SUPER*DOG SUPER*DOG is a roleplaying game of super-powered dogs, designed by Steve Dee, Your Name Here and The Third Person, for The Three-Forged RPG Challenge, 2015. SETTING “We did not learn enough from this mission to justify the death of the dog” - Oleg Gazenko In 1957, Sputnik 2 blasted off with a small female terrier-cross on board. She was nicknamed Curly, but her nametag read Laika. In 2015, Laika came back to us – or something very like her. She blasted through the stratosphere at several times the speed of sound, then slowed down just long enough for observers to realize the resemblance. Then she vanished. Then the reports began to come in. Of dogs pulling people out of burning houses. Dogs catching people falling from buildings, dogs throwing themselves in the paths of bullets. Dogs that seemed immune to fire, immune to gravity, immune to the laws of physics. It seemed that at last, the age of miracles had come, but the powers of the gods were bequeathed not to Home sapiens but canis familiaris. So far, as far as we know, the Clever Ones have not been able to catch any of us and hurt us to find out why. But we know why, because nothing has changed. Since the days of caves, the task has always been the same: Guard the Clever Ones, for they are weak; Guide the Clever Ones, for they are blind; Love the Clever Ones, for they are precious. And so we do. CHARGEN AND RULES “A dog has the soul of a philosopher” – Plato A dog is a dog. Big, small, thin, fat, that is how humans made them; how they made themselves is the same. They are dogs. As such, they only need one stat: Dog. Super powers we know oh so very well. They come in many varieties but they have one thing in common: they are things we cannot do. In this case, however, the “we” must be dogs. Dogs can smell things a few atoms of a substance, hear a call from a mile away, and snatch a Frisbee in their teeth ten feet up in the air. Super, here, means anything beyond a dog’s abilities. But super is as super does, so it has one stat: Super. Super and Dog are both rated from d4 to d12. At character generation, you can have one of the three following combinations: d4/d12 d6/d10 d8/d8 And you can arrange those how you prefer on Super or Dog. Whenever your character tries to do something, work out if it is something a dog can do, or not. If the former, roll Dog, if the latter, roll Super. Get a 4 or higher and you’ve succeeded. Thus, each stat measures the efficacy of that aspect of the Dog. A tiny dog who cannot bite hard or bark loud or run very fast might only have a d4 in Dog, whereas a powerful, sleek Alsatian may have a d12. A speedster with Super d4 may still be able to outrun any human, but he is so uncontrolled in his power he rarely manages to stop in time to block the bullets – but a d12 speedster can turn on a dime. You must choose what KIND of super power you have, as well as its rating. And don’t be a jerk and pick something like Wishing For More Superpowers. You should also choose your dog breed(s), or nearest equivalent. You may also choose one thing your Dog is good at doing, in the realm of Dog, and the same for your Super power. When these things apply, you may add +1 to your roll. The GM can also throw you a + or – 1 now and then if it makes sense. SAMPLE CHARACTER DOGGONE! SUPER (Invisibility) d8 / DOG (Black Afghan Hound) d8 Not Even On The Infrared Sensors / Tripping People Over GM NOTES “Dog is the only animal in the world who ostensibly likes another breed better than his own”- Ted Patrick The assumption of the game is that everyone knows what Dogs do most of the time, and everyone knows what Superheroes do, most of the time. They stumble onto each other, form groups, save humans, fight crime, uncover foul schemes and acquire nemeses. Regarding the last two, here is the super secret backstory they can stumble on, and the agents thereof: Aliens called the Kanids visited our earth about five hundred thousand years ago. Fearing the ever-expanding forces of a powerful psychic enemy they called the Phase, they were looking to build biological solutions. The Kanids, having a mix of technological and inborn psychic powers wondered if a specialized warrior species might fare better than them. So they chose a nearby organic planet and raised one of the simian species to higher intelligence. Being scientists, they created three groups: one group with powerful imaginations and inquisitive minds, one with powerful psychic abilities, and one with neither, the control. When they returned to their experiment, they realized that without the inescapable natural empathy of psychic bonds, the imaginative scientist race had imagined their enemies to be not like them, and so had slaughtered the other two groups into extinction. Thus did Homo sapiens rise and Homo florsiensis and Homo neanderthal fall. But the Kanids were not so cruel as to leave Homo sapiens alone with no psychic powers, seemingly little empathy and possibly exposed to the vile Phase. So they left behind their guardian caste with careful instructions to watch over and protect the uplifted species for which they felt responsible. They also placed a beacon just outside our solar system designed to trigger when said species became space-faring, since such an act would definitely draw in the Phase. This device beamed a wave of cosmic radiation back to earth triggering the latent superpowers in dog DNA, so as to provide greater protection against the coming Phase attacks, which cannot be far off. Laika is a flyer and who modified her appearance and arrival as a way to keep the Clever One calm in the new age. Unbeknownst to the Kanids or the Phase, not all of the powerfully psychic florsiensis died out. Over the millennia their numbers grew until now they form a shadow society preying on humanity. They drain psychic energy from their victims but far worse are their plans to extinguish all human life as an act of revenge. The Senseless, as the dogs call them, use their psychic power to appear human, yet have little sound or smell. Dogs can spot their foes quickly.