VENTURE

VENTURE
VENTURE
VENTURE
VENTURE
CITY
CITY
CITY
STORIES
CITY
STORIES
CITY
STORIES
STORIES
STORIES

A WORLD OF
ADVENTURE FOR

BRIAN ENGARD
 This adventure was made awesome thanks to our Patreon patrons at patreon.com/evilhat — thanks guys!

INSIDERS
Alan Dan Moody James F Joshua Reubens Michael Shea Ryan
Alexander Gräfe Daniel Gallant Thunberg June Nathan Ryan Singer
Alexander R. David Jason Keith Stanley Nick Bate Sanchit
Corbett David Dorward Jason Blalock Ken Nick Reale Scott Hamilton
Andrew Sier David L Kinney Jason F Kenji Ikiryo Nicola Urbinati Sean
Anne-Sylvie David Reed Broadley Kevin Jiyang Li Nicolas Sean O’Dell
Betsch Dustin Evermore Jason Sperber Larry Hollis Marjanovic Sean Smith
Antero Garcia Eden Brandeis Jean-Christophe Leif Erik Furmyr Osye Pritchett Sean Smith
Ariel Pereira Edgardo A Cubertafon Mark Miller Owen Selene O’Rourke
ArthurDent Montes Rosa Jeff Craig Markus Wagner Thompson Shane Russom
Bastian Elsidar Jeff Xilon Marshall Smith Patrick Ewing Sharif Abed
Clarenbach Amhransidhe Jere Krischel Marty Patrick Shervyn von
Brandon Burger Emmanuel Jeremiah McCoy Matt and Nykki Mueller-Best Hoerl
Brett Abbott eneko zarauz Jeremy German Boersma Peter Gates Tim Czarnecki
brian allred Frédéri Jim Matt Anderson Peter Hatch Tim L Nutting
C. J. Hunter POCHARD Johannes K. Matthew Philip Nicholls Timothy Carroll
C.K. Lee Gavran Rasmussen Matthew Rafael Meyer Ulf Bengtsson
Charlton Wilbur Gregory Hirsch John Beattie Matthew Randy Oest William Huggins
Chris Caporaso Griffin Mitchell John Rogers Dickson Richard William J. White
Christopher Haakon John Rudd Matthew Bellingham William Lee
Christopher Thunestvedt Jon Whiteacre Rick Woodrow Jarvis
Gunning Jacob Moffitt Jordan Dennis Michael Barrett Rick Jakins Hill
Christopher M. Jaime José Luis Michael Rob Kirchner Zach
Sniezak Robertson Porfírio Bowman Robert Hanz
Dan Josh Flint Michael Riabov Roger Edge

ADVENTURERS
Aaron Cody Marbach Ibon Presno Katie Ramsey Nathan Reed Scott Dexter
Aaron Cole Busse Gonzalez Kean Stuart Nicholas Pilon Scott Greenleaf
Adam Colin Irene Strauss Ken Mcferren Nicholas Sokeland Scott Krok
Gutschenritter Craig Andera Ismael Kenny Snow Nick Scott Martin
Aidan Grey Craig Mason Jack Gulick Kerry Harrison Nick Townsend Scott Puckett
Alan Phillips Cyrano Jones Jackson Hsieh Kevin Flynn NPC CAST Scott Thede
Alasdair Dain Jake Linford Kevin Harrison Olav Müller Seán Harnett
Alejandro Dan Behlings James Husum Kevin Veale Owen Duffy Sean M. Dunstan
Alejandro Angel Dan Hall James Schultz Krista paolo castelli Sean Smith
Alexis Lee Daniel Chapman James Stuart Kurtis Peterson Paul Arezina Sergio
Allan Bray daniel hagglund Jared Hunt LarrxX N’Gham Paul Baldowski Seth Hartley
Andrew Dacey Daniel Hernandez Jason Bean Les Simpson Paul Stefko Shane Harsch
Andrew Lloyd Daniel Kraemer Jason Best Lindsey Wilson Paul Yurgin Simon Brunning
Andrew Loch Daniel Ley Jason Cotton Link Hughes Pavel Zhukov Simon Withers
Angus MacDonald Daniel Markwig Jason Lee Waltman Lisa Hartjes Pete Stacey Chancellor
Anthony Popowski Daniel P. Espinosa Jason Lund Loren Norman Pete Figtree Stan Shinn
Arlene Medder Daniel Roe Jason Pasch Luca Agosto Peter Griffith Stefan
Asier Serras Daniel Taylor Javier Ludo Bermejo Peter Kahle Stephanie Bryant
athalbert Darren Hennessey Jayna Pavlin M Kenny Peter Woodworth Stephen Holder
Augustas Dave Jayson Stevens M. Alan Thomas II Philip Eisner Stephen Hood
Vaitkevičius Dave Jeff Tilotson m.h. Philip Harboe Stephen Waugh
Barac Wiley David Jeffrey Boman Manfred Larsen Steve Ela
Bastien Daugas David Jeffrey Collyer Marc Philipp Pötz Steve Gilman
beket David Bellinger Jens Marc Mundet Philippe Marichal Steve Kunec
Benjamin Welke David Bowers Jens Ameskamp Marcel Lotz Porter Williams Steve Radabaugh
Blackdere David Jeremy Glick Marcel Wittram R. Brian Scott Steven Code
Brad Davies Buswell-Wible Jeremy Wong Marcello Pellegrino Ralf Wagner Steven D Warble
Brandon David Millians Jesse E. Hamer Marcus Raun Sedlock Steven K. Watkins
Brandt David Olson Jesse Pudewell Mark A. Schmidt Raymond Toghill Steven Whitelock
Brent Ritch David Rezak Joanna Mark Gedak Reynaldo Svend Andersen
Brett Ritter David Wendt Joe Patterson Mark Harris Ricardo Gesuatto Ted Childers
Brian Koehler Denis Ryan John Mark Mealman Rich Palij Teresa Oswald
Brian Kurtz Derek John Bogart Mark Whittington Richard Greene Thom
Brian McDaniel Dianne John Buczek Mark Widner Richard Lock Thomas
Brian S. Holt Didier Bretin John Fiala Markus Haberstock Richard Warren Thomas Balls-Thies
Bruce Dillard John Lambert Markus Schoenlau Rishi Agrawal Tim
Bruce Harlick Don Arnold John Portley Markus Widmer Rob Voss Tim
Bryan Doug Blakeslee John Taber Martin Deppe Robb Neumann Timo
Bryan Gillispie Doyce Testerman John Tobin Marzio Spairani Robert Biskin Timothy Seiger
Bryce Drew Shiel John William Mason Robert Daines Todd Grotenhuis
Caleb Figgers Duncan McDonald Mathias Exner Robert Huss Trevor Crosse
Carl McLaughlin Eirch Mascariatu Johnathan Wright Matthew Hartwell Robert Rees Trevor Stark
Charles Chapman Florian Greß Jon Rosebaugh Matthew Miller Robert Zasso Tyler Hunt
Chip Dunning Francisco Jon Smejkal Matthew Whalley Roland Tyson Monagle
Chris Challacombe Frank Beaver Jonas Richter Matti Rintala romain fleurant Urs Blumentritt
Chris Edwards Frank G. Pitt Jonathan Hobbs Max Kaehn Ron Vladimir Filipović
Chris Heilman Frank Jarome Jonathan Rose Melior Via Ron Müller Warren P Nelson
Chris Kurts Frédérick Périgord Jonathan Young Michael RoninKelt Wayne Peacock
Chris Lock Gabriel Whitehead Joonas Iivonen Michael Ross Hellwig William Carroll
Chris Nolen Garrett Jones Jose Espinoza Michael D. Roy William Chambers
Chris Turner Gary Anastasio Joseph Formoso Blanchard Roy LaValley William Johnson
Christian Lajoie Geoff Josh Rensch Michael Hill Russell Hoyle William Wilson
Christoph Thill Gonzalo Joshua Haney Michael Hopcroft Ryan Lee Winston
Christopher Allen Graham Meinert Joshua Ramsey Michael McCully Ryan Macklin WinterKnight
Christopher Greg Park Joshua Turton Michael Thompson Ryven Cedrylle Zeb Walker
Sigmund Gustavo Campanelli JP Michele Samuel Zed Lopez
Christopher Smith Hillary Brannon Jürgen Rudolph Mick Bradley Samuel Zonk PJ Demonio
Adair Howard M Justin Mike de Jong Steinbock-Pratt Sonriente
Christopher W. Thompson Justin Thomason Mike Esmailzadeh Sarah Williams
Dolunt Huston Todd Kaarchin Naomi McArthur Scot Ryder
Chuck Ian Stanley Kalle Saarela Nathan Barnes Scott Acker
VENTURE
CITY
STORIES
A WORLD OF
ADVENTURE FOR

