Fate of a Champion (no Mitch)

[Super Squirrel]

If you are the Mitch who plays Voltage, you better leave now. I will kill your character or do something far worse if you continue reading.

 

Now, on to my point.

 

I'm contemplating something for an upcoming game. As a matter of both unfortunate coincidence and intentional planning, three major events strike Millennium City at the same time. The players will get to pick, which event(s) they want to deal with. One of the events is Mechanon which the Champions will pick as a priority, leaving the Millennium Force to decide if they want to assist the Champions or deal with problems number 2 or 3.

 

If the players decide not to assist the Champions, there is a very good chance that Mechanon will kill, or at least knock a Champion or two into a coma.

 

Has anyone done this before?

 

Any advice as to which Champions should have the unfortunate fate at hand?

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Fate of a Champion (no Mitch)

 

Seeker.

 

 

Seriously though, do your players have any serious connections to any of them? If so, put that Champion into a coma. PC been hitting on Sapphire? See how he reacts if the object of his affection is injured. Will he be there when she wakes up, letting her realize how serious he is? Or will he just find another woman to go after? etc.

 

(btw, the Mechanon picture is up on the side as I write this...oh wait, there's Foxbat! Yeah! Have Nighthawk get injured, only to realize that Foxbat had taken his place for the battle "since it's too dangerous for a loon like you!")

[JeffreyWKramer]

Re: Fate of a Champion (no Mitch)

 

Any advice as to which Champions should have the unfortunate fate at hand?

 

In general, the two most vulnerable members of the Champions are Nighthawk and Witchcraft, so they'd be naturals for getting killed/knocked into a coma. On the other hand, Mechanon might easily see Defender as the greatest threat, given his tech skills, so he might target Defender with his worst attacks.

[Beetle]

Re: Fate of a Champion (no Mitch)

 

Given the chaotic nature of battles, any one (or more) of the Champions could legitimately wind up dead or comatose from an encounter with Champions. It might be a fun exercise in creative GMing to randomly determine which one gets hurt and then later work the story out as to how.

[MitchellS]

Re: Fate of a Champion (no Mitch)

 

I would say the easiest way to decide who should die is to look at the characters in your game and decide where the weaknesses are. Some of the npc heroes can be exploited by the players in role-playing situations. If you have no detectives on your team then it's a good bet that someone might need to chat with Nighthawk in the future. If you have no tech-proficient characters then Defender might be needed for consultation. Mystics in the group? If not, you might need Witchcraft. The Champions who overlap your player's characters too much should be the ones to go, in my opinion.

[Super Squirrel]

Re: Fate of a Champion (no Mitch)

 

I would say the easiest way to decide who should die is to look at the characters in your game and decide where the weaknesses are. Some of the npc heroes can be exploited by the players in role-playing situations. If you have no detectives on your team then it's a good bet that someone might need to chat with Nighthawk in the future. If you have no tech-proficient characters then Defender might be needed for consultation. Mystics in the group? If not' date=' you might need Witchcraft. The Champions who overlap your player's characters too much should be the ones to go, in my opinion.[/quote']

Interesting thought but let me give you the run down to find out who you (or anyone else) would recommend based on this suggestions.

 

My Players:

The Greek: Weapon Master with superhigh intelligence. Right now she comes across as "dumb" but she is getting better faster. She is branching into additional languages and politics first.

 

Kaledioscope: No damage attack power but lots of combat attack powers such as Flash and Darkness. She is frequently invisible when she acts in battle. She is also (secretively) rich with friends in high places.

 

Thought: Speedster with nothing special beyond this. Player misses about 50% of the games due to work schedule so I haven't seen enough of him to know where he is going and how he focuses in game.

 

Reptile:Martial Artist with terrible defenses but an awesome DCV. Some reptile based powers including regeneration, a drain/hth combo, and a blinding spit attack.

 

Voltage:"Wants to be a Champion" Energy Blaster. Has crushes on anyone cute including trying to meet Witchcraft and Sapphire in person twice, both failed.

 

 

The Champions thus far:

Witchcraft has examined some Mystical objects once for the team.

 

Defender sent the team their communications system.

 

 

 

I'm looking forward to your recommendations.

