SMALL TOWN FASERIP
A small town FASERIP campaign is one where the heroes could be local people, even children, drawn into a mystery. The mystery might initially seem insignificant but it leads to deeper puzzles and increasing danger. It could be a muder mystery, an astonishing theft, and old crime covered up by some of the townsfolk, even the collective guilt of the town founders over a shared crime such as a massacre or the coverup of a disaster.
Small Town FASERIP is best when none of the heroes have high Ranks in any Power, or in most cases any powerful Powers at all. The reason is obvious- with great power comes great ease in solving some mysteries or defeating local villains.
The group of heroes could be workmates, members of a family, school friends or friends back from college, local workers who saw something they weren't meant to see, or even random people who encounter an alien, mutant or other highly unusual character. Perhaps one of the hero characters is a pet animal or animal ally such as a dog, cat, raccoon or even a bear or wolf!
Small Town villains have to be either independent sociopaths or part of a network. The sociopaths are dangerous violent people with no morals or hesitation in using violence, even against children. The villain network is very different. As well as including professional criminals with criminal records and ruthless operatives, the network also includes apparently normal and even friendly and helpful townsfolk who are informers, traitors - or worse - in the service of the criminal network. Like a spider's web, the weaker villains in the network who the heroes encounter the most lead to more powerful controllers, paymaster and bosses who in turn report to senior bosses and ultimately to the "Big Bad" or big boss who (apparently?) rules the entire network. The big boss could be a local businessperson who owns all the main businesses and any industry in town; or he or she could be interstate or international, just a face on a screen or a voice on a phonecall.
The final answers to the mysteries of the small town can be as absolutely insane, weird, supernatural, science fictional or horrifying as the gamemaster decides, but to begin with all of that is completely hidden. The first few challenges are almost absurdly low level and low power - who is stealing all the milk? Why is that teacher always late to her classes? Where do the trucks go when they drive off into the forest? Who owns the old mill? Who burned the newspaper office down? Why do people keep disappearing around the lake? Who is the transfer student - they are not what seem!
Characters in a Small Town game need to specify their accomodation (where they are living - at home, at a hotel or motel, with friends, in a backpacking hostel, as an inpatient at a hospital, sleeping in their car), their daily grind (going to school, going to a job, unemployed, college student, college student on holiday, investigator officially tasked with solving the mysteries, reporter, Fortean researcher, survivalist, local Sheriff, homemaker, escaped prisoner) and their obligations (attend school, obey parental instructions, hand in college assignments, make regular reports, issue speeding tickets, report for fitness assessments, keep a neat and tidy home for the family).
Small Town games must always feature a soap opera element. Some players might even mistake the setting for a soap opera game. But it is not. The soap opera elements of who is with whom, family struggles, last will and testament dramas, closing of the local plant, new families trying to settle in, new romance, rocky marriages, battling addiction and so on are NOT the "point". They are simply an essential part of the milieu and form a default backdrop and set of activities between adventures. Occasionally clues will appear in the soap opera elements or part of a grand design will be revealed. All part of the fun!