WWYCD: Where brave men (and women) are needed

[Powerhouse]

Any GI Joe fans will probably recognize this.

 

One day the team is called in to protect a lab from a super villain attack. Although successful, the battle manages to create a strange explosion that rips open the walls between dimensions and your team is flung into another world very much like ours in some ways... and much different and darker in others.

 

In this world Doctor Destroyer, Fiacho of Eurostar, and Dr. Win Yu of China pooled their resources together to finally solve the super hero problem once and for all. Within a short span of time, most of the world's superheroes (including yourself and your own teammates) were slain. What followed was a holocaust as the DD, Fiacho, and Dr Win Yu exterminated their competitors.

 

Now, there are three empires across the world that watch each other as they seek to expand into the other's territory: the alliances are over and a new series of battles are brewing as they vie for ultimate supremacy.

 

In this tumultous time, you team manages to survive and even strike a significant blow against the villians. Hope has returned even if the light is only a flicker. Yet the portal opens up again and you have only one chance to return home: will you stay in this land that has so desperate need of heroes?

 

Notes: I patterned this after an old GI Joe episode where some Joes were shunted into an alternate universe where COBRA has won and most Joes were dead. In that world, Destro and Cobra Commander (number two and number one guys respectively) finally have a falling out and spark a civil war. I used that to pattern the fighting among the big three so that the heroes might actually have a chance.

 

And... would your hero's decision be altered if a handome/beautiful supervillain happened to be on your side and in love with your now deceased double?

 

[Metaphysician]

Re: WWYCD: Where brave men (and women) are needed

 

Microman II: Vaguely wonders what Fiacho contributed to get the other two to give him the time of day. After that. . . two priorities. One, figure out as much of the past as possible. This probably means hitting Europe ( of the three factions, Eurostar is least likely to institute safeguards against time travellers ). Once thats done, its time for guerilla warfare, New Sentinels style. Distinct chance we might try and see if Dr Yin Wu is open to a "screw your opponents" alliance, given he is by far the least of the evils in question.

 

Hermes: First thing is first- he and Quetzlcoatl run away from Aral trying to stab them, after they managed to get us all thrown through time and space *again* ( yes, this has happened repeatedly in our campaign ). After that, lordy, depends on how quickly we can get oriented. Hopefully, whatever resistance is out there finds us before anything big enough to take us down does ( though given a few more arcs in our game, "big enough" might mean "Dr Destroyer personally". . . ). Once we've figured out the situation though, the answer becomes fairly straightforward: "remove the head and the body dies." Might or might not make an agreement with Dr Yin Wu; depends mainly on the details of what he's cooperated with the other two to do. Fiacho and Zertstoiten, OTOH? They need to die, no questions asked.

[nexus]

Re: WWYCD: Where brave men (and women) are needed

 

Tao: Return home, her place is with her unit.

 

Velocity: Return home, too many friends, family and people that need her

 

Eve: Return home (See Velocity plus she'd miss her daddy)

 

Ivy: Return home as she couldn't abandon her children

 

Shidoku: Return home, too many personal scores to settle.

 

Elastica: Return home has problems and commitments in her world.

 

Valkeyrie:Return home Far to insecure and tied to her home and friends to leave.

[Adventus]

Re: WWYCD: Where brave men (and women) are needed

 

Starfire: His powers won't let him leave as this world needs a hero even more than his home world.

 

Pyhrus: would portal to elemental plane of fire and figure out how to get home from there and back to this dimension. THis way he could bring the really big guns to take down these three mastervillains and their regimes.

 

Adventus: would stay and help. He would make sure he wrote down everything that happened for the movie deal when it was all over.

[Metaphysician]

Re: WWYCD: Where brave men (and women) are needed

 

Microman II: Vaguely wonders what Fiacho contributed to get the other two to give him the time of day. After that. . . two priorities. One, figure out as much of the past as possible. This probably means hitting Europe ( of the three factions, Eurostar is least likely to institute safeguards against time travellers ). Once thats done, its time for guerilla warfare, New Sentinels style. Distinct chance we might try and see if Dr Yin Wu is open to a "screw your opponents" alliance, given he is by far the least of the evils in question.

 

Hermes: First thing is first- he and Quetzlcoatl run away from Aral trying to stab them, after they managed to get us all thrown through time and space *again* ( yes, this has happened repeatedly in our campaign ). After that, lordy, depends on how quickly we can get oriented. Hopefully, whatever resistance is out there finds us before anything big enough to take us down does ( though given a few more arcs in our game, "big enough" might mean "Dr Destroyer personally". . . ). Once we've figured out the situation though, the answer becomes fairly straightforward: "remove the head and the body dies." Might or might not make an agreement with Dr Yin Wu; depends mainly on the details of what he's cooperated with the other two to do. Fiacho and Zertstoiten, OTOH? They need to die, no questions asked.