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Fate of a Champion (no Mitch)

 

If you're planning on actually killing someone, howabout have Kinetik show up to help the Champions, and get killed? Two hero speedsters in one town could be a bit much. Otherwise, you've got an energy blaster and a light-projector - might be time to say bye-bye to Sapphire.

[Super Squirrel]

Re: Fate of a Champion (no Mitch)

 

Hmmm, Kinetic. I could do that I think.

[MitchellS]

Re: Fate of a Champion (no Mitch)

 

Just looking at your run-down I'd say Ironclad has the least value of the Champions to your team.

 

Sapphire has a possible romantic connection with Voltage. Sapphire also has a link to Kaledioscope due to being rich and famous. Those things can still be exploited.

 

Witchcraft also has the possible romantic connection with Voltage. She is also the only person who has mystic knowledge the characters might need.

 

Defender could be useful as a mentor to the Greek, pushing her toward scientific achievements. He could also be used as part of a romantic triangle between the Greek and Kaledioscope.

 

Nighthawk seems to be the only detective, unless the Greek also has those abilities. If the Greek does then I'd say Nighthawk can take the big sleep.

 

Ironclad seems to have no real connection for your team. He would seem to another good choice for coma or death.

 

Kinetik, if you are using him in the game, would also be a good choice to die. You already have a speedster, so no real reason to have an npc stealing Thought's thunder.

[Agent X]

Re: Fate of a Champion (no Mitch)

 

Why not just have the players play the Champions versus Mechanon and let what happens happen? That gives you a whole session that's easy to prepare and is relevant to story continuity.

 

Anybody in the Champions is unnecessary in Millennium City. They have Nightwind, Cavalier, Binary Man, Sai, Eagle Eye, Taurus, Millennium City 8, Dr. Silverback, and the lady who owns the magic shop. None of the Champions are required to help the players out.

 

Nightwind and Eagle Eye can be helpful in much the same way as Nighthawk.

Cavalier and Dr. Silverback can be helpful in much the same way as Defender.

Lady Liberty and the "lady at the magic shop" can be helpful in much the same way as Witchcraft.

Ironclad is a brick. So is Steadfast and Taurus.

Sapphire is a blaster. This isn't too hard to find.

Kinetik is a speedster and you've already got one.

 

So I think it would be safe to let any deaths that happen just happen.

[Super Squirrel]

Re: Fate of a Champion (no Mitch)

 

I liked your idea Agent X, unfortunately, my players prefer their own character. So instead, I ran a mock battle. Here was the end situation:

 

Defender took significant BODY loss. Enough to warrant him a hospital visit for a week or two.

 

Ironclad was beaten around a lot, but fortunately, took no BODY.

 

Nighthawk really had his butt handed to him, but he too took no BODY.

 

Witchcraft was hurt only once in combat, the knockback she took from the blow was enough to put her out of Mechanon's worries while he focused on the real problem on the battle field.

 

Which brings me to the real damage done.

 

Mechanon was hurting and Sapphire was the one dishing out the most damage. So he hit her with his Disintigreation Beam (Offensive Mode). By the time Witchcraft was able to get to her, she had bled to -2 BODY she made a lucky paramedics everyman skill roll and stabalized her.

 

Mechanon's head, btw, got away. I kept notes of the entire battle and plan to write up a new report of the incident.

[zornwil]

Re: Fate of a Champion (no Mitch)

 

Not into the CU and no advice on that part, but one thing I can say is be prepared for your PCs to split up to face 2 or even all 3 threats. I've found that very often giving a team a choice between 2 simultaneous events results in them being unable or unwilling to admit they can only face one thing at a time and trying to deal with all.

[levi]

Re: Fate of a Champion (no Mitch)

 

Not into the CU and no advice on that part' date=' but one thing I can say is be prepared for your PCs to split up to face 2 or even all 3 threats. I've found that very often giving a team a choice between 2 simultaneous events results in them being unable or unwilling to admit they can only face one thing at a time and trying to deal with all.[/quote']

 

AMEN! Players (especially in Champions) cannot break this cardinal rule of RPGing "Don't split up the party!" fast enough in these circumstances.

