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  BAD JUJU 
  FATE + FICTION 
  is our line of original and 
  classic 
  short 
  stories. 
  Situations, characters, and 
  other elements from the 
  story are expressed as 
  Fate RPG Aspects. Read 
  and enjoy the stories on 
  their own, then mix the 
  Aspects you like into your 
  own Fate Core or Fate 
  Accelerated game! 
   
   
  ASPARAGUS 
  JUMPSUIT 
  We believe in literacy, 
  curiosity, and creativity. 
  Through 
  these 
  things 
  individuals, societies, and 
  the 
  entire 
  world 
  are 
  enriched 
  and 
  transformed. The Fate + 
  Fiction line was created to 
  help uphold and promote 
  these values.   
   
  Building Better Worlds 
  AsparagusJumpsuit.com 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Fate Core System 
  Fate Accelerated Edition 
  Copyright ©2013 Evil Hat 
  Productions, LLC. 
  All rights reserved. 
   
  Fate was originally 
  created by Rob Donoghue 
  and Fred Hicks 
  By Gary E. Weller 
  Bergeron didn’t want to go back to New Orleans. Somehow as the world 
  evolved, into the shadowed neon culture that had grown out of the global economic 
  shutdown, that had allowed private conglomerates to basically buy out several 
  governments around the world, the Big Easy had remained remarkably Cajun. 
  There were bits and pieces of more modernization along the riverfronts and 
  throughout the delta, but for the most part the denizens stuck to their roots and 
  traditions. The money may have been coming out of Shanghai, but for those Cajun 
  down in the Town, it was still, ‘laissez les bons temps rouler,’ rather than, ‘yǒ u yuán 
  qiā nlǐ  lái xiā nghuì.’ Still, destiny was a funny thing. 
  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 
  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.   
  The crest on the sweatshirt was unmistakable. Black and red backgrounds 
  peeked from the middle of the teal. Bergeron knew it was the Seal of Tulane before 
  he saw the castles and the moons. Non Sibi Sen Suis, the words came back to him as 
  if he had just walked out from his graduation ceremony. They were ingrained into 
  what he did now – not for oneself, but for one’s own. Her name was Sheila 
  Thibodaux, but Bergeron already knew that. Sheila was his cousin. 
  Tracking Sheila down wasn’t the issue, Bergeron had found her easy enough. 
  He knew who to talk to and how to negotiate passage through the bayous and bogs. 
  It came with knowing the area. The chrome in his body and the ocular implants just 
  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 
  technology that was in use today.  
  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 
  pseudo-silk top hat and matching suit out to the old plantation. It hung on her 
  loosely, as if it were meant for someone else. Chromed mirrorshades were planted 
  on her face and a long pipe stuck in her teeth slowly let aromatic grey smoke drift 
  up. 
  ‚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. 
  ‚Passe’!‛ the word was almost spat out. Her voice was not her own. Bergeron 
  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. 
   
   
   
  M.R.M. Blackwood (order #5896805)
  
   
   
  Bad Juju 
  Page 2 of 5 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Situation Aspects 
  The global economic 
  shutdown that had 
  allowed private 
  conglomerates to 
  basically buy out 
  several governments 
  around the world. 
  It’s a cyberpunk world, 
  where corporate interests 
  trump the needs of people, 
  and government services 
  probably aren’t available to 
  lower economic classes. 
   
  The Big Easy had 
  remained remarkably 
  Cajun. 
  ‚Cajun‛ might not be as 
  accurate as a ‚holding onto 
  older ways and traditions‛. 
  This is really just code for 
  ‚magic exists in this 
  setting‛. 
   
   
   ‚Look Sheila,‛ Bergeron ignored the insult, ‚a lot of people are worried about 
  you. What the hell are you doing here?‛  
  ‚Our Sheila, she mal pris, her,‛ a smile came across her face, twisting the 
  skull makeup into a grotesque mockery of what it should have been. ‚I in here 
  now, me. All she wan’ do is fay dodo with tings she don’ unnastan’, her. Fooyay, 
  fooyay.‛ She took another long draw on the pipe and let the smoke spill out of 
  her mouth. 
  Bergeron felt the itch to end the conversation and get her to a hospital. It was 
  obvious that whatever she had gotten into was pulling on some serious brain 
  cells. The hallucination alone narrowed down the list of drugs that Bergeron 
  could attribute to her condition.  
  ‚Ain’ no chem gris gris that do it, ma Grand Tahyo, you.‛ Another wicked 
  smile crossed her face. ‚Mon Cherie, she tied fo’ true, but weren’ no chem, only 
  voodoo.‛ 
  ‚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 
  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. 
  Sheila’s eyes were glazed over. The green that was so vibrant were now milky 
  and grey. Bergeron drew back and threw the shades down and raised his assault 
  rifle. The dead eyes looked at him as the face smiled and bellowed out a great 
  laugh that seemed to echo throughout the former plantation. 
  The body stood up from the place it was sitting and drew on the long pipe 
  again. A twisted and decrepit smile flashed across what was Sheila’s face and then 
  the corpse blew him a kiss, letting the pipe smoke out in a long stream. 
  ‚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.‛ 
   