 

Oh, and for the record, "only one chance to go home" really isn't applicable for either of these characters. The New Sentinels have native d-travel available through a couple means, and the Ancient Aberrant characters are only a relative short way from developing means to do such, themselves.

[McCoy]

Re: WWYCD: Where brave men (and women) are needed

 

Millennium sees himself as the living incarnation of the Hero with a Thousand Faces. Would stay, would be as inspiratiional as possible, would play up the "you already killed me" angle.

 

"Don't you understand? You killed me once already. You can kill this body too, but the Spirit of the Hero will return. Again, and again, and again. You have to win each and every time. On the other hand, I only have to win once. I am prepared to spend eternity bringing you down, are you prepared to spend the rest of your life killing me?"

 

Note: He more than halfway believes this. After all, something drew him cross-dimension to tale the palce of his deceased double. He is confident that if he falls, another alterate-reality version will be tapped.

 

And... would your hero's decision be altered if a handome/beautiful supervillain happened to be on your side and in love with your now deceased double?

This shall be know as Part B.

 

"I'm very flattered, very glad you are now on the side of the heros, but if you haven't noticed, in these stories the Hero's love interest usually does not come out well, and I will not expose you to those dangers. I hope we can remain friends."

 

 

 

Cheeta: "'Cuse me miss, can you direct me to the egress of this funhouse? I ain't laughin."

 

Part B: "Well, guess I could stick around for a little while."

 

 

 

Snow Leopard: "Yet another freaking alternate reality. There are an infiniate number of them, you fight, you bleed, you try to make a difference, next week there's another phase shift, and you have to do it all again. 'A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifing nothing.' I am just getting too old for this."

 

Part B: "This is different!"

 

 

 

Iron Will will see what he can do about equipting the Resistance and rebuilding the infastructure.

 

Part B: "I'm 13 years old. What kind of perv are you?"

 

 

 

Dolphin: No matter where you go, there you are. Will try to broker a cease fire by pointing out how the ongoing war is doing a lot of colateral damage to the enviroment. Not to mention how their individual karmic debt has gone, "Well, let's put it this way. If you develop cures for cancer and AIDS, and give them away, end world hunger, and provide a home for every orphan and kitten on the planet, over your next thousand incarnations you might work you way up to cockroach."

 

Part B: "OK."

[jkwleisemann]

Re: WWYCD: Where brave men (and women) are needed

 

Galaxy Girl: Ironically, despite the fact she could leave any time she wants, she's the first one heading back... unless she has teammates who are going to stay. She's not about to strand them just to keep herself from having to deal with this place.

 

Sparky: Unfortunately, he's heading back too. He wants to stay... but he has his family, his pack, that needs him.

 

Outsider: Now things get complicated. For one thing, in his mind, his world is better off without him being there. Rarely is a world worse off for being rid of a Qliphotic horror, albeit one that has a conscience and a partly human soul.

 

On the other hand, the three madmen here... they could use a little glimpse of the Shining Darkness. He'd be staying... and dragging Galaxy Girl (and others on the team) along with him, in all likelihood.

[jkwleisemann]

Re: WWYCD: Where brave men (and women) are needed

 

Getting outside the subject of Colton's Special Studies Unit... and into the grown up heroes. ;P

 

Void: He's out of here. He's got bigger fish to fry back home (in his mind), a world that can be saved... and besides, if there's one thing this world proves, it's that if the big boys get together, the heroes need all the help they can get.

 

Darkchild: She, on the other hand, is sticking around. For one thing, she can dimension-travel herself. For another, Heat Wave would almost certainly stay as well, and he needs an anchor, especially in this world, to keep the Dragon from consuming him. Finally... she serves the Gods for the sake of the forces of good. If her powers still exist, she intends to prove that they still wish for the good to succeed.

 

Huntress: Situation A, probably heads out, worried that somebody might be stealing her designs. Situation B, however, she'd likely stick around, assuming she couldn't convince the love interest to come along instead.

[teh bunneh]

Re: WWYCD: Where brave men (and women) are needed

 

Batroc: Goes home. She's in the heroing business to make a name for herself, not to get killed in some alternate reality.

 

Part B: Meh. There are men in every dimension.

 

Arachne: Goes home, reluctantly. She wants to do good, but her parents would never forgive her if she stayed behind.

