Tales of the Destroyer

[nexus]

I recently purchased The Book of the Destroyer and it's made curious. How many have used Dr D in their campaigns or had characters oppose him in direct combat? How did those battles turn? Basically, I'm looking for some war stories about the good Doctor.

[McCoy]

Re: Tales of the Destroyer

 

Snow Leopard, assisted by an army of NPC's, managed to count coup on him once. Once.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Tales of the Destroyer

 

I have yet to use the Fifth Edition version of DD; his 4E incarnation did show up a few times in past campaigns of mine, though. Aside from the classic Day of the Destroyer adventure, my favorite use of him involved the Dreamzone, which oldtimers who have read Champions in 3-D will probably remember. The 5E CU has its own version of the Dreamzone, but the earlier one was slightly different. People who physically entered it could reshape it to their desires, depending on the strength of their will. The Dreamzone was also inhabited by shapechanging spirit beings called "Dreamshadows," who would take on the forms of roles called for in sleepers' dreams.

 

At the end of an earlier encounter between my PCs and Dr. D, Destroyer was hurled into his prototype reality-warping device, which apparently disintegrated him. A few months later (game time), several PCs started having recurring nightmares of the Doctor ruling the world. Shortly afterward the heroes were contacted by the Bogeyman, the nightmare-creating villain who haunts the Dreamzone. The Bogeyman had actually come seeking their help; instead of being disintegrated Dr. Destroyer had been cast into the Dreamzone. In the intervening months Destroyer had enslaved the Dreamshadows, and reshaped the Dreamzone into a totalitarian state. He was causing humanity to dream of his conquest of Earth, to weaken their resistance to the reality of it. At the same time he was working on opening a rift from the Dreamzone to the waking world through which he would lead his army of Dreamshadows, shifted into deadly fighting shapes.

 

The PCs had to travel to the Dreamzone to overthrow Destroyer, fighting or sneaking through his empire and fortress headquarters. In their confrontation with the Doctor, the power he had amassed through tapping the Dreamzone proved too great to defeat through physical force. The heroes ultimately bested him by using one of his own devices to cause his deepest nightmares to manifest, making him flee the Dreamzone (one of several possible routes to victory I had left clues to during the adventure).

[nexus]

Re: Tales of the Destroyer

 

Lord Laiden, that was a cool use of the Doctor. Very unconventional.

 

 

No more stories of fisticuffs or chess games with one of (if not the) mega villain of the Champions Universe?

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Tales of the Destroyer

 

Well, I do have a story taken from when a friend of mine GM'd a run of Day of the Destroyer. To keep from spoiling the adventure for those who haven't read it, I'll just relate the pertinent details:

 

The PCs attack Dr. Destroyer's island base to try to stop his world-devastating plot; have a very tough fight getting through DD's forces led by his powerful security chief, Gigaton; reach Dr. Destroyer's control room, and after a vicious pitched battle which leaves half of them unconscious, barely manage to stop Destroyer and his scheme. As the heroes sprawl on the floor exhausted, the wall of the control room bursts apart to reveal a really pissed-off looking Gigaton. The players feel their hearts sink while Gig looks over them, the destroyed control room, and the crumpled figure of Destroyer; then he shrugs, says "Eh, he was a jerk anyway," and leaves.

[nexus]

Re: Tales of the Destroyer

 

Well' date=' I do have a story taken from when a friend of mine GM'd a run of [i']Day of the Destroyer[/i]. To keep from spoiling the adventure for those who haven't read it, I'll just relate the pertinent details:

 

The PCs attack Dr. Destroyer's island base to try to stop his world-devastating plot; have a very tough fight getting through DD's forces led by his powerful security chief, Gigaton; reach Dr. Destroyer's control room, and after a vicious pitched battle which leaves half of them unconscious, barely manage to stop Destroyer and his scheme. As the heroes sprawl on the floor exhausted, the wall of the control room bursts apart to reveal a really pissed-off looking Gigaton. The players feel their hearts sink while Gig looks over them, the destroyed control room, and the crumpled figure of Destroyer; then he shrugs, says "Eh, he was a jerk anyway," and leaves.

 

[pinecone]

Re: Tales of the Destroyer

 

I only got to face the Doc in Day of the Destroyer...(I think that was what it was...) We were fighting out doors I was playing Mon EL (playable version) and I had wisely flown a Kilometer away to take some Recoverys (Much needed, to do most anything I had to shift my multi from "Invulnrable" more of a Ultra-boy really)

 

Everyone else was down ..exept our Phychic/Martial artist (Who I was mind linked to) He decided to "Kneel before the mighty Doctor" just in time for a pushed movethrough to arrive, and seeing as I'm down here, I'll Martial throw the Doc, to take advantage of the hellacious knockback"...

