

Hording (v): walking or travelling amongst theHorde - a dangerous practice, but sometimesnecessary.

Kissed the light, or Kissed it (v): Killed, as if hit bya train.

Latch (v): hang around, group with or beconnected to.

Muter (n): nickname for UpWorld train riders,from commuter.

Norm (adj): Crazy

Push (n): Gossip or advance word, from the strongwind that comes before a subway train

Rolex (n): generic name for any UpWorld treasureof significant value, usually jewelry or the like. Pluralis rolexes. A rolex could be worth hundreds ofduckets.

Scheduled (adj): Destiny, unavoidable, again areference to the train.

Screamer (n): Once any train. Now usually meansan express—going fast and likely to kill you. Namedfor the train whistle.

Spad (v): To push on with something despite being

warned or forbidden, usually with dire consequences;

to make somebody lose their temper by keeping on at

them when they`re obviously annoyed. From SPAD

(Signal Passed At Danger), a technical term in

railway usage for going through a stop signal.

Sparing (v): Begging from the UpWorlders.

Surf (v): To travel by riding the tops of subway

trains.

Tanned: (adj) Out of the loop, not in the know.

Tracking (v): walking, travelling, roaming, often ata leisured pace or aimlessly. "We hellenbacked toConey, and then we were so clocked we just trackedfor a while"

Third Rail(n): A person or thing dangerous to bearound, in reference to the story of the third railcarrying the electricity.

The Domains

The UnderWorld is divided along political linesinto Domains, which are similar to nations orkingdoms of the surface. Each Domain is asovereign state, under the control of its Lord (theactual title varies from Domain to Domain, but the

general descriptive term is "Lord").

Some Domains are open to all—these are referredto as Freeholds, and are centers of commerce andculture for the UnderWorld, attracting Traders sellingtheir wares, as well as other Guild members lookingfor employment. They make excellent locationsfrom which to begin adventures, or to use as homebases for your Main Characters.

Other Domains have restricted access. TheseDomains, known as Fastnesses, do not open theirgates to strangers. Their Lords stay within their walls(if they have walls), and none of the population (ifthere is any) ventures outward, except in the rarest ofcircumstances. These are places of mystery for MainCharacters, who will have never been inside suchlocations before (assuming, naturally, that theymanage to get inside this time, which is doubtful).Many Fastness Domains are very aggressive aboutdefending their borders from perceived incursions,making these types of locations very dangerous.

There are many Domains in the UnderWorld,ranging in size from single chambers to hugeterritories covering many square blocks of area, aswell as multiple levels. To try to map them would befolly—instead, directions are given in relation to thenearest corresponding point on the map of the NewYork City subway system.

Each Conductor’s campaign should be unique,filled with Domains of your own design. After all,with the entire city to fill, as well as countless levels,reaching deep into the earth, no setting descriptioncould hope to list every Domain in existance.Besides, that’s part of what makes a Conductor’s jobenjoyable: Coming up with your own material, andseeing how the Players react to it. (More guidelinesfor Conductors can be found in Chapter VI)

What follows are several of the more well-knownDomains of the UnderWorld, to use both asexamples, and as common elements that can befeatured in any campaign. Each entry gives a briefdescription of the Domain, including its subway-maplandmark, local RadCount, and information about itsLord. These should give you ample starting material

from which your Players may branch out and explorethe intricacies of your own version of theUnderWorld.

Wonderland(RadCount: 3)In Central Park, on the East Side near 75th street,

there is a large, bronze statue of Alice in Wonderland.It is a popular site in the Park, where residents andtourists alike gather to climb upon the giantmushrooms (great fun in winter, since the metal ofthe sculpture traps a small amount of the heatgenerated by sitting all day in direct sunlight). Thissite has focused this goodwill into the Radiance thathas pooled many feet below the surface of this part ofthe park...into a Domain called "Wonderland" by thedenizens of the UnderWorld.

A cavern bathed it sunlight, despite there being nosun present, and filled with a pleasant, rolling field ofgrass, spotted here and there with giant mushrooms,and a few trees as well. The mushrooms are edible,and quite delicious, although not many people get thechance to taste them, since the entire cavern isclaimed by a group of late-18th century BritishSoldiers, lost in time.

Unable to return to the 1770s, and unsuited for lifeabove, the Redcoats have constructed a frontier fortin Wonderland, which has become the center of adomain ruled by the British commanding officer,Major Sir Charles Worthington. Worthington (andtruthfully, many of his men) has been unhinged byhis bizarre experience, and he maintains his troops,constantly drilling and keeping up discipline, waitingfor what he's sure will be the imminent arrival of "theRelief"--a search party sent by the British Army toretrieve them.

Of course, that Relief is never coming.

Wonderland was initially classified as a Fastness,due to the vigilance with which the Redcoatsdefended their territory. However, recently,Worthington has decided to allow trade with "thenatives", as he calls the denizens of the UnderWorld,

and this has resulted in the fort (officially FortGeorge, but almost universally called FortWonderland) becoming quite a bustling trading post.

Major Sir Charles WorthingtonLost BravoDefining Traits: Clever, Intuitive, FierceSecondary Skills: Cooking, Transport, NegotiationMagic: NoneWeapons: Flintlock pistol and Musket (which

often don’t work due to the Radiance—leavingWorthington to fight with Musket’s bayonet (Range:personal, Damage 2) or his sabre (Range: personal,Damage 3))

The Lesser Boulevards(RadCount: 2)The "Lesser Boulevards" is the UnderWorld name

for all of the little streets down in Lower Manhattan,where the regular grid of Streets and Avenues breaksdown and follows the chaotic paths of the originalsettlement's roads. If you've every been down there,you'll find that it feels so different from the rest of thecity—the streets are narrower, the numbering systemgives way to little thoroughfares with names (Rector,Courtland, Wall, etc.). It was once the sole center ofthe city, but its power has given way to the relativenewcomer that is Midtown (well, not entirely givenway--Wall Street and City Hall maintained theirpower-grip, and are now being joined by the internetstart-ups of "Silicon Alley").

The Domain that lies beneath much of this area(roughly from Chambers Street on the west side tothe river on the east, and south to the very tip ofManhattan at South Ferry) was also once much morepowerful, but is waning somewhat (although stillvital)—ruled by a Lord powerful enough to hold onto his territories, but weak enough to be losing someinfluence. The domain is filled with some of theoldest places in the UnderWorld—forgotten cellars ofDutch New Amsterdam houses, some of the earliestSubway stations—Including the gorgeous, cathedral-like City Hall Station, now abandoned. Not tomention the secret bomb shelters built beneath the

New York Stock Exchange, which allow some of thisDomain’s citizens to live in almost opulentsplendour. Despite its fading prominence, the LesserBoulevards still remains the largest Domain of theUnderWorld.

The Lord of this domain is a Nomad, immortal andamnesiac. He was once a Librarian by Guild, and hisLibrary is filled with the remnants of his efforts todiscover his own lost identity as well as the forgottensource of his immortality, a quest which occasionallystill draws his attention from matters of state (hencethe waning power). He calls himself Rector, after thesubway station where he awoke with no memory in

the early years of this century. To others, he is Lordof the Lesser Boulevards.

The Lesser Boulevards are famous for one otherthing—the Knights. Rector’s hand-picked heroes,the best of the best within the UnderWorld, whooperate under the collective name of The Knights ofthe Lesser Boulevards. The most famous of these isthe Captain of the Knights, a Legendary Bravonamed Goodfella Robin.

Rector, Lord of the Lesser BoulevardsNomad LibrarianDefining Traits: Agile, Studious, PerceptiveSecondary Skills: Fighting, NegotiationMagic: Several Forget-me-knots, a LifeStone, and

a pair of Beer Goggles (which can see invisibleobjects.)

Weapons: None. He carries no weapons—hedepends upon his Knights for his defense.

The Washington Depths(RadCount: 3)The area beneath the Washington Heights

neighborhood in Manhattan (roughly 110th through145th Streets, along the 1/9 line on the West side) isknown (not surprisingly) as the Washington Depths,or, more colloquially, WashDeep.

WashDeep is one of the more notorious Domainsin the UnderWorld. Their Lord, Mordecai, isambitious and ruthless…a bad combination, in theopinion of WashDeep’s neighbors. Mordecai is aruler cut from the mold of the worst of the RomanEmperors—callous, bloodthirsty, arbitrary andunstable.

Mordecai runs his domain with the proverbial ironfist, although the Domain is actually a Freehold,rather than a Fastness. Mordecai keeps the gates ofWashDeep open—it ensures attendance at hisinfamous gladiatorial arena. Mordecai uses the arenaas an audition for his armies…if a person is enoughof a bad-ass to survive the WashDeep Arena, they’reexactly the sort of person that Mordecai wants for asoldier.

The current champions of the WashDeep Arena area group of Freaks, believed to be the failed results ofmilitary experimentation. So far, no one who hasfaced them has left the Arena alive.

Recently, WashDeep soldiers have been seen in thepublic tunnels surrounding the Depths. In somecases, these bands of warriors have attempted to settolls for the use of these passages. Some fear that thismay be the initial move in an effort by Mordecai toexpand the territory controlled by WashDeep. Timewill tell…but by then, it may be too late to stop him.

Mordecai, Lord of the Washington DepthsHomeless BravoDefining Traits: Cunning, Strong Willed, Vicious.Secondary Skills: Observation, First Aid, GamesMagic: Life Stone, ColorsWeapons: Carries a Sledge Hammer (Range:

personal, Damage 3)

The Under East Side(RadCount:2)The UES is a small Domain, found beneath the

area bordered roughly by Bleeker Street and 2ndAvenue in the north, to the Bowery and Grand Streetin the south. It is an area known for it’s Taggercommunity—in fact, the Guild Hall of the Taggers isfound in this Domain. The Guild Hall is the only areaof the Under East Side that isn’t open to everyone—only Taggers in good standing are permitted withinits walls.

The UES is ruled by a Freak Tagger namedPhillippe the Dog-Faced Boy, a former circussideshow attraction who refers to himself as the HighMuckety-muck of the Under East Side. He is a jovialruler, eager to interact with others and hear news.

Phillipe the Dog-Faced Boy, High Muckety-Muck of the Under East Side

Freak TaggerFreak Abilities: Phillipe has a dogs head. He has

a highly developed sense of hearing and smell as aresult.

Defining Traits: Artistic, Friendly, Fierce

Secondary Skills: Fighting, Negotiation, CriminalMagic: Pack o’ Smokes, Slapstick, Jinx, Freeze

TagWeapons: A pair of nunchucks (Range: personal,

Damage 3)

The Manhattan Projects(RadCount: 4)Located on the extreme northernmost tip of

Manhattan, many levels beneath the twin DyckmanStreet stations, lies the Manhattan Projects—thedomain that contains the Artificer Guildhall. Theother Guilds nominated this domain as the locationfor the Artificers, because, as one Homeless Tradersaid, "If the damn fools blow themselves up, theyshould be out in the boondocks."

The Domain itself has little or no life outside of theGuildhall itself—not too many UnderWorlders are

comfortable living at Ground Zero for several dozenArtificer experiments. In fact, the Domain itself hasno Lord—it is ruled, in effect, by the Artificer’sGuild, directly.

There remains no better place, however, to hire anArtificer, or to research a particular piece of SalvageTech.

Crooklyn(RadCount: 1)The Domain of Crooklyn lies beneath the High

Street, Jay Street and Clark Street Stations inBrooklyn, right across the river from Manhattan.

This Domain gets its name from the fact that it isthe home to a fledgling organization that is trying toachieve Guild Status—a group of UnderWorldcriminals calling themselves the Hoods Guild.Despite the fact that they do not have, nor is it likelythey will ever have the numbers necessary to givethem the power of a full-fledged Guild, within theborders of their Domain, the Hoods reign supreme.

Crooklyn is a marketplace where anything can behad for a price. Any UnderWorlders searching forcontraband, or outlawed goods (such as slaves, ornon-Bravo assassins for example) know that theywill find what they seek in the stalls of Crooklyn,provided that they don’t get themselves rolled in theprocess.

The Domain, and the so-called Guild, is ruled by aHomeless Trader named Peeps. Peeps is a short, wirypit bull of a man, who does a brisk business sellingUpWorld drugs both above and below the surface.He prefers to use the title "Head Nigga in Charge" inhis dealings.

Peeps, HNIC of CrooklynHomeless TraderDefining Traits: Jack of All Trades, Savvy,

CourageousSecondary Skills: Acrobatics, Criminal, FightingMagic: Colors, Mob Cap

Weapon: SMG (Range: Distance, Damage 4)

Myurrhtown(RadCount: 3)There’s a legend amongst the strays of New York.

It passes from dog to cat to rat to mouse to snakes andlizards and even down to the very roaches. Thislegend refers to a sacred place, a city beneath the citywhere all the animals are safe from the oppression ofman. There are no collars, no cages, and noexterminators. The air is always warm, the waterclean, and what you catch is what you eat. Humansdon’t come to Myurrhtown. Humans are notwelcome in Myurrhtown. As a matter of fact, the fewhumans that do find there way into Myurrhtown areconsidered quite the delicacy.

Myurrhtown used to be a homeless communityunder Harlem, below the 125th Street 2/3 stop. Oneof the homeless got the bright idea to enslave thelocal Ferals and create a farm. Things got Orwellianrather quickly after that point, and the animals tookover. Few wanted to tangle with the angry Ferals ofwhat was thereafter called Myurrhtown. The Cityitself is a collection of makeshift tents and pens, thatlargest of which is only ten feet high. Still, it is verymuch a community to the animals who call it home.

A haven for the lost and forgotten animals of thecity, Myurrhtown is the only Feral-only district inUnderWorld. Humans of any stripe are forbidden,and those who are dumb enough to enter are eaten.The Lord of Myurrhtown, a huge three-legged greymastiff named Barkhabar, is never seen without hisadvisors, a raven named Klootie and a one-eyed alleycat with a limp named Blitz. The chief of security inMyurrhtown is a retired police horse named Eoh, anddue to his size, there is less crime in Myurrhtownthan in virtually anywhere else in UnderWorld. Still,there are vocal groups that seek to strike out againstmankind from the security of their subterranean lairlike the Sewer Gators. For now, the Myurrh- the Feralword for "Silent"- prefer to stay underground.

