Weekend Warriors -- Campaign Log

[Eosin]

Re: Weekend Warriors -- Campaign Log

 

Point blank: If the PC's can use it' date=' the villains can use it, too. [/quote']

 

We are pretty careful not to overuse "tricks" and one man punks. It works much better for the game if we pull something out of the unusual arsenal when it is called for but otherwise stick to basic butt-kicking. I run the fantasy game and call the tit-for-tat GMing the "use of poison rule." Very rarely, I'll introduce a villain known for his use of something deadly. Those exotic killers-poisoners can't really be avoided in the genre (like snipers in Dark Champions), but the general rule is that unless the players open the can of insta-death goodness then it remains closed to me as well [rare peaking into the can is allowed by both sides under special extenuating circumstances]. The "use of poison rule" has been a long standing game meta rule around here -- and is summed up by the statement "don't bring elements into the game that you don't want used on yourself."

[Edsel]

Re: Weekend Warriors -- Campaign Log

 

A heads up for those following the Weekend Warriors. It currently looks like there will be one or two more sessions of the campaign before it goes on hold. Eosin will be taking over GM duties and we will be switching to his excellent Fantasy Hero campaign, The Last Dominion.

 

The next session or two of the Weekend Warriors should put the campaign in a good position for a suspension. Eventually, when Eosin needs a break from running his campaign, we will probably resume the Weekend Warriors.

[Manic Typist]

Re: Weekend Warriors -- Campaign Log

 

*Heart attack*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

....will we get a campaign log for Eosin's thing?

[Edsel]

Re: Weekend Warriors -- Campaign Log

 

Yes. He has already started it with a series of posts to catch people up on what has happened in our previous games. Check out The Last Dominion thread.

 

In case you didn't already know Eosin plays Crucible/Kierian in the Weekend Warriors. I play Torean in his Last Dominion campaign.

 

But like I said there will still be one or two more sessions of the Weekend Warriors before the game goes on hold and I certainly intend to resume the campaign at a later date.

[Edsel]

Re: Weekend Warriors -- Campaign Log

 

Our next game will not be until February 3rd. The game that would have happened tonight was canceled due to weather, or at least the forecast of it. The forecast today was for up to 8" of snow. In Oklahoma City that is a very heavy snow, something that happens maybe once in twenty years. As a result everything got canceled and then the forecast was a bust. It stayed warm and we got cold rain instead.

 

I guess the city was gun shy since last weekend we got about two inches of freezing rain and sleet mix which pretty much shut the city down. We just don't have the street clearing equipment for this sort of weather. It's one of the coldest and iciest winters here in a while. Must be due to global warming.

[Matt Frisbee]

Re: Weekend Warriors -- Campaign Log

 

Sympathy about the weather, Edsel -- it has claimed a couple of sessions of my regular group as well, which is the first time that's happened around here in three years -- of course, things have changed a bit now that I have a rear-wheel drive pickup truck instead of my front-wheel drive hatchback...

 

As an Iowa native, I remember getting a laugh about two inches of snow bringing Oklahoma to a complete halt back when I was stationed at Ft. Sill in 1985. The shoe was on the other foot a year later when my unit got caught in a wicked snow storm while in the field at Graffenwoir (sp?) in West Germany. We were stuck out there for four days, unable to move because the tank trails had literally disappeared under two feet of snow -- they air-dropped us MRE's and fuel because we had already been out there for a week when the snow hit. Luckily, it didn't get seriously cold while we were out there, and on the fifth day, they had managed to force open the trail so we could get back to "civilization." They should have dropped cigarettes, too, because some of the crew were nicking so bad that they couldn't sleep...

 

Matt "Done-with-the-flashback-now" Frisbee

[oroborous]

Re: Weekend Warriors -- Campaign Log

 

In defense of the Weekend Warriors, and the GM, I have to say that 3 canisters of CS gas in an enclosed room would be enough to incapacitate 20 adults with ease, and I am speaking from experience.

 

In Army basic training a group of 10-20 recruits are placed in a 10x20 foot room with a diluted CS solution and then instructed to remove their gas masks. Although they are instructed to breathe normally, and this actually mitigates the effects, many panic and take in a large gulp of contaminated air. This leads to shortness of breath, more panic and deeper gulps, exacerbating an already dire condition. When I was subjected to this training, I had excessive tearing in my eyes, an extremely runny nose and a sore throat. Also my exposed skin felt like I had received a second degree sunburn.