writing & adventure

design by
BRIAN ENGARD
editing by
JOSHUA YEARSLEY
art direction & layout by
FRED HICKS
interior & cover
artwork by
TAZIO BETTIN
 An Evil Hat Productions Publication
www.evilhat.com • [email protected]
@EvilHatOfficial on Twitter
facebook.com/EvilHatProductions

Venture City Stories

Copyright © 2014 Evil Hat Productions, LLC and Brian Engard.
All rights reserved.

First published in 2014 by Evil Hat Productions, LLC.

10125 Colesville Rd #318, Silver Spring, MD 20901.

Evil Hat Productions and the Evil Hat and Fate logos are
trademarks owned by Evil Hat Productions, LLC. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a

retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior express permission of the publisher.

That said, if you’re doing it for personal use, knock yourself out.
That’s not only allowed, we encourage you to do it.

For those working at a copy shop and not at all sure if this means
the person standing at your counter can make copies of this thing, they can.
This is “express permission.” Carry on.

This is a game where people make up stories about wonderful, terrible,

impossible, glorious things. All the characters and events portrayed in this
work are fictional. Any resemblance to real people, superheroes, corporate
raiders, private security firms, or disgruntled office workers who can shoot
frickin’ lazer beams from their eyes is purely coincidental, but kinda hilarious.
 CONTENTS

Venture City................................................................... 2

How It Works..................................................................4

Issues...............................................................................5

Factions, Places, and People.......................................6

The Block..............................................................................8

Splitstream...........................................................................9

Mitsuhama R&D Complex............................................. 10

Archard Cole..................................................................... 12

Raina Sanjarian................................................................. 13

Solar Man............................................................................ 14

Aegis Towers..................................................................... 15

Henry White.......................................................................17

Rakaru Heights................................................................. 18

Abby Dynes...................................................................... 20

Shadow................................................................................ 21

Character Creation and Powers................................23

Sample Characters......................................................26
 VENTURE CITY
Welcome to Venture City! It’s a city of millions, a sprawling urban metropolis
full of crime, corruption, and violence. It’s a city where the rich and elite—few
as there might be—control nearly everything. It’s a city where crime prevention
and public safety are privatized, and police forces are owned by corporations.
It’s a city with a huge, disenfranchised underclass that will do what they must to
make ends meet.
Venture City is a place of extremes, a place of deep, concealing shadows and
stark, antiseptic light. It’s a place of heroes and villains, exemplars of justice and
personifications of evil.
Okay, maybe that last bit is a lie.
What Venture City really is is gray. Sure, you’ve got extremes: rich and poor,
light and dark, safe and dangerous, hero and villain. But in between are vast
expanses of murky morality, people who don’t exist as part of the established
system. People like you.
Welcome to Venture City. It’s a lot like the rest of the world.

Heroes and Villains

You know the heroes and villains. You see them on TV, you know their names,
you buy their action figures. Here’s the thing, though: anyone the media calls
a “hero” is sponsored by one of the big multinationals. Every one. Do they
do good things? Sure. But they do it on the company dime, and that makes
them beholden to company policy. You see the heroes saving people, stopping
disasters, thwarting villains. But who decides who’s worth saving, what’s really a
disaster, who’s really a villain?
Villains. Yeah. That’s a much murkier area. Some of them are bad, don’t get
me wrong; some of them do things that would make history’s greatest monsters
proud, and they do it for personal gain or revenge or for no reason at all. But
most people who get painted with that “villain” brush are just supers without a
corporate sponsor. They’re off-book. Unsanctioned.
So where do they all come from? A while back, maybe sixty years ago, supers
started cropping up. You’d find people who could fly or teleport or burn things
with their eyes, and nobody knew quite what to make of them. They all had their
own spin on the origin story. Aliens, radiation, traumatic injury, super-science,
whatever. Some of it had a kernel of truth; some was pure bunk.
Here’s what we know now: Supers have a particular gene sequence that enables
their powers. The potential for these powers is in every man, woman, and child,
but it’s only turned on for certain people. Different things can turn it on, but—
like getting cancer from smoking or dying from a lightning strike—it doesn’t
happen to everyone. There’s no reliable way to reproduce it.
At least, there wasn’t until about five years ago. See, the corporations rounded
up a bunch of these supers, shipped them off to R&D, dissected them and
studied them and poked and prodded to see what made them tick. And then

2 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

one corp, Mitsuhama Splice Corp, figured it out. They figured out how to turn
that gene sequence on and off, how to alter it to get specific effects. How to
custom-build superheroes.
Didn’t take long for the tech to spread. Some spy stole the research for their
corporation, then maybe sold it to a third party for some filthy lucre, and now
they’ve all got it. That’s the key, though: the corporations have it. Regular folk?
We have to rely on happenstance to get our superpowers, if we get them at all.
The corps hold all those cards.

Crime and Punishment

Like the rest of the world, all policing—crime prevention and investigation,
public safety, and so forth—is privatized. Each corporation has its own private
police force, every one happy to take your cash for the privilege of their protec-
tion. If you can’t pay, you’re on your own.
Crime, as you might expect, is rampant in those places where nobody can
afford corporate security. It’s an accepted fact of life. In the nice parts of town,
most of the crime is white-collar, corporate espionage and embezzling and that
kind of thing. Out in the sprawl, anything goes. It’s only illegal if it steps on the
toes of someone who can actually do something about it.
The heroes help some. When the corps need some good PR, they send their
pet supers into the sprawl to stop big, high profile crimes . . . when they’re not
busy perpetrating crimes on other corporations, at least. Sometimes you also get
unsanctioned heroes, non-corp supers who will help a neighborhood out for
maybe some free room and board or just a heads-up if the corporate heroes come
knocking. They’ve got to keep a low profile, though. Stop too many crimes and
you’re stepping on the corporations’ toes, cutting into their bottom line. And
that, of course, is illegal.

Daily Life
You’ve got three socioeconomic strata in Venture City. First, there are the rich.
Politicians, CEOs, and other bigwigs who are tied to one or more corporations
and who can afford luxury and safety. They make up maybe a half a percent of
the population, but they hold the lion’s share of the power and money.
Then you’ve got the wageslaves. They work for the corps, so they get pro-
tection and security and a place to live and a monthly wage to spend at the
company store. But they aren’t called “slaves” for nothing. You sign with a cor-
poration, they own you in perpetuity. Hell, they own your corpse when you
die—you know, for science. Leaving one corporation for another, or just going
your own way, is called “defection” because it’s illegal. It’s a crime punishable by
a good long time in prison—also privatized.
Then you’ve got everyone else. We live out in the sprawl, we work at local
stores or out of our homes, we make just enough to scrape by, and we don’t get
any kind of security or protection from anyone unless we can pay.

