Best Option for Drama?

[Jkeown]

Crisis Patrol (my player's super team) has been defeated and is currently occupying some hand-wavey Dream Chamber that are pumping stimuli into them, making them think they are out in the world doing good as usual. I have a back-up team (the Impossible Squad) who will be raiding the World Crime League hideout in our campaign city of Retropolis. The PCs will be playing the Impossible Squad for an issue or two. Experience Points for those two issues go to the Crisis Patrol Characters if they wish. 

 

This week, we're still in the Dream Chamber pretending as if everything is hunky-dorey. Recall that the PCs have no idea what's really happening. 

 

Which is the better reveal? 

Impossible Squad gets to the Dream-Chamber room and discovers the Crisis Patrol members in the booths, much to the surprise of the my players?

Crisis Patrol wakes up inside the booths just as the Impossible Squad arrives, and we rewind to how the Squad got there? 

 

There might be another possibility. You have my thanks in advance for any advice. 

[Duke Bushido]

I rather like your players finding their characters,

 

 

HOWEVER--

 

 

Dont fall for that "it was all just a dream" who-shot-JR nonsense.  Whatever EP they earned, they earned, etc.  Whatever they accomplished, they accomplished.  This way the effect they have had on their world is real and not horribly retconned.

 

At the absolute most, I would go to their most recent big battle.  They were captured during that battle (so they only have one thing that needs redoing, and they will have the advantage of being super-motivated to dish it out on the boss fight).

 

Going back any further than that very much robs players of their accomplishments, and that can easily lead to resentment.

 

 

Edited September 2, 2023 by Duke Bushido

[Duke Bushido]

Forgot to mention- and at some point, they should have to return the favor in a much bigger, much more critical way.  No player likes to be rescued by NPCs, even if he is playing that NPC.  And yes: we all know this is about the characters, but being captured is something that players take _personally_, no matter what they espouse.  They may not even realize it, but watch their joy and personalities change going forward. 

 

The only thing worse than being captured is being rescued by a powerful NPC or even a team of them.  Witness all the threads all over the net "and then we had to be rescued by some GMPC--"  and yes, in their minds it is _always_ going to be a GMPC (meaning that each memory bumps up a bit more resentment), even if it is some throw away character that you whipped up on the spot because they had scewed themselves so badly that you had no other contingency for things going this sideways.....  Anyway, players don't like it.

 

So, if you just opinion shopping, consider this:

 

What I mentioned above:  their last big battle was a failure, but they don't know it.  The substitute characters find their player characters and revive them.  They go back to playing their regular characters.  Have a story arc.

 

Six months from now, the "regular" PCs stumble across the characters who rescues them in the exact situation they were rescued from.

 

They make the rescue- it is more frantic, more critical, more danger to the characters being saved, and there is no way that anyone but the Pcs- be it powers, personality, skills, whatever- could have possibly rescued them.

 

Then when the NPCs are rescued, perhaps the mentalist or occultist gasps out something like "thank the Great One!  You recieved my message!  You found us!"

 

Which _is_ a variant on who shot JR, _but_ it is a nifty variant that means that the player's accomplishments were never taken away, _and_ that they were never actually captured, _and_ that they get to rescue Famous Hero Team, and the indignity of capture was just a last-gasp plea for help from a telepathy that, owing to whatever, was poorly but symbolically sent.

 

 

Just a thought, of course, but it _does_ undo a lot of rhe captured /rescued damage to the EGO for the players.

 

For it to work, though, it absolutely _must_ have been their most recent big battle.

 

 

[Doc Democracy]

Amazingly, my golden age team is in a very similar situation.  It is 1937 and half the team were captured by the nazis, while trying to help the Spanish republicans.  The nazis want to learn the location of their super-secret hideout, and more specifically the code to enter it.

 

The scenario will begin with dream versions of the heroes that were not captured bursting into the holding cell and helping them escape with the aid of a Polish hero. They will find it easy to escape the lab, then the compound until they get to Poland. From there they get to London with a package from the Poles that they want the British to analyse, something they claim could neutralise the SeelenRustung being used by an elite corps.

 

There will be numerous chances for the players to spot the ruse.  Things will be too easy, or too difficult, or wrong, or might change when double checked, like in a dream.  If they learn early then it will be about getting out of the dream, if they don't then it will be overcoming challenges with increasingly heavy hints to the dreaming characters about the false versions.  Ultimately a fight between the characters dreaming and the false dream versions.

 

When they win, it will be just in time to see the real versions of their uncaptured team-mates crashing into their holding cell.  almost identical to the start of the dream, except, every challenge will be more difficult...

 

Doc

 

 

[Steve]

My vote is for option #1.
 

I’m getting flashbacks to one of the seasons of “Agents of SHIELD” from this scenario setup.

[Jkeown]

9 hours ago, Duke Bushido said:

At the absolute most, I would go to their most recent big battle.  They were captured during that battle (so they only have one thing that needs redoing, and they will have the advantage of being super-motivated to dish it out on the boss fight).

 

 

They were beaten up in the aftermath of an illegal blood sport tournament held in a disused skating rink; the Mutant Unlimited Tournament International Event (MUTIE). Such fights are happening all around the world, not just Retropolis. Many heroes might go missing. However, to make the return rescue shiny, different, and lemon-scented...?

 

I love the idea that they'll get the opportunity to return the favor, but in an upscaled fashion down the road. Especially the notion that the stakes are higher when that event occurs. With this idea, you really got into the player's heads. In a good way.

 

From my notes, looks like the Slavers is the right place to pull this off. An alien probe was found in last year sometime... can't remember now, but it was a bit ago. Months after the discovery of a probe of alien origin, the Malachrons move in. The probe itself is not only self-aware but can possess minds that touch it, thus creating an agent for their evil. The vile Malachrons steal the entire population of a small Midwestern town. This is a bad thing. A few days later, a larger community goes missing. Can the heroes stop the escalation before the villains take a whole city? What of the folks they kidnapped? Can they be rescued? The green-skinned slavers have metas of their own to fight the heroes.

Complications: Slaver Tech can be used to control the victims, turning them into weapons.

Need: Malachron Villains

Krastor Kefular - Slave lord

Dom’Nort - Mind Controller

Comet Boy - Speedster

Ga’Gan’Ax - Brick

Tych’ar - Blaster

[Asperion]

This might be a classic,  but like it.  Continue on with your superhero team like normal.  Every week introduce some glitch that someone can notice.  At first it will be small but over time they will become larger and more noticeable.  These glitches will be inconsistent with the program and how they view reality, not any actual feature of the program that anyone can detect or fix. Over time,  they will decide that there is a problem and attempt to "correct " it.

[Tech]

For a similar episode I did a long time ago, I started it off with describing each heroes secret id life that has just gotten so wonderful... but they can't seem to recall why. Eventually, the heroes in the dream realize that they are in a dream and look for an escape. A large monster guards the way, which they have to defeat. After they do, they woke up to find a villain who had them all under a sleep machine, giving them all wonderful lives to live (but they saw through it). A very short battle occurs where the heroes bash the villain unconscious.