The Battle of Detroit...an adventure?

[bryanb]

Hi Everyone,

 

Just wondering if anyone has run this as an adventure for their PC's? I am looking at doing so in order to bring my campaign universe closer to thatof the official Champions Universe.

 

Any tips for running such a scenario would be greatly appreciated including:

 

1. Suggested Villains

2. Scenario Breakdowns (what hero/villain goes where; how the tractor ray works; etc)

3. Suggested Defences/villains for Dr D's Detroit base.

4. Any lead-up that needs to be established.

 

For anyone who has run this adventure I would greatly appreciate any help you can offer.

 

Resource-wise I have access to most of the Champions books (5th Ed) and only a few of the 4th Ed.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Bryan

[Chuckg]

Re: The Battle of Detroit...an adventure?

 

No, although several people in my current party have inserted themselves into it in flashback... AAMOF, "What was your character doing on That Day?" was on the entrance questionnaire for the campaign.

 

As far as your points...

 

.. agh, too many variables. It would all have to be tailored for your players -- what they're interested in, and how powerful they are.

 

Granted, about the only role 350-pointers could have in this Summer Crossover Event Of All Time, with damn near every "A-list" heavy banger in the CU slugging it out, is as the team that starts the whole thing by tripping over Doctor Destroyer's secret lair the night before. Canonically, that role went to the 'New Mutants'-style team from Ravenswood Academy... it can, however, easily be retconned to mean the PCs.

 

Some other points...

 

* Whatever the tractor ray is, it's got to be big and immobile (or else Destroyer would have just moved it when his base was discovered the night before, rather than settling down for a huge-ass siege) and either damn hard to pinpoint beyond "We know it's somewhere within this square mile!" and/or damn hard to break (or else the Air Force would simply have solved the problem with a 2000-lb earth penetrator while Destroyer was kept busy elsewhere. The battle did last for /hours/, after all, and that'd be more than time enough to get 'em flying.)

 

* Destroyer himself is not to be faced by the PCs unless you have JLA-class power levels on your players... or else they don't mind being part of a crowd scene with about two dozen other guys. He's capable of wiping out 350-point heroes w/ one shot, for God's sake.

 

* Destroyer had thousands of Destroyer Agents, armored fighting vehicles, Destroids, and etc. on-site as well as the hired and/or co-opted supervillains. So the party will have a whole lot of mooks to thrash in addition to meta-on-meta combat. This isn't just a normal superfight, after all, it's a full-on war zone, with brigade-sized mechanized formations trying to blow the hell out of each other while about sixty powerful metahumans mill all around getting their own licks in on every side.

[Hermit]

Re: The Battle of Detroit...an adventure?

 

Tricky. Since you want to bring your setting 'closer' to the official CU universe, that would seem to narrow how much the PCs can change the outcome. Detroit must still fall, or be so damaged as to need total reconstruction into Millennium City.

 

Other than that, you could allow them to make small but important differences.

[Agent X]

Re: The Battle of Detroit...an adventure?

 

Or you could have them run NPCs destined to die. There are several theaters of combat you could exploit. He uses Grond and Glacier and whatever other supermonsters you want to use so the heroes could be fighting on the supermonster front and never get to the big show with Dr. Destroyer. You could have them be part of the force that goes into space to destroy the Death Ray, if they have the requisite abilities.

 

I would outline the various points of conflict in the Battle of Detroit both chronologically and geographically and pick the point in time and location that would prove a challenge but not the end for the player characters. I would consider having the players also run some NPC groups at different points in the conflict so that they have the big picture and their player characters' adventures become more meaningful.

 

If you do the Battle of Detroit like this, I would use some of the methods suggested for speeding up the game unless you want to spend several sessions on the fighting alone.

[Blue]

Re: The Battle of Detroit...an adventure?

 

It's a footnote in my game, since it's in the past and my heroes are not based in MC. But two have it folded into their histories. Uncle Slam was at the Battle, as was another player's character named Typhoon (whose husband died in the battle). Ironically, it wasn't a villain who killed him, it was indirect result of actions taken by Uncle Slam during the fight. He was saving civilians from shrapnel and flying objects and made the ultimate sacrifice. To this day, though Slam is the liason to the team Typhoon is on, she's never told him that he is somewhat responsbile for her husband's death. He's a patriot and a man of peace, and she knows how he would take it.

