The Boys RPG and This Undying Blog

I'm watching The Boys now on Netflix and loving it. I read the comics a while back, and it was a great gonzo deconstruction of the genre by Garth Ennis. I was worried how these characters and concepts would translate to the small screen, but Netflix has made enough changes to story and events to suit TV and its need for episodic drama.

Which got me thinking about a The Boys (or The Girls) roleplaying game. Use whatever ruleset you prefer and try these setting conventions.

TWO TYPES OF POWER LEVEL

The comic and TV versions operate on two different levels of power. This will result in two different types of game.

1) SUPER POWERED (COMIC VERSION)

If you want to emulate the gonzo action of the comics, this is the way to go. There are a few precepts:

• All supes start with super toughness and strength. They can heal quickly, shrug off bullets.
• Supes and the Boys know about Compound V
• All Supe killers have taken Compound V and have super toughness and strength.

2) GRITTY STREET POWERED (TV VERSION)

If you prefer the TV version, try this.

• Supers still start with super toughness and strength, but can be taken out with enough bullets or explosives.
• Compound V is still unknown
• Supe killers start out with normal human limitations, but can acquire the Compound. This might be a good adventure seed.

SUPER KINK

All supers have a kink, a pervision that would wreck their career if found out, and which they feel compelled to do. Also, any kink involving physical damage gives them immunity to it.

1 Bodily Fluids

2 Apotemnophilia - sexual arousal caused by the idea of having one of your limbs cut off, or being made to look like an amputee.

3 Urolagnia - sexual attraction to urine

4 Galactophilia - sexual attraction to human milk or lactating women

5 Emetophilia - sexual attraction to vomit

6 Ursusagalmatophilia - aroused by teddy bears

7 Klismaphilia - sexual pleasure from enemas

8 Coprophilia - aroused by fecal matter

9 Dacryphilia - getting off by watching someone cry, with implications for violent behavior

10 Formicophilia - sexual desire to be covered by (and sometimes eaten by) insects

11 Harpaxophilia - sexual arousal at the thought of being a robbery victim

12 Paraphilic infantilism - sexual excitement from dressing up like a baby, as well as being treated like a baby.

13 Furries are people who dress up in animal costumes and take on the persona of that animal. 

14 Beastiality - sex with real live animals.

15 Necrophilia - intense sexual attraction felt by some people towards corpses.

16 Sex with Puppets

17 Pony play - BDSM fetish where people are dressed up in leather pony costumes, complete with hooves, bits, bridles, and saddles. 

18 Autoerotic asphyxiation - getting off while choking yourself. 

19 Vorarephilia - sexual attraction to being eaten by or eating another person, often in a single bite

20 Multiple Personality Disorder – Roll on this table 2 times.

SUPER POWERS

In addition to the starting super toughness and strength, roll extra powers randomly depending on the level of super you are making.

Top Tier (the 7) - 4 super powers

B lister (teenage kid, etc) - 2 super powers

C rank (local hero) - 1 super power

Super loser (Mesmer) - 1 power, no super toughness or strength

COMPOUND V

In a comic level game, Compound V is known about by both sides and easily obtainable. For a TV game, the supers know it, but The Boys and government don't.

However, to put some mystery in your game, you could change up the origin of the Compound. Here are some ideas of its origin.

1 Blood of an alien kept in some secret Voigt compound in Antartica.

2 Industrial runoff from the production of weird science technology used by super science heroes.

3 Ooze from a natural spring hidden deep in the Amazonian jungle, protected by tribes of headhunters. Expect lots of natural super animals as well.

4 The mutant gene for super powers exists in 1% of the population, the Compound merely activates it.

5 V is actually nanobots that improve the subject. This opens possibilities for bot jamming tech and a nefarious plot to nanobot the whole world.

6 V is a vaccine for the disease that causes super powers, smoothing out the transformation. In an outbreak, the infected are turned into freakish monsters, so expect having to deal with that at some point.

THE BOYS TRAUMA

All supe killers have some secret trauma that has set them on their mission. Roll on the following table to see what it was.

1 Your squad was wiped by a super. You get extra police or military training.

2 You are a compound V baby. Roll for one super power.

3 Your lover was killed by a super. Get a bonus to rolls when fighting the killer.

4 You were an ex fan who was spurned at a comic convention. Get a bonus to rolls when fighting the spurner.

5 You were molested or raped by a super. Get a bonus to rolls when fighting the aggressor.

6 It is your mission from the NSA. Get spy training.

7 You stumbled onto the cover up. Get extra computer and information tech skills.

8 Your father or mother works for Vought, and you resent them. Get knowledge about Vought company secrets.

9 You are a prohuman, anti super activist. get contacts from like minded people.

10 You were injured during a staged super fight. Get a bonus to rolls when fighting the combatants.

THIS BLOG & GAMING

After the busiest semester of my life, I am back at it till school starts in April. Unless the virus puts that back a few weeks...