VENTURE CITY STORIES 3

 HOW IT WORKS
Venture City Stories is an adventure toolkit for Fate Core. It’s a sandbox environ-
ment where you can create your own stories, sort of a mini-setting with situa-
tions you can use as springboards to tell the stories you want to tell.
First we’ll give you a bunch of example issues for your game. We’ll talk about
the different things your adventure might be about, and we’ll provide you with
some impending and current issues you can use to steer things in that direction.
These start on page 5.

Nothing Ventured
Throughout the Venture City write-up, you’ll see boxes like this. If

NEXT: PAGE 6
you don’t want to put together your own starting adventure, then
look at these boxes. They tell you what elements of the city to use
and how to use them, so that you can hit the ground running with
minimal effort. If all you do is read these sidebars and the specific
elements they reference, you’ll have a complete adventure called
Nothing Ventured.

Then we’ll go into the various factions in the city. These are the corpora-
tions, private security forces, heroic and villainous organizations, street gangs,
and other groups in Venture City. Each faction has its own aspects and skills,
places important to them, and some prominent people you might run into—
the movers and shakers, or otherwise noteworthy individuals. Check them out
on page 6. You don’t have to use everything we give you; choose what suits
your story best.
The end of the book has rules for creating characters (page 23), as well as
some partially pregenerated characters (page 26). The character creation rules
will tell you how you can make your own superpowers, and the pregens provide
some examples. There are some examples in the adventure proper, too. If you’re
ever confused about what things like special effects and collateral damage mean,
flip back to this section.

4 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

ISSUES
The issues you choose say a lot about what your game’s going to be about. Just
like in Fate Core (FC 22), you’re going to pick or come up with two issues: two
current issues, two impending issues, or one of each.
Current issues in Venture City Stories are usually big things that the city strug-
gles with. They color every scene set in Venture City, but it’s unlikely that your
PCs will resolve them over the course of a single adventure. It’s good to have
goals, though, and if you want your first adventure in Venture City to be the
start of a longer campaign, you’ll definitely want a current issue.
Impending issues are more immediate. They’re threats happening right now,
and they’re great for getting started right away. If you want to direct the action
a little and steer the PCs toward a particular problem or bad guy, an impending
issue is a great way to do that.
If you want to run Venture City Stories in one adventure—often called a “one-
shot”—grab two impending issues. Current issues can have their place in a one-
shot, but giving the PCs two big, flashy, immediate things to tackle presents
them with a hard choice, and hard choices make for great drama.
If you want to run something a little more freeform and allow the PCs to
pursue their own goals over the short term while threats await them in the long
term, get yourself a couple of current issues. That way the PCs will know what’s
wrong with the city and what problems need fixing, but also that these issues are
long-term things they have to worry about. In the near future, they can decide
what’s important and exert a lot of authorship over the story.
Taking one of each will let you split the difference, which can be good for
both one-shots and campaign play. A one-shot with mixed issues gives the PCs
a tangible, immediate goal that they can accomplish, while the current issue sets
the tone, making the city feel more like a real, living place as it looms in the
background. In campaign play you’ll start off with a bang while giving your PCs
long-term problems they’ll have to deal with some day.

Current Issues
• “Crime and politics, is there a difference?”
• Not Safe After Dark
• “There’s the rich, and everybody else.”
• Are Supers Still Human?

Impending Issues
• Gangland Powderkeg
• The Superdrug
• Terrorist Bombings Rock City
• Citywide Blackout

VENTURE CITY STORIES 5

 Nothing Ventured: Issues

PREV: PAGE 4
Nothing Ventured has a current issue and an impending issue. The
current issue Are Supers Still Human? is a manifestation of a
question that’s very much on the public’s mind—according to the
underground media, at least. Supers—in particular the corporate-
sponsored superheroes—are viewed with significant distrust by
much of the underclass and even many of the wageslaves. They
stop crime, but they also do terrible things for the corporate mas-
ters. Do they have free will? Do their powers distance themselves
from humanity so much that they can no longer understand or
sympathize with their fellow human beings? Are they the next step
in evolution, or the next big threat?
The impending issue is The Superdrug, a potent pharmacologi-
cal cocktail that’s hit the streets recently. It gives you superpowers,
but they only last as long as you keep taking the drug. Also, there
are the side effects. Is it safe? Did one of the corporations make

NEXT: PAGE 7
it? Did it get leaked to the street deliberately? Is this whole thing
some sort of experiment? What are the long-term implications of
the drug? What happens when terrorists or violent criminals get
their hands on it?
Into this volatile mix come the PCs: unsanctioned supers from
the underclass hired by a corporate suit as disavowable assets. Their
job: find out who’s flooding the streets with the superdrug.

FACTIONS, PLACES, AND PEOPLE

The rest of this adventure is a collection of factions, places, and people you can
use to make your own adventure. Throughout you’ll also find sidebars detailing
the pieces to use in Nothing Ventured; follow the guidelines in these sidebars and
you’ll have a ready-to-play adventure. You’ll also find sidebars containing advice
and tips for building your own adventure.
Factions are major groups within Venture City. Corporations, gangs, under-
ground super-groups, private security forces, and such—they’re all factions.
Factions have two key game statistics: aspects and skills. Each faction has two
aspects: a slogan and a secret. A faction’s slogan summarizes its public persona,
the face it presents to the rest of the world. A secret represents all the things the
faction hides from outside scrutiny. They’re both a bit like a high concept and a
bit like a trouble.
A faction’s skills are the things it’s good at. If you need either passive or active
opposition, or a rating for a nameless NPC, use the skill that best matches what
you want. Not all factions have all faction skills; if a skill is missing from a fac-
tion’s list, assume it defaults to Average (+1). The faction skills are Bureaucracy,
Espionage, Resources, Security, Tech, and Violence.
Faction listings also contain places and people. Places each have an issue,
while people are either supporting or main NPCs.

6 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

 Nothing Ventured: Setup
PREV: PAGE 6 In Nothing Ventured, the PCs are unsanctioned supers living in the
sprawl. Some might be associated with the Neighborhood Watch
(page 18), some with Splitstream’s Crew (page 7), and some
might be independent. Make sure they know each other and have
reasons to work together.
Each of the PCs has heard about the superdrug, but nothing
specific—just that it’s out there and it’s maybe not all it’s cracked
up to be. The drug becomes important, though, when they all get
the same anonymous text:
“Need your help. High risk, high reward. Barton’s. Midnight.”
Barton’s is a bar in Rakaru Heights (page 18). The text is from
Emily Shah, a resident of the neighborhood. She’s not a super and
isn’t much of a combatant. She is affiliated with the Neighborhood
Watch (page 18), though, doing legal aid and fundraising; use
the Watch’s Resources skill for any rolls Emily makes. She’s Loyal
to the Watch but also Repelled by Violence. She believes in what
the Watch does, but doesn’t always approve of their methods.
When the PCs gather at Barton’s, Emily approaches them and

NEXT: PAGE 8
makes them a proposition. She’s concerned with the increase in
violence and crime caused by the superdrug, and she wants the
PCs to find out how it’s getting to the streets and to put a stop to
the supply. She promises a big payday in return.
Emily’s only lead is that Splitstream’s Crew seems to be profit-
ing quite a bit from the sale of the drug, and many of Splitstream’s
gangbangers are using.

Splitstream’s Crew
Venture City is home to more than a dozen gangs. Some of them are very small,
a handful of violent people trying to grab what power they can. Others are huge,
sprawling organizations that control large sections of the city. Splitstream’s Crew
falls into the latter category.
On its face, the Crew—as they’re often called—is a dangerous organized crime
syndicate with a penchant for violent acts and a number of super-powered mem-
bers. The Crew is more than just a gang, though. Those in the know are aware
that the Crew is for hire. Splitstream runs his Crew like a gang, but he makes his
money from secret mercenary contracts. What look like acts of random violence
are often targeted strikes.