 

Part B: Ah, teenaged love! It is eternal and unchanging and desperately, desperately important! Every breath you take, every beat of your heart, is all for the object of your affect.... hey, who's that over there? He's kind of cute...

[Blue]

Re: WWYCD: Where brave men (and women) are needed

 

Uncle Slam would be the most likely to stay; Ironically, a romantic attachment would be more likely to drive him out than keep him there, mostly because he still has a torch for someone. Audra Blue would need to be back in her own world. Anthem would do what she can while she's there, but she knows she can do more good in her own home world, because she's not all-powerful; She makes a difference on the street level.

[Vondy]

Re: WWYCD: Where brave men (and women) are needed

 

All of my characters would go home when the opportunity arose.

 

Personally, I hated Sliders.

[Sundog]

Re: WWYCD: Where brave men (and women) are needed

 

Terminus would like to stay and help, but he has a job to do in our dimension (which isn't his, btw). Ultimately, he's only one man - one problem at a time.

 

However, he'd almost certainly give any rebel/resistance groups a copy of his proprietary technology. Let's see how Fiacho's troops do going up against cheap, light body armour that can stop a .50 BMG round, or hyper-cruise capable Aerospace Supremacy Fighters...

[Powerhouse]

Re: WWYCD: Where brave men (and women) are needed

 

Just a few points:

 

1. First of all, thanks everyone for responding! It's always welcomed and appreciated.

 

2. I chose Fiacho to represent Europe. While he lacks the raw power of the other two, he is a master tactician and could have assembled together a small army of super villains so I think that he could be a worthy member of the trio. If not, you can always make the situation a little more simple and just have two master villains.

 

3. I apologize if this seems a little contrived but I'm kinda enforcing the "only one chance home" since the ability to shift back and forth across the dimensions really undercuts the question of WWYCD? Do they undertake these bleaks odds to help a world where they are so needed or do they say "hey, there's only so much that any one person should have to sacrifice and I'm more than just a cape."

 

Much of it depends on what powers you have avialiable and the FX of any extra dimensional movement but it's intended to be almost impossible to go back any other way and indeed, that tends to fit the genre. Doctor Strange is a master sorceror but he doesn't travel to other parallel dimensions or What If's? Instead, he enters Mephisto's realm or the Dark Dimension. Usually, it's a MAJOR plot point to be able to enter a parallel dimension where something diverged.

 

Again, as always I appreciate responses and look foward to more!

[Metaphysician]

Re: WWYCD: Where brave men (and women) are needed

 

That logic *might* work for the New Sentinels ( except there is precedent for hopping about parallel timelines as well, look at Captain Britain or Exiles ).

 

However, for Hermes and his compatriots, not so much. There's a specific power two of his team members are not unlikely to develop soon that is pretty much "parallel timeline travel", and they could theoretically build the mechanical equivalent now. Whether its not within normal comic genre is irrelevant to them, as they aren't normal comic genre, either.

 

A word of advice: don't try and railroad. No matter what scenario you present, odds are there are player characters out there that can ignore some, or all, of the difficulty presented.

[Kevin Schultz]

Re: WWYCD: Where brave men (and women) are needed

 

Jake the Troll - is unique across the metaverse; he d-hops for fun, entertainment, and the liklihood of finding someone of the female persuasion that he could, y'know, actually have sex with without killing. Part A is "hey, another apocolypse-verse. Haven't seen one of these lately. I smite Menton with my Trollish might!" Part B would be "Who-hoo! Who is she? A valkyrie? Freja? (How's Thor doing, and will he try to shank me if I make a move?) Is she biologically compatable? Do I really care?"

 

Shinji Miromoto - would consider this a big ol'd deposit into the kharmic payback account, and would likely stay. It's not like living under the streets of Seattle has gotten him much... (He can also d-hop, but only to the Dark Dimension - maybe he could get back that way, but he's more likely to stay.) Part B would be "OK - that's unexpected. Not undesireable, but surprising."

 

Icon - would fight it out, but take the 1st portal back. She's just a teenager, and she's got responsibilities back home. Part B would be nice, but she's fairly level-headed about such things.

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: WWYCD: Where brave men (and women) are needed

 

Blackcat would stay and fight. In her universe she is currently doing extra dimensional agent work, so that fits right in, add to the fact that she can dimension hop herself. - But even excluding that - she would stay. She fought crime in her own world, was part of the team that brought down Dr Destroyer back home, and she defeated the death dragon. She would stay and fix things.

