Basic Action Super Heroes!

We are starting a BASH campaign using the setting and plot points from Necessary Evil.

!! SPOILER WARNINGS !!
This entire thread will be filled with spoilers about the Necessary Evil plot arc. I will try to avoid unnecessary spoilers, but when it comes to the overall plot there is no way around it.

A quick introduction to the setting: The alien K'tharens attacked the Earth in 2001 (current year is 2004). After a long and difficult fight, the super heroes of Earth eventually drove them off with the help of another alien race, the V'sori. But the V'sori weren't what they appeared, and in fact were the true power behind their K'tharen minions. They infiltrated the ranks of the thankful humans, and laid an ambush that kill all (or almost all) of the super heroes on Earth, not to mention most politicians, etc.

Believing their victory to be assured, they assumed control of the war-torn planet. But they forgot the dead heroes weren't the Earth's only metahumans, and now it is up to the super villains to decide whether they will live under V'sori domination or show these upstart invaders just who this planet belongs to!

CURRENT CHARACTERS:
I have three players, each of whom will have multiple characters who will be part of a resistance cell fighting against alien invaders. Generally, each player will only play one character per session, but which characters are chosen may vary based on mood, nature of the mission, etc.

Chaos Theory: The brilliant scientist Ilsa Bauer disappeared when her lab equipment exploded during an experiment several years ago. In her place was the woman who became known as Chaos Theory, a mentally unstable individual with the power to manipulate reality and probability in dramatic and dangerous ways. To this day it is unclear if Chaos Theory and Dr. Bauer are the same person, or if Dr. Bauer was either disintegrated or removed from this reality during the event that brought Chaos Theory here. After causing months of havoc, Chaos Theory was captured and eventually imprisoned in the psych ward of a maximum security facility, where the doctor's eventually discovered a combination of medications that returned her to sanity. After the V'sori invasion, she escaped from prison and joined the Omegas to resist the alien occupation.

GunSmoke: Cursed with a undesired immortality, this gunslinger from the old West has walked beside great heroes and great villains in his two centuries of life. He had finally settled down, only to be at ground zero when the V'sori laid waste to the celebrating heroes at the end of the initial war with the K'tharen. He is one of the few, perhaps the only, survivors of those initial massacres, for although he died with the other celebrants, he is cursed to always come back... A crack shot with his dual pistols, he also has gained some limited control over the mystic power behind his curse, primarily allowing him to transform into smoke.

Moon-Silver: She is a mutant shape-changer with the ability to take on the appearance of other humanoids, enhanced physical abilities, high resistance to injury and ability to rapidly heal, plus telepathy. In other words, she would be the CIA's dream agent, and they made sure of that; what's a little blackmail when national interests are at stake? Then came the invasion, and her handlers in Department S went underground. She's continued to operate for them since the invasion, but now gets drawn into the larger Omega resistance. Now a double agent, the only question is whether her loyalty will lie with the Omega anti-heroes, or if Department S' hold on her will prove stronger.

Mothra: Young Melissa Franks may be just 16 years old, but she is a genius, especially in the area of computers and technology. Unfortunately, she lost her mother two years ago during the invasion, and just months ago her father was killed by the same blast that triggered, or perhaps bestowed, her powers upon her, when they were caught in the cross-fire between a group of Omegans and the alien forces. She gained the ability to control matter/energy conversions, making her potentially phenomenally powerful, but she has not yet mastered them. So far she primarily manifests her power by somehow shedding the vast majority of her mass, allowing her to shrink to the size of an ant, and then utilizing the stored energy to fly and project energy blasts. Orphaned and homeless, she has survived on her own for the last few months. She has fought the aliens a few times, and looted an advanced AI computer from one of their labs, which she has installed in an abandoned building she is now squatting in. She's been using it to try to locate Dr. Destruction in an attempt to find and join the Omegans.

ROXXAR: An alien robotic lifeform brought to Earth by the invaders, no one really knows his actual origin (not even him). Escaping from the V'sori, and fascinated by humanity, he has sought for a way to fit in, and found it with the resistance. Possesses close range gravitic attacks and a grav-powered "shotgun", but is most noted for the ability to transform into a number of alternative forms including a hovercycle, a cannon, a lightly armored flying suit and a more heavily armored battlesuit. All of his alternate forms rely on a humanoid host, built around the "Teamwork" mechanic in BASH where he shares his actions with the host character and they mix-and-match their stats and powers within the limits he specified for each form's powers.

Ultraviolet: (aka Ultraviolent) This character is based on a picture the player found on DeviantArt, and she liked the name too. My player is not the artist, but just liked the picture, name, and some elements of the character. In our campaign, she is a well-known villain from the before the invasion, with a history of working with and/or for numerous other villains. She had semi-retired prior to the invasion, but put back on the costume when her lover was slain by the V'sori. In the bad old days, she was an on-again, off-again lieutenant of the feared Dr. Destruction, the greatest villain on Earth, and she was quick to rejoin him when he formed his resistance movement, Omega. She is strong, very tough, flies, and has powerful electrical attacks.

Issue 1:
The alien mechanism ROXXAR is attempting to aid his few human allies, members of a minor unaffiliated resistance cell, by escorting one of them to a meeting with a black marketeer and weapons dealer in the Southside. Unfortunately for him, the V'sori have apparently somehow tracked him, and Techmaster Kiloni (the V'sori scientist who had been studying him prior to his escape) arrives with a squad of henchmen. The alien scientist sneaks behind the robot and uses a mystic artifact to somehow disrupt ROXXAR's systems and send him into a catastrophic system crash. The last thing the AI hears is Kiloni talking about how they would purge the "viral elements" (ie, sentience) from him and return him to V'sori control...

Meanwhile, Dr. Destruction has learned that one of his resistance members, Mindjack, was captured by the V'sori during a recent mission, which was a particularly unacceptable setback because Mindjack had been sent to gain some very important information that the evil Doctor needed.

While the Doctor was unable to determine Mindjack's location directly, he does know that the V'sori had recently begun a very effective campaign of capturing metahumans, a distinct change from their normal pattern of simply killing them. Believing that Mindjack would be held with these other captives, and learning that some of the captured metas had been taken during dealings with a particular black marketeer, the Doctor sends Ultraviolet in as a stalking horse.

Expecting trouble and prepared to feign defeat, Ultraviolet meets with the black marketeer in question. What she doesn't expect is the sheer overwhelming power of the heavy weapons they use to ambush her, and there is no need for her to feign anything. Stunned into immobility by a dreadful sonic cannon, she is nearly unconscious even before her attackers' place the power neutralizing harness around her neck.

Pleased with the day's double catch, the V'sori are shocked to discover yet another victim in their midst! A few of the unknowning day-labor human workers within the warehouse, deemed expendable and part of the "set dressing" for the ambush, are also caught in the area of the attack that took down Ultraviolet. What the V'sori didn't know was that one of the laborers is really an agent of Department S, also investigating a trail of missing metahumans which led to this location. When the large and burly man collapses from the attack and begins shifting and transforming before their eyes, they quickly ready another neutralizer harness and put it on the petite female they find before them.

And so our three heroe... eerrr... villains find themselves powerless captives being transported across Star City in an armored vehicle. Of course, Ultraviolet isn't overly concerned, knowing that the evil Doctor Destruction is somewhere nearby and tracking them to their destination! Her only real cause for concern is the existence of these power neutralizing collars, something new and unexpected. How could the V'sori have managed this?

After some quick introductions, Ultraviolet then attempts to open up the robot to get at some wires, hoping to use them as improvised tools to pick the locks of their restraints, much to ROXXAR's dismay (especially since he was still rebooting and couldn't move yet). She did volunteer to put them back when she is done, but the AI doesn't find that particularly reassuring!

The argument is interrupted when a massive explosion sends the transport flying, landing on its side some distance away. Through the smoke, the rear of the vehicle bursts open and Dr. Destruction arrives. Much to her embarrassment, he finds Ultraviolet dangling mid-air, hanging from her chains attached to what was now the transport's new roof, while Moon-Silver and ROXXAR lay on the floor before him.

The famous villain quickly examines the two strangers, seeming particularly interested in the alien robot. However, once his armored hand reaches out to Moon-Silver and he tries to probe her mind, he appears quite shocked at what he discovers, and quickly withdraws before her own telepathic abilities (which somehow are not being neutralized by the collar!) can pierce his own mental defenses.

The leader of the Omegan resistance gives the two newcomers the choice to aid him by joining Ultraviolet's mission, or to aid him by staying behind and becoming a distraction when the V'sori reinforcements arrive. Moon-Silver and ROXXAR quickly agree to the former. Dr. Destruction injects something into Moon-Silver's neck, informing her that he will now be able to contact her telepathically anytime and anywhere. He looks over ROXXAR, but decides no such technique will work on the AI.

Freeing the three from their restraints (and claiming one of the neutralizers for further study), he opens a teleport gateway to a roof across town. He explains the mission to his two new agents, and lets Ultraviolet know that he gained the location from the transport driver's mind. The prisoners are being held is a special facility on the grounds of a V'sori military base in Star City's Westpoint district. He will lead an assault on the base itself, tying up the local forces, and leaving Ultraviolet and the new recruits to find and break out Mindjack. The team will have no more than 10 minutes before other reinforcements from other bases in the city can arrive, so they will have to move fast!

After a quick teleportal to a spot outside the base, the mastermind heads off and engages with the enemies' main forces. ROXXAR transforms to a hovercycle, providing Moon-Silver with some useful mobility, while Ultraviolet circles around to attack from another front. They engage and defeat two of the V'sori war spheres that are patrolling the perimiter, then assault the camp itself.

Designed to deal with the possibility of metahuman breakouts, the facility is located underground, with a reinforced bunker on top of the entrance, and supported by a command building with sensor arrays, a vehicle depot, four guard towers with particle beam machine guns, and three heavy weapons emplacements: two tank-killer particle beam gatling cannons and a fusion missile launcher!

ROXXAR and Moon-Silver prove to agile to for the robotic drones manning the machine guns to hit, but Ultraviolet once again learns the hard way that heavy weapons can hurt, as the gatling cannons open up on her. Despite her near invulnerability, the flying meta takes a nasty shot that sends her crashing back to earth.

Recognizing the threat, the team focuses their attention on the heavier guns. Moon-Silver rides ROXXAR's hover cycle over the compound's fence, then the robot transforms again, becoming a powerful cannon mounted on harness and belt around Moon-Silver. Using the agile spy's accuracy and the cannon's heavy punch, they quickly begin destroying the guard towers, and take out one of the gatling cannons too.

Ultraviolet, undeterred, gets her vengeance with a massive explosion of lightning that destroys one gatling cannon, and then engages with the V'sori officers and some K'tharen troops in the center of the compound. When she rounds the corner of the command building and sees the ground-to-air fusion missile launcher, she is glad she had kept her altitude so low on the approach, and changes her focus to take out that threat, and the guard tower next to it (although mostly just because it was close enough to be hit in her area attack, since she laughed in the face of the poor drone firing the energy machine gun ineffectively at her).

While Ultraviolet finishes up in the center of the compound, ROXXAR and Moon-Silver get to the back of the bunker and use the robot's gravity punch, specially designed for anti-structure attacks, to blow a whole through the reinforced wall. Moon-Silver tosses a fusion grenade (taken off one of her capturers when Dr. D rescued them) into the bunker, and takes out all but the base commander and one of his K'tharen flunkies.

The commander flees down into the underground passage leading to the prison level, while Moon-Silver grapples with the K'tharen and adopts his shape. The alien, bred for the ocean depths, is surprisingly strong and shakes her off, and manages to get far enough away to throw his own fusion grenade at the two metas. ROXXAR, thinking quickly, surges across the ten feet separating him from Moon-Silver and takes his next form, a heavily armored battle suit, around her! Between her reflexes and telepathic danger sense, and his armor, they are undamaged by the powerful explosion, and quickly finish off the Fin.

Regrouping, the three attackers prepare to head down into the underground prison in pursuit of the V'sori Battlemaster!

Issue 2
ROXXAR transforms once again and encases Ultraviolet in his armored form, using diagnostic equipment to determine the extent of her injuries from the particle beam cannon, and then begins injecting nanites into her body to repair the damage.

Meanwhile, Moon-Silver retains the shape of the Fin (slang for the aquatic K'tharens) she grappled with earlier, and strips the uniform off of one of the fallen. Appearing as a battered K'tharen soldier, she proceeds down the long tunnel first, winding around a corner and then approaching the armored vault doors at the end. Spotting the cameras, and the communications panel, she reaches out with one of her more subtle telepathic abilities and adopts the language of the aliens on the far side of the door. Speaking fluently, while appearing as one of them, she convinces them that "they" have managed to drive off the attackers, and need assistance in securing the compound.

Even the wary Battlemaster is fooled, so the V'sori orders a squad to return with Moon-Silver to the surface. Subtly placing herself near the back of the squad, in front of only a single V'sori Troopmaster, the aliens march happily up the tunnel, around the corner, and into ROXXAR and Untraviolet's ambush. The Fins and drones are quickly dispatched, gutting the personnel stationed to guard the prison. Only the troopmaster survives the initial assault, and retreats back towards the prison.

Chasing him down in the long tunnel, he is battered and beaten, eventually being knocked back from a powerful blow by Ultraviolet, to land right at the base of the door! ROXXAR sprints up and grapples him, drawing him up off the floor, while Moon-Silver (still in K'tharen guise) fires wildly "at" ROXXAR and somehow only manages to hit the two cameras monitoring the hallway. She then moves up and, touching the V'sori, takes on his appearance instead!

Her plan, whatever it might be, goes untried, for ROXXAR once more employs his anti-structural gravity weapon and tears down the vault door, holding the hapless V'sori troopmaster in front of him as a living shield. Inside the prison entrance they find the V'sori Battlemaster who fled from them earlier, two more drones, and two heavy-weapon automated turrets prepared to fire!

The Battlemaster, seeing the duplicate V'sori, one of whom is still in the combat uniform of a K'tharen, immediately deduces what is happening and gives the order: "Kill them all, and let the scientists sort them out!" His own blaster fire at Moon-Silver is dodged, but the real threat comes from the two turrets.

ROXXAR rushes in and attempts to disable one, swinging the stunned V'sori troopmaster at it like a baseball bat, but the turrets, although immobile, have a powerful deflection field around them and the alien gets shunted aside, leaving ROXXAR in the far corner of the chamber next to the rightmost turret, and thereby ruining Ultraviolet's carefully targeted area attack. Much grumbling is heard from the hallway, to ROXXAR's confusion.

And then Moon-Silver, herself still a bit annoyed at the robot's preemptory destruction of the door and the failure of her plan, throws her last fusion grenade towards the left side of the room, certain to hit at least the V'sori Battlemaster, one drone, the two turrets, and just possibly ROXXAR and his troopmaster shield. Fortunately for the alien robot (and his still living shield!), he is just out of range. Less fortunately, the Battlemaster reacts even before the grenade is thrown, almost as if he knew what she was going to do, and managed to get some cover. The grenade does its job, however, and destroys the drone and both turrets (and also the only two computer panels that control the doors the prison block!).

Ultraviolet, still in the tunnel, uses a long-range lightning bolt to quickly dispatch the last drone, and the Battlemaster knows the day is lost, and begins a rapid tactical withdrawal - he breaks and runs for the exit! But before he quite make it out into the long tunnel, he is hit from behind when ROXXAR throws the troopmaster at the Battlemaster, with the powerful blow killing the junior and sending the senior officer flying down the hallway - literally right into Ultraviolet!

The woman dubbed Ultraviolent by the media then unleashes a devastating lightning punch that kills the alien leader and hurls his broken body back to land right where he started, on top of his junior officer's corpse!

The sudden victory doesn't entirely soothe the two women's anger towards the robot, and more comments about taking him apart to find out what type of wires he's made from (playing off earlier arguments when they were prisoners last issue) would be tossed around for the rest of the evening.

With the total destruction of the computer panels that are the only method for controlling the cell block doors, and just 6 minutes to go before Dr. Destruction returns with their teleport out (and the enemy reinforcements arrive!), things look a little bleak. But Dr. Destruction picked the right her... villains for this job!

Wielding his anti-structural gravity cannon, ROXXAR is able to tear open even these reinforced heavy steel doors in just seconds. Ultraviolet takes only slightly longer, using electricity to burn out their motors then just muscling them open. And Moon-Silver's security system skills are up to the task, allowing her to "hotwire" the door circuits. Between the three of them they quickly discover five more of the defensive turrets (placed for use against escaping prisoners, more than external attackers), the fusion power plant (unusually large for the size of this facility), and three cell blocks with approximately 20 cells all outfitted with power neutralizers (which is why they need the large power plant).

Searching the cells, they free a number of metahumans, some of which Ultraviolet knows, some of which Moon-Silver knows about, and one of whom is actually a leader of small resistance group that Moon-Silver has dealt with in the past on behalf of Department S!

Approximately half way through the cell block, Moon-Silver finds Mindjack, who quickly pushes for the party to escort him out of there. Ultraviolet agrees, and orders the party to start returning to the surface, but Moon-Silver and ROXXAR are not happy with that order, and an argument breaks out, ending with Ultraviolet escorting Mindjack and several other rescuees to the surface, while the other two finish opening all the cells.

( In the process, they find two of their alternate characters who will be joining the resistance cell too: Gunsmoke, and another one as-yet-unnamed.)

On the surface, Ultraviolet scouts the rest of the compound, making sure no opposition is left, and steals the two transports from the vehicle depot. She tells the gathering escapees (at least those without enough movement powers to leave on their own) that they can either wait for Dr. Destruction (now just 2 minutes away) who might be able to teleport them all (but she can't guarantee it!) or they can flee in the transports (but might get caught!). Most of them choose the transports, but a few stay.

Meanwhile, underground, ROXXAR and Moon-Silver finish with the last cell, send their rescuees to the surface, and head to the fusion power plant. Spending a Hero Die for automatic success, Moon-Silver sets the plant to explode in 4 minutes (2 minutes after Dr. D is due to arrive, and hopefully right around when reinforcements will be getting here), then they race for the surface.

Fortunately for everyone, Dr. Destruction arrives 30 seconds early, and is able to hold the teleport gateway long enough for everyone to escape to a warehouse roof across town. After a quick debrief, when he also invites the remaining prisoners to join Omega as well, he and Mindjack teleport away, leaving the party to watch the explosion across town.

Despite some bitterness caused by the disagreement on whether to leave with Mindjack or finish freeing the rest of the prisoners, the party decides that the chaos surrounding the explosion site might make for a good chance to do some more damage to the V'sori. ROXXAR changes back to a hover cycle for Moon-Silver, and with Ultraviolet they fly off into the fire-lit western sky looking for troop ships to shoot down...

Very cool Lindharin, really like what you have here, looking forward to reading more as your campaign continues.

So far I especiallly like ROXXAR and his ability to transform in order to augment and heal the others on the team.

Any chance at seeing the builds for the characters in your game?

-UB

I'll check with my players and see. Keep in mind we are testing some house rules, the one big one is that we're using a fourth stat, so they won't be directly useful to others.

Issue 3
The attention shifts to three new members of the resistance in this issue. It opens with a young lady in a cute little moth costume, who is shrunk down to just a fraction of an inch in size, flying up to Dr. Destruction while he is working in his lab. In his supposedly top secret lab. Her soprano voice startles his from his work as she says "Hi there! My name is Mothra and I want to join Omega! By the way, did you know the security sensors in quadrant 3 are burned out? You might want to fix that."

The dastardly Doctor is stunned that she has been able to track down his lair, and that she is able to get through all of his security to reach him undetected, and not least that she even survives his instinctive counter-attack. After determining she means no harm (and how she had found him, so he can prevent anyone else from using the same method), he interviews her about her background and abilities. Recognizing the vast potential power she appears to possess, the ability to control matter/energy conversions, he concludes she would be incredibly useful to the Resistance and decides to accept her despite her young age and inexperience. In fact, her powers are exactly what he needs for one particular task that he has been unable to resolve.

And so the Doctor summons two other Omegans, Chaos Theory and the newcommer, GunSmoke, to join Mothra. He explains that the late villain Dr. Devolution, while scarecely qualified for the title, did have a few good tricks up his sleeve, among them a shrink ray. Dr. Destruction believes that there was an entire laboratory that was miniaturized and hidden somewhere on his old estate, presumably with computer records, notes and maybe some prototype gadgets. And while the estate is now the home of a V'sori officer, he believes the insect-sized lab should be undetected and undisturbed.

After the Doctor departs, our Omegans prepare to assault the estate. Mothra uses her hacking skills to infiltrate the computerized security system, and with luck and skill manages to take full control of their system. She quickly disables its ability to notify the authorities, and puts its video cameras on a loop to hide their presence. Meanwhile, Chaos Theory uses her mastery of probability to manipulate reality, first to cause the guards' communicators to all switch to random frequencies so they cannot radio each other without figuring out what the problem is, and then altering the way sound waves propogate in the area to dampen any noises (so the sounds of their attacks wouldn't disturb the neighbors, and to help their stealth).

The assault is pulled off without a hitch. The laid-back GunSmoke uses his spectral firearms to destroy the guards, pausing in the kitchen to grab an apple in the middle of the fight. Mothra slips inside the outer shell of one of the drone warriors, and is surprised to find out that there is a living person inside, instead of it being the robot she had assumed. That didn't stop her from disabling the power armor from within, however! And Chaos Theory discovers just how easy it is to disable the mechanized war spheres when even electrons dance to her will!

The issue ends a bit early, just after we finished off the guards and the V'sori officer. Next issue will be the fiendish lab of Dr. Devolution!

Great descriptions. LOVE the Necessary Evil setting. Was it difficult to convert?

Any how, sounds like Y'all are having fun!

It was actually pretty easy to convert, I didn't have any trouble there. A lot of the bad guys are minion-types or generalized (so one set of stats for all battlemasters, etc.) The individual NPCs were generally pretty straight-forward; the super power mechanics in Necessary Evil are pretty rules lite (compared to M&M, Champions, etc) and most super characters have just a handful of powers, so it wasn't hard to convert them.

When we started the campaign we were trying a bunch of house rules (including adding in a fourth stat, which had a lot of far reaching effects). We ended up deciding to end it where we did, and try again with a much more out-of-the-box BASH experience, this time in Megapolis. I haven't had a chance to write up any scenarios for that, unfortunately.