BAD JUJU

FATE + FICTION By Gary E. Weller

is our line of original and
Bergeron didn’t want to go back to New Orleans. Somehow as the world
classic short stories.
Situations, characters, and evolved, into the shadowed neon culture that had grown out of the global economic
other elements from the shutdown, that had allowed private conglomerates to basically buy out several
story are expressed as governments around the world, the Big Easy had remained remarkably Cajun.
Fate RPG Aspects. Read There were bits and pieces of more modernization along the riverfronts and
and enjoy the stories on throughout the delta, but for the most part the denizens stuck to their roots and
their own, then mix the traditions. The money may have been coming out of Shanghai, but for those Cajun
Aspects you like into your down in the Town, it was still, ‘laissez les bons temps rouler,’ rather than, ‘yǒ u yuán
own Fate Core or Fate
qiā nlǐ lái xiā nghuì.’ Still, destiny was a funny thing.
Accelerated game!
He didn’t have a choice but to accept the job. Francis Bergeron knew it was
going to be clustered seven ways from Sunday because it was New Orleans, but he
couldn’t get by the picture. She had a winning smile and a fair complexion. It wasn’t
ASPARAGUS the fact that she was a girl, or the fact that she was cute. More than anything else, he
took the job because of who she was.
JUMPSUIT The crest on the sweatshirt was unmistakable. Black and red backgrounds
We believe in literacy, peeked from the middle of the teal. Bergeron knew it was the Seal of Tulane before
curiosity, and creativity. he saw the castles and the moons. Non Sibi Sen Suis, the words came back to him as
Through these things if he had just walked out from his graduation ceremony. They were ingrained into
individuals, societies, and what he did now – not for oneself, but for one’s own. Her name was Sheila
the entire world are
Thibodaux, but Bergeron already knew that. Sheila was his cousin.
enriched and
Tracking Sheila down wasn’t the issue, Bergeron had found her easy enough.
transformed. The Fate +
Fiction line was created to He knew who to talk to and how to negotiate passage through the bayous and bogs.
help uphold and promote It came with knowing the area. The chrome in his body and the ocular implants just
these values. made it much easier to negotiate the price. It was still hard to believe that most of
the folks in the Parishes throughout Louisiana were still frightened of the
Building Better Worlds technology that was in use today.
AsparagusJumpsuit.com Many of the folks he had to use to find her were sorely in need of both a barber
and a dentist. The undereducated and superstitious lot would often drop a broom
over their doorstep when he left them or drew veve on the ground in ash and salt
like he was some sort of Loa in flesh. Bergeron had no patience for their ignorance.
The harder part for Bergeron was the fact that when he found Sheila, she had
seemed to leave a vacancy in her mind. Stage makeup and mud was smeared all
over her face creating a skull emblem .Somehow she had either found or lugged a
Fate Core System pseudo-silk top hat and matching suit out to the old plantation. It hung on her
Fate Accelerated Edition loosely, as if it were meant for someone else. Chromed mirrorshades were planted
Copyright ©2013 Evil Hat on her face and a long pipe stuck in her teeth slowly let aromatic grey smoke drift
Productions, LLC. up.
All rights reserved.
‚Sheila?‛ Bergeron knelt beside the slowly dying fire she had laid out. He stared
hard at her seeing his frown in the mirrorshades straddling her nose.
Fate was originally
created by Rob Donoghue ‚Passe’!‛ the word was almost spat out. Her voice was not her own. Bergeron
and Fred Hicks readjusted his hand on the grip of the assault rifle he was carrying. She took
another draw on the pipe and blew it in his face.

