Wild Cards Design Journal #2

Playing With A Full Deck
The Wild Cards Campaign Setting is intended as both a comprehensive guide to the world and characters of the Wild Cards novels as well as a resource for the Mutants & Masterminds RPG, allowing you to create and play out your own Wild Cards adventures. Hey, if it was good enough for the writers who created the world, it’s good enough for you!

The first chapters of this book offer an overview of the world of the wild cards:

Chapter 1 looks at the wild card virus itself and how it works, along with spin-off innovations like the Trump, Black Trump, and Overtrump viruses.

Chapter 2 details the history of the Wild Cards world, from before the arrival and release of the virus to the present day, with an emphasis on the events of the Wild Cards books.

Chapter 3 describes New York City, the epicenter of the wild card phenomenon, home of Jokertown and many important characters and locations from the series (including a map of the city and its locales). It also goes beyond the boroughs of New York to look at how the wild card virus has impacted the world, and provides insight into popular culture in the Wild Cards world. It concludes by going beyond the Earth to the distant stars, describing the various prominent alien species and civilizations of the Wild Cards series.

Later chapters get into the characters, factions, and how to put things into play:

Chapter 4 makes up the bulk of the book, as it describes many of the prominent characters of the Wild Cards stories, including detailed histories and Mutants & Masterminds game information for each character. The over eighty series characters with bios in Chapter 4 are:

Jay Ackroyd (Popinjay)
The Astronomer
Bagabond
Reverend (President) Leo Barnett
George G. Battle
J. Robert Belew
Black Eagle
Black Shadow
Blaise
Bloat
Bludgeon
Braintrust
Butcher Dagon
Cameo
Captain Flint
Captain Trips (and his “friends” ... Aquarius, Cosmic Traveler, Jumping Jack Flash, Moonchild, Starshine, Monster, and the Radical)
Cordelia Chaisson
Chrysalis
Crypt Kicker
Hannah Davis
Deadhead
Demise
Xavier Desmond
Detroit Steel
Dr. Tachyon
Thomas “Digger” Downs
The Envoy
Fadeout
Father Squid
Dr. Bradley Finn
John Fortune
Fortunato
Golden Boy
Zoe Harris
Senator Gregg Hartmann (Puppetman)
Herne the Huntsman
The Highwayman
J. C. Jaywardene
Jetboy
Jube the Walrus
Kahina the Seer
Kid Dinosaur
Lazy Dragon
Mackie Messer
The Midnight Angel
Cash Mitchell
Modular Man
Rosemary Muldoon
Mr. Nobody
John Nighthawk
The Nur al-Allah
The Oddity
Peter Pann
Peregrine
Kien Phuc
Quasiman
Quinn the Eskimo
Billy Ray (Carnifex)
Pan Rudo
Sayyid
Sewer Jack Robicheaux
Danny Shepard (Legion)
The Sleeper
George Steele
Ti Malice
Topper (Melissa Blackwood)
The Great and Powerful Turtle
Blythe van Renssaeler
Warlock
Water Lily
Will-o-Wisp
Hiram Worchester
Wraith
Wyungare
Yeoman

Chapter 5 looks at different organizations, factions, and groups in the world of Wild Cards, past and present, everything from the Card Sharks and the Masons to the Living Gods, the Nur Sect, and the Joker Anti-Defamation League (and much more).

Chapter 6 gets into how to use the Wild Cards setting with Mutants & Masterminds, providing wild card character creation, rule options, Gamemaster advice, and a variety of series frameworks and adventure ideas.

Ante-Up is an introductory Mutants & Masterminds adventure set in the world of Wild Cards, where the players can learn what it’s like to draw the wild card and find themselves thrust into a strange new world.

Next up, we’ll take a look at some of the specifics of what to expect from Wild Cards along with some of how the book was put together.