No More Heroes: Conclusion

Monday we wrapped up our Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Event, No More Heroes.

Last time, the heroes had learned that something untoward was happening at a government research facility. Spore, Pink, and Harmony had gone ahead to check it out.

Pink jumped over the wall and landed, undetected (for the moment). Harmony went up to the front gate, and was stopped by guards. They told her to wait while they made a call (which she listened in on, using her sound manipulation powers), and then activated the place's defenses. Guns fired, but she absorbed the lasers and destroyed the guns.

Spore popped into the booth and gave off a burst, stunning the men. Pink bounded into the fray, but missed her attack. Spore disabled the guns, and Harmony gave off light and blinded the dudes. One of them pointed a gun at Spore and fired, not doing any damage (Spore's largely invulnerable), but inflicting some emotional stress - these guys are just agents like his friend, Carlson, after all. Pink too the opportunity to bop the dude on the head, ending the scene.

Meanwhile, Inferno and Arcanix were flying to the facility from the other directions. Guns on the roof targeted them, but Inferno melted one down to slag and Arcanix made the ammo explode, disabling the weapons. They entered the building (this was the main research building, where they'd detected the Earnhardt device) and made their way downstairs, just as Pink charged the doors of said building and burst in.

Inside, they found a man standing at the controls to the much-modified Earnhardt, guarded by Krampus, Innocence, Grimoire, Decibel, and that weasely dude they'd seen by the Arch (his name is Waves, by the way). The man told them that they were welcome to join him, and be free to use their powers to actually do some good for the world, rather than doing so at the beck and call of the government. The characters, of course, refused, and the man hit a button on his machine, pelting them all with lasers (Harmony absorbed hers).

Innocence opened fire with her guns, inflicting a bunch of physical stress. The battle was joined - Pink leaped up and grabbed a catwalk, spilling Decibel to the ground. Grimoire cast a spell on Pink and robbed her of her superstrength, but then got socked in the head by Spore and cast down into the Netherrealms by Arcanix (the true Sorcerer Supreme!). Inferno threw fire at the villains, and Krampus threw it right back, scorching the heroes (lots of area attacking going on, which is brutal).

And then Rookie arrived...but not Rookie anymore. He had dumped his gear, which wasn't working anyway, but his training and his encounter with Grimoire had awakened mystic potential in the lad. Now he was glowing with red, magical energy, and calling himself Scion!

Largely invulnerable, he joined the battle. He threw magical bolts at Krampus (who dispelled it), and soaked up some of the attacked being thrown around. Decibel, realized he was probably on his last legs, screamed, damaging all of the heroes (or at least trying). Arcanix, however, bounced he attack back on him.

Decibel got taken out, as did Grimoire, but then Innocence shot a bunch of people again...including Inferno. He fell the ground, stressed out and bleeding. Pink grappled Innocence (no mean trick without her strength) and tried to talk her down. Harmony joined her and they managed to free Innocence from her murderous persona.

Spore and Arcanix took down the red-haired mad scientist, and Waves, the telekinetic, covered himself in a force field and surrendered. Krampus, who hadn't taken any serious damage, realized that the day was lost and blew up the apparatus (leading the heroes to suspect that he had been mind controlled, much like the agents). He told the heroes that he agreed with the Baron Anguish's (that'd be the mad scientist) goals, but his methods were sloppy. He blew a hole in the roof and left, Scion waving and saying "see you at Christmas!"

The agents rolled in and arrested the remaining villains. And now, aftermath.

Inferno was laid up in the hospital. Carlson visited him, offering him a place to train, even if he didn't want to join up. Inferno refused. He just wanted to get back to work.

Pink, however, did join up - it was the best way to keep her family safe and her powers under control. Spore, therefore, was no longer the "probie."

Arcanix flew off to the ends of the Earth to train his new pupil, Scion, in the mystic arts.

Harmony, of course, went back to her bar. She's not getting suckered in to working for the government. Not again. (Not this time, anyway.) No more heroics.

And now, let's finish out the month.

You Can Game Anywhere On Earth, Where Would You Choose? Maui. It's lovely and temperate and the coffee is fantastic.