BarkhabarFeral TaggerDefining Traits: Feral, Courageous, IntuitiveSecondary Skills: Cooking, Empathy, Negotiation

Magic: NoneWeapons: None

The Great Basin(RadCount: 3)The Great Basin is just that—a huge basin into

which all the sewer drains empty out. It’s the size ofa stadium, ringed by catwalks and connected by asingle thin, railing-less bridge over a whirlpool thatvaries in severity. The bridge rotates, however, toconnect the various catwalks and tunnels. Undernormal circumstances, the whirlpool is more thanenough to suck down anyone unfortunate enough tofall in and be washed out to some faraway tunnelduring a hard storm, the level rises, and occasionallythe Basin has to be evacuated.

The Lord of the Great Basin, a tremendous six-armed Freak named Skar, enjoys a sport of his owndevising, uncreatively called SkarBoxing. Twocontestants are forced out onto the bridge and have tohave it out until one drops off of the platform. Itseems fairly standard for underground pitfights,except that in SkarBoxing, the bridge is spun ratherfast, usually causing the contestants to get ratherdizzy. It’s not unknown for both contestants to topplebefore they ever lay hands on one another.

The Great Basin also serves as a neutral zone andmeeting place for several influential UnderWorlders.The immediate danger of the location discourageshasty violence, and the din of rushing water makes it difficultto overhear otherwise private conversations. The Basin hasseen more than it’s fair share of fights, double-crosses, andeven the occasional peace treaty, and will no doubt continueto serve in the future.

Skar, Lord of the BasinFreak BravoFreak Ability: 6 armsDefining Traits: Vicious, Courageous, PerceptiveSecondary Skills: Invention, Scrounging, TrackingMagic: LifeStoneWeapons: Wields six swords (Range: personal, Damage:

6 (because more than one hits at a time))

The Boogie Downs(RadCount: 2)North of Manhattan, in the area below the 149th

Street/Grand Concourse station in the Bronx, you’ll find theBoogie Downs. The Downs are the home to a large MolePeople community—in fact, the largest group of MolePeople living in close association with non-Moles anywherein the UnderWorld.

The Downs are known for the large Mendicant Guildhall,which acts as the largest hospital in the UnderWorld. TheHall acts as home to a revolving staff of Mendicants, whonever stay for very long—they simply spend some time inservice at the Hall, and then continuing their wandering.

The Lord of the Boogie Downs is a Mole PersonLibrarian named Duane Reed (or at least that’s what aHomeless once called him, and it stuck).

Duane Reed, Lord of the Boogie DownsMole Person LibrarianDefining Traits: Small, Agile, Perceptive, VeteranSecondary Skills: Jack of All Trades, Fighting, Magic: Daedalus Twine, Moths of ConfusionWeapons: AMonkey Wrench (Range: personal, Damage

3)

Locales

Other Locations exist within the UnderWorld thatare not truly Domains. These areas have no truerulers, or no residents…they exist solely as an areathat exists as an obstacle or a goal (depending uponthe wishes of the Main Characters). Many of theexamples below do not have their precise location intheir description—this is so that the Conductor canplace them in their campaign where they wish.Examples include:

Pipe JungleA dimly lit, moss-covered mass of piping lies

almost untouched in the UnderWorld. The PipeJungle, much like the other areas of the UnderWorld,is its own self-contained environment. There is nospecific ground, up, down, left, or right. Once inside,all sense of bearing is lost- the sprawling mess ofpiping goes in every direction.It is rumored thatmany people have been lost in the tangled piping.The Pipe Jungle exists in a state of perpetual twilight,lit by the dim yellow glow of certain pipes. This glowis rumored to be toxic, but no one, not even theinhabitants of the Pipe Jungle, are sure of its cause.

To someone entering the Jungle for the first time,the sound of rushing water is deafening. Between thesound of the city above constantly flushing, rinsingand cleaning and the near constant drip of the pipesthemselves, there is easily enough noise to drive anormal person insane. Not many people can stand thenoise for very long without having to somehowprotecting themselves against the incredibly highlevel of noise in the Pipe Jungle.

The only known inhabitants of Pipe Jungle are atribe of monkey-like Freaks that have beennicknamed the Clamberlings. The Clamberlings,standing at the most four feet tall, genrally looksimilar. Large white eyes cover the majority of theirface with no visible pupils, and they have extremelylarge hands and feet equipped with suction cups.Their tails vary in length, however, most are at leasttriple the size of their bodies, with the same suctioncup growths running along the underside of the tail.

As an evolutionary precaution, the Clamberlingsappear to be deaf, and communicate with signlanguage.

What exactly the Pipe Jungle lies underneath isunknown. The only known way in or out of the PipeJungle is through the pipes themselves. With randomopenings in the crisscrossing network of pipes it isnearly impossible to predict where anyone will bedumped into or dropped out of the Pipe Jungle itself.

St. Ives CathedralBeneath the Cathedral Parkway stop on the West

Side (near 112th Street), is a construction effort ofsublime beauty. On the surface, the Cathedral of St.John the Divine is underway, a continuing projectwhich has been in the works for over 100 years. Thefirst stones of the Cathedral were layed in 1892, andsince then, it has been a work in progress, allowingvisitors to witness the construction of a Cathedralfrom the ground up.

What few people realize is that an equallyambitious project occurred hundreds of feet below St.Johns. Part of the reason why construction of thesurface Cathedral has taken so long is that materials(and some artisans) found their way below, whereanother, smaller cathedral was built. The Cathedralof St. Ives is a beautiful work of architecture, hiddenin a cavern where few will ever see it.

The Cathedral of St. Ives is a house of worship andrefuge for all in the UnderWorld. None may violateits sanctuary, and none do—not even the mindlesscreatures which prowl the tunnels of the area. No oneknows why they honor the rules, but someUnderWorlders like to say it is the holy aura of theCathedral itself which protects those within.

Carthage Opera HouseDuring the construction of the subway lines, one of

the methods used for building the tunnels was the"blast and cover" method of excavation. A trenchwas dug in the street, 50 feet deep at times. The trackwas laid, and then the trench would be capped,covered over and the street rebuilt.

During one such project, on Lower Broadwayaround Union Square, the trench was dug far toodeeply, and de-stabilized the surrounding buildings.One of the buildings, the famed Carthage OperaHouse, slid on its foundation, and crashed to thebottom of the trench. The excavation company incharge of that section of the track lost their contract,and the trench was filled in (eventually, another trackran near the area, but this one was built with soundertechnology). The Carthage Opera House wasforgotten.

However, the UnderWorlders discovered thenearly-intact building, and have maintained it as bestas they can. The velvet chairs may be a little bitmusty, but there has been no sunlight to fade thecarpets or wallpaper, the brass railings still gleam,and every night, there is a grand performance uponthe stage of the Carthage.

The Opera House has become one of the centers ofentertainment in the UnderWorld. Many Lords travelwell outside of their domains to view performances atthis plush and opulent grande damme of the theatre.

The Devil of Grand CentralIn her book, The Mole People (see Chapter VIII),

Jennifer Toth talks briefly of The Dark Angel--a manwho lives many levels beneath Grand CentralStation, who, according to some of the areahomeless, is the devil himself. The tales that someshare with her, along with her own encounter withThe Dark Angel is certainly disturbing, leading her toconclude that at the very least, this man is adangerous psychotic who exudes an almost palpableaura of evil.

What Toth could not have realized, though, is thatthe Dark Angel is the devil...or at least a reflection ofhim. He is a Legendary, created from the Radianceand shaped by the fears of millions. A distillation ofevery evil impulse the City generates, he lives in alair beneath Grand Central, his influence spreadingaround him like the strands of a web. He rules thissingle location absolutely, but has no subjects--noone else lives there. Still, denizens of theUnderWorld can encounter his disciples--those whowish to share his power...and characters may eventravel to the Dark Angel's lair looking for some sortof information that only he possesses, like thewitches in the wilderness of the fairy tales.

The Conductor should give the Dark Angel enoughpower to strike fear into the hearts of his Players.

Old BonesBelow Penn Station and Madison Square Garden

is a cavern that has been worn away by erosion andconstruction. This chamber is one of the junctions ofthe UnderWorld—a highly traveled spot, whichconnects several dozen major passageways, andmyriad minor ones. To get from one tunnel toanother across this gaping expanse, theUnderWorlders placed a latticed web of rusting oldsteel girders from buildings all over town, criss-crossing the chamber at all levels, like some bizarrehighway overpass.

The UnderWorlders refer to the area as Old Bones.It is a confusing tangle of pathways and girders, andeven those UnderWorlders who know exactly wherethey are going sometimes find themselves lost afterpassing through the junction. It seems as though thearea doesn’t conform to the rules of Euclideangeometry. Or, as some UnderWorlders say,"Sometimes, Old Bones sets you on the path that itwants to…whether you want it or not."

The Sterling PalisadeUrban Legends, particularly amongst the

municipal workers and subway techs that take to thedepths every day, cling to a story about a once-beautiful, but now washed-out clump of tunnels, farbeneath any others, thousands of feet—perhaps miles–beneath the city. Their administrators often chidethem for their superstition.

Truth is, the Sterling Palisade does exist. Createdby the robber Barons in the twenties, it is to subwayswhat the Titanic was to Ocean Liners and theHindenburg to airships. Opulent, superlative, andultimately, disastrous. No one seems to know whathappened to the Sterling Palisade, and if anyonedoes, they sure aren’t talking.

Airy and spacious, the once-glittering Stations—

there are thirteen in all, scattered throughout thecity—are testament to forgotten beauty. During theSeventies the system accidentally became a fresh-water shunt for four years. The years of dust werewashed away, and the eerily beautiful stations appearto be preserved as if frozen in time. The PalisadeStation, located almost exactly a mile beneath theEmpire State Building, is a gigantic curving rotundaarched high around a central column with now-shattered stained glass depicting great moments inhistory leading up to the founding of New York City.The newsstands still contain waterlogged copies ofNewspapers and Magazines form the exact date thecatastrophe took place- Christmas Eve, 1921.

The stations are achingly beautiful, plush, sweet-smelling and warm. There are the remains of a fewstores, even, with mannquins in the windowdisplaying the most Avant-Garde Fashions of theEarly twenties. Rumors hold that some of the safe-deposit boxes still contain millions of dollars worthof gold, jewels, and antiques. The clocks are allstopped at midnight. It has remained untouched likethis to this day.

Simply, any UnderWorlder with a brain in hisbean-can knows better than to venture anywhere evennear the Sterling Palisade. Entire communities havebattled for the right move down there with hopes of aplush life in the warm, beautiful Stations. The losersfind themselves the winners, and the "winners" arenever heard from again. Dozens, perhaps hundreds ofadventurers have ventured to the enticing stationswith plans as noble as rescuing the others who haddisappeared or as base as grabbing as much loot asthey could. None have ever returned.

The mystery of the Sterling Palisade permeates theUnderworld. What is down there? What does it want?Will it ever venture out? So far, whatever menacesthe beautiful stations remains a mystery, but it seemsto ignore anything that does not come bother it’sdomain. Whether or not this will remain the case is,like everything else concerning the nightmareparadise, unknown.

The Boiler Yards

There was once a man who was little else butsinew and bone. In search of his fortune he roamedthe Old West. He didn’t find it; however, in the bittergold fields of Alaska he did find two things: a gift forinvention and a loathing of all things cold. WhenSimeon Kletch returned to his native New York, fateand a terrible winter storm drove him Down Below.Three days of wandering wind swept tunnels,meeting strange people and struggling for his lifemade their mark on Kletch. He knew he wasn’tgoing back, but, by the Radiance, he wasn’t gonna becold.

To this day, speculation runs as to how the buddingArtificer managed to get three freight locomotivesdown to Brier’s Cavern. Everyone gave up long agoon how he managed to suspend them twenty feetabove the cavern floor [supposedly with the chainsthat had once bound the titan, Prometheus, if youbelieve such things] and set them into eternal motion.Simeon never spoke about it only that: "Train enginesare the hottest damn things I’ve ever seen, so I used‘em". To help channel the heat he created a legion ofsmall, burrowing machines he called ‘mole-mites’ todig convection tunnels throughout the UnderWorld.

Most don’t care how he did it; they’re just gratefulfor the Boiler Yard’s heat.

VaudevilleThere is a place where the dreams of Broadway

hopefuls go to die. It is a junkyard of the nostalgic,an outpost of simpler times and happier days. It hascollected the lost hopes and bitter regrets of NewYork for over a century. To search for Vaudeville, isto search for a time and place that only exists in thememory of the old.

Why then brave the dark roads that lead toVaudeville? The magic of the stage and the power ofwords to move hearts, expand minds. There iswonder there and danger as well. Many seekers havefallen prey to Vaudeville’s overpowering ennui andspent the rest of their days wishing for a past theynever experienced or reliving their greatest regretsover and over again.

The Brooklyn SoundWhere the ‘Sound begins is at least as great a

mystery as where it ends. At one time the BrooklynSound flowed through the caverns of the UnderWorldat random. At times it rushed with the brutality of aflash flood, yet emptied into caves where it was littlemore than a trickle. Captain Uridian and hislegendary vessel, The Albatross seemed to havechanged that. The very action of charting most of the‘Sound seemed to lock the river into its course, andits path is now, somewhat, predictable. It flowsthrough much of the UnderWorld, but it takes aspecial vessel to follow its course, for at certainpoints it flows upwards.

Several of the caverns that the ‘Sound flowsthrough have taken on bizarre tonal qualities. Thesounds of the flowing river bounce off stalactites andback at the water causing odd reverberations. Mostship crews have taken to putting wax stoppers in theirears to block out the sounds. Those that haven’t tendto go insane. Many of those maddened by the riverclaim it was speaking to them. Most would like todismiss such talk, but the River Crazies do seem toknow the strangest things and more than a few secrets

that others thought were well kept…

The Silent CityDeep in the lower tunnels is a place that few

UnderWorlders dare to go. The Silent City is a hugecavern of mythical proportions, about twenty storiestall and about as large as Midtown. Impossibly, agentle wind blows through, but there’s no othermovement. The Silent City is a junkyard, a grave foreverything that the city has forgotten. Old billboardsand neon signs from the twenties, trolley cars, ancientpinball machines, rusted tractor trailers and graffiti-covered subway cars lay stacked and forgotten. Theentire area is permeated with a maddening quiet, andthe strange domed ceilings seem to absorb sound. Inthe Silent City, a scream sounds like a whisper, andanything less is inaudible.

