Bedlam City

Bedlam City Basics is a free supers setting by Plain Brown Wrapper Games. This 47 page pdf contains everything you need to include a dark and dirty Iron Age city to your supers game. The pdf is system agnostic, though there is an expanded version I'll talk about below. So what is Bedlam City exactly?  If you want a comparison, it's the Gotham City to your Metropolis. In the pdf you'll find an overview of the city, as well as neighborhoods, important locations, government info, the media, organized crime, and a discussion of the few heroes tied to the city.  It's a cesspool of greed and corruption. The government is inefficient and crime has infiltrated all aspects of life. I used the pdf many years ago when I ran my FreedomOPS M&M 2e game. My players took a liking to the city, especially in contrast to the gleaming metropolis of Freedom City,

Bedlam City is a greatly expanded version of the setting. There is a Savage Worlds version and a Mutants and Masterminds 2e version. They are huge, clocking in at 535 and 555 pages respectively. You can't really ask for more material in a setting, but too be honest, its too much for me. I think Bedlam City Basics is in the sweet spot of setting information for a GM (minus stats), whereas this one contains too much detail. I know I said that Bedlam City is grimy dark ages 90's stuff, but it's ever darker when fleshed out. Miller's Sin City has nothing on Bedlam City. I have the Savage Worlds pdf, and while I have a lot of Savage Worlds stuff, I can't really gage how well the stats are written because it's just not one I grok with. While the pdf contains a lot of content I won't recommend it for one big reason. There is a note at the end of the item's description that says "[THIS PRODUCT CONTAINS AI-GENERATED ARTWORK. BECAUSE WE'RE POOR]." While I can relate to funds being tight, I still can't condone using AI artwork in books. If that's not an issue for you, that's fine, but I don't like supporting products that use it. I don't remember AI being mentioned in the original version I bought, it must have been added in the updated one.

If you want to add some grime to your supers game, I really recommend downloading Bedlam City Basics.