 

I would assume that the WW team was using military grade CS. In a back-of-a-dive meeting room, anyone left unprotected would face extreme skin irritation and shortness of breath. The nose and throat would fill with mucous and the eyes would swell shut in short order. In fact, "Luke" should have been at a penalty ranged OCV for the whole combat, for even the brief exposure he would have received before he masked.

[Edsel]

Re: Weekend Warriors -- Campaign Log

 

It looks like this evening will be the 21st session of the Weekend Warriors campaign. After this the campaign will go on hiatus while Eosin resumes his Fantasy Hero campaign.

 

I anticipate that a lot of tonight's action will take place at Hudson City's Whittier Planetarium. To that end I did a little google searching and found a suitable planetarium map to use. It's Adler Planetarium.

[NightStick]

Re: Weekend Warriors -- Campaign Log

 

Well, We did spend some time in the Planetarium, and we didn't do TOO much damage.

No innocents were killed any way. Heck, we ALL used rubber bullets!

 

The session report will have all the details. It should make for some very good reading!

 

The only bad thing that happened, was that we got to a good stopping point.

[Edsel]

Campaign Log -- Session 21

 

Here is the final campaign log entry for the time being.

GAME SESSION TWENTY ONE

Actual Date: 1/27/2007

 

Monday, April 3rd

Most of this day is spent by the vigilantes in their normal public identities doing normal everyday things. In short everyone takes a day off from being vigilantes. They rest up since they have nothing looming on the horizon until the lunar eclipse the evening of April 5th. John and Kierian use this time to re-read Shane Velloric’s novel Faces of the Sun, Faces of the Moon. Giles has a date with Rally and they probably manage a visit to the planetarium as a part of it.

 

Tuesday, April 4th

Kierian Foster and John Black both carry out some recon of the Whittier Planetarium and the surrounding area. Kierian spends the afternoon with Satella and makes a visit to the planetarium a part of that date. John Black spends most of his time studying the layout of the terrain around the planetarium but he also does a walk through of the building.

 

Again most of this day is spent by our heroes in their normal identities doing seemingly normal things.

 

Wednesday, April 5th

A lunar eclipse is forecast to take place this evening at about 8:00 pm. As a result the Whittier Planetarium is having a special program and the HCU Astronomy club is having a watch party at the planetarium’s observatory. The club will be bringing additional telescopes so that the public can view the moon and other celestial bodies. Of course telescopes are not needed to view the eclipse but this is a good opportunity for astronomers to spur public interest. The conditions will be good for viewing Mars and some other items of interest (at least as good as they can be within a major city).

 

The Weekend Warriors decide to attend the functions at the planetarium in plain clothes. This means that they wear non-obvious body armor and restrict themselves to pistols. The night air is still chilly enough that a trench coat doesn’t look too out of place so this helps them conceal their weapons, especially Sweeper’s three-section staff. In addition the vigilantes all load their weapons with rubber bullets since they fear the possibility of civilians getting caught in the cross fire. Each of the team members has a concealed tactical radio which allows them to enter the planetarium separately from one another so they can better cover the expansive building. When the action starts Sweeper is in the planetarium theater (center of the building), Crucible is in the restaurant (west side) and Demolition Man is in the museum located in the east side of the building. All of them are on the main floor.

 

There are a lot of people at the planetarium and various clubs and organizations are also in attendance. There are mundane organizations such as the local chapter of Amateur Astronomers of America and other science oriented groups. But there are also other more unusual groups; Star Trek fans, Babylon 5 fans and Star Wars groups (some are even in costume). People of all ages and descriptions are filling the planetarium building and the ground where the telescopes are setup.

 

 

At 7:00 pm sharp Penny Dreadful and her goons make their move. Penny and her gang have disguised themselves as Star Wars fans. Penny Dreadful is dressed as Princess Leia and her twelve henchmen are the authentic looking storm troopers that are strewn about the planetarium.

 

Demolition Man is walking past one of these troopers when he notices (PER -3) that the blaster the fellow has looks remarkably like a disguised MP5 submachine gun. He quietly draws his own weapon as the trooper, who is facing away from him, raises his gun in the air and fires a shot to gain the crowds attention. The thug never gets to announce his intentions as D-Man shoots him in the back with his silenced pistol. D-Man is alarmed that his shot barely seems to stun the goon. He soon realizes that the storm trooper armor, unlike its Star Wars equivalent, actually has some protective value. Since he can’t take time to secure the downed thug and since he doesn’t want him reviving, he shoves the barrel of his pistol under the man’s chin and pulls the trigger. A contact shot to the head, rubber bullet or not, kills the thug instantly.

