DrFaust
04-26-2005, 09:07 PM
As a brief introduction, this is the first session of an in-store campaign that began last Thursday evening. Everyone had a terrific time, myself especially. I even got that coveted compliment "This is the most fun I've ever had roleplaying."
The setting is a tweaked Freedom City, with a little less of the Silver Age vibe and a lot fewer heroes around, with reasons both in and out of game. Emphasis on the PCs and their choices, yada yada, everything that a good RPG should have. That said, on with the first session. It was an adaptation of Steve Kenson's introductory module, "The Heist."
Across the nation and the world, seven people received a most curious message. For one, it was etched in the concrete stoop of his home. For another, she saw it in the pattern of lights in a skyscraper. For a third, it came in the song of the early morning traffic. But for each, the message remained the same: to come to Pyramid Plaza in Freedom City, at high noon of a particular day.
And so it was that five unlikely heroes convened at Pyramid Plaza for reasons unknown. Well, there were seven, but two were lurking in the shadows of nearby alleys, watching to see what happened. There was Aarom, mysterious denizen of the far-off desert, for whom sand obeyed his every thought. There was the Motherland Marauder, former star of 1950s Soviet propaganda films, whose perfect physique impressed everyone. There was Shade, traveler from a far-off planet who wore a coat of many colors. There was Brask, time-lost knight of the Jedi Order. There was Alice, a manufactured killing machine on the run from her creators. There was Cryptor Child, torn between the forces of light and dark that tugged at his soul. And finally, there was Robert, an ordinary man in ordinary clothes who could move faster than any ordinary man.
Alice and Cryptor watched from afar as the other five discussed who could possibly have called them all here and why. Across from Pyramid Plaza, at the Eastern Seaboard Bank, a plain van pulled up in front. The curious sight of twelve men carrying paper bags climbing out of the van to enter the bank was enough to attract the interest of all seven of our heroes. The pair that led the dozen, a young man and woman, alike enough in appearance to be siblings and dressed in the style of ravers, cemented the curious nature of the sight.
While Alice attempted to enter the building by less obvious means, Brask, Aarom and Robert slipped into the bank behind the conspicious group of men and their two leaders. The Motherland Marauder held up traffic in the street as he considered the situation. Cryptor Child continued to lurk. Shade went for a cup of coffee.
The blindingly obvious happened next as the young man introduced himself and his companion as Rant and Rave, and that this was a hold-up. He punctuated his point by stunning a security guard unconscious with an ear-piercing shout.
Our could-be heroes leapt into the fray. Fighting off Rave's mind-bending illusions, the Motherland Marauder took a few practice swings with his mighty warhammer before landing one right in the criminal's face, knocking her out then and there. Brask's mastery of light sabre combat aided him to no end, as he masterfully deflected and reflected thugs' attack back upon them. Aarom's sand danced at his command, clubbing thugs and defending its master from harm. Robert, moving faster than the speed of sound, contrived a route around the bank so his sonic boom took care of any number of would-be thieves. Outside, Alice and Cryptor Child took it upon themselves to take care of the getaway van, blowing out its tires. This attracted police attention, as they did so with fiery swords and a shotgun.
Then Shade decided to block the front entrance of the bank with the vault. On attempting to rip it out of the wall, he succeeded only in pulling the vault door loose. It spun across the room low to the ground, like an over-sized spiked discus. Seeing the danger it posed to the hostages, Robert decided some tough love was in order and clotheslined the lot of them, pushing himself to run fast enough. The door cum discus' deadly flight was stopped only by the Motherland Marauder, who stood firm and caught it in his bare hands. So forcefully had Shade ripped it from the wall that it left a palpable dent in the Marauder's chest, the only sign of battle he carried away from this day.
Thinking quickly, the Motherland Marauder dropped the steel vault door on Rant and Rave's prone form, hoping to pin them into submission. The sudden lull in the action gave our heroes time to take care of the rest of the thieves and herd the hostages outside. There, they encountered the waiting ranks of Freedom City's finest.
While the Motherland Marauder played to the television cameras and promoted the benefits of Marxism, police officers interviewed Brask, who did his best to explain what had happened. They were astonished at the thought of super-powered beings using their abilities to stop wrong-doing. Such things apparently had never happened in Freedom City.
Inside the bank, investigation revealed that Rant had somehow contrived to use his powers to melt through the marble floor, thus escaping a surely messy death by vault door. Aarom located the tunnel's exit by forcing his sand down through it. Not too far in the distance, they could hear the abrupt squeal of tires and crash of metal as the sand blew the lid off a manhole and instantly clogged an intersection.
