First Adventure

[SuperBlue]

I'm starting a Super Hero campaign, and I'm about 75% done... basically I'm going to have the characters distributed accross the city around 3 points. Each point will be hit by a group of villains in a team called "The Dissenters" They are as follows:

 

THE DISSENTERS

Backlash - Leader, Powered Armor Type with Blade Whip

Phantasm - Scientist, lost sight in lab explosion but picked up psionics

KD-195 "Kadie" - Martial Artist, Female Cat person created by Phantasm, obeys his every order

Inferno - Former gangmember, mutant with Flame Projection Powers

Replicator - Martial Artist, Can make 3 copies of himself

Falsehood - Mentalist, Creates images

Dark Hammer - Brick, former construction worker who found a magic hammer, became a villain

 

THE HEROES

Savage - Brick, mutant who transforms into a beast-man

Maverick - Scientist from future, created a Nanotech Suit and travelled back in time

Demonicus - Energy Projector, Demon who escaped from hell and is trying to atone, projects Hell-Fire blasts and can posses people

No Name as of Yet - Mentalist, Religious Zealot who believe his powers came from god

No Name as of Yet - Energy Projector, Former Chinese Spy who can shape shift and fire electric blasts from his eyes

No Name as of Yet - Martial Artist, Street Crusader with massive regenerative capabilities

Scry (NPC) - Mentalist, has Clairvoyant powers

 

 

Basically, the divide will be like this:

 

BANK: Phantasm, Kadie, Dark Hammer vs Scry, Savage, Demonicus

 

JEWELRY STORE: Backlash, Falsehood vs Maverick, Zealot Mentalist

 

????: Inferno, Replicator vs Shape-Shifter and Regenerator

 

I need a 3rd location... and I don't want to be redundant with a second bank.... can anyone come up with a place where there would be a crap-load of valuables that a group of villains would hit?

[ogier300]

Museum and Auction House. Private mansion. Art Gallery. Post Office.

[Old Man]

Hey, every new campaign has to start with a bar fight. It's not just a good idea, it's the law.

[Koshka]

Ditto on the museum suggestion. It doesn't necessarily have to be an art museum either. One of the history museums in town has the silver set intended for Lincoln's private train car but never used (because the only time Abraham Lincoln used the car, he was dead), and I bet the right fence could get you a ton of bucks for that.

 

If gambling is legal in your game's home city, you could send the villains to a casino.

[Monolith]

You might want to use a Coin Store/Shop. Many of the upscale coin shops carry large numbers of 1 ounce gold and silver coins. A 1 ounce gold piece goes for around $600.00, and specialty pieces can go for several times that. If it also stocks rare coins you could easily be looking at a several hundred thousand dollar hit. Gold and silver are also fairly easy to unload (meaning the villains would get a better price from their fence), but would require a brick or demi-brick to cart off the load.

 

I always wanted to do a robbery at an upscale liquor store too. Imagine a bunch of villains breaking in to steal a few cases of Crystal or Dom champagne. There are also specialty wines which can run several thousand dollars per bottle. Three of four cases of that could easily make a turnaround of a hundred thousand or more to the thieves.

 

A third choice, and one that is often overlooked today, is a major industrial company on payday. Many workers cash their paychecks when they receive them. A refinery, for example, might have a thousand workers. $500.00 pay times 250 workers cashing their check equates to around $125,000 in cash on hand. That would be a fairly quick and easy score.

 

There are also riverboat casinos (good time is when they are transferring the money to armored cars), Currency Exchange companies (cash a lot of paychecks as above), major Western Union stations (deal with a lot of cash from people who are wiring), as well as the other things which have been mentioned such as art galleries, museums, etc.

[RDU Neil]

This is a super world...

 

... so how about a "super" target. A private club specializing in the occult, and the villains want a powerful artifact from there.

 

A "STAR Labs" type location, where proto-vibranium or a new suit of battle armor is being produced.

 

Want it more realistic... how about hitting another criminal organization. Hitting a drug deal to get the money. Hitting a weapons buy for the money and the guns.

 

This third location could also play the part of "clue" to give the heroes a chance to home in on the long term goals of the villains... not just stop a random crime.

 

YMMV

[SuperBlue]

Thanks for the sugguestions, how's this sound:

 

Group 3 is attacking the local University (hoping to steal some artifacts from the history exibhit on display) about 10 minutes before the other 2 groups hit their locations simultaniously. This not only draws the bulk of the police to the campus, but draws them away from the bank and jewelry store. So here is the breakdown on events:

 

3:30 PM

Inferno and Replicator (in their normal form) go into the history exhibit and look around, looking for anything of extreme value and trying to look inconspicuous.