 

The mock storm trooper armor is actually ineffective. It is merely a thin plastic shell however Penny’s men are wearing the equivalent of Light DefTex armor under the shell. (For an example of this armor see page 340 of Dark Champions, it is part of the suggested equipment of Blade.) Each also has a helmet radio and a gas mask. (They heard about the tear gas use by the vigilantes earlier this week.) The helmets also provide some measure of flash defense. Each thug carries an MP5 submachine gun that has been disguised to look like a Star Wars blaster.

 

As this is transpiring other storm troopers are taking control of the building and the public within. Most of the storm troopers have fired shots into the air and are starting to try and herd their captives into the main planetarium.

 

Crucible has to contend with a pair of storm troopers who are trying to take control of the restaurant. He is fortunate to have a bit of a clearing between himself and the storm troopers. He quickly upends his table for cover and opens fire on the pair. His first shot hits and knocks down one storm trooper. The second returns fire hitting his table. The bullet passes through the table and strikes Crucible squarely in the center of the chest but due to the thick table the bullet has no energy left and he barely feels the impact against his own body armor. After a short exchange both troopers are down and unconscious. Crucible makes his way to his fallen foes and shouts for the crowd to leave the building immediately. They follow his advice with extreme prejudice.

 

Sweeper is in the main planetarium show when the action starts. Penny Dreadful and three of her goons are here. She has a device of some sort that allows her to seize control of the planetarium’s Zeiss projector. The entire audience of the show is temporarily blinded by the sudden flare of light (including Sweeper).

 

Once Sweeper’s vision returns Penny Dreadful and her men have control of the audience. They order everyone to remain seated. Since none of the thugs are close by and Sweeper is unsure of the situation he remains seated, just another face in the crowd.

 

At this point three of Penny’s men are down and she is just about to find that out...

 

 

Now Penny and three of her men are in control of the main planetarium. Three of her men have been downed by Crucible and D-Man; the remaining six are trying to herd additional potential hostages into the main planetarium from the adjoining sections of the building. Everything and everyone is converging on the center of the building.

 

Crucible reaches his downed foes and removes the helmet, and radio, from one of them. He quickly uses the radio to start taunting Penny Dreadful much to her indignation. This also alerts pretty much anybody who didn’t already know that the game is afoot. As he continues his verbal jibes (which ties up the enemy’s radio frequency) he begins his advance on the central theater, approaching from the north.

 

D-Man approaches the west door of the central theater and exchanges fire with the storm trooper who is guarding that door. The goon has been holding and gets his shot off first. The bullet misses D-Man but an innocent bystander (a fleeing man) is hit in the back of the shoulder by the stray round. D-Man’s return fire drops the storm trooper. At about this same time additional goons are arriving, with additional hostages, through the north and east entries of the planetarium. Another goon is rapidly approaching the west door from the south.

 

Penny begins to move to the south end of the planetarium toward the slightly elevated projectionist’s booth. She calls out to a man who is with her, “Shane come with me.” Obviously this is the missing author Shane Velloric. He follows her command as she seems to assume he will since she scarcely bothers to glance at him. Sweeper continues to size-up the situation as the guards become more and more distracted by the unfolding chain of events.

 

D-Man now confronts the next thug at the west planetarium entry. The goon grabs a woman, points his gun at her and demands that everyone lay down. Penny seeing the disturbance at that entrance directs a flash from the projector to cover that quadrant of the theater. D-Man is prepared for this and fortunately Penny’s Area Effect, nonselective, flash fails the attack roll to affect him (thought lots of unprotected hostages are blinded a second time). As the panic ensues at the entrance the thug with the human shield determines who the enemy is, he casts aside his hostage and opens fire on D-Man. The vigilante’s luck holds and he comes out on top in the exchange of gunfire. Fortunately no civilians are hit this time.

 

It is now that Sweeper makes his move. He fast draws his three-section staff, leaps the intervening seats and smashes the Zeiss projector thereby robbing Penny Dreadful of her “flash cannon.” Penny is on the far side of the room from Sweeper and so cannot see him with the wreckage of the projector between them. Several of her goons see him though and rush the vigilante. This is an excellent position for Sweeper to be in. Penny has told her men to avoid unnecessary bloodshed and with the room full of hostages they make the decision to charge him en masse for a melee. All of them are tough customers and pretty confident of their abilities (the poor deluded fools).