 

Goodguys win! (by fighting dirty) ....I don't recall how we got him topside...likely we dared him to "Take it outside"

 

Score one for team work.

[SuperJerry]

Re: Tales of the Destroyer

 

I have a Dr. Destroyer-esque villain in my campaign that I want to use but haven't yet. I have come up with a multi-step scheme for him to take over the U.S. but I haven't figured out how to give the PC's a chance to stop him. I was thinking it would start with the infiltration of various agencies (including the agency responsible for supers) and leading all the way to the whitehouse. Then he would implement a number of schemes that would implicate the supers agency leading to distrust for them by the general populace. The final scheme would involve the faking a rebellion/attempted coup from the supers agency in which Sun Securities (an agency providing super powered security guards that the good Doc happens to own and outfit with his own supers) steps in, quels the rebellion and goes onto the pay roll for keeping the peace. After that it would be a few short steps to having a fake election making him president.

 

Where to get the PCs into the action and give them a chance of actually stopping him while still giving the Doc the edge is where I've been having problems.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Tales of the Destroyer

 

We're currently in the middle of a scenario where Dr. Destroyer has made an play to take over VIPER outright - he attacked their main headquarters in Africa. We're in a running fight through the base confronting both Dr. D's troops and VIPER troops, who are also fighting each other, to get to the control room. . .

 

It's taking several sessions to fight through the thing. And proving quite fun to boot. We have three super hero teams and Foxbat.

 

Uh. . . Foxbat got us there actually. Apparently Foxbat sees Dr. Destroyer as his arch nemesis. The odd (sad?) thing is Foxbat has come closer to ending the world (twice!) than Dr. Destroyer, effectively making him a more dangerous super villain. Something Dr. Destroyer both scoffs at and takes offense to.

 

Funny part of the adventure (have to relate it); Foxbat in a stolen Destroyer Jet is approaching the VIPER lair with all the heroes on board and goes to Stealth Mode:

 

GM: Foxbat cuts the engines and whispers "SHHHH"

Enigma: That's your stealth mode?!

Foxbat: SHHH!!!!

. . . thirty seconds pass

GM: It appears he cut the engines too soon, you seem to be heading into the mountain side just below the hangar opening.

Enigma: SOMEONE GET OUT AND PUSH!

And so the three fliers we had with us got out and pushed. . . the brown and yellow painted Dr. Destroyer plane into the VIPER Headquarters main hangar and a raging fire fight.

 

Quite possibly the most epic entrance to any fight I've ever been involved in.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Tales of the Destroyer

 

I think "Foxbat Stealth Mode" will become a recurring gag line in my games from now on.

[FenrisUlf]

Re: Tales of the Destroyer

 

I have yet to use the Fifth Edition version of DD; his 4E incarnation did show up a few times in past campaigns of mine' date=' though. Aside from the classic [i']Day of the Destroyer[/i] adventure, my favorite use of him involved the Dreamzone, which oldtimers who have read Champions in 3-D will probably remember. The 5E CU has its own version of the Dreamzone, but the earlier one was slightly different. People who physically entered it could reshape it to their desires, depending on the strength of their will. The Dreamzone was also inhabited by shapechanging spirit beings called "Dreamshadows," who would take on the forms of roles called for in sleepers' dreams.

 

At the end of an earlier encounter between my PCs and Dr. D, Destroyer was hurled into his prototype reality-warping device, which apparently disintegrated him. A few months later (game time), several PCs started having recurring nightmares of the Doctor ruling the world. Shortly afterward the heroes were contacted by the Bogeyman, the nightmare-creating villain who haunts the Dreamzone. The Bogeyman had actually come seeking their help; instead of being disintegrated Dr. Destroyer had been cast into the Dreamzone. In the intervening months Destroyer had enslaved the Dreamshadows, and reshaped the Dreamzone into a totalitarian state. He was causing humanity to dream of his conquest of Earth, to weaken their resistance to the reality of it. At the same time he was working on opening a rift from the Dreamzone to the waking world through which he would lead his army of Dreamshadows, shifted into deadly fighting shapes.