Robert used his non-descript appearance to the group's advantage, quietly prompting his fellow former hostages to attest to their bravery and general lack of culpability in the crime. Brask, his alien features prompting suspicion on the part of the officers interviewing him, used a time-honored Jedi technique to convince them they no longer required his services. As they left the scene, Cryptor Child noticed a shadowy figure hidden in the pediment of the E-Sea Bank's classical architecture.
And so the group found themselves at the manhole by which Rant and Rave escaped. From there, they learned a couple fitting Rant and Rave's descriptions -- one male dragging an unconscious female, baggy pants -- had stolen a woman's car and taken off. Reaching out with his mind through the living Force, Brask perceived an image relevant to their situation: a warehouse on Ditko Street. Zipping up and down the streets of Freedom City, Robert was able to find the street in less time than it would have taken to go look it up in the library.
On Ditko Street, standing before the warehouse in Brask's vision, the group formulated a plan. First, Robert scouted the warehouse, moving so fast he passed right through solid matter. The Motherland Marauder would lead one group by ground, smashing through a wall into Rant and Rave's living space. Brask would lead a second group through an overhead assault, burning through the roof with his light sabre.
Inside however, the heroes, armed for bear and ready for resistance, found a wholly unexpected scene. Rant stood quietly over the prone, bruised and bleeding form of his sister Rave. Exhausted physically and emotionally, he literally gave up without a fight, saying no blackmail was worth this kind of trouble. With questioning, he went on to explain he and his sister had been blackmailed into robbing the E-Sea Bank, lest her scholarship at the Freedom School of the Arts be terminated. Robert took pity on the siblings and carried Rave all the way to McNider Memorial Hospital.
The rest of the heroes took equal pity on Rant. He immediately left the warehouse, to be with his sister at the hospital. From the upper shadows of the warehouse, a deep, resonant voice congratulated the super heroes on performing so admirably in the face of conflict and doubt.
A figure emerged from the dark and drifted down, wraithlike and insubstantial. Seemingly made of stone and clad in a green cloak, he introduced himself as Dr. Metropolis, the last surviving trace of Freedom City as it once was. He explained that the city had changed somehow. All its heroes and people of greatness had disappeared, leaving only villains and evil men to rule the innocent. And so, finding himself unable to do much as an insubstantial phantasm, Dr. Metropolis sought out heroes from other parts of the world and walks of life, people who could fill a void in Freedom City that desperately needed filling. So he charged these seven people to be the defenders of Freedom City, saying, "The innocent await their heroes."
And then he faded from sight, leaving our heroes to ponder their current situation and what might happen in the days to come.
The setting is a tweaked Freedom City, with a little less of the Silver Age vibe and a lot fewer heroes around, with reasons both in and out of game. Emphasis on the PCs and their choices, yada yada, everything that a good RPG should have. That said, on with the first session. It was an adaptation of Steve Kenson's introductory module, "The Heist."
Across the nation and the world, seven people received a most curious message. For one, it was etched in the concrete stoop of his home. For another, she saw it in the pattern of lights in a skyscraper. For a third, it came in the song of the early morning traffic. But for each, the message remained the same: to come to Pyramid Plaza in Freedom City, at high noon of a particular day.
And so it was that five unlikely heroes convened at Pyramid Plaza for reasons unknown. Well, there were seven, but two were lurking in the shadows of nearby alleys, watching to see what happened. There was Aarom, mysterious denizen of the far-off desert, for whom sand obeyed his every thought. There was the Motherland Marauder, former star of 1950s Soviet propaganda films, whose perfect physique impressed everyone. There was Shade, traveler from a far-off planet who wore a coat of many colors. There was Brask, time-lost knight of the Jedi Order. There was Alice, a manufactured killing machine on the run from her creators. There was Cryptor Child, torn between the forces of light and dark that tugged at his soul. And finally, there was Robert, an ordinary man in ordinary clothes who could move faster than any ordinary man.
Alice and Cryptor watched from afar as the other five discussed who could possibly have called them all here and why. Across from Pyramid Plaza, at the Eastern Seaboard Bank, a plain van pulled up in front. The curious sight of twelve men carrying paper bags climbing out of the van to enter the bank was enough to attract the interest of all seven of our heroes. The pair that led the dozen, a young man and woman, alike enough in appearance to be siblings and dressed in the style of ravers, cemented the curious nature of the sight.
While Alice attempted to enter the building by less obvious means, Brask, Aarom and Robert slipped into the bank behind the conspicious group of men and their two leaders. The Motherland Marauder held up traffic in the street as he considered the situation. Cryptor Child continued to lurk. Shade went for a cup of coffee.
The blindingly obvious happened next as the young man introduced himself and his companion as Rant and Rave, and that this was a hold-up. He punctuated his point by stunning a security guard unconscious with an ear-piercing shout.
