Foxbat For President! (Adventure from Blackwyrm)

ghost-angel · August 6, 2009

The Upside:

Foxbat For President is an adventure using everyone's favorite (or least favorite) loony super-villain Foxbat! This time the the Master Plan is to run for president, and in true Foxbat fashion it wasn't even his idea. But Foxbat knows a good thing when he sees it, and jumps on board!

A Nefarious plot, a loony villain, an assassination attempt, and ancient Gods all add up to a fast paced romp, election year optional. Without giving away the mystery I'll try and outline a little more of the plot.

Foxbat has managed to acquire enough signatures to get himself on the ballot in all fifty states, not just one or two. This puts him in the national running for president, and so he heads off to the campaign trail, VP Nominee in tow. The PCs can get involved in any number of ways, from being asked to help protect him as he campaigns, to trying to investigate how he even managed to pull this off in the first place. The first obstacle is an assassination attempt on Foxbat himself, and then the adventure kicks into full swing as the PCs get into the who and why of it all.

The Adventure flips between the lunacy of Foxbat and a moderately serious plot working behind the scenes. The adventure could quickly turn dark, or stay very light hearted and camp as things progress. It's also designed so that it could be run quickly, in a game session or two, or drawn out into a longer story-arc. I would recommend at least two game sessions for this as there is definitely two distinct halves, that can have to very different tones to them.

Littered throughout the text are Plot Options, from the silly to the serious, that you can use to mesh this into a larger campaign, or use for side quick side adventures should you want to turn the entire adventure into a longer running story. The Plot Options are one of the cooler aspects of the adventure, and would add a lot to any game.

The end scenario helpfully covers several contingencies from Foxbat dying to Foxbat actually wining the election, allowing the GM to pick the most appropriate ending depending on what happens in the climactic end fight. Also, because it's extra cool, there is a short blurb on how to turn this into a Lucha Libre Adventure.

But wait, there's more! The adventure itself only takes the first half of the module, the second half is chock full of extra minions, master villains, agents and assorted NPCs. While intended for this adventure, an enterprising GM can use them anywhere, with or without Foxbat.

Three new minions you can add to Foxbat's team, Agent One is Foxbat's robotic genius. Agent Orange is a speedster and Foxbat's chauffer. Agent X is Foxbat's new muscle, a minor brick. There is also Pendhurst, Foxbat's butler, as no millionaire playboy supervillain is complete without a butler. Then there's Charly, or Charlotte, an old childhood friend of Foxbat's that happens to be a medical genius as well. But wait, there's more. Foxbat also comes with a pair of Supervillain hench-men. Leroy The Awesome Exo-Skeleton Man is a powered armor foe, a full super-villain in his own right if he didn't here-worship Foxbat. Then there's the secret service detail attached to Foxbat during his campaign, given some personality though they're still government goons. After that are the villains of the adventure - including the nefarious master villain behind it all - what, you thought Foxbat could organize his own presidency?

The Downside:

Some might find it a problem that to run the adventure you don't need just one Hero Game supplement, but three. At the very least one of them could have easily been made an optional book to use.

One also has to be careful while running this adventure, as it can quickly and easily turn from something light hearted to something much more sinister very quickly and very easily.

The Otherside:

This should be a fun adventure, and could be a quick one as well. However it does have the potential to become very dark, very quickly. It strikes a good balance between Foxbat Lunacy and Truly Evil Plot. It's nice to see an adventure with a wide enough range to fit into any style of Superheroic gaming from tough Golden Age, campy Silver Age, or a blood spattered Iron Age, without missing a beat.

I definitely recommend picking this one up and giving it a run through.

Lawnmower Boy · January 21, 2010