Dundracon 2020: The San Ramon Farewell

[dsatow]

So, who is going and what are they running if they GM?  HERO, obviously right? 

 

So far, there are 6 tentative hero games.  (Schedule not finalized until sometime in January.)  

[Rune]

I will be going.  Hope others will as well.

[dsatow]

FYI: Dundracon runs games in sessions from P(pre con official start) to 1(100s) to 8(100s).  Teen Friendly means that people under the age of 18 are welcome (no harsh language or sexual situations).

Mainstream = PG.  Family = G.  Mature Themes = R.

 

Schedule as it currently stands

 

P01 Beware the Shadow of La Sombra
Only available via On-line Pre-registration
Friday Noon in 143 for 8 hours
Room Map
GM: Jim Puder
Type: RPG
System: Hero 5th edition (Champions)
Edition: 4th & 5th
Players: 6
Provided: Players provide their own characters
Power Level: 10-12 DC, 5-7 Speed, 25-33 PD/ED, 8 - 11 CVs
Variations: Find weakness 2x max, No speed chart
Rules Knowledge: Useful
Game Content: Mainstream
La Sombra, the master of shadows, has returned. He has delivered an ultimatum to the UN that all nations must pay him a tithe, or he will turn the shadows created by people and objects against the nation's population. Can you stop his nefarious plot?

 

111 Who Said Fun Land is Fun?
Friday 8 PM in 152 for 8 hours
Room Map
GM: Maria Caballero
Type: RPG
System: Hero 5th edition (Champions)
Players: 8
Provided: Characters may be provided by GM
Power Level: 60 active pt attacks (max 50 OK) CV 8-10 mutants
Rules Knowledge: Useful
Game Content: Mainstream
Mutants are missing. They all have one thing in common, they went to Fun Land.

 

209 Lost Anthem
Saturday 8 AM in 161 for 8 hours
Room Map
GM: David Rakonitz
Type: RPG
System: Hero pre-5th edition (Champions)
Edition: 4th
Players: 6
Provided: Characters may be provided by GM
Power Level: Max 60 pt attacks, max 33 PD/ED
Variations: some 5th ed; otherwise minor
Rules Knowledge: Useful
Game Content: Mainstream
With her protector in the hospital, the superhero Anthem needs your help. Race around the globe to stop the Eternal President's scheme to make his past our future.

 

318 Los Campeones de la Justicia contra la Maldici?n de la Momia (Teen Friendly)
Saturday 4 PM in 338 for 8 hours
Room Map
GM: Vernon Putman
Type: RPG
System: Hero 5th edition (Champions)
Players: 6
Provided: All characters provided by GM
Power Level: medium
Variations: Super powered Luchadores
Rules Knowledge: Beginners Welcome
Game Content: Mainstream
The Champions of Justice vs. The Mummy's Curse! Luchahotep, the Egyptian god of masked Mexican wrestlers has made himself known. Though the Technicos may have defeated the Martians for now, Luchahotep has more plans than was revealed in the contest of planets.

 

516 Trenchcoat Brigade: The Long Undreamed Future
Sunday 10 AM in 161 for 8 hours
Room Map
GM: Joe Di Lellio
Type: RPG
System: Hero 5th edition (Champions)
Players: 6
Provided: Players provide their own characters
Power Level: 8-12 DC; appropriatee CVs/defenses
Variations: minor imports from 4th ed.
Rules Knowledge: Expected
Game Content: Mature Themes
The voice quavers, an odd mash and cacophony of male & female, young & old. Please... help me... for I do not wish to awaken but the world intrudes?

For more world info for both the Trenchcoat Brigade as well as my y2kFuture campaigns, see the link below.
Website: www.planetx.org/~joed/ddc/xxxxiv.html

 

611 Space Nazis from the Moon
Sunday 4 PM in 149 for 8 hours
Room Map
GM: Don Satow
Type: RPG
System: Hero 6th edition
Edition: 5th & 6th
Players: 6
Provided: All characters provided by GM
Power Level: 12 DC, 8 CVs, 5 Spd
Variations: No Find Weakness/Lack of Weakness
Rules Knowledge: Useful
Game Content: Mainstream
Space Nazis from the Moon are running Projekt: Weltraummonster. What is project Weltraummonster? What will happen to the Bay Area?