 

Though a total of five of the goons will ultimately engage Sweeper, and one of them will be lucky enough to land a punch (inflicting 11 STUN), Sweeper dominates the battle. Four of the Five will have their asses handed to them by the martial artist with the three section staff. They are soon reduced to a battered pile of unconscious men with assorted broken bones and missing teeth. The remaining storm trooper is felled by Crucible with a shot from behind as he arrives at the theater though the north door.

 

D-Man has a close call with the remaining two storm troopers who have arrived at his position. His shots at one find their target when the thug fails a dive for cover through the open door. The second, realizing the situation is desperate, switches to full automatic fire and sprays the vigilante striking him with three bullets. Fortunately by this time the hall out side the door is pretty empty so no innocents are caught by the stray bullets.

 

D-Man’s body armor is tough enough that the 9mm bullets fail to inflict any body damage but the single vitals hit does render him unconscious due to the amount of stun that it inflicts. The only thing that saves D-Man is the timing of the hit. He got hit in phase 12 after his action that Phase, but that did not negate his post Phase 12 recovery. This was just enough to allow him to regain consciousness (up to +2 STUN). He then acted first in phase 4 and gunned down the last storm trooper before the goon could follow up.

 

I may need to study the specific rules for post-Phase 12 recoveries and make sure that we did this right but at the time this was my ruling.

 

Now all of Penny’s men are down and the vigilantes turn their attention toward her. However Penny is not at a loss. She quickly exits through the projectionist’s door and flees. As she does Shane Velloric closes and latches the door behind her, put his back against it and sighs, “Thank goodness that woman is gone.”

 

Of the vigilantes only D-Man is in a position to attempt a pursuit. Crucible and Sweeper are in the mist of a mass of panicking former hostages and unconscious goons. D-Man’s pursuit is short lived though since his END is still very low due to being rendered unconscious.

 

The vigilantes pause only to render first aid to the injured civilian and snatch up a few of the submachine guns. Penny Dreadful flees into the night here whereabouts are unknown. Shane Velloric is free and seems remarkably unshaken by his experience. The vigilantes leave him and depart in short order as sirens are heard in the distance.

 

Several interesting points are realized by analyzing the aftermath of this action. For instance, the planetarium had security personal. Not many but at least a few and for an event like this they would have had a full complement of security. Where were these people?

 

Penny Dreadful has an Enraged Disadvantage if her plans are thwarted. Indeed I rolled this at least twice during the game but she never quite got her trigger tripped. This if fortunate since if she had gone enraged I imagine she would have been captured or killed by the vigilantes. (Though I kind of think they’d have been too soft to kill an attractive female enemy.)

 

Session Wrap-up

 

Recovered Weapons & Equipment

The team did not stick round very long to recover material. They did snag a couple of MP5 submachine guns that have been disguised to look like storm trooper blasters from Star Wars. Crucible has a storm trooper helmet with radio and flash defense built in.

 

Body Count & Damage

Shane Velloric is free. Penny Dreadful escaped as did one of her goons (he revived in the restaurant after Crucible left that area). Of the other eleven three were killed despite the use of rubber bullets by the vigilantes. Of course D-Man deliberately made sure of one of them. The remaining eight were all rendered unconscious and most had some light injuries. It is likely that most or all will be picked up by the cops once they arrive. It is possible that some of the others revived in time to make good their own escapes. Since they are all generic thugs it is not an important factor to the storyline.

 

Experience Awards

Each character received 2 EP, broken down as follows: 1 EP for participating in the session and 1 EP for a successful mission. Ken Sedai and Choir Boy were not in attendance so they gained no EP.

 

To date the EP totals of the characters are: Choir Boy 35 EP, Crucible 60 EP, Demolition Man 50 EP, Ken Sedai 24 EP and Sweeper 57 EP.

 

Closing Comments

This was the final session before the game goes on hiatus. As much as I love the game I need a break. I am not burned out but I am not as enthusiastic as I once was so I feel that taking a break before I get burned out is a good idea. In a way I almost feel that I have copped-out on the last couple of games, they have essentially been just battles with little actual role-playing required. I still have many plot ideas that I can use and several threads are currently unresolved. The Penny Dreadful arc has come to an end but her escape will give me another avenue for designing future adventures.

 

Originally I had planned a scenario involving Rally Vincent and company that would have taken place before the final showdown with Penny. That plot is easily saved for when the campaign resumes.

