Post by gamedave on Jun 6, 2019 11:59:13 GMT -5
It is the 21st Century, and the Pulp Age has not ended. Two-fisted heroes explore exotic locales, investigate weird menaces, combat international criminal masterminds, engage in desperate fights aboard burning airships, and always look for adventure!
The central conceit of the Agents of E.P.I.C. setting is that all of the tropes of the Pulp Era, and its forerunners in Victorian adventure fiction, actually occurred. Agents of E.P.I.C. spins that forward to a modern world where those tropes still exist. Hidden civilizations, lost cities, subterranean kingdoms, weird monsters, occult villains, mad science, talking apes, Nazis, all of that and more exist, and it is the job of the agents of E.P.I.C. to investigate the weirdness and defend the world against it.
History of E.P.I.C.
During the 1930s, the governments of the world became increasingly aware of the weird realities lying just under the surface of the mundane world. Every major government formed agencies, task forces, or other organizations to try to get a handle on the weirdness. None pursued this course more fervently or systematically than the new Nazi regime in Germany. The occult research section of the S.S., the Ahnenerbe, uncovered dark magics, weird science, and horrific secrets that nearly won the war.
The America Office of Special Intelligence, the British MI-13, and the Soviet Committee for the Investigation of Extreme Phenomena, put together ad hoc responses to the Nazi occult war effort. Thanks to the individual heroics of a number of prominent pre-war adventurers, the Nazi occult war effort was defeated, but just barely.
Realizing just how close they had come to utter disaster, in the closing days of World War II the major Allied governments signed a secret adjunct to the United Nations treaty, setting up a special international agency, E.P.I.C. - the Extreme Possibilities Investigating Committee.
E.P.I.C. was highly classified, and composed mostly of scholars, scientists, and researchers. It was quickly realized that E.P.I.C. would need an operational capacity, which would by its nature be more public. Thus was born SECTOR - the Special Executive for Counter-Terrorism Operations and Response. Officially, SECTOR is a multi-national taskforce affiliated with the UN which investigates and fights international crime and terrorism. In truth, SECTOR performs that function, and more. Its agents investigate and combat all forms of weird and unusual threats, secretly reporting back to E.P.I.C.
Inspirational Sources
The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai Across the 8th Dimension movie
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series
Atomic Robo webcomic and RPG
Hellboy comic books, movies, and RPG
The James Bond movie series
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie and comic books
The Librarians TV series
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. TV series
Men in Black movie and sequels
The Mummy (1999 film) and sequels
Planetary comic book series
Raiders of the Lost Ark and sequels
The Rocketeer movie
Tom Strong comic book series
The Venture Bros. TV series
And, of course, the original pulp heroes. Among the most prominent, who have had a large number of books, movies, short stories, and comic books dedicated to them, and whose adventures had the biggest influence on this setting:
Doc Savage
The Phantom
The Shadow
Tarzan
and many, many others.
The central conceit of the Agents of E.P.I.C. setting is that all of the tropes of the Pulp Era, and its forerunners in Victorian adventure fiction, actually occurred. Agents of E.P.I.C. spins that forward to a modern world where those tropes still exist. Hidden civilizations, lost cities, subterranean kingdoms, weird monsters, occult villains, mad science, talking apes, Nazis, all of that and more exist, and it is the job of the agents of E.P.I.C. to investigate the weirdness and defend the world against it.
History of E.P.I.C.
During the 1930s, the governments of the world became increasingly aware of the weird realities lying just under the surface of the mundane world. Every major government formed agencies, task forces, or other organizations to try to get a handle on the weirdness. None pursued this course more fervently or systematically than the new Nazi regime in Germany. The occult research section of the S.S., the Ahnenerbe, uncovered dark magics, weird science, and horrific secrets that nearly won the war.
The America Office of Special Intelligence, the British MI-13, and the Soviet Committee for the Investigation of Extreme Phenomena, put together ad hoc responses to the Nazi occult war effort. Thanks to the individual heroics of a number of prominent pre-war adventurers, the Nazi occult war effort was defeated, but just barely.
Realizing just how close they had come to utter disaster, in the closing days of World War II the major Allied governments signed a secret adjunct to the United Nations treaty, setting up a special international agency, E.P.I.C. - the Extreme Possibilities Investigating Committee.
E.P.I.C. was highly classified, and composed mostly of scholars, scientists, and researchers. It was quickly realized that E.P.I.C. would need an operational capacity, which would by its nature be more public. Thus was born SECTOR - the Special Executive for Counter-Terrorism Operations and Response. Officially, SECTOR is a multi-national taskforce affiliated with the UN which investigates and fights international crime and terrorism. In truth, SECTOR performs that function, and more. Its agents investigate and combat all forms of weird and unusual threats, secretly reporting back to E.P.I.C.
Inspirational Sources
The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai Across the 8th Dimension movie
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series
Atomic Robo webcomic and RPG
Hellboy comic books, movies, and RPG
The James Bond movie series
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie and comic books
The Librarians TV series
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. TV series
Men in Black movie and sequels
The Mummy (1999 film) and sequels
Planetary comic book series
Raiders of the Lost Ark and sequels
The Rocketeer movie
Tom Strong comic book series
The Venture Bros. TV series
And, of course, the original pulp heroes. Among the most prominent, who have had a large number of books, movies, short stories, and comic books dedicated to them, and whose adventures had the biggest influence on this setting:
Doc Savage
The Phantom
The Shadow
Tarzan
and many, many others.