ADVENTURE: STARDUST CRUSADERS Preparing for the Adventure…Pg. XX Terminology…Pg. XX Structure of the Adventure...Pg. XX To Jo or Not to Jo?…Pg. XX Incorporating Music…Pg. XX The Stardust Crusaders Sourcebook…Pg. XX STAND PROUD: A Guide to Stands, Stand Users, and Standing Tall…Pg. XX Stand Power Sets…Pg. XX Roundabout: The Joestar Family Line, The Speedwagon Foundation, and the Ripple…Pg. XX Around the World: A Traveler’s Guide to the World’s Exotic Locales…Pg. XX Seize the Night: Creatures of Darkness…Pg. XX Falling Off the Edge of the World: Dio and His Bloody Ambition…Pg. XX Adventure Milestones…Pg. XX ACT ONE: The Man With the Star…Pg. XX Scene Structure…Pg. XX Hooks…Pg. XX Doom Pool…Pg. XX Action: A Man Possessed…Pg. XX Transition: Jailhouse Blues…Pg. XX Action: Get Out of Jail Free…Pg. XX Action: The Terrible Invader…Pg. XX Action: DIO’s Curse…Pg. XX Transition: The Evil Spirit’s Identity…Pg. XX Transition: The Thing on the Plane Action: Insect Attack! Transition: Seek An Alternative Route ACT TWO: The Stand Warriors…Pg. XX Transition: A Stay In a Nice Hotel…Pg. XX Action: The Devil…Pg. XX Action: Yellow Temperance…Pg. XX Action: Emperor and the Hanged Man…Pg. XX Transition: Research DIO’s Assassins…Pg. XX Transition: Enya’s Hospitality…Pg. XX Action: Justice…Pg. XX Action: "Geb" N’dour…Pg. XX Action: “Khnum” Oingo and “Tohth” Boingo…Pg. XX Action: Anubis…Pg. XX Action: “Bastet” Mariah…Pg. XX Transition: Relax At An Inn…Pg. XX Action: D’Arby the Gambler…Pg. XX ACT THREE: DIO’s World…Pg. XX Transition: Beautiful Cairo…Pg. X Action: Deadly Duo!…Pg. XX Transition: Find DIO’s Manor…Pg. XX Action: Pet Shop at the Gates of Hell…Pg XX Transition: The Mysteries of DIO’s Manor…Pg. XX Action: The Mist of Emptiness, Vanilla Ice…Pg. XX Transition: Learn the Secret of DIO’s Stand…Pg. XX Action: End of THE WORLD…Pg. XX Action: Save a Hero’s Life…Pg. XX Transition: The Long Journey Ends…Pg. XX Action: Destroy DIO’s Body…Pg. XX HERO Rap Sheets Jotaro Kujo…Pg. XX Joseph Joestar…Pg. XX Muhammad Avdol…Pg. XX Noriaki Kakyoin…Pg. XX Jean Pierre Polnareff…Pg. XX Iggy…Pg. XX Heroic Roleplaying: Stardust Crusaders is a fan creation based on the 1987- “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure” manga series written, illustrated, and created by Hirohiko Araki. All images and names of characters, locations, and Adventures, unless expressly stated are TM and (c) Hirohito Araki, Shonen Jump, Shueisha, and Subs. Used without permission. All references to people, places, and things including titles, lyrics, and other media are copyright their respective copyright holders. Used without permission. Heroic Roleplaying and the Cortex Plus system TM Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd. This roleplaying supplement is a fan creation and is not intended to profit from or infringe on the rights of Hirohiko Araki, Sueisha, or Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd., etc. STARDUST CRUSADERS Stand proud, warriors! This is a full-blown Adventure for the Cortex Plus Heroic Roleplaying system based on Part 3 of Hirohiko Araki’s JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, titled Stardust Crusaders, with additional material referencing Pts. 2 (Battle Tendency), 5 (Aureo Vento/“Golden Wind”), and 6 (Stone Ocean). Future supplements will be based on Parts 1 (Phantom Blood) and 2 (Battle Tendency, still) and Part 6 (Also Stone Ocean) and will feature further material from their respective sources. In this Adventure, you’ll be playing as someone with phenomenal powers, be it the power of the Ripple or Spin, mighty martial arts infused with the power of the sun, a Stand, a ghostlike entity that hovers behind you and can affect your opponent or the environment with a variety of bizarre effects, or even another power entirely (there’s vampires!)! When the course of your life is radically altered by the machinations of a vampiric madman named Dio Brando, you and a group of other likewise-affected warriors must race against Dio’s assassins to the city of Cairo, Egypt to put an end to DIO’s bloody ambition once and for all. Will you and your fellow Stardust Crusaders put an end to DIO, or will he fuse once and for all with the stolen body of his ancient arch-rival and bring an age of darkness to the world like none ever seen before? Stardust Crusaders works best as an Adventure for 4 to 6 players (but more or less are welcome and even encouraged! Do what you want, Heaven’s Door hasn’t written “I will only run with 4 to 6 players.” in the margins of this Adventure), and can take an absurdly long amount of time to play or could be over in seconds if someone removes time with King Crimson or just advances the end of the universe in seconds with Made In