Danger International: Global Task Force Omega vs. the World Terror Front

[Chris Goodwin]

On 3/21/2019 at 3:19 AM, Brian Stanfield said:

 

That’s incredibly funny, because even though I identified Commando as the reference, in my mind I was picturing Predator for some reason!

 

It was sort of the idea to have a vague notion of Predator hanging around in the background, in case I wanted to add SFnal elements later.  

 

So, I just got finished running it.  Two of the players I knew; two others were old Hero hands (one of which was an old Danger International player!), and one signed up at the con.  It was very helpful to have players who knew the game! 

 

They apparently all thought it went well; I could have used another day to prepare.  I could have differentiated the PCs better, and given some of them some more to do. 

 

As it is, I ran them through a short shooting range drill, teaching them the dice math, followed by the mission proper.  They took down maybe a dozen terrorists, captured two commandants, "disrupted" a massive trade of military vehicles from one organization to the other (by means of sufficient application of explosives) and flew home in their chopper leaving flames and explosions behind.  

 

Mission success; seems like the game was a success as well.  

[Chris Goodwin]

Almost all of the PCs were SPD 3.  One was SPD 4 (the martial arts expert) and the mooks were all SPD 2.  I used extremely abbreviated stats for the mooks; DEX 11, SPD 2, OCV 4, DCV 4, 17 STUN to stun them, three hits to take down, and any hits to the head, stomach, or vitals counted as two of those; there were few enough of them that I kept track of hits against them mentally with no trouble.  They had rifles doing 1 1/2d6 Killing, with +2 OCV, and no DEF.  

 

I gave each of the PCs an M-16 (2d6-1K, +2 OCV, -1/5" RMod), a .45 Colt Government model pistol 1d6+1K, +1 STUNx, +0 OCV, -1/3", 7 shots), and let them choose any other weapons they wanted.  They had 5 DEF body armor as well.  One (the old school DI player) swapped his M-16 out for an M-14.  A number of the other players chose knives as well.  Two of the players tried to take on the mooks with their silenced .45s; theirs were the only ones left standing, even with the mooks not having any DEF.  Neither of them got more than two hits on their targets, and they were low damage rolls in extremities.  

 

I used hit locations, which everyone seemed to enjoy.  Several of them also enjoyed the fact that it was straight military action, which was different from most of the games that are out there.  There were no head shots, two vitals shots (which I assumed were internal organs -- arteries and such, rather than what we always used to giggle at back in the day), a number of chest, stomach, and shoulder hits, and a number of arm and leg hits as well.

[Brian Stanfield]

3 hours ago, Chris Goodwin said:

They took down maybe a dozen terrorists, captured two commandants, "disrupted" a massive trade of military vehicles from one organization to the other (by means of sufficient application of explosives) and flew home in their chopper leaving flames and explosions behind. 

 

See? There’s Schwarzenegger again, yelling, “Get to da chahpah!” And they did.

[Chris Goodwin]

I keep bringing up editions, but!  I could have run the exact same game under 6th edition, and it would have gone about the same.  Maybe not quite as smoothly, as my DI old hand was a huge help, but mechanically for sure.  Assuming I'd pregenerated the characters with the same initial assumptions, that is.  

[Brian Stanfield]

13 hours ago, Chris Goodwin said:

I keep bringing up editions, but!  I could have run the exact same game under 6th edition, and it would have gone about the same.  Maybe not quite as smoothly, as my DI old hand was a huge help, but mechanically for sure.  Assuming I'd pregenerated the characters with the same initial assumptions, that is.  

 

That's good to know, and probably pretty instructive for those of us who get into the "edition wars" arguments all the time. 

[Chris Goodwin]

5 hours ago, Brian Stanfield said:

 

That's good to know, and probably pretty instructive for those of us who get into the "edition wars" arguments all the time. 

 

It's really more about campaign feel, character guidelines, and campaign setup.  

 

And I've proven, at least to myself and five players, that a no-powers military campaign can work just fine.

[borbetomagnus]

1 hour ago, Chris Goodwin said:

 

It's really more about campaign feel, character guidelines, and campaign setup.  

 

And I've proven, at least to myself and five players, that a no-powers military campaign can work just fine.

 

I completely agree with your point and how you've proven it, @Chris Goodwin

 

I'll even say that regardless of game system, having fun in a game is primarily "about campaign feel, character guidelines, and campaign setup."

[Zeropoint]

On 3/31/2019 at 2:41 PM, Chris Goodwin said:

I keep bringing up editions, but!  I could have run the exact same game under 6th edition, and it would have gone about the same.  Maybe not quite as smoothly, as my DI old hand was a huge help, but mechanically for sure

 

I really appreciate the consistent "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach that has been applied to the various incarnations of the Hero System. Other than that whole "Fuzion" thing, I feel like it's been "the same game, but better" with every new edition.

 

Lookin' at you, D&D.