 

Since Voltage wants to be a Champion so bad...maybe their loss of Sapphire is his opportunity to join the team as a Probationary member.

 

How does this effect the Millenium Force?

 

 

BTW, can we see character sheets for these characters? They sound pretty cool.

[Guest WhammeWhamme]

Re: Fate of a Champion (no Mitch)

 

AMEN! Players (especially in Champions) cannot break this cardinal rule of RPGing "Don't split up the party!" fast enough in these circumstances.

 

Apologies to GM dude looking for help (cool campaign, btw), but...

 

"Don't Feed The Monster" annoys the heck out of me. I mean, yes, the gaming experience is disrupted a bit with people in different places... but really, the main reason is the loss of effectiveness. (hence the name)

 

The heroic response to a multi-pronged crisis is to handle it by dividing equally. Letting something go down without even trying... goes against the grain.

 

Scalable threats, and/or situational allies. Keep it playable without flattening anyone.

 

JMLR (Juts My Little Rant).

[Agent X]

Re: Fate of a Champion (no Mitch)

 

Splitting up is easy to handle. Just have one half of the team play the villains against the other half, then switch. That way everybody is playing the whole time. Then all the GM has to do is play narrator and referee AND overrule any OOC decisions the players make with the villains.

[JeffreyWKramer]

Re: Fate of a Champion (no Mitch)

 

Thankfully, splitting up seems to work pretty well in my campaign, just because everyone is into the role-playing, and people don't mind watching while one PC has the spotlight. Each of the characters has their own interests and story arcs going on, and right now we're doing a few weeks where I alternate between who gets the spotlight. Last night featured a great scene with Horus Re doing some investigation into Starguard's past (and making a huge discovery), which was a carry over from the previous week, while the rest of the session involved Warp fighting a group of villains who were after Cateran - all of whom crashed his penthouse condo while he was in his civilian ID, meaning he had to deal with the situation while protecting his civilian identity. Next week will probably feature more solo stuff with Warmaster Fielan, some with Starguard, and Princess Cyrande and Microman II going out to dinner with Micro's "dad", Daniel Collins, and Dr. Silverback. It's sort of like playing some "solo issues" in between the group story arcs, and it's fun because we can do these bits on a smaller scale than the whole group (like last night, when Warp went up against a group of villains that were a bit challenging and entertaining on their own, but whom would have barely registered as speed bumps for the combined Sentinels.

 

I've also run split-fights to a small extent, with no significant problem.

[Super Squirrel]

Re: Fate of a Champion (no Mitch)

 

AMEN! Players (especially in Champions) cannot break this cardinal rule of RPGing "Don't split up the party!" fast enough in these circumstances.

 

Since Voltage wants to be a Champion so bad...maybe their loss of Sapphire is his opportunity to join the team as a Probationary member.

 

How does this effect the Millenium Force?

 

 

BTW, can we see character sheets for these characters? They sound pretty cool.

I can get you the sheet for The Greek and Voltage without any problems. Getting Reptile isn't an issue either. Kaledioscope and Thought will be hard to get a hold off.

[Super Squirrel]

Re: Fate of a Champion (no Mitch)

 

The Follower is an Owl with some better than normal abilities.

The Contact is "The Owl Kingdom"

 

The Greek

 

Player:

 

Val	Char	Cost
30	STR	20
26	DEX	48
17	CON	14
20	BODY	20
20	INT	10
13	EGO	6
18	PRE	8
40	COM	15
15/18	PD	9
15/18	ED	12
5	SPD	14
10	REC	2
34	END	0
44	STUN	0

16" RUN82" SWIM06" LEAP0Characteristics Cost: 186

 

