Dawn of Legends is the upcoming campaign setting for the Savage Worlds RPG license.  A character driven setting where players can create any type of hero imaginable, with powers fully customizable in endless styles and combinations, the setting examines the lives and obstacles faced by those with extraordinary gifts.

In the fourth Design Journal, Lee F. Szczepanik, Jr. gives us a brief look at the new Popularity feature and how Public Image can help or hinder a Hero.

Characters in comic books are regularly judged by the media, the public, and the government.  Dawn of Legends is no different.  As a matter of fact, compared to the more traditional comic books out there, Dawn of Legends, particularly in the included Autumn Arbor: City of Legends portion of the setting, sees Public Image and Popularity play a serious role in a hero’s ability to fight the good fight.

Vanguardian is constantly hounded by the media, his actions cast in a light that will usually garner them the highest ratings in relation to their competition.  VanCorp spends a small fortune to manipulate and protect his Public Image to their own benefit (much to Vanguardian’s hatred), but times are what they are, in the media world.

Dragonfly is constantly struggling to keep the Sentinels of Society in a positive light.  The media loves to have a field day with them.  On the one hand, he has an underage teenage daughter that disobeys him and sneaks out to fight crime . . . something that is illegal for her to do in Autumn Arbor.  Councilman Jeremy Hadelberg, known publicly as Everest and once a Golden Age member of the team, has returned amidst political allegations of a sex scandal.  Unfortunately, with so many new Neos on the team, Dragonfly needs him.  Then there is Sure-Shot, whose glory-hound and flamboyant attitude has caused the Sentinels no end of media trouble.  And let’s not even get started on the media focused point that, following The Purge Invasion and the death of every other [then] current member of team, Dragonfly went into bed with VanCorp to get funding to rebuild the team and rekindle the Legacy. 

So, Public Image and the media are definite tools for the creative GM. 

To represent that, Popularity is a new mechanic designed to handle a character’s standing in the public arena for actions committed in view of the public or media. Dawn of Legends contains a chart on actions that can cause a hero to gain and lose Popularity. 

At the end of each session, the GM considers the various actions the characters took in view of the public or media, adds together the positive modifiers to Popularity, substracts the negative modifers, and applies the total to the player-characters. Yes, it’s possible to lose Popularity. Based on a character’s current Popularity, they receive certain benefits or hindrances.  It could be a temporary boost to Wealth, or a new Connection in an organization, a positive Charisma modifier, or even a new Enemy. 

Let’s look at an example: Vanguardian begins the session with a Popularity of 85, possessing two personal connections, a +2 to Charisma, a temporary increase to his annual income (Windfall Edge), and both a minor and major enemy that want his head in one form or another.

During the course of the adventure, he commits the following acts in view of witnesses:

• Prevented a Robbery +1
• Rescued Innocent People (twice): +2
• Attended a Charity Function: +1
• Fought the Anarchitect and Allowed him to escape (an equal villain): -2
• Caused Property Damage During the Fight: -3
• Which injured several Innocent Bystanders: -5
• And totally blew an interview with the media afterwards (Miscellaneous Actions): -2

Vanguardian loses 8 Popularity at the end of the Adventure, resulting in a 77 Popularity score.  At least, however, he’s still popular enough to continue with the endorsements.

GMs need not spend time calculating each and every action and situation.  A rough estimate works just as well.  For example, instead of keeping track of how many times a Hero saved an innocent person, the GM could just award the Popularity associated with the task 2 or 3 times.  Likewise, when dealing with Villain teams that have opposed the Hero, the Popularity award could be based upon the most powerful member of the team.

After all, it should still be Fast, Furious, and Fun.

In the next Design Journal, we'll take a look at the new Super-Team mechanics.

-- Lee F. Szczepanik, Jr. 

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