[borbetomagnus]

I got into HERO with 5th edition revised, and now use 6th. I did purchase the Early Champions and Champions 4th edition Bundles of Holding and from those bundles I read the early editions and discover the origins of what would eventually evolve into the generic, universal system we all love. HERO truly is the same game throughout all editions. There's been tweaks with every edition, and while I only have limited actual play exposure to two (later) editions, I'm immensely impressed with the foresight, deliberate thought, and play testing  that was put into Champions 1st edition. It set the foundation for all subsequent incarnations, except for Fuzion, which I have no experience with.

[Duke Bushido]

Fuzion gets a lot of hate from those of us who thought it was going to be way of future Champions games, way back when. 

 

It's a working system, and very simple to learn. 

 

It's just not the system that held our attention (at that point) for four editions. 

[Chris Goodwin]

I don't even want to talk about Fuzion.    Let's just let it lie where it is.  

 

As far as editions go, the major giveaway would have been the fact I was using the first-gen linear Range Modifiers.  If you had gone over the characters with a fine-toothed comb you'd have seen I used the original Danger International costs for Skills.  And, that was about it.  (Oh, they all had COM scores, but I think they were all 10, and it never came up in play.)  While I noted down END costs for STR Minimums in weapon use, 1 END per 5 STR is a perfectly cromulent rule for 4th, 5th, and 6th edition heroic level games.  

 

Compare that with the Champions game I played in on Friday night.  The characters were all pregens; the only giveaway there would have been the fact that the Characteristics omitted COM and were listed in 6th edition order, and CV's weren't CHA/3.  We used hex maps for the first combat, scenery on the tabletop with rulers for the second; some of the characters had movement listed in hexes/inches and some in meters.  I don't remember if point costs were listed on the sheets or not.  In play, I couldn't have told you whether it was 4th, 5th, or 6th edition.  

 

As far as rules changes go, there are two sets of significant "generational" changes:  the changes from 3rd edition to 4th (buying Reduced END Cost on Powers, Range Modifier switching from linear to exponential, loss of diminishing returns costs in Disadvantages and Enhanced Senses), and the changes from 5ER to 6th (decoupling of Figured Characteristics and Combat Values; switching from hexes/gridded to meters/optional grid).  All else is tweaking of costs.  

 

I declare the Edition Wars over.

[Chris Goodwin]

One of my players writes: 

 

Quote

Overall I found it very enjoyable to play. It wasn’t complicated there weren’t a lot of dice. You kept it real clean and simple. 

I liked the body parts chart on our forms that made it real easy to see what damage we did. 

 

My only complaint was that it wasn’t long enough! ? I was really having a good time with that game. I’m looking forward to playing again.

My friend ____ while it was  outside of what she normally plays and she’s never done that type of game before, she really had fun playing it with people she knew and overall she very much enjoyed it as well.

 

 

Another one writes: 

 

Quote

I agree with _____. I liked the body parts. I felt after awhile I was getting the hang of the attack system.

I don't really have any more to say on the system. I would have liked a little more action. It was fun to interrogate the Prisoner we took. 

My only real complaint was the guy sitting next to me was trying to play my character for me, which had nothing to do with the game really.

 

 

Edit:  Forgot to add, the above messages were shared with permission.

[Surrealone]

For some reason my mind read the title of this thread as "Dancer International" … a name that gives a completely different perspective on having poles in the batcave, I'd think.

 

Sorry for the digression, I just figured I'd share. Carry on...

[RDU Neil]

1 hour ago, Surrealone said:

For some reason my mind read the title of this thread as "Dancer International" … a name that gives a completely different perspective on having poles in the batcave, I'd think.

 

Sorry for the digression, I just figured I'd share. Carry on...

 

Further digression... in my Secret Worlds game, one of the PCs is a master hth combatant, who went undercover in a night club. He had no specific skill, but hit the dance floor while there, and rolled a 3 on his DEX roll. He now has Dancing: 13- on his character sheet, 'cause we figured he just "had the moves"... and in last night's game, he actually used it in combat. A big biker had grabbed their female contact and was manhandling her... the PC stepped up and did a multiple attack legsweep on the bad guy, grab/catch on the contact to keep her from falling. He rolled really well with both attacks, and rolled his Dancing skill... spun the young woman in a perfect spin... arms outstretched... as the big guy hits the ground. The PC then danced around her while stomping on the guy's chest then stomach, leaving the biker balled up and gasping on the floor.

 

It was great... though it deteriorated quickly as a shotgun and knives came out and things got ugly... but it was a really fun moment.

[Brian Stanfield]

And that, my friends, is why we play these games!

[Scott Ruggels]

On 3/30/2019 at 5:46 PM, Chris Goodwin said:

 

As it is, I ran them through a short shooting range drill, teaching them the dice math, followed by the mission proper.  They took down maybe a dozen terrorists, captured two commandants, "disrupted" a massive trade of military vehicles from one organization to the other (by means of sufficient application of explosives) and flew home in their chopper leaving flames and explosions .

... As any good convention game of D.I. should. The veterans of Costa Diego would be proud. 

 

Quick question, though. Was this an3 or 4 hour session?

[Chris Goodwin]

4 hours.  I think I had half an hour or so left at the end.