Deep Dive Sneak Peek: Neighborhood Watch (Patreon)

Despite needing to devote several days to an unrelated project, I managed to finish a new Standing 1 conspiracy, this week. As always, this is a first draft, so there will be changes.

I have three more conspiracies left to write - one Regional, one Global, and on Otherworldly. I have some idea what I will do for the Regional and Global, but I haven't quite pinned down an appropriate Otherworldly concept, yet. What cool Otherworldly conspiracy concept do you think I should include in this supplement?

Neighborhood Watch

Neighborhood Watch is a band of stochastic vigilantes who fight crime in one neighborhood of a large city.

It began with a reading group at the local library. Deborah Rigsby, Sarah Warren, Lee Whittaker, and a dozen others had just started reading a buzzy new work of literary fiction and were eager to talk about it in the boardroom on a dark, cold evening. Over the course of several months, they realized the trio (as well as Daniel Price, the reference librarian), learned that they shared a secret: they were all Deviants. None of them had particularly flashy powers, but they had Broken needs that wouldn’t be met by reading memoirs.

Deborah developed her abilities to perceive and heal the traumas of others as an undergrad, although she refuses to elaborate on the precise circumstances beyond a vague reference to a special study program run by an unethical psychology professor. Sarah gained her clairvoyance and telepathy after nearly dying in labor while giving birth to her fourth child in as many years. In his 40s, Lee had been part of a failed supercop program that had rendered him stronger, tougher, and agile than most, but not appreciably better at policework. Daniel’s knack with computers, and for finding information (including incriminating information) on them in seconds, is something he’s had since he was a kid.

The four also shared concerns about the rise of crime in the neighborhood, and especially of crimes with superhuman perpetrators. Sarah had watched burglaries, assaults, and vandalism unfold on social media, with the criminals fleeing the scene long before police could get there. Deborah had seen the pain, shock, and feelings of helplessness written on the souls of countless patrons, including young children. Daniel could cite the local crime statistics to show that their neighborhood was now one of the most dangerous to live in. And Lee was haunted by a student’s recent objection that letting the assailant have your wallet was just rewarding bad behavior.

They didn’t blame the police. The cops couldn’t be everywhere at once, after all. But in as densely populated neighborhood as their own, someone could. They organized and trained a neighborhood watch to spot criminal intent, report criminal activity, and (most controversially) confront criminals to prevent them from leaving the scenes until the police could get there. The idea behind this last was that if every bystander refused to be a bystander, they could overpower anyone who tried to commit a crime in their neighborhood.

Despite some setbacks and a few notable scandals (mostly false positives that have led to innocent people being assaulted by a mob, with a few cases of overexuberant violence sprinkled in), the neighborhood watch has been largely successful. Robberies and burglaries are unheard of, and even petty theft, vandalism, and littering are well below the national averages for a neighborhood of its size. Moreover, the ferocity with which residents confront apparent kidnappers has made it a refuge for escaped Remade, many of whom have since joined Neighborhood Watch and become its superheroic icons – costumes, capes, amazing powers, and all. A significant population of Broken brings with it a significant number of Broken problems, however, and Watch has had to start pruning its roster to eliminate heroes who just don’t fit with the conspiracy’s vision for the neighborhood.

Conspiracy Traits

Standing: 1

Principles: Run towards danger; confront evil; the many are mightier than the few

Virtue: Fearless

Vice: Self-Righteous

Attributes: Power 1, Finesse 5, Resistance 2

Conspiracy Actions: 1

Association: 5

Hierarchical Node: City Library

Exploitative Node: Nosy Neighbors

Structural Node: Dojo

Icon: Neighbor.ly

Nodes

City Library (Hierarchical): The core members of Neighborhood Watch meet in the boardroom of the local library once a week. They keep extra supplies hidden in a storeroom in the library basement. A now-defunct subway stop serves as an additional entrance to the library basement, and conspiracy members sometimes use this to get to and from other subway stations. Deborah Rigsby has keys to all the doors in the library, and Daniel Price has administrative access to delete the limited surveillance footage, which helps keep their activities a secret.

