In The Cards

[Marcus Impudite]

A gang recently robbed Campaign City Bank, making off with a modest sum of cash. Your character and company manage to tail them back to the abandoned warehouse they were using as a hideout, where naturally a fight breaks out. The only member of the gang who doesn't immediately engage you in battle is the ringleader, a strange looking fellow in a black trenchcoat. He is perched on a crate nearby calmly watching you make quick work of the others, all the while shuffling an unusual looking deck of cards. Once all his goons are down for the count, he casually climbs down from crate, draws a hand of five cards from his deck and puts the rest of the cards in his shirt pocket. He holds up the first of the cards in his hand, calls out "Hellfire Bastion", and a fiery barrier of energy is erected between you and him. With his second card, he calls out "Skeleton Sentry" and a skeleton holding a sword and shield appears. With the third, he calls out "Giant Shadow Spider" and a giant black spider with eight sinister red eyes appears next to the skeleton. With his forth, he calls out "Demon Knight on Hellcharger" and a demonic-looking armored knight on a fire-breathing black stead appears along side the spider and the skeleton. His fifth card he chooses not to show for now. He then gives his creatures the order to attack.

 

WWYCD?

[Chuckg]

Re: In The Cards

 

Errrr, could you rewrite the scenario so that it doesn't start out assuming that we crit-failed our Tactics roll? Because I think most of our rooftop crawling vigilantes would, if we followed some mooks back to an obvious villainous warehouse lair with an obvious theme-villain mastermind lording it over his mooks, make our skylight drop surprise attack on the mastermind first and then start thumping the lesser threats.

 

As opposed to what we got here, which is to jump in, ignore the ringleader, focus only on the lesser threats, and then stand there and let this guy call out five unopposed attacks (if we're actually using Champions rules, that means we took a Wait action for five phases of this guy's SPD... well, either that, or he bought the ability to summon lots of peoples all at once and the calling each separate card is just SFX, I guess)... before we decide to do anything?

 

Sorry. This one is another entry for the 'flip the table' files.

[Marcus Impudite]

Re: In The Cards

 

Five attacks? Reread OP.

[assault]

Re: In The Cards

 

This is why you keep teen sidekicks around. They might have some idea what all the cards are about.

 

Failing that: Black Opal distracts the (summoned?) bad guys, while Captain Mercury uses his superspeed to bypass the "Hellfire Bastion" thingie and punch the main bad guy in the face.

[lemming]

Re: In The Cards

 

A gang recently robbed Campaign City Bank' date=' making off with a modest sum of cash. Your character and company manage to tail them back to the abandoned warehouse they were using as a hideout, where naturally a fight breaks out. The only member of the gang who doesn't immediately engage you in battle is the ringleader, a strange looking fellow in a black trenchcoat. He is perched on a crate nearby calmly watching you make quick work of the others, [b']I shoot him[/b]all the while shuffling an unusual looking deck of cards. I shoot himOnce all his goons are down for the count, I shoot himhe casually climbs down from crate, I shoot himdraws a hand of five cards from his deck I shoot him and puts the rest of the cards in his shirt pocket I shoot him. He holds up the first of the cards in his handI shoot him, calls out "Hellfire Bastion", I shoot himand a fiery barrier of energy is erected between you and him. I shoot him

 

Is pretty much what most of my players would be doing. (as well as I myself). Never really into the allowing the main threat get any sort of measure. Definite difference in play style.

[Badger]

Re: In The Cards

 

Realize, Marcus Impudite stole my idea of a character whose theme is summoning via Magic: The Gathering cards.

[Badger]

Re: In The Cards

 

Is pretty much what most of my players would be doing. (as well as I myself). Never really into the allowing the main threat get any sort of measure. Definite difference in play style.

 

I'd agree in principle. But, a one of my characters is fight-crazed enough he'd let him for some extra "fun". And summoned spiders and skeletons would be one of the few things the leader would let him shoot to kill, he cant throw that opportunity away.