 

Now our group will return to the Last Dominion (Fantasy Hero) campaign that Eosin runs. He is the player of Crucible in this campaign. I look forward to continuing the story of our Fantasy campaign and getting to play my old character Torean the Bard again.

 

I hope everyone has enjoyed the campaign log and I know I have had many faithful readers on the Hero Games forums. Hopefully this campaign will continue in the future (that is my intention) but it will likely be many months before the Weekend Warriors are once again fighting the crime of Hudson City.

[NightStick]

Re: Weekend Warriors -- Campaign Log

 

Edsel,

A simple, but heartfelt

 

THANK YOU!

 

[Manic Typist]

Re: Weekend Warriors -- Campaign Log

 

Good gaming!

[1EyedJack]

Re: Weekend Warriors -- Campaign Log

 

I really enjoyed the campaign and really apperecaite the time and effort put into it by Edsel thanks.

[Eosin]

Re: Weekend Warriors -- Campaign Log

 

Hey 1-I,

 

Welcome to the boards!

[matrix3]

Re: Weekend Warriors -- Campaign Log

 

Hi, I was just wondering if there's a chance for a reunion for these characters?

[Edsel]

Re: Weekend Warriors -- Campaign Log

 

I have all of the campaign data and characters saved. My intention is to eventually be able to continue the campaign. However the soonest I can possibly envision being able to get most of the gang back together would be this Spring. When we do restart we may not have the exact same line-up of players. Sweeper, Choir Boy and D-Man would certainly return but that is all I can say for certain. Those are my goals but you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men.

[Manic Typist]

Re: Weekend Warriors -- Campaign Log

 

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Matt Frisbee]

Re: Weekend Warriors -- Campaign Log

 

Add my vote for a reunion -- I've missed this thread a lot.

[NightStick]

Re: Weekend Warriors -- Campaign Log

 

Just a little BUMP!

[Manic Typist]

Re: Weekend Warriors -- Campaign Log

 

Cruel! Cruel! I was so excited when I saw this thread active once more!!!! I thought there was going to be a session log!!

[Edsel]

Re: Weekend Warriors -- Campaign Log

 

I have been running games pretty much non-stop for about the last year since our other GM had his work schedule implode on him. I need a break from GM duties for a while since I would like to play for a change. One of our newer players is about to start running a Star Hero game for a while (several months). When I do get back to running a game I intend for it to be the restart of the Weekend Warriors campaign. That will not happen for at least three months and probably closer to six months.

 

I love the game and love to run it. I just want to take a break for a while and play. I don't want to have to occupy my free time with trying to setup the next game. The Weekend Warriors will return, it'll just be a while.

[NightStick]

Re: Weekend Warriors -- Campaign Log

 

Cruel! Cruel! I was so excited when I saw this thread active once more!!!! I thought there was going to be a session log!!

I did not mean to be CRUEL to anyone, I simply wanted to reassure people that Edsel was going to keep this thread alive, just not yet.

Perhaps when the WW do finally reunite, Eosin will also have his work schedule ironed out.

 

I can dream, Can't I?

[Eosin]

Re: Weekend Warriors -- Campaign Log

 

As the missing player (and part time GM), I gotta say that I'd love to play in any game. I think this is my longest "no gaming" stretch since I started RPGs 25 years ago. I tried to shuffle my schedule when one of our nurses left last week but got denied.

 

[matrix3]

Re: Weekend Warriors -- Campaign Log

 

I'm looking forward to the WW Reunion. How do things look?

[Edsel]

Re: Weekend Warriors -- Campaign Log

 

Currently our group has a rather odd situation. We actually have almost too many players. Eight of us, if everyone shows up. The problem is we usually have two or three missing for any particular game. The old WW crowd is still there and we have three newer players. Since we face the problem of having to have a very flexible game schedule we are currently doing a Stargate Hero campaign. This works well for our arrangement since, if people don't show they are considered to be on other assignments (off testifying to oversight committees, taking leave time etc.) while those players who show have their characters carryout the current mission.

 

It will be at least a couple of months before WW can get restarted. And in addition to that our Fantasy Hero GM (Eosin) has hinted that he'd like to get back to his Last Dominion campaign (it is a blast so no argument from me). It boils down to our typiical problem of too many games and not enough time.

 

I still have all the WW campaign logs and such and certainly want to continue it. But as to how far in the future that lies, it is hard to tell.