[Tech]

Re: The Battle of Detroit...an adventure?

 

If you want, you could have the actual PC's in the fight and assuming they survive, it won't change anything. After all, with all the fighting going on, a few superheroes that survived but weren't accounted for wouldn't change anything. As for who to use, well, that's quite a feat. I would suggest villains you may have retired and won't use again for one, since they'll be killed off most likely in the fight. Robots & machines of all sizes will be involved. Make up villains with bare statistics to fight. Most people don't use it in a superhero game but I suggest using long-term endurance rules (are those rules still around?).

 

BTW, Chuckg, the Destroyer that's in CKC is not the same Destroyer statistic-wise that would be fought. The one in CKC is the newest armor. I'd suggest the one from 'The Island of Dr. Destroyer' or 'Day of the Destroyer'. Maybe add a 100 pt Gadget pool, designed for lethality.

[Chuckg]

Re: The Battle of Detroit...an adventure?

 

Those guys were bad enough, but yes, I had temporarily forgotten that the current Destroyer is after a 10-year program of massive armor upgrading.

 

Man. Somebody really needs to check and see who's been tampering with his anti-paranoia shots.

[Battlestaff]

Re: The Battle of Detroit...an adventure?

 

Those guys were bad enough, but yes, I had temporarily forgotten that the current Destroyer is after a 10-year program of massive armor upgrading.

 

Man. Somebody really needs to check and see who's been tampering with his anti-paranoia shots.

 

Hey, its not paranoia if they really ARE out to get you.

 

(Sorry, had to be said....)

[Lord Liaden]

Re: The Battle of Detroit...an adventure?

 

Those guys were bad enough, but yes, I had temporarily forgotten that the current Destroyer is after a 10-year program of massive armor upgrading.

 

Man. Somebody really needs to check and see who's been tampering with his anti-paranoia shots.

 

Destroyer was nearly beaten by the heroes, and only escaped by faking his death. My reading of the man is that he would want to make sure that no lesser beings could ever threaten him that way again.

 

My concern over running this scenario is that, unless you want to change the outcome, the PCs are in a very real sense fated to lose. The greater threat is averted, but there's still widespread death, destruction and loss of colleagues and comrades. IMO that's rather antithetical to why people play superhero RPGs - they want to be the ones who save the day. Certainly it can be a great motivator and springboard for character development; it can also bring great drama as the heroes have to face loss and the realization of their own mortality. I find that that aspect of it works best with characters who know and have come to be attached to each other; widespread slaughter without emotional connection doesn't have the same impact (even if morally, it should). For that reason I wouldn't start a campaign with this scenario, although having the heroes encounter each other as survivors in the aftermath, and decide that they should band together as a new team to honor the fallen, would be very in-genre.

 

The trick would be to keep the scale of things manageable and personal to the PCs, while still giving a sense of the scope of the event. I think I'd follow the example of the massive super-brawl described for Sanctuary in Classic Organizations; create several localized confrontations within the wider conflict, and let the players play different heroes at each of them. The battles might be happening contemporaneously in game-world time, but take several sessions in the real world. An event this epic would warrant that, though, and could actually comprise several different types of adventures in the same setting; stealthy infiltration of Dr. D's base, wading through hordes of agents, attempting to reach and destroy the approaching asteroid, duking it out with hired villains, and the final confrontation with the Doctor.

[Kirby]

Re: The Battle of Detroit...an adventure?

 

Hi Everyone,

 

Just wondering if anyone has run this as an adventure for their PC's? I am looking at doing so in order to bring my campaign universe closer to thatof the official Champions Universe.

 

Resource-wise I have access to most of the Champions books (5th Ed) and only a few of the 4th Ed.

Hmm... I would have to go with the thought of not involving your heroes, or at least not directly. I would have it happen while your hereos are elsewhere or battling some other villain (distraction?) or villain group. You can always update them on the news. If they wish to get involved (and if they don't know this is predestined), you could always have them meet up with one of Dr. D's lines of defenses.

 

However, if you are very new into your campaign, or haven't started it yet, you could always enter this as *has already happened.* This is my personal suggestion, and nothing says that you can't have Destroyer try again !