[drunkonduty]

Re: In The Cards

 

Knight Rider: (power armoured multi-form)Doesn't believe in magic (or Magic ) and would be seriously flummoxed by what was going on here. She'd probably start by running her sensors over the various thingies to see what they are (suspecting they're optical illusions.) When they turned out to be real she'd start fighting. Since she would have left her Land-Air Bike (LAB) outside she would be stuck in her light recon multi-form (fine for fighting mooks, less good for taking on big bads.) She would find herself in a bad place. She would quickly realise that she's in trouble and try to get to the LAB so she could change form into her Heavy Combat Form. Hopefully the rest of the group can handle the heavy lifting until then. It wouldn't occur to her to worry about the rest of the deck; she's too fresh a hero to suspect those sort of shennigans. Of course once trench-coat boy started summoning more beasties she'd make him target number one. Hopefully he's got some defences, she hits hard.

 

Dark Star: (Darforce energy manipulator and projector) Got his powers from a supernatural source and although he's no expert in the area he at lest knows this sort of thing is real and would not be phased by it or hesitate. He would target the wizard with his Bonds of Blinding, both Entangles and Blinds the target. Should be pretty effective against this guy. Against the summoned beasties he's got a good old fashioned Dark Force EB. But something about that spider would seem familiar. He'd want to know more about it, it's kind and where it comes from. In short I'd hit up the GM and say that spider thing is cool and I'd like to retcon it into my background some how.

 

Re.: This being some sort of table flipping scenario, I can't help but think of this guy:

 

 

I hope the link works, not sure I did the link thing right.

 

cheers.

[kahuna's bro]

Re: In The Cards

 

tuff-man would be out of his league agains some one using power cards like an evil yu gi ohhe'd evacuate

[lemming]

Re: In The Cards

 

I'd agree in principle. But' date=' a one of my characters is fight-crazed enough he'd let him for some extra "fun". And summoned spiders and skeletons would be one of the few things the leader would let him shoot to kill, he cant throw that opportunity away. [/quote']

 

Oh definitely. And we've had characters similar to that. It's just the presentation even though it's a common trope from the comics to have the leader hang back and then present a bunch of power.

[Mister Trent]

Re: In The Cards

 

If he says anything about the Seal of Orichalos I'm running like hell...

[psyber624]

Re: In The Cards

 

My character would stand by in suspended animation while I (the player) remind the juvenile GM that this is Champions, not Yugi-Oh, then try to figure out how to buy up my personal MD to resist his Mom's Mind Control powers which convinced me to play a game with a kid as a GM in the first place....

 

Other than that i would basically ignore the summons and go full tilt on the guy in the forcefield. This is Champions, there are no rules forcing me to deal with his "card characters" first.

 

Now if I was playing a Brick type, probably pick up the skeleton dude and throw him THROUGH the forcefield at the summoner first, just to see how nasty it is.

[Greywind]

Re: In The Cards

 

...and Marvel has Tarot that uses tarot cards to the same effect.

[hfergus]

Re: In The Cards

 

Olorin would go "Oh this is interesting" and t-port ( unless the barrier has anti-tport) behind the big bad invisibly and attack (at which point he would appear). He probably would grab the last card just is case as his first attack. Olorin is hard to hit.

 

Volt can fly over the barrier if it is not up to the ceiling, and do much the same thing as Olorin. All others (except Futurian) would attack the nearest summoned, trying to get to the guy quickly.

 

Futurian - "Cards? Oh wow. I have some too." and proceed to use them - if alone. They pull in his team members. If they are already there, he'd attack.

[Laundry Knight]

Re: In The Cards

 

Captain Spectacular (Superman-type) is a big boy scout and would not strike first at someone who wasn't an obvious threat but would take action after the first card was played. About the same for Tawodi Osdi (a cross between the Angel and Hawkman), and Brother Oculus (Iron Man wannabe). Anaximander (has a Batman vibe gooing one), Crimson Aura (Green Lantern raised by Darkseid), and Mister Invisible (blaxploitation hero with real powers) would never let the guy have a chance. I'm not sure about Lightning Man (Native American lightning casting speedster) or Zynar the Mystic(stage show magician with alien artifact). For the most part, if he wanted to get all five cards out, he had better do it while his mooks were still providing cover.