Naturally, this makes it an excellent place formonsters of all stripes to hunt, and it serves assomething of a headquarters for the fearsomeSchrechtenkafer (see monsters, later in this chapter).

Like most of the areas of the Underworld, The

Silent City is a mystery. No one is quite sure whobrought all of the items into the cavern, or whatpurpose the massive collection of junk serves. PittedWallDogs, Rusting cars and even desiccatedairplanes litter the grounds. The mass seems to becentered around some flickering old neon signs andwhat looks like an old ruin of some sort. It’s believedthat this ruin was some sort of altar to theScherecktenkafer once, but it’s unknown who mighthave put it there. If there is some sort of cultdedicated those monsters, it’s long since gone…

Or just very well hidden.

The Hundred Candle VaultThe first fear that most experience is nyctophopia:

fear of the dark. So many children, so many years,one day the fear awoke, and it was hungry. Nearly acentury ago a formless horror preyed through thedepths of the UnderWorld slaying all in its path. Aband of heroes formed a desperate plan to seal thenameless thing in a prison of light. All but two ofthem fell trapping it: Lord Steam, the artificer whoconceived of the Vault and the junkman, The AnalogKid. As long as light shines in the Hundred-CandleVault the Dark Fear can’t escape.

The Vault is a massive cavern filled with lights ofevery shape and description. Kerosene lanterns sitside by side with real candles and florescent lamps.Myriad, the Fey owner of the Glass Convection, atavern that lies within the Vault, makes certain thatthe real candles are continually replaced with freshones.

It is no accident that Myriad choose the vault as alocation for her tavern, she also, was one of theheroes that fought the Dark, though she has longconcealed this fact. Steam’s lights weren’t enough tohold the thing, there is also an enchantment, keyed to101 tallow candles, that binds the Fear.

Roach Motel 6Everyone knows Roach Motel 6, and everyone

tries to avoid it. Located under the Bronx, anyone

approaching it can tell it from pretty far away by itsincredible stench. It is, in its entirety, a three-storybrownstone in a cavern just large enough to house athree-story brownstone. The rooms inside appear tobe seedy hotel rooms, complete with fifties-styleinteriors, black-and-white televisions, and 25-cent"magic finger" beds.

No one knows how it got there, but it has becomethe home of a colony of the largest roaches anyonehas had the gross misfortune to see. Averaging abouta foot and a half long, the roaches are located rightnear the flux point of the Subway mantra. It’s unclearwhat they eat, although they have been seen draggingoff cats on occasion. They vary in intelligence. Mostare as about smart as a dog, some are of ordinaryroach level, and some even seem to near humanlevels of intelligence. For the most part, they aren’tdangerous to people, although immensely disturbing.On the other hand, Mole People savor the GiantRoaches as a delicacy. (It is worth noting thatwatching the Mole People eat their prized roacheshas been known to even make JUNKMEN sick.)

Roach Motel 6 is a sacred place to the MolePeople, and they make sure only to take enoughRoaches so as to prevent diminishing the colony. Inrecent years, however, the colonyhas gotten a little too large, andhas begun spilling into other areas.Despite this, no measure have beentaken for fear of angering the MolePeople. Rumors persist that theroaches may be pushing topside. Ifthis is the case, something must bedone.

Triangle ShirtwaistStation

In Queens, there is a certain spot onthe R line that seems a little warmerthan the rest of the line. You’d nevernotice it if you weren’t looking for it. Beneath themetro- transit line is a blazing inferno that popped

into being around the twenties. The perpetuallyburning station is called "Triangle ShirtwaistStation," and it is believed that the legendary factoryfire might have had something to do with thesubterranean inferno. The sounds of girls screamingand the smell of burning skin precedes the "Station",but few have managed to actually get in and lookaround because of the flames, which roar so hot thateven the toughest junkmen won’t get very far inside.For the most part, the UnderWorlders leave it alone

Monsters

The UnderWorld isn’t just home to Breeds andGuilds. There are also creatures down in the tunnelsand caverns, running along the tracks and prowlingthrough the tunnels, that have never been seen in theworld the world above.

Track RabbitsSomewhere between Rats and Jackrabbits, these

nasty, disease-spreading beasts are fast and vicious.They’re also pretty good eating. Track Rabbits areabout two foot long rodents with long ears, nakedtails, and powerful legs. Their eyes are comparativelysmall, but the have a large, bulbous organ towards thefront of their heads that serves to aid in echolocation.

Track Rabbits eat rats and mice, but won’thesitate to make a meal of anything thatcomes too close to their nests, including

animals much larger than themselves.Fortunately, their nasty disposition means than

not even the Ferals have any real objection to theoccasional Track Rabbit getting roasted up for an

evening’s meal. As one wouldexpect, they taste like chicken, albeita little gamy.

Game Stats:Defining Traits: Wild,

PerceptiveSkills: Fighting, Tracking

Special Abilities: None

The Late TrainIn the early 1900’s the Metro-Transit authority

realized it was sitting on a surplus of over a dozenseparate fully functional trains. The unwitting TransitAuthority hatched a plan to put an extra train on thelines that would "Pick up the slack" on off days whenother trains were running late or problems had arisen.This experimental project went into operation Friday,November 13, 1913. It was called the Late train.

Unfortunately, the train’s erratic movementsaround the runic pattern of the subway tracks causedall forms of bizarre occurrences to take place. Thingsfell up. People’s personalities randomly switched.Strange, dangling lights would occasionally be seenoutside the windows. Cars would inexplicablyrearrange themselves between stations. As theweirdness steadily grew worse, word came down thatthe project was to be scrapped.

And by that time, the train wasn’t having it. Theynever found the bodies.

It’s a story that mothers in UnderWorld tell theirchildren to make them behave, but the elder swearthat it is true—a Sentient subway awakened by it’sown Radiance, mad beyond imagining and carryingthe ghosts of hundreds that have disappeared within.The Late Train prowls the tunnels searching forvictims, the dark, forgotten god of the UnderWorld,and it will accept no other before it.

Lord of the Radiance and master of dozens offorms of Magic, the Late Train is capable of goingpretty much wherever it wants. It has been known tolay track out ahead of itself while chasing a victimdown an unlikely tunnel. Similarly, it can easilycreate new tunnels simply by smashing throughwherever it wants to go. It can change it’s shape andappear as it’s original turn-of-the-century form, acobbled-together patchwork of trains throughout theages, An ordinary modern-age train of anydesignation from any city, or even it’s "true" form—a writhing metal centipede thousands of feet long,with a cruel maw like a steam engine skull full ofrailroad-spike teeth.

There are only two things that the Late Train fears-Water and light. There are a few accounts of variouspeople having tricked the Train into sewer tunnels orbetter yet, the above-ground trestles. The Navigator

duo Gomer and Mina , Goodfella Robin, and evenRector himself, to name a few. Still, for the most part,the nightmarish Late Train is one of the most feareddenizens of UnderWorld. It’s been dormant for aboutten years now, but the first trainload of people on the1 and 9 out of Time Square after the Millenniumdisappeared completely, and sightings have begunagain.

The Late Train is back on schedule.Game Stats:Defining Traits: Pretty much all of them.Skills: See above.

Subway DragonsImmense, ancient, and filled with a malevolent

intelligence, Subway Dragons are the last remnantsof this legendary species, driven underground bymankind’s expansion. Now, their final refuge hasbeen invaded, and the Subway Dragons are not at allpleased by this development. They are solitarycreatures, and dislike being disturbed. They willfiercely defend their territory against incursions.

Some UnderWorlders seek out the Dragons, andattempt to negotiate with them, for the Dragons arethe premiere authority on the UnderWorld—theyknow where the secret chambers are, and areintimately familiar with all of the legends andhistories that have been forgotten over time. If aLibrarian is unable to help, you can be sure that aDragon will have your answer, if you can avoid beingkilled long enough to ask.

Game Stats:Defining Traits: Huge (Subway Dragons have an

extra two levels of wounds, at the "Unharmed" level),Fierce, Veteran, Strong.

Skills: Fighting, Lore, SavvySpecial Abilities: Fear (see Chapter III), Most

forms of Magic, Teeth and Claws do 4 coins ofdamage, Fire Breath (Range: Immediate, Damage: 5)

Schrecktenkafer ("Fear Bugs")Individually, these ugly, three-inch-long, long

antennaed, zebra-striped, hopping, wingless insectsaren’t much of a threat. Unfortunately, there’s no

such thing as an individual Schrectenkafer. TheSchrecktenkafer are psychic insects, and they areresponsible for much of man’s fear of bugs. TheSchrecktenkafer wouldn’t have it any other way.They need fear to survive. They quite literally eatfear.

Schrectenkafers live in colonies of 100,000 to500,000 members. The colonies typically take theform of the last meal they have consumed, so it is notunlikely for a colony to appear as a hazy, blurry,indistinct human or animal form from faraway. Colonies have a single massintelligence that can be quite high, and easilyrivals human. Some believe the bugs areheld together by the ghosts of theirvictims, like insectoid junkmen. Somecolonies, particularly those higher instatus due to age or size, will wear coloredrobes as symbols of respect. Colonies canspeak by rubbing their legs against theircarapaces like a cricket. Depending on howmany are speaking at once, the sound canbe almost deafening.

Schrectenkafer will go to great lengthsto cultivate fear, and are well aware the bestway to frighten an individual is to kill andconsume their companions. A SchrectenkaferColony has been known to skeletonize a dog inunder ten minutes. This action and oneslike it often produces the results theFear Bugs seek. A swarm ofSchrenctenkafer does 6 coins ofdamage in a single attack.

The task of procreation isdangerous to Fear Bugs. When thecouncil has decided a new colony is needed,a single, bug-level intelligence insect is dischargedtopside. This bug finds a sleeping human and placesit’s orvapitor in the human’s chest, face, or arm, andbegins depositing hundreds of eggs. The processusually takes an hour, after which the depositor bugcrawls off and dies. The human will notice an itchylump for a few days, and will eventually scratch thewound open, spilling thousands of tiny blackscuttling Schrectenkafer larva everywhere. This

initial burst of shock, fear and revulsion is almostalways enough to guarantee the fledgling colony willgrow quite strong. Soon after, the young colonyretreats beneath the Earth to meet with the Counciland learn their duties.

The Schrectenkafer actively seek to subjugate theUnderworld. This was not always the case, but recentdevelopments have put ideas in the insect’s heads.The burst of fear that certain humans experiencewhen approached by the police in New York City,regardless of their guilt, is pleasing to the FearBugs. The bugs assume that the police must kill andbeat these arbitrary (Bugs can’t see color) membersof the human population because they consume fear

as the Schrecktenkafers do. As the Fear Bugs see it,the Human Police enjoy the flavor offear the humans in areas like Flatbush,Flushing, and Harlem produce.

The Fear Bugs have elected a mayorand will soon begin a project they

call "Operation Condor, "Wherein they stake out certaincommunities and patrol them. Tothis end, some of the youngercolonies have even taking todevising uniforms forthemselves. The fear bugs willhave their own fear farm soon,

and the entire UnderWorldwill be the harvest.

G a m eStats:

Defining Traits: Vicious,Strong (in a swarm)

Skills: Fighting, Stealth

LavaboysIf you get lost in the lower tunnels, watch out!

These pudgy little orange, glowing men may appearfriendly, but they are really tricky little mothers.Lavaboys tend to be around one to two feet tall,softly rounded, and made of molten rock. It’sunknown how or why they came into being, but they

are capricious and mischievous, not to mention apudgy, roly-poly ball of the hottest substance onearth.

Lavaboys leave little flaming footprints that laterharden to little stone footprints, making them easyenough to track. They pop out of cracks in the lowesttunnels and play tricks on anyone they meet. They’renot evil or even particularly cruel, but very dangerousin that they exceed temperatures of several thousanddegrees. (damage 5 if touched) They have startedmany fires by accident, but at least seem genuinelysorry after they do so. They do realize that they burnpeople by touch, and usually retain a safe distance,but have no qualms about pointing someone in thewrong direction or burning though a bridge to dumpsomeone in the water.

Lavaboys don’t seem to speak, but they can beplenty expressive anyway. They have the ability toshapeshift into simple shapes- a ball, a wheel, or acylinder, for example, and that aids theircommunication. They seem to have a particularinterest in the Junkmen, but only time willtell what the strange little elementals areup to.

Game Stats:Defining Traits: Small, AgileSkills: Acrobatics, Climbing

GrillcrackersPerhaps the world’s first

wheeled animals, Grillcrackersare tough, ornery beasts thatresemble a cross between a Volkswagen and anArmored dinosaur. They move in small herds of up toten members, eating the moss and lichen that growsunderground. Grillcrackers’s wheels seem to growfrom their tough shells, and they spin the axles withstrong vestigal feet. They can reach speed of overforty miles an hour.

Grillcrackers charge when provoked, and sport anasty horn that can go through cinderblock. Still,

Grillcrackers can be tamed and make excellentmounts. Tame Grillcrackers are a common sight insome of the UnderWorld Markets. Their extremestrength makes them valuable to merchants andnavigators.

There is a trade in Hollowed-out Grillcrackershells as well, however. It’s not too difficult to installa motor in the shell and have a decently serviceablevehicle. What’s more, the meat is a little tough buttastes a lot like pork. Recently, severalUnderWorlders have united in an attempt to buy upenough land to start a Grillcracker farm. Many of theolder denizen hold that this will only end in disaster,but are noticably vague when questioned why.

Game Stats:Defining Traits: Strong, Tough, FastSkills: Fighting, Transport.

The IlowenThere is a cavern, deep in the UnderWorld, hidden

from the foolish and the weak. It is home to the lastremnants of an ancient people, a race

of crafters and once, dreamers. Arace who have almost given upon ever breaking their bitter

curse. Once the Ilowen mademarvels that all beingsenvied, and their riches grewbeyond counting. Wise menand heroes would crosscontinents for an hour of their

time for there was nothing theycould not forge, no device they couldn’t

conceive of. In their arrogance, they mocked theGods and thought themselves untouchable. Theywere wrong.

One day, the Ilowen as a race awoke to findthemselves stripped of their most preciouspossession: their imaginations. For their greed andfor their pride, they were brought low. From that dayto this, the Ilowen have never been able to createanything without the direction of another. Theirskills linger still, but their fire has gone out.