 

801 Run for your Life, Candyman!
Monday 8 AM in 143 for 8 hours
Room Map
GM: B J Goukler
Type: RPG
System: Hero 5th edition (Champions)
Players: 6
Provided: Characters may be provided by GM
Power Level: 12d, 90 active, 20-30 def, Power pools shot on sight
Variations: Slim Goodman Approved (some 4th)
Rules Knowledge: Expected
Game Content: Mainstream
They arrived almost together and once again without anyone seeing the delivery actually made. One, a hand written note in calligraphy inviting you to the Royal Wedding of Prince Atom of the Gumdrop Gnomes and Princess Selena of the Smeebler Elves, along with a tasteful assortment of cookies and confections meant to tease the palette of a King. Once again inside are the Blue cookie, and the Red cookie. Last year?s instructions still linger in your mind. Eat the blue cookie, and forget about all of this silliness. Eat the Red cookie, and we will see just how far down this candy hole will go?. (Do NOT google candy hole) The other is a box of suspicious origin, containing a cupcake with a dark black frosting, and a blood red cake below, decorated with a grin of 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8! 8 teeth! and a handwritten note that looks like it was scribbled in crayon: Heroes of the Other Land, It is I, Gnomeferatu (ah, ah, ah!) Our land is in dire peril...

 

816 Dresden Files: The Lake of the Dead - Nunismatis Part II
Monday 10 AM in 165 for 4 hours
Room Map
GM: Greg Haslam
Type: RPG
System: Hero 5th edition (Urban Fantasy)
Players: 8
Provided: All characters provided by GM
Rules Knowledge: Beginners Welcome
Game Content: Mainstream
Set in the world of Harry Dresden, you play one of Harry?s associates who tackle the things that go bump in the night, literally. Player characters include Wardens. Trolls, Pixies, Espers, Werewolves, etc. Game is light on the rules and heavy on roleplaying and storytelling.

This is part II of a series. Part I involved the death of a prominent coin collector Lyle Jefferson, the secret son of Thomas Jefferson, and inheritor of an angelic coin that is the counterpart to the blackened Denarians. There are 12 angelic coins, each attached to the spirit of a powerful angel. A Denarian by the name of Sammael killed Lyle and stole some of the angelic coins he had amassed. Lyle was a cunning man and so hid the remaining coins at various Carmelite monasteries in Northern California where they would be protected by Templar knights. The heroes encountered vampiric minions of Sammael?s as they attempted to thwart his acquisition of the other coins.

The big showdown with Sammael, who is also a Black Court Vampire, occurred in Carmel at the main Carmelite monastery. Sammael was prevented from acquiring the final three coins at the monastery and his forces were defeated. However the Denarian Vampire managed to slip away when the fight turned sour and lives to fight another day. The Carmelites realizing that the end times are near and being no longer able to safeguard the coins, handed them over to the Heroes.

[Spence]

Luchahotep 😂

 

Makes me sad I am not in the area.

[BNakagawa]

seems like a lighter schedule than years past.

[Scott Ruggels]

I will make an effort to be there, since I live in the area again. 

[dsatow]

15 hours ago, BNakagawa said:

seems like a lighter schedule than years past.

 

Compared to last year, yeah.

 

Jason Krestoff, a frequent Hero GM, is running Feast of Legends.  Last year he ran Starfinder, so he might be a bit burned out on Hero (hard to believe, I know  )

Jim Gettman, another Hero GM, is running D&D5.

 

Also missing since last year Callie Goukler, Aaron Gettman, and Glenn Thain.

[dsatow]

Just noticed my game says all characters provided by GM.  This isn't true.  It should be, characters may be provided by the GM.  Players should feel free to bring in their 5th or 6th Ed characters.  Minor house rules apply.