[Ndreare]

Re: In The Cards

 

Is pretty much what most of my players would be doing. (as well as I myself). Never really into the allowing the main threat get any sort of measure. Definite difference in play style.

 

You must play with the same group as i do.

[Badger]

Re: In The Cards

 

Olorin would go "Oh this is interesting" and t-port ( unless the barrier has anti-tport) behind the big bad invisibly and attack (at which point he would appear). He probably would grab the last card just is case as his first attack. Olorin is hard to hit.

 

Volt can fly over the barrier if it is not up to the ceiling, and do much the same thing as Olorin. All others (except Futurian) would attack the nearest summoned, trying to get to the guy quickly.

 

Futurian - "Cards? Oh wow. I have some too." and proceed to use them - if alone. They pull in his team members. If they are already there, he'd attack.

 

Badger would be similar to Volt, except he wouldnt let a ceiling stop him.

 

Frosty Bob (he is the one who would want to have fun). Unloads the BAGs* ammunition into spider (*big @$$ gun)

[McCoy]

Re: In The Cards

 

Sorry. This one is another entry for the 'flip the table' files.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]44996[/ATTACH]

[Balabanto]

Re: In The Cards

 

Errrr' date=' could you rewrite the scenario so that it doesn't start out assuming that we crit-failed our Tactics roll? Because I think most of our rooftop crawling vigilantes would, if we followed some mooks back to an obvious villainous warehouse lair with an obvious theme-villain mastermind lording it over his mooks, make our skylight drop surprise attack on the mastermind first and [i']then[/i] start thumping the lesser threats.

 

As opposed to what we got here, which is to jump in, ignore the ringleader, focus only on the lesser threats, and then stand there and let this guy call out five unopposed attacks (if we're actually using Champions rules, that means we took a Wait action for five phases of this guy's SPD... well, either that, or he bought the ability to summon lots of peoples all at once and the calling each separate card is just SFX, I guess)... before we decide to do anything?

 

Sorry. This one is another entry for the 'flip the table' files.

 

This is why a smart GM puts enough minions on the battlefield that ignoring them is suicidal. If everyone goes all dogpile on the leader, they will get creamed by the agents or non-leader types. I've seen people ignore this anyway, but it always results in a world of hurt, and sometimes, even character death.

 

If you want the genre conventions to work, you can't make the minions easy to blow through, and you have to make them tough enough that one hit won't drop them.

[Chuckg]

Re: In The Cards

 

This is why a smart GM puts enough minions on the battlefield that ignoring them is suicidal.

That might work in other situations, but in this one as written? It doesn't.

 

* If the odds suck that bad, then the scenario still assumes you're being an idiot -- in this instance, for attacking odds that lopsided by yourself instead of waiting for backup. After all, you followed them to their warehouse without them being aware that they were followed; that means you get to pick the time and circumstances of your assault.

 

* In that vein, since you did have surprise, why didn't your first shot goes into the greatest probable threat -- which is the boss, not the mooks? Take a couple segments to build up some Aim modifiers, call your shot to somewhere sensitive, and put your biggest nonlethal EB right into the leader... and unless he has brick-level defenses that plus the x2 STUN for out-of-combat surprise is going to keep him out of the fight while you mop up on the minions.

 

And if he does have defenses high enough that your best called shot from total ambush can't do more than momentarily faze him, plus a small army, then you either knew this before you went in solo (in which case you're being, um, tactically sub-optimal), or you didn't, at which point the DM is hosing you by hitting you with an encounter well outside your survivable Challenge Rating.

 

So nah, no matter how you slice this cake, or what different frosting you put on it, it still tastes bad.

 

If you want the genre conventions to work [...]

Some genre conventions that work in comics do not work in comic book games. This is one of them.