Describe the Ideal Game Room if Budget Were Unlimited. I'm actually pretty close to that now! Maybe better chairs; I like the 8-hour chairs from Geek Chic. I have a Geek Chic table already, though. If I could cheat and include my kitchen with the game room, then, like, I want a better kitchen so I can cook for my players.

Best Advice You Were Given For Your Game of Choice? Hrm. What's my game of choice, anyway? I play and run a lot of different games.

Look, if you look at advice tailored to a particular game, it's usually about the rules. If you do it by genre, then it's something for capturing that genre within the unique restrictions of the game table. If it's gaming in general, then there's lots of good advice for gaming (I've even written some).

A lot of it cooks down to "remember this is a collaborative thing." That works pretty much across the board. Playing Fate? Compel Aspects, not because you want to force the players' hands, but because by involving Aspects you're making the game about these characters and their foibles. Playing a horror game? Find out where horror lives for your players, but don't traumatize them. Playing at my table? Tell me what you'd like in your coffee, or, failing that, which of the zillions of types of tea in my pantry you'd like.

It's all about collaboration.

No More Heroes, pt. 2

First thing's first.

Share One of Your "Worst Luck" stories: I'm sure I have stories like this, but a lot of the games I've been playing lately don't reckon failure the way more trad games do. Oh, wait, I've got one. I was running a game of Chill in college, and the characters were up against a Bast (a kind of cat-like creature). Like a lot of creatures in Chill, bullets didn't really hurt it, but they're a pretty common first step, for some reason. So one of the characters shoots at the thing, and the player fails. Since the envoys are kind of clustered (bad idea - always check your backdrop!), I have the player roll to see if the character inadvertently hits another envoy...and the player rolls 01 (which is the best possible roll). She shot the other envoy in the head and killed him.

It was an ignominious way to go, but on the other hand, it was pretty appropriate to the story and the tone of the game, so I dunno.

Anyway, superheroes!

Last time, the heroes fought valiantly to prevent several supervillains from stealing the Earnhardt Radar from Lindquist Industries. This time, they all learned (separately) that the Gateway Arch was under attack.

Inferno was closest, and swooped in. He tossed a bunch of fire around at the demons, but didn't manage to hurt them. They leaped down off the arch and slashed at him, tearing up his outfit and cutting him up. Pink was next on the scene, and bounced off demon-heads up to the top of the arch. There she saw a man in a suit and a tie with glittering gold sigils sitting there. He sneered "pajama police" at her, and then fired magic at her. It didn't hurt her, but she slid down the arch, breaking windows (I added to the doom pool).

Arcanix arrived and flew up to the dude, declaring himself to be the Sorcerer Supreme and trying to band the guy (Grimoire) to the arch with the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak (which is apparently a dimensional constant). Grimoire broke the spell, and floated up off the arch, saying "I know you. You're the former Sorcerer Supreme." At that point, Pink slammed into him from the side, kicking him in the kidneys.

Rookie arrived on a swingline, slamming into demons. Inferno called up fire and caged a bunch of the demons, but a dude on the ground, in street clothes lifted up his hands and the fire went out. Spore flowed in behind him and caused a spore burst, infecting him (which allowed Spore to use one of his Distinctions - Brilliant Physicist). Grimoire, annoyed, called down magical meteors, causing a bunch of stress to Arcanix, Rookie, and Inferno (Pink dodged them handily). Rookie threw a meteor back at him, but he dispelled it easily.

Harmony tried to knock Arcanix back on course (his jets were malfunctioning as a result of a Limit), but didn't adjust for his heavier body and failed. At this point, Spore heard his handler calling him away, and he faded back into the earth. The demons attacked, but Inferno burned intensely bright, Rookie spun his staff and knocked a bunch of them away, and Arcanix dispelled them.

With no more demons distracting them, Inferno called up a sphere of fire around Grimoire, and Harmony deafened the other dude. Suddenly said dude vanished, and the fire-sphere was empty - Grimoire had pulled them away.

At the government compound, Spore found that Krampus and Innocence had attacked and freed Decibel. Spore's handler, Carlson, instructed him to get the other heroes here, as the government needed fresh eyes on this.