To break their curse the Ilowen must create

something that has never existed, on this world, orany other. Something truly new. To that end, theyaccept likely sounding commissions for their work inthe hope that one of their clients will conceive ofsomething that will save them. They will not acceptwork that they have done in the past, and the Ilowenhave a long memory. Few indeed are the implementsof war and destruction that haven’t long since passedthrough their workshops. Then, too, there is thematter of the fee. Sometimes a trifle, sometimes alife, sometimes the impossible. Truly imaginativeclients are often offered whatever they wish, if onlythey will stay for a time and think of other devices forthe Ilowen to create.

The Ilowen, as a race, resemble upright geckomen. They stand less than three feet tall, withmassive eyes and clever, webbed hands. The walls ofthe UnderWorld are easily scalable for them, and theyoften travel on cavern ceilings to avoid predators.Their youths sometimes travel through the highercaverns seeking adventure and hoping for inspiration.

Game Stats:Defining Traits: Untiring, Energetic, AgileSkills: Engineering,

SandhogsLarge, burrowing animals, about the size of a

hippopotamus. Sandhogs are able to tunnel throughsolid rock as if it were loose dirt. Their claws are ashard as diamond, and are highly prized—manyUnderWorlders like to use Sandhog claws as knives.

Game Stats:Defining Traits: Large, Tough, StrongSkills: Climbing, Fighting, Engineering (for digging)Special Abilities: Claws do 6 coins of damage.

White WormsThe deepest caverns, miles below the surface, is the

realm of the White Worms. These albino earthwormsgrow to as long as 150 feet, and nearly 12 feet indiameter. They burrow blindly through the lowestlevels of the UnderWorld, creating new tunnels intheir wake. They are not intelligent—although theystill represent a threat, as they mindlessly chewthrough anything that lies along their path.

Game Stats:Defining Traits: Huge (2 extra wound levels),

Strong, Tough

Skills: Engineering (for digging)Special Abilities: Will destroy anything in their

way. Also takes no penalties from wounds.Other creatures will appear in future UnderWorld releases.

Personas

What follows are some of the more famousmembers of UnderWorld society, who might beencountered by your Main Characters.

Lord Steam & The Analog KidIt is difficult to speak of either of these without the

other, for they have fought side by side for over acentury. The Great Artificer Lord Steam is 5’1/2 feettall. His bright blue eyes dance merrily behind amassive set of brass rimmed trifocals. He has brightwhite hair, and a sharp wit that spears all around him.He should have been dead years ago, but heconverted most of his bloodstream to electricity,heightening his lifespan considerably. Lord Steamsuffers from Stage One Manic Depression.

The Analog Kid is a Junkman with the soul of ahero from the Old West. Steam has upgraded theKid’s body over the years, and his present form ispowered by a Radiance-fueled atomic clock. Hiseyes have always been made from various pocketwatches, the origin of his name.

Lord SteamHomeless ArtificerDefining Traits: Inventive, FierceSecondary Skills: Fighting, Tracking, Contacts

(UnderWorld)Magic: NoneSalvage Tech: Jacob’s Hammer (see example in

Chapter IV), Tool Belt (generates Artificer’s toolsthrough manipulation of the Radiance (Creationoperant), others as needed.

Weapons: None, except the above

The Analog KidJunkman BravoDefining Traits: Strong, Tough, LoyalSecondary Skills: Empathy, Lore, Savvy,

Observation, Climbing, TrackingMagic: NoneBuilt-in Salvage Tech: Jackhammer hand (Range:

Personal, Damage:5), Jet assist (single-shot speedburst, bestowing 2 coins worth of "Fast"), Self-repairing armor (3 coins of damage reduction).

Weapons: None

Captain Uridian & The AlbatrossThe first time Jonas Uridian laid eyes on the

Brooklyn Sound, he knew where his destiny lay. Ittook him thirteen years and five tries to build a shipthat was up to the challenge though. The Albatross isthat ship and she lives up to her legend. She’s a crossbetween a steam locomotive, a tugboat, and abulldozer. Great metal hooks used for climbing comeup over her bow and a set of tank treads are woveninto her sides. Baring size, there is no place she can’tgo.

As for Uridian, he’s just over 5 feet tall and a longshore man from birth. He usually wears a wide-brimmed hat with large ostrich plumes and effects apirate’s patois. He and his crew haul cargo humanand otherwise, up and down the ‘Sound.

Jonas UridianHomeless NavigatorDefining Traits: Charming, Courageous, Jack of

All TradesSecondary Skills: Savvy, First Aid, GamesMagic: Guiding Light, 5 Acorns, Romper MirrorWeapons: Cutlass (Range: personal, Damage: 3)

The AlbatrossLarge Size (20 passengers or cargo)Transportation, WaterTransportation, Ground (Tracked and Legged)3 Coins worth of damage Repair 3 Coins worth of manipulation (metal climbing hooks)Long range voice communication.

Eisric DaneCalled "the Great Dane" by both friends and

enemies, Eisric Dane may be one of the mostdangerous men in the entire UnderWorld. Eisric is aLegendary, formed from people’s hope that there arestill champions for truth in this cynical world. Apiece of Marlowe, a touch of Spade & a hint of TheDark Knight make Dane a force to be reckoned with.Unfortunately, his unseen enemies are equallypowerful. Dane was banished from the Librarian’sGuild for the supposed pursuit of forbiddenknowledge. Dane seeks to know who built theSubway’s and why, reasoning that the accumulationof the Radiance in the UnderWorld is no accident.Experience tells him that he’s not going to like thereason when he finds it.

Dane wears an artifact greatcoat called, "theRighteous Trench". The surface of the coat iscovered with slowly shifting runes. As long as Eisricseeks justice for all and helps those in need, it makeshim immune to Immediate and Distance rangedweapons and causes him to regenerate (heals 1wound level per 2 turns).

Eisric DaneLegendary Outcast (Ex-Librarian)Defining Traits: Intuitive, Clever, ToughSecondary Skills: Fighting, Contacts (UnderWorld),

ObservationMagic: Righteous Trench (see above)Special Abilities: Dane is destined to always get to

the bottom of whatever he’s investigating, as did thearchetypes that he is based on. This powerful ability,however, comes with a price—like those archetypes,his investigations attract powerful enemies.

Weapons: None (used to carry a .45, but lost it)

IthioOne of the grimmest Bravos of the UnderWorld,

mothers send their children to bed with theadmonition: "Behave, or Ithio will come for you."Ithio is a living piece of the Dark Fear that liestrapped in the Hundred-Candle Vault. Being ratherfond of his sentience, he has no intention of lettingthe Dark out, as he’s rather certain he would be re-absorbed immediately. One of his eyes is solid blackand lidless, reflecting his innards. When the Fearwas first bound, it called to Ithio and part of itsessence erupted from his left eye. He sewed hiswound shut with sinews from a dead saint’s hand.Ithio can step between shadows at will. The lastthing that most of Ithio’s victims hear is the soft"shing" of his blades scraping together. Those hetruly respects get to see one or two sparks before theygo.

IthioLegendary BravoDefining Traits: Vicious, Strong, ToughSecondary Skills: Tracking, Observation, LoreMagic: Ithio’s knives are relics ( 3 Damage, and

they give him 2 coins to resist damage)Weapons: See above.Special Ability: If Ithio steps into any Shadow,

and makes 2 successes on a three-coin Head Count,he seeps into it, and can step out of any other Shadowin the UnderWorld. Not a good thing.

Goodfella Robin,Knight of the Lesser Boulevards

Robin is a Legendary—the embodiment of thePuck, Robin Goodfellow, filtered through a distinctlyNew York state of mind. He operates as a Bravo inthe service of Rector, Lord of the Lesser Boulevards,as Rector’s Captain and main "go-to guy".

He is a jovial friend, but a fierce combatant whencrossed, and his trickster nature makes him a worthyadversary for any villain he encounters.

Robin is a short man, with curly red hair and aconstantly amused expression. He wears clothingthat could best be described as "dramatic"—a literaldefinition, since he found his velvet frock-coat, woolvest, silk shirt and cranberry ascot in a basementcostume closet of a Broadway theatre. His friendstell him that it clashes with his torn blue jeans andTimberland boots, but he doesn’t care.

Goodfella RobinLegendary BravoDefining Traits: Clever, Mischievous, Jack of All

TradesSecondary Skills: Lore, Games, TriviaMagic: Life Stone, Mob Cap, Umbrella o’

Impending DoomWeapons: Usually carries a sword (Range:

Personal, Damage:4)Special Abilities: The Puck can fly (although he

doesn’t like to—"says it takes a lot out of him"), andcan only be harmed by iron weapons, or magic.

Other UndersThe UnderWorld presented in this game is only

one facet—the facet that exists below New York City,the largest city in North America. It is not the onlyUnderWorld.

Any place that has managed to develop a methodof replenishing the Radiance (usually in the form of a

Subway, although there might be other methods) hasan UnderWorld beneath it, unique to that location.Each UnderWorld has the same Breeds and Guildsthat are present here, although there might beadditional Breeds and/or Guilds specific to that city.

Travel between the UnderWorlds is rare, butpossible. There are some tunnels, thousands of milesin length, that travel between UnderWorlds, but sincethese are often the result of the burrowing of WhiteWorms, they seldom follow a straight path, and canoften meander incredibly long distances to reach anUnderWorld that is only a few hundred miles away.To travel these tunnels, you’d have to find them first,and then you’d have to hope that you encountered noworms (or other opposition) along the way.

There are magical methods of travel, as well. Astory is told of an adventure had by Goodfella Robin,in which he fell into a poster on a subway platformwall, only to come out of an identical poster on a wallin the Charing Cross station of the LondonUnderground. Of course, he never specifies whichposter it was—he keeps that secret to himself.

It is generally assumed that UnderWorlds existbeneath London, Paris, Rome, Tokyo, Moscow,Delhi, Toronto, Los Angeles and San Francisco.Travellers from those UnderWorlds have appeared inthe NYC UnderWorld before. There is a probabilitythat there are more, at various locations beneath theworld. If the area has an extensive system ofsubterranean tunnels and caverns, there is probably abastion of the UnderWorld, no matter how small.

The UpWorld

What of the World Above?

The civilization that exists on top of the tunnels ofthe UnderWorld should be more than familiar toplayers of this game—it is the world that we allinhabit. What effect, though, do events in that worldhave upon the UnderWorld?

The two worlds are connected. Nothing canhappen in either world that does not affect the other.Were a hurricane to strike New York City (as nearlyhappened during the creation of this game—it"downgraded" to a high-end tropical storm before it

hit), it would certainly have an effect upon the WorldBelow. Great rushing torrents of water, pouring intoevery storm drain and subway tunnel, was a sight tobehold for we who live in the World Above—and hada potentially devastating affect upon the UnderWorld.Great floods pouring through the tunnels, a suddendrop in RadCounts, as the subways shut down,blocking the replenishing flow of Radiance…itwould have been an epic struggle for the denizens ofthe Domains.

Think along those line when deciding how surfaceevents would affect the UnderWorld—even a smallnews item for us might have more ramificationsbelow. For example, an initiative by a residentsassociation to lobby the city for construction of a 2ndAvenue subway line (currently there are no subwaysin Manhattan east of Lexington Avenue, aninconvenience for East Side residents). This storyhas the potential to greatly change the landscape ofthe UnderWorld, not to mention adding anotherdynamic to the pattern that replenishes theRadiance—who is behind it? Is this an innocenteffort on the part of inconvenienced city residents, oris it more? Could it be the next step in the plan ofwho-or what-ever implemented the design of thesubways, or perhaps a political maneuver by oneDomain to ruin another, which lies in the proposedpath of the new line? The adventure possibilitiesbegin to stack up.

Keep in mind, as well, that despite the fact thatalmost all UpWorlders are ignorant of what happensbeneath their feet, there are some that have learned ofthe UnderWorld. Transit police who work thesubway stations might have an idea of what’s goingon, not to mention the construction crews who digand repair the tunnels, or the conductors andmotormen who operate the trains. Homelessoutreach programs sometimes send teams into thetunnels with medicine and food—what might theyencounter in the World Below? Have theyencountered it already?

The adventures that take place within theUnderWorld will always have some element of theUpWorld about them, whether implicitly, orexplicitly. As above, so below. That has been the lawof things from the beginning of time.

Sub-Rosa SubwayBy Gareth-Michael Skarka

February 25th, 1870The basement of Devlin's Clothing Store at Murray

Street and Broadway

Alfred Ely Beach stretched his back, feeling thejoints pop—the release of tension not only fromworking within the cramped confines of the tunnel,but stress over the fate of his venture.

The pneumatic subway was a success when hedemonstrated its principles at the American InstituteFair in 1867. He had proven then that the inventionwould work.

A single train car could be propelled down a lengthof tunnel by the vortices of an immense fan. The fan,also known as the "Roots Patent Force Blast Blower,"was designed to move the train at a top speed of tenmiles an hour. The car would be driven the length ofthe tube like a boat before the wind.

The project had cost him dearly. Nearly $350,000,if his last calculations were correct. It was the onlyway, however. The political corruption that was rifein New York made it impossible to get anything donewithout bribes and graft paid to Tammany Hall.Beach had been unwilling to engage in the politics ofvice, and so funded the project himself. Thetunneling, the construction, everything…done insecret, without the knowledge of Boss Tweed, or anyother citizens of New York City, apart from his workcrew.

Now, he was ready to unveil the work. The tunnelran 312 feet, from Murray Street to Warren Street. Ashort ride, to be sure, but more than enough toconvince the journalists and members of polite

society that the system would function. Damn Tweedand his cronies—the public support of the pneumaticrailway would overwhelm the politicians with wavesof enthusiasm, and Beach would get his charter tocontinue construction.

Beach sat at the bench of the grand piano that hehad installed in the waiting room. He knew that thepublic would never deign to ride on the subway, letalone support it, if they had to enter a dank, drearytunnel. To that end, Beach had designed an opulentwaiting room, 120 feet long, and embellished with afountain, ornate paintings and sculptures, a piano andeven a tank with live goldfish. Customers on theBeach Pneumatic Subway would find themselves inan elegant parlor lit with zircon lamps.

"You’ve done well, Alfred." The voice startledBeach, but not as much as it used to—he had becomeaccustomed to these visits.

He looked up as the figure emerged from thetunnel. Its features were shrouded, as always in thehooded black robes that it wore. The lamps in theparlor allowed occasional glimpses of its features,pallid and drawn, deep within the recesses of shadowcast by the cloth.

