If you've read Nancy A. Collins, you know where we're going here. If that excites you, good.

Your World

The year is 1985. Punk is alive, but it's mutated, and there's been enough time for goths to reinvent themselves at least once.

And at any minute, nuclear fire could rain down on everything.

In the cracks of this world, there are monsters. Vampires and werewolves and angels. Faeries and ogres, elementals and more. Dear me...

They live on the streets, and most people don't know they're there. Most humans don't see them -- not because of the supernatural (tho that can be true), but because no one looks twice at a homeless person.

You are one of these creatures, a Pretender. You pose as human. Maybe you were a human, once... and maybe you weren't. Maybe you're something unique, like a vampire that never died, half living and half undead. Perhaps you're something more "common", like a demon trying to ensnare human souls.

Perhaps you are ancient, having existed for a thousand years. Maybe you were born into the world of the Pretenders yesterday. It doesn't matter -- sink or swim, baby.

New York City, of course, is the worst. It's the place to be for humans and Pretenders alike, but you'll very much end up swimming with the sharks.

The most powerful Pretenders draw all other Pretenders -- willing or not -- into their schemes. Sometimes the schemes work, and sometimes they backfire, ending an immortal's life. This is just the way things are. There is no peace on the streets once you see the Real World behind the veneer of the "normal".

Pretenders have needs. Blood, companionship, defiled corpses, human flesh, prestige... These and more drive them on, make them trade with each other, push them to face each other directly and through proxies.

Aside from these facts, nothing else is determined. The GM may have some idea, as may you and the other players. But how vampirism works, what angels really are, where elementals really come from... everyone will be working together to explore this, not just the GM. And while you're at it, you'll be trying to survive, and looking damn cool while doing it.

Buy The Game

The revised, updated version of Pretender is part of the No Press RPG Anthology. The game features a highly flexible, narrative system which puts the power to create the world in the hands of the players. Check out the Actual Play Page to see some examples of the system in action.

I'm hoping to have a PDF version of the No Press RPG Anthology available soon, not to mention I'm planning on writing a different take on the basic Pretender system: Superheroes. Watch this space or join the Ivanhoe mailing list for more info.