[Scott Ruggels]

Just wanted to drop a short convention report. Had a great time reconnecting with my people. Though I was too slow in registration to get into any games as I was just there Sat; and Sun, I did manage to reconnect with my gamer people at the show. It was a bit over stuffed, with the Hotel having to convert a store room into extra gaming, but the con moved very smoothly, and the Hotel staff was very helpful. Hero was a bit under represented; but In did note a few incidences of Hero in the wild. All in all,  it was a fine send off for the Marriott San Ramon. I cannot was other confirm or deny a conspiracy for as many people as possible running Hero next year in Santa Clara for the 40 anniversary of Champions. 

[Rune]

Had a great time at the convention.

[BNakagawa]

I managed to forget to pack the one character sheet I needed to bring to DunDraCon. Fortunately, it was a PC that I have memorized pretty well. Now I get to add an important detail to the sheet, the first significant change in several years.

[dsatow]

As far as I know, all the scheduled Hero games went off and were full.  Most of the Dundracon HERO games, the GMs will allow crashing if you know the system and you are there at the start of the scheduled game.  Officially, Dundracon only allows 1 crasher.  Unofficially, some GMs will allow two.  I, personally, will allow a second crasher so long as 1) they aren't a burden on me GMing (I don't need to keep explaining the rules to them) and 2) the rest of the group is okay with them joining.  Dundracon for its part, staggers the HERO games to let people get at least 1 Champions game in.  So if two Champions games occur on the same day, the run times of the game will overlap by a couple of hours so that if you are in one game, you can't be in the other.  This lets more people play Champions at the con.

 

I really hope more people GM HERO at the next con.  The new hotel in Santa Clara has over twice the rooms at the San Ramon, and there are more hotels/motels a few blocks away.  One of my players was saying he might do a 1889 HERO game next convention.

[BNakagawa]

One of the staffers is actively campaigning to get people to run Champions at DDC45.

 

I want every game to feature a Foxbat cameo where he shows up and steals everybody's XP. And I want Bruce Harlick to play the role of Foxbat in each game. Then schedule a Monday game where all the PCs robbed during the weekend gather to corner Foxbat and string him up by the ankles and shake him until all the stolen XP fall out, like a villainous pinata. And as a bonus, all the XP that he conned people out of during the AC days are released as well.

[dsatow]

In case anyone wants to know:

 

In 1985, the United States created the Sentinel program.  A civilian military unit which employs paranormals.  It is the premier super powered group in the United States.  It ranks supervillains/superheroes by category.  Category 1 is the weakest while the highest seen so far is a category 8 which killed several superheroes before being driven off.

Local Supers

Lodi Official Super Enemies and Rebels Society (LOSERS)

The LOSERS are a group of third string supervillains who for one reason or another can’t make it in normal supervillain society.  The LOSERS are very open to supervillains joining their group and do not judge other supers for their disabilities.  They are a cat 3 group.

Lube – Lube is the primary leader of the group.  His power produces a sticky, slimy gel which constantly excretes from his body.  The gel is slippery, slimy, and gets everywhere.

Flat – Flat is the lieutenant of the group, primarily because he was the second person to join.  Lube was the first.  Flat wields the awesome U-Lance, a HTH device which channels Flat’s chemical gas generation.

Ruby Tuesday – Ruby has probably the most socially acceptable power in that she is a shape changer.  Unfortunately, she can not hold any shape more than a day and her base shape changes every time she sleeps.

Bludgeon – Ruby’s best friend.  Bludgeon is very strong and has huge forearm like clubs.  Unfortunately, this has the effect of not letting her grab or manipulate anything (no fine manipulation).  This makes her life pretty hard (has a hard time getting dressed, can’t eat using finger or utensils, etc).

Kafka – The cockroach powers super guy.

Postal – A postman with the superpower of sending a properly addressed package anywhere in the world.  Some restrictions do apply. (Can’t send live animals, no solvents, no contents under pressure, etc.)

??? – an unknown member not encountered by the PCs.  He funds the LOSER group.

Scylla

Scylla is the name of an eco-terrorist group and the ship they sail on.  They attack any ship they feel is polluting or exploiting the seas.

Kraken Joe – Leader of the group and Captain of the Scylla.  He is half octopus on his right shoulder and face.

Tsunami – a Japanese ecoterrorist who can control the water.