"This is a marvel you have constructed, Alfred,and only the first step—the first line drawn in acomplex pattern that will change the world."

Beach sighed. "Assuming that the charter isgranted."

The figure shook its head dismissively. "The diehas been cast now, Alfred. There is no turning backfrom this point. Even in the event that the fools rejectyour proposal, you have crossed the Rubicon. Thefuture lies underground."

That was cold comfort, Beach thought. If thecharter is denied, I’m the one who has bankruptedhimself, not my mysterious benefactor. The man hadgiven him valuable instruction regarding the

tunneling process, though, and ideas for the inventionof his tunneling machine. Beach remained silent.

"I think we have more to worry about from theMole People than we do from any surface-dwellingpoliticians. They are not well pleased about whatthey see as an invasion of their territory." Thehooded figure said, peering into the depths of thegoldfish tank. The fish, oblivious to their observer,described their endless cycle of two-second journeys,trapped within their own memory spans.

Beach paled. "Will there be trouble?" Visions ofarmed subterranean Hottentots, pouring through histunnel and slaughtering the assembled worthies attomorrow’s opening ran unabated through his mind.

"Not of any direct kind, I shouldn’t think. TheMole People are numerous, but they dislikeconfrontations—a solitary race. Besides, I think yourtunnel is too close to the surface for them to becomfortable."

Beach pondered that point. His visitor often madereferences such as this—hints and statements thatintimated the existence of an immense network ofpre-existing caverns and tunnels beneath New York,filled with many creatures, both benign andmalevolent. Beach felt the cold, ancestral fear of thedark crawl up within him.

"Such is not for you to concern yourself with ,Alfred." His visitor continued. You have nothing tofear in that regard. Your efforts shall insure theglorious future of mankind—the next step of history.A reclamation of the age of wonders and heroism!"

"Heroism isn’t my trade, sir." Beach laughed."Science is where my strengths lie."

The visitor nodded. Beach could not clearly seehis face, but he thought he detected a smile in thevoice. "To be sure. It is your science, Alfred, and thescience of your antecedents, which will propelmankind into its new era. Your inventions, and thoseof men very much like you, will plumb the verydepths of the world. The pattern begins here. Youhelp to usher in a new age, Alfred. An age ofRadiance."

At the time, Beach considered it to be an oddchoice of words.

The Beach Pneumatic Subway won approval fromthe New York state legislature in 1873. Beach'sperseverance had paid off—however, Beach's victory

was pyrrhic at best. He was physically, monetarily,and emotionally wasted. Inflation had forced his costestimates from $5 million to $10 million, all of whichhad to be raised from financiers, such as John JacobAstor.

Unfortunately, Astor wanted no part of Beach orhis subway. Other financiers refused him funds; oneafter another of Beach's attempts to raise cash failed,until in 1873 Governor Dix withdrew the charter forBeach's Pneumatic Subway.

New York's first subway remained forgotten untilFebruary 1912 when a construction crew—diggingfor a new Broadway subway, the BMT—dug throughthe wall of the Beach tunnel. The ornate waitingroom, in all of its opulent splendor, was still there.

ConductingThe Conductor’s role is one of the most important

parts of UnderWorld. It is the Conductor that makesthe world come alive for the players, throughpresentation of the setting, and portrayal ofSecondary Characters. The Conductor creates theadventures that the players shape through theircharacter’s actions. The Conductor’s job is made upof equal parts of actor, writer, record-keeper anddirector. A daunting task, especially for beginningrole-players.

It is recommended that the Conductor be the mostexperienced member of the playing group, or, barringthat, the person who has made themselves mostfamiliar with the setting. Potential Conductorsshould have the following abilities:

1) The ability to think on one’s feet. Perhaps themost important skill to possess. Improvisation is thekey to presenting a seamless story for the players.Think of it like jazz—if you’re really good, nobodycan tell that you’re pulling this stuff from the top ofyour head.

2) A firm grasp of the setting. Make the settingyour own. Use the examples provided in this book tocraft individual elements for your own campaign.

3) A firm grasp of the rules. The mechanics of

UnderWorld are fairly simple. When it doubt, call fora Head Count, and base yourdecisions from that.

4) Fairness. TheConductor’s rulings shouldbe even-handed,consistent andunbiased. Neverfavor onep l a y e r ’ scharacter overanother, orfavor yoursettings ands u p p o r t i n gcharacters over themain characters.Nothing is worsefor a player thanhaving to sit back andwatch the plot unfoldthrough the actions ofsupporting characters.

5) A love of thegame. We close withthe second-mostimportant factor toposses. If you’re notenjoying yourself, itwill show, andnobody else will enjoy themselveseither. If it’s not any fun for you, stopdoing it. A forced game is abad game.

Creating and RunningSupporting Characters

The characters portrayed by the players are yourstory’s Main Characters—they are the subjects of the talebeing told. Everyone else that they encounter, from thefaceless crowds they move through, to the snarling Villainwho is as critical to the plot as they, are called SupportingCharacters.

Supporting Characters are the cast of the drama,and it is the job of the Conductor (or his assistants, if

you’re playing a live action game)to bring them tolife. The creation of a Secondary Character is

handled exactly as you wouldhandle the design of any

character. You pick a Breed anda Guild, some secondary

skills, magic, andequipment, and that’s it.

The amount ofdetail you put intothe creation ofS e c o n d a r yCharacters is in directproportion to theirplace within the needsof the adventure thatyou’re crafting. Forexample, the Trader

from whom thecharacters get someinformation is not goingto have to be as detailed

as the power-mad artificerthat they’ll have to combat at

the story’s end.

Give some thought as to therole of the SecondaryCharacter you’re creating, andit should be clear how much

detail is necessary.Given that allmembers of arespective Guildpossess the same

skills, a lot of the work isdone for you in that area. If the Secondary Characteris intended just to be a "walk-on, bit part", theyprobably need no more detail in skills outside ofthose Guild skills. A more detailed SecondaryCharacter would merit some exploration of his or hersecondary skills, since those are the individualizingaspects of the character. If the SC is not intended tobe an individual, but rather just a face in the crowd,that’s probably all that’s needed.

Defining Traits require a bit more thought, but a lotof these can come from the mental image of the

Secondary Character that develops. As the SC beginsto form in your mind, certain characteristics willpresent themselves which can be used as DefiningTraits, whether from the core list of Traits in ChapterII, or via the creation of a new Trait to specifically fitthe situation.

Choosing Magic for a Secondary Character is adecision that is modified by two factors: the SC’s rolein the adventure, and the power level of the MainCharacters. Magic is a great equalizer. A minor SCwould probably not have any, but a major SC,intended to stand on his or her own with the party ofMain Characters, would be expected to have enoughmagic in their possession to stand them on equal (orbetter) footing with the Main Characters. After all,you don’t want to have the playing group struggletheir way through an exciting, complex adventure,only to have them waste the main baddie in a singleturn of combat. Conversely, having the whole groupof Main Characters wiped out in the beginning of thestory in an unplanned bar fight that they picked witha solitary Mole Person is also a good indication that

something went wrong during the SC design stage.

More information regarding Secondary Characterscan be found in the Intuitive Continuity section, laterin this chapter.

Designing and RunningAdventures

An adventure is a single heroic tale, with abeginning, middle and end. An adventure, is not asession, which is single meeting of the playinggroup—nor is it a campaign, which is a series ofconnected adventures which tell the greater story ofthe Main Character’s careers, perhaps even unifiedby a common theme, or an over-arcing plot.

The design of an adventure requires the Conductor

to detail the rudiments of the plot (at least those

elements that are not entirely dependent upon the

actions of the Main Characters), as well as populating

the tale with the Supporting Characters who will be

encountered (see above). Think of an adventure as a

framework.

You can be absolutely certain that at some point

during your experiences with roleplaying games,

your players will, through their character’s actions,

completely invalidate the careful crafting which you

have done on your adventure. They’ll ignore clues,

they’ll go south when you need them to go north, or

they’ll simply pick up what you thought was a minor

plot thread and decide to focus upon it obsessively. It

happens to everyone. If you’ve read many

roleplaying game rulebooks, it will not surprise you

at all to read the following advice—UnderWorld is

not the first game to say this: Let them run. If the

players go "off-track", run with it. Use your

improvisational skills, and you’ll find that before

long, you’re crafting an adventure whose plot is

surprising even to you, it’s nominal creator. Of

course, at this point, the tale

is truly being crafted in

cooperation between the

Conductor and the

players—which is

exactly how it should

be.

The design of your

adventures should be

tailored not only to

the characters in your

group, but to the players as well. Make

the effort to come up with stories

that not only are appropriate to

the type of characters your

group plays, but also the

sort that your players

would find

in t e re s t ing .

Inappropr ia te

adventures (for example, one that takes place almost

entirely in the UpWorld, when you’re group is made

up of Legendaries, Mole People and Junkmen) are

just as bad as uninteresting ones (for example a slow-

moving murder mystery when your players are edge-

of-your-seat action/adventure fans).

Know your players, and know their characters, and

the largest part of the adventure design is already

done for you.

Chapter VII contains a starting adventure, as well

as a system for randomly generating adventure ideas,

which will help you get started with your own tales.

Rewards

At the end of every adventure (not every session—

only when the story at hand is complete), the Main

Characters deserve some form of reward for their

efforts. In most roleplaying games, this comes in

some form of "experience points", by which

the character can improve their abilities,

getting better as time progresses. With a

simple system like UnderWorld,

however, there is not really any room

for improvement—you either posses a

Trait or a Skill, or you don’t.

So, how can your Characters be

rewarded?

There are two methods: Hero

Tokens and Bestowed Ability.

As an adventure ends, the

C o n d u c t o r

s h o u l d

award characters

with between 1 and 5 Hero Tokens. Use the

following formula:

Hero Tokens are kept in reserve—each Token can

be "spent" to give the player an additional coin to

throw on any Head Count.

If the Conductor wishes, rather than waiting until

the end of an adventure, he or she may give out HeroTokens during play, to immediately reward actionstaken by the character—if something the playerdecided to do makes you say "Wow, that’s cool!", it’sprobably worth a Hero Token. Using this method isa great way to encourage certain styles of play,through positive reinforcement.

Bestowed Abilities are simply that--specialabilities that the PC gains through play, that theConductor decides should be permanent.Examples would include new skills, etc.

Designing Campaigns

A campaign is a series of connected adventures.There are various types of campaigns that can berun. This section takes a brief look at some ofthem, which will hopefully give you someideas about what you might like to do withyour own campaigns.

The first type of campaign is called the Series. Itsimply features the adventures of a group of MainCharacters. There is usually no over-archingtheme (other than that inherent to the setting), andno effort to tell a wider story through theadventures. It is similar to the construction of atelevision series (hence the name), featuring thelargely self-contained adventures of a particulargroup of heroes.

A Discovery campaign tells the story of a Normalor group of Normals who stumble upon theUnderWorld and are drawn into what's happeningthere. The adventures of a Discovery campaignwould revolve around the exploration of the setting,and the unveiling of key concepts like the otherBreeds and Guilds. Initial characters (and those thatwould form the focus of the tale) would be Normal,but UnderWorld characters could be brought in to actas guides to the new world (think of Dorothy’sencounters with the Tin Man, Scarecrow and Lion,for example).

The Intrigue campaign is a complex weave ofpolitical maneuvering between power blocs withinthe UnderWorld, whether they are domains, ormerely gangs. These types of campaigns oftenfeature the Main Characters as the powerfulindividuals who find themselves involved in

competition with other groups. Advancedcampaigns of this type might even makethe Main characters act in opposition toeach other, instead of (or in addition to)any outside force (a campaign where theMain Characters are all highly placed

members of a Lord’scourt, jockeying forposition, for

example).

A Survival campaignplaces the characters in

opposition to the setting, makingthe challenge of day to day

existence in such a harshenvironment the focus of the

campaign. Characters inthis setting are usually

low-powered, since alot of magic and

Salvage Tech wouldtend to makesurvival a muche a s i e rp r o p o s i t i o n .

Adventures inthis type of

If the character… Then give them…Participated fully 1 Hero TokenHad Good Ideas 1 Hero TokenPerformed Heroic Acts 1 Hero TokenPlayed Role Well 1-2 Hero Token

campaign would center around suchnecessities as the location of food,or the defeat of vicious predatorsthat threaten the group.

A War campaign, obviously,would place the characters in themidst of a conflict between two ormore forces. The characters couldeither be front-line combat troopswith no say over the direction ofevents, powerful commanderswhose plans and strategy canchange the outcome of events, orsome middle ground between thetwo (Special Operatives of one sideagainst the other, for example).

With a little bit of thought, manyother types of campaigns willpresent themselves. What we’velooked at here are only examples.

IntuitiveContinuity

Intuitive Continuity is a method

of Conducting that specifically

encourages and engenders the type

of improvisational play for

UnderWorld was designed. Simply

put, Intuitive Continuity is the

development of your own campaign

story arcs with little or no prior

planning. The planting of plot

elements throughout the campaign

that, in retrospect, will appear to

make a unified whole...and yet

began as mere improvisation on the

part of the Conductor.

The key to Intuitive Continuity is

improvisation—which is not tosay that there shouldn’t be anypreparation or detail on yourpart. What makes jazzmusicians so good at improv isthat they have a repertoire ofriffs and licks that they havelearned, which they insert into acomposition when the timeseems right. They construct acomplete piece of music out ofwell-practiced parts, connectedby improvised links, andfiltered through their ownexperience and inherent talent.

As a Conductor, you haveyour inherent talent, and, ifyou’ve run games before,you’ve got experience. Whatyou need is a collection of riffsand licks, for you to weavetogether at a moments notice.

A Conductor’s riffs are awell-stocked cast of SupportingCharacters. These can bethrown in at any time, and thebetter you know yourSupporting Characters, themore they will seem like theywere intended to be where youdrop them. One method thatcan assist you in this is theCOPP rating.

When your player’scharacters meet a SecondaryCharacter in the game, you willperform a Head Count with 4coins, to determine the SC'sCOPP rating (Cooperation,Opposition, Personality, andPlot importance).

Each heads result in the Count means that categorywill be "active".

Active Cooperation means that the SupportingCharacter is basically helpful to the Main Characters.

