Undertow

Sometimes when key players couldn't show up to the game, or we were at a con and we wanted to have a high action combat we would run a "Danger room" senario. The premise was simple: a handful of heroes and villians in a strat hex the map was drawn with columns, platforms, pools of water, and force effect areas they were quickly explained and the game would start. some of the features included: Walls that entangled anyone that touched them. animated structures that threw characters in random directions. A bezerk Grond being held aloft just waiting for that 1" of knockback to set him free. I'm curious to see if others occasionaly throw out the story. and what kind of traps make up your danger rooms.

Re: Plot Seed: Six Places to Nuke When You’re Serious For some perspective I did some research on general effects of a 1 Megaton Nuclear bomb. The bomb would be most destructive if detonated at an altitude of 2500 ft. The Blast would destroy reenforced structures (Dams / Bridges) to a radius of 2 kilometers. and destroy brick and timber structures (Houses) to a radius of 8 Kilometers. Of course the flash / heat waves will cause fires well beyond that. and the Tornado force winds will also reach beyond this radius. This also does not account for the radiation / EMP effects as well. But I wanted to get the numbers out just so we could play with our maps and rulers.

Re: Plot Seed: Six Places to Nuke When You’re Serious Niagra Falls. While the canal is 20-30 km to the west, the goal was the power plants in the area. The region has probably the most complicated system in existance some of it dating back to the industreal revolution. A lot of it ripped out and rebuilt over the last hundred years. If there are any locks in the canal wouldn't they need power? Are there any drawbridges that do? San Francisco. I haven't done the research on the blast radius of a 1mt bomb but it seems that mid-span of the bay bridge would kind of give up a lot of ground on the inital blast area. All the Naval vessels would be useless anyway if they couldn't put to sea. My goal with the south end of the golden gate was to ruin the real estate value, deny shipping access to the whole bay, and let the prevaling winds do their humble best.

Re: Plot Seed: Six Places to Nuke When You’re Serious Enjoy? I hope they are taking notes.... and Al-Queda, Hezbolah, radical Militia Men, and any other terrorists are out getting coffee. I do wonder how you would go about nuking the Yellowstone Caldera. I imagine it would require a sub surface detonation. Perhaps you could shove the bomb down old faithful like a musket ball of the gods. If it was attempted I'm sure murphy's law would save us. The terrorist's might get eaten by a bear which would then need to be euthanised because it's a danger to mankind. That in turn would pi$$ off the E.L.F. or Earth First who would then blow the caldera themselves in reprisal for the use of chemical weapons on Yogy, Not to mention saving countless trees from sawblades. Ahh.... Time for another vodka tonic.. with a prozac chaser.

Re: Plot Seed: Six Places to Nuke When You’re Serious Maybe some items for 7, 8, 9, How about Niagra Falls? if done right it could upset the infrastructure for electric power for most of the east coast that could last for months. That would cause the US government, and Wall street to grind to a halt, rampant looting and a humanitarian disaster that would make New Orleans look like a tailgate party. It also would sever the St Lawrence river channel that is critical for the American and Canadian economy in the great lakes region. What effect would such a bomb have if detonated on the south end of the Goldengate bridge? The San Francisco area is home to a major US navy base and massive port facilities The most valuable real estate in the world would be worthless overnight, This would also have economic effects on silicon valley and that's assuming the blast is to small to cause a sizemic event. Borrowing an idea from Tom Clancy use the Nuclear weapon to touch off a war between China and India. What happens when the worlds two most populous countries start fighting. At this point in time India, and China export how many things to the world?

Re: WWYCD my hero a villian? You are correct I was born in 1971. While i realize that had we wanted to, most of the vessels in the Vietnam theatre could have deployed nuclear weapons. Lost at sea probably would have worked fine but the campaign had some elements of a corrupt government presence that remained in the background. I was going for conspiracy fiction. In light of real world logic there would be too many people who knew that a sub was missing I agree. No flame war nessary. As for the conclusion of the events Squid and you were right Undertow realized the only way for him to hold onto the Nukes was for him to move them before anyone else could get to them A brief fight within the team base ended with Undertow making it to the Willamette river the rest of the hero team who traveled by air searched the mouth of the Columbia river and spotted him disconecting a series of umbilicals that provided air and power to the sub. A second fight insued and Undertow was handily defeated and sent to Stronghold. The Sub and its missles were returned to the US Govt and the Lemurians were none the wiser. The character is now set to return as a Villian.