Mako – a supervillain who has the looks, powers and abilities of a Mako shark.

Seadawg – Members of the Scylla group.  They are eco terrorist pirates who can’t spell.  They man the Scylla and are cat 2 threats.  They have no powers but the Scylla ship is a heavily armed military vessel.

The Syclla – Is a ship stolen by the Seadawgs to replace the Flotsam, an armored tug boat/fire boat.  The Scylla was a fully armed vessel with light missiles, machine  guns, and a small recoiless.

??? – several other cat 3 members have not been met by PCs.

Zukünftiges Deutsches Reich (Future German Empire)

The ZDR are based on the moon and are planning to retake the Earth.  They have begun supporting existing groups with similar ideological viewpoints on Earth and secret missions to destroy those who might oppose their rule.

Ubermensch – “Superman”, a flying brick.  Considers himself an invulnerable, immovable brick.  Others consider him just a prick.

Die Gratin – “The Countess” is a 400-year-old blood mage/vampire.  Uses blood in interesting ways including magical blood spears and swords.  She’s a bitch but not really a Nazi.  She just works for them for her benefit.  She keeps a list of people who pisses her off but seldom remembers them after a while.

Blitzableiter – “Lightning Rod” is a relative newcomer to the ZDR group.  He’s good friends with his co-recruit Entzünden.  He turns temporarily into a living lightning bolt which he uses both to move and to attack but the drawback is that he needs to land after each move.

Der Überreder – “The Persuader” has the ability to make suggestions to people.  He is not well liked by his peers who do not like how he plays with people, enemies or not.  He seems to need to be close enough to his targets to tell them what to do.

Ein-Mann-Armee – “One Man Army” has the ability to summon clones.  The clones will pop if they take too much damage.  Taking out Ein-Man-Armee will take out his clones.

Entzünden – “Ignite” is a new recruit.  He has amazing control of fire and can even sheath himself in fire to protect himself and fly.  His fire requires oxygen to create the fire and was defeated by Sabre holding him in the cold water of the Monterey Bay.

Jägermeister – “Hunt master” is a master martial artist.  Technically, a normal, he is an expert in Kampfrigen both the tradition and new maneuvers he has added to the Lunar branch.  He has taught most of the ZDR’s military martial arts.

Überschallknall – “Sonic boom” A sonic energy master and former boxer. He’s a bit overconfident and thinks he’s a better soldier than he is.

 

Space Nazis from the Moon

February 16, 2020

Roll Call

• Mayhem (played by James Kletzing)
• Doc Paladin (played by Vernon Putnam)
• Mr. Powersuit Guy (played by Brian Lienhart)
• The Human Torch (played by Tony Morreto)
• Cybrite (played by Isaac Bolmen)
• A-ko (played by Bruce Hahne)
• Freedom Belle (played by Barton Bolmen)

     Space Nazis from the Moon are planning to destroy California by mind controlling a space monster sleeping in deepest part of the trench in the Monterrey Bay.  Their first step is to get the latest in mental control of giant lizards technology in Silicon Valley.  They outsource this task to Lodi’s Official Super Enemies and Rebels Society (L.O.S.E.R.S.), a group of supervillains (cat 3) who for one reason or another could not cut it in Northern California’s super scene.

     The LOSERS strike a technical company working on high tech animal control techniques.  They get instructed to steal a mind control device which operates on reptilian brains.  They were able to disable the general alarms and security systems, but the restricted lab area was not disabled, and an alarm went off.  The sounds of the alarm, surprised Flat who released a toxic cloud in the company.  The LOSERS evacuate the building only to run into several superheroes on the street.  A quick fight occurs, and the LOSERS lose.  Only Kafka escapes capture but Mayhem allows both Ruby Tuesday and Bludgeon get away.  In exchange, they find out about the tech being stolen and the destination address for the stolen goods.