Active Opposition means the SC will oppose theMain Characters in some way (note that it is possiblefor a person to be helpful in the short term, yetstill an obstruction to your overallefforts...the result of two heads inthese categories).

Personality is a generalgauge of whether the NPC is"positive" (heads) or "negative"(tails) in outlook.

Plot Importance is the crux of theCOPP rating, and its main focus in theIntuitive Continuity system. It gaugeswhether or not the SecondaryCharacter is at all important to theoverall plot of your current tale...and itis possible that at this point, you mightnot even know what that plot is!

However, after a few such meetingshave passed, the Conductor can lookback and say, for example, "Well...theLibrarian they met in the LesserBoulevards, the Bravo on the E Train, andthe Tagger were all important to theplot....how might they be connected?"This should start to spark ideas for yourown arc, which has already begun.

Example: My players have theircharacters head down to the CarthageOpera House, hoping to troll for workfrom any of the members ofUnderWorld society who are gathering there for theevening’s entertainment. They tell me that they grabthe nearest doorman, and ask him for the inside scoopon who’s here. I decide to make the doorman a MolePerson (no reason, I just do), and I throw a COPP forhim, which comes up heads, heads, heads, heads (!!).I decide that the doorman will introduce them tosomeone (being Cooperative), but in the long run that

will be a bad thing (Opposition). The Mole Person isa jovial guy, quick with the joke (Positivepersonality), and he’s going to turn out to beimportant to the plot. Just from this result, I start toget an idea, about the doorman shilling for a Nomadwho needs people (like the characters) to retrieve anitem he needs…except that he’s done this with 3other groups already, and none of them have made itback alive.

As you start to improvise details during play, thesecond most important aspect of Intuitive Continuitycomes into play: record keeping. Write down every

fact that is clearly established to the players, andmake notes of those things that you’ve

determined, but not yet established. Here isthe key: if it hasn’t been established yet, itcan always change to conform to laterdetails, until such point as it becomesestablished.

The notes might be changed in order toreflect the results of another COPP later inthe game, or an idea that just occurred tome out of the blue, or if the players takeactions which would invalidate thatbranch of plot development. This way,you’ll never have to worry about theactions of the players ruining yourcarefully crafted adventure. You simply

craft the adventure as yougo along, changing thingsbehind the scenes asnecessary, and revealinglittle bits at a time.

For instance, in theabove example, the only

fact that is established to theplayers is that the Mole Person knows a Nomadwho’s looking to hire. I still make notes of my ideasabout why he’s looking, but until those reasons arepresented to the players, they are malleable—theycan and should be changed to reflect better ideas, oradditional information. They can be changed and re-changed right up until the end.

That’s Intuitive Continuity.

Live Action Versus Table Top Play

UnderWorld is intended for use as either a table-top or a live action roleplaying game. The rules aresimple enough to be used in either format, with littleor no adaptation required. There are three things thatseparate live action from table-top play: Conductor’sAssistants, Location, and Costumes.

Conductor’s assistants are required for live actionplay because most Conductors can’t be in more thanone place at a time. They need help not only in theportrayal of all of the Secondary Characters, but inkeeping an eye on what the players are doing, if thereare different groups in different areas of the location.The assistants should be assigned to play specificSCs, if needed—some games might not have need ofSecondary Characters, if the game is large enoughthat everyone the player’s character meets is anotherplayer themselves.

The assistants should be clearly indicated, so thatthey can officiate over any question of the ruleswhich comes up (notably, the setting of DifficultyLevels). The main Conductor should brief hisassistants ahead of time regarding how much leewaythey have in adjudicating action. Remember at alltimes, the main Conductor is in charge.

Location also presents a unique challenge to liveaction play.

NOTE: Despite the fact that UnderWorld takesplace in a subterranean setting, beneath the subwaysof New York City, we in no way advocate, and in factstrongly recommend against, players of the gameentering into subway tunnels, caves, steam networks,or other areas which may be dangerous. These areasare off-limits for a reason, and going into themwithout permission and experienced accompanimentis a sure way to get yourself hurt, arrested, or worse.JUST DON’T DO IT.

The game should be held in a location specifically

set apart for play. The game area should not be apublic area, since the actions taken during play mayfrighten or disturb people who aren’t aware of what’shappening (plus, on a practical level, having folkswander through your game can be distracting).

Once the game location is arranged, make sure thatall players are aware of the borders. Let them knowthat play is permitted within the borders of the area,but not outside of it. This keeps the game safely andprivately contained, and also limits the amount ofarea that you and your assistants have to cover whileConducting.

Remember that a live-action game of UnderWorldshould never contain real weapons, or actual physicalcontact during the adjudication or combat. Thisshould be common sense, but we’ll say it anyway.When the game shifts over into combat, step out ofcharacter, resolve the combat with the Conductor,using the abstract method. The Conductor will thendescribe the events that resulted from the combat,and play can pick up from there.

The last question of Live action play is the reallybig one: What do I wear? Costuming for live actionplay of UnderWorld can be incredibly easy, insanelydifficult, or even both at the same time.

Playing a Normal, or one of the Homeless is aseasy as raiding a closet (preferably your own) forregular, everyday street clothes. Dressing as aLegendary who is the Minotaur of ancient Greece isa bit more problematic…and just how is the well-dressed Junkman arranging his bolts these days? It’snot as if there are copies of "Junkman Today" or"Freak Style" on the newsstands.

However, playing in a campaign where everyonehas to be either a Normal or a Homeless soundspretty dull, doesn’t it? The last thing you want yourgame to be is dull. UnderWorld should be fun,exciting, mysterious, and maybe just a little bit scary.

What follows are a few hints, tips and ideas thatwill help you with the process of bringing yourUnderWorld character to life.

First, there are three basic functions that a costumeshould perform for a Live Action game: 1) It shouldhelp you (the player) get into character. Whateverprops, wardrobe or makeup helps you feel like thatcharacter should be used.

2) It should be help set the stage for the otherplayers. It should be visual enough that everyoneelse can recognize your persona, and itcontributes to the mood of the game.Minute details may help in the personalaspects of roleplaying, but it doesn’t helpthe player across the room who’strying to decide how to interact withyour character.

3) Your costume should becomfortable and easy to wear. Thisis more important than you mightthink. A costume that is too tight,or itchy, or has a hem that you’realways tripping over can only serveas a distraction,not an aid to play.

The hard part is deciding whatshould make up your costume.Maybe you’re really luckyand you have the time, themoney or the inclinationto fully create whateveryou have designed…ifyou do, that’s great. Afully realized costumecan be a fantastic aid inplay—it helps bring across the magic of the setting,and is really cool to look at, to boot. But, noteveryone has this option. What then?

Focus on the key elements of your character.Decide what three or four traits or items are soimportant that the character would not be the same ifthey were missing. Concentrate on these. Maybeyour Bravo is never without his whip and mirroredbreastplate. Perhaps your Freak character is arhinoceros with one horn in the middle of herforehead and one on her nose.

Example: Anne has decided to play Nefret, anancient Egyptian Librarian (one of the Lost). Annedecides that two of Nefret’s main traits are that shefeels most comfortable wearing the styles of herhomeland, but has adapted to her job rather well.Anne already owns a long white sleeveless dress that

she can wear. She decides to accent it with goldjewelry and to outline her eyes in heavy blackeyeliner. Simple enough, but it brings across

the idea.

Next, she creates some scrolls bycrinkling up plain paper, staining them

with tea, and rolling them into tubesthat she ties with a ribbon. She putsthese in a burlap shoulder bag, andviola! Instant Library! The last

thing she decides to add are a fewlengths of string with knots tied inthem (to represent "Forget me

knots"). She’s ready to play.

Well, that’s great for Anne, butnow, you’re thinking: "where do I

get all those wonderful toys?" Trythe following: Costume shops,fabric and craft stores,hardware stores, giantdiscount warehouses, yourlocal library, costuming siteson the Internet, and evengrocery stores (packaging is abeautiful thing). If you walk

into any of these sources witha good attitude and a cool idea, you’ll find plenty ofpeople who are willing to help out.

Costumes can be made out of anything. Look thepart, and you’re good to go.

or

The Lost Art of Fine Dining inLower Manhattan

What follows is a beginning adventure for yourUnderWorld campaign. Additionally, after theadventure is a Random Adventure Seed Generator,which will help the Conductor develop ideas to fleshout into full-length stories for their UnderWorldgames.

Part 1

The Main Characters are in need of a new home, astheir old one was destroyed in a tunnel collapse.They’ve been poking around for a while, and they’vecome across a seemingly abandoned stretch of tunnelabout a mile from Market Square. This stretch seemsto be nearly perfect.

The tunnel is nice- warm, spacious, and longforgotten- the buildup of dust on the tracks indicatesthat no train has been through here in at least thirty orforty years. There is access to electricity and cleanwater, as well as a third, much larger pipe that seemsto be a sewer pipe. It appears to be the perfect squatfor some tired UnderWorlders, if not a little close tothe upper tunnels.

Pick one of the characters at random and read thisout loud:

"As you are investigating, your foot goes througha rusted-out cabled cover and you feel something

metal crunch under your weight. There is an audiblenoise as the electricity cuts out. This is odd-- whowould be piping electricity to a tunnel like thiswithout living here?"

Let the characters take the logical next step andfollow the cables. The seem to lead into (and back outof) a highly-specialized salvage-tech alarm system,that has now been disabled. The cable continues to ametal door:

"You notice, however, as you scope out the area,that there is a rather large metal door sticking out ofthe wall of one tunnel, and that it’s been usedrecently. The door is made of burnished steel and isoddly cold to the touch. The electric cables seem tolead here."

The door is big and heavy, and would require someimpressive strength to pound through it. The handleitself is pretty heavy duty, but, with the alarm gone, itis only locked with a rather simple padlock. Pickingthe lock is relatively simple, and prying it off with acrowbar or similar implement would be a piece ofcake. If the Characters choose not to open the door,go on to part 2. However, if they do decide to take alook, read:

"There is a blast of steam as you open the door. It’snot from the heat, but in fact, from the cold- the roomitself is covered in frost. It seems to have gone on tosome backup generator, as the room is lit from withinby light blue neon on the ceiling.

The room is a freezer, about ten by twenty by ten

feet. Two large white ventilation grates are on the

side walls toward the ceiling, and on the back wall is

a safe with a combination lock. There are clearly-

salvaged deli-style racks on either side of the room,

each one piled high with fresh, tasty meat."

Any Ferals, Molemen, or like creatures in the party

will instantly smell it, but it might take some figuring

out on behalf of the others. This meat is human flesh.

If the characters don’t figure it out, they can try to

crack the safe on the far wall. Doing so reveals a few

watches, some random trinkets (lipstick, broken

calculator, compact case, a wallet) Several changes

of male and female clothing of various sizes, and a

film canister. Opening the film canister reveals that it

is full of human teeth with gold fillings- this should

be enough of a tip-off that it’s really time to stop

eating.

After about ten minutes—or once the characters

figure out what’s going on, whichever works best—a

god-awful shuffling sound can be heard emanating

from the pipes on either side of the room. If the

characters decide it’s worth it to stick around and find

out what the noise is, they see a huge white alligator

nose open the grate on the wall and slip down, ready

to do battle. He is followed shortly by another Feral

guard like himself coming out of the second grate.

Abner and Dr.TeethFeral BravosDefining Traits: Strong, Fast, FierceRelevant Skills: Fighting (Guild Skill)Magic: None

Weapons: Natural weapons: Teeth (RangePersonal, Damage 3) Claws (Range Personal,Damage 2) and Tail (Range Personal, Damage 1),Natural Armor (1 coin)

Abner and Dr. Teeth are powerful enemies, and notones to take on lightly. If the characters decide to stayand fight, make them pay for it. If the characters dodefeat both Ferals, they can continue to explore theroom, but there is nothing more there of any value.

Part 2Film at Eleven

The Characters will most likely want to get awayfrom the freezer one way or another. Their best bet isto head back to Market Square. However, when theyget there, more bad news is waiting forthem.

Read: "As you pull into the square yousee that all eyes are on the old Trinitrongiant TV that was unceremoniouslybrought down here when it’s time wasup in Times Square. The majority ofcitizens are clustered at it’s base, butthe stragglers and merchants havetheir eyes glued on the screen as well.The salvaged old MTA PA systemblares the news report.

"This is Macgee Hickey with a News4 special report. Mary Campbell,estranged daughter of city councilmanHoward Campell, is missing. Eyewitnessreports claim that the struggling MissCampbell was seen being dragged into anuncovered manhole on the Lower EastSide. NYPD is currently working with ConEd and the city’s Public Works division on a city-wide search of New York’s’ myriad tunnels. We’llkeep you posted as events warrant. Now back to yourregularly scheduled programming."

"There goes the neighborhood." Mumbles a sharp-toothed Freak as he turns and goes back to his work.

"Attention, Attention!" Barks a voice over theloudspeaker. "No UnderWorlder is to go into theupper tunnels for any reason! Repeat, noUnderWorlder is to go to the Upper Tunnels!"

Give the characters a few minutes to take all of thisin. Then, let them decide what to do. If theUpWorlders start tearing up the city looking for MaryCampbell, the UnderWorld would be in grave dangerof discovery. Anyone with any sense of self-preservation will try to find Mary Campbell;hopefully, she is still alive. If the characters did theirprying in Part 1 they will know that the problem isworse than it seems, although looking through thepersonal affects that were in the same reveals thatMary Campbell was not among the victims who hadbeen butchered.

In any case, if the Characters start pokingaround, they will find that Mary was involvedwith a Homeless Trader named Jasper Lupo.Apparently he was supplying her with aparticular designer drug that she could only getfrom him, making him, one of the rare Traders

that traded up as well as down. Furtherdigging reveals that Jasper can be foundbetting on the SkarBoxing matches at theGreat Basin.

Part 3Sold Out

When the characters arrive, the GreatBasin is choked with UnderWorld bettorsof all stripes. Skar himself is announcingthe next match, a battle between Victor, ahulking Freak gladiator from WashDeep,

and Eoh, the Equine Chief of Myrhhtown’s police.

Eoh wins.Anyone looking for Lupo will have to hunt around.