Re: WWYCD my hero a villian? Alas the Books are at home but this was a while ago it had to be the 4th edition CU probably in the timeline somewhere As for the conspiracy / hiding the loss of an SSBN. The two crews was something I had overlooked. I was thinking that at the time that: It would be alot easier in 1968 for the US Govt. pull it off. Using the real world events of the USS Scorpion and the Tet offensive and their proximity on the calandar was to neat to pass up. Not that the U.S. sweats alot in the face of global opinion but Vietnam was a very unpopular war, and deploying a Boomer aganst a little nation would cause a big backlash in the world view. I used to have a book that outlined US military power and had the statistics of the sub But I cannot recall the class of sub it was. Pre Ohio class I think it started with an "L" 16 missiles with mirvs sounds right I figured over time that Undertow would only be able to maintain 40 or so of the warheads. On to the Lemurians. I got the impression that the Lemurians were more or less a tribal society, and were quite primitive. They had fallen from a once great tech level though. Undertow feels that he is their sole protection from the dangers of the surface dwellers, but he had become, because of his transformation so much more advanced. What form could negotiations take? What reperations could the US govt offer that would seem to be right, but not a corrupting influence? Undertow is happy to leave things the way they are. The Super Soldier lost several friends on the seal team, and sees Undertow as a threat to his country. The fact that the missiles are sitting in the mouth of an American river can't be good for the Governments collective blood pressure either. (Undertow Had revealed this to the team leader, who blabbed it to everyone.) I'm curious to find out how, if your character was on this team they would react? If you were running this campaign how you would have the govt. handle the situation?

I know it's another one of those threads. I liked the concept enough to make it my name on the boards. I ran this character over the course of a year with my players. I'm curious to know how other characters would handle the situation. first the (paraphrased) background The background of Undertow: Undertow was born a Lemurian, as outlined in CU the atomic detonation at the Bikini Atoll devestated a Lemurian city and killed his family. Undertow along with other Lemurians voulenteered to seek out the means to strike back at the surface dwellers, by searching through the ruins of the aincients. There a strange piece of old Lemurian technology transformed Undertow in to a superbeing Incredibly strong (75STR), smart (30INT), tough (38 CON) , and most importantly amphibious. With these new assets Undertow learned about humans through observation, He taught himself to read english, learned to speak by listening to radio and tv broadcasts, and planned to take revenge on the humans. Years passed as Undertow learned. In 1968 in response to the TET offensive the navy ordered a SSBN into the south china sea. Undertow learned that America had been the nation that had detonated the bomb that destroyed his family and also learned that the sub carried over 40 similar weapons he attacked the sub in the open ocean first destroying its props and rudder then its balast and trim tanks sinking it. The emergency beacon the Sub launched was also destroyed the crew on board died of asphixiation. the U S government realized that the fallout of deploying a boomer to within striking distance of China and the Soviet Union. Would result in another showdown on the scale of the cuban missile crisis. They conducted a paper transfer of all crew to the USS Scorpion and sank a derilict in the atlantic to cover their story. Over the course of twenty years Undertow studied the sub he had sunk he learned the techincal details of it's complement of Posidon missiles, how to target them and maintain them. He moved the sub to the west coast of north america near the baja pininsula. in 1988 new advances in satilite themal imaging revealed the location of the sub and the Navy deployed a team of Navy Seals to investigate. Undertow slaughtered all but one who escaped but was crippled by the bends. This seal was enroled in a super soldier program that gave him regeneration, and blanked his memory (A cheesey Wolverine ripoff belonging to another player) Undertow moved the sub to the mouth of the columbia river. But the encounter with the seals had piqued his curiosity. he began to study humanity a little more openly he made contact with the west coast Sentinels in Vancouver BC over the course of the next decade. He'd come to realize that humanity was a very complicated thing. just and kind one moment and calous and cruel the next. Undertow decided he must live among humans to try to understand them better Given his abilities he joined a super team. Undertow is honorable, honest, serious and protective of the weak. He spent the better part of a year as a hero but as fate would have it a mentalist unlocked the memories of the team supersoldier. and soon the cat got out of the bag and climbed up the drapes. Undertow has a 20 point cannot lie dissad and He views his team mates as his friends but he sees himself as the last line of defense for the lemurian people. He belives the U.S. Government is corrupt and given it's history he feels he needs to keep the 40 Nuclear missiles onboard the sub as a strategic defense for his people. Reguarding the missiles If you ask him if he has the missiles he will say "yes." If you ask Where he will say "Where I can get to them if God forbid I need to use them." If you ask does he Know what will happen should the US Govt find out he has them? He will say "It is because of their reaction that I feel the need to keep them ready. If you ask do you realize you killed nearly 100 sailors on that sub? He will say I do and I regret their loss, Who is there to answer for the 50'000 Lemurians who died at the Bikini Atoll? Reguarding Undertow He has mental defense based on his Lemurian mind and age (he's over seventy) He's a brick who gets stronger in water, he can emit active sonar, and swim at nearly 60 mph without ever getting tired. That being said he probably could not win a fight with the team on his own but he stands a good chance of making it to the water and escaping. Reguarding the Super Soldier He belives in the country right or wrong 20 points He has the Department of Defense on speed dial My questions are: Where does your character come down on this. Is Undertow a villian, or Hero? Does he have a right to keep the missiles? How would your character try to resolve the situation? How would the Govenrment in your campaign respond?

Re: Quick UNTIL question, my books are at home. I remember in 4th edition they entered service in the late sixties 1967 or so. My namesake character salvaged a sunken Harrows Flying Sub and converted it to a team vehicle the original could carry four and had Sonar. Given the tech levels of the sixties I concluded that a modern (then late 90's) sonar system, avionics and engines would save enough space to add more seats. creating a cool team vehicle. It had coaxal props and a towed sonar array. sort of looked like the sub from phantom menace. Until was a little upset at first but salvage laws are salvage laws.

Re: Help with Ram powers for a super villain. Mountain goats, and rams are noted for being sure footed... (Hooved) KBR or pehaps clinging that costs extra END and works only on limited degree grades. I've seen mountain goats accend a veritical chimney by leaping from one wall to another until they reached the top. Extra limb- head perhaps he's practiced with using his horns to hold stuff. in a pinch can be handy. (sorry about the pun) Lots of CON Goats and rams are also known for their stamina.

Re: The things I've learned playing the Stun Lottery I had a player who wanted to do this with his character. He even wanted a limitation for it to do stun only. I told him no. A killing attack is a killing attack if you want to do stun only buy a normal attack and define it as stun only. If you put AVLD on a killing attack in my game you have to pay extra for the does body. Anyone who tries to use the stun lotto that way is abusing the mechanics. A killing attack should be dangerous, and have consequences when they are used. I see stun as a measure of pain a + or - stun multiple should reflect Killing attacks that are defined to inflict more or less pain as part of their effect.

Re: Good limitations for sonic based powers As these gauntlets are foci perhaps they have an adverse effect on your hands limited sense of touch for example. (they tingle after I use them)

Re: The Things I Learned Playing A Villain... Think like a hero, Imagine how they would react to the crime your planning then set up hidden IR cameras in all the broom closets, bathrooms, and phonebooths in the area. Leverage on a secret ID is worth it's weight in gold.

Re: (Plot Seeds) Bride of Title Tag "Beware the Crazy8" Grab decides to play the clasic card game their own way. Each member must commit five heists (their hand) The item stolen serves as the suit, and the items value serves as its number. They play in alphabetical order. For example if Black Diamond were to steal 2 BMW automobiles valued at $120,000 total then Cheshire Cat must either, steal another number of BMW's or something else valued at $120,000 dollars. each player has one day to take their turn. Of course stealing eight of anything has some special GM determined result. The nature of what is stolen and how is up to the GM. As are the clues, and witnesses. The PCs should figure out the game by the third or fourth turn unless the gm has most of the crimes follow the numbers. The other Grab members are of course watching the heist should some heroes decide to mettle in their game "In Memory I Will Awake" "The Brotherhood of Last Sons" "Mensa welcomes Grond"

Re: Anyone have solutions for the Stun Lottery that a high dice Killing Attack creates? When my friend GMs, He uses a d6 for stun multiple 1,2=2 3,4=3 5,6=4 he points out you don't get boned by the multiple either. I on the other hand like the stun lotto as it is. I want there to be a pucker factor when the killing attacks come out. If my villians see them they step up their game, and my players know it. If the villians are throwing killing attacks that is a big clue to the heroes that these bad guys are playing for keeps and whatever they are trying to pull is worth killing for. As for your situation I would agree that 18 DC attacks are huge at that power level I usualy restrict 18 DC to speed 3 pcs 15-17 DC to speed 4, 14 DC to speed 5 it opens up the lower down you go if the character you described does a 18" move through with that sword he could crank it to 8d6 Killing I'd point it out to him and then after he does it tell him to read up on breaking a focus.