 

Ballistic would do the same - ignoring the fact he can X-Dim too. The last major adventure with his was the culmination of a campaign, and his fiance and the superagency he built up were all killed during a three pronged invasion. He'd see nothing to go home for, and here he could do it himself.

 

Meeb would stay - he ended up in the world he is in with a huge memory loss, and just trundles around and does good deeds, so he'd just do the same there.

Angelfire would go home. She's a rockstar not a superhero.

 

Smokeater is involved in something that is too important to leave for someone else, so he would return home.

Sift would go home; XDim jaunts are nice vacataions but not permanent re-locations.

 

TV would go home - he has friends and family to return to.

[Powerhouse]

Re: WWYCD: Where brave men (and women) are needed

 

A word of advice: don't try and railroad. No matter what scenario you present, odds are there are player characters out there that can ignore some, or all, of the difficulty presented.

 

*nods*

 

Yeah, I know. I try to not railroad since this is about what a character would do but at the same time, most characters in a comic book can't just XD at will since it tends to undercut the story. Not to say it's impossible mind you, but even in most comics, the FX doesn't allow easy access to alternate dimensions, hence the Dr. Strange example.

 

So I guess I'm at a crossroads in wanting to know what a character would do but, at least, trying to not completely undue the scenario. For example, if the team in question was the FF, it's quite likely that Mr. Fantastic would *eventually* figure out how to get back. Of course, that would take time (possibly years) and materials that could be hard to come by in this world. So you could have a reasonable run of the scenario while at the same time not underming the ability of Reed.

 

And btw, thanks for the reply. As always, I enjoy listening to them.

 

[Zed-F]

Re: WWYCD: Where brave men (and women) are needed

 

Soulbarb is a single street level heroine with no team to back her up and no way to get home short of making a literal deal with the devil or somehow learning enough magic herself to make the trip (which is not likely to be soon as she's a beginning mage at best, if that.) She's also pragmatic enough to know a lost cause when she sees one. She goes home to a world where she can make a difference.

 

Sylph is far too meek and underconfident in her own abilities to want to stay here. If the rest of the New Pantheon were there with her, they might be able to coerce her into staying, or if Dionysus specifically orders her to, she would, but otherwise she's taking the first portal home.

[Marketeer]

Re: WWYCD: Where brave men (and women) are needed

 

How did it work out in GI Joe again? Not remembering is bothering me...

 

[Hermit]

Re: WWYCD: Where brave men (and women) are needed

 

Most of my characters would go home, and over half already have a love interest that would be one of the reasons TO go back.

[Powerhouse]

Re: WWYCD: Where brave men (and women) are needed

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

How did it work out in GI Joe again? Not remembering is bothering me...

 

Of the characters who went into the other dimension, I think three stayed. Steeler (tank driver) was one. In the first part, his long time girlfriend had broken up with him, leaving him open to hook up with the Baroness who was in love with her Steeler. Clutch (jeep driver), and someone else (Grunt?) also stayed behind to fight.

[Constantine]

Re: WWYCD: Where brave men (and women) are needed

 

Battery - Would stay. He's been through something like this before, and spent years fighting a similar war. He'll fight this one, too, and hope something comes up/happens later that he can get home.

 

Damnation - Depends on what the boss says, and the rest of the team wants to to. We've already dealt with Destroyer in our world, and if they wanna stay here and deal with this one too, so be it. After all, no one escapes Damnation....

 

Lightshow - She's too young and too new to the hero game to do something like this. She leaves.

[Grimble]

Re: WWYCD: Where brave men (and women) are needed

 

Jack "Crash" Parker (Mutant Stuntman and Superhero Brick): Jack has a real hero complex. He'd have to stay and save the world. Throw in a hot Villianess who sees him as a second chance with her true love and he'd never leave.

[薔薇語]

Re: WWYCD: Where brave men (and women) are needed

 

The Rose:

 

 

A.) He would most certainly go home. He might try and stay for a moment and help form a better system for the alliance(rebels) to fight with, but in the end he is only one super with a mission in his home plain to keep the Kings of Edom out. He can't just stay around here and fight Dr.D.

 

B.) Women, So what he has tons on his home plain. No mater how evil a womans heart he know that deep down inside they all love him.

 

 

Marik Katharazul:

 

A.) Assuming his pesky/unwanted consciences of an Angel fallowed this would be great. He could "help" people as need. And have to fear of DEMON coming after him. He is only a super so as to change his "balance" in the grand sceme of things so he isn't automatically shunted to Hell as a victim.

 

B.) Women, again he can have pretty much who ever he wants anyway. No need to really worry. Although...Ohh Ms. Universe. I never though...

 

 

 

La Rose