Black Hats Introduction

Black Hats is something I've been thinking about for a while, and while it isn't complete yet I need your feedback (I speak primarily to other folks in my gaming group... Y'all know who you are). First, take a look at the Black Hats rules. Then, think about stuff you'd like to see in a game (remember, sooner or later you're probably going to see this as a one-shot). In particular, I need three things:

• Some Groups (with interesting but not unbalancing Gifts), with suggestions on where to place them.
• Some good typical Gifts to provide as "default technologies." I'm thinking in terms of stuff like guns, bombs and cars. Things any typical conspiracy can get from the corner store. If you can figure out how much a Greenback is worth, add in some prices.
• Most important, some technologies. Try to "think outside the box" here. I'm looking both for things that aren't really available today (like specific psychic & mystical powers) and for stuff that you might reasonably expect a long-standing conspiracy to have mastered, like the Gnomes of Zurich's ability to move money around. Try and think about what generic technological area (and I use this term in the broadest possible sense) the technology should fit into, and how difficult it is, rated on the standard FUDGE scale (Terrible, Poor, Mediocre, Fair, Good, Great, Superb). I think the default level of ability for most conspiracies will be Poor to Mediocre at the start of a game, so use that to judge.

In the meantime, most of the rules are complete enough that you should be able to puzzle your way through them. I'll put a link to the FUDGE rules here, so you can download them if the framework isn't clear. Let me know what you think: send me some mail.

Thanks muchly!

BRT 04/15/98