When they get to the destination address, they find out it’s a motel room.  Inside the room, a Nazi spy is taking pictures of the device and is sending the information in a narrow beam up to a cloaked Nazi saucer hovering 1 mile above.  The saucer, hidden from sight and radar, relays the information to the second saucer which is running the operation to capture Scylla.  The first couple of heroes who arrive at the motel decide to track the radio signal to its destination and accidentally crash into the cloaked saucer following the beam.  The saucer attempts to see what hit it and opens a hatch when Powersuit and Sabre, the two heroes, enter the saucer.  The Nazis fire assault rifles against the invaders but the guns are to no avail.  Ubermensch who is on board attempts to pull the heroes off the ship but also to no avail.  With reinforcements of the heroes on the way, he makes the decision to scuttle the UFO and drop its payload of bombs on the city of Santa Cruz.  Unable to use high explosives against the invading heroes because of the confined space being their saucer and the bullets being useless, they attempt to hold the invaders down with grappling holds and use shaped charges against the two heroes.  One hero gets grabbed and a shaped charge is set.  Meanwhile to protect the control center, they set up a 50 cal. Machine gun with AP bullets.  Powersuit Guy tosses off the grab and rips off the shaped charge.  With only seconds to spare, he throws the shape charge at the machine gun setup and on phase one, it explodes.  The explosion takes out most of the control center and the gun nest as well as most of the Nazi officers.  The saucer spins out of control and begins to fall to the Earth.  The Powersuit Guy, Sabre, and CyBrite, who joined them, push the saucer into the bay to prevent it from crashing into the beach.

     Meanwhile, the heroes at the motel quietly surround the room.  Mayhem sets himself up in the only possible escape route and meets Stan Lee walking the dog at night past the motel.  Doc Paladin knocks on the door to the room with the spy but Freedom Belle doesn’t want to wait and screams down the door, or at least attempts to.  The door is battered but is not knocked down.  The Human Torch purposely sets off the sprinklers which causes a big ruckus in the motel with people in other room screaming about the noise and unanticipated rain in their rooms.  CyBrite kicks in the door and the spy attempts to fight back.  Freedom Belle covers the spy, but given the spy’s orders, decides to take the damage and escape.  This fails, for while the damage doesn’t do much, the spy is knocked back into the room.  On the ground, Freedom Belle blasts the spy into the ground and into submission.  With nothing much else to do, CyBrite starts flying to where Powersuit Guy and Sabre are fighting.  The human torch soon follows afterwards.  After ensuring the spy is out, Doc Paladin and Freedom Belle join in the flight to the saucer.  They all come to the saucer after the saucer loses control and begins its plummet towards Santa Cruz.  As the saucer is falling, its bomb bay doors open, and Nazi soldiers and bombs drop out.  Everyone but Cybrite that are in flight deal with the bombs and Nazi soldiers.

The saucer crashes into the bay, its nuclear fuel cracked.  The water cools the small nuclear reactor, but the heroes lift the saucer out of the bay and onto the beach.  The fuel begins to heat but before it can begin to meltdown, Doc Paladin stabilizes the core and repairs the saucer to a semblance of stability.  They get the manual coordinates from the saucer and prepare to head out to the sea.

     Early the next morning, a call comes out from the Eiko Maru, a science vessel for NOA.  They are under attack from Scylla, eco terrorist/pirate group.  The call gets cutoff after the SOS is sent out and nothing is heard from them again.  The coast guard, already with the players because of the saucer on the beach, have asked the heroes for help dealing with the Scylla.  The players agree and they take the boat out in the early morning hours to meet up with the Eiko Maru.  About a half a mile way, they see smoke coming from one of the boats.  Using binoculars and supervision vision, they find out the Eiko Maru has been taken over with hostages by Nazis!  The boat on fire is the Scylla.  All its missiles have been fired and non-essential parts of the boat are on fire.

     The hero plans a surprise attack/rescue.  This is for the most part successful as half the villains (not counting the clones) do not see the heroes coming.  The fight is touch and go for a while, but the hero appears victorious. Die Gratin sees the writing on the wall and leaves combat.  Mako gets called back by the heroes and does not awaken the monster sleeping in the chasm at the bottom of the Monterey Bay.  The heroes find out that the only ones in the ZDR Nazi’s group that could survive at that depth is Ubermensch and Die Gratin.  Die Gratin refuses to do something so unseemly and Ubermensch could not go for a reason not disclosed.