Advice on NPCs Foes Desperately Needed

[S7Michelle]

I currently running a game based on the Marvel Runaways series. For those not familiar with the series, the basic premise is that a group of teenagers discover that their parents are supervillains and shortly thereafter discover that they have powers of their own.

 

Since it was a teen game, I initially gave the characters 250 points (150 + 100 points in flaws) and stated that no power could be over 50 active points. This seemed fair to me. The game has run for quite a while now and the players have received somewhere between 75-100 exp. (I’ve been giving out larger than usual exp rewards.)

 

In the game, the group decided that instead of confronting their parents immediately they would run away to another city. While there, they met, became friends, and started romances with a group of super powered NPC teenagers—the Morlocks. The group has been away from home for about a month and quite a few sessions now.

 

Oddly enough for a superhero-esque game during all of those sessions the has been no combat. I had decided early on to attempt to focus on creating a well designed world, with a few interesting plot hooks and then standing back and letting the players decided what they wanted to do. And none of them showed much interest in using their newly found powers to stop crime, to commit crime, or really to do anything much other than hang out.

 

After a short fast forward and the translation of a book they found in one of their parents homes, they discovered that their parents actions would bring about the end of the world in about two more years. So they decided to head home and stop their folks. The Morlocks, of course, went along with them.

 

They started out by raiding two of their parents houses and obtained a time machine (one of the sets of parents are time travelers) and a few more magic books (one set of parents are mages). Though in the process alerted their parents to the fact that they are back in town.

 

Which brings us to the current fight and the current rather substantial problem. The group is currently trying to get the soul crystal from the next parents house. However the parents were expecting them and slightly more than half of the parents were there. This was meant to be a challenging, dramatic, and fun fight scene. Instead, I rapidly discovered that the PCs are standing no chance at all against their folks. In the first turn, one went down after a single reduced powered hit. And a second mentioned she’d have gone down equally fast if she’d taken that hit.

 

Obviously I need to reduce the powers of the parents in order to make things a bit more balanced. After all, I really don’t want to have the Morlocks (NPCs) end up saving the day. However I’m not sure where to set the power levels. The parents should be a bit stronger than their kids. I want my players to have to think a bit. BUT, I want them to stand a chance.

 

I’d given each of the parents something along the lines of a 60 point multi-power. (A bit higher than the 50 points I’d limited the teens to, but I didn’t think 2d6 would make a huge difference). The parents have OCVs and DCVs that are equivalent to the groups: 5-7 for the most part. And I had started out by giving the parents on average PDs and EDs of around 12. I really did think I was being fair.

 

I think the main problem is that the PCs power levels are very spread out and almost none of them have any type of armor. PCs are as follows:

 

Jamison: Air Powers. OCV 7, DCV 6; 2 PD, 2 ED. Most common attack does 3d6 and double knockback. He does have missile deflection. He has not spent any of his experience points. And took almost no flaws to start. Is basically playing a 190 point character.

 

Rigel: Magic Powers/gadgets. OCV 7, DCV 9; 2 PD, 4 Ed. Has a couple of VPP pools. Took full flaws and has spent her exp. Mostly spent exp on getting more VPPs. Most flexible power set and most intelligent character and player. But doesn’t see herself using direct attacks. Mostly would use a 2d6 transformation attack (anything to anything).

 

Marie: Mini-brick with flight and mimic powers. OCV 4, DCV 4, 23 PD, 8 ED (part of that resistant). STR 40. Took almost no disadvantages and started out as a 170 point character. Has spent no exp and almost never shows up to the game.

 

Selica: Group brick and most powerful member by far. OCV 9, DCV 7, PD 23, ED 16 (part of that resistant.) STR 50 with a multi-power of STR power advantages. Has spent no exp but started out with the full 250 points.

 

 

Currently Selica and Jamison are in the middle of the fight along with the Morlocks. Rigel separated from the group and is planning to try to sneak into the house during the confusion. Marie is there but the player isn’t. Jamison is the one that went down with one punch. And to be honest I’m not sure what I should do now.

 

Do I let the parents win and capture the group? The parents have no intention of killing their children though they are planning to use mental powers to modify there memories. Do I lower all the parents powers and if so by approximately how much? Do I let the Morlocks end up saving the group? (I’d rather not have the NPCs as the heroes).

 

Any suggestions would be extremely helpful.

[Haerandir]

Re: Advice on NPCs Foes Desperately Needed

 

Well, this sounds like quite a conundrum. Your PC's defenses are quite low if they're going to be facing 12d6 EB's. I think you could do several things.