Heaven. You could even be doomed to just replay the Adventure over and over again with Killer Queen. Point is, don’t play RPGs with bad guys. You might get inspired by the Rap Sheets, scenes, and other elements to continue past the three Acts, and that’s cool too! Your story doesn’t end just because the book did. Heck, you might not even use all the scenes in this book, or you might add some after using them all, or whatever! The future Phantom Blood + Battle Tendency and Stone Ocean supplements will add even more fun stuff for you to use, so your campaign can run as long as Anubis’ life (which is a few thousand years, give or take). Everything in this Adventure is meant for the MC’s eyes only, but they might throw you a bone and let you see some stuff before, during, or after in the Sourcebook section. Ask and ye shall (probably) receive. Also in order to play this, you WILL NEED EITHER a copy of Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Basic Game or the Premium versions of either Annihilation or Civil War, or the Cortex Plus Hacker’s Guide which contains the rules for Fantasy Heroic Roleplaying a differently focused game with all the rules you’ll need. There may or may not be a forthcoming version of the Heroic Roleplaying rules, but that’s between you and Margaret Weis and is beyond the scope of this game. PREPARING FOR THE ADVENTURE Like most adventures, Stardust Crusaders requires some prepwork before you inflict it on your helpless players. Here’s what you’ll need: * Read over the whole Adventure and become familiar with the three Acts and the way the scenes flow in each Act. Familiarize yourself with the sourcebook so you won’t be caught flat-footed if your players do something tricky (which they should, it’s JoJo’s after all). Print copies of the Sourcebook if you think your players will dig it! * When your group meets up for the first session, each player should choose a hero from the Rap Sheets provided, make their own with help from the STAND PROUD chapter, or even convert a hero from another Cortex Heroic game line entirely and re-fluff them as a Stand User or with some other incredible power! * Be sure you have enough dice (d4, d6, d8, d12, and d12), Style Point tokens (D’arby the Elder prefers poker chips!), and some kind of action order token for each player (maybe a Major Arcana tarot card). You can also include miniatures, maps, and anything like that. You may also benefit from taking note of each hero’s Affiliations and what Milestones they’ve chosen. Keep this list near you during the game. * If your group has never played a game of Cortex Heroic Roleplaying, you should introduce your players to the basic rules and go over their Rap Sheets with them, or help them construct or convert their Rap Sheet. The rules of this are virtually unchanged from Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, so if you think it would help, hand out copies of a Cheat Sheet as well. I recommend both the Hero’s and Watcher’s Cheat Sheets from Nerd NYC, which can be found rather easily via Google or your search engine of choice. Obviously the terminology will be changed (see below), so make sure your players are privy to that too. TERMINOLOGY To better fit the mood and feel of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, I’ve modified some of the terminology a little. Anything that’s unchanged means what it means per Heroic Roleplaying, but otherwise the differences are listed as follows: * Adventure: Replaces Event. The overall journey your player characters go on, and the campaign you’re playing in. * MC: Replaces Watcher. Your loving GM. * Pose: Replaces Push. Adding a d6 to your dice pool. * Rap Sheet: Replaces datafile. Basically the character sheet. * Style Points (SP): Replaces Plot Points (PP). The narrative currency of the game. * MC Character: Replaces Watcher Character. The NPCs, good, bad, or otherwise. STRUCTURE OF THE ADVENTURE Stardust Crusaders is a 3-Act Adventure. Each Event should provide ample opportunities for your players to be tricky, mess up enemies with their incredible powers, and show off their impeccable style. The MC should have equal opportunity to keep the action funky fresh with an exciting selection of bad guys and other MC characters. —Act 1: The players should be introduced to the concept of Stands, learn of the mad ambition of DIO, and even fight a couple of enemies themselves before they leave for Cairo. —Act 2: On the road to DIO’s hideout in Cairo, the heroes have found themselves pursued at every possible corner by DIO’s loyal assassins, other Stand Users who wish to kill the Stardust Crusaders (that’s the adventuring party) to prevent them from learning DIO’s secret and possibly even harming their master.