What Are Your Hero's Most Embarrassing Moments?

[TheQuestionMan]

What Are Your Hero's Most Embarrassing Moments? They say the secret to comedy is timing, but sometimes its timeless. Why not share your pain with the rest of us.

 

 

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QM

[Matt Frisbee]

Re: What Are Your Hero's Most Embarrassing Moments?

 

One of my very first heroes -- an energy projector named Erg (based very loosely on the DC Justice League character) -- wasn't all that super. He could actually do more damage with a punch than with his energy blast. For a series of misadventures, he teamed up with Force -- a brick who also wasn't spectacular. Our "heroes" were trying to chase down a villain one sunny afternoon, but the villain's defenses were high enough that Erg's energy blast didn't do enough STUN to slow him down and Force's low OCV prevented the brick from laying a finger on him.

 

That's when Erg got the bright idea of Force ripping the gas tanks out of cars and throwing them at the villain while Erg used his energy blasts to detonate them. Well, Force couldn't get the improvised molotov cocktails close enough to the villain for the explosions to affect him, while flaming fuel and shrapnel rained down on the downtown area starting several fires...

 

In the end, both Erg and Force skipped town, altered their costumes and names, and tried the superhero thing in another town (with seriously revamped characters) to somewhat better success.

 

To my defense, the GM never defined "typical" power levels for the game and I was 17 at the time (Force's player was 16). To the GM's defense, it was probably the first time he'd run the game as well. Still, we had a blast, even if the heroes weren't the greatest of all time...

 

Matt "Erg-lives-now-only-in-my-memories" Frisbee

[jkwleisemann]

Re: What Are Your Hero's Most Embarrassing Moments?

 

First superhero game I ever played in (rather than GM'ed). Heroes Unlimited (it was the GM's favorite system, don't ask me why) characters generated purely randomly (one of my least favorite *parts* of the system).

 

I ended up with a Psychic who basically had two powers - mental bolts, and telekinesis. The GM ran us through the sample adventure, featuring a group trying to set off a bomb in an empty mall. Well, one of the villains chucked a grenade at us.

 

Since neither I nor my partner had frag-vests on, I did the only logical thing and telekinetically threw the grenade away from us.

 

In a random direction (thanks again, GM!) which turned out to be out the door.

 

Into the open parking lot filled with police, SWAT units, and bomb squad officers waiting to get in to disarm the Big Bomb.

 

Thank to about the only thing in that game that *wasn't* random, the grenade rolls beneath a police car, and sets off a chain of explosion that ends up wiping out about half the Milwaukee PD.

 

We made it from 1st level to 8th on the XP from that little stunt.

 

We also moved to Denver, and were never heard from again.

[death tribble]

Re: What Are Your Hero's Most Embarrassing Moments?

 

There was the running the Quinjet into an iceberg incident that I never hear the end of.

[BoloOfEarth]

Re: What Are Your Hero's Most Embarrassing Moments?

 

As Bolo, two incidents leap to mind.

 

The first had to do with a series of Disadvantages my character had. He was Hunted by Firewing, Vulnerable to Fire (2x STUN), and Vulnerable to Explosions (1 1/2x STUN).

 

The GM ran a story arc involving Firewing initiating an invasion of Earth, bringing a force of Malvan troops (agent-level grunts armed with energy weapons). Keeping in theme with Firewing's powers, the GM had them firing explosive bursts of flame. Had nothing to do with my Disads.

 

Anyway, during the first battle, Bolo got one-shot KO'd by one (*ONE*!!!) of Firewing's troopers.

 

- - - - - - - - -

 

The second I blame on lack of sleep.

 

We were trying to track down a mystery mega-powerful villain that was going around killing supers who had harmed innocents and either got free on a technicality or escaped from police custody. After many failed attempts to catch the guy in the act, for some stupid reason we decided to "make" him come to us by grabbing some guy off the street and breaking his legs. In our defense, we had tried everything else we could think of to get the guy, and it was like 1:30 a.m. so we were pretty tired.

