Refining my New Year's Revolutions

[BoloOfEarth]

Yes, that's Revolutions, not Resolutions.

 

A bit of background:

 

In my game world, I have a supervillain group called Secession Squad, whose goal is to incite a new American Civil War.  The Boston-based heroes of Just Cause have crossed swords with them a few times, only once directly (at the 2016 vice presidential debates, when Just Cause captured a large chunk of the Squad and sent them to Stronghold). 

 

What the heroes didn't learn until later was that Secession Squad *wanted* to get people into Stronghold; their mentalist Southern Belle also read the mind of PC gadgeteer Maker during the fight to learn how to bypass the Power Negation System (PNS) at Stronghold.  The Squad had their gadgeteer (Manassas) use that knowledge to build devices disguised as little iPod Shuffles that could bypass the PNS, and then paid a guard to smuggle a bunch in (as far as he knew they were just normal iPods).  The incarcerated Squad members made deals with other superpowered prisoners -- we get you free, you owe us big and help us with our plan.  Back in April 2017 there was a massive Stronghold riot and breakout where these re-powered villains escaped, along with other members of their respective teams.

 

In October, the Squad called in one of these favors, having the Boston Commons kidnap someone close to the US president as well as a superpowered agent of a foreign government (and framing Just Cause for it to boot).  Southern Belle used her mental powers to force the two captives to reveal on camera various questionable activities that had taken place over the past year or so.  Of course, Just Cause rescued the captives and cleared their names, but the Squad had a copy of the confessions... plus a bunch of other confidential info pulled from both minds via Telepathy.  The Squad used that info to dig for other info, calling in another favor to get a superpowered hacker to dig up more info.  For fun, they also created a bunch of false but plausible "evidence".  Note that this info, both real and falsified, is not only against the president but also hits key members of both major political parties as well as various alphabet agencies (FBI, NSA, PRIMUS, etc.).  They don't want to just topple the president; they want to tear apart the whole US government.

 

Finally, the Squad got a team of powered-armor supervillains (Steel Gauntlet) to hit a secret PSI base and steal tech being developed for amping up a mentalist's powers and projecting it over a large area.  The Gauntlet is also being paid to turn that tech into four mobile projectors (hidden in trucks).  By necessity, the mental projection needs to be both cumulative (to build up enough effect to make it seem like the target's own decision) and invisible to mental powers (to keep a passing mentalist with Mental Awareness from spotting it and foiling the whole plan).

 

Now it's all coming to a head.  The Squad is going to mass-release all of that info anonymously, and then have the trucks (each run by a different supervillain group) drive from town to town inciting protests and riots across the eastern half of the US.  (I didn't want them to have to cross the entire country because of time constraints.)  From the outside, it's supposed to look like the US citizenry is simply fed up with their leaders and government have been "up to"  (I put that in quotes because there's a mix of true and false info being released, but all designed to paint things in the worst possible light) and, as Secession Squad would say, "the people are throwing off their shackles."

 

Secession Squad starts with the first completed truck in Texas and goes through Louisiana, the bottom part of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia up to DC.  Not sure what kind of truck they should have.  I have them going through the southern states because most of their members fit the pro-South mode.

 

Vermin (a group of superpowered social outcasts) takes the next truck, starting in Iowa and heading through Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and finally Maryland to DC.  Since Vermin's co-leaders are Cockroach and Flea, I'm thinking they should have an exterminator's truck.

 

Deathstroke takes the third truck and starts in Missouri,  heading through Kentucky, West Virginia, and the north part of Virginia to reach DC.  Again, not sure about their truck, but I'd like it to be something befitting either the team as a whole or their leader (Requiem).

 

Once the fourth truck is ready, Steel Gauntlet will take that, starting in Maine and going along the east coast through New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York (mainly Manhattan), New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland before reading DC.  This may sound like a lot, but it's actually the shortest of the four routes.  This truck will pass through Boston, so the PC heroes will have to deal with protests and rioting.  Also, the heroes' mentalist (Circe) will likely go into the heads of some of the rioters and note the mental traces, tipping them off that something is awry.

 

By the time it hits Boston, there will be martial law in a half dozen states, with other states calling up National Guard troops.

[BoloOfEarth]

My questions for you -- are there any holes that can / should be poked in this plan?  Things I didn't think of and should include?

 

Is it reasonable to think that, after news of (psionic-induced) protests and riots in some states, other spontaneous (non-spontaneous) protests may crop up in other states?

 

At a meta-game level, am I taking things too far politically?  Our gaming group has both a few strongly pro-Democrat and strongly pro-Republican players, along with others across the spectrum.  I'm hoping that making the info release hit both parties as well as various federal agencies, including "activities" from both present and past administration, will keep this from seeming like a slam on just one side.  But to be safe, how can I work to make sure different sides face off among the players (not the characters)?  I want to have a chance for good RP, but don't want to cause hard feelings.  Any suggestions would be welcome.

[death tribble]

Problems with the trucks for one i.e. tyre or engine faults.

Traffic problems for another.

Enemies of the groups concerned.

The FBI and Homeland Security will not have been sitting down they might also have information.

And certain people say Cigarette Smoking Men might dispatch black ops units to 'take care' of the problem. 

[BoloOfEarth]

Heh, I like the idea of Hunteds showing up for the villains involved.  Most of the villains are hunted by PRIMUS or other branches / agencies of the US government, so reports of sightings of them may tip off the powers-that-be that multiple villain groups are involved, and word might make its way to the PCs.  However, having mutant hunters and Deathstroke throwing down in the middle of a riot, or  would make for an interesting visual as well.

 

I think I'm going to replace Vermin with the Corporate Raiders.  For one thing, Vermin's really not the most organized group, and for another, the Raiders could be more easily talked into going along with the Squad's plan.  On the plus side, the leader of the Raiders is Union, who has mass mental empathy powers already.  For another, individual members of the group are hunted by everybody from DEMON to VIPER, so a string of events in the news involving those groups might be a clue for the heroes.

 

As to FBI / Homeland Security / Cigarette Smoking Men, I'm sure a lot of stuff will be happening behind the scenes that the PCs won't see.  How much of that makes it way to the PCs is a good question.  I imagine bits and pieces helping to paint a larger picture.

 

I should add that I only envision two encounters with the PC heroes:  one with Steel Gauntlet when the party rolls through Boston, and a final showdown with the Secession Squad in DC.  (I'll probably have Deathstroke and the Corporate Raiders sidelined along the way due to various issues - Hunted, traffic, mechanical problems, take your pick.)  Ideally, the heroes should face off against the masterminds of the whole shebang.

[steriaca]

Requiem's truck should be not a truck at all, but one of those roving banner advertising cars with a good stereo broadcast system. As for the rest of the group...there should be a secondary truck driven by Frost which has them inside.

 

Idyllically, Frost's truck should be a refrigerated truck. With the refrigeration unit broken, which allows Frost to use his powers to keep things nice and cold inside it.

[Ninja-Bear]

I immediately thought that Deathstroke should have an old fashion Ice Cream truck that plays music! ?

[Cassandra]

Just now, Ninja-Bear said:

I immediately thought that Deathstroke should have an old fashion Ice Cream truck that plays music! ?

 

It would probably drive on a Rocky Road.

[Ninja-Bear]

As for spontaneous riots. I think that 2017 showed that there would be “spontaneous” riots over something political.  (I think some of those irl seemed well planned to to be spontaneous. I’ll leave it at that.) In any case there would be people who would try to take advantage of the riots.