Cost	Power	END
30	Bow: Multipower, 60-point reserve, (60 Active Points); all slots OAF (-1)
3u	1) Arrow of Golden Light: EB 12d6 (60 Active Points); OAF (-1)	6
2u	2) Standard Arrow: HA +6d6, Ranged (+1/2), Armor Piercing (+1/2) (60 Active Points); OAF (-1), Hand-To-Hand Attack (-1/2)	6
25	Find Weakness 14- with Single Attack (Arrow of Golden Light)
6	Summon 80-point Golden Chariot (16 Active Points); 2 Charges (-1 1/2)
15	Damage Resistance (15 PD/15 ED)
6	Armor (3 PD/3 ED) (9 Active Points); OIF (Leather Banded Armor; -1/2)
22	Running +6" (16" total), x8 Noncombat	2
11	Athena Granted Abilities: LS (Eating: Character only has to eat once per week; Expanded Breathing (Low Oxygen); Longevity: Immortal)
8	Spear of Athena: Multipower, 30-point reserve, (30 Active Points); all slots 1 Recoverable Charge (-1 1/4), OAF (-1), Costs Endurance (Only Costs END to Activate; -1/4)
1u	1) RKA 2d6 (30 Active Points); OAF (-1), Costs Endurance (Only Costs END to Activate; -1/4)	3
1u	2) HKA 2d6 (4d6 w/STR) (30 Active Points); OAF (-1), Costs Endurance (Only Costs END to Activate; -1/4)	3
3	Whistle: (Total: 9 Active Cost, 3 Real Cost) Hearing Group Flash 2d6, Explosion (+1/2), Nonselective Target (-1/4) (7 Active Points); Extra Time (Full Phase, Character May Take No Other Actions, -3/4), No Range (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4), Limited Power Power loses about a fourth of its effectiveness (Must be used as a simutaniously as a presense attack; -1/4) (Real Cost: 2) plus Naked Modifier, MegaScale (1" = 1 km; +1/4) (2 Active Points); Limited Power Power loses about half of its effectiveness (Very Basic Communication; -1), Incantations (-1/4), Gestures (-1/4) (Real Cost: 1)	2
2	Strong Ears: Hearing Group Flash Defense (2 points)

Powers Cost: 135

 

 

Cost	Skill
3	Language: English (fluent conversation; literate)
5	Cramming
3	KS: Astronomy 13-
3	KS: Greek Gods 13-
2	Survival (Mountain) 13-
2	WF: Bows, Javelins and Thrown Spears
	Everyman Skills
0	1) AK: Ancient Greece 8-
0	2) Breakfall 8-
0	3) Climbing 8-
0	4) Concealment 8-
0	5) Conversation 8-
0	6) Language: Ancient Greek (completely fluent; literate) (4 Active Points)

Skills Cost: 18

 

Cost	Perk
22	Follower
5	Contact 14-

Perks Cost: 27

 

Cost	Talent
4	Rapid Archery

Talents Cost: 4

 

 

Total Character Cost: 370

 

Val	Disadvantages
20	Physical Limitation: Doesn't Know Earth Culture (Frequently, Fully Impairing)
30	Hunted: Hekate and her Friends 11- (Mo Pow, NCI, PC has a Public ID or is otherwise very easy to find, Harshly Punish)
15	Psychological Limitation: Ancient Greek Social Skills (Common, Strong)
15	Hunted: Ares 8- (Mo Pow, NCI, PC has a Public ID or is otherwise very easy to find, Watching)
10	Distinctive Features: Damn Beautiful (Easily Concealed; Always Noticed and Causes Major Reaction; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses)
10	Vulnerability: 2 x Effect (Uncommon)
10	Social Limitation: Public ID (Frequently, Major, Not Limiting In Some Cultures)
5	Money: Poor
20	Psychological Limitation: CVK (Common, Total)
15	Psychological Limitation: Superstitious (Uncommon, Total)
7	Sold Back Everyman Skills

Disadvantage Points: 157

 

Base Points: 200

Experience Required: 13

Total Experience Available: 14

Experience Unspent: 1

[zornwil]

Re: Fate of a Champion (no Mitch)

 

Splitting up is easy to handle. Just have one half of the team play the villains against the other half' date=' then switch. That way everybody is playing the whole time. Then all the GM has to do is play narrator and referee AND overrule any OOC decisions the players make with the villains.[/quote']

Good advice!

 

Also (to anyone) I'm not saying not to let the team split or that it can't be fun - I'm just forewarning it may happen.

 

In my group it seems to be fine because people are so social/entertainment-focused they can amuse themselves almost endlessly. It just has to be rotated primarily to ensure everyone has "air time".