The Crew
Slogan: We Control the Sprawl
Secret: Services Rendered to the Highest Bidder
Skills: Espionage +2, Resources +2, Security +2,
Violence +3

VENTURE CITY STORIES 7

 The Block
Though the Crew controls about half of the sprawl proper, their base of power is
a decommissioned prison that everyone just calls “the Block.” Once used to keep
violent offenders off the streets, it is now a fortress that Splitstream uses to plan
attacks on various organizations and people in Venture City.
Many cells have been converted into barracks, garages, server rooms, armories.
At any given time, about half of the remaining cells in the Block are occupied by
Splitstream’s enemies or targets, waiting to be interrogated, tortured, killed, or
ransomed. The structure’s only real weakness is its age: many of its electrical and
security systems are outdated and faulty.
Issue: Outdated Systems

Nothing Ventured: Splitstream’s Involvement

Splitstream is involved in selling the drug, and he’s not the only one.
PREV: PAGE 7

Many of the gangs in Venture City are profiting from its sale, but
Splitstream is making a killing. He’s also distributing it to his non-super
subordinates so they can get a quick fix when the fighting starts.
Approaching Splitstream isn’t easy. He’s in the Block. He’s surrounded
by his men. The PCs can fight their way in; most of Splitstream’s bangers
are nameless NPCs (use the Crew’s Violence rating, page 7). A few
of them have superpowers from the drug; throw in four or five nameless
NPCs with one of the following stunts. Don’t worry about drawbacks or
collateral damage or special effects; they’re just nameless NPCs.
• Flight: The gang member can fly. This functions just like running or
walking, but with vertical movement.
• Super Strength: The gang member gets a +2 bonus on any attacks that
rely on brute strength.
• Pyrokinesis: The gang member can make ranged fire-based attacks
with a +2 bonus.
• Teleportation: The gang member can teleport around the battlefield,
moving up to 3 zones as an action.
If the PCs choose to approach with violence, Splitstream will fight
them, but he’ll concede if he takes a moderate consequence or worse.
They could also talk their way in somehow or use trickery. Either
approach might or might not involve a fight. Either way, they eventually
get Splitstream to spill the following information:
NEXT: PAGE 11

• He gets his supply of the drugs from a man named Henry White.
He’s pretty sure Henry works for Mitsuhama Splice.
• Mitsuhama’s R&D facility is known for their thriving smuggling
ring.
• A woman named Shadow—the only name he has—has been paying
him lots of money to distribute the drug to people in Rakaru Heights.
• He’s pretty sure the drug causes a psychotic break eventually.

8 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

Splitstream
Splitstream is a cunning gang leader and mercenary captain. His power over life
and death, once he learned to control it, allowed him to shoot up through the
ranks of Venture City’s largest gang at a young age. Eventually, Splitstream chal-
lenged the leader of the Crew, killed him, and had his loyalists kill anyone who
had supported his predecessor.
Now he has a reputation as one of the most dangerous men in Venture City.
He has a tacit agreement with the Neighborhood Watch: as long as they stay out
of his territory, he leaves them alone. He also holds lucrative agreements with the
various corporations in Venture City. Many corporate troubleshooters hire him
and his Crew as deniable assets in exchange for significant compensation and a
blind eye from their security and police forces.

Splitstream
Aspects: Brilliant Mercenary Gang Captain, Too Many Masters,
“Life and death are in my hands.”, Attachments Are a Weakness,
Brutal and Efficient
Skills
Superb (+5): Rapport
Great (+4): Fight, Provoke
Good (+3): Contacts, Shoot, Will
Fair (+2): Athletics, Notice, Physique, Burglary
Average (+1): Deceive, Drive, Investigate, Resources, Stealth
Stunts
Armor of Fear (FC 120)
Provoke Violence (FC 120)
Popular (FC 121)
Powers
Life and Death: Splitstream’s left hand induces rapid and aggressive cancer-
ous growth within anyone he touches. To use this power, he must touch
his enemy’s skin, which is a Fight roll if they’re resisting. If he succeeds, he
deals +4 physical stress. If he touches someone with his right hand, he heals
their wounds; make a Will roll at Fair (+2) to clear any physical stress. He
can also downgrade consequences instead of clearing stress; the opposition
to this roll is the shift value of the consequence he attempts to clear. While
he can heal as many people as he wishes, each person can only benefit from
it once per scene.
Special Effects: Inflict Condition, Physical Recovery
Drawback: Can’t Turn It Off
Collateral Damage Clause: If Splitstream doesn’t mind killing a lot of people,
he can touch his hands together to emanate a wave of sickness from his body
that affects everyone in his zone. The wave immediately kills any nameless
NPCs, while named NPCs and PCs must make a Physique roll against a
Fair (+2) difficulty to avoid taking a moderate physical consequence.
Physical Stress: 3 Mental Stress: 4

VENTURE CITY STORIES 9

 Mitsuhama Splice Corporation
Mitsuhama is the world’s biggest, richest, and most influential biotech corpora-
tion. They’ve also got their hands in electronics, but genetic engineering is their
bread and butter. They’ve found cures for countless diseases, cures available in
hospitals the world over—as long as you can pay for them.
They’re also the ones who cracked the supergene, figured out how to activate
superpowers in just about anyone. That tech has since leaked out to other cor-
porations, and most major corporations have at least one superhero on staff, but
Mitsuhama is still at the bleeding edge of supergene research. Other corps may
have supers, but Mitsuhama supers are just better. Fewer drawbacks and side
effects. More control over their powers.
There’s a rumor that Mitsuhama also outfits their supers—and even some of
their execs and salarymen—with kill switches: genetic code designed to replicate
into a system-crippling and lightning-fast cancer when it’s activated remotely.
But that can’t be true, can it?

Mitsuhama Splice Corporation

Slogan: Unlocking Humanity’s Potential
Secret: Life: Cheap but Profitable
Skills: Bureaucracy +3, Resources +3, Security +2,
Tech +3, Violence +2

Mitsuhama R&D Complex

While Venture City isn’t the seat of Mitsuhama’s
power and authority, it is where most of the sci-
ence gets done. The company’s primary R&D
complex is situated on the edge of the sprawl,
and it’s the size of a small town on its own.
This is where the magic happens. This is where
Mitsuhama scientists conduct their experiments,
cure diseases, unlock the secrets of the supergene,
and create their heroes.
The complex is well guarded ’round the clock,
but every fortress has a weakness. In Mitsuhama’s
case, it’s that they don’t pay their security force
all that well. The corp relies on other methods
to inspire loyalty—or obedience—and unfortu-
nately for them this means there are gaps in their
defenses. It’s a poorly guarded secret that a lot of
the designer drugs that make it out to the streets
are leaked by Mitsuhama security bulldogs trying
to make an extra buck. The company probably
knows about it, but tolerates it.
Issue: Thriving Smuggling Operation