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 Bad Juju Page 2 of 5

‚Look Sheila,‛ Bergeron ignored the insult, ‚a lot of people are worried about
Situation Aspects
you. What the hell are you doing here?‛
The global economic
‚Our Sheila, she mal pris, her,‛ a smile came across her face, twisting the
shutdown that had
skull makeup into a grotesque mockery of what it should have been. ‚I in here
allowed private
now, me. All she wan’ do is fay dodo with tings she don’ unnastan’, her. Fooyay,
conglomerates to fooyay.‛ She took another long draw on the pipe and let the smoke spill out of
basically buy out her mouth.
several governments Bergeron felt the itch to end the conversation and get her to a hospital. It was
around the world. obvious that whatever she had gotten into was pulling on some serious brain
It’s a cyberpunk world, cells. The hallucination alone narrowed down the list of drugs that Bergeron
where corporate interests could attribute to her condition.
trump the needs of people, ‚Ain’ no chem gris gris that do it, ma Grand Tahyo, you.‛ Another wicked
and government services smile crossed her face. ‚Mon Cherie, she tied fo’ true, but weren’ no chem, only
probably aren’t available to voodoo.‛
lower economic classes. ‚All right,‛ Bergeron scowled, ‚enough of this ‘Boo Radley’ crap!‛ He reached
up and pulled off the mirrorshades to check her eyes. Bergeron was no stranger
The Big Easy had to the multiple adversities and maladies of the human condition. As a bounty
hunter and former soldier he had seen too many corpses in all states of condition.
remained remarkably
Sheila’s eyes were glazed over. The green that was so vibrant were now milky
Cajun.
and grey. Bergeron drew back and threw the shades down and raised his assault
‚Cajun‛ might not be as
rifle. The dead eyes looked at him as the face smiled and bellowed out a great
accurate as a ‚holding onto
laugh that seemed to echo throughout the former plantation.
older ways and traditions‛. The body stood up from the place it was sitting and drew on the long pipe
This is really just code for again. A twisted and decrepit smile flashed across what was Sheila’s face and then
‚magic exists in this the corpse blew him a kiss, letting the pipe smoke out in a long stream.
setting‛. ‚Now what you t’ink?‛ the thing asked Bergeron as it began to walk towards
him. Bergeron opened fire. Flesh and bits of bone along with the suite and hat
spat out from behind Sheila’s body as the former soldier followed his training.
Still the thing kept walking towards him.
‚How we gonna play Madame now, you?‛ a scowl crossed what was left of
Sheila’s face. ‚Be cam now, you. We gonna go fay dodo now.‛ Bergeron
remembered firing until he was out of ammo and then the sudden calm.
‚Das right now, you,‛ the voice was his own, but not. ‚You jus’ listen to Baron
Samedi now. Laissez les bons temps rouler, bebette.‛

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 Page 3 of 5 Bad Juju
About Bad Juju Character Aspects
by Berin Kinsman Bergeron didn’t want to
I hope you enjoyed Gary’s story. That would make me happy, and I know it would go back to New Orleans.
make Gary happy. Yet even if you didn’t, I hope you can see how even a piece of The implication is that he
fiction you don’t like can be mined for ideas, and ways that those ideas can be remixed knows things about the
and reimaged and used as material for your own Fate RPG game. city, he doesn’t like the
city, and he maybe even
Now let’s deconstruct the story, pick out some of the elements that are present,
fears the city a bit.
and discuss ways that you might use those as possible Aspects in your own Fate RPG
game. Understand that the following interpretations are only my interpretations, and
not the only possible interpretations. The object of Fate+Fiction is to help you learn Situation Aspects
how to mine stories for pieces and parts that you can adapt for your own purposes. The chrome in his body
and the ocular implants
Let’s begin by trying to summarize the story. We’ve got a cross between
just made it much
cyberpunk and voodoo going on. A man used to technology wandering into a city
easier to negotiate the
dominated by older ways and traditions, and finding himself ill-equipped to deal with
price.
it. It’s a fish out of water story, and one full of juxtapositions. There should be plenty
Bergeron isn’t just
of story ideas to mine from these contrasts and contradictions.
enhanced, those
The Situations enhancements allow him
There are as few Situation Aspects that we can pull out of this story. These to charge a premium for
Aspects, or something like them, can then be adapted to your own Fate game. Let’s his services.
take a look.
The global economic shutdown that had allowed private conglomerates to basically
buy out several governments around the world.
And here we establish the fact of the setting, that it’s a cyberpunk near-future
where corporations have openly displaced the governments. There are far-reaching
implications to that; governments, at least democratic ones, are supposed to answer to
people. Corporations answer to shareholders. Invoke that when you need to tap into
corporate power. Compel it when you run up against a lack of government services, or
something that doesn’t benefit corporate interests.
The Big Easy had remained remarkably Cajun.
In this cyberpunk world, New Orleans remains remarkably old fashions and tied
to old ways and traditions. That’s code for ‚voodoo is real‛ in this story, in case you
missed it. It establishes that things like loa and magic exist, and characters are able to
utilize them.