 

The PCs had to travel to the Dreamzone to overthrow Destroyer, fighting or sneaking through his empire and fortress headquarters. In their confrontation with the Doctor, the power he had amassed through tapping the Dreamzone proved too great to defeat through physical force. The heroes ultimately bested him by using one of his own devices to cause his deepest nightmares to manifest, making him flee the Dreamzone (one of several possible routes to victory I had left clues to during the adventure).

 

Wow, that was a seriously cool idea.

[Eosin]

Re: Tales of the Destroyer

 

We tangled with Dr. D once. The two bricks tried to delay him long enough for the cavalry to arrive. We failed. I did a few points of STUN to him first!!

 

I used Dr D once in a game (actually, a lower powered LMD type version). The players were receiving an award when several Sentinel-like robots attacked. It was a real down and dirty brawl and just when the PCs were ready to go into mop-up mode out comes the Doctor.... The PCs were literally on their last legs.

 

They scrambled to keep out of his way while they recovered. It was one of those inspired battles because the players knew they could not stand up. There were some dirty tricks and sometimes questionable uses of powers but it sure was fun. The player who finished Destroyer was later interviewed in Playboy about his status as a sex symbol.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Tales of the Destroyer

 

Pardon the revival of this thread, but in reviewing an older thread on this forum I came across a whack of posts detailing campaign stories about DD. I doubt any of the authors would object to my reposting them to this thread, but if any do please contact me and I'll remove the offending missives.

 

 

In a Merc Superhero game I ran, the group had a 'date the heros' contest. Among the entries was a girl who said she was the daughter of Dr. D and that she wanted to date one of the PCs because she knew it would make him furious.

 

The PC's slowly backed away from that entry:)

 

 

FYI...

 

In my games using Dr Destroyer, he was sort of fused with Malachite (not literally, just took the two and sort of stuck them in a blender) but through Eugenics, not some sort of weird genetic experiment (doing this from memory so bear with me). Also, his agenda was more in line with Apocalypse from X-Men - to strengthen humanity. Well, actually to raise them to his level of self-proclaimed and manufactured 'godhood'.

 

And to do this he masqueraded as a tin-pot dictator, mastermind and world conqueror.

 

Because the theory was that if Dr D really wanted to take over the CU earth as we know it, there didn't seem to be anything to stop him. So there had to be a reason he was limiting himself.

 

 

Does anyone use Dr. D's PRE? He really should get the drop on just about anyone just by walking into the room, heaven help you if he performs a violent act first.

 

My old gaming group (about skilled Avengers power level) had just one-shot Professor Muerte when the true backer of the Grond Project arrived, Dr. Destroyer. Thankfully the brick/damage magnet of the group also happened to be the logical target, so while everyone else on the team got a chance to pick their jaws up off the floor (+30 on the best PRE in the group) the brick got to see what getting sent flying over a quarter-mile away felt like. And this was before Mega-scale.

 

They did eventually drive Dr. Destroyer away, after wrecking most of the LA docks, but they never beat him decisively not this or any of the other times they met.

 

 

The good Doctor, is going to make an (indirect) appearance in my campaign. UNTIL and the PCs have started investigating an reappearance of some of his technology (the Wardroids from the "Return of the Destroyer" plot in CU). The plot should culminate in a major battle including the very first appearance of Gigaton in my campaign.

 

As to Dr. D's PRE, they have been subjected to that too (indirectly). They faced a robot double of Destroyer which only half his presence, but all of it's reputation bonus. And they ALL recognised him. Let's just say that they all stood still as it took it's first shot.

 

 

The campaign I'm gearing up to run is very similar to that X-Men series that I can't remember the name of, where America is ruled by a Destroyer-esque bad guy and they're all rebel fighters.

 

I plan on using Doc D. as this main baddie with a pseudo relgion based on him called The Brotherhood. Dr. D. has various Hunter teams of super-baddies that control various regions much like fiefdoms. It's almost like Dr. D is the head of the Coalition States from Rifts and each hunter group are the nominal royalty of a Coalition City.

 

 

I usually try to use Dr. Destroyer as unwilling to acknowlege that anyone deserves more than a 'flick of his finger.' If he doesn't pull punches, characters die in the blink of an eye.

 

However, one of the aforementioned gaming group did use his Instant Change on Dr. Destroyer , after I asked him twice "are you sure you want to do that?" Dr. D spoke into a microphone on his wrist, "Lightbearer, annihilate," and an omega beam-ish, character-seeking missile heated out after the suicidal character. Boom!

 

I turned it into a 'radiation accident' after a short sit in the corner for the player.

