That's Right, I'm Doing This.

Wow, I haven't blogged since LJ, and I haven't done that really in a few years.

So for the few people who were involved in Ryan's "Vigilantes" game back when we were in high school, or anyone who knows about that, this is my deciding to take and build upon the campily by-the-seat-of-his-pants Zodiac Cities concept Ryan had tossed out there in the game.

For those of you who don't know, quick recap: we played a game where the PCs were plucky adventurers who, rather than doing lame things like dungeon-crawling, ended up chilling in a city, getting hired by people to do odd jobs that the police didn't want to do, doing things the police weren't technically allowed to do, and occasionally getting blown up by exploding monks. Our party consisted four intrepid heroes: Iverna something, a pious cleric of Pelor who was quite heartily happy-go-lucky, naïve, and usually clueless, with occasional moments of clarity that made her a little dangerous (played by Liz); Draco something, a similarly ditzy monk, who enjoyed executing feats of brilliant agility and nigh inhuman grace that ended in running into a wall (played by Peter); Seebo Nanfoodle Mannoodle Brigadoon Arbydock Mernigmingle (I wish I didn't remember all that name), an incredibly paranoid fallen gnomish noble (GNOBLE) illusionist who virtually treated his covigilantes as villains, considering how often they foiled his carefully constructed schemes; and Loki Serdale, a grumpy, cynical fighter (with mild swashbuckler aesthetic) whose quick wit was only outshone by his quicker hands and overwhelming apathy (played by me).

We had a fun run.

So the point of this is that we started off in what was just called "The City". Not that it was a huge, sprawling metropolis or anything fancy. Nah, we just didn't really care about what the city was - it was a quick, fun, campy game where we fought villains like ThundarLizard. But eventually, when, for example, the inevitable inspector-vs-vigilante conflict was established, it ended up being an inspector from a different city in the kingdom... Kingdom? Republic? Was that ever made clear?

Either way, it was revealed this entire time, we'd been in Taurus City!! The inspector was coming in from, like, Libra city. Made sense, since ya know, the scales, law, balance, LAW, etc. And it was implied that oh, hey, there are twelve cities total in this the ZODIAC KINGDOM (or republic or whatever), but that was pretty much the end of it.

A few months ago, I decided to create a setting that actually dealt with that. Sure, that initial burst of creative energy only lasted about 30 or 40 minutes, but I rediscovered my notes, and I've decided to actually do it.