The Characters
Now let’s examine the characters in the story. For your own Fate game you don’t
need to use these exact characters. Look at existing player characters and supporting
characters, and see who might fill the same roles in relation to the Situation Aspects.
Who might the relevant Character Aspects, or something similar, be appended to?
Francis Bergeron is our viewpoint character, the fish out of water, the guy from
the corporate-dominated world entering the less-technological city where magic holds
sway. He can be any player character without a background in magic.
Bergeron didn’t want to go back to New Orleans.
This implies that he knows the city, he doesn’t like the city, and he might even
fear the city a bit. As Bergeron’s player, I’d Invoke this when making checks related to
gaining knowledge within and about the city. As gamemaster, I’d Compel it to freak
him out and throw him off his game.

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 Bad Juju Page 4 of 5
Consequences The chrome in his body and the ocular implants just made it much easier to negotiate
Consequences of magic the price.
This establishes a couple of facts. First, that Bergeron is augmented. Second, that
Using magic might lead to
the augmentations allow him to charge a premium for his services. It also implies that
other things, like
these things re rare, at least in lower-tech New Orleans. As Bergeron’s player, I’d
possession, death, and
Invoke this for any situation where having cyberware will help me, and in negotiating
becoming the zombie slave
fees.
of a supernatural being.
Sheila Thibodaux is our token magical character. She knows how these things
Boosts work, but apparently she made some bad rolls and it got away from her. Or maybe not.
She could have willingly given herself over to attain some larger goal. It’s a loose plot
Magic and technology
thread that can be explored in an expanded story.
don’t mix.
Magic might bet a boost Loa are voodoo spirits, who grant favors to people in return for sacrifices of luxury
when used against items and occasionally loaning them your body. Or at least, that’s the Hollywood
unnatural things like version of voodoo. Baron Samedi is one of the most prominent loa. They’re characters
technology, because only in that they interact with player characters and make magic work. You can Invoke a
natural forces can resist it. relationship with loa, and they can Compel you to do things based on that same
relationship.
Or vice-versa.
Consequences
Not every action has a clear or specific consequence, and sometimes we need to
dig a little bit to discover them within a story. Here’s what I found.
Possession
A Consequence of doing business with a loa, or messing with magic, is that things
might take over your body and not give it back. You may or may not have gotten what
you were asking for.
Zombification
Another possible Consequence of messing with magic. You could die, become
undead, or your dead body could be used by other forces for their own ends.

Boosts
Boosts are another set of elements that don’t always make themselves explicit
within a story. It often takes some probing and a little bit of imagination to discover
something that could potentially provide a Boost in a Fate game.
Chromed mirrorshades
This isn’t in the story, and I’m just speculating here, but the chromed
mirrorshades made me think about the relationship between magic and technology. It
wasn’t until the mirrorshades went down that Bergeron got whammied. Did they hold
back the power? Can magic, assumed to be ‚natural‛ or ‚better than natural‛, affect
technology, which is unnatural? Does tech give a character a boost for resisting magic,
because metal isn’t meat? If so, did Bergeron get a Boost to resist possession because of
his ocular implants?
The argument could be made in the other direction as well. Many cyberpunk
settings hold that an increase in cyberware equals a loss of humanity. Maybe that
means less of a resistance to magic, because you have less humanity to fight with, and
a smaller pool of humanity is easier to dominate. Magic would then get a Boost when
used against chromed-up characters. It’s a philosophical debate that you can have, and
it will impact how both magic and technology work in your own Fate RPG setting.

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 Page 5 of 5 Bad Juju
Asparagus Jumpsuit
Open Gaming License AsparagusJumpsuit.com
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other computer languages), potation, modification, correction, addition, extension, upgrade, improvement, compilation,
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Open Game License v 1.0 Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
Fate Core System and Fate Accelerated Edition © 2013 by Evil Hat Productions, LLC. Developed, authored, and edited by
Leonard Balsera, Brian Engard, Jeremy Keller, Ryan Macklin, Mike Olson, Clark Valentine, Amanda Valentine, Fred
Hicks, and Rob Donoghue.
Fate+Fiction: Bad Juju ©2014 Gary Weller, Berin Kinsman. Authors: Gary Weller, Berin Kinsman. Editor: Stefan
Livingstone Shirley.

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