10
 Nothing Ventured:
Following a Lead at Mitsuhama
PREV: PAGE 8

The Mitsuhama R&D complex is a good place to start looking for the truth,
but the PCs won’t find it there. At least, they won’t find the whole truth there.
Different people know different things.
Archard Cole knows about the superdrug. He also knows that Mitsuhama
used to manufacture it, but stopped when they found out about its side
effects. They had a huge quantity of the stuff, enough for millions of doses,
but it was all slated for destruction more than six months ago. Cole’s not
stupid; he knows that the drug out on the streets is either the same drug
supposed to be destroyed or is based on the formula for that drug. Without
a sample he can’t be sure which, but as far as he’s concerned Mitsuhama is
absolved of any wrongdoing in this instance. If pressed, Archard might hint
that his head of security Raina Sandarian knows more.
Of course, getting in to actually talk to Cole is going to be a trick and a
half. He’s protected by lawyers, yes-men, bureaucrats, corporate security—the
works. Use whatever faction skill seems most appropriate to keep the PCs
away from him, but don’t use it to frustrate their efforts. If they’re really intent
on talking to Cole and have a good idea for how to do just that, let them
succeed—just don’t make it easy. When they finally do talk to Cole, he feigns
being cooperative but his goal is to keep himself and Mitsuhama covered
against liability—in that order.
Raina Sanjarian knows more of the particulars, but doesn’t let on that
she does. She’s easier to get access to than Cole is, but she’s better at play-
ing dumb, which she’s anything but. Sanjarian knows three very important
things. First, she knows that the supply of the drug was destroyed more than
six months ago. Second, she knows that the formula was smuggled out of
the complex around the same time and sold to someone. Third, she knows
who Henry White is, but she won’t volunteer this information unless the PCs
specifically mention him by name; she doesn’t understand his involvement
until they do so.
If the PCs get Sanjarian talking about Henry White, she can tell them that
he’s a mid-level exec for Aegis Securities. She knows he’s not happy being a
salaryman, and she figures that he was probably the buyer for the superdrug
formula. If that’s the case, then either Aegis is manufacturing and distributing
NEXT: PAGE 16

it, or White is doing so on the side. Either way, he should be their next stop.
One more thing: an incursion into the R&D complex, either overt or
covert, is a golden opportunity to bring Solar Man into the mix, probably
accompanied by a cadre of Bright Sun soldiers (use Mitsuhama’s Violence
rating, page 10). If the PCs approach using either violence or stealth, that’s
your cue to get a big superhero fight ready.

VENTURE CITY STORIES 11

 Archard Cole
Cole is Mitsuhama’s headman in Venture City. His title
is Vice President of Research and Development—he’s
effectively king of the company’s R&D machine. He
climbed the ranks because he’s both brilliant and
ruthless; he knows his science and he knows his busi-
ness, and he’s not afraid to get his hands a little dirty.
Being head of R&D has a few perks too. The
man has an instant supply of drugs as well as the
treatments to make sure those drugs don’t hurt
him, genetic tweaks to make him live longer and
stay hale and hardy into his old age, and he’s
effectively free from disease. There are rumors
that his supergene’s active too.

Archard Cole
Aspects: Mitsuhama R&D Headman, Owned by the
Company Store, Secret Super, “Limitations are for
other people.” , Genetically Perfect
Skills
Superb (+5): Resources
Great (+4): Lore, Rapport
Good (+3): Contacts, Deceive, Athletics
Fair (+2): Crafts, Empathy, Fight, Physique
Average (+1): Investigate, Notice, Provoke, Shoot, Will
Stunts
Mind Games (FC 104)
Specialist (Genetics) (FC 115)
Best Foot Forward (FC 121)
Savvy Investor (FC 123)
Powers
Wind Control: Cole can use Athletics to fly. He can also
summon gusts of wind, and he gets a +2 to Athletics
rolls to create advantages from doing so.
Special Effects: Forced Movement, Extra Movement
Drawback: Hard To Use Indoors
Collateral Damage Clause: If Cole is willing to deal collat-
eral damage, he can fly directly through solid objects—
walls, ceilings, people—without injury. If he flies
through a person, treat this as an Athletics attack with
a +2 bonus.
Physical Stress: 3 Mental Stress: 3

12 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

Raina Sanjarian
Sanjarian is Cole’s head of security. She oversees both the security forces for
Mitsuhama’s complex in Venture City and Bright Sun Security, the privatized
police force that the company owns. Sanjarian is stern and ruthless, but she
doesn’t control her subordinates through fear. She has a strong sense of justice,
which informs her decision-making and managerial style. Bright Sun is quite
possibly one of the most disciplined and loyal private security companies in
Venture City, due in no small part to Raina Sanjarian’s leadership.
This sense of justice is at odds, of course, with the active smuggling ring within
the Mitsuhama campus security force, at least at first glance. Though Sanjarian
enforces discipline and order here too, she recognizes the security force’s low pay
as an injustice, and turns a blind eye on the smuggling ring to help balance the
scales. As long as nothing too important gets leaked, there’s no problem.

Raina Sanjarian
Aspects: Mitsuhama Head of Security, Justice Above All, No
Sense of Humor, Tactical Virtuoso, Quietly Menacing
Skills
Great (+4): Shoot, Provoke
Good (+3): Athletics, Fight, Physique
Fair (+2): Contacts, Investigate, Rapport, Will
Average (+1): Drive, Empathy, Notice, Deceit, Resources
Stunts
Lie Whisperer (FC 109)
Backup Weapon (FC 111)
Attention to Detail (FC 113)
Tough as Nails (FC 119)
Physical Stress: 4 Mental Stress: 3

VENTURE CITY STORIES 13

 Solar Man
Bright Sun’s mascot—and Mitsuhama’s most popular superhero—is Solar Man.
Handsome, charming, and capable of flying and controlling light, Solar Man
flies around the city righting wrongs and protecting citizens. Of course, “wrongs”
are defined by Mitsuhama Splice Corporation, and “citizens” are people who pay
Bright Sun.
There’s a darker side to Solar Man, too. His ability to control light makes him
an expert infiltrator; he can do things like shroud an area in darkness, spoof
security systems, turn invisible, and more. Mitsuhama often uses Solar Man for
clandestine activities against other corporations.
In truth, Solar Man is conflicted about his identity. He wants to be a good
guy, to help people. He doesn’t like refusing help to people who aren’t Bright Sun
customers, and he doesn’t like corporate espionage. But he does like his power
and fame, and he knows Mitsuhama can take both away easily. The genetic kill
switch he’s saddled with is also convincing.

Solar Man
Aspects: “A bright spot in the darkness!”, Genetic Kill Switch, Wants
To Be a Hero, Espionage Expert, Bright Sun Mascot
Skills
Superb (+5): Shoot
Great (+4): Athletics, Stealth
Good (+3): Deceive, Fight, Physique
Fair (+2): Burglary, Empathy, Notice, Rapport
Average (+1): Contacts, Investigate, Provoke, Will
Stunts
Best Foot Forward (FC 121)
Powers
Light Control: Solar Man can fly with Athletics and shoot lasers from his
hands with Shoot. He can also wrap himself in darkness or make him-
self invisible by bending light, granting him a +2 to overcome rolls with
Stealth when vision or light is a factor. Finally, he can spoof security
systems with his light-based powers, giving him a +2 to create advan-
tages with Burglary when dealing with electronic security systems.
Special Effects: Area Attack, Inflict Condition
Drawback: Burns Hot
Collateral Damage Clause: If Solar Man doesn’t mind dealing a little col-
lateral damage, he can control a swath of light the size of about a city
block, flooding it in blinding light or dousing it in darkness. He can
maintain this power for a whole scene.
Physical Stress: 4 Mental Stress: 3

14 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

Aegis Securities
Aegis is the name in private security forces in Venture City. Somewhere in the
neighborhood of sixty percent of the private police in the city report to Aegis.
Another twenty is Bright Sun (page 13), and the rest is divided amongst a
number of minor corps.
Aegis is looking to expand their influence. They’re the top dog in security
contracts, but they also want to supply the military with weapons and field
enhancements—oh, and they’re looking to get into biotech too.
Unlike Bright Sun, Aegis pays its soldiers and supers well. They’re loyal because
they’re treated like rock stars and because they know they’re the backbone of the
company. The salarymen and wageslaves, on the other hand, are a little restless.