Our could-be heroes leapt into the fray. Fighting off Rave's mind-bending illusions, the Motherland Marauder took a few practice swings with his mighty warhammer before landing one right in the criminal's face, knocking her out then and there. Brask's mastery of light sabre combat aided him to no end, as he masterfully deflected and reflected thugs' attack back upon them. Aarom's sand danced at his command, clubbing thugs and defending its master from harm. Robert, moving faster than the speed of sound, contrived a route around the bank so his sonic boom took care of any number of would-be thieves. Outside, Alice and Cryptor Child took it upon themselves to take care of the getaway van, blowing out its tires. This attracted police attention, as they did so with fiery swords and a shotgun.
Then Shade decided to block the front entrance of the bank with the vault. On attempting to rip it out of the wall, he succeeded only in pulling the vault door loose. It spun across the room low to the ground, like an over-sized spiked discus. Seeing the danger it posed to the hostages, Robert decided some tough love was in order and clotheslined the lot of them, pushing himself to run fast enough. The door cum discus' deadly flight was stopped only by the Motherland Marauder, who stood firm and caught it in his bare hands. So forcefully had Shade ripped it from the wall that it left a palpable dent in the Marauder's chest, the only sign of battle he carried away from this day.
Thinking quickly, the Motherland Marauder dropped the steel vault door on Rant and Rave's prone form, hoping to pin them into submission. The sudden lull in the action gave our heroes time to take care of the rest of the thieves and herd the hostages outside. There, they encountered the waiting ranks of Freedom City's finest.
While the Motherland Marauder played to the television cameras and promoted the benefits of Marxism, police officers interviewed Brask, who did his best to explain what had happened. They were astonished at the thought of super-powered beings using their abilities to stop wrong-doing. Such things apparently had never happened in Freedom City.
Inside the bank, investigation revealed that Rant had somehow contrived to use his powers to melt through the marble floor, thus escaping a surely messy death by vault door. Aarom located the tunnel's exit by forcing his sand down through it. Not too far in the distance, they could hear the abrupt squeal of tires and crash of metal as the sand blew the lid off a manhole and instantly clogged an intersection.
Robert used his non-descript appearance to the group's advantage, quietly prompting his fellow former hostages to attest to their bravery and general lack of culpability in the crime. Brask, his alien features prompting suspicion on the part of the officers interviewing him, used a time-honored Jedi technique to convince them they no longer required his services. As they left the scene, Cryptor Child noticed a shadowy figure hidden in the pediment of the E-Sea Bank's classical architecture.
And so the group found themselves at the manhole by which Rant and Rave escaped. From there, they learned a couple fitting Rant and Rave's descriptions -- one male dragging an unconscious female, baggy pants -- had stolen a woman's car and taken off. Reaching out with his mind through the living Force, Brask perceived an image relevant to their situation: a warehouse on Ditko Street. Zipping up and down the streets of Freedom City, Robert was able to find the street in less time than it would have taken to go look it up in the library.
On Ditko Street, standing before the warehouse in Brask's vision, the group formulated a plan. First, Robert scouted the warehouse, moving so fast he passed right through solid matter. The Motherland Marauder would lead one group by ground, smashing through a wall into Rant and Rave's living space. Brask would lead a second group through an overhead assault, burning through the roof with his light sabre.
Inside however, the heroes, armed for bear and ready for resistance, found a wholly unexpected scene. Rant stood quietly over the prone, bruised and bleeding form of his sister Rave. Exhausted physically and emotionally, he literally gave up without a fight, saying no blackmail was worth this kind of trouble. With questioning, he went on to explain he and his sister had been blackmailed into robbing the E-Sea Bank, lest her scholarship at the Freedom School of the Arts be terminated. Robert took pity on the siblings and carried Rave all the way to McNider Memorial Hospital.
The rest of the heroes took equal pity on Rant. He immediately left the warehouse, to be with his sister at the hospital. From the upper shadows of the warehouse, a deep, resonant voice congratulated the super heroes on performing so admirably in the face of conflict and doubt.
A figure emerged from the dark and drifted down, wraithlike and insubstantial. Seemingly made of stone and clad in a green cloak, he introduced himself as Dr. Metropolis, the last surviving trace of Freedom City as it once was. He explained that the city had changed somehow. All its heroes and people of greatness had disappeared, leaving only villains and evil men to rule the innocent. And so, finding himself unable to do much as an insubstantial phantasm, Dr. Metropolis sought out heroes from other parts of the world and walks of life, people who could fill a void in Freedom City that desperately needed filling. So he charged these seven people to be the defenders of Freedom City, saying, "The innocent await their heroes."
And then he faded from sight, leaving our heroes to ponder their current situation and what might happen in the days to come.