Monday Musings #139 🤬
Musing about John Wick...the Baba Yaga.
Good Monday, Gamer!
“You’re not having a good night are you John?” —Cassian
I’m watching the John Wick series. I haven’t seen them all. I rewatched JW1 and then watched JW2 this weekend. I’m revisiting the idea of moving the old En Garde! format to a John Wick-inspired setting.
The draw of John Wick is the lore and ecosystem. It’s institution. A global aristocracy of killers. Neutral ground that actually means something. Markers that bind. A High Table that enforces consequences across borders.
If I’m a GM looking to run a Wick-inspired campaign centered on The Continental, the first decision isn’t stat blocks; I’m looking for emphasis. I need the game to be about obligation, prestige, and consequences.
If you want Wick at your table, focus on the machine, not the muzzle flash.
A Continental campaign is about:
Obligation
Reputation
Escalation
Institutional retaliation
Violence is sharp. The consequences are long.
If someone kills on neutral ground, the world responds. If someone honors a marker, doors open. If someone breaks the rules, privileges vanish.
The tension is “What does winning cost?”
That principle should guide every system choice and table structure.
Choose Your Systems
Different systems spotlight different aspects of Wick. Decide which axis you want to emphasize.
Aristocratic Competition: En Garde!
If you want assassins maneuvering for status, En Garde! provides a strong skeleton. Turn-based declarations — travel, contracts, duels, obligations — translate cleanly into Continental politics.
This supports rivalry. PvP is formalized. Advancement is visible. Death is expected.
For strategic, prestige-driven campaigns, this is my first pick — and something I’ve been hacking on for a while. This option is a heavy GM lift.
Escalation Drama: Dogs
And I mean, Dogs, for other unique settings. The escalation ladder — talk → brawl → kill — is nearly perfect for Wick.
Each escalation step adds mechanical weight and tension, but increases fallout. Drawing a gun becomes a conscious mechanical choice, not just color.
Most important — almost everything has dice values.
This system shines at multi-assassin tables where tension might boil over. Conflict resolution is the same for PvP or PvNPC.
Moral Erosion: Sorcerer
If you want Wick as tragedy, Ron Edwards’ Sorcerer is strong. Markers become bindings, or demons even. Power has internal cost. Humanity measures adherence to the rules.
Every favor called in costs something personal.
The dice pools here are the chef’s kiss. The dice say when and to what effect. Power always answers — but never cleanly.
DIY Options
With careful mod selection, Cortex can support:
Distinctions like “Excommunicado”
Stress tracks for Heat and Reputation
Assets for safehouses and hotel protection
Cortex Contest rules seem perfect for escalations of combats.
It requires some GM work upfront. Cortex leans cinematic freedom. Wick demands consequences. If you don’t enforce fallout, the tone drifts.
Leaning into its Situation mechanics, I would consider Champions Now.
I might reduce starting character points. I might not.
Unlike broader superhero toolkits, Champions Now focuses on tight, purpose-built character construction and strong dramatic framing. In a Continental game, that means assassins defined by sharply tuned competencies — close-quarters gunwork, tactical awareness, social leverage, sheer durability — without drifting into four-color territory.
The result is Wick at a slightly mythic pitch: lethal specialists whose effectiveness is never in question, but whose choices — and obligations — from their character built Situations generate the real tension.
Competitive Sandbox: Remember Tomorrow
If you want intersecting agendas and rotating spotlight scenes, Gregor Hutton’s Remember Tomorrow is your huckleberry.
Assassins pursue personal goals inside the same ecosystem. Rivalry is expected but structured. There’s even the possibility of “getting out.”
It works largely out of the box. You simply roll back the futuristic setting assumptions.
The Multi-Assassin Question
Putting multiple professional killers at one table introduces a structural problem:
Why aren’t they killing each other? There are three workable campaign models.
The Crew Model
They share a patron, debt, or city-level crisis. PvP is off the table by agreement. External pressure unifies them.
Stable. Long-form. Discuss the boundaries in session zero.
The Rivals Model
They compete for status and contracts. PvP is allowed but consensual. Neutral ground rules matter.
Works well with En Garde! or Remember Tomorrow.
3. The Political Web Model
Sometimes allies. Sometimes competitors. Escalation mechanics manage internal conflict. The High Table enforces boundaries.
This requires trust at the table and clarity around consequences.
Adult players.
The institution must matter more than ego. But the players, the people, must matter more than the game.
And PvP isn’t for every table. Talk about it before session zero, during session zero, and revisit it as needed. It’s OK to leave it behind.
Overlaying The Continental on Other Games
You don’t need a dedicated Wick system. The premise overlays cleanly onto modern or near-modern settings. In cyberpunk worlds such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Shadowrun, the Continental becomes a neutral arcology or an extraterritorial guild. Markers are encrypted cred-bonds. The High Table is a shadow consortium.
In far-future sandboxes like Traveller, it becomes a starport sanctuary network. Excommunication means the revocation of docking rights across subsectors.
It works even in urban supernatural games like Monster of the Week.
All you really need to add:
A protected space
A binding favor economy
A reputation track
Institutional response
Keep your combat rules.
Change the stakes.
How to Run It Well
Make reputation visible.
Track markers publicly, no player secrets about this.
Announce High Table decrees formally.
Keep violence sharp and short.
Never let rule-breaking slide.
If a rule is broken and nothing happens, the premise collapses.
If the world responds consistently, tension builds automatically.
The GM Above the Table
You are not choreographing fight scenes.
You are maintaining the machine, the world.
The Continental works because it feels larger than any single assassin. The High Table feels patient. The rules feel binding. Sanctuary feels sacred — until it isn’t.
Run the institution with discipline, and your table will generate the rest.
That’s John Wick at your table.
“May you enjoy your party.”
Kickstarter update — Play Fearless Greatest Crits Zine
The Play Fearless Greatest Crits Kickstarter is live. This morning, it sits at $920 of a $2,000 goal, 12 days to go and an update!