Aegis Securities
Slogan: Keeping You Safe
Secret: To the Highest Bidder
Skills: Resources +2, Security +3, Tech +2, Violence +3

Aegis Towers
The corporation’s base of operations, Aegis Towers is an impressive corporate
arcology in the center of Venture City. The central of the three towers is the tall-
est structure in the city, and you can see both helicopters and superheroes taking
off from and landing on its three helipads at any time of day.
It’s also probably the most well-guarded and secure building in the city.
Anybody who’s ever tried to break in has been handled with finality. If the facil-
ity has a weakness, it’s that the rank-and-file wageslaves are unhappy, poorly
paid, and not particularly loyal. Get one alone without a security officer nearby,
and you could learn all kinds of things.
Issue: Disloyal Wageslaves

VENTURE CITY STORIES 15

 Nothing Ventured:
PREV: PAGE 11
Following a Lead with Henry White
Henry White isn’t that hard to talk to—unless he doesn’t want to
talk. If the PCs approach him with a light touch, they can simply
go up and talk to him during his off-hours. If they’re more heavy-
handed, Henry’s going to get security involved. This could wind
up being a temporary roadblock or it could be a fight.
In a fight, Henry attacks at first, but he runs if he takes any stress
or consequences. He’s not a brave man, and the adrenaline rush of
using his power wears off once he sees the danger he’s in.
Another option is to follow Henry into the sprawl when he
goes to meet his contacts. If the PCs opt for this approach, skip
to“The Vats” (page 19).
When the PCs get a chance to question Henry, they can learn
quite a bit from him.
• Henry bought the superdrug formula from Mitsuhama with
money he got from a woman named Shadow.
• Henry bought the formula from a scientist named Roger
Dynes.

NEXT: PAGE 19
• He and Shadow have been selling the superdrug to gangs all
around the city, including Splitstream’s Crew.
• Henry and Shadow’s base of operations is an underground lab
beneath Rakaru Heights.
• The superdrug works, but is volatile. The powers it creates are
unstable, and it can have extreme psychological side effects.

16
Henry White
Henry is the quintessential disloyal wageslave. He’s worked for Aegis for close
to fifteen years, and in that time he’s been promoted twice. He makes much less
than even a low-ranking security officer, and he knows it. He’s unhappy, but he’s
locked into a lifetime contract and can’t get out.
Though he’s stuck in a discouraging job, that doesn’t mean he can’t supple-
ment his income elsewhere. Six months ago Henry bought the formula for the
superdrug from someone at Mitsuhama, and he’s partnered with some shady
people to manufacture and distribute it. He’s also not above sampling the wares
himself; Henry wants to feel powerful, and the drug does just that.
Henry’s family is worried about him. They’ve noticed a change in his behav-
ior—staying out late, mood swings, coming home smelling of chemicals—and
they think something’s wrong. They’re right.

Henry White
Aspects: Wageslave–Turned–Drug Baron, Violent Mood
Swings, Lifetime Contract, Family Man, Friends in Low
Places
Skills
Great (+4): Deceive
Good (+3): Contacts, Rapport
Fair (+2): Empathy, Lore, Shoot
Average (+1): Athletics, Crafts, Drive, Notice
Stunts
Lies upon Lies (FC 104)
Nose for Trouble (FC 109)
Powers
Laser Eyes: Henry can shoot lasers from his eyes, allowing him to
make a Shoot attack at a +2.
Special Effects: Area Attack, Inflict Condition
Drawback: Uncontrollable Bursts
Collateral Damage Clause: If Henry doesn’t mind inflicting
some collateral damage, he can attack everyone in a zone at
full strength.
Physical Stress: 2 Mental Stress: 2

VENTURE CITY STORIES 17

 The Neighborhood Watch
Out in the sprawl, most people can’t afford the premiums required to get pro-
tection from one of the private police forces. They’re scraping by, living day to
day, existing in a world that is, in many ways, actively hostile toward them. The
police ignore them; whatever happens is what happens, right?
But that doesn’t mean they’re helpless or without protection. Many of the
sprawlers belong to a loose-knit organization that takes care of its own. They
watch each other’s backs, band together when a threat appears, and make the
streets a little safer. There are even some unsanctioned supers in this group; they
lend much-needed clout in return for shelter from the corps. People call this
group the Neighborhood Watch.
The Watch ain’t perfect, though. There’s plenty of crime and corruption in it.
There’s no central authority and no self-regulation other than what people are
and aren’t willing to do. As such, there are plenty of ways for you to hide your
sins. Protection rackets, money laundering, drug sales, prostitution, and more
exist within the Watch and sneak under its nose. The Watch needs money, and
that money’s got to come from somewhere.

The Neighborhood Watch

Slogan: Safer Streets
Secret: Hides All Kinds of Sins
Skills: Violence +2

Rakaru Heights
The people here have a saying: “When they talk about the mean streets, they’re
talking about Rakaru.” Rakaru Heights used to be the most dangerous place in
the sprawl. Huge, dilapidated, rife with crime—it was a microcosm of the sprawl
as a whole, but even more concentrated. The Neighborhood Watch didn’t make
the neighborhood safer, really, it just made Rakaru Heights dangerous to differ-
ent people.
The criminals no longer run Rakaru Heights, though crime still has its place
in the neighborhood. The Watch—Abby Dynes, specifically—has made Rakaru
a place that predators avoid, though. Rapists, muggers, drug dealers, and others
who prey upon the defenseless often steer clear, because there’s a price on their
heads in Rakaru Heights. Don’t be mistaken; it’s not really safe to walk the streets
at night, you’re just more likely to get justice if something happens to you.
Issue: Violence Is a Way of Life

18 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

 Nothing Ventured: The Vats
The chain of clues eventually leads to the Vats, an underground lab beneath
PREV: PAGE 16

Rakaru Heights where Henry and Shadow have been manufacturing the super-
drug. It’s guarded by some of Shadow’s most trusted and skilled operatives.
There are about a dozen of them in the lab, and they all use the Neighborhood
Watch’s Violence rating. Worse, they’re all dosed with the superdrug, making
this a tough fight indeed. Use these powers for the operatives:
• Flight: The gang member can fly. This functions just like running or
walking, but with vertical movement.
• Super Strength: The gang member gets a +2 bonus on any attacks that rely
on brute strength.
• Pyrokinesis: The gang member can make fire-based attacks at range with
a +2 bonus.
• Teleportation: The gang member can teleport around the battlefield,
moving up to 3 zones as an action.
The huge vats of the superdrug are a major hazard in this fight, as the
chemical is highly toxic and explosive in the quantities here. Anyone exposed
to the superdrug in the vats immediately takes the severe consequence
Overcharged. Anyone with this aspect who gets taken out will detonate, cre-
ating a Superb (+5) explosion that everyone in the lab must defend against.
If the PCs get the chance to question Shadow, they find out the following
info:
• Shadow was acting without Abby Dynes’ knowledge.
• Roger Dynes is Abby’s brother and works for Mitsuhama. He sold the
formula without Abby’s knowledge.
NEXT: PAGE 22

• Shadow was dosing Neighborhood Watch members to give them super-

powers. Somewhere around twenty percent of the Watch has been dosed
at this point.
• Prolonged exposure to the superdrug causes severe psychological damage.
However, very few of the Watch have received enough doses for side
effects to be an issue.

VENTURE CITY STORIES 19

 Abby Dynes
The Watch doesn’t have any kind of centralized leader-
ship, but it does have people who hold authority in
specific parts of the city. Abby Dynes is one of those
people. The Rakaru Heights neighborhood is big and
rough, the poster child for places that need the Watch.
Heck, the Watch probably started there. Abby’s been
living in Rakaru for as long as anyone can remember,
and she’s both respected and feared.
It’s not that she’s cruel or unfair. Abby does what she
feels is best for Rakaru Heights, and she stands up to
people when the neighborhood needs it. People look
to her for guidance, counsel, leadership. She’s got no
patience for fools or predators. She doesn’t allow people
to exploit each other, and she doesn’t allow people to
create weaknesses that others can exploit. She’ll punish
both crimes with the same harsh measures: a beating,
followed by expulsion from the community.