 

- - - - - - - - -

 

Okay, there was a third thing, but I'm not directly responsible for it. I just share in the group embarassment.

 

After rejecting every other name individual members could think of, our superhero group was finally named the Ann Arbor People's Justice Co-op (abbreviated as the "A-squared PJC"). Absolutely the WORST name I've ever heard for a super-group, and that includes my players naming their first team "The Heroes of Eastern Michigan," also known as "THEM."

[Karmakaze]

Re: What Are Your Hero's Most Embarrassing Moments?

 

Granted, I was GMing for this one...

 

I'd set up an ambush for the players. One of the players had asked for a "radiation accident" to write his PCs powers up more efficiently. So the bad guys had a Power Nullification Ray. What was supposed to happen was that the mooks would attack, get in a "lucky" shot on the target PC, the rest of the team would mop up the mooks easily, and then head over to the source of the tech. Reversing the effect would provide the "radiation accident". Simple, right?

 

Just before I had the attack set up, one of the players (apparently under the impression that we were in a between-module downtime) tells me that his character was going to score a brick of hash and split it with the team.

 

Me: Seriously? A brick of hash? Are you sure?

Player: Yeah! I've got the contacts.

Me: Seriously? A brick of hash? Are you sure?

Player: Yeah!

Me: *facepalm*

 

As it happened, only three of the characters partook, but they were clear that they finished the brick. As they were driving back from this, the target PC was driving (and sober). The only other sober PC decided to make a run into a liquor store. The ambush hit while they were in the parking lot. The target PC got hit with the "lucky" shot and, unfortunately, because he was exposed, the other sober PC got hit with a genuinely lucky shot and lost his powers as well. Rather than ruling the rest of the PCs were comatose, I just gave them some DEX penalties. During a comedy of errors string of bad rolls, the rest of the PCs took several actions to get out of the car, as they kept failing to get the doors open. The brick finally tore the door off, and everyone dove out the hole. The rest of the fight went about that well. The PC in the liquor store, who'd had electricity powers before being hit by the ray, decides to jump start his powers by sticking a finger into an electric socket, and knocked himself out.

 

They... didn't do nearly as well in that fight as I'd planned. The rest of that storyline took a bit of a left turn for a while.

 

The famous quote from that fight was "Forget the handle. Roll to find your toes!"

[Comic]

Re: What Are Your Hero's Most Embarrassing Moments?

 

Well, there was the time Stunt Flyer one-shotted five opponents -- all built on more points -- in one phase using a multiple move-by.

 

Sadly, Stunt Flyer was mind-controlled at the time, and the five 'opponents' were his own team.

 

I hadn't thought putting movement skill levels into an EC would be so unbalancing. (This incident more than any other convinced me to always look more closely at EC's.)

 

Though this was the first time I rolled four rolls of five or less (and needed to, with the maneuver penalties and DCV's of Stunt Flyer's teammates) to-hit in a row, so I can always just blame the dice.

 

Stunt Flyer was captured by the villain, and my next character with that group was a considerably less buff GM-built heroine.. in a tutu.. whose main power appeared to be needing to be rescued from the bad guys by the rest of the team at least twice a session.

[Metaphysician]

Re: What Are Your Hero's Most Embarrassing Moments?

 

Hermes ends up KOed pretty much every single combat. Its just kind of a given. He may get revived almost immediately to continue fighting, he may even win the fight in the end. . . but he hits the floor at least once first.

[BobGreenwade]

Re: What Are Your Hero's Most Embarrassing Moments?

 

The only superhero character I've ever played in more than one campaign has been Captain Photon. I've run him in at least four Champions games whenever I have a feeling for playing the "comic-relief" hero; the schtick of his personality is that he's read too much comic book stuff.

 

However, in the third of those four, he was the most serious character in the bunch -- which says more about the other heroes than about him. Three of the other characters were food-themed in some way. One of them, the Chocolate Moose, was food, though he had a psychosomatic DNPC in the form of a hallucinatory "mother" he obsessively protected... though that's a whole 'nother thread of its own.