Any Bravos or Freaks in the group could try to talk

with Skar. Otherwise finding Lupo will be asimple Streetwise task. Once the charactersfind the Trader, it’s obvious he’s losingbadly. He’s passing off most of his stuff inone of the upper tiers of the basin. Anyoneapproaching him will get a faceful of badattitude. Jasper claims to know nothingabout Mary Campbell, although a bribemight be able to jog his memory.Conversely, he will take a bet on the nextmatch- a huge Lost blacksmith namedMaxwell vs. the Clank Bros. The ClankBros. appear to be dead meat- they are agroup of Fizzers. Only when the matchbegins does it become apparent that theClank Bros. will win the fight—

Because there are over six hundred ofthem.

Once the characters can pay Jasper, or heloses the bet, or some other deal is made, heexplains that Mary was a very special case,and that she " had very select tastes." Hesays that he can arrange a meeting with hissupplier at Roach Motel 6 in three hours,and claims his supplier might know whereMary is. Now it is up to the characters ifthey want to follow Jasper or take him up onhis offer and meet him later. Either way,he’ll lead them into a trap. Maxwell, Kite,and Doughboy, three Bravos, are waiting tothrash the characters. As soon as the fightstarts, Jasper books it.

MaxwellLost BravoDefining Traits: Agile, Calm,

CommandingRelevant Skills: Acrobatics, Fighting,

ClimbingMagic: Life StoneWeapons: a blacksmith’s hammer

(Range: Personal Damage: 3)Kite

Junkman BravoDefining Traits: Fierce, Courageous,

Jack of All TradesRelevant Skills: Fighting, ClimbingMagic: NoneWeapons: He is a weapon.Special Abilities: Kite is constructed from razor

blades. Any attack he makes counts as a weapon witha Range of Personal and Damage of 4

DoughboyFreak BravoDefining Traits: Vicious, Wild, StrongRelevant Skills: Fighting, StealthMagic: NoneWeapons: NoneSpecial Abilities: Doughboy’s puffy, pliant skin

absorbs damage (throw 3 extra coins to resist). Inaddition, he has a special attack: Smothering (Range:Personal, Damage 2 per turn, Strength feat requiredto break his hold)

Jasper has retreated to hide inthe upper tunnels. If thecharacters go after him, they

quickly find that theRadiance is highlydiminished where he is(RadCount drops to1). Fairly soon, theyhear the sounds offootsteps and seef l a s h l i g h t ssearching to andfro. A team of sixpolice officers andone Public Worksofficial is scouringthe tunnel. Outrightattack is a disastrousidea, and will likely havelegions more police pouringinto the tunnels within hours. TheUnderWorlders should evade the cops.

However, the pollics have dogs—which mightmake evasion more difficult than it seems. If they arenot too dumbed-down by the weak radiance, a FeralDog could attempt to reason with the Hounds,

otherwise, It’s best to just try to get away. Still, beforethey go, they over hear some odd conversation.

"Unit 7-B, this unit K-5. We just…we…You willnot BELIEVE what we just found."

"Unit K-5, report, Over.""Unit 7-B there is a huge meat locker full of human

meat down here. Human meat, Jerry. Lots of it."Pause."Unit K-5, I don’t understand- Have you found

Mary Campbell?""Dammit Jerry, are you listening to me? I’m telling

you we found Hannibal Lector’s frigidaire!We…Ack!"

The Radio cuts out, followed by the sound of evenmore chaos.

AT this point, The Characters have several options-they can either

1. Continue Hunting for Lupo2. Return to the Meat Locker3. Go back to Market Square and warn the

Authorities about the cannibals.

Any of the above options will be a race againsttime.

Part 4Chaos!

1. IF THE CHARACTERS CONTINUETO HUNT FOR LUPO

Once again, this will require a littletracking. Anyone tracking Lupo by scent will

smell his scent mixed with blood. Soon enough,they find Lupo’s body—he’s been stabbed several

times in the back. Searching Lupo will yield thisnote, and it’s envelope—Indicating that it was freshlyopened.

"Mr LupoMy father plans to step up the operation. We need

to tell Ezekiel. Meet me at the Locker.-Mary"

2. IF THE CHARACTERS RETURN TO THEMEAT LOCKER

If Abner and Dr. Teeth are still there, they chose toscare the cops away rather than killing them. Beinggiant white reptiles, this wasn’t particularly difficult.When the characters arrive, they can overhear aconversation.

"You do as you’re told. We pay you quite well.""Yeah, yeah, lady, I know. And trust me, no one

like eatin’ people much as me. But this bringin’ copsdown here is bad news."

"My father changed the deal.""That’s it, I’m outta here."

The two Alligators walk out of the room. If the seethe characters, the shrug and ignore them. ( The twoFerals are fed up and at this point might be persuadedto join the Characters.)

On the other hand, If the characters killed Abnerand Dr. Teeth in Part 1, they find three dead cops, anda shaken Mary Campbell. Once shesees the characters, she perks up.

"Oh, thank God! Did Jaspersend you? " If the charactersanswer yes, she says:

"Then there isn’t muchtime, but it’s not too late!Come with me to TheScrews. My Father andEzekiel are going to workout the rest of theagreement."

If the charactersanswer negative, shewill try to escape. Ifshe escapes, she’llgo straight to theScrews, and the characterscan track her down there. Ofcourse, If she is captured, thecharacters can try to turn her over to the authoritiesand consider the whole thing ended. But If they wantto know what'’ going on, Mary is still a Normal verymuch out of her element and can be intimidated into

spilling the beans on the operation. The charactersshould go to Ezekiel and Howard Campbells’meeting to put an end to things.

3. IF THE CHARACTERS GO BACK TOMARKET SQUARE AND WARN THEAUTHORITIES ABOUT THE CANNIBALS

The word will get back to Gil, the Lord of MarketSquare, who will send two official Bravos out withthe characters to the Meat Locker. The Bravos willformally request that the characters take them to thelocker rather than give directions. See above.

Part 5Showdown at The Screws

The Screws is actually the name for a section ofUnderworld that is a long tunnel with a singlecatwalk over a series of giant fans. It’s unknown whatthese fans are for (if anything)

But one slip can cause quite a mess. Thecatwalk is about ten feet wide. The localRadCount is 1.

When the characters arrive, There are fiveserious-looking Cops with a man in a suit,

facing down a Homeless guy in awheelchair (this is Ezekiel) with anassortment of Bravos (any who

survived the above scenes, with theexception of Abner and Dr. Teeth.)

As the characters arrive, theBravos overpower the cops and kill

them, capturing the man in the suit.This is Howard Campbell. Howard

will claim that he’ll call off hisinvestigation if he and his daughter are

spared. Ezekiel, wisely, isn’t having it. Atthis point, it’s pretty much up to the characters whathappened next.

EzekielHomeless Trader

Defining Traits: Feeble, Clever, CunningRelevant Skills: NegotiationMagic: Life Stone, Pack of SmokesWeapons: A gun (Range: Distance, Damage 5)

Howard CampbellNormal GuildlessDefining Traits: Clever, Wealthy, MundaneRelevant Skills: Negotiation, CookingMagic: Yeah, right.Weapons: Howard’s packing heat—a .32

revolver (Range: Distance, Damage:5)

Mary CampbellNormal Guildless (and Legendary Cannibal

Spirit, see below)Defining Traits: Cute, Wealthy, FierceRelevant Skills: FightingMagic: The Legendary Spirit

within Mary can fly. She doesn’tknow it yet, but if she falls from theScrews, she’ll realize it.

Weapons: NoneSpecial Abilities: If Mary uses her

nails in combat, the Legendary willmake them grow and turn to iron(Range Personal, Damage: 4)

What’s really going on:On Halloween last, Mary

Campbell has having some fun withher boyfriend while making out in his car. Whiletrying to spook each other, she peered into therearview mirror and muttered "Bloody Mary" Threetimes. Unfortunately, she was under a subway trestleat the time, and a freak burst of Radiance from thetrain passing overhead at exactly the stoke ofmidnight released the legendary spirit into MaryCampbell. She killed her boyfriend and ate him.Unbeknownst to her, there was a single witness- anold homeless vagrant named Ezekiel.

Mary’s father successfully covered up the incident,but noted with growing concern that his daughter waswasting away. Finally, while on the street one night,Ezekiel confronted him and explained what hadhappened, offering up a Moleman’s paw as proof.Ezekiel explained that Mary Campbell had beenpossessed by a spirit and needed human flesh to

survive. Ezekiel became the supplier for Mary’sunique habit.

Soon enough, Mary was healthy and back on track,but Howard found, to his shock, that there was ademand among Manhattan’s elite for Mary’s cuisine.He found himself strangely attracted to the taboo of itall, and began to partake along with his daughter and

her socialite friends. He made anarrangement with Ezekiel to continue

the supply. To this end, Ezekiel startedthe Lower Manhattan EpicureanSociety- a network of Bravos andtraders who abducted UnderWorldersand butchered them for the

UpWorlders, all the while takinggreat pains to make it

appear quite the opposite.

Unfortunately, theRadiance-tainted humanflesh is taking it’s toll onMary and Howard, whoare both going quitemad. Howard believesthat once the entireUnderWorld is in theclutches of the NYPD,picking the tastiestand most deliciousspecimens will getmuch easier. Ezekielforesaw this littlestutter-step, and now

just has to eliminatethe two of them, pin it all on the dead Jasper Lupo,and find a new buyer on behalf of Manhattan’s uppercrust connoisseurs.

Aftermath

If Ezekiel Survives:He will , as stated, simply go back about finding

another buyer, perhaps someone with more self-control. This can be the beginning of an ongoingstory. Ezekiel is not Physically powerful, but he is abrilliant and wicked individual who respects hisenemies.

If both Howard and Mary Survive:They will proceed back to the surface, where they

will step up the investigation. As above, this could bethe beginning of an Epic story wherein the future ofUnderWorld hangs in the balance.

If just one of them survives:

This will be a best case scenario- the other willreturn topside screaming and ranting and generallyspilling the beans on UnderWorld. Of course, no onewill be listening except for Bellevue’s other inmates.New York will lose interest in the tunnels soonenough, and things will proceed as normal.

Cast Of Characters:(Stats can be found in the adventure text, above)

Abner and Dr. Teeth:These two Ferals aren’t part of Ezekiels’

Epicurians. As far as they are concerned, it’s justanother job. To them, eating people is nothingspecial, and they’ve been hired to guard a room. Still,this will rapidly become more then they bargainedfor, at which point they’ll just leave. These guys arereally just a pair of reptilian Mooks when you getright down to it, and can easily be reasoned with.They would rather scare people away than kill them.Still, their looks make them appear much moredangerous.

Jasper LupoThe major-domo of Ezekiel’s Epicureans, Jasper is

sneaky and malignant. He’s been backstabbing anddouble-dealing all his life, and he’s quite good at it.As a matter of fact, Jasper would probably do quitewell for himself in Hollywood or Washington exceptfor his little gambling problem. Jasper lives from taketo take, and his past is about to catch up with him-with a vengeance.

Doughboy, Maxwell and KiteThese three bravos were handpicked by Ezekiel

himself. Doughboy is a Freak, a genetic anomaly thatlooks like a crudely-molded blob of Silly Putty. Hehits like 200 pounds of hard rubber, and can be cut,shot, stabbed, even exploded with very little lastingeffect.

Maxwell, the SkarBoxing Gladiator, was aColonial Blacksmith before he stumbled intoUnderworld. He’s the strongest of the three.

Lastly, and probably the most dangerous, Kite isthe soul of a killer in the body of a cobbled-togetherrazor-blade gargoyle. The Artificer who created himwas put to death in his community.

EzekielThe man called Ezekiel is an enigma. Upon his

return from Vietnam, paralyzed and broken, he builthimself back into an emotionless machine bent onsurvival. Once he realized that he had attained hisgoal, the acquisition of power filled the void. Ezekielis physically quite limited- homeless, confined to awheelchair, and gaining in years- he makes up for itin absolute ruthlessness and utter brilliance. Ezekielis quite likely one of the smartest men in theUnderWorld.

Bloody MaryEven before her unfortunate incident, Mary

Campbell was a spoiled Stuyvesant brat from theUpper West Side. Daddy took care of making sureMary never had to deal with any of life’s problems,and unfortunately this little "craving for human flesh"thing is no different. Unfortunately, someone who

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normally would have just been a smarmy bitch in lifeis now a complete monster. A very well-protectedmonster.

City Councilman Howard CampbellThe real tragedy here, Howard was a good and

moral public official who became embroiled inevents beyond his control. He’s quite mad now, andhe just can’t get that taste out of his mouth. He’scertain that if he just UnderWorld under control, hecan take care of things and get his life back on track.

Random Adventure SeedGenerator

Here's a little scenario for you: It's a little bitbefore dinnertime, and you get a call from yourplaying group. They're all coming over, ready toplay... tonight. Problem is, you've got nothingprepared---last time you played, your groupcompleted their latest adventure, and for whateverreason you haven't had the time to come up withanything else.

To come up with an adventure idea on the fly, usethe following tables, which will give you enough ofan idea from which to proceed. Pepper the idea thatyou get with some Supporting Characters (returningsupporting characters, if available—players alwaysenjoy a sense of continuity in their Character’s lifestories), and you’re ready to go.

The tables below use a three-coin Head Count, butin a different fashion than you’ve seen throughoutthis game. Make sure that you use three coins ofdiffering denomination, so that you can delineatebetween them. Instead of counting successes withthe coins, read the coins results as if they were inbinary language. A single throw of the coins willgarner you one of eight possible results:

Head Head Head (HHH)Head Head Tail (HHT)Head Tail Tail (HTT)Head Tail Head (HTH)Tail Tail Tail (TTT)Tail Tail Heat (TTH)Tail Head Head (THH)Tail Head Tail (THT)

The basic format for a random adventure seed willbe the dramatic core taken from screenwriting: allplots can be boiled down to the following sentence--"the main characters must [DO SOMETHING] buthave to contend with [COMPLICATIONS] whilebeing confronted by [OPPOSITION] ."

This makes a nice structure for any adventure,whether its roleplayed, written, or filmed. ForUnderWorld, however, we’ll expand that a bit more,allowing for a wider variation. So the basic dramaticstructure of an UnderWorld adventure will read morelike this:

"The main characters must [DO] [SOMETHING]at [LOCATION] , but have to contend with[COMPLICATIONS] while being confronted by[OPPOSITION] ."

Each category marked in brackets will bedetermined by throwing two three-coin combinationson the tables below, and cross-referencing. Sinceeach category has 64 possibilities, this structureallows for 1,073,741,824 possible combinations...more than enough to give the Conductor

something to work with.

