Weeknights at Beverly's: Intro and Two Origin Stories for an Alternate Roseville Beach Setting?

Weeknights at Beverly’s, 1979

Characters and Origin Stories

An offshoot alternate setting for Moonlight on Roseville Beach using the Boardwalks & Sorcery SRD/Creator’s Kit, “Weeknights at Beverly’s” is also set in 1979, but instead of a queernorm community that LGBTQIA+ people could escape to, it’s about queer paranormal investigations in smaller cities where Roseville Beach characters might have come from. Unlike my #City23 project Cape Crescent, an alternate setting about paranormal faction play in a queer-friendly (but not queernorm) town in the aughts, I’m starting Beverly’s in an unfriendly town haunted by the ghosts and demons (at least some of which are of its own making). PCs might not always like this town, but they’re the street-level heroes the town has (and most likely doesn’t appreciate).

I’ve not named the town Beverly’s is in, but no matter where it is, there’s a queer bar called Beverly’s where the PCs hang out most nights. There are some other places, too, of course, but at this stage, I’ve not thought them out yet (much less figured out how much of this setting I want to have pre-set).

So instead, I’m starting with character creation. While Roseville Beach is a vacation town you escape to, the town of Weeknights at Beverly’s isn’t usually the town you’ve fled to; it’s the town you’ve grown up in, so that shifts at least some of the Roseville Beach archetypes, and opens up a couple of others that wouldn’t make sense in a Roseville Beach context.

Local Kid (Replaces Fresh Face)

You’re an adult out of high school, ready to live your own life, but everyone around here remembers when you were in kindergarten (if not when you were in diapers). What would they say if they knew about your secret life?

Age: 17 + 1d3 (or choose)

Beginner’s Luck: When you make a roll without the help of your background or skills, you can reroll any dice that land on a 1, but you must accept the reroll.

Backgrounds & Skills

Take a Family background and a School background, and then roll or choose two skills from one background and one skill from the other. Don’t take the same skill twice.

Your Family

Choose one family rep as a background and one skill.

• Family: Holier than Thou
  1. Friendly
  2. Sneaking
  3. Oratory
  4. Music
  5. First Aid
  6. Endurance
• Family: Community Institutions
  1. Stubborn
  2. Friendly
  3. Driving
  4. Sneaking
  5. Athletics
  6. Debate
• Family: Trouble
  1. Firearms
  2. Stubborn
  3. Intimidating
  4. Friendly
  5. Driving
  6. Brawling

Back in School

• School: Drama Club
  1. Acting
  2. Stagecraft
  3. Electronics
  4. Disguises
  5. Jumping
  6. Climbing
• School: School Journalist
  1. Photography
  2. Interrogation
  3. Intimidation
  4. Friendly
  5. Stubborn
  6. Illustration
• School: Jock
  1. Fast
  2. Jumping
  3. Brawling
  4. Throwing
  5. Running
  6. Strength
• School: Gearhead/Gadgethead
  1. Repairs
  2. Electronics
  3. Driving
  4. Cars
  5. Radios
  6. Power Tools
• School: Future Veterinarians of America
  1. Animals
  2. Dogs and Cats
  3. Insects and Arachnids
  4. Farm Animals
  5. Stubborn
  6. Strength
• School: Honor Society
  1. Hiding
  2. Intimidation
  3. Debate
  4. Oratory
  5. Electronics
  6. Writing

The Secret Keeper (Replaces The Scandalous)

Whether you’ve been here for 5 months, 5 years, or even longer, you’re part of this town. You might even be from here. You know everyone around here has their secrets, and mostly, you leave each other alone, but you hope you don’t have to choose between your secrets and the life you’ve made around them.

Age: 17 + 3d6 (or choose)

The Secret: When you encounter someone from town who’s not a regular at Beverly’s, there’s a 1-in–6 chance they’ve heard a rumor about you. It’s mostly innocuous stuff, but it’s enough to make you nervous, but of those who’ve heard the rumors, there’s a 1-in–6 chance that the rumors are shifting how they look at you, for better or worse.

Background and Skills

Pick two Backgrounds, one representing a job you have here in town now and one representing a job or training you had when you were living away from town. Roll two Skills from each. If you get the same skill twice, pick one from either background list instead.

Political Appointee 1. Friendly 2. Sneaking 3. Driving 4. Charming 5. Stubborn 6. Intimidating

Beloved Coach 1. Running 2. Easy Raport 3. Strength 4. Intimidation 5. Wrestling 6. First Aid

Community Theater 1. Acting 2. Stagecraft 3. Strength 4. Climbing 5. Disguises 6. Jumping

Favorite Teacher 1. Easy Raport 2. Intimidation 3. Writing 4. Interrogation 5. Oratory 6. Repairs

Journalist 1. Photography 2. Illustration 3. Writing 4. Intimidating 5. Charming 6. Carousing

Healthfood Store/Headshop Owner 1. Friendly 2. First Aid 3. Bookkeeping 4. Business 5. Plants 6. Food

What Needs Rethinking

• Jobs: Since Secret Keepers (below) mostly have a strongly implied job as part of their backgrounds, “jobs” seem mostly applicable to Local Kids right now, so I can focus on jobs you might get between 18 and your early 20s. In the 70s, before the US’s federal drinking age went up to 21, that might include working at a bar. Secret Keepers, representing more mature members of the local town, might be something like Hobbies.
• Supply: This situation seems less likely to have a group pool of resources, meaning the individual’s supply rating will work more like a Guest Star’s supply rating. I’m unsure if I want it to be randomly determined or to have it be a choice about their living situation.
• The Troublesome Picklist: I’m toying around with complications Secret Keepers have to face. I’m thinking of having a picklist with issues like: “Supportive but Clueless Family,” “Judgemental Relative,” “Snooping Neighbors,” etc.
• Werewolves: Fuck it, I’ve got a brand. What role do the Shifters, a popular character choice in Roseville Beach, play in this town? Are they a character option?