 

Anyway, the team tracked the villain (Ratman, with his spinning sidekick Bobbin) to his secret island base, and from a distance we all see a large brass door. Always one to dive in headfirst wherever a superhero might be needed (and only formulate a plan once he realized he was in over his head), Captain Photon attempted a full-speed Move Through on the door...

 

...and missed.

 

He buried himself in the sand up to his ankles.

 

Headfirst.

 

One of the team bricks pulled him out in short order, and the Chocolate Moose managed to get the door open using the "Oh wow, I never would have thought of that" tactic of turning the doorknob.

 

That was not Captain Photon's most embarrasing moment. Yes, true believers, it gets worse!

 

With the door open, Cap characteristically charges in at full throttle, tries to turn a corner, fails (that's what Turn Mode is for), and does the whole "involuntary pinball" thing on the walls.

 

That's not it either. Wait one more Turn.

 

The team makes their way through the corridors and come upon another large brass door, decorated with godlike rat-figures. Cap takes a running start, and rams the door with a Move Through, hits it square-on...

 

...and bounces off.

 

Nope, that's not it either.

 

Instead of the expected explosion of an entry, the door creaks open on its own. Cap, down only a few pips of STUN thanks to a really good Force Field, bursts through with characteristic drama, spies Ratman, and charges, "Now, vile fiend, surrender or face the wrath of [our team]!"

 

That would be his most embarrassing moment. It literally had the GM falling on the floor with laughter.

 

Of course, it might not have been so bad if the Chocolate Moose hadn't followed it up with, "That's right! Surrender or we'll join you!"

[Blue]

Re: What Are Your Hero's Most Embarrassing Moments?

 

Anthem got her but kicked by 5 agents during live evening news coverage. The 5 agents (members of an organization called ONI) are a traditional 5-team of agent-level martial artists, but they gain bonuses for working in coordination with one another.

 

So unlike every martial arts film where the hero tosses villian after villain aside one after another, they had flawless timing with their blows. Since she's got high defenses the fight took a long time and this diversion allowed their cohorts to make off with the loot; a fact that was not lost on the media.

[Tech]

Re: What Are Your Hero's Most Embarrassing Moments?

 

This is too easy. I'm busy at the moment but I'll have to think of how to limit the many I have to tell.

[lemming]

Re: What Are Your Hero's Most Embarrassing Moments?

 

Most embarrassing? Easily the time my character fell off a roof top, missed her acrobatics roll and belly flopped on the pavement to her imminent stun. (About three stories, but she had a phase in there)

 

One of her teammates came by and asked "I thought you installed a flight system in your armor last week?"

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: What Are Your Hero's Most Embarrassing Moments?

 

Well, as an GM-run villain (technically a character!), two games ago, Lodestone managed to miss a blind and entangled PC with a magnetic bolt. I keep getting so close to repealing the 3-and-18 rule ...

[Hermit]

Re: What Are Your Hero's Most Embarrassing Moments?

 

Oh no. Nope nope nope... too many embarrassing things, not enough spine to admit them.

 

Where's my chicken emoticon?

[Adventus]

Re: What Are Your Hero's Most Embarrassing Moments?

 

My most embarrassing moment hmmm....

 

That would be time while, under Chicago walking thru a illegal toxic waste dump, his uniform...disintegrated. The whole thing even his ...UNDERCLOTHES!

 

He finally finds his way out in true brick fashion: He jumps up and does a move thru on the ceiling of the tunnel to land in front of a female New Reporter and her camera man as they are broadcasting in National coverage with every thing swinging in the wind.

 

He was given a speedo made of unstable molecules from Marvel. Afterwards.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Re: What Are Your Hero's Most Embarrassing Moments?

 

That would be the time my swashbuckling martial artist decided to make an impressive acrobatic entrance through the window for a nice presence attack. Acrobatics roll = 18. Somehow knocking myself out on the door frame didn't have quite the effect I was looking for.

[The Weapon]

Re: What Are Your Hero's Most Embarrassing Moments?

