phydaux Posted January 24, 2005 Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 Today I ran my Island of Dr. Destroyer one off. I had four players. One picked Defender, another Witchcraft. The other two picked characters I had generated myself - The Archer (Green Arrow rip-off, right down the the Boxing Glove Arrows) and Mind Maiden (Mystic armed with a TK/Telepathy multipower that for some reason also contained Desolid). No one chose any of the Incredibles. The players are heading to the island in a PRIMUS Air Raft. The Archer is the only one with piloting skills. He tried to bring the Air Raft to the island by flying low and avoid the island ground-based radar (and by extension the ground-based Quad-Lasers and Cruise Missiles). He's doing fine, then majorly biffs a roll once the team gets within sight of the island. I rule that he bobbed the Air Raft up too high, so the island defenses picked up the Air Raft on radar. And followed up with a cruise missile. One 15D6 AOE EB later, Defender and The Archer are at negative STUN and underwater, Witchcraft is under water and at negative 3 BODY and Mind Maiden is Desolid. (I did this mostly to set the mood, and let the team know that The Destroyer isn't one to be trifled with.) Mind Maiden used her TK to pick up her three team mates and then her 0 END flight to head for the nearest possible medical facility - The Island! On the way, The Archer recovered from unconsciousness and did Paramedic on Witchcraft (who by now was at negative 5 BODY). Mind Maiden slipped the team over the barrier cliffs right between two radar stations and the team hid in the jungle. The Archer used his Stealth to move through the jungle and hunt for medical supplies. He found a huge, portable medi-kit on the wall in the Doctor's hanger bay that was jam-packed with drugs the FDA does NOT approve of. A quick skulk back through the jungle, and thanks to the illegal, untested drugs Witchcraft is soon at positive BODY (but not MUCH). The team figures if they can just disable the ground radar and defenses then the Navy and the Air Force can deal with the island. So they head off toward the mountains to assault the island's nuclear reactor containment/cooling tower (if you know the adventure, it's where the ICBM used to be). They enter the reactor's control room, where they find the Doctor and his supervillain henchmen - Armadillo, Pulsar and Green Dragon. Armadillo, Pulsar and Green Dragon attack while The Good Doctor hands back and looks majestic. The Archer blinds Armadillo right off the bat with a Flash Attack, Defender starts trading EBs with Pulsar, and Mind Maiden & Witchcraft gang-tackle Green Dragon with Ego Attacks. Green Dragon doesn't have a chance against Mind Maiden & Witchcraft, and drops first. The Archer hits Pulsar with a Nitro Arrow and knocks him back. Defender follows up with an EB and manages to roll six 6s out of a 10D6 attack, then snake eyes for Knock Back! The aggregate STUN, plus the Knock Back right INTO a re-enforced concrete wall, puts Pulsar out of the fight. Defender and The Archer next do a combined ED/Shock Arrow attack on the still-blinded Armadillo. He goes down, and Dr. destroyer decided it's time to step in himself. He does his "Gods/Thunderbolts" speech, then drops a 15D6 AOE EB on the team. The EB goes off with the whole team caught in the AOE. Defender and The Archer go down - No BODY taken but WELL into negative STUN. Things are looking grim. However, all this happens on phase 8, and Mind Maiden & Witchcraft haven't moved this phase yet. Mind Maiden aborts to Desolid while Witchcraft dives for cover. and for Witchcraft the only direction that will take her away from the AOE EB is to dive right toward the nuclear reactor's containment room. By the time Mind Maiden and Witchcraft can move again Dr. Destroyer is just toying with the team. Mind Maiden drops her Desolid and attempts to use her TK to pull her wounded comrades to safety. In her heart, however, she knows things are hopeless. The Doctor aims another AOE EB at the three of them. Witchcraft pulls herself to her full height, squares her shoulders and, with her mind's eye full of 50 other superheroes who will never be forgotten, does what she knows she must do - She prepares herself to die like a hero. Summoning all her strength for one mighty blast of Witchfire, she hurls the bolt right through the window of the containment room, and into the nuclear reactor's coolant pump! The AOE EB and the blast of Witchfire occur at the same time. Mind Maiden drops, Defender and The Archer are tossed around like rag dolls, and Witchcraft is bathed in nuclear waste. She begins taking NND damage every segment. Before she can move again, she joins her team in unconsciousness. Hours later Defender, The Archer and Mind Maiden awake in the sick bay of a US Navy Cruiser. Once the reactor was taken out of commission the Navy was able to get Marines on the island. The Marines found the heroes and pulled them out of the reactor building. Witchcraft was taken by helicopter to an ICU on the mainland, but is expected to make a full recovery. The team's mission was successful, but costly. And once again, the Destroyer has escaped! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starblaze Posted January 24, 2005 Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 Re: So I ran my Island of Dr. Destroyer one off... Wow. Very cool adventure. I wish I could have been there. I would have played a brick myself but that's just me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebuchet Posted January 24, 2005 Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 Re: So I ran my Island of Dr. Destroyer one off... Nice writeup, and it sounds like you had some good role players too. Kudos to all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrosshairCollie Posted January 24, 2005 Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 Re: So I ran my Island of Dr. Destroyer one off... I gotta say this. Whoever was playing Witchcraft was an A1 player in my book. If that hadn't been a one-shot, that player deserves some bonus XP! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phydaux Posted January 24, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 Re: So I ran my Island of Dr. Destroyer one off... Yes, I was really impressed by the way that player played the character. It totally made up for Witchcraft spending the first half of the game in a coma. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted January 24, 2005 Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 Re: So I ran my Island of Dr. Destroyer one off... This sounds like one of those A+ episodes most players/GM's would love to have been a part of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highwayman Posted January 27, 2005 Report Share Posted January 27, 2005 Re: So I ran my Island of Dr. Destroyer one off... Too bad it's not a campaign. Getting pumped full of experimental drugs and doused in nuclear waste all on the same day screams "future plot development." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDU Neil Posted January 27, 2005 Report Share Posted January 27, 2005 Re: So I ran my Island of Dr. Destroyer one off... Great write-up... sounds like a fun little adventure. To take things in a slight tangent... I'd like to say... if I was the player who played Witchcraft, I'd have been really bummed out that she didn't die in the end. Sound strange? To me... the character gave her all, sacrificing herself for team and mission against the biggest of the Big Bads out there. There is no better way to go out! Personally, I'd be really bummed if the GM somehow "saved" my character from such a dramatic fate, especially if this was an ongoing campaign. The legends of the heroes who have fallen in battle are MUCH more interesting than playing characters who somehow always seem to make it through alive. Probably just me, but I'm a player who would be really PO'd at a GM who saved my character after I'd done such a good job of heroically sacrificing myself! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted January 27, 2005 Report Share Posted January 27, 2005 Re: So I ran my Island of Dr. Destroyer one off... phydaux, this sounds like a truly excellent episode. I love how you ran with what the players came up with, improvising to advance the story (like the medi-kit). That's just good GMing. One question, though: since you obviously didn't use the missile-launched mind control satellite from the the original IODD, what was the threat that the PCs had come to stop? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phydaux Posted January 27, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 27, 2005 Re: So I ran my Island of Dr. Destroyer one off... 20 hovercraft loaded up with 50 Destroids each (CKC, p. 18). I played that the island was mobile. It started 50 miles off shore. Once it got to 20 miles, then the hovercraft would be close enough to reach land. The Doctor intended to invade Southern California, and from there take over the whole United States. The island's quad-lasers prevented Air Force jets from bombing the island, and by extention the hovercraft, and the cruise missiles prevented the Navy from bombarding it with guns. The Los Angeles Silver Avenger told the PCs their best bet would be to take a land speeder in low to avoid the islands radar. Was working fine until the only PC with the Piloting skill biffed his roll. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Raven Posted January 28, 2005 Report Share Posted January 28, 2005 Re: So I ran my Island of Dr. Destroyer one off... Excellent adventue! I wish I could have been a part of it. I love those kinds of adventures (where everything seems to be going badly all the time, but there is always still hope), but it's really hard to pull them off if that was what you were planning. Personally, I'd be really bummed if the GM somehow "saved" my character from such a dramatic fate, especially if this was an ongoing campaign. The legends of the heroes who have fallen in battle are MUCH more interesting than playing characters who somehow always seem to make it through alive. Probably just me, but I'm a player who would be really PO'd at a GM who saved my character after I'd done such a good job of heroically sacrificing myself! While I'm not one to kill characters, I agree. In the last episode of my last campaign, the team's ninja sacrificed himself to give his team time to save his adopted son from the clutches of DEMON. After Mordecai (a morbane from 3rd and 4th edition, I don't know if he's in 5th) took him down, then took the coup de grace, I left it up to the player whether or not the character really dies. After all, he is a ninja, and who knows what will happen. He decided that he would die, but that only a ninja can truly kill a ninja. So (in my campaign) ninja are able to retrace their steps in the spirit world to re-enter the world of the living. But because this ninja has left his clan, he has no guide and must find his own way. A difficult tast that will take some time, and might leave him changed once he returns (possibly some memory loss, and an effective "radiation accident"). I plan on adding in that this is all part of the proficy of his clan that he doesn't know all of yet, and it but one more step toward his destiny (which I'll dramatically reveal once he does something really spiffy, and say that was it... or something like that). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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