The other characters arrived, a little annoyed that the vending machines at the compound weren't free. The did a bit of investigation, and realized that Innocence hadn't killed anyone. Harmony, her old nemesis, confirmed that this was weird; Innocence was usually quite willing to put people on ice. The action at the arch had pretty obviously been meant to distract from this operation, but why was Decibel so important? Villains didn't normally stick together so intensely, so it was likely that his powers in particular were important.

Spore looked through his infective memories and found the name of the guy he'd infected - Mitchell Warner. Harmony remembered him; he had tried to be a superhero some years back, but had choked and wound up embarrassing himself. He had telekinetic powers, as she remembered. A little digging later, and they learned he was a brilliant physicist, too.

The found the sniper's perch where Innocence had shot out the inhibitor device preventing Decibel from using his powers. The sniper rifle was government issue - and it had been taken from a larger compound that had a dorm, an armory, and a research wing.

So the villains included a power-armored technomancer, a telekinetic, a sound-manipulator, an invulnerable heiress, and a mystic. They had already hit a major government installation. What were they after? Clearly the Earnhardt device was important. Rookie had built a device to detect it, but needed to boost it. Pink asked what the government knew about them, and the answer was "just about everything" (they were mostly in the dark about Arcanix and Rookie, though). Pink got her family on a plane (on the government's dime) and Carlson contacted the compound...and got a response that made him suspect the place was compromised.

The heroes split up. Inferno, Arcanix, and Rookie went to the heroes' base (established way back during Greenspace) and started working on boosting the detector. Pink, Harmony, and Spore headed for the compound to investigate that...stealthily.

With Arcanix' help in making the device able to pierce mystical cloaking, Rookie found the Earnhardt - it was at the compound where the others were going, emitting a low-level signal, far more steady than anything it was designed for.

Next time: The exciting conclusion!

Heroic Game Prep

Meant to do this yesterday and would up peeling roasted green chiles for most of the afternoon, then having POTS issues and crashing on the couch most of the evening. Fuck POTS, man.

Most Challenging But Rewarding System You have Learned: Fate. Hands down. It's challenging because it's a lot more involved, system-wise, than most people think (this was especially true when it was just Spirit of the Century). But it's so damned versatile and so easy to tweak. Plus, my players know it well enough that when it's time to play new game for a few sessions, it's easy to pick a Fate-based game because I know we've conquered the biggest learning curves.

Funniest Misinterpretation of a Rule in Your Group: Don't think this one really applies. We're pretty into "what do the rules actually mean" around here (side effect of playing with game designers, I guess), so if we misinterpret a rule, it tends to be less funny and more "wait, this is dumb, what'd we miss?" Nothing specific comes to mind, though.

Supposedly Random Game Events that Kept Occurring: Well, the one that springs to mind is what +Matthew Karafa refers to as "Mal disease." That's in reference to Malcolm Reynolds of Firefly, and the fact that when he plans and tries to set up his advantages, things go to hell, but he does better when he just shoots from the hip. In context, Karafa has a habit of failing or lowballing rolls that he has a shitload of dice on (in dice-pool games like Chronicles of Darkness), but succeeding when he really shouldn't.

Right. Now prep.

Marvel: No More Heroes

Last night we played the first session of our Marvel Heroic event, No More Heroes. Let's watch, shall we?

It's the Taste of St. Louis cookoff, and several blocks have been closed to traffic so that restaurants and so on can set up stands. Harmony is wandering around in a business capacity, checking for dishes and so on that her club might choose to serve. Arcanix, disguised as a human, is hanging around with Pink (in her normal everyday guise as Jolisa Anderson) and her family, sampling foods.

But not everyone is off today. A truck from Lindquist Industries, carrying the revolutionary prototype of the Earnhardt Radar System, is moving through the city, followed by a limo carrying Lucas Lindquist (the young CEO of the company) and Steven Maxwell Lewis III (whose company helped to construct the electronics for the device). Spore is in a nondescript car with his government handler, watching - the government has an interest in this device, it seems.

Suddenly, a man crosses the street against the light, right in front of the truck! The truck screeches to a halt and the driver blares the airhorn - and the man turns, cocks a greasy smile, and screams. The truck's front end is immediately crushed by the shear sonic force. Spore, seeing this, gets out of the car, zips over to the dude, and slams him to the asphalt. The villain stands up and screams even louder, shattering windows for blocks, panicking the crowds (and increasing the doom pool).