 

My character had the bad guy down on the floor but he was pretty tough he might get up again. So he knew he had to keep his absorbtion strength boost up. So he's standing there holding a chunck of concrete over this guy singing "Sex is boring, sex is boring, pain is fun, pain is fun, I want to chop my finger off one by one" (it seems a fun thing to sing) and shooting himself in the foot several times, clearly deliberately. Naturally that's he's watching the bad guy way to closely to notice the camera crew.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: What Are Your Hero's Most Embarrassing Moments?

 

That would be the time my swashbuckling martial artist decided to make an impressive acrobatic entrance through the window for a nice presence attack. Acrobatics roll = 18. Somehow knocking myself out on the door frame didn't have quite the effect I was looking for.

 

My wife's character did that once in an old Fantasy Hero game ... tried to leap over a low wall and hooked her foot on it. *WHUMPH*

[hfergus]

Re: What Are Your Hero's Most Embarrassing Moments?

 

I am going to have to think about what my characters did, but here is one.

 

D&D campaign, we are looting a palace. We have killed most of the baddies and are gathering up treasure and trying to find the best for the first trip out (We hope there will be more trips with more treasure). When suddenly, the last two guards show up. The mage, who is a firebug, casts fireball. Whoosh! Two dead guards. - And a castle on fire. We grabbed the nearest treasure chest and booked it out before the place burned down around our ears. The chest had almost no magic items and mostly silver. We would have been almost set for life if we had totally sacked the place. (The GM would have allowed at most one other trip before someone else sacked it - or occupied it.) The chest with the best we had found up to that point was not on our way out. Sigh. (And this was after our prankster gnome left practical joke booby traps all over for sackers other than ourselves. He was more upset about the traps being burnt up than not getting the treasure, and chastised the firebug at every opportunity afterwards.)

[Tech]

Re: What Are Your Hero's Most Embarrassing Moments?

 

One of our GM's was trying to introduce April O'Neille (from TMNT) as a girlfriend for one of our heroes. Unfortunately, it was getting late. We don't remember much about the episode except for the following:

 

April gets saved by the hero and keeps talking about being a reporter to the hero, then realizes she's talking too much about work. They are going to go out for dinner during the evening.

 

GM acting as April: Oops! Sorry about that - I'll stop talking about work. Tonight, I'll just be April O'Neille - woman.

 

Player as hero: (pauses) YOU SURE ARE!

 

["V"]

Re: What Are Your Hero's Most Embarrassing Moments?

 

Jack-A-Dandy once stepped out wearing a cravat that was at least two demi-tones away from a perfect match with the handkerchief in his breast pocket. The shame of it! To this day he suspects alien mind control rays. He didn't show his face in public for a week!

 

Thank goodness nobody else noticed or he would have HAD to fake his own death and return under a different - and hence inferior - identity.

[Comic]

Re: What Are Your Hero's Most Embarrassing Moments?

 

Pfft. Everyone noticed.

 

I mean, it made page seven of the Post, and they had correspondence about it in the Standard for weeks.

[Blue Jogger]

Re: What Are Your Hero's Most Embarrassing Moments?

 

Teen superhero with the shtick that he could have only one power on at a time. The gadgeteer decided to make a gadget to allow him to reroute his powers in such a way that he could have TWO powers simultaneously.

 

Unfortuately, the user interface was not at all intuitive (looking like the brackets from Space Ghost).

 

"Let's GO!" He activated (so he thought) Flight and Invulenerability and leaped out of the flying car. Rolled 18, side effect kicks in, shorting out ALL his powers.

 

"AAaaaaaaaagghhh!" Luckily, he was saved by another flier.

[Clonus]

Re: What Are Your Hero's Most Embarrassing Moments?

 

 

We made it from 1st level to 8th on the XP from that little stunt.

 

We also moved to Denver, and were never heard from again.

 

The GM gave you experience points for killing people accidentally?

["V"]

Re: What Are Your Hero's Most Embarrassing Moments?

 

Pfft. Everyone noticed.

 

I mean, it made page seven of the Post, and they had correspondence about it in the Standard for weeks.

 

Really? Splendid! To be the focus of such scrutiny! Heaven.