QNA: Street Wolves Inspiration
I’ve recently gotten some questions about Table Cat Games and Street Wolves and I thought now would be a lovely time to start answering some of them. Today’s question comes from Lucas, who asks: “What inspired you to create Street Wolves?”
Buckle in. This one has some history!
As much as I have enjoyed playing fantasy rpgs like D&D, I don’t like running them all that much. I’ve had the most fun running more “modern” themed games (anywhere from the 1980s to today). A few years ago I wanted to run a G.I. Joe themed game. Since there wasn’t an official G.I. Joe rpg (and I didn’t know about games like Freedom Squadron for Savage Worlds), I pulled a lot of inspiration from G.I. Joe to make a game called “Special Mission Force: Wolfpack.”
Like the heroes of G.I. Joe, Wolfpack operatives were in a special branch of the military, they had colorful uniforms, and fought over the top bad guys in globe spanning adventures. It also took inspiration from TV shows like Airwolf, Knightrider, and action movies like Commando.
The original Wolfpack header…. I’ve grown a lot artistically since then…
I wrote most of a rule book and began layout on it as I ran adventures for friends both to play and test the game. After a couple campaigns I decided to run a sort of “Wolfpack Vice”, putting the heroes into Miami on a case that involved murder and drug cartels which was meant to be a campaign. I didn’t really know it at the time, but the basic concept of Street Wolves was born.
The funny thing was I never finished runningWolfpack Vice. The combat rules were incredibly unsatisfying for me as a GM. Wolfpack was built using the Open D6 rules from West End Games, the system that the old Star Wars game from the 80s-90s was built on. While it worked fine for Star Wars, it was not clicking with me for Wolfpack.
I grew dissatisfied with the whole project and killed it. Several years passed and then 2020 happened. I was stuck at home with not a lot left to do. It dawned on me that I should revive Wolfpack. I wanted to see if it would be viable using a different rpg ruleset as the base. That’s when I discovered Savage Worlds, which I’ll likely cover in more depth in the future.
As I began to do a complete rewrite of Wolfpack my friend Jason Ho (and Art Director forStreet Wolves) suggested I lean more into the Synthwave aesthetics. At first I was a bit reluctant. Most of my exposure to Synthwave/Outrun Wave was through Kung Fury, and I didn’t want to go that over the top with the game. However, the more I explored Synthwave, the more I fell in love with it and the more it felt right for Street Wolves.
I also ended up watching a lot of Miami Vice, and 1980s neo-noir films, which also helped formulate what Street Wolves was in my head. I highly recommend checking out Alphabet City, since that movie is just dripping with style.
And with that a bunch of different inspirations formed into the upcoming Street Wolves rpg setting for Savage Worlds!
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