Harmony, who's pretty well-versed in sound herself, charges in, grumbling about having to do this shit on her day off. She tries to absorb the sound and target the villain's sonic attack, but fails - he's too strong for her. Pink, though, takes a much more direct approach - tying her hair up and pulling up her hoodie to disguise herself, she leaps into the air and slams into the dude's back.

But the villain - Decibel - is not alone. From out of nowhere, the insane super-villainess known as Innocence appears, dropping down onto Harmony, her old foe. Harmony's heart sinks - Innocence brings collateral damage with her wherever she goes. A crew of thugs with blasters also appears. One shoots at Pink, but she deftly reflects the blast with a manhole cover.

And then, in the sky, a man in demonic-looking powered armor...the Krampus is early this year. He releases a swarm of drones that shear open the truck, and the thugs rush in to secure the device.

Arcanix teleports over to the fray and tries to yank Innocence into the sky, but fails - she's too quick for him. Back in the limo, Steven Lewis III makes a weak excuse and runs for an alley, but then takes to the sky as the fiery hero Inferno! He swoops in, intending to separate the thugs from the truck with a wall of fire, but gets there too late (he doesn't want to burn anyone alive!).

Innocence pulls out twin machine pistols and sprays the area hitting Spore, Pink, Harmony, and Arcanix. Spore doesn't care, of course (he's effectively immune to such things), but the rest take some damage. Lindquist, meanwhile, shaking his head at Lewis' cowardice, also makes for an alley and emerges as Rookie! He swings in over the truck, intending to pepper it with smoke bombs, but in his haste he's anchored his swingline incorrectly and has to let go (at this point the doom pool was absurd, so the players were finding it hard to create assets or complications).

Harmony, not wanting to get smacked around or see anyone else get hurt, summons up all the light she can and flings it at Innocence and Decibel, blinding them both. They both reel, but can't see to target anyone.

Arcanix decides to fight magitech with magitech. Loudly declaring his position as the Sorcerer Supeme, he uses his powers to possess Krampus' armor, forcing him to fly down and smack Decibel and Innocence together. Innocence, invulnerable to physical attack, doesn't flinch, but Decibel can't take another hit and collapses. Still keyed in to Krampus' armor, Arcanix hears the mad German say, "all right, enough of this. Grimoire, now."

Meanwhile, in the truck, Rookie enters and attacks the mooks with his electric staff. He knocks a few of them down, but then a mystic portal opens under the device, swallowing it.

Out on the street, Innocence runs. Pink tenses to tackle her, but she's too near Pink's family - they would get hurt. She reluctantly lets Innocence go. Krampus flies off, too fast for the characters to follow. The device is gone.

Inferno lands to join the others, but Rookie vanishes into the city - as Lindquist, he's got some people to answer to. Spore's handler demands a report, and berates Pink for letting Innocence go. He also recognizes (and is recognized by) Harmony; she's been doing this a while.

Inferno acknowledges the others, but flies off to attend to business as Lewis. He changes back and returns to the scene, as does Lindquist. The government spook asks them if they have a way to detect the device; Lindquist says he does not (but realizes he could make on; he decides to keep that to himself).

Pink returns to her family and heads home to patch herself up. She fields questions from her mother, who's obviously concerned, but Pink notes that bullets aren't really much of a problem for her. Spore, Arcanix, and Harmony go back to Harmony's club. Arcanix runs his self-repair routine to fix the bullet holes, while Harmony just drinks the stress away.

And then a special bulletin on the TV - the Gateway Arch seems to be overrun by...demons.

The heroes in the bar sigh, and note that the Arch seems to get attacked a lot. Pink quickly finishes her bowl of spaghetti as her little brother delightedly shows her the footage. Lewis, alone in his office, heads for a high window. And Lindquist, getting the notification as he's addressing the press to talk about the theft, says "This press conference is over."

Next time: Demonic hijinks!

Marvel Heroic: [Event Title Here]

I meant to do all of the game prep yesterday, but Night's Black Agents took several hours, and then I tried to start working on Marvel but I was tired so I knocked off and made nachos and watched Shaun of the Dead instead. So here we are.

Super heroes! 

That's a very old picture of the kiddos. Anyway, if you're playing this game, don't look, don't look, the shadows cry.