[Christopher]

Re: In The Cards

 

* In that vein' date=' since you [i']did[/i] have surprise, why didn't your first shot goes into the greatest probable threat -- which is the boss, not the mooks? Take a couple segments to build up some Aim modifiers, call your shot to somewhere sensitive, and put your biggest nonlethal EB right into the leader... and unless he has brick-level defenses that plus the x2 STUN for out-of-combat surprise is going to keep him out of the fight while you mop up on the minions.

Following them unoticed does not equal having all the time in the world to attack. And you might simply not be able to see him at first.

 

But honestly, it simply seems like you don't want to talk about this scenario. If you want to talk, just assume things somehow worked out to the same effect (all relevant mooks down, he in the wall, the spider on the move) - regardless of how the situation has to be modified to fit your character.

[Zeropoint]

Re: In The Cards

 

Special Agent Trent: Teleport next to Wannabe-Oh and politely inform him that if he doesn't dismiss the summoned creatures, he gets to eat a .40 hollowpoint.

 

Ilyusha: Throw a crate at him.

[Laundry Knight]

Re: In The Cards

 

I'll play this again:

 

Mister Invisible will hope his sight and mental invisibility will allow him to sneak past the monsters and take on the card slinger using karate.

 

Captain Spectacular is smart and can fly but does not always use the most creative path. He would take the monster on first, especially if there are.

 

Anaximander is a smart and has excellent martial skills and gadget, but he is more of detective and is highly skill based and would be force to take a defensive position and act in support of the more powerful heroes where opportunities arise.

 

Brother Oculus would rely upon his armor, force fields and repulsor blasts to provided a screen protection for some one to go after the leader.

 

Tawodi Osdi depending on the size of the warehouse, he prefers use his winged flight and use his sonic screams to attack from a distance, but if he has to, he will use his minor super strength and resilience to get in closer.

 

Crimson Aura would shroud herself in her strongest forcefield to plow through the opposition and the barrier to the master villain head on.

 

Lightning Man would vary his tactics depending the mood. If he thinks a prolonged fight would be entertaining, he would take on the monster not caring if it was one at a time or all at once. If not, he would use his superspeed to slip past the monsters as fast as he can haymaker his lightning blast to break through the barrier and fry card boy up like an egg.

 

Zynar the Mystic would either use his illusion and telekinesis powers to harass the main villain while his comrades mopped up the monsters or grab the nearest power hitter and gate past the barrier.

 

(Of course, specific tactics would depend on the players and their characters that were also playing. For the most part, I make characters that play well with others, but I don't make them equally able to play well with others.)

[Drhoz]

Re: In The Cards

 

Vitus: "Hmm. Cartomancy." *dispel magic on the firewall, and follow up with a Detonate Scrotum.* Then, while the Pasteboard Princess is rolling around clutching his groin and screaming, summon a few minions of my own to deal with the mooks.

 

Zero: telepathically excise his memories of the rules. Or force him to play Enchanted Bunny.

 

Girl Anachronism : Pop back in time and have those cards removed from the list of tournament-legal cards. If the cartomancer complains that this isn't a tournament, happily say "great! then this is all in good fun" and proceed as if this is all a friendly game.

[phydaux]

Re: In The Cards

 

Quazar "Contain those summoned threats! We can't allow them to get loose in the city!" Attacks threats with energy blasts while making radio back-up request calls to all other super team members, the local chief of police, the State Police Commandante, and the local Sliver Avenger of Primus (all 11 or less contacts).

 

Shadowhunter "Nice tricks, Ace. Can you still cast spells with broken teeth? Let's find out!" Close to HtH range, make Find Weakness roll, repeated Called Shots to the face...

 

Mystica "You dare summon nether horrors in MY city? Now you will learn why the Morbane's fear my wrath!" Engage ringleader in mystical combat, all while using her Descriminating Mystical Awareness sense and her Mystical Analyse skill to learn all she can about the kind of magic & types of spells he uses.