The Funniest Moments

[ShadowRaptor]

I was just wondering what are some of the funniest moments you have ever had roleplaying in the hero system, either some that were just funny because a person did something stupid or mistakes with the game mechanics that lead to funny experiences in the game?

[Ellis]

I think my all-time favorite was in a TT (as opposed to the MUSH) combat, when the bad guy was flying away and my character and another player's character (same DEX and SPD) tried to grab him. I rolled an 18 and the other player rolled a 17. The GM said that we smacked into each other, and the villain got away.

[Old Man]

My first character was an energy projector with shrinking. The idea was that he could shoot baddies without being hit, of course. Well, back then shrinking didn't give a straight DCV bonus, it just gave range penalties. So I flew up to zap some bad guy at close range and got swatted like the bug that I was.

 

So I made another character who had boatloads of regeneration, which I thought could substitute for armor. And it could, sort of, except that I'd usually get KOed by turn 2.

 

I think I went through about six characters before I got one that was truly effective.

[Koshka]

I was running a game once where a group of robots were charging the PCs. I started rolling attacks, and one of the robots got an 18. Since the bots were still fairly close together, I decided to make a second attack roll and see if it nailed a buddy. Another 18. Only time I ever got back to back 18s.

 

I decided the robot fell over and landed on it's self-destruct switch.

[KA.]

I have two, and since I am opposed to post-padding, I will include them both.

 

First I must say that my campaigns are usually strictly four-color, so even if the heroes screw up a little, they aren't going to die, maybe just suffer a little humiliation. Also the players involved were beginners, so don't think too harshly of them.

 

The first concerns the classic hostage situation.

Five Viper-type agents had kidnapped an heiress, and were holding her in a small house.

The player in question was playing his version of "Earth's Sorcerer Supreme". Using a Gadget Pool (the closest thing to a spell-book we could come up with at the time) he conjured up the equivalent of a Flash Grenade.

The player said:

"Okay, This phase I'm going to toss the Flash Grenade through the small window in the door. Next phase I am going to do a half-move to the door, open it, and survey the situation."

Now I do my best to GM fairly, but when I built these guys I gave them helmets that included a few points of Flash Defense. (You see where this is going...)

Phase 12 - Combat Begins

Mr. Magic tosses a Flash Grenade through the door.

Five Viper agents look at the source of the noise, but are not Flashed at all.

Phase 3 - Earth's Sorcerer Supreme runs to the door and flings it open to "survey the situation".

Five Viper Blast Rifles fire as one, send the Sorcerer into a state of deep meditation (and across the steet)!

 

The Second one is a little shorter.

A group of heroes is ambushed by Viper. The Heroes are surrounded, but fighting. Actually, because they were literally at the center of a circle, only some of the Viper agents were able to fire at them.

 

Until one hero remedied that.

 

There were several Viper Agents on the perimeter, basically out of the fight and longing for someone to shoot at. Alconox Man was the only one in the group with Flight, and he decided that, rather than soiling his hands with close combat, he would "fly above the fight and see what was going on".

He flew straight up, and then decided to: "Hover there and take a good look around."

Viper Agent 13 lifted his Autofire Blaster and Rolled a 3.

Alconox Man was KO'd before he hit the ground (leaving a 12 foot long divot.) The player was a bit surprised to say the least.

I explained:

"These guys are standing around the edge of a fight with nothing to do.

They are looking for something to shoot at.

You fly straight up in the air, and then hover there looking around.

 

You know what it's like when you go skeet shooting, and someone yells "Pull!" and there's this target, just floating there waiting to be shot. That was you.":D

 

KA

[SAW]

I can't believe he didn't see it coming

 

Before one of our gaming sessions one of my players brought up the fact that "Since we have a critical hit system on a natural 3, we should have a critical miss on a natural 18".

Everyone in the group thought it was a good idea and I agreed that we would give it trial run and see how it worked out.

 

That same game session the players faced off against the minions of Dr. Destroyer (in my game Dr. D doesn't use human troops, he uses robots like the Trade Federation droids from Star Wars Episode 1). The player who lobbied for the "crit miss" rule was playing a speedster and decided to try and disarm several of the droids. First droid gun he grabbed, you guessed it, natural 18. I ruled that he grabbed the gun but instead of pulling it away he pulled it just enough for the robot's hand to trigger it. The 2d6+1 RKA went off right into his chest. I actually rolled an 18 myself except mine was two damage dice and a Stun multiplier. He was stunned and somewhere around 2-3 stun. Needless to say we still use the "crit miss" rule. There's just too much comedy potential not to.

 

He hasn't suggested any new rules changes since then.

 

SAW

[Guest Confusinator]

I had a character named Yo-Yo, who was a gadgeteer who made all his items in the form of toys. His arch-enemy was the Fox. He also had several levels of Unluck.

 

He's chasing the Fox, who teleports from a roof to the street below. Yo-Yo decides that he will jump down to an awning over a store front, bounce off it and try to land on Fox before he teleport again. Unfortunately, GM did an unluck roll and it kicked in. The awning closed when he landed, basically trapping him in a big net.

 

He climbs out, jumps to the ground, and is immediately accosted by the store owner. He sees the Fox driving off in a car. He looks around for a vehicle to commander, only thing available is a public bus. He runs for the bus, but the driver sees him coming, closes the door and pulls off. Yo-yo is running down the street, pounding on the door, begging the driver to stop for him.

 

Yo-yo never did catch any villians, but he was fun to play. Years later, he came out of retirement for a one shot Tick-like adventure.