CHAPTER 2: CHAPTER 3: CHAPTER 4: CHAPTER 5: ADVENTURE:

CHAPTER 1: LIFT SELECTION: TECH BRIEFING: EQUIPMENT THE RULE OF LAW - THE WORLD, TAKING THE APPENDIX:
INTRODUCTION X+65 CHARACTER OPTIONS AND TECHNOLOGY GAMEMASTERING LAZARUS DIVIDED STONE THE LAZARI

in Oklahoma to elite military Daggers flying jetpacks into high-tech

MAKING LAZARUS YOUR OWN battles against superhuman soldiers in Switzerland; between life-
This book recounts the canon of the Lazarus comic series or-death games of conspiracy and secret alliances to race-against-
through Issue 27. It includes the first two Lazarus Sourcebooks, the-clock scientific puzzles. In World of Lazarus, characters may
with additional notes providing Greg Rucka and Michael Lark’s wine and dine in the finest hotels ever conceived the night after
wider vision of the world, expanding on the factions, conflicts, trailing a Lazarus into the shantytowns of Los Angeles.
and technologies that shape the setting beyond the story.
But the relevance of that vision and information ends when Certain themes and conceits link this wide range of genres, styles
you sit down to play. Your World of Lazarus campaign is your and stories.
own, to do with as you please. You may be the first team of
Lazari ever assembled by one Family, or your scrappy freedom IN THE WAKE OF ARMAGEDDON,
fighters might topple Hock or Armitage or the Carlyles. You ONLY COMPROMISE
may play new members of existing Families, or add new cities,
important characters, or world details that the comics never It is a grim future. Hopes for survival and ambitions for power
touched on and Rucka and Lark never intended.
clash and entwine, propelling the story and the characters in new
The story of Lazarus is sprawling and unfinished, which
provides a perfect starting point for shaping the setting to directions. Conspiracies and schemes lurk in every shadow. Trust
the needs of your table and story. Who are the Free? What is hard-won, and often betrayed. No-win scenarios constantly test
became of Family Soleri? What is the ultimate fate of the loyalties and ethics, and the choices characters and their players
other Forever Carlyle? Off the comic page, at the table, this make are paramount. In some games, these choices will change
is your story to tell. Let the information in this book serve the world, as Families rise and fall and technologies and conspira-
as a springboard to your own stories, rather than chains cies unleash their power across the planet. In others, the impacts
restricting what you can do. are more constrained, affecting characters’ friends, communities,
and ideals. Victories are bittersweet. History never ends; there is
no final victory.
are those who serve as a global symbol of everything the Families
oppose: the Free. AS ABOVE, SO BELOW
Terrorists to some, freedom fighters to others, and a lost cause
The godlike ability of great and terrible people—Malcolm Carlyle,
to most, the Free are a global resistance network, coordinated
Jakob Hock, or the mysterious patron of the Free—to shape
across the world. The dominion of the Families—the absolute
history is one of the key elements of the setting. Do individuals
control each one exerts on all walks of life—means that most
impact the world around them, or are they are the spearheads
people lack even the memory of the rights and liberties that have
and symbols of broader social forces that move and motivate the
been taken away. Histories that have been erased or rewritten
entire world?
teach citizens and Waste alike that the low have always served
the high. Their neo-feudal overlords are the new normal. Only the The drama in the World of Lazarus and the Lazarus comics comes
Free—symbolized by a burning torch—preserve the memory of from the tension between these ideas. Individual decision-
greater ideals and spread the word of higher aspiration. makers—their rivalries and their feuds—have had an enormous
impact, but this is not only because of their special qualities, but
No two Free cells operate the same way, or with the same goal.
also the opportunities afforded to them by the circumstances of
The torch of the Free is seen on a rogue currency issued to the
their wealth, power, and influence.
Waste in Los Angeles one night, appears carved into an assas-
sinated dynast in Caracas another, and is left behind in a virus Moreover, the World of Lazarus remains deeply interconnected
that crashes drone networks in the Pacific the next. Though their at all levels. For all that they have broken apart the world, the
methods vary and captured agents are organized only in loose Families are continually drawn into each other’s business.
cells, rumors insist that a shadowy and mysterious leadership Enmities and alliances between Families can result in Lazari
directs the most crucial Free operations, and somehow evades from rival Families becoming star-crossed lovers. Even as the
always intense and sometimes coordinated Family pursuit. gulf between powerful and desperate grows, the classes are
deeply linked. The superhuman Lazarus of any Family is often
Though the Free provide hope, they work against impossible
constrained by obligation or even hardwired loyalties, while the
odds. They endeavor to reverse the order of the world, but
actions of Serfs or Waste, applied at the right place and time,
without the tools, resources, or influence the Families wielded in
may shake the entire world.
their own coup. But with stolen technology, dubious allies, and a
thousand enemies, the Free constantly make their stand. After all, The extreme stratification of society makes a convenient narra-
they have nothing left to lose. tive device to examine how different groups respond to the
same challenge, based on the resources available to them. Being
hunted by an assassin will play out one way when the target is
THEME AND GENRE a powerful Family member who commands considerable tech-
nology and wealth but may never have experienced actual
Lazarus has elements of military thrillers, post-apocalyptic road danger in his entire privileged life; the same scenario plaguing
Westerns, noir procedurals, conspiracy thrillers, transhumanist Waste may involve a bitter but resilient scavenger accustomed
science fiction, and political dramas. In shaping your own game, to daily threats to her life. Presenting challenges, scenarios, and
you can draw from these deep wells, mixing and matching aspects opportunities ordinarily only available to other levels of society
and bringing in your own preferred influences. The comic cuts provides interesting narrative fuel, as does stacking challenges
between the Waste family evading bandits and scavenging for food that transcend those divides. In your games, victories will be won