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Could the 4th edition Champions team take on Dr. Destroyer as beginning characters?


starblaze

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So I have decided to run Day of the Destroyer at Gary Con next year.  I have decided that Gary Con is a con celebrates older games that i would run using the 5th edition ruleset.  However now that i am getting the Champions team together I was considering bumping them up some points as I don't want to be creamed in the first fight the Dr D.  

 

So for those of you who know about Seeker, Quantum, Jaguar, Defender, Obsidian and Solitaire do you I should improve on them or just use them straight of the book?

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If we're talking DotD Dr. D's stats updated to Fifth Edition, then the 4E Champions team as presented in the BBB definitely need an upgrade to hang with him. I agree with steriaca's recommendation of the "high-end" version of that team from the 4E edition of Champions Universe, if you have access to it.

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I'd say do whichever you wish. I've found that the biggest mistake teams I've been with make with that scenario is that they try to beat Dr. D. The goal is to stop the death ray. Beating Dr. D. himself should be -just- this side of impossible.

 

What team of superheroes wouldn't try to beat Dr D?

 

Unless you hold the players' hands, they will tend to try it more often than not. In this case, the tough 4e version is the correct one to use.

 

The 5e version will simply wipe the floor with the heroes, and very likely kill them. Not fun.

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What team of superheroes wouldn't try to beat Dr D?

 

Unless you hold the players' hands, they will tend to try it more often than not. In this case, the tough 4e version is the correct one to use.

 

The 5e version will simply wipe the floor with the heroes, and very likely kill them. Not fun.

 

And when I've had teams do it, I've handed them their collective posteriors. One team even failed the mission because they sought that confrontation, rather than disabling the death ray first. I have no pity for not taking into account mission objective over personal grandstanding.

 

As TheQuestionMan asserts, the objective with Master Level Villains is always to defeat their objective, not to directly confront them. Doing the latter is a perfect way of being lain flat, and again, I show no mercy on that.

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4th edition Dr Destroyer and 4th edition PCs, probably, but I'd consider giving them some useful stuff to boost them or give them an edge, such as some Primus agents, a one-shot device to stun him once, something they can use and discard, or even environmental things they can take advantage of like things to dump on top of him, an electrical transformer to toss him into, etc

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And when I've had teams do it, I've handed them their collective posteriors. One team even failed the mission because they sought that confrontation, rather than disabling the death ray first. I have no pity for not taking into account mission objective over personal grandstanding.

 

As TheQuestionMan asserts, the objective with Master Level Villains is always to defeat their objective, not to directly confront them. Doing the latter is a perfect way of being lain flat, and again, I show no mercy on that.

 

In my games, it's usually the players who set "mission objectives", not the GM.

 

It would be a rare "mission" that didn't involve apprehending the Bad Guy. Stopping his Master Plan first might be prudent, but not inherently counterposed to this.

 

But there's no such thing as Bad Fun.

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Agreed there. The last group I played with seemed to get the idea, for the most part, that there were simply some villains that we were meant to thwart, but apprehending them simply was never going to happen. Even if we got close he has that escape pod, or it was just a simulucra/android or....You get the idea. It's Dr. D. You don't beat him, you simply stop him. A team that I've always viewed similarly is Eurostar. The only problem with them is that they'll kill your players (Pantera and Bora), whereas Destroyer is an egomaniac, so he won't bother because he -knows- he's superior and wants to gloat and rub their noses in their defeat, so he'll just leave the scene once his purpose is thwarted and show them their insignificance on another day. Pat yourselves on the backs, and count it a win.

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Eurostar is lethal, but our Champions of Vancouver team accidently killed Fiaco. Coordinated Attack with 5 KIlling Attacks Haymakered and Pushed totalling 6d6 each.

 

Eurostar had killed innocents, first responders, and a teammate. Panthera and Duroc were teleported straight up 10 km falling and landing badly.

 

Note: GM stepped on everyones Complications. Gotta be careful he does not make us vigilantes

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What team of superheroes wouldn't try to beat Dr D?

 

This.  They're super heroes.  They fight the supervillian even when they know it's hopeless.  That's what super heroes do.

 

I ran Island of Dr. Destroyer not all that long ago as a demo game.  The floating island was 500 miles off shore of southern California with an army of Desdroids on it.  Dr. Destroyer was planning on invading and taking over the USA.  PCs were suppose to fly a hoverjet at wave top level to avoid the island's radar while the Navy provided a diversion.  Player biffed his Combat Piloting skill, popped up and got acquired by the island's radar.  One SAM later all the PCs were at 0 STUN and bobbing like apples a miles from the beach.  

 

They make their way to the island and set off trying to find the power plant.  The plan is if they can shut down and disable the island's nuclear reactor while the island is still well off shore then there will be no radar and no propulsion.  Then the Navy can mop up the disabled island and the army of Desdroids on it.

 

Naturally the good Doctor figures out what the PCs are trying to do and he meets then in the reactor control building.  A fight ensues with The Destroyer dropping massive AOE after massive AOE.  Two of the PCs fall into negative STUN AND negative BODY, the other two are barely standing.  One more hit from that AOE and the entire party will be finished.

 

One of them, who happened to be playing Witchcraft, was up next.

 

"We're in the Reactor Room right?"

 

"Yeah.  Your team mates are badly injured.  You just have time to escape."

 

"OK.  Can I figure out what piece of equipment is the reactor coolant pump?"

 

"Um, yes.  All pipes and equipment are clearly labeled for the convenience of the technicians."

 

"OK, Mystic Blast into the reactor Coolant Pump."

 

"You're not going to escape and save yourself?"

 

"No.  I'm going to destroy the reactor and save southern California."

 

It was a really cool moment.  I decided that the PCs were blasted into comas but when Dr. Destroyer realized that he was thwarted he decided to escape himself rather than finish them off.  They were found by the Marines, and choppered to UCLA Medical Center.  

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Getting back to OP, IIRC there were TWO teams, maybe even THREE.  One doing a frontal assault on Big D's fortress or whatever as a distraction, one doing an "end around" attacking the satellite, and a final team (the PCs) doing a sneaky back door attack.  Also, IIRC, the team doing the frontal assault got brutalized with something like 50 hero deaths.  

 

A suitable "pep talk" along the lines of "While the Space Team attacks the satellite, the rest of us will be fighting Gigaton and the army of Desdroids.  I DON'T expect many of us to survive.  But those two distractions should buy your team an opportunity to sneak in and finish your objective.  We will be buying you that time with our LIVES.  We're trusting you not to squander our sacrifice."

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