Abby Dynes
Aspects: Vengeful Guardian of Rakaru Heights, Quick
to Anger, Quick to Action, Respect of the Community,
Ear to the Ground, Fiercely Protective
Skills
Great (+4): Fight
Good (+3): Contacts, Provoke
Fair (+2): Athletics, Empathy, Will
Average (+1): Investigate, Physique, Rapport, Shoot
Stunts
Ear to the Ground (FC 101)
Heavy Hitter (FC 111)
Powers
Stone Form: Abby can turn herself into a living statue of
solid granite. When in this form, she can use Physique
to defend against fists, weapons, and guns, and gets a +2
to do so. She also gets a +2 to any Fight attacks made
with her bare fists.
Special Effects: Forced Movement, Physical Recovery
Drawback: Slow and Heavy
Collateral Damage Clause: If Abby doesn’t mind letting the
environment take the hit for her, she can completely
ignore the effects of one attack against her.
Physical Stress: 3 Mental Stress: 3

20 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

Shadow
Shadow is Abby Dynes’ spymaster. She’s got a talent for subterfuge—aided by
her ability to change shape—and she knows a lot of people. Shadow is unwaver-
ingly loyal to the Neighborhood Watch, but she feels that Abby’s leadership is
somewhat lacking.
Shadow wants to empower the Watch so it can be a real force for good in
Venture City. To that end, she thinks they need more superpowered allies, so
she’s concocted a plan to distribute the superdrug to those friendly to the Watch,
all the better to bolster their numbers.

VENTURE CITY STORIES 21

 Shadow has little in the way of a personal life. Nobody knows her real name,
and she doesn’t have any family—none that anyone’s aware of, at least. The
Watch is her whole life.

Shadow
Aspects: Neighborhood Watch Spymaster, Haunted by
the Past, The Watch is Everything, The Ends Justify the
Means, No Attachments
Skills
Superb (+5): Deceive
Great (+4): Contacts
Good (+3): Burglary, Stealth
Fair (+2): Athletics, Fight, Physique
Average (+1): Investigate, Notice, Resources, Will
Stunts
Always a Way Out (FC 99)
Ear to the Ground (FC 101)
Face in the Crowd (FC 126)
Powers
Shapeshifter: Shadow can disguise herself as virtually anyone,
changing her features entirely, provided she gets a chance to
touch them. This power grants her a +2 to Deceive rolls made
to disguise herself.
Special Effects: Mental Recovery, Physical Recovery
Drawback: Touch-Activated
Collateral Damage Clause: If Shadow doesn’t mind killing some-
one, she can take a person’s identity entirely—appearance,
mannerisms, memories, voice, accent, and anything else.
Piercing her disguise requires an active attempt to find decep-
tion against a Legendary (+8) opposition.
Physical Stress: 3 Mental Stress: 3

Nothing Ventured: Wrapping Up

Emily Shah is good to her word: she pays the PCs and thanks
PREV: PAGE 19

them. Abby Dynes is grateful for their involvement, and owes

them a favor if they handled things well. Splitstream’s likely
to start gunning for the PCs for having cut off his supply of
the superdrug. Mitsuhama and Aegis continue plotting against
each other.
All this assumes the PCs stopped the drug problem. It’s
entirely possible they just took over the superdrug trade, in
which case things wind up pretty different. We’ll leave you to
figure that out.

22 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

CHARACTER CREATION AND POWERS
When you make your character, do so according to the rules in Fate Core, but
with one exception: you also get powers.
Powers are a lot like stunts, except bigger, flashier, more powerful, and more
complex. Each power you build costs a certain number of stunts, but don’t worry
about not having enough! We’re giving you three bonus stunts on top of what
you normally get from Fate Core to use exclusively for building powers. To add to
your powers or build new ones, you can also spend refresh and use your normal
allotment of free stunts as you would when building normal stunts. The three
free stunts you’re getting in this adventure have to be used for powers, though.
Most characters have a single power. Some might have two, but that’s where
it tops off. Powers are big and complex enough that more than two would be a
bit unwieldy. What you can do, however, is build multiple effects into a single
power, creating a power suite that does a bunch of related things. Here’s how
building a power works.

Concept
Figure out what you want your power to do. What is your character’s shtick?
What’s the big flashy thing you do that other people can’t do? Figure this out in
general terms. Maybe you’re inhumanly fast, or super strong, or you can fly, or
you shoot energy blasts from your hands.
You might have a power useful for doing many things. You might be teleki-
netic, for example, which suggests you can push people around and attack them
with force blasts, lift heavy objects with your mind, create a shield of force, and
fly by levitating yourself. These are all related abilities, so they’re all one power.
If you’re telekinetic and you can heal with a touch, though, those might be two
different powers.

Example: Tara decides she wants to be a brick, someone who can

take a punch and bring huge amounts of raw physical strength to
bear. She’s big and tough and strong; that’s her shtick.

VENTURE CITY STORIES 23

 Break It Into Stunts
Break each power down into its component abilities. What specific things do
you want to be able to do with your power? Boil these down into mechani-
cal effects and phrase them like you would stunts. Each stunt-like ability that
you create costs you a stunt. You can spend multiple stunts on a single ability,
making it extra-powerful. Also, because you’re crafting a superpower, you have
license to do things that stunt might not otherwise let you do. You could use a
stunt to fly using Athletics, or fire eye-beams with Shoot, for example.

Example: Thinking about what specific effects she wants out of her
power, Tara breaks it down into components. She wants to be strong,
so that’s maybe just a bonus to Physique and Fight rolls. She spends
two stunts to get a +4 to Physique rolls that rely on brute force, and
another stunt to get a +2 to Fight rolls that rely on smashing things in
close quarters. She also wants to be super-tough, so she spends two
more stunts to get Armor:4 against direct physical attacks, but not
energy attacks or mental attacks. In total, her power costs 5 stunts.

Add Special Effects

A special effect is an extra-special thing you can pull off when you succeed with
style. Whenever you succeed with style on a roll that utilizes one of your powers,
you can forgo the normal benefits of succeeding with style to add one of your
special effects instead. You can also spend a fate point to add a special effect to
any successful roll, even if you’ve already got a special effect attached to that
action. Special effects always happen in addition to the normal effects of success.
Your power starts with two special effects. If you want more, you can buy
them with a stunt or refresh; each stunt or refresh you spend gets you two more
special effects. If you need special effects, use the following list. If our suggestions
don’t suffice, you can create your own special effects using this list as a guideline.
• Forced Movement: You move your target up to two zones.
• Area Attack: Attack everyone else (foes and friends) in the same zone as
your target using the attack value minus two (so if you hit your target at +6,
everyone else would defend against +4). Attacking everyone in a zone at full
strength is a collateral damage effect (page 25).
• Inflict a Condition: You add an aspect to the target, which you can invoke
once for free.
• Extra Movement: You can move up to two zones for free.
• Physical Recovery: You recover from all physical stress.
• Mental Recovery: You recover from all mental stress.
• Extra Action: You can remove shifts from your action and apply them to a
different, related action as if you’d (performed and) succeeded on both. You
can never succeed with style on the second action, and its opposition (i.e.,
difficulty) can’t be higher than that of the original action.

24 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

 Example: Tara knows she wants to be tough and able to pack a wallop.
She takes Physical Recovery and Forced Movement as her special
effects. After thinking for a moment, she spends another stunt (for
a total of 6 stunts spent) to add Area Attack and Inflict a Condition
to her suite of special effects. When using this power, when she suc-
ceeds with style, she can add one special effect to her action; if she
succeeds at all, she can spend a fate point to add a special effect.

Add a Drawback
All powers come at a cost, and all superheroes have a weakness. Decide what
yours is, and phrase it as an aspect. A drawback is an aspect like any other,
though you should phrase it so it’s easier to compel than to invoke. Each power
gets a drawback, not each individual stunt within a power.