Privileges: +2 to the Turn Traitor effect of Manufacture Complication, +2 to the Patsy effect of Send Agents

Nosy Neighbors (Exploitative): Sarah Warren grew up in the suburbs hearing stories of how dangerous and crime-ridden the city was, but her husband, frustrated by the long commute, insisted on moving their family to the city. Sarah saw potential thieves, murderers, and kidnappers everywhere she went, always checked her kids’ Halloween candy for razor blades and drugs, organized a neighborhood watch, and bought a police scanner so she always knew where bad things were happening. She became obsessed with the location based social media app Neighbor.ly, using it to keep her neighbors informed of every suspicious car, every unsightly incidence of littering or vandalism, and every ominous lurker in a 20-block radius.

Neighbor.ly: The conspiracy enjoys a +2 bonus to Surveillance rolls within its area of influence.

Lee’s Dojo (Structural): Lee Whittaker has been teaching self-defense classes since the 1970s. As a cop, he derived great satisfaction from making his students less vulnerable to robbery, abduction, and other violent personal crimes. After retiring from the force, Lee opened his own dojo where he offers free self-defenses classes. His students are everywhere, all of them trained to leverage their numbers to confront and overwhelm an aggressor (unless they’re alone), rather than to shrink away from or escape the conflict.

Privilege: +2 to the Create Distraction effect of Manufacture Complication

Optional Nodes

For each additional player connected to this conspiracy, add one of the following Nodes:

Full-Timers (Temporal): Some Baseline vigilantes take the job full-time, whether because they don’t need to work for a living or because they’ve found a way to make a living from livestreaming their exploits.

Trait Increases: +2 Power

Super Club (Temporal): Rather than relying on a handful of superheroic appearances, the conspiracy recruits local Devoted, including some who live elsewhere in the city.

Trait Increases: +2 Power

Adjacent Burroughs (Exploitative): The team’s influence expands beyond one neighborhood and into several other neighborhoods in the city.

Trait Increases: +2 Resistance; +2 Association

Friendly Cops (Exploitative): Local police, initially skeptical of the team’s vigilantism, develop a grudging respect for them, in part because the conspiracy is so free with their praise of law enforcement, but also because they take out or teach a lesson to local dirtbags in a way that gives them plausible deniability. The cops can hardly be blamed for the actions of the local neighborhood watch, after all.

Trait Increases: +2 Finesse

Tattoo Parlor (Structural): Gabriela Clemente, a local tattoo artist, grew up in a fringe Catholic cult that called itself Los Soldados, which was dedicated to two things: doing good deeds and killing monsters. After a nearly fatal period of fasting, she Diverged with an ability to empower a tattoo (whether temporary or permanent) so that the target became supernaturally tough and strong, as well as capable of recognizing monsters with a hard look. Los Soldados was wiped out by vampires a year later, and Gabriela has been quietly plying her mundane trade ever since, but in the Watch, she sees an opportunity to put her powers to good use.

Privilege: +2 to Weight of Numbers effect of Send Agent

Trait Increases: +1 Finesse, +1 Resistance; +1 Association

Neighborhood Watch Tattoo: If using this optional Node, replace Neighbor.ly with this Icon. All conspiracy agents who belong to the Full-Timers Node (if used) and many members of Nosy Neighbors gain access to the Monstrous Transformation (Carapace [Kevlar] 1, Superhuman Strength 1) 2 and Soul Seer 1 Variations, which are entangled with Noblesse Oblige (Power; Special*; Disfiguring Scar +1) 3.

* Instead of mandating that the character help someone fulfill an Aspiration, Anchor, or esoteric drive, the character must instead do a stranger or known enemy a good turn. This needn’t be an act of heroism, much less one of extreme self-sacrifice, but it demands either a modest investment of time (at least a number of minutes equal to 12 – twice Scar Resistance) or the loss of something of value (Availability 4 – half Scar Resistance, rounded up). The tattoo can be large or small and can appear on any part of the agent’s body, but it is distinctive and recognizable as referring to the Watch.