 

3:40 - 3:50 PM

The pair go into the bathroom and change IDs

 

MEANWHILE

 

Groups A (Phantasm, Kadie, and Dark Hammer) and B (Backlash and Falsehood) walk into their respective locations, staggering their arrival time as to not attract attentions (please note, "Kadie" will be waiting in a vehical until 3:59, as will Backlash)

 

3:50 PM

Inferno and Replicator waltz out of the bathroom and attack security guards and cameras, before busting display cases and grabbing loot.

 

All police units rush to university, as does the city's SWAT team, law enforcement will take approx. 5 Minutes to arrive.

 

The duo use this time to make a mess of the campus, while loading loot in a van parked in a nearby handicap space.

 

3:55

Replicator gets the van ready to move while his 3 duplicates finish loading the loot, and Inferno blasts a clear path through the police and SWAT teams so they can escape.

 

Groups A (Dark Hammer uses his Multiform power in the bank, Phantasm throws off his trencoat (he has public ID anyway), Kadie bursts through the window) and B (Falsehood creates and illusion of a fire and pulls the fire alarm as Backlash blows a hole in the wall, the two then begin grabbing jewels and loading them in sacks and tossing them into the van parked out back)

 

4:05 PM

All three groups drive like a bat out of hell to nearby parking garages where they can dump the loot in open man-hole covers into a go-kart and trailor set up, then split up as follows:

 

Group A: Darkhammer drives van away from dump point while Kadie and Phantasm load the money and cover the man-hole and drive to a pre-determined place.

 

Group B: Falsehood takes the loot from the jewelry store through the sewers while backlash drives the van away so he can return to base

 

Group C: Replicator and his copies transfer the stolen goods while Inferno blasts any police that followed, then gets in the van and drives off while Replicator takes the loot through the sewers.

 

 

This is the villain team's plan, and doesn't take the hero group into consideration (The City doesn't have any official heroes, and relies on groups from other cities).

 

If anyone sees any holes in my plan, let me know an I'll patch em

[The Mad GM]

My only comment is that whenever you split your players up, it complicates matters and slows down combat. Personally, I've always regretted it. Doing three simultaneous combats is going to be rough, as part of the team has to sit out for each combat. If they are newbies, I'd recommend not splitting them at all, certainly not in the first big combat.

 

Tactics wise, it's fine.

[lemming]

Actually, if he runs all three combats at the same time, it's not so bad.

[SuperBlue]

I was planning on running all three battles at once :-p

[Agent X]

Originally posted by Old Man

Hey, every new campaign has to start with a bar fight. It's not just a good idea, it's the law.

Make it a trendy night-spot with celebrities!

[Agent X]

Originally posted by The Mad GM

My only comment is that whenever you split your players up, it complicates matters and slows down combat. Personally, I've always regretted it. Doing three simultaneous combats is going to be rough, as part of the team has to sit out for each combat. If they are newbies, I'd recommend not splitting them at all, certainly not in the first big combat.

 

Tactics wise, it's fine.

If you are organized, it can actually be very rewarding as an added wrinkle in your plot once in a while. I hate gamer "traditions" that defy good story-telling and constrict character concept.

[Syberdwarf2]

Originally posted by Old Man

Hey, every new campaign has to start with a bar fight. It's not just a good idea, it's the law.

 

GM: "Okay, so you guys are in a bar........."

[The Mad GM]

Originally posted by Agent X

If you are organized, it can actually be very rewarding as an added wrinkle in your plot once in a while. I hate gamer "traditions" that defy good story-telling and constrict character concept.

 

[ RANT ] I agree, but I have had problem characters in the past who constantly split the parties. During the combat that started this thread, it may very well work out fine, especially if you can set up three different maps for the characters (I am an advocate of maps in combat, even napkin sketches). But usually when teams split, most of the team sits around twiddling their thumbs while I resolve something for the other part.

 

"While they're discussing tactics, my shrinking character sneaks into the villain's air ventillation system and pokes around."

 

--30 minutes later--

 

"Okay, now that you've disabled the air conditioner, home theater system and backup security video, and put the entire base on Full Red Alert, I'll go back to the others and see how their plans for a surprise attack are coming."

 

And this was typical. I admit I am a little traumatized on the subject, but starting a campaign by splitting up the superhero team seems very counterintuitive to me. It may work fine, as the characters realize their seperate efforts are linked by a common enemy. I try not to squelch 'splitters' if the situation warrant it, but it is one of my buttons.

 

[ /RANT ]