by Salty Games
System Agnostic Storyteller Tools for Neon City Campaigns
A sewer-dwelling water dragon with social anxiety; some badass with a laser sword here to detain your competition; the headquarters of a definitely-above-board genetic engineering firm; a boisterous demon lady challenging you to a drinking contest; and a martial arts dojo perched on the side of a cliff overlooking a modern city. What do these diverse story elements have in common (other than glib writing and incredible art)?
They’re just some of the 100+ plots, places, NPCs, and items that make up the 77 Stories! This diverse collection of plot hooks and setting details will engage your players with challenges outside the trope-y neon city norm. There’s enough content out there with oppressive governments and evil corporations, so instead we created this book to add a little spice to your urban campaigns. These stories intermingle politics, magic, technology, intrigue, heists, personal development, and ridiculous shenanigans – and, notably, very few of them default to murder as the solution.
What’s in the Book?
This isn’t a d100 list of one-liner plot hooks or throwaway NPCs. These are fleshed-out ideas that connect to the game world and to each other in a way that makes it easy to drag and drop concepts from various chapters (and from the core NewEdo book) to create stories that are more than just a punch line or simple hook. Paragraph-length (or longer) entries describe plots, places, people, and items that have depth and colour, and which buck the kind of stereotypes you’ve come to expect from the “-punk” genre.
Here’s what you’re in for:
- 77 paragraph+ story hooks identified by one or more of the following tags: Combat, Espionage, Goofin’ Around, Intrigue, and Mystcism. These hooks tie in locations and personas from the rest of this book and from the wider NewEdo universe, but can easily be dropped into any urban campaign.
- 30 detailed locations that range from an ancient bath house to a sake brewery to a vehicle research facility to a deadly food processing plant.
- 20 colourful NPCs (and one monster) who will bring your world to life. These NPCs are chefs and gangsters and journalists and fixers, each with a clear personality and connection to the world. Many have full stat blocks (in the NewEdo system) and include tags that will help you translate them to your system.
- 11 unique items to reward (or threaten) your players with. These aren’t just pieces of equipment – they’re legendary (or cursed) items with backstories and unique abilities that engender game ideas all on their own.
The 77 Stories is illustrated in custom-commissioned full-colour art. The NewEdo universe is vibrant, magical, cybernetic, and traditional – all at the same time – and this book reflects that incredible diversity.
This content is system agnostic but designed in NewEdo. Storytellers and DMs from other systems will get ample use out of the plot hooks, detailed locations, and colourful characters that make up the 77 Stories. The core of this book is unique and differentiated lore that can fit into most urban campaigns. NewEdo blends magic and technology, but if your game world doesn’t have magic (or dragons, or cat-people) then it doesn’t take much to fudge the more fantastical elements from the 77 Stories into your mundane worlds. A cross-system difficulty table translates basic challenge ratings into a handful of common urban RPG systems, including Difficulty Value, d20, and Success Thresholds. These tools can make any urban campaign world feel more full, more vibrant, and more diverse.
77 Stories in NewEdo is available through DriveThruRPG in PDF.
Please note: The links in the post above are “affiliate links”. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item the author of this post will receive an affiliate commission.
Voices From The Pulpit 