The main difference between the standard form

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and the form that is being used for UnderWorld isthat the location has been added as something that isvariable, and, more importantly, [DO SOMETHING]has been split into [DO] [SOMETHING]. Let’sexplain that a bit further.

The "do something" is the focus of the adventure---it’s what drives the action. Making it a singlecategory under this system only result in 64possibilities (by cross referencing two three-coinHead Counts). However, after splitting the "do" (theverb) and the "Something" (the subject) into twocategories, that means that each have 64 possibilitiesand can combine for a total of 4096 results.

For example, take these: "Rescue the Princess","Find the Treasure", and "Defeat the Monster".Under this new system, these three focii can be split,giving you those same results, but also additionalones such as "Find the Monster", "Rescue theMonster", "Find the Princess", etc.

This can also give you some odd results, such as"Defeat the Treasure"... but as a Conductor, thatphrase, which, on its surface seems bizarre, begins togenerate all sorts of ideas. What is this treasure?Why must it be defeated? How do you defeat atreasure, anyway? Before you know it, you’ve

developed an adventure detailing the character'sstruggle to overcome a malevolent magical weaponthat has come alive!

This type of system is not intended to replaceplanning on the part of the Conductor, but rather as aspringboard for the development of the Conductor'sown ideas.

"The main characters must [DO][SOMETHING] at [LOCATION] , but haveto contend with [COMPLICATIONS] whilebeing confronted by [OPPOSITION] ."

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Examples of UseLet’s run through a couple of examples, just to

get a look at how the process works.

Example One"The Characters must (TTT/TTH) Support

(HHT/THH) the Police at (HTT/HTT)theBrooklyn Sound, but have to contend with(THT/TTH) Mole People, while beingconfronted by (HTH/HTT) a Gangster."

This gives me an idea for an adventure whichfeatures an UpWorld cop who has chased aGangster into the UnderWorld. Unfortunately,the characters stumbleupon this situation

just as a local

group of MolePeople take umbragewith the violation oftheir territory, andplace the Cop, theGangster and theCharacters on araft, pushing it intothe Brooklyn Sound,where they will bedriven mad unless theycan support eachother.

Example Two"The Characters must

(HTT/TTH) Save(THT/THH)a Spy at( T T H / H T H ) M a r k e tSquare, but have to contendwith (TTT/THH) Traps, whilebeing confronted by (TTH/TTH) aCorporation."

The story that develops in my head features

the characters getting involved with a Homelessman who is actually a UpWorld businessman,who had been spying on his Company for arival, and went underground to hide. Theymeet up with him in Market Square, where heasks for their help in escaping the agents of theCorporation, who have been sent to capturehim.

As you can see, these tables can generate morethan enough ideas from which to flesh out a full-length adventure, or even an entire campaign.

UnderWorld is the result of a great manyinfluences. Television, film, books, and comicsall added their own unique stamp to the thoughtprocesses that lead to the creation of this game.

The initial conversation between myself andLaura Hanson on the N Train coming back froma game of Feng Shui at the apartment of AtlasGames freelancer Mike Mearls in Queens waslargely devoted to the subject of subwaysystems in urban fantasy literature. Soon, theconversation turned to how cool a game wouldbe, were it to be set in that genre.

Over the year that followed, otherinspirations presented themselves, some for thefirst time, others merely reminding us of theappropriateness of their content, in some casesyears after we had first been exposed to them.

What follows is a inspirography—acombination bibliography, filmography, andmore that will give you some insight into thefuel for the dreams that gave birth toUnderWorld.

BooksClive Barker’s novels always have heavy

doses of urban fantasy. Pigeonholed by many as

a horror writer, Barker’s novels of dark modern

fantasy are direct inspirations for many

elements of UnderWorld. Cabal in particular

(and its filmed adaptation, Nightbreed) was the

primary source behind the Freak Breed.

Everville is also worth looking at, for its tale of

how the magical and the mundane can exist side

by side in any town or city.

Benson Bobrick wrote a fascinating study ofthe cultural, mythological and historicalsignificance of subway systems in his Labyrinths

of Iron. This was one of two non-fiction bookswhich provided inspiration for UnderWorld.Unfortunately, the book is now out of print, butworth tracking down if you are at all interestedin subways.

The Newford Stories by Charles DeLint is acollection of his urban fantasy short fiction, allof which he sets in the fictional North Americancity of Newford. DeLint is one of the bestwriters of urban fantasy working today, and thiscollection is a great sampling of his work.

To say that Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere

provided inspiration for UnderWorld is an

understatement. It was a conversation about

this book, as well as Lisa Goldstein’s Dark Cities

Underground and television’s Beauty and the Beast

(see their separate entries) that was the impetus

for the entire process of this game’s design.

Neverwhere is a tale of fantasy set in the London

Underground—specifically the tale of Richard

Mayhew, a Normal, and his brush with the

fantastic. Highly recommended.

The aforementioned Dark Cities Undergroundby Lisa Goldstein is another wonderfulinspiration. Goldstein tells the story of thearchetypes that dwell in the underworld whichlies simultaneously beneath all of the cities ofthe world. The development of the Legendarieswas begun by the spark thrown from this novel.

China Miéville’s King Rat was suggested tome by a participant of the RPGnet UnderWorldforum. It is a wickedly inventive urbanfantasy, featuring the ages-old battlebetween the Pied Piperand the Rat King, mixedup with the drum-n-bassculture of modern London.My publicacclaim forthis book ledthe author tocontact me,and we struckup an electroniccorrespondence.

China sent mea galley copy ofhis newest novel,Perdido Street Station, a sprawling epic of urbanfantasy, set in the mythical city of NewCrobuzon. Amazingly enough, the storyfeatured Freaks, Legendaries, and evenJunkmen. Miéville had managed to write aperfect UnderWorld novel, without even beingaware of the game. Go get this one—rightnow.

My correspondence with China also helpedin other ways. He sent me a copy of MichaelDe Larebetti’s The Borribles, a British young-adult fantasy novel (the first in a series), longout of print in the US. The Borribles has beendescribed as "Punk Peter Pan"—a tale ofmagical children who never wish to grow up,and their adventures in London.

The Last Call is just one of Tim Powersbrilliant novels. This man does urban fantasylike nobody else I’ve read. His tales of

illuminated history and magical synchronicityare incredible reads. The Last Call is a story of

the magical subculture in the US, the FisherKing legend, archetypes and Las Vegas.Wow.

Mervyn Peake’s Ghormenghastnovels(Titus Groan, Gormenghast,,and Titus Alone) are not exactlymodern, or urban fantasy, but the

feel of the novels—gothic fantasy set in asprawling ancient

castle filled witheccentricDickensian

characters—manages toconvey a sense

of wonder andsimultaneous claustrophobia,

which is appropriate for UnderWorld.

George Chesbro’s mystery novel Bone tellsthe story of an amnesiac homeless man in NewYork, named for the fossilized human femurthat he carries as a club, and his efforts todiscover whether or not he is the serial killerthat the police are hunting. A great look at thehomeless culture of NYC, and some coolsubterranean scenes, as well.

Lastly, journalist Jennifer Toth’s work ofinvestigative journalism, The Mole People, was amajor source of inspiration. Toth went downinto the tunnels below New York City, andinterviewed the homeless who live down there,far from the eyes of the world above. Herexploration of the society that is developing inthese chambers, as well as her discovery ofsome of the secret, forgotten areas below NewYork gave valuable insight into theenvironments that would be faced byUnderWorld characters.

Movies

First of all, Dark City with Rufus Sewell andKeifer Sutherland is a creepy dark fantasy set ina city where it's always night. Unfortunately theUS release of this film has all of the mysteryruined by a voice over by Sutherland at thebeginning, which gives away the whole secretbehind the City--for best results, fast forwardthrough that part, and start watching.

City of Lost Children is a bizarre French filmwhich features Ron Perlman as a circusstrongman who tries to stop an evil scientistwho is unable to dream, and who goes aboutpurloining children to steal their dreams. Anymovie that has clones, an octopus-woman, and abrain living in a fish-tank rates high enough onthe wierd-shit-o-meter to be inspirational. Plus,the design of the whole place is creepy.

Fritz Lang's classic silent film Metropoliscontributed inspiration in its presentation ofMaria, the ultimate Junkman...er...Junkwoman.

The 1959 classic Journey to the Center of theEarth has James Mason and Pat Boone leadingan expedition into the bowels of the earth.Based on Verne's novel, this contains some of theclassic tropes of underground life: Giantmushrooms, surviving dinosaurs, and scene-chewing villains.

One of Luc Besson's early films, Subway(originally called Metro, before Eddie Murphytook the title for a lame action film here in theUS) tells the tale of Christopher Lambert as acriminal hiding out in the Paris subways, wherehe interacts with the society of cast-offs who livethere. Really cool film—although it currently isonly available on DVD—you might be able tolocate a VHS version from it's original release in1985 on ebay.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three is a mid-seventies thriller about the highjacking of a New

York City subway train, filmed extensively onlocation. Much better than that lame WesleySnipes/Woody Harrelson Money Train piece oftripe.

Q-The Winged Serpent is a hokey andthoroughly enjoyable trash film about (and no,I'm not kidding about this) Quetzlcoatl living inthe top of the Chrysler Building. This actuallywas inspiration, folks—seriously: The mix offantasy story in a modern setting is pulled offwell (this manages to be a standard NYPD copstory, while at the same time still clocking in asa giant-monster-attacks goof-fest).

There's more to The Fisher King than meets theeye. Robin Williams has unfortunately parleyedthe strength of this role into a seemingly never-ending string of preachy, feel-good, "emotionallesson" films (Patch Adams, What Dreams MayCome, etc), but this film mixes New York Citywith Arthurian Myth and a portrayal of thehomeless as Knights Errant. Cool stuff. The firstfilm that, to me at least, made New York seemlike a possibly magical place.

How could I not mention a movie that takesplace in the tunnels beneath NYC, and featuresgiant cockroaches as well? Take a look at Mimic.Lots of cool tunnel stuff, an abandoned subwaystation (based on the City Hall stationarchitecture--"The Armory" station does notexist), Mole People and the biggest, baddestbugs this side of Starship Troopers.

Finding inspiration in unlikely places isalways a nice surprise. The Hugh Grant andGene Hackman film Extreme Measures was onesuch discovery. What was expected to be amedical thriller about unauthorizedexperimentation upon humans featuredsubterranean-dwelling homeless as the subjectsof that experimentation. Worth a look for thatreason, if nothing else.

Nomads, a chilling, little-noticed thrillerstaring Pierce Brosnan and Adam Ant, was oneof the major inspirations for (not surprisingly)

the Nomad Breed, as well as managing tocontain some things to say about Legendaries aswell. This can be found languishing in the sci-fibackstock section of many large video stores.

Candyman, based on a Clive Barker shortstory, though, was the primary inspiration forthe Legendary Breed. This story of an urbanlegend come to life, starring Tony Todd andVirginia Madsen, remains markedly superior toany of it’s lackluster sequels.

The Terry Gilliam film12 Monkeys, based on aFrench short film calledLa Jete features asubterranean society (inthe future segments), aswell as a good performanceby Bruce Willis who makesyou think about whether ornot all of the crazy people inmental hospitals are reallycrazy—or if they mightjust know something wedon’t.

Willis’ co-star in thatfilm, Brad Pitt, turns in aninspired performance in FightClub, a film that does not appear tohave a lot to do with UnderWorld—butlook again. A film about a secretmovement with its own rulesand traditions is perfect forconveying the feel of theunknown that pervades theurban environment.Remember…the first rule is thatwe don’t talk about Fight Club.

TelevisionThe biggest inspiration for UnderWorld on

television was the CBS series Beauty and theBeast, from the late 1980s. This story of theromance that develops between a wealthysocialite lawyer (played by Linda Hamilton)

and a leonine beast-man who dwells beneaththe streets of New York (played by RonPerlman) was one of the original topics thatformed the impetus of this game. The secretcivilization of homeless beneath the streets, thecandle-lit chambers, and Father’s immenselibrary all found their way into conceptspresented in UnderWorld.

The BBC recently produced a 6-hourminiseries version of Gormenghast , starringChristopher Lee and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers.

The costume and production designof this show manages to do justice

to Peake’s novels (at least the firsttwo—the third was notadapted), a feat worthy ofcelebration.

The television version ofGaiman’s Neverwhere is alsowonderful—in fact, it wasdeveloped simultaneouslywith the novel, and by Gaiman

himself. The casting of thecharacters manages toperfectly distill their

essences—the roguishMarquis de Carabas most

especially. This seriesshould berequired viewingfor any players of

UnderWorld.

Comic BooksWithout a doubt,

Sandman, also by NeilGaiman, is the premiere urban

fantasy comic series. The seriesitself has now ended, but can be

purchased in paperback and hardcovercollections. The story of Morpheus, the Lord ofDreams, stands as a milestone in fiction,whether graphic or text.

Other titles in DC comics’ Vertigo imprint areequally stirring examples of modern fantasy.

Fans of UnderWorld should especially take a look atPreacher, Hellblazer, Proposition Player and the Books ofMagic.

Promethea, one of Alan Moore’s America’s BestComics line (also published by DC) is a great look atthe sort of archetype that makes up the LegendaryBreed. It was recently announced that this series willalso be collected in hardcover format.

Writer Warren Ellis’ series for DC’s WildStormimprint, Planetary, which features a team of unusualindividuals (including Mr. Snow, who could be amember of UnderWorld’s Nomad Breed)investigating the unusual and bizarre happeningsthat occur beneath the normal façade of the world, isdefinitely worth checking out.

However, the biggest inspiration for UnderWorldcame every morning, as Laura and I rode the New

York City subway system to work. Hurtling throughthe darkness, one cannot help but wonder what liesbeyond the safety offered by the rattling subway car.Occasional flashes of sparks from the third railwould give brief glimpses of tunnels and accessshafts, more often than not marked in the secret codeof some unknown Tagger.

We realize that the majority of UnderWorld

players will probably never get a chance to ride in

the century-old mass transit system where the game

is set, but our daily brushes with the unknown that

lies beneath the streets convinced us that if you look

around, wherever you may live, you can find

something in your everyday surroundings that

makes you think "who knows?"

Take a closer look around you. Magic is there.Gareth-Michael SkarkaLaura D. Hanson2000 A.D

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