 

 

The only time Dr. D has (so far) made an actual personal appearance in one of my games, I didn't even need to roll the dice -- all the PCs immediately started grabbing the civilians and evacuated the area! (Given that the PCs were only 250 points each = good call!)

 

 

I recently revisited the old Island of Dr. Destroyer adventure with a twist.

 

I had a pretty new group going, all playing beginning characters, and this was their 5th or 6th storyline. I wanted to do a Dr. D storyline, but this group was no where in his league if he had deemed them worthy to actually fight, so I ran a troy slightly differently. The current Dr. Destroyer went out to change history, so he hijacked an experimental time machine and activated it sending himself about 15 years into the past when the original IODD was going on. He wanted to succeed where once he failed, and (in my campaign at least) this was his first defeat at the hands of the Champions. (the original Champions at that, Marksman, Flare, Gargoyle, etc.)

 

So my group, who were near where DR. D went back in time, and a few others awoke, with two sets of memories in Dr. Destroyers new world. The fact that they still had some memories from the previous world was due to a temporal distortion from being so close to where time was broken. The memories were fading fast though, so they had to assemble, and travel back into the past themselves to stop this Dr. D from aiding the old Dr. D. Luckily, all the current Dr. D did was go back and capture the Champions for the old Dr. D. Then he left. So my group had to basically complete the actual invasion of the Island portion of the adventure. It ran a lot like the island scenes on 'the Incredibles'. (The current Dr. D updated the weaponry of the old Dr. D's guards, as well as gave him new designs for vehicles) The old Dr. D was still plenty tough though, and seemed too tough for my group, until the speedster of the group rescued the Champions and then he decided to vacate the Island.

[bubba smith]

Re: Tales of the Destroyer

 

I have a Dr. Destroyer-esque villain in my campaign that I want to use but haven't yet. I have come up with a multi-step scheme for him to take over the U.S. but I haven't figured out how to give the PC's a chance to stop him. I was thinking it would start with the infiltration of various agencies (including the agency responsible for supers) and leading all the way to the whitehouse. Then he would implement a number of schemes that would implicate the supers agency leading to distrust for them by the general populace. The final scheme would involve the faking a rebellion/attempted coup from the supers agency in which Sun Securities (an agency providing super powered security guards that the good Doc happens to own and outfit with his own supers) steps in, quels the rebellion and goes onto the pay roll for keeping the peace. After that it would be a few short steps to having a fake election making him president.

 

Where to get the PCs into the action and give them a chance of actually stopping him while still giving the Doc the edge is where I've been having problems.

try having on of docs"appointees"be a super's civilian id that way he'd contact some allies and the game is on

[hfergus]

Re: Tales of the Destroyer

 

My favorite instance with Doctor Destroyer is when the group actually allied with him - for a time.

 

You see, aliens attacked the earth neutralizing most tech. The Doctor's worked as one ship my group had. It was capable of high speed up to warp, but had no weapons. He wants to rule, not have aliens rape the planet and take slaves. He actually came to us. We negotiated that he would not take over the world during the crisis, and he gave use some one-use weapons. With his help, we took out the ships blanketing the globe with the null-tech field. I still remember the quote our suspicious character said as he fired the first missle. "C'mon Doctor. Live up to your reputation." With other allies (friendly aliens) we beat them and came back to Doctor Destoyer ruling the old Yugoslavia. Not the whole world after all. (Darn loophole) It gave him a form of immunity as a state head, but also kept him pretty busy proving he could rule. The campaign ended when I left. I miss it.

[Tigereye]

Re: Tales of the Destroyer

 

Our universe doesn't have Doctor Destroyer; we have our own uber-villain named Mister Perfect. He's not as powerful in some respects to DD, but he's a master of force fields and as a result is almost invulnerable to attack, and is also a wizard at other fields of science and technology such as mind control and duplication. His mindset is similar to the evil Doctor's, however, and he pretty much fills the same spot in our metahuman "ecology", as it were.

 

Detroit was instead demolished by Mechanon, but there's an island in the South Pacific that is no longer there because Mister Perfect was suspected of being there. The French allowed the heroes to set off a vibranite bomb just on the chance it would get rid of him (nuclear yields, but zero radioactive fallout). This was because he nuked the original Stronghold with an enhanced-EMP weapon (killing most of the guards and families in the process) and set free most of the world's supervillains, then duplicated them...the French did not want this guy running around on one of their islands, no matter how uninhabited it was.

 

Mister Perfect is so dangerous, one of our PC's reduced his Code Against Killing (Total) to a Code Strongly Opposed To Killing - Except For Mister Perfect!