Example: Tara envisions her character as a brute who’s prone to fits

of destructive rage. She writes down the aspect Destructive Rage as
her drawback.

Add a Collateral Damage Effect

Super-beings throw a lot of power around, power that often has unintended con-
sequences. Sometimes city blocks get leveled; sometimes innocent bystanders get
hurt. Your collateral damage effect is an extra benefit—something super-potent
you can do with your power. The potency of this isn’t strictly numerical; pick
some powerful narrative thing you can do, like affecting everyone in a scene or
ignoring all the damage that comes your way in a round. Use the sample charac-
ters to get ideas for what collateral damage can do (page 26).
You can choose to use this effect at any time, but using it comes at a cost: you
inflict a situation aspect on the area around you that represents the collateral
damage you’ve caused. The GM gets to determine the exact nature of that aspect
each time you use it.

Example: “Obviously,” Tara says, “my collateral damage effect involves

doing massive damage to my target.” She decides that the effect
causes her target to automatically take a moderate physical conse-
quence—or, if it’s a nameless NPC, it just gets taken out—probably
from being thrown through buildings or something equally painful.

VENTURE CITY STORIES 25

 SAMPLE CHARACTERS
Use these partial pregens to get a quick start on the adventure, or just make your
own characters according to the rules in Fate Core and in Character Creation and
Powers in this book. Each of these characters has some suggested aspects, some
suggested skills, and a power or two.

The Brick
The brick is big and tough and strong. She can
smash through most barriers, turn enemies into
red stains, and soak up huge amounts of punish-
ment with nary a flinch.

The Brick
Suggested Aspects: Living Engine of
Destruction, Giant with a Gentle Soul,
Monstrous Appearance, Shrug It Off, “Time
to SMASH!”
Suggested Peak Skill: Fight or Physique
Suggested Other Skills: Athletics, Provoke,
Will
Powers
Powerhouse: You’re inhumanly strong and tough.
As long as you’re using brute strength, you get
a +4 to Physique rolls and a +2 to Fight rolls.
You also get Armor:4 against physical attacks
like punches, stabs, gunshots, and getting
thrown through buildings.
Special Effects: Area Attack, Forced Movement,
Inflict Condition, Physical Recovery
Drawback: Destructive Rage
Collateral Damage Effect: When you choose to
inflict collateral damage, you can choose one
of the following: take out a nameless NPC
(or more than one, if you use Area Attack),
inflict a moderate physical consequence on a
named NPC, attack all targets in a zone at full
strength, or ignore a physical attack entirely.
This effect likely occurs because you’re smash-
ing things or because the area around you gets
damaged as you shrug the attack off.
Costs: 6 stunts
Stunts Left: 0
Refresh Left: 3

26 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

The Psychic
The psychic has amazing mental powers, both telepathic and telekinetic. He can
control and read minds, move objects, and even fly.

The Psychic
Suggested Aspects: First Class Telepath, I Know Things, Puppet
Master, Can’t Shut the Voices Out, Will of Iron, Heart of Stone
Suggested Peak Skill: Will
Suggested Other Skills: Deceive, Empathy, Investigate, Notice,
Rapport
Powers
Telepathy: You can use Empathy, Investigate, or Notice to glean things
from peoples’ minds. For example, you could use Empathy to find
out what someone is feeling, Notice to detect the presence of unfamil-
iar minds, or Investigate to delve into someone’s thoughts. You can
also use Will to launch mental attacks. If you take someone out with
such an attack, you can either render them comatose or take control
of their mind.
Special Effects: Area Attack, Inflict Condition
Drawback: Psychic Feedback
Collateral Damage Effect: If you choose to inflict collateral damage, you
can lock down everyone else in a scene, effectively freezing them. They
can’t take physical actions, but they can still invoke aspects and per-
form mental tasks. They can also attempt to break out with an over-
come action with Will, opposed by your Will. On each of your turns,
you must concentrate (using your action) to keep them frozen. The
psychic brain-lock will definitely have lasting effects on their brains.
Costs: 4 stunts

Telekinesis: You can move physical objects and make attacks with Will
as you would with Physique or Fight; you can affect anything within
three zones of you. You can also defend against physical attacks with
Will by erecting a telekinetic shield. Finally, you can use Will to fly;
it works like Athletics, but allows for vertical movement as well as
horizontal.
Special Effects: Extra Movement, Forced Movement
Drawback: Hard to Control
Collateral Damage Effect: If you’re willing to deal collateral damage, you
can pretty much punch through any barrier or lift any object within
reason, or lash out at every target in a zone with a full strength attack.
Costs: 4 stunts
Stunts Left: 0
Refresh Left: 1

VENTURE CITY STORIES 27

 The Speedster
The speedster doesn’t just move fast, she practically flies along the ground. She’s
so fast that she can even move across liquids and up vertical surfaces. You don’t
want to get into a fistfight with her.

The Speedster
Suggested Aspects: Live Fast, Leave a
Pretty Corpse; Adrenaline Junkie;
Now You See Me . . .; “Hope you can
keep up!”; High Risk, High Reward
Suggested Peak Skill: Athletics
Suggested Other Skills: Fight, Notice,
Physique, Provoke
Powers
Super Speed: You can move really fast.
You get a +6 bonus to Athletics rolls
involving moving quickly, and you can
use Athletics to run up walls or across
liquids. You also get a +2 to Fight rolls,
provided you’re up close and personal
and you’re fighting in a situation where
superior speed would help you.
Special Effects: Area Attack, Extra
Movement, Lots of Actions (an
improved Extra Action: you can split
your shifts into up to 3 different
actions, adding a +1 to each)
Drawback: Burn Out
Collateral Damage Effect: If you’re will-
ing to tear up the streets—shattering
glass, injuring pedestrians, and such—
you can travel pretty much anywhere
in the same city in the span of a single
exchange.
Costs: 5 stunts
Stunts Left: 1
Refresh Left: 3

28 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

The Ghost
The ghost goes unnoticed. He walks through walls, turns invisible, and can even
teleport when she needs to. He’s the ultimate infiltrator.

The Ghost
Suggested Aspects: “You won’t see me
coming.”, Easily Overlooked, Attachments
Are Weaknesses, Troubled Past, Silence Is
Golden
Suggested Peak Skill: Stealth
Suggested Other Skills: Burglary, Contacts,
Deceive, Investigate
Powers
Ghost: You can turn invisible, granting you a +6
bonus to Stealth rolls to avoid visual notice.
You can also use Burglary to walk through
walls; the denser the material, the harder it is
to walk through.
Special Effects: Inflict Condition, Physical
Recovery
Drawback: Exhausting
Collateral Damage Effect: You can teleport to any
location you can see or know intimately, but
your arrival causes an electrostatic discharge
that messes with machines, causing them to
go haywire.
Costs: 4 stunts
Stunts Left: 2
Refresh Left: 3

VENTURE CITY STORIES 29

 The Flamer
You like fire. You can make it, control it,
even wreathe your body in it.
It’s hella fun.

The Flamer
Suggested Aspects: Burn Burn BURN!,
Hardened by Fire, High Body Count,
Simmering Rage, Purifying Flames
Suggested Peak Skill: Shoot
Suggested Other Skills: Athletics, Fight,
Provoke
Powers
Pyrokinesis: You can shoot fire from your
hands with Shoot up to 3 zones away.
You can also control existing fires with
Provoke. Finally, you’re immune to
damage from fire or heat.
Special Effects: Area Attack, Inflict
Condition
Drawback: Uncontrollable
Collateral Damage Effect: If you’re will-
ing to burn everything and everyone
you touch, you can wreathe yourself
in flames for a few minutes. During
this time, people who you touch—or
touch you—get burned to the tune of a
mild physical consequence, and you set
things on fire with your mere presence.
Costs: 3 stunts
Stunts Left: 3
Refresh Left: 3

30 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE