Basic Action Super Heroes!

...so well in fact, the "once off game" has become an "once a month game".

So it was a street-level (i.e. 25pt heroes) game with characters I wrote up for the players based on their (vague) preference for the powers they wanted to use.

There was Stonehammer (almost exactly the brick from the examples), Tempest (a flying blaster with a lightning special attack and TK 3 as "wind control"), Changeling (a shape-shifter with ghost form & telepathy), and Roulette (luck based character as per this thread in the rules forum).

To get them up to speed on the rules, I had them pair off in a basic "free for all training session" against one another. Changeling & Stonehammer won this... but only after finding out just how frustrating lucky Roulette could be (dodging & defending against most everything they threw at her). By the end of it, the junkyard setting for their training had cars thrown around, trees set alight with lightning attacks, and the brick re-enacted my second favourite moment from the Avengers with the storm guy.

Once they learned how to beat on one another, I put them in a scene where they had to use their powers to save civilians from a (super)natural disaster in a city environment. They rose to the task, earning a few hero points (which they used later to great effect) putting out fires with "lucky" breaking fire hydrants, shape-shifting into a giant to lift a car off of people trapped underneath, and even super jumping into a falling billboard to save the people it would have squished (soaking the damage and flinging the board away from civilians)... even had the flying storm guy push himself til it hurt to reach the obligatory runaway baby carriage in time

Then came the Big Scene with no less than five villains rising from the wreckage to unleash their new found powers on the world around them - one of them crafted to be a Serious Contender. Catching me by complete surprise, the players had grasped the awesome power in hero dice and hero points unleashing a barrage of creative and powerful attacks I did not expect!

Before I could unleash the full power of the new Queen of Magnetism against the heroes (in the form of two tonnes of car wreckage dropped from above!) - the storm wielder blasted her high into the air, the brick jumped above her managing to connect with his special attack slamming her into the ground (for even more falling damage!) - leaving her with 9 hits remaining even after her soak. Admittedly they rolled very well and I rolled poorly, but the teamwork of setting up one attack after another really gave her a pounding.

At that point, I started having the remaining (second rate) villians act more villianous (taking hostages, creating the illusion of civilians needing rescue, and using a house-ruled psychic attack which had to be soaked with mental defence). Lots of fun all round, but a completely different villain ended up stealing the scene... and he was setup as the comedic "punching bag" villain.

At the end, instead of wrapping up the one off, the players decided they'd love to be playing BASH on a regular basis. So we're replacing our once-a-month horror game with a once-a-month BASH-a-palooza

Thanks to BASHMAN for his assistance setting up the luck powers and hopefully (like my form-fillable character sheets) I can share further resources I put together for our games with the community.

Thanks for sharing! It sounds like you guys must have had a great time. Villains making illusory imperiled civilians is a trick I like to use, too.

As for your "house-ruled" psychic attack that needed to be soaked with Mental Defense; there is an existing Mind Blast power, which I believe is listed as an Alternate Power to Mind Spikes.

That sounds like a fun time BT. Glad your players had fun

BASHMAN wrote:As for your "house-ruled" psychic attack that needed to be soaked with Mental Defense; there is an existing Mind Blast power, which I believe is listed as an Alternate Power to Mind Spikes.

So it is, called "Mind Blast". Thanks. Turns out we have pretty much the same rules setup for it. Both yours and my power buy all damage dice in the power (i.e. it does not add to a base stat), use Mind vs Defence for hitting, and soaked by Mind + Mind Shield.

Only difference is that, like Special Attack, I also allowed allocating one of the bought dice to increasing the To Hit roll - so Mind Blast 5 could do x4 Damage & roll x(Mind+1) To Hit. Seemed like a reasonable trade-off given the general lack of Mind + Mind Shield out there (also stops double-dipping for defence/soak & to hit/damage on the same stat)

The inter-player battle royale sounds like a great way to get the players familiar with both the rules and their characters. Sounds like it was a blast! Thanks for sharing it.

Fantastic!

I concur with MrJupiter, the training session was a great idea. And I know the feeling of having a villain designed as comic relief turning into a serious threat.

I hope you'll keep us updated on the now ongoing adventures. Do they have a team name?

And btw, what's your most favorite Avengers scene if I may ask?

fairytalejedi wrote:I concur with MrJupiter, the training session was a great idea.

Turned out FAR better than I expected. Pitting the characters against each other, whilst knowing it was just a training session (for the players and their fictional counterparts), allowed all the fun of whaling on one another without the social consequences that can sometimes occur. Everyone knew they'd be back up and pounding on the villains in the next scene

fairytalejedi wrote:And I know the feeling of having a villain designed as comic relief turning into a serious threat.

It was either that or concede the fight in the first three pages. Though it is funny how comedic lines come out sounding so much more creepy when delivered with more deadly physical accompaniment. Guess that's partially why the Joker can be both laughable and terribly creepy at the same time.

fairytalejedi wrote:I hope you'll keep us updated on the now ongoing adventures. Do they have a team name?

I'll definitely put updates up of the adventures as they occur (about once a month if current plans work out). I'll also put up some of the maps, villains, adventure seeds, etc that work out well

No team name yet - it was put together as a once off and so wasn't a consideration. Might take a leaf out of the M&M Emerald City adventures and have a wealthy (ex-super) patron take them onboard. As it's a teen heroes group too, there is always the added bonus of him buying out their private high school

fairytalejedi wrote:And btw, what's your most favorite Avengers scene if I may ask?

This one