  M.R.M. Blackwood (order #5896805)
  
   
   
  Bad Juju 
  Page 3 of 5 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  About Bad Juju 
  by Berin Kinsman 
  I hope you enjoyed Gary’s story. That would make me happy, and I know it would 
  make Gary happy. Yet even if you didn’t, I hope you can see how even a piece of 
  fiction you don’t like can be mined for ideas, and ways that those ideas can be remixed 
  and reimaged and used as material for your own Fate RPG game. 
  Now let’s deconstruct the story, pick out some of the elements that are present, 
  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 
  how to mine stories for pieces and parts that you can adapt for your own purposes. 
  Let’s begin by trying to summarize the story. We’ve got a cross between 
  cyberpunk and voodoo going on. A man used to technology wandering into a city 
  dominated by older ways and traditions, and finding himself ill-equipped to deal with 
  it. It’s a fish out of water story, and one full of juxtapositions. There should be plenty 
  of story ideas to mine from these contrasts and contradictions. 
  The Situations 
  There are as few Situation Aspects that we can pull out of this story. These 
  Aspects, or something like them, can then be adapted to your own Fate game. Let’s 
  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.  
  Character Aspects 
  Bergeron didn’t want to 
  go back to New Orleans.  
  The implication is that he 
  knows things about the 
  city, he doesn’t like the 
  city, and he maybe even 
  fears the city a bit.  
   
  Situation Aspects 
  The chrome in his body 
  and the ocular implants 
  just made it much 
  easier to negotiate the 
  price.   
  Bergeron isn’t just 
  enhanced, those 
  enhancements allow him 
  to charge a premium for 
  his services. 
   
   
  M.R.M. Blackwood (order #5896805)
  
   
   
  Bad Juju 
  Page 4 of 5 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  The chrome in his body and the ocular implants just made it much easier to negotiate 
  the price. 
  This establishes a couple of facts. First, that Bergeron is augmented. Second, that 
  the augmentations allow him to charge a premium for his services. It also implies that 
  these things re rare, at least in lower-tech New Orleans. As Bergeron’s player, I’d 
  Invoke this for any situation where having cyberware will help me, and in negotiating 
  fees.  
  Sheila Thibodaux is our token magical character. She knows how these things 
  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 
  thread that can be explored in an expanded story. 
  Loa are voodoo spirits, who grant favors to people in return for sacrifices of luxury 
  items and occasionally loaning them your body. Or at least, that’s the Hollywood 
  version of voodoo. Baron Samedi is one of the most prominent loa. They’re characters 
  in that they interact with player characters and make magic work. You can Invoke a 
  relationship with loa, and they can Compel you to do things based on that same 
  relationship. 
  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.  
   
  Consequences 
  Consequences of magic 
  Using magic might lead to 
  other things, like 
  possession, death, and 
  becoming the zombie slave 
  of a supernatural being.  
   
  Boosts 
  Magic and technology 
  don’t mix. 
  Magic might bet a boost 
  when used against 
  unnatural things like 
  technology, because only 
  natural forces can resist it. 
  Or vice-versa.  
   
  M.R.M. Blackwood (order #5896805)
  
   
   
  Bad Juju 
  Page 5 of 5 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
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  15 COPYRIGHT NOTICE 
  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. 
   
  Open Gaming License 
  Asparagus Jumpsuit 
  AsparagusJumpsuit.com 
   
  Bad Juju (story) 
  ©2014 Gary E. Weller  
   
  Additional content  
  ©2014 Berin Kinsman 
   
  Edited by  
  Stefan Livingstone Shirley 
   
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  the 
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  M.R.M. Blackwood (order #5896805)
  
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