 

One, make sure that the parent's defenses are similarly weak compared to the PCs' attacks. You can make the parents 'tougher' by giving them proportionately higher STUN values. Make sure you describe the effects of any solid hits the kids land, so that they know they're making progress.

 

Two, rather than slinging 12d6 EBs, give the parents attacks that are 'powerful' and 'scary' in general terms, but are ineffective against certain types of targets. Such as their children's defenses. Think NND's that the kids might reasonably have defenses against. This works especially well if you gear each parent up to be a powerhouse against most foes, but relatively helpless against their own child. Alternatively, set them up to be terrifying to their own child, but relative pushovers for one or more of the others. That way, if the players figure out the situation (and you can give them very broad hints, especially if they make appropriate PER and skill rolls), they can pull the classic 'rotate opponents' maneuver and go from getting their heads handed to them to sudden domination.

 

Three, an extension of #2: Give the parent's huge weaknesses for your players to exploit. Maybe the magic-using parents require burning incense for some of their spells, and the air-powered character can blow the smoke away, disrupting their attacks. That sort of thing. Again PER and KS rolls will give you an excuse to feed this info to your players, especially if they have some appropriate skills that they haven't gotten much use out of before.

 

Four, give the Morlocks the ability to support the PC's. Have one of them manifest the ability to project a Force Field that's Usable by Others, to beef up the PCs' defenses, particularly ED, for instance. Hint to Rigel's player that she could do the same if she doesn't want to put the smack down on the parents. Also consider Aids to STR and/or Dex, Healing, that sort of thing.

 

It sounds as though the parents are fairly subtle supervillains, so there's no real need to make them the kind of kick-butt combat monsters you'd see fighting 350+ adult superheroes. You can make them much more specialized and vulnerable than the usual run of super-thugs and master villains without disrupting suspension of disbelief.

 

Other than that, don't be afraid to fudge dice rolls to enhance the flow of your story...

[Iuz the Evil]

Re: Advice on NPCs Foes Desperately Needed

 

Four, give the Morlocks the ability to support the PC's. Have one of them manifest the ability to project a Force Field that's Usable by Others, to beef up the PCs' defenses, particularly ED, for instance. Hint to Rigel's player that she could do the same if she doesn't want to put the smack down on the parents. Also consider Aids to STR and/or Dex, Healing, that sort of thing.

 

You could give one of the Morlocks the ability to augment the PCs powers, with a 2d6 Aid to all powers at once (+2)? That'd push them up closer to their parents' level and level the playing field a bit. Or have one of the parents turn on the others, it's their kid after all...

[MechaGM]

Re: Advice on NPCs Foes Desperately Needed

 

Good suggestions so far, another thing to consider is the following. (This assumes that the characters don't have to stop their parents right now)

 

Hint to them that they can't win this fight right now. They could then withdraw from the fight, and maybe their parents will let them go. Have them regroup and try to figure out why they got their butts kicked. Then they could either acquire or jury-rig some armor (or armored costumes or something) to bring their defenses up to the point where they have a shot. Heck, maybe one of the Morlocks has a real knack for jury-rigging gadgets from spare parts. Then, with better tactics and better defenses they could try to stop the evil plot again.

 

Just a thought off the top of my head.

[Superskrull]

Re: Advice on NPCs Foes Desperately Needed

 

I'm going to have to agree with the prior posters. The design esthetic of your players is clashing with the nature of combat in Champions. Generally, that wind-manipulator, Jamison is going to take body from a normal man's punch or kick should they roll 3 Body on his 2d punch. A normal with a baseball bat is going to put him in the hurt locker and his own teammates, Selica and Marie can crumble him like a pretzel. If he wants to keep his "average human" level defenses and get into fights, he'd need more DCV and a high level OCV on his Missile Deflection. It's really hard to avoid getting trashed without placing a fair number of points in the "avoid damage" type powers and abilities. Same goes for Rigel. Sounds like convincing them to invest in Combat Luck or Force Fields with appropriate special effects might be good.

 

Alternately, as Haerandir mentioned, impressive though not overly damaging effects may be the way to go with the parents. Presence attacks are good, as would be Adjustment powers and creative Change Environments, Entangles , large-scale low damage EBs, especially NND based would be quite useful and Mental powers scaled to the level of their ability to resist them would be quite challenging. Otherwise, even an 8-10d EB or HTH strike can prove disabling in only one shot to some of the group while others would weather it just fine.