With a growing number of kids and adults dreaming of becoming famous, through fictional leakage, Fame was created. Here, you are adored by the masses and can perform on a scale that only a handful on Earth can.
In its center you find Paradise City, an amalgation of Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Filled with concert halls, theaters, movie studios as well as record and music stores, there is always something to see. They also have their own version of the Walk Of Fame where one may find the names of visiting recursors along others known from Earth.
In the suburbs and outskirts of the city, you can find the estates of the well to-do artists. The few roads leading out of town are mostly empty: who would want to leave the city where everything that matters is made?
While Entertains is the most common focus for recursors on Fame, there are also famous fighters (like wrestlers) who Look for Trouble and others who work behind the scenes: directors who Lead and occasionally even famous detectives or reporters who Solve Mysteries or Work Undercover.
A special role are talent scouts, agents and promotors who Work The System. They are responsible for someone not only making it to the top but also staying there.
Because one thing is obvious in Fame: fading into obscurity is just as bad as death. Those who don’t manage to keep their adoring audiences captured with their work lose their powers. In rule terms, this means that every full week without actively working towards your craft will reduce your intelligence pool by 1. Successfully performing your craft will restore it again by 1 per day. Beyond that, the magic of Fame can grant additional power (at the discretion of the GM). A few selected individuals have even been immortalized by the strange magic of Fame. Whether these are really the same souls of the artists who previously lived on Earth is heavily debated among the researchers of the Estate, though.
Due to this, everyone viying for adoration from the masses becomes a deadly serious game. A scandal may temporarily boost your fame but if no-one wants to watch you anymore afterwards, you are in deep trouble. After all, there’s only so much attention to go around.
The inhabitants of Fame are usually content to consume the readily-available works of the stars but every now and then, an understudy finds that they have real talent and – through luck or more insidious means – manages to replace the lead actor, gaining the spark in the process.
The way that songs and movies are written or performed to capture the hearts of the audience is a special form of magic on Fame. It’s not immediately obvious, but you can produce sounds with your instrument or voice that wouldn’t be possible with standard physics and the way you manage to evoke emotions in your fans is not explainable by psychology alone.
Adventure hooks for Fame
- A new best-selling record has appeared out of nowhere. But there are doubts, that the person who claims to be responsible for it is really the original artist…
- The new blockbuster movie features not only extremely talented artists but also scarily realistic special effects. An Estate agent vanished while investigating possible ties to Ruk and Fame.
- It seemed like a good idea at the time: after an especially taxing adventure, the PCs decide to take a vacation as a touring rock band in Fame. But back stage, it’s not as easy as it looks.